USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 26
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read and write 6s by ye Quarter, to learne to read and cast accot 8s by ye Quarter; for Boarding a Scholar, that is to say, dyet, Wash- ing, Lodging and Schooling, Tenn pounds for one whole year."
It should be borne in mind that this action was taken before Pennsylvania was in reality a year old, while the conies still bur- rowed unscared in the river bank, and the virgin forest encumbered the soil where is now the great city. The frame of government adopted provided that " the Legislature shall as soon as may be con- venient, provide for the establishment of schools, in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis." Among the most wise and sententious sayings of Penn was this, "That which makes a good constitution must keep it, viz .: men of wisdom and virtue; qualities that, because they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtuons education of youth." The Society of Friends established a school in Philadelphia in 1689. That was as soon as children born in the new city were old enough to go to school. Franklin, who had become a well-settled adopted citizen, and an acknowledged leader in every enterprise intended to build up the city, encourage progress, and diffuse intelligence, in 1749, with others, applied for and secured a charter for a "College, Academy and Charity school of Philadelphia." This was the beginning of an awakening throughout the State upon the subject of higher education, and for the next half century the enterprise and skill of the people seem to have been directed to the founding and building up of col- leges. The University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, was char- tered in 1753; Dickinson College, at Carlisle, in 1783; Franklin and Marshall College, at Lancaster, in 1787; Jefferson College, at Can- nonsburg, in 1802, and Alleghany College, at Meadville, in 1815. This provision reasonably well accommodated all sections of the vast territory of the Commonwealth. For the support of these institutions the colonial assemblies, and subsequently the legislatures, made large grants of lands, and revenues accruing from public domain.
Commencing near the beginning of the present century and con- tinning for a period of over thirty years, great activity was shown in establishing county academies. The purpose of these academies was to furnish a school of a higher order than the ordinary common school, where reading, writing and arithmetic were alone taught, in order that a fair English and classical education could be obtained without trenching upon the ground occupied by the colleges. They were, on the other hand, regarded as schools preparatory to the col- lege. During this period charters were obtained for academies in forty-one counties, viz .: Armstrong, Beaver, Bradford, Bucks, But- ler, Cambria, Center, Chester, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Erie, Franklin, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Mckean, Monroe,
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Mifflin, Montgomery, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Potter, Schuyl- kill, Somerset, Tioga, Union, Venango, Warren, Wayne, Westmore- land and York.
It will be seen that Greene is one of the counties thus provided for. The State granted charters and money in sums varying from two to six thousand dollars for the purpose of building structures at the county seats suitable for the proposed grade of schools, and in some instances extensive land grants were secured. The affairs of these academies were managed by a board of trustees, elected, as were the other county officers, and teachers were employed as they could be in- duced to teach for such compension as they could derive from the tuition of their pupils, the invested funds yielding little more than enough to keep the buildings and premises in repair.
Up to this time, a period of a hundred and twenty-five years, little attention had been given to the liberal views of the founder to make provision for "the education of the poor gratis," which he had inserted in the original draft of the organic law. As a conse- quence it will be found, by reference to the books in the registers offices throughout the several counties of the Commonwealth, that a large proportion of the men, as well as women, affixed their signa- . tures to conveyances by a mark.
There were many causes why the common school idea of the State making public provision for the reasonable education of every child within its broad domain, free of any expense to the child, or its parents or guardians, unless they have property on which taxes are levied as for other purposes, was slow in taking root. The popula- tion was so sparse that in many sections it was impossible to bring enough children together to form a school. Diversity of origin and language operated as a strong impediment, as many persisted in speaking their native tongue and in having their children taught the language of the fatherland. Antagonisms of religious sects, and the prejudice in favor of having children taught exclusively in schools of their own religious denominations, operated as one of the most in- surmountable barriers, even after the common school system had be- come firmly established.
By an act of the Legislature of April 4, 1809, provision was made for the education of the "poor gratis." The assessors in their rounds were required to enroll the names of children of indigent par- ents, and they were to be sent to the nearest or most convenient school, and the tuition paid from the county treasury. This enact- ment proceeded upon the supposition that schools were in existence, established by the voluntary contributions of neighborhoods, to which the indigent could be sent. This was really the case in many sec- tions of the State. This system was continued for a period of about a quarter of a century, and the treasurers' books in the several
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counties show considerable sums paid for tuition in this way. But the natural pride of a free-born American citizen, rebelled at hav- ing his name inscribed on the books of the county as a pauper, too indigent to pay for the schooling of his children, and probably a large proportion of those who were most deserving of help were the ones who scorned to receive it in that way. In a burst of impassioned eloquence, Thaddeus Stevens, in his great speech in favor of a general school law, made on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1834, declared that such a law as that, instead of being called a public school law, ought to be entitled "an uct for branding and marking the poor, so that they may be known from the rich and proud."
But this system subserved a purpose, while the country was filling up with population, and the dense forests were being cleared away, and the wild beast subdued. It served to keep before the people that there was such a boon as public school education. The Governors of the Commonwealth had frequently, during the period that the system of educating the poor gratis was in force, from 1809 to '34, called the attention of the Legislature to the necessity of a more efficient system. Finally, at the session 1834, the struggle came. It is well understood how natural it is for men to cling to established methods, and hence we can well comprehend how a radically new system would provoke fierce opposition. The new act was prepared by Samuel Brock, a member from Philadelphia, was passed through both branches without serious opposition, and was signed by that sturdy patriot, Governor Wolf.
But the law, though in the main just, proved in practice crude, and unwieldy, and when Legislature assembled at the session of 1835, the mutterings of discontent were heard on every hand. Thealmost universal sentiment seemed to be in favor of repcal, and of going back to the poor gratis of 1809. It required the most adroit appli- cation of parliamentary rules and strategy of the friends of a common school system to ensure non-action for one year more, when it was proposed that a new bill, more simple and easily operated, should be prepared.
Accordingly, at the session of 1836, the final struggle was to come. Dr. George Smith, a member of the State Senate, from Del- aware, drew an entirely new bill, more simple and better adapted to the wants of the people in all their varied circumstances, and pre- sented it. So great was the antagonism engendered by the law of '34, that it was with the utmost difficulty that the great body of the members could be induced to listen to the provisions of a common school law; but through the firmness and resolution of Governors Wolf and Ritner, and the sturdy virtue and powerful appeals of such men as Stevens, and Bræck, and Smith and Burrowes, the public school system, free alike to riel and poor, to high and low, was firmly 15
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established, and from that day to this has been increasing in power and perfection. To secure its passage it was necessary to adopt the principle of local option. It was left to a vote of the people of the several townships to decide whether they would accept the provisions of the law or not. But this did not injure the efficiency of the system where accepted, and it went rapidly into operation, until finally every vestige of opposition disappeared, and it has steadily grown in favor.
In order to explain the provisions of the new system and in- troduce it to the people of the State, Dr. Thomas H. Burrowes, then Secretary of State, and Ex officio Superintendent of common schools, made a tour of the Commonwealth delivering addresses at the conn- ty seats to large assemblies of the people, and commending and en- forcing the desirable features of the system and answering objections that were brought against it. This official intercourse had an ex- cellent effect, and caused a more hearty attempt on the part of its friends to establish and improve the schools.
The feature of the law, which allowed the people to decide by pop- ular vote whether they would accept the provisions of the law or reject, while it gave an opportunity to prevent its adoption at once and thus to retard the progress of the system, doubtless proved its salvation. For, while the opponents realized that they had the power, if they were in the majority, of rejecting the system, they were at the same time made to feel that in rejecting it they were assuming a fearful responsibility, and cansed them to reflect that they might be guilty of an act that would one day return to plagne the inventors.
Secretary Burrowes, in his first annual report, and indeed the first common school report ever made in this Commonwealth, read before the House of Representatives on the 18th of February, 1837, in commenting on this phase of the law says, "We enconnter results directly opposed to those which the same facts under ordinary circum- stances, would produce. Connties among the most intelligent enter- prising and devoted to the general interests of education are found to be among the most hostile to the system. Others which from their wealth, density of population, and moral character, might be sup- posed peculiarly adapted to its beneficial action, are scarcely less averse than the class just named. On the other hand, as he advances from the older counties, with a population somewhat of a homogeneous character, he finds the system increase in favor among the new and mixed people of the West and Sonthiwest, while it is unanimously accepted by the recent and thinly inhabited settlements of the whole North."
By reference to the tables of the secretary it will be seen that Greene was one of the counties which was at the first slow in adopt- ing the system. Under the head of amount of tax voted at the meet- ing held for Greene County on the 2d of May, 1836, the sum is
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given as $2,315.17. In a comparative statement showing the rela- tive standing of the schools of the county for three years the follow- ing is the showing for Greene: Whole number of school districts 14; for the year 1834 no return. For 1835 one accepting district, five non-accepting, and eight not represented. For 1836 ten accept- ing, none non-accepting and four not represented. When it is con- sidered that for the first few years all the resources were required for getting suitable school rooms in which to hold schools, and con- sequently very little advantage would be obtained by way of in- struction, this showing is highly creditable.
In the table for 1837 Greene County has the following school districts entered, Cumberland, Franklin, Jefferson, Marion, Morgan, Morris, Monongahela, and Richhill. Of these Franklin is credited with 35 males and 15 females; schools kept open for two months, as paying $20 a month to inale teachers, and the character and qualifi- cation of teachers as "Good." Jefferson is credited with 6 schools, 6 male teachers, 200 male pupils, and 218 female, as paying $20 a month for male teachers; four teachers qualified to teach reading, writing and arithmetic, and two grammar, geography and mathe- matics. Marion is credited with three schools, two male and one female teacher, 60 male pupils and 53 female pupils, schools kept open three months; paying male teachers $20 a month and females · $10; qualification of teachers, "Equal to teachers of English schools generally." Morgan is credited with four schools, 4 male teachers, 110 male pupils, 55 females; schools open 3 months; male teachers $20 a month, females $10. Monongahela is credited with 4 schools, 3 male teachers, 1 female, 75 male pupils, 50 females, salaries of male teachers $16.50, females $13. "Character good, qualification various." Reading, writing and arithmetic taught. Richhill schools " not yet in operation."
In commenting upon the lessons to be gathered from a view of the tables presented in his report, Dr. Burrowes observes, " In other States, having one language, one people, one origin, and one soil, a system suited to one district, satifies the whole. Not so here. No project, however wisely planned, or systematically adapted, can be pronounced sufficient till approved by the test of experience. Hence, it becomes the policy-nay it is the duty of the Legislature, neither on the one hand, unduly to press any part of the design, no matter how theoretically beautiful it may appear, if it have been con- demned in practice, nor on the other, ever to relinquish a point once gained in favor of the system however it may fall short of previous calculation. It is only by resting on and starting from such mutu- ally admitted points, that success can at all be achieved in any great enterprise."
In the first half dozen counties immediately about Philadelphia
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were assembled the great body of the Society of Friends, followers of the great founder of the Commonwealth. To provide for the edu- cation of their children, as well as to make provision for their poor, is a part of the religious faith of these people. " IIence," proceeds the report, " in every one of these counties the common school sys- tem has not proved acceptable for the plain reason that a system of society schools is already in active operation. For this reason also, and in the abstract it is difficult to gainsay it, their citizens say that no new system is required by a community, who are already in pos- session of one sufficient for all their wants. This disposition is par- ticipated in by their immediate fellow-citizens, not members of the society, because they, to a certain extent, also receive the benefits of the society schools."
It was not objected that schools and school property already in existence should be absorbed by the common school system. Indeed Secretary Burrowes laid down in his report the following principles. " In its effects the system should be made, 1. To supply common schools, where no system was before in operation. 2. To improve and make common the defective primary schools that pre- ceded it, and 3, To aid with its funds and render common the good schools which it encounters. In a word its duty is to build com- mnon schools where there are none, and to open the doors of the schools already built." In some localities in Greene County at this time the inhabitants of a neighborhood had united in building a school-house, or in fitting up a room in some private dwelling, where schools had been supported by the voluntary contributions of the patrons. These were generally turned over to the management and support of the legally constituted directors under the common school law, and the immediate expense of securing school property was avoided; but in most portions of the county provision had to be made for setting up schools de novo. Of course the expense of either building school-houses, or of renting rooms was quite sorely felt, as the State gave nothing for buildings, and consequently there was less fund left for instruction. But when the system once got in operation the burden of building was relieved, and the ordi- nary workings of the system moved on in something like regular order. After classifying the several counties of the State according to the peculiar circumstances in which they stood related to the sys- tem, and explaining the canses which led to the results shown by the reports, the Secretary proceeds in this his first common school re- port to sum up the results as follows: 1st. " We now have a system -an admitted, permanent, and well understood starting point. To have attained this is a great advance to success. 2d. We have now a class of men set apart to watch over the canse of education in
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every neighborhood-six school directors. They may not yet be qualified for the trust, but they will be."
It may seem strange to us, who see the matter of common school education throughout the broad commonwealth regarded as a neces- sity, and as much an element to be enjoyed as the air we breathe, the vapor of the clouds and the ceaseless flow of water in the streams, that there should ever have been a time when any fear should have been entertained lest the system should be abandoned, or such legis- lation should be adopted as would greatly cripple or destroy its use- fulness. Yet there was scarcely a moment during the early years of the existence of the system when its friends did not entertain the deepest solicitude for its safety.
Superintendent Burrowes in opening his report for 1838 says: "It is true the system is neither in full operation, nor its machinery perfect. But the momentous question, .Can education be made as general and as unbought as liberty?' has been determined in the af- firmative by the intelligence of Pennsylvania." The occasion of his speaking thus exultingly was an event which he sets forth in these words: " The whole commonwealth is divided into one thousand common school districts. Of these about seven hundred had the system in operation, previous to the first Tuesday of May, 1837, when its continuance or rejection was to be decided by a direct vote of the people. On the day which was thus to determine the fate of the system, so far as information has been received [and it has been carefully sought for], not a single district declared against the cause of free education. All stood firm. And during the same sea- son sixty-five additional districts for the first time came out for the system. Thus the momentous question was forever settled, and at a time, and under circumstances too, the most unpropitious for such a result. The common school system had been in existence for three years, but really had been in operation in a majority of accepting districts, only as a system of taxation, and not of instruction. Its funds from the State were small, and, whether from the State or taxation, were necessarily devoted for the first years to the procur- ing of school houses. Thus little or nothing was left for teach- ing."
Feeling now tolerably secure of his ground, and realizing full well that the system was securely established, the Secretary know- ing that public school education would not be bound and confined to the bare rudiments of reading, writing, and the casting of ac- counts, but would gradually advance in facilities until a thorough training would be afforded in its scope, proceeded to sketch the ultimate propositions which it would assume; but which it required a half century to realize.
"The question," he says, "which has been settled by the adop-
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tion of the common school system, does not merely declare that the people of Pennsylvania will have reading, writing and arithmetic taught at the cheapest possible rate, to all, in half a dozen comfort- able school houses in each township. This, to be sure, is determined, and is of itself a great deal. But greater and better things have been willed by the same vote. In the deep and broad foundations of the primary common school are also found the bases of the more elevated secondary school, the practical institute for the teacher and man of business, the academy for the classical student, the college for his instruction in the higher branches of science and literature, and the towering university, from which the richest stores of pro- fessional learning will be disseminated.
" In other ages and countries the lower orders might be confined to the rudiments of knowledge, while the higher branches were dis- peused to the privileged classes, in distant and expensive semina- ries. But here we have no lower orders. Our statesmen, and our highest magistrates, our professional men and our capitalists, our philosophers, and our poets, our merchants and our mechanics, all spring alike from the mass, and principally from the agricultural portion of the community."
In vision he contemplates the results, which he labored so earn- estly to establish, and which have actually been substantially realized. " The youth," he says, "enters the primary school at five years of age. In five seasons he is prepared to enter the secondary school. He is then ten. Four years here fits him for the practical institute. He is now fourteen, and is supposed to have hitherto sustained him- self by devoting one-third, or even one-half, of each year to the busi- ness of his parent or employer. He attends two terms at the insti- tute, occupying portions of two years, and in the interim earns enough to pay for his boarding and clothes. He is now sixteen years of age. He may next _enter the academy and pass from it to the second class in college, or if his circumstances will permit this one year spent as teacher or clerk in a store, or in the business of agriculture during the day and close study at night, provides him with means and fits him for entering college without attendance at the academy. This he does at seventeen. The same process carries him through the collegiate course, and at twenty-one he is a gradu- ate, with industry and acquirements, well calculated for the study of any profession."
For a period of fifteen years the law thus inaugurated was kept in operation with varying results, producing rich fruitage where faithfully administered. But it was found after this length of trial that there were defects in the system that needed remedy. There was no competent authority provided for ascertaining and certifying to the qualifications of teachers. The annual reports of boards of
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directors, showing the operations of the schools and the expenditure of money were not certified by a disinterested party, school vistation by an intelligent examiner was only partially done, or not at all, teachers were not assembled in convention for instruction and stimu- lation in the work of their calling. and plans for building, seating, warming, ventilating and duly providing with necessary appa- ratus, were not provided. To remedy these defects a revision of the law was commenced in 1854. by which the office of County Superin- tendent of Common Schools was engrafted upon it. This officer was charged with the duty of examining all teachers who were applicants for schools, and granting certificates setting forth the degree of com- petency of each in the several branches required to be taught, and of wholly refusing certificates to those deemed incompetent whether by lack of education or moral character. Ile was also to visit the schools as often as practicable and give such advice and instruction to teachers as seemed proper, to organize teachers' institutes for the instruction and encouragement of teachers, and by lectures and con- ferences with parents, explain the provisions of the law and remove difficulties in the way of its successful operation, to certify to the cor- rectness of the reports made by boards of directors, of the length of each school term and statistics of attendance. The making of these reports was made obligatory before the district could receive its share of the State appropriation. The school department, which had previously been an adjunct of the State department, was separated from it and made independent, with a superintendent of common schools at its head, with a deputy, and the necessary corps of clerks. A School Architecture was published by the State, and a copy deposited with each board of the school directors in the Commonwealth, illus- trated with plans of school-honses for all the different grades of schools, and provided with the necessary specifications for the builder. An act for the establishment of normal schools, and their effcient regulation was also passed, by which the State was divided into twelve normal districts in which a normal school might be set up and receive aid from the State under stipulated regulations,-ten acres of ground in one body, a hall capable of seating 1,000 persons, capacity for accommodating 300 pupils. It was also provided that cities of the requisite population should elect a superintendent, in- dependent of the county, and the attendance of teachers upon the annual county institute was made obligatory, and their pay during the time of its session was allowed by the districts employing them. Vigorous opposition was made to some of these changes, especi- ally to that providing for the election of county superintendent, chiefly on account of the expense incurred by spreading a swarm of new officials over the State, whose services, it was claimed, could be dispensed with. This opposition gradually wore away before the
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