USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 33
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 33
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 33
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 33
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 33
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Requirements for admission to an academy were somewhat vague. When the preparatory school of St. Lawrence University was established at Canton in the fifties it was specified that one to gain admission must be able to stand up and read ordinary English intelligibly. The fact was that anyone who had a few terms in
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the district school had no difficulty in enrolling in an academy. At any Northern New York academy one would take courses in English, grammar, arithmetic, geography and history, very often logic, moral philosophy and natural philosophy, occasionally Euclid and survey- ing, Latin and Greek, and often in the girls' schools instruction was given in drawing, painting, "plain and ornamental" needle work, music and French. Some of the larger academies had simple labora- tory equipment, including almost invariably a Leyden jar and a few chemicals. The instructors were almost always college graduates and in some cases clergymen. Union College furnished a good quota of the instructors in North Country academies in the olden days with now and then one from Hamilton and occasionally some one from the University of Vermont, Middlebury College or one of the other New England institutions.
LOWVILLE ACADEMY
Lowville was scarcely more than a hamlet of log huts before there was talk of an academy. Without doubt the Rev. James Mur- dock, graduate of Yale, was an earnest advocate. He was a mem- ber of the first board of trustees of Lowville Academy, and on that first board also were Moss Kent of LeRaysville, soon to go to con- gress, Lewis Graves, Daniel Kelley, Jonathan Rogers, Isaac W. Bostwick, James H. Leonard, Lemuel Dickinson, Jonathan Collins of Turin and Manly Wellman. In 1808 a structure of wood, two stories high, was erected on a site donated by Silas Stow, the agent for Nicholas Low, the proprietor. The Rev. Isaac Clinton became the first principal, being also employed as the pastor of the Presby- terian Church. He was a cousin of DeWitt Clinton and came from a distinguished family in New York state history. He was a grad- uate of Yale College and had served in the Connecticut militia during the Revolution. He continued in office until 1817 and upon his re- tirement became president of the academy board of trustees, re- maining in this capacity until his death. He was a familiar figure in the village of Lowville and all his life kept to the colonial style of dress, a low-crowned, broad-brimmed beaver hat, a black broad- cloth coat with wide skirts, velvet knee breeches with silver buckles and silk stockings.
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The second principal of Lowville Academy was Stephen William Taylor, a graduate of Hamilton College. Many years later he be- came president of his alma mater. It was Mr. Taylor who devised the plan of putting pupils in separate apartments, all arranged in a circle around a center hub where the instructor sat. Thus every pupil, while separated from every other one, would be under the watchful eye of the teacher. The plan impressed the trustees to such an extent that a weird, twelve-sided brick structure was built, two stories high, surmounted by a tin-covered dome from which rose a cupola with a bell. The building cost $8,200, but the whole project proved an impracticable one. In the first place the building, itself, was defective, it was objectionable on account of the echoes and was almost impossible to warm in the winter time. But most of all, the pupils objected to this elaborate system of espionage. The twelve-sided building was dedicated in 1826. Ten years later, in 1836, it was taken down. In its place was built an imposing, three- story structure, to whose doors a long, tree-shaded walk led from the street. Next door was the town hall, a model of classical beauty, its high Grecian columns supporting a portico, and next door to that Trinity Church, looking like a prim-little New England meet- ing house, the group of buildings adding an air of distinction to the Lewis county shire town.
UNION ACADEMY
Some time prior to 1824 the Rev. Joshua Bradley made an effort to interest the people of Belleville in the subject of higher education. This Joshua Bradley was quite a remarkable person in his way. Born in Randolph, Massachusetts, in 1773, he was a graduate of Brown University and he had a genius as a builder. He founded educational institutions at Wallingford, Connecticut in 1813, in Belleville, N. Y., in 1824, in Granville, Ohio, in 1830, in Indianapolis in 1831, in Brownsville, Pennsylvania in 1835, in Harrison county, West Virginia, in 1837, in Roanoke county, Virginia, in 1843, Buck- nell University in 1845, and an institution in Lansingburg, N. Y., in 1849. He had charge of schools at various times as follows: Shurt- leff College, Alton, Ill., Ladies' Seminary, Edwardsville, Ill., Middle- town, Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Brownsville, Pennsylvania. He founded churches in Windsor, Vermont, Albany, N. Y., and a
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THE PARK, CANTON, N. Y.
RICHARDSON HALL, ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY, CANTON, N. Y.
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number of other places in the western part of the state. It would be hard to equal a record of this kind.
In the fall of 1824 this Mr. Bradley opened a school of higher grade in the upper part of a house and employed a teacher. Later Mr. Bradley presented a plan for a manual labor school and a sub- scription list was circulated for the construction of a building. Giles Hall gave a lot of six acres to be used forever for school purposes and the Union Literary Society was incorporated April 13, 1826, for the support of an academic school for both sexes. The stone school was erected in 1828 and the Regents of the University of the State of New York assumed jurisdiction over Union Academy in 1830. That summer the Watertown Register & Advertiser had the following notice: "A few farmers and others in the vicinity of Belleville have established an academy at that place highly cred- itable to themselves and useful to the county. An institution of this kind has been needed and parents had been, until lately, com- pelled to send their sons to Lowville, Fairfield and more distant in- stitutions for instruction." So Union Academy at Belleville was an- nounced to the world and started the career which made it one of the best known academies in the state.
The first academy building, a plain, two-story structure, standing on a slight eminence was dedicated in 1830. The first board of trustees consisted of Jotham Bigelow, Orin Howard, James W. Ken- nedy, John Hagedorn, Amos Heald, Peter N. Cushman, Wesson Thomas, Pardon Earl, Samuel S. Haws, Edward Boomer, Sidney Houghton, Benjamin Barney, Samuel Boyden, Ebenezer Webster, Israel Kellogg, Jr., Jesse Hubbard, Hiram Taylor, Henry Green, Rufus Hatch, Charles B. Pond, Calvin Clark, John Barney, Samuel Pierce and Godfrey W. Barney. Charles Avery was the first prin- cipal. Union College furnished most of the principals and teachers in the early days. In 1831 an effort was made to permit a county tax to be laid for the support of this institution and a bill to that effect received a favorable report in the Assembly. It failed of passage, however. There were thirty students registered in 1830 and fifty-two the following year. The high point in attendance was reached in 1866 when 342 students were enrolled. Since 1880 at- tendance has ranged from 100 to 150.
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From its very beginning Union Academy has been in every sense of the word a farmers' institution. Its trustees have been local men and women, a goodly portion of them farmers. It was the farmers of the community which kept the academy alive. When the Depart- ment of Agriculture of the United States decided to make a study of the national influence of an institution of learning in a farm com- munity, it selected Union Academy for the study. The work was done under the supervision of Miss Emily F. Hoag, assistant econ- omist of the section of Farm Life Studies, C. J. Galpin being the economist in charge. The result of the study was issued in United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 984. Miss Hoag found that of the 2,445 former students of Union Academy who could be traced, seventeen had settled outside of the country, 430 had settled in the United States outside of the State of New York, 375 had settled in the state but outside Jefferson county, 500 had set- tled in Jefferson county but outside the community of Belleville, while 1,123 had settled in Belleville or its immediate vicinity.
It was found possible to trace the occupations of 2,079 of the graduates and former students of Union Academy. Over 52 percent of all the male graduates and former students followed the occupa- tion of farming. Over 86 percent of the female graduates and former students followed the occupation of homemakers. In other words by far the larger percentage of these graduates settled down in their home community to follow the occupation of their fathers. The result was the development of a particularly high type of com- munity. Says Miss Hoag: "In looking over the early history of the Belleville community, one finds outstanding names among the early settlers which occur again and again in the historical records and are still to be found in connection with certain neighborhoods and farms. If it has been a custom for each farm to part with some of its best young people, it has also been customery for it to retain some of its strongest personalities. Indeed, it is not the names of the migrants who have become famous which are most on the tongues and in the hearts of the people of the community, but rather the names of the stay-at-homes, the farmers, doctors, preachers and teachers, who, born and reared in their midst, have devoted their lives to the interests of the community."
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And Miss Hoag goes on to say in conclusion : "The farmers in the Belleville community founded their academy themselves; sac- rificed for it, lavished their lives upon it. It became their pride. Before towns and cities in the county had similar institutions, this farm community was pioneering in higher education while pioneer- ing in farming. The farmers determined to have an academy with- out waiting until they could amply afford it. It would be an extra- ordinary inducement that would lure from his farm a Belleville farmer whose father had nobly built his life into the local institu- tion. People leave communities when community ties have no hold- ing power. The community institution is an investment of life and energy and is a bond hard to break."
MEXICO ACADEMY
About the time the farmers of Belleville and vicinity were con- sidering the possibilities of establishing an academy, the people of the town of Mexico in Oswego county were likewise agitated by the same problem. Mexico wanted an academy. There wasn't a single one in Oswego county at the time, but there was the usual contest over the site, this time between the hamlet of Prattsville and the Village of Mexico. Finally in 1826 school was opened in the brick school house at Mexico village with M. W. Southworth as principal and Miss Carrie Benham as preceptress. This brick school house had served as a church and town hall and there Mexico Academy, first known by the awkward name of Rensselaer-Oswego Academy, was born.
In 1835 Dr. George G. Hapgood, a Methodist clergyman, became the principal and a second building was finished in 1836 in front and adjoining the old building which, from then on, was used as a dormi- tory. In 1845 the old name of Rensselaer-Oswego Academy was dropped and that of Mexico Academy substituted. For a time the institution was under the jurisdiction of the Black River Confer- ence of the Methodist Church but was re-transferred in 1855. In 1855 the old brick building was torn down and a new building, the high-columned structure so familiar to thousands, was erected. From 1893 to 1895 the academy became a military institution and passed under the management of Major M. C. Richards of the United States
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army and became known as the Mexico Military Academy. Among the early graduates were Andrew Parsons, governor of Michigan, and Allen C. Beach, lieutenant governor of New York. During the Civil War the principal, J. Dorman Steele, raised a company of soldiers, many of whom were students in the academy. Of the grad- uates of Mexico Academy, two attained the rank of major general in that conflict, Morgan Smith and Giles Smith.
THE BLACK RIVER INSTITUTE
Although the people of the village of Watertown had as early as 1810 considered the matter of establishing an academy and had actually erected a two-story brick building on the site of the First Presbyterian Church, with the opening of the War of 1812 the building was taken over and used as a hospital, and after the war was sold to the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church. It was not until 1835, a number of years after the Union Academy at Belle- ville had been established, that the subject of an academy for Water- town was again revived. That year the Watertown Academy was incorporated with Micah Sterling, Henry D. Sewall, Thomas Baker, Reuben Goodale, Orville Hungerford, Dr. A. S. Greene, Egbert Ten Eyck, Justin Butterfield, William Smith, Jason Fairbanks, Joseph Goodale, Loveland Paddock, Joseph Kimble, George S. Boardman and John Safford as trustees. While the academy was never accepted by the regents a large stone building was erected a little south of the village and the trustees issued a circular in which they said: "It has long been a subject of reproach to our community, that, while other interests were flourishing, the interests of education were neg- lected. Among us there has been no seminary for the education of boys, above the ordinary district school, and the consequence has been, that parents have sent their children abroad, at a very heavy expense, or brought them up in comparative ignorance at home." LaRue P. Thompson was the first principal.
In 1836 the Watertown Presbytery and the Black River Associa- tion, acting jointly, decided to erect a seminary in Watertown "in which the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible shall be taught; in which the truths and duties of the Christian religion shall be in- culcated, and in which the moral virtues may be cultivated in such a way as to form a dignified character, guarded against the errors
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and vices of the world." As a result of this laudable aim May 25, 1836, the Black River Literary and Religious Institute was incorpo- rated, the first trustees being Marcus Smith, James H. Monroe, Eli Farwell, Jason Clark, Rev. George S. Boardman, Hart Massey, Row- ell Kinney, Crafts P. Kimball, Elisha Camp, Lewis A. Wicks, Henry Jones, George W. Knowlton, Ebenezer H. Snowden, John Covert, E. M. Adams, Elisha P. Cook, David Spear, Charles B. Pond, Artemas Crittenden, John A. Cathcart, David Granger, Abel L. Crandall, Ros- well Pettibone and William Crittenden, all Presbyterian or Congre- gationalist ministers and deacons.
The new seminary was to be under strict religious government. All members of the faculty must subscribe to a confession of faith and make a pledge of religious fidelity. It was provided that the board of trustees should consist of six clergymen and six laymen. It was further provided that there should be a male and female department, housed in separate buildings at a convenient distance from one an- other, but girls and boys might attend the same classes. The first fac- ulty was the Rev. James R. Boyd, principal, Rev. John Covert, vice principal, and Mrs. John Covert, preceptress. A lot was purchased on the corner of State and Mechanic streets and here a wooden building was erected, but in 1837 this was replaced by a two-story building of stone and brick, with cupola and high basement. At the corner stone ceremonies Governor Marcy of New York State was present. The old Watertown Academy passed out of existence and the Black River Lit- erary and Religious Institute became the recognized school of aca- demic standing in Watertown and vicinity. In 1846 the name was changed to the Jefferson County Institute and the bylaws were amended to the extent that henceforth only the principal need be a Presbyterian. The other teachers could be selected without regard to their religious faith by a committee of the trustees. Mr. Boyd con- tinued as principal until 1848.
Despite the strict discipline which prevailed the students occa- sionally burst forth as for example the night when the whole Insti- tute was illuminated by tallow candles placed in every window. Then an alarm of fire was turned in and the village fire department raced up State street to put out the supposed blaze. Some half dozen or more students were arrested and brought before Justice William H. Shumway but no evidence was forthcoming to show who was respon-
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sible and the matter was dropped. At another time the heavy box stoves were carried up upon the roof, while the largest stove was mounted upon the cupola with several lengths of stove pipe in place. There were two dormitories attached to the institution, one for girls and the other, standing upon Mechanic street, for the boys. This latter building became known far and wide as Pancake Hall, because the boys who lived there subsisted almost entirely upon pancakes.
ST. LAWRENCE ACADEMY
Long before the Black River Religious and Literary Institute was thought of, Old St. Lawrence Academy at Potsdam was known all over Northern New York and in a part of Lower Canada as an academy of high standing. To St. Lawrence Academy at Potsdam came boys from Brockville and Prescott as well as from Ogdensburg and Canton. The academy owed its existence to the perseverance of Benjamin Raymond, land agent for the Clarksons and the founder of the village of Potsdam. As early as 1810 Benjamin Raymond had erected a building for academic purposes at his own expense and employed the Rev. James Johnson of Lynn, Massachusetts, a grad- uate of Harvard, as teacher and clergyman. In 1812 an effort was made to raise $5,000 by subscription for the erection of a real academy. Raymond, himself, subscribed $500. Other subscribers were Liberty Knowles, Azel Lyman, Samuel Pease, Sewall Raymond, David Parish and Jacob Redington. A petition for the incorporation of the academy was presented to the state legislature in 1813, was mislaid and again presented in 1816. The petition was allowed and the first board of trustees was named, consisting of Benjamin Ray- mond, Sewall Raymond, Robert McChesney, David Parish, Nathan Ford, Louis Hasbrouck, Roswell Hopkins, Russell Attwater and Ebenezer Hulburd.
It was a particularly able board. The two Raymonds were promi- nent residents of Potsdam. David Parish of Ogdensburg was the millionaire landowner, Judge Nathan Ford was the founder of Og- densburg and one of the most influential men in the county. Louis Hasbrouck was the first clerk of St. Lawrence county, a graduate of Nassau Hall, now Princeton, and a lawyer. Roswell Hopkins had been secretary of state for Vermont, was the founder and principal resident of Hopkinton and was a member of the state legislature.
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Russell Attwater was the founder of the village of Russell, had strong influence at Albany and was one of the prime movers in the building of the St. Lawrence turnpike.
The trustees authorized a preceptor to be appointed at a salary of $420 a year and Nathan Nixon, a graduate of Middlebury College, was so employed. The trustees set the cost of instruction as fol- lows: Reading and writing, $2.50; English grammar, mathematics and bookkeeping, $3 ; dead languages, $3.50; logic, rhetoric, composi- tion, moral philosophy, natural philosophy and French, $4. Attend- ance at the church which the preceptor attended was required of all students unless their parents requested in writing that they be per- mitted to attend some oher church. In any case strict observance of not only the Sabbath but of Saturday night as well, following the old New England custom, was required. In 1819 Levi S. Ives was appointed preceptor to be succeeded by Charles Orvis, a graduate of Hamilton College in 1821. He in turn was succeeded by the Rev. Daniel Banks, who remained until 1827.
In 1825 it became apparent that a larger building was needed and the corner stone was laid for a substantial stone structure, four stories high, including the basement. Rev. Roswell Pettibone of Hop- kinton prayed, Rev. James McAuley of Ogdensburg gave the address and there was singing by a choir and music by the Potsdam band. In 1836-7, still another stone building was put up to meet the grow- ing demands of the Academy. These two buildings were located upon the Park, one upon Main street and the other upon Elm street. They were both taken down in 1867 to make room for the State Normal School building. One of these structures was known as the North Academy Building and the other as the South Academy Building and between the two stood the old Presbyterian Church.
St. Lawrence Academy soon gained a reputation for the training of teachers. It was one of the first schools in the state to form a class for the special training of such teachers and as early as 1825 Silas Wright, then a state senator, succeeded in getting an appropria- tion of $2,500 for the higher education of teachers at St. Lawrence Academy. In the report of the Regents rendered to the state legisla- ture in 1832 especial attention is called to this phase of the work at St. Lawrence Academy. Says the report:
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"St. Lawrence Academy at Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, has sent out during the last year (1831) eighty teachers of common schools and that part of the study consists of lectures upon the prin- ciples of teaching. The superiority which St. Lawrence Academy has acquired in this respect is to be ascribed altogether to the new branch of instruction introduced into it."
Again in 1835 the Regents in their report to the legislature said : "In the neighborhood of St. Lawrence Academy the school districts are almost entirely supplied with teachers educated in that institu- tion, and so beneficial has been the effect of introducing into the schools a better class of instructors, and more efficient plans of in- struction, that the compensation of teachers is already, on an aver- age, from thirty to forty dollars per annum more than it was before the Academy had established a department for training them."
Thus St. Lawrence Academy was a pioneer in the professional training of teachers in the State of New York and early gained a reputation which made it a comparatively easy matter to have Pots- dam selected as one of the sites for a state normal school a number of years later.
Some years ago George H. Sweet, the last principal of the St. Lawrence Academy, in speaking of the institution of which he has been the head, said: "Taking her existence as a whole, St. Lawrence Academy admittedly took the center position in the front rank of academies in this section, and was an authority on educational mat- ters. She called a class of students of mature years from near and far, who were looking for the best and most representative academy, the academy offering the largest advantages, the best instruction, the highest character. Her halcyon days cover no inconsiderable part of her existence. All who knew her point with justifiable pride to the high water mark reached by her in many, very many, continuous years of her existence. St. Lawrence Academy was not founded in abundance and luxury. Her course was rugged, her career had to be cut through hard, flinty rock. Among the first academies to arrange and adopt courses of study was St. Lawrence. The earlier suggestions about teachers' classes and special instruction for teachers are credited to St. Lawrence Academy."
FIRST CENTRAL RURAL SCHOOL IN LEWIS COUNTY, ORGANIZED AT WEST LEYDEN, N. Y.
ALICE HYDE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, MALONE, N. Y.
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GOUVERNEUR WESLEYAN ACADEMY
But if St. Lawrence Academy easily stood first among the early academies of St. Lawrence county, Gouverneur Wesleyan Academy was also a strong institution in those early days. In 1826 a move- ment was started for an academy to be known as Gouverneur Union Academy. The following year the school was opened by a Mr. Ruger and in 1828 it was incorporated under the name of the Gouverneur High School. The first trustees were John Spencer, Aaron Rowley, David Barrell, Harvey D. Smith, Josiah Waid, Alba Smith, Almond Z. Madison, Robert Conant and Joel Keyes. In 1830 the movement was started to erect a building suitable for academy purposes and $2,755 was subscribed for that purpose. A building, two stories high, with two wings was completed in 1834, and Joseph Hopkins, a graduate of Hamilton, was appointed principal.
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