The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 46

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098

USA > New York > Jefferson County > The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894 > Part 46

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The inauguration of the faculty occurred on the 13th of September, 1836; it was re- ceived under the visitation of the Regents on the 30th of January, 1838, and shared in the distribution of the literature fund.

A special meeting of the trustees was called February 23d, 1846, at which was voted au application for a change of name, which was granted by the Legislature on the 12th of May following, when it was changed to the Jefferson County Institute.

At the annual meeting, July 23d, 1846, a resolution of the Black River Association was concurred in, in which the by-laws were so far amended as to require the prin-

cipal only to be a minister or member of the Congregational or Presbyterian church, in good standing, hut that the other teach- ers be selected without this restriction by a committee of the trustees appointed by the board for that purpose, of which the princi- pal shall always be a member. In January, 1847, a portion of the real estate previously occupied as a boarding house was sold to liquidate the debt of the institution. The premises sold are the same now occupied by the State Street Methodist Church.

Mr. Boyd, who had filled the office of principal of the institution from the begin- ning, resigned June 28, 1848, with the design of again engaging in the ministry.

Mr. D. M. Linsley was next employed, and continued to be principal until the spring of 1853, when the Rev. Alvan Par- melee was employed. The last faculty con- sisted of the Rev. A. Parmelee, principal; Rev. James H. Carruth, teacher of natural science; David L. Parmelee, teacher of lan- guages and elocution; Avery S. Walker, teacher of mathematics and librarian; George D. Mann, teacher of instrumental music; Miss A. E. Parmelee, preceptress and teacher of English literature; Miss H. M. Searle, teacher of French, drawing and painting: Miss L. M. Hastings, teacher of the primary department; Amasa Trow- bridge, M. D., lecturer on anatomy and physiology. A later catalogue gives the names of 264 male, and 258 female pupils attending during the year ending December, 1853. Upon the establishment of a graded school, in 1840, the Institute property was transferred to the city of Watertown. The Jefferson County Institute turned out many thousands of bright young students, many of whom have achieved high honors and distinguished fame.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Our common - school system comes so closely in touch with every intelligent father and mother and their children that a short ac- count of the system and its growth and pres- ent character will suffice for this local history. In the early days after the estab- lishment of American Independence, the State of New York by legislative act organ- ized the present system of public or common schools, and provided a fund from the sale of State lands and other sources, the inter- est of which should be sacredly applied an- nually to aid in the keeping up of district schools throughout the State. What this lacked of keeping up schools in every con- venient neighborhood was made up by the rate- bill system, parents and guardians pay- ing the necessary quota for the children they sent to school. John A. Dix, when Secre- tary of State (before he was Governor), did very much by his intelligent administration of the system and his earnestness, to broaden and intensify public attention to the subject of education, to increase the capital of the

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school fund. and otherwise stimulate public zeal for the improvement of our schools.

The distribution of the public money was at first, and for many years, based on the number of children of school age residing in the several districts, until some time in the fifties, when it was seen by a Watertown school teacher, Mr. L. Ingalls, that this method of distribution of the money was not on the right basis, and might be made much more stimulating and effective by be- ing distributed on the basis of attendance at school for a given number of months of the year.

The presentation of this subject was so clearly and forcibly set forth in the columns of the Watertown Reformer, and otherwise presented to the Legislature by the gentle- man named, that it was carried in that body at the second or third session after it was conceived. Some years afterwards, owing to the establishment of many graded schools in large villages and cities of the State, where many teachers were employed. the distribu- tion of the public money was again modified by setting apart a given portion of each dis- trict on the number of teachers quota, and a quota on the attendance at schools also, and a small library fund. The State common school fund has been greatly increased in later years by direct taxation, several million dollars being annually raised for that pur- pose. What this lacks of supporting free schools in the several school districts of the State, is made up by the school district tax. This in brief is the system. Jefferson county, from all accounts, takes a front rank in the excellence of her schools and the energy with which they are conducted. The su- pervision is by school commissioners, of which this county has three. They exam- ine and certify teachers, visit the schools, advise and aid trustees and teachers in their management.

WATERTOWN CITY SCHOOLS.

In the city of Watertown, the graded sys- tem prevails, in which over sixty efficient teachers are now employed under the super- vision of a superintendent, whose duty it is to act as a clerk of the school board, and also to visit the schools, advise teachers, harmo- nize difficulties and keep the financial ac- counts.

This system was adopted in the year 1865 after quite a severe struggle. It did not come by voluntary evolution. It required the application of some moral and political force to bring the system into existence - the credit of applying which is chiefly due to the Hon. L. Ingalls, who from having taught school a number of years in the large but not wealthy district of Factory street, saw the great inequality and rank injustice of the then existing conditions in the village, in the fact that the district with the least population, embraced more assessable prop- erty than the other two, each of which was much more populous than the wealthy one.

To overcome this injustice he conceived the idea of consolidating the three districts into one.

A few years prior to the act of incopora- tion in 1865. the question was locally con- sidered and discussed in the newspapers and at large village meetings, and a large ma- jority of the people favored the plan. A bill was prepared and sent to Albany, which passed the Assembly, but was defeated in the Senate, through the influence of our then Senator, Hon. Alanson Skinner, of Brown- ville, who was then president of the Jeffer- son County Bank, which was located in a small but wealthy district. But the election of a new senator brought about more favor- able conditions at Albany, and the subject was again revived; John Felt, Jr., then a teacher in the city, joining Mr. Ingalls in a new effort, which secured the passage of a bill establishing the graded system.

The act, passed April 21, 1865, authorized the then village of Watertown to elect nine school commissioners, and also anthorized the trustees of the Jefferson County Insti- tute, so long as the Institute building should be leased or transferred by proper convey- ance to the village of Watertown for school purposes, to designate two members addi- tional, who together should constitute the Board of Education for the management of the public schools of Watertown.

The first regular meeting of this board met June 12, 1865, and was composed of the following named gentlemen: Dr. W. V. V. Rosa, Rev. Theo. Bahcock, Lotus Ingalls, L. F. Lyttle, Delano C. Calvin, Rev. J. W. Arm- strong, Solon B. Hart and Chas. A. Sherman. Lotus Ingalls was made temporary chair- man, and L. F. Lyttle, clerk pro tem. Rev. Theo. Babcock was elected president of the board.

A committee was apponted to confer with the trustees of the Jefferson County Insti- tute in regard to leasing their building for a high school. This committee reported that the terms of the lease of the Jefferson County Institute by its trustees were satis- factory, and John C. Sterling and Milton H. Merwin were chosen as the two additional members of the board.

At the regular meeting July 26, 1865, Jobn Felt, Jr., was elected as the first superin- tendent and clerk of the board.

Subsequently a set of by-laws and course of study for the High School were adopted, and William Reed, Jr., was appointed as its first principal, with two assistants, Miss M. Annie Allen and Miss Emily M. Griswold. Later, Mrs. A. B. Mosier was appointed to teach German.

Win. G. Williams was appointed principal of the Arsenal street school, including the first nine grades, with six assistants. Miss S. Augusta Strong was appointed principal of the Lamon street school, with five assist- ants: Miss Mary E. Walling, principal of the Sterling street school, with one assistant; Miss Emma M. Gurney was placed in charge

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of a small primary school on Massey street, and Miss R. A. Yendes a similar one on Sherman street. There was a small school on Academy street, and a mixed school of several grades, with two teachers, on Boon street - twenty-four in all. This consti- tuted the teaching force of the public schools of the village of Watertown in 1865, at the beginning of the new system.

There were registered this year in all the schools, 1,287 pupils. The schools of North Watertown were not included in this esti- mate, as they were not under control of the Board of Education until the incorporation of the city in 1869.

The only school building of any preten- sions at that time was the Jefferson County Institute. The Arsenal street and Lamon street school buildings were then about half their present capacity. Besides these there were the one story brick structure on cor- ner of Jay and Sterling streets, now used for church purposes; a small frame build- ing of one story on Sherman street, form- erly used as the session house of the First Presbyterian Church; the little old red school house on Massey street, and the small building on Boon street, used jointly for school and church purposes. The board purchased the old stone academy building on Academy street afterwards.

In 1869, by act of incorporation, Water- town became a city, and the jurisdiction of the Board of Education was considerably enlarged by adding the schools of North Watertown.

The principals of the High School since the organization of the present system have been as follows: Win. Reed. Jr , 1865; M. M. Merrill, 1866-67; Edwin P. Nichols, 1868; Geo. B. Manly, 1869; Hannibal Smith, 1870-74; W. K. Wicks, 1874-89; H. M. Nill, 1889; F. D. Shaver, 1890-91; Jas. G. Riggs, 1892; T. F. Kane, 1893; Eugene W. Lyttle, 1894.

The following gentlemen have served as presidents of the Board of Education: Rev. Theo. Babcock, Allen C. Beach, Theo. Bab- cock, Beman Brockway, Wm. W. Taggart, John Lansing, Wm. W. Taggart, Edmund Q. Sewall, Hannibal Smith, John Lansing, A. H. Sawyer, T. C. Chittenden, Dr. C. M. Rexford, Henry Purcell.

The present (1894) Board of Education consists of the following named gentlemen: Henry Purcell, president; S. T. Woolworth, Geo. S. Hooker, Geo. Adams, Chas. E. Hol- brook, Henry D. Goodale, Geo. A. Lance, Louis C. Greenleaf, Wm. D. Hanchett, elected members, and Jno. C. Knowlton and Dr. C. M. Rexford, appointed by the trustees of the Jefferson County Institute; Wm. G. Williams, superintendent and clerk. The course of study, from the primary to graduation at the High School, extends over a term of 12 years, 4 years primary, 4 gram- mar and 4 High School grades.

There are now employed 10 teachers at the High School, Prof. E. W. Lyttle, principal.

Principals.

11 at the Academy St. school, Miss M. E. Pool.

11 ** ** Lamon

- Miss M. M. Phelps.

10 . 4 Arsenal

Mrs. S. A. Mundy.

9 ** ** Mullin

Mrs. Wm. G. Williams.

9 .. .. Cooper

Miss Delia V. Smith .

6 ** ** Boon Miss M. D. Connor

3 ** ** Mead Miss Norah Pearsall.

3 ** * * Pearl Mrs. M. E. Turner.

3 " Night school Mrs. U. C. Walker.

Mrs. A E Woolley special teacher of Drawing.

Thomas Powers Writing.

The present (1894) attendance at all the schools, including night schools, amounts to 2.900 scholars. A very large attendance for a total population of 20,000. It may be justly concluded that the public school sys- tem of Watertown is well organized, with an efficient corps of able teachers.

BROOKSIDE CEMETERY.

Nothing so quickly indicates the status of any civilization as the care manifested for its dead. The most enduring monuments of Egypt and Assyria are those erected to commemorate their illustrious dead, and to decorate their final resting place. Even the pyramids are supposed to mark the spot where some great king lies buried. Em- balmed bodies that are over three thousand years old can be found along the Lower Nile, buried in excavations in the solid rock -the work of a people whose learning and love of art speak from these very tombs. The proudest monuments at Rome are the remains of a splendid edifice erected by a loving husband to commemorate the virtues of his young wife. The refinement and culture of these ancient people have left their best and most enduring evidences in the monuments and mausoleums which loving hands have erected over graves that may not even bear a name; but, though nameless, these tombs serve perhaps a higher purpose still, in telling posterity of the enlightenment and learning of the era in which they were constructed.

And this criterion holds good to-day, as it has held good through thousands of years. Name the most cultivated and Christian city in America and you may be sure that it can show a noble place of sepulchre, where sympathetic hearts may pour out their love for kindred, amidst monuments that dignify and ennoble grief.

Brooklyn has its Greenwood, the boast of all its citizens. Philadelphia has its Laurel Hill, where rest so many whose illustrious names add to the glories of our national achievements in arms and science and statesmanship. Nor is this sentiment lack- ing in the South. The city of Savannah, in its Buena Ventura, shows a cemetery that is a source of pride to all its people, possess- ing a weird beauty where glistening marble shines amid a wealth of live oaks entwined with festooned and clinging mosses, a sight not to be witnessed in any other part of the world.

Judged by this somewhat severe standard the people of Watertown seem to take high

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rank in the scale of civilizing influences, for competent judges who have seen nearly all the leading cemeteries in the United States, unhesitatingly say that for natural beauty none are superior to and but few the equal of Brookside. The monuments there, too, are very much above the average in beauty and solidity of construction, as well as in the taste shown in the selection of their sites.

ITS HISTORY.

The Watertown Cemetery Association became incorporated under the general cemetery act of the Legislature, passed April 27, 1847, and the first meeting for organization was held at Perkins' hotel, September 1, 1853, Joseph Mullin being chairman, and Robert Lausing, the secre- tary. Nine trustees were agreed upon, and the following were unanimously elected : Talcott H. Camp, Hiram Holcomb, Fred . erick W. Hubbard, James K. Bates, Francis H. Gregory, Willard Ives, Daniel W. Rickerson, Joseph Mullin and Thomas Baker. Only two of these are now liv- ing (T. H. Camp and Hon. Willard Ives). We append the names of those who attended and participated in the first meeting: Orville V. Brainard, Augustus P. Peck, Geo. C. Sherman, J. Henry Dutton, James S. Van Buren, Randolph Barnes, Adriel Ely, Eli Farwell, Edmund Q. Sewall, Orin C. Utley, James K. Bates, Charles Goodale, Ralph Rogers, Isaac H. Fisk, Frederick W. Hub- bard, Wm. B. Farwell, Peter Snyder. Elisha S. Sill, Charles B. Hoard, Samuel F. Bates, Abner Baker, Lysander H. Brown, James R. A. Perkins, Peter Horr, Talcott H. Camp, Frederick B. Sigourney, Charles Clark, Robert Lansing and Joseph Mullin. Nearly all of these sleep in Brookside.

At the first official meeting of the trustees Hon. Joseph Mullin was made president; Hon. Willard Ives, vice-president; Dr. James K. Bates, treasurer, and F. H. Sigour- ney, secretary.

THE PRESENT OFFICERS.

The trustees and their officers on January 1, 1894, were as follows: George W. Wig- gins, president; H. H. Babcock, vice-presi- dent: A. L. Upman, secretary and treasurer; G. C. Sherman, A. R. Flower, George A. Bagley, J. M. Tilden, D. S. Miller, R. L. Hungerford, G. R. Hanford.

ITS GROWTH.

The growth of Brookside at first was slow, as is the case with all new cemeteries. The monument to Norris M. Woodruff was the first important addition to the northern part of the grounds, and the beauty of its design -our blessed Saviour with extended hands invoking a benediction and a welcome-at- tracted much attention when first erected, and is yet a htting testimonial of the love of wife and children. Other monuments of lesser importance, but not less in loving re- membrance, soon came in, until at last the enterprising spirit of the leading citizens

was aroused, and now the visitor beholds many noble evidences that love of kindred is not by any means a lost nor a lessening sentiment among this commercial people, whose patriotic and home-loving sentiment is apparent, and does them honor.

We will not attempt to even name the many superior works of art which make Brookside so attractive, but a native citizen who has been absent 35 years, and on his re- turn wanders through the avenues of that silent city, feels his heart swell with varied emotions when he reads upon those monu- ments the names of so many whom he re- members of walking the streets of Water- town when he went away. Those early ones who did so much to make Watertown what it is to-day, what citizen can look upon their graves without emotion ? Woodruff, Sterling, Massey, Streeter, Ely, Farwell, Partridge, Rice, Hungerford. Goodale, Munson, Mullin, Moulton, Tubbs, Safford, Paddock, Walter Woodruff, T. T. Wood- ruff, Lamon, Ives, Fairbanks, Mather, Scott, Copley, the Lords, the Bates families, Hol- comb, Sewall, Bacon, Winslow, Lansing- these be historic names, once borne by per- severing men who raised Watertown !from a mere hamlet to become a beautiful city. And then those not less worthy ones who came after these first " heroes of discovery," and some of whom are yet alive-Hubbard, Starbuck, Joshua Moore, Beach, Mundy, Gen. Pratt, Emerson, the Flower family, Charles Smith, Henry Keep, the philan- thropist, Dr. Munson, the Cooks (donors of that beautiful monument upon the public square, which fills every soldier's heart with a thankful pride), Howell Cooper, Ward- well (who died so young and so much be- loved), Sweeney, Dewey, John A. Sherman (who gave Washington Hall to the Young Men's Christian Association), Colonel Flower, Campbell, Brayton, Dewey, Dr. Hannahs, Hayes, Stears, Rev. Pitt Morse, Levi H. Brown-these are also names that Water- town will not willingly let die. Their re- membrance is sweet and wholesome, for their lives form a part of that aggregation of mental and moral worth which. as King Solomon said, "exalteth a people."

One of the happiest things at Brookside is to mark how its honored president and liis able superintendent have developed superior lines of beauty from the most forbidding portions of the estate. The many springs and the constant erosion of water upon the sand and gravel, had left the hed of the two creeks a swampy, fever-breeding waste. But persistent labor has cleared out the bed of these sluggish water courses, made them into little lakes, by suitable dams develop- ing many glistening and pulsing waterfalls, and where once was mire and ooze and de- caying trees, are now artistic footways over little cascades, and sloping banks of green, not neglecting plentiful shade after cutting out the surplus growth. At first the higher land was selected as offering the most eligi-

VIEW IN BROOKSIDE CEMETERY.

THE FLOWER MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT BROOKSIDE.

For a long time the need was felt for a mortuary chapel at Brookside, where funerals of straugers and nou-residents could be held. The daughters of Mrs. Cadwell, the grand-children of Norris M. Woodruff and wife, thought it would be a fitting commemoration of the regard they felt for Colonel Flower and his wife, whose wards they were for many years, to erect a chapel that should be free to all who desired to use it, in holding the last sad rites of sepulchre over their dead. This beautiful memorial was erected by their liberality, and is a most useful and fitting tribute to one who was soldier, citizen and a man of affairs.

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CITY OF WATERTOWN.

ble sites for monuments, but these later im- provements have added many desirable lots to the cemetery company's possessions. Looking towards from the south the Keep Mausoleum, one of these improvements is brought right before the eye, forming a scene of peaceful beauty worth going a day's drive to look at.

Brookside is a beautiful spot. The ob- serving traveller sees nothing to surpass it. Its combination of rural beauty, with the many tasteful and elaborate evidences of man's inventive brain and skillful hand, make it a charming resort, and the aged or infirm who are looking almost daily for a glad release from earth's lengthened pil- grimage, must surely feel a throb of pleas- ure as they reflect that they, too, may sleep in Brookside, and forever become a part of its budding foliage, its joyful waterfalls, its ennobling monuments, and of its glorious rest.

SOME NOTABLE INCIDENTS.

In Brookside there are erected several memorial stones that have a peculiar interest to me. Among these was that erected for Rev. Homer B. Morgan, my beloved class- mate, who went in his early manhood to Syria as a missionary. The tablet also com- memorates the names of his little children, who died in that distant land where he also rests from his labors.

Another interesting stone is that erected to Rev. James Brown (father of Mrs. Wig- gins), a devoted preacher in the Methodist Church for many years-one of that grand body of saints on earth, who thought it great gain to travel on horseback amid the ruder settlement of a primitive era, and preach the gospel of our Lord without pay, to those who, but for such as liim, would have had no food for their souls, which were " an hungered " amid the isolation and solitude of their lives. The memory of such a man is a perpetual and grateful fragrance to those who remember the peculiar hard- ships of those early days, when a log school house or a poor private dwelling seemed to be holy ground whenever one of these men of God came to declare the truth. Peace be to him and to all such.

A stone to commemorate Rev. Pitt Morse, who preached so long in the old Universal. ist church, contains more truth than is usu- ally found upon a tomb stone. It reads: " He began to preach in Monroe county, N. Y., in 1818; was ordained in 1820, and re- moved to Watertown, where he labored for 40 years as a faithful minister of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of pure life and an acute and well cultivated mind, of sympathetic heart and persistent zeal, he commended the fullness of the Gospel of Christ to his fellow men, and his persuasive voice reached the hearts of thousands, bringing them into the light, joy and comfort of the kingdomof God."

Peculiarly touching is the noble monu- ment erected by Major General Joseph Hooker, in memory of his aged father and

mother, the filial tribute of a hero and a noble man to his parents who reared him and loved him. The General himself ex- pected to be interred in Brookside, a spot very dear to him, but he sleeps by his wife in Cincinnati. J. A. H.

THE OLD TRINITY CHURCH CEMETERY.

After so honorable a record as is made in describing Brookside, it is humiliating to be compelled to notice the desecration which is now (June, 1894), apparent in one of the old- est cemeteries in Watertown. We make ex- tracts from an article published in the Daily Times of June 7, 1894:

When the land for the old Trinity church burying ground was conveyed to the trustees of the village of Watertown and their successors by Henry Coffeen, February 12, 1819 (see Jefferson county deed hook P. page 355), it was definitely granted to them "so long as the same shall be occupied as a burying ground, the same now being used as a public burying ground "-(we quote the words of the deed). Of course the city's title to the land, after it has been in any manner diverted to any other use, at once fails. In June, 1894, the writer went to those grounds to ex- amine a date, when he found the graveyard nearly all obliterated, only six of the ancient tombstones re- maining, the place used as a dumping ground for city refuse, a public highway running through the plot, and one of the old grave stones nearly covered with stable manure. It was a pitiful sight, producing the most intense indignation. The Jonathan Cowan family are buried there, and their headstones and one other are all that are left-but they are open to the public road, liable to be rooted over by the swine from the streets. The historical student will recall the fact that Jonathan Cowan was one of the three men who gave to Watertown the lands for the Public Square, now so important and valuable to the city. But even that gift has been perverted from the uses contemplated by the donors, their con- veyance reading that the said lands were granted for the use of the people "as a public mall (or open space) for the exchange of commodities," that is, a place where any farmer might come with his hay or wood, or whatever he had for sale, and exchange or sell it. The writer understands that such a use of the Public Square would not now be permitted.

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The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 46

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823- Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company Number of Pages: 1098

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098