A geography of Pennsylvania : containing an account of the history, geographical features, soil, climate, geology, botany, zoology, population, education, government, finances, productions, trade, railroads, canals &c. of the state : with a separate description of each county, and questions for the convenience of teachers : to which is appended, a travellers' guide, or table of distances on the principal rail road, canal and stage routes in the state, Part 11

Author: Trego, Charles B., 1794-1874; Marian S. Carson Collection (Library of Congress) DLC
Publication date: 1843
Publisher: Philadelphia : Edward C. Biddle
Number of Pages: 430


USA > Pennsylvania > A geography of Pennsylvania : containing an account of the history, geographical features, soil, climate, geology, botany, zoology, population, education, government, finances, productions, trade, railroads, canals &c. of the state : with a separate description of each county, and questions for the convenience of teachers : to which is appended, a travellers' guide, or table of distances on the principal rail road, canal and stage routes in the state > Part 11


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51


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GEOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.


feelings has yielded to the mild influence of Christian charity and the spirit of universal toleration.


Within the last few years the moral character of Pennsylvania, in common with that of other States, has undergone a most happy change, from the progress of that mighty reform which seems to be spreading its influence over the civilized world. The use of spirituous liquors had long been discouraged in this State by the Society of Friends; but their care on this subject was exercised chiefly among their own members. The recent impulse given to the cause of Temperance by the united and powerful efforts of the wise and good of all religious persuasions, has been productive of the most happy and cheering effects. The attention of the people has been aroused, they have been taught to think upon the subject; hundreds of the debased and miserable victims of intemperance have been reclaimed from their degraded position and restored to society as useful and respectable men. Many of those who sold them the intoxicating and destroying draught have relinquished the trade, because they became convinced of the injury they were inflicting upon the wretched creatures who demanded it at their hands, and who to obtain it freely offered their last coin which might have procured food for a heart-broken wife and starving children. The scenes of drunken riot and disgusting debauchery which a few years ago were but too common, have now become comparatively rare. The moral sense of the community is awak- ened,-they are beginning to reflect upon and understand the sub- ject in its proper light,-and though a few poor deluded victims may still be found so weak as to offer themselves as a willing sa- crifice to the destroying demon of the bottle, their number is rapidly diminishing before the wide-spread influence of that moral reform which has awakened all classes of society to a knowledge that their best interests and their true happiness are dependent upon strict habits of temperance and sobriety.


Mention a provision of one of the first laws of Pennsylvania concerning religion. What is said of freedom of conscience and religious liberty being the privilege of all our citizens ? Of what religious society were the companions and followers of Penn ? What is said of the Episcopalians ?- Of the Presbyterians ?- Of the Baptists ?- Of the Roman Catholics ?- Of the Moravians ?- Of the Methodists ? What other denominations are mentioned ? What is said of the feeling of the different persuasions to- wards one another ? What has recently had great effect in reforming the moral character of our population ? What good effects have resulted from the progress of temperance ?


11. EDUCATION.


The subject of education appears to have received early atten- tion in Pennsylvania, and has since been recommended and en- couraged on the part of the delegated authorities of the State by continual and successive constitutional provisions and legislative


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enactments. If the benefits of learning have not been so generally diffused among the inhabitants of this State as among those of New England, the defect should not be altogether ascribed to a want of due consideration of the value of education ; but probably in some measure to the heterogeneous character of our population, composed of emigrants from various foreign countries, entertain- ing their own peculiar views and prejudices, and who, even yet, are not perfectly amalgamated into one great body politic, enter- taining the same manners, customs and language.


As early as 1683, before the first settlers of Philadelphia had protected themselves from the weather by the erection of comfort- able dwellings, we find by the ancient records that " the Governor and Provincial Council, having taken into their serious considera- tion the great necessity there is of a school master for the instruc- tion and sober education of youth in the town of Philadelphia, sent for Enoch Flower, an inhabitant of said town, who for twenty years past hath been exercised in that care and employment in England, to whom having communicated their minds, he em- braced it upon these following terms: to learn to read English, four shillings by the quarter; to learn to read and write, six shil- lings by the quarter; to learn to read, write and cast accounts, eight shillings by the quarter; for boarding a scholar, that is to say, diet, washing, lodging and schooling, ten pounds for one whole year."


In 1689, the Friends' public school was established, and received a few years afterwards, from the benevolent founder of Pennsyl- vania, a charter by the motto of which he shows his appreciation of the blessings of education. "Good instruction is better than riches," was the simple truth by which he expressed his enlightened views in relation to this important subject. This institution is still continued, and under the direction of the Society of Friends dis- penses instruction to numerous pupils. As the population of the province increased, the necessity for education was generally re- cognised, and public and private schools were established. The " Academy and Charitable School in the province of Pennsylva- nia" was founded in 1750, chiefly by the exertions of Dr. Frank- lin, and chartered in 1753. In 1755 a new charter was granted by which it was erected into a college with the power to appoint professors and confer degrees in the various arts and sciences, and in 1779 it was created a university. A classical school of some celebrity was established in Bucks county as early as 1728, by the Rev. William Tennent, and one at New London, in Chester coun- ty, in 1741, by the Rev. Francis Allison, who afterwards became the provost of the college in Philadelphia.


The important subject of general education was not overlooked by the wise and provident foresight of the early fathers of our re- public; for the first constitution of the State, framed in 1776 by a convention of which Dr. Franklin was president, provided for the establishment by the legislature of one or more schools in each county, and of one or more universities for the youth of the State generally. The constitution of 1790, assuming still broader ground


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GEOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.


in favour of general education, declares that," the legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for the establish- ment of schools throughout the State in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis," and further, that " the arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or more seminaries of learning." This provision has been found so fully sufficient as a basis for legisla- tion that it is continued without change in the revised constitution of 1838. It established public instruction as part of the business duties of the authorities of the Commonwealth, leaving to public opinion to guide generally the mode in which that business shall be carried on, but absolutely guarantying instruction at the public expense to those who are unable to procure it for themselves.


Under this provision was passed the act of 1809, to provide for the education of the poor gratis ; and at different times various plans have been tried which have at length resulted in the system at present in operation. Any system upon which the children of the poor are to be separated in their education from others, is op- posed to the principles of our republican institutions, and has never found favour for any considerable length of time with the people at large. Plans of this sort have accordingly been laid aside very soon after they have been tried. Our republic depends for its very existence upon the virtue and intelligence of the peo- ple, and the free and full education of all its youth is the only mode by which that intelligence can be secured.


In 1831, the legislature passed a law for the establishment of a general system of education, and providing for the creation of a fund in aid of, or for the support of schools. In 1834 an act was passed which forms the basis of the present law, and in 1836 the law now in force, entitled " an act to consolidate and amend the several acts relative to a general system of education by com- mon schools," which contemplates nothing less than the elemen- tary instruction of all the youth of the commonwealth.


By the present law each township, borough or ward in the com- monwealth, not within the city and incorporated districts of the county of Philadelphia, constitutes a school district, except that any borough which is or may be connected with a township in the assessment of its county rates and levies, forms a district with such township. In each district is a board of school directors, two of whom are chosen annually by the people, holding the office for a term of three years. In those districts where the provisions of the law have been accepted, the directors fix the amount of tax to be levied for school purposes, and superintend the pecuniary as well as the educational concerns of the schools. They are re- quired to establish a sufficient number of schools for the instruc- tion of all persons over four years of age for whom application may be made, and to keep these schools open for at least six months in the year, if they have the requisite funds for that pur- pose. The tax to be levied is in no case to be less than the ap- propriation from the State treasury received by the district, nor greater than three times that amount. The sum annually appro- priated by the legislature for distribution among the districts was


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at first $200,000; which in 1838 was increased to one dollar for every taxable inhabitant; and the amount actually paid to the ac- cepting districts in 1842, was upwards of $238,000: Besides the annual appropriation in aid of common schools, the legislature has at different times made additional grants for the same excellent ob- ject, and in 1837, on the occasion of receiving into the treasury a proportion of the surplus revenue of the United States, distributed the sum of $500,000 for the erection, repairs and purchase of school houses, and for the purpose of schools generally.


In the districts which have not joined the school union by ac- cepting the law, directors are nevertheless elected, who are re- quired to execute the provisions of previous laws in regard to the education of the poor; and the question of opening public schools is annually brought before the people of the district at the time of the election of school directors.


The public schools of the city and county of Philadelphia were not embraced in the organization and government of school dis- tricts established by the act of 1836, having been, by an act passed in 1818, erected into a district for the purpose of common school education, and denominated the first school district of the State of Pennsylvania. Under this act, and its several supplements, a sys- tem of common school instruction has been pursued in this dis- trict since the period of its passage. Its progress for some years was slow ; but it has gradually secured public confidence and sup- port, and the public schools of Philadelphia are now regarded as being equal, if not superior in practical utility, to those of any city in the Union. The pupils are first received into primary schools where they are taught the elements of intellectual improvement; they are next removed into the grammar schools where they are instructed in all the essential branches of a plain English educa- tion; and finally those whose diligence in study and capacity for learning may have enabled them to pass the requisite examination are transferred to the High school, where a more extended course of instruction is open to them, including the Latin, French and Spanish languages; belles-lettres ; moral, mental and political science; mathematics and practical astronomy; natural philoso- phy; natural history ; chemistry, drawing and writing, &c.


The organization of the school district composed of the city and county of Philadelphia is well adapted to a dense population, com- bining the advantages of a minute superintendence of the schools with those of a general system and central authority. The district is composed of school sections, in each of which directors are chosen by the people or appointed by the corporate authorities. Each board of directors sends one or more delegates to a central body called the Controllers of the Public Schools. The directors superintend the schools in their several sections, and disburse the moneys appropriated to them by the board of controllers. The amount of money required for the expenses of the schools is de- termined by the controllers, who make a requisition for it upon the commissioners of the county. The general regulations for the schools of the district are made by the board of controllers, who,


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GEOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.


holding the purse, have an effectual check upon the action of the sectional boards. Every year the president of the board of con- trollers makes a report upon the general condition and progress, and the prospect of the schools in the district, which being pub- lished give to the citizens the general results of a system in which they are all so deeply interested. It is perhaps not too much to say that up to the present time these reports have been character- ized by that plainness and directness which marks an account of a sound and well-ordered system. Similar advantages to those derived from a union of several school sections in Philadelphia, are found to result from a similar organization in the city of Lan- caster, and must follow from it wherever adopted. What is good in reference to education for one part of a community must be equally so for another, under circumstances so nearly the same as the different parts of a town or borough.


The public school system has been steadily gaining ground since its first introduction into Pennsylvania. In 1836 there were 987 school districts in the State, of which 745, or about three-fourths, had accepted the terms of the school-law. Though the question of withdrawing from the school union is submitted every three years to the people of the accepting districts, four-fifths of the districts in the State, or 905 out of 1,113, had accepted the terms of the law in 1842. The hope is confidently indulged by the friends of public education, that in a few years the whole State will be unanimous in its feeling towards the system and in its universal adoption.


With the progress of the system the importance of education has been more generally felt and more extensively acknowledged. In 1836 there were 3,384 public schools in the State, exclusive of the city and county of Philadelphia, attended by 139,604 scholars ; and in 1842, 6,116 schools attended by 281,085 scholars; the num- ber of public schools having nearly doubled and the number of scholars more than doubled in six years. The sums raised by taxes in the accepting districts give evidence of the same fact: in 1836 the whole amount was $231,552, and in 1842, $398,766, and this increase took place notwithstanding the pecuniary difficulties and general depression which prevailed. The whole sum expended for common schools in the accepting districts of the State, exclu- sive of the city and county of Philadelphia, in 1842, was $648,831 ; in the city and county $237,764, and in the whole State where the system is introduced $886,595.


The sums expended for the erection of school houses in the ac- cepting districts from 1836 to 1842, both inclusive, amount to more than a million of dollars. More care has been taken in the location and construction of the buildings, more attention paid to the convenience of their internal arrangement and to the neatness of external appearance; and though in many cases improvement is still to be desired in these particulars, there are districts in which the school houses are models for imitation. The necessity for so large an expenditure to provide places for instruction has doubtless been a great impediment to the progress of the system; but being


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once overcome in a district, no similar difficulty can recur for a long series of years.


The attention of the directors of the public schools to their duties, and the interest which they have manifested in the progress of the schools, have also gone on increasing. In 1836, reports were re- ceived by the superintendent of common schools from less than two-thirds of the districts, and in 1842 from more than eleven- twelfths. The whole number of schools in the reporting districts., not including the city and county of Philadelphia, is 6,116, and the average time during which they are kept open for instruction is five months and nine days. The number of male teachers is 5,176, at an average salary of $18.58 per month; and of female teachers 2,316, at $11.16 per month. The number of male scholars is 154,454, and of females 126,631. The number learning the Ger- man language is 5,141. The average number of scholars in each school is 44; and the cost of tuition for each scholar is 42} cents per month, or $1.27₺ per quarter. The amount of State ap- propriation paid last year to accepting districts was $238,162, and the reported amount of tax levied in them was $398,766. The amount paid for instruction in the reporting districts for that year was $425,501 ; for fuel and contingencies $41,044; and for school houses $113,339.


The large aggregate expense of the schools has sometimes led to a question in reference to their economy. In considering this question we should take into view all the benefits conferred by the public school system; for economy consists in the judicious use of means so as to derive the greatest amount of return from the smallest expenditure. The great increase in the number of com- mon schools since the adoption of the system, the improvement in their character, the more general diffusion of the benefits of educa- tion among the people, and the consequent elevation of the stand- ard of moral and intellectual refinement and intelligence, should all be taken into the account. And if we treat the question merely as one of dollars and cents, we shall find that the average cost of instruction under the old system very considerably exceeded $1.27₺ per quarter for each scholar, which is the average expense under the present common school system. The people are quick to dis- cover the effect of measures bearing directly upon their interest, and had they perceived no advantages resulting from the adoption of the common school system, it would never have been embraced by four-fifths of the districts in the commonwealth. If the old system was sufficient for the demands of education, why has a million of dollars been expended within the last six years in the erection of school houses by directors acquainted with the wants of the people and the necessity for more extended opportunities and facilities for instruction ? It is not because we have abandoned a better for a worse system that the number of schools and of scholars in the ac- cepting districts has so greatly increased, and that the advantages of education have been so much more widely extended; but be- cause we have been guided by the universal truth, that the stand- ard of common education is always highest, and its benefits most


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extensively felt, in those communities where it is sustained by common and united means.


In reviewing the progress of the common school system in Penn- sylvania, the friends of education find abundant cause for satisfac- tion and congratulation. It was not to be expected, in a commu- nity differing in language, habits, and customs to which they had been long attached, that a total change could be immediately effected in the system of instruction, and that they could be at once brought to regard as a public duty the provision for education which they had so long been accustomed to consider as merely a matter of private consideration. Early and deeply seated preju- dices were to be removed ; local customs and habits of long stand- ing were to be changed; the opposition of the wealthy and parsi- monious was to be encountered; and a thousand other obstacles to be met, before a system could be brought into general favour which should dispense its blessings equally to the rich and to the poor, and make education, like the air we breathe, as free to the cottage as to the palace.


The difficulty of obtaining properly qualified teachers for the common schools in many parts of the State is now the principal drawback upon the effectual operation of our school system. The profession of a school-master, notwithstanding his usefulness in society and the benefits which they receive from the faithful per- formance of his duty, has not heretofore been considered among the most honourable. In addition to this, the inadequacy of the compensation generally paid to teachers may be regarded as one of the principal reasons why the standard of instruction in so many of our common schools is not as elevated as it should be. The business of teaching is embraced by many as a merely temporary employment, and by no means as a regular profession for life. Nor does it follow that because a teacher possesses all the learning necessary for the school in which he is employed, he also under- stands or practises the best method of imparting knowledge to his pupils. It is not usually the most learned men who make the best teachers, unless they happen to possess the rare faculty of com- municating instruction with facility, and in addition to their other knowledge understand also the art of teaching. A want of the proper kind of teachers must still be felt in our common schools until the pro- fession shall be raised to its proper standard, and by a compensation and a standing in society equal to those enjoyed by the clergyman, the physician, or the lawyer, young men of talents, intelligence and high moral character shall be induced to qualify themselves for its duties and to embark in it as a permanent employment.


By a law passed in 1838, an appropriation to colleges, acade- mies and female seminaries was made of the following amount annually for ten years. To each incorporated university and col- lege, maintaining at least four professors, and constantly instructing not less than one hundred students, one thousand dollars. To each incorporated academy and female seminary, maintaining one or more teachers, and giving instruction to at least fifteen pupils in the Greek and Roman classics, mathematics and English, or Eng-


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lish and German literature, three hundred dollars. To each of said academies and female seminaries where at least twenty-five pupils are instructed as above, four hundred dollars; and to each one maintaining at least two teachers and instructing forty or more pupils as above, five hundred dollars.


In pursuance of this law, $7,378 were paid from the State treasury in 1842, to nine universities and colleges, viz. the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, Lafayette college at Easton, Dickinson college at Carlisle, Pennsylvania college at Gettysburg, Marshall college at Mercersburg, Madison college at Uniontown, Washington college at Washington, Jefferson college at Canons- burg, and Allegheny college at Meadville. From six of these in- stitutions reports were received in compliance with a resolution of the legislature passed in 1836, which requires the president, fa- culty, trustees, &c., of colleges and academies receiving aid from the commonwealth, to report to the superintendent of common schools, on or before the first of November annually, the number of students and graduates, the course of studies pursued, financial resources and expenses, the future prospects of their institutions, &c. In the six colleges which reported in 1842, there are 381 students in the collegiate, and 373 in the preparatory departments. The number preparing to become school teachers is 37 and the number of graduates 62. The medium price of tuition for each stu- dent is $22.33, and the annual expense including board is $120.66. From the University of Pennsylvania, and from Dickinson and Jef- ferson colleges, no reports were received.


The number of academies which receive a share of the State appropriations is 65, and the amount paid to them from the public treasury in 1842 was $16,001. Only 39 of these academies made the annual report required by law. Those which reported have 2,108 pupils, of whom 360 are preparing to become school teach- ers. The medium cost of tuition for each pupil is $15.31, and the whole annual expense of each is $107.55.


The female seminaries entitled to a portion of the public funds are 41 in number, and received $13,044. But 18 of these have made their annual report, from which it appears that the medium cost of tuition is $18.53 per annum, and the whole annual expense of a pupil, $132.20.




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