History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 28

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790

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There were, besides Mr. Elliott's and the last- mentioned school, various other subscription schools, which were well patronized, prior to and after the establishment of the common school

# Mrs. Watson.

19.03. Heiner

DANIEL BRODHEAD HEINER.

Daniel Brodhead Heiner, whose portrait appears above, was born in Milford, Pike county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th day of September, 1807. When but a few years old his father, John Heiner, removed to western Pennsyl- vania, locating temporarily in Indiana, Pennsylvania. His object was to take possession of and look after a large tract of land bequeathed to him by his grandfather, Gen. Daniel Brodhead. At the breaking out of the war of 1812 John Heiner returned east with his family, to Charlestown, Virginia, the home of his wife's family, with whom he left his wife and children, and entered the army as a captain of volunteers and served with dis- tinction through that war. At its conclusion he removed with his family again to western Pennsylvania, locating at Kittanning, in which vicinity were many of the Brod- head lands. Daniel B. Heiner, the subject of this biography, lived till the date of his death in Kittanning. He grew up with the town. He engaged in early life in the mercantile business with Thomas McConnell, under the firm name of Heiner & McConnell. Later in life he entered the mercantile business with John Mechling, under the firm name of Heiner & Mechling. He served in Kittanning as justice of the peace for a period of twenty years consecutively.

Mr. Heiner was a man of unswerving principles. He was one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal church at Kittanning, and for nearly fifty consecutive years a member of the official board of the church. He inherited his Methodism from his mother, she having been a member of that church for sixty years at her death, and her father before her, Peter Haines, of Vir- ginia, was a Methodist, making a continuous succession from the very advent of John Wesley to the present day. Peter Haines, of Virginia, the grandparent of D. B. Hei- ner, was a soldier of the revolutionary war. One of the marked features of his life was a deep-seated hatred for

Hessians because they fought against our liberties for pay alone. After the war of the revolution if ever one spoke in his presence he never failed to strike him with his cane, regardless of consequences. Mr. Heiner was a cousin of the Hon. Richard Brodhead, United States senator, from Pennsylvania, from 1849 to 1855, who was married to the daughter of Jefferson Davis, afterward president of the Southern confederacy. Mr. Heiner had numerous relatives in Virginia, on his mother's side, who held commissions in the southern army, yet so true was his loyalty that he was never known to express even the slightest sympathy for them in their rebellious cause ..

Daniel B. Heiner was the only male lineal descendant of Gen. Daniel Brodhead, from whom he inherited a membership to the society of the Cincinnati, a distin- guished hereditary title of honor. This membership now descends to his oldest son, Capt. Robert G. Heiner, United States army, by right of primogeniture, with the certificate of membership signed hy Gens. Washington and Knox. He leaves behind him four sons and five daughters. Capt. R. G. Heiner, Ist U. S. Inf .; John H. Heiner, who served in the Union army throughout the late war of the rebellion in the 8th regt. Pa. Reserves ; Hon. W. G. Heiner and D. B. Heiner, Esq., of Kittanning, Pennsylvania ; Mary L. Heiner ; Sarah Heiner Core, wife of the Rev. J. F. Core; Margret I. Heiner ; Annie Heiner Burleigh, wife of Capt. T. B. Burleigh, of Dakota, and Lydia Heiner Trippe, wife of Lieut. Percy-Edwards Trippe, of the 10th U. S. Cav. Mr. Heiner died December 29, 1882, in his seventy-sixth year. He was a man of irreproacha- ble morals, a christian of the most exemplary type, and in every relation of his public and private life a man of un- blemished reputation. Seldom do we find a life so blame- less and so full of the graceful amenities of christian tenderness and social benignity. In the example of an upright and patriotic citizen, a kind and tender parent, and a consistent christian deportment, he left a legacy of priceless inheritance.

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THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING.

system. One of them was kept in a brick school- house on the upper part of lot No. 149, now owned by H. N: Lee, on the public alley parallel to and between Market and Jacob streets. One of the walls fell in one day soon after school was dis- missed at noon, when fortunately neither teacher nor scholars were there to be injured. The mason who built it on being told by certain quizzers that he had put too much lime in his mortar innocently replied, "No, no, it was more than half sand." The teacher of that school was a Mr. Jones, who was addicted to flagellating his larger pupils with great severity. One of them says Jones used to box his ears, and tell him he "would yet be gov- ernor of Pennsylvania," in consequence of which the other boys, for the purpose of aggravating him, called him "Governor," at which he became indignant and threatened vengeance on his tor- mentors. Teacher Jones refused to treat his scholars one Christmas day, for which they barred him out for three days, receiving food and encour- agement from his wife. After a long and vigorous attempt of Teacher Jones to gain an entrance into his schoolroom, he became hors de combat by an accidental fall which injured his back. Thus the boys became victors.

At a later period, two other subscription schools were in operation at the same time. One of them was taught by David Simpson in a frame building, recently torn down, near the stone house on Jacob street. The other was tanght by Dr. Meeker in the building on lot No. 193, on Water street, now occu- pied by Mr. Bowman. A rivalry in muscular scholar- ship existed between the male pupils of these two schools. The boys of the Meeker school, by boast- ing of their courage and strength, and frequently taunting the boys of the Simpson school, provoked the latter to take up stones and other weapons to which juveniles resort to when incited to combat. Thus armed, and with their banner waving o'er them-they had been presented with a flag-the boys of the Simpson school marched in serried line upon their boastful rivals, who were also arrayed and armed for the shock of battle. The contest was short and decisive. It resulted, says an eye-witness, in the boys of the Meeker school being driven to the wall, or rather within the walls of their own schoolroom. Then followed a conference between the teachers, which suddenly ended when the casus belli was disclosed to the teacher of the van- quished.

About 1830-31 a one-story brick schoolhouse was erected by the late Samuel Houston on lot No. 176, on the west side of Jefferson, below Jacob street, on account of dissatisfaction with the management

of school matters in the Academy, in which a well-patronized school was taught for several years by the late Thomas Cunningham, who was after- ward a member of the bar of Beaver county, Penn- sylvania, and an incumbent of a judicial position in Kansas. llis successor in that school was Jonathan E. Meredith, who taught it several months. January 20, 1836, George Fidler issued his notice in the Kittanning Gazette, then edited and published by Josiah Copley for the estate of Simon Torney, deceased, southwest corner of Mar- ket and McKean streets, informing the people of Kittanning that he was abont to open "a school for instruction in the usual branches, in Mr. Hous- ton's schoolhouse on Jefferson street."

Other private pay-schools were, at various times, liberally supported.

The free-school system was inaugurated by the act of April 1, 1834. In pursuance thereof, the then sheriff of this county, Chambers Orr, de- ceased, issued his proclamation, dated August 6, 1834, for the election, to be held on the third Friday of September of that year, of six school directors in each township and borough in the county-if a borongh connected with a township for the assessment of county rates and levies, it and such township formed one school district. The candidates for the first board of school di- rectors, under that law, for the borough and town- ship of Kittanning, announced in the Gazette and Columbian, Wednesday, September 3, 1834, were Frederick Rohrer, Samuel McKee, Findley Patter- son, John R. Johnston, Joseph M. Jordan and Richard Graham.

The first free schoolhouse in the borough of Kittanning was built on the upper part of lot No. 173, on the south side of Jacob street. It was a one-story frame building, fifty-five by twenty-four feet ; hight of ceiling, eight feet ; and contained two rooms, heated by stoves. In the course of time-several years-the increased number of pupils required additional room. That building was enlarged by adding a story built of brick, nine and one-half feet high, lower down toward MeKean street, and removing the frame house, which was on higher ground, on to it, thus making a two- story school-house with four rooms, which an- swered the public wants for a few years. During the last several years of its occupancy for school purposes, its capacity was not adequate to the health and comfort of the largely increased num- ber of scholars. In 1842-3, Judge Boggs taught in that building for fifteen months. Educational interests and public sentiment demanded a more capacious, comely and comfortable temple of

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

knowledge, to be located on higher and better ground. The board of school directors were will- ing and anxious to meet that demand. The chief obstacle in the way for several years was their in- ability to obtain a lot of sufficient size and suitable location at a reasonable price, for such an edifice as the educational wants of this borough required, until the purchase of an acre of ground, with gravelly soil, a gradual northwesterly slope, con- sisting of lots Nos. 37, 43, 49 and 55, bounded by McKean and Vine streets and two of the public alleys, was made by the school directors from Gen. Orr, for the reasonable sum of $3,500, in 1867-8, the deed for which is dated February 28, 1871.

The contract for building the new or present school edifice was made between the school board and James McCullough, Jr., in April, 1868. The building was finished in December following, and accepted by the school board January 1, 1869. It "is a substantial brick building, eighty-two feet and two inches by sixty-two feet and two inches, three stories. Hight of ceiling in the first and second stories, thirteen feet, and seventeen feet in the third story. The roof is hipped, in the center of which is the belfry, in which is suspended a bell of adequate size and clear, pleasant tone. The cost of that edifice, substantial outbuildings, 264 feet of stone wall in the rear, cherry desks and seats and other furniture, maps, apparatus, bell, lightning- rods, grading, paving walks, iron picket fence, shade trees and their boxes, is about $26,200, add- ing to which the cost of the grounds, $29,700.

The basement of the school edifice is divided into four rooms, each 34 by 28 feet, ceiling eight feet, and arranged for the introduction of furnaces for heating the entire building. Two of the four schoolrooms in the first story are each 34 by 28 feet, and the other two 34 by 24 feet. There is the same number of rooms of the same dimensions in the second story, and one, 34 by 28 feet, parti- tioned off in the northwest corner of the third story. The present number of schoolrooms, then, is nine. The third story was originally designed for a hall for exhibitions and other public exercises. It will probably be necessary to still further divide it into three more schoolrooms. The present means of heating the several rooms is by stoves, and the fuel is bituminous coal. There are five windows in each room, and sixty-five in the entire building.

The width of the main halls in the first and second stories is twelve feet, which are intersected on their southwestern sides by side halls eight feet wide. The width of the stairs in the main halls is six feet, and in the side halls eight feet. The number of steps to the third floor is forty-seven.

The average surface of blackboard in each room is 166 square feet, and the total surface in the building is 1500 square feet.

The school is graded. The number of grades is eight. The corps of teachers consists of a princi- pal or superintendent, who is a gentleman of learn- ing, skill and experience, and eight competent and faithful female assistants. Each grade is under the special charge of one of those assistants. Those grades are divided into three departments. The last monthly report for the school year, ending in June last, showed the attendance to be: in primary department, 259, and the average, 219; in the secondary department, 73, and average, 65; in the grammar department, 73, and average, 64. In all departments: total attendance, 405, average attend- ance, 348. All the common and several of the higher English branches and the Latin language are taught.

The uninviting and uncomfortable condition of the old schoolhouse begat an unwillingness on the part of many of the pupils to attend school. Tru- ancy became quite a common offense. Corporal punishment did not prove effective in checking it. The board of school directors found it necessary to adopt a rule requiring every scholar who was absent a certain number of times without written excuses to be suspended-to be sent home with his books. Parents, at first, before they understood the reason and necessity of the rule, were sorely displeased that their children should be suspended, but when informed why it was adopted, and that those who had been suspended could be readmitted by obtaining a permit from the president or secre- tary of the school board, approved. of it and prom- ised that they would co-operate with the directors and teachers in securing punctual and regular attendance. The vice of truancy was nearly eradi- cated by thus bringing it to the knowledge of parents. The comforts, conveniences, equipments and attractions of the new schoolhouse and the improved methods of teaching which have been adopted have wrought a favorable change in the inclinations of pupils in this respect.

ACADEMY.

An act of assembly, approved April 2, 1821, pro- vided for and authorized the establishment of an academy or public school for the education of youth in the English and other languages, in the useful arts, sciences and literature, by the name, style and title of " the Kittanning Academy," un- der the direction and government of six trustees, viz. : Thomas Hamilton, James Monteith, Robert Robinson, Samuel Matthews, David Reynolds and

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THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING.

Samuel S. Harrison. They and their successors were thereby declared to be one body politic and corporate in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of "the Trustees of the Kittanning Academy," and they were to be so changed that none of them should remain trustees longer than three years without being re-elected by the citi- zens of this county. Their first meeting was to be on the first Tuesday of September, 1821, at which they, or a quorum of them-not less than four-were required to cast lots for ascertaining the numbers to be changed, each year, until the whole number should be changed. Any vacancies thus occurring were to be filled by the citizens of the county electing two trustees at the general election on the second Tuesday of October, 1822, and annually thereafter, and in case a vacancy or vacancies should occur by resignation, death, or otherwise, the remaining trustees should fill the same by appointment, until the next general elec- tion. That corporation was to have perpetual succession, and was authorized to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, to erect such buildings as might be necessary, accept and dis- pose of personal and real property, and do all and singular the matters and things which should be lawful for them to do for the well-being of the academy, provided, that the yearly valne or income of the estates or money should not exceed four thousand dollars.

That act or charter, authorized the appropriation of two thousand dollars out of any unappropriated money in the treasury of the commonwealth, to be applied under the direction of the trustees, viz. : One thousand dollars to the erection of a building or buildings, suitable for the accommodation of the institution, on such lot as might be chosen or pur- chased for that purpose, and to the purchasing of books, mathematical instruments, and the neces- sary philosophical apparatus ; the remaining thousand dollars was to be placed in some safe and productive fund or funds, and the income to be forever applied, in aid of other revenues, to compensate a teacher or teachers in said academy. The trustees were required to give bond to the Governor in the sum of three thousand dollars, for the use of the commonwealth, conditioned for the faithful application of the money thus appropri- ated to the purposes mentioned, and leave was given them to cause to be erected academy build- ing or buildings on any of the lots reserved for the use of the public buildings in the town-as it was then called- of Kittanning, if they should ap- prove of the situation and judge the same to be expedient. That act or charter also requires the

trustees to exhibit annually all their books, ac- counts, and vouchers to the county auditors, to be settled and adjusted in the same manner as the accounts of the county commissioners, under the penalty of forty dollars each for neglecting so to do.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

The first meeting of the trustees was held on Tues- day, September 4, 1821, at the house of David Reynolds. Present : Samuel S. Harrison, Samuel Matthews, David Reynolds and Thomas Hamilton. Being a quorum for the transaction of business as provided in the charter, they cast lots for determin- ing the length of the term of service of each mem- ber of the board, which was determined by ballot thus : Samuel Matthews and David Reynolds were to serve until October, 1822 ; Samuel S. Harrison and Robert Robinson until October, 1823; Thomas Hamilton and James Monteith until October, 1824. Rev. John Dickey and Eben S. Kelly were elected in October, 1822, and Thomas Blair and Frederick Rohrer in October, 1823.

The minutes do not show that any meeting of the board was held after the first one, September 4, 1821, until Friday, April 2, 1824. Then present : Thomas Hamilton, James Monteith, Rev. John Dickey, Eben S. Kelly, Thos. Blair and Frederick Rohrer. It does not appear from the minutes that any business was then transacted. Another meet- ing was, however, held the same day, at which all the members, except Mr. Dickey, were present, when Mr. Kelly's resignation was tendered and accepted and David Reynolds appointed ; also Mr. Hamilton's and Samuel S. Harrison appointed ; and Mr. Monteith's and Alexander Colwell appointed. At another meeting, held on the evening of that day, Samuel S. Harrison was elected president and James Pinks treasurer of the board, and it was resolved that the trustees execute the bond required by the charter, which was done on the next day. The bond was soon after forwarded to the treasurer of the commonwealth, but was returned, May 4, with the governor's objections. On or about the 10th of that month another bond avoiding those objections was executed and forwarded to the state treasurer.

On September 25, 1824, an agreement was entered into between the board and Samuel Matthews for erecting the academy building for the sum of $1,130, and an order for $500 was then directed to be issued in favor of the contractor or builder. On January 15, 1825, the trustees examined the ground on which to erect the academy and selected the one-half acre-as the minutes of the board show- " on the northeast end of the publie lot," on which

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

the first court-house was sitnated. Those minutes do not show that the trustees subsequently changed the location for the academy from the " northeast " to the southwest end of that public lot where, front- ing on Jefferson street, and nearly opposite what is now the Walker House and William Gates' store, that academy edifice was erected. The question of employing a teacher seems to have been first con- sidered by the board March 27, 1826, when it was unanimously resolved that it was inexpedient to employ a teacher until the academy building should be taken off the hands of the contractor, which was not done until February 17, 1827, when, or about that time, a contract was made with Charles G. Snowden to commence teaching on the first day of April then next, or sooner, whose compensation was to be $15, quarterly, ont of the public money in addition to private subscriptions. The board was not to be liable for the latter. The number of students was limited to thirty-five and the rates of tuition were fixed at $2 per quarter for reading, writing and arithmetic, $3 for English grammar and geography, and $+ for languages, mathematics, etc. The second story of the academy building was not finished until the summer of 1834. On September 2 of that year the board resolved that the upper story should be occupied exclusively for the schoolroom and for no other purpose, and the lower story for general purposes. Provision was made by the board, March 17, 1842, for erecting-a. paling fence in front of the academy and a cupola over the bell. In that condition, with occasional repairs, that building continued to be used, the upper story for school purposes and religious and some secular meetings, and the lower story as family residences, until the spring of 1864, when the First Christian Church, on Jacob street, was rented for academy purposes from Samnel Owens and J. E. Meredith at $60 per annum.

To understand why that change as to the build- ing was made, it is necessary to go back several years in the chronological order of events. The trustees, it will be remembered, had in the charter a legislative permission to erect the academy on one of the lots reserved when the town was laid out for public uses, of which they availed them- selves without acquiring a grant or title from the county. In 1855-6 the trustees of the academy and the school directors of the common school district wished to unite the academy and free school into one institution, in which, besides the common school grades, there should be an academic department and a normal school department-the latter to afford facilities for the proper training of common school teachers in this county. In order

to consummate such a plan, the trustees of the academy realized the necessity of obtaining a deed of conveyance of the ground on which the academy building was erected and the adjoining ground which had been used as belonging to the academy. The minutes of the board of Monday evening, March 10, 1856, show that a resolution, offered by Jeremiah Heighhold, was passed, directing the writer of this sketch "to confer with the county commissioners in reference to calling a county meeting to take into consideration the expediency of the commissioners executing to the trustees of the academy a deed or quit-claim of the ground on which the academy building stands." The commissioners, it should have been stated, were willing to convey to the trustees, provided their conveyance should be approved by a meeting of the citizens of the county. That meeting was not called, because the trustees apprehended that not to be an opportune time to secure an attendance from all parts of the county, and that a large attendance from and about those points in this county where vigorous efforts were then being made, and consid- erable sums of money had been subscribed to establish normal schools, would be large enough to defeat an expression favorable to the approval of such a conveyance. Two other conferences -the first by two and the last by all the members of the board - were subsequently directed to be had with the county commissioners in reference to the same matter. Whether the Kittanning academy had not acquired by legislative grant and occu- pancy a valid title to that portion of the half acre selected by the trustees as before stated, which the county commissioners had sold in several lots, agitated the minds of some of the trustees, and there was more or less talk by them, at several meetings of the board, of instituting proceedings to try that title, which was not favored by those members who were of opinion that the purchasers of those lots had acquired good titles thereto. At a meeting of the board, held August 24, 1858, at which a bare quorum was present, a resolution was passed, directing that "a writ of ejectment be brought immediately for the academy property against all persons in possession," i.e. in possession of the several lots which the commissioners had sold to Judge Buffington, J. E. Brown and others. Suit was accordingly brought, tried in the court of common pleas of this county, and a verdict and judgment rendered in favor of the defendants. The case was removed by the plaintiff, or the acad- emy, to the supreme court, where the judgment of the court below was affirmed at October term, 1861. It is reported in 5 Wright, pp. 270-71.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 28

Author: Smith, Robert Walter Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins Number of Pages: 790

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790