USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Brookville > A pioneer history of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania and my first recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, when my feet were bare and my cheeks were brown > Part 21
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" SECTION 3. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this act shall continue in force for three years, and from thence to the end of the next session of the General Assembly and no longer, and the act entitled ' An Act to provide for the Education of Poor Children gratis,' shall be and hereby is repealed."
That this act also was considered an incomplete fulfilment of the con - stitution appears from the message of the governor the next year after its passage.
Agitation and discussion over the law resulted in the act of 1809, better drawn, with the same title and aim.
THE LAW OF ISO9.
"AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR GRATIS.
"SECTION I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That it shall be the duty of the Commissioners of the several counties within this Commonwealth, at the time of issuing their precepts to the assessors, annually to direct and require the assessor of each and every township, ward, and district to re- ceive from the parents the names of all the children between the ages of five and twelve years who reside therein, and whose parents are unable to pay for their schooling ; and the Commissioners when they hold appeals shall hear all persons who may apply for alterations or additions of names in the said list, and make all such alterations as to them shall appear just and reasonable, and agreeably to the true intent and meaning of this act ; and after adjustment they shall transmit a correct copy thereof to the re- spective assessor, requiring him to inform the parents of the children therein contained that they are at liberty to send them to the most con- venient school free of expense ; and the said assessor, for any neglect of the above duty, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five dollars, to be sued for by any person, and recovered as debts of that amount are now recov- erable, and to be paid into the county treasury, for county purposes : Provided always, That the names of no children whose education is otherwise provided for shall be received by the assessors of any township or district.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
"SECTION 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said assessor shall send a list of the names of the children aforesaid to the teachers of schools within his township, ward, or district, whose duty it shall be to teach all such children as may come to their schools in the same manner as other children are taught, and each teacher shall keep a day-book, in which he shall enter the number of days each child entitled to the provisions of this act shall be taught, and he shall also enter in said book the amount of all stationery furnished for the use of said child, from which book he shall make out his account against the county, on oath or affirmation, agreeably to the usual rates of charging for tuition in the said school, subject to the examination and revision of the trustees of the school where there are any ; but where there are no trustees, to three reputable subscribers to the school ; which account, after being so exam- ined or revised, he shall present to the County Commissioners, who, if they approve thereof, shall draw their order on the county treasurer for the amount, which he is hereby authorized and directed to pay of any moneys in the treasury.
" Approved-the fourth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and nine.
" SIMON SNYDER."
Each of these acts compelled parents to publish to the world their poverty and to send their children to school as paupers.
The method of organizing schools and hiring masters under these laws was as follows : A school-meeting was called by a notice posted in the district. The inhabitants then met and elected in their own way three of their number to act as a committee or as trustees with power to hire a master or mistress, and this committee executed a supervision over the school. A rate bill was always made out by the master and handed to the committee, who collected the moneys and paid it to the master.
The pioneer and early modes of school discipline were the cat-o'- nine-tails and the rod, carrying the offender on the back of a pupil and then flogging him, setting the boys with the girls and the girls with the boys, fastening a split stick to the ear or the nose, laying the scholar over the knee and applying the ferule to the part on which he sat. These punishments lasted for years after the common schools came into use. For the benefit of young teachers I will give the mode of correction. The masters invariably kept what was called toms, or, more vulgarly, cat-o'-nine-tails, all luck being in odd numbers. This instrument of tor- ture was an oaken stick about twelve inches long to which was attached a piece of raw-hide cut in strips, twisted while wet, and then dried. It was freely used for correction, and those who were thus corrected did not soon forget it, and not a few carried the marks during life. Another
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
and no less cruel instrument was a green cow-hide. Comment upon the above is useless, as the words cruelty and barbarity will suggest them- selves to the minds of all who read it. For our text-books we had Dilworth's and the " United States Speller," and our readers were the good old Bible and Testament. The " Western Calculator" was all the arithmetic that was in use, and the one who got through the "rule of three" was called tolerably good in figures, and the lucky wight who got through the book was considered a graduate in mathematics. Grammar
Governor Joseph Ritner.
and geography were not taught in common schools, being considered higher branches.
Not one of the governors of the State during the time the law of 1809 was in force believed it met the requirements of the constitution, hence in 1824 an act was passed repealing it and another one substituted. The new act was violently opposed, never went into effect, was repealed in 1826, and the act of 1809 was re-enacted. The policy enforced in our State for fifty years after the Revolutionary War was the endowment of academies and the free instruction of poor children in church and neigh- borhood schools.
Governor Wolf, in 1833-34, made education the leading topic of his message. Among other things he said,-
" To provide by law ' for the establishment of schools throughout the State, and in such a manner that the poor may be taught gratis,' is one
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
of the public measures to which I feel it to be my duty now to call your attention, and most solemnly to press upon your consideration. Our apathy and indifference in reference to this subject becomes the more conspicuous when we reflect that whilst we are expending millions for the physical condition of the State, we have not hitherto appropriated a single dollar that is available for the intellectual improvement of its youth, which, in a moral and political point of view, is of tenfold more conse- quence, either as respects the moral influence of the State or its political power and safety.
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Governor George Wolf.
" According to the returns of the last census, we have in Pennsyl- vania five hundred and eighty-one thousand one hundred and eighty children under the age of fifteen years, and one hundred and forty-nine thousand and eighty-nine between the ages of fifteen and twenty years, forming an aggregate of seven hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and sixty-nine juvenile persons of both sexes under the age of twenty years, most of them requiring more or less instruction. And yet with all this numerous youthful population growing up around us, who, in a few years, are to be our rulers and our law-givers, the defenders of our country and the pillars of the State, and upon whose education will depend in great measure the preservation of our liberties and the safety of the re- public, we have neither schools established for their instruction nor provision made by law for establishing them as enjoined by the con- stitution. "
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
In 1827, William Audenreid, then a senator from Schuylkill County, introduced a bill into the Senate, the title of which was, " To provide a Fund in support of a General System of Education in Pennsylvania." This bill passed the Senate that session, but was defeated in the House, but being urged and pressed every season it became a law April 2, 1831. This law entitled Senator Audenreid to be called the author of our school system. The law reads as follows :
"SECTION I. That there shall be and there hereby is established a fund, to be denominated a Common School Fund, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the Auditor-General, and the Secretary of the Land- Office shall be Commissioners thereof, who, or a majority of them, in addition to the duties they now perform, shall receive and manage such moneys and other things as shall pertain to such fund, in the most advan- tageous manner, and shall receive and hold to the use of said fund all such gifts, grants, and donations as may be made; and that said Com- missioners shall keep a correct record of their proceedings, which, to- gether with all papers and documents relative to said fund, shall be kept and preserved in the office of the Auditor-General.
" SECTION 2. That from and after the passage of this act, all moneys due and owing this Commonwealth by the holders of all unpatented lands ; also all moneys secured to the Commonwealth by mortgages or liens on land for the purchase money of the same ; also all moneys paid to the State Treasurer on any application hereafter entered, or any war- rant hereafter granted for land, as also fees received in the land-office, as well as all moneys received in pursuance of the provisions of the fourth section of an act entitled 'An Act to increase the County Rates and Levies for the Use of the Commonwealth,' approved the twenty-fifth day of March, 1831, be and the same are hereby transferred and assigned to the Common School Fund ; and that at the expiration of twelve months after the passage of this act, and regularly at the expiration of every twelve months thereafter, the State Treasurer shall report to the said Commissioners the amount of money thus received by him during the twelve months last preceding, together with a certificate of the amount thereof, and that the same is held by the Commonwealth for the use of the Common School Fund, at an interest of five per cent.
"SECTION 3. That the interest of the moneys belonging to said fund shall be added to the principal as it becomes due, and the whole amount thereof shall be held by the Commonwealth, and remain subject to the provisions of an act entitled ' An Act relative to the Pennsylvania Canal and Railroad,' approved the twenty-second of April, 1829, until the in- terest thereof shall amount to the sum of one hundred thousand dollars annually, after which the interest shall be annually distributed and ap- plied to the support of common schools throughout this Commonwealth, in such a manner as shall hereafter be provided by law."
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
THE PIONEER SCHOOLS-SCHOOL-MASTERS AND SCHOOL- HOUSES.
" The pioneer school house in the southern part of the county was built of logs, in the fall of 1820, near John Bell's, a little more than a mile northeast of where Perrysville stands. It was built after the fashion of the first school-house in the county, with paper instead of window-
Pioneer school-house.
glass, boards pinned to the wall for desks, floors and seats made of puncheons, and fireplace along one end. John Postlethwait, Sr., John Bell, Archibald Hadden, Hugh McKee, and James Stewart were the prin- cipal citizens engaged in organizing and starting the school. John B. Henderson, of Indiana County, taught the school in this part of the county, in that pioneer house, the first winter after it was built. The Testament, Bible, Catechism, and the 'United States Spelling-Book' were used as text-books in the school. Ira White, a Yankee from the State of New York, succeeded Mr. Henderson as master. Some time afterwards a school was taught by Crawford Gibson, in a house near the county line. Some parties claim that Gibson taught before Henderson, about a mile south of Perrysville. Somewhat later a school was taught by John Knox, in a log house across the creek, southeast of Perrysville. They paid him with grain, in part at least. James C. Neal, Sr., then a young man, hauled a load of grain with a yoke of oxen, to pay Mr. Knox for teaching, from Perrysville to some place near Troy, a distance of about twenty miles, through the woods.
"The pioneer school held in Punxsutawney was opened by Andrew Bowman, about 1823, in a house then owned by John B. Henderson. Dr. Jenks, Charles Barclay, Judge Heath, Rev. David Barclay, Mr. Black, and others took an active part in starting the school. They hired a mas- ter by the year. The tuition for the small pupils was twelve dollars each, and for the large ones fifty dollars a year. The first school house was
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
built in Punxsutawney by the above-named gentlemen about 1827, where the Baptist church stands. Hugh Kenworthy was the first man who was well educated that was employed as a master there. The next master was Dr. Robert Cunningham. After him came Thomas Cunningham, since Judge Cunningham.
" The pioneer master in Rose township was Robert Knox. When he taught the house was not floored and the pupils sat on the sleepers. The venerable Joseph Magifen, still living, taught a six months' term in 1827. Tuition, fifty cents a month per scholar and to board with the scholars.
" A school was taught in the vicinity of Brockwayville in 1828,- then Ridgway township,- for which the master was to receive twelve dollars per month in maple-sugar.
" Alexander Cochran taught the pioneer school in what is now Wash- ington township, in 1831, in a school-house near the Beechwoods grave- yard. Messrs Cooper, Keys, McIntosh, and the Smiths were instrumental in organizing the school.
" Brookville's pioneer school was taught by Alexander McKnight, father of Dr. McKnight, in a small brick school-house in 1832-33.
" A pioneer school was commenced within the present limits of Union township about 1834 or 1835. James Barr taught first, in the summer. There were about twenty pupils, and the tuition was fifty cents a month for each pupil. Samuel Davison, Robert McFarland, John W. Monks, John Hughes, and Robert Tweedy were prominent in organizing the school.
" In every locality in the county in which the population was dense enough to support a school one seems to have been organized previous to the common school system."-Blose.
The creation of the common schools in Pennsylvania was not the work of any one man or set of men, nor was it imported from any other State. It was the outgrowth of freedom. In a book like mine I cannot enumerate all the glorious workers in the fight. The Pennsylvania So- ciety for the Promotion of Public Schools, organized in Philadelphia in 1827, was a great factor in the work. Senator Audenreid, Dr. Anderson, and Senator Smith, of Delaware County; N. B. Fetterman, of Bedford ; Samuel Breck, a senator from Philadelphia ; and Thaddeus Stevens, all deserve to be forever remembered for their able and untiring labor in this direction.
The pioneer school in the United States for the education of teachers was the model school of Philadelphia, established and opened in 1838. The finest and most costly educational structures in the world are the Girard College buildings in Philadelphia.
In the session of 1834, Samuel Breck, a senator from Philadelphia, was made chairman of a joint committee on education. The members of this committee on the part of the Senate were Samuel Breck, Charles B.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
Penrose, William Jackson, Almon H. Read, and William Boyd ; of the House, Samuel Anderson, William Patterson, James Thompson, James Clarke, John Wiegand, Thomas H. Crawford, and Wilmer Worthington. This committee secured all possible information on the subject from all sources. The author of the bill as passed was Samuel Breck. It was but little discussed and met with but little opposition in the Legislature.
THE LAW OF 1834 AND ITS WORKINGS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY.
" WHEREAS, It is enjoined by the constitution, as a solemn duty which cannot be neglected without a disregard of the moral and political safety of the people ; and
" WHEREAS, The fund for the common school purposes, under the act of the 2d of April, 1831, will, on the 4th of April next, amount to the sum of $546,563.72, and will soon reach the sum of $2,000,000, when it will produce at five per cent. an increase of $100,000, which, by said act, is to be paid for the support of common schools ; and
" WHEREAS, Provisions should be made by law for the distribution of the benefits of this fund to the people of the respective counties of the Commonwealth ; therefore,
" SECTION I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the city and county of Philadelphia, and every other county in this Commonwealth, shall each form a school division, and that every ward, township, and borough, within the several school divisions, shall each form a school district.
"SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of the sheriff of each county, thirty days previous to the third Friday in September of the current year, 1834, to give notice, by proclamation, to the citizens of each school district to hold elections in their respective townships, wards, and boroughs at the places where they hold their elections for supervisors, town councils, and constables, to choose six citizens, of each school district, to serve as school directors of said districts respectively ; which elections shall, on the said day, be conducted and held in the same manner as elections for supervisors and constables are by law held and conducted ; and on the day of the next annual election of supervisors in the respective townships, and of constables in the respective cities of the Commonwealth, a new election for directors shall take place in the said townships, boroughs, and cities, at which election, and annually thereafter at that time, and in manner and form aforesaid, two directors shall be chosen, who shall serve for three years ; the sheriff giving thirty days' notice previous to such election."
OF MANUAL SCHOOLS.
" SECTION IO. WHEREAS, Manual labor may be advantageously con- nected with intellectual moral instruction in some or all of the schools, it
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
shall be the duty of the school directors to decide whether such connec- tion in their respective districts shall take place or not ; and if decided affirmatively, they shall have power to purchase materials and employ artisans for the instruction of the pupils in the useful branches of the mechanic arts, and where practicable, in agricultural pursuits : Provided, nevertheless, That no such connection shall take place in any common school, unless four out of the six directors shall agree thereto."
Many of the sections were found to contain requirements that were crude, hence they were repealed in 1836 and perfected. These referred to the building of school-houses, employing masters, locating houses, etc. No pay was allowed a director other than as a delegate to the county convention.
PROCLAMATION-COMMON SCHOOLS.
" WHEREAS, The act of Assembly approved Ist April, 1834, and en- titled ' An Act to establish a General System of Education by Common Schools,' provides ' that the city and county of Philadelphia, and every other county in this Commonwealth, shall each form a school division, and that every ward, township, and borough within the several school divisions shall each form a school district: Provided, That any borough which is or may be connected with a township in the assessments of county rates and levies shall, with the same township, so long as it remains so con- nected, form a district, and each of said districts shall contain a com- petent number of common schools for the education of every child within the limits thereof, who shall apply either in person, or by his or her parents, guardian, or next friend, for admission and instruction.'
" AND WHEREAS, The said act further directs, 'that it shall be the duty of the sheriff of each county to give notice by proclamation to the citizens of each school district to hold elections in their respective town- ships, wards, and boroughs, on the third Friday of September next, at the places where they hold their elections for supervisors, town council, and constables are by law held and conducted.'
" Now, therefore, I, William Clark, High Sheriff of the county of Jefferson, in pursuance of the duty enjoined on me by the above recited act, do issue this, my proclamation, giving notice to the citizens of said county, qualified as aforesaid, that an election will be held on the third Friday of September next, to choose six citizens residing therein, to serve as school directors of said districts respectively.
" The electors of the borough of Brookville are to meet at the Court- House in said borough.
" The electors of Rose township are to meet at John Lucas'.
" The electors of the township of Pine Creek are to meet at Joseph Barnett's.
" The electors of Barnett township are to meet at the house of Wil- liam Armstrong.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
" The electors of Perry township are to meet at the house of Chris- topher Heterick.
" The electors of Young township are to meet in Punxsutawney.
" The electors of Ridgeway township are to meet at the house of James Gallagher.
" Given under my hand at Brookville, this fifth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, and of the independence of the United States the fifty-eighth.
" WILLIAM CLARK, " Sheriff.
" SHERIFF'S OFFICE, August 5, 1834."
PIONEER SCHOOL DIRECTORS IN THE COUNTY.
Those elected under this proclamation and the law of 1834 were:
Rose township and Brookville borough-Alexander McKnight, James Green, James Linn, Robert Andrews, Irwin Robinson, Darius Carrier.
Barnett township-Cyrus Blood, William Armstrong, Edwin For- sythe, Trumble Hunt, Alexander Murray, John Hunt.
Pine Creek township-David Butler, John Lattimer, Andrew Barnett, William Cooper, Samuel Jones.
Young township-John W. Jenks, William Campbell, Jos. Winslow.
Perry township-John Philliber, William Postlethwait, Martin Shoff, Esq., William Marshall, Andrew Gibson, David Lewis.
Ridgeway township-L. Wilmarth, James Gallagher, J. L. Gillis.
As soon as these proclamations were made by the sheriff the liveliest discussion took place for and against the system. The majority of the citizens in most of the counties were against it. It was not so, however, in Jefferson, six of the districts adopting it. Nearly half of the nine hundred and eighty-seven districts in the State rejected it. Families quarrelled over and about it. In some districts a free-school man was ostracized. Life-long enmities were engendered. Several religious de- nominations placed themselves against this law,-Catholics, Episco- palians, Mennonites, Friends, and Lutherans. These were not opposed to education, but they believed in religious instruction and secular edu- cation, and that the two should go hand in hand, as their fathers had it. The Germans opposed it on account of a change in language. But the ignorant, the penurious, and the narrow-minded fought against it most bitterly, on account of supposed increased taxation. James Findlay was the pioneer superintendent of common schools.
The school question entered into the nomination and election of members for the session of 1834-35, and perhaps a majority of those elected were anti-school. But Governor Wolf and friends of the com- mon school were undismayed, bold, and able, and braved the tempest of that session. Competent judges who witnessed that struggle in the
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
Legislature agree that had it not been for Thaddeus Stevens, a young member from Adams County, the law of 1834 would have been repealed, or only saved by a veto from the governor. This session ended the last bitter and great fight in the State and Legislature for common schools.
Thaddeus Stevens.
The ablest and most determined leaders of the anti-school were William Hopkins, of Washington County, and Henry W. Conrad, of Schuylkill.
Children as late as 1842 were admitted to the schools at the age of four years.
APPOINTMENT OF SCHOOL INSPECTORS UNDER THE LAW OF 1834.
"SECTION 12. The several courts of quarter sessions of this Common- wealth shall annually, at their first session, after the election of school directors, within their respective counties or divisions, appoint two com- petent citizens of each school district to be inspectors of the public school therein, established by this act, who shall be exempt during the perform- ance of the duties of their said office from militia duty, and from serving in any township or borough office.
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