USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I > Part 54
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The Punxsutawney News was established in October, 1885, with Horace G. Miller and Frank P. Tipton at its head. In February of the following year Mr. Tipton sold his interest to J. L. Allison, then principal of the Punxsu- tawney public schools, and the paper was con- tinued by Miller & Allison for a period of about eight years. Mr. Allison then sold his interest to Wade Miller, who, a year later, sold his interest to Peter Stockdale. About a year afterward Adam Lowry, of Indiana, purchased the interest of Mr. Stockdale, and after a lapse of another year H. G. Miller purchased Lowry's interest, since which time Mr. Miller has been sole proprietor.
The Punxsutawney Republican began its career in Clayville August 25, 1894, when W. H. Work established the Lindsey Press. The plant was purchased by Clark Rodgers and Thomas J. Rodgers February 17, 1899. It was moved to. Punxsutawney in November of that year and the name changed to the Punx- sutawney Republican. It was published by a stock company until October, 1900, when Thomas J. Rodgers, who has been connected with the paper since the first issue of the Lindsey Press was printed in 1894, became sole owner. In the fall of 1915 a stock com- pany bought and changed the name to the Punxsutawney Republican.
REYNOLDSVILLE
The pioneer paper in Reynoldsville was the Advocate, started in 1872, by John A. Doyle, who published it until about October 1. 1872. In 1874 G. C. Brandon and W. S. Reynolds started the Herald. The office was destroyed in the fire of 1875. After this fire Thomas Reynolds and W. S. Reynolds continued the Herald. In 1877 J. R. Bixler published the paper as the Herald and Star. On May 16, 1878, C. C. Benscoter and J. T. Cartin pub- lished The Eye. In the summer of 1878 the Herald again appeared with W. S. Reynolds, C. C. Benscoter and W. O. Smith as publish-
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ers. In 1897 Thomas Reynolds. Jr., had charge. For three months during the sum- mer of 1878 W. O. Smith printed a three-col- umn quarto daily on a Gordon job press. In 1880 W. S. Reynolds published Our Reynolds- ville Paper. Ile retired April 21, 1881, and G. C. Brandon leased the office and material from Mrs. Juliana Reynolds, who had become owner by the death of Thomas Reynolds, Sr. Brandon published the paper until January 6, 1883. when N. J. Lawrence and Frank J. Black assumed the editorial control. In about a year Lawrence retired and left the paper in the hands of F. J. Black. On February 16, 1889. W. C. Elliott bought it, and in April of that year changed the name to the Reynolds- ville Volunteer, and the size to an eight-column folio, and the name has not been changed since. New type and new presses were added and the value of the plant was doubled thereby.
BROCKWAYVILLE
The Brockwayville Register was started on Thursday, June 1, 1871, a four-column quarto sheet, by R. O. Moorhead, and was published at that size for about two years, when it was enlarged to five columns, and in another year again enlarged and called the Brockwayville Free Press, and leased to Thrush & Sibley. who published it for one year. when the paper was discontinued.
In February, 1885, the Brockwayville Rec- ord was started by J. C. Rairigh, who con- ducted it successfully until November, 1886, when he sold the establishment to Butler & Niver, who appeared as editors and proprie- tors until the spring of 1892, when the senior partner retired. F. C. Niver was editor and proprietor of the Record until March, 1899, when he disposed of the plant to A. W. Adam & Son, who published the paper, with George R. Adam as editor. lle is still filling that posi- tion, and is now sole owner.
BIG RUN
The Big Run Enterprise, seven-column folio, was edited and published by William Covert from 1888 to 1890, sold to George P. Miller,
and changed to the Big Run Tidings. It was discontinued in 1897. The Big Run Echo, pub- lished by William Covert in 1894, was sold to Rev. H. H. Ryland the same year, and discon- tinned in 1897. The Big Run Tribune, owned by C. F. Veil and Dr. J. C. Cochrane and edited by J. M. Thompson, started in December, 1897 ; sold to Charles J. Bangert in 1898; sold to J. M. Thompson in March, 1899; and pur- chased by R. M. Coulter, the present editor and publisher, in July, 1907.
FALLS CREEK
The Falls Creek Herald was established August 20, 1891, by Charles J. Bangert, and successfully published by him until 1900.
The papers at present published in Jeffer- son county are :
Name, Location, Parties, Issued
Tribune. Big Run; Independent ; Thursday; weekly.
Record, Brockwayville; Independent ; Friday ; weekly. Jeffersonian Democrat, Brookville: Democratic ; Thursday; weekly.
Republican, Brookville; Progressive; Thursday; weekly.
News, Punxsutawney; Independent ; Wednesday ; weekly.
Republican, Punxsutawney; Republican; Friday ; weekly.
Spirit, Punxsutawney; Independent Republican ; Evening ; daily.
Star, Reynoldsville; Independent; Wednesday ; weekly. Volunteer, Reynoldsville: Independent ; Wednes- day; weekly.
Post-Dispatch, Sykesville; Independent; Friday ; weekly.
FIRST DAILIES
The first daily newspaper in the world was issued in London, England, in 1702, the Daily Courant, by Elizabeth Mallet. The first daily paper in the United States was printed by a woman ; the first in Rhode Island was pub- lished by a woman ; the first in Maryland by a woman; and the first paper to print the Declaration of Independence was the Virginia Gasette, published by a woman.
CHAPTER XVI
EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS
PIONEER LEGISLATION-PIONEER SCHOOLS, SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOOLHOUSES-THE COMMON SCHOOLS, LAW OF 1834 AND ITS WORKINGS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY-PIONEER SCHOOL DI- RECTORS-STATE AID- ORGANIZATION UNDER COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM-PIONEER SCHOOL CONVENTION-SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS-SOME SCHOOL LAWS-EVENING AND GRADED SCHOOLS-SELECT SCHOOLS-INSTITUTES-SCHOOL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION OF JEFFERSON COUNTY-STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS-ITEMS OF INTEREST
On the Ist day of March, 1802, Governor McKean approved the pioneer law of this State making provision for the education of the poor, the title being "An Act to provide for the education of poor children gratis."
The act of 1802 was unsatisfactory, and, in the hope of betterment, the act of 1804 was passed to provide for the more effectual edu- cation of the children of the poor gratis. That this act also was considered an incomplete ful- fillment of the constitution appears from the message of the governor the next year after its passage.
Agitation and discussion over the law re- sulted in the act of 1809, better drawn with the same title and aim, but the objection to each of these acts was that it compelled parents to publish to the world their poverty and to send their children to school as paupers.
PIONEER SCHOOLS, SCHOOLMASTERS AND SCHOOLHOUSES
Not one of the governors of the State dur- ing the time the law of 1809 was in force be- lieved it met the requirements of the consti- tution, hence in 1824 an act was passed repeal- ing it and another one substituted. The new act was violently opposed, never went into effect, and was repealed in 1826, the act of 1809 being reenacted. The policy enforced in our State for fifty years after the Revolu- tionary war was the endowment of academies and the free instruction of poor children in church and neighborhood schools.
The method of organizing schools and hiring masters under these laws was as follows: .1 school meeting was called by a notice posted in the district. The inhabitants then met and elected in their own way three of their num-
ber to act as a committee, or as trustees with power to hire a master or mistress, and this committee exercised a supervision over the school. A rate bill was always made out by the master and handed to the committee, who collected the money and paid it to the master.
The early instruments used in school dis- cipline were the cat-o'-nine tails and the rod, and there were varions modes of punishment, carrying the offender on the back of a pupil and then flogging him, seating the boys with the girls and the girls with the boys, fastening a split stick to the ear or the nose, laying the scholar over the knee and applying the ferrule to the part on which he sat. These punish- ments were in vogue for years after the com- mon schools were established. For the ben- efit of young teachers I will give the mode of correction. The masters invariably kept what was called toms, or, more vulgarly, cat-o'-nine- tails, all luck being in odd numbers. This instrument of torture was an oaken stick about twelve inches long, to which was at- tached a piece of rawhide cut in strips, twisted while wet, and then dried. It was freely used for correction, and those who were thus cor- rected did not soon forget it, and not a few carried the marks during life. Another and no less cruel instrument was a green cow- hide. Comment upon the above is useless, as the words cruelty and barbarity will suggest themselves to the minds of all who read it. For our textbooks we had Dilworth's and the "United States Speller," and our reader was the Bible. The "Western Calculator" was all the arithmetic that was in use, and the one who got through the "rule of three" was called tol- erably good in figures; the lucky wight who went through the book was considered a grad-
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uate in mathematics. Grammar and geogra- phy were not taught in common schools, being considered higher branches.
In the winter of 1804 John Dixon, father of the venerable John Dixon, late of Polk township, taught the first school in Jefferson county. It was a subscription school, and the term was three months. The schoolhouse was two miles east of Brookville, on what is now the County Home farm. It was built of rough logs twelve feet wide and sixteen feet long, and had no window sash or glass. The light was admitted to the schoolroom through chinks in the walls, over which greased paper was plastered. The floor was of "puncheons," and the seats of broad pieces split from logs, with pins underneath for legs. The roof was covered with clapboards held down by poles. Boards laid on pins driven
to travel three or four miles, in some cases over trails and paths where the Indians lurked and the wild beast prowled.
The pioneer schoolhouse in the southern part of the county was built of logs, in the fall of 1820, near John Bell's, a little more than a mile northeast of where Perrysville stands. It was built after the fashion of the first schoolhouse in the county, with paper in- stead of window glass, boards pinned to the wall for desks, floors and seats made of puncheons, and fireplace along one end. John Postlethwait, Sr .. John Bell, Archibald Had- den. Hugh McKee and James Stewart were the principal citizens engaged in organizing and starting the school. John B. Henderson, of Indiana county, taught the school in this part of the county, in that pioneer house, the first winter after it was built. The Testa-
PIONEER SCHOOLHOUSE
into auger-holes in the walls furnished writ- ing desks. A log fireplace, occupying an entire end of the room, supplied warmth when the weather was cold.
The second school was taught by John John- son in 1806, on the old State road, near the present residence of the late William C. Evans, between Port Barnett and Brookville. The house was similar to the first one named, with the exception of a single window of six lights of eight-by-ten glass. This school cabin was heated by a ten-plate wood stove ( the inven- tion of Franklin), called by the people "The little Devil." This was a subscription school also, and was known in those days as a "neighborhood" school, to distinguish it from, the "family" school. The building was erected by those interested. The tools used in constructing it were a pole-ax and an auger. The master was hired by a commit- tee of three, elected by the people at their own time and in their own way. This com- mittee supervised the school. Children had
ment, Bible, Catechism and "United States Spelling Book" were used as textbooks there. Ira White, a Yankee from the State of New York, succeeded Mr. Henderson as master. Some time afterwards a school was taught by Crawford Gibson, in a house near the county line. Some parties claim that Gibson taught before Henderson, about a mile south of Perrysville. Somewhat later a school was taught by John Knox, in a log house across the creek, southeast of Perrysville. They paid him with grain, in part at least. James C. Neal, Sr., then a young man, hauled a load of grain with a yoke of oxen, to pay Mr. Knox for teaching, from Perrysville to near Troy, a distance of about twenty miles, through the woods,
The pioneer school held in Punxsutawney was opened by Andrew Bowman, about 1823. in a house then owned by John B. Henderson. Dr. Jenks, Charles Barclay, Judge Heath, Rev. David Barclay, Mr. Black and others took an active part in starting the school. They hired
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a master by the year. The tuition for the small pupils was twelve dollars each, and for the large ones fifty dollars a year. The first school cabin was built in Punxsutawney by the above named gentlemen about 1827, where the Baptist church stands. Hugh Ken- worthy was the first well educated man that was employed as master there. The next inas- ter was Dr. Robert Cunningham. After him came Thomas Cunningham, since Judge Cun- ningham.
The pioneer master in Rose township was Robert Knox. When he taught the cabin was not floored and the pupils sat on the sleepers. The venerable Joseph Magifen taught a six months' term in 1827. Matthew Dickey was also a pioneer master. Tuition, fifty cents a month per scholar, the teacher to board with the scholars.
A school was taught in the vicinity of Brockwayville (then Ridgway township) in 1828, for which the master. A. M. Clarke. received twelve dollars per month in maple sugar.
Alexander Cochran taught the pioneer school in what is now Washington township. in 1831, in a school cabin near the Beech- woods graveyard. Messrs. Cooper, Keys, Mc- Intosh and the Smiths were instrumental in organizing the school.
.A pioneer school was commenced within the present limits of Union township about 1834 or 1835. James Barr taught first in the summer. There were about twenty pupils. and the tuition was fifty cents a month for each pupil. Samuel Davison, Robert McFar- land. John W. Monks, John Hughes and Rob- ert Tweedy were prominent in organizing the school.
COMMON SCHOOLS-LAW OF 1834 AND ITS WORKINGS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY
Governor Wolf, in 1833-34, made educa- tion the leading topic of his message. Among other things he said :
"To provide by law 'for the establishment of schools throughout the State, and in such a manner that the poor may be taught gratis, is one of the pioneer measures to which I feel it to be my duty now to call your atten- tion, and most solemnly to press upon your consideration. Our apathy and indifference in reference to this subject become the more conspicuous when we reflect that whilst we are expending millions for the physical condi- tion of the State, we have not hitherto appro- priated a single dollar that is available for the
intellectual improvement of its youth, which, in a moral and political point of view, is of ten fold more consequence, either as respects the moral influence of the State or its polit- ical power and safety."
In 1827 William Audenreid, then a senator from Schuylkill county, introduced a bill into the Senate, the title of which was, "To pro- vide a fund in support of a general system of education in Pennsylvania." The bill passed the Senate that session, but was defeated in the House, but being urged and pressed every season it became a law April 2, 1831. This law entitled Senator Audenreid to be called the author of our school system.
However, the creation of the common schools in Pennsylvania was not the work of any one man or set of men, nor was the idea imported from any other State. It was the outgrowth of freedom. In a book like mine I cannot enumerate all the glorious workers in the fight. The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools, organized in Philadelphia in 1827, was a great factor in the work. Senator Audenreid, Dr. Anderson and Senator Smith, of Delaware county; N. B. Fetterman, of Bedford; Samuel Breck, a senator from Philadelphia, and Thaddeus Stevens, all deserve to be forever remembered for their able and untiring labor in this direc- tion. In the session of 1834, Samuel Breck. a senator from Philadelphia, was made chair- man of a joint committee on education. The members of this committee on the part of the Senate were Samuel Breck, Charles B. Pen- rose, William Jackson, Almon H. Read and William Boyd; of the House: Sam- uel Anderson, William Patterson, James Thompson, James Clarke, John Wiegand, Thomas H. Crawford and Wilmer Worthing- ton. This committee secured all possible in- formation on the subject from all sources. The author of the bill as passed was Samuel Breck. It was but little discussed and met with but little opposition in the Legislature.
"Section 2. It shall be the duty of the sheriff of each county, thirty days previous to the third Friday in September of the cur- rent year. 1834, to give notice, by proclama- tion, to the citizens of each school district to hold elections in their respective townships, wards and boroughs at the places where they hold their elections for supervisors, town councils and constables, to choose six citizens, of each school district, to serve as school directors of said districts, respectively ; which elections shall, on the said day, be conducted and held in the same manner as elections for
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supervisors and constables are by law held and conducted, and on the day of the next annual election of supervisors in the respective town- ships, and of constables in the respective cities of the Commonwealth, a new election for directors shall take place in the said town- ships, boroughs and cities, at which election, and annually thereafter at that time, and in manner and form aforesaid, two directors shall be chosen, who shall serve for three years; the sheriff giving thirty days' notice previous to such election." (See Sections 3 and 4 be- low. )
Many of the sections were found to con- tain requirements that were crude, hence they were repealed in 1836 and perfected. These referred to the building of schoolhouses, em- ploying masters, locating houses, etc. No pay was allowed a director other than as a delegate to the county school convention.
PROCLAMATION
"Whereas, the Act of Assembly approved Ist of April. 1834, and entitled, 'An Act to establish a general system of education by common schools,' provides 'that the city and county of Philadelphia, and every other county in this Commonwealth, shall each form a school division, and that every ward, town- ship and borough within the several school divisions shall each form a school district : Provided, that any borough which is or may be connected with a township in the assess- ments of county rates and levies shall, with the same township, or long as it remains so connected. form a district, and each of said districts shall contain a competent number of common schools for the education of every child within the limits thereof, who shall apply either in person, or by his or her parents, guardian, or next friend, for admission and instruction.'
"And whereas, the said act further directs that 'it shall be the duty of the sheriff of each county to give notice by proclamation to the citizens of cach school district to hold elections in their respective townships, wards and boroughs on the third Friday of Septem- ber next, at the places where their elections for supervisors, town council and constables are by law held and conducted.'
"Now, therefore, 1, William Clark, high sheriff of the county of Jefferson, in pursu- ance of the duty enjoined on me by the above recited act, do issue this. my proclamation, giving notice to the citizens of said county, qualified as aforesaid, that an election will be
held on the third Friday of September next, to choose six citizens residing therein, to serve as school directors of said districts respectively.
"The electors of the borough of Brookville are to meet at the court house in said bor- ough.
"The electors of Rose township are to meet at John Lucas'.
"The electors of the township of Pinecreek are to meet at Joseph Barnett's.
"The electors of Barnett township are to meet at the house of William Armstrong.
The electors of Perry township are to meet at the house of Christopher Hetrick.
"The electors of Young township are to meet in Punxsutawney.
"The electors of Ridgway township are to meet at the house of James Gallagher.
"Given under my hand at Brookville, this fifth day of August, one thousand eight hun- dred and thirty-four, and of the independence of the United States the fifty-eighth.
"WILLIAM CLARK,
"Sheriff. "Sheriff's Office, August 5. 1834.
As soon as these proclamations were made by the sheriff the liveliest discussion took place for and against the system. The majority of the citizens in most of the counties were against it. It was not so, however. in Jefferson, six of the districts adopting it. Nearly half of the nine hundred and eighty-seven districts in the State rejected it. Families quarrelled over and about it. In some districts a free school man was ostracized. Lifelong enmities were engendered. Several religious denom- inations placed themselves against this law- Catholics, Episcopalians, Mennonites, Friends and Lutherans. These were not opposed to education, but they believed in religious in- struction and secular education, and that the two should go hand in hand, as their fathers had it. The Germans opposed it on account of a change in language. But the ignorant, the penurions and the narrow-minded fought against it most bitterly, on account of sup- posed increased taxation.
PIONEER SCHOOL DIRECTORS
Those elected under this proclamation and the law of 1834 were:
Rose township and Brookville borough- Col. Alexander McKnight, James Green, James Linn, Robert Andrews, Irwin Robin- son, Darius Carrier.
Barnett township-Cyrus Blood, William
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Armstrong, Edwin Forsythe, Trumble Hunt, Alexander Murray, John Hunt.
Pinecreek township-David Butler, John Lattimer, Andrew Barnett, William Cooper, Samuel Jones.
Young township-Dr. John W. Jenks, Wil- liam Campbell, Joseph Winslow.
Perry township-John Philliber, William Postlethwait, Martin Shoff, Esq .. William Marshall, Andrew Gibson, David Lewis.
Ridgway township-I. Wilmarth, James Gallagher, J. L. Gillis.
The pioneer school inspectors were ap- pointed by the court December 8, 1834, under the act of 1834.
The school question entered into the nomi- nation and election of members of the Leg- islature for the session of 1834-35, and per- haps a majority of those elected were anti- school. But Governor Wolf and friends of the common school were undismayed, bold and able, and braved the tempest of that session. Competent judges who witnessed that strug- gle in the Legislature agree that had it not been for Thaddeus Stevens, a young member from Adams county. the law of 1834 would have been repealed, or only saved by a veto from the governor. This session ended the last bitter and great fight in the State and Legislature for common schools.
The ablest and most determined leaders of the anti-school were William Hopkins, of Washington county, and Henry W. Conrad, of Schuylkill.
STATE AID
The first money received from the State for school purposes by Jefferson county was through an order drawn August 5, 1836, on the State treasurer, Joseph Lawrence, Esq., to the treasurer of Jefferson county, by Thomas H. Burrowes. superintendent of com- mon schools, under an act entitled 'An Act to establish a general system of education by common schools,' passed on the Ist of April, 1834, and a supplement thereto passed April 15. 1835, for one hundred and four dollars and ninety-four cents, for the year 1835. Also, on the same date, one hundred and four dol- lars and ninety-four cents, for the year 1836.
The following will show the townships re- ceiving the State aid, the officers of their school boards, the number of the warrants and the amounts received :
Barnett township-W. P. Armstrong, pres- ident : Cyrus Blood, treasurer and secretary ; Warrant No. 76: State aid, $49.20.
Eldred township-Thomas Hall, president : William M. Hindman, treasurer; John W. Monks, secretary ; Warrant No. 37; State aid. $23.95.
Perry township-Thomas Williams, pres- ident : Isaac Lewis, treasurer ; John Philliber, secretary ; Warrant No. 209; State aid, $35.31.
Pinecreek township-William Cooper, pres- ident ; Samuel Jones, treasurer ; A. Barnett. secretary : Warrant No. 103; State aid, $66.68.
Ridgway township- J. Gallagher, president ; L. Wilmarth, treasurer and secretary ; War- rant No. 40; State aid, $25.89.
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