History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 93

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

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forfeit and pay the sum of five dollars, . . . to be paid to the county treasury.

" Section II. The Assessor shall send a list of the names of the children. aforesaid to the teachers of schools within his township, whose duty it shall be to teach all such children as may come to their schools in the same manner as other children are tanght ; and each teacher shall keep a day-book, in which he shall enter the number of days each child en- titled to the provisions of this act shall be taught, and he shall also enter in said book the amount of all the stationery furnished for the use of said child, from which book he shall make ont his account against the county on vath 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 examined 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 out of any moneys in the treasury."-Act of April 4, 1809.

The schools were located and managed in the following way : The cost of building the school-house was met by voluntary contributions. Whenever a neighborhood felt the need of a school-house one was erected at some point convenient to those who contributed towards its erection. The patrons selected trusters whose duty it was to take charge of the school property and to select a teacher for the school. If the teacher chosen by the trustees could secure pupils enough to warrant him in opening the school, he wouldl do so ; if not, he would seek a school else- where. The teacher was paid by those who sent pupils to his school. The rate was two dollars per quarter, or three cents per day for each pupil. Those who could not pay received instruction at the cost of the county, according to the act of 1809. The outfit of a pupil cost about one dollar, and consisted of an English Reader or a New Testament, a Comly's or Byerly's Spelling-Book, a Pike's or Rose's Arithmetic, a sinte and pen- cil, six sheets of foolscap paper stitched together, a small ink-bottle in a broad cork stand, and a goose quill. Teachers who then taught have in- formed me that their own schools were in a miserable condition, and that to-day such schools as then existed would not be tolerated in the worst managed school district in the county. Said one of them to mne, " We had no furniture, no apparatus, no suitable text-books, no classification, -nothing. We could do but little else than mend quills and make out bills for tuition of poor children to present to the county commissioners, who docked us so unmercifully that we were forced to add a large per- centage to the correct amount so as to seeme what was justly due to us. " The schools were called "pauper schools," and were despised by the rich and shunned by the poor. The children whose schooling was paid for by county were classified as " poor scholars " or "county scholars." Thus the law created an unpleasant feeling of caste in the school and in the community. Many a parent who was unable to pay for the education of his children would keep them from school rather than say to the town- ship assessor, " put me on the poor list." Many a poor child refused to go to school because of the tannt, " Oh ! you're a county scholar." We know a respectable man, one who has filled some responsible official po- sitions, who is even to-day taunted with reminders of the fact that he received his early education at the expense of the county, in one of those " pauper schools."-Schout Reports, 1877.

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quills to make them of uniform pliability. The height of the story was seven feet. There were three smumier beans, on which split logs were laid, face down and grooved together with mortar on the upper side ; this was the loft or ceiling. The roof was made of clap-boards, caves- poles and weight-poles. There was one ledge door in the side, with wooden hinges and latch. The windows were the whole length of the side or end of the building ; they were from eight fo twelve inches high, with little posts set in nbont every foot, on which oiled paper was pasted in lieu of glass. Furniture, -writing-boards were laid on slanting wooden pegs even with the under edge of windows; a hewed slab bench (no back} of suitable height for the writers ; lower slab seats, withont backs, for the spellers and readers ; a short slanting board in one corner, near the end of the hearth, was the teacher's desk. Such was the house and such the furniture. The houses, for many years, were so little different from this one that it would be useless to describe another. These prim- itive schools were also used as plares of worship. In the vicinity where any one acted as preucher, by virtue of his calling he was expected to assume the position of Schulmeister 1 over the rising generation."

1 The parochial school had opened its doors aside of and simultaneously with the gate of the church in every pioneer congregation of the Ger- manic denominations, -Reformed, Intheran, Mennonite and Schwenk- felders. For a full century, too, bad the establishment been presided over by Schulmeister and Vorsinger, who stood as pastor's adjunct in the estimation of the people. Under him the offspring of Christian families read the Psalter and Bible studied the Catechism and learned to sing the hymns and chants of the church. We may mention a Bibighans, of Old Goschenhoppen, who subsequently ascended the pulpit and died an honored minister of the Reformed Church ; a Gerhart, who stood in such a relation to New Goschenhoppen over forty years, and a Beysher, who became more closely identified with the New Goschenhoppen Lutheran congregation than perhaps any of its pastors. Alas! the parochial school gradually grew weak in consequence of the rise of "select" schools which seemed necessary from the more thickly settling of the conntry. The English language invaded the territory, too, and cansed the German to fade out, slowly, indeed, at first, but yet surely. About the year 1835, the frec-school system had been adopted over the entire dis- trict, and from, a combination of circumstances the church closed its doors.

The children and youths of the neighborhood had consequently been left without religious instruction, except such as might have been doled out in Christian families. It is not strange, then, that Pastor Daniel Weiser felt long and deeply over the necessity of gathering, Hocking and feeding the lambs of his charge. His heart yrarned for the Sunday- school which he knew to be growing within the bosom of every live congre- gation elsewhere. But a high and stubborn wall of prejudice confronted his contemplated movement. In order not to have the prospect of ulti- mately gaining his end entirely spoiled it was necessary to be "wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove." A fornightly afternoon "children's service " was accordingly introduced at New Goschenhoppen and Great Swamp during the fall of 1839. This service met a felt want and created a desire for better things.

The Sunday-school followed in the spring of 1840. The wise pastor soon rallied stalwart friends around the school, both in and out of the congregation, who gladly spoke good words and lent diligent hands But the masses " went horse and man " against the innovation. The minis- ters of neighboring churches stood aloof. Changes were sung on " Fan- atieism," "Jesuitism," " Methodism," "Stravlerei." For several years afterwards the opponents seemed never to tire singing and piping such party watchwords. Pastor Weiser was charged with being in league with the Pope, and "selling out" the offspring of Protestant parentage at ten dollars a head ! From another quarter the prophecy was uttered that the Methodists would swallow the congregation in ten years. 1 popular clergyman, now dead, declared that were it possible to erect a warning signal against Sunday-schools high enough for the masses of the whole community to discern it, he would gladly plant it. We dis- tinctly remember one pleasant Sunday afternoon merting a boy com- panion on our way to Sunday-school. We innocently invited him to accompany us. " Kt, nuy !" said he, " Ich geh net in die Kuelver Schul." It may be that the reader silently wishes we had ignored all this un- pleasantness in these pages, or at least have extennated it somewhat ; but certainly the charge of exaggeration cannot be laid at our door. We set down nanght in malice either. Our only motive in resurrecting the fierce opposition ery against the founding of Sunday-schools in this lati- tude forty years ago is to show the way over which the Christian nursery came to us, which is now regarded as an inseparable adjunct to every congregation of every denomination here, as well as elsewhere. Nor are

The branches taught were reading, spelling, pen- manship and arithmetic. There was no classification, except, perhaps, in orthography and reading, and often it was not classification as to qualification, but as to size. No matter how many were learning the alphabet, "each was in a class by himself," came up, named the letters from A to "Izzard," went to his seat, was followed by another, and so on till the last. In arithmetic there were as many classes as there were pupils studying that branch. The teacher assisted such pupils as needed help, even while a class was reciting in spell- ing or reading. Afterwards an improvement was made ou that plan, and at a certain time in the fore- noon and afternoon the teacher would pass around among the arithmeticians and solve problems for them. In a large school, with about twenty in arithmetic, each studying in a different part of the book, or in a different book, with problems pretty hard, it sometimes would take from one to two hours to get around. Of course the little fellows were busy during that time, especially when the teacher was particularly interested in some difficult problem in Pike, Gough or the Western Calculator; but woe to the unlucky fellow who was caught being busy at anything else than learning his spelling-lesson or looking steadily at his letters! If it took the teacher till noon to get through with this process the spellers and readers would get their forenoon's lesson in the afternoon, unless, perchance, there were many hard questions in the afternoon, in which case they were almost sure to get them the next day. There was no special time for any recitation except the last one in the evening, which was usually a spelling-lesson, in which the whole school took part. The Old and New Testament constituted the reading-books. Saturday was devoted to spelling, committing and reciting arithmetical tables, and reciting from the catechism ..

The teachers were usually employed by the year, salary raised by subscription of from four to six dol- lars per scholar, and generally not fewer than twenty- five scholars, the teacher " boarding round."

The following act of Assembly, approved March 19, 1810, illustrates the sense of the public mind upon the subject of educating the poorest class of persons then known among them :2

these declarations made regardless of living witnesses, who, when chal- lenged, cannot but render their testimony in confirmation, and even adopt the Queen of Sheba's words, spoken before King Solomon, that "the half has not been told."-Weiser, " Monograph of New Goschen- hoppen and Great Swamp Reformed Charge."

2 To give a satisfactory history of the condition of schools and of educa- tion generally, extending hack any considerable length of time, is a very difficult matter, for the reason that facts cannot be recalled with any degree of certainty by those who, on account of age, would be con- sidered most able to give correct information upon this subject. Then, too, school records seem not to have been preserved with proper care. The remembrance of what occurred years ago becomes confused and contradictory, as related by different individuals. In such cases it is thought best to reject everything but what is known to be substantially correct or judged so to be In 1805, or thereabouts, a certain John Bol- ton kept a school in Limerick township, in which scholars were taught

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"That all masters and mistresses of German redemptioners who are minors and who shall arrive at the Port of Philadelphia after the pas- sage of this Act, shall give to the said redemptioners six weeks' schooling for every year of his or her term of servitwle, and it shall be the duty of the Register of German passengers to insert the same fully in their indenture, "

While the fundamental law of the colony and com- monwealth contained friendly provisions looking to a general system of primary training for the youth of the State, there seems to have been a disinclination upon the part of the popular branch of the law-mak- ing power to legislate upon the subject. Sherman Day,1 writing upon this subject, says, "The number of people who could neither read nor write had increased to an alarming extent, and Pennsylvanians became an object of ridicule to the people of other States, who had been more careful to provide a proper system of education." Patriotic and public-spirited men were cognizant of the loss and discredit certain to result from a continued neglect to formulate, adopt and enforce a comprehensive and liberal system of com- mon-school education.

Like all other great reforms, emanating from the people, its accomplishment was preceded by many years of agitation, during which men of eminent

reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic and book-keeping. I have in my possession a book containing the solution of questions in Dil- worth's Arithmetic. This book dates 1805. That the study of aritlime- tic was not carried to any great extent may be judged from the fact that the father of the young man whose book has just been referred to objectedl to his son " going further than the rule of three, because any- thing beyand that would make him good-for-nothing." But there was ambition even then, as now ; the boy did go farther, possibly to the end of the book. The custom of "setting down suns" was adhered to on down to about 1840, or even later. The schools in the county prior to 1834 very sellom gave any attention to grannar, geography, mensura- tion and algebra. The writing of essays or compositions of any kind was pretty geurrally neglected, excepting at a very few places in differ- ent parts of the county. In Perkiomen township, an aged resident says, "when I was a boy, sixty years ago, we didn't have school sometimes for three years, Then a stranger would come along, and pretending to be a school-master, he would start a school, and teach the lowest branches." l'pper and Lower Providence, about 1827 and for several years after, had their schools open about three months during the year. This may be said, perhaps, in truth of many townships. The lowest branebes only were taught. Prior to this, and back to the earliest settle- ments, the parochial schools were the prevailing system. Evidences of this system may still be seen. In many places in the county school- houses are seen close to the churches. Some of these are still used for school purposes. Others are used for special purposes by the congrega- tions. Then the school-master resided in a part of the school-house, or neur by, and in addition to teaching led the singing and played the or- gan-when there was one-in divine worship. Prior to 1834 the follow- ing academies and private schools were in existence : One at Lumber- ville (Port Providence), in U'pper Providence ; one at Trappe, in Upper Providence ; one at Hatboro*, in Moreland; one at l'onshohocken ; one at Norristown; one at Sumneytown, in Marlborough. As far back as 1815 the languages were taught at Norristown and Hathoro'. In 1831 Limerick township had four schools; it now has fourteen. Then teach- ers were paid two dollars per scholar for a term of seventy-two days. The same may be said of Upper Providence, and in all probability of most of the townships of the county .- Prof. A. Rambo, Supt. of Com- mon Schools, Monty. Co., Report of 1877.

2 The State at length uwaked from her lethargy about the year 1833 ; the Legislature took the matter seriously in hand, and passed an act " to establish a general system of education by common schools," approved by Governor George Wolf on the Ist of April, 1834 .- Sherman Day, " Hist. Fenna."

ability and eloquence espoused the cause.2 In the "Memoirs of the Governors of Pennsylvania," by W. (. Armor, it is said the most substantial and endnr- ing merit of Governor Wolf was evinced in his advo- cacy of a system of popular education. James Buchanan, in a speech delivered previous to the election of the Governor, had said,-

" If ever the passion of envy could be excused, a man ambitious for true glory might ahnost be justified in envying the fame of that favored individual, whoever he may be, whom Providence intends to make the instrument in establishing common schools throughout this common- wealth. His task will be arduous. He will have many difficulties to encounter and many prejudices to overcome ; lmt his fame will exceed that of the great Clinton in the same proportion that mind is superior to matter. Whilst the one has erected a frail memorial which, like every- thing human, must decay and perish, the other will raise a monument which shall flourish in innnortal yonth, and endure whilst the human soul shall continue to exist. Ages unborn and nations yet behind shall bless his memory."

To George Wolf that honor was accorded and to him in all time to come can the citizens of Pennsyl- vania point with special pride when the inquirer shall seek to know by whose voice and sturdy will that great boon was championed and finally won.3

Agitation, the love of religious not less than civil liberty, and the belief that general intelligence among the masses was essential to preserve their rights and

" General Washington says : "Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In pro- portion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it should be enlightened."

Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to a citizen of Virginia, says : "By far the most important bill in our code is that for diffusing knowledge among the people, No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness. Make a crusade against ignorance and estab- lish and improve the law for educating the common people ; for without going into the monitory history of the ancient world in all its quarters and all its periods, that of the soil on which we live and of its occupants, indigenous and emigrants, teaches the awful lesson that no nation is per mitted to live in ignorance with impunity."

Mr. Madison says : "Throughout the civilized world nations are court- ing the praise of fostering science and the useful arts, and are opening their eyes to the principles and blessings of representative government. The American people owe it to themselves and to the cause of free gov- ernment to prove by their establishments for the advancement aml diffi- sion of knowledge that their political institutions, which are attracting observation from every quarter, are as favorable to the intellectual and moral improvement of man as they are conformable to his individual and social rights. What spectacle can be more edifying or more reasonable than that of liberty and learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support ?"-F. R. Shunk, State Superintendent Common Schools, Report of 1840.

3 The Rev. John C. Clyde, A. M., of Northampton County, in his " His- tory of the Allen Township Presbyterian Church," relates the following : Rev. John Rosbrugh used to tell an anecdote connected with the history of the building of the academy at Bath (near Bath), which was as follows : He, with a number of other young men, wanted the advantage of something better than a common-school education, and they took measures to build an academy by subscription. He called on a German (who lived in the neighborhood) by the name of George Wolf for aid; but MIr. Wolf refused by saying, " Dis etication and dings make raskels." He refused at first, but afterwards did help to build it. In the course of the conversation Mr. Rosbrugh told him that his sons George and Philip would have the advantage of an education, and that his favorite son George might become Governor sooner or later, to which he replied : "Vell, den, when my George is Gobetnor, he will be queer times." The sequel of the matter was that George got his English education in the academy, and did become Governor of this State and one of the most illustrious of the line.

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privileges hastened a departure from the old-time parochial or church schools. The change in the public mind was slowly effected, and many publie men, whose zeal for the measure placed them in advance of public sentiment, were deemed "dangerously radical" and promptly retired to private life. Measures looking to a general system of common schools were introduced in the Legislature as early as 1820, but it was not until 1834, as we have seen, that a law was passed and approved by Governor Wolf.1 No act of the General Assembly, perhaps, ever met with a more violent and determined opposition than the Common School Law of 1834-35. The opposition was the most violent and persistent in the German districts, not only in our county, but throughout the State. This hostility was not inspired by a disinclination to support educationa institutions, but it was foreseen that the law would completely secularize the common schools of the land, and this was sincerely believed by many, and by a large proportion of the clergy and ministers of the gospel, to be inimical to the church, and hence to society.2

1 When the agitating divisions of the day shall have sunk ioto com- parative insignificance, and names be only repeated in connection with some great act of public benefaction, those of George Wolf and Joseph Ritner will be classed by Penosylvania among the noblest on her long list ; the one for his early and manly advocacy, and the other for his well- timed and determined support of the Free School. Nor will the patriotism of the Legislature be forgotten. The prond remembrance will be cherished that the sessions of 1835-36 and 1836-37, opposed as they were jo all other points, agreed on the common ground of education, and only vied in the degree of benefit to be conferred .- Thos. H. Burrowes, Supt. Common Schools.

2 The following is a protest issued by those opposed to the establishment of common schools, which, in their opinion, would displace the parochial schools or those under the control of the various religions denominations, much to the detriment of the young : "To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, io General Assembly met : The Petition humbly sheweth, Whereas the Sub- seribers have understood that there is now before the Legislature of this State a certain Bill which is proposed to be enacted into a Law, to provide for the Public Institution and Support of Schools, they beg leave to make thereupon to the Legislature the following Represcotation and Peti- tion :

" They represent that it is, and has long been, a standing Order of the religious Denomination with which they are connected to consider the Instruction of youth as a part of their religious duty ; that they accord- ingly have at this time a large oumber of Schools in the State of Penn- sylvania established on this Plan, in which their children and youth are instructed in the principles of the Christian Religion, at the same time that they are taught those other necessary parts of Learning to which the attention of youth is generally called. They morcover represent that this connection between the religious and literary instruction of their youth is, in their estimation, a matter of so much importance that they cannot in conscience relinquish it, be the inconvenience of adhering to it what it may. If, therefore, the Legislature should pass a law to provide for schools at the general expense, the manifest consequence would be that the Subscribers would be obliged, while they support their own schools from a sense of duty, to contribute to the support of others in which they had no personal interest, and they would, in fact, be tied or suffer a penalty for their religions principles, which is equally abhorrent to the plainest Principles of Equity and the spirit of our excellent consti- tution. The subscribers do, therefore, petition the Honorable Legisla- ture that no Law may be passed which shall inflict the hardship already set forth ; but that in providing for the establishment of Schools, both now and in all times to come, the Law may Le so formed as to allow your Petitioners to pursue their own method of Instruction without incon- venience, by introducing a Section wherein it may be enacted that when the number of families who by the Law may be entitled to a School shall

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 93

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534