USA > Vermont > Addison County > Middlebury > History of the town of Middlebury, in the county of Addison, Vermont > Part 34
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dered it otherwise inaccessible to female or male travellers ; and in other ways contributed their labor to promote the enterprise. Mrs. Willard, in a communication, to which we shall again refer, says,- " In the records of female education, it is worthy of notice, that this academy was one of the very first in the country which was built for that special object."
In this building Miss Strong kept her school in successful opera- tion until her health failed. Pupils were gathered from all parts of the state, and many from the state of New York. When her health was too much impaired to continue her labors, with the hope of improving it, she took a journey to Bennington County to spend a season with some of her former pupils, and other friends. But she continued to decline, and soon after, in October, 1804, at the age of 29 years, she died in the family of one of her pupils in Ru- pert. Miss Strong was the pioneer of female education in this state ; and that she was a woman of no common talents, education and energy, is evinced by her success in establishing a school of so much reputation at so early a period in the settlement of the country. No distinct school for the education of females in the higher branches had been established in this state and very few in the country. The nearest, if not the only, school of that character, to which Vermont females could resort, was Miss Pierce's school at Litchfield, Conn.
There remained a vacancy in the school from the death of Miss Strong, until the summer of 1807. At this time Miss Emma Hart, from Berlin, Conn., was invited by the proprietors to take charge of the school. Although but twenty years of age, she had an estab- lished reputation, and had been invited to several other places, but chose to accept the invitation to come here. She continued in charge of the school, with high and increasing reputation, about two years, and on the 10th of August 1809, she was married to Dr. John Willard, then marshall of the District of Vermont, of whom we have before spoken. During the vacancy in the school above men- tioned, the Addison County Grammar School was removed to the building belonging to this seminary. The lower story had been divided into rooms and furnished for the accommodation of the ordi- nary exercises; but the upper story was finished in one room for the
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more public exercises. The academy occupied the lower story, and Miss Hart's school was commenced, with thirty-seven pupils, in the upper room. But the male school was removed before the sec- ond winter. In the spring of 1814, Mrs. Willard opened a female school at her own residence. At our request, she has furnished us with an interesting communication, from which we quote so far as our limits and the object of this work will allow. Her experience in her schools, her plans and their results, will be best explaind in her own words.
" The winter of 1807-8 was one of exceeding hardship for me. Tho' very cold, with frequent storms and much snow, I had to walk from Dr. Tudor's, where I boarded, to the academy, and when there to keep my school in a large long room, formed like an ordinary ball room, occupying the whole upper story, while the only means of gaining warmth was from an open fire, in a small fire place on the north end. Yet that winter I had an increased and very pleas- ant school. When it was so cold, that we could live no longer, I called all my girls on to the floor, and arranged them two and two, in a long row for a contra dance; and while those who could sing would strike up some stirring tune, I, with one of the girls for a partner, would lead down the dance, and soon have them all in rapid motion. After which we went to our school exercises again. The school had quite an increase in the spring from different parts of the state, and amounted to sixty. Among them, and from the village, was a remarkable band of young maidens, ranging from about twelve to fifteen. I remained in this school two years from the time I commenced."
After the dissolution of Mrs. Willard's connection with the school by her marriage, Miss Esther North, from Goshen, Conn., was invi- ted, and in October following became the principal. She continued the school for several years, a part of which time she was assisted by Miss Mary North, her sister. Mrs. Phebe Smith, before her marriage Phebe Henderson, of Bennington, and since the wife of Rev. Joel II. Linsley, D. D., of Greenwich, Conn., succeeded Miss North in January 1812. We have not the exact date of the close of Miss North's school, or of Mrs. Smith's. The latter had
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charge of the school in the spring of 1814, and probably closed it soon after, as Mrs. Willard commenced her school at her own resi- dence the same season. We quote again from Mrs. Willard.
" It was in the spring of 1814 that I began, at my own resi- dence, the school which I regard as the germ of the Troy Female Seminary. It was there that I devised and wrote that 'Plan of Female Education,' which was first printed in the winter of 1818-19, and addressed as a petition to the legislature of New York, and be- came the basis of an extensive reform in female education. While I was in secrecy describing the institution, which was my beau ideal for it, and was diligently considering what name I should give it, I heard Mr. Merrill pray for our "seminaries of learning." I said, ' I have it,-I will call it a female seminary.' That word, while it is high as the highest, is also low as the lowest, and will not create a jealousy, that we mean to intrude upon the province of the men. There are now female seminaries, not only throughout. the American Union, but in the islands of the Pacific and in Asia. Many of these have been either directly taught by my pupils, or indirectly by their scholars. As nearly as I can estimate, I have sent out about five hundred teachers."
" My boarding school at Middlebury attained to so considerable a reputation abroad, that not only did I receive pupils from the first families throughout Vermont, but also a number from New England and New York. In 1816 and 1817, I had five from Waterford, N. Y., among whom was the adopted daughter of Gen. Van Schoon- hoven. In 1818, this gentleman being in Middlebury, invited Dr. Willard and myself to remove our establishment to Waterford. Having then my plan of education fully digested and written out, though known only to a few confidential friends, I gave the manu- script into the hands of the General, and with Dr. Willard's con- sent, the assurance, that if DeWitt Clinton, then Governor of New York, approved it, and the Waterford gentlemen would bring it be- fore the legislature, we would, on condition we were patronized by that body, remove and commence in Waterford on the plan pro- posed. Dr. Willard and myself, encouraged by Governor Clinton's warm approbation and efforts, which, with those of the gentlemen
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of Waterford, were in a measure successful, did remove in 1819 to Waterford with our teachers and most of our boarding pupils ; thus preserving the identity of the school, which had only an ordinary vacation between its close at Middlebury and its re-opening at Wat- erford. Two years afterwards it was removed to Troy. Now in 1857 it numbers about 330 pupils, and among those may probably be found representatives from every State in the Union, besides some from Canada."
" In a late account of normal schools, made by Mr. Ormiston of Upper Canada, he says the first in the United States was founded in 1838, in Massachusetts. This was more than twenty years later than the time when I began specially to prepare pupils for teachers. In Middlebury, Elizabeth Sherrill and Katharine Batty were trained to become teachers in the institution which I was proposing to found, and they were among my first teachers in this state."
After the school was established in Troy, encouraged by a very liberal and unexpected private patronage, but disappointed in the en- dowment expected from the State, Mrs. Willard says,-" I ceased applying to the legislature, and determined to spread in another manner, what I believed an improved system. I then betook my- self to the training of teachers. Young women of character and talents I received to board and educate, some of them to clothe and some to pay travelling expenses ; when afterwards they went forth, as recommended by me, on application for teachers, to our different states. They went pledged to pay me, when they earned sufficient money by teaching ; being however allowed to retain of their earn- ings sufficient to clothe themselves. In this way I continued to educate and send forth teachers, until 200 had gone from the Troy Seminary before one was educated in any public normal school in the United States. Thus early was my system of female education carried to every part of the country, and the school, which in 1814 was begun in Middlebury, is fairly entitled to the honor of being the first normal school in the United States."
While her school was continued in Middlebury, Mrs. Willard in- troduced a new system of instruction in geography, which she had partly written out and prepared for publication, and which was af-
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terwards published in connection with William C. Goodrich. She says also, " In the school at Middlebury, I commenced teaching Moral Philosophy from Paley's work, Miss Hemenway being my first scholar. There also was taught my first class in Intellectual Philosophy. My text book was the entire work of Locke, and my first pupil was Eliza Henshaw, now Mrs. Bushnell." While in Middlebury, she had not introduced the study of Mathematics, " although, " she says, " it was in Middlebury, that the stream of lady-mathematics took its rise, which afterwards went out from the Troy Seminary to every part of the Union. I taught drawing myself in both my Middlebury schools. I had a passion for it." "But I felt my deficiency, in not being acquainted with perspective, which I knew was the grammar of drawing. I purchased books of perspective, from which I perceived, that without geometry, per- spective must remain to me a dead letter. John Willard, since a judge, for many years, of the Supreme Court in this state, is a nephew of Dr. Willard, and was sent by him to Middlebury Col- lege, and boarded with us, I took up his Euclid, when he was from home and was fascinated with the study. Once after he returned, I said to him I was studying it; I had found no difficulty, but would like to see a little whether I understood it as he did. He sat down for about half an hour, and pronounced my learning correct. That was the sole teaching I ever had in geometry, a science which I re- gard as more than any other the plough share of the mind. I af- terwards for years taught the whole of Euclid and trigonometry, with Enfield's Institutes of Natural Philosophy." "If otherwise than as a teacher I have done any good to posterity, for which they will remember me after my decease, Middlebury will be associated with it. My theory of the circulation of the Blood, by means of respiration, now so extensively acknowledged, would never have been formed but for events occurring in Middlebury. After my marriage, Dr. Willard's office of Marshall called him to make long journeys from home. But his old medical library, with Cheselden's Anatomy to begin with, remained at home. He had a passionate attachment for these old authors, and talked to me in their language, and I kindled into his enthusiasm, and prepared myself, much to his
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delight, to respond, and to understand what he taught me, and thus I obtained some knowledge of scientific physiology and medical practice as it then stood."
We have indulged our inclination in quoting from the communi- cation of Mrs. Willard farther perhaps than some would justify as a part of the history of Middlebury. But we may be allowed to add, what will be obvious to the reader, that she has been a pioneer in female education in this country, and her incipient plans and ef- forts were adopted while she was a toacher here. Her influence has not been confined to her own personal instructions or those of the teachers whom she has raised up; but the numerous and popular books, which she has published have tended to the same object .*
After the removal of Mrs. Willard to the State of New York in 1819, no general measures were adopted for the revival of a female seminary until the spring of 1827. In the meantime independent schools for the higher branches were occasionally kept by different females. At the period above mentioned, a new effort was made to revive the school and place it on a more permanent footing. The building, which had been erected, as well as its location, was not satisfactory, and had been given up to the Addison County Gram- mar School. Besides, it was thought desirable to make it a board- ing school. The citizens came together and formed a new associa- tion and adopted a constitution and by-laws. The stock was di-
*In Barnard's American Journal of Education for March 1859, is published an article on the " Educational Services of Mrs. Emma Willard," by Prof. Henry Fowler, Rochester University N. Y., extending to more than forty pages. It con- tains a detail of her labors and success in enlarging the field and improving the system of Female Education. She has, at different times, in various addresses to the public, explained her views of the system she proposed; published very nu- merous educational books, formed on her new plans of instruction, which have been introduced into the seminaries through the country; educated a multitude of of teachers, who, having become familiar with her system, have gone forth every where to introduce it; and finally has establishod a model school, into whose exist- ence her principles are incorporated; and has by her various labors, established a character,-to use Prof. Foster's language-as a " REPRESENTATIVE WOMAN, who suitably typifies the great movement of the nineteenth century, for the elevation of woman." We cannot do justice to this article without copying the whole, which our limits will not allow.
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vided into shares and a new subscription was raised. The associa- tion was incorporated by the legislature in October 1827, by the name of the Female School Association. The constitution had pro- vided for * a board of trustees consisting of nine members, elected at the annual meeting, one third of whom shall go out of office at the end of each year." To this board was committed the general superintendence of the school. This and other provisions were sanc- tioned and legalized by the act of incorporation. In the course of that year the association had purchased the three story building erected by Hon. Daniel Chipman for a law school, and repaired and fitted it for the school boarding house. Misses Ann F. and H. B. Mahew, from Woodstock, were in 1828 employed to take charge of the school. They continued in it about a year. They were suc- ceeded by Mrs. Harriet B. Cook, widow of Milo Cook, Esq. Be- fore her marriage, as early as 1801, Miss Harriet B. Latimer had been invited to come from Middletown, Conn., and open a school at Vergennes. After her marriage, Mr. Cook removed to the State of Georgia, where Mrs. Cook was employed with her husband in teach- ing. After his death she returned to Vermont, and again opened a school at Vergennes, until she was invited to take charge of the seminary here. Under her administration, the school was in great reputation, and increased to such extent that the room which she oc- cupied in the boarding house was wholly insufficient to accommo- date it. The stockholders and others, who took additional stock, early in the year 1830, adopted measures to erect a separate build- ing for the school. The lot then owned by the association did not afford sufficient room to admit the building on the street, and it was erected in the rear of the boarding house. During the administra- tion of Mrs. Cook, Walter R. Gilkey, Esq., then carrying on the business of a saddler and harness maker, as successor of Capt. Jus- tus Foot, had charge of the boarding house. The boarders, as well as the scholars, had so greatly increased that further accommodations were required for them. On a pledge of the future income of the establishment, a few individuals undertook to erect an addition to the boarding house. Toward that object, Dr. William Bass con- tributed the lot next east of the seminary, on which stood a two
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story dwelling house, estimated st $500; Rufus Wainwright con- tributed nearly the same amount, and three others from one to three hundred dollars each. The dwelling house on the lot received from Dr. Bass was sold and removed to a lot on the same street, and is now owned by Mr. Powers. The addition at the east end of the boarding house was erected in 1831.
In August, 1834, Mrs. Cook resigned her charge of the school, and afterwards opened a school in Bloomfield, New Jersey. She was succeeded the following year by Miss Nancy Swift, who had been engaged in a school in St. Albans. The school under her ad- ministration was continued four years, with similar high repu- tation and success. Miss Swift resigned, and for several years had charge of a female school in Huntsvile, Alabama. A temporary teacher was employed during the winter, and in the spring of 1840 Rev. Lucius L. Tilden, having been dismissed as pastor of the Con- gregational church in West Rutland, on account of the failure of his health, was appointed and took charge of the seminary as prin- cipal, and was assisted by Mrs. Tilden, who had been a teacher in the school before their marriage. They had charge also of the boarding house. In the spring of 1845 Mr. Tilden resigned the charge of the school, and was succeeded in the spring of 1846 by Dr. S. P. Lathrop, who continued in charge of it until the spring of 1849. Dr. Lathrop then resigned to accept the appointment of professor in the new college at Beloit, Wisconsin, and has since died. Under the last two administrations the school sustained its high reputation, but felt the influence of the frequent changes and unset- tled state of the institution, and the increasing reputation of neigh- boring schools.
For the next two years the school was kept in operation with only temporary teachers. In 1851 Mr. S. W. Hitchcock, from Burling- ton, was employed, and designed to make it his permanent business. In the meantime new measures were adopted to make extensive al- terations and repairs of the establishment, which resulted finally in the expenditure of a large sum. At this time the school house was removed to its present position on the street, and fitted up anew. But Mr. Hitchcock was able to continue the school for only about
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one year, when his health failed, and he died in the summer of 1852.
Soon after Mr. Hitchcock's death, William F. Bascom, Esq., who had then been engaged for several years as principal of a pub- lic seminary at Potsdam, N. Y., was appointed and entered upon the duties as principal. He was assisted by Mrs. Bascom, who had been a teacher in the school previous to their marriage, and by other competent teachers. Under his administration, the number of pu- pils was large, and the reputation of the school was high. But Mr. Bascom, having in the meantime been admitted to the practice of law, in the fall of 1856, relinquished the school, and the business of instruction, for his new profession. The school was continued through the winter by Miss Eliza Merrill, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Merrill, an experienced teacher.
In the meantime, the board made an arrangement with Miss Agnes Gordon, who was formerly a resident here in the family of her father, Mr. Joseph Gordon, and is well known as a popular teacher in several states, south as well as north, and appointed. her as principal. She assumed the charge both of the school and board- ing house, and with other distinguished and competent teachers, opened the school on the 9th of March 1857. From the success, which has so far attended the school under her administration, it is anticipated that she will make it a permanent school of high re- spectability and usefulness.
The following are the present teachers, and the number will be increased as the necessities of the school shall require.
Miss AGNES GORDON, Principal and Preceptress.
Miss M. J. KNOWLES, Assistant Preceptress.
Miss E. C. LAWRENCE, Teacher of Drawing and Painting.
Prof. A. Borr, (a distinguished musican and scholar from Germany) Teacher of Music and German.
For the sake of making the faculties for acquiring an education as accessible as possible to all classes of females, it has been thought nec- essary to keep the price of tuition and board low. For this purpose the seminary needs a permanent fund of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars, in addition to the present establishment ; which, we think, would keep the buildings and furniture in repair, gradually increase
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the library and apparatus, and secure a permanent school of a high order. And this sum, or more, we hope some liberal and wealthy in- dividual will soon be induced to contribute to so important an object.
Since the above was written, we learn that the late DAVID NICH- OLS of New York, son of the late David Nichols of Middlebury, has made provision by his will for the education of females in his native town, to nearly the amount suggested above. Mr. Nichols was a young gentleman, greatly respected here for his amiable, courteous, and enterprising disposition and character ; and in this liberal provision has manifested his characteristic benevolence, and his regard for educational institutions, and the prosperity and hap- piness of the place where he spent his childhood and youth. Mr. Nichols died at Paris, France, November 27th, 1852, at the age of thirty-five years. His remains were subsequently interred at Middlebury.
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CHAPTER XXV.
ECCLESIASTICAL-EARLY LAWS FOR SUPPORTING THE GOSPEL~CON- GREGATIONAL SOCIETY-PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN-EPISCO- PAL SOCIETY-METHODIST SOCIETY-BAPTIST SOCIETY-CATHO- LIC SOCIETY.
THE doctrines respecting religious liberty and toleration, and the relations of " Church and State," which prevailed in the States, from which the immigrants came, were imported and established here. The liberty of worshiping the Supreme Being according to one's own convictions, was not denied, nor was any one forced to worship con- trary to his convictions. Religion was regarded as essential to the highest interests of the state, and therefore it was considered right for the government to require all the citizens to pay their proportion of taxes for its support, to some ecclesiastical organization. The con- tribution of each must therefore be paid to the existing organization, unless he belonged to some other, to which he contributed.
The following are the main provisions of the law existing in this state from the organization of the town until the year 1801. "When any number of the inhabitants of the town or parish, exceeding twenty-five, being of a similar sect or denomination of Christians, shall think themselves able to build a meeting house," and other- wise provide for the support of the gospel, a town meeting was to be called, and two thirds of those assembled, being not less than twenty-five, were authorized to provide for erecting a meeting house and " hire or otherwise agree with a minister to officiate as a minis- ter " of the inhabitants ; and to assess the necessary taxes to defray the expenses. And it was further provided, that every voter in town " shall be considered as being of the religious opinion and sen- timent of such society, and liable to be taxed for the purposes afore- said, unless he shall procure a certificate, signed by some minister of
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the gospel, deacon, elder, moderator or clerk of the church, con- gregation, sect or denomination, to which he belongs," making " known the person procuring the same to be of the religious opin- ion or sentiment of the signer thereof, and to what sect or denomi- nation he belongs." This certificate was to be recorded in the town clerk's office.
The Congregational was almost the only denomination known to the first immigrants, and was at first almost the only one established in this state. It was established in this town as the "standing order," taxes were assessed for its support and ministers settled by vote in town meeting, as other town business. The support of the gospel in that denomination constituted an important share of the business of those meetings, its history is a part of the history of the town, and is therefore extended beyond the limits, which would oth- erwise be assigned to it.
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