Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 41

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930

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In many neighborhoods teaching school as a is that neither in Europe nor America had distinct employment was unknown, and in the idea come to be entertained, except by a few, that the best school government is a government that rules by love rather than by fear; that tempers justice with kindness; that trains up the child in the way he should go, overcoming and rooting out the bad, sowing the seeds of good, and guarding well the growth of the tender plant; that a gentle hand and a loving heart shape a life which honors man and is well pleasing to God.

For the want of system in the management of the old schools, the want of grading and classification, there was some compensation. Such as it was, the pupils received individual instruction. Each was free in most studies to pursue a line of study by himself. He was frequently allowed to read from a book of his own selection, and he could move along in his arithmetic, mensuration or surveying, fast or slow, as suited his convenience or his ability. No force was brought to bear upon him to take up this study or drop that, and nothing was taken from his intellectual length or breadth to make him fit a fixed place in a elass. A school was not then a mill expected to turn out grists all the same in quantity and quality, whatever the character of the awkward in the performance of their duties, grain. With our modern systems and grades we have leveled np and thus improved the less gifted classes of society; but there is a danger that we have leveled down as well, and may have in consequence deprived society Young men became schoolmasters then as of its born leaders. A loosely organized school now for the purpose of obtaining the money of the old elass could not do as much for the for a course of higher instruction, or used the teacher's desk as a stepping-stone to a place in some other profession. Belonging to this class were some preparing to enter a classical whole body of its pupils as a school graded and classified as is now the custom; hut it might have done more for the few who pos- sessed genius and marked individuality of school or college while teaching; some, half character, for such as these thrive best when through their college course teaching in a

many others the services of professional schoolmasters were hard to procure. Few people had then come to see that teaching a child as he ought to be taught is a task of extreme difficulty, requiring the most careful preparation. The opinion was then common that keeping school was a business so simple that almost anyone was equal to it. All the master of the school was expected to do was to keep order and to follow the usual routine method of giving instruction in the merest elements, reading, writing and arithmetic. Under the circumstances it is not to be won- dered at that the heads of families supporting a school should sometimes look around among themselves or their neighbors in search of a young man possessing the physical strength and courage and the limited literary attain- ments required of a schoolmaster; nor is it any wonder that such a young man, desiring to employ to the best advantage a few spare months, or to make a little extra money, should offer of his own accord to take charge of a school. Many such inexperienced young men were employed as schoolmasters. As a class, they were at first extremely unskillful and possessing very limited knowledge of the branches of learning in which they undertook to give instruction, and having no conception whatever of the great art of teaching school.

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

half-hearted way and longing for the day to come when their half-earned pay would en- able them to escape from the uncongenial work of the schoolroom; and others, students of theology, of medicine, or of law, like para- sites living on the school but yielding it noth- ing in return. This class of schoolmasters was not large in the early days; it is perhaps proportionately as large to-day as it was a hundred years ago, but unfortunately it has at all times been too large. When teaching comes to assume its proper rank among the learned professions, able to maintain its own dignity as a calling requiring the most elabo- rate special preparation, this one-handed, half- hearted, makeshift way of keeping school will be considered an insufferable degradation. Most of the teachers were without families and had no fixed residence, keeping school first in one place and then in another. Wandering homeless here and there, some of them came to be well known throughout the country. They were not all, by any means, like the one publicly advertised for in the Maryland Gazette, in 1771: "Ran away-a servant man, who followed the occupation of school- master, much given to drinking and gam- bling"; but, as a class, their knowledge was limited to the merest elements, they were odd in dress, eccentric in manners, and oftentimes intemperate. In the schoolroom they were generally precise, formal, exacting and severe.

If there were few competent teachers of any class in the early schools of the country, good reasons can be found in the general con- dition of educational affairs. There was little about the schools to attract young men of ability and energy. The schoolhouses were uninviting-an old shop, an abandoned dwell- ing, a log cabin, or, at best, a small house, built in the plainest manner of stone or wood. The furniture was about as rough as it could be made. The schools were generally open only two or three months in the year, the mas- ter's salary was often uncertain and always poor, seldom amounting to more than ten or twelve dollars a month, and frequently barely reaching one half of these sums. It was eus- tomary for the master to board around among the patrons of his school, remaining with each a stipulated time; and in some instances he was obliged to take in payment for his serv- ices, contributions in wood, wheat, corn, po- tatoes, pork or butter. The schoolmaster, ex- cept in the best organized church schools, had no assured social position. Ile was a man unrecognized among the positive forces of soci- ety outside of his own narrow sphere, and un-

welcomed by men of affairs in business or practical circles. The fact that there were at all times some men of ability engaged in the work of teaching, actuated as they must have been by the spirit of missionaries, is a green spot in the educational history of the early days.

EARLY SCHOOLS OF INDIANA COUNTY

One hundred years ago a comparatively sparse population, scattered over a wide extent of country, mainly covered with dense forests and destitute of roads and bridges, opposed many serious obstacles to the establishment of good schools within reasonable distances.

The occupations of the people in rural dis- triets were also unfavorable to the support of schools, except those of an elementary char- acter, and for short terms. The physical wants of people always claim their first atten- tion. Before men will patronize schools, and cultivate their mental faculties, they will seek means to satisfy their bodily needs. Not until the means of shelter and subsistence had been secured for themselves and those depend- ent upon them, did the sturdy farmers who first settled these hills and valleys think of the claims of education. Labor-saving ma- chinery being then almost unknown among farmers, agricultural operations were neces- sarily slow and tedious, and left but little time for intellectual pursuits. The threshing and marketing of a crop, which can now be easily performed within a week, was then a severe task, requiring all winter for its accomplishment. The sons of a farmer in moderate circumstances thought themselves fortunate if they could obtain one or two months of schooling during the year. With the farmers' daughters the case was even worse. The operations of the spinning wheel, needle and dairy, besides the manifold other duties of the household, occupied so much of their time and attention that their literary education was almost neglected, and was sel- dom pursued beyond the merest rudiments. It was not an uncommon thing for men and women to make their mark, as many could not read and write. Distance to school was also a hindrance to attendance-three, four or even five miles to the nearest school being nothing uncommon.

At the formation of Indiana county, in 1803, there were only two townships taken from Westmoreland county, Armstrong and Wheatfield, the former embracing the western and the latter the eastern part of the county,

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

both extending from the Conemaugh river Thompson blockhonse. In 1800 a house was to the Purchase Line. Soon after that por- located one and a half miles from Bethel tion of the county north of the Purchase Line church, now Center township. In 1802 and was taken from Lycoming county, and added 1803 a house was built north of Lewisville. to Indiana, and was called Mahoning. These About the time of the formation of the county or very soon after the following schools were established: One in the southwestern part of Conemaugh township taught by Rob- ert Work, John Reed, Me Vicker, James May, and Cornelius Campbell ; one on the Shields farm and one on the farm of Thomas Shirley. Sr .; one near the old Lapsley tavern, eight miles east of Indiana and one mile south of Greenville (John Evans, Esq., father of ex- Sheriff William Evans, taught in this sehool) ; one on the farm of James MeLain, about one mile south of Indiana. three townships were from time to time clipped of parts of their territory and other townships formed, until in 1835, one year after the passage of the school law, there were ten townships and three boroughs which elected sehool directors on the 20th day of March, 1835, as follows: Indiana elected Rev. N. G. Sharretts, Fergus Cannon, Wood- roe Douglas, Ephraim Carpenter, John Pat- ton and Joseph Thompson. Armagh borough and Wheatfield township elected Archibald Matthews and William Bracken. Young township elected William McFarland and The slates and peneils used in those seliools were dug out of the ground near the school- houses ; and the ink was made by boiling oak and maple bark together, and adding cop- peras. Robert Hood. Mahoning township elected IIugh Hamilton and Robert Hopkins. Cone- maugh township elected William Coleman and Samuel G. Miller. Center township elected Philip Rice and Adam Altimns. Washington township elected Hugh Canon and John Me- Elhoes. Mechanicsburg and Brushvalley township elected D. W. Wakefield, James Stewart, John MeNutt, Jonathan Adair, John Crisswell and William Bracken. Blacklick township elected Robert McCrea and Robert Smith. Green township elected William Sebring and John Price. Montgomery town- ship elected John Deeker and William Thomp- son.

A schoolhouse was built in 1806 about three miles east of Armagh. Teachers: Thomas Dorney and Thomas Gallaher. A log house was erected near where the Presbyterian Church of Armagh now stands, and was used for a sehoolhouse and a church. Some of the teachers were Thomas Elliot, John Armitage and Matthew Dill. Soon other schools were established down the river as far as Center- ville, and north toward Mechanicsburg, and northeast to Strongstown and the Irish Bot- tom. There were early sehools north of Mar- ion in the Work and Leasure settlement along Plum creek, and along the Little Mahoning,

Prior to 1803 there were several schools within the limits of the county. The first one of which the writer can learn anything was in the southwestern corner of what is in the neighborhood of Smicksburg, along now Conemaugh township, about half a mile Crooked ereek in the Cummins neighborhood, and near Shelocta. from the Kiskiminetas river, in an abandoned dwelling house, being the first cabin built in In 1806 a hewed log house was built in Indiana, on the south side of Water street, between Fourth and Fifth. It was two stories high, and had been built for a store and a dwelling house; but as the contractor was drowned after the openings had been made for the doors and windows, it was used for school purposes until some one could be found who could make doors and windows. Henry Coleman was the first teacher. This was the first school within the limits of the county seat. The first house built for school purposes was ereeted on the lot owned by John Sher- man. It was put up about 1810 or 1811. The next one was on the northwest eorner of Taylor's and Nixon's alleys. John Wilson and James Coulter taught in this house. the county, owned by Robert Robinson. The school was tanght by James McDowell, and was kept open about three hours in the even- ing-the pupils bringing their own candles. The date of this school was not later than 1785. but there are reasons for believing that it was as early as 1777 or 1778. About 1790 there was a school on Blackliek near Camp- bell's mill. It was taught by a man named Atwell, and in 1795 or 1796 there was one on land owned by Samuel Earhart, in Black- liek township. There was a school above Blairsville, near Broad Ford. About 1790 there was a school three miles northeast of Indiana. In 180-a house was built on the Kelly farm two miles southwest of Indiana. In 1802 a house was erected five miles north Upon the completion of the academy, in of Indiana and about half a mile from the 1816, an elementary school was opened in

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

one of the rooms of the building. This room of the teacher was very limited. Teachers was used for that purpose until about 1826, were not required to pass any examination prior to 1834, when the school law was passed. Very soon after this every borough and town- ship in the county adopted the school system. This shows that many of our people were in favor of popular education but when the di- rectors levied a tax and proceeded to collect it they found some people unwilling to pay. From 1834 to 1854 teachers were examined by

when a brick building of one room was erected on the southwest corner of Water and Sixth streets, and soon after, the school becoming too large for one room, a second building of the same style and material was completed on the southeast corner of Church and Fifth streets. Some of the teachers in these build- ings were : William J. Bruce, Fergus Cannon, John G. Coleman, A. W. Kimmel, Robert P. the directors. During this time much inter- Reed and A. C. Patterson.

The schoolhouses in the rural districts were very much the same. A description of one built in 1805 or earlier, in the southwest- ern corner of Conemangh township, about one and a half miles from the Kiskiminetas river, will give some idea of all of them. The building was about 18 by 22 feet, of round logs, one story high, the cracks daubed with mortar called "Kat and Clay." A large log (the mantel) was placed across the building, four feet from the end wall, and five feet high, upon which the chimney was built, of split sticks, the cracks and inside daubed with tough mortar. The floor was made of split logs, hewed, called puncheons; the hearth was of stone, about four feet wide, and as long as the width of the fireplace; the back wall and sides of the fireplace also of stone. At the end of the hearth a piece of mother earth was left without a floor, to afford the writers a place to stick their goose quills to make them of uniform pliability. There were three sum- mer beams on which split logs were laid, by law."

est was manifested by the directors in the schools, but the majority of them were very poor scholars, many not being able to read and write. We can imagine the extent of the examination.

At a joint meeting of the teachers of West- moreland and Indiana counties, held in Blairs- ville in October, 1852, a resolution was passed recommending that the office of county super- intendent be established.

The writer does not know the extent of the effort that was made toward securing such legislation as would create the county super- intendency, except that, at the meeting of the institute at Blairsville in October, 1852, a resolution was adopted, as above related, which read thus :

"Resolved, that we believe the agency of county superintendent would be highly bene- ficial and would promote the uniformity, effi- ciency, and success of our common schools, in every respect. We, accordingly, approve the proposition to have these officers appointed

face down, and grooved together with mortar on the upper side; this was the loft or ceiling. FREE SCHOOLS The roof was made of clapboards, eaves 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 8 to 12 inches high, with little posts set in about every foot, on which oiled paper was cation-all therein spoken of, point towards pasted in lieu of glass. Writing boards were

laid on slanting wooden pegs even with the schools. It is noteworthy, however, that dur-

under edge of the windows, and there was a hewed slab bench (no back) of suitable height for the writers. There were lower slab seats for the spellers and readers. A short slanting board, in one corner, near the end of the hearth, was the teacher's desk. He had a small window near by.

The constitutional enactments, the laws passed and their results, the executive recom- mendations, the reports of legislative com- mittees, the petitions and memorials from the people praying for a better system of edu- the goal finally reached, a system of free ing all this period of growth it is difficult, if not impossible, to find a single public utter- ance indicating a comprehension of the full requirements of a system of free schools as understood at the present day, including not only schools free to all children of proper age, without regard to class, race, sex or con- dition in life, but provision for graded and high schools and the means of preparing teach-

The teachers were usually employed by the year, salary raised by subscription of from four to six dollars per scholar, and there were ers. The light was dawning during all this generally not fewer than twenty-five scholars; long period, but the day had not yet broken. the teachers boarded round. The education All the governors, from Mifflin to Wolf, rec-

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ommended the adoption of a general system of in every respect to their high trust, in a moral education, but they seem to have had in mind and intellectual sense. The Society urged the necessity of establishing a seminary in each Congressional district in the State, where in- dividuals might be prepared for conducting a uniform method of instruction in the common schools. The Society in making a report to the Legislature in behalf of "a system of pub- lic schools adequate to the wants of our rap- idly increasing population" declares that : There are at least four hundred thousand children in Pennsylvania, between the ages of five and fifteen. Of these, during the past year, there were not over one hundred and fifty thousand in all the schools of the State. The proportion of children educated in any one year, compared with the entire number of children between the above specified ages, ap- pears to be but one out of three. In 1829 two thirds of the children were not in school. Multitudes are living and continuing to live in ignorance, and multitudes more receive at best but the most superficial instruction. In every school system, it should be a fundamen- tal principle that every child should have the opportunity of receiving an education which will fit him to fulfill his duties.

only such a system as would fully provide for the gratuitous instruction of the poor children throughout the State, or at best a general system of free primary instruction. The Legislature reached no higher ground in its many reports, bills, discussions and enact- ments. The short-lived Act of 1824 professed to lay a foundation for "a general system of education throughout the Commonwealth," but it was so narrow as to permit no child to attend school at the public expense for a longer period than three years. Up to 1830 the great free school idea was either yet un- born in Pennsylvania or concealed by parents fearful of the dangers that threatened the life of such an infant in those old times. Even Governor Wolf became an unconditional free school man only after he went to Harrisburg. In his first inaugural address he speaks of "primary" as synonymous with "common" schools, and of insuring "to every indigent child in the Commonwealth the rudiments of learning" instead of the broader expression he would have used in later years, to every child in the Commonwealth all the learning practicable.

It was in great measure through the efforts of this Society that memorials similar to its own were sent to the Legislature from many counties during the year immediately preced- ing the passage of the Acts of 1831 and 1834. and that public meetings were held in divers places to further the interest of a better sys- tem of education.

A leading part in the final movement for free schools was taken by the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools. The Society's object was the promotion of education throughout the State of Pennsyl- vania, by the encouragement of public schools in which the elementary branches should be taught in the respective counties of the Com- Governor Wolf, in his annual message to the Legislature at the opening of the session of 1831-32, spoke strongly in favor of the ne- cessity of establishing by law a general sys- tem of common school education, by means of which, in the language of the constitution, "the poor may be taught gratis." monwealth. For the attainment of this end the Society proposed to open and maintain a correspondence with such zealous, intelli- gent and patriotic citizens as might be induced to co-operate with it, and from time to time communicate to the public, through the medi- um of pamphlets and newspapers, such infor- Petitions for and against a general school system were presented in both Houses during the session, some of the latter protesting against the use of any portion of the public money for the support of the common schools. mation as it might deem expedient, and adopt such other measures as might appear to he best calculated to accomplish the object of its creation. The Society continued to make an- nmal reports for several years. That for 1830 Committees on education had been appoint- ed from time to time that had reported in favor of the common schools, but the Legisla- ture had failed to pass any law for the main- tenance of public schools. In 1833-34. how- ever. Governor Wolf's discussion of the sub- .ject of education in his annual message was lengthy and earnest. He seems to have thought that the time had come for a final had special reference to the necessity of pre- paring teachers. Careful and deliberate sur- vey of the whole case led the Society to the conclusion that the most important step to be taken in the great work which the people of Pennsylvania had before them, in reference to this vital matter, was to provide well quali- fied teachers. The best school system which it were possible to devise must utterly fail in effort in behalf of a cause near his heart, practice unless instructors can be had equal and he made it boldly, strongly, effectively.

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

The following will show its breadth and free schools. It was comparatively well re- spirit :

"Universal Education, if it were practi- cal to enforce it everywhere, would operate as a powerful check upon vice, and would do more to diminish the black catalogue of crimes, so generally prevalent, than any other measure. Our apathy and indifference in reference to this subject becomes the more conspicuous when we reflect that whilst we are expending millions for the improvement of 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 consequence, either as respects the moral influence of the State, or its political power and safety."

The vote in the Legislature for the free school law of 1834 was nearly unanimous, but this nnanimity signified little more than dis- satisfaction with the existing laws relating to education, and a general desire that a trial should be made of something that would be likely to afford better results. In the light of the events that speedily followed its passage, it is probable that many members gave it their assent without full comprehension of the law they enacted to establish schools, and it is certain that some of them were able to offer but a weak defense of their votes when they came to meet their enraged constituents. The victory of the free school men was too easily gained to be sure of its fruits without further struggle. The enemies of the new law soon rallied in terrible force, fiercely at- tacked it in all parts of the Commonwealth, and for a time things looked as if they would regain all they had lost.

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Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 41

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930