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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006559011 
 
Cornell University Library 
 LA 355.W63 
 
 A history of education in Pennsylvania, 
 
 3 1924 006 559 011 
 
lLL3& hope en. 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 Education in Pennsylvania, 
 
 PRIVATE AND PUBLIC, ELEMENTARY AND HIGHER. 
 
 FROM THE TIME THE SWEDES SETTLED ON THE DELAWARE 
 TO THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 By JAMES PYLE WICKERSHAM, LL.D., 
 
 EX-SUFERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, EX-UNITED STATES MINISTER TO DENMARK, 
 ETC.; AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL ECONOMY," " METHODS OF INSTRUCTION," ETC. 
 
 FTTBLISHEr) FOR THE A.TJTIIOR. 
 
 LANCASTER, PA.: 
 
 INQUIRER PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 1886. 
 
Copyright : 
 By JAMES PYLE WICKERSHAM. 
 
 INQUIRER PRINTING CO., 
 
 PRINTERS AND BINDERS, 
 
 LANCASTER, PA. 
 
TO 
 
 HIS FRIENDS fiND CO-LSBORERS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 WORK OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS SOLEMNLY DEDICATED, AS A LAST LEGACY, 
 BY ONE WHO HAS DEVOTED A LIFE 
 
 IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE EDUCATION UNIVERSAL AMONG THE PEOPLE; 
 BELIEVING, IN COMMON WITH ALL THOUGHTFUL MEN, 
 
 THAT THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF SUCH AN EFFORT WILT- 
 DETERMINE THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF 
 FREE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HISTORIES of educational systems and of methods of instruc- 
 tion, and statements showing the condition of education in 
 certain countries at particular times, have been written; but no com- 
 prehensive work relating in detail the efforts of a people to provide 
 for their own education, is known to exist. Certainly there is no 
 such work in the English language. The omission seems strange. 
 Surely, if the wars of nations, the intrigues of courts, the plots of 
 politicians, conspiracies and rebellions, changes in the manners and 
 customs of society, and the ups and downs of trade, are worthy of 
 record in 'historic form, some interest should attach to what has 
 been done by a people to lift themselves up by means of teachers 
 and schools from darkness to light. The time may come, though 
 it now seems distant, when the founding of a College or the organ- 
 ization of a system of instruction for a State will be considered an 
 event of as much importance as the making of a speech or the 
 fighting of a battle. It may even be found, when men and things 
 shall be more justly weighed, that the quiet schoolmaster who 
 thinks only of the task to which God seems to have appointed him, 
 will be considered a factor quite as potent in all that tends to make 
 a people great, as the soldier who so dazzles the public eye, or the 
 politician who manages to fill so much space in the periodicals of 
 the day. There is no patriotism more pure, more elevated, or more 
 deserving of recognition than that of one whose highest ambition 
 it is to store the minds of little children with knowledge, and to 
 guide their footsteps in the path of duty, for in this humble task is 
 involved all that is greatest and grandest in a State. 
 
 The History of Education in Pennsylvania is of more than ordi- 
 nary interest, as it throws a flood of light on many events that 
 intimately concern the general history of the Commonwealth. The 
 educational policy of Penn and the causes that rendered it imprac- 
 ticable, the early efforts of the several churches to establish schools, 
 what the old schools were like, Indian and Negro schools of the 
 last century, the founding of the University of Pennsylvania and 
 
 (V) 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 its connected system of charity schools, the scheme for educating 
 and Anglicizing the Germans," the introduction of public schools 
 from Connecticut into the Wyoming Valley, the gradual com- 
 mingling of nationalities and religious denominations in the estab- 
 lishment of neighborhood or common schools, the long-continued 
 but finally abortive attempt to educate the poor as a class, the great 
 fight for free schools, the measures adopted to perfect the free 
 school law, the old Academy system, the founding of the Colleges, 
 the educational revival of 1854, and the subsequent growth of the 
 system of public instruction, the education of teachers, and the 
 grand provision made for the orphans of soldiers — are topics that 
 ought to attract the attention of every patriotic Pennsylvanian, con- 
 cerning as they do the inmost life of our social and political system. 
 
 The present History was begun many years ago, and has cost a 
 vast amount of labor. That it is correct in all its details, covering 
 as they do a history of two hundred and fifty years, is not to be 
 expected, the sins of omission in particular must be numerous, and 
 some of them may appear inexcusable ; but it is believed that the 
 narrative presents, as a whole, a fair picture of what has been done 
 in Pennsylvania to educate the people. At least an honest, patient 
 effort has been made to accomplish that end. 
 
 The sources of information used in searching for the detailed 
 facts embodied in the work, were the records of the State Govern- 
 ment at Harrisburg in its several departments, the books in the 
 State Library, and the Library of the Pennsylvania Historical So- 
 ciety, of which hundreds of volumes were consulted. State and 
 county general histories, the histories and records of religious 
 societies, and of educational institutions and associations, files of 
 old newspapers, and most of all, perhaps, the recollections of old 
 men, with multitudes of whom, in all parts of the State, corres- 
 pondence was opened. A rich source of material was found in the 
 educational histories written by the County and City Superinten- 
 dents of schools, and published in the State School Report for 
 1877. The author himself attended a neighborhood school before 
 the adoption of the free school system, was a pupil in the first free 
 school opened in his native township, taught a free school as early 
 as 1 84 1, and since that time has had the amplest opportunities of 
 a personal acquaintance with the school men and school measures 
 of the whole Commonwealth. Indeed, in many of the events of 
 which he has written, he was himself an active participant. 
 
PREFACE. vji 
 
 The number and character of the sources from which materials 
 were collected for the history, render extensive references almost 
 out of the question. To give all the authorities would be to cum- 
 ber the work with much matter of Httle profit to any but the tech- 
 nical historian. Foot-notes have therefore been almost entirely 
 discarded. The sources of all the most important quotations and 
 statements are mentioned in the text ; and for the rest the author 
 holds himself responsible, having, as he thinks, done his best to 
 verify all he has written. 
 
 The plan of the History is not that of a continuous narrative of 
 contemporaneous events. The matter for treatment was first ar- 
 ranged in a series of classes or groups, and the history of each 
 written independently. Subsequently, the whole was thrown into 
 chapters, with more or less regard to their synchronous or logical 
 relations. By this method much greater simplicity and clearness 
 have been attained, but at the expense of some repetition. The 
 reader who shall discover the same fact stated in different connec- 
 tions, should attribute it rather to the imperfection of the plan, than 
 to a defect in composition, or a fault of memory. 
 
 The author is free to acknowledge his indebtedness for valuable 
 help in writing the book, to many kind friends, but as their num- 
 ber amounts to hundreds, he cannot name all, and he fears that 
 injustice would be done by naming a part. He therefore, in this 
 general way, extends his sincerest thanks to all from whom he has 
 obtained help. For some of the cuts used in the work, or assist- 
 ance in procuring them, the author is specially indebted to Major 
 Lane S. Hart, State Printer, and Dr. William H. Egle, Harrisburg ; 
 Boyd Crurarine, Esq., Washington, Pa.; Westtown Boarding 
 School, Chester county; Bethlehem Female Seminary; the Trus- 
 tees of the York Academy; Superintendent George J. Luckey, 
 Pittsburgh; Col James L. Paul, Soldiers' Orphan Department, Har- 
 risburg, and Burk & McFetridge, Philadelphia. In using cuts, 
 there has been no intention of embellishing the work for the pur- 
 pose of selling it. They are designed simply to illustrate the text, 
 and each is the representative of a class. They might have been 
 multiplied indefinitely, but additional numbers could scarcely have 
 rendered the subject either more clear or more attractive to the 
 thoughtful reader. 
 
 The work of writing the History was undertaken in the first 
 place as a labor of love, and as a labor of love it has been contin- 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 ued to the end ; and it is now sent forth with little expectation that 
 it will at once have many readers, but with the confident hope that 
 the few who care to know what the State has done in the course 
 of two hundred and fifty years for the education of its children, 
 may find in it information that will not only be a reward for their 
 trouble by adding somewhat to their knowledge, but a means of 
 increasing their patriotism, and stimulating them to renewed exer- 
 tions in behalf of a cause that is destined to lift the people up to a 
 still higher plane of civilization, and to preserve free government 
 for all the coming generations. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEGINNING. 
 
 EDUCATION AMONG THE EARLIEST SETTLERS: SWEDES, DUTCH, ENGLISH. 
 The first permanent settlements in Pennsylvania. The Swedish, Dutch and English 
 settlers. The state of education in Sweden, Holland and England at the time 
 of the first settlements on the Delaware. History of the Swedish colony. Instruc- 
 tions to Governor Printz and other rulere, concerning education. The Dutch colony, 
 and what it did for education. Evert Pietersen, the first schoolmaster. Education at 
 New Amsterdam. The English on the Delaware. No schoolhouses in Pennsylvania 
 before the year 1682. Opinions as to the intellectual condition of the colonists. The 
 churches used as schoolhouses ; the ministers acting as schoolmasters. Migratory schools. 
 The importation of A-B-C books, primers and catechisms. A schoolmaster's suit in 
 the Upland Court. The earliest provision for the caie of the insane. i-iS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION. 
 
 THE EARLY FRIENDS. WILLIAM PENN. 
 The Doctrines of Friends. George Fox. The religious and political ferment in Eng- 
 land in the time of Charles I. How Quakerism arose. The Inner Light of the 
 Friends. Its effect on their life and conduct. How it influenced their public policy. 
 Why they favor education. Persecutions suffered. Character of the Friends who fol- 
 lowed Penn to Pennsylvania. Learned men among them. Why liberal learning was 
 sometimes distrusted. George Fox's advice concerning education. George Fox's 
 Primer. Yearly Meeting of Friends in London on education. A sketch of Penn. 
 Extracts from his writings relating to education. Provisions for education in his 
 Frame of Government. 19-3S 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1682 TO 1776. 
 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION, HOW FAVORED AND WHY NEGLECTED. 
 
 Penn prepares to take possession of his Province. Markham, Deputy Governor. Penn's 
 arrival in Pennsylvania. The " Great Law." Public education provided for. Law 
 making education compulsory. This Law enforced. The Provincial authorities estab- 
 lish a school. Enoch Flower. Penn, 1689, directs thff establishment of « Public 
 Grammar School. Markham charters the Friends' Pubhc School. Early masters. 
 
 (ix) 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Petition for act of Incorporation. The Charters. Penn's Charter of 1711. Sketch of 
 the William Penn Charter School. A system of schools rather than a single institu- 
 tion the design of its founders. Thomas Budd's views on a system of education. 
 Laws relating to education enacted. Education neglected. Reasons. Pennsylvania 
 the battle-ground of discordant ideas. Heterogeneous elements must have time to mix. 
 The conflict between peace principles and war principles. A great State in process of 
 parturition. 37~S7 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1682 TO 1776. 
 
 EDUCATION PARTIALLY PUBLIC. " THE ACADEMY AND CHARITABLE SCHOOL OF THE 
 PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA," SUBSEQUENTLY THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 "THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE 
 GERMANS IN AMERICA." THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE CONNECTICUT SETTLERS 
 IN WYOMING. 
 
 The aims of the founders of the Academy. Franklin's " Education of Youth." The 
 Whitefield building occupied. The Academy becomes a College. Indian students. 
 Labors of Dr. William Smith, the Prevost. American troops in the College buildings. 
 The authorities of the College accused of disloyalty and the charter annulled. The 
 Universty of Pennsylvania incorporated. The charter restored to the College. The 
 two institutions united. The project of providing a system of education for the Ger- 
 mans in America. Rev. Michael Schlatter, Dr. William Smith's labors in England 
 in behalf of such a system. The Society for prop^ating Christian knowledge among 
 the Germans in America organized at London. Trustees appointed in Pennsylvania. 
 Schlatter, Superintendent of Schools. Schools established in divers places. Local 
 trustees. Reports of success. Opposition to the scheme. Christopher Sower and his 
 newspaper. The Friends stand aloof. Dr.- Smith Superintendent. The scheme 
 abandoned. The public schools of Wyoming Valley. Provision made for establish- 
 ing them as early as 1768. Three shares in each township set apart for school and 
 church purposes. School meetings. Influence on subsequent State school legislation. 
 Timothy Pickering, of Luzerne, in the Constitutional Convention of 1790. 5^-77 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. SWEDES. FRIENDS. EPISCOPALIANS. 
 The State neglects education ; the church makes provision for it. The Swedes after the 
 Revolutionary War. Their schools and teachers. The attempt to maintain separate 
 schools abandoned. The Friends. Christopher Taylor's school on Tinicum island. 
 Early Friends' schools in Delaware county, Germantown, Bucks and Montgomery 
 counties. The Yearly Meeting on Education. Its oft-repeated appeals. Outline of 
 the educational policy of Friends. Increased interest in the subject. Schools estab- 
 lished in Philadelphia and the counties of Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, 
 Berks, Lancaster, York. Schools of an advanced grade. Westtown Boarding School. 
 Westtown as a school for teachers. Schools endowed by Friends. The first Episco- 
 pahans in Pennsylvania. Their hopes of a State church and with it schools under 
 church control. The school connected with Christ church, Philadelphia. The Trinity 
 Church school. The school at St. Paul's church, Chester. Other early schoob. 
 Episcopalians as teachers and as friends of education. The Protestant Episcopal 
 Academy at Philadelphia and the Academy at York. 78-99 
 
COA TENTS. xi 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. BAPTISTS. PRESBYTERIANS. 
 CATHOLICS. METHODISTS. 
 1 he first Baptist settlers in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia Baptist Association. The oldest 
 Baptist churches. Schools in connection with them. Hopewell Academy, New Jersey, 
 supported by Pennsylvania Baptists. Pennsylvania Baptists take first steps towards 
 founding Brown University, Rhode Island. Classical school at Lower Dublin. 
 Lower Dublin Academy. Columbia College, Washington, D. C, started in Philadel- 
 phia. The Presbyterian church and education in Scotland. The parish schools. 
 Scotch Irish settlers in Pennsylvania. They establish churches and schools. Early 
 Presbyterian schools in Philadelphia and in Bucks, Delaware, Chester, Lancaster, 
 Northampton, Dauphin, York, Cumberland, Franklin, and other counties. A teacher 
 and his pupils murdered by Indians in Franklin county. The Presbyterians unite 
 with their neighbors in establishing common schools. The Presbyterians and higher 
 education. Tennent's old " Log College " in Bucks county. Similar schools in 
 Chester, Lancaster, Franklin, Adams and Washington. The policy of the Catholic 
 Church in relation to education. School in connection with St. Joseph's church, Phila- 
 delphia. Other schools in Philadelphia. Early Catholic school at Goshenhoppen, Berks 
 county. Catholic schools in Adams. Catholic schools in Westmoreland and Cam- 
 bria. The Methodist church and elementary schools. The children of Methodists 
 at the neighborhood and public schools. The Methodists support public schools. The 
 Methodist Church warmly in favor of education. Large sums raised in its support. 
 Broad policy adopted by the General Conference. Methodist Colleges and Seminar- 
 ies. Early Methodists in favor of industrial education. 100-121 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. THE GERMAN SETTLERS. 
 THE REFORMED AND LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 
 Penn and other Friends in Germany. Character of the German immigrants to Penn- 
 sylvania. Alarm created by their numbers. The Reformed and Lutheran churches 
 accustomed to provide instruction for the young in the Fatherland. The relation of 
 church and school. The schoolmaster. The first German schools in Pennsylvania. 
 Why so few. John Philip Boehm, George Michael Weiss, George Stiefel, John Peter 
 Miller, John Bechtel, John Jacob Hock, and Daniel Schroeder as preachers and 
 schoolmasters. Conrad Weiser, a schoolmaster. Schools at Tulpehocken, Oley, 
 Kreutz Creek, Long Swamp, Moselem, New Providence, Swamp church, Lehigh 
 county, and the Reformed church, Philadelphia'. The backward state of education. 
 Daniel Weisiger sent to Europe by the Lutherans to procure aid for churches and 
 schools. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg comes to Pennsylvania. The University at 
 Halle and Dr. Francke. Muhlerlberg as preacher and teacher. His assistants, Brun- 
 holtz, Schaum, and Kurtz. Schlatter's labors. Teachers brought from Germany. 
 Schools multiply. Schools in connection with the Reformed and Lutheran churches 
 in Philadelphia. Schools in Germantown and in the counties of Lancaster, Bucks, 
 Montgomery, Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, Lebanon, York, Somerset, Perry, Centre 
 and Union. Old contracts with teachers, and rules for the management of schools. 
 Academy at Germantown. Kunze's German Seminary. German private schools in 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 Philadelphia. German influence in the College of Philadelphia. German Society of 
 Pennsylvania in relation to education. Franklin College at Lancaster established for 
 the Germans. 122-147 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CH0KCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. MORAVIANS. PLAIN, NON-RESISTANT 
 GERMAN DENOMINATIONS: MENNONITES, AMISH, SCHWENCKFELDERS, DUNKERS, 
 SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS, ECONOMITES OR SEPARATISTS. 
 
 Early history of the Moravian Brethren. Their interest in Education. Comenius. Per- 
 secutions. Count Zinzendorf. The Moravians in Georgia. They come ■ to Pennsyl- 
 vania. They engage to construct a building for Whitefield's Negro School at Naza- 
 reth, purchase it from him, and settle in the neighborhood. The Moravian "Econ- 
 omy." Boarding Schools. Schools at Germantovvn, Nazareth, Bethlehem. Acre- 
 lius on Moravian schools. Schools at Oley, Emmaus, Lancaster, Litiz, etc. Indians 
 attend the Moravian schools. Nazareth Hall. Seminary at Bethlehem. Linden 
 Hall at Litiz. John Beck and his school for boys. Origin of the plain, non-resistant 
 German denominations who settled in Pennsylvania. An outline of their faith. Their 
 persecution. Learned men among them. As a body they favor elementary educa- 
 tion. Why opposed to higher education. The Mennonites. Settlement at German- 
 town. Send for books for their children. Schools at Germantown and Skippack. 
 Christopher Dock. Schools in Montgomery and Lehigh. Swiss Mennonites in Lan- 
 caster. Schools in Lancaster and surrounding counties. Amish. Home education 
 among them. Schwenckfelders. Their origin. Caspar de Schwenckfeldt. Books 
 in Latin common among the early Schwenckfelders. Books transcribed. A High 
 School established. Sunday-schools, Dunkers. Their origin. Learning among the 
 early Dunker settlers. Christopher Sower, the father. Christopher Sower, the son. 
 The latter's views on education. Dunkers prominent in founding Germantown Acad- 
 emy. Opposition to higher education. A change in this respect. Seventh-Day Bap- 
 tists. Conrad Beissel. Ephrata. The printing office. The school. Ludwig Hocker. 
 Hocker's text-books. The Sunday-school at Ephrata. Separatists. George Rupp. 
 Economy and its school and museum. 148-177 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS. THE TRANSITION FROM CHURCH TO FREE SCHOOLS. 
 NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS INTERMEDIATE. 
 
 The origin of neighborhood schools. Church schools impracticable in thinly-settled dis- 
 tricts. Few church schools in Western Pennsylvania. A union in school interests 
 follows a union in other respects. ' Multiplication of neighborhood schools after the 
 Revolutionary War. Their numbers. McMaster mistaken. Significance of the 
 movement. Character of the early neighborhood schools. Doors open to poor chil - 
 dren without pay. How such schools were established. A schoolhouse built in a 
 day. Leaders in school matters. Jacob Ake. Neighborhood schools in Delaware, 
 Lancaster, Cumberland, Carbon, McKean, Centre, Washington, Susquehanna. The 
 reports of County Superintendents quoted. How the New England settlers in the 
 Northern tier of counties provided themselves with schools. An example of « Rules 
 and Regulations." Higher branches sometimes taught. An example of an agree- 
 ment between trustees and teacher. 178-186 
 
CONTENTS. jjiii 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 SCHOOLHOUSES AND SCHOOL FURNITURE. BRANCHES TAUGHT. TEXT-BOOKS AND 
 APPARATUS. METHODS AND DISCIPLINE. 
 Early schoolhouses in the counties of Chester, Franklin, Clearfield, Clarion, Mercer, Erie, 
 Huntingdon, Centre, Indiana, Washington, Allegheny, etc. Reading about the only 
 branch taught in the earliest schools. The catechism as a branch of instruction. The 
 early primers as much church as school books. The Psalter and' Bible as readers.. 
 Writing introduced into schools. Girls not allowed to learn to write. Paper, ink, 
 and pens in early times. Arithmetic taught without books. When Geography and 
 Grammar were introduced as branches of instruction. Primers brought from Europe 
 by the early settlers. The Hornbook. George Fox's Primer. Anthony Benezet's 
 Primer and Spelling Book. The New England Primer. Other Primers, English and 
 German. Dilworth's Spelling Book. Webster's Spelling Book. Murray's and 
 Comly's Spelling Books. Other Spelling Books. Readers. Dilworth's, Cough's 
 Jess' and DaboU's Arithmetics. More modern Arithmetics. German Arithmetics. 
 The whole circle of sciences in a single book. Early Geographies. Grammars pub- 
 lished in England brought to Pennsylvania. Early American Grammars. Want of 
 classification in the early schools. Memory overworked. How the alphabet was 
 taught. " Spelling on the book." " Spelling off the book." Beginners in reading. 
 Writing in the old schools. Arithmetic taught without books. " Cyphering books." 
 No classes in Arithmetic. Needle-work for girls. Good manners in the old schools. 
 Religious instruction. Severity of the discipline. Rods. Long lists of rules. Tricks 
 on schoolmasters. Punishments. Harshness of the times some excuse for severe dis- 
 cipline in school. The advantage of individual instruction. 187-209 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOLMASTERS. EARLY VIEWS OF EDUCATION. FRANKLIN'S. 
 DR. rush's. CHRISTOPHER SOWER'S. 
 
 Few schoolmistresses employed. Classes of schoolmasters. Distinguished men who 
 began their career as schoolmasters. Poor inducement to make teaching a business 
 for life. Rowland Jones. David James Dove. John Todd. Anthony Benezet, 
 John Downey, Walter R. Johnson, Dr. John M. Keagy, Ludwig Hocker, Christopher 
 Dock, Andrew McMinn, Thomas Neill, Baron Stiegel, Andrew Forsythe, Mrs. Mary 
 Paxon, Miss Eliza Finch, Patrick Doyle, Robert Williams. Dr. Franklin's "Sketch 
 of an English School." Dr. Rush's " Plan for Establishing Public Schools," " Mode 
 of Education'proper in a Republic" and " Branches of Literature Most Essential for 
 a young lady in this Country." Christopher Sower's " Remarks on the Education of 
 Youth." ■ 210-237 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RACE EDUCATION. 
 
 EARLY EFFORTS TO EDUCATE THE INDIANS. SCHOOLS FOR NEGROES. 
 The Jesuit Fathers and the Indians. The I^abors of John Eliot. What was done by 
 the Swedes. Penn's treatment of the Indians. The efforts of the Friends to instruct 
 and civilize them. Thomas Watson's Indian school. Corn Planter places Indian 
 
siv CONTENTS. 
 
 children in the hands of Philadelphia Friends to be educated. Schools established 
 among the Oneida, Tuscarora, Stockbridge and Seneca Indians by Friends. Indian 
 boys taught trades, Indian girls taught to sew and spin. Indian school in Warren 
 county. Letter of thanks from Indians for State aid in maintaining their school. 
 Moravians active in educating the Indians. They establish an Indian school in 
 Georgia. Indian schools at Gnadenhiitten, Friedenshutten and Friedensstadt. 
 School books in the Indian languages prepared at Bethlehem. The Indians in- 
 structed in various trades and the arts of civilized life. Brainerd's work among the 
 Indians. Negro slavery in Pennsylvania. Negroes bought and sold in Philadelphia. 
 White slavery. Duty on the importation of negroes. The Germans opposed to sla- 
 very. The Friends the first Abolitionists. The Episcopalians undertake the instruc- 
 tion of negroes by means of catechists. Dr. Bray's negro schools. Whitefield's pro- 
 jected negro school at Nazareth. Friends' schools for negroes. Anthony Benezet as 
 a teacher of negro children. The Adelphi Schools. Institute for Colored Youth. 
 The school of the Abolition Society. The Presbyterians aid in educating the negro. 
 The negroes establish schools of their own. Colored children are admitted to schools 
 for white children. Negro education in Harrisburg ; in Pittsburgh. Emlen Institute, 
 Bucks county. 23S-254 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR AS A CLASS. I776 TO 183I. 
 Education at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. Education in the Constitution 
 of 1776. An educational revival after the war. Sixty thousand acres of land appro- 
 priated to endow public schools. The article on education in the Constitution of 179O- 
 Proceedings concerning it in the Convention. Timothy Pickering, of Luzerne, the 
 champion of free schools. How the educational provision of the Constitution of 1790 
 was generally understood. Free schools not unconstitutional. Activity respecting 
 higher education. Colleges ajid Academies established and aided by the State. Mes- 
 sages of Governor Mifflin. The school question in the Legislature. A free school 
 system almost adopted in 1794. Governor McKean urges the Legislature to make 
 better provision for education. The Acts 1802, 1804 and 1809. Long-continued 
 effort to provide for the education of the poor as a class. Governors Snyder, Findlay, 
 Hiester, and Shulze on education. All in search of something better than the law of 
 1809. The Philadelphia Acts of 1812 and 1818. The Act of 1821 authorizing the 
 counties of Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster and Allegheny to instruct poor children 
 in schools by themselves. The Act of 1822 constituting Lancaster city and incorpor- 
 ated boroughs of the county the " Second School District." The character of the 
 Lancasterian schools. The passage of the free school Act of 1824, and its repeal in 
 1826. Agitation kept up by the free school men in the Legislature. Committee 
 reports. Documents showing the results of the law of 1809. The plan of educating 
 the poor as a class in Pennsylvania the same in principle as the rate-bills of other States. 
 
 255-276 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EARLY EDUCATION IN PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 PRIVATE SCHOOLS. LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLS. PREPARING THE WAY 
 FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 
 
 rhomas Holme on the schools of Philadelphia in 1696. Gabriel Thomas on the schools 
 of Philadelphia in 1698. One hundred teachers in Philadelphia in 1785. Old school- 
 masters. John Poor's Young Ladies' Academy. Madam Sigoigne's School for 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Young Ladies. Alexander Wilson's school at Kingsessing. Church schools in iSlo. 
 Sunday-schools for indigent children in 1790. Ann Parrish and the Aimwell School 
 Association. Philadelphia Society for the Establishment and Support of Charity 
 Schools. Thomas Scattergood and his schools. Joseph Lancaster and his method of 
 education. The new method introduced into Philadelphia. Lancaster comes to Phil- 
 adelphia and takes charge of the Model School. Infant School Societies. Roberts 
 Vaux a prime-mover in their establishment. Infant schools incorporated into the public 
 Lancasterian schools. History of the law of 1818. Public but not free schools es- 
 tablished by that law. Free schools adopted in 1836. The Lancasterian schools a 
 stepping-stone from private to free schools. The first Normal School in the United 
 States established in Philadelphia. High School established. Growth of the public 
 schools. 277-289 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 
 
 EVENTS THAT LED TO THE STRUGGLE. FREE SCHOOLS THE RESULT OF A CENTURY AND 
 A HALF OF EFFORT. ROBERTS VAUX AND HIS CO-WORKERS. GOVERNOR GEORGE 
 WOLF. SENATOR SAMUEL BRECK. THE FREE SCHOOL LAW OF 1 834. 
 
 Educational events in 1 83 1. Extracts from Governor Wolfs message. School men in 
 the Legislature. Petitions in favor of free schools. Report of the Committee on 
 Education. Act of 1831 establishing a school fund. Stages in the evolution of the 
 free school system. The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools. 
 Value of its services to the cause of popular education. School meetings at Carlisle, 
 at Strasburg, Washington and Philadelphia. Governor Wolf on the establishment of 
 a system of general education in 1832. Dr. Samuel Anderson's report. The Legis- 
 lature does little for education. Governor Wolf re-elected. The Senate in 1833 anti- 
 free school. Clarkson's report in the House. The Committee's bill. Its failure. Propo- 
 sition to establish a Manual Labor Academy. The Report of Samuel M'Kean, Sec- 
 retary of the Commonwealth. 1834, the free school men bring on the struggle in the 
 Legislature. Governor Wolf in the front of the fight. Senator Breck. His Joint 
 Committee on Education. Progress of the struggle. Breck's Journal showing in de- 
 tail how the school law of 1834 was passed. Dr. George Smith on the enactment of 
 the free school law. The views of others who witnessed its passage. Passed with 
 little open opposition. The provisions of the law. 290-316 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. 
 
 THE EFFORT TO REPEAL THE LAW OF 1834. THE CLASSES OPPOSED TO IT. THEIR 
 GROUNDS OF OPPOSITION. THE QUESTION IN POLITICS. GOVERNOR WOLF STANDS 
 FIRM. PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. STRUGGLE IN THE HOUSE. THE FREE 
 SCHOOLS SAVED. STEVENS. 
 
 The law of 1834 not fully understood at the time of its passage. Fierce opposition 
 awakened. Nearly half the school districts in the State refuse to enforce it. War 
 between the school and anti-school men. Where the law was most in favor, and where 
 most opposed. Who opposed it, and why. The provisions of the law obscure. The 
 vote of the school districts on the question of accepting or rejecting the system. Anti- 
 school men elected to the Legislature. The storm of opposition seems resistless. 
 Governor Wolf, unmindful of the danger to himself, stands by the law. Superinten- 
 dent Findlay and his leport. Threatening movements in the Senate. The law of 
 
5jyj CONTENTS. 
 
 1834 repealed in that body, nineteen to eleven. Thirteen Senators vote against the 
 law they voted for the year before. An attempt to substitute the New England sys- 
 tem of public education defeated. The House more friendly to free schools than the 
 Senate. The Speaker. The Committee on Education. Prelimmary skirmishmg. 
 The Senate bill received, and the struggle begun. The deluge of petitions for jrepeal. 
 The report of the special Committee appointed to examine them. The fight in the 
 Committee of the Whole. A substitute for the Senate bill adopted. The prolonged 
 and bitter struggle of April II, 1835. The free school men triumphant. The law of 
 1834 saved and strengthened. Thaddeus Stevens the leader of the free school forces. 
 His speech printed on silk in Reading. Sketch of Stevens. Testimony to the ser- 
 vices he rendered the cause of education. Extracts from his speech on free schools. 
 Extracts from his speech in 1838 on endowing Colleges, Academies, and Female 
 Seminaries. A letter written by him in 1864. 3^7-33° 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 YEARS OF ORGANIZATION. 
 
 WOLF. FINDLAY. DR. GEORGE SMITH. LAW OF 1836. PECULIAR FEATURES OF THE 
 PENNSYLVANIA COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM. RITNER. BURROWES. THE WORK OF 
 ORGANIZATION. 
 
 Governor Wolf nominated for a third term, but defeated at the polls. A martyr to his 
 free school principles. Joseph Ritner elected Governor. Wolf's farewell words. 
 Superintendent Findlay's second report. Dr. George Smith. Dr. Smith the author 
 of the law of 1836. This law the real foundation of our common school system. Its 
 provisions. High School established in Philadelphia. Peculiar features of our school 
 system. Joseph Ritner. A staunch free school man. Manfully takes up the burden 
 that weighed down his predecessor. Courageously recommends increased appropria- 
 tions for schools. At the age of eighty years, an active friend of education. Thomas 
 H. Burrowes. Crude opinions of his first report. Rapid grovrth in knowledge of 
 school affairs. The great organizer of the school system. Letters. Reports. Forms 
 and instructions. Work accomplished. Visiting counties. Plans to improve the 
 system. Ritner defeated, and Burrowes retires from the Superintendency. 339-355 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. 
 
 FROM 1838 TO 1852. GOVERNORS: PORTER, SHUNK, JOHNSTON. SUPERINTENDENTS: 
 SKUNK, PARSONS, McCLURE, MILLER, HAINES, RUSSELL. 
 
 The school system a fixed fact. Brief mention of education in the Governors' messages. 
 All the Superintendents from 1838 to 1852 lawyers and politicians. No professional 
 work undertaken. The law wisely construed. Sketch of Francis R. Shunk. His 
 second report remarkably able. The low salaries of teachers deprecated. The prep- 
 aration of a manual for the teachers of primary schools advocated. Normal Schools 
 recommended. The State to be divided into Normal School districts, not exceeding 
 five. School libraries proposed. Sketch of Anson V. Parsons. Recommends that 
 the pupils in the public schools able to pay tuition fees, should be required to do so. 
 Favors Normal Schools, but thinks High Schools can be established at less expense. 
 Advocates a uniform course of study throughout the State, and names a series of text- 
 books. Sketch of Charles McClure. Recommends the publication of current decis- 
 ions, etc., in the Common School Journal, published by John S. Hart. With Porter 
 he thinks the offices of Secretary of the Commonwealth and Superintendent of 
 Common Schools should be separated. Sketch of Jesse Miller. A warm friend of 
 
CONTENTS. xvii 
 
 public education. The office of County Superintendent recommended. Sketch of 
 Townsend Haines, Defects of the school system pointed out. Remedies proposed. 
 Sketch of Alexander L. Russell. Recommends the appointment of a school superin- 
 tendent in each Congressional district, and the establishment of a great agricultural 
 school. Laws relating to schools passed between 1838 and 1852. Non-accepting 
 districts in 1845. The school system made general in 1848. The law of 1849. 
 Policy concerning graded and high schools. Statistics of the school system from 1838 
 to 1852. Improvement unsatisfactory. Tribute to faithful school directors. 356-374 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE STATE IN RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO PROVIDE HIGHER EDUCATION. THE EARLY COLLEGES, AND 
 THE STATE AID THEY RECEIVED. GRANTS MADE TO THE EARLY ACADEMIES AND 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. LAW OF 1 838 IN FAVOR OF HIGHER EDUCATION. ITS GRAND 
 PURPOSE, AND ITS GOOD EFFECTS WHILE IN FORCE. 
 
 Penn's purpose respecting education. A public school in the old English sense. The 
 Friends' Public School in Philadelphia. The object in founding the Academy and ' 
 Charitable school of the Province of Pennsylvania. Colleges incorporated from 1783 
 to 1836. State grants to these institutions. List of the Academies or Public Schools 
 chartered and endowed by the State from the close of the Revolutionary war to the 
 time the free school system went into operation. Failure of the Colleges as schools 
 for teachers. The old County Academies. Their failure as a scheme of public edu- 
 cation. Authorities quoted to that effect. Higher education under the law of 1838. 
 A comprehensive system of education in all its grades proposed. Academies and 
 Seminaries chartered. Payments made under the law. List of institutions receiving 
 aid. The law prematurely repealed. The disastrous effects. Abortive attempt to 
 revive it. Honor to the school men of 1838. The provision made for female educa- 
 tion. Liberal charters granted. 375-39° 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania. Dickinson College. Franklin, Marshall, Franklin and 
 Marshall. Jefferson, Washington, Washington and Jefferson. Allegheny. Western 
 Univereity of Pennsylvania. Lafayette. Pennsylvania. University of Lewisburg. The. 
 Western Colleges : Waynesburg and Westminster. The two Quaker Colleges : Haver- 
 ford and Swarthmore. Colleges for colored men : Avery College, Lincoln Univer- 
 sity, African College The Catholic Colleges : Villa Nova, St. Vincent, St. Francis, 
 St. Joseph's, La Salle, Germantown Day College, College of the Holy Ghost. Lehigh 
 University. A group of young Colleges : Muhlenburg, Moravian, Lebanon Valley, 
 Palatinate, Ursinus, Thiel, Monongahela, Geneva. Some dead Colleges : Madison, 
 Bristol, Haddington, and others. The higher education of women. 391-428 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 
 
 WHAT PENNSYLVANIA HAS DONE FOR HER FARMERS, MECHANICS, AND ARTISTS. 
 PROVISION MADE FOR THE DEPENDENT CLASSES. 
 Universal education coupled with manual labor. Manual Labor Schools. Their fail- 
 ure. Franklin Institute. James Gowen's school for farmers. The Farmers' High 
 
xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 School, now tlie State College. Girard College for Orphans. The Military Academy 
 at Chester. The Wagner Free Institute of Science. Spring Garden Institute, Phila- 
 delphia. Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. The Philadelphia and 
 and Pittsburgh Schools of Design for Women. National School of Elocution and 
 Oratory. Commercial or Business Colleges. The Indian School at Carlisle. The In- 
 stitution for the Deaf and Dumb at Philadelphia. The Institution for the Deaf and 
 Dumb at Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind. The Pennsylvania 
 Training School for Feeble-minded Children. 429-445 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 SECONDARY EDUCATION. 
 
 ACADEMIES, FEMALE SEMINARIES, AND BOARDING SCHOOLS. 
 Academies, Female Seminaries, and Boarding Schools in the counties of Adams, Alle.- 
 gheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Berks, Blair, Bradford, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, 
 Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Crawford, 
 Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, 
 Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Leba- 
 non, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, 
 Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Potter, Philadelphia, Schuyl- 
 kill, Snyder, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Venango, Warren, 
 Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland, Wyoming, York. 446-493 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL, 1852 TO 1857. 
 
 BIGLER, HUGHES, BLACK, DIEFFENBACH. POLLOCK, CURTIN, HICKOK. 
 Unsatisfactory condition of the schools in 1852. Peculiar obstacles that stood in the way 
 of the development of the free school system. Reform demanded. Convention of 
 the friends of education at Harrisburg. Educational Associations and Teachers' Insti- 
 tutes spring up. Pennsylvania School Journal started. The State Teachers' Associ- 
 ation organized. Early meetings at Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster. Sketch 
 of Governor William Bigler. His efforts in behalf of public education. What he 
 risked in supporting the bill of 1854. Sketches of Superintendents Francis W. Hughes 
 and Charles A. Black. Hughes' report for 1852. Defects in the law pointed out. 
 A pamphlet of decisions, instructions and forms issued. Sketch of Henry L. Dieffen- 
 bach. His work in the School Department. Hughes' school bill of 1853. Sub- 
 mitted to the Legislature, but not considered. How it differed from the bill of 1854. 
 By whom the improvements were made. Dr. Jonas R. McClintock in charge of the 
 bill of 1 854 in the Senate. The County Superintendency bitterly opposed, but passed 
 by one majority. Robert E. Monaghan in charge of the bill in the House. His skill- 
 ful generalship. The bill passed finally and signed by the Governor. An adminis- 
 b-ation, but not a party measure. The new features of the Act of 1854. A great step 
 in advance. Dieffenbach, Deputy Superintendent. The first County Superintendents. 
 The conventions of school directors opposed to the office. The first meeting of the 
 County Superintendents. Superintendent Black in hU last report expounds and sus- 
 tains the County Superintendency. First reports of the County Superintendents. The 
 attack on the office. Change in the State administration. Pollock, Curtin, and 
 Hickok, instead of Bigler, Black, and Dieffenbach. Sketch of Governor James Pol- 
 lock^ His devotion to the interests of education. Sketch of Superintendent Andrew 
 G. Curtin. His reports. His plan for establishing State Normal Schools. Sketch 
 
C0^ TENTS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 of Deputy Superintendent Henry C. Hickok. Hickok, the working-head of the sys- 
 tem. The School Journal made the official organ of the Department. The Courts 
 granted power to establish independent school districts. The School separated from 
 the State Department. State Normal Schools established. Credit deserved by the 
 administration. The County Superintendency in the Legislature of 1855. Petitions 
 in favor of its abolition. Bill to repeal the law. Convention of County Superinten- 
 dents. Governor Pollock and Senator McClintock plant themselves firmly against 
 repeal. The House of Representatives overthrows the Superintendency, but the Senate 
 saves it. Results of the first three years of the office. 494-526 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ADJUSTING THE WORK, 1857 TO 1866. 
 
 INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DEPARTMENT. HICKOK. SULLIVAN. GOVERNOR PACKER. 
 BURROWES. BATES. COBURN. 
 The system complete; work demanded. Law no longer in danger. School separated 
 from State Department. Hickok State Superintendent. Was the separation wise? 
 New rooms assigned the Department. John M. Sullivan. The Governor of the 
 Commonwealth no longer an important factor in the work of education. Governor 
 Packer recommends a comprehensive Department of Public Instruction. His timely 
 vetoes. School legislation during Hickok's administration. Hickok's reports. His 
 office-work. His work outside of the Depaitment. Burrowes again at the head of 
 the school system. Not at his best during his second term. Reports. Proposes that 
 the County Superintendents should be appointed by the State Superintendent. His 
 supplement of 1862. His decisions and the Digest of School Laws. What he did 
 to raise the standard of teachers' qualifications. His school visitations. Sketch of 
 Samuel P. Bates. Dr. Bates as an Institute Instructor, and as "Traveling Agent" of 
 the Department. Sketch of Charles R. Coburn. His characteristics as a school offi- 
 cer. Compelled to remove the books and records of the Department to Philadelphia. 
 The Coburn reports. The legislation of 1863-4—5. Office and out-door work of 
 State officers. Second election of County Superintendents in 1857. Old officers re- 
 elected. New men chosen. Elections of i860 and 1863. Superintendents distin- 
 guished for lengtli of service. Conventions of County Superintendents at Reading, 
 Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. Reports of the County Superintendents. Normal School 
 movements. Millersville, Edinboro, Mansfield. State Normal School reports. State 
 Teachers' Association. The Legislature at Millersville. Educational convention at 
 Harrisburg. National Educational Association organized at Philadelphia in 1857, and 
 meets at Harrisburg in 1865. Soldiers' Orphan Schools. The multiplication of graded 
 schools. School statistics. War checked the growth of schools. Teachers in the army. 
 
 527-550 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE ERA OF GROWTH, 1866 TO 1881. 
 
 WICKERSHAM SUPERINTENDENT. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENTS, HOUCK, CURRY, 
 LINDSEY. PENNSYLVANIA TO THE FRONT. 
 The new start after the war. Sketch of James P. Wickersham. Takes command of 
 the educational forces of the State, and prepares for a forward movement. Great 
 pro<n-ess made. Report of 1866. Plan for a closer union among all classes of educa- 
 tional institutions, and \ for the enlargement of the School Department. Prominent 
 topics discussed in succeeding reports. County, City and Borough Superintendents, 
 and their meetings. Tribute to these officials. The Act of 1867. School directors 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 empowered to seize land for sites for schoolhouses. Teachers' Institutes made obli- 
 gatory. The City and Borough Superintendency instituted. The grade of teachers' 
 certificates raised. The teachers' profession placed in the hands of teachers. None 
 but teachers of high rank to be elected Superintendents of schools. Experiment of 
 county uniformity of text-books. The blot of non-accepring school districts wiped out. 
 The school term raised from four to five months. The salaries of County Superinten- 
 dents fixed by law. Projects of the Department that failed. The text-book bill of 
 1874. Normal Schools recognized : Kutztown, Bloomsburg, West Chester, Ship- 
 pensburg, California, Indiana, Lock Haven. Restrictions imposed on their manage- 
 ment. Reorganization of the School Department. Sketch of Henry Houck. Sketch 
 of Robert Curry. Sketch of William A. Lindsey. Office-work of the Department. 
 Work in the field. The Superintendent of Common Schools a member of the legis- 
 lative Committee that prepared the bill for the establishment of the Board of State 
 Charities. The School Journal in new hands. Its power as an educational agency. 
 The Soldiers' Orphan Schools placed in the hands of the Superintendent of Common 
 Schools. Education in the Constitutional Convention of 1873-4. The Department 
 active in securing the result. The Superintendent of Common Schools becomes 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Pennsylvania educational display at the 
 Centennial Exposition. The State Superintendent in Europe. Foreigners seeking 
 educational light in Pennsylvania. Tables of results. Dr. E. E. Higbee appointed 
 Superintendent. Re-appointed, 1885. The system in safe hands. 551-385 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 CHILDREN ORPHANED BY THE WAR MAINTAINED AND EDUCATED. 
 Pennsylvania characterized by works of charity. The thousands of soldiers' orphans 
 cared for, and the millions of dollars expended for the purpose. Governor Curtin's 
 message, 1864. The fifty thousand dollars of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 
 The thought, of a Thanksgiving Day. Dead soldiers' children must not be reduced 
 to beggary. A bill providing for Soldiers' Orphan Schools prepared at the Governor's 
 suggestion. Provisions. The bill defeated in the House. A substitute adopted. 
 The schools started with the contribution of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Thomas H. 
 Burrowes appointed Superintendent. His plan of organizing the schools. The first 
 steps taken in carrying the plan into effect. The earliest schools. Difficulty with 
 children over the age of ten years. Pioneer schools of the advanced grade. Burrowes' 
 first report. The Governor's message. The appropriation for the schools defeated in 
 the House, but saved in the Senate. Dr. Wilmer Worthington at the head of its 
 friends. Senators Wallace and Clymer stand by his side. The year 1865 and its 
 trials. The schools pass through a period of darkness. The House again refuses 
 money for the schools, and the Senate wavers. The orphan children go to Harris- 
 burg, and overcome all opposition. 1(300,000 granted. The system extended and 
 improved. John W. Geary, Governor. Burrowes retires. George F. McFariand, 
 Superintendent. Sketch of Col. McFariand. The law of 1867 regulating the orphan 
 schools. Its authorship. Inspectors. Clerks. McFarlands administration. Loss 
 of public confidence. The system in danger in consequence. The Superintendent of 
 Common Schools in charge of the soldiers' orphans, 1871. Improvements made by 
 Superintendent Wickersham. The system regains public confidence and grows 
 stronger. John F. Hartranft, Governor. Soldiers' orphans at the inauguration. 
 Wickersham retires in 1881, and is succeeded by Dr. E. E. Higbee. Historical and 
 statistical tables. i;86-6oi: 
 
CONTENTS. xxi 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 EARLY EFFORTS TO EDUCATE TEACHERS. COLLEGES AS TEACHERS' SEMINARIES. 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS. 
 Teachers must be taught. The University of Pennsylvania as a teachers' school. West- 
 town Boarding School engages in the work of preparing teachers. A special depart- 
 ment for teachers established at Nazareth Hall. Dr. Benjamin Rush on preparing 
 teachers. The Colleges that received appropriations from the State on the condition 
 of preparing teachers for the common schools. Lafayette establishes a teachers' 
 course and a model school. Haverford paitially designed for a. teachers' Seminary. 
 The Model School in Philadelphia the first teachei-s' school in the United States. The 
 Philadelphia Normal School for girls. Walter R. Johnson on schools for teachers. 
 The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools proposes a Normal 
 School in each Congressional district. Governor Wolf advocates measures to secure 
 good teachers. Normal School Sections in the school bill of 1834. Alexander Dallas 
 Bache and Lemuel Stephens on Normal Schools in Europe. All the early State Super- 
 intendents recommend schools for teachers. Some early popular movements to estab- 
 lish teachers' schools. Normal School Sections in the school bills of 1853 and 1854. 
 The County Superintendency preparing the way for Normal Schools. The Normal 
 School bill of 1857. Its passage and leading features. Strength and weakness. The 
 State Normal Schools: Millersville, Edinboro, Mansfield, Kutztown, Bloomsburg, 
 West Chester, Shippensburg, California, Indiana, Lock Haven. Historical and statis- 
 tical tables relating to the Normal Schools. 606-641 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 
 
 AGENCIES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS: ASSOQATIONS, INSTITUTES, 
 MAGAZINES, BOOKS. 
 
 How the teachers' profession grew. No organization of teachers for more than a hun- 
 dred years after the colony was founded. The first organizations of a social character. 
 Early associations of teachers in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Association of Prin- 
 cipals of Public Schools, and the Philadelphia Teachers' Institute. The "School- 
 masters' Synod " atAUentown. The " Pennsylvania Lyceum." " Teachers' Associa- 
 tion of Adams County." Convention of teachers at Carlisle. Teachers' Associations 
 of the decade from 1845 '° '^SS- The State Teachers' Association. Educational 
 Association of Northern Pennsylvania. Western Teachers' Association. The Teach- 
 ers' Institute. The first institute held at Columbus, Warren county, 1848. Institutes 
 at New Castle, Blairsville, I^ncaster. Other early institutes. Early educational 
 periodicals. Pennsylvania School Journal. Later publications for teachers. Books 
 for teachers. The "Schul-Ordnung" of Christopher Dock. Joseph Neff's "Plan 
 and Method of Education." A "Manual" explanatory of the Lancasterian system. 
 Walter R. Johnson's educational publications. Hall's edition of Barrow's " Essays on 
 education." Bache's " Report on Education in Europe." Dr. E. C. Wines' " Letters 
 to School Children," and " Hints on a System of Education." E. Lambom"s " Prac- 
 : tical Teacher." Job R. Tyson's " Social and Intellectual Condition of the School Sys- 
 ' tem of Pennsylvania." Later publications by Bates, Wickersham, Sypher, Brooks, 
 and Raub. 642-661 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Old Swedes' Church at Wacaco 14 
 
 Chigwell Grammar School 30 
 
 William Penn, at the Age of 52 34 
 
 Seal of the Friends' Public School 46 
 
 Friends' Public School and Meeting-House, Philadelphia 49 
 
 University of Pennsylvania — as it began . 61 
 
 Ancient Friends' Meeting-House and Schoolhouse, Lampeter, 1782 ... 90 
 
 Westtown Boarding School, 1799 92 
 
 Episcopal Church Academy, Philadelphia, 1795 99 
 
 Derry Chufch and Sessions-House, 1729 108 
 
 Old German Schoolhouse, Cherry Street, Philadelphia 135 
 
 Nazareth Hall, 1785 156 
 
 Moravian Seminary, Bethlehem, 1749 158 
 
 Old Eight-Square Schoolhouse 188 
 
 Old Log Schoolhouse 191 
 
 Hornbook 194 
 
 Illustrations from " Child's Guide " 196 
 
 Wilson's Schoolhouse at Kingsessing . 280 
 
 Inside View 'of a Lancasterian School 284 
 
 University of Pennsylvania — Department of Science and Art . . . . 392 
 
 Dickinson College, 1805 396 
 
 McMillan's "Log College" 401 
 
 High School, Pittsburgh 448 
 
 Lancasterian Schoolhouse, Lancaster 470 
 
 High School Building, Norristown 476 
 
 Germantown Academy 483 
 
 Washington Female Seminary 490 
 
 York Academy 493 
 
 Modern Country Schoolhouse 507 
 
 WickersUam School, Pittsburgh 574 
 
 Educational Hall 579 
 
 Representative Soldiers' Orphan School, Chester Springs 603 
 
 Normal School, Philadelphia 613 
 
 ( xxiii ) 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 Education in Pennsylvania. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEGINNING. 
 
 EDUCATION AMONG THE EARLIEST SETTLERS: SWEDES, DUTCH, ENGLISH. 
 
 WILLIAM PENN, upon landing on the shores of the Delaware, 
 on the twenty-seventh day of October, 1682, found a number 
 of small villages on both sides of the river, and houses thinly scat- 
 tered along its banks, all the way from the bay to the falls near the 
 present city of Trenton. The inhabitants were of different nation- 
 alities, mainly Swedes, Dutch and English. 
 
 The Swedes had a little town on the east side, called Swedesbor- 
 ough, on Raccoon creek, but their most important settlements were 
 on the west side, at Christina, Marcus Hook, Chester and Wicacb. 
 They nuhibered in all about a thousand, and their principal occupa- 
 tion was farming. They had churches at Tinicum, Wicaco and 
 Christina. 
 
 The Dutch were not as numerous as the Swedes. Their largest 
 settlement was at New Castle, but individuals and families of this 
 nation were to be found at other points within the territory granted 
 to Penn, mainly on the banks of the river and bay as far down as 
 Cape Henlopen. They were not generally very fond of agricul- 
 tural pursuits, but for the most part made a living by traffic with 
 the Indians. A single church at New Castle was their only place 
 of worship. 
 
 English colonies and isolated English families had made efforts 
 to settle along the Delaware, on both sides, from 1640 onwards, but 
 in most cases they were driven away by the Swedes and Dutch. 
 
 (O 
 
2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Still, there remained permanently in almost every Swedish and 
 Dutch settlement a few individuals of English nationality, certainly 
 some from New England, and probably a smaller number from 
 Maryland or Virginia. And besides, in 1682, there were flourish- 
 ing colonies of Friends from England at Salem and Burlington, in 
 West Jersey; a number of families of this denomination had found 
 homes at different points on the west side of the Delaware, and as 
 early as 1675 they had become so numerous at Chester that relig- 
 ious meetings were held regularly, and continued from that time 
 onwards. 
 
 In all, the founder of Pennsylvania may have found two thou- 
 sand people living in the territory subject to his jurisdiction upon 
 his arrival, somewhat more than one-half of whom were located 
 within the present limits of Pennsylvania. The first permanent 
 settlement was made by the Swedes in 1638, but a regular form 
 of government can hardly be said to have existed until Governor 
 Printz, a few years later, established his residence on Tinicum 
 island in the Delaware, a few miles above the present city of Ches- 
 ter. From that time onwards, however, there was always a duly 
 appointed executive officer at the head of affairs, under whom the 
 peace was kept and justice administered as nearly as practicable 
 according to forms which had been brought from the Old World. 
 The Swedes ruled the country until 1655; it then went into the 
 hands of the Dutch, and, in 1664, the English conquered and held 
 it, except during a short interval, up to 1681, when Penn obtained 
 from Charles II., then on the throne of England, a charter for the 
 whole territory west of the Delaware, including three degrees of 
 latitude by five degrees of longitude. He subsequently obtained 
 by deeds of feoffment from the Duke of York the territory long 
 known as the "three lower counties," now constituting the State 
 of Delaware. 
 
 As a beginning in writing the proposed history, search must be 
 made for all that can be ascertained respecting the condition of 
 education among these pioneer settlers upon the soil of Pennsyl- 
 vania. Let no one expect to find well-organized schools and 
 skilled teachers, for this mere handful of people in a wilderness, 
 three thousand miles from home and help, had to win the battle 
 for existence before they could give much attention to the arts that 
 cultivate and refine; but to such as have the patience to follow the 
 narrative, it will appear that efforts greatly to their credit under the 
 
THE BEGINNING. 3 
 
 circumstances, were made to instruct their children in the elements 
 of common learning and to acquaint them with the essentials of 
 Christianity. But rightly to understand the subject, we must first 
 gain some knowledge of the educational policy existing in the 
 countries from which they came, as doubtless in this, as in other 
 things, they followed the ways to which they had been accustomed. 
 
 At the time the first Swedish colony was planted on the Dela- 
 ware, there was ao regular system of public education in Sweden, 
 but the Church was active in its efforts to educate the young, and 
 home instruction was general. In no other country in Europe 
 were the people better versed in the elements of knowledge. 
 Schmidt, in his Educational Encyclopcedia, quotes an old chron- 
 icler as saying that, " In 1637 there was not in the kingdom of 
 Sweden a peasant child who could not read and write." Gustavus 
 Adolphus, one of the most enlightened rulers of the age, established 
 public schools, directed the Bishops throughout his kingdom to 
 inquire what course of education was most desirable, and how good 
 teachers might be obtained; and his daughter Christina, following 
 in her father's footsteps, divided the schools into two grades, ele- 
 mentary and higher. The Church, the agent of the State in the 
 matter of education, issued an edict, as early as 1571, containing 
 a chapter on "How schools .«hould be taught;" and, in 1693, com- 
 manded that no one should marry without a knowledge of Luther's 
 Catechism. It should be specially noted that as the Church in 
 Sweden is a State institution, the State has always controlled edu- 
 cation through the Church. In former times the duties of minister 
 and schoolmaster were frequently combined; and where this was 
 not the case, the schoolmaster was nearly always an ofiScer in the 
 church, leading the singing, acting as reader and clerk, and some- 
 times conducting the services. Less frequently he also performed 
 the duties of bell-ringer and sexton. Church edifices were fre- 
 quently used for school purposes, and in large sections of the coun- 
 try instruction was given by peripatetic schoolmasters at the homes 
 of the pupils. Even at this day hundreds of schoolmasters are em- 
 ployed in Sweden to teach in families, moving from one to another 
 in a prescribed order. Such schools are now called "migratory 
 schools." 
 
 Holland was, without doubt, the first country in Europe to es- 
 tablish a system of public schools, similar to the schools now known 
 by that name. The work was begun under the Prince df Orange, 
 
4 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 in the latter part of the sixteenth century. His brother, the far-see- 
 ing patriot, John of Nassau, in writing to the Prince on the subject 
 of education, says : " You must urge upon the States-General that 
 they should establish free schools, where children of quality, as well 
 as of poor families, for a very small sum, could be well and Chris- 
 tianly educated and brought up. This would be the greatest and 
 most useful work you could ever accomplish for God and Christian- 
 ity, and for the Netherlands themselves. Soldiers and patriots thus 
 educated with a true knowledge of God and a Christian conscience, 
 also churches and school-books and printing presses, are better than 
 all the armies, armories, alliances and treaties that can be had or 
 imagined in the world." Says Broadhead, in his history of New 
 York : " Neither the perils of war, nor the busy pursuits of gain, nor 
 the excitement of political strife, ever caused the Dutch to neglect 
 the duty of educating their offspring to. enjoy that moral freedom for 
 which their fathers had fought. Schools were everywhere, 1585, 
 provided at the public expense with good schoolmasters to instruct 
 the children of all classes in the usual branches of education; and 
 the consistories of the churches took zealous care to have their 
 youth thoroughly taught the Catechism and the Articles of Re- 
 ligion." A general ecclesiastical body in Holland, in 1574, resolved 
 that " the servants of the church shall determine when schools shall 
 be established, the schoolmaster shall receive a fixed salary and 
 shall sign a pledge to submit to the discipline of the church and to 
 teach the children the Catechism and all other knowledge which is 
 useful to them." An examination of teachers was generally pro- 
 vided for as early as 1581 ; and the State of Zealand, in 1583, em- 
 bodied in a school law the following principle, which would do no 
 discredit to the most enlightened legislation of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury : " For the building up of a good republic and for the general 
 well-being of the country, it is of no little importance to educate 
 the young people from their infancy in the fear of God and all use- 
 ful knowledge." Other Dutch states held positions on the subject 
 of education equally advanced. It was during their twelve years' 
 sojourn in Holland, without doubt, that the Pilgrim Fathers ob- 
 tained the germs of that system of education which has made New 
 England so famous in our educational history, and it was in Hol- 
 land too, almost certainly, that William Penn learned those broad 
 principles of educational policy that are embodied in the Frame 
 he constructed for the government of his Province and that "he en- 
 
THE BEGINNING.- ,. 
 
 deavored to have incorporated into laws for the benefit of the 
 people. 
 
 Nothing had been done in England in the direction of general 
 education as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 Even the far-famed parish schools of Scotland were not established 
 until 1695, when it was enacted that "a schoolmaster should be 
 appointed in every parish by the advice of the Presbyteries." Some 
 of the 'so-called "public schools" of England were founded at a 
 much earlier date, but they have never been public schools in the 
 modern sense. Their proper status is that of private, endowed 
 -schools, admitting a certain number of indigent pupils free, and 
 controlled only in a general way by the Government. But had the 
 position of England at that time been more advanced on the sub- 
 ject of education, the English setders on the Delaware before the 
 coming of Penn were so few. and so scattered that whatever might 
 have been their desires concerning the education of their children, 
 schools and teachers were quite beyond their reach. Nor does 
 there seem to have been much effort made by the English author- 
 ities who ruled the country from 1664 to 1682 to encourage edu- 
 cation. Something in this direction, however, was contemplated, 
 for among the Duke of York's laws, introduced in 1676, there 
 occurs the following: "The Constable and Overseers are stricdy 
 required frequently to Admonish the Inhabitants of Instructing 
 their Children and Servants in matters of Religion, and the Lawes 
 of the Country. And that the Parents and Masters do bring up 
 their Children and Apprentices in some honest LawfuU Calling, 
 Labour or Employment." The same laws established churches, by 
 requiring " That in each Parish within this Government a Church 
 be built in the most Convenient part thereof, Capable to receive and 
 accommodate two Hundred Persons"; and secured the rights of 
 conscience in the matter of religion as follows : " Nor shall any 
 person be molested, fined or Imprisoned for differing in Judgment 
 in matters of Religion who profess Christianity." Upon the acces- 
 sion of William and Mary to the English throne, a provision was 
 incorporated into the charter of New York requiring thfe "appoint- 
 ment by the ministers, elders and deacons of the church, of a 
 schoolmaster in each parish;" but although New York and Penn- 
 sylvania were ruled by the same Governor from 1692 to 1694, this 
 provision does not seem ever to have been enforced in the latter 
 Provirtce. 
 
6 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 It will now be in order to follow the Swedes, and, further on, the 
 Dutch, from their old homes to their new ones, narrating the mate- 
 rial facts concerning the movement, and entering into its spirit so 
 far as it may throw light upon the subject in hand. 
 
 It was the year 1626. Gustdvus Adolphus, as wise and liberal 
 in peace as he was brave and skillful in war, sat upon the throne of 
 Sweden. His friend, the great statesman, Axel Oxenstiern, the 
 only man in all Europe considered a match in Court diplomacy for 
 the able but intriguing R.ichelieu, was High Chancellor of the 
 kingdom. King, Chancellor, and people, were all intensely Prot- 
 estant. The day was a dark one for the followers of Luther, Cal- 
 vin, and their associates. Persecution raged in England. The 
 storm beat with pitiless fury upon the heads of the Reformers in 
 Denmark and Germany. Richelieu was crushing out the power of 
 the Calvinists in France. The Thirty Years' War had begun, and 
 the armies of the Protestant chieftains were scattered like chaff before 
 the more numerous and better disciplined hosts of Tilly and Wal- 
 lenstein. Fugitives from the oppressive measures of Catholic rulers 
 sought refuge in places of safety, many of them finding an asylum 
 in Sweden and Holland. Seeing little hope of securing political 
 and religious freedom in Europe, the liberty-loving Swedish king 
 turned his attention to America, and resolved to find a home across 
 the sea for those who could hope for no resting-place in the land 
 of their nativity. A company was formed with the royal sanction 
 to aid in planting a colony in the new world; contracts were 
 entered into, and stock subscribed. The most liberal terms were 
 offered by the Company to those who went out under its auspices. 
 Among other inducements presented, it was stated that "in the 
 same way schools and churches will flourish through it and be sus- 
 tained, and furthermore those who have learned something will be 
 promoted to dignities and positions." The king, however, did not 
 live to carry into effect his grand project — " the jewel of his crown," 
 as he called it. He was drawn into the great war then raging with 
 terrible fury, became the leader of the Protestant forces, fought and 
 won several great battles, and, although his army gained the vic- 
 tory, was killed at Liitzen, in 1632. After his death, Oxenstiern, 
 to whose hands was intrusted the chief executive power, during the 
 minority of the king's daughter, Christina, did not suffer the favor- 
 ite idea of his royal master to perish with him, but, after some 
 unavoidable delay, carried it, with certain modifications, into effect. 
 
THE BEGINNING. y 
 
 The Swedish colony that settled on the shores of the Delaware, 
 in 1638, although an outgrowth of the plan formed under his aus- 
 pices, was in many respects entirely different from the colony con- 
 templated by Gustavus. It was on a much smaller scale, its objects 
 were not so elevated, and the colonists did not belong largely to 
 the class of people he proposed to benefit. The prospect of mak- 
 ing money had drawn into the management more of selfishness, 
 and among the emigrants, fleeing from oppression and seeking lib- 
 erty of conscience in new homes, were introduced some troublesome 
 characters, and a number of outlaws and adventurers. Still, the 
 broad principles of the first projectors were tolerably well preserved, 
 as the instructions of an educational and humanitarian character, 
 given from time to time to the several Governors or persons in 
 authority, amply show. Among the instructions to Governor 
 Printz are the following: 
 
 The wild nations bordering upon all sides, the Governor shall understand 
 how to treat with all humanity and respect, that no violence or wrong be 
 done to them by Her Royal Majesty or hersubjects aforesaid; but he shall 
 rather, at every opportunity, exert himself, that the same wild people may 
 gradually be instructed in the truths and worship of the Christian religion, 
 and in other ways brought to civilization and good government, and in this 
 manner properly guided. Especially shall he seek to gain their confidence, 
 and impress upon their minds that neither he, the Governor, nor his people 
 and subordinates, are come into those parts to do them any wrong or injury, 
 but much more for the purpose of furnishing them with such things as they 
 may need for the ordinary wants of life, and so also for such things as are 
 found among them which they themselves cannot make for their use, or buy 
 or exchange. 
 
 Above all things, shall the Governor consider and see to it that a true and 
 due worship, becoming honor, laud and praise, be paid to the Most High 
 God in all things, and to that end all proper care shall be taken that divine 
 service be zealously performed according to the unaltered Augsburg Confes- 
 sion, the Council of Upsala, and the ceremonies of the Swedish church; and 
 all persons, but especially the young, shall be instructed in the ardcles of 
 their Christian faith ; and all good church discipline shall in like manner be 
 duly exercised and received. 
 
 The Grant and Privilege given by the Queen, in 1640, to Henry 
 Hochhanmer and Company, for the establishment of a new Colony, 
 in New Sweden, contains the following provision : 
 
 As regards religion we are willing to permit that, besides the Augsburg 
 Confession, the exercise of the pretended Reformed religion may be estab- 
 Hshed and observed in that country ; in such a manner, however, that those 
 who profess the one or the other religion, live in peace, abstaining from 
 every useless dispute, from all scandal and from all abuse. The patrons of 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 this Colony shall be obliged to support, at all times, as many ministers and 
 schoolmasters as the number of inhabitants shall seem to require; and. to 
 choose, moreover, for this purpose, persons who have at heart the conversion 
 of the pagan inhabitants to Christianity. 
 
 These extracts are sufficient to show that so far as the Swedes 
 were concerned, the Indians were not to be deprived of their lands 
 without recompense, and that they were to be otherwise well 
 treated, that freedom of conscience in matters of religion was to be 
 recognized, and that provision was intended to be made for the 
 establishment and support of churches and schools. 
 
 The direct agent in planting the Dutch colonies in America was 
 the West India Company. As showing the care taken in regard 
 to education, extracts are given below from important official 
 documents. 
 
 In the 'Charter of Freedoms, Privileges, and Exemptions, granted; 
 by the States-General of Holland to the Lords and Patroons of New 
 Netherlands, 1630 to 1635, it is provided, Section 28, that "The 
 Patroons shall also particularly exert themselves to find speedy 
 means to maintain a clergyman and schoolmaster, in order that 
 divine service and zeal for religion may be planted in that country, 
 and shall send, at first, a Comforter of the sick thither." A similar 
 provision was adopted by the Board of Nineteen of the West India 
 Company. 
 
 The Articles and Conditions for emigrants to New Netherlands, 
 drawn up and published, 1638, by the Chamber of Amsterdam, and 
 approved by the States-General, contain the following : " Section 8. 
 Each householder and inhabitant shall bear such tax and public 
 charge as shall hereafter be considered proper for the maintenance 
 of Comforters of the Sick, Schoolmasters, and such like necessary 
 officers." No broader foundation than this is needed for the erec- 
 tion of the most perfect system of public schools. 
 
 In 1656, the colony on the Delaware, then under the control of 
 the Dutch, was divided, the southern part extending south from 
 Christina Creek, passed into the hands of the City of Amsterdam, 
 while the northern part remained in the possession of the Company. 
 The Company permitted the Swedes, who constituted a large major- 
 ity of the inhabitants in that part of the territory which it reserved 
 for itself, to retain, subject to certain general regulations, their own 
 religion, laws, and customs, but the City adopted some provisions 
 affecting education worthy of note. 
 
THE BEGINNING. g 
 
 In a draft of Conditions offered by the city of Amsterdam to per- 
 sons settling in its colony at New Amstel, New Castle, on the Del- 
 aware, July 12, 1656, there occur the following interesting provis- 
 ions: 
 
 Said city shall cailse to be erected about the market, or in a more con- 
 venient place, a public building suitable for Divine Service ; Hem, also a 
 house for a school which can likewise be occupied by a person who will 
 hereafter be Sexton, Psalm Setter and Schoolmaster ; the city shall besides 
 have a house built for the Minister. 
 
 The city shall provisionally provide and pay the salary of a Minister and 
 Schoolmaster. 
 
 In accordance with these stipulations. Evert Pietersen was sent 
 out with a body of emigrants the same year. He was a man of 
 some learning, for it is stated that he " had passed a good exami- 
 nation before the Classis." He was to act " as Schoolmaster and 
 zieken-trooster , to read God's Word, and lead the singing until the 
 arrival of a clergyman." 
 
 It may properly be added that the Dutch at Manhattan had 
 established schools as early as 1633, and supported them at the 
 public expense. Adam Roelansen was the first distinctive school- 
 master, and the school he taught, the school of the Dutch Church, 
 has continued in operation down to the present day, the oldest 
 school in the United States. In 1642 it was common in the New 
 Netherlands to require parties to marriage contracts to promise " to 
 bring up their children decently, according to their ability, to keep 
 them at school, and to let them learn reading, writing, and a good 
 trade." In a remonstrance to the States-General by Adriaen van 
 der Donck and other citizens of New Amsterdam, 1649, they com- 
 plain that they have no public school, and that the money raised 
 by subscription to build a schoolhouse has been used for other 
 purposes. In a formal answer presented a year later by the Direc- 
 tor and Council they say : " Although the new schoolhouse towards 
 which the commonalty contributed something has not been yet 
 built, it is not the Director, but the Church Wardens, who have 
 charge of the funds. The Director is busy providing materials. 
 Meanwhile, a place has been selected for a school, of which Jan 
 Cornelissen has charge. The other teachers keep school in hired 
 houses, so that the youth are not in want of schools to the extent 
 of the circumstances of the country. 'Tis true there is no Latin 
 school nor Academy; if the commonalty require such, they can 
 apply for it and furnish the necessary funds." The agitation in 
 
,Q EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 favor of a Latin school continued, and the burgomasters, in making 
 a request of the Company to establish one, stated that Boston was 
 the nearest place where classical instruction could be had. They 
 asked that a Latin master might be sent over, " not doubting but 
 were such a person here, many of the neighboring places would 
 send their children hither," and thus an Academy might be built 
 up. The request was complied with, and, in 1659, Dr. Alexander 
 Carolus Curtius was engaged as Latin master at a salary of five 
 hundred guilders. The school did not succeed under his manage- 
 ment, and, in 1662, his place was supplied by Dominie Aegidius 
 Luyck. Under Luyck the school became very prosperous, attract- 
 ing pupils from Fort Orange, Albany, South River, as the Dela- 
 ware was then called, and Virginia. As showing the relation 
 between the early Dutch schools and the public authorities, it may 
 be stated that one Jacob Corlaer was prohibited from teaching in 
 New Amsterdam because he attempted to teach without the consent 
 of the Provincial Government. And O'Callaghan, in his history of 
 New Netherlands, asserts that at the time the Dutch surrendered 
 New York to the English, 1664, "The claims of the poor to an 
 equal support, and of the youth to an education, were not neglected. 
 An assessment of the twentieth penny on all houses, and of the 
 tenth penny on land under cultivation, formed a fund for the former; 
 the representations of the clergy in 1656 in favor of the latter, had 
 a decidedly beneficial influence, for the records afford evidence that 
 schools existed in almost every town and village at the close of this 
 administration." 
 
 The following agreement, copied from Thompson's History of 
 Long Island, between Johannes van Eckkelen, accepted school- 
 master and chorister, and the town of Flatbush, Long Island, 
 throws a flood of light on the manner of conducting schools among 
 not only the Dutch, but among all the early settlers in this country, 
 two centuries ago. 
 
 Art. I. The school shall begin at 8 o'clock, and go out at n ; shall begin 
 again at i o'clock and end at 4. The bell shall be rung before the school 
 commences. 
 
 Art. 2. When school begins, one of the children shall read the morning 
 prayer as it stands in the catechism, and close with the prayer before dinner ; 
 and, in the afternoon, the same. The evening school shall begin with the 
 Lord's Prayer, and close by singing a psalm. 
 
 Art. 3. He shall instruct the children in the common prayers ; and in 
 the questions and answers of the catechism, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 
 to enable them to say them better on Sunday in the church. 
 
THE BEGINNING. I i 
 
 Art. 4. He shall be required to keep his school nine months in succession, 
 from September to June, one year with another ; and shall always be present 
 himself. 
 
 Art. 5. He shall be chorister of the church, keep the church clean, ring 
 the bell three times before the people assemble, and read a chapter of the 
 Bible in the church between the second and third ringing of the bell ; after 
 the third ringing, he shall read the ten commandments, and the twelve 
 articles of our faith, and then set the psalms. In the afternoon, after the 
 third ringing of the bell, he shall read a short chapter, or one of the psalms 
 of David, as the congregation are assembling ; afterwards, he shall again sing 
 a psalm or hymn. 
 
 Art. 6. When the minister shall preach at Brooklyn or Utrecht, he shall 
 be bound to read twice before the congregation, from the book used for the 
 purpose. He shall hear the children recite the questions and answers out of 
 the catechism on Sunday, and instruct them therein. 
 
 Art. 7. He shall provide a basin of water for the administration of Holy 
 Baptism, and furnish the minister with the name of the child to be baptized, 
 for which he shall receive twelve stivers in wampum for every baptism, from 
 the parents or sponsors. He shall furnish bread and wine for the com- 
 munion, at the charge of the church. He shall also serve as messenger for 
 the consistory. 
 
 Art. 8. He shall give the funeral invitations, dig the gl-aves and toll 
 the bell ; and for which he shall receive, for persons of fifteen years of age 
 and upwards, twelve guilders ; and for persons under fifteen, eight guilders ; 
 and if he shall ci-oss the river to New York, he shall have four guilders 
 more. 
 
 The School Money, ist. He shall receive, for a speller or reader, three 
 guilders a quarter ; and for a writer, four guilders, for the day school. In 
 the evening, four guilders for a speller or reader, and five guilders for a 
 writer, per quarter. 
 
 2d. The residue of his salary shall be four hundred guilders in wheat, (of 
 wampum value,) delivered at Brooklyn Ferry, with the dwelling, pasturage, 
 and meadow appertaining to the school. 
 
 Done and agreed upon in consistory, under the inspection of the honor- 
 able constable and overseers, this 8th day of October, 1682. 
 
 Thus advised as to the intent respecting education of those who 
 projected and founded the early colonies on the Delaware, and in 
 possession of such antecedent facts as may place the subject in a 
 proper light, we are ready to inquire what had been accomplished 
 practically by the settlers in the way of educating their children at 
 the time of the arrival of Penn. 
 
 So far as can be ascertained, there is no record showing the 
 existence of a schoolhouse in the colonies on the Delaware up to 
 the year 1682. It is not likely there was a single one in the whole 
 country. The city of Amsterdam had agreed to build one at 
 New Castle, but we have no evidence that the work was done. 
 
 Nor have we found to a certainty the name of a single school- 
 
J 2- EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 master proper except that of Evert Pietersen, who taught at New 
 Castle, and his seems to have been the only regularly organized 
 school. The following letter from Pietersen sent to Holland a few 
 months after his arrival, and dated at Fort Amstel, August lOth, 
 1657, settles the somewhat mooted question as to who he was 
 and where and when he taught. He says : 
 
 We arrived at the South River on the ,25th of April, and found twenty; 
 families there, mostly Swedes, not more than five or six families belonging to 
 our nation. * * * « ^^ -^ 
 
 1 already begin to keep school, and have twenty-five children, etc. 
 
 In an account of the expenses of the colony as reckoned by the 
 Directors, in Amsterdam, Evert Pietersen is set down as having 
 received some fourteen hundred florins for services rendered. He 
 probably remained at New Castle about two years, and then went 
 to New York, where he was engaged in teaching, in 1664, when the 
 English took possession of the city. Erent Evertsen seems to have 
 succeeded Pietersen at New Castle, for in the account of expenses 
 already referred to he is shown to have received pay for similar 
 services. 
 
 But notwithstanding the want of schoolhouses and teachers, it 
 does not follow that no attention was paid to the education of chil- 
 dren, or that the colonists were generally illiterate. It may be well 
 to quote some of the widely different opinions on the subject. 
 Bancroft says of the Swedes: "They cherished the calm earnestness 
 of religious feeling; they reverenced the bonds of family and the 
 purity of morals; their children, under every disadvantage of a 
 want of teachers and of Swedish books, were well instructed." 
 Ferris, in his history of the "Original Settlements on the Delaware," 
 says of the same people : " They had suffered grievously for want 
 of that kind of government which calls into action the intellectual 
 and physical powers of man. All these had been left to languish. 
 Education was neglected ; the active energies of the mind had either 
 run wild or been depressed, and for more than forty years there 
 had been very little advancement." Penn calls the Swedes " a plain, 
 strong, industrious people ; " speaks of the great number of children 
 in their families, and adds: "I see few young men more sober or 
 industrious." Acrelius, who was pastor of the Swedish congrega- 
 tion at Christina for some seven years, writing in 1759, does not 
 seem to entertain a veiy high opinion of the intellectual acquire- 
 ments of his countiymen who first settled in America. He speaks 
 
Tim BEGINNING. j, 
 
 of them thus : " Forty years back, our people scarcely knew what 
 a school was. The first Swedish and Holland settlers were a poor, 
 weak and ignorant people, who brought up their children in the 
 same ignorance, which is the reason why the natives of the country 
 can neither write nor cypher, and that very few of them are quali- 
 fied for any office under the government." Broadhead does not 
 have a much higher opinion of the state of education among the 
 early Dutch settlers. He writes : " As to popular education," speak- 
 ilig of the New Netherlands in 1656, "excepting at Manhattan, 
 Beverwyck, and Fort Casimir" — Fort Casimir was at New Castle — 
 "there was no schoolmaster. Though the people at large were 
 anxious that their children should be instructed, they found great 
 difficulty, because many of them, coming 'naked and poor from 
 Holland,' had not sufficient means, and because there were few 
 qualified persons, except those already employed, who could or 
 would teach." 
 
 These somewhat contradictory statements may perhaps be recon- 
 ciled. The facilitira for education may have varied at different 
 periods. They undoubtedly depended upon the condition of the 
 churches and the supply of ministers. With flourishing churches 
 and zealous ministers, the cause of education prospered; with 
 churches that languished and no good shepherds to care for the 
 spiritual interests of the. scattered flocks, the children grew up with- 
 out instruction. In the social economy of the early settlers on the 
 Delaware, the interests of religion and education were closely 
 united. We must, therefore, inquire concerning the state of relig- 
 ion in order to form a correct judgment concerning the state of 
 education. 
 
 Penn states that at the time of his arrival in the country there 
 were churches at Christina, Tinicum, Wicaco, and New Castle. 
 The church at Christina was built within the walls of the fort soon 
 after the settlement of the place by Minuet. Rev. Reorus Torkil- 
 lus was the first minister, and probably entered upon his ministerial 
 work in 1640. Governor Printz built a handsome frame church on 
 Tinicum island, which was dedicated to Divine service in Septem- 
 ber, 1646. Rev. John Campanius, who had come to America with 
 Printz as "Government Chaplain," to watch over the Swedish con- 
 gregation, was the first pastor, and discharged the duties of the post 
 for some six years. On the shore of the Delaware, in what is now 
 Southwark, Philadelphia, there stood, in 1682, a small block^house. 
 
I - EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 It was built of logs, and provided with loopholes instead of wiij- 
 dows. It may have been older as a fort, but as a church it had 
 been in use from 1677. Rev. Jacob Fabritius seems to have been 
 the first pastor, delivering his opening sermon on Trinity Sunday, 
 1677. New Castle could not have had a church for any consider- 
 able length of time prior to 1682, for the people there had united 
 with the people of Christina in building, in 1667, and sustaining for 
 a number of years subsequently, a church at Cranehook, on the 
 banks of the river, about half way between the two places. Of other 
 clergymen it may be said that Revs. Lars Carlsson Loock, Israel 
 Holgh, and at least two others, came from Sweden during Governor 
 Printz's administration, or shortly after; but the first named was the 
 only minister who remained in the country after the Dutch con- 
 
 OLD SWEDES' CHURCH AT WICACO. 
 
 quest to look after the "poor and scattered Swedes." Dominie 
 Loock had charge of two congregations, that at Tinicum and that 
 at Christina, and continued to preach at both places for twenty-two 
 years, until, feeble with age and disabled on account of lameness, 
 he was obliged to cease from his labors. Rev. Petrus Laurentii 
 Hjort and Rev. Mathias Nicolai Nertunius came with Rising in 
 1654, but left with him the next year. In 1657, a Dutch minister, 
 Rev. Evardus Welius, came to New Castle, relieving the school- 
 master, Pietersen, of his pastoral duties, who then became simply 
 " fore-singer, zieken-trooster, and deacon." For some years between 
 1658 and 1664, Andreas Hudde, a Dutchman, who had previously 
 applied for the position of schoolmaster at New Amsterdam, offici- 
 ated as clerk or reader, under Loock, in the church at Christina. 
 
THE BEGINNING. 1 - 
 
 When Penn came among them, the Swedes had greatly degener- 
 ated, both morally and intellectually, from what they had been in 
 the prosperous days of Governor Printz. Loock was unable to 
 leave his house, and died in 1688; Fabritius was blind and very old 
 and feeble, and there was not a single active Swedish clergyman in 
 the Province. In the absence of clergymen, resort was had to such 
 lay readers as could be procured, and, in 1693, we find that Anders 
 Bengtson, an old man, sat and read postils at Tinicum church, and 
 Charles Springer, who, although a Swede, had been a slave in Vir- 
 ginia, was the reader to the congregation at Christina. The want 
 of religious instruction had indeed been growing worse, but it had 
 been severely felt for many years. Letters had been written mak- 
 ing known this state of. things in the mother country, but no 
 response had been received. Finally, however, the distress of the 
 colonists reached the ears of Charles XL, then king of Sweden, 
 who supplied their wants by sending them missionaries and books 
 at the expense of the Government. Not less than twenty-four min- 
 isters were sent out from Sweden between the years 1696 and 1786, 
 to labor among their countrymen on the Delaware. 
 
 What has been just said of churches and clergymen has a very 
 close relation to education in a secular sense. The churches no 
 doubt served the place of schoolhouses in the early days, and the 
 clergymen so far as they were able filled the double office of 
 preacher and teacher. Two hundred years ago, churches and schools 
 were generally under one control in Sweden, Holland, and other 
 European countries, and the schoolmaster was nearly always the 
 minister's assistant, reading for him, leading the singing, visiting 
 the sick, and in his absence taking the vacant place at the sacred 
 desk. These customs were brought to America, and it may be 
 safely said that so far as the early settlers on the Delaware had 
 churches they had schools, and so far as they had ministers they 
 had schoolmasters. The regular clergymen taught the children of 
 their congregations to read or saw that it was done, if for no other 
 reason to enable them to receive the required instruction in the 
 catechism ; and Pietersen, Evertsen, Hudde, Bengtson and Springer, 
 already mentioned as clerks, readers, and comforters of the sick, 
 and no doubt others occupying a similar position, were in all 
 probability schoolmasters. Pietersen we know was a schoolmaster, 
 and the others named performed precisely the same official duties 
 with respect to the church. 
 
i6 
 
 EDUCATION TN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 It was clearly impossible, however, that children living many miles 
 distant from the churches, and scattered over a territory stretching 
 all the way from Cape Henlopen to the Falls of the Delaware near 
 Trenton, could be gathered for instruction frequently or regularly 
 into the three or four places of worship which the colony afforded. 
 Necessarily, therefore, the ministers and their assistants visited 
 famihes as far as practicable, and, in conjunction with parents, 
 taught the young what they could, at least to read and write and 
 recite Bible lessons and the catechism. This plan of home instruc- 
 tion came easy to the Swedes, for it was practiced very largely in 
 the thinly-settled portions of the mother-country, and has not been 
 discontinued even at the present day. When, therefore, there was 
 a want of clergymen, there was a want of schoolmasters, and a 
 dearth in religion was followed by a lapse into ignorance. 
 
 The view of the subject now presented is strengthened by facts. 
 Campanius, the pastor of Tinicum church, from 1642 to 1648, 
 spent much time in missionary work among the surrounding 
 Indians. He claimed to have converted many of them to the doc- 
 trines of Christianity. He studied the Indian languages and framed 
 a vocabulary of the Delaware tongue. He translated Luther's 
 Shorter Catechism for their benefit, and the book was subsequently 
 published in Sweden. A copy of it may be found in the State 
 Library at Harrisburg. This statement shows that he contemplated, 
 if he did not actually commence, the work of secular instruction 
 among the Indians; and no one can suppose that while he was thus 
 laboring among the wild men of the surrounding forests, he 
 neglected the education of the little colony of Christian people 
 under his immediate charge. 
 
 Doctor Smith, in his History of Delaware county, in speaking of 
 Rev. Lars Loock at Tinicum, states that, " Towards the close of the 
 Dutch dynasty, 1664, the Swedes made an effort to supersede the 
 Reverend Lars, by the appointment of Abelius Selskoorn," but in 
 this it seems they failed. " They then, " adds Doctor Smith, " de- 
 sired to engage him as a schoolmaster at the same salary as given 
 to the Reverend Lars, but the people of New Amstel, where it may 
 be inferred, he was employed in the same capacity, would not dis- 
 miss him." From this it seems reasonably clear that Loock was 
 not only the minister at Tinicum but also the schoolmaster. 
 
 In a letter dated May 31, 1693, to John Thelin, postmaster of 
 Gotheborg, Sweden, with the assurance that their request would be 
 
TJiE BEGINNING. . 17 
 
 laid before the kiog, thirty of the principal Swedish citizens of the 
 Province, express their " longing desire and hope " for two S\yedish 
 Ministers and the following books : " Twelve Bibles, three copies 
 of sermons, forty-two Manuals, one hundred Hand-books and 
 Spiritual Meditations, two hundred Catechisms, and two hundred 
 A-B-C books." A similar request had been made several years 
 before through WilliE^m Penq, and probably at different times prior 
 to Penn's arrival. The colonists offered to pay for the books even 
 if lost on the voyage, but the king kindly donated them. Clay in 
 his " Swedish Annals " states that, in 1696, four hundred primers 
 and five hundred catechisms were sent from Sweden to America. 
 The sending for A-B-C books, primers and catechisms in such 
 large numbers shows that the children were at least taught to read 
 and to study the catechism. A writer in the Episcopal Recorder, 
 quoted in Hazard's Register, speaking of the books, which were 
 forwarded by the missionaries sent out in 1697, says : " There seems 
 to have been great need of books, as the missionaries on their 
 arrival only found three in the whole colony; but yet so anxious 
 were the people for the improvement of their children, that these 
 had been lent from one to another, so that all could read." 
 
 The following is a copy of a record of the Court at Upland. It 
 is given in the quaint original. 
 
 March 12, 167^. 
 Edward Draufton P" Dunck Williams Def'. 
 
 The P" demands of this Deft. 200 gilders for teaching this def children to 
 Read one yeare. 
 
 The Co" haveing heard the debates of both parties as alsoe ye attestation 
 of ye witnesses. Doe grant Judgem' ag" ye deft for 200 gilders w"" ye costs. 
 
 Richard Ducket sworne in Court declares that hee was p'sent at ye making 
 of ye bargaine, and did hear that ye agreem' was that Edmund draufton 
 should Teach Dunkes Children to Read ye bybell, & if hee could doe itt in a 
 yeare or a halfe yeare or a quarf^ then he was to have 200 gilders. 
 
 Draufton got his money, and most likely earned it. Whether he 
 was a regular schoolmaster or not cannot be ascertained from the 
 record. If he was, as seems likely, he is the oldest schoolmaster 
 proper of whom we have any positive knowledge, who taught with- 
 in the present limits of Pennsylvania. It is not probable that 
 Draufton had charge of a school ; more likely he was one of a class 
 of schoolmasters who taught the children of private families in their 
 own homes. He was to teach the children to read in the Bible; 
 no other book is named. 
 2 
 
,8 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 The following, also from the Upland Court Records, is probably 
 the oldest public provision made in America looking towards the 
 establishment of an asylum for the insane, a peculiar kind of educa- 
 tional institution. The date is 1678. 
 
 Jan Cornellissen of Amesland complayning to y' Court that his son Erick is 
 bereft of his natural senses & is turned quyt madd and y' : hee being a 
 poore man is not able to maintain him ; — ordered : that three or 4 p'sons.bee 
 hired to build a Little Blockhouse at Amesland for to put in the s"" madman, 
 and att the r.ext Court, order will bee taken y' : a small Levy bee Laid to pay 
 for the building of y° house and the maintaining of y° s" mad man according 
 to Lawes of y° government. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION. 
 
 THE EARLY FRIENDS. "WILLIAM PENN. 
 
 AS a social or political force the Swedish and Dutch settlers on 
 the Delaware were scarcely felt after the arrival of Penn. They 
 were soon surrounded by a more positive, more pushing, better 
 educated class of men, and few of them came forward to take ad- 
 vantage of the new and broader field of effort that opened before 
 them. They remained good, loyal citizens, working quietly on 
 their farms or in their shops, and at times serving, with apparent 
 reluctance and in small proportion to their numbers, as local offi- 
 cers, on juries, or in the legislative Assemblies of the Province. In 
 their descendants they gave the State some of its most worthy citi- 
 zens and illustrious names. 
 
 The root of much that is admirable in the history of Pennsyl- 
 vania, including her educational policy, can be traced to certain 
 doctrines of the Friends, or Quakers, and to the broad statesman- 
 ship of their great leader in America, William Penn. Convinced 
 that therein is to be found in good part the basis upon which the 
 historical structure proposed to be erected must stand, no apology 
 is needed for presenting a brief outline of these doctrines and some 
 extracts from the writings of Penn, showing the principles upon 
 which he desired to establish his Government. 
 
 It was about the middle of the seventeenth century when a young 
 apprentice of an English shoemaker, in watching sheep on the Not- 
 tingham hills, began, through fasting, prayer, Bible reading, violent 
 conflicts of mind and deep self-questioning, to struggle with the 
 problems of existence, of God, and of human conduct. He medi- 
 tated alone in the forests, he visited churches and sought help from 
 priests, and still his ardent, inquiring soul found no rest until at last, 
 forced back upon itself, almost in despair, a ray of light from Heaven 
 beamed in upon it, grew in brightness, and, in good time, like Saul 
 of Tarsus on his way to Damascus, the man was " born again." 
 The picture is that of George Fox, the apostle of Quakerism. 
 
 ('9) 
 
2Q EDUCA riON IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 The time was one of intense mental, moral and political activity 
 in England. While George Fox was dreaming of self-perfection, 
 grappling with a world of doubt and striving hard to find the kernel 
 of truth in the husks of customs and beliefs, false and hollow, 
 though hoary with age, Parliament, professing to represent the 
 people, dethroned King Charles I., tried and convicted him of the 
 crime of high treason, and brought his head to the block. Confu- 
 sion reigned in Church and State. Hereditary rights long consid- 
 ered sacred were disregarded. High privileges of rank and place 
 were trampled under foot. Institutions as old as England were 
 uprooted in a day. The people had begun to think for themselves, 
 not wisely in all cases perhaps, but the agitation shook the king- 
 dom from end to end like an earthquake. The flood of thought 
 and feeling long pent up rushed in wild currents up and down the 
 land, threatening to obliterate all distinctions between lord and 
 peasant, priest and people, the rich and the poor. Out of this uni- 
 versal ferment, new political parties as well as new religious sects 
 arose, and, atinong the latter appeared the " People called Quakers." 
 Hume, with an evident dislike for such a revolution of opinion, 
 speaking of this period, says : " Every man had framed the model 
 of a republic; and however new it was or fantastical, he was eager 
 in recommending it to his fellow-citizens, or even imposing it by 
 force upon them. Every man had adjusted a system of religion, 
 which being derived from no traditional authority was peculiar to 
 himself * * * 'Y\\e. levelers insisted on an equal distribution 
 of power and property, and disclaimed all dependence and subordi- 
 nation." 
 
 The principle upon which is grounded much that is peculiar in 
 the religious faith of the Society of Friends is that of the Inner 
 Light, or the immediate revelation of God in the soul. They hold 
 that there is in every human bosom a divine monitor or guide that 
 will teach those who in humiUty hearken to its voice and heed its 
 admonitions to love virtue and shun vice, and point them with 
 certainty to the strait gate and narrow way that leads to eternal 
 life. Or, as Bancroft defines their faith : " A .spiritual unity binds 
 together every member of the human family ; and every heart con- 
 tains an incorruptible seed, capable of springing up and producing 
 all that man can know of God, and duty, and the soul. An inward 
 voice, uncreated by schools, independent of refinement, opens to 
 the unlettered hind, not less than to the polished scholar, a sure 
 
THE F0UN2>ATI0If. 21 
 
 pathway into the enfranchisments of immortal truth." With the 
 deepest feelings of humility and reverence, the Friends regard this 
 Inner Light, as the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth 
 referred to by Christ himself in passages like the following: "And 
 I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, 
 that he may abide with you forever." " Even the Spirit of truth, 
 whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
 knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and 
 shall be in you." " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
 whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all 
 things, and bring all things to your remembrance." " When he, 
 the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for be 
 shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall 
 speak, and he will show you things to come." 
 
 Out of this doctrine of the Inner Light, as held by the Friends, 
 have sprung necessarily, as from a common fountain, the leading 
 religious and political opinions they have entertained, and the lines 
 of conduct that have characterized their dealings among themselves 
 and with their fellow-men. Hence, we must look to it for much 
 that goes to explain the history of Pennsylvania in the early days, 
 and for somewhat of the influences that have continued to shape 
 the life and institutions of the Commonwealth. A few paragraphs 
 having an educational bearing will explain the wealth of principle 
 contained in it. 
 
 The Friends believe in the fullest sense that all men are created 
 equal, since to all men is given alike the gift of God's Spirit. They 
 would level at a blow all artificial distinctions of rank, position, 
 wealth or caste. As God is no respecter of persons, so in their eyes 
 all men stand on a common platform, every man is complete in 
 himself. They thus find a firm religious as well as intellectual 
 basis for a true democracy. Hence, too, the early Friends did not 
 bestow titles. To even the courteous William Penn, the king of 
 England, from whom he obtained his Charter, was plain " Friend 
 Charles." They never took off their hats before nobles, courts or 
 kings, when to do so was an acknowledgment of inequality of rank 
 or position; and their want of conformity to the general custom in 
 this simple matter required a sacrifice and had a significance that 
 it is difficult to appreciate in the changed circumstances of the pres- 
 ent day. They condemned an order of priesthood in a church, and 
 would not pay tithes to support it. To accept their principles was 
 
, ^ ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANJ. I. 
 
 to overthrow all forms of hierarchy. In their own religious organ- 
 ization the rights and privileges of members were absolutely equal 
 in all respects, preachers and people, men and women. In leaving 
 England, they left behind them the old laws of primogeniture, and 
 provided new ones dividing the estates of decedents equally among 
 the children of a family, or among relatives of the same degree of 
 consanguinity. A believer in the Inner Light can not consistently 
 hold a slave ; for a slave is a human being, not only created in the 
 image of God like himself, but possessing within his soul an eternal 
 fountain filled with God's Spirit. Thus the fact is accounted for 
 that the Friends were the first to oppose slavery in this country, 
 and that they have always been the most zealous advocates of uni- 
 versal emancipation and the elevation of man. The doctrine of the 
 Inner Light would work the complete enfranchisment of the human 
 family, and a -community of Friends must necessarily be a pure 
 
 republic — 
 
 For soul touched soul ; the spiritual treasure trove 
 Made all men equal; none could rise above 
 Nor sink below the level of God's love. 
 
 If the doctrine of the Inner Light be a reality, the soul is 
 sovereign, and hence must have the ultimate right to rule itself 
 The Friends, therefore, believe in the " higher law." They acknow- 
 ledge the necessity of civil government, have made laws and admin- 
 istered them ; but above all human authority they place the dictates 
 of an enlightened conscience. And that this inner vision may 
 remain unobscured by the murky atmosphere of worldly affairs, the 
 Friends oppose all light amusements, all frivolous fashions, all dis- 
 tracting entertainments. As a protest against those frequent 
 changes of dress that do so much to create extravagance and foster 
 pride, they still wear the garb common in England two hundred 
 years ago. They discourage all arts that enervate, and place little 
 dependence upon religious forms, ceremonies or symbols, which to 
 them obscure the divine realities. True worship with them con- 
 sists in a close communion of our spirits with the Spirit of God in 
 the soul. They believe that the Bible is the Word of God, but they 
 do not think that the sacred fountain of inspiration was entirely 
 dried up when the last line of the Holy Book was written. 
 
 The Friends will not take an oath, because those who speak only 
 as the Spirit moves them or within the lines of light emanating from 
 the Spirit, must speak the truth in its purity and plainness ; and to 
 
THE FOUNDATION. 33 
 
 call upon God in such a case as a witness or a help seems to them 
 blasphemous. Besides, they cite the positive injunction of the 
 Scriptures: " Swear not at all." The " solemn affirmation " of the 
 Pennsylvania .statutes is a fruit of Quakerism. They are opposed 
 to war, both offensive and defensive. They accept without qualifi- 
 cation the commandment : " Thou shalt not kill." They will not 
 even defend themselves with carnal weapons if attacked. They 
 trust in God's Spirit ever present with them for protection ; and if 
 one cheek is smitten they turn the other, and if a coat is taken a 
 cloak is given also. " For all they that take the sword shall perish 
 with the sword." Even the wild men of the American forests 
 respected this peaceful policy. The great treaty under the elm tree 
 at Shakamaxon, unconfirmed by an oath, was never broken ; and 
 while all the other colonies were involved in wars with the Indians 
 and suffered terribly at their hands, Pennsylvania, as long as con- 
 trolled by Quaker influences, remained undisturbed. The words of 
 Bancroft are : " Penn came without arms ; he declared his purpose 
 to abstain from violence ; he had no message but peace ; and not a 
 drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian." 
 
 As a sect the Friends have ever been distinguished for their acts 
 of charity towards their fellow-men in poverty or distress. Faith in 
 the existence of the divine light within gives dignity to the lowliest 
 and most debased of the human family; and not only Pennsylvania 
 but the whole civilized world owes a debt to Quakerism for the 
 good it has done in softening criminal codes, in reforming the' dis- 
 cipline of prisons, and in founding benevolent institutions for the 
 sick and suffering. While the stern Puritans were burning witches 
 in Massachusetts, the milder Friends in Pennsylvania dismissed a 
 poor, wretched creature who had been brought before the Court on 
 a charge of being a witch, with the remarkable sentence : " The 
 prisoner is guilty of the common fame of being a witch, but not 
 guilty as she stands indicted ;" and thus ended forever all trials of 
 the kind in the land of Penn. The Friends always provide for their 
 own poor, and so quietly that it is never known outside of those 
 immediately concerned who are made the recipients of this secret, 
 Christ-approved system of almsgiving. 
 
 No people in the world have been more tolerant of the opinions 
 of others or stronger advocates of the rights of conscience than the 
 Friends. Mercilessly persecuted themselves in every country of 
 Europe where they attempted to propagate their views, when in 
 
2^ EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 power they were never known to persecute in return. Imprisoned, 
 impoverislied, maligned, no instance is on record where they re- 
 joiced at the misfortunes of their enemies; much less lifted a hand 
 to smite them when the tables Were turned, and they might have 
 exacted " an eye for an eye." The people of Massachusetts, forget- 
 ting how much they had suffered for what they thought right, and 
 excusing their conduct by an alleged regard fdr the public good, 
 treated the handful of Friends who came among them with a 
 cruelty more extreme than that in their native land from which 
 they had themselves fled. They not only imprisoned and banished 
 these harmless, but possibly over zealous men and women, but cut 
 off their ears and even put them to death. No country in Europe 
 had made more sacrifices to maintain the rights of conscience than 
 Holland, and yet the Dutch in New York did not hesitate to 
 throw inoffensive Friends into dungeons, scourge them in public 
 places, and heap cruel indignities upon them. Virginia fined and 
 banished Friends for no offence that can be counted a crime ; in 
 Maryland, the otherwise liberal policy adopted by Lord Baltimore 
 did not protect Friends from severe fines, harsh imprisonment and 
 other penalties, especially during the year 1658, and onward until 
 Penn became Governor of a neighboring Province ; and even the 
 broad-minded Roger' Williams, in Rhode Island, from whom sucli 
 an act was least to be expected, declared it to be " a duty and com- 
 mand of God" that the " incivilities," as he called the manifestations 
 of religious zeal on the part of the Quakers, should be met with "a 
 due and moderate restraint and punishment." 
 
 And yet, returning good for evil, the fundamental law of the 
 Quaker Provinces of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, gave 
 to all the inhabitants of sister Provinces, as well as to all persons 
 who took up their abode with them from other countries, the privi- 
 lege of becoming citizens with the fullest enjoyment of every politi- 
 cal and religious right. No stain of persecution ever rested upon 
 the hand of a Friend. As theoretical Quakerism enthrones con- 
 science and insists that God himself is the oracle whose voice it 
 speaks, practical Quakerism could not destroy itself by refusing the 
 largest liberty to every form of sincere belief 
 
 The mystery of the incarnation does not puzzle the Quaker; as 
 he believes that God is in some measure incarnate in every soul 
 that breathes, he readily rises to the conception of a soul com- 
 pletely filled with the divine influence, the God-man. With this 
 
THE FOUNDATION. 35 
 
 view of the possibilities of human nature, he deems it his duty to 
 make hiriiself, body and mind, a fit temple for the indwelling of the 
 divine Spirit. Hence, to be consistent with himself, he must be a 
 friend to all art that purifies and ennobles, to all science that broad- 
 ens and enriches, and to all education that instructs, develops and 
 perfects. If at any time the Society of Friends or its individual 
 members have seemed to discourage education, it was either because 
 the logic of their religioiis doctrines was not fully understood, or 
 because they feared the effect of that abuse of learning which " puff- 
 eth up," magnifies self, and in its self-importance refuses to give 
 heed to the humble teachings of the "still, small voice" iii the soul. 
 
 With these general statements, it will now be in order to show 
 what Quakerism did for education during the period of its earliest 
 history. 
 
 The first Friends were from the middle ranks of English society 
 in the seventeenth century, farmers, mechanics, tradesmen. Few 
 of them came from the peasant class, and fewer still from the gentry 
 or titled nobility. They were generally fairly educated for the time, 
 scarcely one of them being unable to read and write. Their super- 
 sensual mode of worship and the somewhat mystical character of 
 their fundamental doctrines were not calculated to attract the 
 extremely ignorant. There were many learned men among them, 
 including such names as those of William Penn ; Robert Barclay, 
 the author of the Apology, one of the most profound treatises on 
 the subject of religion ever written ; Thomas Loe, an " Oxford 
 man,'' by whose preaching Penn was converted to Quakerism ; 
 Thomas Ellwood, the pupil and friend of Milton ; Edward Bur- 
 roughs, the " courageous and powerful advocate " of the doctrines 
 of Friends ; the accomplished Isaac Pennington ; Arscott and 
 Claridge, mentioned as scholars by Clarkson, and a multitude of 
 others. Of the first Friends who came to Pennsylvania, Proud 
 says : " The generality of the early Quaker settlers were not 
 ranked among the rich and great, yet many had valuable estates, 
 were of good families and education ; and mostly sober, industrious 
 and substantial people, of low or moderate fortunes, but of univer- 
 sal good reputation and character." Among these early settlers 
 might be named a long list of scholars and men of ability : the 
 accomplished Logan, Penn's Secretary and friend, and the founder 
 of the Loganian library ; Governors Thomas Lloyd and Andrew 
 Hamilton ; Pastorius, the sage of Germantown, master of seven or 
 
26 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 eight languages ; Kelpius, " the learned mystic of the Wissahickon;" 
 Keith and Makin, teachers and authors ; David Lloyd, an eminent 
 lawyer and speaker of the Assembly ; Christopher Taylor, a pro- 
 found Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar, and author of a work on 
 these languages called " Compendium Trium Linguarum" published 
 in 169s ; Thomas Wynne, the first speaker of the Provincial Assem- 
 bly ; Story, Norris, Brooke, and many others scarcely less distin- 
 guished. It must be added that George Fox, the founder of 
 Quakerism, while he had received a fair English education and 
 possessed superior natural abilities, cannot be considered a liberally 
 educated man, and the same may be said of many engaged with 
 him most actively in the Gospel Ministry. Nor is to be denied 
 that there was in the early times among many members of the 
 Society of Friends, and even in the body of the Society itself, a cer- 
 tain degree of distrust or prejudice with respect to the kind of edu- 
 cation usually imparted in Colleges and Universities — mere " human 
 learning " as they regarded it. They were a simple-minded, pious 
 people, and held it to be their duty to suppress all worldly aims and 
 to make the desires of the flesh subject in all respects to the prompt- 
 ings of the Spirit. " Much learning," as it appeared from their 
 standpoint, was apt to foster pride, magnify self and lead away from 
 that state of dependence on the divine Master which characterizes 
 the true disciple of God. This view accords with that of most other 
 Christian sects in their beginnings, and, in all times, minds full of 
 of spiritual truth are prone to undervalue the worth of what they 
 consider worldly wisdom. 
 
 Further, the reproach sometimes cast upon the early Friends for 
 an alleged want of appreciation for higher learning doubtless arose 
 from their opposition to the doctrine that to become a minister fitted 
 to instruct in spiritual things one must receive a regular collegiate 
 education. Their position was that all ministers of God are called 
 to their work directly by the Holy Spirit, even as Christ called his 
 apostles ; and, as the apostles were mostly plain men without learn- 
 ing, they held that persons well qualified to preach glad tidings to 
 the people might come in modern times as of old from farms, shops 
 and fishermen's boats. Says Barclay : " As I have placed the true 
 call of a minister in the motion of this Holy Spirit, so is the power, 
 life and virtue thereof, and the pure grace of God that comes there- 
 from, the chief and most necessary qualification, without which he 
 can noways perform his duty acceptably to God or beneficially to 
 
THE FOUNDATION. 2/ 
 
 man." Besides, Quakerism did not grow up as a carefully planned 
 system ; it was evolved in a storm. George Fox had been preaching 
 but a few years when, impelled by an intense spiritual activity, hun- 
 dreds of men and women, in good degree unlettered and previously 
 unknown, sprang up, almost at once as it were from the ground, in 
 all parts of Great Britain, and began to expound the Scriptures and 
 to speak to the people of holy things. They held their meetings in 
 private houses, in the woods or fields, and at the corners of the 
 streets. It was a marvellous uprising, alarming the established 
 order of things and leading to a persecution bitter, cruel and long- 
 continued. While the storm lasted, no settled institutions could be 
 established; and it is scarcely to be wondered at that a people 
 widely scattered, under continual excitement and in constant danger 
 of a fine, the prison or the stake, neglected their duty in regard to 
 schools. The facts about to be mentioned will show their interest 
 in the subject as soon as they had a fair chance to consider it. 
 
 George Fox, in his Journal, under date of 1667, says : " I advised 
 the setting up of a school there (at Waltham) for teaching boys; 
 also a woman's school to be opened at Shackelwell for instructing 
 girls and young maidens in whatsoever things were civil and useful 
 in creation." Four years later there were fifteen boarding schools 
 in operation under the direction of Friends, and, without doubt, a 
 large number of local, private schools. Gorge Fox died in 1690, 
 and by his will left sixteen acres of land in Pennsylvania, "to Friends 
 there, ten of it for a close to put Friends' horses in when they came 
 afar to the meeting, that they may not be lost in the woods, and the 
 other six for a meeting-house and a schoolhouse, a burying-place, 
 and for a play-ground for the children in town to play on, and for a 
 garden to plant with physical plants, for lads and lasses to know 
 samples and to learn to make oils and ointments." The land was 
 located and used in part at least for the purposes for which it was 
 given. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania possesses a copy of 
 a " Primer," of which George Fox is the author. It was printed in 
 Philadelphia in 1701. The book was intended for the use of schools, 
 and strangely enough contains a catechism setting forth the leading 
 doctrines of the Society of Friends. 
 
 In 1670, Christopher Taylor, afterwards a member of the Provin- 
 cial Council in Pennsylvania, a liberally educated Friend, opened a 
 classical school at Waltham Abbey, in Essex county, probably in 
 accordance with Fox's suggestion concerning the establishment of a 
 
28 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 boarding school at that place; but having no license as a schoolmas- 
 ter from the Bishop of the Diocese, he was -bound over on a cha'rge 
 of violating the law, and finally compelled to remove his establish- 
 ment to Edmonton, in Middlesex. George Keith, the first master 
 of the Friends' Public School, in Philadelphia, was a teacher in 
 England before coming to this country. James Logan also was an 
 assistant in his father's school at Bristol. 
 
 Robert Barclay, speaking for the whole dehomination, in T675, 
 favors classical schools. His words are : " And therefore, to answer 
 the just desires of those that desire to read them, and for other very 
 good rea.sons, as maintaining a commerce and understanding among 
 divers nations by these common languages, and others of that kind, 
 we judge it necessary and commendable that there be public schools 
 for the teaching and instructing of such youth as are inclinable 
 thereunto, in the languages." 
 
 Thomas Ellwood, contemporary with Barclay, speaks in his Jour- 
 nal of having made some progress in learning when a boy and lost 
 it when he came to be a man, and adds : " Nor was I rightly sensi- 
 ble of my loss therein, till I came amongst the Quakers. But then 
 I saw my loss, and lamented it; and applied myself with the utmost 
 diligence, at all leisure times, to recover it. So false I found that 
 charge to be, which in those times was cast upon the Quakers, that 
 they despised and decried all human learning, because they denied 
 it to be essentially necessary to a Gospel ministry, which was one 
 of the controversies of those times." By the recommendation of 
 Isaac Pennington, already mentioned as a scholarly Friend, Ellwood 
 became a pupil of the poet Milton, and read to him in appointed 
 books with much satisfaction. From Ellwood's narrative, Clarkson, 
 who was not a Friend, in his " Portraiture of Quakerism," draws 
 these conclusions : " First, that the early Quakers were generally 
 men of eminent learning. Secondly, that they did not decry or de- 
 preciate human knowledge. And thirdly, that the calumny of such 
 depreciation by them arose from the controversy which they thought 
 it right to maintain, in which they denied it to be necessary as a 
 qualification for a Gospel minister." 
 
 The "Extracts" of an early date from "the Minutes of the Yearly 
 Meeting of Friends in London," the very highest authority, contain 
 the following : " The children of the poor are to have due help of 
 education, instruction and necessary learning. The families also of 
 the poor are to be provided with Bibles, and books of the Society, 
 
THE ^OUNipATION. 2Q 
 
 at the expense of the Monthly Meetings. And- as some members 
 may be straitened in their circumstances, and may refuse, out of 
 deUcacy, to. apply for aid towards the education of their children, it 
 is earnestly recommended to Friends in every Monthly Meeting, to 
 look out for persons who may be thus straitened, and to take care 
 that their children, shall receive instruction : and it is recominended 
 to the parents of such, not to refuse their salutary aid, but to receive 
 it with a willing mind, and with thankfulness to the great Author of 
 all good." This is adrnirable in all respects ; and, from the first, 
 " overseers " were appointed by all the Monthly Meetings to carry 
 into effect the directions of the Yearly Meeting. 
 
 Nor did this great Quaker legislature at London make a single 
 spasmodic effort in behalf of education, and then drop the subject. 
 It continued almost every' year for half a century to send out ap- 
 pea.ls calculated to quicken the zeal of subordinate bodies jn the 
 good work of establishing schools. The appeal of 1706 is especially 
 earqest and solemn : 
 
 And forasmuch as, next to our own souls, our children and offspring are 
 the most immediate objects of our care and concern, it is tenderly recom- 
 mended to all that are or may be parents or gi^ardians of children, that they 
 he diligently exercised in this care and concern for the education of tliose 
 CQiflinitted to their charge ; that, in their tender years, they piay be brought 
 to a sense of God — his wisdom, power, omnipresence, so ^s to beget an awe 
 and fear of Him in their hearts (which is the beginning of wisdom) ; and, as 
 they grow up in capacity, to acquaint them with and bring them up in the 
 frequent reading of the Scriptures of Truth, and also to instruct them in the 
 great love of God, through Jesus Christ and the work of salvation by Him, 
 and of sanctification through His blessed Spirit ; and aUo to keep them out 
 of the vain and foolish ways of the world, and in plainness of language, 
 habit and behavior, that, being thus instructed in the way of the Lord when 
 they are young, they may not forget it when they are old. 
 
 From the same body, we have the following in 171 5 : 
 
 The want of proper persons among Friends, qualified for schoolmasters, 
 has been the occasion of great damage to the Society in many places. 
 
 We desire Friends would, in their Monthly Meetings, assist young men of 
 low circumstances, whose genius and conduct may })e suitable for that office, 
 with the means requisite to obtain the proper qualifications ; and, vyhen sq 
 qualified, afford them the necessaryencouragement for their support. 
 
 William Penn was unquestionably the greatest nian whose name 
 is connected with the pojonial history of America. In tender regard 
 for the rights pf the people, iq a thorough mastership pf the funda- 
 mental principles upon which all government must rest, in the noble 
 
EDUCiTION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 art of practical statesmanship, in that broad philanthrophy whicli 
 Hves to benefit mankind, he had scarce a peer in the century that 
 gave him birth. Pennsylvania is to-day proud of her illustrious 
 founder; and, as the years roll on, his grand figure will become 
 more and more majestic, and his good name will be more and more 
 revered. Born in London in 1644, he received his early education 
 at the free grammar school at Chigwell in Essex county, subse- 
 
 CIIIGWELI. GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 
 
 quently under a private tutor prepared for College, and at the age 
 of fifteen was entered as a student at the University of Oxford. 
 Here he distinguished himself both as a scholar and in all kinds of 
 manly exercises ; but having listened to the preaching of a Friend 
 he was inclined to accept the doctr.ines of Quakerism, declined to 
 attend the services of the established Church, and was expelled from 
 the University for non-conformity. Shortly afterwards his father 
 sent him to France, where, at Paris and in the celebrated institution 
 at Saumur, he acquired, in addition to the courteous manners for 
 which he was noted, a knowledge of the French language, and, 
 under the direction of the learned and liberal Moses Auryrault, read 
 the works of the early Christian fathers and other theological 
 
yy/A FOUNDATION. 5 1 
 
 J 
 
 authors. On his way to Italy, he was suddenly recalled by his 
 father, and having transacted in a very satisfactory way some busi- 
 ness' for him, sat down to read law at Lincoln's Inn, London. Soon 
 after he joined the Society of Friends, and began to preach in 1667. 
 But this is not the place to narrate the story of his eventful life, the 
 task in hand being simply to state his views respecting education, 
 and to give an account of the educational policy he contemplated in 
 planting his colony in the New World. 
 
 Penn commenced his career as an executive and lawgiver by be- 
 coming one of the trustees of the Province of West New Jersey in 
 1676. Some valuable papers concerning the government of that 
 Province emanated from the body of trustees of which he was a 
 member, and most of them contain sufficient internal evidence to 
 prove them the work of his hand. For example, there can be no 
 mistake in the authorship of the following extract from a letter of 
 the trustees to Richard Hartshorne, an eminent Friend, who had 
 some time before settled in West New Jersey. In speaking of the 
 new Constitution they had adopted for the Province, they say : 
 
 There we lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men 
 and Christians, that they may not be brought in bondage, but by their own con- 
 sent; for put \he. power in the people, that is to say, they to meet and choose 
 one hon"fest man foreach propriety who hath subscribed the. concessions ; all 
 these men to meet as an Assembly, there to make and repeal laws, to choose 
 a Governor, or a Commissioner, and twelve assistants to execute the laws dur- 
 ing their pleasure ; so every man is capable to choose or be chosen. No man 
 to be arrested, condemned, imprisoned or molested in his estate or liberty but 
 by twelve men of the neighborhood; no man to lie in prison for debt, but 
 that his estate satisfy as far as it will go, and be set at hberty to work ; no 
 person to be called in question or molested for his conscience, or for worship- 
 ping according to his conscience. 
 
 Soon after receiving the charter to his Province, Penn addressed a 
 letter, dated April, 168 1, to those then living within the territory 
 covered by it. In the letter he says : 
 
 I hope you will not be troubled at your change, and the King's choice, for 
 vou are now fixed at the mercy of no Governor that comes to make his for- 
 tune great ; you will be governed by laws of your own making, and live a 
 free, and if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the 
 right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better reso- 
 lution, and has given me the grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and 
 free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their 
 own happiness, I shall heartily comply with. 
 
 In another letter written to some friends a few days later, we find 
 the following, italicised as in the original : 
 
22 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 For the matters of liberty and privilege, I propose that wl^ic^^ is extraordiij- 
 ary, and to leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief, that the 
 will of one man may not hinder the good of the whole coutitry. , 
 
 To James Harrison he writes, August, l68i, of his Province: 
 
 I have so obtained it, and desire that I may not be unworthy of His. love, 
 but do that which may answer His kind providence, and serve His truth and 
 people; that an example may be set up to the nations; there may be room 
 there, though not '^x^r^, for such a holy experiment. 
 
 The Preface to Penn's Frame of Government, written in England 
 early in 1682, is considered by the best judges a masterpiece of po- 
 litical wisdom. The following are extracts from it : 
 
 This settles the divine right of government beyond exception, and that for 
 two ends : firsf, to terrify evil doers ; secondly, to cherish those that do well ; 
 which gives government a life beyond corruption, and makes it as durable in 
 the world as good men shall be. So that government seems to me a part of 
 religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and -end ; for, if it does not 
 directly remove the cause, it crushes the effects of evil, and is, as such, though 
 a lower, yet an emanation of the same divine pov/er that is both author and 
 object of pure religion ; the difference lying here, that the one is HLore free 
 and mental, the other more corporal and compulsive in its operation; but 
 that is only to evil doers, a government itself being otherwise as capable of 
 kindness, goodness and charity as a more private society. They weakly err 
 who think there is no other use of government than correction, which is the 
 coarsest part of it. *********** 
 
 I know what is said by the several admirers of monarchy, aristocracy, 
 and democracy, which are the rule of one, of a few, and of many, and are the 
 three common ideas of government when men discourse on the subject. But 
 I choose to solve the controversy with this small distinction, and it belongs 
 to all three : any government is free to the people under it, whatever be the 
 frame, where the laws rule and the people are a party to these laws; and 
 more than this is tyranny, oligarchy or confusion. * ' * * * * 
 
 Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them ; and as 
 governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. 
 Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon govern- 
 ments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad. If it be ill, 
 they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be ever so good, 
 they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn. 
 
 I know some say, Let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that 
 execute them. But let them consider, that though good laws do well, good 
 men do better; for good laws want good men, and may be abolished or 
 evaded by ill men ; but good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill 
 ones. ************* 
 
 That, therefore, which makes a good constitution must keep it, namely, men 
 of wisdom and virtue, qqalities that, because they descend not with worldly 
 mheritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth. 
 
 Penn's Frame contains the following provisions relating to edu- 
 cation : 
 
THE foundation: _ ,, 
 
 Twelfth. That the Governor and Provincial Council shall erect and order 
 all public schools, and encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences 
 and laudable inventions in the said Province. » » * * » 
 
 And, fourthly, a committee of manners, education and arts, that all wicked 
 and scandalous living may be prevented, and that youth may be successively 
 trained up in virtue and useful knowledge and arts. 
 
 The provision last named refers to one of the four committees in- 
 to which the Provincial Council was to be divided " for the better 
 management of the powers and trust " committed to it. 
 
 Among the laws agreed upon in England, was one laying the 
 foundation for a system of industrial education : 
 
 Twenty-eighth. That all children within this Province of the age of twelve 
 years, shzill be taught some useful trade or skill, to the end none may be 
 idle, but the poor may work to live, and the rich, if they become poor, may 
 not want. 
 
 And another, guaranteeing in the strongest manner the rights of 
 
 conscience. .^ 
 
 w 
 
 Thirty-fifth. That alF- persons living in this Province, who confess and ac- 
 knowledge the one almighty and eternal God, to be the creator, upholder and 
 ruler of the world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live 
 peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in no ways be molested or preju- 
 diced for their religious persuasion or practice in matters of faith and worship, 
 nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious 
 worship, place or ministry whatever. 
 
 Penn having prepared his Frame of Government and the accom- 
 panying laws, made arrangements for embarking on the ship Wel- 
 come, about to sail for America. As a last duty, he wrote a beautiful 
 farewell letter to his wife and children. Of the education of his 
 children he speaks most feelingly : 
 
 For their learning be liberal. Spare no cost ; for by such parsimony all is 
 lost that is saved ; but let it be useful knowledge, such as is consistent with 
 truth and godliness, not cherishing a vain conversation or idle mind, but inge- 
 nuity mixed with industry is good for the body and mind too. I recommend 
 the useful parts of mathematics, as building houses or ships, measuring, sur- 
 veying, dialling, navigation ; but agriculture is especially in my eye ; let my 
 children be husbandmen and housewives ; it is industrious, healthy, honest, 
 and of good example. 
 
 In a communication of later date, quoted by Proud, Penn says : 
 
 Upon the whole matter I undertake to say that if we would preserve our 
 government, we must endear it to the people. To do this, besides the neces- 
 sity of presenting just and wise things, we must secure the youth : this is not to 
 be done, but by the amendment of the way of education ; and that with all con- 
 venient speed and diligence. I say the government is highly obliged : it is a 
 sort of trustee for the youth of the kingdom ; who, though minors, yet will have 
 the government when we are gone. Therefore, depress vice, and cherish vir- 
 3 
 
34 
 
 EDUCATION [N I'ENNSYL VAN I A. 
 
 tue that through good education, they may become good ; which will truly 
 render them happy in this world, and a good way fitted for that which is to 
 come. If this is done, they will owe more to your memories for their educa- 
 tion than for their estates. 
 
 WILLIAM PR.NN. AT IMF. Af.R OF FIFTY. 
 
 In hi.s work entitled " Reflections and Maxims," Penn presents 
 some admirable thoughts on education. His strictures on methods 
 of instruction are about as just now as they were two hundred years 
 ago. This work was written in retirement, while attending his wife 
 in her last iUness. The following is a complete extract: 
 
 The world is certainly a great and stately volume of natural things and 
 
THE FOUNDATION. ,e 
 
 may be not improperly styled the hieroglyphics of a letter ; but, alas, how 
 very few leaves of it do we seriously turn over! This ought to be the subject 
 of the education of our youth ; who, at twenty, when they should be fit for 
 business know little or nothing of it. We are in pain to make them scholars 
 but not men ; to talk rather than to know, which is true canting. The first 
 thing obvious to children is what is sensible ; and that we make no part of 
 their rudiments. We press their memory too soon, and puzzle, strain and 
 load them with words and rules to know Grammar and Rhetoric, and a 
 strange tongue or two, that it is ten to one may never be useful to ■them; 
 leaving their natural genius to mechanical, physical or natural knowledge, 
 uncultivated and neglected; which would be of exceeding use and pleasure 
 to them through the whole course of their lives. 
 
 To be sure, languages are not to be despised or neglected ; but things are 
 still to be preferred. Children had rather be making tools and instruments of 
 play, shaping, drawing, framing, building, etc., than getting some rules of 
 propriety of speech by heart; and these also would follow with more judg- 
 ment, and less trouble and time. 
 
 It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things ; and acted 
 according to nature : whose rules are few, plain and most reasonable. Let 
 us begin therefore where she begins, go her pace^ and close always where 
 she ends, and we cannot miss of being good naturalists. The creation would 
 not be longer a riddle to us. The heavens, earth and waters, with their 
 respective, various and numerous inhabitants, their productions, natures, 
 seasons, sympathies and antipathies, their use, benefit and pleasure, would be 
 better understood by us; and an eternal wisdom, power, majesty, and good- 
 ness, very conspicuous to us, through these sensible and passing forms : the 
 world wearing the mark of its Maker whose stamp is everywhere visible, and 
 the characters very legible to the children of wisdom. And it would go a 
 great way to caution and direct people in their use of the world, that they 
 were better studied and known in the creation of it. For how could men 
 find the confidence to abuse it, while they should see the great Creator stare 
 them in the face, in all and every part thereof? Their ignorance makes them 
 insensible ; and to that insensibility may be ascribed their hard usage of 
 several parts of this noble creation : that has the stamp and voice of a Deity 
 everywhere, and in everything, to the observing. 
 
 It is a pity, therefore, that books have not been composed for youth, by some 
 curious and careful naturalists, and also mechanics, in the Latin tongue, to 
 be used in schools, that they might learn things with words : things obvious 
 and familiar to them, and which would make the tongue easier to be obtained 
 by them. 
 
 Many able gardeners and husbandmen are ignorant of the reason of their 
 calling ; as most artificers are of the reason of their own rules that govern 
 their excellent workmanship. But a naturalist and mechanic of this sort is 
 master of the reason of both ; and might be of practice too, if his industry 
 kept pace with his speculations, which were very commendable, and without 
 which he cannot be said to be a complete naturalist or mechanic. 
 
 Finally, if man be the index or epitome of the world, as philosophers tell 
 us, we have only to read ourselves well, to be learned in it. But because 
 there is nothing we less regard than the characters of the Power that made 
 us, which are so clearly written upon us, and the world he has given us, and 
 
,6 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 can best tell us what we are and should be, we are even strangers to our own 
 genius : the glass in which we should see that true, instructing, and agreeable 
 variety, which is to be observed in nature, to the admiration of that wisdom, 
 and the adoration of that Power which made us all. 
 
 Well may the scattered settlers on the banks of the Delaware 
 welcome their new Governor ! Well may the oppressed of all coun- 
 tries hasten to take up their abode in the land he governs ! He is a 
 man, a Christian, a philosopher, a statesman, and a friend of an all- 
 sided culture for every human being. The first historian of our 
 country, the well-balanced, truth-loving Bancroft, in words of weight 
 says of him, " His fame is now as wide as the world; he is one of 
 the few who have gained abiding glory." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1682 TO 1776. 
 PUBLIC education; how favored and why neglected. 
 
 THE foundation laid, the beginnings of the structure must now 
 be traced. By the patent of King Charles II, dated March 4, 
 1 68 1, Penn received the grant of a vast territory of which he was 
 constituted the absolute proprietor and ruler, subject only to the 
 King of England, for whom was retained the right to review the laws 
 passed in the Province and to hear appeals against judgments there- 
 in pronounced. It was a most munificent grant, and Penn at once 
 began to make preparations to take possession of it. On the tenth 
 of April, he commissioned his cousin William Markham as Deputy 
 Governor, and despatched him at once to the scene of his duties, 
 where he arrived on the first of July ; and, three months later, 
 published the " conditions and concessions " agreed upon, defining 
 the relations between himself and those who became settlers within 
 his jurisdiction. Markham, upon his arrival on the Delaware, lost 
 no time in calling a Council as authorized by his commission. The 
 nine persons constituting it met at Upland, were qualified on the 
 third of August, 1681, and doubtless began the work of legislation, 
 but they seem to have left no records. A Court of Justice was held 
 at the same place on the thirtieth of November. On the twenty- 
 seventh day of October, 1682, Penn himself arrived in the ship 
 Welcome, was graciously received by the inhabitants, and the " holy 
 experiment," the effort to found and administer a government in 
 accordance with the pure principles of the New Testament, began. 
 The experiment was not destined to succeed as he planned it. It 
 could not have succeeded at the time and in the manner it was at- 
 tempted, for it was a tender bud whose fruit could ripen only in the 
 course of centuries. But the principles it involved are eternal ; and 
 as the ages slowly roll away, may there not come a day when the 
 pearls of virtue will be no longer trampled under their feet by the 
 swine of vice, when the jealousies and hatreds of narrow sectarian- 
 ism will be lost in universal charity, and when the people shall beat 
 
 (37) 
 
^3 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN I A. 
 
 their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, 
 and the nations of the earth learn war no more ? If such a glorious 
 day shall ever come, then, and not till then, will the great and good 
 founder of our Commonwealth, and his colony of peaceful Friends, 
 be honored as they deserve for their noble effort to establish and 
 maintain a government without force, on the principle of justice and 
 good-will tc> men. 
 
 Within three weeks from the time of his landing, Penn issued 
 writs for an election of members of the General Assembly, It met 
 on the fourth of December, at Chester, and remained in session four 
 days. The Frame and the body of laws prepared and printed by 
 Penn, in England, including the provisions respecting education 
 already quoted, had been previously accepted without material alter- 
 ation; but, in addition, the Assembly now passed what has been 
 called the " Great Law," consisting of seventy-one chapters or sec- 
 tions, and covering a multitude of different subjects. The first 
 chapter of this law, broadening the previous enactment on the sub- 
 ject and recognizing the right of every man to worship God as his 
 conscience dictates, cannot be omitted. It provides : 
 
 That no person, now, or at any time hereafter, living in this Province, who 
 shall confess and acknowledge one Almighty God to be the Creator, Upholder 
 and Ruler of the world, and professes himself or herself obliged in conscience 
 to live peaceably and quietly under the civil government, shall in any case be 
 molested or prejudiced for his or her conscientious persuasion or practice. 
 Nor shall he or she at any time be compelled to frequent or maintain any re- 
 ligious worship, place or ministry whatever, contrary to his or her mind, but 
 shall freely and fully enjoy his or her Christian liberty in that respect, without 
 any interruption or reflection. And if any person shall abuse or deride any 
 other for his or her different persuasion and practice in matters of religion, 
 such person shall be looked upon as a disturber of the peace, and be pun- 
 ished accordingly. 
 
 Chapter LX. contains a provision of remarkable significance for 
 the time of its enactment, as follows : 
 
 That the Laws of this Province, from time to time, shall be published and 
 printed, that every person may have the knowledge thereof; and they shall 
 be one of the books taught in the schools of this Province and Territories 
 thereof. 
 
 The men who passed this law evidently contemplated the estab- 
 lishment of schools under public authority throughout the Province 
 and Territories, and recognized the importance of preparing the 
 young to become good citizens by requiring them to be made 
 acquainted in the schools with the laws by which they were 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. in 
 
 governed Even the school laws of the present day contain no 
 such provision, and, certainly, they might be made more perfect by 
 the re-enactment of this old law passed by the first Assembly of 
 representative freemen who sat as a deliberative body on the soil of 
 Pennsylvania more than two hundred years ago. 
 
 The second Assembly met at Philadelphia on the tenth of March, 
 1683. A new Frame slightly different from the first one was pre- 
 sented by the Governor, " thankfully received" and a promise made 
 to keep it inviolate by the members of both the Council and the 
 Assembly. It contains a provision relating to education not in the 
 old charter. Directly after requiring that the " Governor and 
 Provincial Council shall erect and order all public schools," it pro- 
 vides — 
 
 That one-third part of the Provincial Council residing with the Governor 
 from time to time, shall with the Governor have the care of the management 
 of public affairs relating to the peace, justice, treasury, and improvement of 
 the Province and Territories, and to the good education of youth, and sobriety 
 of the manners of the inhabitants therein as aforesaid. 
 
 Of the numerous laws passed by this Assembly, hone evince 
 broader statesmanship or possess more historic interest than that of 
 chapter CXI I., which reads as follows : 
 
 And to the end that poor as well as rich may be instructed in good and 
 commendable learning, which is to be preferred before wealth, Be it enacted, 
 etc., That all persons in this Province and Territories thereof, having chil- 
 dren, and all the guardians and trustees of orphans, shall cause such to be 
 instruVted in reading and writing, so that they may be able to read the 
 Scriptures and to write by the time they attain to twelve years of age ; and 
 that then they be taught some useful trade or skill, that the poor may work to 
 live, and the rich if they become poor may not want: of which every County 
 Court shall take care. And in case such parents, guardians, or overseers 
 shall be found deficient in this respect, every such parent, guardian or over- 
 seer shall pay for every such child, five pounds, except there should appear 
 an incapacity in body or understanding to hinder it. 
 
 There are several provisions in this remarkable law that deserve 
 special mention. In some respects they are clearly in advance of 
 anything now on the statute books of the Commonwealth. 
 
 First, all persons having charge of children were required to 
 have them instructed in reading and writing by the time they were 
 twelve years of age. Thus, universal education was clearly con- 
 templated. 
 
 Second, the children were also to be taught " some useful trade 
 or skill." Industrial education is under discussion at the present 
 
EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 40 
 
 time as if it were a new subject; the far-seeing legislators of 1683 
 thought they then settled it. 
 
 Third, force, if necessary, was to be used to carry the provisions 
 of the law into effect. Parents, guardians, and overseers, who 
 neglected to have the children under their care instructed in the 
 elements of an intellectual education, and to give them a trade as 
 required, were to be fined for each child so neglected the sum of 
 five pounds, equal probably to twice that amount in the currency of 
 the present day, except in case of incapacity in body or understand- 
 ing ; and the several County Courts were directed to see to the 
 enforcement of the law. This is one of the strongest and most 
 comprehensive compulsory educational laws ever passed in any 
 country. It is unique in early American history. The statute hav- 
 ing remained in force for ten years, was abrogated by William and 
 Mary, King and Queen of England. It was subsequently re-enacted, 
 1693, by Governor Fletcher, " by and with the advice and consent 
 of the representatives" of the Province, and there does not seem to 
 be any record showing that it was ever formally repealed. It prob- 
 ably became a " dead letter " on account of not being revived 
 under the operation of subsequent frames of government. 
 
 That this school law, so remarkable considering the time of its 
 enactment, was enforced, appears from numerous records like the 
 following made by the early Courts : 
 
 At a Court of Quarter Sessions held at Chester, for said county, on the 
 twenty-third day of the 12th mo., 170%. Robert Sinkler petitioned this Court 
 that his present master John Crosby was to teach him to read and write, which 
 he hath not freely performed, ordered that John Crosby put the said servant 
 to school one month, and to instruct his said servant another month. 
 
 Governor Markham's Frame of Government, granted in 1696, 
 contains an educational provision similar to that in Penn's first 
 Frame, as follows : 
 
 That the Governor and Council shall erect and order all public schools and 
 encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences and laudable inventions 
 in the said Province and Territories. 
 
 And also the following: 
 
 That the Governor and Council shall from time to time have the care of the 
 management of all public affairs, relating to the peace, safety, justice, treasury, 
 trade, and improvement of the Province and Territories, and to the good 
 education of youth, and sobriety of the manners of the inhabitants therein as 
 aforesaid. 
 
 The earliest action of the Provincial authorities in regard to the 
 
THE COLONIAL PEA WD. 4 1 
 
 actual establishment of a school, is the following, given in the quaint 
 language of the original: 
 
 At a Council held at Philadelphia, y" 26th of y= loth month, 1683. Present : 
 VVm. Penn, Proper & Govr., Theo. Holmes, Wm. Haigue, Lasse Cock, Wm. 
 Clayton. 
 
 The Govr and Provll Councill having taken into their Serious Considera- 
 tion the great Necessity there is of a School Master for y= instruction & Sober 
 Education of youth in the towne of Philadelphia, Sent for Enock flower, an 
 Inhabitant of the said Towne, who for twenty Year past hath been exercised 
 in that care and Imployment in England, to whom haveing Communicated 
 their Minds, he Embraced it upon the following Terms : to Learne to read 
 English 4s by the Quarter, to Learne to read and write 6s by y° Quarter, to 
 learne to read, Write and Cast accot 8s by y' Quarter ; for Boarding a 
 SchoUer, that is to say, dyet, Washing, Lodging, & Scooling, Tenn pounds 
 for one whole year. 
 
 Enoch Flower is said to have come from Corsham, Wiltshire, 
 England. He opened his school in October, 1683, in a dwelling 
 built of pine and cedar planks. 
 
 That this same Council had in mind even at that early day the 
 establishment of an institution of a higher order than the school of 
 Enoch Flower, appears from the following record, dated a little more 
 than a month subsequent to the above : 
 
 At a Council held at Philadelphia on the 17th of the nth month, 1683, 
 William Penn and others being present, it was proposed. That Care be Taken 
 about the Learning and Instruction of Youth, to Witt: a Scool of Arts and 
 Sciences. 
 
 At the same meeting of the Council a law was proposed "for 
 Makeing of Severall sorts of Books, for the use of Persons in this 
 Province." 
 
 Clarkson states that " William Penn in a letter to Thomas Lloyd, 
 President of the Council, 1689, instructed him to set up a 'public 
 Grammar school ' in Philadelphia, which he promised to incorporate 
 at a future time." This is thought to be the beginning of the 
 " Friends' Public School," now known by the name of the " William 
 Penn Charter School," opened in 1689, formally chartered in 1697, 
 and continuously in operation down to the present time, thus rank- 
 ing with the Parochial School of the Dutch Church in New York 
 and the Latin School in Boston as one of the oldest schools in the 
 country. By a Public Grammar School, Penn did not mean what 
 is now understood by the term, but what was then understood by 
 it in England, viz., an endowed school of a high order, specially 
 designed to impart instruction in the classical language.s, and free 
 
-2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 only to those designated in the charter to receive gratuitous instruc- 
 tion. The expression "free school" at that day was sometimes 
 used as an equivalent for public school, schools absolutely free 
 being unknown. The Friends' Public School at Philadelphia was 
 in the modern sense a private institution managed by a number of 
 leading Quaker citizens, but admission as pupils was granted to 
 children of all denominations. They called George Keith, then a 
 Friend but afterwards a bitter enemy of Friends, to take charge of 
 it. He was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, a man of learning, and 
 had served as a teacher in the old country. He came to Philadel- 
 phia from Freehold, now Monmouth, New Jersey, but remained at 
 the head of the school only a single year. His salary as Master 
 for the first year was fifty pounds, with the use of the schoolhouse, 
 a house for his family to live in, and all the profits of the school. 
 For the second year he was to receive one hundred and twenty 
 pounds and the perquisites already named. The poor were to be 
 taught gratis. His success was not great, and at the end of a year 
 he gave place to Thomas Makin, his usher. Makin continued at 
 •the head of the school a number of years, and is undoubtedly the 
 "Thomas Meaking'' referred to in the following action of the Pro- 
 vincial Council on the first day of August, 1693: 
 
 ThoKias Meaking, keeper of the Free School in the town of Philadelphia, 
 being called before the Lieutenant Governor and Council, and told that he 
 must not keep school without a license. Answered that he was willing to 
 comply, and to take a license. Was therefore ordered to procure a certificate 
 of his ability, learning and diligence from the inhabitants of note in this town 
 by the sixteenth instant, in order to the obtaining a license, which he prom- 
 ised to do. 
 
 Makin was probably the first teacher in the State required to 
 procure a certificate. The following are extracts from the minutes 
 of the Assembly: 
 
 December, 1699, Thomas Makin voted to be clerk of this Assembly, at 4s 
 per day. ********* 
 
 1705, November 3d. The petition of Thomas Makin complaining of dam- 
 age accruing to him by the loss of several of his scholars by reason of the 
 Assembly's using the school house so long — the weather being very cold — 
 ordered that he be allowed the sum of three pounds over and above the sum 
 of twenty shillings this House formerly allowed him for the same consider- 
 ation. 
 
 Makin lived to be very old, writing a Latin poem, descriptive of 
 Pennsylvania in 1729; and died, like so many other schoolmasters, 
 poor. The Pennsylvania Gazette, of November 29, 1733, tells in 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 43 
 
 brief words the story of his death : " On Monday evening last, Mr. 
 Thomas Meakins fell off a wharf into the Delaware, and before he 
 could be taken out again, was drowned. He was an ancient man, 
 and formerly lived very well in this city, teaching a considerable 
 school ; but of late years was reduced to extreme poverty." 
 
 The Friends' Public School was chartered as has been stated in 
 1697. The' following quotation is from the petition to the Governor 
 and Council requesting this grant. It is dated the tenth of Decem- 
 ber, 1697—8, and is of special interest as showing the views of edu- 
 cation held by leading Friends in the Province at that early day. 
 
 The humble petition of Samuel Carpenter, Edward Shippen, Anthony Morris, 
 James Fox, David Lloyd, William Southby, and John Jones, in the behalf of 
 themselves and the rest of the people called Quakers who are members of the 
 Monthly Meeting, held and kept at the new meeting-house, lately built upon 
 a piece of ground fronting the High street, in Philadelphia aforesaid, obtained 
 of the present Governor by the said people, sheweth : That it hath been and 
 is much desired by many, that a school be set up and upheld in this town of 
 Philadelphia, where poor children may be freely maintained, taught and edu- 
 cated in good literature, until they be fit to be put out apprentices, or capable 
 to be masters or ushers .in the said school. And forasmuch as by the laws 
 and constitutions of this government, it is provided and enacted, that the 
 Grovernor and Council shall erect and order all public schools, and encourage 
 and reward the authors of useful sciences and laudable inventions, in the said 
 Province and Territories ; therefore, may it please the Governor and Council 
 to ordain and establish that at the said town of Philadelphia, a pubhc school 
 may be founded, where all children and servants, male and female, whose 
 parents, guardians and masters be willing to subject them to the rules and 
 orders of the said school, shall from time to time, with the approbation of the 
 overseers thereof for the time being, be received or admitted, taught and in- 
 structed ; the rich at reasonable rates, and the poor to be maintained and 
 schooled for nothing. And to that end a meet and convenient house or 
 houses, buildings and rooms, may be erected for the keeping of the said 
 school, and for the entertainment and abode of such and so many masters, 
 ushers, mistresses and poor children, as by the order and direction of the 
 said Monthly Meeting shall be limited and appointed from time to time. 
 
 The petition was considered favorably, and Governor Markham 
 granted the charter asked for. This charter, however, does not seem 
 to have been placed on record, except so far as it is embraced in the 
 subsequent charters, or at least no record of it as a whole can now 
 be found ; but copies of the later charters, granted respectively in the 
 years 1701, 1708, and 171 1 by Penn, are preserved in the office of the 
 Secretary of Internal Affairs, at Harrisburg, and the original charters 
 themselves may be found in the archives, of the school. One who 
 recently saw them says that " each is written on a single sheet of 
 
. . EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 parchment beautifully engrossed. The letters are heavily formed, 
 the ink quite black and in good order. In a word, they are very 
 handsome old documents, very little affected by age, except in the 
 folding places. Each is signed by William Penn, and by him only. 
 The seals of the two oldest are broken, done probably on purpose 
 to destroy them, but that of the latest date is carefully fixed in a 
 tin box, and may be said to be perfect. It is in red wax, about 
 four inches broad and a half an inch thick." These charters are 
 such lengthy documents that room can be found here for only one 
 of them, that of 171 1 ; but in substance it recapitulates the preced- 
 ing charters. The charter of 170 1, with many directions as to 
 details, placed the management of the school in the hands of the 
 Monthly Meeting whose members had petitioned for its establish- 
 ment. That of 1708, even more elaborate in its statement of details 
 than the preceding one, took away all power concerning the .school 
 from the Monthly Meeting, and appointed "fifteen discreet and 
 religious" Friends as a Board of Overseers, with perpetual succes- 
 sion, to whom its management was intrusted. Below, is given in 
 full, somewhat modernized in spelling and punctuation, the Charter 
 of 171 1 : 
 
 Whereas, The prosperity and welfare of any people depend, in a great 
 measure, upon the good education of youth, and their early instruction in the 
 principles of true religion and virtue, and qualifying them to serve their coun- 
 try and themselves, by breeding them in reading, writing and learning of 
 languages, and useful arts and sciences suitable to their sex, age and degree; 
 which cannot be effected in any manner so Well as by erecting public schools 
 for the purposes aforesaid. 
 
 And Whereas, Upon the petition of Samuel Carpenter, Edward Ship- 
 pen, Anthony Morris, James Fox, David Lloyd, William, Southby and John 
 Jones, on behalf of themselves and others, to William Markham, my then 
 Lieutenant Governor, and to the Council of the said Province, on the First day 
 of the Twelfth month, in the year one thousand six hundred and ninety-seven, 
 desiring that a Public School for teaching and instructing children and ser- 
 vants, both male and female, might be founded in the town of Philadelphia, 
 in this Province, to continue forever, under certain Overseers, to be incor- 
 porated for that pui-pose, and to have perpetual succession, with several pow- 
 ers and privileges therein mentioned. My said then Lieutenant Governor 
 and Council did grant and order that such school should be founded and 
 erected with the incorporation privileges and powers as desired ; and such a 
 school was accordingly founded in the town of Philadelphia. 
 
 And Whereas, Several of the same petitioners having in the year one 
 thousand seven hundred and one, made fresh application to me in Council, 
 to confirm the said order and grant, I did, with the consent of my Provincial 
 Council, and pursuant to the power vested in me by the late King Charles 
 the Second, and to the laws of the said Province, by an instrument or patent, 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 45 
 
 under my hand and my great Provincial Seal, bearing date the five and twen- 
 tieth day of October in the said year, grant and confirm all and every request, 
 matter and thing contained in the petition abovementioned, and did thereby 
 found, ordain and establish the said Public School to be kept forever, in the 
 said town of Philadelphia, or in some convenient place adjacent, with power 
 to frame and erect such and so many buildings, for the use and service of 
 the said school and the entertainment of masters, ushers, mistresses and poor 
 children, and to choose and admit such and so many masters, ushers, mis- 
 tresses and poor children therein as they shall see meet, and I did by the 
 same patent, for me, my heirs and successors, grant and ordain the said 
 Overseers to be a body politic and corporate, in name and deed, to continue 
 forever, by the name of the Overseers of the Public School founded in Phil- 
 adelphia, at the request, cost and charges of the People of God called Quak- 
 ers, and that the said Overseers and their successors should forever have, 
 hold and enjoy, to the use of said school, all the messuages, lands, tenements 
 and hereditaments, goods and chattels, and receive and take all gifts and 
 legacies then before given, granted or devised, or that should be thereafter 
 given, granted or devised, to the use and maintenance of the said school 
 and masters, ushers, mistresses and poor scholars thereof, without further, or 
 other leave, license or authority whatsoever, from me, my heirs or successors, 
 saving to me and them the respective quit-rents, duties and payments there- 
 out reserved, and payable by their original grants and patents, and with full 
 power to frame, make and prescribe such rules and ordinances, for the good 
 Qrder and government of the said school and of the masters, ushers, mistres- 
 ses and poor children, with other privileges in the same patent expressed, 
 or by the same patent, relation thereto being had, may appear. 
 
 And Whereas, At the further request of the several trusty and well 
 beLoved Friends, I did, by an instrument, or Charter, under my hand and 
 my greater Provincial Seal, bearing date the Twenty-second day of the Fifth 
 month, called July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and 
 eight, give and grant to Samuel Carpenter, Edward Shippen, and others, 
 therein named and designated, full license, power and authority to build, 
 erect, found and establish, in the said town of Philadelphia, or in the county 
 of Philadelphia, one Public School, to consist of such and so many masters, 
 mistresses, ushers and teachers, and for maintaining, teaching and instruct- 
 ing such and so many poor children of both sexes in reading, work, lan- 
 guages, arts and sciences, as to the Overseers therein named should seem 
 meet; and that such Public School should forever thereafter be incorporated 
 and called the Public School founded in the town and county of Philadelphia, 
 in Pennsylvania, at the request, cost and charges of the People called Quak- 
 ers, and that there should be forever thereafter fifteen discreet and religious 
 persons of the People called Quakers, Overseers of the same Public School, 
 to be incorporated and made one body politic and corporate, by the name of 
 the Overseers of the Pubhc School, founded in the town and county of Phil- 
 adelphia, in Pennsylvania, at the cost and charges of the People called Quak- 
 ers, to have perpetual succession forever ; in which, last Charter or instru- 
 ment, I granted to the said Overseers several powers, authorities and 
 privileges, for the good government, improvement and support of such school, 
 as by the said Charter or instrument may appear. 
 
 ' And Whereas, it hath lately been represented to me by some of the said 
 Overseers, that the good ends intended by erecting such school will be better 
 
g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 answered and effected, if the said corporation were made more extensive and 
 the powers and privileges granted to the said Overseers were mofe enlarged. 
 Now KNOW YE, that I being desirous to give all further due encouragement 
 to so pious and useful an undertaking, do hereby, for me and my heirs, will 
 and ordain that the Public School erected and founded by either of the former 
 grants, hereinbefore recited, shall forever hereafter be incorporated, called 
 and known by the name of the Public School founded by Charter in the 
 town and county of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and not by any other 
 name, style or title whatsoever, and that fifteen discreet and religious persons 
 shall be the Overseers of the said school, who and their successors, shall for- 
 ever hereafter be one body, politic and corporate in deed, name and law, to 
 perpetual succession, and to be named and called by the name of the Over- 
 seers of the Public School, founded by Charter in the town and county of 
 Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and not by any other name, style or title 
 whatsoever, and then by the said name, I do confirm and establish any name 
 or names of the said school, or of the said Overseers, in any former patent or 
 Charter by me granted, in any wise notwithstanding, and the same school 
 by the name aforesaid, I do by these presents, erect, found, establish and 
 confirm, to have continuance forever. And that the said pious founda- 
 tion and undertaking may have and take better effect and for the good 
 government of the said school, and that the lands, tenements, rents, 
 revenues, stock, goods, money and other things, that have been given, 
 granted, assigned and appointed, and which now are intended to be, or here- 
 after shall be given, granted, assigned or appointed, for the continual main- 
 tenance and support of the said school, may be well ordered, and be justly 
 converted or employed to the use of the said school forever, I hereby will 
 and ordain and by these presents do assign, nominate, constitute and appoint 
 my trusty and well beloved Friends, Samuel Carpenter, the elder, Edward 
 Shippen, Griffith Owen, Thomas Story, Anthony Morris, Richard Hill, Isaac 
 Norris, Samuel Preston, Jonathan Dickinson, Nathan Stanbury. Thomas 
 Masters, Nicholas Wain, Caleb Pusey, Rowland Ellis and James Logan to be 
 the present Overseers of said school. And I further will and ordain, for me 
 and my heirs, that the above-named Overseers 
 of the said school and their successors shall and 
 may, by the said name of the Overseers of the 
 Public School, founded by Charter, in the town 
 and county of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, be 
 persons able and capable in law, to purchase, 
 receive, obtain, retain, possess and enjoy to them 
 and their successors, Overseers of said school 
 forever, for the use and benefit of the gaid school, 
 any manors, lands, tenements, revenues, rents, 
 money, goods and chattels whatsoever of any 
 person or persons whomsoever. And that the 
 said Overseers and their successors shall and 
 may have a common Seal, on one side whereof shall be engraved my Coat 
 of Arms, with this inscription, 
 
 "Good Instruction is better than Riches," 
 to be made use of and serve for the business relating to the said school, and 
 the possession and revenues thereof. 
 And that the said Overseers and their successors by the name aforesaid. 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 47 
 
 shall and may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be 
 defended, answer and be answered, in all manner of Courts, pleas and de- 
 mands of what kind or nature soever they be, either in law or equity or of any 
 transgression, offence, thing, cause or matter done or committed, or to' be 
 done or committed, in, upon or about the premises, or touching or concern- 
 ing any tiling specified in these presents, in the same manner as any private 
 persons, natives, inhabitants or planters in Pennsylvania aforesaid, being per- 
 sons able, and in law capable, may plead or may be impleaded, defend or 
 be defended, answer or be answered. 
 
 And I do hereby for me and my heirs, will, ordain and grant that the 
 houses and buildings already erected, for the use of the said school, by virtue 
 of any of the Charters hereinbefore recited or mentioned, shall be,, remain 
 and continue for uses, purposes and services of the said school only, accord- 
 ing to the design and intention of the erectors thereof, unless the said Over- 
 seers herein nominated and appointed shall think fit otherwise to employ the 
 same, in pursuance of the powers granted by these presents. 
 
 And that the said Overseers and their successors shall and may from time 
 to time, as they shall think convenient, and the increase of the inhabitants 
 of the said town and county of Philadelphia shall require, erect in any other 
 place or places within the said town and county, as they, or the major part 
 of them, shall think proper and convenient, any number of houses or build- 
 ings, for places of instruction of said scholars, and for the dwelling and abode 
 of masters, mistresses, ushers, teachers, scholars, officers and servants, be- 
 longing and to belong to such school. 
 
 And I do by these presents, for me and my heirs, give and grant unto the 
 said Overseers, and their successors forever, that they, or the major part of 
 them, for the time being, shall have full power and authority to make, set 
 down, establish and ordain such good and necessary statutes, orders, rules 
 and ordinances in writing, under their hands, and under their common seal, 
 for the better ordering, ruling, governing and improving of the said school, 
 schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, ushers, teachers, scholars, and servants, 
 belonging to the same, for the time being, and their several allowances, sti- 
 pends, and wages, and of the houses, buildings, lands, possessions, revenues, 
 incomes, rents, goods and chatties of the said school from time to time, with 
 all other things whatsoever, unto the said school belonging, as to the increase 
 or improvement of the rents, repairing of the premises, or any other matter 
 or thing, that may tend to the good of the said school, as the Overseers for 
 the time being, or the major part of them, shall think meet and convenient, 
 so as the said statutes, orders, rules and ordinances be in no wise repugnant 
 to the rights, privileges and jurisdiction of me and my heirs, as Governors of 
 the said Provinces, nor contrary to, but as near as may be agreeable to, the 
 laws and statutes of the said Province: all of which statutes, orders, rules and 
 ordinances, until they shall be repealed, or altered, by the same authority, I 
 will and enjoin, by these presents, to be entiiely obeyed, kept and observed 
 from time to time forever hereafter, by the Overseers, masters, mistresses, 
 ushers, teachers, scholars and other officers and servants, of or belonging to 
 the said school, for the time being, and every of them. 
 
 And I have further given and granted, and by these presents, for me and 
 my heirs, do give and grant unto all and every person and persons, who now 
 are, or hereafter shall be, owners of lands, or inhabitants of Pennsylvania 
 aforesaid, and Territories thereunto belonging, special license, free -power, 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 and lawful authority, to give, grant, bargain and sell, alien and devise, 
 demise, set and let unto the abovenamed Overseers of the said Public School, 
 and their successors, for the use and benefit of the said school, any manors, 
 messuages, lands, tenements, hereditaments, sum or sums of money, goods 
 or chattels whatsoever, saving to myself and my heirs, all quit-rents issuing, 
 and to issue, out of such manors, messuages, lands, tenements and heredita- 
 ments provided nevertheless. 
 
 And I do, for me and my heirs, ordain that the said Overseers, for the time 
 being, or any of them, or their successors, or any of them, shall not make any 
 lease of any of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of or belonging to the 
 said corporation, which shall exceed the number of one and fifty years, in 
 possession and not in reversion, and whereupon shall not be reserved, pay- 
 able yearly or half yearly, during every such lease, the best and most im- 
 proved rent that can be got for the same respectively at the time of making 
 such lease or leases. 
 
 And for the better government of the said school, I do hereby, for me and 
 my heirs, give and grant full license, power and authority, unto the said Over- 
 seers of the said school, and their successors or the major part of them, from 
 time to time, to nominate, place and displace, and visit the masters, mistres- 
 ses, ushers, teachers, scholars, and other inferior officers and servants of or 
 belonging to the said school, for the time being, and to order, reform and 
 redress all or any disorders, misdemeanors, offences and abuses, done and 
 committed by the persons aforesaid, or any of them, according to the statutes 
 and ordinances, which shall be made, ordained or appointed as aforesaid, as 
 the said Overseers for the time being, or the major part of them shall think fit. 
 
 And that the said schoolmasters, mistresses, ushers, teachers, scholars and 
 other officers and servants thereunto belonging, for the time being, shall be 
 exempted, freed and discharged from all visitation and correction of or by 
 any other person or persons whatsoever. 
 
 And I do hereby, for me and my heirs, ordain, grant and appoint, that 
 when and so often as any Overseer of the said school shall die, surrender or 
 be removed from his or their place of Overseer or Overseers, for any misde- 
 meanor, (in which case I will that any Overseer, shall and may be removed 
 by a majority of the Overseers, for the time being, who shall be the only 
 judges thereof,) then and so often, the residue of the said Overseers shall 
 remain, continue and be corporate by the name of the Public School founded 
 by Charter, in the town and county of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, to all 
 intents and purposes, as if the whole number of Overseers were in being. 
 
 And also that then and so often it shall be lawful for the rest of the Over- 
 seers, or the major part of them, and they are hereljy directed and enjoined 
 to nominate, elect and appoint, by an instrument, under their common seal, 
 one or more discreet, religious persons in the room and place, rooms and 
 places, of such Overseer or Overseers so dying, surrendering, or being re- 
 moved, within forty days after such death, and due notice thereof, and after 
 such surrender or removal, which person or persons so nominated, elected 
 and appointed shall from thenceforth be, and be reputed and deemed, an 
 Overseer or Overseers of the said school, to all intents and purposes, accord- 
 ing to the true intent and meaning of these presents. 
 
 In testimony whereof I have set my hand, and caused the Greater Provin- 
 cial Seal of Pennsylvania to be affixed to these presents. Dated the nine and 
 twentieth day of November, one thousand seven hundred and eleven. 
 
 [seal.] Wm. Penn. 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 49 
 
 We have not the data, if we had the space, to follow the long 
 history of this noted school so carefully chartered by the founder 
 of the Commonwealth ; but a few facts concerning it will serve to 
 make known the sphere of its work and the success with which it 
 has met. 
 
 
 
 FRIENDS' PUBLIC SCHOOL. 
 
 The main buildings belonging to the school, were for many years 
 located on Fourth street, near the Friends' Meeting-House, but a 
 number of branch charity schools were established in different parts 
 of the city. These charity schools show that the object of the 
 founders of the Friends' Public School, was not simply to provide a 
 single institution for the education of a select few, but to open up 
 facilities for acquiring knowledge to the needy many ; and for one 
 hundred and seventy years and more they continued to be a bless- 
 ing to the poor of the city. A few years ago they were abandoned, 
 the free schools doubtless rendering their longer existence un- 
 necessary. The school is now located on Twelfth street, between 
 Chestnut and Market. The institution has always borne a high 
 reputation, especially for thoroughness in the teaching of the lan- 
 guages. Walter R. Johnson, Esq., of Philadelphia, writing in the 
 United States Literary Gazette, in 1 826, says of the school : " The 
 Overseers have at this time the superintendence of twelve or thir- 
 teen schools. Of these, the classical establishment. Fourth street, 
 4 
 
-Q EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 has always been conspicuous for the merits of its teachers, and for 
 diffusing among the Society a hberal share of learning, of science 
 and of refinement." Gordon in his Gazetteer of Pennsylvania, 1832, 
 writes as follows: "The Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages are 
 taught in the William Penn Charter School ; and lectures on Bo- 
 tany, Mineralogy and various branches of science are delivered. It 
 possesses an observatory with valuable instruments, and a Library 
 with rare works. Its charity schools in different parts of the city 
 number fourteen." James J. Barclay, Esq., in an address, delivered 
 at the dedication of the Zane street Public School House, in 1841, 
 states that the Charter School had received numerous bequests, all 
 from members of the Society of Friends except one of a hundred 
 pounds, and adds : "The benefits of the schools have been enjoyed 
 principally by those who did not belong to the Society. The aver- 
 age number of pupils educated on the foundation, has been for sev- 
 eral years past about one hundred and twenty- five; of whom the 
 children of Friends have formed about a tenth part. These schools 
 continue in a prosperous state, and confer great benefits on the 
 community." Jacob Taylor had charge of the school in 1708. 
 He served as Surveyor General of the Province, and was a noted 
 astronomer and mathematician. He succeeded Jansen in the man- 
 agement of the Friends' press, and printed thereon work for them 
 and his own Almanacs which had a large circulation. Among the 
 other prominent Masters of the school was Charles Thomson, about 
 1757. afterwards secretary of the Revolutionary Congress; and Ro- 
 bert Proud, the Historian, was for many years, both before and after 
 the Revolutionary War, a teacher of languages. Richard M. Jones 
 has been head master of the school since 1875. During his admin- 
 istration great improvements have been made in buildings and in 
 facilities for study. The training, physical, intellectual and moral is 
 not excelled by that of any institution of the secondary grade in 
 the whole country, and is considered equal to that of Rugby and 
 Eton in their best days. 
 
 To further exemplify the enlightened views of public education 
 entertained by intelligent men among the colonists of Pennsylvania 
 two hundred years ago, the following extract is taken from a work 
 entitled " Good Order Established in Pennsylvania and .New Jersey" 
 by Thomas Budd, published in London, in 1685. Thomas Budd 
 was a Friend, became a Proprietor and an early settler in New 
 Jersey, and at one time served as a member of the General Assem- 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 51 
 
 bly of that Province. He died at Philadelphia, in 1698. It would 
 be difficult to find in the history of the State anything more broad 
 or more liberal on the subject than his view of the provision that 
 should be made for the education of the people. He says : 
 
 1. Now it might be well if a law was made by the Governors and General 
 Assemblies, of Pennsylvania and New Jersey; that all persons inhabiting in 
 the said Provinces, do put their children seven years to the public school, or 
 longer, if the parents please. 
 
 2. That schools be provided in all towns and cities, and persons of known 
 honesty, skill and understanding be yearly chosen by the Governor and Gen- 
 eral Assembly, to teach and instruct boys and girls in all the most useful arts 
 and sciences that they in their youthful capacities may be capable to under- 
 stand, as the learning to read and write true English, Latin, and other useful 
 speeches and languages, and fair writing, arithmetic and book-keeping ; and 
 the boys to be taught and instructed in some mystery or trade, as the making 
 of mathematical instruments, joinery, twinery, the making of clocks and 
 watches, weaving, shoe-making, or any other useful trade or mystery that the 
 school is capable of teaching ; and the girls to be taught and instructed in the 
 spinning of flax and wool, the knitting of gloves and stockings, sewing and 
 making of all sorts of useful needle-work, and the making of straw-work as 
 hats, baskets &c., or any other useful art or mystery that the school is cap- 
 able of teaching. 
 
 3. That the scholars be kept in the morning two hours at reading, writing, 
 book-keeping &c., and other two hours at work in that art, mystery or trade 
 that he or she most delighteth in, and then let thettikhave two hours to dine 
 and for recreation ; and in the afternoon two hours at work at their several 
 employments. 
 
 4. The Seventh day of the week, the scholars may come to school only in 
 the forenoon ; and at a certain time in the afternoon, let a meeting be kept 
 by the schoolmasters and their scholars, where after good instruction and ad- 
 monition is given by the masters to the scholars, and thanks returned to the 
 Lord for his mercies and blessings that are daily received from Him, then, 
 let a strict examination be made by the masters, of the conversation of the 
 scholars in the week past, and let reproof, admonition and correction be given 
 to the oflfenders, according to the quantity and quality of their faults. 
 
 5. Let the like meetings be kept by the school mistresses, and the girls 
 apart from the boys. By strictly observing this good order, our children will 
 be hindered of running into that excess of riot and wickedness that youth is 
 incident to, and they will be a comfort to their tender parents. 
 
 6. Let one thousand acres of land be given and laid out in a good place, 
 to every public school that shall be set up, and the rent or income of it go 
 towards defraying of the charge of the school. 
 
 7. And to the end that the children of poor people and the children of 
 Indians may have the like good learning with the children of rich people, let 
 them be maintained free of charge to their parents, out of the profits of the 
 school, arising by the work of the scholars, by which the poor and the In- 
 dians, as well as the rich, will have their children taught, and the remainder 
 of the profits, if any be, to be disposed of in the building of schoolhouses 
 and improvements on the thousand acres of land which belongs to the school. 
 
. 2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 But the advanced educational opinions of the founder of Penn- 
 sylvania and his immediate followers do not seem to have been 
 entertained or acted upon by those who succeeded them in the 
 management of the affairs of the Province, for little affecting the 
 interests of education can be found on record emanating from either 
 the Proprietors, the Governors, the Provincial Council or the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, from Penn's time on to the breaking out of the 
 Revolutionary war. The first three quarters of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury are almost a perfect blank so far as anything was done by the 
 public authorities to provide an education for the people. Indeed, 
 the last Charter of Privileges granted by Penn himself, in 1701, 
 which continued in force until the adoption of the Constitution of 
 1776, contains no section or clause relating to education. The pro- 
 vision in the earlier Charters in regard to the establishment of 
 public schools was omitted, and the laws based thereupon seem 
 consequently to have died with it. The only legislative enactments 
 during this long, dreary period, touching the subject at all are the 
 following : 
 
 On the seventh of June, 17 12, an act was passed providing that 
 all religious societies, assemblies and congregations of Protestants, 
 be allowed to purcljase lands and tenements for erecting schools, 
 hospitals, etc. February sixth, 1730, this act was repealed by the 
 passage of another of the same import but of a more comprehensive 
 character. The Preamble to this act states that " sundry religious 
 societies of people of the Province, professing the Protestant relig- 
 ion, have, at their own respective costs and charges, purchased 
 small pieces of land within the Province of Pennsylvania; and 
 thereon have erected churches and other houses of religious wor- 
 ship, schoolhouses and alms houses ;" and the Act provides : " That 
 it shall and may be lawful to and for any religious society of Prot- 
 estants, within this Province, to purchase, take and receive, by gift, 
 grant, or otherwise, for burying-grounds, erecting churches, houses 
 of religious worship, schools and alms houses, for any estate what- 
 soever, and to hold the same for the uses aforesaid, of the lord of 
 the fee, by the accustomed rents." 
 
 On the twentieth of May, 1767, an Act was passed "for raising 
 by way of lottery the sum of four hundred and ninety-nine pounds 
 and nineteen shillings, to be applied to the payment of the arrears 
 of debt due for the building and finishing of the German Lutheran 
 church, in Earl township, Lancaster county, and towards erecting 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. ;o 
 
 and building a schoolhouse to the same church." And on the 
 eighteenth of February, 1769, it was enacted that "the Commission- 
 ers thereinafter named to collect the accounts of the managers, and 
 to sue for and recover of them, their executors and administrators, 
 such sums of money as are now due and unpaid on account of the 
 lottery, set up and drawn for erecting a new schoolhouse for the 
 High Dutch Reformed congregation, and for enabling the vestry 
 and wardens of St. James' church, in the borough of Lancaster, to 
 complete the work by them begun ; and also to enable the man- 
 agers to sue for and recover money due to them for the sale of 
 tickets in said lottery.'' It may be added that the old statutes con- 
 tain many acts to raise money by lottery to build churches, but 
 those quoted are all that seem to apply to schools. 
 
 It will be shown hereafter that as the State ceased to exert itself 
 in behalf of education, the Church, or rather the several Churches, 
 and the people themselves in neighborhood organizations, took up 
 the burden and planted schools as best they could in all directions 
 throughout the growing colony ; but search must first be made for 
 the causes that brought about such a surprising change of policy 
 in respect to education on the part of the Provincial authorities. 
 At starting out, they took high ground on the subject ; strong 
 reasons must have exi.sted to induce them to abandon it. Penn's 
 Frame of 1701 completely ignores the subject, and is in some other 
 respects less broad, if better suited to the popular taste, than the 
 grand Charter of freedom and progress which he brought with him 
 to America, in 1682. He seems to have found that some of his 
 earlier theories of government, as applied to a community mixed in 
 nationality, diverse in religious opinions, and greatly varied in 
 degree of intellectual acquirements, such as had grown up in Penn- 
 sylvania, were impracticable, and. for this reason to all appearance, 
 he was compelled, however reluctantly, to abandon them. The 
 Frame of 170 1 was a concession or a compromise; retaining unim- 
 paired in strength the article of the older Charters concerning liberty 
 of conscience and some other provisions considered fundamental, 
 he felt constrained to sacrifice certain cherished ideas to the persist- 
 ent clamors of the people, and to the threatening demands of the 
 British Government to which he owed allegiance. Without doubt, 
 in the beginning, he intended to make education universal through- 
 out the Province by public authority; but the experiment partially 
 failed in his own hands, and success became much less likely under 
 
r. EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 the direction of the weaker, narrower, less philanthropic men who 
 took his place at the head of affairs as the chief executive officers. 
 The truth is that almost from the organization of the Provincial 
 government to the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Pennsyl- 
 vania was so distracted by clashing principles, intestine feuds and 
 warring factions, that little attention could be given by the govern- 
 ment to the higher questions that concern the intellectual and moral 
 interests of the people. The colony grew more rapidly than any 
 other in America, and its increase in prosperity and wealth was in 
 proportion to its increase in population ; but these results were 
 much more owing to the favorable position of the country, the rich- 
 ness of the soil, the chartered rights that secured free toleration to 
 all forms of religion, and the peaceful policy pursued towards the 
 Indian tribes, than to any direct action of the government itself 
 The people were in good measure let alone. Oppcising principles 
 clashed, opposing parties kept up their war' of words and cross- 
 purposes, opposing policies struggled with each other for mastery ; 
 meanwhile, the Government stood still, at times almost paralyzed, 
 waiting for the hot debate to end, the ferment of discordant ideas 
 to cease, and some settlement to be arrived at by the contending 
 factions. Writers find this part of Pennsylvania history uninterest- 
 ing and unprofitable, simply because they do not take pains to 
 investigate it to the bottom. Well understood, it furnishes a 
 remarkable example of political evolution. A great State was to 
 be born : behold here the process of parturition ! 
 
 Antagonisms were involved from the beginning in the principles 
 and policy of Penn and his Quaker followers. Governor Fletcher 
 saw as early as 1693 that "The Constitution of their Majesties' 
 Government and that of Mr. Penn were directly opposed 'one to the 
 other.'' Inherent in the Quaker doctrine was a force that threat- 
 ened the overthrow of the existing oVder of things both in Church 
 and State, and it could not fail to provoke determined opposition. 
 The conflict that was fought out on the soil of Pennsylvania was 
 inevitable and irrepressible. Some of the causes of this long strug- 
 gle may be pointed out here as they stood in the way of education; 
 their full discussion would be proper only in a general history. 
 
 In his grant to Penn, Charles II. had constituted him sole Pro- 
 prietor of the Province of Pennsylvania and owner of the soil ; and 
 had given him absolute power to govern the country, subject only 
 to the Crown of England. Penn himself used his best endeavors 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. ec 
 
 in accordance with his conciHatory disposition, his own ideals of 
 government, and the spirit oi the reHgious society to which he 
 belonged, to establish a free State and to bring about a practical 
 reconciliation between his own prerogatives and the rights he was 
 willing to accord to the people. But he was virtually a feudal lord 
 and had founded a democracy. No accord between such conflict- 
 ing principles was possible, as the long contest concerning grants, 
 privileges, salaries, land-titles, taxes and quit-rents abundantly 
 proves. 
 
 Not less inharmonious was the relation between the Proprietary 
 and the Crown of England. It was a double-headed rule that could 
 not last, and while it lasted led to appeals, complaints and intrigues, 
 the abrogation of healthful laws, Penn's deprivation of his Govern- 
 ment, and its restoration to him with conditions that must have 
 sorely vexed his patience if they did not try his conscience. 
 
 The early population of Pennsylvania was heterogenous to an 
 extent unknown in any other colony. There were the descendants 
 of the ancient Swedish and Dutch settlers on the Delaware ; Eng- 
 lish, Scotch, Welsh and Irish, no better assimilated here than at 
 home; Germans in great numbers, and with widely different polit- 
 ical and religious opinions, and a sprinkling of restless spirits from 
 many other countries — the best possible material of which to build 
 a great State, but subject first to a trying but inevitable social and 
 political ferment. The situation was greatly complicated by the 
 conflicting religious opinions entertained by the people. The 
 Friends, most numerous, and schooled by persecution into a tenac- 
 ity for their principles that seemed to others almost like blind stub- 
 bornness; the plain non-resistant German denominations, in sym- 
 pathy with them ; the Episcopalians, willing at any time to accept 
 and hoping some time to enjoy the privileges held by the Church 
 in the mother countrj?'; Lutheran and Calvinistic Germans, Presby- 
 terians, Baptists, Catholics — all were represented by ardent sup- 
 porters in the infant colony, each bent upon obtaining a foothold 
 and a following. 
 
 The Friends, from their relations to the Proprietary, were in the 
 ascendency in the Government ; and, until about the time of Brad- 
 dock's defeat, always constituted the majority in the General 
 Assembly. They were not generally liked by other religious de- 
 nominations. They had been most bitterly persecuted in England 
 and elsewhere in Europe, and in several of the American colonies ; 
 
c5 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 and the feeling against them even in the Province they had founded, 
 and to the equal privileges of which they had invited their enemies 
 as well as their friends, was far from being cordial. A majority 
 of the Deputy Governors were not members of their Society, 
 and in some instances showed little respect for their tenderness 
 of conscience. Governor Gookin even went so far as to pro- 
 claim that under an old English statute which he had exhumed, 
 the Friends were disqualified from giving evidence in criminal cases, 
 sitting on juries and holding office. The unthinking ridiculed their 
 peculiarities of dress, speech and manners ; and many well-meaning 
 people, not understanding their objection to taking an oath, scoffe'd 
 at their scruples and attached little sanctity to their form of solemn 
 affirmation. Some strong men mistook their mild way of doing 
 things for weakness, and their patient sufferance of evil for cow- 
 ardice. Quakerism made a grand struggle to govern the State it 
 had founded according to its own principles, but the time for such 
 a government had not yet come; many Friends resigned their seats 
 in the Assembly, upon the condemnation of their peaceful policy 
 towards the Indians by the Privy Council of England in 1756; and 
 their last effort to found a nation upon the principle of practical 
 non-resistance expired amid the throes of the Revolutionary war. 
 
 The Friends were non-resistants, opposed alike to both offensive 
 and defensive war. This they conceived to be Christ's doctrine, 
 and they thought he meant that Christians should apply it. Their 
 policy preserved peace with the Indians, while all the neighboring 
 colonies were harassed by war. They believed that fair treat- 
 ment would make that peace perpetual. But New York on one 
 side, and Virginia on the other, were severely pressed by wars with 
 savage tribes, and wanted hel^. England was a warlike nation, and 
 demanded men and money for military purposes. The Indians 
 maddened by blood shed elsewhere, began to seek revenge upon 
 the peaceful citizens of Pennsylvania, rousing in return among the 
 unprotected settlers in the interior of the State, a determination to 
 meet arms with arms. The Quaker representatives in the Assem- 
 bly plead the cause of peace, plead the rights of conscience, plead 
 the success of faith well kept even with savages, and when .they 
 could do nothing better, resorted to measures which now seem 
 equivocal to save the principle at stake. Their opponents were 
 irritated by delays which they deemed unnecessary, and by a 
 resistance which they thought could arise only from willful obstinacy 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. ej 
 
 or unfeeling indifference ; the Governors of the Province were 
 at times filled with rage by votes refusing to comply with their 
 demands on military subjects, or by half-way measures that failed 
 to meet them ; and some excited individuals on the borders, whose 
 friends had been murdered and whose property had been destroyed 
 by the savages, threatened to wreak their vengeance upon the men 
 whom they charged with having neglected to provide adequate 
 means of defence. The Friends could not yield without yielding 
 one of the most vital principles of their religion ; the war party 
 looked upon it as a question of life or death. This was the issue 
 joined, and, at last, after a struggle of more than fifty years, the 
 friends of peace were outvoted in the Assembly, a military force 
 was organized, the Province made ready to defend itself and punish 
 its enemies by the sword, and the Government soon passed entirely 
 beyond the control of the family and the followers of the founder. 
 
 Pending the civil commotion which has just been outlined, await- 
 ing the solution of questions as vital in religion as they are funda- 
 mental in government, it is hardly to be wondered at that the pub- 
 lic schools contemplated in the beginnirtg were overlooked, and 
 ; that little time could be found by legislators to mature and enact 
 measures relating to a subject like education, requiring close and 
 quiet consideration. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1682 TO 1776. 
 
 EDUCATION PARTIALLY PUBLIC. "THE ACADEMY AND CHARITABLE SCHOOL 
 OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA," SUBSEQUENTLY THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 PENNSYLVANIA. "THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIAN 
 KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE GERMANS IN AMERICA." THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 OF THE CONNECTICUT SETTLERS IN WYOMING. 
 
 TOWARDS the close of the period of which we are writing there 
 occurred .several events that have had a marked influence upon 
 the history of education in the State. Harbingers they were of 
 what was to come in the then distant future. Of the.se it is now 
 appropriate to speak somewhat in detail. 
 
 The " Academy and Charitable School of the Province of Penn- 
 sylvania," m the course of years the University of Pennsylvania, 
 although established by private citizens, deserves on account of its 
 broad foundation, its liberal purposes and its connection with cit>- 
 and State authorities, to be ranked among public institutions. The 
 plan of an Academy was drawn up by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, 
 but the project was laid- aside soon after on account of the excite- 
 ment and disturbances growing out of the war between Great Brit- 
 ain and. France, in which the colonies were involved. In 1749, 
 Franklin again took up the subject, intere.sted in it some of his per- 
 sonal friends and a number of leading citizens ; and to attract public 
 attention wrote and published a pamphlet entitled, " Proposals rela- 
 tive to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania." 
 
 This pamphlet contained matter relating to education as well 
 calculated to attract attention now ?.s then. It proposed that the 
 house for the Academy should be located not iar from a river, and 
 have connected with it " a garden, orchard, meadow, and a field or 
 two," and be furnished with "a library, map's of all countries, globes, 
 some mathematical instruments, an apparatus for experiments in 
 natural philosophy and mechanics, prints of all kinds, prospects, 
 buildings and machines." The Rector among other qualifications 
 was to be '- a correct, pure speaker of the English tongue." In order 
 
 (58) 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. jq 
 
 to keep the pupils in health and to strengthen and render active 
 their bodies, they were to be "frequently exercised in running, 
 leaping, wrestling and swimming." The study of drawing was 
 recommended with " some of the first principles of perspective." 
 The English language was to be taught by gramriiar and reading 
 some of the best authors ; the style of the pupils was to be formed 
 " by writing letters to each other, making abstracts of what they 
 read, or writing the same things in their own words," and a good 
 delivery acquired by •' making declamations, repeating speeches, and 
 delivering orations." Reading was to be made serviceable to useful 
 knowledge by introducing the most valuable facts and observations 
 concerning History, Chronology, Ancient Customs, Morality, Relig- • 
 ion and Politics. Discussions, oral and written, were suggested as 
 well calculated to "warm the imagination, whet the industry and 
 strengthen the abilities" of the young. "Though all should not be 
 compelled to learn Latin, Greek, or the modern foreign languages, 
 yet none that have an ardent desire to learn them should be refused ; 
 their English, Arithmetic, and other studies absolutely necessary, 
 not being neglected." " With the history of men, times and nations 
 should be read, at proper hours or days, some of the best 
 histories of nature, which would not only be delightful to youth, and 
 furnish them with matter for their letters, as well as other history, 
 but would afterwards be of great use to them, whether they are 
 merchants, handicrafts or divines ; enabling the first better to under- 
 stand many commodities and drugs, the second to improve their 
 trade or handicraft by new mixtures or materials, and the last to 
 adorn their discourses by beautiful comparisons, and strengthen them 
 by new proofs of Divine Providence.'' And, " while the pupils are 
 reading natural history, might not a little gardening, planting, graft- 
 ing, and inoculating, be taught and practiced; and, now and then, 
 excursions made to the neighboring plantations of the best farmers, 
 their methods observed and reasoned upon for the information of 
 youth, the improvement of agriculture being useful to all, and skill 
 in it no disparagement to any?" The plan thus proposed, and 
 especially that part of it which subordinated classical to EngHsh 
 studies, met with great favor and generous support. 
 
 The result of the agitation thus begun, was the organization of a 
 Board of Trustees to carry the design into effect. Of this Board, 
 Franklin was chosen President. Vacancies in the Board were to be 
 filled by the remaining members, and no member was allowed to 
 
gQ ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 receive either reward or compensation. The members of the Board 
 raised among themselves ^2000, and this sum was afterwards con- 
 siderably increased by subscriptions among the citizens and in other 
 ways. Application was made to the Common Council of the City 
 of Philadelphia for aid ; and the following, from a paper drawn up 
 and presented to this body by Franklin, 1750, sets forth the broad 
 and generous objects had in view: 
 
 The greatest part of the money paid and to be paid is subscribed by the 
 trustees themselves, and advanced by them, many of whom have no chil- 
 dren of their own to educate, but act with a view to the public good, without 
 regard to sect or party. And they have engaged to open a Charity School 
 within two years for the instruction of poor children, gratis, in reading, writ- 
 ing and arithmetic, and the first principles of virtue and piety. The benefits 
 expected from this institution are : 
 
 1. That the youth of Pennsylvania may have an opportunity of receiving a 
 good education at home, and be under no necessity of going abroad for it, 
 whereby not only considerable expense may be saved to the country, but 
 a stricter eye may be had over their morals by their friends and relations. 
 
 2. That a number of our natives will hereby be qualified to bear magistra- 
 cies, and execute other public offices of trust, with reputation to themselves 
 and country, there being at present great want of persons so qualified in the 
 several counties of this Province ; and this is the more necessary now to be 
 provided for by the English here, as vast numbers of foreigners are yearly 
 imported among us, totally ignorant of our laws, customs and language. 
 
 3. That a number of the poorer sort will hereby be qualified to act as 
 schoolmasters in the country, to teach children reading, writing, arithmetic 
 and the grammar of their mother tongue, and being of good morals and known 
 character, may be recommended from the Academy to country schools for 
 that purpose — the country suffering very much at present for want of good 
 schoolmasters, and obliged frequently to employ in their schools vicious im- 
 ported servants or concealed Papists, who by their bad examples and instruc- 
 tions often deprave the morals or corrupt the principles of the children under 
 their care. 
 
 4. It is thought that a good Academy erected here in Philadelphia, a 
 healthy place, where provisions are plenty, situated in the centre of the Colo- 
 nies, may draw numbers of students from the neighboring Provinces, who 
 must spend considerable sums among us yearly in payment for their lodging, 
 diet, apparel, etc., which will be an advantage to our traders, artisans and 
 owners of houses and lands. 
 
 All this is admirable! These far-seeing citizens of an age long 
 past understood how to lay a solid foundation for a good govern- 
 ment and a prosperous State. They considered it desirable that 
 children should be educated at home, and they proposed to give 
 them better school facilities there than they could find abroad. 
 The State needed intelligent public officers, and they determined to 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 6l 
 
 provide them by educating native born citizens. Good school- 
 masters could not be dispensed with, and they concluded the wisest 
 plan was to prepare them, and they at once began the work of Nor- 
 mal instruction. They also had an eye to business, knowing well 
 that a good school is always a money-making institution. Withal, 
 they meant that the poor should share the benefits of their school 
 as well as the rich, for like the Friends in the establishment of their 
 Public School fifty yeans earlier, it was rather a system of schools 
 for all than a single school for a select few that they meant to 
 establish. 
 
 The Common Council in answer to the petition agreed to give 
 ;^200 in cash, and £^0 per annum for five years, and £<^o additional 
 for the right of sending one scholar each year from the Charity 
 School to the Academy. 
 
 The building purchased was one erected a few years previously 
 as a place of public worship for Rev. George Whitefield, but as 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA — AS IT BEGAN. 
 
 some alterations and repairs were necessary, the schools were first 
 opened in a private house. The Academy began with three schools, 
 one of Latin, one of English, and one of Mathematics. A master 
 with an usher was employed in each school. As originally designed, 
 a Charity School was established under the same general manage- 
 ment, in which the children of poor parents were taught gratui- 
 tously, thus following the example of the Friends' Public School 
 and the so-called Public or Free Schools of the mother country. 
 This was the beginning of the Charity Schools maintained by the 
 
52 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 University of Pennsylvania up to the year 1877, and doubtless led 
 the way to the adoption of the provision which at present exists, 
 admitting a limited number of students from the public schools of 
 the city without charge. 
 
 A charter was granted to the Trustees of the Academy by the 
 Provincial authorities in 1753, under the title of "Trustees of the 
 Academy and Charitable School of the Province of Pennsylvania." 
 The Academy soon became prosperous, the course of study was 
 enlarged, and by a second act of incorporation, granted in 1755, 
 the institution became a College, with the right to confer degrees. 
 Three departments were now established, a College, an Academy, 
 and the Charity Schools. The earlier Boards of Trustees were 
 constituted without regard to party or sect, and embraced the names 
 of the most distinguished men in the Province ; among them, Frank- 
 lin, Logan, James Hamilton, Richard Peters, Isaac Norris, Francis 
 Hopkinson, George Clymer, Thomas Mifflin, Richard and John 
 Penn, Edward Shippen, and others of like eminence. In two years 
 after the institution started, it numbered three hundred students, 
 one-third of whom were in the collegiate department; and, in 1763, 
 the number of students reached four hundred, many of them coming 
 from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and the West Indies. In 
 1756, the Provost says, "We have now two Indian children of a 
 considerable family, who have been at the College for these two 
 years, and can now read and write English, etc.," and a general 
 plan for bringing Indian children to the Academy to be educated 
 wa.s at one time contemplated. The Indian boys referred to by the 
 Provost were Jonathan and Philip, sons of Jonathan Cayenguilagoa. 
 John Montour, son of Madam Montour, was also a student at the 
 College a year or two later. In 1762, a boarding house was erected 
 for students from a distance, mainly by means of ;^2,000 realized 
 from a lottery. Six or seven lotteries were set on foot at various 
 times for the benefit of the institution. In 1774 a large house was 
 erected as a residence for the Provost. The first teachers in the 
 Academy were David Martin, Rector; Theophilus Grew, Mathc; 
 matics; Paul Jackson, Languages; and David James Dove, master 
 m the English School. Mr. Dove seems to have carried on at the 
 same time a school for young ladies, receiving them from five to 
 eight o'clock in the evening. Charles Thomson, Dr. Francis Alli- 
 son, Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, Franklin's assistant in his electrical 
 experiments, were connected with the Academy a little later. Rev. 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 63 
 
 Dr. William Smith was the first Provost, or President of the Col- 
 lege, and remained at its head until it was merged in the University 
 of Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary war. Dr. Smith was a 
 man of great learning and superior executive ability. Of the course 
 of study he planned for the institution, it has been said by compe- 
 tent judges that "no such comprehensive scheme of education then 
 existed in the American colonies." His administration was suc- 
 cessful in attracting students, and he largely increased the College 
 revenues by collections made personally both in this country and 
 in England. Outside of his duties in connection with the College, 
 he was an earnest worker in the Church and in the field of science, 
 literature and education; and at times he took an active part in the 
 discussion of the social and political questions of the day. He 
 sided with the war party against the party of peace, and was never 
 in sympathy with either the political principles or the religious doc- 
 trines of Friends. Acting with the Proprietaries against .the people, 
 he incurred the opposition of Franklin, and a long and at times 
 bitter controversy arose between them. Thrown into Walnut street 
 jail, in 1758, by the Provincial Assembly, for publishing an alleged 
 libel derogatory to its privileges, he undauntedly continued in prison 
 his lectures to his classes, the students going to his place of con- 
 finement to meet him. 
 
 Dr. Smith went to England in 1762 on a mission to collect funds 
 for the college. In an appeal setting forth the needs of the college, 
 he thus speaks of it : " The Seminary consists at present of near two 
 hundred students and scholars, besides eighty boys and forty girls 
 educated on charity. It is governed under a corporation of twenty- 
 four trustees, by a Provost, Vice-Provost, and three Professors, as- 
 sisted by six tutors or ushers, besides two Masters and a Mistress for 
 the Charity Schools. Very great sums have from time to time, been 
 contributed for its support by private persons within the Province ; 
 besides, to the amount of near ;^3000 Sterling, in lands and money, 
 by the honorable Proprietary family. But although the greatest 
 economy hath been used in every part of the design, and nothing 
 attempted but what the circumstances of so growing a place seemed 
 absolutely to require, yet the necessary expense attending so large 
 an undertaking hath greatly exceeded all the resources in the power 
 of the trustees." The response to this appeal by the King, the 
 Proprietary, and the people of England, was so liberal that Dr. Smith 
 returned to America with a subscription of £(iOOO. In all Dr. Smith 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 is said to have added ;^20,000 to the funds of the institution. What 
 is now known as the Medical Department of the University became 
 connected with the College in 1765, the oldest school of the kind 
 in America. A Law School, an institution at that time unknown in 
 the country, was established, and lectures were delivered during the 
 winter of 1790-gi ; but this department was soon suspended, to be 
 opened under more favorable circumstances in later years. 
 
 The College was greatly disturbed by the breaking out of the 
 Revolutionary War. In January, 1777, a body of American troops 
 was quartered in the buildings; and later in the same year the 
 college was entirely closed, and remained so during the time Phila- 
 delphia was occupied by the British army. 
 
 Certain officers of the College had been for some time under sus- 
 picion of disloyalty by the Whig majority in the Pennsylvania 
 Legislature ; and, at length, Joseph Reed, President of the Execu- 
 tive Council, gave formal voice to these suspicions in his message, 
 and a committee of inquiry was appointed. The result was the 
 passage of an Act, 1779, depriving the institution of its charter and 
 property. The Preamble of the Act gives the reasons of this pro- 
 ceeding and is otherwise of interest. It is as follows : 
 
 Whereas, The education of youth has ever been found to be of the most 
 essential consequence, as well to the good government of States, and the 
 peace and welfare of society, as to the profit and ornament of individuals, 
 insomuch that from the experience of all ages, it appeal's that Seminaries of 
 learning, when properly conducted, have been public blessings to mankind, 
 and that, on the contrary, when in the hands of dangerous and disaffected 
 men, they have troubled the peace of society, shaken the government, and 
 often caused tumult, sedition and bloodshed; 
 
 And Whereas, The College, Academy and Charitable School of the city 
 of Philadelphia, were at first founded on a plan of free and unlimited Cath- 
 olicism ; but it appears that the trustees thereof, by a vote or by-law of their 
 Board, bearing date the fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord, one 
 thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, have departed from the plan of the 
 original founders, and narrowed the foundation of the said institution. Be it 
 enacted, etc. 
 
 It is now considered that this action towards the College was an 
 outgrowth of the bad feeling of the times, and ill advised, if not 
 wholly unjust. To compensate the public for the loss of their 
 educational facilities, the Legislature almost immediately chartered 
 a new institution under the name of the University of Pennsylvania, 
 and transferred to it the funds and franchises of the despoiled 
 College, and added an appropriation of ^1,500 a year, from the 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD, (5e 
 
 proceeds of certain^ confiscated estates. The success of the Univer- 
 sity thus established did not equal the expectations of its friends ; 
 and as soon as the passions created by the Revolutionary struggle 
 had somewhat cooled, application was made to the Legislature to 
 restore to the old corporation its charter and property ; and after 
 being rejected in 1784, in 1789 an act was passed reinstating the 
 trustees and faculty in all their former rights and privileges. There 
 was no room in Philadelphia at that time for two educational insti- 
 tutions of a high grade, and failure threatened both of them; so 
 two years later, with the consent of all parties concerned, an Act 
 was passed uniting the two corporations into one under the name 
 of the University of Pennsylvania, of which something more will be 
 said in the proper place. 
 
 In 1741, under the lead of Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangen- 
 berg, the Moravian brethren and their friends in London, formed a 
 society which seems to have been intended for the benefit of the 
 Germans in America, as well- as for the conversion of the Indians. 
 About the same time a benevolent organization at Halle, in Ger- 
 many, sent a number of Lutheran ministers to labor among their 
 brethren in this country, and to forward reports of the work accom- 
 plished. Doubtless, the education of youth had a place in these 
 movements; but a little later, a well devised scheme was set on 
 foot purely for the purpose of establishing schools among the Ger- 
 mans in Pennsylvania that deserves consideration in this place. In 
 certain of its features, it resembled our modern common school 
 systems, and on that account is of peculiar historic interest. 
 
 Rev. Michael Schlatter, of St. Gall, Switzerland, a Minister of the 
 German Reformed Church, came to Pennsylvania in 1746. He was 
 sent out by the Reformed Synod of Amsterdam. After laboring 
 among the Germans for five years, at various places, in Pennsyl- 
 vania^ Maryland and Virginia, he returned to Europe and made 
 known to ecclesiastical -bodies in Holland the neglected st^te of 
 education among the German people in America. His account 
 awakened much interest in the subject among the pious Nether- 
 landers, which in a short time extended to the Palatinate, Switzer- 
 land and Great Britain. Mr. Schlatter's report was printed in 
 Holland, where a considerable fund was raised to aid in establish- 
 ing the schools so badly needed. The report was also translated 
 into English and extensively circulated in England and Scotland. 
 5 
 
56 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 There existed at this time in England a " Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," and Mr. Schlatter's statement 
 concerning the want of education among the Germans in Pennsyl- 
 vania seems to have attracted its special attention, and prompted 
 an effort to afford assistance. Dr. William Smith, afterwards 
 Provost of the College at Philadelphia, then in England, apparently 
 at the request of the Society, under date of December 13, 1753, 
 wrote a lengthy letter confirming the account of Mr. Schlatter, 
 and adding many good reasons why the Pennsylvania Germans 
 should be better educated, and why English Protestants and the 
 English Government should aid in the work. In strong words, he 
 speaks of " their melancholy situation, through want of instructors 
 and their utter inability to maintain them, with the distressing pros- 
 pect of approaching darkness and idolatry among them," and adds, 
 " It is deeply affecting to hear that this vast branch of the Protest- 
 ant church is in danger of sinking into barbarian ignorance, or of 
 being seduced at least from the religion for which they and their 
 fathers have suffered so much." In the following paragraphs, he 
 anticipates the arguments often used since his day in support of a 
 public school system : 
 
 Without education it is impossible to preserve a free government in any 
 country, or to preserve the spirit of commerce. Should these emigrants de- 
 generate into a state little better than that of wood-born savages, what use 
 could they make of English privileges ? Liberty is the most dangerous of all 
 weapons, in the hands of those who know not the use and value of it. Those 
 who are in most cases free to speak and act as they please, had need be well 
 instructed how to speak and act; and it is well said by Montesquieu, that 
 wherever there is most freedom, there the whole power of education is requis- 
 ite to good government. In a word, commerce and riches are the offspring 
 of industry and an unprecarious property ; but these depend on virtue and 
 liberty, which again depend on knowledge and religion. 
 
 But further, education, besides being necessary to support the spirit of 
 liberty and commerce, is the only means for incorporating these foreigners 
 with ourselves, in the rising generation. The old can only be exhorted and 
 wariied. The young may be instructed and formed. The old can neither 
 acquire our language, nor quit their national manners. The young may do 
 both. The old, whatever degree of worth they acquire, descend apace to the 
 grave, and their influence is soon lost. The young, when well instructed, 
 have their whole prime of life before them, and their influence is strong 
 and lasting. 
 
 By a common education of Enghsh and German youth at the same schools, 
 acquaintances and connections will be formed and deeply impressed upon them 
 in their cheerful and open moments. The English language and a conformity 
 of manners will be acquired, and they may be taught to feel the meaning and 
 exult in the enjoyment of liberty, a home and social endearmenU. And when 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 67 
 
 once these sacred names are understood and felt at the heart, when once a 
 few intermarriages are made between the chief families of the different nations 
 in each county which will naturally follow from school-acquaintances and 
 the acquisition of a common language, no arts of our enemies will be able to 
 divide them in their affection ; and all the narrow distinctions of extraction, 
 etc., will be forgot — forever forgot — in higher interests. 
 
 On the course and method of education to be pursued, his views 
 are narrow, measured by present standards, but liberal for the time. 
 He thinks schools must be designed rather to make good subjects 
 than finished scholars, and remarks : 
 
 The English language, together with writing, something of figures, and a 
 short system of religious and civil truths and duties, in the Socratic or cate- 
 chetic way, is all the education necessary to the people. These things there- 
 fore must be left open to everybody without price ; but all other less neces- 
 sary branches of literature may have quarterly fees laid upon them, to pre- 
 vent the vulgar from spending more time upon them than is necessary. 
 
 Dr. Smith then argues that the simple truths of Christianity and 
 the elementary principles of ethics and civil government can be 
 understood with no general knowledge beyond what he would have 
 taught in all schools without charge, and he deems proper instruc- 
 tion of this kind necessary to make good citizens. He recommends 
 that the general trust in America be placed in the hands of six or 
 seven competent men residing on the spot; and, anticipating the 
 modern plan of visitation and superintendence, says : 
 
 One or more of these Trustees, is once every year to visit all the schools 
 and examine the scholars, giving a small premium to one or more boys, born 
 of German parents, who shall best deliver an oration in Enghsh, or read an 
 English author, nearest to the right pronunciation. Let another premium be 
 given to that boy, whether English or German, who shall best answer to 
 some questions concerning religious and civil duties, on the plan already 
 sketched out. — And now, what a glorious sight will it be to behold the Pro- 
 prietor, Governor, or other great men, in their summer excursions into the 
 country, entering the schools and performing their part of the visitation. 
 This will be teaching indeed like those ancient fathers of their country, who 
 deigned to superintend the execution of the laws they made for the education 
 of youth, as the rising hope of the State. 
 
 The following are his views respecting persons suitable for mas- 
 ters: 
 
 The masters for such schools can only be found and educated in America. 
 They must understand the English and High Dutch,- with Mathematics, 
 Geography, Drawing, History, Ethics, with the Constitutions and interests of 
 the Colonies. Now, strangers cannot be thus qualified. For though they 
 understood both languages, we could not be sure of their principles; nor 
 would they for several years know the genius of the people, or correspond 
 with the general scheme of polity in the education of youth. 
 
58 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 And, then, catching a glimpse of a Normal School policy adopted 
 a hundred years afterwards, he speaks of the preparation of teachers 
 for the schools as follows : 
 
 It is a happy circumstance, in Pennsylvania in particular, that there is a 
 flourishing Seminary, where such men may be educated; and, happier still, 
 that the Honorable Proprietary is to make a foundation for maintaining and 
 educating constantly some promising children of poor Germans as a supply 
 of well-principled schoolmasters, that must be acceptable among their friends. 
 
 In mentioning the " foundation " made by the Proprietary, the 
 reference is to the fact that Thomas Penn had authorized the pay- 
 ment of ;^50 per annum, £^0 for himself, ;^io for his wife, and ^\o 
 for his brother Richard, to educate young men in the Academy and 
 College at Philadelphia, to fit them for schoolmasters. 
 
 Moved by such considerations, a " Society for Propagating Chris- 
 tian Knowledge among the Germans in America,'' was organized 
 at London, early in 1754. Its members consisted mainly of noble- 
 men of high standing, and wealthy gentry. A majority of them 
 belonged to the Church of England, but they were careful to 
 exclude all sectarianism from their proceedings. Dr. Samuel 
 Chandler, an English Dissenter of eminence, was made Secretary. 
 They collected considerable funds, amounting, it is said, to ;£'20,ooo, 
 and, among their first acts, with the advice of the Honorable Pro- 
 prietary, they resolved to request the following persons, in Penn- 
 sylvania, "to accept of the inspection and management of the whole 
 charity as trustees," viz. : Hon. James Hamilton, Lieutenant Gov- 
 ernor; William Allen, Chief Justice ; Richard Peters, Secretary of 
 the Province; Benjamin Franklin, Postmaster General; Conrad 
 Weiser, Interpreter, and Rev. William Smith. In his letter inform- 
 ing the trustees of their appointment, dated at London, March 15th, 
 1754, Dr. Chandler says: 
 
 You are desired particularly to assist with your encouragement and coun- 
 sel, the Rev. Michael Schlatter, whom the Society has ordered, with a yearly 
 salary of ^100 sterling, under your direction, to be their supervisor and visi- 
 tor of the schools they have agreed to erect in the following places, viz., 
 Readmg, York, Easton, Lancaster, Skippack, and Hanover, where, as they 
 are informed by a letter from the worthy Secretary to the Honorable Proprie- 
 tor, now before me, the Germans are being settled. The intention of the 
 schools IS to instruct youth in the English language, and the common princi- 
 ples of the Christidn religion and morality. The schoolmasters for these 
 schools should understand both the German and the English languages, and 
 we are encouraged to hope by Mr. Schlatter that proper persons for this pur- 
 pose may be found in the Province, the choice of which we must beg leave to 
 devolve upon you, as we have entire confidence in your disposition to promote 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. go 
 
 so good a work, and judgment in the conduct of it. The yearly salary of 
 each of tliese masters we are willing to allow for some years in any sum not 
 exceeding ;£20, and the proportion to each we beg you Would determine for 
 us ; and, indeed, that you would transact the whole of this important affair, 
 as you shall judge it most expedient to accomplish the good intentions that 
 are before us. 
 
 The gentlemen requested to do so, accepted the trust, and a 
 meeting was held at the house of Judge Allen, at Mount Airy, on 
 the loth of August, 1754. The following resolutions were passed; 
 
 That an English school be erected and opened with all possible expedition 
 at each of the following places, viz.: Reading, York, Easton, Lancaster, 
 Hanover and Skippack. 
 
 That, for the better government of these schools, a certain number of the 
 most reputable persons residing near every particiilar school be appointed 
 deputy trustees, to visit that school, superintend the execution of the scheme, 
 of education in it, and use their interests in the support of it. 
 
 That six, eight or ten be appointed for every school, and that to render the 
 scheme more catliolic and unexceptional, part of these trustees for each school 
 shall be Calvinists, part Lutheran Germans, and part Englishmen of any 
 Protestant profession whatever. 
 
 That against next meeting the present members endeavor to inform them- 
 selves what persons may be fittest to be employed under them as trustees^ 
 and that proper steps be taken to engage such persons in the interest of the 
 scheme, hoping that by means of such persons a schoolhouse and dwelling- 
 house for the master may be immediately erected by the inhabitants of the 
 particular divisions for which each school is to be established, without putting 
 the Honorable Society or their trustees to any expense or trouble on this 
 head. 
 
 Franklin presented a -long letter from Rev. Henry Melchior 
 Muhlenberg, of New Providence, now in Montgomery county. He 
 heartily commended the project of establishing schools among the 
 Germans, but " feared that some ill-minded persons would strive to 
 defeat so just and noble a view." To counteract the effect of the 
 bad advice that he anticipated would be given to the Germans on 
 the subject, and to make known the merits of the project of estab- 
 lishing schools for their benefit, he proposed that a printing-press 
 should be procured, and a German newspaper be issued under the 
 direction of the trustees, and thought that in this enterprise no 
 expense need be incurred by the Society, " especially if the printing 
 house was in a country where there was no house-rent to pay, and ' 
 where the same person might serve as schoolmaster and chief 
 printer." Upon hearing this letter read, it was resolved to establish, 
 a German printing office, start a newspaper, and issue German 
 school books, almanacs, tracts, circulars, etc., as needed. This 
 
_Q EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 resolution was after some delay carried into effect. The paper was 
 printed by Anthony Armbruster, under the direction of Dr. Smith. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting a petition was presented from Dr. 
 Muhlenberg's German Lutheran congregation, offering the trustees 
 the use of their newly-built schoolhouse for a school to be open to 
 all Protestant denominations conveniently located. Another new 
 schoolhouse at New Hanover, in the county of Montgomery, like- 
 wise belonging to the Lutherans, was offered for the same purpose. 
 Both offers were accepted, on the condition that the German Re- 
 formed congregations in the same neighborhood should concur in 
 the choice and location of the schoolhouses. They subsequently 
 did so, and the schools were opened. 
 
 At this meeting persons were appointed as deputy trustees, to 
 have local charge of the several schools. As the first school direc- 
 tors in the State, their names are of interest. The boards were 
 composed of a mixture of Englishmen and Germans, belonging to 
 different religious denominations. 
 
 For Lancaster. — Edward Shippen, President, Adam Simon Kuhn, Mr. 
 Otterbein, Sebastian Graff, Mr. Gera, James Wright, and John Bar. 
 
 For Providence and Skippack. — Abram Sahler, Dr. John Diemer, John 
 Schrack, Nicolaus Kiister, Henry Pawling, Robert White, and John Coplin. 
 
 For Reading. — ^James Read, Francis Parvin, James Seely, Isaac Levan, 
 Samuel High, Hans Martin Gerick, Jacob Levan, and Sebastian Zimmerman. 
 
 For Easton. — William Parsons, Lewis Gordon, John Chapman, John Le 
 Fevre, and Peter Trexler. 
 
 For New Hanover, Frederick township. — Andrew Kepner, Henry Krebs, 
 Henry Antes, John Reifsnyder, John Potts, and William Maugridge. 
 
 The trustees for York and other places were appointed at subsequent meet- 
 ings. 
 
 The correspondence of some of these old school directors has 
 been preserved. As an example, and as showing that school boards 
 had their troubles then as well as now, the following extracts are 
 taken from a letter written by William Parsons, of Easton, to Rev 
 Richard Peters, dated October 19, 1754: 
 
 I am under some difficulty about the plan of a schoolhouse, but am clearly 
 of the opinion that we neither ought to ask nor suffer the people to contribute 
 either money or labor to it ; they are so perverse and quarrelsome in all theit 
 affairs that I am sometimes ready to query with myself whether it be men 01 
 brutes that these most generous benefactors are about to civilize. Neverthe- 
 less, seeing so many great and worthy personages, out of their abundani 
 humanity and goodness, have been pleased to set on foot so benevolent an 
 undertaking, I will not be negligent in doing whatever they shall be pleased 
 to recommend to me, though I am well assured that whoever is any way coa- 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 7 1 
 
 cerned in building or directing the schools will be exposed to perpetual insults 
 and the most ignominious treatment even from those very persons for whose 
 benefit they are laboring. 
 
 One thing, I think, has not been sufficiently attended to — the principal 
 directions in forming the plan. As mothers have the principal direction in 
 bringing up their young children, it will be of little use that the father can 
 talk English, if the mother can speak nothing but Dutch to them; in that 
 'case the children will speak their mother-tongue. It therefore seems to me 
 quite necessary that there should be English schoolmistresses as well as 
 schoolmasters; and the girls should-be taught something of the use of the 
 needle, as well as to read and write, if writing should be thought necessary 
 for girls. 
 
 Whether brought about by this letter or not, it became a part of 
 the plan to establish " some schools for girls," and " to have some 
 few schoolmistresses encouraged to teaching reading and the use 
 of the needle." It was provided, also, that instruction should be 
 given " in both the English and German languages, likewise in 
 writing, keeping common accounts, singing of Psalms, and the true 
 principles of the holy Protestant religion, in the same manner as 
 the fathers of those Germans were instructed, at the schools in those 
 countries from which they came." 
 
 It was agreed, in December, 1854, to open a school in Vincent 
 township, Chester county, with John Louis Ache as teacher. Mr. 
 Ache, however, was first to qualify himself better in the use of the 
 English language by an attendance, at the expense of the Proprie- 
 taries, at the Academy in Philadelphia. At the same time, it was 
 agreed to open a school in the township of Upper Salford, now 
 Montgomery county, and Rev. Frederick Schultz was appointed 
 Master. In January 1755, a petition, signed by the Reformed and 
 Lutheran ministers, and by fourteen leading citizens of the place, 
 was received from the borough of Lancaster, asking for the estab- 
 lishment of an English school, assistance for the poor who might 
 be induced to attend the two German schools already in existence, 
 and for a teacher qualified to instruct in the Latin and Greek lan- 
 guages, if not prejudicial to the principal design. As an inducement 
 for the appointment of such a teacher, a subscription in money was 
 forwarded with the petition, amounting for the first year to £i,^. 
 The most liberal subscriber was Edward Shippen, who "though he 
 had no scholars to send " subscribed for two scholars, £6 a year 
 for three years. About this time, there had been received in all, 
 petitions for the establishment of eighteen schools, mostly from Re- 
 formed and Lutheran congregations. 
 
_2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 During the year 1755, Mr. Schlatter was busily engaged, under 
 his instructions, in opening schools, assisting the people by his 
 advice, and selecting and preparing schoolmasters. He was directed 
 by the Trustees to be present at the quarterly meetings of the 
 assistant Trustees, and to consult with them in regard to the meas- 
 ures to be taken for the good of the schools. In addition to the 
 schools at places already named, schools were established early in 
 this year at Tulpehocken, in Berks county, at Heidelberg, now 
 Lebanon county, and at Reading, Easton and Lancaster. At 
 Lancaster, Rev. Samuel Magaw was appointed Master, with permis- 
 sion to teach the learned languages to the children of those who 
 had subscribed for that purpose, and to employ an usher at a salary 
 of £>2^ per annum, to be paid by the trustees. 
 
 The -plan of educating the Germans in Pennsylvania, of which 
 some account has now been given, however well meant, Was not 
 entirely acceptable to any class of the people it was intended to bene- 
 fit, and not at all to the plain sects of Mennonites, Dunkers, Amish, 
 and others. The Germans generally were sincerely attached to the 
 language and the ways of the Fatherland, and did not want to be 
 disturbed in their use. In some places schools of their own had 
 been established, and they strenuously objected to having them 
 broken up by what they considered a foreign importation. Some of 
 them felt able to educate their own children, and were independent 
 enough to decline the proffered charity. Besides, not a few among 
 them thought they saw a political, if not a sectarian motive at the 
 bottom of the movement. Christopher Sauer, the first of the well- 
 known Sower family of Philadelphia, was the ablest and boldest 
 spokesman of this class of Germans. At that time he published a 
 German newspaper, at Germantown, which had a large circulation 
 and great influence among the Germans throughout the Province. 
 The fojlowing extracts from numbers of his paper printed in 1754, 
 voice the sentiment to which allusion has been made : 
 
 We hear that ambition, etc., has made provision in the Academy of Phila- 
 delphia for Germans who have no mind to get their living by honest labor, 
 probably under the pretext of raising lawyers, preachers, and doctors, since so 
 little honesty comes in from abroad. 
 
 In a former number we mentioned that a High School or College was to 
 be erected at Philadelphia for the benefit of the Germans in that city and in 
 Lancaster, York, Reading, Easton, etc.; and that the Germans b/ degrees 
 may become one nation with the English, and so have no ministers but 
 English. 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 73 
 
 He comments with much severity upon the attempt to make it 
 appear that the Germans would, in case of a war between the two 
 nations, join the French against the English, and maintains that the 
 simple use of the German language is no mark of disloyalty. He 
 says bluntly, " wicked men may preach in English as well as in 
 German." In a letter written September 6, 1755, this conservative 
 old German expresses strong doubts whether the trustees and 
 others who were interesting themselves to establish schools among 
 his countrymen, " have the slightest care for a real conversion of 
 the ignorant portion of the. Germans in Pennsylvania, or whether- 
 the institution of free schools is not rather the foundation to bring 
 the country into servitude, so that each of them may look for and 
 have his own private interest and advantage." He declares that 
 some of the trustees have little regard for religion ; that their scheme 
 is impracticable in country places; that it is a part of their object 
 to strengthen through the schools the war party in the Province ; 
 and that, in short, the whole scheme is to be looked upon " as hav- 
 ing only a political purpose and tendency." 
 
 The Friends as a body at least passively concurred in this oppo- 
 sition. Distrusting the management, many of them believed that 
 the ultimate aim of the whole movement was to alienate the Ger- 
 mans, especially the non-resistant sects, from their support, and thus 
 to weaken their political power in the Province, if not to wrench 
 the government entirely from their hands. 
 
 NotwithstancUng the opposition met with and the difficulties 
 found in the way, the trustees and Mr. Schlatter pushed forward 
 the work of establishing schools with commendable zeal. In a 
 report to the Society in England, dated Philadelphia, September 
 24, 1756, the trustees say of the schools: "Upon the whole, they 
 are in as promising a state as can reasonably be expected in a coun- 
 try so much harassed by a savage enemy, and subject to so many 
 alarms to disturb that peace and tranquility which are so essentially 
 necessary to the cultivation of knowledge. You are already 
 informed that three of the schools we had planted have for some 
 time past been entirely broken up, being near the frontiers, where 
 the; people for near a year have been flying from place to place, and 
 but little fixed in their habitations. The other schools remain 
 much in the same state as when you received our last minutes; and 
 we are now not without hopes of enjoying more internal quiet for 
 the future, and keeping our enemy at a greater distance." 
 
- , ED UCA TWA' IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 When most flourishing the schools numbered seven hundred and 
 fifty pupils; but in 1760, the number of pupils had decreased to 
 four hundred and forty in nine schools. Mr. Schlatter continued 
 in charge of the schools until about the middle of the year 1757, 
 when he was succeeded by Dr. William Smith, a trustee, and Pro- 
 vost of the College in Philadelphia. Dr. Smith performed the 
 duties of the position with characteristic earnestness and ability. 
 The particularly active interest taken by him in his educational 
 work is referred to in a very complimentary manner by the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, and other English Bishops, in 1759, in recom- 
 mending him to the University of Oxford, for the Degree of Doctor 
 of Divinity. They say : " In consequence of this trust, the said 
 William Smith has, besides the youth of the college, upwards of 
 seven hundred children under his care, in different parts of the 
 country; that he visits them frequently in their several schools, 
 pays the Masters' salaries and superintends the whole design." 
 
 The system languished in its closing years owing to disunity 
 among the trustees, a want of confidence on the part of the Germans 
 in the disinterestedness of the management, a growing coldness be- 
 tween the mother country and her colonies, and the disturbances 
 brought about by the wars on the frontiers. It continued in opera- 
 tion, however, until 1763, when it failed entirely for want of support, 
 and was succeeded by a revival of the church and neighborhood 
 schools, of which some account will be given hereafter. 
 
 This chapter cannot be closed without some notice of the intro- 
 duction into a portion of the State, of a system of schools that had an 
 important bearing upon subsequent educational history. We have 
 reference to the system of free public schools brought by the Con- 
 necticut settlers into the valley of Wyoming. Pennsylvania, as a 
 Province, of course had nothing to do in establishing them ; in prin- 
 ciple they were an advance upon the schools then existing in Con- 
 necticut, and, in most essential respects, were similar in design and 
 management to the public schools of the present day. 
 
 The first settlements in the Wyoming Valley were made under 
 the auspices of " The Susquehanna Company," organized in 1753, by 
 some six hundred citizens of Windham county, Connecticut, and 
 approved the following year by an Act of the Colonial Assembly. 
 The surveyors of the Company were sent out in 1755, and at that 
 time and subsequently seventeen townships were laid out, each five 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 75 
 
 miles square and containing fifty shares, each of three hundred acres. 
 They were located in blocks on the bottom land along the rivers, 
 and embraced territory now within the limits of Luzerne, Lacka- 
 wanna, Wyoming, Bradford and Susquehanna counties. The names 
 of these townships are Huntington, Salem, Plymouth, Kingston, 
 Newport, Hanover, Wilkesbarre, Pittston, Providence, Exeter, Bed- 
 ford, Northumberland, Putnam, Braintrim, Springfield, Claverack 
 and Ulster. 
 
 The first attempts to settle on the lands laid out by the company 
 were made in 1762, and continued in 1763, but owing to the hos- 
 tility of the Indians, no permanent settlement was effected until 
 1769. Constantly harassed by the savages, compelled to carry on 
 a continuous struggle, amounting at times to open warfare, with 
 rival claimants to the land on which they had built houses and 
 established homes, almost annihilated by the terrible massacre of 
 Wyoming during the Revolutionary war, these brave and hardy 
 men of Connecticut still maintained their ground; and in 1783 the 
 population of the seventeen " Certified Townships " is estimated to 
 have reached six thousand. It has now swelled to two hundred 
 thousand. 
 
 The first action taken in regard to schools was as follows : 
 
 At a meeting of the Susquehanna Company, held at Hartford, Connecticut, 
 28th December, 1768, it was voted to lay out five townships of land within 
 the purchase of said Company, on the Susquehanna, of five miles square 
 each ; that the first forty settlers of the first town settled, and fifty settlers of 
 each of the other towns settled, shall divide the towns among themselves ; 
 reserving and appropriating three whole shares or rights in each township, 
 for the public use of a Gospel Ministry and schools in each of said towns ; 
 and also reserving for the use of said Company, all beds and mines of iron 
 ore and coal that may be within said townships. 
 
 It was also voted to grasi to Dr. Eleazer Wheelock, a tract of land in the 
 easterly part of the Susquehanna purchase, ten miles long and six miles wide, 
 for the use of the Indian school under his care ; Provided, He shall set up and 
 keep said school on the premises. 
 
 The proposed Indian school was never established, although it 
 is stated that Joseph Brant and other Indians attended Dr. Wheel- 
 ock's school at Lebanon, Connecticut. Instead of coming to 
 Pennsylvania, Dr. Wheelock went to New Hampshire and became 
 the founder of Dartmouth College. The directions of the Company 
 in other respects were carried into effect in all the townships as 
 soon after settlement as possible. The "three shares" in each 
 township amounted to 960 acres; in a general way the whole was 
 
„g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 set apart for school purposes, but in a number of instances land was 
 voted for the support of Ministers of the Gospel. The funds aris- 
 ing from the sale of these lands were not husbanded as they might 
 have been, but in some townships they still exist and are used for 
 the benefit of the public schools. The schools as well as other 
 local affairs were managed, as in New England, by a general town 
 meeting. The mode of proceeding is thus described: "A school 
 meeting was called, by public notices posted in the district. The 
 inhabitants of the district met, and elected, in their own way, three 
 of their number to act as school committee, which committee hired 
 teachers and exercised a general supervision over the schools. The 
 teacher was paid by the patrons of the school, in proportion to the 
 number of days they had sent to school. A rate-bill was made out 
 by the teacher and handed to the committee, who collected the 
 money." The general township fund was used to build school- 
 houses and to pay teachers. 
 
 A few scraps of history have been gathered up that will serve to 
 show the interest taken in education by these pioneer settlers in a 
 Pennsylvania wilderness. 
 
 At a town meeting held in Wilkesbarre, August 23, 1773, a vote 
 was passed " to raise three pence on the pound, on the district list, 
 to keep a free school in the several school districts in the said 
 Wilkesbarre." "A subsequent meeting," says Charles Miner, in 
 his History of Wyoming, " specially warned, adopted measures for 
 keeping open free schools, one in the upper district, one in the 
 lower, and one in the town plot.'' 
 
 A town meeting in Kingston, held December 21, 1773, voted 
 " that Nathaniel Landon, Samuel Comfnins and John Perkins, are 
 appointed committee men to divide ye town into three districts, for 
 keeping of schools." 
 
 The other townships, without question, passed similar votes, thus 
 recognizing at that early day the fundamental principles of all true 
 systems of public instruction: the common education of all classes; 
 schools supported by a general fund or a tax on property; local 
 management and responsibility. 
 
 A general county school organization seems to have been estab- 
 lished, doubtless to give more efficiency to the local management. 
 At a general meeting of the whole settlement, held on the sixth of 
 December, 1774, it was voted: "That Elisha Richards, Capt. Sam- 
 uel Ransom, Perrin Ross, Nathaniel Landon, Elisha Swift, Nathan 
 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 77 
 
 Denison, Stephen Harding, John Jenkins, Anderson Dana, Oba- 
 diah Gore, Jr., James Stark, Roswell Franklin, Capt. Lazarus Stew- 
 art, Capt. Parks and Uriah Chapman, be chosen school committee 
 for the ensuing year." These were leading men from every part of 
 the settlement, showing how important they considered the subject 
 of education. Well may Miner say: "It may justly be regarded 
 equally honorable and extraordinary, that a people just commenc- 
 ing a settlement in a wilderness, wrestling steadily with the yet 
 rude and unbroken soil for bread, surrounded by so many extrinsic 
 difficulties and causes of alarm and disquiet, should be found so 
 zealously adopting and so steadily pursuing measures to provide 
 free schools throughout the settlement." 
 
 This system substantially continued in operation in the Wyoming 
 region up to the time of the adoption of the common school system 
 in 1834, when, with little change and no disturbance, it was merged 
 into it ; and, as the nearest approach to our modem public schools 
 of any class of schools then known in Pennsylvania, it had consider- 
 able influence in shaping the school legislation which culminated 
 in the Act of 1834. It was Timothy Pickering, of Luzerne, as will 
 be more fully shown hereafter, who, in the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of 1790, secured the adoption of the article on education upon 
 which was subsequently based the whole body of laws relating to 
 common schools in Pennsylvania, up to the year 1874; and by so 
 doing saved the Convention from the threatened danger of commit- 
 ting itself to a much narrower policy. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. SWEDES. FRIENDS. EPISCO- 
 PALIANS. 
 
 THE Provincial authorities of Pennsylvania, as has already been 
 stated, did next to nothing to promote the cau.se of general edu- 
 cation during the long period from the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century to the end of their rule in 1776. Charters were granted 
 to a few educational institutions, some laws were passed securing 
 to religious societies the right to hold property for school purposes 
 and in special cases enabling them to raise money by lottery to 
 build schoolhouses ; but this was all. Penn's broad policy respect- 
 ing public education was virtually abandoned. Intellectual dark- 
 ness would have reigned supreme throughout the Province, had 
 not the various churches and the people themselves been more 
 alive to the importance of the subject than the Government. An 
 account of what was done by these agencies must now be given, so 
 far as the scanty records of the times and the few remaining evi- 
 dences of their work will permit. 
 
 The efforts of the Church in the work of education will have 
 reference mainly to a period antecedent to the Revolutionary war. 
 What has been done since then by the several religious denomina- 
 tions in the direction of higher education will appear in the story 
 yet to be told concerning the institutions of learning they have 
 founded; the elementary schools under Church control still main- 
 tained are not of much historic interest, for as soon as the State 
 began to legislate on the subject of general education, the Church 
 as a body ceased to give it special attention, and after the adoption 
 of the common school system, the schools established under it soon 
 came to be patronized almost exclusively by members of most of 
 the religious societies as well as by other citizens. The most not- 
 able exception are the Catholics, who support their own schools 
 wherever strong enough to do so. The Friends at present educate 
 about one-half of their children in schools belonging to the Society; 
 
 (78) 
 
PHIVA T£ EDUCA TION in earl Y da vs. yg 
 
 the Hebrews have a few separate schools; the Episcopalians still 
 maintain schools in connection with some of their churches, and 
 here and there one may find even at this day a parochial school 
 under the care of a Reformed, Lutheran, or Moravian congregation. 
 
 THE SWEDES. 
 
 The Swedes who became separated from their countrymen or 
 who mingled little with them after the coming of the English, soon 
 lost the use of their native tongue and were absorbed by the swifter 
 currents of social and religious life into which they were thrown ; 
 but at a few places where they remained somewhat isolated in a 
 considerable body as at Wicaco, Kingsessing and Upper Merion, 
 all near Philadelphia, they continued to speak the Swedish language 
 for one hundred and fifty years after their first settlement, and, even 
 down to the present time, they worship in churches of their own 
 according to the customs of the National church of Sweden. The 
 churches at these places called respectively, Gloria Dei, St. James 
 and Christ Church, were incorporated as one congregation, in 1765, 
 under the name of "The United Swedish Lutheran Churches." 
 Rev. Nicholas Collin was the last of the Swedish ministers, and 
 some time after the Revolutionary war, the Swedish Liturgy was 
 exchanged for the English. 
 
 The early policy of the Swedes was to maintain schools of their 
 own, and at times for many years during the first half of the eigh- 
 teenth century, they employed Swedish schoolmasters and had 
 their children taught in the Swedish language. The schools thus 
 established however never seem to have been well attended or much 
 in favor. John Clubb taught the Swedish school at Wicaco in 1708. 
 One of his successors was Arvid Hernborn, a young man from the 
 Gymnasium of Skara, who came to this countr)' in 1713, and having 
 good testimonials was employed for some years by the congrega- 
 tion. The condition of the Swedish schools not being satisfactory, 
 special effort was made, about the year 1722, to put them on better 
 footing and aid for this purpose was sought from the mother-coun- 
 try. If assistance came, as there is reason to believe, it could not 
 have been very effective ; for Acrelius, writing in 1759, complains 
 that the churches suffer for the want of a proper system of school- 
 keeping. " None," he says, " whether boys or girls are growing up 
 who cannot read English, write and cypher. In later times there 
 have come over young men from Ireland, some Presbyterians and 
 
3o ED UCA TION' IN' PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 some Roman Catholics, who commenced with school-keeping, but 
 as soon as they saw better openings they gave it up. Some young 
 Swedes also have come over from time to time, and undertaken at 
 first to keep school ; such were Lenmayer, Hans Stolt, Arvid Hern- 
 born, Sven Colsberg, John Godding, Jesper Svedberg, Olof Ma- 
 lander, Nicholaus Forsberg and Joach Reinicke. But either the 
 support from this source was not sufficient, or their mind was un- 
 settled, so that but little was accomplished. As for the rest, the 
 little knowledge of Christianity which our people have has been 
 gained from their parents and ministers." Of the schoolmasters 
 mentioned by Acrelius, Arvid Hernborn taught at Wicaco as above 
 stated, and Nicolaus Forsberg at Christina, in 1750, first in a private 
 house and afterwards in the church ; but of the others nothing is 
 known except their names. The long struggle for separate and dis- 
 tinctive Swedish schools was at last abandoned; and their further 
 history must be merged into that of the schools of the Lutheran and 
 Episcopal churches with which they became identified. 
 
 THE FRIENDS. 
 
 Proud, in his history, 1797, says: "The Friends were so careful 
 in the education of their children and youth, that there were none 
 among them brought up without a competency of useful and plain 
 learning." Clarkson, though not a member of their Society, writ- 
 ing in 1 806, speaks thus of Friends in America : " It may also be 
 mentioned as a second trait that they possess extraordinary knowl- 
 edge. Every Quaker boy or girl who comes into the world must, 
 however poor,^ if the discipline of the Society be kept up, receive 
 an education. All, therefore, who are born in the Society, must 
 be able to read and write. Thus the keys of knowledge are put 
 into their hands. Hence we find them attaining a superior literal 
 and historical knowledge of the Scriptures, a superior knowledge 
 of human nature, and a knowledge that sets them above many of 
 the superstitions of those in their own rank in life." If as a body 
 Friends have not been distinguished for their liberal learning, it can 
 be truthfully said that it has scarcely ever been possible to find an 
 illiterate member of their Society, their general policy leading them 
 to prefer a universally educated many to a highly educated few. 
 Facts will now be given to show what they have done for education 
 in the State of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Enoch Flower's school opened in 1683, and the Friends' Public 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. g I 
 
 School opened in 1689, while projected by Friends, were estab- 
 lished, as has been stated, under the auspices of the Provincial 
 authorities; but soon after others were brought into existence 
 entirely by private effort. The earliest of these seems to have been 
 that of Christopher Taylor, on Tinicum island. This gentleman 
 was a man of great learning, well versed in the ancient languages, 
 and a minister among Friends. He was engaged in teaching in 
 England, but receiving a grant of five thousand acres of land from 
 Penn, he came to Pennsylvania, settled in Bucks county, was a 
 member of the first General Assembly of the Province, and of the 
 first Provincial Council, and held other important offices. Subse- 
 quently, he moved his place of residence to Tinicum island, where 
 he opened a school. In 1684, he appears to have served as one of 
 the Justices of the Chester Court; and in conveying his property 
 to his son a short time before his death, which took place in 1686, 
 he speaks of himself as a schoolmaster, and his place of residence 
 as " Tinicum, alias College Island." The following words are 
 copied from the deed of conveyance, dated January 10, 1684, and 
 now in the custody of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. "And 
 alsoe one logge house wherin the said Christopher teacheth school 
 at the day of the date hereof" 
 
 Christianus Lewis, from Dudley, Worcestershire, England, a school- 
 master, reached Philadelphia in the ship Comfort, in January 1683, 
 but whether he continued to follow his profession or not is un- 
 known. 
 
 The following are extracts from the minutes of Darby Monthly 
 Meeting, Delaware county: 
 
 Agreed at this meeting, (held 7th, 7th month, 1692,) that Benjamin Clift 
 is to teach scoole, Beginge ye 12th of ye 7th month, and to continue one 
 whole yeare except 2 weekes. ****** 
 
 Ye 20th of ye 7th month, 1693, agreed at this meeting, that Benjamin 
 Clift is to teach scoole one yeare, Beginge ye 20th of ye 7th month. And to • 
 have £\ios. od. 
 
 A school was established by the Dutch and German Friends at 
 Germantown, in 1 70 1. Arent Klincken, Paul Wollf and Peter 
 Schumacher, Jr., were the " overseers " who collected the subscrip- 
 tions and provided for opening the school. Francis Daniel Pas- 
 torius was the first schoolmaster, and Germantown has probably 
 never since had one more learned. He was master of seven or 
 eight different languages, ancient and modern, as well as deeply 
 6 
 
32 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 versed in science and philosophy. Pastorius had probably taught 
 for some years previously in Philadelphia, for in 1696 he made an 
 engagement with Friends "to keep school in the city and to do 
 their writing." 
 
 The first religious meetings of the Friends in Pennsylvania were 
 held in private houses. There were such meetings at the houses of 
 Robert Wade, at Chester, and of William Yardley and others, at 
 the Falls of the Delaware, before the coming of Penn. As soon as 
 they became sufficiently numerous in a particular neighborhood, or 
 felt themselves able to do so, it was their custom to erect a small 
 plain building, generally of logs, and to use it as a meeting-house 
 open for school purposes, as a schoolhouse open for purposes 
 of worship, or as both a meeting-house and a schoolhouse. As 
 early as 1700 there were three meeting-houses in Philadelphia, and 
 outside of the city there were meeting-houses at Germantown, By- 
 berry, Falls, Neshaminy, Lower Merion, Abington, Gwynedd, 
 Plymouth, Darby, Concord, and most likely at a few other places. 
 After this date, there was for some years a rapid increase in Friends' 
 meeting-houses. Among the oldest then erected were those of 
 Buckingham, Bristol, Wrightstown, Richland, Plumstead, Quaker- 
 town and Makefield, in Bucks county ; Horsham and Pottstown, in 
 Montgomery; Springfield, Providence, Middletown, Radnor and 
 Newtown, in Delaware; Goshen, Uwchlan, Cain, Kennett, Birming- 
 ham, Nottingham, West Nottingham, New Garden, London Grove, 
 Bradford, and Valley, in Chester; Sadsbury, Leacock and Little 
 Britain, in Lancaster; and Newbury and Warrington, in York. 
 Proud says that in 1770 the Friends had between sixty and seventy 
 meeting-houses in Pennsylvania and Delaware. It is probably 
 going too far to claim that either in all these meeting-houses or in 
 connection with them schools were kept, but it is known that this 
 was very generally the case. 
 
 The action taken by the early Friends to establish schools at 
 Darby and at Germantown has been mentioned. Their example 
 -was speedily followed in other localities. The meeting-house at 
 Plymouth, Montgomery county, was erected in 1688, and there is 
 ■good reason to think there was a school connected with it from 
 the first, as there certainly was at a date somewhat later. John 
 Barnes, who had purchased, in 1684, two hundred and fifty acres 
 ■of land in Abington and settled there, in 1697, vested by will in 
 the trustees of Abington meeting one hundred and twenty acres for 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 83 
 
 the use of the same and a schoolhouse. The present Friends' 
 School at Abington claims to date from 1702. The Gwynedd 
 meeting-house, erected about the same time as the one in Abington, 
 was at first used as a -schoolhouse. In 172 1, a schoolhouse was 
 provided; and here, in 1729, Marmaduke Pardo served as school- 
 master. He had previously taught at St. David's, in the county of 
 Pembrock, Wales, and brought with him a certificate signed by the 
 curate and twenty-five other persons, stating that he " hath to the 
 utmost of our knowledge & all appearance liv'd a very sober and 
 piOus life, demeaning himself, according to y° strictest Rules of his 
 profession, viz., w' what we call Quakerism, & y' he hath for these 
 several years past took upon himself y' keeping of a private school 
 in this citty, in which Station he acquitted himself with y' common 
 approval and to y° general satisfaction, of all of us who have com- 
 mitted our children to his care and tuition." In 1711, Richard 
 Brockden taught school at or near Byberry meeting-house, now 
 within the limits of Philadelphia, in a small log building. He was 
 followed by a long line of teachers. The well-known Grammarian, 
 John Comly, had charge of the school in 1794. Having been lib- 
 erally endowed, it was made a free school in 1800. 
 
 The noted Friend, Anthony Benezet, taught school in Germantown 
 in 1739. In Bucks county, a schoolhouse was built near Wrights- 
 town meeting-house as early as 1725 ; in 1733, school was kept in 
 the Friends' meeting-house in Falls township, and some years later 
 a house was built for the master; Henry Atherton taught the 
 Friends' school in Middletown, in 1734, and in 1742, a school was 
 opened in the meeting-house at Quakertown. There was a school- 
 house at Lurgan in Upper Makefield in 1755, and probably many 
 years before, and one in Solebury, in 1767, in both of which Friends 
 held meetings at stated times. The Plumstead Friends' meeting 
 established a school in 1752. Early Friends in Delaware and 
 Chester counties were quite as active in establishing schools as 
 their brethren in adjoining counties, but the records do not seem 
 to have been equally well preserved. 
 
 But while numerous schools were established in the most thickly 
 settled parts of the country by members of the Society, the state of 
 education generally was not satisfactory to many Friends, and 
 became a subject of very grave concern to them individually and in 
 their meetings. In some localities the scattered settlers could not 
 support good schools, and competent teachers were everywhere 
 
84 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 hard to obtain. There were those, too, who were thought to under- 
 value the importance of education, and doubtless many, owing to 
 the cares incident to the establishment of new homes in a wilder- 
 ness, were led to neglect the duty of providing for the proper 
 instruction of their children. What was done by Friends in an 
 organized capacity to forward the cause of education is now to be 
 narrated. 
 
 The Yearly Meeting in London had been accustomed from the 
 first to issue " advices " urging special attention to the instruction of 
 youth, and soon after its organization the Yearly Meeting of Phila- 
 delphia, the highest ecclesiastical authority among Friends in Penn- 
 sylvania took up the strain, and, sometimes annually for a series 
 of years and then at longer intervals, continued for more than a 
 hundred years to send forth most earnest appeals, designed to im- 
 press upon the members of the Society the importance of educat- 
 ing their children, and to quicken their zeal in the work of organiz- 
 ing schools. Nor did their good intentions stop with their own 
 members : they evidently contemplated the education of the young 
 of all classes, and freely admitted into the schools they established, 
 on equal terms, all who could.be induced to attend them. The poor 
 were everywhere to be taught gratuitously, and some of the meas- 
 ures taken with this end in view are extremely liberal for the time, 
 and worthy of all praise. The extracts given below are a few of the 
 many of like import that might be quoted. 
 
 As early as 1722, the Yearly Meeting of Friends for the Provinces 
 of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, set forth the following : 
 
 And our advice is, that all Friends' children have so much learning as to 
 read the Holy Scriptures and other English books, and to write and cast ac- 
 counts so far as to understand some necessary rules of Arithmetic, and for 
 that end let the rich, help the poor. And that Friends of all degree take due 
 care to bring up their children to some useful and necessary employment, 
 that they may not spend their precious time in idleness, which is evil example, 
 and tends much to their hurt. 
 
 A Minute of the Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia in 1746, 
 reads as follows : 
 
 We desire you, in your several Monthly Meetings, to encourage and assist 
 each other in the settlement and support of schools for the instruction of your 
 children, at least to read and write, and some further useful learning to such 
 whose circumstances will permit it ; and that you observe as much as possible, 
 to employ such masters and mistresses as are concerned, not only to instruct 
 your children in their learning, but are likewise careful in the wisdom of God, 
 and a spirit of meekness, gradually to bring them to the knowledge of their 
 
PHIVA T-E EDUC4 TION IN MARL Y DA YS. 85 
 
 duty to God and one with another; and, wp doubt not, such endeavors will be 
 blessed with success. 
 
 The appeal of 1746 was reiterated in 1750, 1751, 1753, 1774, 
 ^777, ^77^, 1779, 1783 and 1787. The Minute of 1751, concern- 
 ing the setting up of schools in the country, reads : 
 
 It is agreed that it be again recommended to the Quarterly and Monthly 
 Meetings to encourage their respective members to exert themselves as fully 
 therein as their present circumstances will permit, and to think of methods 
 by which this good work may be effected in time. 
 
 In 1774, the Yearly Meeting expressed its views on education 
 with great earnestness. 
 
 The pious education of our youth being a matter of great importance, 
 parents and those to whom this weighty trust is committed, are earnestly incited 
 to a faithful discharge of their duty therein ; both in respect to placing them 
 under exemplary and religious schoolmasters and mistresses, for useful and 
 proper learning, as well as to inculcate in their tender minds the pure doc- 
 trine of the Gospel, agreeable to the principles of our holy profession ; and 
 the necessity of a life of self-denial which leads to plainness of speech, behav- 
 ior and apparel, and circumspection in all parts of their conduct, a declina- 
 tion in which is sorrowfully apparent in many. 
 
 The subject becoming more pressing every year, in 1777 the 
 Yearly Meeting appointed a committee of fourteen prominent 
 Friends to take it into consideration. Anthony Benezet was an 
 active member of the committee. The report recapitulates what 
 had been done previously by Friends in behalf of education, and 
 urges the necessity for further action. Among the recommenda- 
 tions made are the following : 
 
 J^t'rsi. That a lot of ground he provided in each Monthly or Preparative 
 Meeting, sufBcient for a garden, orchard, grass for a cow, etc., and that a 
 suitable dwelling, stable, etc., be erected thereon, for such a provision would 
 be an encouragement for a staid person with a family, who will be likely to 
 remain a considerable time — perhaps his whole life — in the service, and thus, 
 obviate the necessity of hiring single persons, who are seldom likely to remain 
 any longer than some employment more agreeable to support themselves, 
 offers : whereby teachers miss the opportunity of improvement, which noth- 
 ing will give equal to that experience gained by long practice in the educa- 
 tion of youth. 
 
 Second. That funds be raised by contributions, bequests, etc., in each 
 meeting ; the interest of which to be applied either in aid of the tutor's sal- 
 ary, or lessening the expense of Friends in straitened circumstances, jn the 
 education of their children. 
 
 Third. That a committee be appointed in each Monthly or Preparative. 
 Meeting to have the care of scjiools, and the funds for their support, and that, 
 no tutor be einployed but with their consent. 
 
86 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 The committee thus conclude : 
 
 We, also, think it necessary that this weighty concern should, in future, 
 become the continued care of the Quarterly Meetings by an annual query, 
 that so the matter may rest on a solid foundation, and every possible encour- 
 agement and assistance may be afforded to Friends in the settlement of 
 schools, procuring masters, etc., through the whole extent of the Yearly Meet- 
 ing. 
 
 The report, which was concurred in by the Yearly Meeting, and 
 parts of it incorporated into the " Rules of Discipline" of the Soci- 
 ety, marked out a line of action which gave system to the efifbrts 
 of Friends in all directions, and there was a marked increase in 
 educational activity among them. Bowden, in his History of 
 Friends, says: "Subscriptions were raised, amounting to many 
 thousands of dollars. Schoolhouses were built in most localities 
 where there were Friends sufficient to form a school, and in some 
 places for the accommodation also of teachers; committees for 
 superintending them also were appointed in Monthly and Prepara- 
 tive Meetings, and with these lay the choice of the master." 
 
 In 1787, the Yearly Meeting, encouraged by what had been 
 accomplished through its efforts, was moved to take a step still 
 further in advance. Speaking of education, the minute reads: 
 
 A continued close regard to its importance and the evil consequences re- 
 sulting from the neglect of it, is earnestly commended afresh to the vigilant 
 care of concerned Friends in each Quarter, to be extended not only to the chil- 
 dren of Friends in more easy circumstances in life, but also to the offspring 
 of such as are poor and of black 'people, whose condition gives them a claim 
 to that benefit, consistent with the sense of this meeting, contained in the 
 repealed advices sent forth. 
 
 The Book of "Christian Advices," 1808, contains the following 
 admirable provisions. 
 
 It is the renewed concern of this meeting, to recommend a care of the off- 
 spring of parents whose income or earnings are so small as to render them 
 , incapable of giving their children a suitable and guarded education; and as 
 some of our members may incautiously permit their offspring to suffer this 
 great loss, rather than apply for assistance from the Monthly Meetings, it is 
 recommended to Friends in every Monthly Meeting to seek out such of their 
 members as may be thus straitened, and administer to their help ; and it is 
 desired that such will receive the salutary aid with a willing mind, and thank- 
 fulness to the great Author of all good. 
 
 As the want of suitably qualified persons amongst Friends for teachers of 
 schools, is the occasion of serious disadvantage to the Society in many places, 
 as thereby well-disposed Friends are deprived of opportunities for educating 
 their children in a manner consistent with a religious concern for their wel- 
 fare ; we desire Friends would attend to this important point in their Monthly 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. gj 
 
 Meetings, and assist young men and women of low circumstances, whose 
 capacities and conduct may be suitable for that occupation, with the means 
 requisite to obtain the proper qualifications; and when so qualified, afford 
 them the necessary encouragement for their support. 
 
 The preceding extracts, taken from the highest official sources, 
 exhibit with sufficient clearness the educational policy of the 
 early Friends. Their purpose evidently was to establish schools in 
 sufficient numbers, under the direction of the local Monthly or 
 Preparative Meetings, to accommodate all their own children and as 
 many others as might be willing to attend; to exact pay for tuition 
 from those who were in good circumstances, and to relieve in a 
 delicate way the children of the poor from any charges that might 
 prove oppressive; to encourage suitable young men and women 
 of moderate means to become teachers, and to aid them in making 
 the necessary preparation ; to render the teacher's office permanent 
 by paying the teachers an adequate salary, and by providing in con- 
 nection with each school a teacher's house with a stable, garden, 
 grass for a cow, etc. ; to raise a fund for the endowment of each 
 school, the proceeds to be used to educate poor children, to pay 
 teachers, etc. ; arid above all to impart moral and religious instruc- 
 tion with the ordinary branches of learning. This scheme consti- 
 tutes an educational platform broad for the time, and does infinite 
 credit to the people who planned it and did their best to put it into 
 practice. 
 
 ' Systems of education, whether established by the Church or by 
 the State, are matters of growth. Long years must elapse between 
 the seed-time and the harvest. The educational plans of the Yearly 
 Meeting of Friends, of which an account has been given, were no 
 exception to the general rule. Its repeated appeals were slowly 
 responded to by the subordinate bodies to whom they were ad- 
 dressed, but by the end of the century there were few Friends' 
 meeting-houses anywhere in Pennsylvania that did not have con- 
 nected with them a schoolhouse and a school. At that time the 
 schools established by Friends must have numbered fifty or sixty. 
 The custom of the earlier years of using meeting-houses as school- 
 houses had been generally abandoned, and the schoolhouse had 
 come to occupy a lot of its own adjoining the meeting-house lot or 
 in its neighborhood. Money for the support of schools was raised 
 mainly by subscription, but now and then a contribution or a leg- 
 acy was received. In some instances the funds raised for partic- 
 ular schools grew to be considerable sums. Those who contributed 
 
23 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 money often gave it as did the members of Kennett Monthly Meet- 
 ing, Chester county, in 1796, for "Schoohng the children of such 
 poor people, whether Friends or others, as live within the verge 
 of the aforesaid Monthly Meeting." The schools were managed by 
 committees appointed by the Monthly or Preparative Meetings, 
 and these committees appointed teachers, arranged courses of study, 
 collected the subscriptions, disbursed the school funds, and attended 
 to nearly all the other duties now performed by the Directors of 
 common schools. 
 
 But something more specific must be stated concerning the 
 results of the increased zeal in behalf of education awakened among 
 Friends by the action of their Yearly Meeting. 
 
 Philadelphia had from an early date several Friends' schools 
 under the direction of the Monthly Meetings. 
 
 Friends in Bucks county were very active in establishing schools 
 directly after the Revolutionary war. The meeting at Wrightstown 
 made efforts to improve the school at that place. In 1790, a two- 
 story schoolhouse was built by friends near Buckingham meeting- 
 house, in which a school has continued to be kept down to the 
 present day. It was so well endowed that it is now a free school, 
 open to all who choose to attend. Friends belonging to Bucking- 
 ham Monthly Meeting, in 1794, bought two lots in the township, 
 erected houses and opened schools. These schools were kept in 
 operation until 1855. There has been a Friends' school at Lang- 
 home since 1790. Similar movements took place in other parts of 
 the county. 
 
 In Montgomery county. Friends had schools in connection with 
 their meetings in the townships of Plymouth, Abington, Gwynedd, 
 Horsham, and others. There was a school under the control of 
 Friends at North Wales in 1793. Some of these still continue in 
 operation, and are much more than a hundred years old. 
 
 By 1793. Friends in Delaware county had seven schools under 
 their care ; one in each of the following townships : Darby, Con- 
 cord, Haverford, Radnor, Middletown, Springfield, and Upper Chi- 
 chester. Dwellings had been erected in Darby and Concord " for 
 the accommodation of the Masters." At Chester, Joseph Hoskins, 
 in 1773, left by will £10 towards schooling such poor children of 
 the borough or township as the Meeting should think worthy of 
 •such assistance, and a lot one hundred feet square in trust "for 
 building a schoolhouse or schoolhouses, or other edifices to be used 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. gg 
 
 for instructing youth." A two-storied brick house was erected the 
 same year and used for a school, and continued to be so used for 
 about one hundred years. 
 
 Chester county had in operation from 1750 on to the end of the 
 century numerous schools established by Friends. The one at 
 Birmingham meeting-house dates from 1753. There were several 
 schools established within the limits of Kennett Monthly Meeting — 
 that near Marlborough meeting-house having two acres of ground, 
 a teacher's residence, and a fund which now amounts to ^3,000. 
 In 1793, Kennett Preparative Meeting purchased a piece of ground 
 for a school " about two miles and a half westerly from Kennett 
 meeting-house, adjoining the public road leading to Nottingham." 
 An acre of ground in Willistown township was purchased for 
 school purposes by several Friends as early as 1713. Bradford, 
 New Garden, and Kennett Monthly Meetings set up a school jointly 
 prior to 1781. Goshen, Bradford, and Birmingham Meetings pur- 
 chased jointly, in 1779, four acres of ground, and erected a school- 
 house a half a mile west of West Chester. In addition, there were 
 schoolhouses at an early day connected with the meeting-houses at 
 New Garden, Grove, Marshalltown, West Grove, and others. The 
 Friends' meeting-house in the Valley, Tredyffrin township, was 
 used as a hospital at the time the American army was encamped 
 at Valley Forge. The schoolhouse that stood by its side was 
 erected at an early day. 
 
 As Friends formed settlements beyond the limits of the territory 
 first settled, they provided themselves as soon as possible with 
 meeting-houses and schools. In Berks county they built a plain, 
 log schoolhouse in Reading about 1750, one in Maidencreek town- 
 ship, which, in 1784, was taught by Thomas Pearson, who had 
 fifteen scholars by the year and eight by the quarter, at forty shill- 
 ings each, and one in Exeter in 1790. One of the earliest teachers 
 at the Exeter school was James Boone, a relative, probably an 
 uncle, of the noted Daniel Boone, of Kentucky. Lancaster county 
 had early Friends' schools at Eastland, Sadsbury, and Lampeter. 
 The meeting-house at Sadsbury was built in 176b, and the school- 
 house that was connected with it is thought to have been built 
 about the same time. Both were built of stone, and still stand side 
 by side. The schoolhouse that still stands connected with the 
 meeting-house at Bird-in-hand was built in 1792. The school lot 
 consisted of several acres, one acre of which was purchased in 1 793 
 
90 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 for the special use of the school, and rooms were provided in the 
 house for the accommodation of the teacher and a few boarding 
 
 ANCIENT FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE AND SCHOOLHOUSE, LAMPETER. 1 792. 
 
 scholars. Friends' meeting-houses were built at Newberry and 
 Warrington, in York county, about 1745 ; and from the first there 
 were schools connected with them. 
 
 The zeal of Friends in the cause of education did not rest satisfied 
 in the establishment of schools for themselves. They were fre- 
 quently the moving spirits in establishing schools open to all the 
 children of a neighborhood and entirely free from church control. 
 This was particularly the case in neighborhoods where there were 
 few Friends and no meeting-houses. Multitudes of old schools in 
 the counties around Philadelphia, when their history comes to be 
 written, will reveal the hands of the public-spirited Friends to whom 
 they owed their existence. 
 
 Nor were the schools established by the early Friends wholly of 
 an elementary character. Although most of them were located in 
 rural districts, the masters frequently gave instruction in the higher 
 branches of learning. Geometry, Mensuration, Algebra and Sur- 
 veying were taught in many schools ; History, Natural Philosophy 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARLY DA YS. g i 
 
 and Astronomy were taught less generally, and in. a few instances 
 instruction was given in Latin and Greek. As examples of such' 
 advanced schools, may be named the school at Birmingham, 
 Chester county, under John Forsythe ; the school at Byberry, Phil- 
 adelphia county, under John Comly, and the schools at Plymouth, 
 Abington and Gwynedd, Montgomery county. About 1790, George 
 Churchman, a prominent Friend, established a Boarding School in 
 East Nottingham, Chester county, for the advanced education of 
 young women with a view of preparing them for the business of 
 teaching ; but the day for Normal schools had not yet arrived, and 
 after a few terms the school closed. Of the many private Boarding 
 Schools that were established by Friends, mostly at a later date than 
 the period now under consideration, some mention will be made in 
 another chapter. 
 
 In 1769, perhaps earlier, an effort was made by Friends to estab- 
 lish a Boarding School for boys. The plan was to purchase a farm 
 and erect commodious buildings. The course of instruction mapped 
 out was to include " Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Navigation, Sur- 
 veying, Gauging, and such other learning as is usually taught, and 
 the parents may direct ; and likewise the Latin, Greek and French 
 languages." The project failed for the time, probably owing to the 
 confused political condition of the country; but, in 1791, the sub- 
 ject was brought up in the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, carried 
 to the Quarterly Meeting, and in the succeeding year reached the 
 Yearly I Meeting, where it was carefully deliberated upon for two 
 years, ind, 1 794, carried into effect by the purchase of the fine farm 
 of Jamps Gibbons in Westtown township, Chester county, consist- 
 ing of six hundred acres. Here, in 1799, buildings were completed 
 which still stand, and the school was opened at once. The first cost 
 of the farm and buildings was about ^46,<X)0, but the additions and 
 improvements since made swell the expeditures on the real estate 
 to ^306,000. In addition a large new building is now, 1885, in 
 process of erection. The institution as it now stands, with its 
 massive buildings; its splendid grounds; its large well-cultivated 
 farm, including farm-house, barns, mill, gardens, orchards, woodlands 
 and water-courses; extensive collections of apparatus and well-filled 
 libraries and cabinets, and its large corps of skilled instructors and 
 liberal course of study, is one of the most attractive as well as one 
 of the best schools of the kind in the country. Both boys and girls 
 have been admitted from the first, but communication between the 
 
9^ 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 sexes has always been judiciously regulated. After the division 
 that took place in the Society of Friends, 1827, the school remained 
 
 in the hands of what is known as the Orthodox bianch, and is 
 managed by a committee appointed by the Yearly Meeting. None 
 but children of the members of the Society controlling the school 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL V DA YS. q ^ 
 
 are admitted as students. The school is so largely endowed that 
 the whole cost of boarding and tuition scarcely ever exceeds ^IJO a 
 year, and sometimes it falls as low as ;^SO or ^60 a year. Many are 
 boarded and instructed entirely without expense. To 1872, the 
 number of students who had attended the school from the begin- 
 ning was 9,612, 4,2i5 boys, and 5,396 girls. 
 
 Westtown Boarding School has always been noted for the many 
 excellent teachers there qualified for their work. Soon after its 
 establishment young men and women began to go forth from it to 
 open schools of their own, introducing into them improved text- 
 books, advanced studies, more system, and better methods of teach - 
 ing. The institution trained teachers, and in numerous instances 
 they in turn trained other teachers. Of those who had either been 
 teachers or students at Westtown or who had inherited from sons 
 of Westtown the Westtown spirit, may be named John Comly, Prin- 
 cipal of Byberry Boarding School, and author of Comly's Grammar, 
 Spelling-Book, etc. ; Enoch Lewis, Principal of New Garden Board- 
 ing School, and author of various works on mathematics ; John 
 Gummere, Principal of Burlington, New Jersey, Boarding School, 
 and author of Gummere's Surveying, Astronomy, etc.; Joseph 
 Foulke, Principal of Gwynedd Boarding School ; Samuel Alsop, a 
 noted teacher and author of works on Mathematics ; Emmor Kimber, 
 Principal of Kimberton Boarding School ; Joshua Hoopes, Principal 
 of a Boarding School at West Chester, and a distinguished botanist ; 
 Jonathan Gause, who for fifty-seven years, at the head of various in- 
 stitutions of learning, held the place of one of Pennsylvania's most 
 gifted teachers, and Joseph C. Strode, Principal of East Bradford 
 Boarding School and one of the most famous mathematicians in the 
 United States — a galaxy of names unequaled as teachers by the sons 
 of any other like institution in the State. 
 
 In founding schools, it was the policy of the early Friends in 
 Pennsylvania to provide endowments for them. Advice to this 
 effect was frequently given by the Yearly Meeting; and, in 1795, it 
 was specifically recommended by this body that Friends should 
 make testamentary provision for the support of schools. The 
 response to this action on the part of the Yearly Meeting seems to 
 have been quite general, as the facts already given and the following 
 examples will show. 
 
 Adam Harker, of Buckingham, Bucks county, in 1754, left £7$ 
 for the establishment of a free school at Wrightstown, and ;^40 for 
 
g. EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 the same purpose at Buckingham. The schools were to be under 
 the care of the Monthly Meeting. 
 
 The Byberry school received ;^II3 is. 8d. from John Eastburn 
 in 1776, ;£'ioo from James Thornton ih 1794, ;^SO from John Town- 
 send in 1800, and various smaller sums from other Friends. 
 
 Thomas Griffin, another Bucks county Friend, bequeathed, in 
 1761, the rentals of two lots of ground in the city of Philadelphia 
 for the purpose of " supporting and maintaining a free school for- 
 ever, on a lot of ground, already purchased, situated in Montgom- 
 ery township, where there is a good stone schoolhouse erected." 
 The amount subsequently realized from the sale of the lots was 
 
 ;^9S3 iSs- 
 
 Friends' meeting at Richland, Bucks county, in ijSi, raised a 
 fund for the education of the poor of all denominations. Similar 
 action was taken by many other Friends' meetings. 
 
 In 1 8 10. Jacob Tones devised a tract of land and a sum of money, 
 the proceeds of which were to be devoted to the " free education 
 and instruction of the poor and orphan children of both sexes'' 
 living in Lower Merion township, Montgomery county. This was 
 the foundation of an institution now and for many years known as 
 " Lower Merion Academy." Mr. Jones also left .^100 to endow 
 the free school connected with Plymouth Meeting. Joseph Wil- 
 liams in 18 1 2, left ;^200 to the Plymouth school for the free edu- 
 cation of the children of parents in "necessitous circumstances.'' 
 
 The two-storied Academy building at Hatboro, Montgomery 
 county, with seven acres of ground and a large dwelling house, 
 were the fruits of a legacy left by Robert Loller, in 1 8 10, to estab- 
 lish and maintain a school of high grade. About the same time, 
 Milcali Martha Moore made ,a bequest of ^800 for the " schooling 
 of poor young women of Gwynedd and Montgomery townships 
 who intend to teach." 
 
 EPISCOPALIANS. 
 
 At the time the first settlements were made in Pennsylvania, edu- 
 cation in England was almost wholly in the hands of the Estab- 
 lished Church. This was not only true of the Universities of 
 Oxford and Cambridge and the great Public Schools, but also of 
 such schools as had been established throughout the kingdom for 
 instruction in the rudiments. The same authorities that built 
 churches and employed clergymen provided schoolhouses and 
 teachers. The Parish church and the Parish school were one and 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. gj 
 
 the same interest. Members of the Church of England came to 
 this country bearing with them the influences of the training and 
 instruction acquired under this system, believing in it and knowing 
 little of any other. It is easy to see, therefore, that as soon as they 
 began to establish churches in the new world, they would begin to 
 establish schools, and that they would seek to preserve the rela- 
 tions between the two to which they had always been accustomed. 
 Indeed, Episcopalians in Pennsylvania up to the time of the Revo- 
 lutionary war, held to the doctrine of church control in the matter 
 of education much more tenaciously than most other Protestant 
 denominations, no doubt partially from the fact that until the 
 United States assumed the rank of an independent nation, some 
 among them never quite laid aside the belief that their church was 
 destined to become the State church here, as it was in the mother- 
 country. There was good ground for this belief Under the Duke 
 of York's Laws, theirs had been the legalized form of religious 
 worship on the Delaware, before the coming of Penn; after Penn's 
 death the Governors of the Province were generally churchmen; 
 even the sons of the Founder ceased to be Friends, and it was well 
 understood that a powerful party was continually at work in Eng- 
 land to establish the Episcopal as the State church in Pennsylvania, 
 and to provide for its support by a general tax, as had been done 
 in the neighboring colonies of Virginia and Maryland. With a 
 State church, these zealous churchmen naturally expected State 
 schools under its control, and this expectation necessarily had its 
 influence on their educational policy. 
 
 The Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania 
 was not organized as a distinct church until after the Revolutionary 
 war, in 1785. Previous to that time it was represented only by a 
 few scattered congregations, or missions, sustained in great part by 
 the Church in England, and under the direction of the Bishop of 
 London. Weak as most of these congregations were, we shall see 
 that they were not wanting in interest on the subject of educating 
 their children. 
 
 A little congregation of Episcopalians was organized in Phila- 
 delphia, in 1694. The religious exercises seem to have been at 
 first conducted in a small wooden structure, with a bell to summon 
 the people to worship, hung in the crotch of a neighboring tree. 
 Better accommodations were soon after provided, and from these 
 humble beginnings arose the celebrated Christ Church. A school 
 
q6 education in PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 followed the church almost immediately. This is shown by a letter, 
 dated at Philadelphia, March 26, 1698, from the "schoolmaster" as 
 he calls himself, I. Arrowsmith. Mr. Arrowsmith writes to Gover- 
 nor Francis Nicholson, of Virginia, from whom he seems to have 
 expected aid, complaining that the Quakers "have endowed a school 
 that is to be kept free, with eighty pounds per annum, which is in 
 effect to blast my endeavors. I have lived hitherto upon the be- 
 nevolence of the people which will not afford me things necessary, 
 upon a dependence of the King's allowance for this place, which I 
 expected by Esquire Randolph, but he informs me of no such order." 
 The " allowance " referred to was a grant made by King William 
 Third and continued by his successor, Queen Anne, to the church 
 at Philadelphia, of ;^8o a year, ;^S0 for the minister and £y:) for the 
 schoolmaster. The money did not come directly out of the pockets 
 of the English Sovereigns, but was derived from customs paid in the 
 colonj'. 
 
 Dr. Evan Evans, a Missionary to Pennsylvania writes, about 1700, 
 that a schoolmaster is wanted both at Philadelphia and at Chester, 
 and adds: "An allowance of ;^30 a year established." In 1703, 
 George Keith commends John Thomas, the schoolmaster, to the 
 Bishop of London, " for his good behaviour and great diligence in 
 attending school." John Clubb was schoolmaster in 1705, he was 
 succeeded by George Ross, in 1709, and, in 17 14, John Humphreys 
 held the position. A letter from members of the congregation to 
 the Bishop of London, in 1738, states that " Mr. Alexander Aunand 
 has been master of the Grammar school here about fifteen years." 
 In 1763, Richard Gardiner was master. 
 
 Next to Christ Church, Trinity Church, Oxford, Philadelphia, is 
 the oldest Episcopal church in the State. Religious services were 
 held at this place probably as early as 1698, certainly as early as 
 1700; and, in this ancient Parish there was a school in existence, 
 under church auspices, in 17 18 and probably earlier. The evidence 
 is that in an address in that year to the " Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," in England, the wardens of 
 the Parish wrote as follows : " We having no minister, except by 
 chance, agree among ourselves to meet at the house of God every 
 Sunday, where one Nathaniel Walton, our schoolmaster, one 
 zealous for the church and of good repute among us, takes due 
 pains every Lord's day to read unto us the Holy Scriptures." By 
 1728, Rev. Robert Weyman had become the minister at Oxford, and 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 97 
 
 writes: "There are two schools in my Parish; one in Frankford, a 
 small compact village in the township of Oxen, about three miles 
 distant from the church, in which village I have lately introduced a 
 lecture in the afternoon to a numerous auditory. The house of our 
 meeting is kept by Mr. Walton, schoolmaster, a man of sober life. 
 The other school is kept by a stranger near the church. The 
 former has about forty scholars, and the latter about twenty.'' The 
 schoolhouse near the church was church property, and prior to the 
 erection of the church had been used as a place of worship. A 
 school was still kept in it in 1746, for in that year the Vestry Book 
 shows that George Forster, schoolmaster, was dismissed from teach- 
 ing school for " ill-behavior." 
 
 A third congregation of Episcopalians which took very early 
 action on the subject of education was that of St. Paul's Church, 
 Chester. As early as 1 704, before they had finished the erection 
 of a church, the minister and vestry of the Parish applied to the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, already 
 named as existing in England, for aid to enable them to establish 
 a church school. In this application they appear to have been 
 successful, as they were afterwards in several other similar appli- 
 cations, in some years receiving ;^iO, and in others ;^5. The 
 school was no doubt opened at once. In 1708, Oldmixon writes 
 of Chester: " They are about erecting a school here dependent on 
 the minister." Rowland Jones taught the school before 1732, and 
 Charles Fortescue was master in 1741, and gave instruction in 
 Latin and Greek as well as in the ordinary branches of an English 
 education. Fortescue was examined by the minister, Mr. Back- 
 house, and found to be capable of teaching Latin, Greek, and Math- 
 ematics. This must have been one of the earliest teachers' exami- 
 nations in the State. 
 
 In 1724, in addition to the three churches already named, there 
 were congregations of Episcopalians at Marcus Hook, organized 
 in 1702; Radnor, organized in 1 708; Bristol, organized in 17 12; 
 Perkiomen, Concord, and Whitemarsh, all in the vicinity of Phil- 
 adelphia. Some years later, congregations were organized at 
 Pequea, near Compassville, Chester county, in 1728; at Lancaster, 
 in 1744; at Churchtown, Lancaster county, in 1750; at York and 
 Carlisle about 1760; at Huntingdon a little later, and probably at 
 other places. Of these, there was a school connected with the 
 church at Marcus Hook in 1745, and it seems likely there was one 
 7 
 
g3 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 many years previously ; one at Radnor, where Rowland Jones was 
 master in 1730 ; one at Pequea, James Houston, master, about 
 1741, and one at Churchtown in operation in l/JO. This enumera- 
 tion is probably incomplete. Schools in these early days were 
 kept in churches or in private houses, and no records of them were 
 preserved. It may be safely taken for granted that wherever there 
 were Episcopalian congregations or even individual members of 
 the Episcopal Church, there were warm friends of education, and 
 earnest efforts made to establish and sustain schools. If Episco- 
 palians were more wedded to the idea of a union of church and 
 school than the members of other Protestant denominations, they 
 were by no means less zealous, when such a union seemed imprac- 
 ticable, in the good work of awakening the educational spirit, and 
 combining the educational strength of a neighborhood, and build- 
 ing schoolhouses and employing teachers for the common benefit. 
 It is also to be set down to the credit of the Episcopal Church that 
 some of the best instructors in the non-sectarian schools of Phila- 
 delphia and other places in the days of the Province were Episco- 
 palians. As examples, Charles Inglis, afterwards Rector of Trinity 
 church. New York, and Bishop of Nova Scotia, taught what was 
 called a "Free School" in Lancaster, before 1759. Dr. John An- 
 drews, elected Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, in 
 1 79 1 and Provost in 1 810, taught a popular classical school in York 
 during the Revolutionary war. And it has already been stated that 
 Dr. William Smith was the first President of the College of Phila- 
 delphia, afterwards the University of Pennsylvania, and if not 
 actually its founder, did far more to sustain it than any other indi- 
 vidual. Besides, a large majority of its early Boards of Trustees 
 were members of the Church of England. Dr. Smith also took 
 a leading part in establishing the Free Schools among the Ger- 
 mans, an account of which has already been given, and the money 
 to support them was in good part contributed by Episcopalians. 
 
 Soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, two noted acade- 
 mical institutions were founded by Episcopalians, the Academy of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia, and the Academy 
 at York. Both have had a remarkably successful career, and both 
 continue to flourish. The former was established in 1785, incorpor- 
 ated and endowed in 1787, and the instruction has been from the 
 first either wholly or in great part gratuitous. The celebrated 
 lexicographer Noah Webster was one of its earliest masters. The 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 99 
 
 Academy at York probably grew out of Dr. Andrews' classical 
 school, of which mention has been made. It was incorporated in 
 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH ACADEMY. lySj. 
 
 1787 as a part of the property of the Episcopal Church. In 1799 it 
 became a county Academy under an act of the Legislature. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. BAPTISTS. PRESBYTERIANS. 
 CATHOLICS. METHODISTS. 
 
 Rev Thomas Dungan, a Baptist' minister, came in 1684, from 
 Rhode Island, with a small colony, and settled at Cold Spring, 
 Bucks county, three miles north of Bristol. Here he established a 
 church, the first of the denomination in Pennsylvania. It ceased to 
 exist in 1702. 
 
 In 1686, John Holmes, a Baptist, a man of standing and influence, 
 arrived from England and settled in the neighborhood of Philadel- 
 phia. In the same year, several members of the Baptist church of 
 Dolan, Radnorshire, Wales, with their families, settled on the banks 
 of Pennypack Creek, and two years later founded the historic church 
 of Lower Dublin. 
 
 The Baptists in Philadelphia first met for worship, 1695, in a 
 building called the " Barbadoes Storehouse," and subsequently in 
 "Anthony Morris' Brewhouse." It was not until 1707 that they 
 occupied a meeting-house exclusively their own. 
 
 The year 1707 was made memorable in the annals of the Baptist 
 church by the organization of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, 
 "the first and for more than fifty years the only Baptist Association 
 of the kind in the country." This Association seems to have grown 
 out of meetings of Baptists less formal, held for consultation in 
 reference to the interests of the church alternately at the several 
 churches in Pennsylvania and New Jersey from 1688 onwards. The 
 meeting of 1707 was composed of delegates from the different 
 churches and assumed formally the character of an Association. Its 
 educational influence in subsequent years was marked. 
 
 In addition to those already named, the oldest Baptist churches 
 in the State are Great Valley, Chester county, organized in 1711; 
 Brandy wine, Delaware county, organized in 17x5; Montgomery, 
 Montgomery county, organized in 1719; Tulpehocken, Berks 
 county, organized in 1738; First Baptist, Philadelphia, organized in 
 
 (100) 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. jqi 
 
 1746; Southampton, Bucks county, organized in 1746; New 
 Britain, Bucks county, organized in 1754; Konoloway, Cumberland 
 county, organized in 1765 ; Vincent, Chester county, organized in 
 1771 ; and Northern Liberty, Philadelphia, organized in 1771. 
 
 These complete the list of Baptist churches established before the 
 Revolutionary war, unless we add to the number the Jersey Baptist 
 church in Turkey-foot township, Somerset county, which was 
 erected about 1775 ; and one erected at Beulah, Cambria county, 
 some years later. 
 
 The Baptists without doubt, like the other religious denomina- 
 tions among the first settlers* in Pennsylvania, were alive to the 
 interests of education, and either established schools in connection 
 with their churches or used their church buildings for school as 
 well as for religious purposes ; but the records that have been pre- 
 served are very scanty and incomplete. There was a schoolhouse 
 connected with Lower Dublin Church in 1732, and it seems likely 
 that for years before that time the pastors of the church were ac- 
 customed to give secular instruction to the sons if not the daughters 
 of the congregation. Schools are known to have been kept at an 
 early day in connection with the churches at Southampton and 
 Great Valley. And the bold Baptist pioneer settlers in the wilds 
 of Somerset and Cambria are said to have used from the first their 
 churches as schoolhouses. 
 
 What was done by the early Baptists for higher education is 
 very creditable. In common with other denominations, they felt 
 the want of properly educated ministers, and they were among the 
 first to project plans for the education of young men disposed to 
 place themselves at the service of the Church. Movements in this 
 direction began as early as 1722; and, in 1730, at a meeting of the 
 Association, "it was proposed for the churches to make inquiry 
 among themselves, if they have any young persons hopeful for the 
 ministry and inclinable for learning." If such persons could be 
 found, the purpose was to send them to Harvard College, Massa- 
 chusetts, where a Professorship of Divinity had been founded, and 
 some liberal contributions made by Thomas Hollis, a Baptist of 
 London, England. In 1753, Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, a leading 
 Baptist clergyman, was elected Principal of the Academy connected 
 widi the College of Philadelphia. He held the place two years, 
 and then became Professor of Rhetoric in the College, resigning in 
 1773. Prof. Kinnersley was associated with Dr. Franklin in his 
 electrical experiments, and contributed largely to their success. 
 
1 02 ED U'CA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 An Academy was founded by Rev. Isaac Eaton, at Hopewell, 
 New Jersey; and as Mr. Eaton was a member of the Philadelphia 
 Association, steps were taken, in 1756, to aid him in his efforts to 
 furnish a liberal education to the young, and especially to such 
 young men as designed to enter the ministry. The Minute con- 
 cerning the matter reads: "Concluded to raise a sum of money 
 towards the encouragement of a Latin Grammar School for the 
 promotion of learning amongst us, under the care of Brother Isaac 
 Eaton." A committee of inspection was also appointed. The fol- 
 lowing year the Association again requested " the churches to con- 
 tribute their mite towards the support of the Latin Grammar 
 School." In 1758, it was again resolved, "to desire our churches 
 to continue a contribution toward a Grammar School, under con- 
 sideration that what has been done hitherto in that way appears to 
 have been well laid out, there being a number of well-inclined 
 youths applying themselves to learning therein." The Hopewell 
 Academy thus became a church school, and though located in the 
 latter Pro.vince, was more a Pennsylvania than a New Jersey insti- 
 tution. It met with a good degree of success, but was never 
 strong, for, in 1762, the Secretaries of the Association, writing to 
 the Board of Bapti.st ministers in London for assistanoe, said of it : 
 " Some of the churches are now destitute ; but we have a prospect 
 of supplies, partly by means of a Baptist Academy lately set up. 
 This infant seminary of learning is yet weak, having no more than 
 twenty-four pounds a year towards its support. Should it be in 
 your power to favor this school in any way, we presume you will 
 be pleased to know how. A ie.-w books proper for such a school, 
 or a small apparatus, or some pieces of apparatus, are more imme- 
 diately wanted, and not to be had easily in these parts." 
 
 The Academy was hardly fairly on its feet when some of the 
 far-seeing, broad-minded members of the Philadelphia Association 
 originated a plan for founding a College; aftd with the design of 
 uniting the efforts of the whole Church in America in the good 
 work, they proposed that it should be planted on the soil of Rhode 
 Island, hallowed by the liberal principles of its great Baptist 
 Founder, and be in its organization and teaching an exponent of 
 those principles. 
 
 In a sketch of the history of Brown University, published by 
 the Executive Board, it is stated that—" This institution, which was 
 founded in 1764, owes its origin to the desire of Baptists in the 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 103 
 
 American Colonies to secure for members of their denomination a 
 liberal education, without subjection to sectarian tests. At the 
 suggestion of the Rev. Morgan Edwards, the pastor of the First 
 Baptist Church in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Baptist Associa- 
 tion, in the year 1762, resolved to establish a College in the colony 
 of Rhode Island and Providence plantations. The Rev. James 
 Manning, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, was commis- 
 sioned by them to travel through the northern colonies, for the 
 purpose of fostering this project." 
 
 Immediately after the grant of a charter to the College by the 
 Rhode Island Legislature, in 1764, the Philadelphia Association 
 with true fatherly care took the following action : 
 
 "Agreed, to inform the churches to which we respectively belong, 
 that inasmuch as a charter is obtained in Rhode Island Government 
 towards erecting a Baptist College, the churches should be liberal 
 in contributing towards carrying the same into execution." And 
 again, in 1766, it was, "agreed, to recommend warmly to our 
 churches the interest of the College, for which a subscription is 
 opened all over the continent. This College has been set on foot 
 upwards of a year, and has now in it three promising youths under 
 the tuition of President Manning." 
 
 In 1767, Mr. Edwards, the prime mover in the establishment of 
 the College, was generously released by the people of his church in 
 Philadelphia, for a time, that he might travel and collect funds for the 
 erection of a suitable College building at Providence. He visited 
 England and Ireland in the interests of the College, as well as made 
 collections at home. His subscription paper, still preserved in the 
 College archives, contains, among others, the well known Pennsyl- 
 vania'names of Benjamin FrankUn and Benjamin West. Nor did 
 the brethren in Philadelphia lose sight of the College in the lapse 
 of years for we find the Association, in 1782, warmly recommend- 
 ing in its aid " a subscription throughout all the Baptist Societies on 
 the continent as well as to all the friends of literature in every de- 
 
 "°Rev^ Samuel Jones, D. D., who was pastor of the Baptist church 
 at Lower Dublin, Philadelphia county, established, in 1766, a 
 lassical and theological school at that place and continued it until 
 ^795 Dr. Jones, in his "Century Sermon" says: "The writer 
 kept a Boarding School between twenty and thirty years at Lower 
 Dublin in which many were educated who are now useful in the 
 
 C: 
 
jQ, EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 different learned professions." Doubtless, out of this institution, 
 grew Lower Dublin Academy, chartered by the Supreme Court in 
 1794. The charter made Strickland Foster, Principal for life. 
 Money for its use was raised by a lottery. 
 
 Going a little beyond colonial times, in 1 8 14, an Education 
 Society among Baptists of the Middle States was organized in 
 Philadelphia through the exertions of Rev. William Stoughton, 
 D. D,, who took young men into his own family and instructed 
 them until 1818, when he and Prof. Irah Chase, whom he associated 
 with him, rented rooms for the purpose. In 1821, the school was 
 removed to Washington, D. C, where it was chartered by Congress 
 as Columbian College and is now known as Columbia University. 
 
 PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the mother of the Pres- 
 byterian Church in America, has a highly creditable educational 
 record. From the first it adopted the school as the most efficient 
 auxiliary in its work of propagating the Gospel and bettering the 
 condition of the human family. As early as 1695, it was enacted 
 by the Scottish Parliament " That there be a school founded and a 
 schoolmaster appointed in every Parish by advice of the Presby- 
 teries, and to this purpose that the heritors do, in every congrega- 
 tion, meet among themselves, and provide a commodious house for 
 a school, and modify a stipend to the schoolmaster, which shall not 
 be under 10 merks nor above 20 merks." This law placed the 
 schools directly in the hands of the Church, and they have con- 
 tinued in great measure subject to its control down to the present 
 day. Presbyterianism has been for two hundred years so nearly 
 the universal faith in Scotland that this plan involved no serious 
 sectarian difficulties, and the primary schools of that country have 
 been considered among the best in the world. What renders the 
 early Scottish school laws remarkable, is the recognition of the 
 principle, now considered fundamental in systems of free educa- 
 tion, that schools must be provided for all at the public expense. 
 These laws required the levy of a general tax for school purposes; 
 had they gone a step further and freed the schools from all taint of 
 sectarianism, and made instruction in them wholly gratuitous, Scot- 
 land would have had a system of public schools conforming in all 
 respects to the present American idea of such a system, one hun- 
 dred and forty years before free schools were established in the 
 
PHTVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. j 05 
 
 State of Pennsylvania. As it was, the Parish Schools of Scotland 
 at the close of the seventeenth century contained nearly all the 
 essentials of a free school system, and their inevitable tendency was 
 to develop into one. Doubtless they had much to do in shaping 
 the educational policy of the American States. 
 
 Presbyterians from Scotland and Ireland began to arrive in Penn- 
 sylvania about 1700. In 1710 they had five congregations; and in 
 17 1 7 a Synod, including thirteen ministers, met in Philadelphia. 
 Many of these immigrants were Scotch-Irish, Scotchmen who had 
 settled in Northern Ireland, or their descendants. Severely op- 
 pressed by the Government, ground down by exactions from which 
 there was no escape except by expatriation, they sought homes and 
 the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty in the inviting land of 
 William Penn. They were a brave, hardy, energetic, self-willed, 
 liberty-loving. God-fearing people. Schooled to freedom and inured 
 to toil among the mountains of their native country, hating oppres- 
 sion both in Church and State with all the intensity of their strong 
 natures, they were just the men to pioneer civilization in a savage 
 wilderness, and to build up from an infant colony a great Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 These Scotch-Irish Presbyterians brought with them their inter- 
 est in education, and they naturally favored the policy concerning 
 the management of schools to which they had been accustomed. 
 Hence, wherever they established homes, one of their first objects 
 was to secure places to hold religious services and to educate their 
 children. The church and the school were, in their minds, closely 
 if not inseparably allied. A common organization was to regulate 
 both. Follow them to their first settlements in and around Phila- 
 delphia; out to Bucks, Delaware, and Chester counties; along 
 Octoraro creek, in Pequea Valley, and at Donegal and Paxton ; 
 across the Susquehanna into the valley of Kittochtinny; up the 
 Juniata, over the Alleghanies, and down their western slope to the 
 Ohio, and you will see everywhere among the clusters of their 
 scattered, newly-built cabins, often side by side, a church and a 
 schoolhouse, twin sisters always, and fit heralds of the advancing 
 civilization. One who was of them, describes in apt sentences their 
 general educational policy. In speaking of the Scotch-Irish settlers 
 of the Cumberland Valley, he says: "The first objects to which 
 they turned their attention were a home, a school, and a house of 
 worship." "As early as 1740 we read of school districts and of 
 
I o5 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 some who were schoolmasters." The schoolmasters " were required 
 to be not only intelligent, but possessed of sufficient piety to teach 
 the principles of the Calvinistic faith." "Ministers were often 
 employed in teaching a school, and in any case were expected, as 
 in the old countries, to give attention largely to the instruction of 
 children. Not only were they to see that the Bible was read, but 
 that the Catechism was learned and recited in every school." 
 " The Presbyterian ministers," says Judge Chambers, in his Tribute 
 to the Irish and Scotch settlers in Pennsylvania, " were nearly all 
 men of liberal education. Some had received their education in 
 the Universities of Scotland, some in Ireland, and a few at one of 
 the New England Colleges." The ministers were thus fitted to 
 become the leaders of their congregations in school as well as in 
 church affairs, and the history that is to follow will show how faith- 
 fully they performed their duties respecting education. 
 
 Of the Scotch-Irish settlers in the Kittochtinny Valley, Judge 
 Chambers says: "Simultaneous with the organization of congrega- 
 tions by these settlers, was the establishment of schoolhouses in 
 every neighborhood. In these schools were taught little more than 
 the rudiments of education, of which a part was generally obtained 
 at home, under parental instruction. Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, 
 Trigonometry and Practical Geometry were the branches to which 
 attention was given. The Bible was the standard daily Reader, by 
 all classes able to read; and the Shorter Catechism of the West- 
 minster Assembly was to be recited and heard by all the school, 
 as a standard exercise, on every Saturday morning." And the same 
 author thus speaks of the settlers on Marsh Creek, Adams county : 
 " Several large Presbyterian congregations were organized and 
 maintained within their bounds, and as was done by their kindred 
 in other places, the schoolhouse building soon followed the erection 
 of their own habitations, and the schoolmaster was abroad in their 
 midst; and the minister of the Gospel was to them a watchman 
 and shepherd, as well as their instructor." 
 
 To these general statements such scattered facts as have been col- 
 lected will be added. 
 
 The Presbyterians held religious services in Philadelphia as early 
 as 1698. In 1704, they built a frame church on Market street, be- 
 tween Second and Third, known as "Old Buttonwood" church, but 
 it is not thought they established a school in connection with it, as 
 was the almost universal custom of their brethren in the country. 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 107 
 
 The oldest Presbyterian churches in Bucks and Montgomery 
 counties are those of Neshaminy, Deep Run, and Newtown in the 
 former county, and those of Norriton and Providence, near Norris- 
 town, in the latter. All of them were founded between 1 730 and 
 1740. It is probable that schools were kept in connection with 
 all of these churches, as we know they were almost from the first in 
 connection with those of Neshaminy and Deep Run. The Scotch- 
 Irish settlers in what is now Allen township, Northampton county, 
 organized a church in 173 1, and those in Mount Bethel provided 
 for themselves in the same way a little later. There is reason to 
 think there were schools at both places. Near the centre of the 
 former settlement an Academy was built in 1785. In 1749, a 
 schoolhouse was erected on a lot, sixteen perches square, near 
 " Old Middletown" Presbyterian church, Delaware county. Presby- 
 terian churches were erected in the lower end of Chester county and 
 along the Octoraro as early as 1720, but records concerning the 
 schools which were no doubt established about the same time seem 
 to be lost. A public school in which the instruction was substan- 
 tially gratuitous was established in 1 741, at New London, by Rev. 
 Francis Allison, D. D., the pastor of the Presbyterian church at that 
 place. Some years later, 1744, the Synod of Philadelphia assumed 
 charge of the school, paid the teachers' salaries, and called on their 
 congregations to contribute to its support. The broad purpose was 
 to establish a school where " all persons who please may send their 
 children and have them instructed gratis in the languages, phil- 
 osophy and divinity." In 1755 and for some years thereafter, this 
 school received £^^0 a year from the trustees of the German Charity 
 schools on condition that a certain number of German students 
 should be admitted. An old stone schoolhouse stood many years 
 ago on the lot of the Brandywine Manor Presbyterian Church, but 
 the date of its erection is unknown. The classical school at Fagg's 
 Manor, established in 1739, was probably preceded by one of a 
 primary character. In Lancaster county there was probably an 
 elementary school from the first connected with the Pequea Presby- 
 terian church, established about 1724, as we know there was at a 
 somewhat later day a noted classical school. The Donegal Presby- 
 terian church was built in 1722; in 1772, a log schoolhouse stood 
 on the church lot, and probably had stood there for many years. 
 
 Dauphin county has three very old Presbyterian churches, Derry, 
 Paxtang, and Hanover, all erected about 1730. Some thirty yards 
 
io8 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 distant from the Derry church still stands the old Sessions-house, 
 where, it is well ascertained, a school was taught by the first pastor 
 
 of the church, and for 
 many years thereafter by 
 his successors. Among 
 others. Rev. William Gra- 
 ham, founder of Wash- 
 ington and Lee Univer- 
 sity, Virginia, received in- 
 struction in this school. 
 Paxtang church had, in 
 1740, in connection with 
 it an attachment, four- 
 teen feet square, called 
 a " study-house, " which 
 was sometimes used as a 
 schoolhouse. Old Han- 
 DF.RRY CHURCH AND sEssioNs-iiousF,. 1 729. Q^g^ church had almo.st 
 
 from the first a schoolhouse built near it on ground belonging to 
 the congregation. 
 
 A writer speaking of the early settlers in York county, says : 
 " The Scotch-Irish of the lower end of the county, who came about 
 the year 1735, likewise brought with them a system of parochial 
 schools, similar to that which was established in their native country 
 in the latter part of the seventeenth century." There were several 
 schools in this settlement prior to 1750, one on the banks of Muddy 
 Creek, near Muddy Creek church. There were eight Presbyterian 
 congregations within the present limits of Cumberland, Franklin 
 and Adams counties as early as 1 740, all of them probably main- 
 taining schools. 
 
 In 1738, a church was erected at Greencastle, Franklin county, 
 with an attachment called a "study-house," which was at times 
 used for a school. In 1739, "£''*■' the site of the present Presbyte- 
 rian church in Chambersburg, there was erected a small, log build- 
 ing designed both for a school and a church. Benjamin Chambers, 
 a staunch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, in laying out the town of 
 Chambersburg, in 1764, executed a deed of trust for a fine lot in 
 favor of the Presbyterian congregation of Falling Spring, "profess- 
 ing and adhering to the Westmin.ster profession of faith and the 
 mode of church government therein contained, and to and for the 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 109 
 
 use of a meeting-house, or Presbyterian church, session-house, 
 schoolhouse, burying-place, and such rehgious purposes." There 
 is good reason to think that there were schools connected with the 
 old churches at Mercersburg, erected in 1738, at "Big Spring," or 
 Newville, erected in 1740, and near Carlisle and Shippensburg, of 
 about the same age. Some of the schools thus planted grew into 
 higher institutions, for we find the Presbytery in 1782 appointing 
 a committee to visit the " Grammar School " at Carlisle, and in 
 1786, similar committees were appointed to visit "Grammar 
 Schools" at Chambersburg and Shippensburg. In July, 1764, a 
 teacher, Enoch Brown, and nine of his pupils, seven boys and two 
 girls, were cruelly murdered by Indians in a little log schoolhouse 
 which stood about three miles north of Greencastle. All were 
 buried in a common grave near the schoolhouse. One little boy 
 barely escaped death after being scalped and otherwise severely 
 injured. Such of the names of the pupils as are now known, indi- 
 cate that the faniilies represented in the school were mostly of 
 Scotch-Irish descent, and no doubt Presbyterians. The enterpris- 
 ing Presbyterians on Marsh creek, Adams county, as early as 1740, 
 had churches, and without doubt schools. There was a settlement 
 of Presbyterians on Pine Creek, Clinton county, before the breaking 
 out of the Revolutionary war. Their schoolhouse stood on the 
 river bank opposite Soar's ferry, in 1774. Rev. J. H. Grier opened 
 a popular classical school in this neighborhood in 1820. 
 
 Peace with the mother-country had hardly been proclaimed and 
 . independence been made secure, before the indomitable Scotch- 
 Irish began to push their way in considerable numbers up the Sus- 
 quehanna, along the Juniata, and over the Alleghanies into western 
 Pennsylvania, planting churches and schoolhouses wherever they 
 made settlements. But the Revolutionary war and a longer resi- 
 dence among people of other denominations had wrought an im- 
 portant change in the educational policy of the Presbyterian Church. 
 Its interest in education had not decreased ; it continued to estab- 
 lish for itself schools of a higher order; it laid the foundation of 
 numerous Academies and Colleges; but in the work of primary 
 instruction, it now sought to unite neighborhoods, people of all 
 denominations and of none, and thus became an instrument in aid- 
 ing the transition of the sectarian into the unsectarian school. 
 Some account of this interesting change of policy, which was 
 experienced by nearly all the churches, and of the neighborhood 
 
no ED VCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 or common schools that grew out of it, will be given in an appro- 
 priate chapter: what must be said further here of the Presbyterians 
 will concern their early efforts in behalf of higher education. 
 
 Creditable as is the record of the early Presbyterian settlers in 
 Pennsylvania in behalf of elementary education, they were much 
 more distinguished for the efforts made to establish schools of a 
 higher order and to supply the church with an educated ministry. 
 It will be acknowledged that no other class of people did so much 
 in this direction during the last three quarters of the eighteenth 
 century. The leaders in this movement were the ministers, all men 
 of liberal education, who in addition to their arduous pastoral duties 
 in connection with congregations scattered through a wilderness, 
 found time and had strength to build schoolhouses and open schools 
 that bore upon their rolls the names of men whom all later genera- 
 tions of Pennsylvanians delight to honor. 
 
 The earliest of these schools was the institution established in 
 1726 by Rev. Wm. Tennent, pastor of the Neshaminy church, 
 Bucks county. Tennent came from Ireland, was a fine classical 
 scholar, conversing in Latin with as much ease as in English. His 
 schoolhouse stood a few steps from his dwelling, was about twenty 
 feet square, built of logs and furnished in the rudest manner. 
 "The place," writes Whitefield in his journal after a visit to it, "is 
 in contempt called a College. It is a log house, about twenty feet 
 long and as many broad; and to jne it seemed to resemble the 
 schools of the old prophets, for their habitations were mean." But 
 it is not the house and furniture that make a school — these are 
 dead ; the teacher is the school alive, the inspiring force that makes * 
 scholars and men. For some twenty years Tennent continued to 
 gather about him a body of choice young men and to train them 
 for the service of the church and of society, making his "Log 
 College" famous for all the coming years, and supplying the germ 
 out of which in good time grew directly the great Presbyterian 
 College of Princeton, and indirectly several other Colleges of scarcely 
 less note. 
 
 In 1739, Rev. Samuel Blair, soon after entering upon his duties 
 as pastor of the church at Fagg's Manor, Chester county, catching 
 the spirit of the Tennent Log College, at which he had studied, 
 established a classical school mainly designed to prepare young men 
 for the ministry and taught it till his death in 175 1, when he was 
 succeeded by his brother. Rev. John Blair, also a Log College 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 1 1 1 
 
 Student, who had charge of it until 1776. The school sent forth 
 many students who became noted for their scholarship and dis- 
 tinguished as teachers and ministers. 
 
 Scarcely less celebrated than the institutions already named, was 
 the Academy that grew out of the public school founded by Rev. 
 Francis Ahson, subsequently Vice-Provost of the College at Phila- 
 delphia, at New London, Chester county, in 1741. Here were edu- 
 cated, among others, John Dickinson, member of Congress and 
 President of the Supreme Executive Council; Charles Thomson, 
 Secretary of the Continental Congress; Ebenezer Hazard, United 
 States Postmaster General; Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania; the Historian, Ramsey; Governor McKean, 
 and James Smith and George Reed, two of the signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence. The Academy was eventually re- 
 moved to Newark, Delaware, and became the foundation of Dela- 
 ware College. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Finley, in 1764, founded the Nottinghani Academy 
 in Chester county, near the Maryland line. Here were educated 
 many eminent men, among them Dr. Benjamin Rush and his 
 brother, Judge Jacob Rush, and three Governors, Martin of North 
 Carolina, McWhorter of New Jersey, and Henry of Maryland. 
 The institution closed with the election of Dr. Finley to the Presi- 
 dency of Princeton College, in 1761. 
 
 Rev. Robert Smith, D. D., a Log College graduate, was installed 
 pastor of the Pequea church, Lancaster county, in 1750. Soon 
 after, he opened a school in a small stone building a short distance 
 from the church. The instruction was of liberal character. "The 
 only language allowed to be spoken in the schoolroom was Latin, 
 and whoever uttered a word in the mother-tongue was marked as 
 a delinquent." A considerable body of distinguished men repaid 
 the teacher for his self-sacrificing efforts, among them his two sons, 
 Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith and Dr. John Blair Smith, the former 
 of whom became President of the College of New Jersey, and the 
 latter President of Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, and of Union 
 College, New York, and Dr. John McMillan, the father of Presby- 
 terianism in western Pennsylvania, and the fofinder of Jefferson 
 College. On a plain marble slab that marks the grave of Dr. 
 Smith, with others are inscribed these words : " Long the head of 
 a public Seminary, a great part of the Clergy of this State received 
 the elements of their education, or perfected their Theological 
 studies under his direction." 
 
J j-2- EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 In 1 77 1 Rev. James Latta established a classical school at or 
 near Chestnut Level, and continued it for about thirty years. 
 When the news of the battle of Lexington reached the school, a 
 large majority of the young men in attendance ran away and 
 enlisted in the army, some with and others without their parents' 
 consent. Among them were two sons of William Steele, living in 
 the neighborhood, all of whose sons, seven in number, served in 
 the Revolutionary army. A classical school was established at 
 Donegal meeting-house, in 1775, by Rev. Colin McFarquhar, a 
 graduate of the Edinburgh University. He was a Scotchman, and 
 in coming to America left his family behind, and for ten years they 
 were unable to join him, owing to the hostilities between the two 
 countries. Upon their arrival, at the close of the war, he took up 
 his residence at Maytown, and continued his school in a part of his 
 one-storied log dwelling-house, still standing, until he resigned his 
 pastoral charge in 1805. 
 
 A classical school was established in the Conococheague settle- 
 ment, Franklin county, in 1761, by Rev. John King, D. D., but 
 after flourishing some years, was closed on account of incursions 
 by the Indians. 
 
 Mention must be made, also, of the classical school established at 
 Gettysburg, Adams county, about 1782, by Rev. Alexander Dob- 
 bin, a Scotch-Irishman, and member of the Associate Presbyterian 
 Church. The building he erected on his own land, and with his 
 own money, is still standing, although the school was discontinued 
 about 1810. Mr. Dobbin enjoyed the reputation of being a fine 
 scholar and a good teacher. More than sixty of his pupils became 
 professional men, twenty-five of them ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 Nor must the efforts of Rev. John Bryson, near Turbotville, in 
 the northern part of Northumberland county, be forgotten. He 
 taught Greek and Latin in his own dwelling-house from 1802 to 
 1806, to a choice body of young men, nearly all of whom distin- 
 guished themselves in after life. 
 
 Going a little beyond what may be considered an early period in 
 Pennsylvania history, it seems proper to state that Presbyterians 
 founded a classical school at Upper Octoraro, Chester county, in 
 1779; Dickinson College, at Carlisle, in 1783; an Academy near 
 Bath, Allen township, Northampton county, in 1785; a classical 
 school at Strasburg, Lancaster county, 1790; an Academy at 
 Brandywine Manor, Chester county, in 1792; Chambersburg 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARLY DAYS. „ , 
 
 Academy, in 1797; and in Washington county, at Canonsburg, in 
 1 79 1, an Academy which grew into Jefferson College; and at Wash- 
 ington, in 1787, an Academy which became Washington College. 
 And these early Washington county Academies were themselves 
 the fruit of the seed sown by such bold pioneers of Presbyterianism 
 as Thaddeus Dodd who taught mathematics and the classics at his 
 own home on Ten Mile Creek, Joseph Smith who opened a classical 
 school in his " study" at Buffalo, and John McMillan who presided 
 over a " Log Cabin" college at Chartiers. 
 
 In the words of Judge Chambers : " The influence of these semi- 
 naries, established, conducted and maintained in the early history 
 of the Province, by the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ministers, was of 
 inestimable usefulness to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania. They 
 gave to the rapidly increasing communities, made up of Irish and 
 Scotch emigrants, an educated, zealous and pious ministry, sound 
 in the faith, and a church organization of Presbyters that was to 
 the desire and acceptance of the great mass of people. In the same 
 schools, the young men of Pennsylvania, and some other colonies, 
 received a classical and scientific education, that prepared some for 
 high places in the medical profession, whilst others were educated 
 preparatory to the study of the law, and acquired, deservedly, the 
 reputation and places of jurists, lawyers and statesmen." 
 
 THE CATHOLICS. 
 
 The .aim of the Catholic Church has ever been to educate in its 
 own way, and with its own means, or means subject to its direction, 
 all the children of Catholics, and of as many others as are willing 
 to patronize the institutions of learning it has established. In cer- 
 tain localities in this country, Catholic children attend the public 
 schools; but this is seldom done except in cases where the Church 
 is feeble and feels itself unable to provide eduf ational facilities, and 
 the practice is likely to come to an end as soon as its strength 
 becomes greater or its circumstances better. The effort of the 
 Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, to provide schools and Colleges 
 in sufficient numbers to accommodate the whole body of Catholic 
 children, has attained proportions, whether it be considered well or 
 ill directed, that must challenge universal admiration, and respect. 
 Five or six Colleges, and numerous Academies and Seminaries, 
 open their doors to young men and women; many millions of dol- 
 lars have been raised for the purposes of elementary education, ancj 
 8 
 
J J . ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 heavy contributions are continually required for its support; great 
 schoolhouses have been erected in most of our cities, rivalling in 
 cost and equipment those provided for the public schools; and 
 Catholic teachers, Catholic text-books, and Catholic courses of 
 study, are features of a system of schools conducted on a large 
 scale. 
 
 But the educational work of the Catholic Church in this State 
 has nearly all been done within the last fifty years, and what is to 
 be said of it in this volume must for the most part be presented in 
 other chapters; a few pages here will be sufficient to contain a 
 statement of the scattered facts that have been gathered, showing 
 what was done for education by the early Catholic settlers. 
 
 The first trace of Catholic worship in Pennsylvania appears in 
 the year 1708, and is referred to in two letters of William Penn, 
 then in England, to James Logan, stating that he had > been 
 reproached by officers of the Crown because the public celebration 
 of Mass had been suffered in his colony. He asks to be informed 
 as to the exact state of the facts, adding that " ill use of it is made 
 against me here.'' Penn took no measures to suppress the form of 
 worship that had brought him into trouble at the English Court, 
 but he was evidently annoyed at being so compromised at a most 
 critical period in his affairs. It was about this time that he was 
 himself accused of being a Jesuit in disguise, and this may have 
 added to his sensitiveness on the subject. The priest that troubled 
 the waters of Philadelphia at this early day was either Polycarp 
 Wicksted or James Haddock, both Franciscan Friars Minor, prob- 
 ably from Maryland. 
 
 The first Catholic church in Pennsylvania was St. Joseph's, 
 Philadelphia, erected by the Jesuits in 1730. Previously, worship 
 had been conducted in a private dwelling. The priest under whose 
 direction the churcrf was built was Rev. Josiah Greaton, a Jesuit, 
 who served the congregation some twenty years. It is said that 
 upon his first appearance in Philadelphia, in order to escape notice, 
 he assumed the Quaker style of dress. The church was a small 
 one-storied building, with only eleven members. By 1750, a new 
 church edifice took the place of the old one, and the congregation 
 indulged themselves in the luxury of an organ. At what time a 
 school was established in connection with the church is unknown, 
 but there is reason to think it was at an early day. In 178 1, it is 
 on record that measures were taken by the congregation for " pay- 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARLY DAYS. i j 5 
 
 ing for the old schoolhouse and lot purchased for ;^400." St. 
 Joseph's Society for the education of poor orphan children was in- 
 corporated in 1807. In 1763, St. Mary's church was founded. This 
 church was built for the German Catholics, who had become quite 
 numerous. Doubtless, after the manner of the Germans of all 
 denominations, a school was maintained from the beginning. After 
 the Revolutionary war, the church of the Holy Trinity was erected. 
 A school was kept in the basement. St. Augustine followed in 1800. 
 Dr. Mease, in his "Picture of Philadelphia," 1810, states that the 
 Catholics then had two parocRial schools. 
 
 The whole number of Catholics in Pennsylvania, in 1757, was one 
 thousand three hundred and sixty-five, about one-half of whom 
 were Germans ; many of them lived in and around Philadelphia, but 
 others were scattered over Chester, Berks, Bucks, Montgomery, 
 Northampton, Lancaster, Cumberland and York counties. The 
 Catholic " Mission of the Goshenhoppen," Washington township, 
 Berks county, was established in the year 1731. Ten years later, 
 Rev. Theodore Schneider took charge of it. His residence was 
 a two-storied building, in a small room of which on the first floor 
 he taught the school. Living on the most friendly terms with all 
 denominations, his school was largely attended by children from the 
 whole neighborhood. The school is still maintained in the shape 
 of a curious combination of a church and a public school. The 
 schoolhouse owned by the church is furnished to the township free 
 of rent, the salary of the assistant teacher is paid by the congrega- 
 tion, and the school being attended by none but Catholics, is 
 thoroughly Catholic in all respects. On the other hand, the princi- 
 pal teacher, though appointed with the approval of the pastor in 
 charge, is examined in the usual way by the County Superintendent 
 of schools, and paid by the board of directors of the district. The 
 school is open to the visitation of both the church and public school 
 authorities. Nicholas Andre, a teacher of this school at the time 
 the township accepted the free school system, and altogether for 
 fifteen years, was a member of the State Legislature in 1878. 
 
 About the time of the establishment of the mission of Gosheo- 
 hoppen, a mission was begun, by Rev. William Wapeler, at Corto- 
 wago, Adams county. Within a few years a church was erected, 
 •and most likely a school opened, but respecting the latter little 
 can be ascertained. St. Joseph's Parochial School at McSherrys- 
 toivn is said to date back to 1800. There are at the present time 
 
1 1 5 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 six or eight parochial schools in operation in the neighborhood, 
 with fine school buildings and an attendance of six hundred pupils, 
 some of them doubtless having an unwritten history reaching as 
 far back into the past as that of the mission. 
 
 The Catholics had an organization in Lancaster city as early as 
 1740. Their first church was erected in 1745. This building 
 being destroyed by fire, about 1762, a new one was erected. Con- 
 trary to their usual practice, the Catholics in Lancaster do not 
 seem to have had for many years a school of their own. Towards 
 the close of the century, there were* Catholic missions at Harris- 
 burg, Sunbury, Milton, Lebanon, Reading, Colebrook, Elizabeth- 
 town, Columbia, and other places, but no records have been ob- 
 tained concerning their schools, if any were established, as seems 
 probable. 
 
 The first Catholic services in western Pennsylvania, unless the 
 preaching of the early Jesuit missionaries be an exception, were 
 conducted by the French priests who accompanied the rtiilitary 
 forces of that nation in their expeditions. Holy Mass was cele- 
 brated, in 1754, at Fort Duquesne, for the soldiers, by the army 
 chaplain. Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, in 1792, on a mission 
 down the Ohio, detained at Pittsburgh by the high water, cele- 
 brated Mass in the private house of a Protestant countryman, and 
 preached to the soldiers in garrison under Gen. Anthony Wayne. 
 But as far as is known, no attempts were made by the French 
 while in possession of the country to establish either churches or 
 schools. 
 
 Five German Catholic families left their friends in eastern Penn- 
 sylvania in the year 1787 or 1788, and settled in Unity township, 
 Westmoreland county. Soon after, they procured a lot of ground 
 near Greensburg, on which they proposed to erect a church and 
 lay out a grave-yard. In 1789, Rev. John B. Cansey, who had 
 traveled all the way from Conowago for the purpose, celebrated 
 the mysteries of the Catholic religion in the humble residence of 
 John Propst, one of the settlers. The next year Rev. Theodore 
 Browers bought a farm of three hundred acres, known at the time 
 as " Sportman's Hall," and erected near where St. Vincent Abbey 
 and College now stand, an humble dwelling, in which he lived for 
 a short time and ministered to the Catholic people of the neighbor-, 
 hood. His house was erected in April, and he died in October, 
 leaving all his property to his successor for the benefit of the Cath- 
 
PHIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 117 
 
 olic congregation, thus laying the foundation for the noted church 
 and educational institutions which subsequently grew up at that 
 point. It is almost certain that a school was maintained by the 
 congregation from the first. In 1846, upon the arrival of Rt. Rev. 
 Abbot Boniface Wimmer, who may be considered the father of the 
 Abbey and College, he found among other buildings "a little 
 schoolhouse.'' 
 
 Some American Catholics from Maryland settled in Cambria 
 county in 1790. They were joined, in 1799, by the self-sacrificing 
 Christian and noted pioneer in Western Pennsylvania, Prince de 
 Gallitzin. His father was a Russian nobleman of high rank and 
 great wealth. Coming to America to see the country, he became 
 a priest; and turning his back upon the power and luxury that 
 awaited his return to his native land, he cast his lot with the poor 
 colonists upon the summit of the Alleghany mountains. Immediately 
 after his arrival at the scene of his labors, he erected a rude log 
 chapel in which he conducted his ministrations. A school was 
 opened under his direction, near Loretto, the succeeding year. 
 O'Connor was the schoolmaster. The schoolhouse was a small log 
 building daubed' with mud and heated by means of a large stone 
 fire-place. Children attended from a distance of four or five miles. 
 Prince de Gallitzin laid out the town of Loretto, bought large 
 quantities of land and sold it to actual settlers at nominal prices, and 
 collected about him before his death, in 1840, a thrifty Catholic 
 population of several thousand, with a good supply of churches and 
 schools. 
 
 A small body of Catholics separated from the Westmoreland 
 Catholics, in 1797, and settled at Waynesburg, Greene county. There 
 were only fifteen members of the Catholic church in Pittsburgh in 
 1804, but in 181 1 they had become strong enough to erect St. 
 Patrick's cathedral, and, about 1 820, to lay the foundation of St. 
 Paul's. Doubtless, schools were established at both these places at 
 an early day, for with few exceptions, wherever there were Catholic 
 congregations there were Catholic schools. Their records, however, 
 are frequently difificult to trace. 
 
 THE METHODISTS. 
 
 The Methodist church, with a zeal for the education of its mem- 
 
 t 
 
 bership, and for the enlightenment of mankind in general, exceeded 
 in earnestness by no other denomination of Christians, has never 
 
J 1 8 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANJA. 
 
 undertaken to engage in the work of elementary education. No 
 evidence can be found showing that such a thing as a Methodist 
 parochial school was ever known in Pennsylvania. Before the 
 adoption of the public school system, the church was too weak to 
 think much of establishing schools and too much engaged with the 
 special work it felt itself called upon to do ; and, after this system 
 went into operation, the children of Methodists flocked to the pub- 
 lic schools in a body and Methodists everywhere gave them united 
 and cordial support. The Methodists have always asked that the 
 Bible be read in the public schools, and that teachers qualified 
 morally as well as intellectually be employed ; and these demands 
 satisfied, they have ever been ready not only to patronize but to de- 
 fend them. Again and again, in the last fifty years, have Methodist 
 Conferences in Pennsylvania made deliverances approving free 
 schools under State control, and from thousands of Methodist 
 pulpits earnest voices have called upon God to bless the grand effort 
 being made to educate the whole people. And it is a most signifi- 
 cant fact that with its children educated almost exclusively in the 
 public schools, no other church has increased more rapidly, none 
 has been more zealous in good works or has garnered a richt-r 
 harvest of Gospel fruit, and none has a membership more devoted 
 in their church attachments, more faithful in their church duties, or 
 more abundantly endowed with all the graces that belong to a 
 Christian life. 
 
 Methodist Societies were organized in Great Britain, by John 
 Wesley and his co-workers, in 1740. Previous to this time, in 1735, 
 both he and his brother Charles had been in Georgia, whither they 
 went to teach the Indians Christianity, the latter traveling as far 
 north as Boston; but they were not then Methodists. George 
 Whitefield made seven voyages to America between 1736 and 1770, 
 and swept the country again and again, like a resistless conflagra- 
 tion, from Maine to Georgia, with his terrible preaching. "He 
 preached like a lion," says one who heard him. After one of his 
 visits to Philadelphia, so great was the religious interest created 
 that the churches held service twice every day and three or four times 
 on Sundays, for about a year, and, though the city was then small, 
 twenty-six societies were kept up for social prayer. The same 
 excitement attended his preaching everywhere. Great inducements 
 were offered him in different places to settle and take charge of con- 
 gregations, but his purpose was not to remain— like a whirlwind 
 
PXIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. i j g 
 
 he came and went, creating confusion and conflict, but leaving the 
 religious atmosphere purer and more healthy. He encouraged the 
 building of a church in Philadelphia, established an asylum for 
 orphans in Georgia, began the erection of a school for negroes at 
 Nazareth, but he made no attempt to plant a distinct church. 
 
 The first regular Methodist service in the United States was 
 established in the city of New York, in 1765. Barbara Heck, a 
 German lady, who joined the Methodists in Ireland, prevailed upon 
 Philip Embury, a local preacher, to conduct the service in a private 
 house for the edification of a body of people that she was largely 
 instrumental in collecting. To her zeal also was in great measure 
 owing the erection, in 1768, of John Street Church, the first Metho- 
 dist church in America. The first preaching in Philadelphia was in 
 a sail-loft near Second and Dock streets. St. George's church was 
 established in 1769. Taking firm root, Methodism spread rapidly 
 over the State, and we hear of it at Reading, in 1772; at York, in 
 1781 ; at Wilkesbarre, in 1788; at Carlisle, in 1789 ; at Williamsport, ' 
 in 1791; at Pittsburgh, in 1801 ; at Lancaster, in 1803; and at 
 Harrisburg, in 18 10. The first meeting of preachers or C6nference 
 was held in Philadelphia, in 1773. There were then ten preachers 
 and one thousand one hundred and sixty members in the United 
 States. In the hundred and ten years that have elapsed since that 
 time, this little handful of Methodists has become an enormous army 
 of four millions, with sixty thousand ministers, representing probably 
 a population of fifteen or twenty millions of people. But while this 
 great church has enjoyed this marvellous degree of prosperity, it 
 has continued to send its millions of children to the public schools, 
 supplementing the education received therein by the instruction of 
 the Sunday-school, the church and the home. 
 
 There is within the Methodist Church great activity respecting 
 the general interests of education. This interest centers in a Board 
 of Education. Collections are taken up in behalf of the educational 
 fund disbursed by this Board in all the churches and Sunday- 
 schools of the denomination. Addresses setting forth the import- 
 ance of the subject are delivered at each annual Conference. The 
 disbursements are for the most part made to enable promising 
 young men who are candidates for the ministry or the missionary 
 field to obtain a higher education. " Nine-tenths of all who arc 
 now receiving aid from the funds of the Board are grown-up Sun 
 day-school scholars." The General Conference, in 1876, adopted 
 
J 20 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 some admirable provisions relating to education. These provisions 
 made it the duty of Presiding Elders to bring the subject of educa- 
 tion, as it concerns individual churches, "before the first Quarterly 
 Conference of each year, and secure the appointment of a commit- 
 tee, of which the preacher in charge shall be chairman, to organize, 
 wherever practicable, a church lyceum for mental improvement; to 
 organize free evening schools; to provide a library, text-books, and 
 books of reference; to popularize religious literature, by reading- 
 rooms, or otherwise ; to seek out suitable persons, and, if necessary, 
 assist them to obtain an education, \Yith a view to the ministry; 
 and to do whatever shall seem best fitted to supply any deficiency 
 in that which the Church ought to offer to the varied nature of 
 man." With the statement of this broad policy, there must be 
 added the fact that the Sunday-schools of the Methodist Church 
 are, as a general thing, largely attended, efiSciently organized, and 
 skillfully taught. 
 
 The early Methodists distrusted Theological Seminaries. Re- 
 cognizing as the one necessary qualification for preaching the 
 divine Word, a genuine call from God, they feared the tendency of 
 such institutions would be to convert a sacred mission into a secular 
 business. The views of the Church have undergone some change 
 in this respect, but even now most Methodist congregations would 
 prefer a preacher whose utterances are the fresh outgushing of a 
 soul filled with religious thought and feeling to one who becomes 
 the exponent of the colder formalism and stiffer'creeds that are too 
 apt to result from a course of study in the Theology of the schools. 
 The great majority of Methodist ministers, even at this day, come 
 from the ranks of devout young men without special collegiate or 
 theological training, but moved by the Holy Spirit to preach the 
 Gospel. Once admitted into the church service, however, and the 
 young minister is compelled to enter upon a rigid course of study 
 and reading, and to undergo annually for a period of four years a 
 critical examination. Not considering a course in a Theological 
 Seminary essential as a preparation for the ministry, the Methodist 
 Church was not so early or so earnest in establishing higher insti- 
 tutions of learning as some of the other churches ; but when once 
 entered upon the work, it was pushed forward with characteristic 
 zeal, and the record made is a very creditable one. Of the Metho- 
 dist Colleges and Conference Seminaries in Pennsylvania, some 
 account will be given in the proper place. It may be said here, 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 121 
 
 however, that in establishing higher institutions of learning, the 
 early Methodists gave great prominence to the feature of industrial 
 education. Kingwood Academy in England, founded by Wesley, 
 was organized on the manual labor principle. Cokesbury College, 
 near Baltimore, established in 1788 by Bishops Coke and Asbury, 
 " had connected with it shops, gardens, etc., in which the students 
 were required to spend the hours of recreation, instead of idle plays, 
 which were strictly forbidden." The Maine Wesleyan Seminary, 
 established some years later, was managed on the same plan. And 
 when Allegheny College came into the hands of the Methodists, 
 about 1830, work for the students on a farm and in shops was pro- 
 jected. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. THE GERMAN SETTLEliS. THE 
 REFORMED AND LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA as a land of promise became known in Hol- 
 land, Germany, and Switzerland, through the preaching of Penn 
 and other Friends, who extended their Gospel labors to these coun- 
 tries. The first colonists were the German Friends who settled 
 Germantown. But it was not long until numbers of the oppressed 
 inhabitants of nearly all parts of Germany and Switzerland, and 
 especially of districts along the Rhine, began to seek homes, with 
 wives, children, and all they possessed, in the wilds of Pennsyl- 
 vania. Among them were members of a dozen different religious 
 denominations, large and small. They all came with the common 
 object of bettering their condition in life, and securing homes in a 
 country where they could enjoy unmolested the right to worship 
 God as their consciences dictated. In Pennsylvania, if nowhere 
 else, they knew they would secure civil and religious liberty. 
 Some of them were very poor, even coming without sufficient 
 money to pay the expenses of their passage, but others were well- 
 to-do, bought land, built houses, and soon by patient industry had 
 about them the comforts to which they had been accustomed. The 
 German immigrants were mostly farmers, but among them there 
 was a smaller proportion of different kinds of mechanics. They 
 brought few books with them, but nearly every individual possessed 
 a Bible and a Prayer or Hymn-book, and many had in addition a 
 Catechism or a Confession of Faith. These were treasures that 
 could not be left behind, and they are still preserved as heirlooms 
 in hundreds of old German families. When they came in bodies, 
 they were usually accompanied by a clergyman or a schoolmaster, 
 or both. They were not highly educated as a class, but among 
 them were some good scholars, and few could be found who were 
 not able to read. The impression has prevailed that they were 
 grossly ignorant; it is unjust; those who make the charge either 
 
 (122) 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TWN JN EARL Y DA YS. j 23 
 
 do not take the pains to understand, or wish to misrepresent them. 
 Their average intelligence compared favorably with that of contem- 
 porary American colonists of other nationalities. If they did not 
 keep pace with others in subsequent years, their backwardness is 
 easily accounted for by their living for the most part on farms, fre- 
 quently many miles separated, and extending over large sections of 
 country; their division into many rehgious denominations, among 
 which there was little unity; their inability, scattered and broken 
 as they were, to support ministers and schoolmasters, or even to 
 secure the advantages of an organized community; their use of a 
 language which in a measure isolated them from the neiehborine 
 settlers, and shut them out from the social, political, and business 
 currents that gave life to the communities around them; their 
 unacquaintance with the proper forms of local self-government, and 
 the habit brought with them of looking for help, in all public con- 
 cerns, to some outside or higher authority; and, above all, perhaps, 
 their quiet, confiding disposition, quite in contrast with the ways of 
 some of the more aggressive, self-asserting classes of people with 
 whom they were brought in competition. 
 
 Soon after the beginning of the eighteenth century, German im- 
 migrants came to Pennsylvania in great numbers. In 1 730, the 
 estimated number in the Province was 30,000. By 1750, they had 
 increased to 90,000, the whole population being about 270,000. 
 Ebeling says that, in 1790, the German population was 144,660; 
 and at present fully one-third of the people are either German or of 
 German descent. They form the bulk of the population in many 
 counties, and there is no section of the State in which scattered 
 German families may not be found. 
 
 Although invited to settle in Pennsylvania, the Germans, arriving 
 in such large numbers and spreading over the country so rapidly, 
 seem to have created a fear on the part of other settlers and of the 
 Provincial authorities that they would form an unruly element in 
 society, and eventually work the overthrow of the Government or 
 assume possession of it as their countrymen had done long before 
 in England. Laws restraining their immigration were passed, and 
 the alarm disturbed even such well-balanced minds as those of Logan 
 and Franklin. It is almost needless to add now that such a fear 
 was groundless, and arose wholly out of the political and sectarian 
 prejudices of the day. On the contrary, it is only just to say that 
 to all that has gone to build up Pennsylvania, to enlarge her wealth, 
 
ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN I A. 
 
 to develop her resources, to increase her prosperity, to educate her 
 people, to give her good government, from the first, the German 
 element of the population has contributed a full share. Better citi- 
 zens cannot be found in any nation on the face of the globe. The 
 outline that is to follow of what was done for education by the dif- 
 ferent German churches in the early days, will go far to prove them 
 worthy of the words of commendation thus freely accorded them. 
 
 The Reformed and Lutheran churches in the Fatherland, at the 
 time so many of their members were seeking homes in Pennsyl- 
 vania, were accustomed to provide, as a part of their religious duty, 
 for the instruction of the young belonging to the several congrega- 
 tions. The Heidelberg Catechism taught from the first that it is 
 required by commandment of God, " That the Ministry of the Gos- 
 pel and schools be maintained." The Lutheran teaching on the 
 subject was not less fundamental. " Were I to leave my office as 
 preacher," said Luther, " I would next choose that of a schoolmas- 
 ter of boys; for I know next to preaching this is the greatest and 
 most useful avocation." " To make provision for the education of 
 children," says he, " is not only the duty of parents, but also of the 
 State and the Church. How can reason and charity allow the youth 
 to grow up uneducated, to become a poison and pestilence, corrupt- 
 ing a whole town?" In most cases, in all German-speaking nations, 
 where there was a church there was a school; the two were under 
 the same control, and the schoolmaster as well as the minister was 
 a church officer. In addition to his duties as an instructor of chil- 
 dren, the schoolmaster was generally the organist of the congrega- 
 tion, led the singing, and sometimes officiated at funerals and 
 assisted the minister at the sacred desk. Like the minister he re- 
 ceived a stated salary, and was furnished with household accommo- 
 dations for himself and family. Charges for tuition were fixed by 
 the consistories. Parents who could afford it paid tuition fees, but 
 the children of the poor were admitted free. It was the duty of the 
 minister as his superior officer to supervise the work of the school- 
 master. The school was considered an auxiliary to the church, and 
 the children in attendance always received religious instruction and 
 were prepared for confirmation. " The school teachers," says Dr. 
 John W. Nevin, " were in fact part of the ecclesiastical establish- 
 ment of the land ; and it was their province in particular to see that 
 the young were diligently trained in the knowledge of the Catechism 
 from the beginning, so as to be qualified in due time for a full relig- 
 
PRIVA TE EDirCA TION IN EARL Y DA VS. 1 25 
 
 ious profession." The Reformed and Lutheran Germans brought 
 with them ■ to Pennsylvania this idea of a union of church and 
 school, and so far as the circumstances of the country permitted 
 they carried it into effect. The first public building erected by a ' 
 community was generally a house that could be used both for a 
 church and a school ; and, subsequently, when they were able to 
 construct two buildings, one for the church and the other for the 
 school, they stood side by side. In a congregation without a 
 schoolmaster, the minister frequently taught the school ; and in the 
 absence of a minister, the schoolmaster was accustomed to conduct 
 religious services*. One who has carefully examined all the old 
 records relating to the subject, Rev. Dr. Schmucker, says, stating 
 of the Lutheran congregations what is equally true of the Re- 
 formed : " Each congregation formed in Pennsylvania established a 
 congregational school alongside of the church, at the earliest possi- 
 ble period after its formation. This is a rule so absolute as scarcely 
 to have an exception. Even before a pastor could be obtained a 
 school was built, and the schoolmaster conducted Sunday service 
 and read a sermon. The teachers usually were Gei^man schoolmas- 
 ters who had come over; some of them were of worthless character, 
 some had had little training, some were worthy; but such as could 
 be found were employed." For some years after the first settle- 
 ment, the schoolmasters outnumbered the ministers. A few minis- 
 ters came from Germany and labored faithfully with their scattered 
 flocks in the Pennsylvania wilderness ; but for some reason the cur- 
 rent of emigration appears to have carried with it a larger number 
 of schoolmasters. The 1 1 ,294 German Protestants who arrived at 
 London, in 1709, most of them on their way to America, had with 
 them eighteen schoolmasters. In 1749, there came to Pennsylvania 
 twelve schoolmasters with the German immigrants. And these are 
 only examples. 
 
 There weire neighborhoods in Pennsylvania in which Reformed 
 and Lutheran Germans had settled before the year 1720, but little 
 evidence remains showing the existence of either churches or 
 schoolhouses prior to that date. The Lutheran congregation at 
 New Hanover, Montgomery county, is considered the oldest organ- 
 ization of Lutheran Germans in the United States. Justus Falkner 
 was ordained as its pastor by certain Swedish ministers in the year 
 1703. A church and a schoolhouse were probably erected before 
 1719, for at that time John Henry Sprogel, who owned the land in 
 
1 26 ED U.CA TION IN' PEMNS YL VANIA. 
 
 the vicinity, presented fifty acres for the church and the school. 
 The Reformed Germans built a little church in Germantown in 
 17 19, and previous to that time both they and the Lutherans had 
 enjoyed some irregular preaching in the city of Philadelphia. 
 These scanty facts about complete the record up to the year 1720; 
 and indeed, there is not very much to be added to it during the next 
 two succeeding decades. The truth is that the whole period of 
 their settlement prior to 1740 was with both the Reformed and the 
 Lutherans an era of comparative darkness. They were spread over 
 a wide extent of country, and necessity compelled them first to 
 seek shelter, food, clothing, and the comforts of a home. They 
 were for the most part sheep without a shepherd. They did not 
 come to this country in organized bodies under chosen leaders, and 
 with a well-defined purpose, like the Puritans, the Friends, or the 
 Moravians, but they landed upon our shores in disconnected de- 
 tachments and heterogeneous multitudes, and at once scattered in 
 search of a place in which to live and work. It was no part of their 
 ambition to become rulers in their adopted country, their desire 
 being simply to settle down in the position they had occupied in 
 the Fatherland, of quiet, law-abiding citizens. Years necessarily 
 passed before they felt themselves entirely at home, and prepared 
 to begin in earnest to build up institutions like churches and 
 schools. As a tree transplanted into unaccustomed soil takes some 
 time to root itself anew and recommence its growth, so these settlers 
 could not at once free themselves from the influences of the past, 
 feel content with the present, and be ready to make a second start 
 in their intellectual and religious life. Still, the fragmentary state- 
 ments made below will show that enough was done to indicate a 
 sound substratum of moral health in the body politic, and to give 
 hopeful promise of the good that was to come. 
 
 Rev. John Philip Boehm, one of the venerated fathers of the 
 Reformed Church in Pennsylvania, settled in Whitpain township, 
 Montgomery county, about 1720, and some time thereafter taught 
 school for several years. He had been a schoolmaster before com- 
 ing to America. His first preaching, and probably his first teach- 
 ing, was done in his own house, as it was not until 1740 that "a 
 small stone church" was erected at that place. 
 
 Rev. George Michael Weiss came to Pennsylvania, in 1727, with 
 four hundred immigrants from the Palatinate. He was a graduate 
 of the University of Heidelberg, a fine scholar, speaking Latin as 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. ' 127 
 
 well as his native tongue. Some months after landing at Philadel- 
 phia, he advertised the opening of a school of a high order, propos- 
 ing to teach-, among other things, " Logic, Natural Philosophy, and 
 Metaphysics." 
 
 George Stiefel was schoolmaster, prior to 1731, for the congre- 
 gation of the Reformed church at Tulpehocken, Berks county. In 
 '■735 he joined the community of Seventh-Day Baptists, at Ephrata, 
 and, it is said, continued teaching to the end of his days. Rev. 
 John Peter Miller came as a missionary to his Reformed brethren, in 
 Pennsylvania, in 1730. He preached, and probably taught school 
 for some time, at Tulpehocken, and with Stiefel joined the Seventh- 
 Day Baptists and went to Ephrata, where he subsequently served 
 as Prior. He spoke English, French and Latin, and understood 
 Greek and Hebrew. Rev. John Bechtel settled in Germantown in 
 1726, and subsequently served the Reformed church, in that place, 
 as minister for sixteen years. He then joined the Moravians and 
 went to Bethlehem. A catechism prepared by him was printed by 
 Franklin in 1742. It is not known that he taught school, but as 
 Count Zinzendorf opened a school in his house, at Germantown, it 
 is thought likely he was both a preacher and a schoolmaster. 
 
 Congregations of Reformed and Lutherans were organized at 
 Goslienhoppen, Montgomery county, about 1731, and within a 
 short time thereafter they opened schools. Private houses were at 
 first used, both for church and school. The Reformed church at 
 Skippack in the same county, and doubtless the school connected 
 with it, dates back to 1726. Churches belonging to the same de- 
 nomination, and most likely schools, were established about as early 
 at Whitemarsh, Salford and New Hanover. 
 
 June 20, 1736, a new log church, erected by the Reformed con- 
 gregation at Lancaster, was consecrated ; in an account of the cere- 
 mony it is stated that " the teacher, preacher and pastor, called to 
 this office by God, was the reverend and truly pious John Jacob 
 Hock." It seems likely, therefore, that Mr. Hock taught the school, 
 as did some of his immediate successors. An organized Lutheran 
 congregation existed in Lancaster as early as 1733. The first 
 church was consecrated in 1738. A schoolhouse was built at the 
 same time. The first Lutheran church at Brickerville, Lancaster 
 county, was built about 1 736. The schoolhouse near it was prob- 
 ably about as. old as the church, for in 1779 it was so dilapidated 
 that Rev. Daniel Shroeder, the minister, who was required to teach 
 
128 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 the school, removed it to the parsonage. Church atid sehoolhouse 
 still stand side by side. There were several other congregations in 
 Lancaster county, both Lutheran and Refornied, probably as old 
 as the one at Brickerville, but little can be learned respecting their 
 schools. 
 
 Prior to 1735, Casper Leutbecker, a tailor, taught the Lutheran 
 school at Tulpehocken, read sermons and catechised the children. 
 Conrad Weiser, prominent in the colonial history of Pennsylvania 
 as the interpreter and agent of the Government in the management 
 of its Indian affairs, taught school at the same place about the same 
 time; and, owing to his prominence in the office, has been called 
 " the schoolmaster of Tulpehocken." 
 
 There was a school as early as 1735 among the German settlers 
 on Kreutz creek, York county. 
 
 The Lutherans built a church at Oley, Berks county, in 1736, and 
 there is good reason to think that they established a school at the 
 same time. The old church records show that, in 1748, Frederick 
 Hoelwig was cantor and teacher at Longswamp, Berks county, and 
 it is probable there was a school in connection with the church from 
 the time it was built, in 1734. In 1742, Moselem Lutheran church, 
 Berks county, was built, and one hundred acres of land were ob- 
 tained and set apart for a church, a parsonage and a schoohouse. 
 The following from the proceedings of the consistory in 1743 ex- 
 presses views extremely liberal for the times: "That it is our most 
 earnest desire that the teacher, as well as the preacher, shall be fairly 
 compensated, so that he can live with his family like an honest man, 
 without being obliged to engage in any business foreign to his pro- 
 fession. To this end, the teacher and preacher shall have the land 
 and the house upon it free, as long as they officially serve the con- 
 gregation, and, as far as is reasonable, they may use the same as 
 serves them best." 
 
 A small Lutheran church was erected in Germantown prior to 
 1742. Religious sei-vices had been begun some years before, and 
 were frequently conducted by the schoolmaster. The earliest traces 
 of a Lutheran pastor at New Prbvidence, or Trappe, occur about 
 1732, but there is good reason to think a school was established at 
 an earlier, date. The Swamp Church School, Lower Milford, Le- 
 high county, is thought to date as early as 1725 ; and in the same 
 township, the wife of Jacob Dubbs, who had settled on a tract of 
 government land in 1732, was accustomed to. gather the children 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. j 30 
 
 of her neighbors into her kitchen in the afternoon and teach them 
 to read and write. Dr. Van Home says in his History of the oldest 
 Reformed Church of Philadelphia, " a Charity or Free School had 
 been sustained almost from the date of the first organization, 1727." 
 The Lutherans in Philadelphia had a school about as early, cer- 
 tainly before 1734. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Suther, after a long voyage, during which his 
 father, mother, and his ten brothers and sisters, all perished by ship- 
 wreck, landed on the tenth of January, 1739, on the coast of Virginia. 
 He sometimes preached, but his occupation was mainly that of a 
 schoolmaster. He taught in several places in Pennsylvania, and, in 
 1747, had charge of the German Reformed school in Philadelphia. 
 
 Rev. Christian Henry Rauch was in part a Reformed and in part 
 a Moravian minister. He was a missionary to the Indians in Con- 
 necticut in 1 741-2. In 1746, he preached for various Reformed 
 congregations in Lancaster, Berks, and other counties; and in 1749 
 we find him in charge of the Moravian congregation and school 
 near Litiz, " filling the office, of teacher and preacher in Warwick, 
 and also superintendent of the surrounding country congregations." 
 
 But notwithstanding the creditable efforts made in many of their 
 settlements, of which examples have been given, the state of educa- 
 tion up to the last decade of the first half of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, was far from satisfactory to pious, thinking men among the 
 Reformed and Lutheran Germans. They saw plain enough that 
 schools were too few, that too many of the schoolmasters were 
 poorly qualified, that there was a lack of general interest in educa- 
 tion, and that large numbers of youth were growing up almost 
 wholly illiterate; and they feared if this state of things continued 
 that when the old men who had been educated before, coming to 
 America passed away, there would be none to take their place. 
 Indeed, the religious congregations that had established such 
 schools as existed, and to which they looked for support, were them- 
 selves feeble, widely separated, for the most part without ministers, 
 and consequently ever ready to fall to pieces ; and, suffering greatly 
 for want of a common head and a common bond of sympathy, they 
 were in no condition to forward the interest of education. Despair- 
 ing of finding a remedy for this discouraging state of things in 
 America, longing eyes were turned to the Fatherland, and by corres- 
 pondence and by agents the much-needed help was most earnestly 
 sought from beyond the sea. 
 9 
 
J -Q ED VCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Daniel Weissiger, one of the agents appointed by the Lutheran 
 congregations of Philadelphia, New Hanover and Providence, to ask 
 contributions in their behalf from their brethren in the Old World 
 towards building " needful churches and schoolhouses," in his state- 
 ment dated in 1734, and published in the Halle Reports, makes 
 known the general spiritual and intellectual destitution of the Ger- 
 man communities of that day and their earnest desire for improve- 
 ment. " Yet, for quite a long time," says he, " they have been living 
 without the services of competent teachers and pastors, as also 
 without schools ; and the consequence is that many have wandered 
 off from the life of the church and have strayed far in divers crooked 
 ways. Many indeed, have deeply felt the necessity of regular 
 teachers and of schools, both for their own benefit and for the 
 proper education of their own children; and therefore opened several 
 schools in Philadelphia, and provided for their regular instruction. 
 Yet on account of the increase in the number of congregations and 
 of children, this provision was found to be insufficient to meet the 
 growing demand; and at the same time, teachers who would really 
 take to heart the instruction of children and the spiritual edification 
 of adults, and who had themselves the necessary qualification for 
 this work, were very seldom to be found." Then, speaking specially 
 for the three congregations he represented, he continued, "These 
 three congregations have joined together in the Name of God, and 
 with prayer for His gracious help, to endeavor to secure the services 
 of'faithful and competent teachers, and to build a church in each 
 place, in order that they may hereafter enjoy the preaching of the 
 Gospel and maintain the usual exercises of public worship. They 
 contemplate also, with equal earnestness, the establishment of 
 schools for the instruction of their children." 
 
 In response to these appeals, there came, in 1742, Henry Mel- 
 choir Muhlenberg, one who may well be called the Father of the 
 Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania; and, in 1746, Michael Schlatter, 
 by whose labors the scattered congregations of the Reformed 
 Church were organized, and the breath of a new life was breathed 
 into them. 
 
 The call to Dr. Muhlenberg, from the Lutherans of Pennsylvania, 
 was made through Dr. Gotthelf August Francke, of Halle, who was 
 the most active of their Friends in Germany. His father. Dr. Au- 
 gust Herman Francke, was the distinguished founder of that won- 
 derful cluster of schools and charitable institutions for which Halle 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 131 
 
 has been famous for nearly two hundred years. The elder Dr. 
 Francke was a great teacher, a great teacher of teachers, an able 
 writer on education, and a most enlightened and zealous educational 
 reformer. He supplied a parent's place to thousands of destitute 
 orphans, more than two hundred thousand children have been edu- 
 cated in his schools, and forth from the Padagogium he founded 
 have gone ten thousand teachers to introduce into schools, all over 
 the civilized world, his improved methods of instruction. Among 
 his pupils was Count Zinzendorf, the distinguished Moravian leader. 
 The younger Dr. Francke succeeded his father in the direction of 
 all the institutions at Halle, and no higher praise could be given him 
 than to say that he proved worthy of the trust. Fortunate, indeed, 
 were the early Pennsylvania Lutherans in securing, in the land of 
 their fathers, such a friend ; and more fortunate still were the con- 
 gregations that through his assistance obtained ministers and 
 schoolmasters educated at Halle, and imbued with the spirit that 
 hallowed the place. 
 
 Muhlenberg, upon taking a survey of his field of labor, found, as 
 stated in the Hallische Nachrichten, that the greater part of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran congregations " were wanting in a sufficient provision 
 in churches and schools, so that they had as yet no regularly-called 
 preachers, by whom they could be instructed out of the Word of 
 God, and enjoy the regular use of the holy sacraments. Therefore 
 their children, for the most part, grew up in their ignorance, without 
 instruction, wherever the parents themselves were incapable of lead- 
 ing them to some knowledge of God and divine things. Such per- 
 sons, indeed, were not wanting, who from selfish motives offered 
 themselves as teachers. But experience taught that such not only 
 cared little for the souls of their hearers, but that they also, by 
 their bad life and example, only did the more harm — the disorder 
 of the congregations thereby ever becoming greater and more sad." 
 Another Lutheran author describes the state of things more tersely. 
 He says: "There were no churches or schoolhouses, a few huts ex- 
 cepted that were called such, and even these were in a state of 
 decay." 
 
 Muhlenberg almost at once assumed charge of the congregations 
 at Philadelphia, Germantown, New Hanover, and Providence, preach- 
 ing on Sundays and teaching during the week, as he says, "because 
 of the want of capable schoolmasters." The services in Philadel- 
 phia were held in a carpenter shop ; in New Hanover in a small 
 
J ^ 2 ED UCA T/ON IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 church built of rough logs, and in Providence the congregation had 
 to be satisfied with the poor comforts of a primitive barn. In 1743, 
 Muhlenberg writes : " I have to teach from necessity. One week I 
 teach school in Philadelphia, the next in Providence, and the third 
 in New Hanover." Some of the scholars were adult persons who 
 had not learned to read. A "wooden schoolhouse" was built in 
 Providence the first year of his ministry; in New Hanover a school- 
 house with apartments for the schoolmaster, built by the side of 
 the church, was begun in 1743 and completed' the next year; and 
 about the same time was commenced the erection of old St. 
 Michael's church, Philadelphia, with its connected school. Early 
 in 1745, Rev. Peter Brunholtz arrived as an assistant to Muhlen- 
 berg, bringing with him two students of divinity, John Helfrich 
 Schaum and John Nicholas Kurtz, the former of whom was imme- 
 diately placed in charge of the school in Philadelphia, with accom- 
 modations in the pastor's house, and the latter of that at New Han- 
 over. In both schools, '' old people were present, who were not 
 ashamed to sit among little children and learn their letters." 
 
 With the assistance of Brunholtz, Schaum, and Kurtz, Muhlen- 
 berg began to push his work' into new fields. The whole Church 
 seems to have leaned upon him for advice and assistance, but he 
 proved equal to these ever-increasing responsibilities. He preached 
 at Oley, and looked after the interests of the school at that place ; 
 helped the " forsaken Lutheran congregation " at Cohansey, to a 
 schoolmaster who read sermons on Sunday from Dr. Francke's 
 Postil; secured the employment of John Frederick Vigera, one of 
 the most accomplished of the old Lutheran teachers, as school- 
 master in divers places where his services were thought to be 
 most needed, either as teacher in the school, or as a reader of ser- 
 mons in the church; moved his faithful lieutenants, Schaum and 
 Kurtz, over the whole field, stopping them at points most needing 
 their services, either as preachers or teachers; placed the newly- 
 arrived Pastor .Handschuh in charge of the church and school at 
 Lancaster, and of the congregation at Earltown,-now New Hol- 
 land ; extended his fatherly care over the infant congregations in 
 all the surrounding counties, encouraging the building of churches 
 and schoolhouses, procuring ministers and schoolmasters, and 
 everywhere arousing interest and inspiring zeal. In the minutes of 
 the meeting of the first Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 1748, will be 
 found reports from the schools under their care, made by the sev- 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION JN EARL Y DAYS. 133 
 
 eral pastors. Brunholtz, of Philadelphia, reported that a school 
 had been in operation in his house for three and a half years, 
 Schaum teacher; and that in Germantown there were three 
 schools, one in the centre of the town, attended by many pupils, 
 another at the extreme end, which had been in existence three 
 years, and still another near the town, with about twenty pupils. 
 Muhlenberg reported the school in Providence not very large, and 
 that in New Hanover as being in a tolerdbly good condition, with 
 Jacob Loeser, " a promising young man," as schoolmaster. Hand- 
 schuh, of Lancaster, said that the school taught by Mr. Schmidt 
 was attended by seventy pupils. Subsequently, the same year, he 
 wrote: "Our school is ever increasing, so that we were recently 
 compelled to dismiss sixteen English children for want of room." 
 Soon afterwards, Vigera was sent to him as an assistant in the 
 school. Jacob Loeser took charge of the Lutheran school in Lan- 
 caster in 1779, continued at its head until 1786, and died in 1793. 
 His remains lie in Trinity churchyard. • In addition to his duties 
 in connection with the school, he played the organ for church ser- 
 vices, led the singing, opened and closed the church, and had the 
 care of the graveyard. His compensation consisted of a free dwell- 
 ing in part of the schoolhouse, the free use of a part of the school 
 lot, ten cords of wood, half hickory, and ten pounds in silver. 
 
 The mission of Schlatter was to organize the existing congrega- 
 tions of the Reformed Church, and to unite them more closely with 
 one another. His labors were severe and incessant, his visitations 
 extending not only to all the localities settled by the Germans in 
 Pennsylvania, but also to Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey. He 
 found in Pennsylvania some forty Reformed congregations, two- 
 thirds of which were entirely without regular ministers and some 
 of the remaining third were indifferently supplied.' The church, as 
 a whole, was in a most forlorn condition. In his appeal for aid he 
 thus describes it: "What makes the condition of the.se congrega- 
 tions the more deplorable and worthy of our sympathy, is that most 
 of them are not even provided with a good schoolmaster. Few, 
 even of such as are found qualified, can be prevailed upon to labor 
 in this work, because poor people are not able to contribute enough 
 to enable a schoolmaster, who devotes his whole time to his calling, 
 to support himself and family even with the greatest care and econ- 
 omy. Thus it is easy to see "that children, deprived of all instruc- 
 tion, and having only a corrupt nature for their guide, niust grow 
 
J 24 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 up as wild shoots — yea, I will leave any who heartily and in silence 
 meditate on this matter, and who know the true value of immortal 
 souls, to judge whether in this way, even such as afe called Chris- 
 tians and bear the name of Reformed, are not in danger of falling 
 back and being corrupted into a new heathenism, and thus become 
 like the original pagan aborigines of the country, if not even worse." 
 
 To remedy this state of religious and intellectual destitution, 
 Schlatter undertook a journey to Europe, and pressed the subject 
 so effectively upon leading members of the Reformed Church in 
 Holland, Germany and Switzerland, that he returned to America 
 with six young ministers, money for their support, seven hundred 
 Bibles, and the assurance of a fund of .^12,000 raised in Holland, 
 the interest on which, with some small amounts subscribed else- 
 where, was to be used in the erection of churches and schoolhouses 
 and the support of ministers and schoolmasters. Several hundred 
 pounds sterling, as the proceeds of this fund, were received annually 
 for a number of years and devoted to the purposes intended by the 
 donors. The ministers were allotted much the largest proportion ; 
 but, as an example, in 1759, the schoolmasters at the places named 
 received amounts as follows : Lancaster, £% ; Kreutz Creek, £1 ; 
 Conewago, ;^i.iO; Readingtown, £1 ; Goshenhoppen, ;^i.iO; Falk- 
 ner Schwan, £2; Tulpehocken, £w Expenses at Coetus, £\\. 
 The ministers at about the same places received ten times as much. 
 
 The interest awakened by Schlatter in the work of establishing 
 schools among the Germans of Pennsylvania was not confined to 
 the countries in which he first made known the destitution it was 
 intended to relieve, but soon extended to England and Scotland, 
 where a large fund was raised in behalf of the undertaking, the 
 King, members of the Royal Family and sundry noblemen subscrib- 
 ing liberally. The better to carry into effect the purposes in view, 
 an organization was formed and the plan adopted of establishing a 
 system of free or charitable schools in Pennsylvania that would 
 reach all the localities needing help. An account of this system has 
 been given elsewhere. Schlatter was appointed to administer it, 
 and for a time many of the schools previously established by the 
 Reformed and Lutheran congregations received aid from the 
 English fund and were placed under his supervision. 
 
 From the coming of Muhlenberg and Schlatter to the breaking 
 out of the Revolutionary war, the German population increased with 
 great rapidity, spreading out into all of what are now known as the 
 
PROLATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 135 
 
 original German counties, and everywhere making themselves 
 prosperous by industry and economy. As the old congregations 
 grew stronger and new ones were formed, churches and school- 
 houses were erected in large numbers, and the work of education, 
 outside of that directed by Schlatter, began to look promising; and 
 when, in 1763. the scheme of charitable schools came to an end 
 
 OLD GERMAN SCHOOLIIOUSE, CHERRY STREET, THILADELPHIA. 
 
 and the schools that had depended upon foreign contributions were 
 thrown back upon the churches to which they belonged for sup- 
 port, it was happily found that the burden was no longer too great 
 to be borne. Some facts will be given showing this improved condi- 
 tion of affairs. 
 
 In 1760, a schoolhouse was built by St. Michael's Church, Phila- 
 
j,5 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 delphia, to accommodate the large school maintained by the congre- 
 gation. Many children were taught gratuitously from the first, 
 and, in 1789, the Legislature donated five thousand acres of land, 
 located in Tioga county, in aid of the " Poor School." A second 
 schoolhouse in the Northern Liberties was erected in 1794. The 
 Reformed Church in Philadelphia erected a schoolhouse in 1753-4. 
 A part of the funds for the purpose was raised by a lottery; and, in 
 1789, the church received from the State five thou.sand acres of 
 land for the support of a school for poor children. Parson Hand- 
 schuch taught a Lutheran school in Germantown in 1753, and soon 
 after was elected to a professorship in the Academy of Philadelphia. 
 In 1754, a lottery was drawn for the benefit of the Germantown 
 Lutheran Church, to purchase a lot of ground for the minister and 
 schoolmaster, the minister to instruct the poor children. A lot was 
 bought in 1760, and a schoolhouse was erected which still stands. 
 A stone schoolhouse was built by the Lutherans, in 1759, at Barren 
 Hill, twelve miles from Philadelphia. Religious services were held 
 in it for several years. 
 
 In 1754, the Lutherans had built a schoolhouse in Bucks county, 
 near the place where the old Bethlehem road crosses Tohicken 
 creek. Prior to 1745, the members of Trinity church, Springfield, 
 Bucks county, erected a schoolhouse and used it as a place of wor- 
 ship. Nicholas Korndoffer taught the parochial school at Boehm's 
 church, Montgomery county, in 1776. The Lutherans built a 
 schoolhouse at Pottstown in 1774. About 1750 a number of Re- 
 formed and Lutheran churches were erected in the northern sec- 
 tions of Bucks and Montgomery counties, and all are thought to 
 have maintained schools. 
 
 Zeltenreich's Reformed church, Earl township, Lancaster county, 
 was used as a schoolhouse for many years after its erection in 1746. 
 The " Bergstrass " church, Ephrata township, Lancaster county, 
 was built on Jand purchased for £2 los, of George Weraes and his 
 wife, in 1762. The land was to be held in trust "for the proper use 
 and behoof of the membeis of the Lutheran congregation, for a 
 schoolhouse and burying ground." Rev. William Stoy, the Re- 
 formed minister, taught the church school in Lancaster, in 176J. 
 He had sixty pupils. The old log Lutheran church at New 
 Holland, Lancaster county, which had probably been used as a 
 schoolhouse from the first, was replaced by a new one in 1763. 
 An Act of the Legislature, passed in 1767, provided "for raising 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 137 
 
 by way of lottery the sum of four hundred ninety-nine pounds 
 and nineteen shiUings, to be applied to the payment of the arrears 
 of debt due for the building and finishing the German Lutheran 
 church, Earl township, Lancaster county, and towards erecting 
 and building a schoolhouse to the same church." In 1786, Pastor 
 Melzheimer, of this church, started the project of establishing a 
 German and English school. The Reformed congregation heart- 
 ily joined in the good work, and was represented in the Board of 
 Trustees. The money raised by subscription amounted to ;^I09 . 
 los., gd., and additional contributions were made in building mater- 
 ials and labor. The house was dedicated December 26, 1787, 
 "the scholars, singers, ministers, trustees, elders, church wardens 
 of the German Lutheran and Calvinistic churches, and the mem- 
 bers of these churches, and a number of persons, English and 
 German, of other religious societies," numbering in all seven hun- 
 dred, met at the parsonage and marched in an orderly procession 
 to the schoolhouse, where services appropriate to the occasion, 
 including a sermon and an oration, were held. The school thus 
 estabhshed was maintained until 1838, when a public school was 
 opened in the building. In 1857, the property was sold, but a con- 
 siderable portion of the money received for it was invested, and the 
 proceeds are now used to support schools when the public schools 
 are not in operation. 
 
 There were Reformed and Lutheran schools in Reading about 
 1760. A schoolhouse near the Lutheran church was erected in 
 1765. John Nicholas Kurtz was stationed by Muhlenberg as the 
 schoolmaster at Tulpehocken in 1747. A Reformed church was 
 erected near Kutztown, Berks county, in 1755. There was a school 
 connected with it. The church was subsequently removed to the 
 town, a schoolhouse including a residence for the schoolmaster was 
 built in 1804, and among the rules framed in 1789, are the follow- 
 ing concerning the school : " That as the education of the young in 
 Reading, Writing, and other branches is of the highest importance, 
 there shall be built, as soon as possible, a schoolhouse; that the 
 schoolhouse shall be located near to the church ; that when built, 
 there shall be elected a man who is not only competent to teach 
 and to sing, but who also bears a good moral character; that the 
 preachers, elders, and deacons, shall have a care that in the school 
 prevails good order, that each child receives proper attention, and 
 that no partiality be shown." It is estimated that in Berks county 
 
, ,g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 alone, between 1740 and 1834, one hundred Reformed and Luth- 
 eran churches were erected; and if there was not a schoolhouse 
 connected with each one of them, it was because the congregation 
 was too small or too weak to provide it. The sentiment that church 
 and school should be united was universal. 
 
 Settlements in Lynn, Weissenberg and other localities in Lehigh 
 county, were made by Germans from the Palatinate as early as 
 1735. Churches and schools followed almost immediately, but of 
 .these few details have been obtained. Complaint is made that about 
 1760, the schools were much injured by the best schoolmasters be- 
 coming ministers, among them Miller, Roth, Michael and others, 
 and the congregations could obtain the services of no competent 
 persons to take their places. The school in connection with the 
 Reformed and Lutheran church at Egypt, in Whitehall township, 
 was among the oldest in the county. It is still in operation, and 
 although now a public school, it continues to retain some of the 
 features of an old church school. The schoolmaster, until within 
 a few years, occupied the ancient glebe, lived with his family in the 
 schoolhouse, and held the office of church organist. As late as 
 1850, says an old pupil, "the creed and the commandments were 
 repeated every day. Much attention was given to the study of 
 sacred music, and two afternoons in each week were devoted to the 
 Catechism. Both the Reformed and Lutheran ministers were ac- 
 customed frequently to visit the school." Before 1750, there were 
 schools connected with the Heidelberg and Ziegel churches, and 
 before or about 1800, with the New Tripoli, Unionville, Weissen- 
 berg, Jacksonville, Lowhill, Friedens, Friedensville, and Shoeners- 
 ville churches ; and all these, like the school in connection with the 
 Egypt church, were, until within a few years, church schools. The 
 teachers of most of them still have the use of the church lands, 
 occupy a part of the schoolhouse as a dwelling, and act as organists 
 of the congregations. In the one at Heidelberg, the Catechism and 
 Bible History are still taught, although the teacher is paid by the 
 township. Probably the first house used exclusively for school pur- 
 poses in Allentown was the old Zion Reformed church, converted 
 into a schoolhouse in 1773. 
 
 A Lutheran congregation built a schoolhouse near Easton, prob- 
 ably as early as 1740, and opened a school with the church organist 
 as teacher. In 1762, a building was purchased in the town for a 
 church and schoolhouse. 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TJON IN EARL Y DA VS. j 30 
 
 In 1759, Charles Robateau, who was recommended by Muhlenberg 
 as well qualified to teach German and English, proposed, by means of 
 a lottery, to build a schoolhouse and dwelling for the schoolmaster 
 and open a charity school in Lebanon ; and, in addition to teaching 
 youth in both languages, offered to perform services in the churches 
 when ministers could not be had. An organization, near Annville, 
 ■ Lebanon county, called the "Berg Gemeinde" erected a church in 
 1744, and a few years later a schoolhouse. Kimmerling's Church, 
 North Lebanon; Walmer's, East Hanover; the Reformed and Lu- 
 theran churches, at Shaefferstown, maintained parochial schools 
 from an early day. St. John's Church, Fredericksburg, was erected 
 in 1790, and a schoolhouse built on ground attached to it. 
 
 A Lutheran church was erected in York in 1 744, and a Reformed 
 soon afterwards. Schools were maintained by both. Ludwig Kraft 
 taught the Reformed school in 1753-4. In 1747. Schlatter preached 
 in a schoolhouse belonging to a Reformed congregation in Union 
 township, Adams county. The Reformed and Lutherans of Har- 
 risburg erected a schoolhouse and worshiped in it till 1788, when 
 they erected a log church which in time became a schoolhouse. In 
 Dauphin county, the Lutheran church at Hummelstown was used 
 as a schoolhouse in 1790; Peter's Church established a school as 
 early as 1800; Reiber's church and school were built in 1780, and 
 a building at Dick's Gap was in ruins in 1815, which had long been 
 used for both a church and a schoolhouse. John Shopp's old 
 dwelling-house in Hampden township, near Shiremanstown, Cum- 
 berland county, was purchased by a Reformed congregation in 
 1797, and used for a schoolhouse and for religious meetings. It 
 contained two apartments, one of which was occupied by the teacher 
 as a residence. Somewhat remodeled, it is still used for school pur- 
 poses. In Berlin, Somerset county, churches and schoolhouses 
 were erected by the Reformed and Lutheran congregations about 
 1780. Lebanon church, Loysville, Perry county, built a large 
 schoolhouse soon after 1794, in which the schoolmaster lived with 
 his family. Similar schoolhouses were built, in 1 806, by the Re- 
 formed and Lutheran congregations in Rebersberg, and, in 1789, by 
 the Lutherans in Penn's Valley, Centre county. About 1800, school 
 is known to have been kept in connection with the old Dreisbach 
 churth near Le wish urg. 
 
 As showing the relations between the old Reformed and Lutheran 
 congregations and the schools under their control, and as setting 
 
I^O EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 forth the duties of the schoolmasters of by-gone days, the following 
 documents are of great interest. The first is an agreement between 
 the congregation of the Reformed Church, in Lancaster, with John 
 Hoffman, teacher. 
 It reads : 
 
 On this day, May 4th, 1747,1, the undersigned, John Hoffman, parochial 
 teacher of the church at Lancaster, have promised in the presence of the 
 congregation to serve as chorister, and as long as we have no pastor, to read 
 sermons on Sunday. In summer, I promise to hold catechetical instruction 
 with the young, as becomes a faithful teacher, and also to lead them in sing- 
 ing ; and to attend to the clock. On the other hand, the congregation 
 promises me an annual salary consisting of voluntary offerings from all the 
 members of the church, to be written in a special register and arranged 
 according to the amounts contributed, so that the teacher may be adequately 
 compensated for his labor. 
 
 Furthermore, 1 have firmly and irrevocably agreed with the congregation 
 on the aforesaid date that I will keep school on every working day during the 
 entire year, as is the usual custom, and in such a manner as becomes a faith- 
 ful teacher. In consideration thereof they promise me a free dwelling and 
 four cords of wood, and have granted me the privilege of charging for each 
 child that may come to school the sum of five shiUings (I say 5 sh.) for three 
 months, and for the whole year one pound (I write ^i). I promise to enter 
 upon my duties without fail, if alive and well, on the 24th of November, 
 1747- 
 
 This document is signed, sealed and witnessed. 
 
 In a Note to one of the Halle Reports, a synopsis is given of a 
 contract between the Lutheran congregation at New Providence, 
 Trappe, Montgomery county, and the schoolmaster. This contract 
 was made about 1750, and provides: 
 
 That the schoolhouse shall always be in charge of a faithful Evangelical 
 Lutheran schoolmaster, whose competency to teach Reading, Writing and 
 Arithmetic, as also to play the organ {Orgelschlageii) and to use the English 
 language, has been proved by the pastor ; special regard being had at the 
 same time, to the purity of his doctrine and his life. He shall be required 
 to treat all his pupils with impartial fidelity, and to instruct the children of 
 other denominations, and of the neighborhood generally. He shall not 
 allow the children to use profane language either in or out of school; but 
 shall carefully teach them how, both in church and in school, and in the 
 presence of others and upon the highway, to conduct themselves in a Chris- 
 tian and upright manner, and ' not like the Indians.' He shall never permit 
 either parents or employers to quarrel with him in the presence of the chil- 
 dren ; persons having complaints to make shall be referred, at once, to the 
 pastor and vestry. He shall be allowed seven shillings and sixpence, and 
 one-half bushel of grain every six months, for each scholar; in addition, he 
 shall live in the schoolhouse free of rent, to which a piece of ground shall be 
 attached, have the collections taken in the church on two of the chief festivals 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 141 
 
 of the year, together with other occasional perquisites. It shall be his duty 
 also to enter a record of the baptized children in the books of the church. 
 
 In 1760, the Elders and Deacons of the Reformed Church, Phila- 
 delphia, adopted Regulations for the management of their Parochial 
 school. They can be found in full in Dr. Van Home's History. 
 
 The preamble sets forth that, " When well organized Christian 
 congregations, for their upbuilding, establish schools, it is very 
 important to have competent God-fearing men for teachers, that , be- 
 coming order and propriety may be observed." 
 
 The accomplishments to be possessed by the schoolmaster are 
 named as follows : 
 
 He must be qualified in Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Singing ; and 
 must undergo an examination in these branches. 
 
 He must be one that takes a lively interest in, and helps to build up the 
 Christian Church; and must be also a God-fearing, virtuous man, and lead 
 an exemplary life, and must himself be a lover of the Word of God, and be 
 diligent in its use as much as possible, among the children of the school; and 
 he must set a good example, especially before the young children, and must 
 avoid exhibitions of anger. 
 
 He shall willingly and heartily seek to fulfill the duties obligatory upon 
 him, with love to God and to the children; to the performance of which the 
 Lord, their Maker, and Jesus, their Redeemer, have so strongly bound him. 
 
 Among his duties, the schoolmaster is enjoined to show no par- 
 tiality among the children; to adapt himself to their various dispo- 
 sitions and gifts; to punish them without animosity or passion, and 
 to refrain from all vexatious or abusive language. He is required 
 to teach his pupils to read and write, to sing and to pray, and to 
 live a godly life; and to give them instruction in the articles of the 
 Reformed faith, the Ten Commandments, and select passages of 
 the Scriptures. He is also required to recognize the pastor of the 
 congregation as the superintendent of the school, and to acknowl- 
 edge his authority; to conduct the church services in case of the 
 pastor's absence or disability, and to act as fore-singer and organist. 
 
 The following provisions relate to the schoolmaster's salary: 
 " Each child shall pay five shillings per quarter for tuition. But in 
 case the parents are poor, the Elders may pay the schoolmaster 
 three shillings out of the church treasury." " The schoolmaster has 
 a right to all parts of the schoolhouse at his pleasure." "The con- 
 gregation shall pay the schoolmaster a yearly salary of £2)." 
 
 It is only just to add that all that has been said is but a fragment 
 of the whole story. The period now under consideration extends 
 more than a hundred years from the first German settlements. In 
 
J. 2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 that time Reformed and Lutheran Germans had come to form the 
 bulk of the population in one-third of all the counties in the State, 
 and had planted themselves in large numbers in many of the fairest 
 parts of other sections. Wherever they found homes they built 
 churches, and wherever they built churches they established schools. 
 If they failed in either, it was on account tof circumstances beyond 
 their control. The scattered facts recited above, therefore, are 
 simply examples of the more numerous facts of like nature that 
 remain ungathered. The hope is entertained, however, that they 
 will be sufficient to make known the deep interest in education felt 
 by a people whose history in this respect has been either badly 
 learned or greatly misunderstood. 
 
 What has been said concerns mainly elementary education. And, 
 it must be admitted, that the early Germans did not aspire to an 
 education for their children much beyond what is now taught in 
 the lowest grade of primary schools. The full curriculum of nearly 
 all the old church schools was Reading, Writing, the elements of 
 Arithmetic, and religious instruction. To the latter all other learn- 
 ing was considered subordinate. But there were some at all times, 
 and eventually many, who felt an interest in higher education. 
 Something must be said of what was done by Reformed and Luth- 
 eran Germans in this regard. 
 
 It is the story of many centuries that Universities and Colleges 
 generally owe their origin to the wants of the theological profes- 
 sion. The Reformed and Lutheran Churches in America did not 
 assume a position of entire self-dependence for half a century or 
 more after their first organization, but continued to look to the • 
 mother churches in the Old World for a supply of ministers. Many 
 were sent at their call. Most of them were graduates of Halle, 
 Heidelberg, and other German Universities, and as a body they 
 were distinguished for their learning. While thus served, the Penn- 
 sylvania congregations were content with the course of rudimentary 
 in.struction pursued in the church schools, without seeking, with the 
 slender means at their command, to establish higher institutions of 
 learning for themselves. Some steps, however, were taken in this 
 .direction. An Academy or High School was opened in German- 
 town in September, 1761. A building for the school and a resi- 
 dence for the masters had been erected by the generous contribu- 
 tions of citizens. Prominent among the most liberal contributors 
 and in the Board of Trustees were Germans. A German depart- 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA VS. ^.. 
 
 ment was organized of which Hilarius Becker was master. Within 
 a month after the school opened there were in this department 
 seventy pupils and in the English department sixty-one. The first 
 effort, in behalf of a higher education for the Germans, made 
 in Philadelphia, was in 1773, by Pastor John Chn'stian Kunze. 
 With a single assistant, Leps, he opened the " German Seminary " 
 with a somewhat pretentious course of study, including German and 
 English, Geography, History, the Natural Sciences, Latin, Greek 
 and French. Friends of the enterprise supported the Seminary 
 with contributions, and it seems to have met with a good degree of 
 success. It closed during the Revolutionary war. Doctors Hel- 
 muth and Schmidt established a private Seminary in 1785. Proba- 
 bly it was built on Pastor Kunze's foundation. For some twenty 
 years, they continued to prepare candidates for the ministry. 
 
 Several German private schools existed, in Philadelphia, before 
 the Revolutionary war. John Michael Enderlein opened one, in 
 1763; John Godfrey Richter, another, in 1764; and, in 1774, still 
 another was opened by Jacob von Lahnen, who flatters himself that 
 his well-known scholarship will bring him many applications. 
 
 Circumstances indicate that the Germans would have done more 
 for higher education, had not the establishment of a College at Phil- 
 adelphia upon a liberal basis, in whose curriculum the German lan- 
 guage was made a prominent study, and in whose chairs German 
 professors were invited to sit, promised them about all they could 
 reasonably expect from a College of their own. Upon the establish- 
 ment of the University, in 1779, further provision was made to meet 
 the wants of German students. The Reformed and Lutheran min- 
 isters of Philadelphia became members of the Board of Trustees; 
 at their instance, a special department was organized, in which pre- 
 paratory instruction was given in the German language, and a pro- 
 fessorship created to carry on this instruction in the same tongue 
 throughout the whole University course. The action of the trustees 
 of the University in making provision for teaching " the learned lan- 
 guages through the medium of the German," was formally ratified 
 by the Legislature in 1785. Kunze was elected to fill the new 
 chair and take charge of the German department; but called soon 
 afterwards to fill a similar position in New York, he was succeeded 
 by Helmuth. The hopes of the Germans in regard to this arrange- 
 ment made for their benefit, are expressed by Rev. John Ludwig 
 Schulze, in his preface to the Halle Reports, written in 1787. He 
 
EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 144 
 
 says: "A German Professor of Philology was established in the 
 University, whose duty it was to give preliminary instructions in 
 science and in the learned languages, by means of the German 
 tongue. Those students who, having successfully passed through 
 the course in the Academy, entered the University, pursued the 
 study of Latin, Greek and Hebrew under his direction." He adds: 
 " This arrangement may be of great advantage to the cultivation of 
 science in general, and specially to the interests of the Germans in 
 America." The project, though at first promising success, did not 
 succeed. The attendance of students in the German department, in 
 1785, was sixty, being in excess of the number of English students, 
 in the corresponding department, in 1786, fifty-four; but in the fol- 
 lowing year it had strangely dwindled down to six. When at the 
 height of its prosperity, the German boys held some public exer- 
 cises which were attended by the authorities of the University, 
 members of the Provincial Assembly and other distinguished per- 
 sons, and gave great satisfaction to a crowded audience. There 
 may have been other causes of the failure, but a potent one doubt- 
 less was the impractability of carrying on, in different languages, 
 two parallel courses of instruction in the same branches in one in- 
 stitution. 
 
 The "German Society of Pennsylvania" was founded in 1764. 
 Its primary object was to look after and care for poor and distressed 
 Germans. Upon its list of members were soon enrolled the names 
 of many of the most learned, most public-spirited and most wealthy 
 Germans of that day, in and around Philadelphia. In performing 
 the duties the Society had voluntarily assumed, the subject of edu- 
 cation must have frequently pressed itself upon the attention of the 
 members, but nothing practical in this direction seems to have been 
 attempted until about the time the Society was incorporated in 1781. 
 At the annual meeting of 1780, the matter was brought forward, 
 and a resolution passed " to send two boys who possess' capacity to 
 study and are recommended by German pastors, to the University 
 at the expense of the Society." At this meeting also arrangements 
 were made for obtaining a charter, in which one of the objects of 
 the Society was stated to be to teach the poor children of Germans 
 to read and write, both in German and English, and " to procure for 
 them such learning and education as would best suit their genius 
 and capacities, and enable them to pursue a course of study in the 
 College of Philadelphia — likewise to establish a library." Prof. 
 
PSIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA VS. i^e 
 
 Seidensticker, in his History of the German Society, calls attention 
 to the fact that this educational movement on the part of the 
 Society started at the same time the more liberal policy was adopted 
 at the University which opened its doors to German students and to 
 teaching in the German language; and he intimates that Dr. Kunze, 
 who was at the head of the German department of the University, 
 and also a prominent member of the Society, may have prompted 
 the action in both cases, which appears to be too closely united to 
 have been accidental. Even more suggestive is the fact that with 
 the failure of the German department of the University, there came 
 into existence Franklin College, in the city of Lancaster, a College 
 for Germans, in a German community. 
 
 The benevolent purposes of the German Society were not dis- 
 turbed by the change at the University. The plan of selecting boys 
 and sending them to school and College was continued for many 
 years. The number of beneficiaries was established at six in 1783, in- 
 creased to eight in 1785 ; but in subsequent years there was a falling 
 off in the number. Up to 1798 the boys were sent exclusively to 
 the University, but after that time permission was granted them to 
 enter other institutions. A few girls were provided for by sending 
 them to suitable schools. The necessary school-books and mathe- 
 matical instruments were furnished by the Society. A considerable 
 annual stipend was at times granted to those who were preparing 
 for the ministry. The Society has continued its good work down 
 to the present time. Its library is very large and valuable — proba- 
 bly the richest in the country in German books. Since 1867, it 
 has supported a system of very flourishing night-schools. 
 
 About the year 1780, a few gentlemen of Lancaster established a 
 select school or an Academy in that city. This formed the nucleus 
 of Franklin College, chartered by an Act of the Legislature in 1787, 
 but it was by no means the controlling influence that secured its 
 foundation. In design, in organization and in instruction, Franklin 
 College was established for the Germans of Pennsylvania as a recog- 
 nition of their worth as citizens and as a means of satisfying their 
 educational necessities. The Preamble to the Act explains the 
 object as follows : " Whereas, the citizens of this State of German 
 birth or education, have eminently contributed, by their industry, 
 economy, and public virtues, to raise the State to its present happi- 
 ness and prosperity; And, whereas, a number of citizens of the 
 above description, in conjunction with others, from a desire to in- 
 
J, 5 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 crease and perpetuate the blessings derived to them from the posses- 
 sion of property and a free government, have applied to this House 
 for a charter of incorporation, and a donation of lands, for the pur- 
 pose of establishing and endowing a College and Charity School, 
 in the borough of Lancaster ; And whereas, the preservation of the 
 principles of the Christian religion, and of our Republican form of 
 government in their purity, depend, under God, in a great measure, 
 on the establishment and support of suitable places of education 
 for the purpose of training up a succession of youth, who by being 
 enabled fully to understand the grounds of both, may be led the 
 more zealously to practice the one, and the more strenuously to 
 defend the other. Therefore, etc." The several sections of the Act 
 provided, among other things, that " the youth shall be taught in 
 the German, English, Latin, Greek, and other learned languages, 
 in Theology, in the useful arts, sciences, and literature;" that 
 the Trustees should be chosen in fixed proportions from the Luth- 
 eran and Reformed Churches, and that the President of the institu- 
 tion should be alternately a Lutheran and a Reformed. The Col- 
 lege was at first endowed with ten thousand acres of land, and a 
 few years later it received as a donation from the State, the old 
 military storehouse in Lancaster, and two lots of ground, estimated 
 to be worth |l2,ooo. The College was opened in 1788, with Rev. 
 Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, D. D., as President, Rev. W. Hendel, 
 D. D., Vice-President, and two Professors, one of Mathematics and 
 one of Latin and Greek. On the opening day there was a great 
 procession, hymns were sung, and speeches were made in German 
 and English. The following is the first stanza of an ode delivered 
 on the occasion: 
 
 Hail, ye Banks of Conestogoe! 
 Fertile, favor'd Region, hail ! 
 Chosen seat of Franklin College, 
 Science never comes alone. 
 
 Peace and Plenty, 
 Heaven itself support her cause. 
 
 Though at times the College seemed to prosper, having as many 
 as one hundred and twenty-five students, its general success was 
 not great. It closed entirely in 182 1, was restored to new life in 
 1839, and in 1850 became merged in what is now known as Frank- 
 lin and Marshall College. 
 
 Franklin College was named in honor of Dr. Franklin, the largest 
 
PHIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EAKL Y DA YS. 147 
 
 contributor to its funds, who traveled all the way from Philadelphia 
 to Lancaster to assist in laying the corner-stone, and had taken 
 a deep interest in the education of the Germans. Its corporate 
 title, "German College and Charity School in the Borough of 
 Lancaster,'' closely corresponded with that of the College in Phil- 
 adelphia where the Germans had previously been educated. The 
 same year, 1788, saw the German department of the University 
 in Philadelphia closed, and the German College at Lancaster 
 opened. Members of the German Society in Philadelphia who 
 had taken the deepest interest in the education of the Germans, 
 became Trustees of the institution at Lancaster. AH these circum- 
 stances seem to point to the conclusion that Franklin College was 
 the culmination of an effort begun long years before, in behalf of 
 higher education among the Germans of Pennsylvania. It failed, 
 doubtless because the time had not yet come when two strong 
 denominations of Christians, differing in their •religious tenets, could 
 cordially unite in the support and management of an educational 
 institution — especially in the support and management ■ of one in 
 which Theology, by a provision in its charter, was reiquired to be 
 taught 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF EDUCATION. THE MORAVIANS. OTHER PLAIN, 
 NON-RESISTANT GERMAN DENOMINATIONS : MENNONITES, AMISH, SCHWENCK- 
 FELDERS, DUNKERS, SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS, ECONOMITES OR SEPARATISTS 
 
 THE Moravian Brethren, both in the old world and the new, have 
 been greatlj' distinguished for their efforts in behalf of educa- 
 tion. From the founding of the Church by the followers of the 
 Bohemian reformer, John Huss, in 1457, down to the present day, 
 no other religious organization, in proportion to membership, has 
 done so much either to provide a good education for its own chil- 
 dren or to plant schools among the heathen in different quarters of 
 the globe. In the beginning the children of the small and scattered 
 congregations were collected for instruction into the houses of the 
 ministers ; next came the peculiar church schools of the Moravian 
 communities, in which children from infancy were boarded and cared 
 for as well as instructed, and, finally, the system was perfected by the 
 establishment of Colleges and Theological Seminaries. The schools 
 were at first designed exclusively for the children of Moravian fam- 
 ilies; but, in the course of years, attracted by their excellence, 
 many not members of the church made application for admission 
 and were received. The early movements of the Brethren in the 
 work of establishing schools were characterized by great zeal, and 
 out of this activity sprang several noted writers on educational sub- 
 jects, among them the celebrated John Amos Comenius, the fore- 
 runner of Basedow, Pestalozzi and Froebel, and the author of many 
 of the reforms that have been introduced into modern methods of 
 teaching. Comenius began his educational career by teaching a 
 school for the Moravians, at Prerau, Moravia, and subsequently be- 
 came a preacher and a bishop, among the Brethren. His pedagogi- 
 cal works were numerous and full of new ideas respecting the proper 
 methods for educating the young. His " Didactica Magna" and his 
 " Novissima Linguarum Methodus" are the mine from which much 
 that is claimed as original by more modern educational writers has 
 
 C148) 
 
PJilVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. j aq 
 
 been gathered ; but his best-known Hterary production is the " Orbis 
 Pictus" published in 1657, still in some places a favorite book for 
 children, and the first attempt, it is believed, to compile a system of 
 "object lessons" to be used in the work of primary instruction. 
 The words of each lesson were illustrated by pictures, the special 
 object of which was "to bring the chief things of the world, and of 
 men's actions in their way of living, directly into the domain of the 
 perceptive faculties.'' Such was the reputation of Comenius, that he 
 received invitations, both from England and Sweden, to take up his 
 residence in those countries and direct the work of reforming educa- 
 tion. Overtures were also made to him to come to America and 
 accept the presidency of Harvard College, or, in the quaint language 
 of Cotton Mather, "to come over into New England and Illummate 
 this Colledge and Country in the Quality of President;" but, owing 
 to the solicitations of the Swedish Ambassador, the " Incomparable 
 Moravian became not an American." 
 
 The terrible cruelties arising from the contending parties and 
 sects that convulsed all Central Europe with their strife, during thp 
 first half of the seventeenth century almost annihilated thepeaccr 
 loving Moravians, and for a hundred years the Church remained a 
 "hidden seed" showing few signs of life. In 1722, a little band of 
 the long-lost Brethren came together and settled at Herrnhut, Sax- 
 ony, on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, who offered theni protec- 
 tion ; and, true to the principles of the ancient church of which they 
 were the remnants, in less than two years, and before providing 
 themselves with a place of worship, they laid the corner-stone of a 
 schoolhouse. As congregations of the "Renewed Church" multi- 
 plied, the old educational spirit was revived, and as soon as possi- 
 ble there came into existence schools of all grades in their home 
 communities, and schools for their converts in foreign countries 
 wherever their missions were planted. 
 
 It was as missionaries to the Creek Indians, in Georgia, that the 
 first Moravians came to America, in 1735. Here they commenced 
 preaching and teaching, but their settlements were broken up, in 
 1739, by the contest between England and Spain for the possession 
 of the country. Attracted by the liberal principles of the Propri- 
 etor, they fled to Pennsylvania, under the lead of Peter Boehler, a 
 graduate of the University of Jena, and a man of great learning and 
 exalted piety, and for a short time were quartered in the houses of 
 their countrymen in and around Germantown. On board the sloop 
 
J ,Q EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 Savannah, on which they came from Geoigia, was the celebrated 
 Methodist preacher, George Whitefield. During the voyage, White- 
 field proposed to Seward, his financial agent, to go to England, for 
 the purpose, among others, of collecting " subscriptions for a negro 
 school in Pennsylvania," where he said he intended to take up land 
 to establish such an institution. Soon after reaching Philadelphia, 
 a tract of five thousand acres located in the forks of the Delaware, 
 and. now constituting Upper Nazareth township, Northampton 
 county, was purchased, and plans made for the contemplated school. 
 This domain was known as the " Barony of Nazareth," and had the 
 right of holding Court Baron, the only manor in the State that ever 
 possessed the privilege. It was then, and is now held, on the con- 
 dition of paying, if demanded, a "red rose in June of each year for- 
 ever. 
 
 Doubtless, during the long voyage of twelve days from Savan- 
 nah to Philadelphia, the project of the Negro School was spoken 
 of before the Moravian Brethren, possibly discussed with them. 
 Certain it is, that within ten days after their arrival at Philadelphia, 
 the land was purchased as stated, and an agreement entered into 
 with Peter Boehler and his band of Brethren to build the school- 
 house. On the thirtieth day of May, 1740, the Brethren, consist- 
 ing of eleven persons, of whom two were women and three boys, 
 one of the latter being David Zeisberger, afterwards the distin- 
 guished missionary, encamped on the tract, constructed some rude 
 huts for shelter, and almost immediately commenced work on the 
 building designed for the school, a building which still stands, and 
 is appropriately used as a " Missionary Home," and as a place for 
 the meetings and collections of the Moravian Historical Society. 
 Thus, the Moravians settled in Pennsylvania. In the spring of 
 1741, they bought five hundred acres of land for themselves, where 
 Bethlehem now stands; two years afterwards the Whitefield tract 
 came into their hands, and branch colonies were settled at several 
 points near Nazareth and Bethlehem, and at Litiz, Lancaster 
 county, and elsewhere, and they entered upon a career, honorable 
 to them in all respects, but of which little can be said here except 
 so far as concerns the interests of education. 
 
 Before speaking in any detail of what the Moravians have done 
 for education in Pennsylvania, it may be well to give some explana- 
 tion of the peculiar features of their early church organization which 
 has had much to do in shaping their educational policy. As was 
 
PHIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 151 
 
 their custom in Europe, for more than twenty years after their arri- 
 val in Pennsylvania, the Moravians in their different settlements 
 constituted a body politic without individual interests, an " Econ- 
 omy," each member of the community agreeing to live and labor 
 as one of a family, receiving in return the necessaries of life, instruc- 
 tion for his children, attendance when sick, and support in poverty 
 and old age. The surrender of personal property was not required ; 
 but the Society owned all the real estate, and received into its 
 treasury the product of the combined labor of the community. In 
 all this there was no selfish purpose, for the whole profit went, not 
 to enrich the corporation or to constitute a fund for future division 
 among individuals, but to carry on the work of the Church. This 
 explains how the money was raised to enable the Brethren to carry 
 on their vast scheme of missionary work, and why there were con- 
 nected with the early Moravian settlements Brothers' Houses, Sis- 
 ters' Houses, Nurseries for Infants, Boarding Schools for Youth, 
 etc. Parents placed their children in the Nurseries at the age of 
 one or two years, and here they were fed, clothed, instructed, and 
 cared for at the common expense, and by officers selected to per- 
 form this duty by the congregations. When a child arrived at a 
 certain age, he was transferred to a higher department, called a 
 " Boarding School," and there received further instruction suited to 
 his requirements. This plan of bringing up children, whatever 
 objections may be made to it on other accounts, was admirably 
 calculated to develop talent for teaching, and to evolve sound prin- 
 ciples and correct methods of instruction. The Nursery feature of 
 the early Moravian Economy was soon abandoned in this country; 
 but in its place many congregations established Parochial Schools 
 similar to those of other churches, but including departments for 
 infants. The teaching of the primary classes continued to be in 
 advance of the age, being conducted somewhat after the methods 
 of the Kindergarten, the object being " to employ the little ones 
 with, short, easy lessons, and to awaken their faculties." The 
 "Boarding Schools" were continued, but they underwent some 
 change, and eventually became Boarding Schools in the usual sense 
 of the term, opening their doors to all applicants of suitable age and 
 acquirements. Throughout their whole history, the Moravians 
 have been distinguished for their labors in the missionary field, and 
 it is a fact worthy of note that the Brethren selected for this service 
 have generally been teachers as well as preachers, and seem to have 
 
J - 2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 relied as an agent in their good work quite as much upon the 
 school as upon the church. Indeed, not unfrequently in commenc- 
 ing operations in heathen lands, they reversed the common order 
 and began with a school. 
 
 The first Moravian school in Pennsylvania, or in this country, 
 was a "Boarding School" opened at Germantown, in Bechtel's 
 house, then occupied by Count Zinzendorf, in the spring of 1742. 
 This was done in accordance with a resolution adopted by the Ger- 
 mantown Moravians, on the seventeenth of April, "To commence a 
 school in Germantown on the model of the Brethren's schools in 
 Germany." On the fourteenth of May following, the school was 
 opened by Zinzendorf, who had previously invited, in a printed cir- 
 cular, parents interested in the subject, those especially " who desire 
 to see their children better cared for without hindrance to their do- 
 mestic affairs," to consult with him concerning the matter, with 
 twenty-five girls, his daughter, the Countess Benigna, then only six- 
 teen years of age, being one of the teachers. The location of the 
 school seems to have been changed in 1746. A year later there 
 were fifty children in attendance, boys and girls, more than one- 
 half of them being boarders, including two Mohegan Indian girls. 
 There were pupils from Philadelphia, New York, Lancaster and 
 other places. Among the rules were the following : " Parents are 
 desired not to visit their children frequently, as it does them no 
 good; parents are desired not to give their children expensive pres- 
 ents, and thus avoid dissatisfaction ; the children are to attend meet- 
 ings Sunday morning and afternoon." Other similar schools were 
 soon after established in the neighboring counties. 
 
 A " Boarding School " was opened in the " stone house," Naza- 
 reth, designed for Whitefield's Negro School, on the twenty-eighth 
 of March, 1745, with eighteen pupils. By the following year the 
 number of pupils had increased to twenty-eight, among whom 
 were Beata, Quatsch'l, Martha, Little Dove, Mary Spangen- 
 berg, an adopted daughter of Bishop Spangenberg, and Sarah, 
 Indians. In 1749, the infants under the care of the Church, fifty- 
 six in number, were taken from the Nursery at Bethlehem, which 
 had been established several years previously, and provided with 
 accommodations at Nazareth, in the same building occupied by the 
 " Boarding School," the older children remaining under instruction 
 at Bethlehem. The breaking out of the Indian war, in 1755, caused 
 the removal of all the Nazareth children to Bethlehem, but they 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. jt^ 
 
 returned the next year. A distinct Boarding School for girls was 
 opened at Bethlehem in 1749 with sixteen pupils, mostly the daugh- 
 ters of missionaries, ministers and Brethren living at a distance. In 
 1759, the "little girls" were taken back to Bethlehem, and, with the 
 older girls already under instruction there, constituted, without 
 doubt, the foundation of the Seminary for Young Ladies at that 
 place, which has had so long and so successful a career. The boys 
 remained at Nazareth, and this little acorn in good time developed 
 into the great oak of Nazareth Hall. 
 
 The first building in Bethlehem, erected specially for a school- 
 house, was commenced in 1745 and finished the next year. It was 
 two stories high, with a door and two windows on the first story, 
 and three windows on the second. Nothing could- be more plain, 
 but how great the work that was begun in it! 
 
 Acrelius, the well-known Swedish minister, who visited Bethle- 
 hem in 1753, gives the following account of what he saw connected 
 with the schools. He speaks of having been kindly received and 
 entertained by Benzien, the Brethren's secretary, and adds : " After 
 our meal we made our way up to Bethlehem. It was two o'clock, 
 and the children were assembled in the church. They came two 
 and two together holding each other's hands, the boys and girls 
 through different doors. The boys were divided between seven or 
 eight masters, each of whom had hold of a boy's hand as they were 
 going. Without doubt, these boys were especially recommended 
 before all the others. The girls came in like manner with their 
 mistresses. Among the boys were two mulatto children and an 
 Indian. The dress of the children had nothing special about it, 
 except that the girls had the same kind of caps as those of the 
 women already mentioned, with green ribbons under the chin. 
 Their mistresses had red ribbons. The number of boys and girls 
 was about equal, altogether one hundred and forty-four. In that 
 meeting none of the congregation were present except the children 
 and the teachers." And further: "Benzien said that they had a 
 house for women who were lying-in, where they .staid with the chil- 
 dren as long as they were at the breast. After that the children 
 were taken to Nazareth and remained in the Children House until 
 they are brought back to Bethlehem again, as we had seen that 
 day. The man who read the song for them in the church is called 
 the ' Father of the children in Nazareth.' He has oversight of their 
 treatment. In Bethlehem they are under the care of the masters 
 and mistresses as we saw." 
 
J ^ ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 In additioB to the schools at Bethlehem and Nazareth there was 
 a school for boys at Frederickstown, now Montgomery county, for 
 Loskiel says, "In 1749, thirteen Indian boys, educated in the 
 schools at Bethlehem, Nazareth and Frederickstown, were with a 
 negro boy baptized." 
 
 A school was established by the Moravians, at Oley, Berks 
 county, as early, it is thought, as 1742. It was evidently intended 
 for a "Boarding School" as the second school building, begtm in 
 1748, was forty-one feet square and three stories high, and built on 
 a lot containing sixteen acres. In an upper story there was a hall 
 for public worship. At the time of the erection of this building 
 thirty-eight children were in attendance. Another schoolhouse was 
 erected at Manguntsche, now Emmaus, in Lehigh county, in 1746, 
 and the next year Christian Heyne and Mary Heyne entered upon 
 their duty as teachers. 
 
 Bishop Spangenberg organized a congregation of Moravians at 
 Lancaster, in 1745, and a year later a church and a schoolhouse were 
 built at the corner of Orange and Market streets. Nixdorf was the 
 first teacher. The schoolhouse was used as a parsonage until 1849 
 and is still standing. The Moravians built a schoolhouse at Muddy 
 Creek, near Reamstown, Lancaster county, in 1745. The teachers 
 used a part of the schoolhouse as a dwelling, and in the absence of 
 a regular minister, sometimes, on Sundays, gave religious instruc- 
 tion to the people of the neighborhood. About 1744, a Moravian 
 church and schoolhouse were erected near Milton Grove, Mount 
 Joy township, Lancaster county. Here a kind of Sunday-school 
 was established by one of the earliest pastors. Rev. Jacob Lishey, 
 who " was accustomed to meet the youth of his congregation on the 
 Sabbath, not merely for catechetical exercise, but for recitation from 
 the Bible, accompanied with familiar instruction suited to the capac- 
 ities of the young. In this exercise he was often assisted by mem- 
 bers of the church." The venerable church still stands. Other 
 schools were established about the same time at York, Lebanon, 
 Heidelberg, Miihlbach, and most likely elsewhere, for it was an es- 
 sential feature of the policy of the two great leaders of the early 
 Moravians in Pennsylvania, Zinzendorf and Spangenberg, to estab- 
 lish schools wherever they organized a congregation or posted a 
 preaching station. In the outskirts of Lebanon, an old stone build- 
 ing still stands which was used in 1750, and for many years there- 
 after as a dwelling house, a schoolhouse and a church. In 1761, 
 
PJilVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 155 
 
 and most likely earlier, the Moravians had a school in connection 
 with the church in Philadelphia. 
 
 A building was erected by the Moravians, in 1747, on three and 
 three-quarters acres of land, given by George Kline, in Warwick 
 township, near Litiz, Lancaster county, for the purposes of a dwell- 
 ing, a church and a schoolhouse. Rev. Leonhard Schnell, in 1748, 
 lived in it, preached aad lauglit school. His pupils at first num- 
 bered seven, four boys and three girls. In 1754, Mr. £Hne donated 
 his fine farm of more than six hundred acres for the purpose of or- 
 ganizing a religious establishment like that at Bethlehem, and soon 
 thereafter, Litiz was founded. The building already erected for a 
 church and school was removed to the village, and long served as a 
 schoolhouse for children who did not belong to the Society and as 
 a dwelling for the master. The Brethren provided schools for their 
 own children separately, using for the purpose apartments in the 
 Brothers' and Sisters' Houses ; and these no doubt were the begin- 
 ning of the excellent institutions that have made the name of Litiz 
 known as an educational centre throughout the whole country. A 
 writer, speaking from personal knowledge of the school in the 
 Brothers' house, says: "In the room in which the boys resided, 
 there were generally three overseers, whose duty it was to guard 
 their morals, and guide them in the path of virtue and religion, go 
 with them to church, and, during the winter season, to devote three 
 evenings in the week to instructing them in useful knowledge. 
 These boys were partly employed in the town, and partly in the 
 House, in learning various mechanical trades. In the rear of the 
 building there are several houses, which were formerly occupied as 
 shops for cabinet makers, chair makers, weavers, etc. The shoe- 
 makers and tailors had their shops in the house. There also be- 
 longed to it a very extensive farm, on which a number were em- 
 ployed." Thus, it appears that these old Moravian Brethren solved 
 practically, more than a century ago, the question of industrial edu- 
 cation, so much of a puzzle to modern educators. 
 
 The three schools of a higher order in Pennsylvania now con- 
 trolled by the Moravian Church, not including the College to be 
 hereafter spoken of, are Nazareth Hall, Nazareth, the Seminary for 
 Young Ladies, Bethlehem, and Linden Hall, Litiz, the two former 
 opened on their present foundation in 1785, and the latter in 1794. 
 All of them are primarily designed to educate youth for the 
 Brethren's congregations, but the children of other denominations 
 
J -6 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 are admitted to their privileges. Their general direction is in the 
 hands of the Church, and the Church selects their Principals and 
 teachers. The original family feature of the schools is still pre- 
 served, and the pupils are constantly under inspection, " i)ot only 
 in school hours, but at all other- times." The following from the 
 regulations of the Seminary at Bethlehem, adopted in 1788, will 
 show the spirit in which these old institutions were conducted in 
 the early days: 
 
 As we have no servants to wait on our children, and we deem it well for 
 young persons to learn to wait on themselves, one of our daughters from each 
 room is appointed daily to sweep the room, dust the tables, and see to the 
 proper disposition of the desks and chairs. After breakfast, each pupil 
 attends in person to making her bed, and the different companies repair to 
 their respective dormitories in company with their tutoresses. 
 
 At eight o'clock the bell rings for school, and it is expected that the pupils 
 have in readiness betimes what they need for recitation — that they repair 
 quietly to their classes, take their allotted seats, and, rather than indulge in 
 noise and idle talk, silently implore God's blessing and aid, so that they may 
 engage with pleasure and profit in the duties before them. 
 
 After school your tutoresses will always do you the pleasure of accompany- 
 ing you to walk, on which occasion you should leave the premises quietly, 
 and, while in the streets, manifest, by your whole deportment, respect for the 
 quiet of the place, whereby you will win the esteem of the residents and do 
 credit to those who are concerned in your training. 
 
 I hope all our daughters regularly engage in evening devotions before retir- 
 ing for the day, and, after these, in a composed and serious frame of mind, 
 commit themselves to the safe-keeping of God. 
 
 NAZARETH HALL, 1 785. 
 
 Nazareth Hall was originally designed as a residence for Count 
 Zinzendorf, but was never occupied by him as such. School has 
 been kept in it almost from the time of its erection. In 1759, it was 
 a "Boarding School" with about ninety children; in 1764, it became 
 a church school in which "were to be educated not only skillful 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 157 
 
 mechanics, but also assistants in the work of the Lord," and had at 
 one time an attendance of over a hundred pupils with sixteen 
 teachers; in 1779, it closed and remained closed for several years. 
 The school under its present form of organization began, in 1785, 
 with two teachers and eleven pupils; but this number was soon 
 largely increased, and, up to 1876, upwards of three thousand young 
 men had been educated within its walls. In 1807, a Theological 
 and a Normal department were added to the school ; the former has 
 been discontinued, but those desiring it can still receive such instruc- 
 tion as is deemed best to fit them for the profession of teaching. 
 The Hall has been remodeled to suit its modern requirements and 
 additions have been made to it as needed, so that the whole, front- 
 ing a beautiful lawn, now presents quite an imposing and attractive 
 appearance. A farm of forty acres belongs to the institution, and it 
 possesses valuable libraries and a fine collection of philosophical 
 apparatus. 
 
 The Seminary at Bethlehem took the place of the preexisting 
 "Boarding School" for girls, established in 1749. On its old founda- 
 tion it was open only to the daughters of Moravians; in 1785, pro- 
 vision was made for admitting all who were found qualified, without 
 regard to sect. But whether dating from 1749 or 1785, this Semi- 
 nary was one of the very first institutions of the kind in America. 
 Like its twin brother, the Hall at Nazareth, its beginnings were 
 small, "five of the inmates of the former institution and fifteen day 
 scholars, in charge of three tutoresses, constituted the whole house- 
 hold." Only two non-Moravian pupils entered the first year. The 
 school was opened in a plain, old structure, built in 1742. The 
 charge for boarding and common schooling, in 1790, was £20 
 Pennsylvania currency per annum. Beds and bedding, knives and 
 forks, coffee, sugar and tea were not included in this charge. By 
 "common schooling" was meant instruction in "Reading Writing, 
 Grammar, History, Geography, Arithmetic, plain sewing and knit- 
 ting." Special days were set apart for spinning and weaving. A 
 piece of needle-work made by the young ladies and presented, in 
 1826, to the wife of the President of the United States, Mrs. John 
 Quin'cy Adams, was complimented by that highly cultivated lady as 
 being a work " in which the purest taste and neatest execution are 
 conspicuous." In 1815, the institution was removed to the present 
 site, a four-storied building, built in 1748 for the "Single Brethren's 
 Economy." In connection with it were purchased six acres of 
 
IS8 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 ground, a part of which now constitutes the beautiful park and 
 pleasure-grounds of the Seminary. Extensive additions have been 
 made to the buildings from time to time, and while care has been 
 taken to preserve the old with its inspiring associations and tradi- 
 tions, the new has been fitted up with all the conveniences and taste 
 of modern public buildings. The school will complete the first 
 hundred years of its existence with the proud record of more than 
 seven thousand students on its rolls. 
 
 MORAVIAN SEMINARY, BETHLEHEM, 1 749. 
 
 At its opening, in 1794, Linden Hall, at Litiz, occupied apart- 
 ments in connection with the Sisters' House. In 1804, a large 
 additional building was erected. Attached to it there is a pleasant 
 playground. The school is well equipped with libraries and appa- 
 ratus. The full course of study conforms to the standard adopted 
 by Harvard University in its "Preliminary Examinations for 
 Women." Music, Plain and Ornamental Needle-work, Drawing 
 and Painting, are specialties. Up to the present time there has 
 been an attendance of over six thousand pupils. As in other Mo- 
 ravian Bqarding Schools, "The pupils and teachers of the Seminary 
 constitute one household, at the head of which stand the Principal 
 and his wife. The pupils are divided, mainly according to age, into 
 smaller families or 'Rooms,' numbering usually about thirteen, 
 over each of which two teachers preside. For purposes of com- 
 panionship, assistance and control, one of these teachers is always 
 present in the room, and she accompanies her charge in their daily 
 walks, to meals, and to chapel and church. The teachers sleep in 
 the same dormitory with the pupils." 
 
PSIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. j jg 
 
 In 1815, John Beck, who had previously followed the trade of a 
 blacksmith, was induced by some who discerned his hidden fitness 
 for the place, to take charge of the village school at Litiz. With 
 comparatively little acquired learning to start with, he soon proved 
 himself a born teacher, and achieved great success in his profes- 
 sion. His school first became very popular at home, and soon 
 pupils began to come to it from abroad. The old house was 
 exchanged for a new one. This was speedily filled to overflowing 
 by pupils from many States ; then the use of the large Brothers' 
 House was obtained, and in these buildings there was conducted, 
 under the supervision of Mr. Beck, for more than fiftj' years, one 
 of the most remarkable schools ever established in Pennsylvania. 
 Not specially distinguished for breadth in its course of study or thor- 
 oughness in its methods of instruction, its high moral tone, and the 
 inspiration of its teaching, gave it a wide reputation as one of the 
 best schools in the country for the education of boys. It was never 
 under Church control, but it was carried on in conformity with the 
 spirit and method of the Moravian schools. 
 
 Some account will be given elsewhere of the schools for Indians 
 established by the Moravian missions. 
 
 OTHER PLAIN, NON-RESISTANT GERMAN DENOMINATIONS. 
 
 Contemporary with the Moravians, and similar to them in many 
 respects, with roots like theirs extending back to the time of the 
 Waldenses and the Hussites, there grew up during the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, among the German- speaking people of 
 Europe, a number of small sects and loosely-organized bodies of 
 individuals, who differed in their religious views not only from the 
 Catholics, but from the leaders of the Reformation, Luther, Me- 
 lanchthon, Zwinglius, and Calvin. Among them were extremists, 
 disposed to break loose from all restraints either of Church or 
 State and to be a law unto themselves ; to trample under their feet 
 religious forms, ceremonies and doctrines till then considered sacred, 
 and civil institutions previously thought to be essential to the very 
 existence of society; and to set up independently communities of 
 saints or holy men, after the manner, as they claimed, of the prim- 
 itive Christians. These were the religious nihilists of the day, a 
 natural result of the reaction of the individual human will against 
 the centralized power and unlimited prerogatives of the Roman 
 hierarchy. A slave unfettered is apt to abuse his liberty. But the 
 
1 60 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 greater portion of the people of whom we speak were far from being 
 w^ild ^natics. They were right-minded, sober, sincere, and honest— 
 the very salt of the age in which they lived. Broken up as to their 
 old religious life and faith by the wonderful revolution that had 
 swept and was still sweeping over all eastern and central Europe, 
 they could not find that rest and peace which their souls craved in 
 the new doctrines of Luther and his co-workers in the great reform. 
 They sought a less formal and more spiritual faith. They accepted 
 the Bible as the Word of God, but they claimed the right to inter- 
 pret it by the inner light of God's Spirit; they believed in Jesus 
 Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of men, but they looked upon 
 the common doctrine relating to the origin of his human nature as 
 derogatory to his divine character; they sought a Church whose 
 members, introduced voluntarily by the solemn rite of baptism, 
 should be without exception mature Christians, conscious of their 
 high responsibilities ; they were opposed to a union of Church and 
 State, would not engage in war, go to law, hold a civil office, or 
 take an oath ; they dressed and lived in the plainest manner, and 
 were disposed to have little intercourse with the outside world, if 
 not to hold all property in common. These words describe their 
 genei-al characteristics : they differed among themselves, and pre- 
 sented for many years the remarkable phenomenon of a multitude 
 of sects, larger and smaller, with names ; and a number of unorgan- 
 ized fragmentary bodies without them. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, these peaceful Christians and law-abiding 
 citizens were dreadfully persecuted. .Their property was confis- 
 cated; bodies of their men, women, and children, were driven from 
 country to country like wild beasts; multitudes innocent of any- 
 thing which could be called an offence at this day, were imprisoned, 
 tortured in the most cruel manner, hanged, drowned and burned at 
 the stake. Their "Book of Martyrs" is a record of cruelties 
 scarcely exceeded by the dreadful deeds of the Inquisition. The 
 sufferings endured by the Pilgrim Fathers, and even by the foUow- 
 ers of Fox and Penn, seem insignificant in comparison. And the 
 strange part of the story is that they suffered by the hands of Pro- 
 testants as well as by the hands of Catholics, the Spaniards in the 
 Netherlands treating them with scarcely more severity than the Cal- 
 vinists in Switzerland or the Lutherans in parts of Germany; but 
 this sad tale must be left to be told by others. 
 
 Earlier in origin than the Friends, but much like them in doctrine 
 
PRIi^A TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. j g j 
 
 and mode of life, born in similar circumstances, it was natural, when 
 these plain, non-resistant German Christians were made acquainted 
 with the settlement of Pennsylvania and with the privilege there 
 granted to all denominations of worshiping God in their own way 
 without hindrance, that they should seek homes and the peace they 
 longed for in the Promised Land of the new world. Besides, Penn 
 himself, who with other Quaker ministers had visited Holland and 
 Germany, preached in their meeting-houses and held social inter- 
 course with some of them at their homes, gave them a special invi- 
 tation to settle on his lands in America. 
 
 The first comers were Dutch or German Quakers, many of them 
 doubtless originally Mennonites, who, under the lead of Pastorius, 
 settled at Germantown. These were soon followed by Mennonites, 
 who constituted one-half of the first purchasers of land in that 
 vicinity, Amish, Schwenckfelders, Bunkers, and a number of smaller 
 sects of like peculiarities who were called by other names. In time 
 their descendants greatly increased and spread out into many parts 
 of the State. No history of education in Pennsylvania could be 
 complete, without some account of what was done by this interest- 
 ing element of the population. 
 
 The founders of the religious denominations of which we are 
 speaking and many of the leaders among their members forming 
 settlements in this country, were men who had been liberally edu- 
 cated. Pastorius was made a Doctor of Laws at Nuremberg in 
 1676, and was master of the principal ancient and modern lan- 
 guages. His friends, the mystic hermits, Kelpius and Seelig, were 
 scarcely less learned than himself. Daniel Falkner had a taste 
 for learning as well as a talent for business, and Christian Lehman 
 was a mathematician and an astronomer, in spite of the supersti- 
 tious notion he entertained that he was also a "diviner" and could 
 "cast nativities." Menno Simon was a learned Catholic priest before 
 he became the founder of the plain sect that bears his name; Dr. 
 Galenus Abrahams de Haan, of Amsterdam, emrnent alike for his 
 learning, his piety and his benevolence, was a Mennonite preacher 
 from 1648 to 1706; and the first Mennonite preachers in this coun- 
 try, Willem Rittinghausen, Peter Kolb, Jacob Telner, Jacob Gaet- 
 schalck, Heinrich Funk, Dielman Kolb, Yilles Kassel and others, 
 seem to have been well educated and men of consequence as well as 
 pious Christians. The first-named built, in 1690, on a branch of the 
 Wissahickon Creek, the first p«iper mill in America, and from his 
 
J 52 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 family descended David Rittenhouse. the noted Pennsylvania as- 
 tronomer; and Heinrich Funk and Dielman Kolb superintended the 
 translation and publication of the "Blutige Schau-Platz," or Martyrs' 
 Mirror, at Ephrata. Alexander Mack, the most prominent among 
 the founders of the Dunkers, who came to Pennsylvania in 1729, 
 appears to have been a man of learning and ability, as was also his 
 son Alexander. Not less distinguished for these qualities was Peter 
 Becker, who led about twenty families of the Dunker Brethren to 
 Pennsylvania in 1719. Conrad Beissel, the founder of the commun- 
 ity of Seventh-Day Baptists at Ephrata, was educated at the Uni- 
 versity of Halle, and his successor in its leadership, Peter Miller, 
 was a very learned man and became a member of the American 
 Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia. Caspar de Schwenkfeldt, 
 after whom the Schwenkfelders take their name, born a nobleman, 
 was liberally educated according to his rank. His followers were 
 men of more than average intelligence. Indeed, it is only just to 
 say that among all these plain people in the early days there were 
 many who concealed under their simple dress and manner of life 
 scholarly attainments of no ordinary character. 
 
 But notwithstanding there were highly educated men among the 
 founders and earlier members of the plain German denominations 
 here spoken of, the fact remains that as denominations those who 
 settled in Pennsylvania have been characterized by their opposition 
 to higher education — in some cases by determined and bitter oppo- 
 sition. This opposition never extended to elementary education, 
 few grown persons could be found among them at any time who 
 could not read, and the men of every period, almost without excep- 
 tion, if not the women, could write and keep accounts. "There 
 is scarcely an instance of a German, of either sex, in Pennsylvania," 
 says Dr. Rush, in his " Manners of the Pennsylvania Germans," 
 written in 1789, "that cannot read; but many of the wives and 
 daughters of the German farmers cannot write." Children were 
 sometimes taught at home by their parents, but generally schools 
 were either opened in -connection with the churches, or the unsec- 
 tarian neighborhood schools were patronized. Sufficient facts will 
 be given further on to show that in this elementary form education 
 was no more neglected by this class of German settlers than by 
 others of different denominations ; and when neglected, no part of 
 the reason grew out of a desire to remain in ignorance. 
 
 The principal grounds upon which they based their opposition to 
 higher education are the following : 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. 163 
 
 The institutions of learning with which they had been acquainted 
 in the Old World were either under State or Church control. 
 They looked upon them as political or ecclesiastical agencies. 
 They had good reason to fear both. Learned men from these 
 institutions had been their most bitter enemies, and had in many 
 cases led in the merciless persecution so long waged against them ; 
 and having escaped beyond the reach of their anger, they wished 
 to live simple, peaceful lives, as far away as possible from what 
 they supposed to be one of the causes of their sufferings. 
 
 They discarded the Theological school, and consequently the 
 College as an auxiliary to it. These might aid in the interpretation 
 of the dead letter of the Scriptures, but their thirst was for the 
 fi^sh fountain that flows from the ever-living Spirit of God in the 
 human soul. If fishermen, Peter and Andrew, James and John, 
 could leave their nets on the sea of Galilee at the command of their 
 Master, seventeen hundred years before, to become "fishers of men," 
 they thought plain men in their day, without artificial help, might 
 answer the sacred call to preach the Gospel. 
 
 Higher learning, as it had appeared to them, was full of world! i- 
 ness, of pride, of boasting, of formalism in religion, as well as of 
 bigotry and persecution, and they deemed it an obstacle in the way 
 of the simple life they desired to live, and as calculated to disturb 
 the quiet of that childlike trust in God which they earnestly sought. 
 That in particular individuals learning might exist in connection with 
 the highest type of religion, as in the case of St. Paul, they did not 
 deny; but their experience with learned men had been that of the 
 primitive Christians with St. Paul before his conversion, not after- 
 wards, and they were afraid of them. Indeed, guided in divine things, 
 as they thought, by the direct light of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of 
 this world seemed like a mere will o' the wisp, misleading while it 
 lasts and finally dissolving in darkness. Of what value, they inquired, 
 are the uncertainties of human knowledge compared with God's high- 
 est and holiest truth, which comes down from Heaven to the wait- 
 ing soul like a flash of light? 
 
 Let it be admitted that in all this, these simple-hearted Christians 
 mistook the abuse of learning fqr its use; but he who will take the 
 pains to understand their history and their faith will cease to wonder 
 at the position they assumed, much less blame them for it. The 
 day came when their views on the subject underwent a change, and 
 time alone is now wanting to enable them to see clearly that what- 
 
jg EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 ever God could in his wisdom create, his creatures may study with 
 profit, that he may be found and worshiped as well in his works as 
 in his Word, and the highest duty of a human being is to fit both 
 mind and soul for usefulness here as well as for happiness hereafter. 
 
 THE MENNONITES. 
 
 A little colony of twenty-five Mennonites, from Amsterdam, set- 
 tled at Horekill, on Delaware Bay, in the year 1662, twenty years 
 before the coming of Penn. Two years later the settlement was 
 completely broken up by the English under Sir Robert Carr. 
 Nothing is known of the fate of the colonists, with a single excep- 
 tion. In 1694, there came to the Mennonites at Germantown, an 
 old blind man accompanied by his wife. They had been wanderers 
 in the American wilderness for thirty years. The Brethren gave 
 them a lot of ground and built them a house upon it, that their last 
 days might be days of peace. The man's name was Cornelis Plock- 
 hoy, the leader of the Mennonite colony at Horekill. 
 
 Upon the invitation of Penn, Mennonites from Holland and Ger- 
 many settled at Germantown, in 1683. They were soon joined by 
 others, many of whom received assistance in coming to Pennsyl- 
 vania from their own Brethren in Holland, and considerable numbers 
 were aided by the Society of Friends both in England and America. 
 The first comers received the allotment of the land purchased in 
 their behalf, and, with their friends, the Dutch and German Quakers, 
 immediately commenced the work of digging cellars and building 
 huts. They no doubt had religious exercises from the first in some 
 quiet, unostentatious manner, of which history has no record; but, 
 in 1706, they erected a small log meeting-house, which was also 
 used as a schoolhouse. That they were not indifferent at that early 
 day to the education of their children or to the injunction thereto 
 of their founder, Menno Simon, appears from a . letter to the 
 Brethren in Amsterdam, dated September 3, 1708, and signed by 
 Jacob Gaetschalck, Harmen Karsdorp, Martin Kolb, Isaac Van 
 Sintern and Conradt Jansen, presenting a loving and friendly 
 request for " some Catechisms for the children and little Testaments 
 for the young." In 1740, the school was taught by Christopher 
 Dock. 
 
 In 1702, a settlement of Mennonites was begun at Skippack, 
 Perkiomen township, Montgomery county. Over six thousand 
 acres of land in that neighborhood haid been purchased by Matthias 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA VS. jgt 
 
 Van Bebber, a wealthy Mennonite, who gave one hundred acres for 
 a Mennonite meeting-house. The meeting-house was erected in 
 1725. Connected with it there was a noted school long taught by 
 Christopher Dock, "the pious schoolmaster of the Skippack." Dock 
 is the author of the first book relating to the management of schools 
 published in this country. His work was printed by Sower, at 
 Germantown, 1770. Dock was a Mennonite who came to Pennsyl- 
 vania in 1 7 14. He probably commenced teaching school among 
 the Mennonites on the Skippack soon after his arrival, certainly as 
 early as 1718. After teaching ten years, he bought a farm; but as 
 a farmer he felt himself out of the line of his duty, and returned to 
 the school room, where he remained to the end of his days — where, 
 indeed, he died"; for remaining one evening, after dismissing his 
 school, to pray, as was his custom, he was found dead upon his 
 knees. 
 
 Branching out from the settlements at Germantown and along the 
 Skippack, the Mennonites scattered into the adjoining counties, and 
 wherever they went they built churches and established schools. 
 Before 1740, the Mennonites established a school in Upper Hanover, 
 Montgomery county ; and there are records showing that about the 
 same time they erected buildings for church and school purposes in 
 Lehigh county, one between Coopersburg and Centre Valley, and 
 the other in Upper Milford. The latter was built of logs and 
 divided into two apartments by a swinging partition suspended from 
 the ceiling. One apartment was used for religious meetings and 
 the other for a school. If the occasion required it,, both could be 
 thrown together. The Mennonites of Bedminister, Bucks county, 
 built a stone meeting-house in 1776, and opened a school in it. A 
 little later there was a school connected with the Mennonite meet- 
 ing-house in Schuylkill township, Chester county. Towards the 
 close of the last century, the American Mennonites informed the 
 publisher of the " Name Lists of the Mennonite Preachers," in Hol- 
 land, that they then had distinct communities at, as they named 
 them, Mateschen, Indian Creek, Plain, Sal ford, Rockhill, Schwanin, 
 Deep Run, Perkasie. Aufrieds, Great Swamp, Saucon, Lower Mill- 
 ford, with two meetir^-houses, Hosensak, Lehigh, Term and 
 Schuylkill,— all offshoots probably of the parent communities at 
 Germantown and Skippack. Whether all these communities sup- 
 . ported schools of their own, or whether they joined with their 
 neighbors in the support of common schools, cannot now be ascer- 
 
jgg EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 tained. It is known, however, that there was a Mennonite school 
 at Saucon, Lehigh county, as early as 1745, and one at Salford, 
 Montgomery county, about as old ; and there is no doubt that all the 
 children in the several communities learned at least to read and 
 
 write. 
 
 The earliest Mennonite settlers at Germantown and Skippack 
 were mostly from Holland, or from parts of Germany adjacent to 
 Holland in which the Dutch language was spoken. A little later, 
 Germans from the Palatinate, most of whom had been previously 
 driven from Switzerland, began to arrive at Philadelphia in consider- 
 able numbers. Many of them sought homes in Lancaster county, 
 and formed settlements in what was then an unbroken wilderness, 
 along the Pequea and the Conestoga. It was of these complaint 
 was made to Governor Gordon, in 1727, by persons totally ignorant 
 of their character, alleging, "That a large number of Germans, 
 peculiar in their dress, religion and notions of political government, 
 had settled on Pequea, and determined not to obey lawful authority 
 of government ; that they had resolved to speak their own language, 
 and acknowledge no sovereign but the Creator of the universe." 
 The first settlements of the Swiss Mennonites in Lancaster county 
 were made in 1709 or 1710. Finding the soil fertile, the climate 
 pleasant, and the government willing to concede to them all the 
 civil and religious liberty they desired, word and messengers were 
 sant to their Brethren in the Old World and large numbers flocked 
 te Pennsylvania. They soon had possession of the best lands in all 
 parts of Lancaster county, and spread out into Berks, Lebanon, and 
 Dauphin, and over and up the Susquehanna, everywhere prosperous, 
 everywhere loyal, peaceful citizens, and everywhere providing them- 
 selves with churches and such school facilities as enabled them to 
 read the Scriptures and to transact the business incident to their 
 quiet mode of life. They kept no records relating to schools, and 
 to give a full account at this day of what they did for education is 
 impossible. Soon after the Revolutionary war, they reported to the 
 Brethren in Holland forty communities in the neighborhood of the 
 Conestoga, including probably all their settlements in Lancaster and 
 the adjoining counties. It is hardly likelyv that every one of these 
 communities was supplied with a church and a school ; but it is cer- 
 tain that most of them were. Intelligent old men among the 
 Mennonites unite in declaring that every old Mennonite meeting- 
 house was either used as a schoolhouse, or there was a school con- 
 
PJilVA TK EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. 167 
 
 nected with it or in the neighborhood supported by the Mennonites. 
 When living in isolated families or in small communities, the early 
 Mennonites freely joined with their neighbors of other denominations 
 in providing schools for the children of all classes ; and schools 
 composed of the children of a single family or of several neighbor- 
 ing families were not uncommon among them. In this way they 
 carried into effect" the injunction of Menno Simon, their founder: 
 " Insist upion and require the children to learn to read and write ; teach 
 them to spin and to dd other necessary and proper work, suited to 
 their years and persons." 
 
 A few particulars will go to confirm the general statement now 
 made. The oldest Mennonite church in Lancaster county is one 
 that was built near Willow Street about 17 1 1. In this building 
 school was taught for many years. Mellinger's meeting-house, in 
 East Lampeter township, and the schoolhouse that stood near it, are 
 very old. Equally old probably are the Strasburg meeting-house 
 and the school that was connected with it. In 1792, a building was 
 erected near Oregon, mainly by Mennonites, and . used both as a 
 meeting-house and .schoolhouse for nearly half a century. The 
 work was done by each person's bringing his share of logs and 
 helping to raise the structure; and to piiirchase what they could 
 not furnish themselves, each person interested contributed two 
 pounds, nine shillings and six pence. An old German paper from 
 which these facts are taken, meekly adds : " All has been peaceably 
 accomplished." There were two other buildings in the north- 
 eastern part of Manheim township prior to 1 800, each used for both 
 church and school purposes. Warwick township had three such 
 combined meeting-house and schoolhouse buildings ; there was one 
 in Brecknock township, near Good's mill, and one or two buildings 
 of the same kind could be found in every township in Lancaster 
 county largely settled by Mennonites. The same is true of the 
 Mennonite townships in neighboring counties. As an example 
 may be mentioned the old meeting-house in Derry township, 
 Dauphin county, long used as a schoolhouse. 
 
 In respect to higher education, it maybe said that the Menno- 
 nites have favored it more in the old countries than in America. 
 About 1750, they established a College of their own at Amsterdam, 
 which still exists. In this country, the Mennonites had no Ccillege 
 of their own until 1861, when "a Seminary for the service of the 
 Church" was founded at Wadsworth, Ohio. 
 
jgg EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 THE AMISH. 
 
 The Atnish differ from the Mennonites chiefly in being more 
 plain in dress and more strict in their religious observances. They 
 are the followers of Amen, a Swiss Mennonite preacher, and came 
 to Pennsylvania with other Mennonites and settled mainly in Lan- 
 caster county. For perhaps a hundred years after their arrival in 
 this country, they built no meeting-houses, buf met for worship 
 in private dwellings. As far as is known, they had no schoolhouses 
 of their own, they were hardly sufficiently numerous in any one 
 locality; but they freely assisted their neighbors to establish schools, 
 and their children were everywhere quite as well educated as the 
 children of the other early settlers. Among them, the father of a 
 family sometimes undertook the work of the schoolmaster, and 
 the winter evenings were spent by the children in study under his 
 direction. Instances are known where the higher branches of math- 
 ematics and something of science were taught in this delightful way. 
 
 THE SCHWENCKFELDERS. 
 
 On the twenty-second of September, 1734, about seventy families 
 of a people called Schwenckfelders landed at Philadelphia from the 
 ship St. Andrew. On the next day they declared their allegiance 
 to the Government of Pennsylvania; and on the third day after- 
 landing, at midday, they held a thanksgiving service, in gratitude 
 to God for deliverance from the perils of the sea, and for the new 
 home they had found in a land where they could enjoy their relig- 
 ious principles in peace. The anniversary of this day, the " Gedach- 
 niss Tag," they still continue to celebrate, reciting on its annual 
 return, in their unostentatious way, the story of their emigration, of 
 an interest as thrilling and of as much significance as that of the 
 Pilgrim Fathers. The new-comers were extremely poor. They 
 had been stripped of their property, so that even the ship that 
 brought them across the Atlantic had been furnished without charge 
 by a benevolent mercantile house in Amsterdam. In their native 
 country, Silesia; they had been most cruelly treated by both Cath- 
 olics and Protestants, had found precarious protection for a few 
 years in the dominions of Count Zinzendorf, but finally determined, 
 with others in like circumstances, to seek a refuge in the land of 
 Penn. 
 
 Caspar de Schwenckfeldt, from whom the Schwenckfelders take 
 their name, was no ordinary man. Born in 1490, a Knight, he 
 
PRIVATE EDUCATION IN EARLY DAYS. igg 
 
 studied at several Universities and attended several German Courts, 
 in order that he might fit himself to maintain with proper dignity 
 the rank of his family. But the spirit of John Huss was abroad in 
 the land; like Paul, a voice from Heaven arrested him in his career, 
 and the proud Knight Schwenckfeldt became an humble, outcast 
 preacher of a Gospel despised alike by the adherents of the Pope 
 and the followers of Luther. His doctrines closely resembled those 
 of the Friends, and were received by a similar class of persons. Suf-' 
 fering at times, and at times barely tolerated, these plain, peaceful, 
 pious people maintained an existence in their country without a 
 formal church organization, held together simply by the ties of a 
 common faith strengthened by frequent meetings in private houses 
 for prayer, exhortation, and religious sympathy. Then a day of 
 more bitter persecution came, and, by a concerted movement, they 
 fled from it in the night, leaving much of their property behind 
 them. 
 
 The Schwenckfelders settled in a body on the head-waters of 
 Perkiomen creek, in Montgomery county, about Skippack and 
 Goshenhoppen, and from this locality, now constituting parts of 
 Montgomery, Berks, and Lehigh counties, they have never removed. 
 The sect has long since died out in Germany, and ours is the only 
 Schwenckfelder settlement in the world. For many years after com- 
 ing to Pennsylvania the Schwenckfelders had no meeting-houses, 
 but, after the manner of their fathers, worshiped for the most part 
 in private dwellings. Two meeting-houses were erected about 1789, 
 and four or five others have been erected since that time. They 
 still preserve the peculiar dress and many of the customs brought 
 with them across the sea one hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 The Schwenckfelders were among the best educated among the 
 early German settlers. Some of them were excellent scholars ; and 
 books in the Latin language were to be found in a number of fam- 
 ilies. The works of Schwenckfeldt, and probably other books, 
 were frequently transcribed by women, and many huge volumes, 
 beautifully written, have come down from past generations, and are 
 greatly prized by their fortunate possessors. As at first the 
 Schwenckfelders worshiped in private houses, so for many years 
 the only schools they had, apart from the common neighborhood 
 schools, were family schools. Parents sometimes taught their own 
 children, and sometimes several families united in procuring the 
 services of a schoolmaster. Now and then, a young Schwenck- 
 
J -Q ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 felder would seek an education outside of the community at the 
 best school he could find. A movement in favor of the establish- 
 ment of an institution in which the higher as well as the common 
 branches of an education should be taught, assumed practical shape 
 in the spring of the year 1764. The noted antiquarian, Abraham 
 H. Cassel, of Bucks county, has in his possession a doxnrment 
 entitled a "Plan and Subscription Paper" to raise funds for the sup- 
 port of a High School among the Schwenckfelders. It is dated 
 March i, 1764. About ;^6oo were subscribed, and the paper con- 
 tains the name of each donor and the amount given. This fund 
 was placed in the hands of trustees, to be used mainly to furnish 
 gratuitous instruction to the children of the poorer members. 
 When the public school system rendered such a fund unnecessary, 
 it was converted into a literary fund, and as such it is still used. 
 The school was opened in a private house located in the southern 
 part of Berks county, rented for the purpose. During the summer 
 of 1765, a schoolhouse was built in Towamencin township, Mont- 
 gomery county. In the school thus established, Latin, Greek and 
 the higher mathematics were taught, and there was a large attend- 
 ance of pupils. The schoolhouse was occasionally used as a place 
 of public worship, but about 1790 an addition was made to it for 
 this purpose, and for many years school was kept in one end of the 
 building, and the other end was used as a meeting-house. The 
 school was maintained in excellent condition up to the time the 
 State made provision for general education. 
 
 The earliest of Sunday-schools seems to have been established by 
 the Schwenckfelders. From the time of their first settlement in 
 Pennsylvania, 1734, it was their custom to devote every alternate 
 Sabbath to giving religious instruction to the children. This form 
 of instruction they called "die Kinderlehr." 
 
 THE DUNKERS. 
 
 The Dunkers are in the essentials of their faith, in their non-re- 
 sistant principles and in the simplicity of their dress and manner of 
 Hving, similar to the other plain German sects. They differ in the 
 way in which they administer the rite of baptism. The first relig- 
 ious organization took place at Schwartzenau, Germany, in 1708, 
 whence, on account of persecution, they fled to Crefeld and Hol- 
 land, and, from 17 19 to 1729, the whole body emigrated to Amer- 
 ica, mostly to Pennsylvania. The first comers settled at German- 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. 17 1 
 
 town, where, in 1723, they held their simple religious services in a 
 log cabin; but soon after others fixed their homes at Skippack, 
 Oley and Mill Creek. At whatever place they settled, they were 
 not long without meeting together for religious purposes, or provid- 
 ing some way of teaching their children at least to read and write. 
 They do not seem to have built any special schoolhouses, but this 
 doubtless arose from the fact that their custom was then, as it is to 
 some extent now, to hold their religious meetings in private houses ; 
 and it is most likely that their children were either instructed at 
 home or united with other children in the neighborhood schools. 
 Certain it is that the early Dunkers were more than ordinarily 
 intelligent. There were some good writers among them, both in 
 prose and verse, and copies of their works still exist. Christopher 
 Sower was a Dunker Elder. He established in Germantown, in 1738, 
 the first German and English Printing Office in America, from which 
 he issued the first German Almanac, Newspaper and Religious 
 Magazine, printed in this country. In 1743, forty years before a 
 like edition of the Bible in English appeared from the colonial 
 press, he published his great Quarto Bible in the German language. 
 In addition, he published a large number of school and other books, 
 manufacturing his own paper and ink, doing his own binding and 
 making his own type. His son, Christopher, also an Elder among 
 the Dunkers, succeeded to the business upon his father's death, in 
 1758, continued the periodicals established by his father, and added 
 some two hundred volumes to the list of his father's publications, 
 many of them large works and some of them passing through sev- 
 eral editions. 
 
 Like his father, Christopher Sower, the" younger, was a warm 
 friend of education. With others of his Dunker brethren, he took 
 an active part in the establishment of the, Germantown Academy, or 
 " Union School " as it was at first called. He was placed at the 
 head of the committee on subscriptions by the meeting of citizens 
 who " had long felt the necessity of a good school of higher grade 
 than the common schools," held at the house of Daniel Mackinet, 
 December 6, 1759; and was also the first named among those who 
 were subsequently appointed to serve as trustees, and probably acted 
 as President of the Board. A few paragraphs taken from an article 
 on education in his English Almanac for 1758, will show how 
 greatly in advance of the time were his views on the subject: 
 
 If the child is designed for any of the learned professions, some care in- 
 
ED UCA TJON IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 deed is taken to find out a Master qualified to teach him Latin and Greek; 
 but if he be only designed for the common offices of life, it is thought suffi- 
 cient if he be taught to read and write and a little arithmetic, and that often 
 but very imperfectly, no matter by whom, but the cheaper the better. Thus 
 it happens that persons every way unquahfied both in learning and morals, are, 
 for the sake of having it done cheaper, entrusted with the education of chil- 
 dren. 
 
 For it is an undoubted truth, confirmed by fatal experience, that children 
 catch the manners of those with whom they converse, and that impressions 
 made on their tender minds are deep and lasting. Now what children are to 
 learn from the generality of those entrusted with their education in this country, 
 I shall not venture to say; I only wish it were a love of God and good will to- 
 wards men. 
 
 But while an ill-timed formahty prevails in the education of youth, while 
 men are preferred for country schoolmasters for their cheapness, not their 
 abilities, and while virtue is neglected in the choice of a tutor, little is to be 
 expected. 
 
 It is a foolish and most absurd piece of thrift, for the sake of adding forty 
 or fifty pounds to a child's fortune, to deprive him of such an education, under 
 the care of a proper tutor. 
 
 But like other German denominations of similar faith, the Dunkers 
 lost their interest in higher education, and there was less learning 
 among them after the lapse of a hundred years than there was in 
 their infant settlements. The opinion became almost universal that 
 much learning was a stumbling-block in the way of that simplicity 
 of life and humility of spirit which should characterize the true 
 Christian. They went further than most others in their opposition, 
 even " thanking God that there were few educated persons among 
 them," and for a while being scarcely willing to admit a man of 
 learning to church fellowship. Some of the most zealous among 
 them went so far as to wantonly destroy all books and papers of a 
 secular character that happened to be in their possession, and to 
 allow none to remain in their houses except what were used in their 
 devotional exercises. During all this time, however, their children 
 were permitted to receive a plain, elementary education. 
 
 About 1850, the denomination having increased to over two hun- 
 dred thousand, with two thousand ministers, and spread into many 
 States, an effort was made by some of the more progressive Breth- 
 ren to revive the lost interest in higher education. Schools of high 
 grade were established at Columbiana, Ohio, and at Bourbon, Indi- 
 ana; but neither succeeded. Other efforts were more successful, 
 and there are now in operation flourishing collegiate institutions 
 under the control of the Dunker Brethren, at Huntingdon, Pennsyl- 
 vania, Ashland, Ohio, and Mount Morris, Illinois. There is also a 
 
PRIVA TE ED UCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 17, 
 
 similar institution in Virginia. Thirty-five years ago, the Bunkers 
 did not support a single church paper; they have now about a 
 dozen, including several Sunday-school publications. 
 
 THE SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. 
 
 The German Seventh-Day Baptists were mostly seceders from the 
 Dunkers. Conrad Beissel, the founder of the Community or Mon- 
 astery at Ephrata, Lancaster county, was a Pietist in Germany 
 before coming to America, but not a Bunker. In 1720, he came 
 to Pennsylvania, settled at Germantown, and, it is said, learned the 
 art of weaving from the Bunker minister, Peter Becker, but did not 
 become a member of his congregation. His religious sympathies 
 were probably more with Kelpius, the Wissahickon hermit and his 
 friends, for the Chronicles of Ephrata say, " The same Spirit that 
 was astir in Kelpius, of blessed memory, entered into our leader." 
 There was a community of Bunkers at Mill Creek, Lancaster 
 county, and hither Beissel went, adopting the life of a hermit with 
 his faithful friend Stiefel, who had accompanied him from Europe. 
 He was baptized in 1724, by Becker, who had come from German- 
 town to Lancaster county on a missionary errand. Still, although 
 he preached to the Bunkers, he was not at heart a Bunker, but 
 differed from them on the questions of celibacy and the observance 
 of the last instead of the first day of the week as the Sabbath, and 
 longed for a more solitary life. In 1732, he gave up preaching, 
 disappeared suddenly, and when found was living the life of a her- 
 mit on the banks of Cocalico creek, near the spot where Ephrata 
 now stands. Here he tilled a small piece of land, and composd 
 hymns similar to those contained in his little book published by 
 Franklin in 1730, the earliest book of German poetry published in 
 America. 
 
 The hermit's solitude was not long unbroken. Soon men and 
 women, with like spiritual longings, from Mill Creek, Oley, Tulpe- 
 hocken and Germantown, began to gather around him, and the 
 whole neighborhood became dotted with the huts of the newly- 
 arrived settlers. Within a short time thereafter, the solitary was 
 changed to a monastic life, and the large buildings, some of which 
 are still standing, began to be erected, one for the Brethren, one for 
 the Sisters, and others for religious, educational and industrial pur- 
 poses. In 1740, the single Brethren numbered thirty-six, the Sis- 
 ters thirty-five, and the population of the whole community was 
 about three hundred. 
 
J - . ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Ephrata, in the early days, was a hive of industry. The Society 
 owned a large farm, and soon had in operation a flour, a paper, a 
 saw and a fulling mill, and a flaxseed-oil press, all erected and 
 worked by themselves. About 1742, they established a printing- 
 office and connected with it a book bindery. From this press 
 there were issued some forty volumes, among them " Der blutige 
 Shau-Platz oder Martyrer Spiegel," the great Mennonite Martyr 
 Book, a massive folio of fifteen hundred pages, in large type. It 
 was the largest book which, up to that time, had been printed in 
 America, and none excelled it in quality of paper or in beauty of 
 typography. It was printed from type, on an old-fashioned hand- 
 press, and cost the Brethren several years of hard work. The other 
 publications were mostly of a religious character, with a .series of 
 school books. 
 
 In one of the buildings there was a writing room in which several 
 of the Sisters were constantly employed in what would now be 
 called ornamental writing or painting with a pen. Much of this 
 work consisted of texts of Scripture or Scripture scenes drawn 
 with a pen upon large sheets of paper and hung upon the walls of 
 the principal rooms. Many specimens still remain to astonish the 
 visitor with the excellence of the penmanship and the taste dis- 
 played in the execution. In this room, also, the writings of the 
 Founder of the Society were carefully copied for general use. 
 
 Great attention was paid to music. Beissel himself was a skillful 
 musician, and composed hundreds of tunes upon a system of his 
 own, which rendered the singing peculiarly solemn and impressive. 
 Singing-schools were founded as early as 1742. Hundreds of vol-' 
 umes of music were copied for the choirs by the pens of the patient 
 Sisters, with a skill almost equal to that of an engraver. 
 
 Celibacy was not positively enjoined by the Society, and among 
 the early settlers at Ephrata were families of Seventh-Day Baptists, 
 with children. A school was established at a very early period, 
 some authorities say as early as 1733. Many of the Brethren were 
 men of learning, and they included in the course of instruction in 
 their school the ancient languages and mathematics, as well as the 
 common branches. In the days of its prosperity, young men from 
 Philadelphia and Baltimore, came to Ephrata to obtain an education, 
 and in the archives of the Society may be found many evidences of 
 the reputation of the school and the learning and skill of the 
 teachers. The most noted of the teachers was Ludwig Hocker, 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DAYS. 175 
 
 who came to Ephrata in 1739, ^'°<^^ charge of the school soon after, 
 and continued to discharge the duties of the office for more than 
 forty years. He was a good scholar, fond of children, ingenious 
 and progressive in his methods, and entirely forgetful of himself in 
 his devotion to the service of God and man. Master Hocker was 
 the author of three school books, a Primer or " A-B-C Buchlein," 
 a Spelling- Book and Reader or " Namen Buchlein," and an Arith- 
 metic or " Rechen Buchlein." These were printed on the Ephrata 
 press, "for the schoolmaster," about 1786. The Arithmetic, the 
 only book of the three that we have been able to find, is quite 
 elementary in its character, but bears evidence of having been written 
 by an earnest man and a teacher of considerable skill. The school 
 was closed while the room it occupied, with other parts of the build- 
 ings, was used as a hospital for sick and wounded American soldiers 
 after the battle of Brandywine. Towards the close of the century, 
 the Society began to decay, and by 18 14 only a few of the single 
 Brethren and Sisters remained. In that year, an Act of Assembly 
 was pas.sed incorporating the " Seventh-Day Baptists of Ephrata'' 
 as a Society, with the right to hold the property in trust for " relig- 
 ious, charitable and literary objects." Under this charter a 
 school was opened in the Brethren's House. In 1820, Joseph Bow- 
 man performed the duties of schoolmaster. In 1837, a two-storied 
 building was erected for an Academy; and here a school of an 
 advanced grade was continued for some years. A Sabbath-school 
 was established at Ephrata, about 1740, forty years before Robert 
 Raikes commenced his benevolent work on the Sabbath day 
 among the poor children of Gloucester, England. The projector 
 of this new plan of opening a way for the instruction of the- poor 
 was the schoolmaster, Ludwig Hocker, "Brother Obed," as he was 
 called in the cloister. There were in the neighborhood of Ephrata, 
 even at that early day, indigent children whose employments pre- 
 vented their attending the regular school. It was the forlorn con- 
 dition of these children that touched the heart of the pious school- 
 master and moved him to make an attempt to do something for 
 their education. Thus originated the Sabbath-school, which was 
 held on the afternoons of the Sabbath day. The instruction imparted 
 was both secular and religious, and, in addition to what was done 
 for the poor children, religious instruction was given to all who were 
 willing to receive it. The Sabbath-school was closed during the 
 Revolutionary war by the same cause that closed the Week-day 
 school. 
 
J g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Branches of the Society at Ephrata were established at Ber- 
 mudian Creek, York county, in 1738, in Bedford county in 1763, 
 and at Snow Hill, Franklin county, at a somewhat later date. In 
 Bedford county there are at the present time two congregations, 
 one of which worships in a church of its own, and the other in a 
 schoolhouse near Baker's Summit. At Snow Hill a small remnant 
 of the Society still keeps up the old church and social customs. 
 Belonging to it there is a farm of one hundred and thirty acres, with 
 a grist mill. The buildings consist of a church and a large brick 
 structure, two stories high, used as a Brothers' and Sisters' House. 
 Snow Hill has always been an Ephrata on a smaller scale. 
 
 SEPARATISTS. 
 
 Scattered individuals of a small German sect called " Separatists " 
 were to be found at Germantown and elsewhere in the early days 
 of the Province, but the first body of emigrants of this class came 
 to Pennsylvania from Wiirtemberg, under the leadership of George 
 Rapp, and settled in the Conoquenessing Valley, Butler county, in 
 the year 1804. Included in the number were many possessing con- 
 siderable property, and some who had enjoyed the advantages of 
 a liberal education. They were non-resistants, and their tendencies 
 were towards a monastic life. Soon after their arrival at their new 
 home, they formed an organization called the " Harmony Society," 
 and agreed to hold all property in common, to wear a plain, uni- 
 form dress, and to occupy dwellings built alike. In 1805, they 
 adopted a life of celebacy, marriages were no longer permitted, and 
 husbands and wives consented to live in future as brothers and sis- 
 ters. The Society flourished, but wanting additional land, they 
 sold all their property, and, in 18 14, removed in a body to the State 
 of Indiana. Not satisfied there, they returned to Pennsylvania in 
 1824, and settled on the Ohio river, sixteen miles below Pittsburgh, 
 where they still remain. Their village is called Economy. Once 
 numbering seven or eight hundred, the Society has now shrunk to 
 a mere handful of old men and women. Their possessions, how- 
 ever, are very extensive and valuable, consisting of a fertile and 
 well-equipped farm of many hundred acres, the Bank and Cutlery 
 Works at Beaver Falls, manufactories of various kinds, tracts of oil 
 and coal lands, stocks, and money at interest. 
 
 From the first these plain people have been friendly to education. 
 As long as they had children of their own, they provided ample 
 
PRIVA TE EDUCA TION IN EARL Y DA YS. i -j-j 
 
 means for their instruction^ and there is not a single individual 
 among the Brethren or Sisters who is not something of a scholar. 
 Since their children have grown up, they have constantly main- 
 tained a school for the benefit of the children of their workmen and 
 laborers, and for the many orphan children of whom they have 
 assumed the care. In addition, they have aimed at something 
 beyond elementary instruction; for soon after their settlement at 
 Economy, they constructed a large building for a public hall, in 
 which they established a museum of natural curiosities, a collection 
 of minerals, a library, and schools of mathematics and drawing. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS. THE TRANSITION FROM CHURCH TO FREE 
 SCHOOLS. NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS INTERMEDIATE. 
 
 WHILE, as we have seen, the several religious denominations 
 represented by the early settlers in the State built many 
 schoolhouses and maintained many schools, while church and 
 school were planted together in almost every locality where a con- 
 gregation of Christians of like faith could be collected large enough 
 to sustain them, yet the number of schools established in this way 
 was entirely inadequate to the accommodation of all the children 
 who desired to obtain an education. Had there been a school at 
 every church, many children lived at too great a distance to attend 
 it. But vast sections of thinly settled country were wholly without 
 churches, and in others the churches were so scattered that they 
 could not be reached by young children going to school. Adults 
 frequently traveled on horseback or in wagons five or even ten 
 miles to church ; it was impossible for little boys and girls to walk 
 such long distances, often through unbroken forests. Hence arose 
 multitudes of schools, sometimes composed of the children of a 
 single family or of several families, and generally growing into 
 schools of little communities or neighborhoods. Such schools may 
 be appropriately called neighborhood schools, although widely 
 known by the name of "pay" or "subscription" schools. In Eng- 
 land, such schools are called " voluntary schools." The establish- 
 ment of these neighborhood schools was most rapid in sections set- 
 tled by people of different religious denominations. In communi- 
 ties composed of a single denomination, and in towns, church- 
 schools were generally established in preference; but as the first 
 settlers in Pennsylvania were divided into many sects, and as these 
 soon became very much intermixed, it was not long before the 
 neighborhood schools greatly outnumbered the schools of all other 
 classes. Acrelius, writing, about 1750, of the country in the vicin- 
 ity of Philadelphia, says, with some exaggeration : " In almost every 
 
 (178) 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. j^g 
 
 ridge of woods, there is a schoolhouse ; " and of course the church- 
 schools were in small proportion to the whole. In proportion to 
 population, the neighborhood schools were fewest in the oldest set- 
 tled parts of the State; for as the people moved west into the Cum- 
 berland Valley, along the Susquehanna and Juniata and over the 
 AUeghanies, intermingling socially and in business, out of common 
 toils, common privations, common dangers and common interests, 
 there necessarily came to be common schools. The churches in the 
 early days were foremost in the work of education everywhere and 
 always, but distinctive church schools were not numerous in the mid- 
 dle or northern counties, and very few of them were ever established 
 in western Pennsylvania. Ministers founded schools in these sections 
 of the State and taught them, but they rarely formed a part of the 
 church organization, as was so frequently the case in the older 
 settlements. After the Revolutionary war, tending as it did to 
 unite the whole people into one body, and to stimulate enterprise 
 and quicken intellectual activity, there was a. rapid increase in all 
 parts of the State in the number of schools the people established 
 for themselves. Without any controlling law on the subject, and 
 therefore necessarily without system, prompted by the wish to 
 obtain at least some education for their children, but guided only 
 by the light which a rough experience in an American wilderness 
 furnished as to what should be provided, and limited always by the 
 scanty means at their command, our fathers built schoolhouses, 
 employed teachers, and sent their children to school as best they 
 could, and the wonder is not that under the circumstances so many 
 sections of the country were poorly supplied with schools, but that 
 education was so general. McMaster, in his history of the People 
 of the United States, speaking of the educational condition of Amer- 
 ica directly after the close of the Revolutionary war, states that 
 " In New York and Pennsylvania a schoolhouse was never to be 
 seen outside of a village or a town." He is mistaken. In Penn- 
 sylvania there was scarcely a neighborhood without one. At the 
 time of the adoption of the common school system, in 1834, there 
 must have been at least four thousand schoolhouses in the State, 
 built by the volunteer contributions of the people in their respective 
 neighborhoods. Thoroughly republican in principle, these schools 
 of the people grew apace with the progress of republican sentiment, 
 and it only required the legislation of after years to perfect the 
 form and systematize the working of what had already in substance 
 
J gQ ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 been voluntarily adopted by thousands of communities throughout 
 the State. Such schools were at that day without precedent; they 
 were established by the early colonists only from necessity; but as 
 the people of different denominations and of none mingled more 
 and more together, their sectarian prejudices and customs of exclu- 
 siveness acquired across the sea began to wear away, and they 
 finally discovered that neither sect, nor class, nor race, need stand 
 in the way of the cordial union of all in the education of their chil- 
 dren. No movement in our whole history is of more significance 
 than the process by which the neighborhood schools came to sup- 
 ply the educational needs of different communities, and frequently 
 to displace other schools established on a narrower foundation, 
 marking as it does the formation of a common bond of union and 
 the moulding of the population into a common nationality. Nor 
 does one who fully understands this movement require further light 
 to direct him where to find the ground upon which our public 
 school system was based, or how to account for the sentiment that 
 produced and sustained it. Its growth is certainly indigenous to 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 The early schools established by the people for themselves were 
 at first necessarily crude in organization, narrow in their course of 
 instruction, poorly taught, and kept in rooms or houses often extem- 
 porized for the purpose, and seldom possessing any but the roughest 
 accommodations. As a class they were inferior to the church 
 schools, for these were generally supervised by the ministers, who 
 sought to engage the best-qualified teachers that could be found, 
 and to insure good behavior and fair progress in learning on the part 
 of the pupils. As at the church schools, but probably with less 
 discrimination, those able to pay for tuition did so, while the children 
 of those unable to pay were admitted almost everywhere gratui- 
 tously. Doubtless many children remained away from school whose 
 parents were too poor to pay for their schooling and yet too proud 
 to accept charity; but be it said to the credit of the schools of all 
 kinds in Pennsylvania from the earhest times, that inability to pay 
 tuition-fees never closed their doors against deserving children desir- 
 ing admission. The educational policy of the people of Pennsyl- 
 vania for one hundred and fifty years after the coming of Penn was 
 to. make those who were able to do so pay for the education of their 
 children and to educate the children of all others free, and the few 
 laiown departures from this policy on the part of either church or 
 neighborhood schools make the record a noble one. 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFA THERS. ■y % i 
 
 Even the naming of the thousands of schools that were established 
 by the voluntary eiiforts of pioneer settlers in all parts of Pennsyl- 
 vania, during the long period extending from 1682 to 1834, must be 
 left to local historians ; but a true picture of the state of education 
 during these years cannot be given without more details concern- 
 ing the organization and management of the neighborhood schools 
 — the schoolhouses built, the branches taught, the text-books used, 
 the teachers and their methods. 
 
 A school was frequently started in this wise. The most enter- 
 prising man among the settlers in a community, having children to 
 educate, would call upon his neighbors with a proposition to estab- 
 lish a school. This being well received, a meeting of those inter- 
 ested was called and a committee or a board of trustees appointed, 
 whose duty it was to procure a suitable room or, if so directed, 
 build a schoolhouse, ascertain the number of children who would 
 attend the school, fix the tuition-fee, employ a teacher, and in a gen- 
 eral way, manage the school. The trustees were usually elected at 
 an annual meeting composed of those who patronized the school or 
 contributed towards the erection of the schoolhouse. Women 
 sometimes attended and took part in such meetings. As land was 
 cheap, a site for the schoolhouse was in most cases obtained with- 
 out cost, and the house itself was not unfrequently erected almost 
 wholly by the gratuitous labor of those most interested. Skilled in 
 such work, it is said that it was not uncommon for a party of settlers 
 to construct a rough log cabin, which they deemed suitable for a 
 schoolhouse, in a single day. When money was needed for build- 
 ing purposes, it was raised by voluntary subscription. 
 
 Here and there, an enterprising, public-spirited citizen, like old 
 Jacob Ake, of Blair county, took the matter of establishing a school 
 into his own hands, without waiting for the tardy cooperation of his 
 neighbors. Mr. Ake owned the land on which Williamsburg now 
 stands. Seeing that the children growing up around him were 
 without an education, he provided a house, employed a teacher 
 and opened a school, defraying all the expense out of his own 
 pocket. This was in 1790, and for fifteen years thereafter he con- 
 tinued the school in operation, managing it in his own way, some- 
 times visiting the homes of the children, flourishing his staff, and 
 hastening the young people away to school. Contributions of land, 
 upon which to erect school buildings, were quite common in all 
 parts of the State, and more rarely a liberal citizen would lay the 
 foundation of a good school by endowing it either by gift or legacy. 
 
jg2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 In Other cases the moving spirit in starting a school was one of 
 the numerous peripatetic schoolmasters who wandered about from 
 settlement to settlement, seeking employment. Seeing an opening, 
 the needy schoolmaster would draw up a subscription paper, obtain 
 a list of subscribers, hire a room, rent a dwelling, or, it may be, 
 secure the erection of a schoolhouse, and begin a school. 
 
 But as these beginnings in our educational history have a special 
 interest, to give coloring to the picture already drawn some extracts 
 will be taken from the historical reports of several County Superin- 
 tendents in different sections of the State, prepared in 1877, at the 
 request of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
 
 The Delaware County Superintendent says: "The reader will 
 understand that in the times thus far noticed, there was no system 
 of public instruction, but the education of children was almost 
 wholly a matter of private concern. The family school was suc- 
 ceeded by the neighborhood school. The establishment of such a 
 school was usually effected by the voluntary and united action of 
 the people of the neighborhood who desired it. Township lines 
 were disregarded. Certain persons were made trustees, who had 
 charge of the school property, and who mostly appointed the teach- 
 ers and had the general management of the schools. The teachers 
 were paid by their patrons at the rate of two or three dollars a quar- 
 ter for each child, and sometimes something additional for wood and 
 ink." 
 
 In Lancaster county, the Superintendent states that the schools 
 were located and managed as follows : " The cost of building the 
 schoolhouse was met by voluntary contributions. Whenever a 
 neighborhood felt the need of a schoolhouse, one was erected at 
 some point convenient to those who contributed towards its erec- 
 tion. The patrons selected trustees, whose duty it was to take 
 charge of the school property and to select a teacher for the school. 
 If the teacher chosen could secure pupils enough to warrant him in 
 opening the school, he would do so ; if not, he would seek a school 
 elsewhere. The teacher was paid by those who sent pupils to his 
 school. The rate was two dollars a quarter, or three cents a day 
 for each pupil." 
 
 The pioneer settlers in the Cumberland Valley established their 
 first schools in much the same way. " Most of the schoolhouses of 
 these earlier times," says the Superintendent, " were built by the 
 joint voluntary efforts of the citizens, some contributing material, 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 183 
 
 some labor, and some money. The schools were supported by sub- 
 scriptions, each patron paying for each pupil sent a fixed amount 
 per quarter or per month. Many of the. earlier teachers possessed 
 very limited qualifications. When it is remembered that any one 
 desiring to teach could open a school, and, if popular with the 
 people, might secure good patronage, this does not excite sur- 
 prise." 
 
 The plan of establishing schools in the coal region was similar, 
 according to the following description by the Superintendent of 
 Carbon county : " When it was thought necessary to start a school 
 in a neighborhood, a town meeting was called by the citizens, and 
 three or five persons selected for trustees, who, held their office dur- 
 ing good behavior, under a sort of civil service reform principle. 
 As there were no salaries or fees connected with the office, politi- 
 cians never interfered. The duty of these trustees was to raise money 
 by voluntary subscription or contribution, select and purchase sites, 
 superintend the erection of schoolhouses, and hold them in trust for 
 school uses. As it was a difficult matter to raise a large amount of 
 money in this way for such purposes, the burden having generally to 
 be borne by a few persons, the strictest economy had to be exer- 
 cised." 
 
 In like manner were established the first schools in the forests of 
 the northwest. The Superintendent of McKean states that " The 
 earliest schools were established and maintained as 'subscription 
 schools ' by the small communities in which they were located, who 
 built the houses, supplied the fuel, and hired some person deemed 
 a suitable teacher, examining the applicant. The last duty was 
 usually delegated to a committee." 
 
 To these extracts we add the following paragraph from the " In- 
 dustries and- Institutions of Centre County: " "In early times, when 
 settlers were few and scattered, schools were usually held in a room 
 of some dweUing house ; but as the population increased and the 
 need of better accommodation was felt, the citizens of a neighbor- 
 hood met, and, by their joint and voluntary labor, put up a school- 
 house." And also one from Dr. Alfred Creigh's History of Wash- 
 ington County: "The schoolhouse was considered as necessary to 
 the prosperity of a settlement as the church, and the requirements 
 of the schoolmaster were that he could, read, write, and cypher as 
 fkr as the Double Rule of Three. When such a man offered himself, 
 the neighbors would employ him, and immediately set about the 
 
I g;^ ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 erection of a schoolhouse. One would give the ground, some would 
 cut the logs, some would haul them to the appointed place, and 
 others would put them up." 
 
 How the New England settlers in the northern tier provided 
 themselves with schoolhouses and churches, is told by J. Du Bois, 
 in the History of Susquehanna County, where the following account 
 is given of the erection of the first schoolhouse at Great Bend: 
 
 The early settlers of this valley, to their honor let it ever be remembered, 
 felt it their duty at a very early day of its settlement to build a respectable 
 edifice, in which they could educate the rising generation, and in which they 
 could meet to worship God. They not only felt it their duty, but they at once 
 •acted in the matter by calling a meeting, at which a committee was appointed 
 to circulate subscriptions to raise funds for the purpose of building a house, 
 not only large enough to hold the children in the township, but large enough 
 to accommodate all the people of the valley who wanted to meet for worship. 
 A subscription was drawn up, signed and circulated, and another meeting was 
 held to hear the report of the subscription committee. The amount- of sub- 
 scriptions was reported. Many of the subscribers were then living in log 
 houses, with roofs made of slabs split out of logs by hand, and others with 
 roofs made of the boughs of the hemlock. Yet, at this meeting, it was resolved 
 that this first house which they were about to build and dedicate to these 
 noble purposes, should be a frame building sided with sawed pine siding, and 
 shingled with good pine shingles, to be fourteen feet between joists, and twenty 
 by forty feet on the ground, and to be finished in a workmanlilce manner. 
 One of the settlers proposed that a belfry and steeple should adorn the build- 
 ing. This proposition was objected to on the ground that the amount sub- 
 scribed. would not warrant the additional expense. The individual proposing 
 it then arose and said that, as he was desirous of seeing at least one thing in 
 the valley pointing heavenward, if they would build a spire he would add ten 
 dollars to his subscription ; a lady present then arose and said that she too 
 would add ten dollars ; others followed suit, and the matter was soon decided 
 in favor of a steeple. The windows were to be large, and Gothic in style, and 
 a pulpit was to be built in the north end of the building; a porch was to cover 
 the entrance, and as the house was to face the street, the spire was to be on 
 the centre of the building. Large swinging partitions divided the interior of 
 the house in the middle, when used for school purposes, but were hoisted and 
 kept in position by supports, when used for church purposes. The house was 
 to be free to all denominations of worshipers. 
 
 Thus were planted thousands of schools along the valleys and 
 among the hills of Pennsylvania. There were no laws to regulate, 
 no officers to guide, no system to conform to— all that was done 
 was accomplished by the voluntary efforts of the people, directed 
 solely by their own notions of what was best under the circum- 
 stances. The whole work was necessarily defective, full of sins 
 both of omission and of commission; but it taught the great lesson 
 of self-dependence, and prepared the people for that efficient local 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUS FOREFATHERS. jgc 
 
 , management which has done so much already for the Public School 
 System of the State, and which in the end is to be its crown of glory. 
 
 That there were men chosen in by-gone times to serve as school 
 trustees who understood something concerning the right way of 
 organizing and managing a school, and were moved somewhat by 
 the spirit that vitalized the system of schools adopted at a later day, 
 will appear from the following extracts from the Rules and Regula- 
 tions agreed upon by the Trustees of the school at Chester, January 
 9, 1796. Doubtless, other papers of the kind could be found. 
 
 The first rule provides that the President of the Board of Trus- 
 tees shall attend each and every quarterly examination of the school. 
 The second is as follows : 
 
 2. That the remaining Trustees shall be divided into three classes, who 
 shall by turns visit the school, one in each month : that is, the first class the 
 first month, the second class the second month, etc. 
 
 3. That the President, Trustees and Treasurer shall visit and examine the 
 school quarter-yearly, and for neglect of attendance, shall pay the sum of 
 one-eighth of a dollar to the Treasurer, to be appropriated as the charity fund 
 of the said school. 
 
 **********.**♦ 
 
 6. That the Trustees, at the beginning of each and every year, shall ad- 
 vertise for applications to be made to them for educating such children or per- 
 sons gratis as shall be proper objects of the charity fund of the institution, 
 and which sliall embrace the greatest number of persons that the said fund 
 will admit of, or an agreement with the tutor of the said school will enable 
 them to give assistance to. 
 
 7. That as exciting in the minds of children and youth, laudable emulation 
 and a desire to improve is of beneficial consequence in conducting their edu- 
 cation, the Trustees shall, at the quarterly examinations, propose httle pre- 
 miums of books, paper, quills, etc., to those who excel in reading, writing, 
 speaking, arithmetic, etc. ; the expense to be defrayed out of the charity fund 
 of the school. 
 
 8. It shall be the duty of the Trustees to see that no books containing the 
 tenets or doctrines of any sect in religion be taught in the school, or any that 
 may convey improper political principles to the children of Republicans; 
 since no others ought to be admitted but such as teach the pure principles of 
 religion as contained in the Holy Writings of the Prophets and Evangelists — 
 of morality and love of virtue — such as teach us the love of 'liberty and our 
 country, obedience to her laws, detestation of tyranny and oppression, and 
 hatred of anarchy and licentiousness. 
 
 And in the 9th, it is added : 
 
 And it is also agreed, that one subject of a premium shall be the following: 
 At each quarterly examination the master shall be requested to report to the 
 Trustees, which of his pupils has been the most distinguished for his or her 
 moral, orderly and decent behavior, upon which such pupils so reported 
 shall be entitled to the premium to be named by the Trustees. 
 
J 85 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 And to show that the trustees of some of these old schools aimed 
 at something beyond mere elementary instruction, we quote as a 
 specimen of similar documents the following extract from an agree- 
 ment made by the trustees of a school at Ridley, now Leiperville, 
 Delaware county, with Jacob Fenton, whom they had engaged as 
 schoolmaster. Mr. Fenton was a graduate of Dartmouth College. 
 
 The Agreement required the master to " Teach a regular Day 
 School, subject to the direction of the trustees, in the rudiments of 
 the English language, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Book-keeping, 
 Geography, and either or every branch of Mathematics, at the rate 
 of two dollars a quarter for every scholar subscribed, for the term 
 of three months, to commence on the 20th of the lOth month, 1800. 
 And the subscribers to said school to pay to said Fenton, on order, 
 two dollars for every scholar subscribed, together with a reasonable 
 charge for wood and ink." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 SCHOOLHOUSES AND SCHOOL FURNITURE. BRANCHES TAUGHT. TEXT-BOOKS 
 AND APPARATUS. METHODS AND DISCIPLINE. 
 
 A VOLUME might be filled with descriptions of old school- 
 houses. Those first built were everywhere very much alike — 
 rough log cabins. Everywhere, too, in the course of years, these 
 primitive structures were replaced by something better, houses con- 
 structed of hewn logs, framed lumber, stone or brick. Progress in 
 this direction, however, was so slow that the common school sys- 
 tem, in 1834, even in the first settled parts of the State, found few 
 good schoolhouses ready to its hand ; and about the first duty that 
 had to be performed by the newly-elected school directors was to 
 provide them. The descriptions of the old schoolhouses and school 
 furniture given below are by writers in the different counties cited. 
 They apply fairly to the whole State. When the names of authors 
 are not mentioned, the authority is the Report of the Superintend- 
 ent of Public Instruction for 1877. 
 
 Early Schoolhouse in Franklin. — "The houses, or cabins, used 
 for school purposes, were of the simplest structure, being built of 
 logs, or poles, and the spaces between them filled with chips of 
 wood, and plastered with mortar made of clay. The boards of the 
 roof were generally secured by heavy poles extending from one 
 end to the other. The chimney was built of sticks of wood plas- 
 tered, and was almost large enough to occupy one side of the house. 
 The windows were not so extensive as the chimney, there being 
 from three to four panes of glass in each, and about four of such in 
 a building. The furniture was also of the simplest kind. It con- 
 sisted of benches, made of logs split in two and hewn down to a 
 proper thickness, supported by four legs. The stools and tables 
 were made of the same material and in a similar manner." 
 
 Early Schoolhouses in Lehigh. — "Schoolhouses were built by 
 communities, and were commonly constructed of logs, were small, 
 had low ceilings, little windows and few of them. They were 
 
 (187) 
 
i88 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 defective in every thing but ventilation. The furniture corresponded 
 with the buildings." 
 
 Early Schoolhouses in Chester.— 'TYi^ early schoolhouses were 
 either log or stone, sometimes built in an octagonal form, and called 
 eight-square schoolhouses. The desks were placed around against 
 
 OLD EIGHT-SQUARE SCHOOLHOUSE. 
 
 the walls, and the pupils occupying them sat facing the windows. 
 Benches, without backs, for the smaller scholars, occupied the mid- 
 dle of the room. The windows were quite long, longitudinally, 
 and from two to three panes wide, perpendicularly. A desk for 
 the tea-cher, a huge stove in the middle of the room, a bucket, and 
 what was called the ' Pass,' a small paddle, having the words ' in ' 
 and ' out ' written on its opposite sides, constituted the furniture of 
 the room." 
 
 Early Schoolhouses in Clearfield. — " The pioneer schoolhouse was 
 built of logs, sixteen by twenty feet, seven feet in the ceiling, daubed 
 with mud inside and out, a mud and stick chimney in the north end, 
 and in the west, a log was left out, and the opening covered with 
 oiled paper, to admit light ; holes were bored in the logs and pins 
 driven in, on which to nail a long board for a writing table, and 
 slabs with legs answered for seats. The early schoolhouses were 
 generally situated near the road-side or cross-roads, being without 
 play-ground, shade trees or apparatus." 
 
 Early SchoolJiouses in Clarion. — " The first school-buildings were 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. i3g 
 
 built of logs and roofed with clapboards. A huge fire-place graced 
 one end of the room, the house being built with fire-corners to pro- 
 vide for a chimney, which consisted of wood and mortar — sometimes 
 of stone. The benches were made of logs split, and a flat side 
 hewed for seats. These were then supported on pins, inserted in 
 holes bored in the slab, and the seats were made just high enough 
 to prevent the children's feet from touching the floor. The floor 
 was made of puncheons, and the writing-desk was a board, or a 
 slab, supported upon pins, driven into holes bored in the wall. The 
 large pupils were thus seated along the walls with their backs to 
 the teacher. Windows were constructed by cutting a section of a 
 single log from each of the two sides of the building, and when 
 glass could not be obtained, paper, which had been rendered trans- 
 parent by greasing with tallow or lard, was used as a substitute." 
 
 Early Schoolhouses in Mercer.— r" These were round-log cabins. 
 For ceilings, poles were thrown across overhead, and brush placed 
 on the poles and covered with earth. Above this was a clapboard 
 roof held down by weight poles. Some of the better class of 
 houses had puncheon floors, the floors in many dwelling-houses 
 were constructed the same way; others had nothing but the naked 
 earth. For light, a log was left out of the building, and news- 
 papers greased and pasted over the opening. Seats were rude 
 benches made of split logs, and desks were constructed by boring 
 into the logs and placing a split piece of timber on pins driven into 
 these holes. The fire-place included the entire end of the building, 
 made of stone, mortar, and sticks." 
 
 £ar/y Schoolhouses in Erie. — " Puncheon floors, board fire-places, 
 stick chimneys, and bark roofs, were their distinguishing features." 
 
 Early Schoolhouses 'in Huntingdon. — ■Lytle, in his History, says : 
 " They were built of round logs and covered with' clapboards, which 
 were kept in their places by heavy logs laid on them. The floors 
 were made of logs, split in halves and laid together, with flat sides 
 up. Snakes could crawl through, as they often did. In the end of 
 each building there was a great fire-place, with a wooden chimney. 
 The light was admitted through large cracks in the walls, from six 
 to ten inches wide, covered with greased paper for glass." 
 
 Early Schoolhouses in Centre.— Says Maynard's Industries and In- 
 stitutions of Centre County: "The architecture of the pioneer 
 schoolhouse was extremely rude and simple. It was an oblong 
 cabin, built of unhewn logs, with a log chimney at one end, well 
 
igo EDUCA riON IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 plastered with mud; light was expected to struggle through greased 
 paper, fastened across an opening in the side of the cabin; the house 
 was covered with slabs or clapboards, but ventilation was all that 
 the most ardent advocate for pure air could desire. The articles of 
 furniture were few and simple, consisting of a row of desks ranged 
 around and facing the walls of the house, for the big boys and girls; 
 for the smaller pupils, sundry slab benches in the centre of the 
 room, and a bunch of rods as an auxiliary to government." 
 
 The venerable Dr. Donaldson, of Eldersridge, thus describes a 
 representative .schoolhouse of Indiana county, in the year i8ii: 
 "Upon entering the door, we had to step down the breadth of one 
 log to reach the floor of puncheons, laid on the ground without any 
 sleepers. The fire was built on the ground. About three feet from 
 the floor, holes were left between the logs for windows, the light 
 being admitted through panes of greased paper. Along these win- 
 dows, with their backs to the centre of the house, sat the writers, on 
 benches so high that their feet could not touch the floor." 
 
 The first schoolhouses in Washington county, according to the 
 description of Dr. Alfred Creigh, in his history, differed little from 
 those in Indiana. " In the erection of a schoolhouse," he says, "a 
 log would be kept out the entire length, to answer the purpose of a 
 window. The fire-place was built with logs, with a stone back-wall, 
 calculated for a back-log six feet long. The chimney was built in 
 a style that was then called 'cat and clay chimney.' The seats 
 were made of small trees, cut about twelve feet long, and split, the 
 flat side dressed smooth with the axe, and the legs, put in the round 
 side, rested on an earthen floor. In the summer time the dust 
 would sometimes be two inches deep, hence the scholars would 
 amuse themselves by ' kicking up a dust,' which is likely the origin 
 of the expression, to the great annoyance of the schoolmaster." 
 
 The following are the recollections of Rev. Alexander Young, 
 D. D., of the United Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Alle- 
 gheny, of the schoolhouses of that city, then a borough, about the 
 year 1820: " At that time all the houses used for school purposes 
 within the present limits of the city of Allegheny, were either log 
 cabins or hewed log houses, and were generally dilapidated, un- 
 sightly, and uncomfortable. Scholars learning writing and arith- 
 metic sat at a desk attached to the walls of the room; other schol- 
 ars sat on benches made of slabs, flat side uppermost, without 
 backs, and frequently so high that the feet of the smaller children 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 191 
 
 had no support. Light was admitted through small windows at the 
 end of the building, and a wood fire, in a huge fire-place, furnished 
 heat." 
 
 .^i^-S?^'' 
 
 
 
 OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE. 
 
 In these rough log cabins our forefathers received their scanty edu- 
 cation. It will interest us to look into them and see what was done 
 and how. 
 
 About the only branch attempted to be regularly taught in the 
 earliest schools, was Reading, and this instruction was mainly given 
 as a preparation for learning the catechism and taking part in other 
 religious exercises. The schools themselves, at that day, it must be 
 remembered, were generally established as auxiliaries to the church, 
 and the first Primers were quite as much church books as school 
 books, containing hymns, prayers, creeds, and catechisms, as well as 
 the Alphabet and elementary lessons in Reading. Such were the 
 characteristics of the Primers used by the Catholic church before 
 the Reformation; of Luther's "Child's Little Primer," which con- 
 tained the Lord's Prayer, the Commandments, the Creed and the 
 Catechism; of the "Prymer" that Henry VIII., in England, di- 
 rected "to be taught, lerned and red" throughout his dominions; 
 of the Primers, or A-B-C Books, with which the first colonists who 
 sought homes in America were acquainted in the several countries 
 from which they came, and copies of which they brought with them 
 across the sea, and used in the instruction of their children, and, 
 indeed, of the first books of the kind published in the New World. 
 As soon as a child had fairly mastered the reading lessons of the 
 
jg2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Primer, he was expected to learn the Catechism, and, in connection 
 therewith, to read the Psalter and possibly portions of the Bible, 
 commencing with the New Testament. This was substantially the 
 course of instruction in Reading for more than one hundred and fifty 
 years after the Swedes began to teach their children in this manner 
 on the banks of the Delaware. The nineteenth century had dawned 
 before a regular series of Readers, with graded lessons, was fairly in- 
 troduced into the schools of the most progressive neighborhoods, 
 and those more backward were compelled to wait years longer for 
 the coming of this improvement. Even the Spelling- Book in its 
 modern form is little more than one hundred years old. 
 
 When instruction in Writing was first introduced into the early 
 schools, it was confined wholly to boys. Such an acquirement was 
 deemed unnecessary for girls, and so deep-rooted was this preju- 
 dice, that men could be found who entertained it, almost down to 
 the present day. Paper was costly in colonial times, and it is said 
 that birch bark was sometimes used in school in teaching children 
 to write. Ink was made of nut-galls, bruised and placed in a bottle 
 with a proper proportion of water and some rusty nails. In some 
 schools an ink-boy was appointed, who carried ink in a bottle or a 
 horn to each writer as he needed it ; but it was the general custom 
 for each pupil to have his own ink-bottle or ink-horn. Pens were 
 made of goose-quills, not a little of the master's time being taken 
 up in cutting and mending them. 
 
 Something of Arithmetic was most likely taught in many of the 
 earliest schools, but it was done altogether without the aid of books. 
 The " sums," as the problems given were called, were dictated by 
 the master and worked out on paper. Slates and pencils did not 
 come into use until after the Revolutionary war, and blackboards 
 as an article of school apparatus are much more modern. During 
 the last half of the eighteenth century, for the most advanced pupils, 
 masters began to select problems from an Arithmetic, or from a 
 manuscript, called a "Cyphering Book," in which they had pre- 
 viously recorded both the problems and their solutions. The pupils 
 were accustomed to record their work in blank books kept for the 
 purpose. Before 1800, he was considered a remarkable scholar 
 who in a country school had cyphered beyond the Rule of Three, 
 and few schoolmasters made pretension to a knowledge of Arithme- 
 tic more extensive. Later, however, text-books on Arithmetic came 
 into general use; and schools could be found where pupils were 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. jg, 
 
 taught not only Arithmetic, but Mensuration, Surveying, Algebra 
 and Astronomy. 
 
 Geography and Grammar received no attention as studies in the 
 eariiest church or neighborhood schools, and were introduced into 
 them as distinct branches only to a very limited extent before the 
 adoption of the common school system. Elijah F. Pennypacker, of 
 Chester county, speaking from personal observation of the schools 
 in his neighborhood at the beginning of the present century, says : 
 "The great defect of the time was the want of education that was 
 satisfied with an acquisition so limited as that of reading, writing and 
 arithmetic. There may have been an occasional teacher or member 
 of the community who went beyond these simple elements, but the 
 people generally thought that if their sons acquired a knowledge 
 of reading, writing and arithmetic, it was all sufficient— their 
 daughters were supposed to need a still less amount of learning 
 than their sons." Soon after 1800, however, with the appearance 
 of text-books on these subjects, there was a marked increase in the 
 number of schools where something of Geography and Grammar 
 was taught, particularly in the oldest settled portions of the State. 
 
 There is reason to think that at least a few Swedish and Dutch 
 Primers were in use among the early settlers on the Delaware. The 
 EngHsh without doubt brought with them the Primers prepared for 
 the schools of the British Islands. And in the hands of the pupils 
 of the first German schools were found the Primers and A-B-C 
 Books of the Fatherland. No evidence can be obtained showing 
 positively that Hornbooks, so common in the elementary schools of 
 Great Britain during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were 
 ever used in Pennsylvania, but there is little doubt of the fact. They 
 were used in the early schools of some of the New England colonies ; 
 and in Miss Montgomery's Reminiscences of Wilmington, Delaware, 
 she says : " The more ancient Hornbook, scarcely now remembered, 
 became out of use in this country, and ceased to be imported from 
 England, when we undertook to teach ourselves learning after the 
 Revolution." A Hornbook consisted of a sheet of paper about the 
 size of a page of a Primer or Spelling-Book, on one side of which 
 was printed a cross, called the " criss-cross," the alphabet in small 
 and capital letters, the vowels by themselves and combined with 
 single consonants placed after and before them, the Lord's Prayer 
 and the Roman numerals — the sheet, covered by a thin plate of 
 transparent horn, being fastened by a brass border to a light board 
 13 
 
191 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 __ - —k- 
 
 I I 
 
 I L 
 
 r 
 ft 
 
 1 I P 
 
 ilu 
 
 >>' 
 
 somewhat larger than itself, with a paddle-like handle projecting 
 from the middle of the lower end. Cowper refers to the Hornbook 
 of his time in the lines: 
 
 Neatly secured from being soiled or torn, 
 Beneath a frame of thin,, translucent horn. 
 
 The sheet. was sometimes used without the horn covering, and it 
 may have been in this form only that it was introduced into the 
 schools of this country. 
 
 George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, was the author 
 of a Primer, or Spelling-Book. It was published in England, in 
 
 1674, and re-published in this 
 country, at Philadelphia in 
 1701, at Boston in 1743, and 
 at Newport, Rhode Island, in 
 1769. The copy in possession 
 of the Pennsylvania Historical 
 Society contains the alphabet 
 in capital and small letters; 
 the letters in italics and Ger- 
 man text; the letters classed 
 into vowels and consonants; 
 double letters; lessons in 
 spelling, reading, and defin- 
 ing; explanations of Scripture 
 names ; some rules of Punctu- 
 ation ; examples of words pro- 
 nounced alike but spelled dif- 
 ferently; the Roman numer- 
 als; lessons in the fundamen- 
 tal rules of Arithmetic and 
 Weights and Measures ; a Per- 
 petual Almanac, and a Cate- 
 chism expounding the relig- 
 ious doctrines of Friends as 
 the author understood them. 
 Anthony Benezet, a Friend, 
 and a teacher in Philadelphia, compiled both a Primer and a Spell- 
 ing-Book. For convenience, they were so bound that they'could 
 be used either as one book or separately. The second edition 
 appeared about 1782. In this edition a short essay was added on 
 
 N 
 
 iHrfl 
 
 ~ ^ 
 
 HORN BOOK. 
 
SC//OOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. iqb 
 
 English Grammar. Moral lessons were interniingled with the 
 other lessons all through the books. " My view went," says the 
 author, " not only to make spelling more easy, familiar and agree^ 
 able than usual, but also to cause the bent and aim of all the les- 
 sons from the beginning to the end to be such as tended to mend 
 the heart as well as convince the judgment by raising in the tender 
 mind principles of compassion and tenderness, as well to the brute 
 creation as to their fellow-men, a nobility of mind and a love of 
 virtue." Neither Fox's nor Benezet's books were much used out- 
 side of the Society of Friends. 
 
 The New England Primer had considerable circulation in Penn- 
 sylvania. At what time the first edition was published is not 
 known, but a second edition was thus advertised in Henry New- 
 man's Almanac for 1691 : "There is now in Press, and will sud- 
 denly be extant, a Second Impression of the New England Primer 
 enlarged, to which is added more Directions for Spelling: the Prayer 
 of K. Edzvard the 6th, and Verses made by Mr. Rogers, the Martyr, 
 left as a Legacy to his Children!' 
 
 The "New England Primer Improved" was published in Boston, 
 in 1770. A later edition was published in Philadelphia. Its most 
 striking feature was an illustrated Alphabet with accompanying 
 rhymes. The following are examples of a few of the couplets: 
 
 A. D. 
 
 In Adam's Fall The Deluge drown'd 
 
 We sinned all. The Earth around. 
 
 B. E. 
 Heaven to find Elijah hid 
 The Bible mind. By Ravens fed. 
 
 C. F. 
 
 Christ crucify'd The judgment made 
 
 For sinners dy'd. Felix Afraid. 
 
 This book also contained a rude picture of the burning of John 
 Rogers, at Smithfield, in 1754, followed to the stake by "his wife 
 with nine small children and one at the breast;" and lengthy lines 
 of "Advice to his Children," written some days before his death. 
 Among its other contents were the Westminster Shorter Catechism, 
 the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and a few of Watts' Hymns. An 
 edition of this Primer was published by Sower, at Germantown, in 
 1 77 1. The illustrated Alphabet of the "New England Primer Im- 
 proved" was probably a modification of that contained in the 
 
I g6 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 "Child's Guide," published in London, in 1762, or both may have 
 been copied from or suggested by an older book than either. A 
 Primer greatly resembling the " Child's Guide," and differing some- 
 what from the New England Primer Improved, was published in 
 Philadelphia at an early day. It was stereotyped in 1824. 
 
 Below will be found the quaint illustrations and the accompany- 
 ing rhymes as they appear in the " Child's Guide," probably the 
 oldest of this class of Primers : 
 
 A. 
 
 In Adam's Fall, 
 We sinned all. 
 
 This Book attend. 
 Thy Life to mend. 
 
 C. 
 The Cat doth play. 
 And after slay. 
 
 D. 
 The Dog doth bite 
 A Thief at Night. 
 
 E. 
 An Eagle's flight 
 Is out of sight. 
 
 F. 
 The Idle Fool, 
 Is whipt at School. 
 
 G. 
 As runs the Glass, 
 Man's Life doth pass. 
 
 My Book and Heart 
 Shall never part. 
 
 Jesus did dye, 
 For thee and I. 
 
 K. 
 King Charles the 
 
 Good, 
 No man of Blood. 
 
 L. 
 The Lyon bold. 
 The Lamb doth hold. 
 
 M. 
 The Moon gives 
 
 Light, 
 In time of Night. 
 
 N. 
 Nightingales sing. 
 In time of Spring. 
 
 O. 
 The Royal Oak our 
 
 King did save. 
 
 From fatal stroke of 
 
 Rebel Slave. 
 
 P. 
 
 Peter denies 
 
 His Lord, and cries. 
 
 Q. 
 Queen Esther came 
 
 in Royal State, 
 To save the Jews 
 from dismal fate. 
 R. 
 Rachel doth mourn 
 For her first-born. 
 
 S. 
 Samuel anoints 
 Whom God appoints. 
 
 T. 
 Time cuts down all, 
 Both great and small. 
 
 U. 
 Uriah's beauteous 
 
 Wife, 
 Made David seek his 
 
 Life. 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 197 
 
 W. 
 Whales in the Sea 
 God's voice obey. 
 
 X. 
 Xerxes the Great did die, 
 And so must you and I. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Youth's forward slips 
 Death soonest nips. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zaccheus, he 
 
 Did climb the Tree, 
 
 His Lord to see. 
 
 In addition to the Primers now named, there were published at 
 Philadelphia, in 1753, a second edition of the "Royal Primer;" in 
 1813, the "American Primer, or an Easy Introduction to Spelling 
 and Reading," illustrated with a number of poor wood-cuts; in 
 1828, Enoch Lewis' "Child's Companion;" and, at Lancaster, in 
 1755, the " Pennsylvania Primer." All of these were very plain 
 compilations of lessons in the Alphabet and in Spelling and Reading. 
 
 The wants of the German schools, in these old times, were sup- 
 plied by Christopher Sower's " A-B-C und Buchstabier Buck" pub- 
 lished at Germantown in 1738; his "Das Kinder Buchlein in der 
 Bruder Gemeinde," 1755, and his " Dreierlei Deutsche und audi drei- 
 erlei Englishche A-B-C Bticher, 1761; Ludwig Hocker's "^-^-C 
 Buchlein" and " Namen Buchlein" published at Ephrata about 
 1786; the High German " A-B-C und Namen Buchlein',' published 
 by Michael Billmeyer, at Germantown, in 1807, and the " German 
 Reformed A-B-C und Namen Buchlein" and the "German Luth- 
 eran A-B-C und Namen Buchlein." Of the Primers last named, 
 designed for the Reformed and Lutheran church schools, there 
 were numerous editions. Copies of the Lutheran edition of 18 18, 
 published by Conrad Zentler, Philadelphia, contained as a frontis- 
 piece a large picture of a rooster, followed on the next page by 
 a quaint engraving of Martin Luther in his library at Wittenberg. 
 On the third page there were pictures of animals, the initial letters 
 of whose names constituted a complete Alphabet. Next came the 
 Alphabet in large and small letters, lessons in Spelling and Read- 
 ing, morning and evening prayers, and extracts from the Scriptures. 
 
 The old Spelling-Book our grandfathers best remembered, was 
 that of Thomas Dilworth, an English schoolmaster. It was first pub- 
 lished in England in 1740, and introduced into the American colon- 
 ies some years later. Several editions were produced from the 
 press of Philadelphia, the first in 1757. An edition, stated to be 
 the "ninety-eighth," was printed by Francis Bailey, at Lancaster, in 
 1778. This was at the darkest period of the Revolutionary War, 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 and the publisher in a preface to the book patriotically congratulates 
 the country, on its publication, in hot words like these: "At the 
 beginning of the contest between the Tyrant and the States, it was 
 boasted by our unnatural enemy, that, if nothing more, they could 
 at least shut up our ports by their navy, and prevent the importation 
 of Books and Paper, so that in a few years we should sink down 
 into barbarity and ignorance, and be fit companions for the Indians, 
 our neighbors to the westward." The title-page of all the editions 
 of the book was graced by a picture of the author, as straight and 
 stiff as if cut out of a block of wood. The lessons in spelling were 
 interspersed with reading lessons, among them fables, quaintly illus- 
 trated. Forms of prayers for children were included. In spelling, 
 the terminations tion and sion were pronounced as two syllables. 
 The Philadelphia editions contained a little elementary Grammar, in 
 which the English substantives were declined through six cases, as 
 in Latin ; but in the Lancaster edition the Grammar was omitted 
 until the time, as the publisher stated, " when peace and commerce 
 shall again smile upon us, and when, in spite of Britain and a cer- 
 tain evil one surnamed Beelzebub, we shall have Paper and Books of 
 every kind in abundance, and science shall once more shoot up and 
 flourish in the country." 
 
 Dilworth's book was succeeded to some extent by the celebrated 
 .series of children's text-books by Noah Webster, published first in 
 New England, the Spelling-Book in 1783, the Grammar in 1790, 
 and the Reader in 1792. Marked changes in methods of teaching 
 followed everywhere the introduction of these books ; but the place 
 they would have occupied in Pennsylvania was soon filled by the 
 works of Lindley Murray, an English Grammar, an Introduction to 
 the English Reader, an English Reader and a Sequel to the Eng- 
 lish Reader. Murray was of Quaker descent and a Pennsylvanian, 
 being born on the Swatara, in what is now Lebanon county. His 
 books were published in England, where he resided for the greater 
 part of his life, but they were quickly republished in this country, 
 numerous editions being brought out at Philadelphia. The selec- 
 tions in the Readers were too abstract to be clearly understood by 
 many of those to whom they were given as lessons, but the 
 books as a whole were a great improvement on those that preceded 
 them, and did much to create a taste for literature in the schools 
 where they were skillfully used. A little later than Murray came 
 the excellent books of the noted Quaker teacher, John Comly: 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. ,„„ 
 
 Primer, Spelling-Book and Grammar. These obtained a large cir- 
 culation. Less noted, perhaps, than the books already named, but 
 still largely used, mention must be made of the Spelling-Book of 
 Owen, published at Philadelphia as early as 1754; of the " New 
 Pehnsylvania Spelling-Book," published at Norristown, in 1799, by 
 David Sower; of the Spelling-Book of John Peirce, an old Dela- 
 ware county teacher, a feature of whose work was its lessons in 
 Geography and Grammar; of the Spelling-Book of Stephen Byerly, a 
 Montgomery county man, very popular in the interior of the State; 
 of the "United States Spelling-Book" by "Sundry Experienced 
 Teachers," fourteenth edition published at Pittsburgh, in 18 17, pre- 
 face dated 1809; of the "Western Spelling-Book" by Rev. Joseph 
 Stockton, Principal of the Pittsburgh Academy from 18 10 to 1820, 
 during which time the book was published; and of the "Philadelphia 
 Spelling-Book " by John Barry, " late Master of the Free School of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church," Philadelphia, David Hogan pub- 
 lisher, 1 82 1. Most of these Spelling-Books contain reading as well 
 as spelling lessons, and some of them have lessons in defining words, 
 in Punctuation, Grammar, Statistics, Geography, Chronology, etc. 
 Barry's "Philadelphia Spelling-Book" intermixes all through it 
 moral maxims with its other lessons, and concludes with seven, 
 dialogues on God and his creation. 
 
 As Reading was seldom taught in classes in these old times, in- 
 dividual pupils frequently read from any book they might own or 
 that might suit their taste. Hence a History of some kind, the 
 Columbian Orator, the American Preceptor, Jack Halyard, the 
 Happy Family, Popular Lessons, and many other books, were used 
 as Readers in schools after their publication became known. But not- 
 withstanding the improvement in text-books and the spirit of pro- 
 gress that began to show itself more and more among teachers, the 
 Psalter, the New Testament and the Bible held their place ^s the 
 principal Reading books in schools, especially in German neighbor- 
 hoods, until after the revolution in educational literature brought 
 about by the adoption of the common school system. 
 
 Dilworth's " Schoolmasters' Assistant " published in England in 
 1743, and republished in Philadelphia in 1769, was the principal 
 Arithmetic used in the schools one hundred years ago. The sub- 
 jects treated of in Dilworth's Arithmetic were mainly the same as 
 those now included in works of the kind ; but the book was 
 thoroughly English in all respects, including even the essay it con- 
 
200 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 tained " On the Education of Youth." When first introduced, few 
 pupils owned a copy of the book, the master simply using his as a 
 guide in directing the studies of those engaged in cyphering, and as 
 a source from which problems for them to solve were obtained. 
 The Arithmetics of John Gough and Zachariah Jess, the third 
 editions of which were published in Philadelphia in 1796 and 
 1797 respectively, were used to some extent, and less widely the 
 "Federal Arithmetic, or the Science of Numbers," by Thomas 
 Sarjeant, Philadelphia, 1793, and Benjamin Workman's " American 
 Accountant or Schoolmasters' New Assistant," Philadelphia, 1789; 
 but DaboU's " Schoolmaster's Assistant" appearing a few years later, 
 and presenting some new features that at once recommended it to 
 popular favor, among them the prominence given to calculations in 
 American currency, pushed all its predecessors aside and for a con- 
 siderable time held the first place in Pennsylvania schools. The 
 Arithmetic of Stephen Pike, Philadelphia, 1813; Cruikshank's 
 "American Tutor's Assistant," Philadelphia, 1809; the "Youth's 
 Arithmetical Guide" Philadelphia, 1805; "Arithmetic Made Ea.sy to 
 Children," by Emmor Kimber, Philadelphia!, 1809; " A Treatise on 
 Practical Arithmetic," by Robert Patterson, Philadelphia, 18 18; 
 Smiley's New Federal Calculator," Philadelphia, 1825; Stockton's 
 "Western Calculator," Pittsburgh, fourth edition, 1823, and Walsh's 
 Arithmetic, copyrighted in 1800 and printed in Pittsburgh in 18 1 2, 
 came to the front in different parts of the State as the schools grew 
 tired of Daboll, to be in turn supplanted by the more modern 
 Arithmetics. 
 
 Daniel Fenning's " Der geschwinde Rechner" was published by 
 Sower in 1774. Ludwig Hocker's " Rechen Buchlein" was published 
 at Ephrata in 1786. This Ephrata publication is an exceedingly 
 curious compound of religious exercises and exercises in Arithmetic. 
 The Creed, the Lord's Prayer, Hymns and texts of Scripture, are 
 strangely intermixed with problems and calculations in the simpler 
 parts of Arithmetic. An Arithmetic in German under the title of 
 ■Carl Gock's " Neuestes Selbstlehrendes Rechen-Biich" was published 
 •by subscription by Henry B. Sage, Reading, 1823. The original 
 work appeared in Germany, but the Reading edition was adapted 
 to the use of American schools. The names of several hundred 
 subscribers in Berks, Lehigh, and Lancaster counties were printed 
 in the book. 
 
 Copies of Arithmetics, other than those designated, were in the 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 2OI 
 
 hands of particular teachers, among them the celebrated work of 
 Cocker, published in Dublin in 1677. Cocker's may be considered 
 the father of modern Arithmetics, as it furnished the plan which all 
 of them have copied. An edition was published in Philadelphia in 
 1779. It contains a rude portrait of the author, which might be 
 taken for a caricature, with these eulogistic lines : 
 
 Ingenious Cocker, now to Rest thou'rt gone, 
 No Art can show thee fully, but thine own ; 
 Thy rare Arithmetick alone can show 
 Th' vast of Thanks we for thy Labours owe. 
 
 Several different branches of Mathematics were sometimes treated 
 of in a single book. The " Young Mathematician's Guide," pub- 
 lished in England in 1706, and, later, found in a few hands in Penn- 
 sylvania, included Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Conic Sections, 
 Gauging, etc. There is now, as I write, a book before me entitled 
 " Synopsis Mathematica Universalis" or, a " Brief System of Mathe- 
 matics for Young Students," which includes chapters on Arithmetic, 
 Geometry, Trigonometry, Astronomy, Dialling, Chronology, Geog- 
 raphy, Optics, Catoptrics, Dioptrics, and Statics. This comprehen- 
 sive volume was printed in London, in 1729, and belonged to Abel 
 Wickersham, a plain Chester county schoolrnaster of days long 
 gone by, whose name, written in his own hand, appears on the title- 
 page. And as illustrating the book-making of those old times, it 
 may be proper to give the following abstract of tlie title-page of a 
 school-book written by George Fisher, and printed at Philadelphia, 
 in 1748, by Franklin and Hall: "The American Instructor, or 
 Young Man's Best Companion, containing Spelling, Reading, Writ- 
 ing, Arithmetic, in an Easier Way than any Yet published, and how 
 to qualify any Person for Business without the help of a Master," 
 Its further contents included instructions in letter writing ; a book 
 of forms; a treatise on Book-keeping; rules for making mechanical 
 calculations of all kinds; Gauging and Dialling; the "Poor Planter's 
 Physician," and directions for marking linen, making wines, pickles, 
 and preserves, and preparing "many excellent" plasters and medi- 
 cines. " Also prudent advice to young Tradesmen and Dealers." 
 
 Geography received very little attention in the schools of Penn- 
 sylvania, before the appearance of the books of Smiley and Olney, 
 accompanied with Atlases, about the year 1825. Previous to that 
 time, D wight's work, published in 1795, about the size of a Spell- 
 ing-Book, without maps and arranged with questions and answers, 
 
202 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 and Morse's, published near the same time, with four small maps, 
 were used in a few schools. These were New England publications. 
 Pinkerton's Geography was advertised for sale in Lancaster, in 1805. 
 The sixth edition of the " Elements of Geography," by Benjamin 
 Workman, was published, in Philadelphia, in 1796. The book is in 
 size just five inches by three, and consists of one hundred and eighty 
 pages of descriptive matter, including a chapter on the Solar System, 
 and is illustrated by eight maps, each the size of a page. F. Nichols 
 published, in Philadelphia in 1809, "A Compend of Geography," 
 and three years later, "An Abridgment" of the same. The Abridg- 
 ment is about the size of Workman's book. It contains no maps, 
 but reference is made to an Atlas, by the same author, with eleven 
 maps. A Geography in German for the " German People of Amer- 
 ica," was published in 1835, by Henry Ziezel & Co., Lebanon, but 
 printed in Philadelphia. Its author was G. L. Waltz. The book 
 contains descriptive matter, with two small outline hemispherical 
 maps, and is illustrated by a number of rude engravings. It was 
 probably used in some schools as a Reader. The indefatigable 
 Sower, at Germantown, in 1753, in advance of the times, it would 
 seem, issued Theophilus Grew's "Description of the Use of Globes." 
 These praiseworthy beginnings met with small, encoifragement. 
 
 Whether any more than a few straggling copies of the old Eng- 
 lish Grammars of Harris, Johnson, Lowth, Priestley, Sheridan, or 
 Walker, ever found their way from England to Pennsylvania, is 
 unknown, several of them, however, were reprinted in Philadelphia, 
 Lowth's in 1775 and Sheridan's in 1783, and may have been used 
 to some extent; but the first works generally taught in the schools 
 were the Philadelphia editions of the Grammars of Webster, Har- 
 rison, Murray, and Comly, mainly the two last named. Prior in 
 date to either, however, were two German Grammars published by 
 Sower, the " Eine Dtutsch und Englische Grammatik," 1747, and the 
 " Anleitung zur Englischen Sprache," 1750. For many years, and 
 down to a period within the memoty of men now living, the study 
 of Grammar was confined for the most part to a few select schools. 
 It required a great change in public sentiment and the superior 
 attractions of the modern works of Kirkham, Smith, Brown, and 
 others, to secure its general introduction into country schools. 
 Kirkham's Grammar was particularly serviceable in this respect, as 
 Its author was a Pennsylvanian, educated at Lewisburg, taught 
 school both at that place and at Danville, and his book was pub- 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 203 
 
 lished at Harrisburg. The prejudice against the study of Grammar 
 probably arose from the abstract method adopted in teaching it, 
 from which unfortunately it has not yet wholly escaped. 
 
 Methods of teaching are in most respects as varied as are the 
 characteristics or idiosyncrasies of teachers; but in the schools of 
 our forefathers tkey had certain features in common which must 
 be noted. 
 
 There was, to begin with, little uniformity in text-books. Chil- 
 dren generally carried with them to school such books as they 
 happened to have, and they were seldom asked to procure others. 
 Instruction was imparted to the pupils in great measure as indi- 
 viduals, and not as formed in classes. The classification considered 
 essential in a modern school was then an undiscovered art. With- 
 out any general control, the grading of schools into higher and 
 lower was of course impossible. No attempt at such a thing was 
 ever made, and, if made, could not have been successful. Each 
 school was established without reference to any other; each had its 
 own management, and would have considered its life sacrificed had 
 it been forced to take an assigned place in an educational system. 
 
 Children were taught as if the only faculty they possessed needing 
 culture was memory — as if the only intellectual appetite God had 
 given them was for facts and forms. Spelling and Writing were the 
 branches of learning best taught, and both of these are almost 
 wholly mechanical. Branches naturally requiring thought were 
 taught in such a way by rule and example as to become a mere 
 exercise of the memory. This general statement will be enforced 
 by details. 
 
 In giving instruction in the Alphabet, no charts were used, no 
 blackboards, no slates, no blocks. Each child was called upon in 
 turn, four or six times a day, " to say a lesson," which was done by 
 the master's pointing to each letter and calling upon the child to 
 name it, and if unable to do so, requiring him to repeat the name as 
 given. The order was almost invariably from A to " Zed," or 
 " Izzard," as the last letter of the Alphabet was generally called. 
 At times the letters were repeated backwards ; but he was an extra- 
 ordinary teacher who had the ingenuity to require his pupils to 
 name the letters when pointed out misc^laneously, or when named 
 miscellaneously to point them out. The time required "to say a 
 lesson " was on an average scarcely more than two minutes, and 
 during all the hours of the intervening periods, the suffering chil- 
 
20 , ED UCA TTON IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 dren were expected to sit on seats without backs and do nothing. 
 It is to the credit of human nature that they were not often without 
 employment ! 
 
 "Spelling on the book" was taught by attempting to lead the 
 pupil to give the names of syllables and words by naming the letters 
 of which they are composed. The first lessons consisted of combi- 
 nations of a vowel with one or more consonants, arranged so that a 
 kind of rhyme aided the pronunciation; as, ab,eb, ib, etc.; ba, be,bi, 
 etc. ; bla, ble, bli, etc. Months were frequently spent in exercises of 
 this kind, before the pupil made any attempt to read or to pronounce 
 words without spelling them. "Spelling off the book" consisted in 
 naming the letters of words pronounced for that purpose. Some 
 columns in a Spelling-Book were usually assigned as a lesson, and 
 the task was to study the words until they could be spelled from 
 memory. The studying was done by repeating the letters of the 
 words over and over ; and when the voices of all the pupils in a 
 school were joined in concert, as they frequently were in preparing 
 the spelling lessons, the constantly increasing volume of sound 
 could be heard far beyond the walls of theschoolhouse. It seemed 
 to be understood that spelling lessons could be best prepared by 
 uttering letters and words in a loud whisper, and many masters, 
 otherwise very strict disciplinarians, suffered the noise as an unavoid- 
 able annoyance, if not as an agreeable relief from schoolroom monot- 
 ony. The whole process of learning to spell was purely mechani- 
 cal, little effort ever being made to explain the meaning of the words 
 of the lesson, and none at all to use them in the construction of 
 sentences. But it must be added that these old schools turned out 
 many good spellers, the memory being strengthened by the con- 
 tinued repetition and the effort to excel stimulated by the "trapping 
 system " of recitation and the frequent spelling matches that varied 
 the life of the school in the days of our forefathers. Besides, the 
 attention of the pupils was less diverted by a multiplicity of studies 
 than in more modern times. 
 
 The beginners in Reading were accustomed to spell nearly all the 
 words as they went along before pronouncing them, thus forming 
 habits that rendered it almost impossible for them ever to become 
 good readers. No attention was paid to the definitions of words or 
 to the meaning of sentences. Nothing whatever was required of 
 young learners but correct pronunciation and soty attention to 
 arbitrary pauses at the several marks of punctuation. Force. 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 2OS 
 
 emphasis, inflection, expression, and in most cases, sense, were 
 wholly ignored. To read well was in a general way to read fast, 
 without being compelled to stop to spell any of the words. When 
 pupils of the same grade happened to have books alike they read in 
 classes ; but it was no uncommon thing for one-half the pupils in a 
 school to read each in his own book by himself. In such cases, 
 even mistakes in pronunciation usually passed without correction. 
 
 Writing was probably better taught in the old schools than any 
 other branch. There were then no " systems " of writing, no 
 analyses of letters, no engraved copies of graded lessons ; but the 
 master generally wrote a fair, plain hand and the pupils were made 
 to copy it. True, the first lessons given were meaningless " strokes," 
 and " hooks " and " hangers ;" but the course usually left the pupils 
 in the command of a hand neat and legible. The first copy-books 
 were made of sheets of foolscap paper folded double, cut open at the 
 ends, sewed along the back and ruled with a lead pencil. The copies 
 were set by the master either by writing lessons for imitation along 
 the line at the top of the page or at the end of the line down the left- 
 hand side. The master made and mended pens, and skill in this art 
 was considered one of the prime qualifications of a good school- 
 master. Makers of mischief thought themselves comparatively safe 
 when a crowd gathered around the master's desk with pens to 
 mend. 
 
 When pupils were without books, the master instructed them in 
 Arithmetic either by dictating suitable problems for them to solve 
 or by copying them from a mathematical manuscript or an Arithme- 
 tic kept for the purpose. With a book of his own, the pupil solved 
 the problems contained in it in their proper order, working hard or 
 taking it easy as pleased him, showed the solutions to the master, 
 and if found correct generally copied them in a blank book provided 
 for the purpose. The matter copied embraced about the whole con- 
 tents of the Arithmetic, including headings, definitions, rules and 
 examples. Some of these old manuscript " Cyphering Books," the 
 best one may suppose, having come down through several genera- 
 tions, are still preserved among old family records, bearing testimony 
 to the fair writing and the careful copying, if not to the Arithmetical 
 knowledge, of those who prepared them. When a pupil was unable 
 to solve a problem, he had recourse to the master who solved it for 
 him. It sometimes happened that a dozen or twenty pupils stood 
 at one time in a crowd around the master's desk, waiting with slates 
 
2Qg ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA . 
 
 and problems to be solved. There were no classes in Arithmetic, 
 no explanations of processes either by master or pupil, no demonstra- 
 tions of principles either asked for or given— the problems were 
 solved, the answers obtained, the solutions copied and the work was 
 considered complete. That some persons did obtain a good knowl- 
 edge of Arithmetic under such teaching must be admitted, but this 
 result was clearly due rather to native talent or hard personal labor 
 than to wise direction. 
 
 So much of Geography and Grammar as was taught in the early 
 schools was taught mainly by question and answer. The master 
 read the question from the book, and the pupil gave the answer he 
 had committed to memory. Taught in this way, without maps, 
 globes, illustrations, pictures of life past or present, even Geography 
 was a dull study : much more dull must Grammar have been, pre- 
 sented wholly in the form of abstract definitions and rules, uncom- 
 bined with practical exercises of any kind. 
 
 Some things must be set down to the credit of the old schools. 
 As a compensation to girls for the paucity of their instruction in 
 other respects, provision was sometimes made for teaching them 
 needle-work. In schools for girls in towns and villages and in the 
 first girls' Boarding Schools this was the common practice. What- 
 ever may be said of their own conduct, an old-time schoolmaster, 
 especially one of foreign birth, would not tolerate bad manners in 
 his pupils. He required them to show him proper respect by bid- 
 ding him "good morning" and "good evening" as they came into 
 the schoolhouse or left it, and to take off their hats when they met 
 him in the street or on the highway. They were also required by 
 some masters to lift their hats or make a courtesy to the strangers 
 whom they met on their way to or from school, and to receive visi- 
 tors by rising at their seats. Much more attention was given to 
 religious instruction than is practicable in the public schools of the 
 present day. In all the church schools, and in many others, the 
 Catechism was regularly taught. The earliest Primers, the Spelling 
 Books, and even the Arithmetics, contained religious exercises 
 intermingled with other lessons. The Psalter, the New Testament 
 and the Bible were read, re-read, and many portions committed to 
 memory. There may have been something of form in all this ; but 
 none can doubt that it was based upon a deep religious feeling, and 
 was calculated to lead to a knowledge of sacred things and a rever- 
 ence for the Supreme Being, as desirable now as then. True, at 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 207 
 
 this day we have Sunday-schools, Bible and catechetical classes, 
 and the advantage of superior pastoral and home instruction ; but it 
 remains a question whether our ways of conducting moral and 
 religious education are better than the ways of our forefathers. 
 
 As contrasted with the discipline of the modern school, old-time 
 school discipline was exceedingly severe. Its chief aim was to 
 secure order, and force was the only means considered effective. 
 Punishment was meted out for all grades of offences. The makers 
 of mischief and the doers of evil in a school seldom escaped a full 
 measure of chastisement, and small allowance was made for even 
 the innocent indiscretions of youth. One of the first qualifications 
 in the master of a school was considered to be his ability to keep 
 order, and, to be prepared for an emergency, a bundle of well- 
 seasoned rods was usually either concealed in his desk, or looked 
 threateningly down upon timid urchins from a shelf on the wall 
 behind it. A long list of rules was generally read to the pupils at 
 the beginning of a school term, and it often happened that without 
 waiting for offences to occur or to try milder modes of treatment, 
 it was at once proclaimed that disobedience would be followed by 
 punishment. Such a beginning was apt to be accepted as a chal- 
 lenge by the older pupils, and a contest immediately began between 
 strength and vigilance on the one side, and cunning and pluck on 
 the other. The victory was generally on the side of the master, 
 but not always, and instances of his being overawed by the opposi- 
 tion or even of his being beaten and driven away were not uncom- 
 mon. When not openly defied, he was at times made the subject 
 of personal indignities, and tricks unknown in modern school- 
 keeping were frequently played upon him. To secure a holiday or 
 a treat, it was the custom, on occasion, to bar him out of the school- 
 house, or to place obstructions in the chimney that caused the fire 
 to go out or the room to be filled with smoke. His wig might be 
 ingeniously removed from his head, his cue tied to his chair, the 
 legs of his chair so weakened that it would not bear his weight, or 
 his dinner mysteriously disappear, including, most likely, the almost 
 indispensable bottle of rum. 
 
 The children were not spoiled on account of a sparing use of the 
 rod in these old schools. None of them probably equalled in the 
 number of punishments inflicted by the famous flogging school- 
 master of Suabia, who in his fifty-three years of service, according 
 to his own faithful record^ administered the following: 911,500 can- 
 
2o8 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 ings, 121,000 floggings, 209,000 custodies, 10,200 ear-boxes, 22,700 
 tasks, 136 tips with the rule, 700 boys caused to stand on peas, 
 6,000 to kneel on sharp-edged wood, 5,000 to wear the fool's cap, 
 1,700 to hold the rod — in all, 1,282,036 cases of punishment. But 
 discipline in the early Pennsylvania schools was administered much 
 in the same spirit, if not with the same zeal as in Suabia. An 
 average of ten or even twenty whippings a day for a whole term, in 
 one of these schools, neither excited surprise on the part of the 
 pupils within, nor provoked inquiry in the neighborhood outside. 
 There were multitudes of boys who received their whippings every 
 day about as regularly as they recited or attempted to recite their 
 lessons, and such was the temper of our tough old grandfathers, 
 that, in addition, these luckless youths were apt to be whipped at 
 home for being whipped at school. Instead of a rod on the back, 
 a ruler on the hand was sometimes used ; and in certain schools, 
 for missed lessons, pupils were compelled to sit on a dunce block 
 and wear a fool's cap or a pair of leathern spectacles. Petty punish- 
 ments were common, such as snapping the forehead, twi.sting the 
 nose, boxing or pulling the ears; and, sometimes, prolonged tortures 
 were resorted to, like the following: holding a book in the open 
 hand with the arm fully outstretched, bending the body so as to 
 touch a nail in the floor with a finger, standing on one foot, sitting 
 astride a sharp-edged trestle, etc. Offending pupils were frequently 
 frightened by strong epithets, such as "dunce," "blockhead," 
 " booby," " rascal," etc. 
 
 Somewhat of this severity in school discipline was oiving to the 
 stern manners of the times, and somewhat to schoolroom traditions 
 for which preceding generations must bear a share of the responsi- 
 bility. Certain it is that neither in Europe nor America had 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 plants ; 
 that with a gentle hand and a loving heart shapes 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 branches to pursue a line of study by himself. He 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 209 
 
 frequently was allowed to read from a book of his own selection, and 
 he could move along through his Arithmetic, Mensuration or Sur- 
 veying fast or slow as suited his convenience or his taste. 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 class. A school was not then a mill 
 expected to turn out grists, whatever the character of the grain, the 
 same in quantity and quality. With our modern systems and grades 
 and classes we have leveled up and thus improved the less gifted 
 classes of society, but there is danger that we have leveled down as 
 well, and may have in consequence deprived society of its born 
 leaders. A loosely organized school of the old class could not do 
 as much for the whole body of its pupils as a school graded and 
 classified as is now the custom ; but it might have done more for 
 the few who possessed genius and marked individuality of character, 
 for such as these thrive best when suffered to work in their own way 
 and according to their own bent. 
 
 14. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOLMASTERS. EARLY VIEWS OF EDUCATION. FRANK- 
 LIN'S. DR. rush's. CHRISTOPHER SOWER'S. 
 
 THE reader must now make the acquaintance of the old school- 
 masters. Of schoolmistresses there are few to be introduced. 
 In the early days, in Pennsylvania, women were employed in teach- 
 ing school to a very limited extent. It was a rare thing to find a 
 female teacher in a German settlement. Such teachers were most 
 numerous among the Friends and among the settlers from New 
 England, but even in communities of these classes of people, they 
 seldom held a more responsible position than that of the head of a 
 small private school, or were intrusted with the instruction of any 
 but the youngest children. The fact that so many women are nat- 
 urally qualified for the work of teaching is a discovery made at a 
 much later date. 
 
 Of the schoolmasters, a certain proportion were selected from the 
 neighborhood of the school to be supplied. In many neighbor- 
 hoods, teaching school as a distinct employment was unknown, and 
 in many others the services of professed 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, 
 if any work in the world does, the most careful special preparation. 
 The opinion was then common that keeping school was a business 
 so simple that almost any one was equal to it. All the master of a 
 school was expected in most cases to do, was to keep order and to 
 follow the usual routine method of giving instruction in the merest 
 elements of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, it is not to be wondered at that the heads of families 
 supporting a school should sometimes look around among them- 
 selves or their neighbors in search of a young man possessing the 
 physical strength and courage and the limited literary attainments 
 required of a schoolmaster; nor is it to be wondered at that it hap- 
 pened even more frequently, that some such young man, desiring to 
 
 (210) 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 2 1 1 
 
 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. Hundreds of these inexperienced young men were em- 
 ployed as schoolmasters. As a class, they were at first extremely 
 unskillful and awkward in the performance of their duties, possess- 
 ing very limited knowledge of the branches of learning they under- 
 took to teach, and having no conception whatever of the great art 
 of teaching school. Their first essays were necessarily a series of 
 blunders, but it is to their credit that after years of experimental 
 work, some among them became fair scholars and good teachers. 
 
 Young men became schoolmasters then as now for the purpose 
 of obtaining the money to pay for a course of higher instruction, or 
 used the teachers' desk as a stepping-stone to a place in some other 
 profession. Belonging to this class were some preparing with one 
 hand to enter a classical school or a College, and teaching with the 
 other ; some half through their College course teaching in a half- 
 hearted way and longing for the day to come when their half-earned: 
 pay would enable them to escape from the uncongenial work of the 
 schoolroom, and others, students of theology, of medicine or of 
 law, with time and strength preempted, like parasit^ living on the 
 school but yielding it nothing in return. This class of school- 
 masters was not large in the early days ; it is perhaps proportionally 
 as large to-day as it was a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago, 
 but unfortunately it has been at all times too large. When teaching 
 comes to assume its proper rank among the learned professions, and 
 to be able to maintain its own dignity as a calling requiring the 
 most elaborate special preparation, this one-handed, half-hearted, 
 make-shift way of keeping school will be considered an insufferable 
 degradation ; but it is only just to admit that on the whole, with all 
 their shortcomings, the schools thus kept were about the best our 
 grandfathers knew. Many of this class of masters were fair scholars, 
 some of them, even if disliking the work of the schoolroom, had so 
 much self-respect and so much regard for their reputation that they 
 made an honest effort to succeed, and a few really distinguished 
 themselves as teachers as they afterwards distinguished themselves 
 in the profession of their choice. Among the names of the men 
 of Pennsylvania most honored, there may be found a large 
 number who began their career as schoolmasters. As examples, 
 there may be named- Robert Proud, the Historian ; James Wilson, 
 Justice of the Su^eme Court of the United States; Gen. Jacob 
 
2(2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Brown, who for a time was chief commander of the American army 
 in the war of 1812; Joseph R. Chandler, the Journahst; Alexander 
 Wilson, the distinguished Naturalist ; Robert C. Grier, Justice of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States ; Asher Miner, editor and 
 writer; George Wolf.the free-school Governor; Francis R. Shunk, 
 the third Superintendent of Common Schools and the second Gov- 
 ernor of the State under the Constitution of 1838 ; Thaddeus Stevens, 
 the great lawyer and Congressional leader, and John W. Geary, 
 Major Genjeral and Governor. 
 
 But the representative schoolmaster of by-gone times belonged to 
 neither of the classes above designated. He constitutes a class by 
 himself, the itinerant schoolmaster. The itinerant schoolmasters 
 were mostly foreigners. A few of them came from New England, 
 still fewer from Virginia, a small number were native Germans; but 
 the great majority were Irish, Scotch or Scotch-Irish, with a sprink- 
 ling of straggling Englishmen. Most of them were without fami- 
 lies and had no fixed residence; keeping school first in one place 
 and then in another, wandering homeless up and down the country, 
 some of them came to be well known throughout whole counties. 
 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 schoolmaster, much given to drink- 
 ing and gambling"; 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 gener- 
 ally precise, formal, exacting and severe. Those who were good 
 scholars, and there were College and University graduates among 
 them, had either failed in some previous undertaking, met disap- 
 pointment that had soured them against society and driven them to 
 seek a livelihood in comparative isolation, or belonged to a class of 
 queer characters and purposeless adventurers, "cranks," that find 
 their way in large numbers to every new community and float about 
 rudderless on the surface of its affairs. It must not be thought that 
 none among them could teach a good school: this would be unjust. 
 A few names have come down to us through the generations, re- 
 vered for the noble, self-sacrificing work done long ago in some 
 plain country schoolhouse, and, doubtless, many others, equally de- 
 servmg, have been, in the lapse of time, forgotten. An unmarked 
 grave and a blank in history and in the memory of men, is apt to be 
 the fate of the faithful teacher at all times, though*he may have done. 
 
SCHOOLS OF O UR FOR EFA THERS. 2 1 3 
 
 more to shape the destinies of nations than the rulers in their coun- 
 cils or the leaders of their armies. 
 
 If there were few competent teachers of any class in the early 
 schools of Pennsylvania, good reason can be found in the gen- 
 eral condition of educational affairs. There was little about the 
 schools to attract young men of ability and energy. The school- 
 houses were uninviting — an old shop, an abandoned dwelling, 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 master'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 custom- 
 ary, in most sections of the State, for the master to board around 
 among the patrons of his school, remaining with each a stipulated 
 time; and, in numerous instances, he was compelled to receive, in 
 payment for his services, contributions in wood, wheat, corn, pota- 
 toes, pork or butter. In addition to all this, the schoolmaster, ex- 
 cept in the best organized church schools, had no assured social 
 position. He was a man unrecognized among the positive forces 
 of society outside of his own narrow sphere, and unwelcomed by 
 men of affairs in business or practical circles. The wonder is that 
 under these circumstances, among the schoolmasters of the past, 
 any one could be found with a single talent or a spark of ambition. 
 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. The names of many of these men will appear in 
 the different chapters of this book, but to compile anything like a 
 full and fair list of them is impracticable. The reader must be con- 
 tent with brief sketches of the characteristics and opinions of a few 
 old schoolmasters considered representative. 
 
 Rowland Jones was most likely either Welsh or English. He. 
 represents the eccentric and somewhat unbalanced class of foreign- 
 ers engaged in keeping school in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century. He taught the schools connected with the Episcopal 
 churches at Chester and Radnor, about 1730. The churchwardens 
 at Chester recommended him " as a man who attends church and 
 partakes of communion." In a letter to Rev. Dr. David Hum- 
 phreys, he gave the following account of his method of teaching: 
 
214 ^^ ^^^ TYOyV' IJ^ PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 Sir, you requiied an account of my method of instruction in school. I 
 endeavor, for beginners, to get Primers with syllables, viz., from one to 2, 3, 
 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8. I take them several times over them till they are perfect, by 
 way of repeating according as I find occasion, and then to some place for- 
 ward according to their capacity and commonly every two or three leaves. 
 I make them repeat perhaps two or three times over, and when they get the 
 Primer pretty well I serve them so in the Psalter, and we have some Psalters 
 with the proverbs at the latter end. I give them that to learn, the which I 
 take to be very agreeable, and still follow repetitions till I find they aie mas- 
 ters of such places. Then I move them into such places as I judge they are 
 fit for, either in the New or Old Testament, and as I find they advance I 
 move them not regarding the beginning nor ending of the Bible, but moving 
 them where I think they may have benefit by. So making of them perfect 
 in the vowels, consonants and diphthongs, and when they go on in their 
 reading clean without any noising, singing or stumbling, with deliberate way, 
 then I set them to begin the Bible in order to go throughout. And when I 
 begin writing I follow them in the letters till they come to cut pretty clean 
 letters and then one syllable and so to 2, 3, 4, and to the longest words, and 
 when they join handsomely I give them some sweet pleasing verses, some 
 perhaps on their business, some on behaviour, and some on their duty to 
 parents, etc., of such I seldom want them at command, and when they come 
 to manage double copies readily I give them some delightful sentences or 
 Proverbs or some places in the Psalms or any part of the Bible as they are 
 of forwardness and also to other fancies that may be for their benefit. And 
 when I set them cyphering I keep them to my old fancy of repeating and 
 shall go over every rule till they are in a case to move forward and so on. 
 And I find no way that goes beyond that of repeating both in spelling, read- 
 ing, writing and cyphering, and several gentlemen, viz.. Ministers and others 
 have commended it and some schoolmasters take to it, and though I speak 
 it I have met with no children of the standing or time of mine, could come 
 up with them on all accounts or hardly upon any; I also give them tasks, 
 when able, to learn out of books according to their ability, but one girl 
 exceeded all. She had a great many parts in the Bible by heart and had the 
 whole book of St. John and hardly would miss a word. I put them to spell 
 twice a week and likewise to Catechism, and likewise I catechise every Satur- 
 day and often on Thursdays. Sometimes I set them to sing Psalms. 
 
 David James Dove came to thi.s country in 1758-9. He taught 
 languages in the Academy at Philadelphia, was the first English 
 master in the Germantown Academy, and at one time had charge of 
 a school of his own in Germantown. He wrote, poetry, dabbled in 
 politics, but was best known as a caricaturist. Judge Peters, who 
 had been one of his pupils, characterizes him as " a sarcastical and ill- 
 tempered doggereliser, and was called Dove ironically— for his tem- 
 per was that of a hawk, and his pen was the beak of a falcon poun- 
 cing on innocent prey." Graydon, in his Memoirs, thus describes 
 his methods of discipline: "His birch was rarely used in the cus- 
 tomary method. He generally stuck it into the back part of the 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 2 IS 
 
 collar of the unfortunate culprit, who, with this badge of disgrace 
 towering from his nape like a broom at the mast-head of a vessel for 
 sale, was compelled to take his stand upon the top of the form for 
 such a period of time as his offence was thought to deserve. Boys 
 late at school were sent for by committees. Five or six boys were 
 sent for them with a bell and lighted lantern, and thus escorted with 
 the tinkling of the bell,, they were brought to school. Upon being 
 late himself, on one occasion, he was waited upon by the usual com- 
 mittee and good-naturedly suffered himself to be brought as a culprit 
 to the schoolhouse." 
 
 John Todd, the " master of scholars," was an old-time teacher in 
 the Friends' Public School, Philadelphia. He was a Friend, and 
 dressed and spoke after the manner of Friends. In study he was 
 exacting and in discipline severe. An anonymous writer, " Lang 
 Syne," quoted by Watson, gives the following description of a morn- 
 ing outbreak : " After one hour, maybe, of quiet time, everything 
 going smoothly on — boys at their tasks — no sound, but from the 
 master's voice, while hearing the one standing near him — a dead calm 
 — when suddenly a brisk slap on the ear or face, for something or for 
 nothing, gave ' dreadful note ' that an irruption of the lava was now 
 about to take place. Next thing to be seen was ' strap in full play 
 over the head and shoulders of Pilgarlic' The passion of the 
 master ' growing by what it fed on,' and wanting elbow room, the 
 chair would be quickly thrust on one side, when, with sudden gripe, 
 he was to be seen dragging his struggling suppliant to the flogging 
 ground, in the centre of the room. Having placed his left foot upon 
 the end of a bench, he then, with a patent jerk, peculiar to himself, 
 would have the boy completely horsed across his knee, with his left 
 hand on the 'back of his neck to keep him securely on. In the 
 hurry of the moment he would bring his long pen with him, griped 
 between his strong teeth, visible the while, causing the both ends to 
 descend to a parallel with his chin, and adding much to the terror 
 of the scene. His face would assume a deep claret color — his little 
 bob of hair would disengage itself, and stand out, each • particular 
 hair,' as it were, ' up in arms and eager for the fray.' Having his 
 victim thus completely at command, and all useless drapery drawn 
 up to a bunch above the waistband, and the rotundity and the nan- 
 keen in the closest afifinity possible for them to be, then, once more 
 to the ' staring crew,' would be exhibited the dexterity of master 
 and strap. By long practice he had arrived at such perfection in 
 
2 J g ED VCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 the exercise, that, moving in quick time, the fifteen inches of bridle 
 rein, alias strap, would be seen, after every cut, elevated to a perpen- 
 dicular above his head, from whence it descended like a flail upon 
 the stretched nankeen, leaving, ' on the place beneath,' a fiery red 
 streak at every slash. It was customary with him to address the 
 sufferer at intervals, as follows: 'Does it hurt?' — ('O! yes, master, 
 O ! don't, master,') — 'then, I'll make it hurt thee more — I'll make 
 thy flesh creep — thou sha'nt want a warming pan to-night — intoler- 
 able being ! Nothing in nature is able to prevail upon thee, but my 
 
 strap.'" 
 
 Quite in contrast with the severity of the hasty-tempered John 
 Todd was the mild discipline of the kind-hearted Anthony Benezet, 
 who spent nearly a half a century in the work of teaching. Benezet 
 was born in France, but having joined the Society of Friends, in 
 England, he came to Philadelphia in 1731, aged eighteen. In 1739, 
 he taught school in Germantown. In 1742, he became English 
 tutor in the Friends' Public School, Philadelphia. In 1755, he 
 established a school for girls which owing to its literary and moral 
 excellence was largely patronized by the best classes of citizens for 
 many years. About 1750, he began to give, in the evenings, in 
 addition to labors in connection with his own school, gratuitous in- 
 struction to negroes. He continued these self-sacrificing efforts in 
 behalf of a down-trodden people until the Friends, in good measure 
 through his influence, established their free school for colored 
 people. Of this school he took charge and faithfully devoted the 
 last years of his life to giving instruction in it; and, dying, be- 
 queathed to it his little fortune. In the words of his will his estate 
 with the exception of a few small legacies, was left " to hire and 
 employ a religious minded person or persons to teach a number of 
 negro, mulatto or Indian children to read, write, arithmetic, plain 
 accounts, needle-work, etc.; and it is my particular desire, founded 
 on the experience I have had in that service, that in the choice of 
 such tutor, special care may be had to prefer an industrious, careful 
 person of true piety, who may become suitably qualified and would 
 undertake the service for a principle of charity, to one more highly 
 learned not equally disposed." Of the capacity of the colored 
 people to receive an education Benezet says, and it required courage 
 to say it at that day : " I can with truth and sincerity declare, that 
 I have found amongst the negroes as great a variety of talents as 
 amongst a like number of whites, and I am bold to assert, that the 
 
SCHO OLS OF O UR FORRFA THERS. 3 1 7 
 
 notion entertained by some, that the blacks are inferior in their 
 capacities, is a vulgar prejudice, founded on the pride or ignorance 
 of their lordly masters, who have kept their slaves at such a distance 
 as to be unable to form a right judgment of them." 
 
 Benezet introduced a great reform in the school discipline of the 
 times. He discarded force and governed his school by kindness, 
 appealing to the sense of manliness, honor and right in his pupils and 
 not to that of fear. Straps, and rods, and rulers he threw aside as 
 barbaric. To him they were simply implements of torture and 
 wholly out of place in the school room. His pupils may not have 
 been so quiet as those in whom every youthful emotion is paralyzed 
 by fear ; but their growth both intellectual and moral was incom- 
 parably more healthy. In 1783, one year before his death he writes, 
 thus wisely, of education in general : 
 
 With respect to the education of youth, I would propose, as the fruit of forty 
 years' experience, that when pupils are proficient in the use of the pen, and 
 have become sufficiently acquainted with the English Grammar and the use- 
 ful parts of Arithmetic, they should be taught Mensuration of Superfices and 
 Solids, as it helps the mind in many necessary matters, particularly the use 
 of the scale and the compass; and will open the way for those parts of the 
 Mathematics, which their peculiar situations may afterwards make necessary. 
 It would also be profitable for every scholar of both sexes to go through and 
 understand a short but very plain set of merchants' accounts in single entry, 
 particularly adapted to the civil uses of life. And in order to perfect their 
 education in a useful and agreeable way, both to themselves and others, I 
 would propose to give them a geperal knowledge of the mechanical powers. 
 Geography and the elements of Astronomy; the use of the microscope might 
 also be profitably added, in discovering the minuter parts of the creation; 
 this with the knowledge of the magnitude and courses of those mighty bodies 
 which surround us, would tend to exalt their ideas. Such parts of History as 
 may tend to give them a right idea of the corruption of the human heart, the 
 dreadful nature and effects of war, the advantage of virtue, etc., are also 
 necessary parts of an education founded upon Christian and reasonable prin- 
 ciples. These several instructions should be inculcated on a religious plan, 
 in such a way as may prove delightful, rather than a painful labor, both to 
 teachers and pupils. It might also be profitable to give lads of bright genius 
 some plain lectures upon Anatomy, the wondrous frame of man, deducing 
 therefrom the advantage of a plain, simple way of life, enforcing upon their 
 understanding the kind efforts of nature to maintain the human frame in a 
 state of health with little medical help, but what abstinence and exercise will 
 afford. These necessary parts of knowledge so useful in directing the youth- 
 ful mind in the path of virtue and wisdom, might be presented by way of lec- 
 tures, which the pupils should write down, and when corrected should be 
 copied in a neat bound book to be kept for future perusal. 
 
 If contrary to his wishes, a memorial should be erected to his 
 
2 J 8 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 memory, Benezet desired to have inscribed on it these humble 
 
 words : 
 
 Anthony Benezet 
 
 ■WAS 
 
 A Poor Creature; 
 
 AND, 
 
 Through Divine Favor, 
 
 WAS 
 
 Enabled to know It. 
 
 Among the old schoolmasters, there were some whose methods 
 of teaching and whose opinions on educational subjects were greatly 
 in advance of the times. Of these " preachers in the wilderness," 
 heralds of the brighter day coming, none are more worthy to be 
 named than John Downey, Walter R. Johnson and Dr. John M. 
 Keagy. 
 
 John Downey settled in Harrisburg during the first decade of its 
 history, and taught a school for a number of years. He was, also, 
 Justice of the Peace, Town Clerk, and Member of the Assembly. 
 In a formal letter addressed to Governor Mifflin, in 1796, he dis- 
 cussed the whole subject of education, showing a wonderful sense 
 of its importance in a government like ours and a clear conception 
 of the nature of the system necessary to make it general. 
 
 Of the results to be expected from a want of intellectual culture, 
 he says: "From this source, finesse, hypocrisy, and property, al- 
 ready begin to overbalance talents and virtue ; and society is again 
 threatened with the return of superstition and tyranny, from whose 
 baneful influences we thought we had got free. This pestiferous 
 malady I would trace to a radical defect in our Constitution, with 
 whose vital essence a universal system of education ought to have 
 been interwoven, which might safely leave the speculative doctrines 
 of religion to the zeal of its numerously varying sectaries, and em- 
 brace only those subjects connected with man's interests and happi- 
 ness as a member of civil society, and over which, alone, society has 
 any control." 
 
 As an outline of what should be taught, he proposes, " that the 
 child be entertained with a simple history of such objects as are 
 daily presented to him, through the medium of the senses, and this 
 impressed by such anecdotes as are calculated to awaken attention. 
 From this history of external objects, he may rise to morals, and 
 universal morality may be inculcated by such interesting examples 
 of individual morality, as may fix the heart in the interests of hu- 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 2IQ 
 
 manity and virtue. The private interest and the usefulness of the 
 individual may now be attended to, by teaching him Writing, Arith- 
 metic, Book-keeping, Mensuration, Mathemathics, and Geography, 
 together with his duties and importance to society, in consequence 
 of this culture." 
 
 The following are points in his comprehensive plan of a State 
 system of education : 
 
 1. The elementary branches to be taught in two or more schools, in each 
 township, supported by an annual tax upon property. 
 
 2. The more advanced parts of science in one school in each township, and 
 supported in the same way. 
 
 3. More liberal science may be cultivated at an Academy, erected in each 
 county, which a very moderate assessment, throughout the county, will be 
 sufficient to support. 
 
 4. Attendance upon these schools for a sufficient time, ought to be strictly 
 enjoined under an adequate penalty. 
 
 Walter R. Johnson came to Pennsylvania from Massachusetts, in 
 1820, to take charge of Germantown Academy. He had graduated 
 at Harvard about a year before at the age of twenty-five. He con- 
 tinued to teach at Germantown until 1826, when he became Princi- 
 pal of the High School established by the Franklin Institute mainly 
 for the purpose of affording the industrial classes instruction in the 
 sciences and arts. As a teacher Prof Johnson was very strict in 
 discipline, and very thorough in his methods of instruction. His 
 severe system of mental training was new in Pennsylvania and very 
 much resembled that of a German Gymnasium or an American 
 Normal School at the present day. On account of its economy, 
 the monitorial system, then popular in Philadelphia, was introduced 
 into the High School. The third annual report states that of the 
 three hundred and four students, " three hundred study the English 
 language, one hundred and fifty-three the French, one hundred and 
 five the Latin, fifty-five Greek, forty-five Spanish, twenty German, 
 two hundred and forty Geography, three hundred Elocution, two hun- 
 dred and thirty-one Linear Drawing and all Arithmetic or some 
 branch of Mathematics." Outside ofthe school, the Principal delivered 
 courses of lectures on mechanics and natural philosophy and other 
 scientific subjects. But he was much more than a teacher and a scien- 
 tist ; he was an educator in the broadest sense. He saw the necessity 
 of a radical educational reform, and he was one of the foremost men 
 of the day in advocating the establishment of free schools, seminaries 
 for teachers, and schools of art. In 1822, he published thirteen 
 
220 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 essays on education in the " Commonwealth," Harrisburg, in which 
 he suggests the establishment of a Common School system. These 
 were followed by other essays of the same kind published in the 
 "Journal of the Franklin Institute." His " Improvement of Semi- 
 naries of Learning" and " Plan of a School for Teachers" appeared 
 in 1825. Then followed at various times a series of papers includ- 
 ing a letter to Samuel Brack on the subject of Common Schools, 
 Manual Labor Schools and Seminaries for Teachers, intended to 
 have a bearing upon the great question of free schools then pending, 
 and no one did more than Prof Johnson to enlighten public senti- 
 ment on that issue during the critical years from 1822 to 1834. The 
 measure most urgently pressed by Prof Johnson was the establish- 
 ment'of a school for teachers. His ideas on this subject were far in 
 advance of the time and embraced eve:y important feature of the 
 modern Normal School. The following quotations from one of his 
 pamphlets will be sufficient to show the breadth of his views : 
 
 We have theological seminaries, law schools, medical colleges, military 
 academies, institutes for mechanics, and colleges of pharmacy for apothe- 
 caries ; but no shadow of an appropriate institution to qualify persons for dis- 
 charging with ability and success the duties of instruction, either in these pro- 
 fessional seminaries or in any other. Men have been apparently presumed to 
 be qualified to teach from the moment that they passed the period of ordinary 
 pupilage — a supposition which with few exceptions must of course lead only 
 to disappointment and mortification. 
 
 Many persons, we have reason to believe, commence the business of in- 
 structing, not only with few qualifications for communicating knowledge, but 
 even without any fixed plan of proceeding, or any definite ideas of the pecu- 
 liar duties and difficulties of the employment. With such persons the opera- 
 tion is altogether tentative, a system of temporary expedients, or no system 
 at all. 
 
 The school for teachers ought not to be an insulated establishment, but to 
 be connected with some institution, where an extensive range in the sciences 
 is taken, and where pupils of dififerent classes are pursuing the various depart- 
 ments of education adapted to their respective ages. The practice of super- 
 intending, of arranging into classes, instructing and governing, ought to form 
 one part of the duty of the young teacher. The attending of lectures on the 
 science of mental development and the various collateral topics should con- 
 stitute another. An extensive course of reading and study of authors who 
 have written with ability and practical good sense on the subject, would be 
 necessary in order to expand the mind and free it from those prejudices on 
 this subject which are apt to adhere even to persons who fancy themselves 
 farthest removed from their influence. 
 
 John M. Keagy, M. D., was born in Martic township, Lancaster 
 county, about the year 1795. He was of German descent. He 
 studied medicine, but relinquishing the practice, he opened a school 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 221 
 
 in Harrisburg, in 1826. A building was soon after erected for 
 the school and planned to suit the master. The schoolroom was 
 arranged for one hundred pupils, fifty of each sex, separated by a 
 partition placed in the middle longitudinally, and composed of a 
 series of long blackboards, sliding vertically in posts to the ceihng, 
 to admit of turning the room into a single hall when required. The 
 master and his assistant occupied the space at each end of the 
 dividing blackboard, and had the entire school in view. The desks 
 were shaped like the letter U, with the openings towards the wall. 
 In each opening there was a single desk for the monitor, who sat 
 facing the nine pupils who occupied seats at the desk in his imme- 
 diate front. This arrangement was according to the Lancasterian 
 plan. After teaching very successfully at Harrisburg for several 
 years, he was elected to a position in the Friends' Public School, 
 Philadelphia, and subsequently to a Professorship in Dickinson Col- 
 lege; the latter he did not live to fill. While in Philadelphia, Dr. 
 Keagy was an active member of the " Philadelphia Association of 
 Teachers;" and in 1831 his name appears as the chairman of a com- 
 mittee of that body, appended to a circular, doubtless the product 
 of his pen, addressed "To Teachers and Friends of Education 
 throughout the State of Pennsylvania," urging them, among other 
 things, " to investigate those principles appertaining to the philos- 
 ophy of mind, its faculties, their arrangement, the connection sub- 
 sisting between the moral, intellectual, and physical powers, and 
 the best methods of development ; " " to awaken public attention " to 
 the importance of education ; to improve existing systems and meth- 
 ods of instruction, by instituting series of lectures on the subject, 
 and the publication of a cheap periodical devoted to this interest, 
 and " to hold, annually, a general convention of teachers." In 1835, 
 a different committee of the same body, but with Dr. Keagy still at 
 its head, issued a call for a State educational convention, to be held 
 at West Chester. The convention was held, continued in session 
 two days, and resulted in the formation of a permanent organization, 
 with a Constitution expressing as its objects " the advancement of 
 education throughout the State, especially through the medium of 
 schools and lyceums, and to co-operate with other lyceums in the 
 diffusion of useful knowledge." Dr. Keagy was a Vice-President 
 both of the Convention and of the Association that grew out of it. 
 He also aided in establishing and conducting the "Schoolmaster," 
 an educational periodical, which appeared in Philadelphia, in 1836, 
 under the editorship of John Frost. 
 
222 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 As a disciplinarian, Dr. Keagy was firm but kind. His methods 
 of instruction were rational, without any of the mechanical routine 
 so common in his day. He was well versed in the natural sciences, 
 and taught them for the most part orally. His knowledge of lan- 
 guages included the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and German. 
 In 1 8 19, he published a series of educational articles in the Balti- 
 more Owra^-/^, which, in 1824, he re-published in pamphlet form, 
 at Harrisburg, with the title: "An Essay on English Education, 
 Together with some Observations on the present mode of Teaching 
 the English Language." In 1827 appeared his " Pestalozzian 
 Primer, or First Step in Teaching Children the Art of Reading and 
 Thinking." This little book of one hundred and twenty-six pages 
 was really a work on Object Lessons, the first probably published 
 in America. It contained "Thinking Lessons" and "Lessons in 
 Generalization;" and in his introduction the author recommends 
 that in teaching children to read we should begin with entire words 
 and not with letters — teaching words as he says "as if they were 
 Chinese symbols." Had the word-method of teaching Reading an 
 earlier origin? 
 
 Apart from the learned Pastorius who taught the Friends' school 
 in Philadelphia, in 1698, and a day school for both sexes, and an 
 evening school for such as could not attend the day school in Ger- 
 mantown, from 1702 for some years onward, and who left some edu- 
 cational works in manuscript, two names stand out most prominently 
 as representatives of the plain German schoolmasters of the early 
 days, those of Christopher Dock, who taught some fifty years on the 
 Skippack, and Ludwig Hocker, of Ephrata, whose service in the 
 schoolroom must have been of about equal length. Of the latter 
 the little that is known has been told ; but the former fortunately 
 left a book giving an account of his methods of teaching and 
 managing a school. This book of which only two or three copies 
 of the original edition are known to exist, was recently translated 
 into English by Samuel W. Pennypacker, of Philadelphia, and the 
 extracts from it that are to follow are given according to his version. 
 Dock was a Mennonite, and his school was mainly patronized by 
 Mennonites and other plain German people ; but his skill as a school- 
 master became so widely known that Christopher Sower, the Ger- 
 mantown publisher, conceived the design of obtaining from him a 
 description of his school- work with a view to its publication. Know- 
 ing that the schoolmaster was exceedingly modest and would not 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 323 
 
 readily consent to do a thing that might conduce to his own praise, 
 Sower thought it best to approach him through a mutual friend. 
 The book was therefore written in answer to a series of questions 
 prepared by Sower and placed in Dock's hands by Dilman Kolb, a 
 prominent Mennonite preacher. The manuscript was completed 
 August 8, 1750, but it was understood that the work should not be 
 printed during the writer's life-time. After nineteen years' delay, 
 the schoolmaster's consent to its publication was obtained, and the 
 book was printed. 
 
 In a prefatory note, Dock describes the duties and difficulties of a 
 schoolmaster's work, saying that he engaged in it in order that he 
 might " erect something to the honor of God, and the benefit of the 
 young." He then tells how he received children into his school and 
 how he rewarded the industrious and got rid of the lazy and incor- 
 rigible. He examined his pupils every morning to see " whether 
 they are washed and combed ;" and his opening exercises consisted 
 in singing a hymn and prayer. All knelt while repeating the 
 Lord's Prayer. The ten commandments and other Scripture texts 
 were committed to memory. The New Testament was used as a 
 reading book and much of it was learned by heart. The pupils who 
 did not know their lessons were not punished with a rod, but were 
 shamed into industrious habits by having their names written down 
 and the epithet " lazy " shouted at them by the whole school. Go- 
 ing out during school hours was regulated by a wooden strip which 
 hung at the door. If the strip were not in its place, some one had 
 gone out, and others must wait until he came in when they could go 
 out in turn. 
 
 The A-B-C's were taught by requiring the pupil to name them 
 in order after the teacher and by himself, but he was also required 
 to point them out and name them miscellaneously. As an exercise 
 in Spelling the pupil named the letters and the teacher pronounced 
 the words, and then the process was reversed, the teacher naming 
 the letters and the pupil pronouncing the words. A narrow board 
 painted black with three lines of musical staves was used for teach- 
 ing music and explaining Arithmetic. Numeration was taught with 
 this board by placing cyphers first on one side and then on the 
 other of certain digits and explaining the change in value. The 
 whole school received instruction in letter writing,, the pupils being 
 required to write letters to one another, and to the pupils of a neigh- 
 boring school. 
 
224 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 The schoolmaster held that " the slap with the hand, the hazel 
 switch, and the birch rod, are all means to prevent the breaking 
 forth of evil, but they are no means to change the depraved heart;" 
 hence the discipline of this old school aimed to go down deep 
 enough to cut up evil propensities by the roots. Profanity was 
 broken up by simply explaining the awful purport of the words 
 used, by keeping the offender apart from the other pupils with "a 
 yoke around his neck," or by requiring him to find bail for future 
 good behavior among his schoolmate friends. For a lie, no bail 
 was received; and for persistent lying severe punishment was 
 inflicted. " To protect against stealing," says the .schoolmaster, " I 
 have made an order that no children at school or on the road, or 
 at home without my knowledge, and that of parents, shall give 
 away or trade anything; also that whenever they find anything in 
 school, or on the road, or wherever it may be, they must show it to 
 me. What they find belongs not to them for themselves, but to 
 him who lost it ; but if after it has been made known a long time, 
 he cannot be discovered, it belongs to him who found it. Through 
 these means it has been brought about, praise God! that there is 
 little necessity for punishment on this account." If children quar- 
 rel, " It is said to them that if they are not inclined to come into 
 accord, they shall be separated at once from the other scholars, and 
 shall sit together upon the punishment bench until they do agree, 
 and if not, the merited punishment will follow. But it rarely goes 
 so far that they separate and go upon the punishment bench ; rather 
 they stretch their hands to each other and the whole thing is over 
 and the process has an end." 
 
 The children were allowed to learn their lessons aloud as was 
 generally customary in the schools of those days, but during recita- 
 tions no talking or whispering was permitted, and a watcher was 
 appointed from among the most reliable pupils to report offenders. 
 To the question, " How do you treat the children with love, that 
 they.both love and fear you ? " a long answer is given, the substance 
 of which may be found in the following paragraph: "If parents and 
 schoolmasters show an upright and fatherly love to the children, it 
 is to be hoped that will produce an upright, filial love on the part 
 of the children. When such a love on the part of the children 
 comes to the front, it is to be hoped that if this seed is not choked 
 off, but continues to increase, it will produce a blessed harvest in 
 the end. But if freedom overpowers this love, and lights and kin- 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 225 
 
 dies a wild fire, there must, as has been said, be brought together 
 love, training and instruction in the Lord, and they must be used 
 for a continual scourge or rod of love, in the hope that thereout 
 love, fear and obedience will arise, but all through God's merciful 
 blessing, help and support, since He must be besought to give aid 
 in the planting and watering." 
 
 As children of different religious denominations attended the 
 school, the Catechism was not taught; but the schoolmaster near 
 the close of his book explains his admirable method of making his 
 pupils familiar with what he calls the "honey-flowers" of the New 
 Testament. This he did by giving the pupils as an exercise a cer- 
 tain number of quotations from the! Scriptures concerning a particu- 
 lar truth or fact, and requiring them to find their proper place in 
 the Bible. When found the quotations were read and questions 
 answered and remarks made concerning the truths they embodied. 
 " In the course of this exercise " says the schoolmaster, " I have 
 often been compelled to wonder how God has prepared for himself 
 praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, in order to over- 
 power the enemy in his pursuits." 
 
 In addition to his work on teaching, of which a brief synopsis is 
 above given, Dock wrote several articles of an educational character 
 which were published in Sower's Geistliches Magazien, among them 
 "A Hundred Necessary Rules of Conduct for Children," in 1764, 
 said to be the first American book on the subject of etiquette. He 
 was also the author of a number of hymns, some of which are still 
 used in Mennonite religious exercises. 
 
 Two or three examples will be given of a scholarly but eccentric 
 class of schoolmasters common one hundred years ago. 
 
 Andrew McMinn taught at Newtown, Bucks county, for forty 
 years, commencing in 1772. He is reputed to have been a 
 good scholar and must have possessed some of the qualifications of 
 a good teacher, or he could hardly have remained so long in one 
 place. He was fond of rum, and sometimes its effects partially 
 incapacited him for his duties. In the schoolroom, he always sat in 
 a large arm-chair,' a tall, rough man, wearing at all times a three- 
 cornered, broad-brimmed hat, chewing tobacco and keeping the floor 
 defiled all around him. 
 
 Thomas Neill, a schoolmaster in the Wyoming region before the 
 massacre in 1778, is thus described by a local historian : " Neill was 
 an Irishman, of middle age, learned, a Catholic, a Freemason, fond 
 IS 
 
226 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 of dress, remarkable for his fine flow of spirits and pleasing man- 
 ners, a bachelor and a schoolmaster." 
 
 One of the most prominent schoolmasters in Carbon county, just 
 before the adoption of the common school system, was James 
 Nowlins. He was a good scholar and taught the higher branches 
 of learning in Mauch Chunk to many who became leading citizens. 
 He would allow no dull pupil to remain in his school. When such 
 a one chanced to enter, he would send him away at once with words 
 like these : "What God has denied you, I cannot give you ; take 
 your books and go home." The instrument used for inflicting 
 punishment was a short hickory club, with leather thongs fastened 
 to one end, which he called his " Taws." In discipline he was ex- 
 ceedingly severe, his whippings leaving an impression that the lapse 
 of fifty years could not efface from the minds of his pupils. 
 
 Of the many driven by pecuniary loss or misfortune to become 
 schoolmasters, it is sufficient to name Baron Wilhelm Heinrich 
 Stiegel and Andrew Forsyth. 
 
 Baron Stiegel taught an unpretentious school at Womelsdorf, 
 Berks county, about 1765. He had been an ironmaster and a glass 
 manufacturer, and owned hundreds of acres of land. His castles at 
 Manheim, Lancaster county, and near Schaefferstown, Lebanon 
 county, were the wonder of the country. He lived in true baronial 
 style. On his journeys he was usually accompanied by a body of 
 retainers, and his return to his castle was announced by the boom- 
 ing of a cannon, and his welcome proclaimed by a band of music 
 stationed on the house-top. Living too fast, his whole property was 
 at length sold by the sheriff, and he was compelled to maintain him- 
 self by teaching a little school — how well he taught is unknown. 
 
 Andrew Forsyth taught school in Montour county about the be- 
 ginning of the present century. He is said to have descended from 
 a noble Scotch family, and was the friend of Washington during the 
 Revolution. He made great sacrifices for the cause of liberty, 
 and lost all his fortune by the depreciation of the colonial money. 
 He died while engaged in teaching. 
 
 Two schoolmistresses will be named: the first, Mrs. Mary Paxon, 
 is introduced to represent a considerable number of women who 
 taught in the early days, small, private or family schools, resembling 
 the Dame Schools of Great Britain ; the second. Miss Eliza Finch, 
 one of the very few females employed in old times in schools of an 
 advanced grade. 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 227 
 
 About 1804, Mrs. Paxon opened a school in her own residence 
 near the Friends' meeting-house, Catawissa. Her pupils were mostly 
 children beginning their studies. She taught the elements of Read- 
 ing, Writing and Arithmetic ; and, in addition, gave instruction to 
 the girls in sewing and knitting. With the lax discipline of such 
 schools, she allowed her pupils to come and go at any hour of the 
 day agreed upon. 
 
 Miss Finch's teaching was done about 1823, in the old Logan 
 House, Chester. Hers was the first graded school in that section 
 of the State, and she received pupils of both sexes and all ages. 
 Somewhat strong-minded, she at times employed a male assistant. 
 Commodore Porter and other leading citizens patronized the school. 
 Offenders were punished afte;- a method corpmon in the old schools 
 of Europe, by being compelled to stand in a conspicuous place in 
 the schoolroom and wear a dunce-cap. The dunce-cap was a tall, 
 painted cap, made of pasteboard and ornamented with ribbons. 
 
 To complete our gallery of pictures, we present the following 
 examples of old Irish schoolmasters of the genuine type. 
 
 Pennypacker, in his Annals of Phcenixville, introduces " Paddy " 
 Doyle, who many years ago selected that place as the sphere of his 
 usefulness. He says of him : " The fathers in those days had but 
 to suggest to their refractory sons the possibility of their being 
 placed under Paddy's instruction, and the most obstinate became 
 subdued and submissive. He was short and round in person, and 
 his nationality was revealed by a very decided brogue ; his informa- 
 tion was limited to the rudiments of Reading,, Writing and ' Areth- 
 metick;' his irascible temper was easily aroused by anything that 
 seemed to threaten the dignity or authority of his calling; and he 
 was thoroughly imbued with the idea that the only way to reach 
 the intellects of boys was over the seats of their breeches. His rods, 
 designated by the soft and seductive title of ' mint-sticks,' were 
 arranged in the school-room in rows, and were graded in proportion 
 to the sizes of the unfortunate youths who awakened his wrath." 
 
 Robert Williams, or as he was called from his manner of walk- 
 ing, " Tiptoe Bobby," taught for some years in the old log school- 
 house at Greensburg. One who knew him well thus describes his 
 peculiarities : " Bobby occupied a chair at the eastern end of the 
 house; and, by his side, on a peg in the wall, hung what he called 
 the 'Taws.' This cat-o'-nine tails was composed of the butt-end of. 
 a jawhide, with several strip.'; of leather nailed on the smaller end. 
 
228 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA:. 
 
 On a peg near the door hung a small block suspended by a stri'ng. 
 This was called the ' Poulter.' This Poulter was a sort of ticket-of- 
 leave, and whoever could get it was permitted to go out for a short 
 time. Others who desired temporary absence, could only obtain it 
 by asking for it. At the eastern end of the room stood a block' 
 about three feet high, surmounted by a rudely constructed head- 
 covering of about the same height, made of a portion of gray fox- 
 skin, with the tail stuck on top. It was called the ' Dunce-cap,' and 
 had to be donned not only by those boys who failed to come up to 
 the standard of the master in reciting their lessons or in diligence 
 in study, but also by those whose offences were not deemed grave 
 enough for the application of the ' Taws ' or the ruler. Seated or 
 standing upon the block, thus equipped, the offending urchin became 
 the target for the light missiles and rude jokes of his schoolmates. 
 Moreover, he was compelled to whittle a hard stick with a dull 
 knife until the tender hand became sore. This was done, perhaps, 
 to teach habits of industry. There was a unique instrument used 
 by the master for calling an offender to his chair. It was a raccoon's 
 tail, with a slight weight at the butt-end. This was thrown with 
 great accuracy at the culprit, who was compelled to return it in his 
 hand to receive the intended punishment." 
 
 Dr. Franklin, was not a tesicher, but with that wonderful breadth 
 that characterized all his thinking, he understood the value and 
 appreciated the necessity of education better than any man of his 
 time. It seems proper, therefore, to include in this chapter some 
 extracts from his "Sketch of an English School," written, in 1749. 
 for the consideration of the trustees of the Philadelphia Academy, 
 Age has not lessened the wisdom of his advice. 
 
 Contemplating a school of six grades or classes, and assuming 
 that pupils would not be admitted into the school without at least 
 an elementary knowledge of Reading and Writing, Dr. Franklin 
 proposed the following course of study in English, with the 
 suggested method of teaching : 
 
 The First or Lowest C/aw.— Let the first class learn the English Grammar 
 rules, and at the same time let particular care be taken to improve them in 
 Orthography. Perhaps the latter is best done by pairing the scholars ; two of 
 those nearest equal m their spelling to be put together. Let these strive for 
 victory ; each propounding ten words every day to the other to be spelled. 
 He that spells truly most of the other's words, is victor for that day ; he 
 that is victor most days in a month to obtain a prize, a pretty, neat book pf 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 229 
 
 some kind, useful in their future studies. This method fixes the attention of 
 children extremely to the orthography of words, and makes them good spell- 
 ers very early.. It is a shame for a man to be so ignorant of this little art, m 
 liis owrt language, as to.be perpetually confounding words of like sound and 
 different significations ; the consciousness of which defect makes some men; 
 otherwise of good learning and understanding, averse to writing even a com- 
 mon letter. 
 
 Let the pieces read by the scholars in this class be short; such as Croxal's 
 fables and little stories. In giving the lesson, let it be read to them; let the 
 meaning of the difficult words in it be explained to them ; and let them con it 
 over by themselves before they are called to read to the master or usher, who 
 is to take particular care that they do not read too fast, and that they duly 
 observe the stops and pauses. A vocabulary of the most usual difficult words 
 might be formed for their use, with explanations; and they might daily get 
 a few of these words and explanations by heart, which would a little exer- 
 cise their memories; or at least they might write a number of them in a small 
 book for that purpose, which would help to fix the meaning of those words in 
 their minds, and at the same time furnish every one with a little dictionary for 
 his future use. 
 
 The Second Class. — To be taught Reading, with attention, and with proper 
 modulations of the voice, according to the sentiment and the subject. 
 
 Some short pieces, not exceeding the length of a Spectator, to be given this 
 class for lessons, and some of the easier Spectators would bis very suitable for 
 the purpose. These lessons might be given every night as tasks; the scholar 
 to study them against the morning. Let it then be required of them to give 
 an account, first of the parts of speech, and construction of one or two seni 
 tences. This will oblige them to recur frequently to their grammar, and fix 
 its principal rules in their memory. Next, of the intention of the writer, or 
 the scope of tlie piece, the meaning of each sentence, and of every uncom- 
 mon word. This would early acquaint them with the meaning and force of' 
 words, and give them that most necessary habit of reading with attention^ 
 The master is then to read the piece with the proper modulations of voice, 
 due emphasis, and suitable action, where action is required; and put the youth 
 on imitating his manner. 
 
 When the author has used an expression not the best, let it be pointed out ;• 
 and. let his beauties be particularly remarked to the youth. 
 
 Let the lessons for reading be varied, that the youth may be made 
 acquainted with good styles of all kinds in prose and verse, and the proper 
 manner of reading each kind — sometimes a well-told story, a piece of a ser- 
 mon, a general's speech to his soldiers, a speech in a tragedy, some part of a- 
 comedy, an ode, a satire, a letter, blank verse, Hudibrastic, heroic, etc. But 
 let such lessons be chosen for reading as contain some useful instruction, 
 whereby the understanding or morals of youth may at the same time be im-^ 
 
 proved. 
 
 It is required that they should first study and understand the lessons, before 
 they are put upon reading them properly ; to which end each boy should have 
 an English Dictionary to help him over difficulties. When our boys read 
 English to us, we are apt to imagine they understand what they read, because 
 we do, and because it is their mother tongue. But they often read as parrots 
 speak,' knowing little or nothing of the meaning. And it is impossible . a, 
 
2 ,o E.D UCA TJON IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 reader should give due modulation to his voice, and pronounce properly, un- 
 less his understanding goes before his tongue, and makes him master of the 
 sentiment. Accustoming boys to read aloud what they do not first under- 
 stand, is the cause of those even set tones so common among readers, which, 
 when they have once got a habit of using, they find so difficult to correct ; by - 
 which means, among fifty readers, we scarcely find a good one. For want of 
 good reading, pieces pulalished with a view to influence the minds of men, for 
 their own or the public benefit, lose half their force. Were there but one 
 good reader in a neighborhood, a public orator might be heard throughout a 
 nation with the same advantages, and have the same effect upon his audience, 
 as if they stood within the reach of his voice. 
 
 The Third Class. — To be taught speaking properly and gracefully, which 
 is near akin to good reading, and naturally follows it in the studies of youth. 
 Let the scholars of this class begin with learning the elements of Rhetoric, 
 from some short system, so as to be able to give an account of the most use- 
 ful tropes and figures. Let all their bad habits of speaking, all offences 
 against good grammar, all corrupt or foreign accents, and all improper 
 phrases, be pointed out to them. Short speeches from the Roman or other 
 history, or from the parliamentary debates, might be got by heart, and 
 delivered with proper action, etc. Speeches and scenes in our best tragedies 
 and comedies, avoiding everything that could injure the morals of youth, 
 might likewise be got by rote, and the boys exercised in delivering or acting 
 them ; great care being taken to form their manner after the truest models. 
 
 In their further improvement, and a little to vary their studies, let them now 
 begin to read history, after having got by heart a short table of the principal 
 epochs in chronology. They may begin with RoUin's Ancient and Roman 
 Histories, and proceed at proper hours, as they go through the subsequent 
 classes, with the best histories of our own nation and colonies. Let emulation 
 be excited among the boys, by giving weekly little prizes or other small en- 
 couragements to those who are able to give the best accounts of what they 
 have read, as to times, places, names of persons, etc. This will make them 
 read with attention, and imprint the history well in their memories. In 
 remarking on the history, the master will have fine opportunities of instilling 
 instruction of various kinds, and of improving the morals, as well as the 
 understandings of youth. 
 
 The natural and mechanic history, Contained in the Spectacle de la Nature, 
 might also be begun in this class, and continued through the subsequent 
 classes, by other books of the same kind ; for, next to the knowledge of duty, 
 this kind of knowledge is certainly the most useful, as well, as the most enter- 
 taining. The merchant may thereby be enabled better to understand many 
 commodities in trade; the handicraftsman to improve his business by new 
 instruments, mixtures and materials ; and frequently hints are given for new 
 methods of improving land, that may be set on foot greatly to the advantage 
 of a country. 
 
 The Fourth Class. — To be taught composition. Writing one's own 
 language well is the next necessary accomplishment after good speaking. It 
 is the writing-master's business to take care that the boys make fair charac- 
 ters, and place them straight and even in the lines ; but to form their style, 
 -and even to take care that the stops and capitals are properly disposed, is the 
 part of the English master. The boys should be put on writing letters to 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 23 I 
 
 each other on any common occurrences, and on various subjects, imaginary 
 business, etc., containing little stories, accounts of their late reading, what 
 parts of authors please them, and why; letters of congratulation, of compli- 
 ment, of request, of thanks, of recommendation, of admonition, of consola- 
 tion, of expostulation, of excuse, etc. In these they should be taught to ex- 
 press themselves clearly, concisely, and naturally, without affected words or 
 high-flown phrases. All their letters to pass through the master's hands, 
 who is to point out the faults, advise the corrections, and commend what he 
 finds right. Some of the best letters published in their own language, as 
 Sir William Temple's, those of Pope and his friends, and some others, might 
 be set before the youth as models, their beauties pointed out and explained 
 by the master, the letters themselves transcribed by the scholar. 
 
 Dr. Johnson's Ethices Elementa; or First Principles of Morality, may now 
 be read by the scholars, and explained by the master, to lay a solid founda- 
 tion of virtue and piety in their minds. And as this class continues the read- 
 ing of history, let them now, at proper hours, receive some farther instruction 
 in Chronology, and in that part of Geography, from the mathematical master, 
 which is necessary to understand the maps and globes. They should also be 
 acquainted with the modern names of the places they find mentioned in 
 ancient writers. The exercises of good reading, and proper speaking, still 
 continued at suitable times. 
 
 The Fifth Class. — To improve the youth in composition, they may now, be- 
 sides continuing to write letters, begin to write little essays in prose, and 
 sometimes in verse ; not to make them poets, but for this reason, that nothing 
 acquaints a lad so speedily with a variety of expression, as the necessity of 
 finding such words and phrases as will suit the measure, sound, and rhyme 
 of verse, and at the same time well express the sentiment. These essays 
 should all pass under the master's eye, who will point out their faults, and put 
 the writer on correcting them. Where the judgment is not ripe enough for 
 forming new essays, let the sentiments of a Spectator be given, and required 
 to be clothed in the scholar's own words; or the circumstances of some good 
 story, the scholar to find the expression. Let them be put sometimes on 
 abridging a paragraph of a diffuse author ; sometimes on dilating or amplify- 
 ing what is written more closely. And now let Dr/ Johnson's Noetica, or 
 First Principles of Human Knowledge, containing a logic or art of reasoning, 
 etc., be read by the youth, and the difficulties that may occur to them be ex- 
 plained by the master. The reading of history, and the exercise of good 
 reading and just speaking still continued. 
 
 The Sixth Class.— In this class, besides continuing the studies of the pre- 
 ceding in History, Rhetoric, Logic, Moral and Natural Philosophy, the best 
 English authors may be read and explained, as Tillotson, Milton, Locke, Ad- 
 dison, Pope, Swift, the higher papers in the Spectator and Guardian, the best 
 translations of Homer, Virgil, and Horace, of Telemachus, Travels of Cyrus, 
 
 etc. 
 
 Once a year, let there be public exercises in the hall ; the trustees and citi- 
 zens present. Then let gilt books be given as prizes to such boys as distin- 
 guish themselves, and excel the others in any branch of learning, making 
 three degrees of comparison ; giving the best prize to him that performs best, 
 a less valuable one to him that comes up next to the best, and another to the 
 third. Commendations, encouragement, and advice to the rest, keeping up 
 
2,2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 their hopes, that by industry they may excel another time. The names of 
 those that obtain the prize, to be yearly printed in a list. 
 
 Franklin had in view a course of study in the English language 
 and literature. He did not consider the study of the ancient lan- 
 guages necessary for the great majority of American boys. But 
 with the English course as he planned it, he assumed there would 
 be carried on contemporaneously courses in the Mathematics, 
 Sciences, etc.; hence he adds to what is said above : 
 
 The hours of each day are to be divided and disposed in such a manner as 
 that some classes may be with the writing master, improving their hands, 
 others with the mathematical master, learning Arithmetic, Accounts, Geogra- 
 phy, the use of globes, Drawing, Mechanics, etc.; while the rest are in the 
 English school, under the English Master's care. 
 
 Among the citizens of Pennsylvania not professionally connected 
 with the work of instruction, who did most for education during the 
 last half of the eighteenth century, next to Franklin, must be ranked 
 Dr. Benjamin Rush. With all the exactions of an extensive medi- 
 cal practice, and notwithstanding he was a member of the Continen- 
 tal Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence, a member 
 of the Convention that framed the Federal Constitution, Treasurer 
 of the United States Mint, and prominently connected with numer- 
 ous literary and charitable institutions, he still found time to interest 
 himself practically in the work of education and to write books and 
 pamphlets, several of them treating directly or indirectly of educa- 
 tional subjects. He had much to do in founding Dickinson Col- 
 lege, at Carlisle, and was one of the earliest friends of free schools. 
 Not to take some notice of his views in this place would be an 
 unpardonable omission. 
 
 In the year 1786, Dr. Rush addressed to the Legislature and 
 citizens of Pennsylvania, "A Plan for Establishing Public Schools." 
 The Plan was as follows : 
 
 I. Let there be on? University in the State, and let this be established at 
 the capital. Let law, physic, divinity, the law of nature and nations, economy 
 etc., be taught in it by public lectures in the winter season, after the manner 
 of the European Universities, and let the professors rec.eive such salaries from 
 the State as will enable them to deliver their lectures at a moderate price. 
 
 II. Let there be four Colleges. One in Philadelphia; one at Carlisle; a 
 third, for the benefit of our German fellow citizens, at Lancaster; and a fourth, 
 some years hence, at Pittsburgh. In these Colleges, let young men be in- 
 structed in Mathematics and in the higher branches of science, in the same 
 manner that they are now taught in our American Colleges. After they have 
 received a testimonial from one of these Colleges, let them, if they can afford 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 233 
 
 it, complete their studies by spending a season or two in attending the lec- 
 tures in the University. I prefer four Colleges in the State to one or two, for 
 there is a certain size of Colleges, as there is of towns and armies, that is 
 most favorable to morals and good government. Oxford and Cambridge in 
 England are the seats of dissipation, while the more numerous, and less 
 crowded Universities and Colleges in Scotland, are remarkable for the order, 
 diligence, and decent behavior of their students. 
 
 III. Let there be free schools established in every township, or in districts 
 consisting of one hundred families. In these schools, let children be taught to 
 read and write the English and GeriAan languages, and the use of figures. 
 Such parents as can afford to send their children from home, and are disposed 
 to extend their education, may remove them from the. free school to one of 
 the Colleges. 
 
 By this plan the whole State will be tied together by one system of educa- 
 tion. The University will in time furnish masters for the Colleges, and 
 the Colleges will furnish masters for the ftee schools, while the free schools, 
 in their turn, will supply the Colleges and the University with scholars, stu- 
 dents and pupils. The same systems of grammar, oratory and philosophy, 
 will be taught in every part of the State, and the literary features of Pennsyl- 
 vania will thus designate one great and enlightened family. 
 
 'But, how shall we bear the expense of these literary institutions ?' I an- 
 swfer — these institutions will lessen our taxes. They will enlighten us in the 
 great business of finance ; they will teach us to increase the ability of the 
 State to support government, by increasing the profits of agriculture, and by 
 promoting manufactures. They will teach us all the modern improvements 
 and advantages of inland navigation. They will defend us from hasty and 
 expensive experiment in government, by unfolding to us the experience and 
 folly of past ages, and thus, instead of adding to our taxes and debts, they 
 will furnish us with the true secret of lessening and discharging both of them. 
 
 ' But shall the estates of orphans, bachelors and persons who have no chil- 
 dren, be taxed to pay for the support of schools from which they can derive 
 no benefit?' I answer in the affirmative, to the first part of the objection, and 
 I deny the truth of the latter part of it. Every member of the community is 
 interested in the propagation of virtue and knowledge in the State. But I will 
 go further and add, it will be true economy in individuals to support public 
 schools. 
 
 In an essay accompanying this Plan " On the Mode of Education 
 proper in a Republic," Dr. Rush presented some excellent thoughts 
 on the subject as pertinent now as at the time they were written. 
 Their spirit is shown by the following detached sentences : 
 
 I conceive the education of our.youth in this country to be peculiarly neces- 
 sary in Pennsylvania, while our citizens are composed of the natives of so 
 many different kingdoms in Europe. . Our schools of learning, by producing 
 one general and uniform system of education, will, render the mass of the 
 DeoDle more homogeneous, and thereby fit them more easily for uniform and 
 peaceable government. * * ,,.,. 
 
 The only foundation for a useful education in a Republic is to be laid in 
 religion. Without this, there can be no virtue ; and without virtue, there can 
 
2-. EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican govern- 
 
 ********* * * * 
 ments. * * * » 
 
 Our country includes family, friends and property, and should be preferred 
 to them all. Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but 
 that he is public property. Let him be taught to love his family, but let 
 him be taught, at the same time, that he must forsake and even forget them, 
 when the welfare of his country requires it. He must watch for the State, as 
 if its liberties depended upon his vigilance alone, but he must do this in such 
 a manner as not to defraud his creditors, or neglect his family. * * 
 
 To assist in rendering religious, moral and political instruction more effect- 
 ual upon the minds of our youth, it will be necessary to subject their bodies 
 to physical discipline. 
 
 Like Franklin, Rush thought that too much time was wasted in 
 the study of Latin and Greek. The following comprise the principal 
 points in the course of study he prescribed for boys desiring to 
 obtain " a liberal English education." 
 
 Let the first eight years of a boy's time be employed in learning to speak, 
 spell, read and write the English language. For this purpose, let him be com- 
 mitted to the care of a master who speaks correctly at all timfes, and let the 
 books he reads be written in a simple and correct style. During these years, 
 let not an English grammar by any means be put into his hands. It is to 
 most boys under twelve years of age, an unintelligible book. As well might 
 we contend, that a boy should be taught the names and number of the 
 humours of the eye, or the muscles of the tongue, in order to learn to see, or 
 to speak, as be taught the English language by means of grammar. Sancho, 
 in attempting to learn to read by chewing the four and twenty letters of the 
 alphabet, did not exhibit a greater absurdity than a boy of seven or eight 
 years old does, in committing grammar rules to memory in order to under- 
 stand the English language. 
 
 Having learned to read and write, the boy should spend four 
 years in acquiring a knowledge of the globe on which he lives as 
 included in two branches — 
 
 Natural history. This study is simple and truly delightful. Animals of all 
 kinds are often the subjects of conversation and disputes among boys in their 
 walks and diversions. But this is not all; this study is the foundation of all 
 useful and practical knowledge in agriculture, manufacture and commerce, as 
 well as in philosophy, chemistry and medicine. 
 
 Geography. Geography is a simple science, and accommodated to the 
 capacity of a boy under twelve years of age. It may be perfectly understood 
 by means of cards, globes and maps, for each of these modes of instruction 
 seizes upon the senses and imagination. 
 
 This done, the studies advised for the student are, the following : 
 
 The French and German languages. These will be equally necessary, 
 whether co^jmerce, physic, law or divinity is the pursuit of the young man. 
 They should be acquired only by the ear. 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 335 
 
 Arithmetic, and some of the more simple branches of the mathematics 
 should be acquired between the twelfth and fourteenth years of his life. 
 
 Between his fourteenth and eighteenth years, he should be instructed in 
 grammar, oratory, criticisms, the higher branches of mathematics, philosophy, 
 chemistry, logic, metaphysics, chronology, history, government, the principles 
 of agriculture and manufactures, and every thing else that is necessary to 
 qualify him for public usefulness or private happiness. 
 
 A course of lectures to be given upon the evidences, doctrines and precepts 
 of the Christian religion. The last part of this course might be made to in- 
 clude the whole circle of inoral duties. 
 
 Rush's views on " the branches of literature most essential for a 
 young lady in this country " are outlined in the following paragraphs : 
 
 A knowledge of the English language. She should not only read, but 
 speak and spell it correctly. And to enable her to do this, she should be 
 taught the English grammar, and be frequently examined in applying its rules 
 in common conversation. 
 
 Pleasure and interest conspire to make the writing of a fair and legible 
 hand, a necessary branch of a lady's education. For this purpose she should 
 be taught not only to shape every letter properly, but to pay the strictest 
 regard to points and capitals. 
 
 Some knowledge of figures in book-keeping is absolutely necessary to qualify 
 a young lady for the duties which await her in this country. 
 
 An acquaintance with geography and some instruction in chronology will 
 enable a young lady to read history, biography and travels, with advantage; 
 and thereby qualify her not only for a general intercourse with the world, but 
 to be an agreeable companion for a sensible man. To these branches of 
 knowledge, may be added, in some instances, a general acquaintance with 
 the first principles of astronomy, natural philosophy and chemistry, particu- 
 larly with such parts of them as are calculated to prevent superstition, by ex- 
 plaining the causes, or obviating the effects of natural evil, and such as are 
 capable of being applied to domestic and culinary purposes. 
 
 Vocal music should never be neglected in the education of a young lady in 
 this country. 
 
 Dancing is by no means an improper branch of education for an American 
 lady. It promotes health, and renders the figure and motions of the body 
 easy and agreeable. 
 
 The attention of our young ladies should be directed as soon as they are 
 prepared for it, to the reading of history, travels, poetry and moral essays. 
 
 It will be necessary to connect all these branches of education with regular 
 instruction in the Christian religion. 
 
 Sower's English Almanac for 1758, contains an article entitled 
 "Some useful Remarks on the Education of the Youth in the 
 Country Parts of this and the neighboring Provinces." It is scarcely 
 to be doubted that it was written by the second Christopher Sower, 
 who like his father was an Elder among the Dunkers. The extracts 
 from this article made below will show that plans were ^ven at that 
 early day forming in the minds of the most progressive individuals 
 
236 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 among a class of citizens considered backward in the work of edu- 
 cation, looking towards the establishment of a general system' of 
 schools for the whole people. It is notable that the neighborhood 
 schools then existing constituted the basis of these plans, as long 
 afterwards they constituted the basis of the laws providing for free 
 schools. The following are Sower's views in regard to establishing 
 schools and methods of managing them : 
 
 1. As therefore right Education of Children is of so great Importance, as it 
 not only concerns the Happiness of the Individual, but the Welfare and Pros- 
 perity of Society, it would be well if the most able and sensible Men of the 
 Country, as they happen to live near and convenient to one another, should 
 make the Education of the Youth in their Neighborhood, an object of their 
 Particular Attention. I would not presume to direct, but as a Friend, and one 
 who sincerely wishes the Happiness and Prosperity of Mankind, I venture to 
 advise, in Order to promote the good Education of Youth, that a Fund be 
 raised for supporting a School, to which it is hoped that those who have not, 
 as well as those that have Children will cheerfully contribute without Regard to 
 the immediate Advantage they are to reap from such an Institution, but from 
 Principle of Duty, a Love to God and our Country ; that a Man of Virtue 
 and Integrity as well as good Abilities be, by a proper Salary, engaged to 
 undertake the Charge, and that certain Persons the best qualified in the neigh- 
 borhood be chosen to take upon them the Care and Oversight of the School, 
 and that those Children, whose Parents cannot pay, be admitted gratis. 
 
 And for the particular Government of the School, the following Rules are 
 submitted to their candid perusal. 
 
 1. That in teaching English, particular care be taken to make the Children 
 spell true, by exercising them frequently in that necessary Branch of Learn- 
 ing. 
 
 2. That Endeavours be used to make them read with proper Emphasis, and 
 punctuality ; to which Purpose it will be necessary, besides the Bible, to make 
 Use of Historical and Religious Authors, of which the School ought to be 
 furnished with proper Sets. 
 
 3. That such Part of Grammar as is Applicable to the English Tongue, be 
 taught those Boys who ar? fit for it in Order to make them write properly, and 
 that they be as little as possible perplexed with such Distinctions, as have no 
 Foundation in the nature of our Language. 
 
 4. That the Master, as often as convenient, make a Practice of dictating to 
 such of his Scholars, who write tolerably, some Sentences out of an Author, 
 which they are to write after him, and which the Master ought carefully to 
 correct, making the proper Grajnatick, and Orthographick Remarks to the 
 Scholar; then let the Scholar carefully transcribe it on the opposite Page. This 
 method has many Advantages, it perfects their Spelling, teaches them to copy 
 true, and if carefully done, will improve their Writing and render them fit for 
 Business. 
 
 5. That in Writing, Care be taken to promote a strong free round Hand, 
 which will be of most common Use, and from which all other Hands mav 
 easily be formed. 
 
 6. That in Arithmetick, it be recommended to the Master, to teach in the 
 
SCHOOLS OF OUR FOREFATHERS. 237 
 
 first Place the most plain and practicable Rules, leaving those that are artifi- 
 cial, and not generally necessary, to Boys of the brightest Genius or greatest 
 Leisure. 
 
 7. That no Latin be attempted to be taught, unless a School should be 
 erected solely for that Purpose: the teaching that Language in an English 
 School infallibly consuming. more of the Master's tinje than can be spared fyom 
 his proper Business, and the few Latin Scholars must also be very indifferently 
 attended. 
 
 8. That some Method be thought of for limiting the number of Scholars, 
 that the master be not overprest in some Seasons in the Year ; and that the 
 Poor be properly considered. 
 
 g. That the Master or Overseers provide such Rules, or Orders, as may be 
 thought necessary, to be put in some publick Place in the School, and that 
 the Master be enjoined to require strict Obedience thereto, and not to. look 
 over any voluntary Misdemeanour in Point of Behaviour. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RACE EDUCATION. 
 
 EARLY EFFORTS TO EDUCATE THE INDIANS. SCHOOLS FOR NEGROES. 
 
 YEARS before the first permanent settlement was made by Euro- 
 peans upon the soil of Pennsylvania, Jesuit missionaries were 
 most zealously engaged in an effort to Christianize and instruct the 
 Indians, in Canada, in the region of the great lakes and down the 
 valley of the Mississippi. They founded towns, built churches, 
 established schools, and endeavored to introduce among their con- 
 verts the arts and comforts of civilization. At a later period, enlarg- 
 ing their field of operation, although little trace of what they did is 
 left to tell the story, there is scarcely any doubt that their self- 
 sacrificing efforts were extended to Indians living within the bound- 
 aries of this State. 
 
 While the Jesuit Fathers were laboring in the North and West, 
 John Eliot was devoting his life to the same cause in New England. 
 For more than fifty years, he traveled up and down among the 
 Indians of his section of the country, preaching to them, trying to 
 organize them into settled communities, and striving hard to have 
 them drop their savage ways and live like civilized men. At his 
 home in Roxbury, he found time to prepare an Indian Primer and 
 an Indian Grammar, and to translate into the Indian tongue the 
 Bible, a Psalter, and a Catechism. The founders of Harvard Uni- 
 versity made an earnest effort to induce Indians to attend that insti- 
 tution. A number entered as students, but only a single one grad 
 uated. About the middle of the eighteenth century, through the 
 influence of Jonathan Edwards and his friends, a Boarding School 
 for Indians was established at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 
 addition to the elementary branches of an English education, the 
 boys were taught farming and the mechanic arts, and the girls all 
 kinds of women's work. But the experiment was a failure. These 
 examples doubtless had their influence in other parts of the country. 
 
 The Swedes on the Delaware always maintained friendly relations 
 with the neighboring Indians. This was not only in accordance 
 
 (238) 
 
SACE EDUCATION. 230 
 
 with their own peaceful inclination, but by virtue of the instructions 
 received from the Government of Sweden. The " wild people " of 
 the American forests were to be " gradually instructed in the truths 
 and worship of the Christian religion, and in other ways brought to 
 civilization." One of the principal objects the Swedes had in view 
 in sending out a colony was, " That the Christian religion would by 
 .that means be planted among the heathen." Rev. John Campanius, 
 " Government Chaplain " in the time of Governor Printz, did much 
 missionary work among the Indians. In a comnmnication written 
 at the time he claims that " many of these barbarians were con- 
 verted to the Christian faith." He studied the Indian languages, 
 compiled a vocabulary of the Delaware tongue, and translated 
 Luther's Shorter Catechism for the benefit of his converts. 
 
 The brightest flower in the chaplet with which history has 
 wreathed the brow of William Penn is his treatment of the Indians. 
 His treaty with the red men under the big Elm tree at Shacka- 
 maxon, will go down to after ages as one of the finest examples the 
 world has furnished of the practical recognition of the great princi- 
 ple of human equality and brotherhood. The Friends came to 
 Pennsylvania wholly without arms. They employed no soldiers, 
 built no forts, provided no ships of war. They meant to deal justly 
 and kindly with their Indian neighbors, devoutly believing that 
 justice and kindness would disarm even the most savage nations, 
 and that both races could live together in peace. For many years, 
 through much tribulation and against much complaint, they pur- 
 sued this peaceful policy, never losing faith in it when fairly tried, 
 and never abandoning it as a ruling principle until, outnumbered 
 and outvoted, the Government of the Province passed into the hands 
 of those who were determined to maintain it and protect themselves 
 by force. No one will deny that Penn and his followers were in a 
 general way the friends of the Indians ; they took no land from them 
 without paying for it, always gave them good advice, and frequently 
 tendered them protection in times of distress, and defended them 
 ao-ainst the attacks of their enemies. What they did more directly 
 to instruct and civilize them must now be told. 
 
 George Fox preached to the Indians when in America, and seems 
 to have had a deep concern for their spiritual welfare. His example 
 was followed by John Taylor, Robert Widders and others. Penn 
 paid them frequent visits and held religious counsel with them. 
 During his residence in Pennsylvania, he made treaties of friendship 
 
2JQ EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 with nineteen distinct trilaes. Friends at divers times raised sums 
 of money to be used in their behalf, and, in numerous instances, 
 furnished them with seeds, mechanical tools, agricultural implements, 
 iron for saw-mills and other articles needful in the more civilized 
 life towards which they were trying to lead them. Yearly and 
 Quarterly Meetings of Friends took repeated action looking towards 
 instructing them in the principles of Christianity and the practice of* 
 a Christian life, and ministers of the Society frequently made them 
 religious visits. Thomas Watson, a Friend, opened a school for 
 Indians, in Bucks county, about 1720, and there is reason to think 
 that Indians were admitted into a number of the early Friends' 
 schools. Several Indian girls were placed in Friends' families in 
 Philadelphia, and taught to read and write and perform household 
 duties. Among the first ministers among Friends who interested 
 themselves specially in the welfare of the Indians, were Thomas 
 Turner, Thomas Story and Thomas Chalkley. Thomas Chalkley 
 visited the Conestoga Indians in 1706. Later, John Woolman and 
 Zebulon Heston, in true missionary spirit, visited many Indian set- 
 tlements; the former, having made arrangements to establish, in 
 1761, a mission at Wyalusing, Bradford county, would have taken 
 up his residence there, had not the Moravian, Zeisberger, occupied 
 the ground two days before his arrival, and the latter travelled 
 west in his good work far beyond the boundaries of Pennsylvania. 
 
 In 1756, a society, mainly composed of Friends, was formed,- 
 called "The Friendly Association for Regaining and Preserving 
 Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures." It expended in seven 
 years ^15,000 in missions and presents designed to forward its' 
 good intentions. Agents of this Association attended the making 
 of Indian treaties at Easton, Lancaster, and other places, and did 
 much to bring about a fair understanding among all parties. 
 
 Under date of February 10, 1791, the Seneca Chief, Corn Planter,, 
 made of Friends the following remarkable request: 
 
 Brothers,— We have too little wisdom among us, we cannot teach our chil- 
 dren what we perceive their situation requires them to know, and we there- 
 fore ask you to instruct some of them ; we wish them to be instructed to read 
 and to write, and such other things as you teach your own children; and 
 especially to teacli them to love peace. 
 
 Brothers,-We desire you to take under your care two Seneca boys, and 
 teach them as your own ; and in order that they may be satisfied to remain 
 with you, that you will take with them the son of our interpreter, and teach 
 mm also according to his desire. 
 
RACE EDUCATION. 24 1 
 
 Brothers, — You know it is not in our power to pay you for the education of 
 these three boys; and, therefore, you must, if you do this thing, look up to 
 God for your reward. 
 
 The Friends answered that they would receive them, " intending 
 they shall be treated with care and kindness, and instructed in read- 
 ing, writing, and husbandry, as the children of our Friends are 
 taught." 
 
 The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of 1 794 adopted the report of 
 a committee taking the ground that it was the duty of the Society, 
 considering its " professed principles of peace and good will to men," 
 to promote among the Indians the principles of the Christian relig- 
 ion, as- well as turn their attention to school learning, agricultural 
 and useful mechanical employments." As the result, under the 
 direction of resident Friends, among the Oneida, Tuscarora, and 
 Stockbridge Indians, in New York, " in a few years," says Bowden, 
 " many of these roving tribes were to be seen industriously occupied 
 on their little allotments of land, or in the handicraft trades of the 
 blacksmith and the carpenter; whilst the women and girls were 
 busily engaged with the spinning-wheel and the needle. A school 
 for instruction of the children was also opened among them, and an 
 educated Indian employed, at a salary, as their teacher." Good 
 work of a similar character was accomplished among the Senecas, 
 at Genesanghota, Tunesassah and Cattaraugus, near the Pennsyl- 
 vania line. 
 
 Early in the year 1798, three young Friends went to the settle- 
 ment of Corn Planter, situated in Warren county, Pennsylvania, and 
 behig furnished by the Society with suitable implements, began 
 farming among the Indians. "Their example of patient industry 
 and judicious management," says a little work entitled " Religious 
 Society of Friends and Indians," "gradually wrought upon the 
 minds of the natives, so that they listened to the counsel given 
 them to try living by cultivation of the land rather than by the 
 chase. Slowly they came into it — the men sharing in the labors of 
 the field, instead of leaving all to the women — better houses were 
 built, and provision made in summer for the supply of food and 
 fuel during the rigors of winter." Says the same work : " Influ- 
 enced, by feelings of Christian benevolence, a number of female 
 Friends, at different periods, sacrificed the comforts and associations 
 of home, and devoted their time and energies to instruct the Indian 
 women in the various domestic arts of civilized hfe, the beneficial 
 16 
 
2^2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 effects of which have become strikingly apparent." And further: 
 " The establishment of schools for the instruction of the young was 
 an object of early attention, and they have been continued for more 
 than half a century, and trained up many in a knowledge of the 
 elementary and some of the higher branches of a practical English 
 education." A Boarding School was eventually opened on a farm 
 belonging to the Society of Friends, adjoining the Indian Reserva- 
 tion on the Alleghany river, in New York, and here for some years 
 about twenty native children, mostly girls from the different settle- 
 ments, have received literary and industrial training under the 
 direction of a family of Friends. 
 
 The descendants of Corn Planter .still reside upon the tract of 
 land in Warren county, where the Friends found them nearly one 
 hundred years ago. It is a mile square, and was granted to the 
 Indian chief in consideration of his services to the American cause 
 during the Revolutionary war. A few years since an alleged debt 
 for which the Indians had mortgaged their land, was paid by the 
 Orthodox Friends, and under their direction great improvement in 
 the village and in the life of the Indians has taken place. A school 
 with an attendance of about twenty children is maintained at Jenne- 
 sedaga, as the village is called, mainly by a special appropriation 
 of three hundred dollars a year from the State. Here live a hand- 
 ful of red men, the last remnant of the powerful tribes that once 
 roamed over the hills and valleys of Pennsylvania, the proud pos- 
 sessors of the land from the rising to the setting sun. It is fitting 
 that the few who yet linger should have the watchful care of the 
 Friends who would have lived at peace with their fathers, and who 
 strove in vain from the beginning to lift them from barbarism to a 
 Christian civilization. 
 
 In response to the interest he had taken in having the State 
 appropriation to the Corn Planter Indian school increased from one 
 hundred to three hundred dollars, and the advice concerning it he 
 had given to a delegation of the Indians who visited Harrisburg, 
 the Superintendent of Public Instruction received, in 1878, the fol- 
 lowing letter, which in several respects is of historic interest. 
 
 Elk Town, January j, 1S78. 
 To J. P. WiCKERSHAM, Superintendent of Public Instruction : 
 
 By a general agreement of the Indians on the Corn Planter reservation, a 
 meeting was called at the'ir schoolhouse on said reservation in Elk Town, 
 Warren county, Pennsylvania, this third day of January, A. D., 1878, for ex- 
 press purpose to write and send thanks to you for money appropriated to 
 
RACE EDUCATION. ,., 
 
 243 
 
 educate our children with. Meeting was called to order. John Jacobs was 
 elected to the chair, who called for George Bennet to act as secretary. The 
 following resolution was adopted: That we send our sincere thanks and 
 feelings for that deed. That we older ones never had as good a chance as 
 our children, we cannot help but see the benefit of an education to our chil- 
 dren, and we hope you will not consider the money thrown away, that you 
 will be satisfied that it is put to a good use, and that our school has never 
 been so satisfactory, well conducted, done so much good,' and been of so 
 much interest to both old and young as the present teacher has made it for 
 the last year. Also, we approve his plan of not allowing our children to use 
 Indian language around the schoolhouse. Also, approve of allowing white 
 children to attend our school. Also do we feel encouraged that we may be- 
 come more intimate with the whites. In days past our great-grandfather. 
 Corn Planter, said we would see this day. That we now see it— how much 
 better a man is with an education than without. Therefore, hoping that you 
 will not become discouraged in helping us, we send our sincere thanks to 
 you. 
 
 Respectfully, John Jacobs, President. 
 
 Marsh Pierce, Secretary. 
 
 The most active religious denomination in planting early missions 
 among the Indians of Pennsylvania, were the Moravians. The 
 Moravians came to America as missionaries ; and their organization 
 as a body, both in its religious and its social relations, was planned 
 chiefly in reference to efficiency in missionary work. Scarcely could 
 the close-binding brotherhood of the Jesuit Fathers have been better 
 calculated to subserve the end of converting and civilizing the 
 heathen than the self-denying cooperative principle of the Moravian 
 " Economy." Wherever the Brethren obtained a foothold among 
 the Indians, with a prospect/jf doing good, they built a schoolhouse 
 and opened a school. During the short time they remained in 
 Georgia, they had in operation a school for the children of the Creek 
 Indians; and they had scarcely constructed houses to shelter their 
 own families from the elements at Nazareth and Bethlehem, before 
 they opened schools into which were gathered such Indian children 
 from the surrounding country as could be induced to attend them. 
 Their plan of missionary work was simple but systematic. First, 
 they sought the Indians in their own villages, held religious con- 
 verse with them, preached to theni, tried to create an interest by 
 showing that they could be useful to them in many ways, and 
 wherever an opening could be found, established a permanent mis- 
 sion with a church and a school. A large part of the territory of 
 Pennsylvania was thus traversed and prospected by these faithful 
 servants of God; and, among their principal missionary stations 
 were Meniolagomekak, Eldred township, Monroe county, Shamokin, 
 
... ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 ■^44 
 
 now Sunbury, Wyoming, near Wilkesbarre, Schechschiquanunk, 
 Bradford county, and Goschgoschiink, near the mouth of the 
 Tiongsta Creek, Venango county. Subsequently it was their hope 
 to gather their harvest of converts into villages of their own, where 
 they could'be free from the contaminating influences of savage life, 
 and have a fair opportunity to grow in all the graces of Christianity. 
 
 In the year 1746, the Brethren brought the Christian Indian's 
 from Shekomeko, New York, and settled them temporarily in a 
 village they called Friedenshiitten, near Bethlehem, and in subse- 
 quent years they founded in succession for their Indian converts, 
 towns at Gnadenhiitten, on the Mahoning, near its junction with the 
 Lehigh, in Carbon county; at New Gnadenhiitten, on the east side 
 of the Lehigh, opposite Gnadenhiitten; at Nain, in Hanover town- 
 ship, Lehigh county; at Wechquetank, in Polk township, Monroe 
 county; at Friedenshiitten, on the Susquehanna, in Bradford county; 
 at Lawunakhannok, on the Alleghany, in Venango county, and at 
 Friedensstadt, on the Beaver, in Lawrence county. At all these 
 towns, no pains were spared to wean the Indians from their savage 
 ways, to acquaint them with the arts of civilized life, and to provide 
 them with church privileges and the means of instruction. Every 
 one of these settlements was in its turn disturbed and finally broken 
 up by causes that cannot be pointed out here, but when allowed 
 sufficient time for improvement, much good was done in all of them. 
 
 Gnadenhiitten, thirty miles from Bethlehem, became quite a pros- 
 perous town. It was laid out on land purchased by the Brethren. 
 The tract was divided into lots, streets were opened, and houses 
 erected as in the towns of white people. Farms were cultivated, 
 cattle fed, shops opened, and timber cut. A saw-mill furnished 
 employment to a number of workmen. A church was built, and, 
 in 1749 a larger one, for by this time the Indian congregation num- 
 bered five hundred persons. Of the school, in 1746, Loskiel says: 
 " A school of three classes, for children, boys, and young men, was 
 established this year at Gnadenhiitten, and a master appointed for 
 each class. Mistresses were also appointed for the classes of the 
 girls and young women. The Indian youth being very willing to 
 learn, it was a pleasure to their instructors to see their progress. 
 A regulation was also made for the maintenance of poor widows 
 and orphans, who were placed in different families, and provided, as 
 relations, with every necessary of life." 
 
 Friedenshiitten was laid out in 1765. The town grew rapidly. 
 
RACE EDUCATION. ^aC 
 
 Within a year it embraced twenty-nine log houses and thirteen 
 huts forming a single street, in the centre of which stood the chapel, 
 thirty-two by twenty-four feet, roofed with shingles. The school- 
 house was in a wing of the chapel. Back of the houses were gar- 
 dens and orchards. Two hundred and fifty acres of land well 
 fenced were under cultivation. Each family had its own canoe. 
 There were large herds of cattle and hogs, and p.oukry existed in 
 abundance. Trade in corn, maple sugar, butter, pork, and canoes, 
 was carried on with the neighboring Indians and with the white 
 settlers along the Susquehanna. 
 
 Loskiel writes respecting Friedensstadt : " It was a mattei- of no 
 small joy to observe the power of the Holy Ghost among the. young 
 people, for whose use two new spacious schoolhouses were built. 
 The missionaries considered it as a sufficient reward for all the 
 trouble of instructing them, tc^see their good and obedient behavior, 
 and their diligence in learning their lessons. Nor was it less pleas- 
 ing to hear them sing hymns of praise to our Lord and Saviour for 
 his incarnation, sufferings and death, in the Delaware and Mohican 
 languages." 
 
 Instruction was given, at Bethlehem, in the Indian languages, to 
 young men preparing for the missionary field, and numerous books 
 were translated and compiled for the use of the Indians. Zeisber- 
 ger prepared a Grammar, a Dictionary, and other works in the Del- 
 aware tongue, and his Delaware Reading and Spelling Book was 
 introduced into some of the mission schools. 
 
 It will be one of the saddest pages in the history of Pennsylvania, 
 that shall truthfully tell how all the efforts of the Moravian Brethren 
 for the welfare of the Indians, were frustrated and rendered abortive, 
 how town after town founded for their converts had to be abandoned 
 and new homes sought for them, and how at last the faithful Zeis- 
 berger and his patient, self-sacrificing co-laborers accompanied with 
 hearts full of sorrow the little band remaining under their guidance 
 across the borders of Pennsylvania towards the setting sun to meet 
 more sorrow to the end. Not till one hundred and thirty years 
 later, not till hundreds of tribes and hundreds of thousands of men, 
 women and children were swept from the face of the earth, did the 
 United States begin to learn the lesson taught by these humble 
 Christian Missionaries. But even Carlisle and Hampton, with all 
 their merit, have less to recommend them as schools for Indians 
 than had the old Moravian towns of Gnadenhiitten, Friedenshiitten 
 and Friedensstadt 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Apart from what has now been narrated, little was done to edu- 
 cate the Indians within the limits of Pennsylvania. In its early days 
 the CoUeo-e, at Philadelphia, admitted as scholars a few Indian boys, 
 and doubtless more would have been received had they been willing 
 to come. In a letter dated November I, 1756, Dr. William Smith, 
 the Provost, after stating that two ladian boys were then under 
 instruction at the institution, adds : " The great difficulty is to 
 persuade them to accept the offer." He refers to a Society in Eng- 
 land whose object is stated to be, " The glorifying the name of 
 Jesus by the further enlargement of his church, and particularly 
 the spreading of his everlasting Gospel among the heathen natives 
 of America, as well by instructing and civilizing those of them who 
 have grown up, as for laying a foundation for educating, clothing 
 and training up their children in the knowledge of morality, true 
 religion, the English tongue, and in %ome trade, mystery or lawful 
 calling, should they be disposed to follow it.'' 
 
 Rev. David Brainerd, the devoted missionary to the Indians in 
 New Jersey extended for a brief period his labors to Pennsylvania. 
 In 1744, he resided for some time among the Delawares about 
 Easton, in Northampton county; and, in 1745, he travelled along 
 the Susquehanna and Juniata, visiting the Indians and seeking 
 opportunities of instructing them, but without much apparent suc- 
 cess, for, as he says, they " seemed resolved to retain their pagan 
 notions and persist in their idolatrous practices." During his travels 
 he was a welcome visitor at Bethlehem and Gnadenhiitten. It is 
 not known that Brainerd established any Indian schools in Pennsyl- 
 vania, but money was collected to aid him in building schoolhouses 
 and buying books for the Indians on the New Jersey side of the 
 Delaware. 
 
 There was a time when negroes were held, as slaves in all the 
 thirteen original States. In March, 1780, Pennsylvania enacted a 
 law providing for the gradual abolition of slavery. Massachusetts, 
 framed a constitution the same year that indirectly gave freedom to 
 the slaves. Rhode Island and Connecticut became free states in 
 1784; New Jersey in 1804, and New York in 18 17. New Hamp- 
 shire, in 1808, had only eight slaves, and these soon after disap- 
 peared. Slavery in the remaining States of Delaware, Maryland, 
 Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, went down in the 
 clash of the great civil war. 
 
• RACE EDUCATION. 247 
 
 When most numerous, there must have been about four thousand 
 slaves in Pennsylvania. No exact date can be fixed for the coming 
 into the Province of the first negroes, but it must have been very 
 early, inasmnch as the question of the right to hold slaves was 
 raised among Friends in the year 1688. While slavery continued, 
 there were occasions when men, women, and children, were pub- 
 licly bought and sold in Philadelphia; and a "drove" of slaves, 
 fastened together in couples, might, now and then, be seen moving 
 through the streets. As showing the spirit of the times, it may be 
 stated also that during all the early part of the eighteenth century, 
 there was an active traffic carried on in buying and selling white 
 persons as well as negroes. Thousands of men, women, and chil- 
 dren, were brought to Pennsylvania from England, Ireland, and 
 Germany, some voluntarily and others against their will, and sold, 
 not absolutely, but for a term of years, four, seven, or ten. There 
 were men in Philadelphia who kept this class of servants or " re- 
 demptioners," as they were sometimes called, on hand for sale, and 
 there were men also who peddled them around the country in lots 
 like cattle. 
 
 The introduction of negro slavery into Pennsylvania, as well as 
 into other American colonies, is chargeable to the necessity of hav- 
 ing a large number of laborers in a new country, the public senti- 
 ment of the times, which did not regard the enslavement of white 
 men, and much less of heathen negroes, as a crime, and the persist- 
 ent determination of the British Government to secure to English 
 merchants the advantages of the profitable African slave trade. If 
 there was not from the first opposition to slavery in Pennsylvania, 
 opposition soon began to manifest itself In 1705, in order to 
 lessen the number of blacks coming into the Province, a duty was 
 imposed on their importation by the Colonial A.'isembly. This was 
 renewed in 17 10. The next year an act was passed absolutely 
 prohibiting such importation, but when submitted to the King of 
 England for approval, it was at once peremptorily set aside. An 
 act imposing a duty of twenty pounds a head on all slaves imported, 
 passed a year later and intended to effect the same object, shared a 
 similar fate. The trade in slaves was exceedingly profitable, and 
 those it enriched would suffer no check upon it. English ships 
 visited the coast of Africa, fomented war and pillage over all the 
 territory within their reach, received the spoils in the shape of 
 human freight, and sold the wretched cargoes wherever they could 
 
2-8 EDUCATION lAT PENNSYLVANIA.^ 
 
 find markets. Low estimates make the number of human beings 
 thus stolen and brought to America by the English, or under Eng- 
 lish authority, between 1676 and 1776, not less than three millions, 
 and a quarter of a million more are thought to have miserably per- 
 ished on their way across the Atlantic. 
 
 No class of people in Pennsylvania was wholly free from partici- 
 pation in the wrongs of slavery; but greatly to their credit, it may 
 be said that the Germans held the fewest slaves, and that the Friends 
 were the first and most earnest in favor of emancipation. In the 
 way of apology it may be said that as it existed on our soil, slavery 
 had few of the harsher features with which it is apt to be accom- 
 panied, and the slaves were about as well off as they could be in a 
 condition of servitude. The agitation that eventually brought about 
 the overthrow of slavery in the State, if not in the nation, began on 
 the "30th of the Second Month, 1688," with a humble petition of 
 a few German Friends, Garrett Henderick, Derick Up De-Graeff, 
 Francis Daniel Pastorius, and Abraham Jr. Den Graef, representing 
 the little Quaker meeting at Germantown, to the Monthly Meeting 
 to which they belonged, in substance, asking either that the slaves 
 should be allowed their freedom, or that good reasons be given 
 showing that Christians have a right to hold their fellow-men in 
 bondage. Neither the. Monthly Meeting to which the petition was 
 presented, nor the Quarterly Meeting to which it was referred, felt 
 prepared at the time to take positive action concerning so " weighty " 
 a matter, but the anti-slavery leaven began to work from that day 
 onward, first prompting George Keith's " Exhortation against buy- 
 ing Negroes," printed by Bradford, in 1693, and subsequently rous- 
 ing into active exertion, in behalf of the slave, such noble philan- 
 thropists as Ralph Sandiford, Benjamin Lay, John Woolman, and 
 Anthony Benezet, and finally so quickening the conscience of the 
 whole Society of Friends, as to cause it to free itself from all par- 
 ticipation in the guilt of slave-holding. The emancipation law of 
 the State, enacted in 1780, did not find a single slave in the hands 
 of a Friend. 
 
 As negroes in considerable numbers, most of them fresh from the 
 barbarism of Africa, were to be found in Pennsylvania from the 
 time of the earliest settlements after the coming of Penn, and as 
 many of these became free from time to time, and all of them in the 
 course of years, the inquiry is of interest as to what was done to 
 educate them or to improve their condition. 
 
RACE EDUCATION. 249 
 
 The Friends, while tolerating slavery, through their highest relig- 
 ious Assemblies, as early as 1696, expressed a concern for the wel- 
 fare of the negroes. They advised such as had negroes to be care- 
 ful of them, to take them to religious meetings and to hold religious 
 meetings with them. Penn in the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, 
 1700, said, " His mind had long been engaged for the benefit and 
 welfare of the negroes." The meeting emphasized his concern. 
 
 Mr. Weyman, an Episcopalian minister and missionary to Pennsyl- 
 vania, wrote August 3, 1728, to the Society for Propagating the 
 Gospel in Foreign Parts. " Neither is there anywhere care taken 
 for the instruction of negro slaves. I have pressed the necessity 
 and duty of this on the masters with little effect." Probably, 
 growing out of the representations of this letter, the Society 
 addressed adopted a plan, which was carried into effect in Philadel- 
 phia, and most likely in other places, for the instruction of negroes. 
 The instruction was to be given by " Catechists " appointed for the 
 purpose. Much of it was necessarily oral, and it is thought to 
 have been mostly of a moral or a religious character. In the 
 capacity of an instructor of this kind, one of the ministers of Christ 
 Church, Philadelphia, Rev. William Sturgeon, acted for a number 
 of years from 1746, the Society in England making an annual 
 appropriation to him for his services in this regard. " Catechists for 
 the negroes " were appointed by this Society in other colonies be- 
 sides Pennsylvania, notably Georgia. 
 
 Back of the plan just referred to, of appointing catechists, and most 
 likely prompting it, were the benevolent efforts in behalf of the 
 negroes made by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray. In the year 1696, 
 Dr. Bray was sent to Maryland by the Bishop of London on an 
 ecclesiastical mission. One branch of his trust was the establish- 
 ment of parochial libraries by means of donations of money and 
 books furnished for the purpose trom the mother country, and his 
 instructions also required him to do what he might concerning " the 
 conversion of adult negroes, and the education of their children." 
 Among the most ardent supporters of the mission of Dr. Bray, was 
 Mr. D'Alone, the private Secretary of King William, who bequeathed 
 a considerable part of his estate to constitute a fund for its mainten- 
 ance. The proceeds of the fund were at first used to pay the 
 salaries of "negro catechists," but not realizing the expected results 
 in this way, attention was turned to the establishment of schools for 
 negro children. About 1760, two schools, one for boys and one for 
 
2-0 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 girls, on a liberal plan, were established by the Associates of Dr. 
 Bray, in the city of Philadelphia. In 1774, a large lot was pur- 
 chased by means of a donation given by Rev. Mr. Upcher, of 
 Suffolk county, England, the rents of which added to the amount 
 received from the Dr. Bray fund enabled the gentlemen in charge 
 of the trust to build a suitable schoolhouse, to make instruction 
 entirely free to all children in destitute circumstances attending the 
 schools, and thus provide a fountain in a desert place that continued 
 for nearly a hundred years to bless and cheer. The benefaction was 
 withdrawn in 1845. 
 
 The destitute condition of the negroes in Pennsylvania and else- 
 where awoke the sympathy of the benevolent George Whitefield, 
 and, in 1740, as already stated, he projected a great school for them 
 at Nazareth. It failed only because his good designs were beyond 
 his means of accomplishment. 
 
 Before the Society of Friends had freed itself of all responsibility 
 for the evil of slavery, some of its members individually and in con- 
 nection with others of like sentiments, began a series of labors in 
 behalf of the oppressed colored people of this country, that have 
 won the commendation of philanthropists throughout the world. 
 These can be noted here only so far as they concern education in 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 The Monthly Meeting of Friends held in Philadelphia, February, 
 1770, approved a proposition made the month previous to establish 
 a school for the instruction of negro children, and a committee was 
 appointed to consider the most suitable manner of carrying the 
 project into effect. The committee duly reported a plan which was 
 adopted, and, with little delay, persons were named for "overseers" 
 or managers ; subscriptions were made ; rooms were rented ; Moles 
 Patterson was employed to teach as many children as should be 
 sent to him, not exceeding forty, at a salary of eighty pounds, or 
 1^213. 33>^ a year; and a school, entirely free to poor children, was 
 opened with twenty-two pupils, soon increased to thirty-six, about 
 one-half being girls. In 1773, a brick schoolhouse was built on a 
 lot belonging to the Society, and the school was continued under 
 several different masters. The well-known philanthropist, Anthony 
 Benezet, took charge of it in 1782; on account of his feeble health, 
 he moved it to his own house, and, at his death, left it the greater 
 part of his fortune as a legacy, "to hire and employ," in the words 
 of his will, " a religious-minded person or persons, to teach a num- 
 
JiA CE ED UCA TION. 2 C I 
 
 ber of negro, mulatto, or Indian children, to read, write, arithmetic, 
 plain accounts, needle work, etc." With the aid of Benezet's 
 legacy, the Overseers now felt strong enough to add a second story 
 to the schoolhouse, and employ a female to teach " the younger 
 children and girls in spelling, reading, sewing, etc." Sarah Dwight 
 was first employed at a salary of ^l33-33>^ a year. In 1787, a 
 donation of j^soo sterling was received from Friends in London. 
 Many men and women, some of them past middle age, attended liie 
 school from the first, mainly for the purpose of acquiring ability to 
 read the Holy Scriptures; and, by the year 1830, this class of 
 pupils had become so numerous that the use of the schoolhouse 
 was granted for an evening school for the benefit of adult colored 
 people. A new schoolhouse in a better location was erected in 
 1846; and in consequence, the attendance was largely increased, 
 averaging one hundred and fourteen. The school, now one hun- 
 dred and fifteen years old, still flourishes, and seems likely to go on 
 blessing the poor children for whom it was designed for centuries 
 yet to come. 
 
 Special evening schools for adult colored people were opened in 
 Philadelphia, in 1789, by an organization of Friends, called "the 
 Society for the Free Instruction of the Black People." This was 
 done as the originators say, " in consideration of the disadvantages 
 which many well-disposed Blacks and people of color labor under 
 from not being able to read, write, or cast accounts, which would 
 qualify them to act for • themselves or provide for their families." 
 These schools continued in operation until 1822, with a regular 
 attendance of from thirty to sixty pupils, a much larger number 
 being on the rolls. The teachers were at first exclusively mem- 
 bers of the organization who served weekly, by turns; but after 
 1803, permanent teachers were employed, the members continuing 
 to assist in the work of instruction. The establishment of the pub- 
 lic school system in Philadelphia, in 18 18, and other increased facil- 
 ities for the education of the colored people, offered about this time 
 seemed to render the Society's schools unnecessary, and they were 
 closed. Finding, however, that room was still left for work of the 
 kind, in 1831, the same benevolent influence that had supported 
 the first schools opened a new one; and an organization effected a 
 year later by a body of Orthodox Friends, under the title of " The 
 Association of Friends for the free Instruction of Adult Colored 
 Persons," has continued its charitable efforts in behalf of a much 
 
2 c 2 ED UCA TIOAT IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 neglected class of our people down to the present day. The schools 
 have been kept open regularly four or five months in a year, and 
 the rolls at times have contained the names of over four hundred 
 persons, two-thirds of whom were women. 
 
 The "Adelphi Schools" were schools established by "The Asso- 
 ciation of Friends for the Instruction of Poor Children " in the year 
 1807. Instruction was at first given on the Lancasterian plan, and 
 during the ten years the schools were conducted according to the 
 original design, two thousand seven hundred and five poor and 
 neglected white children enjoyed their benefits. The public school 
 system then opened the doors of many schoolhouses to all classes 
 of children and the " Adelphi Schools " were closed, to be opened 
 four years later for destitute colored children, of whom, to 1 871, 
 three thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight had received instruc- 
 tion through the aid of this noble charity. 
 
 In 1842, the Legislature incorporated the " Institute for Colored 
 Youth " in the city of Philadelphia. This institution was founded 
 upon a bequest made by Richard Humphreys, in 1837. It still 
 prospers. The members of the corporation are exclusively mem- 
 bers of the Society of Friends. Its aim is to afford gratuitously to 
 colored youth of both sexes the benefit of a High School education. 
 It is well endowed, owns good buildings, possesses a reading-room, 
 library of nearly four thousand volumes, and a good supply of 
 philosophical apparatus, has a full academical course of study, 
 employs six or eight teachers, and is attended by upwards of two 
 hundred students. A most valuable feature of the Institute is its 
 Normal department, and herein from the first it has been quietly at 
 work preparing teachers. 
 
 There was under the management of Friends, in 1822, in the 
 Northern Liberties, a " Female Association for Colored Children." 
 This Association supported one or more schools. 
 
 A number of female members of the Society of Friends, in 1795, 
 opened a school " for the improvement of African women in some 
 useful parts of school education," and continued it for about six 
 years with an average attendance of thirty pupils. In 18 10 a 
 school for a similar purpose was opened by a like organization, and 
 continued for about the same length of time. Other schools of the 
 same kind were opened from 1831 to 1845, that of latest date being 
 finally united with the schools of the Association " for the free in- 
 struction of adult colored persons." 
 
RACE EDUCATION. 253 
 
 The old Abolition Society, organized in 1774, of which Franklin 
 was the first President, in addition to laborious services of a different 
 kind in behalf of the colored people, supported a school for their 
 destitute children, and generously assisted the managers of similar 
 charities with contributions. 
 
 " The Union Society for the support of schools and domestic 
 manufactures, for the benefit of the African race and people of color," 
 established in 18 10, had, in 1822, three schools for adults in opera- 
 tion: One in the Sessions' House of the Third Presbyterian church, 
 open four evenings in a week, with two hundred pupils ; one in the 
 Clarkson schoolhouse, Cherry street, open four evenings in a week, 
 with one hundred pupils, and one in the Academy, Locust street, 
 open two evenings in a week, with fifty pupils. 
 
 The Infant School Society of Philadelphia reports, in 1830, that 
 the colored school under its care numbered one hundred and fifty 
 pupils, with fifty more waiting for admission, and adds that " the 
 mental and moral improvement of the children is exceedingly grati- 
 fying." 
 
 In 1804, the Society of Free People of Color opened a school, 
 John Trumbull, teacher ; and the African church of St. Thomas had 
 a school connected with it, in 181 1, with forty pupils, under the 
 charge of a colored teacher. 
 
 A committee of the " Association for the Free Instruction of 
 Adult Colored Persons,'' appointed in 1822, to make inquiry, 
 reported as the means of education within reach of the colored peo- 
 ple of Philadelphia, sixteen schools, all except five taught by colored 
 teachers, with an attendance of three hundred and twenty-nine male 
 pupils and two hundred and seventy-two female. 
 
 In Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, it was the custom in the 
 early days to admit colored children and colored adults, if they 
 chose to attend, into such schools as existed for white children. 
 There was no discrimination against them, but little special effort 
 seems to have been made in their behalf The Friends, however, in 
 some of their Monthly Meetings urged attention to the necessity of 
 instructing poor and neglected colored children ; and, in Delaware 
 county, in 1779, and, subsequently, in other counties, considerable 
 sums of money were raised for this purpose. 
 
 There was a school for colored children in Harrisburg prior to 
 1832. Poor children were aided by the county. Upon the estab- 
 lishment of the Lancasterian school at that place, colored as well as 
 
254 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 white children were required to attend it or pay for their own 
 schooHng. 
 
 An African Education Society was organized by the colored 
 people of Pittsburgh in 183 1, the principal object of which was "to 
 purchase ground and erect buildings for the accommodation and 
 education of youth, and a hall for the use of the Society." A 
 school was opened in the Little Bethel church the same year. 
 Lewis Woodson, from Columbus, Ohio, was the first teacher. His 
 salary was one hundred and fifty dollars per annum. In 1832, the 
 Society purchased the Methodist church on Front street, and fitted 
 it for a school, but many patrons would not give up the old quar- 
 ters, and two weak schools were the consequence. In about a 
 year, the friends of the old locality triumphed, and the united 
 school was taught for some time by Master Templeton and Miss 
 Matilda J. Ware, from Carlisle. Miss Ware now, 1883, in her 
 seventieth year, is still teaching, having charge of the colored 
 orphan school in Allegheny. About 1837, these private efforts to 
 educate themselves ceased, the colored people finding the public 
 schools established for them sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 The " Emlen Institution," with a farm of one hundred acres of 
 excellent land and good buildings, the whole valued at about ^36- 
 000, is located in Warminster township, Bucks county. Its object 
 is to educate male orphan children of Indian and African descent. 
 In 1878, sixteen such children were in attendance. The institution 
 was commenced in Ohio in 1843, removed to Bucks county in 
 1858, and to its present location in 1873. 
 
CHAPTER XIII, 
 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION. 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR AS A CLASS. 1776 TO 183I. 
 
 AT the time of the breaking'out of the Revolutionary war, the con- 
 dition of education in Pennsylvania was probably less promising 
 than at any other period before or since. The population of the State 
 was about three hundred and fifty thousand, for the most part thinly 
 scattered over a large extent of territory. The liberally educated 
 men among the earliest settlers had gone down to their graves, and 
 in most cases their learning had been buried with them. Life in 
 the new world had proved unfavorable to the transmission of intel- 
 lectual tastes, and scholars were more numerous among the fathers 
 than among their sons. The mass of the people were too poor, too 
 busy in earning a livelihood, too severely pressed by the hardships 
 they were compelled to endure in an American wilderness, too much 
 absorbed in the political and religious agitations and controversies 
 that long distracted the Province, to make the necessary effort to 
 provide means adequate to the purpose for the education of their 
 children. Penn and his immediate successors strongly favored edu- 
 ' cation, and the earlier Assemblies passed some wholesome laws 
 relating to the establishment of schools; but for more than fifty 
 years before the Revolution, the subject was almost totally neglected 
 by the public authorities. The several religious denominations 
 established a large number of schools, and in many neighborhoods 
 the people in general united in providing the means of an elementary 
 education; but all that was done in this way came far short of 
 covering the whole field. In 1775, not only was the number of 
 scholarly men in the Province small, but comparatively few grown 
 persons could do more than read, write and calculate according to 
 the elementary rules of Arithmetic, and many remained wholly illit- 
 erate. There was little demand for higher institutions of learning, 
 and few existed. The College and the Friends' Public School, in 
 Philadelphia, the Academy at Germantown, and scarcely a half a 
 dozen private classical schools in the older settled counties, with in 
 
 (2SS) 
 
2c6 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 all an attendance of three or four hundred students, absolutely 
 exhaust the advantages of this character enjoyed at home by our 
 Revolutionary fathers. 
 
 The war with the mother country came. In Philadelphia, the 
 Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in 1776, and, the same 
 year, a provisional Constitution was framed for the State. This Con- 
 stitution contained the following provision respecting education : 
 
 A school or schools shall be established in each county by the Legisla- 
 ture for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters 
 paid by the public as may enable them to instruct youth at low prices ; and 
 all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more 
 Universities. 
 
 This provision, broad for the time, contemplates two things : the 
 establishment of schools for elementary instruction, and of institu- 
 tions of a more advanced grade for higher instruction. It is made 
 the duty of the Legislature to establish schools in the several coun- 
 ties, to see that the salaries of the masters are paid by the public and 
 that the cost of instruction is not beyond the reach of citizens in 
 moderate circumstances. The framers of the Constitution of 1776, in 
 adopting this provision, were approaching free school ground, but 
 if they saw it at all it was only in the dim distance. Indeed, their 
 work can scarcely be considered an advance upon Penn's Frame, 
 after which it seems to have been modeled, prepared nearly one 
 hundred years before, which gave the Governor and Provincial 
 Council power to " erect and order all public schools,'' and to 
 " encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences and laudable 
 mventions in said Province." 
 
 The period of the Revolution, as might well be -supposed, was 
 almost wholly an educational blank. The only act relating to edu- 
 cation passed by the General Assembly, during the war was one 
 abrogating the charter of the College, Academy and Charitable 
 School of Philadelphia, and founding upon its ruins the University 
 of Pennsylvania. This was done in the heat of the Revolutionary 
 struggle, on account of the alleged disloyalty of some of the trustees 
 and professors connected with the old institution. 
 
 The war over, the victory won, the United States an independent 
 nation, and there soon opened up an era of great educational activity 
 in the State of Pennsylvania. Even before the adoption of the Con- 
 stitution of 1790, the Charter had been restored to the old College, 
 Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia ; the new Univer- 
 
PUBLIC ED UCA TION. 25? 
 
 sity had been largely endowed from the proceeds of confiscated 
 estates; Dickinson College at Carlisle, and Franklin College at 
 Lancaster, had been chartered and received large grants in mon&y 
 and land ; charters with grants of land had been given to the Epis- 
 copal Academy at Philadelphia, and to Public Schools or Acade- 
 mies at Germantown, Pittsburgh, Washington, Reading, Huntingdon 
 and Newtown, and sixty thousand acres of land had been set apart 
 for the support of public schools and ten thousand acres in equal 
 portions had been given to the Lutheran and Reformed congrega- 
 tions in Philadelphia in aid of their charity schools. The public 
 schools never received any benefit from the land set apart in their 
 behalf; it was probably given subsequently to the county Academies, 
 but the act making the grant indicates the liberal views respecting 
 education entertained in the Legislature at the time of its passage. 
 The Act was approved April 7, 1786, under the title of "An Act 
 for the present relief and future endowment of Dickinson College in 
 the borough of Carlisle and county of Cumberland in this State, and 
 for reserving part of the unappropriated lands belonging to the 
 State, as a fund for the endowment of public schools agreeably' to 
 the forty-fourth section of the Constitution of this Commonwealth." 
 Section I. recites the educational provision of the Constitution and 
 adds : " Which wise regulations in the present embarrassed state of 
 public credit cannot be carried into immediate execution, but every 
 encouragement in the reasonable power of the State is due and 
 ought to be given to those who, upon their private credit, or by 
 general supscription, shall promote the institution of seminaries of 
 useful learning." 
 
 After this came the provisions making certain grants to the 
 College, and then sections as follows : 
 
 Section VI. And whereas the same reasons which induce this House to 
 provide for the future support ot the said College equally hold and apply for 
 providing a fund, whereout hereafter to endow the public schools, agreeably 
 to the Constitution of this State. 
 
 Section VII. It is therefore enacted, etc. That sixty thousand acres of 
 land, part of the unappropriated lands belonging to the State, be and they are 
 hereby reserved and appropriated for the sole and express purpose of endow- 
 ing public schools in the different counties of this State, agreeably to the said 
 Forty-fourth Section of the Constitution. 
 
 In Sections VIII. and IX., the Supreme Executive Council is 
 directed to have the lands surveyed and reserved for the purpose 
 named in the Act. 
 17 
 
25 g EDCVATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Section X. That the said sixty thousand acres of land with the usual allow- 
 ance of six per centum for roads, hereby reserved out of the unappropriated 
 lands of the State, and so as aforesaid directed to be surveyed, set out, lo- 
 cated and appropriated, shall be and remain a fund for the endowment of 
 public schools within the several counties of this State, agreeably to said 
 Forty-fourth Section of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and shall not 
 otherwise be disposed of, nor shall the same, or any part thereof, be granted 
 or appropriated to any particular school, but by the acts of the Legislature 
 from time to time, to be made in pursuance of the said provision of the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 The article on education came before the Convention of 1789—90, 
 called to revise the Constitution, in the following form : 
 
 Section I. A school or schools shall be established in each county for the 
 instruction of youth, and the State shall pay to the masters such salaries as 
 shall enable them to teach at low prices. 
 
 Section II. The Arts and Sciences shall be promoted in one or more Sem- 
 inaries of learning. 
 
 These provisions are based upon those of the Constitution of 
 1776, but with several significant changes. Schools are to be estab- 
 lished in each county as in the older Constitution, but the Legisla- 
 ture is not required to establish them. The salaries of the masters 
 are to be paid by the State, and not " by the public." The words 
 " Seminaries of learning '' are substituted for " Universities." If 
 adopted as presented, any law establishing free schools or making 
 the schools free even to the poor, would have been unconstitutional, 
 and this seems to have been well understood by members of the 
 Convention. The leader of the movement to broaden the proposed 
 sections' relating to education was Timothy Pickering, of the county 
 of Luzerne. Mr. Pickering was from a part of the State where public 
 schools had been for many years in operation under local laws ; and, 
 besides, he had come to Pennsylvania from Massachusetts, where 
 such schools were common. The following is an abstract of the 
 proceedings of the Convention on the subject : 
 
 January 30, 1790. The first section of the article relating to edu- 
 cation being under consideration, it was moved by Mr. McKean, of 
 Philadelphia, seconded by Mr. Findley, of Westmoreland, to add the 
 following words to said section, viz., "and the poor gratis." Then, 
 Mr. Pickering moved to postpone the consideration of the section 
 with the amendment to enable him to introduce a substitute for the 
 section as follows: "Knowledge generally diffused among the 
 people being essential to the preservation of their rights, it shall be 
 the duty of the Legislature to provide for the instruction of children 
 
PUBLIC ED UCA TION. 259 
 
 and youth, by the establishment of schools throughout the Common- 
 wealth. And the arts, sciences and all useful learning shall be 
 further promoted in one or more Universities.'' This was decided 
 in the negative. 
 
 On February 26, the subject was again before the Convention, 
 and Messrs. McKean and Findley renewed their motion to add at 
 the end of the first section the words, " and the poor gratis." Mr. 
 Pickering again moved, seconded by Mr Edwards, of Philadelphia, 
 to postpone the subject to enable him to introduce the-following in 
 lieu of the first section : " The Legislature shall provide by law for 
 the establishment of schools throughout the State in such a manner 
 that the poor may be taught gratis." The motion was carried, and 
 subsequently, August 17, the proposed amendment was adopted 
 with the insertion of the clause after the word " shall " in the first 
 line, " as soon as conveniently may be." The Article as a whole 
 was agreed to as follows: 
 
 Section I. The Legislature shall, as soon as coaveniently may be, pro- 
 vide by law for the establishment of schools throughout the State, in such a 
 manner that the poor may be taught gratis. 
 
 Section II. The arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or more 
 Seminaries of leai'ning. 
 
 This article was incorporated into the Constitution of 1838 with- 
 out change, and continued to be the only constitutional provision 
 on the subject of education until 1874. It seems probable that Mr. 
 Pickering and those who acted with him understood that they were 
 laying the foundation of a system of free schools ; but it is doubtful 
 if it was so understood by many of their colleagues, as it certainly 
 was not for a long time thereafter by the Legislature and the public 
 generally. When the question of the constitutionality of the general 
 system of education established in 1834, came before the Supreme 
 Court of the State, it was decided in substance that while the Con- 
 stitution imperatively demanded the establishment of schools in 
 which the poor should be taught gratuitously, it did not forbid the 
 establishment of those in which all children, rich and poor alike, 
 should be so taught. On this seemingly weak and purely negative 
 basis, rests our whole system of public instruction as it exists to-day. 
 For many years after the adoption of the Constitution of 1790, how- 
 ever, all efforts in behalf of general public education were directed 
 to the end of providing instruction free to those only who were too 
 poor to pay for it. Little attempt was made directly by the Legis- 
 
26o EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 lature to establish schools, but the laws passed simply made provis- 
 ion for the education of poor children at the public expense in exist- 
 ing schools ; in other words, fheir only aim was to aid the church 
 and neighborhood schools in -carrying forward the work in which 
 they had been engaged for a hundred years. Such a system of 
 class education necessarily failed in a State where the doctrine of 
 equality had always been strongly held, but the long continued 
 efforts made in its behalf are of great historic interest, since out of 
 them at last was evolved the great idea that education should be 
 universal and free, and that public schools should be open alike, 
 without discrimination or partiality, to the children of all classes and 
 conditions of men. 
 
 The second section of the article relating to education in the 
 Constitution of 1790, was the first to be applied in practical legisla- 
 tion. The State authorities in these early days may have been slow 
 in comprehending the supreme necessity then existing for the 
 establishment of a system of elementary schools, but they were 
 both alive to the importance of Seminaries of learning of a higher 
 order and liberal in their support. This remarkable feature of the 
 legislation of the time will receive attention in some detail in a 
 future chapter, but it must be stated here that between the years 
 1790 and 1834, there were chartered by the State one University, 
 the Western University of Pennsylvania, five Colleges, Jefferson, 
 Washington, Allegheny, Madison, and Lafayette, and about sixty 
 Academies, one in nearly every county of the State. With few 
 exceptions, all of them received grants of land or of money, or of 
 both, in aggregate value amounting to the sum of four or iive hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. In return, several of the Colleges and 
 nearly all the Academies were required to instruct from three to 
 ten poor children without charge. It is evident that- in the minds 
 of many of the legislators of that day, these Academies were the 
 kind of schools the Constitution required to be established in each 
 county, and that the free instruction of a small fraction of the poor 
 children in the State was a practical compliance with the fundamen- 
 tal law. In the case of some of the Academies, the trustees who 
 managed them were required to be chosen by the electors of the 
 counties in which they were located, a certain proportion vacating 
 their seats every year to make room for new candidates. This plan 
 of endowed Academies was highly creditable to the men by whom 
 it was originated and carried into effect. Their intention, doubt- 
 
PUBLIC ED UCA TION. 26 1 
 
 less, was to plant in all parts of the State institutions like the great 
 • Public Schools of England. They forgot, however, that Pennsyl- 
 vania is not England, and their work consequently was ill suited 
 to a new country. Charters continued to be granted to new insti- 
 tutions, and appropriations were made to Colleges, Academies, and 
 Seminaries for several years after the adoption of the free school 
 system ; but the results of the plan were never satisfactory, it could 
 not be made to reach the masses of the people, and even as a 
 scheme of higher education it was only a partial success. 
 
 No law was passed by the Legislature to secure the gratuitous 
 instruction of the poor generally throughout the State in accord- 
 ance with the first section of the article relating to education in the 
 Constitution of 1790, before 1802. The subject, however, was 
 repeatedly spoken of in the messages of Governors Mifflin and Mc- 
 Kean, and was brought before the Legislature in the shape of bills 
 and reports of committees. A few extracts from these documents 
 will serve to reveal the educational views and spirit of the times.. 
 
 In the first message of Governor Mifflin, 1790, we find this 
 thoughtful sentence: "To multiply, regulate and strengthen the 
 sources of education is, indeed, the duty, and must be the delight, 
 of every wise and virtuous government ; for the experience of Amer- 
 ica has evinced that knowledge, while it makes us sensible of our 
 rights as men, enforces our obligations as members of society." 
 Two years later he urged the establishment of public schools as fol- 
 lows: "As education indirectly unites with courts of justice, in pro* 
 ducing an habitual obedience to the authority of the laws, and in 
 preserving the peace and order of society, it will not be improper 
 here to express a wish, that the establishment of public schools, 
 contemplated by the Constitution, may receive favorable attention ; 
 for, considered merely as a matter of policy, it is better to prevent 
 than to punish offences ; and the diffusion of knowledge, elevating 
 the sentiments, and confirming the virtue of the people, is the safest, 
 the best instrument, that government can employ." Like views 
 are expressed in his other messages. 
 
 In 1792, the " Society for the Establishment of Sunday-schools," 
 Philadelphia, whose principal object was to establish schools in 
 which poor children at work on the other days of the week, could 
 receive secular as well as religious instruction on the Sabbath day, 
 earnestly petitioned the Legislature in favor of the passage of a law 
 providing for a general system of education. Albert Gallatin, who 
 
262 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 was then a member of the Legislature, and others, favored the views 
 of the petitioners; but as gathered from the reports of committees 
 on the subject, the mind of a majority of the members seemed to be 
 that the State could undertake to provide no more than a single 
 school in each county. It was proposed, however, that ;£'400 should 
 be given towards the erection of buildings, and £/\po for a library 
 to each county with three representatives or less, and to each of the 
 other counties ;£'6oo should be given for buildings, and ;^6oo for a 
 library. The annual appropriations for the two classes of counties 
 were named at £']^ and £i'^o respectively. The next year a bill 
 was introduced into the Legislature, providing that in any neigh- 
 borhood where the citizens subscribed seventy dollars for a school- 
 master to teach Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, the State would 
 give fourteen dollars; or if one hundred and twenty dollars were 
 subscribed by the citizens for a schoolmaster who could teach Gram- 
 mar, the elements of Mathematics, Geography, and History, the State 
 would contribute fifty. All schools to be free, but no child to 
 remain at school more than three years, unless he had paid two dol- 
 lars per annum for his tuition. The University at Philadelphia, 
 Dickinson College, and an institution to be established west of the 
 Alleghenies, to receive from the schools such poor boys "as dis- 
 played marks of genius." None of these propositions met with 
 much favor. 
 
 December 8, 1794, a committee was appointed by the House of 
 Representatives to consider and report upon that part of the Gov- 
 ernor's address which relates to the e.stablishment of schools 
 throughout the State in such a manner that the poor may be taught 
 gratis; and also to devise a general plan of promoting the arts and 
 sciences by organizing Academies in the several counties. The 
 report of this committee is as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That schools may be established throughout the State, in .such a 
 manner that the poor may be taught gratis. 
 
 Resolved, That one-fifth part of the expense necessary to support the mas- 
 ters of said schools be paid out of the general funds of the State. 
 
 Resolved, That the remaining four-fifths of the said expense be paid in 
 each county, respectively, by means of a county tax. 
 
 Resolved, That the said schools be put under the direction of trustees in 
 each county, subject to such limitations and regulations, as to the distribu- 
 tions of their fpinds, the appointment of masters, and their general arrange- 
 ments as shall be provided by law. 
 
 Resolved, That the schools thus established shall be free schools, and that 
 at least spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic, shall be taught therein. 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION. 263 
 
 Resolved, That ten thousand dollars a year be appropriated out of the funds 
 of this Commonwealth, to encourage the establishment of Academies, in which 
 grammar, the elements of mathematics, geography and history shall be 
 taught. 
 
 Resolved, That the said sum be apportioned amongst the city and several 
 counties of the State in proportion to their respective population. 
 
 Resolved, That whenever a sum sufficient, with the addition of the sums 
 proposed to be given by the public, to support an Academy for the purpose 
 aforesaid shall have been subscribed, or contributed, the additional sum of 
 one hundred dollars a year shall be given out of the public treasury, in aid of 
 such Academy. 
 
 Resolved, That when the number of Academies in any county shall be so 
 great, that the sum to which such county is entitled becomes insufficient to 
 afford one hundred dollars to each, it shall be divided by the trustees afore- 
 said among the whole of such Academies, in proportion to the number of 
 masters employed, and scholars taught, and the length of time in each during 
 which each Academy is so kept and supported. 
 
 Resolved, That whenever a sum is subscribed and contributed, sufficient, if 
 added to the income of any of the inferior schools, to procure the instruction 
 contemplated to be given in the Academies, such school shall become an 
 Academy and receive the additional bounty of one hundred dollars as afore- 
 said, subject to a reduction in the manner aforesaid. 
 
 These resolutions, clearly outlining an advanced educational policy, 
 were adopted by the House, and a committee was appointed to pre- 
 pare a bill in accordance with them. This was done, and the bill 
 was passed by both Houses, but was finally lost in a Conference 
 committee. This was a near approach to the adoption of a free 
 school system forty years before the passage of the law of 1834. 
 
 Governor McKean followed in the footsteps of his predecessor in 
 urging the Legislature to carry into effect the provision of the Con 
 stitution concerning the education of the poor. In his message of 
 1800, he says, "Having brought these principal institutions into 
 your view, and considered the diffusion of useful knowledge among 
 the people to be the best auxiliary to the administration of a free 
 government, allow me, Gentlemen, to remind you of a Constitution! 
 injunction, ' That the Legislature shall as soon as conveniently may 
 be, provide by law for the establishment of schools throughout the 
 State in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis." " 
 
 On the first day of March, 1 802, the Governor approved the follow- 
 ing act, the first of its class, making provision in a general way for 
 the education of the poor : 
 
 AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE EDUCATION OF POOR CHILDREN GRATIS. 
 
 Whereas, by the first section of the seventh article of the Constitution of 
 this Commonwealth it is directed " That the Legislature shall as soon as con- 
 
5 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 veniently may be, provide by law for the establishment of schools throughout 
 the State, in such manner as that the poor may be taught gratis, Therefore, 
 
 Section I Be it enacted, etc. That from and after the passmg of this act 
 the Guardians and Overseers of the poor of the City of Philadelphia, the Dis- 
 trict of Southwark and townships and Boroughs within this Commonwealth, 
 shall ascertain the names of all those children whose parents or guardians 
 they shall judge to be unable to pay for their schooling, to give notice in writ- 
 ing to such parent or guardian that provision is made by law for the education 
 of their children or the children under their care, and that they have a full and 
 free right to subscribe at the usual rates and send them to .any school in their 
 neighborhood, giving notice thereof as soon as may be to the Guardians or 
 Overseers of the term for which they have subscribed, the number of scholars 
 and the rate of tuition, and in those Townships where there are no guardians 
 or overseers of the poor, the Supervisors of the Highways shall perform the 
 duties herein required to be done by the Guardians or Overseers of the poor. 
 
 Section II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid. That 
 every Guardian or Overseer of the poor, or Supervisor of the Highways, as the 
 case may be, in any township or place where any such child or children shall 
 be sent to school as aforesaid, shall enter in a book the name or names, age 
 and length of time such child or children shall have been so sent to school, 
 together with the amount of schooling, school-books and stationery, and shall 
 levy and collect in the same way and manner and under the same regulations 
 as poor taxes or road taxes are levied and collected, a sufficient sum of money 
 from their respective townships, boroughs, wards or districts, to discharge such 
 expenses together with the sum of five per cent for their trouble. 
 
 Section III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the 
 Guardians or Overseers of the poor for the time being, or Supervisors of the 
 Highways as the case may be, shall use all diligence and-prudence in carry- 
 ing this act into effect, and shall settle their accounts in the same way and 
 manner as by the existing laws of the State, the Guardians, Overseers of the 
 poor, and Supervisors of the poor, and Supervisors of the Highways are 
 authorized and required to settle their accounts. 
 
 Section IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid. That 
 this act shall continue in force for the term of three years, and from thence to 
 the end of the next sitting of the General Assembly and no longer. 
 
 The Act of 1802 may have gone into effect partially in a few 
 localities, but it was soon discovered that it would not answer the 
 intended purpose. In the hope of overcoming the obstacles met 
 with in applying it, but in blindness as to the true cause of the dif- 
 ficulty, the following Act was passed in 1804 as a substitute: 
 
 AN act to provide FOR THE MOKE EFFECTUAL EDUCATION OF THE 
 CHILDREN OF THE POOR GRATIS. 
 
 Whereas, The law passed the first day of March, anno Domini one thous- 
 and eight hundred and two, entitled "An act to provide for the education of 
 poor children gratis," has not been found by experience to answer the consti- 
 tutional purposes intended by it, Therefore 
 
 Section I. Be it enacted, etc.. That from and after the passing of this act 
 it shall be enjoined as a, duty on all schoolmasters and schoolmistresses teach- 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION'. 265 
 
 ing reading and writing in the English or German languages and arithmetic, 
 to receive into their schools and teach as aforesaid, all such poor children as 
 shall be recommended to them by the Overseeis of the poor, or where there 
 are no Overseers of the poor, by a Justice of the Peace and two respectable 
 freeholders of the city, district, or township where such school is kept. 
 
 Section II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid. That upon 
 the performance of any such service by any schoolmaster or schoolmistress 
 as aforesaid, the Overseers of the poor or Justice^ of the Peace and freehold- 
 ers who have recommended as aforesaid, shall certify to the commissioners 
 of the proper county or city the names of such poor children, the time they 
 have been respectively taught, and the usual rate of schooling paid for other 
 children at the same school, who shall examine such certificate, and finding 
 it correct, shall draw an order in favor of such schoolmaster or schoolmistress 
 for the amount on the treasurer of the proper County or City, to be paid out 
 of the County Stock. 
 
 Section III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this 
 act shall continue in force for three years, and from thence to the end of the 
 next session of the General Assembly and no longer, and that the Act entitled 
 "An act to provide for the education of poor children gratis," shall be and 
 hereby is repealed. 
 
 That this Act also was considered an incomplete fulfillment of 
 the Constitution, appears from the message of the Governor the 
 next year after its passage. After showing the necessity of a gen- 
 eral diffusion of knowledge among the people in a republican gov- 
 ernment, and quoting the Constitutional provision concerning the 
 education of the poor, he says : " Let me, then, claim an early atten- 
 tion for this important subject. It remains with you, by making 
 an adequate provision for men of science in public Seminaries, to 
 introduce a general system of education that shall infuse into the 
 mind of every citizen a knowledge of his rights and duties, that 
 shall excite the useful ambition of excelling in stations of public 
 trust and that shall guard the representative principle from the 
 abuses of intrigue and imposture." 
 
 The Act of 1809, with the same title and aim as the Acts of 1802 
 and 1804, was more carefully drawn, better suited to the circum- 
 stances of the case, and consequently longer-lived. It reads as 
 follows : 
 
 Section I. It shall be the duty of the Commissioners of the several coun- 
 ties within this Commonwealth, at the time of issuing their precepts to' the 
 assessors, annually to direct and require the assessors of each and every town- 
 ship, ward and district, to receive from the parents the names of all children 
 between the ages of five and twelve years, who reside therein, and whose 
 parents are unable to pay for their schooling; and the Commissioners, when 
 they hold appeals, shall hear all persons who may apply for additions or alter- 
 ations of names in said list, and make all such alterations as to them shall 
 
256 EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 appear just and reasonable, and agreeable to the true intent and meaning of 
 this act; and after adjustment, they shall transmit a correct copy thereof to 
 the respective assessor, requiring him to inform the parents of the children 
 therein contained, that they are at liberty to send them to the most conven- 
 ient school, free of expense ; and the said assessor, for any neglect of the 
 above duty, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five dollars, to be sued for by 
 any person, and recovered as debts of that amount are novir recoverable, and 
 to be paid into the county treasury for county purposes: Provided always, 
 That the names of no children, whose education is otherwise provided for, 
 shall be received by the assessor of any township or district. 
 
 Section II. That the said assessor shall send a list of the names of the 
 children, aforesaid, to the teachers of schools within his township, ward or 
 district, whose duty it shall be to teach all such children as may come to their 
 schools, in the same manner as other children are taught; and each teacher 
 shall keep a day-book, in which he shall enter the number of days each 
 child entitled to the provisions of this act, shall be taught; and he shall also 
 enter in said book the amount of all stationery furnished for the use of said 
 child from which book he shall make out his account against the county, on 
 oath or affirmation, agreeably to the usual rates of charging for tuition in 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 sub- 
 scribers 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." 
 
 This Act did not provide for the establishment of a single school, 
 nor did it attempt to regulate in any way the existing schools it 
 proposed to patronize. But its negative character was not its worst 
 feature; it compelled parents to make a public record of their 
 poverty, to pauperize themselves, and to send their children to 
 school with this invidious mark upon them. Its practical defects 
 were apparent from the first to the friends of a general system of 
 public education, and among the most prominent of these was Gov- 
 ernor Simon Snyder. In his message of 1810, he quotes the Con- 
 stitutional provision requiring the establishment of schools through- 
 out the State, and says pointedly: 
 
 Twenty years have elapsed since this injunction became a part of the Con- 
 stitution, during which time various grants to Colleges and Academies have 
 been made, and several laws have been enacted in the spirit of this provision; 
 but, it is yet much doubted, whether there has been such a legislative act as 
 guarantees to the poor throughout the State, the blessings of education free 
 of expense. To enforce the importance of a general diffusion of knowledge 
 in a republican, representative government would surely be unnecessary to an 
 enlightened and patriotic Legislature ; nor will the difficulty of ascertaining 
 the best and most certain means of effecting this great good, discourage them 
 from further attempting to attain an object so extremely desirable, as it 
 regards the peace, harmony and happiness of society and the stabihty of our 
 republican institutions. 
 
PUBLIC ED UCA TION. 267 
 
 And again in his message of 1813, he speaks strongly on the 
 subject : 
 
 The preservation of morals and our free institutions, together with the true 
 interests of humanity, would be much promoted and their perpetuation secured 
 by the general diffusion of knowledge amongst all our citizens. A solemn 
 injunction contemplating these important objects, by the establishment of 
 schools throughout the State, though contained in the instrument from which 
 the departments constituting the government derive their powers, remains yet 
 to be filled, on the broad plan and hberal principles which actuated those who 
 enjoined the duty. The laws in force have done much good; a careful revis- 
 ion of them would probably do much more, by extending the benefits of this 
 important branch of republican polity. 
 
 In 1 8 17, foreseeing the necessity of an examination of teachers, 
 and of the supervision of schools — wants that remained unsupplied 
 for many years thereafter — he recommends: 
 
 That some mode be prescribed by law for ascertaining the qualifications of 
 those who offer to instruct youth. That such as are approved, and who at the 
 expiration of the period for which they may have engaged to teach produce a 
 favorable report of the conduct and progress of their schools from a commit- 
 tee to be for that purpose appointed in each county, shall receive out of the 
 State treasury a small salary in addition to individual subscriptions. This, I 
 hesitate not to say, would be the means of banishing ignorance and negli- 
 gence from presiding over the education of children, and prevent that de- 
 plorably useless consumption of time, that exhibition of idleness and demor- 
 alizing habits, so commonly prevalent in our country schools. 
 
 Governor Findlay, in his message of 18 1 8, complains of the want 
 of "Seminaries of learning" in the interior counties, and recom- 
 mends the establishment of a University in the central part of the 
 State, and then joins Governor Snyder in criticising the educational 
 measures previously adopted, and urges further action on the sub- 
 ject by the Legislature. His words on this part of the subject are: 
 
 To provide for the education of the poor gratuitously is also a duty equally 
 imperative and important. This subject has at different periods occupied the 
 attention of the Legislature; but the measures hitherto adopted have not 
 proved commensurate with the laudable motives by which they were dictated. 
 The diversity of languages taught in the State, with other circumstances, pre- 
 sents g?eat difficulties in establishing a general system that would be wholly 
 free from objection ; but, I trust, they are not insurmountable. Concentrat- 
 ing, as you do, a knowledge of the local situation and views of the people in 
 every quarter of the State, aided by the light derived from experiments made 
 by your predecessors, you must be competent, and, I trust, desirous to devise 
 a system that will accommodate the wants and favor the wishes of every sec- 
 tion of the Commonwealth. Arduous and difficult as the task may be, its 
 performance would bring with it an ample reward. Education has such an 
 influence in improving and expanding the intellectual powers, and in infusing 
 16 
 
268 ED OCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA 
 
 into youthful and untrained minds correct ideas of religion, justice and honor, 
 that crimes are not so frequently associated with it as with ignorance and 
 debasement of mind. The general dissemination of information, by en- 
 abling all to become acquainted with their duties and rights, tends to prevent 
 the commission of crimes ; an effect not to be expected from penal laws alone. 
 It may indeed be questioned, how far it is correct in a Government to punish 
 offences without making an effort to enable the people to acquire a knowl- 
 edge of the laws and their relative duties in society." 
 
 Governor Hiester, in his message of 1 82 1, commends the Lancas- 
 terian system of education, and thinks the example of Philadelphia, 
 where this system was then in operation, might be profitably fol- 
 lowed in other parts of the State. "For the establishment' of 
 schools," says he, " in which the terms of tuition are greatly reduced, 
 and in which those who are not able to meet the expense are taught 
 gratuitously, the citizens of Philadelphia stand pre-eminent. Their 
 schools established under different acts of Assembly, on the Lancas- 
 terian system of education, are, at this time, preparing for future use- 
 fulness 5,359 scholars, many of whom would otherwise be permitted 
 to grow up in ignorance, and become a prey to those vices of which 
 it unfortunately is. so fruitful a source." Inrfhe same message he 
 urges the attention of the Legislature to the question of uniting with 
 others of the original States in a demand upon the General Govern- 
 ment for an equitable proportion of the public lands for the support 
 of schools. 
 
 In 1823, Governor Shulze thus speaks of the provision in the 
 Con.stitution relating to education : " The object of the Convention 
 seems to have been to diffuse the means of rudimental education so 
 extensively that they should be completely within the reach of all— 
 the poor who could not pay for them, as well as the rich who could. 
 Convinced that even liberty without knowledge is but a precarious 
 blessing, I cannot therefore too strongly recommend this subject 
 to your consideration." In 1824, he presses the subject more 
 strongly and proposes a special State appropriation, as follows : " To 
 carr>- into effect the Constitutional injunction much has already been 
 done; it must however be conceded that much remains yet to do. 
 Primary schools have been established and Colleges endowed, yet 
 in a manner heretofore unfortunately not equal to their want's or 
 necessities. I would respectfully suggest whether an annual sum 
 specially appropriated for that purpose, would not in a few years 
 raise a fund equal to the universal diffusion of the elements of edu- 
 cation among the children of the republic." In 1827, he utters 
 
PUBL IC ED UCA TION. 269 
 
 these noble and just sentiments : " Knowledge cannot be supplied 
 to all in equal measure, but it is hoped the time will come when 
 none shall be left entirely destitute. Then will the Legislature truly 
 be, in this respect, what the framers of the Constitution desired it 
 should be, a parent to the children of the poor ; and they, in return, 
 will have strong inducements to love and to honor and to do their 
 utmost to perpetuate the free institutions from which they derive so 
 equal a benefit, so prolific a source of happiness.'' And his last 
 words on the subject, in 1828, are "to devise means for the estab- 
 lishment of a fund and the adoption of a plan by which the bless- 
 ings of the more necessary branches of education shall be conferred 
 on every family within our borders, would be every way worthy the 
 Legislature of Pennsylvania." 
 
 Not one of the Governors of the State, during the time it re- 
 mained in force, was satisfied that the Act of 1 809 was a fulfillment 
 of the constitutional provision respecting education. And they were 
 not alone in this opinion. In 18 12, a supplement to the Act was 
 passed, modifying it so far as it applied to the city and county of 
 Philadelphia, and authorizing the county commissioners, if they 
 thought the cause of education or the public good would be pro- 
 moted thereby, to establish public schools in such manner and 
 under such regulations as the Councils of the city of Philadelphia 
 and the Boards of Commissioners of the township of the Northern 
 Liberties and of the district of Southwark should approve. This 
 supplement was the forerunner of the Act of 18 18, which consti- 
 tuted Philadelphia the " First School District" of Pennsylvania, and 
 provided for the education of the children of the city and county on 
 the Lancasterian plan, at the public expense. Under the Act of 
 1 8 18, the schools established in Philadelphia were not intended to 
 be free to the children of all classes of citizens. The object of the 
 Act was simply to provide by public authority a better and less 
 expensive way of educating the poor. None but the children of 
 indigent parents were admitted into the schools at the public ex- 
 pense, boys between the ages of. six and fourteen, and girls between 
 the ages of five and thirteen. Authority was given in the Act to 
 establish a school for the training of teachers, and in virtue of it, the 
 honor must be accorded to Philadelphia of having the oldest Nor- 
 mal School in the United States. 
 
 The example of Philadelphia was followed in 1 82 1 by the coun- 
 ties of Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, and Allegheny, for whose 
 
27Q EDUCA TION IN FENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 benefit special acts were passed authorizing the employment of 
 teachers to instruct poor children in schools by themselves, and the 
 appointment of trustees to superintend such schools. Books and 
 stationery were to be furnished, as under the Act of 1 809. 
 
 By an Act approved April i, 1822, Lancaster city and the incor- 
 porated boroughs of the county became the " Second School Dis- 
 trict" of Pennsylvania, of which Lancaster city was constituted the 
 first Section. The power to erect schoolhouses, select teachers, 
 provide books, and manage the schools, was intrusted to a board of 
 twelve directors, appointed by the Court. The schools were re- 
 quired to be conducted according to the Lancasterian system. The 
 expense was at first borne by the county; but as the law went into 
 effect only in the city, the funds for the support of the schools estab- 
 lished after 1824, came exclusively out of the city treasury. The 
 fifth section of the Act will show its purpose, as well as the purpose 
 of the Act in relation to Philadelphia, after which it was modeled. 
 It is as follows : " That the said directors may admit into any public 
 school or schools, all such indigent orphan children, and the chil- 
 dren of indigent parents, to be supported at the public expense, as 
 they shall deem expedient and proper ; they may also admit chil- 
 dren whose parents or guardians are in circumstances to pay their 
 tuition, either in whole or in part, and shall be at liberty to charge 
 in each individual case, any sum which may be agreed upon be- 
 tween the parties, which shall be applied in all cases to the support 
 of such school or schools." 
 
 The special acts relating to education in Philadelphia and in the 
 counties above mentioned, were prompted by a new plan of school 
 management, called Lancasterian, after its author, Joseph Lancas- 
 ter, which began to take root in Pennsylvania about 1 809. Schools 
 conducted on this plan were established at Philadelphia, Lancaster, 
 Columbia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Milton, Erie, New Castle, Green- 
 castle, and perhaps at a few other places. 
 
 In 1824, an Act was passed repealing the Act of 1809 and all 
 special acts relating to public education except those constituting 
 the First and Second School Districts of Philadelphia and Lancaster, 
 and providing, according to its title, " more effectually for the edu- 
 cation of the poor gratis, and for laying the foundation of a general 
 system of education throughout the Commonwealth." There are 
 no records to show that this Act ever went into effect; it met with 
 violent opposition, was repealed in 1826 and the Act of 1809 re- 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATIOM. 271 
 
 stored ; but the following synopsis of its principal provisions will 
 show that in theory at least it did what it purported to do, lay the 
 foundation of a general system of public education, and that it con- 
 tains some of the leading provisions that were in substance incorpor- 
 ated into the free school Act of 1834, and that are found in the 
 school laws of the present day. 
 
 The Act of 1824 as indicated in its title contains two distinct 
 parts; the first relating to the education of the poor alone, and the 
 second making provision looking forward to the education of all 
 classes of children. In the first part it is provided that three 
 " school men " shall be elected in each township, ward or borough, 
 one annually. In case of a failure to elect, the proper Court is 
 required to appoint, and the Court is also required to fill all 
 vacancies. The school men must take an oath to perform their 
 duties faithfully, and for a refusal to serve are subject to a fine of 
 twenty dollars. The assessors are to prepare the lists of poor children 
 between the ages of six and fourteen and place them in the hands 
 of the school men whose duty it is to revise them. They are then 
 given to the county comhiissioners. The school men are required 
 to superintend the education of the poor children in their respective 
 townships, wards and boroughs, and to supply them with books, 
 stationery, etc. 
 
 The second part, Section X, begins with the preamble, "And 
 Whereas, a general system of education and the diffusion of know- 
 ledge are necessary to the prosperity and happiness of this Common- 
 wealth." The citizens of the several townships, wards and boroughs 
 are authorized to vote on the question of a " general tax " for 
 schools, "schools" or "no schools." In case a majority cast. their 
 votes for schools, the school men are required to levy, on the basis 
 of the tax for county purposes, a school tax sufificient to support the 
 schools for the current year. It is made the duty of the school men 
 to divide each township or borough into as many school districts as 
 may be found necessary, to select sites and provide for the erection 
 of school-houses, and to furnish books and stationery for the use of 
 the schools. It is also made the duty of the school men " to care- 
 fully examine all teachers and judge of their qualifications and 
 character, and to contract with the teachers either by yearly salary 
 or a sum certain for each scholar; they shall also have a general 
 supervision and control over the school or schools in their respect- 
 ive townships or boroughs : Provided, That no child shall be taught 
 
272 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 at the public expense, under the provisions of this Act, for a longer 
 period than three years ; Provided Further, That parents may send 
 for that length of time, at such times, between the ages of six and 
 fourteen, as will suit their convenience." Provision is made for the 
 appointment of treasurers to keep the moneys, all of which are to be 
 strictly accounted for. Two or more contiguous townships may 
 establish a joint school, and families who live at too great a distance 
 from a school to be benefited thereby are exempted from the 
 payment of school tax. Any township or borough putting in opera- 
 tion the general system of education will continue to receive its 
 share of the county fund allowed for the education of poor children. 
 Reports of the working of the system are to be made by the county 
 commissioners to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, to be by him 
 communicated to the Legislature. The following section recog- 
 nizes an issue pending at the time between the public and the 
 church schools, and makes an effort to compromise it: "And when- 
 ever a school shall belong to or be under the immediate direction 
 and supervision of any religious society, the school men shall not 
 employ a teacher for such school contrary to the wishes or consent 
 of such religious society ; and such school shall be entitled to its 
 proper share of the funds raised by virtue of this Act; Provided, 
 That the tru.stees or society having the control of such school as 
 aforesaid, .shall at all times admit into such school any children 
 which the school men shall direct to be taught at such school, and 
 that the school men shall visit such schools in the same manner as 
 other schools." 
 
 Besides the enactment of special laws relating to education and 
 the struggle connected with the passage and repeal of the Act of 
 1824, the waters of the Legislature were troubled during the whole 
 period that the Act of 1809 remained on the statute books with 
 petitions, recommendations, reports of committees, bills, and discus- 
 sions on the subject of education. During all these years, there was 
 an active minority in favor of the establishment of a general system 
 of education, and a determined majority ever ready to resist such a 
 measure. On several occasions, the majority disposed of the trouble- 
 some subject by shrewdly recommending it "to the early attention of 
 the next Legislature;" but sometimes a bolder course was necessary, 
 as m 1818, when the following resolutions moved by Messrs. Leib 
 and McKean were unceremoniously laid on the table : 
 
PUBLIC ED UCA TION. 27'? 
 
 Whereas, It is enjoined by the Constitution of this Commonwealth that 
 ' the Legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for the 
 establishment of schools throughout the State in such manner that the poor 
 may be taught gratis, and that the arts and sciences shall be promoted in one 
 or more seminaries of learning :' 
 
 And Whereas, No provision lias heretofore been made by law to estab- 
 lish schools out of the funds of the Commonwealth, for the instruction of the 
 poor gratis, although large sums have from time to time been appropriated 
 towards the endowment of seminaries of learning. 
 
 And Whereas, Humanity as well as policy requires the extension of the 
 public patronage to those who are without the means of providing for their 
 own education, and that the first fruits of the treasury should be awarded them 
 in preference to those who have means for their own instruction. 
 
 And Whereas, The improvement of the moral and intellectual faculties of 
 man is an indispensable requisite in preserving and perpetuating the bless- 
 ings of free government, and ignorance is the parent of vice, of despotism and 
 of crime ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That provision be made by law for the establishment of schools 
 throughout the State in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis ; and 
 
 that thousand dollars be appropriated annually for this object, to be 
 
 distributed among the several counties in proportion to their population. 
 
 The educational policy enforced in Pennsylvania for fifty years 
 after the close of the Revolutionary war embraced two objects ; 
 first, the establishment in all parts of the State of endowed Acade- 
 mies, in which a small number of indigent pupils were to be taught 
 gratuitously, mostly with reference to their becoming- teachers ; and, 
 second, the free instruction of poor children in the existing church 
 or neighborhood schools. That the first part of this policy met 
 with only partial' success will be shown in the proper place ; what 
 remains to be done here is to sum up the results of the long-con- 
 tinued effort to educate the poor as a separate class. 
 
 Schools were greatly multiplied during the period under review. 
 The rapid increase of population, the meqtal activity and spirit of 
 enterprise among the people that followed the war of Independence, 
 the inviting prospect of a country won, owned and possessing possi- 
 bilities rivalliiig those of the greatest nations in the world, were of 
 themselves causes sufficient to create a desire for knowledge and to 
 provide the means of gratifying it. The several religious denomi- 
 nations continued to exert themselves in some measure to increase 
 the number of the schools under their control, but their zeal in this 
 direction had greatly abated, and neighborhoods almost everywhere, 
 without regard to differences in religion, combined their efforts to 
 secure instruction for their children. Doubtless, the provision made 
 in the Act of 1809 for furnishing instruction to the poor gratuitously 
 
274 ^^ ^^^ r/OiV IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 may have been of some assistance to the class it was intended to 
 benefit, it may even have tended to strengthen a few weak schools 
 or encouraged the opening of a chance new school in a particular 
 locality, but its influence was certainly not notable in this respect, 
 and, as a measure of public educational policy, it failed and finally 
 became odious on account of the humiliating mark it set upon the 
 poor. Its general results, however, are best made known in the 
 language of official documents issued at the time. 
 
 The following is an extract from a report of the Committee on 
 Education of the Senate, Mr. Wurts, of Philadelphia, chairman, read 
 March i, 1822: 
 
 From the information before the committee, they are induced to believe 
 that the Act of April 4, 1809, "to provide for the education-of the poor gratis," 
 is wholly inoperative in many counties of the Commonwealth and much 
 abused in others. This cannot be a matter of surprise when it is considered 
 that it is not made the duty of any person to see that the provisions of the law 
 be faithfully carried into effect. Through the agency of assessors and county 
 commissioners, if they attend to their duty, a list of the children between the 
 ages of five and twelve years, in each township, ward or district, whose parents 
 are unable to pay for their schooling, is made out and sent to the teachers of 
 schools within such township, ward or district, after which the parent is at 
 liberty to send the child to such school at the expense of the county. But no 
 person is appointed to see that the child is sent to school, or when sent, that 
 it is properly instructed. The school may not be one from which the pupil 
 can derive benefit. Gross negligence or incapacity on the part of the teacher 
 may, and it is beUeved not unfrequently does defeat the object of public 
 bounty, and renders the whole system useless in its effects upon those intended 
 to be improved by it: add to which it is apprehended that it is not unusual 
 for a county to pay for the schooling of children who are placed upon the 
 register but do not attend the school. Such are some of the consequences of 
 the present system, even were the assessors and commissioners faithfully to 
 comply with the requisitions of the law, and parents to avail themselves of its 
 privileges. But for want of due attention on the part of these ofiScers, or from 
 the culpable neglect or mistaken pride of parents, it frequently happens that 
 the children of the poor do not reap the benefit of even the precarious pro- 
 vision which is made for them by the Act of 1809. In many counties the 
 law is a dead letter. To revise it and provide a more efficient system is one 
 of the most urgent duties of the Legislature. " Educate the poor "is one of the 
 soundest maxims, one of the most important admonitions, which can reach 
 and dwell upon the mind of a republican lawgiver. 
 
 The Secretary of the Commonwealth, Hon. C. Blythe, in a com- 
 munication to the House of Representatives, February 28, 1829, in 
 response to a resolution of that body, says : 
 
 It appears that in the thirty-one counties from which reports have been 
 received, in the year 1825, 4,940 poor children received instruction in the com- 
 
PUBLIC EDUCATION. 27^ 
 
 mon schools, at an expense of ;Ji5,93i.79^. In the year 1826, 7,943 poor 
 children were instructed at an expense of $30,192.47. In the year 1827, 
 9.014 poor children were instructed at an expense of ^525,637.36^^ ; and in the 
 year 1828, up to the date of the reports, 4,477 poor children were instructed at 
 an expense of Ji5,o67.99X. The number educated in the Lancasterian 
 schools were in the year 1826, 3,950; 1827, 4,342; and 1828, 4,267. 
 
 And further on he adds : 
 
 The whole number of children within the Commonwealth, between the ages 
 of five and sixteen, is probably not less than three hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand. The necessity of extending to these the benefits of elementary educa- 
 tion is obvious to all. * * * if all the children within the Commonwealth 
 are not instructed, the interest of the community requires that the means of 
 education should be, as far as possible, placed within the reach of all. * * 
 It is more than probable that the money expended by the public and by indi- 
 viduals throughout the Commonwealth for education in the common schools, 
 is sufficient, if applied under the control of agents familiar with the most 
 approved systems of elementary instruction, to extend the benefits of an edu- 
 cation to all the children within the State. 
 
 During the session of 1830-31, N. P. Fetterman, of Bedford 
 county, was chairman of the Committee on Education in the House 
 of Representatives. On the 27th of January, he read a very able 
 report advocating a broad system of general education. The para- 
 graphs in this report criticising the Act of 1809 are as follows: 
 
 This act only provides for the education of those children between the ages 
 of five and twelve y^ars ; as if in that period they would learn enough to 
 enable them to act their part in the several stations in which they may be 
 placed through life, with advantage to themselves, and with credit to the State 
 of which they are citizens. None are contemplated within its provisions, but 
 those whose parents are unable to pay for their education ; as if by drawing 
 an invidious distinction between the wealthy and the poor, the latter would 
 more eagerly adopt the provisions of an act, thus rendered obnoxious to them. 
 None are prepared to enjoy its provisions until they have first been notified 
 of their poverty and degradation, by the commissioners of their county. And 
 not until thus certified and approved to be within its letter, does the assessor 
 give them leave to attend any school convenient, within their neighborhood. 
 
 This Act in some measure militates with the spirit of our free institutions. 
 They have an equalizing tendency ; it, the contrary. They would confound 
 all ranks, classes and distinctions; it marks, delineates and approves of them. 
 Hence that feeling so peculiarly manifest amongst us, that will acknowledge 
 no inferiority, has too often encouraged a disposition on the part of the poor to 
 suffer their children to grow up ignorant and unlearned, rather than humble 
 them in their opinion, by accepting alms of the public. Hence this act has not 
 had the full effect that its framers expected of it, and falls far short of that sys- 
 tem which the education of the youth of our rising Commonwealth demands. 
 And hence, it is only surprising that it has remained so long, unrepealed, on 
 our statute boolt. 
 
276 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 But objectionable as was the policy of educating the poor as a 
 separate class, it was scarcely more objectionable than the rate-bill 
 policy that prevailed in most if not in all of the New England States, 
 New York and Ohio, down to a period long subsequent to the adop- 
 tion of the absolutely free school principle in Pennsylvania. The 
 rate-bill policy required that children able to pay for their tuition 
 should do so in whole or in part, and only those too poor to pay 
 were admitted into the schools gratuitously. Thus a mark was set 
 upon the poor in the earliest of the so-called free school States, as 
 odious as that so justly condemned in Pennsylvania. A State with 
 rate-bills may have a system of public schools, but it cannot have a 
 system of free schools ; and, in adopting a system of the latter kind, 
 Pennsylvania, though slow was one of the foremost States in the 
 Union. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EARLY EDUCATION IN PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 PRIVATE SCHOOLS. LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLS. PREPARING THE WAY FOR 
 
 FREE SCHOOLS. 
 
 IN addition to what has been said of it in the general narrative, 
 the history of education in Philadelphia deserves special treatment, 
 both on account of the intrinsic interest of the subject and its close 
 relation to what was done in the State at large, and especially to the 
 struggle for free schools. 
 
 In 1696, Thomas Holme, one of the Judges of the Philadelphia 
 County Court composed, in rhyme, a " True Relation of the 
 Flourishing State of Pennsylvania." He thus speaks of schools and 
 teachers : 
 
 Here are schools of divers sorts, 
 
 To which our youth daily resorts. 
 
 Good women, who do very well, 
 
 Bring little ones to read and spell, 
 
 Which fits them for writing ; and then 
 
 Here's men to bring them to their pen, 
 
 And to instruct and make them quick 
 
 In all sorts of Arithmetick. 
 
 The following is the title of a book published in London, in 1698 : 
 "An Historical and Geographical Account of the Province and 
 Country of Pennsylvania and West New Jersey in America, by 
 Gabriel Thomas, who resided there fifteen years." Speaking of 
 Philadelphia, Thomas says, " In said city are several good schools 
 of Learning for Youth in order to the Attainment of Arts and 
 Sciences, as also Reading, Writing, etc." 
 
 From what can be gathered from these statements, it would seem 
 probable that there were in Philadelphia, from the first, schools of 
 different kinds and grades, taught both by men and women, in addi- 
 tion to that of Enoch Flower, and others elsewhere mentioned. 
 They were doubtless for the most part private schools, conducted 
 by individuals on their own account. A little later, and the Friends' 
 Public School and the Charity Schools connected with it, and the 
 schools established by the different churches, provided instruction 
 
 (277) 
 
2y8 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 for a large number of pupils, but they never displaced the private 
 schools. Indeed, this class of schools seems to have increased with 
 the increasing population, for in White's Directory of 1785 there 
 may be found the names of at least one hundred teachers of private 
 schools, most of them women. By 1 800, the number of the teach- 
 ers of such schools had swelled to the neighborhood of two hun- 
 dred. The grade of the schools kept by these old schoolmasters 
 and schoolmistresses was from that of an infant school up to that of 
 a classical Academy. The teaching of music and needle-work was 
 quite common in schools for girls, and the French language seems 
 to have been as generally taught as at present. Any one able to 
 pay for it, could obtain instruction in Latin, Greek, and Mathemat- 
 ics. These schools preserved no records, and few particulars can 
 be given concerning them. 
 
 William Milne taught a night school, in 175 1, in a room in 
 Aldridge's Alley. His course of instruction included Spelling, 
 Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geometry,- Navigation and Mensura- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1754, a Mr. Elphinstone advertises his ability to make good 
 writers in a five weeks' course of instruction. 
 
 In 1756, Jacob Ehrenzeller opened a school on Arch Street. He 
 had probably been a schoolmaster in Germany, as most likely had 
 John Hefferman, whose school, in 1779, was located in Letitia 
 Court. 
 
 Mary McAllester proposed, on May 15, 1767, to open a Board- 
 ing School for young ladies, the first in Philadelphia. In her adver- 
 tisement, she expressed her surprise that in "a city where every 
 public institution for the benefit of mankind has met with encourage- 
 ment, a proper Seminary or Boarding School for the education of 
 young ladies should be wanting." 
 
 A Mr. Griscom, in 1770, taught an Academy at the corner of 
 Water and Vine streets, "free from the noise of the city." He 
 appears to have been the first to call a private school by the ambi- 
 tious name, "Academy.'' 
 
 In 1771, Mr. Oliphant gives notice that he has an elegant room 
 in which to accommodate his pupils. 
 
 Schoolmaster Horton was the first to broach the idea of separate 
 schools for girls, but made some amends for this mistake by favor- 
 ing their instruction in Grammar and the higher branches of learn- 
 ing. 
 
EARL Y EDUCATION IN PHILADELPHIA. -,-„ 
 
 -'79 
 
 John Poor, a native of Massachusetts, and a graduate of Harvard 
 University, established "The Young Ladies' Academy of Philadel- 
 phia" in 1787, had it incorporated by State authority in 1792, and 
 in the City Directory of 1802 it was declared to be the only incor- 
 porated institution for the education of young ladies in the United 
 States* Notwithstanding the Legislature refused to grant it the 
 assistance given to so many county Academies of the day. Poor's 
 school flourished for some years, was at times attended by as many 
 as one hundred and fifty students, including representatives from 
 nearly all the States of the Union, as well as from Canada, Nova 
 Scotia, and the West Indies; had a regular course of study, consid- 
 ered liberal for the tinie,.consisting of," Reading, History, Arithme- 
 tic, Grammar, Composition, Geography with the use of globes and 
 maps. Rhetoric, and Vocal Music," and granted diplomas to those 
 who completed it. Its public examinations and commencements 
 were a novelty at that day, and attracted large audiences'. The 
 young lady graduates delivered orations, as in Colleges for the oppo- 
 site sex. Rev. William Woodbridge, himself at the time the mas- 
 ter of a young ladies' school in New Haven, in an article in the 
 American Journal of Education for September, 1830, .must have 
 referred to an older school than that of Poor, if no mistake be made 
 in the date of his visit, when he says: "In 1780, in Philadelphia, 
 for the first time in my life, I heard a class of young ladies parse 
 English. After the success of the Moravians in female education, 
 the attention of gentlemen of reputation and influence was turned 
 to the subject. Dr. Morgan, Dr. Rush, the great advocate of edu- 
 cation, with others whom I cannot name, instituted an Academy 
 for females in Philadelphia. Their attention, influence, and foster-: 
 ing care were successful, and from them sprang all the following 
 and celebrated schools in that city." 
 
 Joseph Sharpless conducted an Academy on Second street in 
 1791. 
 
 Madam Sigoigne, and afterwards her daughter. Miss Adele, had 
 a school for young ladies at Germantown about 18 14. It was one 
 of the most noted institutions of the kind at that day. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Magaw and Rev. James Abercrombie, Episcopalians, 
 opened an Academy, in 1 800, in Spruce Street. Rev. Burgess Alli- 
 
 * Without doubt the oldest Female Seminary in America was that of Madam La Pel- 
 trie, of the Ursuline Convent, established at Quebec in 1639. It was attended 6y both 
 French and Indian girls. 
 
28o 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 son, Baptist, taught the same year a similar institution in Frankford. 
 Franlcford had about the same time a less pretentious schoolmaster 
 in the person of Alexander Wilson, the celebrated American orni- 
 thologist. Subsequently, about 1804, he also taught a little school 
 at the old Swedish settlement of Kingsessing, when he became 
 acquainted with John Bartram, the botanist, and entered upon that 
 career which has made his name known wherever the feathered 
 songsters of our forests are admired or studied. 
 
 WILSON'S SCHOOI.HOUSE AT KINGSESSING. 
 
 Scarcely anything is known of William Kidd, Andrew Brown, 
 Lyttle, Gartby, Todd, Trip, Clark, Rankin, or Yerkes, who taught 
 in Philadelphia something like a century ago, except that they were 
 remembered for years while the names of contemporaneous school- 
 masters were forgotten. 
 
 In 1 8 10, according to Dr. Mease in his " Picture of Philadelphia," 
 the United Episcopal churches had one free school with sixty boys, 
 and another for girls with forty. The second Presbyterian church 
 had one free school. The Lutherans had six schools in which 
 Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, as well as the German language 
 and the Catechism, were taught. The Reformed had two schools 
 and the Catholics two, in all of which the poor were taught gratui- 
 tously. 
 
 The " Overseers of the Schools ' had in connection with the 
 Friends' Public School fourteen Charity Schools in operation in 
 1824. Such schools had then been maintained by the Friends for 
 
EARL Y EDUCA TION IN PHILADELPHIA. 38 1 
 
 more than a hundred years. The Academy and College out of 
 which the University of Pennsylvania grew supported Charity 
 Schools from the first as a part of the plan of education adopted by 
 its founders. 
 
 Outside of what was done by the several churches, the period 
 following the Revolutionary war gave rise to numerous efforts to 
 furnish facilities for the education of the poor. In 1790, a system 
 of Sunday or First Day schools was established for the purpose of 
 instructing the children of indigent parents in the elements of 
 secular knowledge as well as in matters appertaining to religion. 
 All the leading denominations were enlisted in the good work. 
 Bishop White, of the Episcopal Church, was President of the organi- 
 zation, but the originator and real head of the movement was Dr. 
 Benjamin Rush. Two schools, one for boys and the other for girls, 
 were opened in 1791. About two years later a third was opened, 
 and the number of children in attendance was three hundred and 
 twenty. The Board of Visitors, in their report for 1796, say: " By 
 this benevolent institution the children of many of the poorer part 
 of the community, who would otherwise have been running through 
 the streets, habituating themselves to mischief, are rescued from vice, 
 and inured to habits of virtue and religion ; and it is with great 
 pleasure that the Board of Visitors have observed that the improve- 
 ment in reading and writing, made by the children of the schools, 
 answers their most sanguine expectations.'' 
 
 Anne Parrish, a Quakeress, having lost some dear friends by the 
 yellow fever, and her parents being dangerously ill with the fell 
 disease, made a vow, if they recovered, to devote the rest of her life 
 to works of benevolence. They did recover, and she nobly kept 
 her promise by establishing, in 1796, a school for neglected female, 
 children, out of which subsequently grew, first, " The Society for 
 the Free Instruction of Female Children," and, afterwards, the 
 " Aimwell School Association." Soon after beginning her charitable 
 work. Miss Parrish was joined in it . by other benevolent lady 
 Friends. They taught the school themselves by turns, giving in- 
 struction in Spelling, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Sewing. 
 When the Association grew stronger, regular teachers were em- 
 ployed, a convenient schoolhouse was built; and with an attendance 
 of about eighty poor children, none of whom are allowed to be the 
 children of Friends, the school, now nearly one hundred years old, 
 still with a full measure of success pursues its holy mission. 
 
232 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 In 1799, three young men, William Nekervis, Philip Garrett, and 
 Joseph Briggs, agreed to open a night school for poor children and 
 do the teaching themselves. Two years later their effort was organ- 
 ized into " The Philadelphia Society for the Establishment and Sup- 
 port of Charity Schools." The same year, some ^13,000 were 
 obtained from the bequest of Christopher Ludwick, who had been 
 the head baker for the Revolutionary army. He left the money to 
 establish a free school for the gratuitous education of poor children, 
 without regard to country, race, or sect. The Philadelphia Sociely 
 had a competitor for the bequest in the trustees of ~th^ University 
 of Pennsylvania, who wanted the money for their Charity Schools. 
 The former obtained it by beating the latter in an exciting race to 
 Lancaster, where the respective charters had to be enrolled. Dr. 
 Rush recommended the Society to the citizens in 18 14, and $2,?>QO 
 were subscribed for its support. A school for girls was established 
 in 181 1 ; and from 1812 onwards, with an annual income of ;^i,700, 
 the Society was able to give free instruction to about four hundred 
 pupils. In 1829 the number of pupils in the school was four hun- 
 dred and twenty-nine, and the whole number instructed from the 
 beginning nine thousand five hundred. In the school for girls there 
 were taught at this time, in addition to the usual branches of an 
 elementary education, sewing, marking, knitting, and straw-plaiting. 
 
 The Presbyterians established the "Philadelphia Union" in 1804. 
 Its purpose was to found schools for the free instruction of poor 
 children. 
 
 Thomas Scattergood was the leading spirit, in 1 807, in establish- 
 ing " The Philadelphia Association for the Instruction of Poor Chil- 
 dren." A school for boys was opened at once, and five years later 
 a school for girls. Both gave way to the public schools in 1818, 
 having instructed two thousand seven hundred pupils. 
 
 Joseph Lancaster was born November 27, 1778, in Kent Street, 
 Borough Road, London. He was a member of the Society of 
 Friends. . At the age of twenty, he opened a school in a room in 
 his father's house for the poor children of the neighborhood. The 
 school soon became too large to be thus accommodated, and a suit- 
 able building was erected for it. A thousand children are said to 
 have been at times in attendance. As most of the pupils were 
 unable to pay for their instruction, and as Lancaster himself was 
 too poor to employ assistants, he devised the plan of appoint- 
 ing some of the pupils as monitors to instruct others. The great 
 
EARL Y EDUCA TION IN PHILADELPHIA. 283 
 
 school thus taught itself under the general supervision of a single 
 master. This system was then new in England, although in its 
 main features it had been previously practiced by Dr. Andrew Bell, 
 in India; and by its quick results and showy methods excited wide- 
 spread interest. Many persons visited the school, some of them 
 persons of high rank. Its success reached the ears of King George 
 III., and Lancaster was invited to an interview. The result was a 
 liberal royal subscription in aid of the benevolent work, and such 
 eclat as made the monitorial system known throughout the whole 
 kingdom. Lancaster left his school, became a lecturer on educa- 
 tion and traveled extensively, everywhere, in addition to advancing 
 his peculiar views in reference to school management, inculcating 
 much sound doctrine on the subject of the. training of children. 
 Schools were established in many places throughout England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland, and efforts were made to plant them in all the 
 colonies of the British Empire, and in a number of foreign coun- 
 tries. 
 
 With their schools for poor children, the Lancasterian societies 
 organized what they called Model Schools and Normal Colleges. 
 In the latter, young teachers received theoretical professional in- 
 struction ; and, in the former, they had opportunities of learning to 
 teach by actual practice. 
 
 The most celebrated of the Lancasterian schools, that at Borough 
 Road, London, was visited, in 1 805, by a member of the New York 
 Free School Society, who on his return to America procured the 
 adoption of the new method in the schools of the Society. The 
 patriotic and progressive De Witt Clinton, in a speech at the 
 opening of a Free School, in New York, in 1809, says, " I confess 
 that I recognize in Lancaster, the benefactor of the human race. 
 I consider his system as creating a new era in education — as a bless- 
 ing sent down from Heaven, to redeem the poor and distressed of 
 this world from the power and dominion of ignorance." In his 
 riiessage as Governor, in 18 18, his words are equally strong.: "Hav- 
 ing participated in the first establishment of the Lancasterian system 
 in this country; having carefully observed its progress and wit- 
 nessed its benefits, I can confidently recommend it as an invaluable 
 improvement, which, by wonderful combination of economy in 
 expense, and rapidity of instruction, has created a new era in educa- 
 tion. The system operates with the same efiScacy in education as 
 labor-saving machinery does in the useful arts." 
 
284 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 i, S 
 
 i, S 
 
 The Lancasterian method was introduced into Philadelphia 
 almost as soon as into New York. Thomas Scattergood's Charity 
 Schools adopted this method, as well as some other schools of a 
 similar character. James Edwards opened a school in 1817, and 
 claimed to be the only teacher in the city who had received a certifi- 
 cate of competency from Lancaster. Edward Baker delivered lec- 
 tures about the same time in which he assumed to express Lancas- 
 ter's opinions. Men and women professing the utmost skill in the 
 new method established schools and struggled for patronage. But 
 while there was some competition among the teachers and friends 
 of the new system, and some differences of opinion concerning 
 details, it gained rapidly in, public estimation, and seemed destined 
 for a time to sweep all, other systems out of existence. 
 
 The room represented in the engraving is 
 a Lancasterian schoolroom, designed to ac- 
 commodate four hundred and fifty pupils, 
 divided into three classes, each class consist- 
 ing of three sections. The dotted lines rep- 
 resent curtains or movable partitions, sep- 
 arating the room into three divisions. These 
 divisions consist of a gallery, with the seats 
 so arranged that those behind are higher than 
 those in front, for oral class or collective in- 
 struction ; desks for writing, drawing, etc., 
 and "drafts," semi-elliptical forms, marked 
 on the floor, around which the pupils stand 
 to receive instruction from the monitors. 
 From the teacher's platform at one end of 
 the room, when the curtains are drawn, the 
 whole school can be overlooked. The figures 
 I, 2, and 3, represent the position of the first 
 class, divided into sections A, B, and C. The 
 sections recite simultaneously, and the arrows 
 indicate how the pupils change places at 
 given intervals. The figures 4, 5, and 6, and 
 7, 8, and 9, indicate in a similar way the po- 
 sition of the other classes and sections. The 
 monitors stand at the open ends of the 
 "drafts," and each has charge at onetime 
 of about fifteen pupils. 
 
 INSIDE VIEW OF A LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL, WITH EXPLANATION. 
 
 Joseph Lancaster himself came to America in 1818, and after a 
 short sojourn in New York, pushed on to Philadelphia, whither he 
 had been invited to assist in organizing the newly-established public 
 schools on the Lancasterian plan in accordance with the law estab- 
 
 :3. 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
 c: 
 
EARL Y ED UCA TION IN PHI LAD EL PHI A. 285 
 
 lishing them. Here he remained, in the employ of the Board of 
 Controllers as Principal of the Model School, for several years, 
 teaching and expounding his system of instruction. In 1823, he 
 went to South America and opened a school at the invitation of 
 General Bolivar, returned to Philadelphia, suffered greatly from 
 sickness and poverty, and died, in 1838, from being run over in the 
 streets of New York. 
 
 Three Infant School Societies were organized in Philadelphia in 
 1827-8. Individual Infant Schools had been established at an 
 earlier date. Roberts Vaux had supported one or more of them at 
 his own expense. These schools were primarily designed for chil- 
 dren under the age at which they were then admitted into the pub- 
 lic schools, and they gave special attention to instruction and train- 
 ing in morality and religion. These socie'ties had in charge, in 
 1830, eight or ten schools, and from two to three thousand pupils. 
 An effort was made soon after their establishment to have the 
 Infant Schools incorporated into the public school system as a part 
 of the same, and the Legislature passed a permissive Act as fol- 
 lows : " The said Controllers be and they are hereby authorized when 
 they shall think proper, to establish schools for the instruction of 
 children under five years of age, and that the money expended in 
 the establishment and support of these schools, shall be provided 
 for in the same manner as now, or shall hereafter be directed by 
 law, with respect to the other public schools." No action was 
 taken under this Act, and in 1830 a meeting of citizens was held, 
 John Sergeant presiding, at which a memorial to the Legislature 
 was adopted, setting forth the benefits of Infant Schools, and ask- 
 ing for an amendment to the law " so as to direct the Controllers 
 of Public Schools, or the County Commissioners, to pay the Direc- 
 tors of the Infant Schools of the City and Liberties, the sum of 
 five hundred dollars for each school containing not less than one 
 hundred and fifty scholars, and in proportion for a greater or less 
 number." 
 
 In 1832, the Controllers, as an experiment, opened what they 
 called an "Infant Model School," and in 1834 six others were 
 opened. This led, in 1837, to the establishment of thirty primary 
 schools, which were placed in charge of female teachers. 
 
 The founding of the Friends' Public School in 1697, with its gen- 
 erous purpose of providing gratuitous instruction, both higher and 
 elementary, to all the children of the poor willing to receive it, was 
 
2 86 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 without doubt the first step in the series that led to the establish- 
 ment of a system of public schools in Philadelphia. Next came the 
 Academy and its connected charitable schools in 1753, with aims 
 as comprehensive as the educational necessities of the rising gen- 
 eration. Tending in the same direction were the Sunday-schools 
 of 1790; the schools for indigent children established by the differ- 
 ent church organizations and independently; the State law of 1809, 
 and its supplement of 1812, providing for the education of the poor 
 at the public expense ; and finally the introduction of the Lancas- 
 terian method of instruction, by which large numbers of children 
 could be taught at very moderate cost. These were the seeds that 
 grew and ripened into a system of public schools. 
 
 The winter of 1816-17 was one of sore distress among the 
 poor of Philadelphia. The " Society for the Promotion of the Pub- 
 lic Economy " was formed, not simply to secure relief for present 
 distress, but to provide means of preventing future want. Among 
 the committees appointed by this body was one on public schools, 
 of which Roberts Vaux was chairman. This committee made 
 inquiry into the merits of the Lancasterian system of instruction, 
 was favorably impressed with it, gave encouragement to the schools 
 in the city then taught according to this plan, prepared and had 
 passed by the Legislature the law of 181 8 establishing public schools 
 in which Lancaster's methods of instruction " in their most approved 
 state" were to be used, and invited Lancaster, himself, to come over 
 from England to assist in carrying the law into effect. Mr. Vaux 
 was for many years President of the organization he had done so 
 much to form. 
 
 The law of 18 18, providing for the education of children at public 
 expense, did not establish free schools in Philadelphia as they now 
 exist. Its object was simply to establish a better and less costly 
 system of elementary schools for poor children than the one then in 
 operation. No provision was made to educate any children at the 
 public expense except " indigent orphan children or children of 
 indigent parents," boys between six and fourteen years of age, and 
 girls between five and thirteen. In principle, the schools estab- 
 lished under this law were no less '" pauper schools " than those 
 established under the general State law of 1809; and they are more 
 to be commended only because they were organized into a system 
 under the management of responsible officers, and provision was 
 made for the building of schoolhouses, the preparation of teachers 
 
EARL Y EDUCA TION IN PHILADELPHIA. 287 
 
 and the furnishing of text-books. If there could be two opinions 
 on this subject after reading the law, there cannot be after a perusal 
 of the early reports of the Board of Controllers. These on almost 
 every. page give evidence that the Controllers considered themselves 
 the executors of a trust for the benefit of the poor children of the 
 city. Says Thomas Dunlap, th^ second President of the Board, in 
 the report for 1837 : " The stigma of poverty— once the only title 
 of admission to our public schools — has, at the solicitation of the 
 Controllers, been erased from our statute-book, and the schools of 
 this city and county are now open to every child that draws the 
 breath of life within our borders." And Edward Shippen, for many 
 years President of the Board and thoroughly acquainted with the 
 history of the public schools in the city, in an address delivered at 
 the dedication of the " Hollingsworth School" in 1867, declares 
 that one of the barriers that stood in the way of progress in the early 
 days of the system was that " thousands of high-spirited American 
 citizens, while they craved educational privileges for their children, 
 could not be induced to place them in the ' poor or pauper schools'; 
 hence, in point of very large efficiency, they were utter failures." 
 In addition to these statements, the State Superintendent of Common 
 Schools, Dr. Burrowes, in an official letter to the Board of Con- 
 trollers concerning the State appropriation to Philadelphia schools 
 dated March 17, 1836, says : " I certainly do doubt the propriety of 
 giving any portion of the common school fund in aid of a system 
 which is not based on the common school system principles." 
 
 Philadelphia had no free schools open to the children of the rich 
 and poor alike, until after the law of 18 18 had been amended, in 
 1836, so as to admit all children without distinction; but the law as 
 first enacted was a great improvement over preceding laws, and the 
 schools established under it became gradually so much like free 
 schools that the transition of 1836 was scarcely felt except in the 
 multitudes of new pupils who applied for admission. It had also an 
 important influence in other portions of the State. Schools on the 
 Lancasterian plan were only established in a few places, but the 
 system in operation in Philadelphia was commended as an example 
 worthy of imitation in Governors' Messages and in the reports of 
 Legislative Committees. As an instance, Governor Hiester, in his 
 message of 182 1, says : " For the establishment of schools in which 
 the terms of tuition are greatly reduced, and in which those who are 
 not able to meet the expense are taught gratuitously, the citizens of 
 
238 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Philadelphia stand pre-eminent. Their schools, established under 
 different Acts of Assembly, on the Lancasterian system of education, 
 are, at this time, preparing for future usefulness 5,359 scholars, 
 many of whom would otherwise be permitted to grow up in ignor- 
 ance, and become a prey to those vices of which it unfortunately is 
 so fruitful a source. * * * Frpm the great success attending 
 the Lancasterian system of education in the First School District, 
 embracing the city and county of Philadelphia, and representations 
 made to me of its being equally successful in some of our sister 
 States, I think it worth the experiment of being attempted in other 
 sections of the State, so far as it could be adapted to the peculiarities 
 of their respective situations and circumstances." 
 
 The Lancasterian system of instruction was abandoned in the 
 Philadelphia schools the same year they were opened to all chil- 
 dren without distinction. In the beginning one teacher, with mon- 
 itors selected from among the oldest children or those most advanced 
 ill their studies, was considered a sufficient teaching force for a 
 school of a thousand pupils. Such teaching was in most respects 
 a mere show or sham that ought not to have deceived anybody, 
 but it required an experiment of twenty years in Philadelphia to 
 expose its defects. Doubtless, however, the Lancasterian schools 
 served the good purpose of hastening the adoption of the free school 
 system, by gradually preparing the way for the heavy taxation the 
 support of such a system necessarily incurs. They did more ; they 
 awakened thought and provoked discussion on the question of 
 education in all its aspects, the result of which was a more enlight- 
 ened public sentiment on the subject. In addition to the Lancas- 
 terian system, Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are deeply indebted 
 for another thing. It brought with it the idea of the necessity of 
 trained teachers, and this idea outlived the system of which it was 
 a part, and became permanently incorporated into the educational 
 policy of the city and State. The establishment of a Model School 
 for the preparation of teachers was provided for in the law of 1818, 
 and as a school of this kind, it was the first established in the coun- 
 try. In 1 82 1 this school was attended by five hundred and sixty- 
 four pupils, and teachers were prepared therein not only for the 
 schools of the city, but to some extent for those in other parts of 
 the State. To show that the present Normal School of the city, 
 with its admirable school of practice, grew out of these beginnings, 
 it is only necessary to quote a paragraph from the Controllers' 
 
EARL Y EDUCA TION IN PHILADELPHIA. 289 
 
 report for 1848. It says: "During the year, the Model School in 
 Chester street has been converted into a Normal School, for the 
 education of female teachers. Much interest has been felt in this 
 action of the Board; and it has been attended with very encour- 
 aging prospects of success." Dr. A. T. W. Wright was the first 
 Principal of the Normal School. He had previously taught in the 
 city, and had been master of a Lancasterian school at Milton. 
 
 The year 1836, that saw the Lancasterian schools for the poor 
 changed into free schools for all, and a few scattered Infant Schools, 
 supported by private contributions, organized into a great system 
 of primary instruction maintained at the public expense, witnessed 
 also the first steps to establish a public High School. The corner- 
 stone of the building was laid in 1837, and the school was opened 
 in 1838, under the temporary Principalship of Dr. Alexander Dallas 
 Bache, then President of Girard College, who was succeeded in 
 1842 by Dr. Jolin S. Hart. The High School has always been an 
 institution of which Philadelphians are justly proud. It is a free 
 College, in which many thousands of the leading men of the city 
 have received their education. 
 
 The early growth of the Philadelphia Public Schools is shown 
 by the following statistics : In 1819, there were 10 schools, 10 teach- 
 ers, and 2,845 pupils; in 1834,20 schools, 31 teachers, and 6,767 
 pupils; in 1838, 35 schools, 93 teachers, and 17,000 pupils, and in 
 1843, 214 schools, 499 teachers, and 33,130 pupils. By way of 
 contrast, the latest statistics, those for 1883, will be added: 465 
 schools, 2,168 teachers, and 170,948 pupils. 
 19 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 
 
 EVENTS THAT LED TO THE STRUGGLE. FREE SCHOOLS THE RESULT OF A 
 CENTURY AND A HALF OF EFFORT. ROBERTS VAUX AND HIS CO-WOKKERS. 
 GOVERNOR GEORGE WOLF. SENATOR SAMUEL BRECK. THE FREE SCHOOL 
 LAW OF 1834. 
 
 IT is the year 1831. The Legislature is in session. George Wolf 
 sits in the Gubernatorial chair. He has been a teacher, his in- 
 augural address has proven him to be a warm friend of education, 
 and now in his first annual message to the Legislature he has boldly 
 placed himself at the head of the forces mustering for the fight for 
 free schools. He speaks out in sentences like these : 
 
 Of the various projects which present themselves, as tending to contribute 
 most essentially to the welfare and happiness of a people, and which come 
 within the scope of legislative action and require legislative aid, there is none 
 which gives more ample promise of success, than that of a liberal and en- 
 hghtened system of education, by means of which the light of knowledge 
 will be diffused throughout the whole community, and imparted' to every indi- 
 vidual susceptible of partaking of its blessings, to the poor as well as to the 
 rich, so that all may be fitted to participate in, and to fulfil, all the duties 
 which each one owes to himself, to his God, and to his country. The Con- 
 stitution of Pennsylvania imperatively enjoins the establishment of such a 
 system. The state of public morals calls for it ; and the security and stability 
 of the invaluable privileges which we have inherited from our ancestors, 
 requires our immediate attention to it. 
 
 In bringing this subject to your notice on the present occasion, I am aware 
 that I am repeating that which has been the theme of every inaugural address, 
 and of every annual executive message at the opening of each successive ses- 
 sion of the Legislature, since the adoption of the Constitution. I know, too, 
 that the necessity which has existed, and which has given occasion for the 
 repeated, anxious and pressing executive recommendations, in reference to 
 this important subject, arose from the extreme difficulty which presented it- 
 self, at every attempt, to strike out a system adapted to the existing circum- 
 stances of the Commonwealth, and which might be calculated to accomplish 
 the end contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. But difficult as the 
 task may be, it is not insurmountable ; and I am thoroughly persuaded that 
 there is not a single measure of all those which will engage your deliberations 
 in the course of the session, of such intrinsic importance to the general pros- 
 perity and happiness of the people of the Commonwealth, to the cause of 
 public virtue and of public morals, to the hopes and expectations of the rising 
 
 (290) 
 
THE, FIGffT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 29 1 
 
 generation to whom the future political destinies of the. republic are to be 
 committed, or which will add so much to the sum of individual and social 
 improvement and comfort, as a general diffusion of the means of moral and 
 intellectual cultivation among all cUsses of our citizens. 
 
 In the Legislature, there is an increased number of the friends of 
 education. Joseph B. Anthony, of Lycoming, is placed at the head 
 of the Committee on Education in the Senate, and at the head of 
 the House Committee stands N. P. Fetterman, of Bedford. The 
 Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools has sent 
 in a strong memorial in favor of a general system of education, and 
 the proceedings of several public meetings in different parts of the 
 State have been presented to the same effect. Petitions asking for 
 the establishment of a better system of public education have come 
 to the two Houses from Philadelphia, Allegheny, Fayette, Hunting- 
 don, Cumberland, Lancaster, Bradford, Washington, Northumber- 
 land, Westmoreland, Chester, Cambria, Susquehanna, York, Tioga, 
 McKean, Greene, Northampton, Indiana, Venango, Clearfield, Som- 
 erset, Luzerne, and Franklin. These are accompanied by a few 
 remonstrances, showing that the question is before the people, and 
 that nothing but a test of strength between the opposing forces will 
 settle it. 
 
 Mr. Fetterman's report from his Committee, read in the House 
 January 27, presents the issue fully, and takes the advanced ground 
 in favor of schools free to all classes of children. The following 
 extracts from it embrace the most important points: 
 
 So early as the year 1770, our sister State, Connecticut, then a Province, 
 led the way in the establishment of a general system of education. Common 
 schools were opened to every child within her territory, able and competent 
 teachers were secured, and a fund established adequate to the support of their 
 system. In 1789 the Legislature of Massachusetts provided by law for the 
 instruction of her youth; since then she has been followed by New York, 
 Ohio, and several other States. With the Legislatures of these States all 
 other considerations have been held as only secondary to the right instruc- 
 tion of their citizens, and thevjhave consequently provided ample means for 
 their education. But during this time what has Pennsylvania done ? She has 
 been engaged in the encouragement of industry, in promoting her agriculture 
 and manufactures, in increasing the physical comfort and convenience of 
 her citizens, in improving the face of her territory, or withdrawing from the 
 earth the wealth that has been secreted for ages within her bosom. * * * 
 But in the strife of contending States as to which should be foremost in the 
 cultivation of mind, or which should lead in the improvement of the human 
 heart, she has scarce been seen, or felt, or heard. 
 
 Several special enactments have been made at different periods, limited 
 however to the city and county of Philadelphia, and to the cities of Lancaster 
 
2^2 EDVCATWN IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 and Pittsburgh. So far as your Committee have become acquainted with 
 their effects, they believe they have been highly beneficial. Appropriations 
 have also been made annually in aid of Colleges, Universities and Acad- 
 emies, but from their nature, the benefits of these institutions can only be 
 enjoyed by the few; the great mass from many causes being necessarily 
 excluded. The private schools throughout the State'have been found inade- 
 quate to the wants of our people. In many places some inducement is want- 
 ing to an uneducated people, to persuade them to educate their children. In 
 others, the population is too sparse to support schools; and where schools 
 have been established, complaints are made of their inefficiency, owing to the 
 want of competent teachers, and of some system by which their better regula- 
 tion may be secured, and the periods during which they are open may not 
 only be longer, but succeed each other with more certainty. 
 
 To remedy these evils, the unremitted attention of your Committee has 
 been directed to the labor of compiling the details of a system of common 
 schools, in which eventually all the children of our Commonwealth may at 
 least be instructed in reading and a knowledge of the English language, in 
 writing, arithmetic, and geography, subjecting them to such regulations as 
 may best promote their future usefulness ; securing competent and able teach- 
 ers, and providing for their support. And accompanying this report they 
 have respectfully submitted a bill, comprising the result of their labors, which, 
 although not so perfect as desirable, if adopted, may serve as a ground-work 
 to be improved upon, from time to time, as experience may suggest, and the 
 wisdom of future Legislatures may devise. 
 
 Bills providing for the establishment of a general system of edu ■ 
 cation are considered in both Houses, but their friends, while greatly 
 encouraged, are not yet strong enough to pass them. The result is 
 the passage of an Act to create a school fund. The proposition to 
 create such a fund was not new. As early as 1827, William 
 Audenried, of Schuylkill, had introduced into the Senate a bill " to 
 provide a fund in support of a General System of Education in 
 Pennsylvania." Senator Audenried pressed the subject with much 
 zeal both during that and the succeeding session, and the bill finally 
 passed the Senate by a majority of five, against the protest of eight 
 senators. It was defeated in the House, but the bread thus cast 
 upon the waters returned in a few years in the following Act, passed 
 on the second of April, 183 1 : 
 
 Section I. That there shall be and there hereby is established a fund, to be 
 denominated a Common School Fund, and the Secretary of the Common- 
 wealth, the Auditor General and the Secretary of the Land Office shall be 
 commissioners thereof, who, or a majority of them, in addition to the duties 
 they now perform, shall receive and manage such moneys and other things as 
 shall pertain to such fund, in the most advantageous manner, and shall 
 receive and hold to the use of said fund, all such gifts, grants and donations as 
 may be made ; and that said commissioners shall keep a correct record -of 
 then- proceedings, which, together with all papers and documents relative to 
 said fund, shall be kept and preserved in the office of the Auditor General. 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 293 
 
 Section II. That from and after the passage of this Act, all moneys due and 
 owing this Commonwealth by the holders of all unpatented lands ; also all 
 moneys secured to the Commonwealth by mortgages or liens on land for the 
 purchase money of the same ; also all moneys paid to the State Ti-easurer on 
 any application hereafter entered, or any warrant hereafter granted for land, 
 as also fees received in the land office, as well as all moneys received in pur- 
 suance of the provisions of the fourth section of an Act entitled 'An Act to 
 increase the county rates and levies for the use of the Commonwealth,' ap- 
 proved the twenty-fifth day of March, 1831, be and the same are hereby trans- 
 ferred and assigned to the Common School Fund ; and that at the expiration 
 of twelve months after the passage of this Act, and regularly at the expiration 
 of every twelve months thereafter, the State Treasurer shall report to the said 
 commissioners the amount of money thus received by him during the twelve 
 months last preceding, together with a certificate of the amount thereof, and 
 that the same is held by the Commonwealth for the use of the Common 
 School Fund, at an interest of five per cent. 
 
 Section III. That the interest of the moneys belonging to said fund shall 
 be added to the principal as it becomes due, and the whole amount thereof 
 shall be held by the Commonwealth, and remain subject to the provisions of 
 an Act entitled, 'An Act relative to the Pennsylvania canal and railroad,' ap- 
 proved the twenty-second of April, 1829, until the interest thereof shall 
 amount to the sum of |loo,ooo annually, after which the interest shall be 
 annually distributed and applied to the support of common schools throughout 
 this Commonwealth, in such a manner as shall hereafter be provided by 
 law. 
 
 It was a safe beginning to provide the money before establishing 
 the schools, but in the end the schools came before the money thus 
 provided, and an annual appropriation for the support of common 
 schools made directly from the State Treasury took the place of the 
 revenue to be derived from the fund created by the Act. The crea- 
 tion of a common school fund, which, it-was calculated, would in 
 about ten years amount to two millions of dollars, was a great 
 advance on any action previously taken by the State in behalf of 
 public education, and rendered the establishment of free schools cer- 
 tain at no distant day. And, now, while the forces are gathering for 
 the final struggle which came three years later, in 1834, it will be pro- 
 fitable to go back and review the course of events that led the 
 State forward to the position in its educational affairs it is about to 
 
 assume. 
 
 The establishment of free schools in Pennsylvania was not the 
 work of a day or a year, or of any one man or set of men. Nor was 
 the system finally adopted a direct importation from any other State 
 or country. The principle of free education was of course not new, 
 but our system had from the first peculiarities belonging to no other. 
 It grew up on our own soil, the product of native forces and influ- 
 
2g4 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 ences. The causes that produced it were as old as the Common- 
 wealth, and had been gathering strength for more than one hundred 
 and fifty years. It is easy to discover its germs in Penn's first 
 Frame of Government for his Province, providing for the establish- 
 ment of public schools, and the flowering out began in the establish- 
 ment of the Friends' Public School at Philadelphia, in 1697, as seen 
 in the petition asking for a charter wherein it is stated that all "chil- 
 dren and servants, male and female " should be admitted into the 
 school, " the rich at reasonable rates, and the poor to be maintained 
 and schooled for nothing." The practice all through the colonial 
 times, both with the church and neighborhood schools, was to in- 
 struct poor children gratuitously and require all others to pay for 
 their instruction. This practice was formulated into the articles on 
 education incorporated into the Constitutions of 1776 and 1790, and 
 for many years the State's lawmakers hoped to be able to secure uni- 
 versal education by simply providing for the gratuitous instruction 
 of the poor, and long continued to make labored efforts to that end. 
 But the sense of equality that had been engendered by free institutions 
 was such that all attempts to educate poor children at the public 
 expense, in schools with other children or in schools by themselves, 
 completely failed. The class distinctions that had been broken up 
 in general society could not be preserved in the school. Poverty 
 could deaden self-respect in few parents to the extent of allowing 
 their children to attend schools where they were liable to be looked 
 down upon and humiliated as an inferior class. Nor could a system 
 of separate schools for indigent children be maintained. Such 
 schools either failed outright, as in some of the counties where the 
 experiment was tried, or they were gradually merged by the drift 
 of circumstances into schools open to all without distinction, as in 
 Philadelphia under the Act of 18 18. And what happened in Phila- 
 delphia is in substance what happened in the State at large. Out 
 of the failure of the efforts to educate the poor as a class, but in 
 most cases without the intermediate step of separate schools for 
 them, arose the free school idea of educating all the children in the 
 State at the public expense, without reference to their pecuniary 
 condition. This remarkable evolution is the grand fact in Pennsyl- 
 vania's educational history. The people were compelled to wander 
 in a wilderness during one hundred and fifty years, and to learn 
 wisdom from its hard lessons, before they were permitted to enter 
 the promised land of universal education. All this is made clear 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS.- 305 
 
 by the events recorded in the chapter on the " Education of the 
 Poor as a Class." The Constitutional enactments, the laws passed 
 and their results, the executive recommendations, the reports of 
 legislative committees, the petitions and memorials from the people 
 praying for a better system of public education — all, therein spoken 
 of, point towards the goal finally reached, a system of free schools. 
 It is noteworthy, however, that during all this period of growth, it 
 is difficult, if not impossible, to find a single public utterance indi- 
 cating 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 condition in life, but provision for graded and high schools and 
 the means of preparing teachers. The light was dawning during all 
 this long period, but the day had not yet broken. All the Gover- 
 nors, from Mifflin to Wolf, recommended the adoption of a general 
 system of education, but they seem to have had in mind 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 enactments. The Phila:- 
 delphia Act of 18 18, and the Lancaster Act of 1822, were strongly 
 commended by the most advanced friends of public education as 
 examples worthy of imitation by the other portions of the State, but 
 these acts came far short of establishing free schools as -they now 
 exist. 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 unborn 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 uncon- 
 ditional free school man after he went to Harrisburg. In his first 
 Inaugural address, he speaks of "primary" as synonymous with 
 "common" schools, and of ensuring "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 
 ■ Commonzvealth all the learning practicable. His words are, " That 
 Legislature, therefore, which shall have devised and brought to 
 maturity a system of education, by means of primary or common 
 schools, to be established throughout the State, and supported by its 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 own munificence and liberality on a scale so broad and extensive as 
 to reach every village and neighborhood, and which shall ensure to 
 every indigent child in the Commonwealth the rudiments of learning 
 at least, will not only have contributed largely to the perpetuation 
 of our free institutions, but reared to itself a monument of imperish- 
 able fame." 
 
 Thus it is seen that the great cause that continued to ripen all 
 these years was not yet quite ripe. 
 
 A leading part in the final movement for free schools was taken 
 by the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools. 
 This Society was organized in the city of Philadelphia in the year 
 1827; ten years previously, however, there had been in existence, 
 as a branch of the Society for the Promotion of Public Economy, a 
 Committee on Public Schools. Of this Committee, Roberts Vaux 
 was chairman, and the same gentleman became President of the 
 independent society having the same object in view when organized. 
 With him served as Vice-Presidents John Sergeant and John Wurts, 
 and some of the most distinguished citizens enrolled themselves as 
 members. The Committee had been largely instrumental in secur- 
 ing the establishment of the Lancasterian schools in Philadelphia, 
 and this success moved the Society to make an effort to extend a 
 system which had been found beneficial in the city, throughout the 
 whole Commonwealth. The objects of the Society are definitely 
 set forth'in the second article of the Constitution adopted, as follows : 
 
 The object of the Society shall be the promotion of education throughout 
 the State of Pennsylvania, by the encouragement of Public Schools, in which 
 the elementary branches of education shall be taught in the respective coun- 
 ties of the Commonwealth ; for the attainment of the end the Society shall 
 open and maintain a correspondence with such zealous, intelligent, and pat- 
 riotic citizens as may be induced to cooperate with it, and shall from time to 
 lime communicate to the public, through the medium of pamphlets and news- 
 papers, such information as it may deem expedient, and adopt such other 
 measures as may appear to be best calculated to accomplish the object of its 
 creation. 
 
 This earnest body of educational reformers began their labors by 
 preparing and publishing a report dated April 12, 1828. This 
 report sets forth so clearly the method of operation proposed by 
 the Society, and the existing condition of education in the State, 
 that space must be allowed for lengthy extracts from it. The So- 
 ciety thus declares its purposes : 
 
 Whilst some maintain that the cause of education may flourish when trusted 
 to the efforts of individuals, unassisted by legislative enactments on the bounty 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 207 
 
 of the public treasury, another large and respectable class, whose experience 
 has convinced them of the fallacy of this opinion, are ardently desirous to 
 introduce into the Commonwealth some system, sanctioned by law, of more 
 efficacy, and more comprehensive than the plan which is now in operation. 
 Many efforts have been made to effect this highly desirable object by zealous 
 and patriotic citizens in different parts,of the State. With a firmness of pur- 
 pose, which a want of success has never relaxed, these efforts have been per- 
 severingly continued. Although the Legislature has repeatedly rejected the 
 petitions contained in their memorials, and disregarded the advice as repeat- 
 edly given in the annual messages of the Executive, recommending education 
 to their fostering care — still their labors have not been entirely in vain : the 
 public attention has been awakened, much valuable information has been 
 published, and a manifest increase of the friends of a system for the promo- 
 tion of public education has been effected. Nevertheless, a cooperation in 
 effort, as well as unity of design, is essential to success, which cannot be ex- 
 pected from the unconnected and even contradictory labors which have here- 
 tofore so frequently proved abortive. To accomplish the important purposes 
 which we have previously mentioned, a more promising, and we venture to 
 hope, a more efficient plan has been adopted. An Association has been 
 formed in Philadelphia, with branches in every part of the State, for the sole 
 and express purpose of concentrating the efforts of the friends of public 
 schools, and thus jointly endeavoring to effect what individual exertions have 
 hitherto failed to accomplish. This Society is at present composed of about 
 two hundred and fifty members, and a correspondence has been commenced 
 with one hundred and twenty members, who reside in every district in the 
 State. It is intended to direct the continual attention of the public to the 
 importance of the subject: to collect and diffuse all information which may 
 be deemed valuable, and to persevere in their labors until they shall be 
 crowned with success. 
 
 The following statement is made concerning the existing condi- 
 tion of education : 
 
 In Philadelphia and Lancaster, public schools, supported by public taxes, 
 and accessible to the poor gratuitously, have been established by law, and the 
 blessings of education conferred on thousands who might otherwise have con- 
 tinued in ignorance. For the successful introduction of this plan, our citizens 
 are indebted to the patriotic, intelligent and persevering efforts of- a few indi- 
 viduals, who were compelled to combat with ignorance, the prejudices and 
 the pecuniary interests of numerous active and hostile opponents ; their be- 
 nevolent designs were but partially supported by public opinion, and conse- 
 quently have not been carried into execution in any other towns of Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 Although repeated applications have been made to our Legislature by me- 
 morials signed by numerous and respectable citizens, and supported by many 
 of the members of both Houses of our Assembly, and although the cause of 
 education is a never-failing topic recommended in the annual messages of 
 our Governors, every effort to establish a school fund, or any general plan for 
 promoting common elementary schools similar to those which have been intro- 
 duced into the districts above mentioned, or to those which have so long and 
 so usefully flourished in several of our sister States, has proved abortive. 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. , 
 
 With the exceptions which we have mentioned, we are indebted, for tli^ 
 establishment of those elementary schools in which the children of our citi- 
 zens at present receive the rudiments of instruction, almost exclusively to the 
 efforts of those individuals who depend on theni for the means of support: the 
 character of these schools consequently depends on the individuals who ad- 
 minister their concerns. Although, doubtless, many schools exist which jus- 
 tify the high reputation which they enjoy, the Committee are compelled to 
 state that the great majority of these institutions are unworthy of the State in 
 which they are permitted to continue. From the circumstance of their being 
 the absolute property of individuals, no supervision or effectual control can 
 be exercised over them; it is therefore almost unnecessary to state that many 
 abuses prevail in the management of these irresponsible institutions. 
 
 Individuals, sometimes destitute of character, and frequently of the requi- 
 site abilities and attainments, establish these seminaries more from a desire 
 of private speculation than for the important and legitimate end which they 
 ostensibly announce to the public. Hence the ignorance, the inattention, and 
 even the immorality of the teachers of our common schools, have long been 
 subjects of regret to the reflecting and benevolent class of our fellow citizens. 
 Frequent efforts have been made by some of the more intelligent and public 
 spirited to diminish, if not entirely to prevent, these evils in their respective 
 districts, by organizing associations for the purpose of procuring suitable in- 
 structors for their children. This plan, when zealously pursued, has been 
 . attended by the most beneficial results ; but it is necessarily limited and gen- 
 erally transient in its effects, depending for its success, as well as its estabhsh- 
 ment and continuance, on the zeal and intelligence of a few individuals. It 
 is a common, but a very true remark, that the performance of duties relating 
 equally to the common interests of society, is too frequently neglected when 
 the performance of these duties is not specifically assigned to particular per- 
 sons ; hence the general inattention to the character of schoolmasters, in con- 
 sequence of which individuals are frequently permitted to usurp this import- 
 ant station, who are entirely incapable of filling many of even the humblest 
 occupations of society. In accepting the very small salaries with which many 
 of them are contented, they at once gratify the unwise parsimony of the 
 parents of their pupils, and attach at least a modest valuation to their own 
 services. Even these apologies for schools have not been universally estab- 
 lished throughout our Commonwealth. In some districts no schools of any 
 description exist! No means whatever of acquiring education are resorted to. 
 Teachers are unwilling to incur the expense of establishing seminaries, unless 
 some probability exists of obtaining a sufficient number of pupils to afford 
 them the means of maintenance. The differences of opinion, and the jarring 
 interests of the inhabitants, in relation to suitable sites for schoolhouses, and 
 sometimes the culpable apathy of the population, occasion whole districts to 
 remain destitute of these all-important institutions. It is almost unnecessary 
 to state that ignorance, and its never-failing consequence, crime, prevail in 
 these neglected spots to a greater extent than in other more favored portions 
 of the State. 
 
 The report concludes by pointing out the causes of the failure 
 of the attempt to instruct poor children as a class under the provis- 
 ions of the Act of 1809: 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 299 
 
 The provisions of the Act are incomplete, and frequently inoperative ; no 
 compulsory method is provided to ensure either a return of the number of 
 children who are entitled to the bounty of the treasury, or to require their at- 
 tendance at school, when they are returned by the assessors : hence the neg- 
 ligence of the free scholars, united with that of the executive officers of the 
 counties, has produced results which the Legislature could not foresee. In 
 some cases only a few children, two or three in number, have been returned 
 in each family, and the remainder have been illegally and intentionally ex- 
 cluded from receiving any participation in the benefits of this charity, which 
 was intended to be universal. From a parsimonious desire of saving to the 
 county treasury, the cheapest and consequently the most inefficient schools 
 have been usually selected by the commissioners. Even this miserable sub- 
 stitute for education is imparted, in some counties, only during a few months 
 in the year. In a few districts only has the system established by law been 
 faithfully pursued, but the result has not equalled the expectations of the 
 Legislature, either in regard to the economy or the efficiency of the plan. 
 
 The feelings of many of the poorer classes will not permit them to enroll 
 themselves as paupers, in order that their children may receive their educa- 
 tion from the charity of the public. 
 
 The pride of independence scorns to receive even the greatest blessings 
 which man can bestow, when the proffered boon is offered for acceptance in 
 the humiliating form of a public charity. This feeling has prevented, and, 
 whilst human nature remains the same, always will prevent, the success of all 
 similar legislative enactments. The experiment has been tried for twenty 
 years in Pennsylvania ; it has been tried in Virginia, in Sotith Carolina, and 
 in other States, and the unvarying result has been a. failure, complete, une- 
 quivocal, but we venture to hope, not uninstructive. 
 
 A second report was issued by the Society on the sixth of 
 October, 1828, in which it is stated that copies of the first report 
 had been largely circulated in pamphlet form and through the news- 
 papers, and that a circular letter had been sent out offering to furnish 
 competent teachers at reasonable salaries for such schools on the 
 Lancasterian plan as might be established in the interior towns of 
 the State. 
 
 The Society continued to make annual reports for several years. 
 That for 1830 had special reference to the necessity of preparing 
 teachers. Its deliverance on this subject contained two notable 
 paragraphs, as follows : 
 
 A careful and deliberate survey of the whole case, has led the Society to the 
 conclusion, that the most important step to be taken in the great worlc which 
 the people of Pennsylvania have before them, in reference to this vital matter, 
 is Xp provide well qualified teachers. The best school system which it were 
 possible to devise, must utterly fail in practice, unless instructors can be had, 
 equal in every respect to their high trust, in a moral and intellectual sense. 
 
 In order to provide this indispensable ingredient in any system of education 
 which can prove successful, the Society would emphatically urge the necessity 
 of training teachers, and for this' purpose suggests that in each Congressional 
 
2 QO ED UCA TION IN PENN^ YL VANIA. 
 
 District in the State, a Seminary should be established by law, where individ- 
 uals may be prepared for conducting a uniform method of instruction in the 
 common schools, which can be commenced as soon as candidates for the sta- 
 tion of instructors are qualified for the discharge of the prescribed duties. 
 
 The Society also repeatedly memorialized tlie Legislature in be- 
 half of" a system of public schools adequate to the wants of our rap- 
 idly increasing population." The memorial of 1830 was exception- 
 ably strong. It 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 
 one hundred and fifty thousand in all the schools of the State. Many coun- 
 ties, townships and villages have been taken indiscriminately from all parts 
 of the State, and been examined by your memorialists, and the average pro- 
 portion of children educated in any one year, compared with the entire number 
 of children between the above specified ages, appears to be but one out of 
 three. It is probable that this proportion prevails generally through Pennsyl- 
 vania, and justifies the assertion that more than two hundred and fifty thous- 
 and children, capable of instruction, were not within a school during the past 
 year. Many of these children never go to school at all. Multitudes are liv- 
 ing and continuing to live in ignorance, and multitudes more receive at best 
 but the most superficial instruction. In our estimate of scholars, we include 
 all those who attend the undisciplined schools in the interior, which are 
 opened but for three or six months in the year, and are superintended gener- 
 ally by persons altogether unfit for their duties, as your memorialists are in- 
 formed from the best authorities. 
 
 The broad ground upon which the memorialists stood appears in 
 the sentence : 
 
 In every school system, it should be a fundamental principle that every 
 child should have the opportunity of receiving an education which will fit him 
 to fulfill his duties. 
 
 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 years immediately preceding the passage 
 of the Acts of 183 1 and 1834, and that public meetings were held 
 in divers places to further the interests of a better system of educa- 
 tion. The following examples will show the purpose and spirit of 
 these meetmgs : 
 
 A pieeting was held in the Court-house at Carlisle, Decem- 
 ber 30, 1830, of which Gen. Robert McCoy was president, and James 
 Hamilton stated the object of the meeting to be " to consid^ a 
 more efificient plan for the establishment of public schools, and the 
 general diffusion of education in the Commonwealth." The meeting 
 adjourned to January 11, 1831, when a large number of citizens as- 
 sembled and passed the following resolutions : 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. *oi 
 
 Resolved, That this meeting consider it expedient and desirable that a well 
 digested system of free schools, on a plan so successful in the Northern Slates, 
 should be established in this Commonwealth, and supported at the expense of 
 the State. 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting, any system of primary in- 
 struction which does not provide for the education of every child capable of 
 learning, without distinction, and whose parents may approve of its attend- 
 ance on the same, is altogether defective, and unworthy the enhghtened age 
 in which we live. 
 
 About the same time, in the winter of 183 1, a meeting was held 
 at Strasburg, Lancaster county, at which a petition favoring a gen- 
 eral system of public education was drawn up and forwarded to 
 Harrisburg. Alexander H. Hood and Amos Gilbert, both teachers, 
 were foremost in the movement. A meeting of the same kind was 
 held at Washington, Washington county. On the twenty-ninth oi 
 November, 1831, a very large meeting of citizens interested in the 
 cause of general education met in the District Court Room, Phila- 
 delphia, and were presided over by the Mayor of the city, B. W. 
 Richards. Joseph R. Chandler offered the resolutions. Among 
 them was the following : 
 
 Resolved, That the legislative delegation of the city and county of Phila- 
 delphia, be requested to use all constitutional means to procure the enactment 
 of a* law authorizing the establishinent of schools by which every child in the 
 State may obtain, at public expense, the solid branches of an English or Ger- 
 man education. 
 
 With this statement of the forces that had been long at work pre- 
 paring the way for free schools, the thread of the narrative concern- 
 ing the action of the State Government with respect to education, 
 dropped with the passage of the Act of 183 1, establishing a common 
 school fund, may be resumed. Encouraged by the passage of that 
 Act, the friends of free schools, properly so called from this time 
 onward, opened a vigorous campaign both in the Legislature and 
 before the people. 
 
 Governor Wolf, in his annual message to the Legislature at the 
 opening of the session of 183 1-2, spoke strongly in favor of the 
 " indispensable necessity of establishing by law a general system of 
 common school education, by means of which, in the language of 
 the Constitution, ' the poor may be taught gratis,' and the benefits 
 and blessings resulting therefrom may be extended to the rising 
 generation, indiscriminately and universally." He also says, " it is 
 a cause for no ordinary gratification, that the Legislature, at its last 
 session, considered this subject worthy of its deliberations, and 
 
,Q_ EDUCATION m PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 advanced one step, towards the intellectual regeneration of the State, 
 by laying the foundation for raising a fund, to be employed here- 
 after, in the righteous cause of a practical general education." And 
 he suggests, " should any difficulties occur in the course of your 
 deliberations in relation to the subject, or in regard to the most 
 eligible plan to be adopted," " the propriety of appointing a commis- 
 sion, to consist of three or more talented and intelligent individuals, 
 known friends of a liberal and enlightened system of education, 
 whose duty it should be to collect all the information and possess 
 themselves of all facts and knowledge, that can be obtained from 
 any quarter, having a bearing upon, or connection with, the subject 
 of education, and to arrange and embody the same in a report to be 
 submitted to the Legislature at the next annual session for exami- 
 nation and final action thereon." 
 
 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 common schools. 
 
 The Committee on Education in the Senate made no report, but 
 the House Committee, through its chairman. Dr. Samuel Ander- 
 son, of Delaware county, made a report favoring a system of general 
 education ; acknowledging that what had hitherto been done for 
 education by the State had come far short of the Constitutional 
 requirements on the subject; stating that among the causes that 
 stood in the way of progress in this direction were "the deep-rooted 
 prejudice of many against innovation, or a departure from long- 
 established usages, the avarice of some who are too penurious to 
 allow their own offspring the advantages of an education, the ignor- 
 ance of others, and the want of a public fund;" expressing the opin- 
 ion that the time will not soon arrive " when any system of common 
 school education that must derive the means of supporting it from 
 taxation alone, can be carried into successful operation," and con- 
 cluding with a resolution providing for the appointment of three 
 commissioners, as suggested by the Governor, to collect information 
 on the subject. This resolution was passed by the House by a vote 
 of 55 to 31, but was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 14 to 19. 
 
 Governor Wolf was re-elected in 1832, and in his Inaugural Ad- 
 dress, had as usual some good words to say for the cause he had 
 so frequently advocated. During the session of 1832-3, the Senate 
 seems to have been averse to touching any question connected with 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. ,os- 
 
 the subject of .education. It postponed the following resolution 
 offered by Mr. Sullivan, of Butler, on the nth of January, "That 
 the Governor be respectfully requested to lay before the next Legis- 
 lature a plan and outline of a system of general education, accom- 
 panied by a mode of raising adequate funds for the support of such 
 a system, in any way which he may think acceptable to the people 
 of the State;" and completely ignored another offered January 26, 
 by Mr. Rogers, of Bucks, "That the Committee on Education be in- 
 structed to inquire into the expediency of so altering the laws rela- 
 tive to the education of poor children gratis, as that no teacher be 
 permitted to draw any money from the County Treasury, with- 
 out first having obtained a certificate from some competent tribunal, 
 that he is well qualified to teach the branches usually taught in 
 country schools, and that he is of sober and moral habits." 
 
 But while the conservative Senate looked coldly upon measures 
 of educational reform, the more progressive House was making a 
 most important advance movement. Joseph G, Clarkson, of Phila- 
 delphia, was at the head of the House Committee on Education, 
 and, on the fifteenth of February, he made an able report favoring 
 the establishment of a broad system of public education, with schools 
 open to all children of proper age, and supported by revenues 
 derived partly from a State fund and partly from local taxation. 
 
 The report states that the efforts made under the Constitution of 
 1790, to educate the poor gratuitously, " have . produced effects 
 impolitic and injurious, if not anti-republican." " Republican in- 
 stitutions " it says, " that are founded on a just equality of rights, 
 will create in the citizen a correct self-esteem, a manly spirit, a 
 proper sense of justice, and necessarily a hatred of oppression." It 
 rebukes " the lamentable heresy into which some have fallen, that a 
 system of education by common schools is the unconstitutional 
 application of one citizen's property for the benefit of another." It 
 declares that such a system may be maintained at the public expense, 
 on the ground that free institutions cannot be preserved " unless the 
 great mass of the people are instructed in the principles " that under- 
 lie them. Upon an examination of the systems of public schools in 
 Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, the committee prefer 
 that of New York; and the report contains a detailed account of the 
 educational system of that State and its results, and hopes " that the 
 example will be continually before the eyes of Pennsylvania until 
 she is persuaded to imitate it." 
 
^Q . EDUCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 The Committee accompanied their report with a bill. This bill 
 looking back adopted some of the features of the Act of 1824, and 
 looking forward contained the germs of some of the provisions that 
 live in the school laws of the present day. The first section consti- 
 tuted each ward and each election district in the State a school 
 district, and enacted that " each of which shall contain one or more 
 common schools for the education of every child within the limits 
 thereof, who shall apply by his or her parent or guardian for admis- 
 sion and instruction." Section ninth provided for the appointment 
 by the Courts of two citizens in the city and county of Philadelphia, 
 and in each of the several counties of the State, to be called " inspec- 
 tors of the public schools," whose duties were made similar to those 
 now performed by city and county superintendents. The provision 
 made in section twelfth was, " That as soon conveniently may be, 
 after their appointment, the teachers of the several districts shall 
 meet in their respective school divisions, and adopt a uniform course 
 of study to be pursued in every school in the division ; Provided, 
 that no course shall be adopted which is not approved first by a 
 majority of said teachers, and afterwards by a joint meeting." 
 
 The synopsis of the bill, as given by the Committee, is as follows : 
 
 1. The city of Philadelphia, and each county in the State, is to be a school 
 division, and it depends on the electors of each to accept or reject the Act. 
 The wards and election districts are to be school districts. If the city, or any 
 county, rejects the Act at the first general election, the question on its accept- 
 ance is to be repeateii at the second, and so on until it is accepted. 
 
 2. School commissioners are to be elected by the people for each school 
 district, one-third of whom are to serve one year, one-third two years, and the 
 remaining third three years. Their duties will be to fix on the number of 
 schools, admit scholars, appoint teachers, and have the general superintend- 
 ence over their respective districts. 
 
 3. The school tax is to be assessed on each school division by a joint meet- 
 ing, composed of the county commissioners and a delegate from each board 
 of school commissioners in the division. It is to be produced by an addi- 
 tional poll tax not exceeding two dollars; and if that is insufficient, by an 
 increase on the taxable property of the county. 
 
 4. Tlje school inspectors are to be citizens of good education, appointed by 
 the Courts, to visit the schools and make a report to the Secretary of the Com- 
 monwealth, who is made Superintendent of Public Schools ; their report is 
 also to be published in the newspapers of the school division. These inspec- 
 tors have no power or patronage whatever, and the design of their appoint- 
 ment will be to enable the people to learn, from the examinations of capable 
 and disinterested men, the manner in which their schools are conducted. 
 
 5. The Superintendent of the schools is to report annually to the Legisla- 
 ture the condition of the public schools, togethef with such matters as he may 
 deem it expedient to call to their attention. 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. ^qc 
 
 6. A provision is made for the future distribution arising from the school 
 fund amongst the several school divisions, on the principle that those which 
 have instructed the largest number of scholars during the year shall be en- 
 titled to the largest proportion ; the same principle is adopted in the distribu- 
 tion of the division share amongst the districts therein. 
 
 7. The schools in each division are to adopt the same course of study, 
 which is to be devised by a majority of the teachers, and approved by the 
 joint meeting thereof. 
 
 The Committee close their report with some generous sentiments 
 concerning the teachers to be employed in the common schools. 
 They say : 
 
 In this country, the schoolmaster, as he is termed, does not enjoy that con- 
 sideration which the services required of him and the talents necessary to 
 perform these services ought to confer on him. The men who are intrusted 
 to form the minds of the youth of this country, and to direct their expanding 
 energies, should be classed as a profession of the highest order. Their laboirs 
 are great, their services are valuable, and therefore their reward should be 
 so liberal as to attract the best talents. It is a melancholy truth, that in most 
 parts of the country, even in New England, the occupation of a schoolmaster 
 yields less profit than that derived from the humblest mechanical labor. In 
 many places the schools are taught by those who accept ten or twelve dollars 
 a month for their services. Can any rational man think that the talents and 
 acquirements that ought to be imparted, can be obtained for such wages ? 
 If a system of education is to be established, let the scale of expenditure be 
 liberal; let it form an important department of the Government; let every 
 man connected with its administration, from the head of the department to 
 the humblest teacher, be considered as a highly valuable public servant, and 
 as such enjoy a liberal reward. Let this be done, and though the public 
 schools will yield no revenue, they will annually contribute to the republic 
 something more valuable — a body of virtuous and enlightened citizens. 
 
 The labors of this enlightened committee were fruitless, so far as 
 the passage of their bill was concerned, but the seed they planted 
 grew and ripened into fruit in the legislation of the following year. 
 
 Later in the session, another report was presented in the House 
 from the Committee on Education by Benjamin Matthias, of Phila- 
 delphia. This action grew out of the movements made in Philadel- 
 delphia to secure a general system of public education, in which 
 Mr. Matthias had taken a proniinent part,, and was in response to a 
 resolution of the House directing the Committee, " to inquire into 
 the expediency of establishing, at the expense of the State, a 
 Manual Labor Academy, for the instruction of persons to officiate 
 as teachers in the public schools, which are or may be established 
 in tjiis Commonwealth; and whether such an institution can be 
 sustained without other aid than that necessary to erect suitable 
 
,q5 education in PENNSYLVANrA. 
 
 buildings." So far as the report relates to the establishment of a 
 school for the preparation of teachers, the notice of it belongs in a 
 different connection; but it is in place here to state what is said of 
 it as an institution in which manual labor in agricultural and 
 mechanical pursuits was to be combined with a liberal course of 
 general instruction. In substance, this is contained in the following 
 propositions with which the report concludes : 
 
 First, That the expense of education, when connected with manual labor 
 judiciously directed, may be reduced at least one-half. 
 
 Second, That the exercise of about three hours' manual labor, daily, con- 
 tributes to the health and cheerfulness of the pupil, by strengthening and 
 improving hib physical powers, and by engaging his mind in useful pur- 
 suits. 
 
 Third, That so far from manual labor being an impediment to the progress 
 of the pupil in intellectual studies, it has been found that in proportion as one 
 pupil has excelled another in the amount of labor performed, the same pupil 
 has excelled the other, in equal ratio, in his intellectual studies. 
 
 Fourth, That manual labor institutions tend to break down the distinctions 
 between rich and poor which exist in society, inasmuch as they give an almost 
 equal opportunity of education to the poor by labor, as is afforded to the rich 
 by the possession of wealth. 
 
 Fifth, That pupils trained in this way are much better fitted for active life, 
 and better qualified to act as useful citizens, than when educated in any other 
 mode, — that they are better as regards physical energy, and better intellect- 
 ually and morally. 
 
 The bill accompanying the report failed, as similar projects have 
 failed since that time ; but the following extract from the first sec- 
 tion shows that there were broad-minded, liberal friends of educa- 
 tion in the Legislature at that day. After authorizing the Governor 
 to appoint three commissioners to carry into effect the several pro- 
 visions of the Act, this Section provides that " Said commissioners 
 shall, as soon after their appointment as practicable, select, in or 
 near the borough of Harrisburg, a suitable location for the erection 
 of a Manual Labor Academy, where agricultural and mechanic pur- 
 suits shall be connected with intellectual and moral instruction in 
 the English and German languages; and for this purpose, the com- 
 missioners shall have power to purchase land, erect buildings, and 
 procure furniture, sufficiently extensive and commodious for the 
 education and maintenance of two hundred pupils." 
 
 To crown the educational efforts of this session, Samuel McKean, 
 the Secretary of the Commonwealth, in response to a resolution of 
 the House of Representatives, made a valuable report setting forth 
 the small number of children, 17,467 in 1832, returned as entitled 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. ■,07 
 
 to receive gratuitous instruction under the Act of 1 809, and depre- 
 cating in strong language the " lamentable fact that at this advanced 
 period, Pennsylvania is without a general system of free schools 
 established by law agreeably to the Constitution." In open violation 
 of the Constitution he declared that " there is no law in Pennsyl- 
 vania that provides for the establishment of schools throughout the 
 State, nor has there been a dollar granted from the public treasury 
 for the exclusive purpose of educating the poor." He states further 
 that, " by reference to the statute books, it will be found that all 
 public grants for the purpose of education, in Pennsylvania, whether 
 in shape of money or land, prior to 1831, have been exclusively con- 
 fined to institutions accessible to the rich alone. Without question- 
 ing the constitutionality or general expediency of this course, I may 
 nevertheless be permitted to say that, to my mind, the practice that 
 has partially obtained since 1795, in the endowment of Colleges, 
 Academies, etc., to annex a condition that a few poor children shall 
 be taught for a limited period, free from expense, ought to be con- 
 sidered rather as an apology for the postponement of a palpable 
 duty, than the fulfillment of a wise and humane provision of the 
 Constitution." 
 
 In proof that the existing system had failed, the Secretary in- 
 cludes in his report some extracts from letters on the subject, 
 received in answer to inquiries from a number of boards of county 
 commissioners, as follows : 
 
 " One lepoct says : ' The present system is decidedly bad, and the 
 teachers, with very few exceptions, worse than the system.' 
 
 " Another report says : ' We have no schools on the Lancasterian 
 plan in this county, and it is deeply to be regretted that, from the 
 manner in which our common schools are conducted, not only the 
 education of those children whose parents are able to pay for their 
 tuition, but of the poor children, is in a deplorable condition.' 
 
 "A third: 'That it (the present .system) is a system of prodigal- 
 ity and wasteful extravagance, a real burden upon the people, with- 
 out accomplishing, in any reasonable manner, the end intended.' 
 
 "A fourth: 'The system of education in this county is deplor- 
 ably bad, and calls loudly for reform.' 
 
 " A fifth : ' The commissioners would beg leave to observe that 
 the present system is very defective as well as expensive, and that 
 it does not answer the purpose for which it was established, because 
 the modest and unassuming poor do not avail themselves of the 
 
Qg EDUCA TION- IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 benefits of the system, on account of the odium that is by some 
 attached to the present mode of education, which creates a distinc- 
 tion between the rich and the poor, not consistent with the freedom 
 of our republican institutions, and operates very frequently to the 
 defeat of the constitutional object — the education of the poor at the 
 public expense. And it is a further objection, made by many of 
 our intelligent citizens, to the present system, that no provision is 
 made for inquiring into the qualifications, moral and literary, of the 
 persons employed as teachers. 
 
 The legislative session of 1833-4, commenced auspiciously for 
 the cause of education. An increased number of members in favor 
 of free schools were in both Houses ; the committees on education 
 were constituted of free school men; Governor Wolf made "univer- 
 sal education" the leading topic of his annual message, and numer- 
 ous circumstances on all sides indicated that the goal so long striven 
 for by the friends of education was about to be reached. 
 
 Governor Wolf's discussion of the subject of education in his 
 annual message was lengthy and earnest. He seems to have 
 thought that the time had come for a final effort in behalf of a cause 
 near his heart, and he made it boldly, strongly, effectively. The 
 following extracts will show its breadth and spirit: 
 
 Universal education, if it were practical to enforce it everywhere, would 
 operate as a powerful check upon vice, and would do more to diminish tho 
 black catalogue of crimes, so generally prevalent, than any other measure, 
 whether for prevention or punishment, that has hitherto been devised; and 
 in this State it is not only considered as being entirely practicable, but is 
 enjoined by the Constitution as a solemn duty, the non-compliance with which 
 has already stamped the stain of inexcusable negligence upon the character 
 of the Commonwealth, which nothing short of prompt and efficient measures 
 in compliance with the Constitutional requirement can remove. 
 
 To provide by law ' for the establishment of schools throughout the State, 
 in such a manner that the poor may be taught gratis,' is one of the public 
 measures to which I feel it to be my duty now to call your attention, and most 
 solemnly to press upon your consideration. Our apathy and indifference in 
 reference to this subject becomes the more conspicuous when we reflect that 
 whilst we are expending milhons for the improvement of the physical condi- 
 tion 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. 
 
 According to the returns of the last census, we have, in Pennsylvania, five 
 hundred and eighty-one thousand one hundred and eighty children under the 
 age of fifteen years, and one hundred and forty-nine thousand and eighty- 
 nine, between the ages of fifteen and twenty years, forming an aggregate of 
 seven hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and sixty-nine juvenile per- 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. joQ 
 
 sons of both sexes, under the age of twenty years, most of them requiring 
 more or less instruction. And yet with all this numerous youthful population 
 growing up around us, who in a few years are to be our rulers and our law- 
 givers, the defenders of our country and the pillars of the State, and upon 
 whose education will depend in great measure the preservation of our liber- 
 ties and the safety of the republic, we have neither schools established for 
 their instruction, nor provision made by law for establishing them as enjoined 
 by the Constitution. 
 
 It is time, fellow-citizens, that the character of our State should be redeemed 
 from the state of supineness and indifference under which its most important 
 interest, the education of its citizens, has so long been languishing, and that 
 a system should be arranged that would ensure not only an adequate number 
 of schools to be established throughout the State, but would extend its provis- 
 ions so as to secure the education and instruction of a competent number of 
 active, intelligent teachers, who will not only be prepared, but well qualified, 
 to take upon themselves the government of the schools and to communicate 
 instruction to the scholars. 
 
 Samuel Breck, a Senator from Philadelphia, was made chairman 
 of a Joint Committee on Education of the two Houses, specially ap- 
 pointed " for the purpose of digesting a general system of education." 
 Mr. Breck had come to Pennsylvania from Massachusetts. He was 
 a gentleman of fortune, a fine scholar, full of public spirit, and with 
 a heart moved by feelings of the warmest philanthropy. " He told 
 me," says Dr. Wilmer Worthington of Chester, who served with 
 him on the Committee, " that he had come to the Legislature for 
 the purpose of using his best efforts to secure the establishment of a 
 system of common schools in the State, and had it not been for this 
 great desideratum in the legislation of the State, he would not have 
 accepted a seat in the Senate. When this was done, his intention 
 was to decline any further public honors of this kind." Dr. Worth- 
 ington adds in the letter from which this extract is quoted, " I be- 
 lieve he kept his word." Mr. Breck, while a member of the Senate, 
 kept a "Journal " or diary. In it he gives an account of the prepa- 
 ration and passage of the free school Act that has made the session 
 of 1834 memorable. No words written at this day could be of equal 
 value. The following are the most pointed extracts : 
 
 Monday, December g, 1833. Gen. McKean, the Secretary of the Common- 
 wealth, introduced me to the Governor's room. I was received very cordially, 
 for I voted for his friend McKean. My business with the Governor was to 
 learn from him whether he had collected any facts in regard to Education and 
 Proxies, two items in his message which had been referred to two committees 
 of which I was chairman. I was surprised to learn from him that in regard 
 to,.the first, he had never thought of any system of general education, allhough 
 so often the theme of his public messages. 
 
J Q ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Wednesday, ii. The chief occupation that I propose to myself this session is 
 the formation of a system of general education ; for which purpose I intro- 
 duced into the Senate, on the first day of its meeting, a resolution appointing 
 a Joint Committee of the two Houses, to which should be referred all matters 
 that have relation to the subject. That resolution has been adopted, and it 
 now remains for me to call the Joint Committee together for the purpose of 
 organizing and commencing business. As I am chairman, I may be expected 
 to talie the lead ; I shall, therefore, address letters to the Governors of the 
 States where universal education is in operation, and my questions to them 
 will be something like the following : 
 
 Have you a school fund sufficiently large without resorting to taxes ? How 
 large is the school fund? If you tax, how is the tax raised? What is the 
 number of scholars of both sexes ? Is the system universal ? Please to give 
 an abridgment of your school laws. Do the rich avail themselves of this 
 general mode of instruction ? How are your teachers formed ? and have 
 you model schools for them ? What is the average salary of teachers ? and 
 what the cost per head of the scholars ? What is the mode of instruction — 
 whether by the system of Lancaster, or in the usual way ? What studies are 
 usually followed ? and at what age are children admitted and dismissed ? 
 How does your plan work ? Is it satisfactory or defective ? Is it susceptible 
 of improvement? If so, in what way ? Will you be pleased to add to these 
 interrogatories, any observations that may aid the great object the Committee 
 has in charge? A particular account of the school fund, as to the amount 
 annually expended, and its competence to give a rudimental education, 
 to^'ether with the mode of its administration, disbursement, etc., will be very 
 acceptable. How many scholars usually compose a school? Are the two 
 sexes taught together ? If not, are male or female teachers employed for the 
 instruction of the girls ? Does your plan*oblige the public to furnish funds of 
 equal amount to those furnished by the Legislature, when schools are organ- 
 ized in any district ? 
 
 Sunday, 22. Heard Rev. C. Colton preach. Mr. Colton is the Principal of a 
 new College, just established near Bristol on the Delaware. I received from 
 him a long essay on the subject of education, which he took the trouble to 
 write at my request. To him, and to the Rev. Mr. Junkin, Principal of Lafay- 
 ette College, Easton, I am much indebted, and hope to incorporate their ideas 
 on education into the bill, which I expect will be reported this session. 
 
 Sunday, January ig, 1834. Here is a gap in my Journal, owing to con- 
 stant occupation on the report and bill prepared by me on the subject of gen- 
 eral education. These with other legislative duties, and sometimes ill health, 
 have caused its neglect. 
 
 Saturday, February i. My general education bill, report and appendix, hav- 
 ing been printed to-day, I sat up until midnight sending off about two hundred 
 copies, and then went to bed sick. 
 
 Thursday, February 2y. The general school bill, introduced by me, has 
 passed the House of Representatives by a unanimous vote, save one, and the 
 nay man is named Grim. 
 
 March. 15, 1834. This morning, the educational bill, which has engaged 
 much of my attention, passed the Senate with three dissenting voices, and 
 these decidedly the most ignorant and least educated of its members. They 
 are Messrs. McCulloch, of Huntingdon, Stoever, of Dauphin, and Sangston, 
 of Fayette. These three, with Grim in the House of Representatives, form 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 311 
 
 the minority in the Legislature. It is truly honorable that so good a bill 
 should have passed so nearly by a unanimous vote. If the measure shall 
 work well, my public life will have resulted in softie good. 
 
 I am happy to say that I was aided zealously and very ably by Doctor An- 
 derson and Doctor Worthington, of the House, and by Messrs. Jaclison, Pen- 
 rose and Read, of the Senate. 
 
 Dr. George Smith, of Delaware county, was a member of the 
 Senate from 1833 to 1836, favored warmly the free schoollaw of 
 1834, voted against repealing that law in 1835, and served as chair- 
 man of the Committee on Education, in 1835-6, and prepared the 
 revised school law of that session, which for the first time placed the 
 the system in working shape. Probably the last of the survivors 
 among those who took an active part in the legislation that gave the 
 State its system of free schools. Dr. Smith gave, under the date of 
 February 15, 1881, a few months before his death, his recollections 
 of the passage of the Act of 1834, as follows: 
 
 At the commencement of the session of 1833-4, on motion of Samuel Breck, 
 of Philadelphia, a Joint Committee was appointed "for the purpose of digest- 
 ing a system of general education for this Commonwealth." The House of 
 Representatives very cordially united with this project, ind a committee was 
 accordingly appointed. The members of this committee on the part of the 
 Senate were Samuel Breck, Charles B. Penrose, William Jackson, Almon H. 
 Read, and William Boyd ; and on that of the House, Samuel Anderson, Wil- 
 liam Patterson, James Thompson, James Clarke, John Wiegand, Thomas H. 
 Crawford and Wilmer Worthington. 
 
 The first movement of this committee was to obtain all the information pos- 
 sible from persons engaged in the business of education, as well as from offi- 
 cial sources in other States where a common school system had been in oper- 
 ation. 
 
 The bill reported by this Joint Committee was generally regarded as correct 
 in principle, and as the members in either House were alike inexperienced, 
 it was not much discussed, but was passed by a nearly unanimous vote in the 
 Senate and with but one dissenting vote in the House. 
 
 Samuel Breck, of the Senate, Chairman of the Joint Committee, was un- 
 doubtedly the author of the bill. He was a highly-educated gentleman, past 
 the meridian of life, who had never mixed much with people living in country 
 districts. Hence we cannot wonder at the main fault of this law — perhaps its 
 only material fault, the great amount of machinery required to carry it into 
 effect. This defect, if not seen at the time, became fully developed when the 
 effort was made to establish schools under its provisions. The real friends of 
 the law viewed these defects as a temporary evil which could be easily reme- 
 died, while its enemies greatly magnified them, and soon united in a deter- 
 mined demand for the repeal of the law. 
 
 These recollections of Dr, Smith fittingly supplement the entries 
 in Mr. Breck's Journal, and are in substance the recollections, as ap- 
 pears from memoranda based on their written or oral statements, 
 
. J 2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 of Judge James Thompson, of Erie, Dr. Wilmer Worthington, of 
 Chester, and John Wiegand, of Philadelphia, who were members of 
 the Joint Committee, and of William Hopkins, of Washington, John 
 Strohm, of Lancaster, and Elijah F. Pennypacker, of Chester, who 
 were in the Legislature, but not members of the committee. They 
 also conform to the brief official record made of this important event 
 in our educational history. 
 
 Some extracts from the report of the Joint Committee will show 
 the broad, generous views of education entertained by its members. 
 With reference to class education, the report says: 
 
 A radical defect in our laws upon the subject of education, is that the public 
 aid now given, and imperfectly given, is confined to the poor. Aware of this, 
 your Committee have taken care to exclude the word, poor, from the bill 
 which will accompany this report, meaning to make the system general, that 
 is to say, to form an educational association between the rich, the compara- 
 tively rich, and the destitute. Let them all fare alike in the primary schools, 
 receive the same elementary instruction, imbibe the republican spirit, and be 
 animated by a feeling of perfect equality. In after life, he who is diligent at 
 school will take his station accordingly, whether born to wealth or not. Com- 
 mon schools universally established will multiply the chances of success, per- 
 haps of briUiant success, among those who may otherwise forever continue ig- 
 norant. It is the duty of the State to promote and foster such establishments. 
 That done, the career of each youth will. depend upon hirnself. The State will 
 have given the first impulse; good conduct and suitable application must do 
 the rest. Among the indigent, "some flashing of a mounting genius" may be 
 found ; and among both rich and poor, in the course of nature, many no 
 doubt will sink into mediocrity or beneath it. Yet let them all start with equal 
 advantage, leaving no discrimination, then or thereafter, but such as nature 
 and study shall produce. 
 
 Of the replies received to the interrogatories addressed to the 
 Governors of States and to individuals, " distinguished for their zeal 
 and intelligence in matters of general education," the report says 
 they were "prompt, full and satisfactory." Among these letters, 
 which were published in an appendix to the report, there is one 
 from the veteran educational reformer of Philadelphia, Roberts 
 Vaux, in which he recommends among other things that, teachers 
 for the common schools be prepared in existing Colleges and Acad- 
 emies ; that the branches to be taught in the schools be made to ex- 
 tend " to the utmost limit of the teacher's knowledge, embracing, as 
 it should, all the learning required for the useful purposes of life"; 
 and that the Legislature should direct the compiling of a book to be 
 introduced into every school to be called " The Pennsylvania Youth's 
 and Freeman's Book of Duties" and to contain a full, plain statement 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. 313 
 
 of our rights and duties as men and citizens, and, also, a book for 
 teachers "on the application of the arts to the purposes of man, 
 political economy, astronomy, chemistry, and certain branches of 
 natural philosophy." 
 
 Upon the subject of the training of teachers, the Committee ex- 
 press views much in advance of the public opinion of the day. 
 They say: 
 
 But the chief preparatory step is, unquestionably, the formation of teach- 
 ers; and on this highly important subject, the information collected by your 
 committee is ample. Wherever systems of common schools exist, there is 
 but one voice on this head. Seminaries for the instiuction of teachers are as 
 important as medical schools for physicians. Under the proposed system, a 
 larger supply of teachers will soon be wanted, and these must be properly 
 formed for their vocation. They must be taught the art of governing a school 
 well ; they must acquire the knowledge necessary to be communicated, and 
 the art of communicating that knowledge. 
 
 Many of the provisions contained in the law of 1834 were not 
 new. Certain of them had appeared in the Act of 1824, in a bill 
 prepared by a committee appointed at a public meeting in Philadel- 
 phia in 1 83 1, and in the bill that failed in the House in 1833. His- 
 torically, however, its passage was the most important event con- 
 nected with education in Pennsylvania — the first great victory for 
 free schools. 
 
 No material alterations were made in the bill as reported by the 
 Committee in its passage through the Legislature, and the following 
 is a synopsis of the law as enacted. 
 
 The Act was entitled " An Act to Establish a General System of 
 Education by Common Schools," and the Preamble read as follows : 
 
 Whereas, It is enjoined by the Constitution, as a solemn duty, which can- 
 not be neglected without a disregard of the moral and political safety of the 
 people : And whereas. The fund for common school purposes, under the Act 
 of the second of April one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, will on the 
 fourth of April next amount to the sum of five hundred and forty-six thousand 
 five hundred and sixty-three dollars and seventy-two cents, and will soon 
 reach the sum of two millions of dollars, when it will produce, at five per 
 cent, an increase of one hundred thousand dollars, which, by said Act, is to 
 be paid for the support of common schools : And whereas. Provision should 
 be made by law, for the distribution of the benefits of this fund to the people 
 of the respective counties of the Commonwealth, therefore, &c. 
 
 The first section provided that " the city and county of Philadel- 
 phia and every other county in this Commonwealth, shall each form 
 a school division, and that every ward, township and borough, within 
 the several school divisions, shall each form a school district." 
 
,j ; ED I CATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 The second and third sections fixed the number of school direct- 
 ors in each district and prescribed the manner of their election and 
 organization. In these respects, the law was substantially as at 
 present. 
 
 Sections fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, contained provisions 
 which were found to be clumsy and inconvenient in practice, and 
 were soon repealed. In substance, they called for an annual meet- 
 ing in each county of the county commissioners, and a delegate 
 from each school board, at which meeting it was to be decided by a 
 majority vote whether a county tax should be levied for school pur- 
 poses, and, if so, of what amount, not less than double the sum re- 
 ceived from the State in aid of common schools. If the vote was 
 against a county tax, the districts voting in the negative were to re- 
 ceive no part of the State appropriation, the whole going to the dis- 
 tricts favoring such a tax. The affirmative districts also received 
 their share of the county fund provided for by the Act of 1809, for 
 the education of the poor ; and the negative districts were allowed 
 to educate their poor, under the Act of 1809, in the same way as if 
 no law had been passed establishing common schools. A district 
 voting for a county appropriation for school purposes, could levy a 
 district school tax provided a public meeting of the people duly 
 called for the purpose should authorize, by a majority vote, the 
 supervisors of the township or the town council of the borough, so 
 to do. 
 
 The powers and duties of school directors, in locating schools, 
 building schoolhouses, employing teachers, admitting pupils, estab- 
 lishing joint schools, visiting schools, making reports, etc., as pro- 
 vided for in sections eight, nine and eleven, have continued with 
 slight alterations to the present day. No compensation was allowed 
 school directors for services except that delegates in attendance at 
 the county meeting with the commissioners were to receive a dollar 
 per day. 
 
 Section ten, greatly in advance of public sentiment on the subject, 
 read as follows : 
 
 Whereas, manual labor may be advantageously connected with intellectual 
 and moral instruction, in some or all of the schools, it shall be the duty of the 
 school directors to decide whether such connection in their respective districts 
 shall take place or not; and if decided affirmatively, they shall have power 
 to purchase materials and employ artisans for the instruction of the pupils in 
 the useful branches of the mechanic arts, and, where practicable, in agricul- 
 tural pursuits: Provided, nevertheless, that no such connection shall take 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS. -j - 
 
 place in any common school, unless four out of the six directors of the district 
 shall agree thereto." 
 
 The kind of supervision of schools that went into effect twenty 
 years later in a form less close and less complicated was with thought- 
 ful foresight provided for in the Act of 1834. The supervising 
 officers were called " inspectors of schools," and the law regulating 
 their appointment and duties was contained in sections twelve, 
 thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen, and is quoted below in full. 
 
 Section 12. The several Courts of Quarter Sessions in this Commonwealth 
 shall, annually, at their first session after the election of school directors with- 
 in their respective counties or divisions, appoint two competent citizens of each 
 school district, to be Inspectors of the public schools therein established by 
 this Act, who shall be exempt, during the performance of the duties of their 
 said office, from militia duty, and from serving in any township or borough 
 office. 
 
 Section 13. It shall be the duty of the School Inspectors, to visit every 
 school in their respective districts, at least once in every three months, and as 
 much oftener as they think proper ; to inquire into the moral character, learn- 
 ing and ability of the several teachers employed therein ; they shall have 
 power to examine any person wishing to be employed as a teacher, and if 
 found qualified and of good moral character, shall give him or her a certifi- 
 cate to that effect, naming therein the branches which he or she is found qual- 
 ified to teach, which certificate shall be valid for one year from the date 
 thereof, and no longer ; and no person who shall not have obtained such cer- 
 tificate, shall receive from the County Treasurer, or from the treasury of the 
 Commonwealth, any compensation for his services. 
 
 Section 14. The Inspectors of any school division, may meet at such times 
 and places as they may deem expedient, and adopt such rules for the exami- 
 nation of teachers and schools, and prescribe such forms for certificates as 
 they may deem necessary to produce uniformity in such examinations and 
 certificates throughout the school division ; and they may, if they deem it ex- 
 pedient, appoint days for the public examination of teachers, and require all 
 teachers to be examined in public; and said Inspectors, or any one of them, 
 may visit all district schools in their school divisions, and examine the same. 
 Section i 5. Whenever the Inspectors meet together as they are empowered 
 by the preceding section, they shall organize themselves for the proper trans- 
 action of business, and each Inspector shall be governed by the rules then 
 adopted in his examinations, and observe such forms in his certificates, as 
 shall be prescribed by a majority of the Inspectors of the school division thus 
 assembled ; and no certificate of qualification shall be given by the Inspec- 
 tors, or any of them to any teacher, unless he or she be found qualified to 
 teach reading, writing and arithmetic. 
 
 Section 16. The School Inspectors shall minutely examine into the state 
 and condition of the schools, both as respects the progress of the scholars in 
 learning and the good order of the schools, and make an annual report to the 
 Superintendent of the public schools, on or before the first Monday in Novem- 
 ber, of the situation of the schools in their respective districts, founded on 
 their own observations and the reports of the respective school directors ; to 
 
-j6 education in PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 include the character of the teachers ; the number of scholars admitted dur- 
 ing the year in the several schools under their inspection ; the branches of 
 study taught in each school ; the number of months in the year during which 
 each school shall have been kept open ; the cost of the schoolhouses, either 
 for building, renting or repairing, and all other costs that may have been in- 
 curred in maintaining the several schools in their respective districts; and 
 also shall cause the same to be published in the school division, at the ex- 
 pense of the respective city or county. 
 
 Section seventeen made the Secretary of the Commonwealth, 
 Superintendent of public schools, and imposed upon him about the 
 same duties as are now discharged by the Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction. 
 
 Seventy-five thousand dollars were appropriated by section nine- 
 teen, from the State school fund in aid of the public schools for the 
 year 1835, and for every year thereafter until the annual interest on 
 said fund as provided by the Act of 1831, should reach one hundred 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 The remaining sections of the Act related mainly to the duty 
 of treasurers in receiving and disbursing school moneys. 
 
 School directors did not have the power as now of purchasing, 
 holding or disposing of school property, for, in section twenty-third, 
 it was provided that " the supervisors of every township and the 
 town council of every borough forming a school district, shall have 
 power to purchase, hold and receive real and personal property of 
 all descriptions that may be necessary for the establishment and 
 support of schools, and the same to sell, alien and dispose of, when- 
 ever it shall be no longer required for the uses aforesaid." 
 
 Such was the law, what of its enforcement ? and what of the 
 dangers it is to encounter ? 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. 
 
 THE EFFORT TO REPEAL THE LAW OF 1 834. THE CLASSES OPPOSED TO IT. 
 THEIR GROUNDS OF OPPOSITION. THE QUESTION IN POLITICS. GOVERNOR 
 WOLF STANDS FIRM. PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. STRUGGLE IN THE 
 HOUSE. THE FREE SCHOOLS SAVED. STEVENS. 
 
 THE vote in the Legislature for the free school law of 1834 was 
 nearly unanimous, but this unanimity signified little more than 
 dissatisfaction 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 a full comprehension either of the doc- 
 trine of free schools or of the provisions of the law they enacted 
 to establish them, and it is certain that some of them were able to 
 offer but a weak defence 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 a further struggle. The 
 enemies of the new law soon rallied in terrible force, fiercely attacked 
 it in all parts of the Commonwealth, and for a time things looked as 
 if they would regain all they had lost. These men had caused the 
 speedy repeal of the law of 1824, which was much less objectionable 
 to them, and they now resolved that the law of 1 834 should share a 
 similar fate. How the fight for free schools was renewed and how 
 it ended must now be told. 
 
 The Act establishing free schools was approved on the first day 
 of April, 1834. Under its provisions the first election for school 
 directors in each district was fixed for the third Friday of Septem- 
 ber following, and on the first Tuesday in November was appointed 
 the Joint Meeting in each county of a delegate from the several 
 boards of school directors and the county commissioners, for the 
 purpose of deciding whether or not a tax should be levied for the 
 support of schools. It was made the duty of the sheriff of each 
 county to give by proclamation thirty days previous notice of the 
 election of school directors. As soon as these notices began to 
 
 (317) 
 
, 1 8 ED UCA l^ION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 appear the discussion opened, and certainly no other question was 
 ever debated so generally in Pennsylvania, or with the same warmth, 
 with the same determination, and, it may be added, with the same 
 bitterness, as the question of free schools. Then, and for years, the 
 majority of citizens in most of the counties and districts were averse 
 to the change brought about by the new law in the educational 
 policy of the State. It was at first accepted freely by only a few 
 districts, but owing to the pecuniary inducements held out by the 
 State, a much larger number concluded it was their interest to ac- 
 quiesce in it and to establish and manage their schools according to 
 its provisions. Of the nine hundred and eighty-seven districts then 
 in the State, four hundred and eighty-five either voted outright 
 against free schools or stubbornly took no action whatever in refer- 
 ence to the matter. In many districts the contest between those in 
 favor of accepting the new law and those determined to reject it 
 became so bitter, that party and even church ties were for a time 
 broken up, the rich arrayed themselves against the poor, and the 
 business and social relations of whole neighborhoods were greatly 
 disturbed. Cases are known in which father and sons took differ- 
 ent sides, and in certain districts an outspoken free school man was 
 scarcely allowed to live in peace and transact his ordinary business. 
 The newspapers of the day were crowded with communications on 
 the subject of the new school law, and it was the leading topic of 
 discussion for months, in hundreds of localities, wherever the people 
 were accustomed to assemble, at shops, or stores, or taverns, and on 
 days of election or of public sale. Stories continue to be told by old 
 men in all parts of the State, of the questionable means used to carry 
 the elections in particular districts for or against schools. Enmities 
 were created between individuals and families that outlasted the life- 
 time of those concerned. One whose recollection does not extend 
 back to the infancy of our common school system can form no idea 
 that an institution now so freely supported and so deeply rooted in 
 the affections of the people could have been once so bitterly opposed 
 and so cordially hated. The new law met with most favor in the 
 northern counties. These had been principally settled by people 
 from New England and New York who had been accustomed to 
 public schools and understood their advantages. It was compara- 
 tively well received in the counties west of the Alleghanies, where a 
 diversity in wealth had not yet bred distinctions of class, and where 
 different nationalities and different religious denominations had be- 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. 31^ 
 
 come so thoroughly mixed as to recognize an educational interest 
 in common. Opposition to it was most formidable in the southern, 
 central and southeastern portions of the State, and greatest of all in 
 counties and districts in which the people were principally of Ger- 
 man descent. The cause of this peculiar condition of things is not 
 difficult to find. 
 
 Free schools were opposed by several classes of people, and for 
 different reasons. First, there were then in greater proportion than 
 now, in the oldest settled portions of the State, aristocratic families 
 whose American life had not yet eradicated their old-world ideas of 
 rank and privilege, and who had no sympathy with the doctrine of 
 equality upon which the new school law was founded. There must 
 be, they held, here as in Europe, two classes of people, a higher and 
 a lower, the first, the few, to ornament society and to rule and 
 direct its affairs ; the second, the many, under authority, to hew its 
 wood and draw its water. To educate beyond the mere elements 
 those who must forever remain at the bottom of the social scale, 
 was in their opinion to unfit them for the sphere of life for which 
 they were intended, and to -render them unhappy. The doctrine 
 that all men are created equal, that brains and blood truly noble 
 are as often born in a cottage as in a castle, they met with a sneer. 
 As a work of benevolence, they were willing to assist in educating 
 the poor as poor to a limited extent, but they never could think of 
 sending their own children to common schools, or of sanctioning the 
 leveling principle underlying their organization. 
 
 Then there was the class, whom unfortunately we always have 
 with us, opposed to all change. This class of persons denounced 
 with the greatest severity what they considered a revolution in the 
 school policy of the state. Everywhere, they rested like a dead 
 weight on all the early efforts to establish free schools. 
 
 Several religious denominations almost in a body placed them- 
 selves in opposition to the new law. The Catholics and the Episco- 
 palians, who have in later years most favored parochial schools, were 
 then too weak and too much scattered to make effective opposition 
 if they were so disposed ; but the Friends, the Lutherans, the Re 
 formed and the Mennonites, with many notable low-church excep- 
 tions, wherever sufficiently numerous to form congregations, very 
 generally united in voting against the free school law and taxes for 
 free schools. They had reason. They were not opposed to educa- 
 tion. They had proven their interest in it by establishing hundreds 
 
,20 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. ^ 
 
 of schools in connection with their churches. In these, in accor- 
 dance with the rules of their churches and the customs of their 
 fathers, their children had long been instructed by teachers of their 
 own appointment in the several branches of secular knowledge and 
 in the sacred doctrines of religion. They had built schoolhouses 
 and provided school accommodations with their own money. In 
 many places they had connected with the school property houses 
 and gardens for the teachers, and in some cases the schools were 
 endowed. The Friends, in particular, were careful to provide free 
 instruction for their own poor children, and to some extent for all 
 poor children residing within reach. of their schools. Less conspicu- 
 ously, the other churches named in this connection adopted the same 
 liberal policy. To break up this system of schools which they had 
 established and were willing to support, to continue it and yet be 
 compelled to pay taxes for the suppport of common schools in which 
 they had little interest, seemed to them alternatives equally objec- 
 tionable. But what went hardest with most of them was to sever 
 the tie that had bound in one church and school, to divorce what in 
 their view God had joined together, to .secularize the school and be 
 compelled to educate their children where they could receive no 
 positive religious instruction. The greatest sufferers from this 
 severance of church and school were the German denominations, for 
 in their case it was the breaking up of relations existing for hun- 
 dreds of years, and considered sacred by them and their fathers. 
 Every friend of common schools must respect the motives that led 
 members of the religious bodies so circumstanced to oppose the free 
 school law, and, as against them, no valid argument can be made 
 except that of the demands of a broad public policy before which 
 individual rights must give way, that of " the greatest good to the 
 greatest number." 
 
 Many people of German descent opposed the free schools for 
 another reason — their probable influence in displacing the language 
 they had continued to use and to which they were greatly attached. 
 Instruction was to be given in English : they feared that German 
 would be gradually pushed into the background and eventually 
 entirely dispensed with. They thought it best at once to offer 
 resistance to this insidious attack on their beloved mother-tongue. 
 
 But the bitterest enemies of free schools, those who fought them 
 longest and hardest, were the ignorant, the narrow-minded and the 
 penurious. This was the class of men who appealed to the most 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. 331 
 
 sordid motives by which communities are influenced for the purpose 
 of making the new law unpopular. They argued that the education 
 of the masses was dangerous, and would breed mischief of many 
 kinds, idleness, vice, crime ; that the taxes required to support free 
 schpols would greatly impoverish if not entirely bankrupt the peo- 
 ple; that it was unjust to compel those who, had no children to pay 
 for the education of the children of others— unjust for the industri- 
 ous man who had saved his money to support schools for the spend- 
 thrift who had squandered all he earned; that the compulsory feat- 
 ures of the law would fasten on the4iecks of the people a tyranny 
 worse than that from which their fathers escaped by the war of the 
 Revolution; that the schools ought to be called " Zwing Schiden" 
 forced schools, rather than free schools, and that, in short, as 
 quoted by another in the harsh words used at the time, ".free schools 
 are the hotbeds wherein idle drones, too lazy for honest labor, are 
 reared and maintained ; the free school system was originated and 
 supported by its partisans for the purpose of making places for men 
 too lazy to work, and the school tax is a thinly disguised tribute 
 which the honest, hard-working farmer and mechanic have to pay 
 out of their hard earnings to pamper idle and lazy ^schoolmasters." 
 Many meetings of anti-school men were held, and resolutions were 
 passed denouncing the new law. The following, passed by a con- 
 vention which met in Delaware county, October 30, 1834, is a tem- 
 perate expressions of views generally held: "Resolved, That we 
 disapprove of the law passed at the last session of the Legislature 
 as a system of general education, believing that it is unjust and im- 
 politic; that it was never intended by our constitution that the edu- 
 cation of those children whose parents are able to educate theni, 
 should be conducted at the public expense." Among the more vio- 
 lent of this class of men were some who used every effort in their 
 districts, fair and foul, to carry them against free schools, and, when 
 defeated, refused to pay their school taxes, and, thinking to make 
 themselves martyrs, stubbornly suffered their .property to be seized 
 and sold by tax collectors ; some, too, who would not deal with or 
 employ persons who had voted for free schools, and sacrificed even 
 the ties of friendship and of family in their frenzied hatred against 
 them. It would be unjust to conclude, however, that this selfish 
 and short-sighted class of men were to be found only in the anti- 
 school districts and counties; there was no community in the State 
 free from their influence, but they were formidable only where their 
 21 
 
322 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 ranks were swelled by those who opposed free schools for other and 
 better reasons. 
 
 The attacks of those who opposed the free school law were made 
 more effective, and the efforts of its friends to put it in operation 
 were greatly crippled, by the obscurity of some of its provisions and 
 the impracticable character of others. No amount of zeal could 
 make popular the clumsy method provided by which districts were 
 to decide whether they would accept the system or otherwise, and 
 determine the question of taxation for school purposes ; and the 
 sections that directed the appointment of School Inspectors and re- 
 quired them to serve without pay, were necessarily from the first a 
 dead letter. Practically, the law was weak and defective in many 
 points; but theoretically, it embodied the great principle of universal 
 education, and this its friends determined to preserve at all hazards. 
 
 The election for school directors and the vote accepting or reject- 
 ing the system taken, it was found that the result was as shown in 
 the following table : 
 
 Counties. 
 
 Adams . 
 Allegheny 
 Armstrong 
 Beaver . 
 Bedford .- 
 Berks . . 
 Bradford . 
 Bucks . . 
 Butler. . 
 Cambria . 
 Centre. . 
 Chester . 
 Clearfield 
 Columbia 
 Crawford 
 Cumberland 
 Dauphin . 
 Delaware 
 Erie. . 
 Fayette . 
 Franklin. 
 Greene . 
 Huntingdon 
 Indiana . 
 Jefferson . 
 Juniata . 
 Lancaster 
 
 O j2 
 
 17 
 
 o c 
 
 a4 
 
 si 
 - s 
 
 . s 
 
 Counties. 
 
 Lebanon. 
 Lehigh . 
 Luzerne . 
 Lycoming 
 M'Kean . 
 Mercer . 
 Mifflin. . 
 Montgomery 
 Northampton 
 Northumberland 
 Perry . . . 
 Pike. . . . 
 Potter. . . 
 Schuylkill . 
 Somerset. . 
 Susquehanna 
 Tioga . 
 Union. . . 
 Venango. . 
 Warren . . 
 Washington 
 Wayne . . 
 Westmoreland 
 York .... 
 
 .2 
 Q 
 
 
 c 
 
 0. 
 
 B 
 
 u 
 
 . <"> 
 
 Cd, 
 
 « ?„ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 g 
 
 iz; 
 
 ^ 
 
 z 
 
 9 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 3« 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 35 
 
 
 . . 
 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 . , 
 
 , , 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 . . 
 
 
 32 
 
 I 
 
 , . 
 
 . . 
 
 27 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 S 
 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 i.S 
 
 II 
 
 . . 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 
 •5 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 
 22 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 18 
 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 . 12 
 
 
 20 
 
 16 
 
 I 
 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 18 
 
 s 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 . , 
 
 29 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 • • 
 
 987 
 
 502 
 
 264 
 
 57 
 
 o -^ 
 •A 
 
 35 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 31 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 2 
 
 164 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. ,,o 
 
 Streh was the feeling on the school question in a number of 
 counties- that It entered into the nomination and election of members 
 of the Legislatare in tlie Fall of 1834. In counties where the anti- 
 school sentiment was stmng, such pressure was brought to bear 
 upon members of the Legislature who had voted for the free school 
 law as in many cases either to compel them to make a humiliating 
 confession of having done wrong, or to place further legislative 
 honors beyond their reach. Among those elected were some who 
 owed their election to their avowed hostility to free schools, and 
 candidates otherwise popular were defeated because they were 
 known to favor them. In Berks county, two old members of the 
 Legislature who had voted for free schools and were candidates for 
 re-election were badly beaten. The two Union county members 
 refusing before a county convention in case of their re-election to 
 favor the repeal of the free school law for which they had voted, 
 were coldly left at home. The York county members, bending to 
 the stor-m, declined to be candidates for re-election where certain 
 defeat awaited them. Similar results took place in other counties, 
 and without doubt a majority of the men elected to the Legislature 
 of 1834-5, went to Harrisburg resolved to undo the school legislation 
 of the preceding year. 
 
 Undismayed by the storm of opposition raised against free schools, 
 regardless of the hostile feeling which began to threaten hini with 
 political danger as their friend, Governor Wolf, in his message of 
 December 3, 1834, took no backward step on the educational ques- 
 tion, but firmly maintained the advanced position he had so long 
 occupied and manfully stood by the new law, unpopular as it 
 seemed. 
 
 In his first sentences on the subject, he recapitulated the circum- 
 stances conneicted with the passage of the new law, saying — 
 
 At the last session of the Legislature an Act was passed for establishing a 
 general system of education by common schools throughout the Common- 
 wealth, in compliance with a constitutional provision which, until then, 
 although not entirely disregarded, had never been carried into effect in the 
 manner intended by the members of the Convention, to whose sagacity and 
 profound political wisdom we are indebted for the present excellent Constitu- 
 tion of our State. The Act referred to was prepared by those to whom the 
 arrangement of its details was committed, under many embarrassing and dis- 
 couraging circumstances, and there would be no great cause of astonishment 
 if it should be found to be not entirely perfect. The subject was new in 
 Pennsylvania ; the path to be trodden had never been explored ; a former 
 attempt to introduce the system had failed, and, the question how far public 
 
2 24 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 opinion would go in sustaining such a project could not then be distinctly 
 ascertained. Petitions containing the names of many respectable individuals 
 in different parts of the State, in favor of such a measure, had, however, been 
 presented during the last and preceding sessions of the Legislature, and there 
 was reason to believe that a strong desire was manifesting itself in favor of 
 the adoption of some system that would have a tendency to give life and vigor 
 to the cause of education throughout the State. By great industry, assiduity 
 and perseverance, a mass of valuable information was obtained, which un- 
 folded a fund of knowledge in relation to the advantages, the utility, the 
 cheapness — in short, the decided preference which a system of common schools 
 of general interest and sustained and encouraged by public bounty, maintained 
 over every other plan of education of a private or partial character. From a 
 careful examination of the information thus collected, from every paft of the 
 Union in which the experiment of general education had been made, the prin- 
 ciples of the bill alluded to were extracted and framed into a law, having 
 passed both branches of the Legislature with a unanimity rarely equalled, 
 perhaps never surpassed in the annals of legislation. 
 
 Then he explained 'the reasons for the partial failure of the Act, 
 and intimated that it might be improved by proper amendments : 
 
 The provisions of this Act have, it is understood, been adopted by all the 
 school districts in some counties, partially in others, and in a few they have 
 been rejected altogether. This, it is' understood, was the case in some of our 
 sister States, in the commencement of the system there ; and it was to be ex- 
 pected in the inception of the system here. Every new measure, although it 
 may have for its object to confer the most solid advantages upon the com- 
 munity in which it is to operate, is destined, for the most part, to encounter 
 long-cherished, inveterate prejudices, which it will be difficult to conquer, un- 
 less the most incontestable demonstrations can be given of its title to prefer- 
 ence, on the score of unquestionable public utility, over that which it is in- 
 tended to supplant. This Act is said to be defective in its details; it probably 
 is so ; some of its provisions might possibly be improved by introducing salu- 
 tary amendments. But as it will go partially into operation during the com- 
 ing year, its objectionable features will be developed by the practical experi- 
 ments under it, and the remedies proper to be applied will present less 
 difficulty after the defects shall have been more distinctly ascertained. Such 
 amendments as are obviously necessary to a more equal distribution of the 
 public bounty or appropriation for the benefit of all citizens of the State ; to 
 prevent the imposing of unequal burdens upon those who accept the provis- 
 ions of the Act, and such as do not; or that will be discovered to be in any 
 respect necessary for giving effect to the system, the General Assembly will 
 not fail, it is presumed, to discover and to introduce. 
 
 Next, in words like these, he boldly upholds the new system of 
 free schools: 
 
 That the system of education for which the Act in question provides is de- 
 cidedly preferable in every conceivable point of view to that now in operation, 
 no man who will give himself the trouble to draw a faithful comparison be- 
 tween the two, can for a moment hesitate about or doubt. If the Act now 
 
THE FIGBT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. -y-^c 
 
 under consideration goes into operation,, the odious distinction between rich 
 and poor, wealth and indigence, which has heretofore prechided the children 
 of many indigent, though honest and respectable parents, from a participation 
 in the advantages. of education under the present system, witt be exploded!; 
 and the poor man's child will be placed on an equality with that of his 
 wealthier n«ighbor, both, in the schoolroom and when, indulging in their nee- 
 essaa:y recreations. 
 
 Concluding, he generously gave the honor of laying the foundation 
 of free schools to the framers of the Constitution. 
 
 The new system may be emphatically prooouaced to be a measure belong 
 ing to th« era of seventeen hundred and ninety, and not to that of eighteea 
 hundred and thirty four. To insist that it emanated either from the Executive 
 or the Legislature, however desirable it might be to appropriate the proud dis- 
 tinction of being its projector, is an entire fallacy. Such a monument of 
 imperishable fame was not reserved for the men of modern times — it belongs 
 to the statesmen of by-gone days. To the patriots who framed the Constitu- 
 tion uader which we live and under which we have been pre-eminently pros- 
 perous and happy, belongs the proud trophy — it is to them we are indebted 
 for this wholesome measure — they inscribed it upon the sacred tablet of the 
 Constitution, as a lasting memorial of their determination that universal eda- 
 cation should form one of the pillars of the government, and as an abiding 
 testimonial of the high value they attached to the dissemination of knowledge 
 as a protection and safeguard to our free institutions ; and we are admonished 
 by the language of the matchless instrument which proceeded from their hands, 
 as by a voice from the grave, that the solemn injunction which they ingrafted 
 upon it, in belialf of education, must not be disregarded. 
 
 James Findlay was Secretary of the Conimontweahh at the time of 
 the passage of the school law of 1834, and became the first Superin- 
 tendent of Common Schools. Secretary Findlay was the son of 
 William Findlay, the fourth Governor of the State under the Consti- 
 tution of 1790, a lawyer by profession, and had repftsented West- 
 moreland county, where he resided, in the House of Representatives. 
 He was a gentleman of liberal education, and, without doubt, felt 
 friendly to the new school system which he was called upon to 
 administer. He performed his duties as Superintendent of Common 
 Schools, however, in a manner wholly ministerial, simply sitting in 
 his offke giving information, expounding obscure or mooted points in 
 the law, and receiving such reports as were forwarded to him. What 
 the system needed in its head then even more than since, was 
 organizing power, life-giving energy, that sharpness of vision that 
 sees the light from afar, and that dauntless spirit that fights towards 
 it regardless of the difficulties or dangers that may be encountered. 
 These high qualities Superintendent Findlay did not possess. He 
 was a safe, conservative officer, but had neither the talent, the taste 
 
,26 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 or the temper to fight a great moral battle, or to undertake a great 
 work of reform. His first report to the Legislature, instead of boldly- 
 calling the friends of free schools to arms and going out resolutely 
 to meet the forces of the enemy then rallying in great numbers in 
 all directions and threatening an attack, consisted of a dozen short 
 paragraphs that might have been written in half an hour, stating in 
 substance that elections for school directors and the meetings of 
 delegfates had been held as provided, that the State appropriation 
 had been apportioned, and that some difficulties had been met with 
 in regard to the proper construction of the law. A statement 
 accompanied the report showing the number of districts that had 
 accepted the law, the number that had rejected it, the number that 
 had sent delegates to the meetings with the County Commissioners, 
 the allotment of the State appropriation to the several counties and 
 the amounts voted to be raised by them for the support of schools. 
 
 From the first day of the session, the attitude of the Senate 
 threatened disaster to the infant school system. Jacob Kern, the 
 speaker, of the Northampton, Lehigh, Wayne and Pike District, 
 was an anti-free school man. David Fullerton, of Franklin, whose 
 views on the school question coincided with those of the speaker, 
 was at the head of the Committee on Education, the other members 
 being Almon H. Read, George Smith, David Middlecoff and Meek 
 Kelly. The Senate had hardly more than fairly organized, when on 
 December 15, Messrs. Geiger and Krebs, of the Berks and Schuyl- 
 kill district, moved the adoption of the following resolution : 
 
 Whereas, the fund set apart for common school purposes is yet not suffi- 
 ciently large an J extensive to answer in its distribution any valuable or satis- 
 factory purpose towards defraying the expenses of the same ; and that from 
 this and other causes it has not met with that general approbation with the 
 people in many parts of the Commonwealth necessary to carry it into useful 
 operation ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That the Committee on Education be instructed to inquire into 
 the expediency of suspending for a term of five' years the Act entitled an "Act 
 to establish a General System of Common Schools," passed on the first day 
 of April, 1834, so that the fund may increase to a sufficient extent to become 
 more useful in its distribution. 
 
 This was followed, Februaiy 20, by the presentation of a bill by 
 Mr. Petriken, of Lycoming, to suspend the operation of the free 
 school law for five years. Mr. Slenker, of Northumberland, four 
 days later, read in place a bill for the absolute repeal of the law. 
 These various movements finally assumed the shape of a bill entitled 
 a Supplement to the Act of 1834, which was earnestly debated for 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. ,,37. 
 
 many days and amended in various particulars. This Supplement, 
 as reported from the Committee on Education, was intended to pre- 
 serve the Act of 1834, but as in the end it was so modified as to 
 efifect the repeal of all its moat essential features, it passed the 
 Senate, March 19, under the title : " An Act making provision for 
 the education of the poor gratis, and to repeal the Act of the first 
 day of April, 1834." The test vote, on transcribing the bill for a 
 third reading, was nineteen yeas to eleven nays, and among those 
 voting against free schools were thirteen senators who had voted in 
 their favor the previous year. 
 
 During the progress of the debate in the Senate, a substitute was 
 offered for the pending measure, which, while it contained a few of 
 the provisions of the law of 1834, was mainly a copy of the system 
 of pubhc education then in operation in some of the New England 
 States. Its characteristic feature was that the single school was 
 made the unit of the system. Each school district, as defined by. 
 the law of 1834, was to be divided into as many " school bounds" 
 as it had schools, and the taxable inhabitants of each were to con- 
 stitute a Society for "the purposes of elementary education." Meet- 
 ings were to be held semi-annually in May and November. A 
 school committee of three was to be chosen, one of whom was to 
 be President, one Secretary, and one Treasurer of the Society. It 
 was the duty of this committee to exarnine and employ teachers, 
 superintend the school and report to the County Commissioners, 
 who were constituted a County School Board. 
 
 The bill further provided that the School Societies " shall have 
 power at any semi-annual meeting, to determine when, in what 
 manner and by what means they will erect, purchase or rent a 
 schoolhouse, and provide the means to defray the expenses thereof. 
 They shall also determine how much money shall be raised and ex- 
 pended for school purposes during the ensuing six months, and 
 shall have power to raise that amount by voluntary contribution, 
 the assessment and collection of a tax proportioned to the respec- 
 tive State or county tax, or by a poll tax of a given sum on each 
 taxable inhabitant, or partly by each or either mode, as to a majority 
 of said meeting shall appear most equitable and convenient." It 
 also provided that before any School Society could draw its quota 
 of the State appropriation from the county treasurer, it must be made 
 to appear that the Society had expended three times the amount 
 in its own funds for school purposes during the year for which 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 the appropriation was made ; atid " that the school had befen kept 
 open and was equally free for the instruction 6f all within its bounds 
 desiring to be taught." 
 
 This bill embodied the free school principle ; it was an effort to 
 substitute in school affairs the town organization 6f New England 
 for the township organization of Pennsylvania, b'ut it would have 
 been ill-suited to bur social and political condition. It was defeated 
 by a vote of thirteen to eighteen — defeated mainly by the anti-school 
 men who thus rendered a service to the State and to the cause of 
 educa'tion of which they were unawares, for a system of schools to 
 be successful must be home-grown and cannot be an importation 
 from any other State or country. 
 
 Notwithstanding many members had been elected as anti-free 
 school men, the House, as a whole, was more fsivo^able to the law 
 of 1834, and less disposed to go back to the system of schools for 
 the poor which it had displaced, than the Senate. James Thomp- 
 son, of Erie, who, as a member of the Committee on Education, 
 had been active in securing the passage of the Act of 1834, was in 
 the Speaker's chair. The members of the Committee on Education 
 were Samuel Anderson, of Delaware; Joseph Lawrence, of Wash- 
 ington:; Emanuel C. Reigart, of Lancaster; Matthew B. Cowden, 
 of Dauphin ; Thomas T. Cromwell, of Huntingdon ; Wyndham H. 
 Stokes, of Philadelphia; and John F. Derr, 6f Columbia. Dr. 
 Samuel Anderson, of Delaware, the chairman, had served on the 
 same committee the year before and was an early and earnest free 
 school man. His committee, with a single exception, sympathized 
 with his views on the subject of education ; but all were united in 
 the opinion that some modification of the law of 1834 was necessary 
 before it could go into full practical effect. But although the out- 
 look for the friends of education was more favorable in the House 
 than in the Seriate, there were not wanting rnovements which por- 
 tended the coming struggle. February 20, the Committee on Edu- 
 cation reported a bill entitled an Act supplementary to the Act Of 
 1834. It siniplified the Act of 1834, removed some of its most objec- 
 tionable features, but preserved and strengthened the principle on 
 which it was founded. The sections of the law of 1834, providing 
 for School Inspectors and for delegate meetings at the county toWns 
 were dispensed with, the school directors were authorized to exam- 
 ine arid certificate teachers, and the plan of levying and collecting 
 the school tax Was made much more plain and less expensive. The 
 
THE FIGHT Jf OR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. 329 
 
 committee were unanimous in their support of this bill, with the ex- 
 ception of Mr. Rei^art, of Lancaster. Mr. Reigart, though as he 
 stated, "not opposed to a general and enlarged system of education" 
 dissented from t'he majority of the committee and gave in substance 
 the following reasons : 
 
 That the Constitution of 1 790 was fdfiUed' in the passage of the 
 Act of 1 809 providing for the education' of the poor gratis. It was 
 indeed extremely doubtful whether it would not be an open viola- 
 tion of the Constitution to attempt to establish upon it a system of 
 universal education as proposed. 
 
 That this sj'^stem having continued fbr tWeftty-five years must 
 have h-ad some merit. That the school fund provided for by the 
 Act of 1 83 1, had not yet reached" the amount at which the interest 
 could be legally distributed for school purposes, and that the Act of 
 1834 was therefore premature. 
 
 That under the present system with the money then provided, the 
 schools could not be kept open more than two months in the year ; 
 that the poor were better off under the Act of 1809, and " that no 
 general system of education based oft taxation could at this time be 
 adopted without doing great injury and much .injustice to the agri- 
 cultural interests of the country." 
 
 That the Commonwealth was financially embarrassed and could 
 not bear the weight of additional tax for schools. The people now 
 have " their county tax, their road tax, their poor tax, their personal 
 property tax arid their State tax. Impose additional burthens on 
 them and tfiey will be compelled to leave the houses of their child- 
 hood and the graves of their fathers " and " migrate into the great 
 unknown regions of the ' far west,' there to enjoy in peace and tran- 
 quillity the well-«arned reward of their labor and toil." 
 
 Mr. Reigart ably summarized in his report the principal argu- 
 ments of the anti-school men, and closed it by recommending the 
 re-enactment of the law of 1809 and the repeal of the law of 1834. 
 A few days after the reading of the report Lewis W. Richards, of 
 Berks, gave notice of a bill in accordance with its recommendations. 
 
 On the 25th of February, Joseph Pollock, of Beaver, from a select 
 committee, reported ari educational bill similar to that which was 
 offered as a substitute to the repealing act in the Senate, and defeated 
 by the aftti-school men ) but it does not seem to have been seriously 
 pressed.- 
 
 From the beginning of the session, the Legislature was flooded 
 
.Q ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 with petitions asliing for the repeal or modification of the school law 
 passed the preceding year. Never before had there been so many- 
 petitions presented at one session of the Legislature on a single sub- 
 ject. Thirty-eight counties out of fifty-one sent petitions asking for 
 the repeal of the law, and eight of the same counties with two others 
 sent petitions asking for its modification. Adams and Delaware 
 fairly offset the petitions of their anti-school men by strong remon- 
 strances against repeal ; and similar remonstrances less numerously 
 signed were presented from Cambria that did not petition for repeal 
 and from Mifflin, Schuylkill, Franklin, Cumberland, Berks, York, 
 Chester and Allegheny that did. The City and County of Philadel- 
 phia and the counties of Bradford, Clearfield, Jefferson, Luzerne. 
 McKean, Pike, Potter, Tioga, Warren and Wayne, were the only 
 ones that refrained from perplexing the Legislature with their 
 prayers on the subject. 
 
 The number and character of the petitions was so unusual that a 
 special Committee was appointed in the House of Representatives 
 "to ascertain- the number of petitions in each county of the Common- 
 wealth, praying for the repeal or modification of the school law, and 
 the number remonstrating against such repeal." The report of this 
 Committee presented by Mr. Kerr, of Allegheny, chairman, consist- 
 ing of a single paragraph, is very significant. It states : 
 
 That although the number who have petitioned for the repeal is deplorably 
 large, yet it is but a small minority of the whole number of voters in the Com- 
 monwealth, to wit, about thirty-two thousand. Those who ask for a modifi- 
 cation only are two thousand and eighty-four ; those who have deemed it 
 necessary to remonstrate against the repeal, two thousand five hundred and 
 seventy-five. The Committee were pained to find among those who deem a 
 general system of education unnecessary and ask for its repeal, sixty-six who 
 are unable to write their own names, and who attached their signatures by 
 making their marks ; and according to the best conclusion to which the Com- 
 mittee could arrive, more than ten out of every hundred of the petitioners' 
 names appear to be written by other hands than their own. Whether this 
 arose from inability to write their own names, the Committee do not feel them- 
 selves called on to determine. The Committee would further remark, that in 
 most of the petitions not more than five names out of every hundred are 
 written in English, and the great mass of them are so illegibly written as to 
 afford the strongest evidence of the deplorable disregard so long paid by the 
 Legislature to the constitutional injunction to establish a general system of 
 education. 
 
 The report is accompanied by a tabular statement. That part of 
 it which enumerates the counties from which the greatest number 
 of petitions came asking for the repeal of the law, is as follows: 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. 
 
 33r 
 
 Counties. 
 
 Somerset . . . 
 Lebanon . . . 
 Schuylkill . . , 
 Northampton . 
 Bucks . . . , 
 Perry . . . . , 
 Lehigh . . . . 
 Westmoreland 
 Franklin . . . 
 Adams . . . , 
 Armstrong . . 
 Dauphin . . . 
 Centre . . . , 
 Lycoming . . , 
 
 No. of Pe- 
 
 No. of 
 
 titions. 
 
 Signers. 
 
 lo 
 
 6io 
 
 22 
 
 1,664 
 
 14 
 
 68 1 
 
 18 
 
 ».oS3 
 
 36 
 
 1,62s 
 
 21 
 
 803 
 
 27 
 
 1,586 
 
 16 
 
 l,44S 
 
 17 
 
 1,116 
 
 16 
 
 55° 
 
 4 
 
 190 
 
 5 
 
 3SS 
 
 4 
 
 454 
 
 4 
 
 319 
 
 Counties. 
 
 No. of 
 Signers. 
 
 Cumberland , . . 
 Montgomery . . . 
 
 Berks 
 
 Delaware .... 
 
 Union 
 
 Lancaster .... 
 
 York 
 
 Chester 
 
 Juniata 
 
 Northumberland . 
 Washington . . . 
 Bedford. . . . 
 Columbia .... 
 Fayette 
 
 Mr. Krause, of Lebanon, as a minority of the Committee, deemed 
 it "wholly impracticable in the absence of other testimony than that 
 derived from an inspection of the names of the petitioners to deter- 
 mine how many of them were signed by other hands " ; nor, if so 
 signed, did he consider it a proof that the petitioners could not 
 write. The signing was probably done in a hurry at some public 
 place, and the signatures, so far as they appeared in the same hand, 
 were most likely written by some one properly authorized. The 
 might of the petitions was, he thought, in the number of signers, 
 which was unexampled. In reply to the statement of the majority 
 of the Committee " that in most of the petitions not more than five 
 names out of every hundred are written in English," he answered 
 that this was no proof of ignorance and that the number of persons 
 who subscribed for newspapers and read them in the most German 
 of German counties, Berks and Lebanon, showed that the people 
 there were as intelligent as in communities exclusively English. 
 
 While these movements were in progress in the House, the Sen- 
 ate had passed the bill repealing the law of 1834, as already related, 
 and the House Committee on Education had, as the best mode of 
 meeting the issue, squarely reported it as committed. A terrible 
 battle between the free school and the anti-free school men in the 
 House took place in the Committee of the Whole, where the bill 
 was first considered; but the victory remained with the former, for 
 on April 10, the Committee reported the bill to the House in the 
 shape of a substitute to the Senate bill, which not only did not re- 
 peal the law of 1834, but actually gave it new strength by removing 
 some of its most material defects and adding to it several provisions 
 calculated to facilitate its practical operation. 
 
5,2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 April 1 1, 183s, must be regarded as an eventful' day in the history 
 of the school legislation of Pennsylvania. The school bill with its 
 amendments came up on second reading before the House. The 
 struggle on its passage was bitter, and prolonged through a morn- 
 ing, an afternoon and an evening session. Several strengthening 
 amendments were adopted. An amendment to repeal the law of 
 1834, was offered, discussed and' voted down. Other less importainS 
 amendments, intended to cripple the efficiency of the Act, shared 
 the same fate. Mr. Reigart moved that the Act of 1834 be sus- 
 pended for three years, arid the vote on this motion showed about 
 the relative strength of the two parties, thirty-eight yeas and fifty 
 nays. The members from Montgomery and Lebanon tried to have 
 their counties exempted from the operation of the law,, but this was 
 refused. The ablest and most determined leaders of the anti-school 
 men were William Hopkins, of Washington, and Henry W^ Conrad, 
 of Schuylkill. When other means failed, dilatory and obstructive 
 motions were resorted to, but the united efforts of the friends of free 
 schools rendered them of no avail. At length, the title of the bill 
 adopted by the Senate was amended so as to conform to the charac- 
 ter it had assumed,, as a supplement to the Act of 1834, and a test 
 vote taken on the passage of the first section showed fifty-five yeas 
 and thirty-four nays, and the fight was won. Gaining strength by 
 this victory, the friends of the bill were now able to push rapidly 
 through the remaining sections, to suspend the rules by a two-third 
 vote, and to pass the bill finally by fifty-five yeas to thirty nays. 
 
 When the amended bill came into the hands of the Senate two 
 alternatives were presented, either to concur in it or to suffer the 
 Act of 1834 to remain in full force. The former was chosen; and, 
 with a few unimportant amendments, the bill as it passed the House 
 became a law, and so ended the last great fight for free schools in 
 the Legislature of Pennsylvania. 
 
 There was a number of devoted friends of free schools in the 
 House of Representatives in 1835, but the acknowledged leader of 
 the free school forces during their great struggle was the member 
 from Adams, Thaddeus Stevens. He was not popular among his 
 fellow members, indeed was cordially hated by some of them, but 
 for bold, uncompromising advocacy of free schools, for the spirit 
 and courage he infused into their friends and the bitter denunciation 
 and withering scorn he dealt out to their enemies, he had no equal. 
 Competent judges of all parties who witnessed the fight agree that 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. 333 
 
 had he not stood Hke a rock furnishing shelter and imparting 
 strength to the free school combatants, and bidding defiance to the 
 fiercest of those who would have struck them down, the law of 1834 
 would have been swept from the statute book or been saved only by 
 a veto from 'the Governor, and the day of universal education in 
 Pennsylvania might have been indefinitely postponed. / 
 
 Thaddeus Stevens was a poor Vermont farmer's son. He made 
 his way by means of a fond moth-pr's savings through Dartmouth 
 College and came to Pennsylvania in 1815, then 'twenty-three years 
 old. He had made shoes and taught a country school at home, and 
 here he began his career by becoming an assistant teacher in the 
 Academy at York, studying law and opening an office at Gettysburg. 
 In 183 1, he was elected to the Legislature, was a member in 1833- 
 4, favored the free school law of that year but did not serve on the 
 Committee on Education and took no part in preparing the bill. 
 He had little to do with the educational work of the session of 
 1834-5 until the crisis came and he saw that the infant free schools 
 were in danger of destruction. Then gathering up his great strength, 
 he threw himself with his whole soul into the contest, and not more 
 by his eloquent, inspiring words than by the bold, determined posi- 
 tion he assumed, won the day. His speech delivered while the 
 subject was under consideration on the substitute for the Senate bill 
 is said to have been very effective. One who was present. Dr. 
 George Smith, of Delaware, wrote in 1^80,. Stevens' speech was 
 "one of the most powerful I ever heard. The House was electrified. 
 The wavering voted for the House sections and the school system 
 was saved from ignominious defeat." Elijah F. Pennypacker, of 
 Chester, as clear in intellect and sound in judgment to-day, 1884, 
 as when he sat in the Legislature in 1834 and 1835, and gave voice 
 and vote in favor of free schools, declares that the speech of Mr. 
 Stevens was "so convincing that the friends of education were 
 brought in solid column to the support of the measure and thus 
 saved the common school system." Others who were present 
 have recorded similar testimony. In honor to its author, the speech 
 was beautifully printed on silk by some free school men in Reading, 
 and proudly kept by him as a relic till his death. 
 
 The following extracts from the speech will show its temper and 
 account for its effect : 
 
 I will briefly give you the reasons why I shall oppose the repeal of the 
 school law. This law was passed at the last session of the Legislature with 
 
, , , ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/ A. 
 
 unexampled unanimity, but one member of this House voting against it. It 
 has not yet come into operation, and none of its effects have been tested by 
 experience in Pennsylvania. The passage of such a law is enjoined by the 
 Constitution, and has been recommended by every Governor since its adop- 
 tion. Much to his credit, it has been warmly urged by the present Executive 
 in all his annual messages delivered at the opening of the Legislature. To 
 repeal it now, before its practical effects have been discovered, would argue 
 that it contained some glaring and pernicious defect, and that the last Legis- 
 lature acted under some strong and fatal delusion which blinded everjr man 
 of them to the interests of the Commonwealth. 
 
 It would seem to be humiliating to be under the necessity, in the nineteenth 
 century, of entering into a formal argument to prove the utility, and to free 
 governments, the absolute necessity, of education. More than two thousand 
 years ago, the deity who presided over intellectual endowments ranked high- 
 est for dignity, chastity and virtue, among the goddesses worshipped by culti- 
 vated pagans. And I will not insult this House or our constituents by sup- 
 posing any course of reasoning necessary to convince them of its high 
 importance. Such necessity would be degrading to a Christian age and a 
 free republic. 
 
 ************* 
 
 If an elective republic is to endure for any great length of time, every elec- 
 tor must have sufficient information, not only to accumulate wealth and take 
 care of his pecuniary concerns, but to direct wisely the Legislatures, the Am- 
 bassadors, and the Executive of the nation ; for some part of all these things, 
 some agency in approving or disapproving of them, falls to every freeman. If, 
 then, the permanency of our government depends upon such knowledge, it 
 is the duty of government to see that themeans of information be diffused'to 
 every citizen. This is a sufficient answer to those who deem education a pri- 
 vate and not a public duty — who argue that they are willing to educate their 
 own children, but not their neighbor's children. 
 
 ************* 
 
 Many complain of the school tax, not so much on account of its amount, 
 as because it is for the benefit of others and not themselves. This is a mis- 
 take. It is for their own benefit, inasmuch as it perpetuates the government 
 and ensures the due administration of the laws under which they live, and by 
 which their lives and property are protected. Why do they not urge the same 
 objection against all other taxes ? The industrious, thrifty, rich farmer pays . 
 a heavy county tax to support criminal courts, build jails, and pay sheriffs 
 and jail keepers, and yet probably he never has had and never will have any 
 direct personal use for either. He never gets the worth of his money by 
 being tried for a crime before the court, allowed the privilege of the jail on 
 conviction or receiving an equivalent from the sheriff or his hangmen officers! 
 ************* 
 
 But we are told that this law is unpopular, that the people desire its repeal. 
 Has it not always been so with every new reform in the condition of man ? 
 Old habits and old prejudices are hard to be removed from the mind. Every 
 new improvement which has been gradually leading man from the savage 
 through the civilized up to a highly cultivated state, has required the most 
 strenuous and often perilous exertions of the wise and the good. But, sir, 
 much of its unpopularity is chargeable upon the vile arts of unprincipled 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. ,,e 
 
 - demagogues. Instead of attempting to remove the honest misapprehensions 
 of the people, they cater to their prejudices, and take advantage of them, to 
 gain low, dirty, temporary, local triumphs. I do not charge this on any par- 
 ticular party. Unfortunately, almost the only spot on which all parties meet 
 in union, is this ground of common infamy ! 
 
 I have seen the present chief magistrate of this Commonwealth violently 
 assailed as the projector and father of this law. I am not the eulogist of that 
 gentleman; he has been guilty of many deep political sins. But he deserves 
 the undying gratitude of the people, for the steady, untiring zeal which he has 
 manifested in favor of common schools. I will not say his exertions in that 
 cause have covered all, but they have atoned for many of his errors. I trust 
 that the people of this State will never be called upon to choose between a 
 supporter and an opposer of free schools. But if it should come to that, if 
 that is to be made the turning point on which we are to cast our suffrages, if 
 the opponent of education were my most intimate personal and political 
 friend, and the free school candidate my most obnoxious enemy, I should 
 deem it my duty, as a patriot, at this moment of our intellectual crisis, to 
 forget all other considerations and to place myself, unhesitatingly and cor- 
 dially, in the ranks of him whose banner streams in light ! 
 
 ************* 
 
 But will this Legislature — will the wise guardians of the dearest interests of 
 a great Commonwealth, consent to surrender the high advantages and bril- 
 liant prospects which this law promises, because it is desired by worthy gen- 
 tlemen, who, in a moment of causeless panic and popular delusion, sailed 
 into power on a Tartarian flood ? — a flood of ignorance, darker, and to the 
 intelligent mind, more dreadful, than that accursed Stygian pool, at which 
 mortals and immortals tremble ! Sir, it seems to me that the liberal and en- 
 lightened preceedings of the last Legislature have aroused the demon of ig- 
 norance from his slumber; and maddened at the threatened loss of his murky 
 
 empire, his discordant bowlings are heard in every part of our land. 
 
 * * * * * * * **»***, 
 
 The barbarous and disgraceful cry, which we hear abroad in some parts of 
 our land, " that learning makes us worse — that education makes men 
 rogues," should find no echo within these walls. Those who hold such doc- 
 trines anywhere would be the objects of bitter detestation if they were not 
 rather the pitiable subjects of commiseration. For even voluntary fools re- 
 quire our compassion as well as natural idiots ? 
 
 ************* 
 
 Let all, therefore, who would sustain the character of the philosopher or 
 philanthropist, sustain this law. Those who would add thereto the glory of 
 the hero can acquire it here, for in the present state of, feeling in Pennsyl- 
 vania, I am willing to admit, that but little less dangerous to the public man 
 is the war-club and battle-axe of savage ignorance than to the Lion-Hearted 
 Richard was the keen scimitar of the Saracen. He who would oppose it, 
 either through inability to comprehend the advantages of general education, 
 or from unwillingness to bestow them on all his fellow-qitizens, even to the 
 lowest and the poorest, or from dread of popular vengeance, seems to me to 
 want either the head of the philosopher, the heart of the philanthropist, or the 
 
 nerve of the hero. 
 
 «»****«.**»«** 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Who would not rather do one living deed than tohave.his ashes enshringd 
 in ever-burnished gold? Sir, I trust that when we come to act on this ques- 
 tion we shall take lofty ground— look beyond the narrow space which now 
 circumscribes our vision— beyond the passing, fleeting point of time on which 
 we stand— and so cast our votes that the blessing of education shall be con- 
 ferred on every son of Pennsylvania— shall be carried home to the poorest 
 child of the poorest inhabitant of the meanest hut of your mountains, so that 
 even he may be prepared to act well his part in this land of freemen, and lay 
 on earth a broad and a solid toundation for that pnduring knowledge which 
 goes on increasing through increasing eternity. 
 
 Previous to his appearance as aji advocate of free schools in the 
 Legislature, Mr. Stevens had shown his interest in education by 
 securing, in 1834, a generous appropriation from the State in aid 
 of Pennsylvania College, established a short time previously in his 
 adopted town, in spite of the opposition of his colleague in the 
 House of Representatives, and against the protest of many of .his 
 warmest and most influential friends at home. When this bill was 
 before the House, he made a speech which the editor of the Harris- 
 burg Telegraph at the time said " was one never excelled if ever 
 equalled in the hall." In remembrance of this good act, and for 
 other favors of a private character, one of the finest buildings now 
 connected with the College is named Stevens Hall. 
 
 On the -tenth day of March, 1838, Mr. Stevens made a second 
 speech in the House of Representatives on an educational ques- 
 tion, in favor of a bill to establish a School of Arts in the city of 
 Philadelphia, and to promote the acquisition of useful knowledge 
 by endowing the Colleges, Academies, and Female Seminaries of 
 the State. This speech was more eloquent, polished, and scholarly 
 than his former one, if less pointed, forcible, and severe. The bill 
 he advocated was passed by the House, but subsequently reconsid- 
 ered and defeated ; but that part of it relating to the endowment of 
 higher institutions of learning was later in the session attached as 
 an amendment to an Act, relating to common schools, ^nd became 
 a law. It was the most comprehensive and liberal measure of the 
 kind ever enacted by the Pennsylvania Legislature. 
 
 In the introduction tp his speech, Mr. Stevens referred to the 
 honor Pennsylvania had acquired for her recent legislation on the 
 subject of education, and gracefully added: 
 
 That the name of the Governor, who, fortunately, I admit, for the honor and 
 interests of Pennsylvania, gave place to the present firm, intelligent and inde- 
 pendent Executive, when the faults and follies of his party politics shall have 
 been forgotten, will stand out prominently and honorably upon the records of 
 
THE FIGHT FOR FREE SCHOOLS RENEWED. y^-j 
 
 time, as a great benefactor of the human race for his bold, manly and perse- 
 vering efforts in favor of education. 
 
 With respect to the close relation that ought to exist between ele- 
 mentary and higher education, he said : 
 
 Nor does it seem possible to separate the higher from the lower branches 
 of education, without injuring, if not paralyzing the prosperity of both. They 
 are as mutually dependent and necessary to each other's existence and pros- 
 perity, as are the ocean and the streams by which it is supplied. For while 
 the ocean supplies the quickening principles of the springs, they in turn pour 
 their united tribute to the common reservoir — thus mutually replenishing each 
 other. So Colleges and Academies furnish and propagate the seeds of knowl- 
 edge for common schools, and they transfer their most thrifty plants to these 
 more carefully and more highly cultivated gardens of knowledge. 
 
 His argument in favor of State-endowed Colleges was as follows : 
 
 It may be true that unendowed Colleges are accessible only to the rich, but 
 that shows the necessity of endowing them, and thus opening their doors to 
 the meritorious poor. Extend public aid to these institutions and thus 
 reduce the rate of tuition ; in short render learning cheap and honorable, and 
 he who has genius, no matter how poor he may be, will find the means of 
 improving it. It can hardly be seriously contended that liberal education is 
 useless to man in any condition of life. So long as the only object of our 
 earthly existence is happiness, enlarged knowledge must be useful to every 
 intellectual being, high or low, rich or poor, unless you consider happiness 
 as consisting in the mere vulgar gratification of the animal appetites and 
 passions. Then, indeed, that man, like the brute, is happiest who has the 
 most flesh and blood, the strongest sinews, and the stoutest stomach. 
 
 He spoke thus of the benefits the children of the poor would 
 receive from institutions of learning endowed as he proposed : 
 
 These institutions being permanent and prosperous, would reduce the price 
 of education, and thus enable th^ aspiring sons of the poor man to become 
 equally learned with the rich. Then should we no longer see the struggling 
 genius of the humble obstructed, and as now, stopped midway in the paths 
 of science, but we would see them reaching the farthest goal of their noblest 
 ambition. Then the laurel wreath would no longer be the purchase of gold, 
 but the reward of honest merit. Then the yeomanry of our country would 
 shine forth in -their grandeur, the proudest ornament of the nation. In the 
 national workshops of science, the gem of the peasant would be polished till 
 it outshone the jewel of the prince. 
 
 He closed with paragraphs like these : 
 
 I am comparativelv a stranger among you, born in another, in a distant 
 State ; no parent or kindred of mine did, does, or probably ever will dwell 
 within your borders. I have none of those strong cords to bind me to your 
 honor and your interest, yet if there is any one thing on earth which I ardently 
 desire above all others, it is to see Pennsylvania standing up in her intellect- 
 ual, as she confessedly does in her physical resources, high above all confeder- 
 
 22 
 
g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN I A. 
 
 ate rivals. How shameful, then, would it be, for these her native sons to feel 
 less so, when the dust of their ancestors is mingled with her soil, their friends 
 and relatives enjoy her present prosperity, and their descendants for long 
 ages to come will partake of her happiness or misery, her glory or her infamy ! 
 I have often thought and wished that I was the owner or trustee of the 
 whole mountain of Ophir. I would scatter its yellow dirt upon the human 
 intellect, until, if there be one fertilizing property in it, every young idea 
 should shoot forth with overshadowing luxuriance. 
 
 Mr. Stevens never took an active part in the practical work of 
 education, but none were more pleased than he at any movement 
 that promised substantial progress to a cause that was always near 
 his heart. The following extract from a letter dated August lO, 
 1864, to a lady in Gettysburg, who had sent him, in acknowledg- 
 ment of his efforts in behalf of free schools, a cane made of relics 
 collected on the battle-field at that place, evinces his high regard for 
 the free school system of the State and the pride he felt in having 
 aided in establishing it: 
 
 You speak gratefully of my efforts in favor of free schools. I have been 
 some thirty years in public life. When I review all the measures in which I 
 have taken part, some of them very important, I see none in which I feel so 
 ^much pleasure, perhaps I may be excused for saying pride, as the free school 
 system of Pennsylvania. When I entered the Legislature about thirty years 
 ago, there was not a school in any part of the State where the children of the 
 poor could acquire common education without recording themselves paupers, 
 and being recognized and treated as such by their fellow students. Few 
 availed themselves of these odious conditions, and the poor man's child was 
 doomed to ignorance. Now there is no obscure, barren spot within the broad 
 limits of Pennsylvania, where the children of the rich and the poor do not 
 meet in common schools on equal terms. He who pays his tax, however 
 small, has equal rights to a useful education with those who pay an hundred- 
 fold more. 
 
 Although Pennsylvania started late, I believe a quarter of a century more 
 will see her children as universally and as well educated as those of any State 
 in the Union. You probably give me too much credit for the establishment 
 of the benign system of public schools ; but I think I may without arrogance 
 admit that my efforts contributed something to its creation and preservation. 
 As the mother of eight children you thank me for it. Such thanks, while I 
 am living, and if 1 could hope for the blessings of the poor when I am no 
 more, are a much more grateful reward than silver or gold. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 YEARS OF ORGANIZATION. 
 
 WOLF. FINDLAY. DR. GEORGE SMITH. LAW OF 1836. PECULIAR FEATURES 
 OF THE PENNSYLVANIA COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM. RITNER. BURROWES. 
 THE WORK OF ORGANIZATION. 
 
 GOVERNOR WOLF was renominated for a third term by a 
 Convention which met at Harrisburg, March 4, 183S ; but a 
 formidable division in the party that had supported him brought 
 about in opposition the nomination of the Rev. H. A. Muhlenberg. 
 The Whig and Anti-Masonic parties united in presenting as their 
 candidate, Joseph Ritner. Wolf was defeated, and Ritner succeeded 
 him in the gubernatorial office. The leaders in the Democratic party 
 who opposed Wolf doubtless had other objections to him than his 
 advocacy of free schools, they protested indeed that his record on 
 this question formed no part of the ground of their opposition ; but 
 it cannot be denied that their followers almost to a man were anti- 
 school men, and the anti-school sentiment was the impulse that 
 gave spirit and strength to the canvas. " No school tax," " No free 
 schools," were the popular inscriptions borne on the Muhlenberg 
 banners. Muhlenberg himself, a gentleman of liberal culture and 
 born of a family always foremost in the work of education, could 
 hardly have had much feeling in common with the mass of his sup- 
 porters ; but he was a Lutheran clergyman, and the Lutheran church 
 at that time having its own parochial schools, with other churches 
 in like circumstances, was as a body hostile to the new State system 
 which it feared would destroy them. The Wolf men boldly accepted 
 the issue and fought their battle under a flag that proudly bore 
 upon its folds the words, "Public Education;" but with Ritner's 
 united forces in front and Muhlenberg's contingent in the rear, suc- 
 cess was impossible, and the heroic Wolf became a martyr to his 
 great idea of an education for all, the poorest as well as the richest. 
 With the true spirit of a martyr, however, he remained unshaken 
 in his faith, and his last message contained the hopeful words : 
 
 There can be no doubt that as the system advances into more general use 
 and its advantages become more apparent, it will increase in favor with the 
 
 (339) 
 
- , Q KD CCA riON IN PENNS YL VAN/A 
 
 people generally, but especially with the more liberal minded and intelligent; 
 that the friends of a virtuous and moral education, to be extended to all the 
 children within our extensive Commonwealth, will eventually triumph, and 
 with the adoption of a few modifications, some of which I understand will be 
 suggested in the report of the Superintendent of Common Schools, there is 
 every reason for confident assurance that the system will work its way into 
 public favor, and will eventually be universally accepted and approved. 
 
 Superintendent Findlay sent his second annual report to the 
 Legislature on the fifth of December. Like the first it is short, and 
 confined mainly to a formal statement of the results of the system 
 and the presentation of a few suggestions in regard to such changes 
 in the law as were deemed advisable. There was encouragement 
 in the following : " The public schools, wherever they have been 
 judiciously managed, have been maintained at a less expense than 
 those which have depended upon private patronage for their sup- 
 port. Many children attend these schools who," without them, 
 probably would never have received any education whatever. In 
 some of the districts, the scholars in the public schools are double 
 the number that was ever taught in private schools before the adop- 
 tion of the general system." 
 
 The amendments suggested to the law were all in the direction 
 of a further localization of the powers of the system. It was recom- 
 mended that the whole power of levying and collecting tax for 
 school purposes be left in the hands of the school directors, and 
 that the people of each school district be allowed to accept or reject 
 the system at meetings of their own, without the intervention of 
 meetings of delegates of school boards at the county towns. County 
 supervision of schools was pressed upon the attention of the Legis- 
 lature in the following words : "To secure to the schools the ser- 
 vices at all times of competent instructors, and to prevent the 
 employment of any who are not, it would be expedient, if not 
 absolutely necessary, to subject them to the visitation of intelligent 
 individuals in the several counties, to be designated by the Super- 
 intendent.'' 
 
 No danger threatened the free schools in the Legislature of 
 1835-6, but an earnest effort was made by practical men to correct 
 the defects of the existing law, and to mould its provisions into 
 working shape. Dr. George Smith, of Delaware, was at the head 
 of the Committee on Education in the'Senate. The other members 
 were Almon H. Read, David Middlecoff, Meek Kelly, and James 
 Paul. Dr. Smith had served as a member of this Committee during 
 
YEARS OF OJiGANIZA TION. 
 
 the two preceding sessions, and had proven himself an intelligent 
 and earnest school man, both in the Legislature and at home, where 
 he was elected one of the first board of school directors organized 
 in his township. He was liberal in all things, and well versed in 
 the natural sciences and general literature. After completing his 
 term in the Senate, he continued to serve as a school director for 
 many years, and, solely for the purpose of strengthening the system 
 by his good name and his standing among the friends of education, 
 he suffered himself to be elected the first County Superintendent in 
 Delaware county, under the Act of 1854, and presided at the first 
 State convention of County Superintendents held at Harrisburg. 
 He published a full and elaborate history of his county, and con- 
 tinued to interest himself in school matters and other public affairs 
 until his death in the winter of 1882. 
 
 The members of the House Committee on Education were Joseph 
 Lawrence, of Washington, Bela Jones, George Mayer, Thomas At- 
 kinson, Charles B. Trego, Charles McClure, and Robert Stinson. 
 For the purpose of freeing, if possible, the school laws then in 
 operation from ambiguity, and adapting them to the conditions in 
 which they were to be enforced, the Committees of the two Houses 
 held a joint meeting, and agreed that with respect to the school law 
 they would act jointly, and that the same bill should be reported 
 simultaneously in each House. Mr. Lawrence, a gentleman of 
 much legislative experience in Congress as well as in the Legisla- 
 ture, was appointed to draw up the bill ; but before he had made 
 any progress in this work, he was elected State Treasurer. The 
 task then devolved on Dr. Smith; and as nearly two months of the 
 session had already passed, he states that he submitted his draft to 
 but three persons before laying it before the Committee — Thaddeus 
 Stevens, Charles B. Trego, and Almon H. Read — neither of whom 
 suggested any change of importance, and the Committee without 
 altering a single word directed it to be reported to the two Houses 
 as agreed upon. The further progress of the bill is best told in the 
 language of its author : " The bill was first considered in the Senate, 
 where it met with considerable opposition, which was mostly exhib- 
 ited in the shape of proposed amendments that were in great part 
 of- a kind calculated to injure or destroy its object or effectiveness. 
 One of these, which came in the shape of a substitute for the whole 
 bill, far more complicated than the Act of 1834, only failed by a tie 
 vote. The bill on its final passage was carried by a vote of seven 
 
ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN [A. 
 
 teen yeas to eleven nays. In the House the amendments to the 
 bill were very numerous, but the larger proportion of them were 
 either non-concurred in, or were agreed to after being themselves 
 amended. To secure this result imposed great labor on the Chair- 
 man of the Committee. The disagreement between the two Houses 
 eventually resulted in the appointment of a Committee of Confer- 
 ence. The report of this Committee shows how very sensitive 
 some of the members were lest non-accepting districts would lose a 
 share of the State appropriation. But for the extra session, I doubt 
 whether any school law could have been passed that year." 
 
 The school law of 1836 was not a supplement to the school law 
 of 1834; it passed under the title of "An Act to Consolidate and 
 Amend the Several Acts Relative to a General System of Education 
 by Common Schools." Much material was taken from the older 
 law, but the structure erected was, as. a whole, new and much bet- 
 ter adapted to its purpose. The real foundation of our present 
 system of common schools is the law of 1836, many of its leading 
 provisions remaining to this day in full force. The law is substan- 
 tially the same now as it was then in regard to the formation of 
 school districts, the election of school directors, and the organiza- 
 tion of school boards, the powers and duties of school directors, the 
 levying and collecting of taxes for school purposes, and the duties 
 of the State Superintendent, time but proving its wisdom in these 
 respects. But some notable changes have been made in it as it 
 then stood. Public meetings of citizens are not now called to 
 determine the amount of tax that may be levied for school pur- 
 poses ; children are no longer admitted to a public school at the 
 age of four years; sub-districts long since ceased to cumber the 
 system with their petty interests forever clashing, and no elections 
 are now held for the purpose of voting " schools " or " no schools." 
 In districts rejecting the system under the law of 1836, the poor 
 were to be taught gratuitously under the law of 1809, and with 
 a view to overcome the opposition of certain religious societies, 
 but in violation of the principle on which free schools are founded, 
 it was provided that "Where a school is or shall hereafter be 
 endowed, by bequest or otherwise, the board of directors of the 
 district in which such school is located, are hereby authorized to 
 allow such school to remain under the immediate direction of the 
 regularly appointed trustees of the same, and appropriate so much 
 of the district school fund to said school as they may think just and 
 
YEAKS OF Organization: ,43 
 
 reasonable, Provided, That such school shall be generally con- 
 ducted in conformity with the common school system of this Com- 
 monwealth." 
 
 By the concluding section of the Act, Philadelphia was author- 
 ized to establish a Central High School "for the full education of 
 such pupils of the public schools of the First School District as 
 may possess the requisite qualifications;" and that part of the Act 
 of 181 8 which made the Lancasterian system obligatory in Phila- 
 delphia, and which limited the benefits of the public schools to the 
 children of indigent parents, was repealed. 
 
 In the law of 1836 the public school policy of Pennsylvania 
 assumed definite shape and became permanently fixed; and as it 
 was of home growth and different in some respects from the public 
 school policy of other States and countries, it is well to summarize 
 in this place those of its features deemed peculiar. 
 
 First, the system was not made compulsory in the districts. A 
 majority of voters could either accept or reject it. Under the law 
 of 1834, when once accepted, no way was provided of setting 
 it aside ; but, under the law of 1836, an accepting district could have 
 a chance to vote to discontinue it every three years. This privilege 
 of voting " schools " and " no schools " remained with the districts 
 until 1848, when the law, having been tested and approved by the 
 people, was made general. 
 
 Second, up to 1848, State appropriations were made available 
 only to accepting districts, and since that time they have been made 
 available only to districts that keep schools open according to law 
 for a certain prescribed term. They are paid by the State Superin- 
 tendent, who is the judge as to whether the necessary conditions 
 have been complied with. These appropriations therefore have had 
 much to do in bringing about an accceptance of the system, and in 
 securing its efficient local administration. They have always been 
 a lever used to remove obstructions blocking the way, and to lift 
 the system from a lower to a higher plane. 
 
 Third, public schools in Pennsylvania have always been entirely 
 free. Pupils were never required to pay tuition fees. Rate-bills, so 
 common in the public schools of our older States and abroad, never 
 had an existence in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Fourth, the school districts have always conformed substantially 
 with the political divisions of the State, cities, boroughs, townships. 
 In the earlier laws a ward in a city or borough was a school district. 
 
,^ ED UCA TION IX PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 A district now contains on an average about eight schools; the 
 number has of course increased with the population. 
 
 Fifth, the concentration of all the most essential powers of the 
 system in local boards of six directors, elected by the people and 
 responsible to them. 
 
 Sixth, in the earlier school laws the school age was from four to 
 twenty-one, in the later ones from six to twenty-one ; and it has 
 from the first been considered legal for school boards to grade the 
 schools under their care and to establish high schools. Whatever 
 may have been the opinions of individuals in regard to the proper 
 function of common schools, Pennsylvania never had a law on her 
 statute-book limiting the teaching in such schools to the elementary 
 branches. 
 
 While the Legislature of 1835-6 was engaged in an effort to 
 enact a new school law that would meet the wishes as well as the 
 wants of the people and to transact the other business that claimed 
 their attention, Joseph Ritner, who now occupied the gubernatorial 
 chair, was striving to master the duties of the place and to adopt a 
 policy for his administration. Governor Ritner most likely enjoyed 
 fewer of the advantages of education than any other Governor the 
 State has ever had. Born on a farm in Berks county, in 1780, his 
 help was so much needed in working it that all the education he 
 could obtain was six months in a country school at the early age of 
 six years. But notwithstanding this deficiency, with a taste for read- 
 ing and a supply of good books from the hbrary of an uncle, he was 
 able to acquire a large amount of solid information, and to become a 
 good writer and speaker and a man of sound practical judgment. 
 He was elected a member of the House of Representatives from 
 Washington county in 1820 and served six years, the last two years 
 in the Speaker's chair. He was twice defeated as a candidate for 
 Governor by Wolf before he reached the office and once afterwards 
 by Porter; and he undoubtedly owed his election in 1835 to the di- 
 vision in the Democratic party, countenanced if not caused by the 
 anti.school men. Mindfiil of the assi.stance thus received and of the 
 fact that many who supported him directly were violently opposed 
 to the law of 1834 and expected him to favor its repeal, it might be 
 supposed that he would either join hands with the enemies of free 
 schools or occupy a neutral position on the question. He was ear- 
 nestly urged to adopt one of these courses by some of the warmest 
 and most influential of his political friends, but to his honor be it 
 
YEARS OF ORGANIZATION. ,.f 
 
 said, he never yielded for a moment to their short-sighted soHcita- 
 tions, but hke his predecessor, with true German tenacity, was an 
 earnest and hberal advocate of free schools during his whole term 
 of office and to the end of his days. 
 
 Increased taxation was the bugbear with which the anti-free 
 school men frightened the people — the pocket was the tender nerve 
 they touched when seeking their votes ; none, therefore, can fail to 
 admire the courage of Governor Ritner, who in his very first mes- 
 sage risked his own popularity, and the popularity of his adminis- 
 tration, by recommending a largely increased State appropriation 
 to common schools. This appropriation had been 1^75,000 a year 
 for the first two years; the Legislature of 1835-6 increased it 
 to ^200,000 ; Ritner, to the astonishment of both the friends and 
 the enemies of free schools, proposed a still further increase of 
 ^600,000, making in all ^800,000. The Legislature in response 
 voted ^700,000, the largest sum in proportion to population ever 
 appropriated to common schools. Included in this appropriation 
 was a portion of the surplus revenue distributed at that time by the 
 General Government among the several States. ^500,000 of the 
 amount was intended to be used mainly in building and repairing 
 schoolhouses, and was called by the Governor the "schoolhouse 
 fund." It came at a most opportune time, for in multitudes of dis- 
 tricts it required all the money they could raise in the ordinary way 
 to provide themselves with schoolhouses under the new system, and 
 in consequence the children were receiving less instruction than 
 under the old one. By his bold and liberal course in regard to 
 these enlarged appropriations, the Governor did more to strengthen 
 the cause of free schools than all the fine paragraphs of mere words 
 that could have been written in a hundred messages. 
 
 In his second message, the Governor urged the increase of the 
 permanent annual appropriation to ^300,000, the part of his recom- 
 mendation of the year before which had failed, and adds: "If it be 
 admitted that wholesome cultivation of the moral and mental facul- 
 ties not only raises the character, increases the happiness and per- 
 petuates the liberties of a nation, but actually adds to its wealth, by 
 bringing the best energies of the mind and all the stores of experi- 
 ence and science to aid the practical business of life, no other appeal 
 need be made in favor of common school education." His third 
 message contained a recommendation advising the separation of the 
 two offices of Secretary of the Commonwealth and Superintendent 
 
g EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 of Common Schools, and the estabUshment of a Department 
 of Common Schools, a step taken twenty years later. By an 
 Act passed the preceding year in accordance with his recom- 
 mendation for an increase, the State appropriation to common 
 schools was made equal to a dollar for each taxable inhabitant, 
 and the Governor took evident pride in saying in this message,, 
 which was to be his last, that during his term the permanent annual 
 State contribution to school purposes had increased from ^75,000 to 
 ^400,000. He also pointed out the system's greatest need in these 
 words : " All that seems requisite to the complete success of the sys- 
 tem is that some immediate and efficient means be adopted for the 
 preparation of common school teachers." 
 
 Retiring to private life, Governor Ritner fixed his residence in 
 Cumberland county, where he had worked on a farm in his youth 
 and where he had married. He lived to be near ninety years old, 
 and up to his last years he took an active interest in everything 
 relating to the schools of the people he had done so much to estab- 
 lish, attending and frequently presiding at teachers' institutes and 
 educational meetings, and, at the advanced age of eighty years, 
 traveled all the way to Edinboro, Erie county, to serve on a board 
 appointed by the State Superintendent to consider the claims of a 
 school at that place to be recognized as a State Normal School. A 
 short time before his death, upon being asked his age, he signifi- 
 cantly replied, " Old enough to have no enemies ! " 
 
 Governor Ritner's Secretary of the Commonwealth and Superin- 
 tendent of Common Schools was Thomas H. Burrowes. At the 
 time of his appointment Mr. Burrowes was only thirty years of age, 
 and without any experience whatever in school affairs. Educated 
 exclusively by private tutors or in private schools, and mostly 
 abroad, his interest in the elevation of the poorer classes of society 
 by means of universal education had not yet been awakened. As 
 a member of the House of Representatives from Lancaster county, 
 in 1831-2 and 1832-3, he had voted with the opponents of a general 
 system of education. Of his own fitness for the office of Superin- 
 tendent of Schools at that period he said at a later day : " I knew 
 about as much of the details of school afifairs as I did of the local 
 geography of the moon." His appointment was therefore at first 
 very distasteful to the friends of free schools, and the old soldiers 
 in the Legislature, who had fought so long and so hard to establish 
 them, justly feared that the administration of the new system had 
 
YEARS OF ORGANIZATION. ,^- 
 
 fallen into unfriendly hands, and for months they withheld their 
 full confidence from it. 
 
 Never were men more agreeably disappointed. Ignorant of his 
 duties, but determined to master them, oppressed with the magni- 
 tude, of the undertaking but not shrinking from it, with increasing 
 strength and growing interest as the task progressed, the new State 
 Superintendent began the great work of organizing the system and 
 putting the schools in operation. During the three years he 
 remained in office he pressed forward this work with so much ability 
 and zeal and with such a measure of success that his name well 
 deserves to be ranked among the chief benefactors of free schools. 
 Out of office, he continued to serve the cause he had learned to love 
 as a school director, as a contributor of educational articles to news- 
 papers and magazines, as the founder and editor of the Pennsylvania 
 School Journal, as a prominent participator in teachers' institutes 
 and educational meetings, as the friend and adviser of those intrusted 
 with the administration of schools, and as the originator of school 
 policies and the framer of school laws ; indeed, so wise was his coun- 
 sel deemed and so willing was he to render assistance, that to the 
 end of his days it may be safely said no important measure concern- 
 ing the interests of public education in the State was adopted that 
 he did not aid in shaping. Called to the post of State Superintend- 
 ent a second time during the first years of the civil war, in addition 
 to his general duties, with a father's care he labored hard to protect 
 the schools from the disturbing influences that threatened to weaken 
 or destroy them. Towards the end of the war and after its close, he 
 superintended the organization of the Soldiers' Orphan Schools, by 
 which many thousands of children left destitute by the death of 
 their fathers while fighting for their country were maintained and 
 educated ; and he was President of the State Agricultural College 
 when he died, in 1871, thus closing in harness a long career of edu- 
 cational usefulness. 
 
 Apart from the correspondence relating to schools which pressed 
 upon his attention, Bufrowes' first official act as Superintendent of 
 Schools was to prepare and present to the Legislature what he 
 called a " Supplementary Report," called supplementary because the 
 regular report for the year had already been read in the two Houses 
 and published. It was dated February 19, 1837, and was evidently 
 written before his judgment on educational subjects had fully 
 ripened. Some of the views expressed in it were soon afterwards 
 
, . 3 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 changed. Among other things he recommends that accepting 
 school districts be allowed to discontinue the system when they be- 
 come dissatisfied with it ; that education in the common schools be 
 rigorously limited to " the elements of a good business education," 
 " reading, writing and arithmetic;" that no schools of higher grade 
 than primary be established unless the directors have in hand " sur- 
 plus funds " which they can use for the purpose, and that no children 
 above the age of fifteen years be admitted into the schools. In re- 
 gard to the branches which ought to be taught and the age at which 
 children should be admitted into school he says : " No community 
 would or should bear the tax necessary to build schoolhouses and 
 pay teachers, sufficient for the instruction of all persons among them 
 under twenty-one years of age, in all branches of education which 
 may be conveyed by means of their own language. It is defeating 
 the very object we wish to obtain." Even at this early day he 
 clearly saw the chief defect of the system and thus points it out : 
 "Teachers, then, well qualified, well paid, respected, professional 
 teachers, are the chief want of the system ;" but with the haste of 
 one wholly inexperienced he adds : " In three years from the passage 
 of a proper Act on the subject, the whole business of common 
 school teaching might be regenerated in Pennsylvania. A new 
 profession might be created; a profession of the most uniform, 
 respectable and useful kind." He thinks two institutions, one in 
 each end of the State, under the care of two of the Colleges then in 
 operation, " would soon produce a complete revolution in teaching," 
 and earnestly recommends an appropriation of ^10,000 for the pur- 
 pose of their establishment. 
 
 Narrow and crude as were some of the views and recommenda- 
 tions in this report, there was still enough in it to show that its 
 author was able and earnest, and to give promise of the good that 
 was to come. The needed schooling for the duties of the place 
 came mostly in the shape of the voluminous correspondence that 
 required attention. The system was new and badly understood, 
 and there were not then as now local officers tompetent to enlighten 
 the school boards and the people in regard to the proper construc- 
 tion of the law, or the practical details of its application. In con- 
 sequence, every mail brought to Harrisburg, from all parts of the 
 State, a multitude of letters. The copied answers remaining in the 
 Department show that, although the correspondence of the Secre- 
 tary of the Commonwealth was then much greater than now, as all 
 
YEAns OF organization: ,.q 
 
 the county officers, judges, aad other magistrates, were appointed 
 by the Governor, and a vast system of public improvements was in 
 full progress, he scarcely wrote one-third the number of letters that 
 were written by the Superintendent of Common Schools. Informa- 
 tion was constantly asked concerning every detail of the system, 
 the election and organization of school boards, the location of 
 schoolhouses,- the assessment and collection of school taxes, the 
 distribution of the State appropriation, the examination and qualifi- 
 cation of teachers, the selection of branches of study and text- 
 books, the use of the Scriptures and the Catechism in school, school 
 government in all its branches, the residence of pupils, the opposi- 
 tion to free schools, etc., etc. To attend promptly to this immense 
 correspondence taxed to the utmost the powers of the Superintend- 
 ent; but it was just the discipline he needed to make him what he 
 became, the great organizer of the system. His letters as a whole 
 are a marvel of perspicuity, and furnish striking evidence of the 
 study given the subject in all its bearings, and the care taken in 
 their preparation. When the writing of letters became over bur- 
 densome, resort was had to printed general notices and circulars, 
 of which a number was issued. Some two or three months after 
 its passage, the Superintendent published in a pamphlet of twenty- 
 two pages and forwarded to every school director in the State, the 
 Act of 1836, "with explanatory instructions and forms for carrying 
 it into operation," together with forms for all the official acts of 
 school directors. This was the first publication of the kind issued 
 by the School Department, and doubtless furnished the model of 
 all documents of a similar character published since that time. 
 
 Burrowes' first regular report, dated February 17, 1837, was a 
 more elaborate and a much better considered paper than his report 
 of the year before, although far from being as sound as the work of 
 his maturer years. He starts out by congratulating the Legisla- 
 ture " on the prosperous condition and cheering prospects of the 
 common school cause." "At length," he says, "it has reached a 
 point in its progress aS an experiment, at which the certainty of its 
 success may be confidently announced." A summary of the statis- 
 tics given is as follows : 
 
 The whole number of districts in the State 987 
 
 The number that had accepted the system 742 
 
 The increase during the year 209 
 
 The number of common schools in operation 3.384 
 
. ,Q ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 The increase during the year 2,622 
 
 The number of teachers, male, 2,428, female, 966 3,394 
 
 The increase during the year 2,586 
 
 The number of pupils in the schools 150,838 
 
 The increase during the year 118,294 
 
 The number of children taught at public expense prior to 1834. . . 32,544 
 The number of children in the State between the ages of five and fif- 
 teen about 320,000 
 
 Average salaries of male teachers per month S18.38 
 
 " " female " " 11.96 
 
 " time schools viexe. open 4 mo. 3 days. 
 
 The amount and kind of work done in the School Department is 
 
 thus stated : 
 
 During the year, three hundred decisions in cases of controversy, and letters 
 of advice and explanation connected with the system, were written by the 
 Superintendent. These have all been recorded in a book kept for the pur- 
 pose. Fifteen hundred circular letters accompanying warrants for the pay- 
 ment of State appropriation, forms for reports, and on other occasions, have 
 been sent from the ofifice. An account has been opened with, and their 
 proportion of public money forwarded to six hundred and three accepting 
 districts under the present, and seventy-six warrants sent to counties under 
 the former law. A copy of the school law of June last, in pamphlet form, 
 accompanied with explanations, instructions and forms to facilitate its opera- 
 tion, was prepared and sent to the Commissioners of each county, for every 
 school director in the Commonwealth, either in English or German ; eighteen 
 hundred letters, certificates and reports have been received, attended to and 
 filed away ; and the necessary calculations for the distribution of the pubUc 
 money, by means of warrants on the State Treasury, made. 
 
 The following is a " condensed view " of the defects pointed out 
 in the law as it then stood, with the remedies proposed by the 
 Superintendent : 
 
 Deficiency of funds — to be remedied first by the donation of a schoolhouse 
 fund of ^500,000 ; and, second, by the addition of jSioo.ooo to the instruction 
 fund. 
 
 Over taxation — to be corrected by the increase of State aid. 
 
 Want of competent teachers— to be supplied, first, by the increase of funds 
 to secure better ; and, second, by the establishment of institutions for their 
 preparation. 
 
 Want of attention and energy in directors — ^to be obviated, first, by decreas- 
 ing their number from six to three ; and. second, by allowing them and the 
 other officers a moderate compensation. 
 
 The admissibility of all persons over four years of age into the schools — to 
 be remedied by a restriction to five and sixteen years, with power in directors 
 to admit persons over the latter age when necessary. 
 
 Want of restriction in the branches of study— to be remedied, first, by limit- 
 ing to reading, writing, grammar, composition, geography, history, arithmetic 
 and book-keeping ; and, second, by the establishment of secondary schools 
 for the higher branches. 
 
YEARS OF ORGANIZATION. ,1. j 
 
 In order that the ^500,000 appropriated by the Legislature in 
 1837, for the purpose of aiding school boards in the erection and 
 improvement of schoolhouses, might be used to the best advantage, 
 the Superintendent prepared and transmitted to each school district 
 an engraved plan of the interior arrangements and furniture of a 
 primary schoolroom. This plan was used in remodeling hundreds 
 of old schoolhouses and in building many new ones. 
 
 Nor did the Superintendent remain in his office, simply perform- 
 ing the work that came to his hand. In the Summer and Fall of 
 1837, and again at the same season in 1838, he spent some months 
 in visiting the different counties, where he addressed public meet- 
 ings, counseled with directors and teachers, explained the school 
 law, settled disputes and differences, gathered stores of information 
 for himself, and infused life into the working of the system. In this 
 way all the counties were visited except eight, personal interviews 
 were had with more than two thousand directors and large num- 
 bers of teachers and citizens interested in education, and numerous 
 schools and some Academies and Colleges were inspected. In 
 recognition of these useful services, the Legislature voted an 
 increase of salary to the amount of five hundred dollars a year. 
 
 No document that ever emanated from the School Department 
 is more worthy of study than Burrowes' third report, made in Feb- 
 ruary, 1838. It is a masterly presentation of its author's views, 
 matured by the experience of three years in the office of Superin- 
 tendent, on the subject of public education in the State, present and 
 prospective. The following paragraph will show how much these 
 views had broadened in regard to the aim of the system since the 
 writing of his first report : 
 
 The question which has been settled by the adoption of the Common 
 School system does not merely declare that the people of Pennsylvania will 
 have reading, writing, and arithmetic taught, at the cheapest possible rate, to 
 all, in half a dozen comfortable schoolhouses in each township. This, to 
 be sure, is determined, and is of itself a great deal. But greater and better 
 things have been willed by the same vote. In the deep and broad founda- 
 tion of the Primary Common School are also found the bases of the more 
 elevated Secondary School, the Practical Institute for the teacher and 
 the man of business, the Academy for the classical student, the College for 
 his instruction in the higher branches of science and literature, and the tow- 
 ering University, from which the richest stores of professional learning will 
 be disseminated. 
 
 The space of fifty years has not sufficed to bring into existence 
 the " secondary school " of which he spoke thus sanguinely : 
 
,._ EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. | 
 
 In other ages and countries, the lower orders might be confined to the rudi- 
 ments of knowledge, while the higher branches were dispensed to the privi- 
 leged classes, in distant and expensive seminaries. But here we have no lower 
 orders. Our statesmen and our higher magistrates, our professional men and 
 our capitalists, our philosophers and our poets, our merchants and our me- 
 chanics, all spring alike from the mass, and principally from the agricultural 
 portion of the people. Of that portion few can afford to send their sons to 
 the distant boarding school, to satisfy the thirst for increased knowledge ac- 
 quired in the primary school. But satisfied it must be. The result will be 
 that if their sons cannot be sent to the distant higher schools, the higher 
 schools will be brought to their sons. This must be the case, because the 
 parents thus circumstanced form the majority, and their decision will effect 
 the object. The Secondary Common School will rise up in every district in 
 the State, and within reach of all. The pupils who attend these will be of 
 more advanced age and of greater strength than the primary scholars. They 
 will consequently be able to walk much farther to and from school: and in 
 this fact will be found the limit of their number. Three miles to school will 
 be about as far as the most distant should walk ; and thus we shall have the 
 secondary schools within six miles of each other over the whole State. 
 
 Higher education has taken other directions than that contem- 
 plated in the report, but its liberal views are not the less to be com- 
 mended in projecting, as the outgrowth and culmination of the sys- 
 tem of schools then in course of development, the broad scheme of 
 "Practical Institutes," free to the most deserving pupils of the high- 
 est grade of common schools, and County Academies, Colleges and 
 Universities, united by a common interest and so aided by State ap- 
 propriations as to be able to open their doors to all who desired to 
 enter. 
 
 The great wants of the system are stated to be increased State 
 appropriations and the improvement of teachers. In regard to the 
 latter, the report speaks of the two modes of preparing teachers 
 that had been partially tried, viz., that by means of the County 
 Academies and that by means of the Colleges. Both classes of in- 
 stitutions had been aided by the State with a view of securing from 
 them in return a supply of well-qualified teachers for the common 
 schools, but as stated the result had been unsatisfactory. In conse- 
 quence, strong ground was taken in favor of the immediate establish- 
 ment of two Teachers' Seminaries, with provision for the establish- 
 ment of three or four more in different parts of the State, as needed. 
 Such schools, it was held, should devote themselves mainly to teach- 
 ing the "art of instruction;" "knowledge in the other arts and 
 sciences should only be imparted as incidental and secondary." 
 "Model schools" would enable the "scholar teachers" to learn how 
 to teach others. 
 
YEARS OF ORGANIZATION. -,r-. 
 
 The report reckons among the benefits of the fi-ee school law the 
 following : the profession of teaching has been much elevated, the 
 compensation of teachers is increasing, inquiry for the best school 
 books has become more general, the odious distinction in school 
 between the children of the rich and the poor has passed away, 
 schoolhouses have improved one hundred per cent, within three 
 years, and the number of children attending school has fully doubled. 
 
 The school law of 1836 is thus commended: "This State has 
 been most 'fortunate in the provisions of the school law of 1836. 
 All the ingenuity of the human mind, unaided by actual experience, 
 could hardly have formed an act better adapted to commence and 
 foster the system. It has stood the test of trial, and is found only 
 to require a modification of its details so as to adapt it more com- 
 pletely to our peculiar circumstances, and to the rapid advance we 
 have made in popular education." 
 
 In a concluding paragraph, the Superintendent indulged in a word 
 of just pride with reference to the results of his work : 
 
 The undersigned has now fulfilled a duty of no ordinary magnitude. From 
 a small incident to the office he has the honor to hold, the common school 
 department of its business has grown up so as to occupy more than one half 
 of his time and nearly all his thoughts. It was a mere experiment — it is now 
 a settled system. The great design of her public works is now largely and 
 rapidly developing the unbounded physical resources of Pennsylvania. The 
 mighty agency of the Free School will, if properly cherished and directed, 
 bring out into employment the much more incalcuable and precious treasures 
 of her mind. Like the same system, that of education only needs a continu- 
 ation of the fostering care which heretofore sustained and strengthened its 
 usefulness. If this be extended, Pennsylvania will, in a very few years, be 
 less celebrated for her canals and railroads, than for her schools and her 
 Colleges. 
 
 With his own report, the Superintendent transmitted to the Leg- 
 islature the report of Rev. Calvin E. Stowe, of Ohio, containing his 
 observations on the schools of several countries in Europe. In ac- 
 cordance with the recommendation that accompanied the report, 
 this valuable document was reprinted by order of the Legislature, 
 and in connection with the home report, largely circulated in pam- 
 phlet form. 
 
 The Legislature of 1837-8, added the sum of ^108,919 to the 
 regular appropriation of ;?200,ooo, making the whole amount appro- 
 priated to common schools for that year ;^3o8,9i9, and provided 
 that such a sum should be appropriated annually thereafter as 
 would make the amount equal to one dollar for each taxable citizen 
 23 
 
- ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 in the Commonwealth. With this liberal enactment were passed 
 several sections forming a Supplement to the law of 1836, amend- 
 ing that law in a few particulars calculated to perfect its practical 
 working. Improvements were made in the method of collecting 
 the school tax, a provision was inserted for vacating the seats of 
 negligent directors and filling them with men who would attend to 
 the duties of the place, it was enacted that an accepting district 
 could discontinue the system at any triennial meeting by a clear 
 majority of the votes actually polled instead of by the' votes of a 
 majority of the whole number of taxable citizens, and free schools 
 in accepting districts maintained by religious societies were hence- 
 forth allowed to receive a proper proportion of the school money 
 only on condition that the directors were satisfied that they were 
 not "injurious" to the common schools of the district. This Leg- 
 , islature was not only remarkable for the support it gave to the 
 common schools, but for the aid it extended to Colleges and Acad- 
 emies. A bill specially favored in the House by William H. Dil- 
 lingham, of Chester, and Thaddeus Stevens, of Adams, was passed 
 making a liberal annual appropriation for ten years to the incorpor- 
 ated Colleges and Academies of the State which were able to com- 
 ply with certain easy conditions. 
 
 Soon after its passage, the Superintendent of Common Schools 
 issued the Supplement of 1838 in pamphlet form with appropriate 
 explanatory remarks. He also published a pamphlet entitled " Reg- 
 ulations for Common School Districts." It consisted of two parts: 
 " General District Regulations," and " Internal Regulations of the 
 Schools." This was a most timely and an exceedingly useful pub- 
 lication, covering, with detailed explanations and instructions, the 
 entire field of the duties of school directors. " The Internal Reg- 
 ulations of the Schools" were very full, embracing, among other 
 things, rules under the heads of Discipline, Punishments, School 
 Hours, Classes, Books, Studies, Order of Exercises, Seats, Sweep- 
 ing School Room, Making Fires, Monitors. The intention was 
 that boards of directors should formally adopt them, and then have 
 them published and suspended in a conspicuous part of the school- 
 room. Many pursued this course. 
 
 At the election in 1838, Governor Ritner was defeated by David 
 R. Porter. Superintendent Burrowes found time, notwithstanding 
 the heat of the political contest in which he was prominently en- 
 gaged as chairman of the State Committee of his party, before sur- 
 
YEARS OF ORGANIZATION. ,55 
 
 rendering his office, to prepare and submit to the Legislature, with 
 explanatory remarks, two bills, one " To Consolidate and Amend 
 the Several Acts relative to Common Schools," and the other en- 
 titled, " An Act to provide or the Establishment of Institutions for 
 the Preparation of Common School Teachers." The first was a 
 bill of sixty-eight sections, based mainly upon the law of 1836, but 
 arranged in logical order by subjects, and expressed in clear and 
 concise language. All the, provisions of existing acts relating to 
 common schools were covered by this bill, and it included a num- 
 ber of additions and amendments. The most noteworthy of the 
 new sections were those which provided for the establishment of 
 secondary or graded schools in country districts, and for the teach- 
 ing of branches in the primary schools as follows : " Reading, Writ- 
 ing and Arithmetic thoroughly, and the rudiments of Grammar, 
 Geography, History, Drawing and Vocal Music." The second bill 
 consisted of only three sections, and simply provided for the 
 appointment of a commissioner for one year to investigate the want 
 of well-trained professional teachers, and the best means of supply- 
 ing them, such commissioner to present a report to the Legislature 
 accompanied by a bill. 
 
 Neither of these bills appears to have been acted upon in the 
 Legislature, but they were published, and served to educate public 
 sentiment and to direct future legislation. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. 
 
 FROM 1838 TO 1852. governors: porter, SHUNK, JOHNSTON. SUPERIN- 
 TENDENTS: SHUNK, PARSONS, M'CLURE, MILLER, HAINES, RUSSELL. 
 
 THE day of agitation and debate has passed. A well-organized 
 public school system is a fixed fact in Pennsylvania. The army 
 that fought the fight for free schools and stood guard over their 
 infancy has disbanded, and quiet reigns on fields where a short 
 time ago foemen were wont to engage in furious battle. 
 
 From 1839 ^° 1852, three Governors sat in the Executive Chair: 
 David R. Porter, Francis R. Shunk, and William F. Johnston. All 
 of them in their annual messages expressed an interest in public 
 education, but neither gave the question of schools much promi- 
 nence, or assumed the advocacy of any particular measure for their 
 improvement. What they had to say never extended beyond two 
 or three short paragraphs, and was frequently limited to a single 
 one. Porter thought the principal defect in the system was the 
 want of competent teachers and the need of better school books; 
 and in his second message recommended the Legislature to con- 
 sider " whether a regard for the public interest does not require the 
 separation of the duties of the Superintendent of Common Schools 
 from those of the Secretary of the Commonwealth." Shunk had 
 been Superintendent of Common Schools under Porter, but as Gover- 
 nor he did not make a single recommendation concerning education. 
 In one of his messages he stated that he had visited the public 
 schools in Philadelphia, and was much pleased with their manage- 
 ment. Johnston, in 1849, expressed his "unfeigned pleasure" that 
 the common school system had at length been adopted throughout 
 the whole State. He would increase its funds and provide better 
 teachers, and thought " the establishment of Normal Schools in the 
 different counties worthy of the consideration of the Legislature." 
 
 The Superintendents of Common Schools from 1838 to 1852 
 were Francis R. Shunk, Anson V. Parsons, Charles McClure, Jesse 
 Miller, Townsend Haines, and Alexander L. Russell. All of these 
 
 (356) 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. 
 
 357 
 
 gentlemen were distinguished lawyers and politicians. Their inter- 
 est in education or their knowledge of school administration were 
 not taken into account in their appointment. The law by which 
 they were made to discharge the duties of Superintendent of Com- 
 mon Schools did not require them to go out into the field to visit 
 schools^ to instruct teachers, to enlighten public sentiment, or to 
 lead the educational forces of the State in the fight against ignor- 
 ance, and they undertook little work of this kind. In the office, at 
 Harrisburg, they answered inquiries, gave advice, made decisions 
 on points of law, issued warrants for the State appropriation, re- 
 ceived reports from the districts, and made annual reports to the 
 Legislature; but beyond the discharge of these and other like 
 duties incident to the place, the system was simply let alone to 
 accomplish what it could by its own unaided strength. The decis- 
 ions made during this period on questions of school law, and of 
 school law in relation to the general civil code, are mostly broad 
 and well-considered, doing miich then and since to establish the 
 public schools on a firm basis. Perhaps it was best that the foun- 
 dations of the system should be thus strongly and soundly laid, 
 even at the expense of that professional ability and enthusiasm 
 which were to come to the front at a later day. 
 
 Francis R. Shunk was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth 
 and Superintendent of Common Schools by Governor Porter. He 
 was born in Montgomery county in 1788. His grandfather was one 
 of the thousands of Germans who, unable to live at peace in their 
 native land, sought early in the eighteenth century a resting place 
 in Pennsylvania. His parents were in moderate circumstances, 
 but he found means, mostly between hours of labor, to acquire suffi- 
 cient knowledge to enable him to teach at the age of fifteen a 
 country school. He continued to teach in the winter and work on 
 a farm in the summer for about ten years, when he was appointed a 
 clerk in the Surveyor General's office at Harrisburg. There he 
 studied law, served as clerk of the House of Representatives and 
 clerk of the Board of Canal Commissioners and, in 1839, became 
 Superintendent of Common Schools. His administration was emi- 
 nently conservative, firm in holding fast that which had proven good, 
 but averse to all doubtful experiments or novelties in legislation. 
 
 Superintendent Shunk made four annual reports. The first is brief, 
 and contains little beyond a statement of the statistics of the system 
 for the preceding year. It opens with the judicious remark that the 
 
, [, g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 " Superintendent having lately entered upon the duties of the office, 
 is not prepared to submit commentaries upon or alterations or 
 improvements of the system. To do this with effect, experience and 
 practical observation are required." 
 
 The second report is a document of more than the usual length 
 and of marked ability. By way of introduction, it speak^ of the 
 attention given of late to popular education in European countries 
 and in sister States, and presents' an admirable summary of the 
 school legislation of Pennsylvania since 1834. Then follow the 
 details of the operation of the system for the past year. This formal 
 part of his report disposed of, the Superintendent proceeds to point 
 out the obstacles which at that time retarded the progre.ss of the 
 system, and to suggest means for their removal. The most promi- 
 nent obstacle named is the want of a sufficient number of well-quali- 
 fied teachers. The Superintendent considers twenty dollars a month 
 for male teachers, and twelve dollars a month for female teachers, 
 about the salaries then paid, entirely inadequate to command the 
 services of the kind of teachers that ought to be employed in 
 the schools. With the view of enlightening publit opinion on the 
 subject and thus securing more and better qualified teachers, he 
 states that he had addressed a circular to each board of school 
 directors in the State, recommending them to hold public meetings 
 and endeavor to induce the people to consider the wants of the sys- 
 tem and make an effort to supply them. 
 
 Something of the schoolmaster as well as of the statesman appears 
 in the following paragraphs : 
 
 It is also hoped that some competent individual, abounding in practical 
 knowledge upon the subject, will prepare and publish a manual for the teach- 
 ers of our primary schools, in which the best means, which experience in this 
 and other countries furnishes, for imparting instruction in the branches taught 
 in these schools, will be systematized. If all that is known upon this inter- 
 esting subject were thus embodied by a master hand, the work would be of 
 incalculable value. There are many men who possess the adequate knowl- 
 edge for teachers who are defective in the art of communicating it. These 
 would be greatly benefited by the wisdom and experience of the best teach- 
 ers of the age. 
 
 Connected with the art of teaching scholars is that of governing a school ; 
 this, like that of governing communities, is a science, the principles of which, 
 if properly arranged by the light of experience and philosophy, would add 
 an inestimable item to the knowledge of our teachers. The barbarous system 
 •of governing the mind by the infliction of stripes upon the body, would, like 
 ;the penal code of other times, soon be ameliorated by a correct illustration of 
 this science; and the schoolroom, under a proper system of government, 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. ,e 
 
 adapted to this enlightened age, would be the delight, instead of being, as it 
 now too often is, the terror of our children. 
 
 Normal Schools or Teachers' Seminaries are earnestly recom- 
 mended as the best means of supplying the primary schools with a 
 sufficient number of well-qualified teachers. On this subject it is 
 urged : 
 
 That the work be commenced by dividing the Slate into a convenient 
 number of Normal School districts, not more than five, and authorizing the 
 appointment of three school commissioners in each of the districts, with 
 power to collect information upon the subject of organizing, governing and 
 conducting Teachers' Seminaries, the branches to be taught, the mode of in- 
 struction, the expenses, &c. That they meet on a certain day, and, .in con- 
 junction with the Superintendent of Common Schools, examine and deliber- 
 ate upon all the information obtained, and adopt a plan for the establishment 
 of Normal Schools in the several districts, at such time and in such manner 
 as may be directed by law. It would be prudent to make provision for erect- 
 ing one of these institutions at an early period, in the central district, for the 
 purpose of testing the utility and practicability of the plan. 
 
 As a valuable means of diffusing knowledge, the report advo- 
 cates the establishment of common school libraries after the manner 
 of New York and Massachusetts. It says : 
 
 Among the most prominent advances to be made, is the establishment of 
 common school libraries in every school district. This cheap, simple and 
 efficient method of placing within the reach of the whole people a body of 
 valuable knowledge, is one of the comprehensive purposes of modern society. 
 A common school library should embrace works upon every department of 
 science and literature, and should be particularly illustrative of the history of 
 our own country, of its institutions, and of the manners and customs of the 
 people. 
 
 Shunk's third and fourth reports contain no new recommenda- 
 tions of moment. A paragraph in the third, however, exposes a 
 neglect no less detrimental to the interests of public schools now 
 than then : 
 
 The inhabitants of a school district are associated together and bound by 
 the tenderest ties to secure to all their children those advantages of education 
 which every parent is so solicitous to provide for his own children. The elec- 
 tion of directors and the powers conferred upon them, do not lessen the 
 responsibility of the citizen, and should not diminish that anxious, superin- 
 tending, personal care which springs from the love of offspring and the desire 
 to promote their happmess and welfare. If this care abounded more in the 
 several districts, the duties of directors would be made pleasant, and their 
 power to do good by advancing the cause of education would be greatly mul- 
 tiplied. 
 
 The fourth closes with a strong argument in behalf of public edu- 
 cation. A single sentence may be quoted: 
 
,gQ ED OCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 Let riches, and talents, and honors, and distinctions, be variously and un- 
 equally distributed, because it is not necessary that the distribution should be 
 equal; but education, that moral and intellectual teaching which all men 
 require to quahfy them for the enjoyment of life, and for the proper perform- 
 ance of its duties, should, in every well-constituted government, be essentially 
 free and equal; not only because all have an unquestionable right to the 
 benefits it confers, but because none can fully enjoy, unless a// are made par- 
 takers of its blessings. 
 
 Anson V. Parsons was born in Massachusetts, studied law at 
 Litchfield, Connecticut, came at once upon his admission to the bar 
 to Pennsylvania, stopped a short time at Lancaster, settled at Wil- 
 liamsport, was appointed by Governor Porter President Judge of 
 the Dauphin, Lebanon, and Schuylkill district in 1840, and in 1842 
 became Secretary of the Commonwealth and Superintendent of 
 Common Schools. He held the office only long enough to make a 
 single report on the subject of education, that for the school year 
 1842. This report is one of the most scholarly of the whole series 
 of reports that have emanated from the School Department, but in* 
 some of its recommendations it is more theoretical than practical. 
 
 The age at which children were then admitted into school was 
 four years ; the report reconmiends a change in this respect to five 
 or six years. 
 
 At the session of 1842, a law was passed by the Legislature, 
 applicable to the county of Delaware and the borough of Cham- 
 bersburg, reducing the amount of tax school directors were author- 
 ized to levy on property, without the consent of the taxable inhab- 
 itants of the district, from treble to double the sum received from 
 the State appropriation ; but in lieu of this reduction, power was 
 given to directors to assess a tax upon each pupil that shall attend 
 a public school in the district, any sum not exceeding one dollar 
 per quarter, at the discretion of the directors, to be paid by the 
 parent, guardian, master, or other person having charge of the 
 child, in proportion to his ability to pay; such taxes to be collected 
 by the regular tax collectors, with the same powers as in the case 
 of other taxes. In accordance with his New England training, and 
 with the practice which he asserts prevailed in some of the States 
 of that section of the country for more than fifty years, of support- 
 ing the common schools by " a tax upon the person as well as upon 
 property," Superintendent Parsons strongly recommends that this 
 pupil-assessment, " rate-bill " law be made general. In a lengthy 
 argument, he supports his position by statements like these: "By 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. ,5j 
 
 the passage of a general law into which are incorporated these prin- 
 ciples, it is believed many advantages to the cause of education 
 would be gained; and when properly considered, such a law would 
 prove very acceptable to the Commonwealth." " The adoption of 
 such a system would relieve the affluent from some portion of the 
 burden of taxation, and to those in more moderate circumstances in 
 life, an opportunity would be afforded for contributing, to the extent 
 of their ability, towards the education of their own offspring." 
 " Such a provision engrafted in the law would be eminently calcu- 
 lated to give life and action to our school system — that schools 
 would be supported for a much greater length of time in nearly all 
 the districts throughout the State, that more children would be 
 educated, and all obtain a more thorough and extended knowledge 
 of the branches studied." Happily, this step to a worse than the 
 old "pauper system" was not taken, and the local laws sanctioning 
 it were soon repealed. 
 
 Superintendent Parsons favored the establishment of Normal 
 Schools, but thought the expense attending it would prove a for- 
 midable obstacle. As a substitute, he recommends " such an alter- 
 ation in the school law as will enable every city, borough, town, 
 and, if possible, school district, to establish High Schools, upon 
 the principle now adopted and successfully carried into effect in the 
 city and county of Philadelphia." He instances Carlisle and Hol- 
 lidaysburg as having such schools in operation, and declares that, 
 " If every county town, borough, and densely populated township, 
 and even those sparsely populated, would have their schools organ- 
 ized upon this system, within a very few years they could educate 
 good teachers enough to supply every school district in the State." 
 He advises an appropriation to aid talented young persons of mod- 
 erate means who may be willing to enter these high schools for the 
 purpose of fitting themselves for teachers. 
 
 The report takes strong ground in favor of a uniform course of 
 study and text-books throughout the State, and states that " On the 
 fourth of October last, a circular was issued to the board of school 
 directors in each accepting district in the Commonwealth, giving 
 the reasons for the recommendation, and a list of such books as it 
 was believed should be introduced into the schools sharing the 
 bounty of the State." This daring step, which if taken by a State 
 Superintendent at the present day, might subject him to fine and 
 imprisonment, seems to have attracted little attention. The princi- 
 
g2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 pal books recommended were as follows: Readers for beginners, 
 CobUs Spelling Book and Readers; Readers for advanced classes, 
 the Bible, and especially the Neiv Testament, Frost's History of the 
 United States, and American Speaker, and Mitchell's Geographicatl 
 Reader; Arithmetics, Keith's Arithmetic; Geographies, Mitchell's 
 Series; Qtx^xaxa.-6.x , Frost' s Composition; Dictionaries, Cobb' s Abridged 
 Walker. 
 
 In response to a movement in the Legislature, which then threat- 
 ened the repeal of the law making appropriations to common 
 schools, the Superintendent concludes his report with a long and 
 weighty argument to show that Pennsylvania, whatever may be her 
 financial embarrassments, has money enough to educate her chil- 
 dren, and that she is bound to do it by the strongest obligations 
 which can influence those who love their country, or have regard 
 for the welfare of their fellow-men. 
 
 Charles McClure was born on a farm near Carlisle, graduated at 
 Dickinson College, studied law, and previous to his entering upon 
 the duties of his appointment as Secretary of the Commonwealth 
 and Superintendent of Common Schools, at Harrisburg, had served 
 a term in the Congress of the United States. 
 
 Superintendent McClure made two reports. In these, he favors 
 more uniformity in school books, an enlargement of the course of 
 study in the public schools, greater regularity of attendance at 
 school on the part of the pupils, the establishment of district librar- 
 ies, the founding of Normal Schools, and the employment of a 
 greater proportion of female teachers. He thinks it would be well 
 to make arrangements with the publisher of the " Common School 
 Journal," Prof. John S. Hart, of Philadelphia, Principal of the Central 
 High School, to insert such matter emanating from the School De- 
 partment as might be useful for the information of school directors, 
 and send a copy to each board at the expense of the State ; and to 
 call "a State Convention of school directors, teachers, and friends 
 of education generally," to consider the question of the propriety 
 of a uniform series of school books, and other matters appertaining 
 to the improvement of the system and the good of the schools. 
 While holding that changes in the school law should be made with 
 great caution, the following are proposed as of pressing necessity : 
 the selection of teachers by the district school board, and not by the 
 primary committees of sub-districts, as authorized by the Act of 
 1836; the separation of the offices of Secretary of the Common- 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. jg, 
 
 wealth and Superintendent of Common Schools, and the revision of 
 the laws relating to public schools and their consolidation into one 
 uniform and methodical Act. 
 
 The schools of Philadelphia are thus complimented : 
 
 By a steady perseverance in improvement, removing what was found injur- 
 ious, and supplying what experience proved to be defective, the people of 
 Philadelphia have succeeded in bringing their schools to a very rare degree 
 of perfection. The liberality with which they are supported on the part of 
 the citizens, and the judicious economy exercised by those intrusted with their 
 supervision, are in the highest degree creditable to all concerned. It is im- 
 possible to commend too highly the manner of conducting the details of the 
 system. On a recent visit to the schools of the city, the Superintendent was 
 exceedingly gratified with the zeal and ability of the teachers, their admirable 
 methods of instruction and discipline, together with the rapid progress of the 
 pupils. These schools are exerting a very salutary influence on those of the 
 State generally. 
 
 There were still two hundred and thirty-three districts in the 
 State that, under the privilege given by the law of either voting for 
 or against free schools, refused to put the system in operation. To 
 these the following appeal is made : 
 
 But the strongest inducement these districts can have for accepting the 
 school law, is the large amount of appropriation they might draw from the 
 State. The money appropriated every year has been reserved for them in the 
 State Treasury. A district which adopts the system this Spring, for the first 
 time, would receive a very large sum, as may be seen by the table at the end 
 of this report. True, the whole of this may not be paid to them at once, but 
 a large portion of it will, and the remainder before long; with this they could 
 provide excellent schoolhouses, and keep the schools in operation for a long 
 time to come. And it is to be remembered that to draw this money they com- 
 ply with the conditions of the law. Other districts have drawn their portion 
 already. These may draw theirs now. Though if they continue to reject the 
 system much longer, they cannot be certain that the appropriation will be re- 
 served for them. 
 
 The Superintendent sees cause for congratulation in the condition 
 of the system, and thus summarizes its beneficial results: 
 
 The system, ever since its establishment, has been steadily gaining m the 
 good wishes of the people. The number of children brought into the schools 
 is every year increasing. There has been an entire change in the style of 
 building schoolhouses. The people generally manifest a gi-eater interest in 
 the affairs of the school. The choice of suitable books is exciting discussion 
 and research. There is a disposition to prosecute study more extensively and 
 thoroughly than formerly. Greater care is observable in the selection of 
 teachers. Their moral as well as literary qualifications attract a degree of 
 attention before unknown. Teachers are generally improving as a class. 
 They are seeking out and introducing better methods of instruction and school 
 government. The examinations they undergo, and their strict accountability 
 
-54 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 to the boards of directors, have a tendency to exclude the worthless and in- 
 spire the deserving with greater respect for their office. 
 
 Appended to one of Superintendent McClure's reports there is a 
 lengthy letter from Prof Lemuel Stephens, of Philadelphia, dated 
 Berlin, April, lO, 1843, and giving an account of the German 
 schools, and especially of Teachers' Seminaries in Germany. It 
 was written in answer to a request from Superintendent Shunk. 
 
 Jesse Miller was a Perry county man. He was mainly self-taught ; 
 and starting out as a teacher, he became in succession Sheriff of his 
 county, a member of the Legislature, a member of Congress, a mem- 
 ber of the State Board of Canal Commissioners, an Auditor of the 
 Treasury Department at Washington, and finally Secretary of the 
 Commonwealth and Superintendent of Common Schools. 
 
 In the three reports of Superintendent Miller, he reiterates the 
 recommendations of some of his predecessors in regard to changing 
 the age at which children were admitted into school from four to 
 five or six years; to vesting the entire power of selecting teachers 
 in boards of school directors ; to encouraging the publication of an 
 educational periodical that could be made a medium for communi- 
 cating the current decisions of the Department and other informa- 
 tion to school directors and teachers, and to taking away the privi- 
 lege then allowed a district of rejecting the system after it had once 
 accepted it. He also recommends that all property taxable for 
 State and county purposes be made taxable for school purposes, 
 which was not then the case; and though not the first State Super- 
 intendent to favor the appointment of an officer in each county to 
 examine teachers, visit schools, and take charge of the general inter- 
 ests of education, he was the first of these officers to see clearly the 
 full advantages of the office of County Superintendent of Schools, 
 and up to his time the boldest in advocating its establishment. On 
 this subject he says : 
 
 Among the many suggestions that have been made for improving the con- 
 dition of our schools, and elevating the grade of our teachers, no one has 
 occurred to me so feasible as that of having County Superintendents, whose 
 duty it should be, among other things, to meet the school directors in their 
 several districts, to aid them in the examination of teachers, and to counsel 
 and advise with them in regard to the organization and general management 
 of the schools. Should this proposition meet with favorable consideration, 
 the directors ought to be required to meet, at periods of which public notice 
 should be given, for the examination of teachers, at which meetings the 
 County Superintendent should be present and be ex officio president of the 
 board for the time being. The examinations should be made publicly, and 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. ,55 
 
 the County Superintendent be required to sign all certificates of competency, 
 directed to be issued by the board. This course of proceeding, it is believed, 
 would give to the examinations a dignity and importance they do not now 
 generally possess, and cause those who may wish to be examined to make 
 some suitable preparation for the occasion. It is also thought that the rivalry 
 and ambition which would naturally be excited by competition in examining 
 teachers before a board organized on the plan recommended, cannot fail to 
 be productive of the most salutary influence to the cause of education, in 
 many respects. It is not proposed to interfere with any of the rights or pow- 
 ers which the directors now have, or to disturb any of the popular features of 
 the system, the duties of the County Superintendent being merely advisory. 
 He might, however, be allowed a casting vote in case of a tie among the 
 directors. The advantages of an intelligent local superintendent, mingling 
 with the directors and the people, visiting the schools and communicating 
 with the State Superintendent, cannot, in my judgment, be readily over-esti- 
 mated. 
 
 Superintendent Miller's reports breathe all through them the 
 spirit of an earnest friend of free schools, and his strong arguments 
 in their behalf must have had a beneiicial effect upon the Legisla- 
 ture, and done much to enlighten the people concerning the value 
 of universal education, and their duty in respect to the system that 
 war established to secure it. 
 
 Chester county was the birth-place and home of Townsend 
 Haines, who filled the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth and 
 Superintendent of Common Schools during a part of the term of 
 Governor Johnston. He was a prominent lawyer, and after filling 
 the position named at Harrisburg, and an important post at Wash- 
 ington, was elected President Judge of the Courts in his native 
 county. 
 
 As Superintendent of Common Schools, Mr. Haines made two 
 reports. In the first of these, he pronounces the short time the 
 schools are open, less than five months, " an evil of no trifling char- 
 acter;" and the low salaries paid teachers, averaging males $17.^7 
 per month, and females ^10.25, a sure sign that "a system for the 
 support of education which relies on salaries so inadequate to the 
 object, is not only defective, but cannot continue." He mentions the 
 strife that almost everywhere existed between the directors of the 
 districts and the committees of the sub-districts into which they were 
 divided, and suggests as the best remedy for it the entire abolition 
 of the former, leaving as the unit of the system a single school, with 
 the adjoining territory from which it drew its pectronage. While 
 these evils embarrassed the system, there were others which in the 
 mind of the Superintendent threatened its very life, viz., " want of 
 
gg EDUCATJON IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 funds," and the " apathy of the people." To overcome the first of 
 these, he recommends the passage of a law increasing local taxa- 
 tion for school purposes; and as a means of removing the second,' 
 he thinks no more efficient agent could be found than " periodical 
 conventions of teachers in the different counties." 
 
 Superintendent Haines' second report begins with a fearless 
 exposition of the defects of the system, and the dereliction of the 
 officials who administered it. After discussing these evils in detail, 
 they are formally named as follows : 
 
 1. The imperfect state of the reports to the School Department, which pre- 
 vents a fair statement being made to the Legislature. 
 
 2. Frauds on the Department, by which the State appropriation is drawn 
 without the necessary tax being collected. 
 
 3. Incapacity of teachers. 
 
 4. An improper selection of books. 
 
 5. The want of a direct and intelligible communication between the direc- 
 tors and the Superintendent. 
 
 6. A want of funds. 
 
 The remedies proposed are County Superintendents of Schools, 
 and Normal Schools with connected " Central High Schools." The 
 advantages to be derived from such agencies are set forth fully and 
 strongly. In order to raise the money necessary to establish and 
 maintain the proposed additions to the system, the somewhat novel 
 method is recommended of a tax on lineal inheritance. 
 
 Alexander L. Russell, of Bedford county, was Deputy Secretary 
 of the Commonwealth under Townsend Haines, and when the lat- 
 ter retired, became his successor as Secretary of the Commonwealth 
 and Superintendent of Common Schools. Mr. Russell is a gradu- 
 ate of Washington College, and a lawyer by profession. During 
 the civil war, he was Adjutant General of the State, and he is now, 
 1883, serving the United States in a diplomatic position in South 
 America. 
 
 In the two reports which he submitted to the Legislature, Super- 
 intendent Russell points out defects in the school system similar to 
 those named by his predecessor. As an effective means of remov- 
 ing them, he recommends " the appointment of a Superintendent in 
 each Congressional district, for a term of years, with an adequate sal- 
 ary." The appointment of such Superintendent he suggests should 
 be made by some competent authority within the district, and the 
 appointee should be a man " whose known zeal in the cause of pop- 
 ular education, whose sound moral character, general intelligence, 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. 367 
 
 energy, and activity, would designate him as a proper person to 
 discharge the trust" He adds : 
 
 The duties of the Superintendent would consist in the establishment and 
 supervision of a teachers' Seminary for thorough instruction in the common 
 school branches alone, and in the science and art of imparting instruction to 
 others. A model school might be attached to each Seminary, and such stu- 
 dents of the Seminary as might be approved as teachers in the model school, 
 should be charged no tuition fee, while others might be required to pay a 
 small amount quarterly. The Superintendent might exercise a general super- 
 vision over the schools of his district, deliver public lectures on subjects con- 
 nected with common school studies, teaching, etc., advise with committees, 
 assist in the examination of teachers, receive and properly distribute the 
 school fund throughout his district, select and distribute the most approved 
 books for the schools, determine or report disputes to the State Superintend- 
 ent, take care that the school tax is properly assessed and collected, and pre- 
 vent frauds upon the State in the disbursement of the school fund. He could 
 also receive the reports of his district, and make a condensed semi-annual 
 report to the School Department, with which he could also maintain a direct 
 correspondence on all methods of interest or difficulty in his district. The 
 locality of the Seminary might be changed every year, or oftener, by removal 
 to such parts of the district whereof the citizens, by furnishing suitable rooms 
 for its accommodation, or by other inducements, might indicate their appre- 
 ciation of its benefits and importance. 
 
 The Superintendent further proposed as means of improving 
 the system, a simple and less expensive mode of collecting the 
 school tax, a reduction in the number of directors from six to three, 
 and the extension of the right of eminent domain to school boards 
 for the purpose of obtaining eligible sites upon which to locate 
 schoolhouses. But the project most fully elaborated in his reports, 
 was the establishment of a great State Agricultural School. His 
 plan provided for a farm of a thousand acres, with necessary build- 
 ings and accommodations for five hundred students, three hundred 
 of whom were to be selected equitably from the different counties 
 and educated at the State's expense. Full details are given with 
 reference to a Governing Board, Faculty, land, books, and income 
 and expenditures. The main purpose of the proposed institution 
 was the benefit of the agricultural interests of the State, but the 
 report asserts that "such an institution might also furnish much of 
 the teaching material that, in other States, is provided at public 
 expense in the maintenance of Normal Schools, by making it one 
 of the conditions on which each of the three hundred State scholars 
 is received into the institution, that after the completion of his full 
 term therein, a certain period shall be devoted to the State in the 
 capacity of a teacher in her common schools." 
 
gg ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Some of Superintendent Russell's ideas were subsequently incor- 
 porated into the laws establishing the County Superintendency and 
 Normal Schools. 
 
 What has now been said concerning the reports of the different 
 State Superintendents who held office from 1838 to 1852, will serve 
 to mark the general outline of the drift of educational affairs, and to 
 make known the spirit of the times on the question of public 
 schools. What was done in the Legislature during this period to 
 improve the system is soon told. Of special enactments concerning 
 schools, districts, taxes, schoolhouses, directors, etc., there were 
 hundreds; but few of them can be accounted as of much permanent 
 value to the system. 
 
 In 1840, school directors were authorized, either of themselves or 
 with the aid of some competent person employed by them, to ex- 
 amine all teachers applying for schools and to give them certificates 
 of competency ; and the school year was made to begin on the first 
 Monday in June instead of the first day of January. By a special 
 act the number of school directors in each district in Susquehanna 
 county was reduced to three. 
 
 In 1843, a law was passed providing for district supervision of 
 schools as follows : 
 
 That the board of directors of any city, ward or borough composing an ac- 
 cepting common school district shall if they deem it expedient and conducive 
 to the advantage of such district, annually appoint an inspector of the com- 
 mon schools thereof, who shall devote his time and attention to the visitation, 
 inspection and care of said schools, and the performance of such other duties 
 connected therewith as shall be assigned him by said board in their regula- 
 tions, for which service he shall receive such compensation as the proper 
 board shall determine at the commencement of each school year. 
 
 With a slight addition, this law was incorporated into the Act of 
 1849, and extended to all accepting districts. Carried into effect by 
 but few districts, it remained on the .statute-book until, superseded 
 by county supervision in 1854. 
 
 Under the pressure of the financial depression then prevailing, the 
 Legislature of 1843 cut down the appropriation to common schools 
 from one dollar to each taxable, or about ^350,000, where it had 
 stood since 1838, to ^250,000, and, at the same time, reduced the 
 appropriations to Colleges, Academies and Female Seminaries by 
 one-half for the ensuing year, and provided for discontinuing them 
 altogether thereafter by repealing the act by which they were 
 granted. These institutions received aid under the Act of 1838, as 
 
SAIL ING IN Q UIE T. WA TERS. , 5g 
 
 follows: in 1838, ^7,990.00; in 1839, ^38,993.70; in 1840, ^37,- 
 422.74; in 1841, ^47,656.91; in 1842, ^36,421.89, and in 1843, 
 ^48,298.31. The State's bounty was being extended in 1843, when 
 the law granting it was repealed, to nine Colleges, including the 
 University of Pennsylvania, sixty-four Academies, and thirty-seven 
 Female Seminaries. They were at the time attended by about six 
 thousand students, of whom thirty in the Colleges and three hun- 
 dred and thirteen in the Academies and Female Seminaries were 
 reported as preparing themselves to teach in the common schools. 
 A provision in the law making appropriations for the general 
 expenses of the Government, in 1848, repealed all laws concerning 
 non-accepting school districts, and made the common school sys- 
 tem general throughout the State in these words : " That the com- 
 mon school system, from and after the passage of this Act, shall be 
 deemed, held and taken to be adopted by the several school districts 
 in this Commonwealth, and that the school directors of districts 
 from which the undrawn appropriations were taken, in 1844, shall 
 levy and assess a tax to enable them to receive the State appropria- 
 tion, and be entitled to a deduction of twenty-five per cent, of all 
 moneys paid into the county treasury for State purposes for two 
 years." At the time of the passage of this Act, there were in the 
 State nearly two hundred non-accepting districts, or districts that 
 had refused to put schools in operation under the system. Many 
 of these districts had been opposed to free schools from the first, 
 and neither the arguments of the friends of popular education, nor 
 the pecuniary inducements held out by the State, had brought about 
 a change in the opinions of the people. A number of them had 
 given the system a short trial, and, then, for some reason, rejected 
 it ; and a few had voted it up and down several times with unac- 
 countable capriciousness. The effect of the law making the sys- 
 tem general, was, in the course of two or three years, to induce 
 about one hundred non-accepting districts to discontinue their op- 
 position to the system, and to open schools under its provisions. 
 Others later on, one by one, followed their example ; but an inquiry 
 made in 1868 revealed the astonishing fact that there were still 
 twenty-three districts in the State, with about six thousand chil- 
 dren, that had no common schools in operation. The measures 
 taken at that time by the State Superintendent finally overcame all 
 difficulties, and the benefits of the free school system were at last 
 extended to every child in the State. The following were the non- 
 accepting districts in the several counties in 1845: 
 24 
 
-_Q EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Adams, Germany, Latimore, Reading, Tyrone and Union ; Beaver, New 
 Brighton; Bedford, Londonderry, Napier, St. Clair, Southampton and Union; 
 Berks, Albany, Amity, Alsace, Bern, Upper Bern, Bethel, Brecknock, Cole- 
 brookdale, Cumru, District, Douglass, Earl, Exeter, Greenwich, Hereford, 
 Heidelberg, Longswamp, Maiden Creek, Maxatawney, Oley, Pike, Richmond, 
 Rockland, Tulpehocken, Washington and Windsor; Bucks, Bedminster, 
 Buckingham, Durham, Haycock, Milford, New Britain, Northampton, Rich- 
 land, Rockhill, Southampton, Springfield, Warminster, Warrington and War- 
 wick; Cambria, Richland; Centre, Gregg and Haines; Chester, East Brad- 
 ford, North Coventry, Kennett, Westtown, West Vincent; Clarion, Beaver, 
 Clarion borough. Paint, Pinegrove and Redbank; Clearfield, Ferguson; Clin- 
 ton, Crawford, Greene and Logan ; Columbia, Mifflin and Valley ; Dauphin, 
 Lykens and Rush; Delaware, Tinicum; Franklin, Warren; Greene, Cum- 
 berland, Dunkard, Frankhn, Greene, Jefferson, Marion, Monongahela, Mor- 
 gan, Perry, Washington and Whitely ; Huntingdon, Shirley ; Indiana, Arra- 
 strong; Lancaster, Brecknock, East Cocalico, West Cocalico, West Earl, 
 Elizabeth, East Lampeter, Warwick, Manheim and Upper Leacock; Lebanon, 
 Annville, Bethel, Jackson, North Lebanon township. South Lebanon town- 
 ship ; Lefiigk, Heidelberg, Lowhill, Lynn, Lower Macungie, Upper Saucon 
 and Weisenberg; Luzerne, Blakely, Butler, Kingston, Nescopeck, Newton, 
 Plymouth, Sugar-loaf, Wilkesbarre borough and Wilkesbarre township; Ly- 
 coming, Limestone, Moreland, Nippenose, and Williamsport; McKean, El- 
 dred; Monroe, Penn, Forest and Price; Montgomery, Douglass, Franconia, 
 Frederick, Hatfield, Horsham, Limerick, Moreland, New Hanover, Perkio- 
 men, Pottsgrove, Upper Providence, Lower Salford, Upper Salford, Spring- 
 field, Towamencing, Upper Dublin, Upper Hanover, Whitpain and Worces- 
 ter ; Northumberland, South Coal, Jackson, Little Mahanoy, Lower Mahanoy 
 and Upper Mahanoy ; Perry, Madison ; Potter, Homer, Oswego and Pike ; 
 Schuylkill, Barry, East Brunswick, West Brunswick, Lower Mahantongo, 
 Upper Mahantongo, Manheim, Pinegrove township. Rush, Union, Wayne and 
 West Penn; Somerset, Brothers' Valley, Conemaugh, Paint and Summit; Sus- 
 quehanna, Auburn; TzVTgvi, Horacetown ; Union, Beaver, Chapman, Middle 
 Creek, Perry and Union; Venango, Sugar Creek; Warren, Spring Creek; 
 Washington, Chartiers; Wayne, Berlin, Buckingham and Palmyra; West- 
 moreland, Mount Pleasant township; Wyoming, Exeter; York, Codorus, 
 North Codorus, Conewago, Dover, Franklin, Heidelberg, Manchester, West 
 Manchester, Manheim, Paradise, Springfield, Spring Garden, Washington, 
 Upper Windsor and York township. 
 
 An Act approved on the seventh day of April, 1849, repeated the 
 enactment of the preceding year making the free school system 
 general, and collected in one body the laws then in force on the 
 subject, and re-arranged and greatly simplified them. Little new 
 matter of importance was introduced into the Act, but the age at 
 which children could be admitted into school was changed from 
 four to five years ; teachers were henceforth prohibited from teach- 
 ing without a certificate enumerating the branches they had been 
 found capable of teaching, signed by a majority of the board of 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. ,71 
 
 directors before whom they had been examined, such certificate to 
 be renewed annually; dfrectors were given additional power in 
 regard to sub-districts, and the minimum school term was length- 
 ened fi-om three to four months. The increase in the length of time 
 the schools were required to be open, created so much opposition 
 that, in 185 1, this part of the law was repealed. 
 
 The law of 1849, while it marked the beginning of no new move- 
 ment in educational affairs, was a step in advance. It became the 
 basis of the law of 1854, which followed in the main the arrange- 
 ment of the older law. Without doubt it was prepared in the 
 School Department under the direction of the Superintendent, 
 Townsend Haines. The bill was introduced into the House by 
 Henry S. Evans, of Chester, Chairman of the Committee on Educa- 
 tion; and George V. Lawrence, of Washington county, chairman 
 of the Senate Educational Committee, had charge of it in that body. 
 
 A special law was passed, in 1849, authorizing the establishment 
 of a Public High School in the city of Pittsburgh; and, in 1850, 
 one to the same effect for the borough of Easton. These laws, like 
 the law providing for the organization of a High School in Phila- 
 delphia, were only necessary because some privilege was wanted 
 not granted by the general law. There never was a time under the 
 common school system when school directors had not power to 
 grade their schools, and consequently to establish one or more 
 schools of a higher grade than the others. This power was not ex- 
 pressly given in the laws of 1834, 1836 or 1849; but it was clearly 
 implied in all of them. The law of 1834 provided that each district 
 should contain " a competent number of common schools for the 
 education of every child within the limits thereof;" it did not deter- 
 mine the extent of the education to be imparted, nor did it fix any 
 limit to the age of the child. In the law of 1836, it was enacted 
 that the school directors in each district shall establish " a sufficient 
 number of common schools for the education of every individual 
 above the age of four years;' and, in the law of 1849, the school 
 age was fixed at between five and twenty-one. It was never pos- 
 sible to carry these laws into effect by confining instruction in the 
 common schools to the mere elements of Reading, Writing, and 
 Arithmetic; and an efficient and economical administration of a 
 system of schools with an extended course of study to the advan- 
 tages of which all children are admitted makes grading of some 
 kind absolutely necessary. The Act of 1854, as we shall soon see. 
 
,-2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 expressly provided for graded schools and the study of the higher 
 branches, thus sanctioning by the letter of the law what had always 
 been the spirit of the system. 
 
 But wJiile all the earlier laws left their meaning in respect to the 
 grade of school authorized and the branches intended to be taught 
 to be implied, the State Superintendents, all the way from 1834 to 
 1852, so construed them as to give full sanction to the wishes of 
 school boards wherever they proposed to establish higher grades 
 of schools or to institute higher courses of study. Superintendent 
 Findlay started out with this broad construction. Superintendent 
 Burrowes, in his first reports, while admitting that in the laws then 
 in force there was sieither restriction to the branches that might be 
 taught in common schools nor limit to the age of the children who 
 were admissible, took the ground that such a breadth of discretion 
 was a defect and ought to be remedied ; but long before his term of 
 office ended wc find him advocating Secondary and High Schools 
 and declaring that " our people will not rest satisfied with the mere 
 rudiments of learning. They will reach after the branches next in 
 order, and as they are their own legislators they will assuredly 
 have them." He also stated that such schools were then in opera- 
 tion " in many of the larger towns, as Carlisle, Washington, Lewis- 
 town, etc." The conservative Shunk expressed the opinion that 
 when the Pennsylvania system became fully matured, it would 
 embrace " Infant Schools, Primary Schools, Secondary and Superior 
 Schools;" and the liberal Parsons in speaking of the High School 
 of Philadelphia wrote, "The principle of the High School as regu- 
 lated cannot fail to commend itself to the attention of every Ameri- 
 can. The youth from all classes of society in that school meet on 
 one common ground, and from the public derive equal advantages. 
 In the first place, merit alone is the passport of the boy for admis- 
 sion into the school, and only his subsequent attainments can secure 
 to him its honors and advantages when the course terminates." 
 
 The grading of schools in the cities, towns and villages of the 
 State went on, slowly it is true, during all the earlier years of the 
 system, and High Schools as the natural outgrowth of such a move- 
 ment were established in some of the most populous places or most 
 progressive localities; and neither of the State Superintendents 
 named, nor McClure, nor Miller, nor Haines, nor Russell, ever had 
 anything but words of commendation to speak of that natural devel- 
 opment of the system which seems to have been contemplated and 
 provided for in the beginning. 
 
SAILING IN QUIET WATERS. 
 
 373 
 
 The following table better than words shows the general condi- 
 tion of the public schools from the beginning in 1834 to the end of 
 the period which we have under consideration : 
 
 STATISTICS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOL 
 
 SYSTEM 
 
 FROM 
 
 183s TO 
 
 1852. 
 
 :? 
 
 ■^ 
 
 s; 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 ^ 
 
 > 
 
 > 
 
 ^ 
 
 en 
 
 H 
 
 
 M 
 
 W 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 5 B: 
 
 
 11 
 
 n 
 
 1% 
 
 S 3 
 
 III 
 
 S*" 
 
 
 •2.S- 
 
 
 1! 
 
 
 pi 
 
 xpense 
 structi( 
 and c 
 cies . . 
 
 
 m C 
 
 
 " c 
 
 p 
 
 ui C 
 
 3 " 
 
 M Ei. 
 
 c 
 
 PT) 
 
 g] 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 . ^ 
 
 • !? 
 
 • 3 
 
 a 0, 
 
 • 3 
 
 ■ 5*f» w 
 
 3Er„ 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 £^■3 
 
 
 
 • % 
 
 • s p -» 
 
 . 
 
 
 . o' 
 
 . cr 
 
 
 . 0- 
 
 r pj w 
 
 „ p 
 
 . D- 
 
 
 
 
 • s 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 . 
 
 s-5 
 
 
 . S. 
 
 
 ETo a. 
 
 • 1 
 
 . 
 
 • 
 
 -a 
 
 
 
 
 
 a" 
 
 0^ 
 
 = 2.? 
 
 183s 
 
 907 
 
 536 
 
 762 
 
 3 12 
 
 808 
 
 
 
 32,544 
 
 Unknown. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1836 
 
 987 
 
 745 
 
 3384 
 
 4 3 
 
 3,394 
 
 Ji8 34 
 
 $n 96 
 
 139,604 
 
 ^98,670 54 
 
 $207,105 
 
 H 
 
 $111,803 01 
 
 S193.972 90 
 
 1837 
 
 TOO I 
 
 796 
 
 4089 
 
 6 
 
 4,841 
 
 18 89}^ 
 
 " 79j^ 
 
 182,355 
 
 463,749 55 
 
 231,552 
 
 36 
 
 202,230 52 
 
 493.071 39 
 
 1838 
 
 1033 
 
 861 
 
 3939 
 
 5 18 
 
 5.034 
 
 18 95 
 
 11 30 
 
 174,733 
 
 323,794 92 
 
 385,788 
 
 00 
 
 149,132 23 
 
 560,450 69 
 
 1839 
 
 1050 
 
 87P 
 
 315= 
 
 5 8 
 
 4,666 
 
 19 395^ 
 
 12 03 
 
 181,913 
 
 276,826 92 
 
 382,527 
 
 89 
 
 161,384 06 
 
 579,162 78 
 
 1840 
 
 1050 
 
 879 
 
 3152 
 
 5 8 
 
 4,666 
 
 19 39>^ 
 
 12 03 
 
 181 913 
 
 264,536 66 
 
 395,918 
 
 00 
 
 161,384 06 
 
 580,262 63 
 
 1841 
 
 1072 
 
 902 
 
 5179 
 
 5 7 
 
 6,086 
 
 18 91 
 
 II 45 
 
 227,699 
 
 249,400 84 
 
 397,952 
 
 01 
 
 123,004 19 
 
 524,348 66 
 
 1842 
 
 III3 
 
 905 
 
 6116 
 
 5 9 
 
 7.494 
 
 18 58 
 
 II 16 
 
 281,085 
 
 250,06s 00 
 
 398,766 
 
 40 
 
 119,006 74 
 
 489.872 58 
 
 1843 
 
 "39 
 
 945 
 
 6156 
 
 5 14 
 
 7,594 
 
 17 54 
 
 II 06 
 
 288,762 
 
 272,720 00 
 
 419,307 
 
 61 
 
 92,749 01 
 
 484,454 12 
 
 1844 
 
 1172 
 
 939 
 
 5993 
 
 5 15 
 
 7,585 
 
 16 i%% 
 
 10 41 
 
 288,402 
 
 264,520 00 
 
 391,340 
 
 68 
 
 75,918 94 
 
 470,228 36 
 
 1845 
 
 1 189 
 
 1012 
 
 6690 
 
 4 00 
 
 8,031 
 
 16 47 
 
 9 46 
 
 327,418 
 
 192,813 44 
 
 370,744 
 
 15 
 
 77,173 28 
 
 375,382 22 
 
 1846 
 
 1225 
 
 1067 
 
 7c^6 
 
 5 I 
 
 8,468 
 
 1669^^ 
 
 9 9^!^ 
 
 329,805 
 
 186,417 86 
 
 406,740 42 
 
 60,960 67 
 
 486,47s 74 
 
 1847 
 
 1249 
 
 1 105 
 
 7320 
 
 4 22 
 
 8,674 
 
 16 73 
 
 10 20 
 
 331.967 
 
 187,269 50 
 
 436,727 
 
 80 
 
 60,401 82 
 
 487,201 51 
 
 1848 
 
 133° 
 
 
 7845 
 
 4 24 
 
 9,096 
 
 17 37 
 
 10 65 
 
 360,605 
 
 193.035 75 
 
 501,681 
 
 17 
 
 96,539 47 
 
 505,505 97 
 
 1849 
 
 '344 
 
 
 8287 
 
 4 26 
 
 10,050 
 
 17 47 
 
 10 32 
 
 385,175 
 
 182,883 55 
 
 583,187 
 
 43 
 
 146,144 14 
 
 562,930 85 
 
 1850 
 
 1387 
 
 
 8510 
 
 S 1 
 
 10,907 
 
 17 20 
 
 10 15 
 
 424,344 
 
 186,763 24 
 
 768,422 
 
 07 
 
 253,741 06 
 
 609,377 45 
 
 1851 
 
 1399 
 
 
 9303 
 
 5 2 
 
 11,929 
 
 18 19 
 
 10 91 
 
 453,642 
 
 193,004 80 
 
 914,376 96 
 
 276,541 65 
 
 786,805 35 
 
 1852 
 
 1498 
 
 
 9699 
 
 5 00 
 
 ",713 
 
 18 75 
 
 II 46 
 
 480,778! 190,266 17 
 
 982,196 
 
 il 
 
 293.450 39 
 
 823,468 86 
 
 In some of its interests the school system, as appears from the 
 above table, taken from an official report, made marked progress 
 from 1838 to 1852. The number of schools increased from 3,939 
 in 1838 to 9,699 in 1852; the number of pupils fiom 174,355 to 
 480,778; the number of teachers from 5,034 to 11,713; the tax 
 levied from ^385,355 to ^982,196.22, and the aggregate expendi- 
 tures from ^709,582.92 to ^1,1 16,919.25. A somewhat rapid mate- 
 rial growth was inevitable. As the number of children attending 
 school nearly trebled, it became necessary to establish more schools, 
 employ more teachers, and expend more money. That these de- 
 mands were met by the school boards and the people is creditable, 
 but it does not prove that public sentiment was becoming more 
 favorable to popular education. Indeed, the statistics given would 
 indicate that in at least some respects it was not. The Legislature 
 appropriated to common schools, in 1838, a sum equal to one dol- 
 lar for each taxable in the State; in 1852, the appropriation did not 
 reach forty cents for each taxable. The appropriations actually 
 paid were ;g323,794.23 in 1838, and in 1852, ;^I90,266.I7. The 
 cause of this great falling off must be looked for either in decreased 
 interest in education, or a want of courage or vigor on the part of 
 the general administration of the system. Weight is added to this 
 
_ ED OCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 conclusion by the fact that the salaries of teachers had made no 
 advance, and that the average length of time the schools were kept 
 open had been materially shortened. It must be considered, how- 
 ever, that improvement in these respects may have been checked 
 by the absorption of the means and energies of the system in build- 
 ing so many new schoolhouses, and employing such a multitude of 
 new teachers. But the most that can be claimed is that in these 
 years of trial a firm foundation was laid for the system, and a sub- 
 stantial promise given of its future growth. 
 
 Let it be remembered that the management of the school system, 
 during the early period of which we speak, was almost wholly in 
 the hands of the district school boards. Little help came to them 
 from Harrisburg, and none at all from any other quarter. They 
 built their schoolhouses, examined their teachers, fixed the branches 
 of study to be taught and the books to be used, made rules by 
 which the schools were to be governed, as best they could, with no 
 guide except their own limited experience in such matters. The 
 wonder is that under the circumstances the system made progress 
 in any direction ; and that it did so, is greatly owing to the fact that 
 in many of the school boards were to be found active, intelligent 
 men, full of zeal for the success of free schools. It was not uncom- 
 mon in 1852, and in later years, to meet with men who had served 
 in school boards from the beginning, laboring all these years to 
 establish and maintain schools that would be fit nurseries for the 
 children of the citizens of a republic. The number of these unpre- 
 tentious benefactors of the system makes it impossible to give their 
 names ; but every county, every town, and almost every district, 
 was blessed from the first by having in its midst one or more 
 earnest,' large-hearted, broad-minded, self-sacrificing school directors 
 whose worth the people recognized by keeping them constantly in 
 their service, as the public guardians of their children's interests. 
 To such as these, the friends of our system of public education owe 
 a debt of gratitude that can never be paid. Without compensation, 
 or other hope of reward except the satisfaction of doing good, they 
 shared its unpopularity, bore the load of obloquy heaped upon it 
 by its enemies, fought its battles, guarded its interests; and in defeat 
 as well as in victory, persevered in their good work, not doubting 
 that in the end their labors would be crowned with success. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO PROVIDE HIGHER EDUCATION. THE EARLY COL- 
 LEGES AND THE STATE AID THEY RECEIVED. GRANTS MADE TO THE EARLY 
 ACADEMIES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. LAW OF 1838 IN FAVOR OF HIGHER 
 EDUCATION. ITS GRAND PURPOSE AND ITS GOOD EFFECTS WHILE IN 
 FORCE. 
 
 IT is 1852. An educational reform is about to begin that will lift 
 the whole common school structure to a higher level. At this 
 auspicious era, it may be well to pause in our narrative concerning 
 the history of public schools long enough to make a brief record 
 of what the State has done for higher education, and to say some- 
 thing of higher educational institutions. The founder of the Com- 
 monwealth meant from the first to establish by public authority 
 within his Province schools in which instruction should be given in 
 the higher as well as the elementary branches. The original Frame 
 of Government made it the duty of the Governor and Council to 
 " erect and order all public schools." A public school at that time 
 in England was an institution chartered but not controlled by the 
 Government, endowed, including in its course of study the ancient 
 languages and mathematics, open to all classes, and in most cases 
 admitting the children of the poor gratuitously. Such without 
 doubt was the character of the schools the Governor and Council 
 of Pennsylvania were to " erect and order." He had himself attended 
 such a school at Chigwell. As soon as the affairs of the infant 
 colony were fairly settled, an effort was made to carry into effect the 
 educational policy thus early conceived. In 1689, Penn wrote to 
 Thomas Lloyd, the President of the Council, directing him to estab- 
 lish a Public Grammar School in Philadelphia. Out of this move- 
 ment grew without doubt the Friends' Public School chartered by 
 Deputy Governor Markham, in 1697, and by Penn himself in 1701, 
 1708 and 171 1. It had all the characteristics of an English Public 
 or Grammar School of the time, no child with proper literary qualifi- 
 cations being excluded, and children who could not afford to pay 
 being admitted free. Provision was made for establishing branch 
 
 (375) 
 
-_g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 schools as needed in different parts of the city and county, the in- 
 tention seeming to be to set up a central school of high grade, and 
 to provide in connection therewith a sufficient number of more ele- 
 mentary schools to accommodate the whole community. It was 
 rather the foundation of a system of schools than of a single school 
 Penri meant to lay, and he' evidently had in view the extension of the 
 system to the other counties of the Province. Hence the general 
 character of the preamble to the charter of 1811: "Whereas the 
 prosperity and welfare of any people depend in great measure upon 
 the good education of youth, and their early introduction in the 
 principles of true religion and virtue, and qualifying them to serve 
 their country and themselves by breeding them in reading, writing, 
 and learning of languages and useful arts and sciences, suitable to 
 their sex, age and degree ; which cannot be effected in any manner 
 so well as by erecting Public Schools for the purpose aforesaid." 
 The Friends' Public School continues to flourish, and the Penn edu- 
 cational policy, modified by circumstances and during long periods 
 greatly neglected or weakly enforced, continued the controlling in- 
 fluence in legislation concerning schools down to the time of the 
 adoption of the common school system, if in it are not found the 
 seeds of that system itself 
 
 Franklin and his coadjutors, in founding the Academy and Charit- 
 able School of the Province of Pennsylvania, in 1 749, modeled it in 
 most respects after the school Penn had chartered half a century 
 before. They, too, contemplated, a central school or an Academy, 
 with one or more branch schools of lower grade, open to all and free 
 to the children of the poor. ^ The Academy became a College in 
 1755, and a University in 1779. In addition to the several acts of 
 incorporation, the institution received from the Proprietary family, 
 with its first charter, a contribution of ;^700, later another of ;£^500, 
 and Thomas Penn, in addition to large contributions in money, 
 ;f4500, conveyed in fee simple to the trustees for its use a tract of 
 seventy-five hundred acres of land in Bucks county, being a fourth 
 part of the manor of Perkasie. King George the Third, and other 
 English officials, headed a list with liberal subscriptions in behalf of 
 the College in 1762; and at different times the college was allowed 
 the privilege of raising money by lottery, and realized about £(xxxi 
 in this way. 
 
 Beyond what has been stated in respect to the Friends' Public 
 School and the University of Pennsylvania, nothing was done for 
 
THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION: -.yy 
 
 higher education by the Provincial authorities. The first direct 
 contribution made by the State in the interest of higher education 
 occurred during the heat of the Revolutionary war. Tlie newly in- 
 corporated University of Pennsylvania was then granted the proceeds 
 of divers confiscated estates, estimated to amount in the aggregate to 
 ;^25,ooo or 1166,666.66. In 1807, the University received an appro- 
 priation of ^3,000 to establish a botanic garden, and, in 1832, all its 
 real estate was exempted from taxation for fifteen years. 
 
 From 1783 to 1836, the following Colleges were incorporated: 
 
 Dickinson College, 1783; Franklin College 'and Charity School, 
 1787; Jefferson College, 1802; Washington College, 1806; Alle- 
 gheny College, 1 8 17; Western University of Pennsylvania, 18 19; 
 Lafayette College, 1826; Madison College, 1827; Pennsylvania 
 College, 1832; Haverford College, 1832; Bristol College, 1833, 
 Marshall College, 1836, and Haddington College, 1836. 
 
 Of these, Dickinson College received, in 1786, ;£'56o and ten 
 thousand acres of land; in 1788, a lot of ground in Carlisle; in 1789, 
 the privilege of raising money by lottery, realizing ^2,000; in 1791, 
 ;£^i,500,^nd in 179S ^5,OCX) on condition that any number of stu- 
 dents not exceeding ten should be taught Reading, Writing and 
 Arithmetic gratuitously, no one to be allowed to remain longer 
 than two years. The State loaned the College, in 1803, ^6,000, and, 
 in 1806, ^4,000 more, taking a mortgage on the College lands, in 
 1 8 14, extended the time for the paymenfof interest, and, in 18 19, 
 forgave the debt both principal and interest, and cancelled the mort- 
 gage. In 182 1, an act was passed buying back the lands for ^6,000 
 and adding an appropriation of ^2,000 a year for five years. In 
 1826, ^3,000 was appropriated annually for seven years. 
 
 Franklin College, or as called in the title of the act of incorpora- 
 tion, " the German College and Charity School in the borough and 
 county of Lancaster," received with its charter a grant of ten thous- 
 and acres of land in the western part of the state; in 1788, a lot of 
 land and a public storehouse in Lancaster, and, in 18 19, additional 
 land to the amount of four hundred and fifty-five acres. 
 
 Canonsburg Academy became Jefferson College in 1802. Its 
 grants from the State were, in 1806, ;^3,ooo, on condition that four 
 poor children should be instructed gratuitously; in 1821, $I,000 a 
 year for five years; in 1826, ;^ 1,000 a year for four years, and, in 
 1832, ;^2,ooo a year for four years on condition that six students in 
 indigent circumstances should be educated gratuitously for four 
 
- -g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/ A. 
 
 years, and thereafter twenty-four students should be prepared for 
 teachers in the common schools. 
 
 Washington Academy, with its grant of five thousand acres of 
 land and ^^3,000 in money, was incorporated as Washington College 
 in 1806. The State gave it an appropriation, in 182 1, of ^1,000 a 
 year for five years; in 1826, one of ;^i,000 a year for four years; in 
 183 1, one of ^500 a year for five years on condition that the College 
 prepare twenty students annually for school teachers, and, in 1834, 
 one of $2,500 and $1,000 for three years. 
 
 Allegheny College received with its charter, in 18 17, $2,000; in 
 1821, $1,000 a year for five years; in 1827, $1,000 a year for four 
 years, and, in 1834, $2,000 a year for four years, for which twelve 
 students were to be prepared without charge for school teachers. 
 
 A section of the Act incorporating the Western University of 
 Pennsylvania granted to the trustees forty acres of vacant lands be- 
 longing to the Commonwealth " bounded by or adjoining the out- 
 lots of the town of Allegheny;" but the title proving defective, in 
 1826, in place of the lands, an appropriation was made of $2,400 a 
 year for five years. The property of the Pittsburgh Academy also 
 became the property of the University. 
 
 Lafayette College was granted, in 1834, $4,000, and for four years 
 thereafter $2,000 a year. The money was not to be used to pay the 
 salaries of the professors. 
 
 Madison College was erected upon the foundation of Uniontown 
 Academy. With the property thus obtained, it received, in 1828, a 
 grant of $5,000. 
 
 An Act was passed in 1834, granting Pennsylvania College 
 $3,000 a year for six years, on condition that fifteen young men 
 should be prepared for school teachers. 
 
 In 1837, Marshall College was granted $6,000 and $3,000 for two 
 years, on condition that twenty students be prepared for teachers 
 of the English language. 
 
 Neither Haverford, Haddington, nor Bristol, although chartered 
 among the early Colleges, ever received any appropriation from the 
 State. 
 
 The following statement, covering the years from the close of the 
 Revolutionary war to the time the free school system went into 
 operation, shows in a condensed way what was done by the State 
 to establish and endow Academies, or Public Schools, as many of 
 them were then called: 
 
THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 179 
 
 q 
 
 a 2 
 
 US 
 
 N to 
 
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 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 
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THE STATE AND'HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 381 
 
 Without grants of any kind, in 1 830, Le Raysville Academy, 
 Bradford county, and Dundaff Academy, Susquehanna county, were 
 incorporated; in 1834, Zehenople Academy, Butler county, and 
 Union Academy, Womelsdorf, Berks county ; in 1836, the Monon- 
 gahela Manual Labor Academy, Franklin Academy, Harford, Sus- 
 quehanna county, and Towanda Academy, Bradford county, and in 
 1837, Litiz Academy, Lancaster county. 
 
 Doubtless then as now some kind of provision for higher educa- 
 tion was considered a public necessity by the thinking men of the 
 time; but it is a remarkable fact that a leading idea in the establish- 
 ment of the early Pennsylvania Colleges was the preparation of 
 teachers for lower grades of schools. This is true of the University 
 of Pennsylvania and Dickinson and Franklin Colleges, the old- 
 est of our institutions of this class. The conditions upon which 
 certain grants were made to them by the State show that it was in 
 some measure at least as schools for teachers that public money 
 was voted to Jefferson, Washington, Allegheny, Pennsylvania and 
 Marshall. Lafayette, without pecuniary inducement, established a 
 special department for teachers and arranged a special teachers' 
 course. But the experiment of educating teachers in the Colleges 
 failed — failed because there was not then much demand for teachers 
 thus prepared, and for the stronger reason that the general work of 
 a College and the special work of a teachers' school can never be 
 made to harmonize. Dr. Burrowes, as Superintendent of Common 
 Schools, in his report for 1838, gives the unsatisfactory result in 
 these strong words: "The Colleges have already been tried as a 
 means of supplying teachers, and with little success. Within the 
 last eight years ^48,500 have been given by the State to five 
 of these institutions, principally on condition that they should 
 instruct a certain number of persons, ninety-one, for teachers of 
 English schools, annually, for a specified time. Last year there 
 were sixty-one students preparing for this business in all the 
 Colleges of the State. Every one knows how few of the persons 
 thus prepared ever actually practice the profession. It is doubtful 
 whether there are at the present moment in the whole State one 
 hundred persons thus educated actually and permanently engaged 
 as teachers of primary schools. Hope from this quarter is dead." 
 
 In the establishment of Academical institutions, the State was but 
 following out an educational policy as old as the Commonwealth 
 and embodied in the Constitutions of 1776 and 1790. The model 
 
,82 EDUCATION IN FENiVSYLVANIA. 
 
 never lost sight of was, as has been already stated, the Friends' 
 Public School in Philadelphia. When the Constitution of 1776 
 provided that " a school or schools should be established in each 
 county,'' its framers had in mind a public school or public schools 
 like that chartered by Penn. Such, too, without doubt, was the char- 
 acter of the schools the members of the convention that framed the 
 Constitution of 1790 thought they were providing, when they required 
 the Legislature to establish schools throughout the State " in such 
 manner that the poor may be taught gratis," and enacted that " the 
 arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or more Seminaries of 
 learning." The Legislature for many years so interpreted these in- 
 junctions of the Constitution, and made a most praiseworthy effort 
 to plant an Academy or a Public School, the name frequently ap- 
 plied to such institutions in the acts of incorporation, in every county 
 of the Commonwealth. The chartered privileges of these Academies 
 were broad, sometimes requiring the board of management to be 
 elected by a popular vote, and always contemplating support and 
 patronage from whole communities without regard to party or 
 sect. When grants of money or land were made, they were usually 
 coupled with the condition that a certain number of poor children 
 were to be instructed for a limited length of time without charge. 
 True, there were men at all times in the Legislature and out of it 
 who did not think the educational provisions of the Constitution of 
 1790 fully carried into effect by establishing Academies, however 
 numerous and well equipped, and their views in the end prevailed ; 
 but for forty years after the adoption of that Constitution, public 
 effort in behalf of education was mainly directed to building up a 
 system of schools in the different counties after the plan originally 
 conceived by the founder of the Commonwealth, at a time when the 
 idea of universal education by the agency of free schools was yet 
 unborn. 
 
 The scheme of education by means of Academies or Public 
 Schools, creditable as it was to our fathers, did not prove success- 
 ful. It was ill adapted to the condition of society in the new State, 
 and entirely inadequate to the great end in view. Individual insti- 
 tutions forming a part of it flourished, and a few continue to flour- 
 ish, but as a whole it was a building without a proper foundation — 
 higher schools without lower ones to stand upon — and the long 
 tried experiment resulted in disappointment. Its deficiencies were 
 frequently pointed out by Governors, Committees of the Legisla- 
 
THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 383 
 
 ture, and other officials. Some of their utterances it will be well to 
 quote. 
 
 Governor Findlay began to notice the failure of the scheme as 
 early as 1821. " Considerable sums of money," he says in his mes- 
 sage of that year, " have been expended from time to time in the 
 endowment of Academies from which the community has not de- 
 rived any adequate advantage." 
 
 Governor Hiester, in his message of 1821, refers to a weakness 
 which means more than his words convey. " The information from 
 the University in Philadelphia, from the Colleges in the western 
 section of the State, and from several of the Academies endowed 
 by legislative grants, presents a favorable view of education in these 
 institutions as far as respects the qualification of teachers and the 
 taste of youth for improvement in the sciences ; but those who are 
 intrusted with their direction, unite in deploring the inadequacy of 
 their funds to make suitable provision for a competent number of 
 professors." 
 
 Governor Wolf, much as he has to say on the subject of educa- 
 tion, scarcely mentions the Colleges or the Academies of the State. 
 Governor Ritner, in his first message, 1836, thus touches the sub- 
 ject: "The large aid heretofore bestowed upon Colleges and Aca- 
 demies, without system or accountability, seems to have produced 
 comparatively little public good. Ft is therefore respectfully recom- 
 mended that until the common school system be completely tested, 
 and until some more efficient plan of public relief to Colleges and 
 Academies be devised and adopted, appropriations for their support 
 be made with extreme caution." 
 
 In his report as Chairman of the Committee on Education in the 
 House of Representatives, 1833, Joseph G. Clarkson bluntly states 
 that " It is true that the State has frequently and liberally contrib- 
 uted to the aid of Academies and Colleges for the higher branches 
 of learning, but it is lamentable to think that many of these institu- 
 tions are either dead or expiring for the want of sustenance which 
 can only be afforded by a population whose ambition to attain 
 higher walks of learning has been excited by an early conviction 
 of the value of knowledge." 
 
 In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives, Sam- 
 uel McKean, Secretary of the Commonwealth, 1833, sent to that 
 body a communication on the state of education in the Common- 
 wealth, from which the following is an extract: "By reference to 
 
. g . ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 the statute books it will be found that all public grants for the pur- 
 pose of education in Pennsylvania, whether in the shape of money 
 or land, prior to 183 1, were exclusively confined to institutions 
 accessible to the rich alone. Without questioning the constitution- 
 ality or general expediency of this course, I may nevertheless be 
 permitted to say that to my mind, the practice which has partially 
 obtained since the year 1795, in the endowment of Colleges, Acad- 
 emies, etc., to annex a condition that a few children should be 
 taught for a limited time free from expense, ought to be considered 
 rather as an apology for the postponement of a palpable duty than 
 the fulfillment of a wise and humane provision of the Constitution." 
 
 Samuel Breck, in his report to the Legislature, 1834. declares 
 that " Most of the Academies have fallen to the grade of common 
 schools. This is a melancholy truth, so that very few of them can 
 be used as Seminaries for forming teachers." And appended to his 
 report there is a letter from the Rev. Chauncey Colton, President 
 of Bristol College, in which we find this paragraph : " Of the char- 
 tered Academies of this state, there are forty-four or forty-five nomi- 
 nally in existence. A very small fraction of this number, however, 
 are in successful operation. Most of these have fallen to the grade 
 of the most ordinary common schools ; some of them are a bur- 
 lesque upon the name of Academy ; others have lost their charter. 
 Not a few of the whole number chartered have become entirely 
 extinct." 
 
 Dr. Burrowes, as Secretary of the Commonwealth, writes, in 1837, 
 to the Constitutional Convention then in session, words like these : 
 " Academies in forty-five counties have from time to time received 
 aid from the State, sometimes in money, generally in the proportion 
 of two thousand dollars to each county, amounting to one hundred 
 and six thousand nine hundred dollars, and sometimes in land whose 
 value it is difficult to estimate, but supposed to be worth at least one 
 hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, making a gross amount of 
 aid to Academies of two hundred and forty-one thousand dollars. It 
 is believed that no grants have ever been made by the State -with 
 less general good effect than those to Academies. It seems to have 
 been intended to endow one .strong institution of this kind in each 
 county, as a kind of radiating point in the county system of educa- 
 tion ; but the project has proved nearly a total failure." 
 
 Such is the story of the State in relation to higher education 
 prior to the introduction of the common school system. Without 
 
THE STATE AKD l/iGHER EDUCATION. 385 
 
 common schools, the Colleges and Academies established did not 
 flourish : the experiment was now to be tried with them. 
 
 In a supplement to the existing school laws, the Legislature of 
 1838 enacted a provision making appropriations annually for ten 
 years as follows : 
 
 To each University and College now incorporated, or which may be incor- 
 porated by the Legislature, and maintaining at least four professors and in- 
 structing constantly at least one hundred students, one thousand dollars. To 
 each Academy and Female Seminary now incorporated, or which may be in- 
 corporated by the Legislature, maintaining one or more teachers capable of 
 giving instruction in the Greek and Roman classics, mathematics and English 
 or English and German literature, and in which at least fifteen pupils shall 
 constantly be taught in either or all of the branches aforesaid, three hundred 
 dollars. To each of said Academies and Female Seminaries, where at least 
 twenty-five pupils are taught, as aforesaid, four hundred dollars ; and to each 
 of said Academies and Female Seminaries, having at least two teachers, and 
 in which forty or more pupils are constantly taught, as aforesaid, five hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 The plan of aiding higher institutions of learning proposed in this 
 enactment was much more comprehensive and systematic than any 
 that had previously prevailed. What had been done before 
 was comparatively spasmodic and arbitrary. The purpose now 
 seemed to be to build up a great system of public education, embrac- 
 ing the whole field from the common school to the University. 
 The leaders in the movement were the friends of free schools. 
 Burrowes was Superintendent of Common Schools, Ritner was in 
 the Governor's chair and signed the bill, and in advocacy of the 
 measure Thaddeus Stevens made the greatest of his speeches in the 
 House of Representatives. Unfortunately, owing to the disordered 
 condition of the finances of the State, to an apparent falling off in 
 the educational spirit of the people which followed the excitement 
 of the fight for free schools, and to the persistent pressure for the 
 State's bounty by a multitude of institutions that did not deserve it, 
 the law continued in force only during six of the ten years for which 
 it was enacted. The effect of its passage, however, was felt imme- 
 diately. After it became a law, but during the same session, the 
 following Academies were chartered in the several counties named : 
 Bloomfield, Perry; Brookville, Jefferson ; Coudersport, Potter; Frank- 
 lin, Kutztown, Berks; Sunbury, Northumberland; Honesdale, 
 Wayne; Pottstown, Montgomery; Tuscarora, Juniata ; and Willards- 
 burg, Tioga. Of these, in addition to the general appropriation, the 
 Bloomfield, Brookville, and Tuscarora Academies received each 
 
 25 
 
^35 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 ^2,000 and the Coudersport Academy received ^2,000 and certain 
 lands granted for its use. Also, at the same time, acts of incorpo- 
 ration were passed chartering Female Seminaries at Bedford, Brook- 
 ville, Brownsville, Butler, Carlisle, Chambersburg, Concordville, 
 Doanville, Easton, Erie, Greensburg, Honesdal.e, Indiana, Doyles- 
 town, Lancaster, Lebanon, Troy, Meadville, Montrose, New Berlin, 
 Orwigsburg, Reading, Sunbury, Franklin, Washington, Waynes- 
 burg and York. 
 
 In 1839, Academies were chartered at Berwick, Columbia, Han- 
 over, Hollidaysburg, Mannington, Myerstown, New London, 
 Roehrersburg, Stroudsburg with an extra appropriation of ^2,OCO, 
 and Stouchsburg; and Female Seminaries at Bellefonte, Danville, 
 Harrisburg, New Castle, Oxford, Somerset, Stroudsburg and Wilkes- 
 barre. 
 
 In 1840, the crop of Academies and Female Seminaries was not 
 as luxuriant as in the preceding years ; but charters were granted 
 to institutions of the former class at Abington, Annville, Bernville, 
 Byberry, Centreville, Clarion with an extra appropriation of ;g2,ooo, 
 Pine Creek, Frankfort, Gibson, Hamburg, Jonestown, Joliet, Lewis- 
 burg, Lock Haven with an extra appropriation of ^2,000, Madison, 
 Moscow, Mt. Vernon, West Alexander and Wrightsville ; and to 
 those of the latter at Braddock's Fields (Edgeworth), Huntingdon, 
 McSherrytown, Landisburg, Muncy, New Brighton and Pottstown. 
 
 But alarmed at the rapid multiplication of this class of institutions, 
 the Legislature now began to provide that the newly chartered in- 
 stitutions should not be entitled to the State appropriation, and 
 during the next ten years only four Academies and two Female 
 Seminaries were incorporated. This was the first step in the reac- 
 tive policy that followed. 
 
 In 1838, nine Colleges, forty-three Academies, and fifteen Female 
 seminaries were paid the appropriation according to the provisions 
 of the Act; in 1839, nine Colleges, fifty-two Academies, and twenty- 
 nine Female Seminaries; in 1840, nine Colleges, fifty-seven Acad- 
 emies, and thirty-three Female Seminaries; in 1841, nine Colleges, 
 sixty Academies, and thirty- four Female Seminaries; in 1842, nine 
 Colleges, sixty-five Academies, and forty-one Female Seminaries; 
 and in 1843, nine College.^!, sixty-four Academies, and thirty-seven 
 Female Seminaries. 
 
 Payments to these institutions from the State Treasury were as 
 follows : 
 
THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 387 
 
 Year. 
 
 Colleges. 
 
 Academies. 
 
 Seminaries. 
 
 Aggregate. 
 
 1838. . 
 
 . j!3, 500.00 
 
 $3,790.00 
 
 $700.00 
 
 $7,990.00 
 
 1839- • 
 
 . 9,250.00 
 
 21,329.87 
 
 8,413.83 
 
 38,99370 
 
 1840 . . 
 
 . 6,208.33 
 
 21,237-33 
 
 9,977.08 
 
 37,422.74 
 
 1841 . . 
 
 ■ 10,354.17 
 
 23,802.72 
 
 13,500.02 
 
 47,656,91 
 
 1842 . . 
 
 . 7.378.00 
 
 16,001.80 
 
 13,044.89 
 
 36,424.69 
 
 1843. • 
 
 . 9,925.00 
 
 27,929.04 
 
 10,444.27 
 
 48,298.31 
 $216,786.35 
 
 The reports made to the School Department by the institutions 
 receiving State aid were very incomplete. From those that came to 
 hand, Superintendent Shunk, in 1840, estimated that the number 
 of students then in the Universities and Colleges, including the Pre- 
 paratory Departments, was 1,637, in the Academies 2,465, and in 
 the Female Seminaries 1,430. In the Universities and Colleges 
 sixty-four students were reported as preparing themselves for the 
 business of teaching, in thirty-two of the Academies, eighty-seven, 
 and in twelve of the Female Seminaries, seventeen. 
 
 The following Colleges, Academies, and Female Seminaries, re- 
 ceived appropriations under the act of 1838: 
 
 Colleges. Counties. 
 
 Madison Fayette. 
 
 Dickinson Cumberland. 
 
 Jefferson Washington 
 
 Marshall Franklin. 
 
 Colleges. Counties. 
 
 Allegheny Crawford. 
 
 Pennsylvania Adams. 
 
 Washington Washington. 
 
 Lafayette ., . Northampton. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 
 
 Academies. 
 
 AUentown 
 
 Attleboro 
 
 Athens 
 
 BloomHeld 
 
 Bellefonte ...'.. 
 
 Beechwoods 
 
 Butler 
 
 Beaver 
 
 Bedford 
 
 Brookville 
 
 Berwick 
 
 Bucks County, Newtown 
 Clinton, Pine Creek. . . 
 
 Clearfield 
 
 Clarion 
 
 Chester County .... 
 
 Coudersport 
 
 Danville 
 
 "Delaware 
 
 Dundaff. 
 
 Erie 
 
 Ebensburg. 
 
 Franklin 
 
 Franklin ^ 
 
 Greene 
 
 Germ ante wn 
 
 Greensburg 
 
 Counties. 
 Lehigh. 
 Bucks. 
 Bradford. 
 Perry. 
 Centre. 
 Wayne. 
 Butler. 
 Beaver. 
 Bedford. 
 Jefferson. 
 Columbia. 
 Bucks. 
 Clinton. 
 Clearfield. 
 Clarion. 
 Chester. 
 Potter. 
 Montour. 
 Wayne. 
 Susquehanna. 
 Erie. 
 Cambria. 
 Susquehanna. 
 
 Berks. 
 Greene. 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Westmoreland. 
 
 Academies. 
 Greersburg . . . 
 Huntingdon . . . 
 Harrisburg . . . 
 Haverford School Associa- 
 tion 
 
 Honesdale .... 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Kittanning . . . 
 Lewistown .... 
 
 Litiz 
 
 LoUer 
 
 Lancaster County . 
 Lebanon .... 
 Lock Haven . . . 
 
 Mercer 
 
 Milford 
 
 Mifflinburg . . . 
 Norristown . . . 
 New London . . 
 Orwigsburg . . . 
 Pottstown .... 
 Pottsville Institute 
 Smethport . . . 
 Reading .... 
 Montrose .... 
 Sumneytown . . 
 Stroudsburg . . . 
 
 Counties. 
 Beaver. 
 Huntingdon. 
 Dauphin. 
 
 Delaware. 
 . Wayne. 
 . Indiana. 
 , Armstrong. 
 . Mifflin. 
 . Lancaster. 
 , Montgomery. 
 . Lancaster. 
 . Lebanon. 
 . Clinton. 
 . Mercer. 
 , Pike. 
 
 Union. 
 
 Montgomery. 
 . Chester. 
 . Schuylkill. 
 . Montgomery. 
 . Schuylkill. 
 . McKean. 
 . Berks. 
 , Susquehanna. 
 , Montgomery. 
 . Monroe. 
 
EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 388 
 
 Academies. Counties. 
 
 Sunbury Northumberland. 
 
 Strasburg Lancaster. 
 
 Towanda Bradford. 
 
 Troy Bradford. 
 
 Tuscarora Juniata. 
 
 Union, Womelsdorf . . . Berks. 
 Unionville ... . . Chester. 
 
 Venango, Franklin . . . Venango. 
 
 Female Seminaries. Countiei. 
 
 Butler Butler. 
 
 Brownsville Fayette. 
 
 Bellefonte Centre. 
 
 Carlisle Cumberland. 
 
 Chatnbersburg Franklin. 
 
 Doanville .... . Arm.strong. 
 
 Danville Montour. 
 
 Easton Northampton. 
 
 Erie Erie. 
 
 Edgeworth Allegheny. 
 
 Greensburg Westmoreland. 
 
 Gettysburg Adams. 
 
 Harrisburg Dauphin. 
 
 Honesdale Wayne. 
 
 Huntingdon Huntingdon. 
 
 Indiana Indiana. 
 
 Ingham Bucks. 
 
 Lancaster Lancaster. 
 
 Lebanon Lebanon. 
 
 Academies. Counties. 
 
 Warren Warren. 
 
 West Chester Chester. 
 
 Wyoming Luzerne. 
 
 Waterford Erie. 
 
 Williamsport Lycoming. 
 
 Wellsboro Tioga. 
 
 York county York. 
 
 Female Seminaries. 
 
 Counties. 
 
 Meadville Crawford. 
 
 Montrose Susquehanna. 
 
 McKean, Troy Bradfoia. 
 
 Muncy Lycoming. 
 
 New Berlin . . . . Union. 
 
 New Brighton Beaver. 
 
 New Castle I^awrence. 
 
 Orwigsburg Schuylkill. 
 
 Oxford Chester. 
 
 Pottstown Montgomery. 
 
 Pottsville Schuylkill. 
 
 Reading Berks. 
 
 .Sunbury Northumberland. 
 
 Stroudsburg Monroe. 
 
 Somerset Somerset. 
 
 Washington Washington. 
 
 Wilkesbarre Luzerne. 
 
 Venango Venango. 
 
 York York. 
 
 In 1843, sorely pressed for money to carry to completion the 
 gigantic system of public improvements she had organized, the 
 State reduced the appropriation to her Colleges, Academies and 
 Female Seminaries to one-half the amount provided for by the Act 
 of 1838, and the next year withdrew the appropriation absolutely. 
 This was a sad blow to the new institutions. Many of them, prema- 
 turely established and never strong, soon began to decline, and with- 
 in a few years a large number of them had ceased to exist. Ruins 
 only in most cases are left to tell the story. The experiment of 
 building up a system of higher education again failed, not this 
 time so much on account of the want of a sufficient number of 
 pupils properly prepared, as on account of the injudicious application 
 of the State's bounty, and its withdrawal just at the time it was most 
 needed. A general appropriation in behalf of higher education has 
 never in more recent years met with legislative favor. Doubtless, 
 the grading of the public schools and the establishment of high 
 schools incident to the development of the common school system 
 has in some measure supplied the want felt by the Legislature of 
 1838; and the work of preparing teachers for the common* schools, 
 an important object then as now, is better done in the State Normal 
 
THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. agg 
 
 Schools than would have been practicable under the best possible 
 system of Colleges, Academies and Female Seminaries. The State 
 has continued to grant charters to institutions, too freely perhaps, 
 but no pecuniary aid has been granted in any case except ^5,000 to 
 the Polytechnic College in Philadelphia, in 1867, and the large 
 sums given to the State Agricultural College in Centre county. The 
 great scheme of higher education complementary to the common 
 school system, projected in 1838, has never been revived. An at- 
 tempt to revive it in 1868 in a somewhat modified' form failed, and 
 the problem of extending the fostering care of the State to all classes 
 of educational institutions in such a way as to bind them into a 
 common brotherhood with common aims and common interests, is 
 one that only the future can solve. 
 
 It was a noble undertaking, in 1838, for the State to make an 
 effort to build up a great system of higher instruction. The com- 
 mon schools were just fairly starting, and called for large appro- 
 priations; but without proposing to weaken in any way the newly 
 organized elementary schools, the liberal and far-seeing Legislature 
 of that year, under the lead of some of the ablest and best men 
 Pennsylvania ever intrusted with the duty of framing her laws, took 
 means to plant and foster Colleges, Academies, and Female Semi- 
 naries in every part of the Commonwealth. In their view not only 
 should instruction in the common branches of learning be made 
 universal, but youth of both sexes should be allowed all practicable 
 facilities for entering upon that higher course of study necessary to 
 develop and perfect the powers with which man is naturally en- 
 dowed. The grants of money made to carry into effect their object 
 reached forward for ten years, by the end of which time they con- 
 fidently expected other Legislatures with more means at command 
 would improve and strengthen their work. And we are free to say 
 that had this been done, Pennsylvania would have had to-day not 
 only the grandest system of public instruction in America, but one 
 rivaling in organization and breadth the best of the systems so 
 elaborately built up in the most advanced countries of Europe. 
 
 Nothing is more remarkable in the educational policy inaugurated 
 in 1838, than the place accorded to female education. From all the 
 State had done for higher education previously, it could hardly be 
 learned that such beings as women or girls were to be found within 
 the borders of the State. Certainly no recognition of their right to 
 more than an elementary education can be found on the statute 
 
. Q ED UCA rWN IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 books. The Moravians at Bethlehem and Litiz had founded Female 
 Seminaries, the Friends at Westtown had provided courses of study 
 essentially alike for boys and girls, John Poor had conducted a 
 Young Ladies' Academy of some repute in the city of Philadelphia, 
 and elsewhere there were a few small private Boarding Schools for 
 girls; but up to 1838, while numerous Colleges and Academies 
 for boys had been chartered and liberally endowed with the State's 
 money, it seems to have been generally unknown either that girls 
 could be educated beyond the simple arts of Reading, Writing or 
 Arithmetic, or that they were entitled to any higher education. The 
 credit of the ■ discovery that girls should have an equal place with 
 boys in a system of public instruction, higher as well as lower, be- 
 longs to the Legislature of 1838. It was a great discovery. 
 
 The charters of the Academies and Female Seminaries brought 
 into existence under the stimulus of the Act of 1838, were of a 
 liberal character. The old name of " Public School " was frequently 
 retained in the acts of incorporation, and persons of all religious 
 denominations were made eligible to election as trustees or teachers, 
 and no pupil was permitted to be excluded on account oi his senti- 
 ments on matters of religion. The object of the institutions chartered 
 was generally stated to be to impart instruction in the " English and 
 other languages, and in the useful arts, sciences and literature," 
 sometimes modified in the case of Female Seminaries to read " estab- 
 lished for the education of females in the arts, sciences and litera- 
 ture." A regular and full course of study was contemplated, and 
 authority was given the trustees and faculty in most cases to confer 
 suitable degrees and to grant certificates to graduates, authenticated 
 by the seal of the corporation. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. 
 
 EACH of our Universities and Colleges has an interesting history 
 of its own, of which something must be said; to give it in detail 
 would be to exclude all other matter from this volume. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 The University of Pennsylvania, the oldest of our higher institu- 
 tutions of learning, as now constituted, was estabhshed in 1791. 
 The story of the Academy, and the College out of which it grew, 
 has already been elsewhere briefly told; the narrative must now be 
 extended down to the present time. 
 
 As an Academy, the institution opened in 1749, in a room in a 
 private dwelling. In 1751, it was moved into a building on Fourth 
 street, which had been erected for the use of the preacher White- 
 field and other itinerants, who could not be heard in the churches, 
 and here the Academy became a College, and the College a Univer- 
 sity. In 1800, the trustees purchased the building on Ninth street, 
 which the State had erected as a residence for the President of the 
 United States, at a time when it was thought Philadelphia would 
 become the permanent capital of the nation ; and this, with an addi- 
 tion built in 1807 for the accommodation of the medical department, 
 was occupied until 1829, when the whole was torn down, and in its 
 place were erected two separate but similar buildings, one for the 
 department of arts, and the other for the department of medicine. 
 These in turn becoming too small, the University erected, in 1871, 
 the present magnificent buildings in West Philadelphia, and subse- 
 quently sold the property on Ninth street to the United States Gov- 
 ernment as a site for a post-office. 
 
 The University buildings are located on a tract of twenty-seven 
 acres of ground obtained from the city, and overlook the Schuylkill 
 river. They are among the finest and most imposing structures of 
 the kind in the United States. They are built in the Gothic style, 
 of green stone, with gray stone ornaments. The three main build- 
 
 (391) 
 
392 
 
 EDUCA TJOiV IN J'ENA'SYL VANIA. 
 
 iiiCTS are separate. That for the department of science and arts is 
 254 feet long, 124 feet deep in the centre, with wings 102 feet 2 
 inches deep. That for the medical department has accommodations 
 
 fur si,\ hundred students, with all the necessary class rooms, lecture 
 rooms and needed appliances for a great school of medicine. That 
 used as a Hospital has a front of 250^/^ feet, with a central building 
 and two wings each 198 feet in depth. Towards the construction 
 of this building the State contributed the sum of $200,000. 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. ,93 
 
 In the sense of teaching the whole circle of the sciences, the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania well deserves its name. It gives instruction 
 in ten departments as follows : Department of Arts, Department of 
 Medicine, Department of Law, Auxiliary Department of Medicine, 
 Towne Scientific School, Department of Music, Department of 
 Dentistry, Department of Philosophy, Wharton School of Finance 
 and Economy, and Department of Veterinary Medicine. Only the 
 three first named departments are old, the others have all been 
 organized within the last twenty years. In all the departments 
 there were, in 1883, one thousand students, and the professors, 
 lecturers and instructors numbered one hundred and thirty-two. 
 Apart from the professional courses, the University has over four 
 hundred students. The libraries are large and valuable. Some of 
 the departments have special libraries containing many very rare and 
 costly volumes. It is fully equipped with chemical and philosophi- 
 cal apparatus, and cabinets of natural science. Its rriedical cabinets 
 are specially rich. In the Treasurer's report dated August i, 1883, 
 the property held by the University is valued at ^1,078,098.62, and 
 the endowment is stated to be worth, in addition, ,$1,609,306.00. 
 There is a debt of ;$445 ,489.86. Much of the endowment is for 
 special chairs or special purposes. Certain courses of lectures are 
 open to persons of both sexes, and the " Bloomfield Moore Fund," 
 the gift of a lady, is appropriated, according to the wishes of the 
 donor, to pay for the instruction of women who are preparing to 
 become teachers in those subjects which the University may at any 
 time offer to teach women. Thomas Penn, a generous patron of 
 the institution, reserved the right of naming two students for the 
 University; these scholarships are now filled by the Governor of 
 Pennsylvania, who is also ex officio President of the Board of Trus- 
 ■ tees. Besides these, there are a number of other free scholarships; 
 and a part of the contract by which the city deeded land -to the 
 University requires fifty free scholarships to be established and 
 maintained for the benefit of the children in the public schools. 
 
 The University attained its present position only by slow steps. 
 It has had its ups and downs as well as most other institutions 
 of learning. There have been times when its students were few, its 
 revenues small, its trustees distracted by differences of opinion, its 
 faculty discouraged and without the spirit to vitalize their instruc- 
 tion. " In the Philosophical school," says Dr. George B. Wood, the 
 historian of the University, " consisting of the two highest classes. 
 
, , EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 there were in the year 1797 only twelve students ; and the numbers 
 qualified to graduate were in several instances so few, that it was 
 deemed unnecessary and impolitic to hold Commencements." There 
 were other periods in its earlier history equally dark; and, even at 
 a much later day, the institution was generally considered as 
 antiquated and without vigor. Happily, under the energetic man- 
 agement of recent years, it has been able to overcome the drawbacks 
 of the past, whether internal or external, and it is now in buildings, 
 in equipment, in teaching force and in healthy, hopeful life, the 
 equal of any institution of its class in America. 
 
 The following" gentlemen have held the office of Provost of the 
 University: John Ewing, D. D., John McDowell, D. D., John An- 
 drews, D. D., Frederick Beasley, D. D., William Heathcote De 
 Lancey, D. D., John Ludlow, D. D., Henry Vethake, LL. D., Dan- 
 iel R. Goodwin, D. D., Charles J. Stille, LL. D., and William Pep- 
 per, M. D. 
 
 DICKINSON. 
 
 Dickinson College was chartered by the State in 1783. 
 
 The University of Pennsylvania was designed by its founders to 
 be free from sectarian bias or control, but it is hardly to be denied 
 that the dominant influence in its board of trustees and faculty dur- 
 ing most of the years of its early history was that of the Episcopal 
 Church. Presbyterianism was recognized by the management, but 
 never allowed much control. This naturally created in time some 
 restlessness on the part of Presbyterians who patronized the institu- 
 tion, and a disposition, whenever the proper opportunity presented 
 itself, to provide a College for themselves. Besides, during the 
 Revolutionary war, some persons prominently connected with the 
 University, both in its board of trustees and in its faculty, were sus- 
 pected of coldness if not disloyalty to the American cause, while " 
 the Presbyterian, Scotch-Irish element of the population was in- 
 tensely hostile to Great Britain, and ready to go any length to 
 secure American independence. These were potent influences lead- 
 ing towards the establishment of Dickinson College. There were 
 others. From the " Log College" of Tennent had issued a progeny 
 of schools like itself, and their influence, combined with that of the 
 parent institution, had planted Princeton in New Jersey, Hampden 
 and Sydney in Virginia, and was now to plant Dickinson and soon 
 Jefferson and Washington in Pennsylvania. And apart from all 
 this, it was easy for the discerning men of that day to see that the 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. oge 
 
 great war over, and independence secured, the interior of the State 
 would soon be thickly settled, and that it would be sound policy in 
 every sense to establish institutions of learning convenient to the 
 people. The Presbyterians were the first to move in this work. 
 
 The leading influences that led to the establishment of Dickinson 
 College were Presbyterian, but the aims of its founders were in no 
 sense narrow. They proposed to plant a College for their own 
 benefit, but also for the benefit of others and for the good of the 
 State. Hence the comprehensive character of the College charter, 
 which, looking to the general public welfare, declares that "the 
 happiness and prosperity of every country depends much on the 
 right education of youth who must succeed the aged in the impor- 
 tant offices of society, and the most exalted nations have acquired 
 their pre-eminence by the virtuous principles and liberal knowledge 
 instilled into the mmds of the rising generation;' and hence, too, 
 the liberal grants made by the State to the institution in its earliest 
 years. In fact, the establishment of Dickinson College was a part 
 of a grand scheme, as elsewhere shown by a letter of Dr. Benjamin 
 Rush to the Legislature, to provide the State with a complete sys- 
 tem of education, embracing the University, a sufficient number of 
 Colleges, and free schools in every township. 
 
 Dr. Rush may be styled the father of Dickinson College. John 
 Dickinson, the Quaker patriot. President of the Supreme Executive 
 Council during the trying days at the close of the Revolutionary 
 war, after whom it was named, gave it a large donation and in other 
 ways proved himself its friend ; but Dr. Rush was the soul of the 
 movement that resulted in the establishment of the College, and the 
 mainstay of the institution during the weakness of its infant years. 
 Through him the College is directly linked to the Bucks county 
 " Log College," for he was educated by a master who obtained 
 both his learning and his inspiration as a teacher in the humble 
 schoolhouse on the Neshaminy — Samuel Finley, of Nottingham. 
 
 The first building at Carlisle used for the purposes of instruction 
 by the faculty of the College was a small two-story house on Bed- 
 ford street. Chief Justice Taney, who was educated at Dickinson, 
 says of it: "The College in my day was a small and shabby build- 
 ing fronting a dirty alley." John Penn, grandson of the Founder, 
 visited Carlisle in 1788. In his Journal is the following: "The 
 first buildings seen here are three or four separate wings intended 
 for magazines originally, but said to be granted by Congress to the 
 
396 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 teachers of Dickinson College for twenty years, though upon in- 
 quiry I find they are negotiating, but have not concluded a bargain. 
 The present College or schoolhouse is a small, patched-up building, 
 of about sixty by fifteen feet. The apartments of the public build- 
 ings are casually inhabited, and Dr. Nesbit, the head of the College, 
 lives in one." Dr. Nesbit himself writes thus .sharply to Dr. Rush, 
 1792: "I have no private ends to serve in wishing that the students 
 might have proper accommodations, and that the College were in 
 such a situation as to admit of increase, which, I think, cannot be 
 the case if it is established in this dirty town, where students must 
 wade through deep mud several times a day at the risk of their 
 health, and afterwards be cooped up like pigs, in narrow apartments 
 and mean houses, and in such numbers in one room as renders it 
 almost impossible for them to continue their studies." In 1798 the 
 ground composing the present College campus was bought from the 
 Penn family for one hundred and fifty dollars. Here a building 
 was erected in 1802, but unfortunately it was burned down a year 
 later. The corner-stone of the present West College was laid in 
 1804. The East College building was erected in 1836-7, and that 
 known as the South College the following year. 
 
 L- * _.r*s/ flS*.'- 'li*,*. 
 
 DICKINSON COLLEGE, I805. 
 
 The first President of the College was Rev. Charles Nesbit, D. D., 
 of Montrose, Scotland. His services were obtained through the 
 
UNIVERSITIES AMD COLLEGES. 307 
 
 influence of Dr. Rush, who, while a student at Edinburgh, in 1767, 
 had become acquainted with his fine social qualities, his great theo- 
 logical attainments and his wonderful scholarship. He was- 
 thoroughly versed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and could read 
 with facility French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. His 
 stores of memory were so extensive that he was often called both 
 in Scotland and the United States " The Walking Library." Dr. 
 Nesbit arrived at Carlisle from Philadelphia, after being politely 
 received and pleasantly entertained on his way at Lancaster, York 
 and other places, July 20, 1785. He was met at Sprmg Forge, five 
 miles from the town, by nearly a hundred ladies and gentlemen, who 
 had spread an elegant repast for him in a bower erected for the pur- 
 pose. The Professors and students of the College, as well as the 
 citizens, received him with expressions of great joy. Processions 
 were formed, bells were rung, and addresses of welcome delivered 
 in English and in Latin. This auspicious beginning was followed 
 by long years of trial and discouragement incident, to the building 
 up of an institution of learning in an American wilderness. 
 
 Dr. Nesbit died in 1804. From his death to 1832, when the 
 College ended the first period of its existence, there was an almost 
 continual want of unity among the trustees and between the trustees 
 and faculty, which tended greatly to interfere with the successful 
 working of the College, cutting off its revenues, lessening the number 
 of its students, weakening its teaching power, suspending its opera- 
 tions for several years at two different times, causing an investiga- 
 tion by the Legislature, and ending by closing its doors with no 
 expectation that they would be again opened. The Presidents 
 of the College during this distracting period were Rev. Robert 
 Davidson, D. D., pro tempore. Rev. Jeremiah Atwater, D. D., Rev. 
 John McKnight, D. D., Rev. John M. Mason, D. D., Rev. William 
 Neill, D. D., and Rev. Samuel B. Howe, D. D. Under some of 
 these officers there were brief seasons of prosperity when the clouds 
 that darkened the path of the College seemed to break, but what 
 President Buchanan says of the condition of the College when he 
 was a student was true of it most of the time, " Dickinson College 
 was in a wrecked condition, and I have often regretted that I had 
 not been sent to some other institution." Still, among its four hun- 
 dred and forty alumni, one became President of the United States, 
 one Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, one 
 Justice of the same Court, two District or Territorial Judges, three 
 
, g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Justices of the State Supreme Court, two Senators in Congress, ten 
 Representatives in Congress, eleven Presidents of Cdlleges, sixteen 
 Professors in Colleges, sixty-eight ministers of the Gospel, one 
 Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and one Governor of a 
 State. 
 
 In 1833, Dickinson College was transferred to the Methodist 
 Church, and a year later was re-opened under the presidency of 
 Rev. John P. Durbin, D. D. An endowment of ;^48,ooo had been 
 raised, and the work of instruction begun with twenty students in 
 the College and seventy in the Grammar School. Under the ener- 
 getic management of Dr. Durbin and his successors, Rev. Robert 
 Emory, Rev. Jesse T. Peck, D. D., Rev. Charles Collins, D. D., Rev. 
 H. M. Johnson, D. D., Rev. R. L. Dashiel, D. D., and Rev. J. A. 
 McCauley, D. D., the College has continued to grow stronger, with 
 the pcssible exception of the years of the war of the rebellion, and 
 seems now about to attain the high position which its founders 
 looked forward to one hundred years ago. The Centennial con- 
 tribution.s from its friends have enabled the trustees to repair the old 
 buildings, to erect a new one for the scientific department, and to 
 largely increase the permanent endowment. In 1884, the principle 
 of the co-education of the sexes was adopted by the trustees, and 
 the doors of the College are now open to women. 
 
 FRANKLIN, MARSHALL, FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL. 
 
 Franklin was the third College chartered by the State of Penn- 
 sylvania. It was established in 1787 at Lancaster. The most sig- 
 nificant facts of its history have been given elsewhere. From these 
 it appears that this College was the culmination of a long series of 
 efforts to provide means for the higher education of the Germans. 
 The College, never prosperous and always without buildings of its 
 own, was closed in 1821. In 1827, the Lancaster County Acad- 
 emy was incorporated by the Legislature, and received a grant of 
 three thousand dollars from the State. A lot was purchased and 
 buildings were erected. This property was, in 1839, conveyed to 
 the trustees of Franklin College, who made a new effort to restore 
 life to the institution. The extent of their success was the estab- 
 lishment of a respectable classical Academy. Some years later the 
 Reformed Church purchased the Lutheran interest in the College, 
 and, in 1850, an Act was passed by the Legislature uniting it with 
 Marshall College. 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. ,gg 
 
 Marshall College was the child of the German Reformed Theo- 
 logical Seminary. This Seminary, after starting at Carlisle, in i825, 
 and remaining a few years at York, was removed to Mercersburgi 
 Franklin county, in 1834. In its new home there was at once 
 planted by its side a high school, mainly for the purpose of prepar- 
 ing students for the course of study pursued in the Seminary, and 
 this high school was, in 1835, incorporated as a College. From 
 the first, a dose relationship existed between the Seminary and the 
 College, and Professors in one institution frequently filled chairs in 
 the other. Some of the buildings were used in common. The 
 property of the College consisted of a campus of thirteen acres, a 
 building for the Preparatory department, a professor's house, and 
 two halls belonging to the literary societies. The main College 
 building, long contemplated, was never erected. The Presidents of 
 Marshall College were Rev. Frederick A. Rauch, D. D., and Rev. 
 John W. Nevin, D. D., both men of great learning and wide repu- 
 tation. The number of students in attendance at Mercersburg 
 averaged, in the College, about seventy-five, and in the Preparatory 
 department about sixty. Upon the removal of Marshall College 
 to Lancaster, the property of the institution at Mercersburg went 
 into the hands of individuals, but the buildings were used for a 
 school under the name of the Marshall Collegiate Institute, subse- 
 quently Mercersburg College. 
 
 Regular instruction was begun in Franklin and Marshall College 
 at Lancaster in the spring of 1853. The exercises were temporarily 
 conducted in the old Lancaster county Academy buildings. A 
 beautiful site for new buildings, consisting of a tract of twenty-two 
 acres, was secured; and, in 1856, the main central edifice was dedi- 
 cated to its high purposes. Then followed the erection of Halls 
 for the Societies, and later a boarding hall and a building for the 
 Academy. In 1871, the Theological Seminary was brought to 
 Lancaster and located in the College campus, where several houses 
 were erected for the accommodation of the President and the Pro- 
 fessors ; and the two institutions now stand side by side, united and 
 mutually helpful as of old. 
 
 The Presidents of Franklin and Marshall College have been Rev. 
 Emanuel Gerhart, D. D., Rev. John W. Nevin, D. D., LL. D., and 
 Rev. Thomas G. Apple, D. D. The institution suffers for want of 
 an adequate endowment, but without much pretension or show, its 
 work of instruction has always commended itself for solidity and 
 
. 3Q ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 thoroughness. It still adheres more strictly than any of our Colleges 
 to the old, well tried curriculum of classical and philosophical study, 
 holding it to be superior to any other for the purposes of liberal 
 culture. Recently, the foundation has been laid for a first-class 
 Astronomical Observatory, and the prospect is fair for the speedy 
 enlargement of the scientific department and the erection of a suit- 
 able building for its accommodation. The number of students in 
 the College proper is usually about one hundred. 
 
 JEFFERSON, WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON. 
 
 Washington county was settled by a remarkably brave and intel- 
 ligent class of Scotch Irish. They no sooner had homes than they 
 set about providing themselves with churches and schools. They 
 generally brought their ministers with them, who owing to the 
 scarcity of schoolmasters were often compelled to teach as well as 
 to preach. Too few for the wants of the community and much 
 overworked, some of these good men nevertheless undertook the 
 establishment of special schools, mainly with the view of preparing 
 young men as suitable assistants in the work in which they were 
 themselves engaged.' These schools were generally opened either 
 in their own dwellings or in rude log cabins erected for the purpose 
 near them. In them were often taught not only the elementary 
 branches of a common school, but the classics and mathematics of 
 a College. In the front of this body of self-sacrificing pioneers of 
 Christianity -and learning were the honored names of John McMil- 
 lan, Thaddeus Dodd and Joseph Smith, pastors, respectively, of the 
 congregations of Chartiers, Ten Mile and Buffalo, each of whom had 
 such a school in operation between the years 1780 and 1790. To 
 their humble beginnings can be traced the founding of an Academy 
 at Washington, in 1787, and at Canonsburg, seven miles distant, in 
 1 79 1. Washington Academy seems to have been a development of 
 the school of Thaddeus Dodd, who became its first Principal, and 
 Dr. McMillan's school was intimately connected with the origin of 
 the Academy at Canonsburg. Growing with the growth of the 
 community, these institutions became Colleges, the second in 1802, 
 and the first in 1806. 
 
 The Jefferson College buildings were erected on a lot in Canons- 
 burg, presented by Col. John Canon. The first of these was a plain, 
 three-story brick building, .seventy-six feet by forty-five, surmounted 
 by a cupola. A second, more pretentious building, was erected 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 
 
 401 
 
 about 1839. The President's house stood near the other buildings 
 At one time a farm of two hundred acres was connected with the 
 College, and the students enjoyed the opportunity of intermingling 
 lessons in practical agriculture with lessons from books. A reduc""- 
 tion was made in the expenses of those who were willing to work 
 
 MCMILLANS "LOG COLLEGE," 
 
 The College also, about 1826, organized a medical department, 
 located it in Philadelphia, and placed it under the special care of 
 nine trustees. This was the foundation of Jefferson Medical Col- 
 lege. The first President of Jefferson College was Rev. John Wat- 
 son. Poor, and the keeper of a bar at the village inn, he became 
 one of Dr. McMillan's "Log College" scholars, and subsequently 
 graduated first in his class at Princeton. His successors were Rev. 
 James Dunlap, Rev. Andrew Wylie, D. D., Rev. William McMillan, 
 Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D., LL. D., Rev. Robert J. Brecken- 
 ridge, D. D., LL. D., Rev. Alexander B. Brown, Rev. Joseph 
 Alden, D. D., LL. D., and Rev. Daniel H. Riddle, D. D., LL. D. 
 In its earlier years the faculty consisted of only three or four pro- 
 fessors, and the number of students averaged about eighty. Later 
 the faculty was enlarged, and the number of students at times 
 reached two hundred. The spirit of the College is shown in the 
 fact that up to 1839, of the six hundred and eighteen young men 
 26 
 
, EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 402 
 
 who had graduated, three hundred and nine became ministers of 
 the Gospel. It is the universal testimony of those who ought to 
 know, that there was something about the teaching or the life of 
 Jefferson College that in a peculiar manner won the hearts of stu- 
 dents and tended to shape for good their future lives. Since the 
 union with Washington College, the abandoned buildings at Can- 
 onsburg have been used for an Academy. 
 
 The Washington College campus consists of lots donated by 
 citizens of the borough to the old Academy upon which the College 
 was engrafted. The nucleus of the College library is the books 
 purchased with the ;^50 given by Dr. Franklin to the Academy for 
 that purpose. The exercises of the College were at first conducted 
 in the Academy, which is still standing, and forms the central part 
 of the old College building. Two buildings were erected for the 
 College, one constituting the additions to the Academy building 
 about 1 82 1, and the other about 1837. In its earlier years, the 
 College was not as well patronized as its neighbor, Jefferson, and 
 for some time prior to 1830, its work was entirely suspended. 
 About the year 1832, it established a course of study in the "art of 
 teaching," but its success in this particular was not better than that 
 of other Colleges that tried the same experiment. Among the 
 graduates of Washington, there are a remarkably large number of 
 men who distinguished themselves both in Church and State. The 
 Presidents of Washington College were Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D., 
 LL. D., Rev. Andrew Wylie, D. D., Rev. David Elliott, D. D., 
 LL. D., Rev. David McConaughy, D. D., LL. D., Rev. James 
 Clark, D. D., Rev. James I. Brownson, D. D., pro tempore, and Rev. 
 John W. Scott, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 A union of Washington and Jefferson Colleges had been agitated 
 almost from the beginning, but no plan could be agreed upon. In 
 response to a movement to that effect on the part of the Presbyterian 
 Synods and influential citizens, hastened doubtless by the offer of fifty 
 thousand dollars as an endowment in case a union should be effected, 
 the Legislature, in 1865, passed an Act consolidating the two institu- 
 tions under the name of Washington and Jefferson College. In 
 accordance with this Act, it was arranged that the three highest 
 classes of the united Colleges should be taught at Canonsburg, and 
 the Freshman classes and the Scientific and Preparatory departments 
 should be furnished with accommodations at Washington. This 
 broken and scattered arrangement proving unsatisfactory, the Act 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. aq-, 
 
 of 1865 was SO modified, in 1869, that the location of the combined 
 institutions was fixed at Washington. Litigation ensued in both 
 the State and United States Courts, pending which the institution 
 was badly demoralized and for a time partially suspended. Since 
 the settlement, the endowment has been largely increased, a fine 
 additional building has been erected, the attendance of students is 
 very encouraging, and the institution bids fair to take rank with the 
 leading Colleges of the country. The Presidents of Washington 
 and Jefferson College have been Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. D., 
 LL. D., Rev. Samuel J. Wilson, D. D., LL. D., Rev. James I. Brown- 
 son, D. D., pro tempore, Rev. George P. Hays, D. D., and Rev. 
 James D. Moffat, D. D. 
 
 ALLEGHENY. 
 
 Presbyterian influence founded Allegheny College, as it did Jef- 
 ferson and Washington. The preliminary steps in the enterprise 
 were taken at a meeting held in the old log court house at Mead- 
 ville, June 30, 18 15. At that time Meadville was a village of four 
 hundred inhabitants, and the whole population of Crawford county 
 scarcely reached six thousand. The leading spirits on the occasion 
 were Major Roger Alden, a Revolutionary soldier, and his cousin. 
 Rev. Timothy Alden, a graduate of Harvard University, and a 
 teacher of large experience. This meeting, with true Western pluck 
 and promptness, not only resolved to found a College, but at once 
 proceeded to organize it. Trustees were elected; Reverend Alden 
 was made President of the College, and Rev. Robert Johnson Vice- 
 President, and committees were appointed to procure a charter from 
 the Legislature, and to draft laws and regulations for the College. 
 John Reynolds, the treasurer, was directed to open books and 
 receive donations, and the President elect was commissioned as 
 agent to solicit help from abroad. The President returned after 
 much travel in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, with 
 donations in land, books, and cash, valued at ^4,103.30; the Mead- 
 ville subscriptions amounted to ;^5,685, in all ;^9,788.30, and with 
 this small sum the heroic men who had the matter in charge, with 
 faith in the future, began to lay the foundations of a great institu- 
 tion of learning. President Alden was inaugurated July 28, 18 17, 
 with imposing ceremonies. There were delivered on the occasion 
 three addresses in Latin, three in English, and one in Hebrew ; and 
 two dialogues were spoken, one in Latin and one in English. 
 
ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 404 
 
 The site chosen for the College buildings was a lot of ten acres 
 on a hill-side, facing the town from the North, and commanding a 
 magnificent view of the broad valley, the beautiful town, and the 
 creek that winds along in the distance like a thread of silver.. The 
 corner-stone of the first building erected was laid in July, 1820. 
 This building consists of a central structure three stories high, sur- 
 mounted by a cupola and wings, the whole forming a front of one 
 hundred and twenty feet in length. A second three-story brick 
 building was erected in 1855. Hulings Hall, erected in 1881, with 
 funds contributed by Marcus Hulings, of Oil City, is four stories 
 high, and has a frontage of one hundred' feet. This building is 
 occupied as a boarding-house by the lady students. 
 
 The College was fairly attended in its earlier years, but mostly 
 by young men pursuing a short and irregular course of study, for 
 up to 1832 it had only graduated twelve students. Great efforts 
 were made to increase the patronage. A German professorship was 
 established in the hope of attracting students from among the Ger- 
 mans who had begun to settle in Western Pennsylvania, the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity were asked to endow a professorship of Mathemat- 
 ics, and to interest themselves in the College in other respects, and 
 the institution was for a time converted into a military school ; but 
 all these projects failed to secure the desired success. No man 
 ever labored more faithfully to build up an educational institu- 
 tion than President Alden; but the population of Western Pennsyl- 
 vania was at that time sparse, the people were poor, labors such as 
 his were appreciated by comparatively few, and at last he was com- 
 pelled to give up the unequal struggle ; he resigned, and the College 
 closed. 
 
 The Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Church held a ses- 
 sion at Meadville in 1833; the establishment of an institution of 
 learning had been for some time under consideration, notice was 
 taken of the vacant Allegheny College buildings, and an agreement 
 was soon entered into to re-open the College and place its manage- 
 ment entirely in the hands of the Conference. Thus two institu- 
 tions of learning were lost to Presbyterian control the same year, 
 Dickinson and Allegheny, and the young Methodist Church, full 
 of vigor and zeal, assumed possession. In accordance with what 
 seems to have been the policy of the Methodist Church at that time, 
 the new board of trustees adopted the following resolution : " That 
 the board deem it highly expedient to attach to the College the 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. 405 
 
 justly celebrated manual labor system, thereby to facilitate the edu- 
 cation of the youth of our land, and send them into the world with 
 vigorous constitutions, correct morals, and business habits, as soon 
 as funds can be obtained to accomplish the object." To cany this 
 resolution into effect, a farm of forty-two acres was purchased, and 
 contributions were solicited from the church and the public, and the 
 Legislature was asked for an appropriation to enable the board to 
 pay for the farm, and to erect the required buildings and shops. 
 This manual labor project did not prove a success, and was aban- 
 doned; but the College, though at times suffering from insufficient 
 income and other causes, gradually grew stronger, until now it may 
 fairly claim to be classed among the leading Colleges of the State. 
 The usual attendance in the College proper is about one hundred, 
 with an equal number in the Preparatory department. The alumni 
 number seven hundred. For some years young ladies have been 
 admitted to all the privileges of the College, and their names appear 
 in all the College classes. A military department was organized in 
 1877, and is under the direction of an officer of the United States 
 army, detailed for this duty by the Secretary of War. The Presi- 
 dents of the College, since the resignation of Dr. Alden, have been 
 Rev. Martin Ruter, D. D., Rev. Homer J. Clark, D. D., Rev. John 
 Barker, D. D., Rev. George Loomis, D. D., Rev. Lucius H. Bugbee, 
 D. D., and Rev. David H. Wheeler, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 Allegheny College has a well equipped chemical laboratory, 
 possesses a valuable library, and is well supplied with , philosophical 
 apparatus. It possesses two museums, one of collections in Natural 
 History and the other of collections in the history of Art. The 
 former is large and valuable, the Alger collection alone it is said 
 cost the collector ^35,000; the latter is small, but admirably adapted 
 to the purposes of teaching. 
 
 WESTERN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 In the year 18 19, the Legislature passed an Act incorporating the 
 Western University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh. It was intended 
 to be to the Western part of the State what the University of Penn- 
 sylvania at Philadelphia was to the Eastern. The University was a 
 development of the old Pittsburgh Academy chartered in 1787, and 
 the first University classes, organized in 1822, were taught in the 
 Academy building. Apart from the dwelling house that was pur- 
 chased for the President, the first University building, a large three- 
 
g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 story stone structure, was erected on a site in the southeastern part 
 of the city, near the Monongahela river, in 1 830. This building, with 
 furniture, library and cabinet, was burned in the great fire of 1845. 
 A second building, erected soon after on Duquesne Way, was also 
 burned in 1849. These and other circumstances were very dis- 
 couraging, and for a time threatened the project of establishing a 
 higher institution of learning at Pittsburgh with complete failure. 
 But plucking up courage, a third building was erected on Ross and 
 Diamond streets, in 1855, and henceforth the University maintained 
 a firmer footing and continued to grow stronger with slow but sure 
 steps. In i87i,a leading citizen of Pittsburgh, William Shaw, gave 
 the institution ^100,000 on condition that the trustees would secure 
 the same amount from other sources; this was done. In 1882, the 
 property of the University at Ross and Diamond streets was sold 
 for ^80,000 to the county of Allegheny as a site for a court house ; 
 and the University took up quarters temporarily in the building of 
 the Theological Seminaries of the United Presbyterian and Associate 
 Reformed Presbyterian churches in Allegheny. It will not be long 
 before it will provide itself with a new home suitable to its wants, 
 somewhere near the great city whose care it will be to protect and 
 foster it. 
 
 In its earlier years the number of students attending the Univer- 
 sity was not large, averaging perhaps forty or fifty ; but there have 
 been times in later years when the number swelled to nearly three 
 hundred, two-thirds of the number being in the Preparatory depart- 
 ment. The faculty has been increased from five in 1859, to eigh- 
 teen in 1884. The institution is fairly endowed, and possesses a 
 cabinet of ten thousand choice specimens in Natural History, a 
 library of six thousand volumes, and extensive philosophical and 
 chemical apparatus. The University is best known perhaps by its 
 Astronomical Observatory, situated on an elevated site, with ten 
 acres of land and a dwelling house for the director in the city of 
 Allegheny. This Observatory, under the directorship of Prof. S. 
 P. Langley, has taken rank with the very best observatories of its 
 class in the country. 
 
 The Presidents of the Western University have been Rev. Robert 
 Bruce, Rev. John F. McLaren, D. D., George Woods, LL. D., Rev. 
 Henry McCracken, D. D., and Prof. M. B. Goff. The University 
 IS in no sense sectarian, but the dominant influence in its manage- 
 ment has always been Presbyterian. 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. ^q? 
 
 LAFAYETTE. 
 
 Doubtless the seeds of Lafayette College are to be found in the 
 old Union Academy which for many years was the principal educa- 
 tional institution at Easton ; but the first direct step looking towards 
 the founding of a College was a meeting of citizens held at the 
 Easton hotel, December 27, 1824. At this meeting it was resolved 
 that an effort should be made to establish at Easton an institution 
 of learning of a higher character than any then existing; and in 
 recognition of the services of General Lafayette, who was then on a 
 visit to the country, it was agreed to call it Lafayette College. 
 James M. Porter, the most active promoter of the movement, was 
 elected President of the first board of trustees, and was continued in 
 this office by successive boards for twenty-five years. A charter 
 was obtained in 1826; but owing to a want of funds to erect build- 
 ings, the College was not fairly organized until 1832. 
 
 George Junkin, D. D., was the first President of Lafayette Col- 
 lege. He accepted the presidency on condition that the provision 
 in the charter requiring instruction to be given in military tactics 
 should be dispensed with, and manual labor substituted. The char- 
 ter was changed in accordance with his wishes, and a farm was 
 leased, on which it was proposed to furnish work for the students. 
 Dr. Junkin had been Principal of the Manual Labor Academy at 
 Germantown; but not meeting there with the expected success, as 
 he thought because the institution was located too near a great city, 
 he was anxious to continue the experiment of manual labor under 
 what he supposed to be more favorable circumstances at Easton. 
 Upon his leaving it, the institution at Germantown closed, and a 
 number of students followed their Principal to Lafayette. " Thus 
 it will be seen," says the first report of the board of trustees, " that 
 in a qualified sense Lafayette College is a continuation of the Man- 
 ual Labor Academy of Pennsylvania." The first work on the farm 
 was the erection of an addition to the house already on the prem- 
 ises; and although the ground was frozen and partly covered with 
 snow, this was done almost wholly by the students, under the direc- 
 tion of the President. The building was a frame one, thirty-one 
 feet square, two stories high, with garret rooms finished and base- 
 ment fitted up for workshops. " It is divided," says the report 
 already quoted, " into eight lodging rooms, two schoolrooms, and 
 the shop, and was constructed by the labor of the students, except 
 eight days' work in the quarry, the masoning and plastering." 
 
q3 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 The first session of the College was attended by sixty-seven stu- 
 dents, and, in addition to the studies of the schoolroom, they worked 
 on the farm and in the garden and shops. There were turned out 
 .from the shops, irons for cultivators, packing boxes, trunks, and 
 agricultural implements, among the latter the "Lafayette Plow." 
 A few years later window blinds and sash were made a specialty, 
 but the trustees complained that they could not find sale for them. 
 It was customary for the students to work enough to earn about 
 one-fourth the amount charged for tuition, boarding, and shop room. 
 At this time the faculty, in addition to the President, who was Pro- 
 fessor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, Logic, Rhetoric, and the 
 Evidences of Christianity, consisted of Charles F. McCay, A. B., 
 Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; James J. Coon, 
 A. B., Professor of Latin and Greek; Daniel Gaston, Business 
 Agent, and Thomas Pollock, Farmer. 
 
 To secure a permanent location for the College, the trustees pur- 
 chased eleven acres on "Mount Lafayette" as it was called, an 
 elevation overlooking the town of Easton and commanding one of 
 the most beautiful and picturesque views in the State. Here the first 
 permanent buildings were erected, and here the great College stands 
 to-day. The first buildings consisted of the old College edifice 
 called Brainerd Hall, in memory of the devoted missionary to the 
 Indians about the Forks of the Delaware, one hundred and twelve 
 by forty-four feet, a shop, and a dwelling for the Business Agent. 
 
 The untiring energy and devotion of the President of the College 
 and those who co-operated with him could not make the manual 
 labor system a permanent success, and it was abandoned, as was also, 
 as elsewhere related, the plan of a special cours^for teachers with a 
 model school for practice. Seeing his dearest projects fail, and dis- 
 couraged by the troubles that seemed to meet the College on every 
 side, at times threatening its utter ruin. Dr. Junkin, in 1841, resigned 
 and was succeeded by Rev. John W. Yeomans, D. D.; but longing 
 to complete his work, he returned to his old place, in 1844, only to 
 meet fresh causes of discouragement and to retire again at the end 
 of four years. Rev. Charles W. Nassau, D. D., Vice President, now 
 assumed charge, pro tempore, and during his administration the 
 direction of the College was transferred to the Presbyterian Synod 
 of Philadelphia. Under this arrangement, the Presidents of the Col- 
 lege have been Rev. D. V. McClean, D. D., Rev. George W. 
 McPhaii, D. D,, Rev. William C. Cattell, D. D., and Rev. James H. 
 Mason Knox, D. D. 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. ^qq 
 
 Lafayette College now has five buildings devoted to the purposes 
 of instruction, including the magnificent Pardee Hall, erected by the 
 munificence of Ario Pardee, of Hazleton, at a cost of ^250,000. Mr. 
 Pardee's benefactions to the college amount to ;^500,000. This 
 Hall, burned in 1879, was at once reconstructed on a grander scale 
 than before. It is used for the scientific department, and contains 
 the museum, lecture rooms, and laboratories. There are seven 
 dormitories, four of them known as students' homes. A family 
 resides in each, with whom the students board. The College main- 
 tains a good reading room and possesses a library of over twenty 
 thousand volumes. There are an Astronomical Observatory and a 
 Chemical Hall on the grounds. The faculty consists of twenty-five 
 or thirty professors, and the students number between three and 
 four hundred. A dozen professors' houses, all neat, some elegant, 
 cluster around the College. A Law department was organized in 
 1875 ; and the College may fairly claim, in its large facilities for in- 
 struction and the breadth of its courses of study, to be approaching 
 the standard of a true University. 
 
 Doubtless many have had a share in the work of building up 
 Lafayette College; but it is only just to say that the credit is mainly 
 due to the man who held the office of President from 1857 to 1883, 
 active, genial, energetic, devoted with his whole soul to the task 
 intrusted to him, and as apt in the ways of business as in the man- 
 agement of the College, William C. Cattell. On the point of sus- 
 pension when he was called to the presidency, and with only two 
 poorly-furnished buildings belonging to it, he left it with a rank 
 among the foremost institutions of learning in the State or country. 
 « 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 In 1825, the Lutheran Theological Seminary was established at 
 Gettysburg. At first it had few students and no money, but after 
 a few years, with the aid of friends in this country and in Germany, 
 it was in a condition to erect buildings and impart a regular course 
 of instruction to full classes. Some of the students applying for 
 admission were found deficient in those attainments deemed neces- 
 sary as a foundation for profitable theological study, and to supply 
 this want, in 1827, a Preparatory department was organized. In 
 1829, the old Gettysburg Academy property was purchased for its 
 use. The department soon grew into what was called the Gettys- 
 burg Gymnasium, which, under the direction of an association of 
 
ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Al (J 
 
 stockholders, in 1832, was expanded into a College, and received a 
 charter from the Legislature. 
 
 The main College building, located on a beautiful plat of ground 
 within the borough limits, and completed in 1839 or 1 840, is one 
 hundred and fifty feet in front, four stories high, and contains the 
 chapel, library, rooms of the literary societies, recitation rooms, etc. 
 The building used for the Preparatory department is called Stevens 
 Hall, in honor of Thaddeus Stevens, to whom the College is 
 indebted for valuable services. Linnajan Hall stands a short dis- 
 tance west of the College building, and contains some good collec- 
 tions of specimens in the various departments of natural history. 
 The institution possesses a well-equipped Astronomical Observa- 
 tory, and a special building fitted up as a Gymnasium furnishes the 
 students with every desirable facility for exercise and recreation. 
 The libraries connected with the College contain over twenty thou- 
 sand volumes. The foundation of the College in the Preparatory 
 School and the Gymnasium was laid by Rev. D. Jacobs, the first 
 Principal, and Rev. H. L. Baugher, who followed him. The Presi- 
 dents of the College have been Rev. Charles Philip Krauth, D. D., 
 Rev. Henry Lewis Baugher, D. D,, Rev. Milton Valentine, D. D., 
 and Rev. Harvey W. McKnight, D. D. 
 
 The alumni of the College number over seven hundred, and the 
 students in the collegiate courses are generally about one hundred. 
 The endowment amounts to about $125,000, with prospects of a 
 considerable increase. The institution has a well organized Scien- 
 tific department, and confers the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 
 its earlier years, like Jefferson, it had a Medical department located 
 in Philadelphia, and a Law department; but neither of these ever 
 met with much success, and both were long since abandoned. The 
 attempt made in 1833 to connect .workshops with the College, as at 
 Allegheny and Lafayette, was a failure. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY AT LEWISBURG. 
 
 The movement which resulted in the founding of a University at 
 the pleasant inland town of Lewisburg, was inaugurated in 1845 by 
 the Northumberland Baptist Association at a meeting held at 
 Shamokin. Here, Rev. William H. Ludwig, from a committee to 
 whom the subject had been referred, reported the following resolu- 
 tion, which was adopted : " Resolved, That we esteem it desirable that 
 a literary institution should be established in Central Pennsylvania, 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. .^ I 
 
 embracing a High School for male pupils, another for female, a Col- ■ 
 lege and also a Theological institution, to be under the influence of 
 the Baptist denomination." In favor of this action it was stated that 
 the existing Colleges were so located "as to leave the central and 
 northern part of Pennsylvania, a region extending more than two 
 hundred miles from East to West, and more than one hundred from 
 North to South, wholly unoccupied by any literary institution above 
 the grade of an ordinary Academy." The project proposed by the 
 meeting at Shamokin was carried into effect by an organization 
 known as the " Baptist Literary Association of Pennsylvania." 
 Through its agency a charter for a University at Lewisburg was 
 obtained from the Legislature in 1846, and means were set on foot 
 for raising the necessary funds to erect buildings. Instruction was 
 begun a few months later in the basement of the Baptist church, with 
 two teachers and twenty-two students. The first class was gradu- 
 ated in 185 1. By 1849, subscriptions were reported to the amount 
 of ^100,000, a site was purchased and a building for the Academy 
 was erected. The west wing of the main College building was 
 erected in 1850, but the remaining parts were not completed until 
 1858. The Female Seminary was completed at about the same 
 time. The College building as it now stands has a front oi three 
 hundred and twenty feet, the central portion being three and the 
 wings four stories high. The Academy building contains a chapel,, 
 school-room, recitation rooms, society halls, rooms for the Principal 
 and his family, and accommodations for boarding a large number of 
 students. The College and Academy buildings are located in a 
 grove of native trees with a campus of twenty acres, the elevated 
 site commanding a magnificent view of the whole surrounding 
 country. The Seminary building is fitted up with all the modern 
 conveniences of a Female Boarding School, and has a beautiful cam- 
 pus of its own comprising six acres. 
 
 The Theological Department once connected with the University 
 was some years since removed to Chester, and at present the insti- 
 tution embraces; first, a College with a full faculty and about one 
 hundred students ; second, a Preparatory classical department, de- 
 voted almost exclusively to preparing students for the College classes; 
 third, the Academy, a Boarding School for boys, and fourth, the 
 Institute, a Seminary for girls. The College, Academy and Semi- 
 nary has each a separate faculty; but the whole is under the direc- 
 tion of one President and one Board of Trustees. The University 
 
ED OCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 ■ is fairly equipped for the purposes of instruction in the way of appa- 
 ratus, cabinets and Hbraries. A reading room is maintained and 
 an Art Collection has been commenced. Its property is estimated 
 at ;^328,3SO, of which more than ;g200,ooo is held as an endowment 
 fund. This fund has been lately increased, and the institution evinces 
 in all its departments a vigorous life that is full of promise, 
 
 Lewisburg University is under Baptist control, but among its 
 trustees, teachers and students there have always been numerous 
 representatives of other denominations, and the whole spirit of its 
 instruction and life is broad and Hberal. It was the first of our Col- 
 leges in Eastern Pennsylvania to admit colored men to its full privi- 
 leges. The Presidents of the University have been Rev. Stephen 
 W. Taylor, Rev. Howard Malcolm, D. D., Rev. Justin R. Loomis, 
 LL. D., and Rev. David J. Hill, LL. D. 
 
 THE WESTERN COLLEGES: WAYNESBURG AND WESTMINSTER. 
 
 Waynesburg College, at Waynesburg, and Westminster College, 
 at New Wilmington, were chartered about the same time, 1850 and 
 1852; both were founded by branch Presbyterian denominations, 
 the former by the Cumberland Presbyterians, and the latter by the 
 United Presbyterians ; both have from the first, or for a long time, 
 admitted women to the privileges of their courses of instruction; 
 .both have been distinguished for the large number of students pur- 
 suing an irregular course of study, and both have encountered about 
 the same difficulties and met with about the same degree of success. 
 
 The first College building erected at Waynesburg, consisted of a 
 three-story brick edifice completed in 185 1. In 1876, a much larger 
 and more convenient building was erected. This building has a 
 frontage of one hundred and fifty feet. At New Wilmington, the 
 College exercises began in a chiirch, then they were conducted for 
 some time in a small, plain building ha.stily constructed, and meant 
 to be occupied only temporarily; in 1854, a brick building, ninety 
 by fifty-eight feet and three stories high, was completed. This 
 building was burned in 1861 and rebuilt on a larger scale soon 
 after. The College building, as it now stands, is one hundred and 
 sixty-eight feet long and sixty-eight feet wide, and three stories in 
 height. An additional building for a boarding hall has been re- 
 cently constructed. 
 
 Neither the College at Waynesburg nor that at New Wilmington 
 has been able to equip itself with apparatus, museums and libraries 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. ^j, 
 
 equal to those of some of our older and stronger Colleges, but 
 each has made a good beginning in these respects. At Waynes- 
 burg, the number of students is usually about two hundred, with 
 thirty or forty in the College proper; at New Wilmington, for the 
 year 1883-4, there were eighty-six in the College proper and one 
 hundred and fourteen either unclassified or in the Preparatory de- 
 partment. Waynesburg has graduated three hundred and twenty- 
 five students ; Westminster, six hundred and five. Both Colleges 
 have always made a specialty of training teachers, and many of the 
 best teachers in Western Pennsylvania have been educated at one or 
 the other. Westminster is probably the only College in the State, not 
 established specially for that race, that never excluded persons of color. 
 The Presidents of Waynesburg College have been Rev. Joshua 
 Loughran, Rev. J. P. Weethee, Hon. John C. Flenneken, pro tem- 
 pore, and Rev. A. B. Miller, D. D.; of Westminster, Rev. James 
 Patterson, D. D., Rev. R, A. Browne, D. D., Rev. E. T. Jeffers, 
 D. D., and Rev. John Knox McClurkin. 
 
 THE TWO QUAKER COLLEGES, HAVERFORD AND SWARTHMORE. 
 
 In 1827, the Society of Friends in the United States split into 
 two branches, which, following the distinctions common in other 
 religious bodies, may be called the high church branch and the low 
 church branch.. Haverford College was founded by the high 
 church, or "Orthodox" branch of the Society; Swarthmore College 
 by the low church, or " Hicksite" branch. Both are located in Dela- 
 ware county, near Philadelphia. 
 
 Westtown Boarding School remained in the hands of the high 
 church branch of the Society, but many intelligent Friends felt the 
 want of an institution of learning of collegiate rank, and about 1830 
 began to agitate the subject in meetings of the Society, and through 
 the columns of "The Friend." Conferences of those interested 
 were held both in Philadelphia and New York. The result was the 
 organization of the " Haverford School Association," and the estab- 
 lishment, in 1833, of Haverford School. From the first, the course 
 of study was fully equal to that of the Pennsylvania Colleges of the 
 day, and classes were regularly formed and graduated ; but the name 
 College was not at first assumed, owing to the sentiment entertained 
 against pretentious titles by some of the older or more strict 
 Friends. The man who seems to have been most active in all the 
 preliminary movements that preceded the establishment of the 
 
ED UCA TION m PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 414 
 
 school was Daniel B. Smith, one of the most enlightened and 
 public-spirited citizens of Philadelphia; and when the school was 
 opened, this broad-minded Friend was induced to accept the chair 
 of Mental and Moral Philosophy and English Literature, and for 
 twelve years was the animating spirit of the place. 
 
 In 1856, Haverford School became formally, by an Act of the 
 Legislature, Haverford College. The buildings as they now stand, 
 consist of Founders' Hall, completed in 1833; the Astronomical 
 Observatory in 1852; the Chemical Laboratory and Gymnasium in 
 1853; the Alumni Hall and Library in 1864; Barclay Hall in 1877; 
 the New Observatory in 1883, and the Machine Shop in 1884. 
 Barclay Hall is a splendid structure of granite, and has a front of 
 two hundred and twenty feet. All the older buildings have been 
 much improved of late years, and are kept in excellent condition. 
 The grounds embrace sixty acres, and nothing of the kind more 
 beautiful exists in the State. There are beds of flowers, well-kept 
 lawns, and shady retreats, with fields for cricket, base-ball, foot-ball, 
 archery, and lawn-tennis. The libraries contain about fifteen thou- 
 sand volumes, and the College is admirably equipped with the usual 
 means of illustrating the natural and other sciences. There are 
 twelve professors and instructors, and the students in the regular 
 College courses number from eighty to a hundred. Special atten- 
 tion and some pecuniary assistance are given to such students as 
 intend to become teachers, and the machine shop furnishes an op- 
 portunity for work to those who desire to fit themselves for prac- 
 tical mechanics. The endowment is about ^200,000. The charter 
 provides that " the College shall be open for the admission of the 
 sons of Friends, and of others who are willing that their children 
 should be educated in conformity with the principles " of the So- 
 ciety that controls it. Thomas Chase, Ltt. D., LL. D., is President 
 of the College, his predecessors having been John Gummere and 
 Samuel A. Gummere. 
 
 For many years the low church branch of the Society of Friends 
 was without a higher institution of learning; but in 1865, after 
 much consultation, it was decided to establish a College; a mag- 
 nificent site with extensive grounds was selected in Delaware 
 county, on the Central Division of the Philadelphia, Wilmington 
 and Baltimore Railroad, and thereon was erected a massive stone 
 building three hundred and forty-eight feet long, and four stories 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. , , - 
 
 high. The institution thus founded was called Swarthmore College, 
 in memory of the home of George Fox, the founder of the Society. 
 In recognition of the doctrine of equality, dear to Friends, the board 
 of managers or trustees was constituted of the same number of per- 
 sons of each sex, and provision was made for admitting girls as well 
 as boys to the privileges of students. It is the only College in the 
 State that stands upon this broad platform. Four years elapsed 
 after laying the corner-stone of the main building before the College 
 was opened for students, 1 869, and its friends had to wait four years 
 more for the graduation of the first class, consisting of five young 
 women and one young man. When fully equipped for work, 
 Swarthmore College cost fully ^500,000; and gazed at from with- 
 out or examined from within, the^ institution could not but be 
 classed as among the very fine.st and most complete in the State. 
 In 1 88 1, just at the opening of the Fall session, the main building 
 was destroyed by fire, and with it much valuable furniture and 
 apparatus. The class exercises, however, were interrupted but for 
 a few days; temporary quarters were secured, and soon, phoenix- 
 like, the new College buildings arose from the ashes of the old 
 ones, and the institution is now grander in its proportions and more 
 complete in its equipment than before. 
 
 Swarthmore College has connected with it grounds to the extent 
 of two hundred and forty acres, one-half of which is used for farm- 
 ing purposes to raise supplies for the College, and the remainder is 
 laid out in avenues and lawns, and devoted to exercise and pleas- 
 ure. Crum Creek, which bounds the property on the west, is an 
 exceedingly picturesque stream, and furnishes excellent facilities for 
 bathing, boating, and .skating. Besides the main College building, 
 there are other buildings, as follows: Science Hall; the Meeting 
 House; the President's House; the West House, birth place of Ben- 
 jamin West, used as a Professor's residence; the Farmer's house, 
 with commodious farm buildings; a Laundry, Bakery, and Boiler 
 house. Science Hall is constructed of stone, and consists of a 
 centre building forty-four feet by sixty-four, and two wings, each 
 forty- three feet by thirty- three. It contains, among many other 
 things, a Blacksmith Shop, a Brass Foundry, a Machine Shop, an 
 Engineering room, and Chemical, Physical, Metallurgical, and Me- 
 chanical laboratories. Power by steam is furnished, and to those 
 desiring it, "Regular and systematic instruction is given in the use 
 of tools, machinery, and processes." The institution has a reading 
 
J g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 room, a good library, and a creditable museum. A Normal depart- 
 ment is well maintained, and a special diploma is granted to those 
 completing the teachers' course. The number of students is gene- 
 rally about three hundred, one-third of whom being in the College 
 proper. Edward Parrish was the first President, He was suc- 
 ceeded by Edward H. Magill, A. M. Samuel Willets, a prominent 
 merchant of New York, was the largest contributor to the College, 
 and served as President of the Board of Managers during its earlier 
 and most trying years. 
 
 COLLEGES FOR COLORED MEN. 
 
 Rev. Charles Avery, a man who took a deep interest in the' wel- 
 fare of the colored people, organized, in 1849, an institution in the 
 city of Allegheny for the instruction of colored youth. Subse- 
 quently, it was chartered as Avery College. Mr. Avery donated 
 ground for the College, erected buildings, provided a library, and 
 supplied the institution with philosophical apparatus and a cabinet 
 of specimens in natural science. Its main support for running 
 expenses also came out of his generous pocket. He died in 1858, 
 and the institution, having no endowment, soon closed its doors. 
 The building is now used as a church and reading room by the 
 colored people. The College was never largely attended, and but a 
 small number of students were regularly graduated. The several 
 Presidents were Philotus Dean, afterwards Principal of the Pitts- 
 burgh High School, H. Freeman, George B. Vashon and Henry B. 
 Garnett. 
 
 Lincoln University is located near Oxford, Chester county. It 
 was founded with the view of imparting a liberal education to young 
 colored men. The Ashmun Institute out of which it grew was es- 
 tablished, in 1854, mainly by the efforts of Rev. John Miller Dickey, 
 who likewise was for many years the main-stay of the University. 
 A marble slab now occupying a place directly in front of the hall of 
 the University Chapel, contains the following significant inscription 
 taken from Paul's Epistle to the Romans : 
 
 1856. 
 
 THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT : 
 THE DAY IS AT HAND. 
 
 This stone was engraved for the Institute building at a time when 
 the friends of the colored man were few and weak, and the slave 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. ■.^„ 
 
 power ruled the nation. It was not only a courageous protest 
 against slavery, but a prophecy of its downfall soon to come. 
 
 The University was chartered in 1866. There are four University 
 buildings and four Professors' houses. The chapel is a beautiful 
 room and will seat one thousand persons. There are departments 
 of Law, Theology, Medicine and Pedagogy. The faculty consists 
 of about twenty -five professors and assistants. The students number 
 over two hundred, and two hundred have been graduated. The 
 University possesses a good library, and is fairly equipped for the 
 purposes of instruction with apparatus and cabinets. Rev. Isaac 
 N. Kendall, D. D., has faithfully filled the office of President for 
 many years. ... 
 
 Lincoln University always made a specialty of preparing teachers, 
 and, from 1869 to 1872, it received a kind of State recognition as a 
 Normal School for colored teachers, and appropriations to the 
 amount of ^25,241.92 were made to assist it in this good work. 
 
 In regard to the educational capabilities of the colored students^ 
 the President, in one of his reports, says : " They are competent to 
 follow wherever we can lead the way, and manifest both talent and 
 genius in original researches. I think a thorough investigation of 
 the work of the University would remove any skepticism as to the 
 ability of the colored race to receive a high degree of education and 
 to make the highest attainments, whether in the walks of science or 
 of philosophy." 
 
 The Legislature, in 1869, incorporated an institution of learning 
 under the name of the " African College." No location is men- 
 tioned in the Act. Full University privileges were granted. The 
 following section shows the broad purposes entertained by the pro- 
 jectors: "The African College will have all the advantages of a 
 first-class University, embracing the arts and sciences, and the 
 learned professions of Law, Theology and Medicine; the institution 
 to include an Academy for preparatory studies for College, also dif- 
 ferent buildings for male and female pupils, and will be connected 
 with a farm and a manufacturing establishment, where the male stu- 
 dents will be taught agriculture and the mechanical arts and busi- 
 ness ; the females will be taught the arts and sciences, housekeep- 
 ing, needle-work and other useful business suitable for their sex." 
 What steps, if any, were taken to carry this project into effect is 
 unknown, but it is certain the African College was never opened for 
 students. 
 27 
 
.jg EDUCATION JN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC COLLEGES. 
 
 The Catholic church, in a quiet way and within itself, has accom- 
 plished wonders for the education of the youth connected with it. 
 In addition to a parochial school for elementary instruction conducted 
 by almost every congregation strong enough to maintain one, some 
 equaling in size and equipment the best of our public schools, it has 
 numerous Academies and Seminaries, and the following chartered 
 Colleges : Villa Nova, in Delaware county ; St. Vincent, in West- 
 moreland county; St. Francis, in Cambria county; St. Jo.seph's, La 
 Salle and Germantown Day College, in Philadelphia, and the Col- 
 lege of the Holy Ghost, in Pittsburgh. 
 
 The Augustinian College of St. Thomas of Villa Nova was 
 founded by the "Brothers Hermits of St. Augustine," whtf, in 1841, 
 purchased a farm of one hundred and ninety-eight acres and pre- 
 pared to open a school for both lay and ecclesiastical purposes. The 
 first students were required to defray a portion of their expenses by 
 work on the farm. In 1849, the school was chartered with full col- 
 legiate powers by an Act of the Legislature. On account of finan- 
 cial embarassments, the College was suspended from 1859 to 1865. 
 Since its reopening it has enjoyed a good degree of prosperity, the 
 number of students in attendance being about one hundred. The 
 buildings are admirably located ; and, as seen from the Pennsylvania 
 railroad, present an attractive appearance. The property is valued 
 a-t ^350,000. The institution has no endowment, the principal sup- 
 port being derived from tuition fees. The Professors, in accordance 
 with the custom of their order, receive no salaries. The libraries 
 contain about ten thousand volumes. 
 
 Boniface Wimmer, a priest of the Benedictine order, came from 
 Bavaria to America, in 1846, for the purpose of establishing an insti- 
 tution for the education of yo.ung men for the priesthood. Provi- 
 dence seems to have directed his steps to Western Pennsylvania. 
 He found in Unity township, Westmoreland county, in the midst of 
 a settlement of a few Catholic families, a plain brick church, a small 
 house for the use of the pastor, a frail log barn, and a little school- 
 house belonging to the congregation. This was the begining of St. 
 Vincent Abbey and College. Upon this apparently insignificant 
 foundation there has been built up, mainly by the self-sacrificing 
 efforts and indomitable energy of the Abbot Wimmer, a great in- 
 stitution, including an immense building four hundred feet long and 
 
UmVERSITTES AND COLLEGES. .jg 
 
 two hundred and ten feet deep, with accommodations for the Col- 
 lege and its three or four hundred students; a farm of several hun- 
 dred acres, with its brick barn two hundred and twenty-two feet in 
 front ; a flour mill, a brewery, a printing office and book-bindery, a 
 photograph gallery, and shops for many departments of mechanics. 
 The College was chartered by the Legislature in 1870. It has a 
 hberal curriculum and a full faculty. Its facilities for study consist 
 of a library of over sixteen thousand volumes, a large equipment of 
 chemical and philosophical apparatus, a herbarium of fourteen thou- 
 sand specimens and other valuable collections in natural science, 
 and a coin-collection of four thousand pieces. The direction of the 
 establishment is in the hands of the Benedictine Fathers. 
 
 On an eminence in the town of Loretto, Cambria county, stands 
 the Franciscan Monastery, a large and handsome structure known 
 as St. Francis College. The Monastery and College were founded 
 by six Franciscan Brothers who came from Ireland in 1847. In 
 1850 the College was opened, and received its charter in 1858. 
 There are ten professors, and the attendance of students is about one 
 hundred. The College has a full collegiate course, with scientific, 
 preparatory and mercantile departments. 
 
 St. Joseph's College was chartered in 1852. It is in charge of 
 the Jesuit Fathers. The attendance of students is about one hun- 
 dred and fifty. The library contains five thousand volumes. It 
 admits students of all degrees of acquirement. A new building has 
 recently been erected for the Preparatory classes. 
 
 La Salle College is under the control of the Brothers of the 
 Christian Schools. It was incorporated by the Legislature in 1863. 
 Like St. Joseph's it has a collegiate, academic, commercial and 
 primary department. The attendance of students is about two hun- 
 dred, of whom one-third are in the College proper. 
 
 . Germantown Day College is conducted by Priests of the Congre- 
 gation of the Mission attached to St. Vincent's Seminary. The 
 number of students is from twenty to thirty. 
 
 The College of the Holy Ghost, Pittsburgh, was founded in 1878 
 and chartered in 1882. There are twelve professors and about two 
 hundred students. 
 
20 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Asa Packer, the founder of Lehigh University, came from Con- 
 necticut, in 1823, on foot, to seek his fortune in Pennsylvania. His 
 equipment was strong arms, a stout heart, a little education, and a 
 few dollars in his pocket. He stopped in Susquehanna county, 
 learned the business of a carpenter and worked at the trade ; bought 
 land, cleared it, built a log cabin, married, and lived the hard life of 
 a pioneer for eleven years ; engaged in boating coal from the Lehigh 
 Valley to Philadelphia, acting as captain of his own boat ; went into 
 merchandising at Mauch Chunk, carried on mining and transport- 
 ing coal, projected and built railroads, amassing thereby a colossal 
 fortune; served the people as Judge, as a member of the Legislature 
 and in Congress, and ran as the candidate of his party for Governor 
 of the State ; and died. May 17, 1879, leaving Lehigh University as 
 a monument. 
 
 Judge Packer donated to Lehigh University, in 1865, one hun- 
 dred and fifteen acres of land and ^500,000 towards the erection of 
 buildings. During his life he gave $500,000 more in the way of 
 equipment and maintenance. In his will he secured to the Univer- 
 sity an endowment of ;^ 1,500,000 and to the University Library one 
 of $500,000. He further provided that in case his surviving chil- 
 dren should die without issue, a considerable portion of the estate 
 left to them should go to the University. His two sons have since 
 died childless, and his daughter, Mary, is about erecting a church 
 for the University at a cost of $200,000. The additional endow- 
 ment to the University from the Packer estate will probably apount 
 to several millions of dollars, thus enabling it to become what its 
 founder hoped, not only great but free. 
 
 The University Park comprises a tract of one hundred and twenty- 
 two acres, seven acres of which were the gift of Charles Broadhead, 
 of Bethlehem, located in South Bethlehem, on the gentle wooded 
 slope of Lehigh mountain, facing the river. The situation could 
 not be more healthful or the scenery more picturesque. The build- 
 ings, in addition to the residences of the President and Professors, 
 consist of Packer Hall; the University Library; the Gymnasium; 
 the Sayre Observatory; the Laboratories; Christmas and Saucon 
 Halls, containing the students' rooms ; and the church, which is in 
 process of erection. All of these buildings are handsome specimens 
 of architecture, commodious and admirably adapted to their several 
 purposes. The Gymnasium and Laboratories are equal to anything 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COILEGES. 
 
 421 
 
 of the kind in the United States. The Library contains shelf-room 
 for eighty thousand volumes. The original design of the institution 
 " was to afford . the young men of the Lehigh Valley a complete 
 technical education for those professions which had developed the 
 peculiar resources of the surrounding region." Instruction is given 
 in the ancient classics and general literature; but the main strength 
 of the institution is turned in the direction of Engineering, Chemis- 
 try, Metallurgy, Electricity, and the several natural sciences, for 
 teaching which it is most thoroughly equipped. 
 
 Tuition in all departments of Lehigh University is entirely free. 
 The number of students in attendance is from three to four hundred, 
 and there are twenty-six professorial instructors. The Presidents 
 have been Henry Coppee, LL. D., J. M. Leavitt, D. D., and Robert 
 A. Lamberton, LL. D. 
 
 A GROUP OF YOUNG COLLEGES : MUHLENBERG, MORAVIAN, LEBANON VAL- 
 LEY, PALATINATE, URSINUS, THIEL, MONONGAHELA AND GENEVA. 
 
 Each of the Colleges named in this group has but a brief history, 
 for the oldest of them is not much more than twenty-one years of 
 age. 
 
 The history of Muhlenberg College, at AUentown, begins with 
 AUentown Seminary, opened in 1848 by Rev. C. R. Kessler, as a 
 Teachers' Seminary. It failed as a Teachers' Seminary, but attained 
 a good degree of success as a classical school; and, in 1864, was 
 chartered by the Legislature with collegiate powers, under the name 
 of the AUentown Collegiate and Military Institute. It 1867, the 
 name was changed to Muhlenberg College, in honor of one who may 
 be considered the father of the Lutheran church in America, Henry 
 Melchoir Muhlenberg. The College buildings are not large, but 
 they are surrounded by a fine campus of five acres. The income of 
 the institution is derived from tuition fees, church aid, and an endow- 
 ment fund of about ^100,000. The libraries contain about seven 
 thousand volumes. The students number from one hundred and 
 fifty to two hundred, but more than two-thirds of them are in the 
 Preparatory department. The Presidents have been Rev. Frederick 
 A. Muhlenberg, D. D., and Rev. B. Sadtler, D. D. 
 
 An institution in the form of a Theological Seihinary was opened 
 by the Moravians at Nazareth, Northampton county, in 1807. To 
 prepare young men properly to enter upon a course of Theologi- 
 
22 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 cal study, it was found necessary to give them instruction in the 
 learned languages, and thus there gradually grew up, in connection 
 with the Seminary, a classical department. For many years the in- 
 stitution had no settled location, but was moved several times from 
 Nazareth to Bethlehem and from Bethlehem to Nazareth. In 1863, 
 the classical department was organized as a College, and the home 
 of both departments has since been at Bethlehem. Full collegiate 
 powers were granted by an Act of the Legislature. The buildings 
 are plain, but like all the educational work of the Moravians, the 
 course of study is liberal and the instruction thorough. 
 
 Lebanon Valley College, at Annville, Lebanon county, has roots 
 that run back to the Annville Academy, founded in 1834. In 1859, 
 the old Academy building was torn down, and a three-story brick 
 building was erected in its place. This building was presented as a 
 gift to the East Pennsylvania Conference of the United Brethren in 
 Christ, who, at a meeting held in 1865, had resolved "to establish a 
 school of high grade for the education of young men and women." 
 The College was chartered by the Legislature in 1867, and the 
 same year the Conference appropriated ^25,000 for the purchase of 
 additional grounds, increasing the campus to six acres, and the 
 erection of a commodious College building. The endowment is 
 only ^20,000, but in case of need the church gives pecuniary sup- 
 port. As yet the College has been unable to supply itself with a 
 large library or much costly apparatus. The students of both sexes 
 in all the departments number about one hundred and forty, one- 
 third of whom pursue the regular College course. Rev. Thomas 
 R. Vickroy was the first President. His successors have been Pro- 
 fessor Lucian H. Hammond and Rev. David D. DeLong. 
 
 Palatinate College, Myerstown, Lebanon county, is a child of the 
 Lebanon Classis of the Reformed Church. It was located at Myers- 
 town because the citizens of that place raised the money necessary 
 for the erection of buildings. The College was incorporated by the 
 Court of Lebanon county in 1868. The building has a front of one 
 hundred and sixty feet, and furnishes boarding accommodations for 
 one hundred students. The College is open to both sexes, and 
 there have been times when the number of students reached two 
 hundred; but few remain to graduate. It has no endowment, and in 
 consequence its work is greatly crippled. Presidents : Rev. George 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. 42-? 
 
 W. Aughinbaugh, D. D., Rev. George B. Russell, D. D., and Rev. 
 William C. Schaeffer. 
 
 Ursinus College, in Upper Providence township, Montgomery 
 county, is under the patronage of the Reformed Church. The 
 College has a small endowment, but mainly depends for support 
 upon tuition fees and contributions. The number of students is 
 generally about one hundred and twenty, but at least two-thirds of 
 them are in the Preparatory department. A Theological school is 
 connected with the College. Rev. J. H. A. Bomberger, D. D., has 
 been President from the beginning, and is the mainstay of the insti- 
 tution. 
 
 Thiel College, Greenville, Mercer county, was established by the 
 Evangelical Lutheran church. It takes its name from A. L. Thiel, 
 of Pittsburgh, who largely endowed it. The institution started as 
 an Academy at Phillipsburg, Beaver county, in 1866, where it was 
 chartered as a College in 1 869. It was removed to its present loca- 
 tion in 1 87 1, the citizens of Greenville having offered seven acres of 
 land and twenty thousand dollars in cash as an inducement. A 
 farm has since been purchased, and is used in connection with the 
 College. The buildings are fair, and the surroundings beautiful. 
 The endowment now amounts to nearly ^100,000, mostly derived 
 from the benefactions of the generous founder. Both sexes are 
 admitted, and the number of students is usually about one hundred, 
 most of them as yet in the Preparatory department. Rev. H. W. 
 Roth has been the only President. 
 
 In the little town of Jefferson, Greene county, the Baptists of 
 Southwestern Pennsylvania founded an institution of learning, in 
 1867, which was chartered under the name of Monongahela Col- 
 lege, in 1 87 1. The grounds consist of fourteen acres, and the 
 buildings are comfortable though small. The endowment is ^30,- 
 000. Creditable progress has been made in securing apparatus and 
 a library. The College admits both sexes, and several ladies oc- 
 cupy places in its faculty. The students number about seventy- 
 five, only a few of whom are in the regular College course. Rev. 
 H. R. Craig has been President from the first. 
 
 Geneva College was removed to Beaver Falls, Beaver county, in 
 1880, from Ohio, where it was founded in 1848 by the Reformed 
 
ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 424 
 
 Presbyterian church, under whose control it remains. The charter 
 granted in this State gives the institution full collegiate powers. 
 The building at Beaver Falls cost ^40,000, the endowment is ^60,- 
 000, and the attendance of students in all departments about one 
 hundred and twenty. Both sexes are admitted to equal privileges. 
 The College building contains a chapel, recitation and lecture rooms, 
 and rooms for the literary societies, library, museum, and chemical 
 and philosophical apparatus. The president is Rev. H. H. George, 
 D. D. 
 
 SOME DEAD COLLEGES. 
 
 Colleges die like men, some prematurely, some violently, and 
 some of old age. An account of our dead Pennsylvania Colleges 
 has an interest as a moral, if not as a history. 
 
 Union Academy, at Uniontown,was chartered in 1808, and con- 
 tinued in operation until 1828, when all the property belonging to 
 it was vested in Madison College, incorporated the year previous. 
 President Madison, after whom the College was named, donated 
 two thousand dollars for the purchase of the lot on which the Col- 
 lege building was erected. It was a plain, two-story brick edifice. 
 The State made a grant of five thousand dollars to the College in 
 1828, and it drew the regular appropriation to Colleges under the 
 Act of 1838. The trustees were authorized by the charter to estab- 
 lish an agricultural department, and they took some steps in this 
 direction, but they were not allowed to compel students to work 
 contrary to the wishes of parents or guardians. In the beginning, 
 the Methodist church had control of the College, and the President 
 and Professors were of that denomination. After a few years the 
 support of this church was transferred to Allegheny College, and 
 Madison passed first into the hands of the Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rians, and when they grew tired of it, into those of the Protestant 
 Methodists. No class, as far as can be ascertained, was ever grad- 
 uated, and the institution-afr all times was more of an Academy than 
 a College. About the beginning of the Civil War, what of life still 
 lingered in it became entirely extinct, and the property was sold to 
 private citizens. Subsequently, the buildings were for a time occu- 
 pied by a Soldiers' Orphan School. 
 
 Bristol College was established under the patronage of the Epis- 
 copal church in 1833. A subscription of five thousand dollars was 
 made by the Episcopalians in Philadelphia. The site was a fine 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. 435 
 
 tract of nearly four hundred acres of land on the Delaware river, 
 three miles below Bristol. The main building, two hundred and 
 ninety-six feet long, was quite imposing, the central part being 
 fronted with tall Ionic columns. During its early years, under the 
 presidency of Rev. Chauncey Colton, the College had as many as 
 one hundred and fifty students, of whom nearly fifty were in the 
 Freshman class; but this prosperity was short-lived. It is not 
 known that a single regular class was graduated. From a College 
 the institution changed to a classical school, then to a military 
 school, and finally to a Soldiers' Orphan School for colored children. 
 It is now wholly dead. 
 
 In the year 1832, the Philadelphia Baptist Association established 
 a Manual Labor Academy at Haddington, in Blockley township, 
 Philadelphia county, which four years later was chartered as Had- 
 dington College. About 1838 it was removed to Germantown. 
 Here Rev. Henry K. Green was the principal teacher, and such 
 well-known citizens as Horatio Gates Jones and Charles J. Wister, 
 of Philadelphia, and A. Herr Smith, of Lancaster, were among the 
 students. The institution lived only a few years. 
 
 In 1849, the Allegheny Conference of the church of the United 
 Brethren in Christ, founded a school at Mount Pleasant, Westmore- 
 land county, under the corporate name of Mount Pleasant College. 
 It was first incorporated by the Court, but subsequently, in 185 1, 
 the Legislature granted an Act of incorporation. In 1858, Mt. 
 Pleasant Union College was incorporated, and purchased the prop- 
 erty of Mt. Pleasant College. By an Act passed in 1862, another 
 change was made, and Mt. Pleasant Union College became West- 
 moreland College, and its management was vested in the Westmore- 
 land Classis of the Reformed church. The institution never met 
 with much successs as a College, and, in 1871, the property was 
 sold to William B. Neel. A few years later it went into the posses- 
 sion of an Association of Baptists, who soon after opened the build- 
 ing as a Seminary for both sexes, under the name of the Western 
 Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific Institute. 
 
 There was at one time, at least on paper, a " Kittanning Univer- 
 sity," near Kittanning; and in continuation, the Columbia Univer- 
 sity was chartered by the Legislature in 1868. This institution 
 being ambitious, advertised a course of study fully as comprehen- 
 
-26 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 sive as that of Harvard, but the building occupied was a rented one, 
 there was no endowment, and death occurred in two years. Quite 
 similar is the story of New Castle College, at New Castle, chartered 
 in 1875. Both sexes were admitted, and the institution proclaimed 
 the establishment of a classical, a scientific, a preparatory, a com- 
 mercial, a telegraphic, a musical, an art, and a Normal department. 
 The full-blown bubble was attractive for a season, but in a year or 
 two it burst. 
 
 After the removal of Marshall College from Mercersburg to Lan- 
 caster, in 1853, a preparatory classical school was organized, in the 
 vacant College buildings, which had gone into the hands of individ- 
 uals, under the name of Marshall Collegiate Institute. It was fairly 
 successful. In 1865, the property was again secured by the Re- 
 formed church, the school was reorganized and an Act of the Leg- 
 islature was obtained granting it a College charter. It was now 
 called Mercersburg College. Rev. Thomas G. Apple, now Presi- 
 dent of Franklin and Marshall College, was the first President. The 
 attendance soon ran up to more than one hundred students. In 
 1 87 1, the Theological Seminary followed Marshall College from 
 Mercersburg to Lancaster and took with it Dr. Apple. This was a 
 sad blow to the newly-organized College at Mercersburg. Dr. E. 
 E. Higbee, now Superintendent of Public Instruction, resigned his 
 professorship in the Theological Seminary, and accepted the presi- 
 dency of the College, left vacant by the resignation of Dr. Apple. 
 An heroic struggle was made to regain the lost ground and to build 
 up the College. A full collegiate course of study was maintained 
 and small classes were regularly graduated ; but the institution suf- 
 fered severely for want of funds and from other causes. In 1880, it 
 was compelled to close its doors. They were again opened in 1881 ; 
 but as a College it has not succeeded and is not likely to succeed. 
 
 H. T. Wells established a private institution of learning at Bur- 
 hngton, New Jersey, in i860. Some time after it was moved to 
 Andalusia, Bucks county, where it was chartered by the Legislature 
 in 1 866 under the name of Andalusia College. It can hardly be 
 said to have ever exercised the functions of a College, and after a 
 lingering existence as a Boarding School for boys, it died. Even 
 more brief is the story of Rittenhouse College, chartered by the 
 Legislature in 1850 to be located at or near Bedford, where the 
 
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES. 427 
 
 trustees were authorized as soon as they had obtained sufficient 
 subscriptions to purchase ground and erect buildings; of the Por- 
 ter University, at Tarentum, Allegheny county, chartered by the 
 Legislature in 1866, and named after John M. Porter, a public-spir- 
 ited citizen, who left a legacy to establish an institution of learn- 
 ing; of the Cherry Tree Male and Female College, Westmoreland 
 county, chartered by the Legislature with full collegiate powers in 
 1869, of which little or nothing is known; and of St. Gregory Col- 
 lege, St. Mary's, Elk county, established by the Benedictine Order as 
 a branch of St. Vincent College, and chartered by the Legislature in 
 1 87 1. A building was provided, but the College was never opened. 
 All of these died in early infancy and have no history. A more 
 prolonged search would doubtless reveal other attempts at building 
 Universities and Colleges on the sand, but it is thought little profit 
 could come from exposing the wrecks. 
 
 < 
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. 
 
 It is only within the last fifty years that much has been done in 
 Pennsylvania for the higher education of women. Before that time 
 there were a few Female Seminaries and Boarding Schools, but the 
 opinion was general that higher education was unnecessary, if not 
 hurtful, for women. Under the stimulus of a State appropriation a 
 large number of Female Seminaries sprang into existence soon after 
 the adoption of the common school system, but when the appropria- 
 tion ceased many of them were compelled to suspend operations. 
 The strongest survived, and others have been established since, so 
 that the State is now well supplied with institutions of this character. 
 In addition, nearly one-half of the Colleges of the State, originally 
 intended for the male sex alone, now open their doors to women ; 
 the State Normal Schools, without exception, admit both sexes to 
 equal privileges ; many of our best Academies and Seminaries follow 
 the example of the Normal Schools, and the public High Schools 
 are generally as free to girls as to boys. 
 
 The only Colleges in the State, it is believed, specially designed 
 for women and chartered with power to confer degrees, are the fol- 
 lowing: Pennsylvania Female College, Collegeville, Montgomery 
 county, chartered in 1853; Beaver College and Musical Institute, 
 Beaver, chartered in 1853; Pittsburgh Female College, Pittsburgh, 
 chartered in 1854; Irving Female College, Mechanicsburg, Cumber- 
 land county, chartered in 1857; Allentown Female College, char- 
 
■ 23 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 tered in 1867; Cottage Hill Female College, York, chartered in 
 1868; Wilson Female College, Chambersburg, chartered in 1869, 
 and St. Mary's College, North East, Erie county, chartered in 1 881. 
 To this list it is proper to add the new College for women at Bryn 
 Mawr, Montgomery county, founded by Joseph Taylor, M. D., 
 whose magnificent buildings, rivaling those of any College in the 
 country, are now approaching completion. 
 
 The Female Colleges of Pennsylvania are doing an excellent work 
 and striving hard to elevate the course of study for girls, but they 
 find it exceedingly difficult in practice to maintain a standard of 
 scholarship equal in kind and quantity to that prescribed by the 
 best Colleges for the male sex, and the most that can be said for 
 them is that they are growing in that direction. Most of them have 
 no regular College classes, in the sense of pursuing a full four years 
 course in the classics, mathematics, literature and science ; and the 
 ♦ few that have such courses find but a small number of students will- 
 ing to follow them to the end. In truth, as a body, our Female 
 Colleges are little more than high-grade Female Seminaries, and 
 scarcely outrank, in any way, many other institutions of learning 
 for girls that are content to be known by a less pretentious title. 
 No distinction, therefore, can well be made between them in the 
 brief words we shall speak in the proper place concerning both Fe- 
 male Colleges and Female Seminaries. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 
 
 WHAT PENNSYLVANIA HAS DONE FOR HER FARMERS, MECHANICS AND 
 ARTISTS. PROVISION MADE FOR THE DEPENDENT CLASSES. 
 
 AS a supplement to what has been said of Higher Education, a 
 few pages must be devoted to a class of institutions whose pur- 
 pose it is to impart an education of a technical or special character, 
 or an education more directly concerned with the practical affairs 
 of life. 
 
 Many of the early friends of a common school system, doubtless 
 remembering that Penn's Frame of Government contained the in- 
 junction that all children should " be taught some useful trade or 
 skill," coupled with the principle of universal education, the principle 
 of manual labor. The decade of years that witnessed the establish- 
 ment of free schools witnessed also the establishment of Manual 
 Labor schools and of Manual Labor departments in the existing 
 Colleges. The Manual Labor Academy, of Germantown, was es- 
 tablished by a stock corporation in 1829, under the direction of a 
 board of trustees, with Rev. John Monteith as Principal. Con- 
 nected with it were a farm and a work-shop. In 1830-31, an Agri- 
 cultural School was .started on the Bolton farm, near Bristol, Bucks 
 county, and placed under the charge of F. A. Ismar, a pupil of the 
 celebrated Swiss educator, De Fellenberg, of Hofwyl. A bill to es- 
 tablish a State Manual Labor Academy at or near Harrisburg, was 
 reported favorably from the Committee on Education in the House 
 of Representatives during the session of 1833, and had strong sup- 
 port. At about the same time, in accordance with the popular senti- 
 ment on the subject of education, the students at Jefferson, Allegheny, 
 Lafayette, Madison and Pennsylvania Colleges were trying the ex- 
 periment of having students work a part of the time on farms or in 
 shops. Governor Wolf, in his message of 1833-4, speaks strongly 
 of " the popular and approved Fellenberg system of uniting labor 
 and study." Samuel Breck, in reporting from the Joint Committee 
 on Education that framed it, the free school bill of 1834, argues 
 
 (429) 
 
,Q ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 that country schools may be benefited by a union of intellectual 
 education with manual labor, and states that the two can be com- 
 bined "by having small lots of land attached to a schoolhouse that 
 shall be ' arranged for a work-shop and farming. With these, a 
 teacher can be maintained by the labor of the boys, who may be 
 made to work one hour and a half a day only, for that purpose. 
 This will be the means of instructing and employing them, and lay- 
 ing the foundation of future habits of industry." These words ex- 
 press plainly enough the views of the free school men in the Legis- 
 lature of 1834; but more significant still is the provision concerning 
 manual labor contained in the common school law of that year. 
 Section 10 provided that it shall be the duty of the school directors 
 to decide whether manual labor shall be connected with the intel- 
 lectual and moral instruction to be given in the common schools or 
 otherwise, and if decided affirmatively, "they shall have power to 
 purchase materials and employ artisans for the instruction of the 
 pupils in the useful branches of the mechanic arts, and when prac- 
 ticable in agricultural pursuits." None of these well-meant efforts 
 to connect manual labor with education met with much success. 
 In fact, every experiiftent proved a failure; and from these discour- 
 aging ventures we turn to the plans, mostly of a later date, which 
 provided for imparting a technical education unaccompanied with 
 manual labor. 
 
 FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 
 
 " The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Pro- 
 motion of the Mechanic Arts," at Philadelphia, was founded in 
 1824. It was established by mechanics for mechanics, and is the 
 best known and most distinguished institution of its kind in the 
 United States. Its Hall, on Seventh street, between Market and 
 Chestnut, is a large stone structure three stories in height, begun 
 in 1825. On the first floor are the lecture-room and the laborator- 
 ies. The second is occupied wholly by the library, which is exclu- 
 sively scientific and technical in its character, and is probably the 
 most valuable collection of books of the kind in the country. The 
 upper floor is entirely devoted to the use of the drawing classes, 
 composed of young persons of both sexes who are pursuing courses 
 of study in mechanical, architectural and free-hand drawing. The 
 Institute possesses a large collection of instruments, models and his- 
 torical relics of a mechanical character; among the latter Franklin's 
 original electrical machine, Godfrey's original quadrant, the original 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. ..^ 
 
 telegraphic apparatus of Morse, and models of Oliver Evans' high 
 pressure engine. 
 
 As an educational institution, the Franklin Institute has always 
 in progress original scientific investigations and experiments, some 
 of which have proven of great value; it holds monthly meetings for 
 the reading of papers, the discussion of questions relating to science 
 and art, and the examination of new inventions ; every winter courses 
 of lectures are delivered by regular professors and others on physics, 
 chemistry, geology, electricity and other scientific subjects; the 
 drawing school, established in the beginning and carried on ever 
 since, is now annually attended by nearly four hundred students; 
 the Journal, now sixty years old, still keeps even pace with the 
 wonderful progress now making in every department of science and 
 industry; and the Exhibitions, the first held in Carpenters Hall, in 
 1824, and the last, the International Electrical Exhibition, held in 
 1884, with others at intervals between these dates, have done much 
 to promote mechanical and manufacturing interests and to awaken 
 attention to various kinds of industries. The Exhibition of 1874 
 undoubtedly suggested much of the plan and prepared the way for 
 the great Centennial Exhibition of 1876. In its early years, the 
 Franklin Institute not only had in operation a school of drawing, 
 but established and maintained for some years a " High School " in 
 which the various branches of English Literature, Mathematics and 
 the ancient and modern languages were taught. From the Frank- 
 lin Institute emanated the bill for the establishment of a School of 
 Arts, favored by Thaddeus Stevens and other liberal members of the 
 Legislature, in 1838, but which was defeated in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. This project, latent for years, eventually resolved itself 
 into the Scientific Department of the University of Pennsylvania. 
 The Philadelphia School of Design for Women may also be consid- 
 ered a child of the Franklin Institute. 
 
 POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE. 
 
 The Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, was a 
 pioneer in the work of higher technical education in America. It 
 was chartered, in 1853, by the Legislature, with full collegiate pow- 
 ers. The prime-mover in its organization was Dr. Alfred L. Ken- 
 nedy, and he, too, has been its mainstay in all the stages of its life. 
 Dr. Kennedy had visited the great Polytechnic Schools of Europe 
 and was anxious to plant a similar institution on the soil of Penn- 
 
. , _ ED UCA TJON IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 sylvania. His aim was to build up a great State institution with 
 students sent from the different counties under State patronage. 
 The corporators named in the charter were leading men residing in 
 various sections of the State. Dr. Kennedy was its first and only 
 President. The institution began with two technical schools, those 
 of Civil Engineering and of Chemistry and Metallurgy. In 1854, 
 the School of Mechanical Engineering was added; in 1857, the 
 School of Mines, and in 1858, the School of Architecture. The 
 State aided the institution, in 1867, by an appropriation of ;$SOOO, 
 but it has otherwise been compelled to rely for support wholly upon 
 tuition fees and private subscriptions. When most prosperous it 
 maintained a competent professor at the head of each of its depart- 
 ments, and was attended by a considerable body of students; but 
 devoted as its President has always been to its interests, he has 
 found it impossible of late years to prevent a marked reduction in 
 the size of its classes. A great Polytechnic School must have large 
 buildings, extensive collections and costly apparatus, and these the 
 moderate resources of the Polytechnic School at Philadelphia did 
 not enable it to obtain. Its most meritorious work was in the past, 
 in moulding public opinion in favor of technical education and in 
 stimulating the establishment of technical institutions in our own 
 and other States. 
 
 THE STATE COLLEGE. 
 
 In 1847, James Gowen, a noted Philadelphia agriculturist, es- 
 tablished a school for practical farmers at Mount Airy, German- 
 town. A farm was cultivated in connection with the school. The 
 institution was successfully conducted for several years. A conven- 
 tion called, in 1853, by the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society to 
 consider the subject, agreed to recommend the establishment of a 
 school for farmers. The first charter was granted by the Legisla- 
 ture in 1854, but this was materially amended the following year. 
 The purposes of the institution were thus expressed in the first char- 
 ter: "The education of youth in the various branches of science, 
 learning and practical agriculture, as they are connected with each 
 other." As a school for farmers, it was intended that it should be 
 managed by farmers, and the members of the first board of trustees 
 were all connected with the business of agriculture. 
 
 The name first adopted, " Farmers' High School," was changed, 
 in 1862, to "Agricultural College of Pennsylvania," and this, in 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 
 
 1874, to "Pennsylvania State College." The property of the Col- 
 lege now consists of four hundred acres of land in Centre county, 
 twelve miles from Bellefonte, on which the College buildings are 
 erected, and two Experimental Farms, one in Chester county of a 
 hundred acres, and the other in Indiana county of one hundred and 
 twenty-one acres. The Centre county land was obtained from Gen. 
 James Irwin, one-half by purchase and the other half as a donation. 
 The main College building is of stone, two hundred and forty feet 
 in front and five stories high. The site commands a beautiful and 
 picturesque prospect, but the building, while possessing many conve- 
 niences, is unattractive and gloomy. The pleasant campus of about 
 fifty acres contains the residences of several of the professors. The 
 courses of study, as they are now arranged, are a " General Science 
 Course," a " Latin-Scientific Course," a General Course in Agri- 
 culture, and four technical courses specially designated as courses 
 in Agriculture, Chemistry and Physics, Civil Engineering, and Nat- 
 ural History. Young women have the same privileges in all the 
 courses as young men. The institution possesses considerable col- 
 lections in various departments of natural history, is fairly supplied 
 with philosophical apparatus, and its chemical laboratories are in a 
 condition to do good work. In its earlier years, the students per- 
 formed manual labor; but for a long time the farm, the orchard, 
 the vineyard, the stock, barns, etc., have been used mainly for pur- 
 poses of.illustration. The students are directed to observe what is 
 done, but they do not work much themselves. A well-equipped 
 machine shop has recently been added to the other facilities for 
 practical instruction, and here the students will be required to go 
 through a systematic course of working in wood, iron and steel. 
 
 The State College received the benefit of the Congressional land- 
 grant of 1 862. The share of this grant coming to Pennsylvania was 
 780,000 acres. In 1866 and 1867, against the earnest protest of 
 men who could see its prospective value, the Legislature directed 
 the land to be sold. This action was not taken of its own motion 
 by the Legislature. The Acts were passed under great pressure, 
 first, from the friends of the school who wanted the money, and 
 second, from the men who were eager to obtain the land at a low 
 figure. Together, they brought to bear an influence which proved 
 irresistible. Nearly all the land was bought in a body by specula- 
 tors at an average price of less than sixty cents an acre. The whole 
 sum realized from the sale amounted to ^439,186.80. Of this sum 
 28 
 
, . ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 ^43,886.50 were used in the purchase of the Experimental Farms, 
 and the balance constitutes the endowment fund for the College. 
 Increased by premiums received on bonds, this fund amounted, in 
 1872, to ^410,290.50, and the Legislature in that year added to it a 
 sufficient sum to make the whole ^500,000, and issued a bond for 
 the amount in favor of the College with six per cent, interest, paya- 
 ble in fifty years. The income of the College, from this source, is 
 therefore ^30,000 a year. In addition, the State has at different 
 times made appropriations to the College and Experimental Farms, 
 amounting to ;^ 1 84,900. Adding to this the amount given by the 
 Legislature to make up the endowment fund of ^500,000, ,^89,709.50, 
 and we have ;^284,6o9.50, the sum of the generous grants the State 
 has made to the College. Besides this the College acknowledges 
 contributions from the State Agricultural Society and from private 
 sources amounting to ^154,285. An inventory of the property 
 shows its estimated value to be ^451,615.17. 
 
 The State College has not a>s yet proven very successful. The 
 number of students from the beginning has scarcely averaged sixty, 
 including those in the Preparatory department, and the class gradu- 
 ating has seldom exceeded half a dozen. At present there seems 
 to be a fair promise of a new life, and confident hopes are felt that 
 the great possibilities of the institution will at length be realized. 
 
 The Presidents of the College have been Evan Pugh, Ph. D., Wil- 
 liam H. Allen, LL. D., Gen. John Frazer, Thomas H. Burrowes, 
 LL. D , James Calder, D. D., Prof Joseph Shortlidge, and George 
 W. Atherton, LL. D. 
 
 GIRARD COLLEGE. 
 
 Girard College is not a College in the ordinary sense, nor is it, 
 strictly speaking, a technical school ; it is a home and school for 
 orphan boys. The buildings are located on a tract of forty-five 
 acres of land, now within the built-up portions of Philadelphia. The 
 property is fenced in by a high wall. The principal buildings are 
 of marble, and as a whole they are probably the finest and most 
 costly structures devoted to educational purposes in the world. 
 The central one is in the form of a Corinthian temple, including the 
 porticoes which entirely surround it, one hundred and sixty feet in 
 front, by two hundred and seventeen feet in depth. The value of 
 the Girard estate available for the purposes of the College, accord- 
 ing to the report of the Board of City Trusts for the year 1883, is 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 4,5 
 
 ^10,138,268.10. The income for 1883 was ^76,96 1.06, of which 
 ^245,014.22 were expended on account of the estate, and the Col- 
 lege received ^444,613.57. The College may be considered as pos- 
 sessing an endowment producing at least half a million of dollars 
 a year, with a large prospective increase. At present about twelve 
 hundred boys are boarded, clothed, instructed, and cared for. The 
 whole number received since 1848 is between three and four thou- 
 sand. None remain beyond the age of eighteen years, and at the 
 end of their course the requirement is that they be apprenticed to 
 " suitable occupations, as those of agriculture, navigation, arts, me- 
 chanical trades, and manufactures." Girard's will directed that the 
 orphans " shall be instructed in reading, writing, grammar, arithme- 
 tic, geography, navigation, surveying, practical mathematics, astron- 
 omy, natural, chemical, and experimental philosophy, the French 
 and Spanish languages," together with " such other learning as their 
 capacities may merit." He also expressed the desire that "they 
 shall be taught facts and things rather than words and signs." 
 These directions of the Founder have been carried out in a well- 
 planned eight years' course of study; and although no special 
 trades are taught, a Mechanical Hall, containing workshops with 
 the requisite machinery and steam power, has been erected, and 
 instruction is given in the handling of tools and the working of 
 wood, iron, and steel. The boys thus taught find ready employ- 
 ment in machine shops and manufactories at double the wages they 
 could otherwise have obtained. The faculty consists of a President, 
 Vice-President, and about forty professors and teachers, most of 
 them women. The Presidents have been Alexander Dallas Bache, 
 Joel Jones, William H. Allen, and Adam H. Fetterolf 
 
 Stephen Girard, the founder of Girard College, was born at Bor- 
 deaux, France, in 1750; at the age of thirteen was a cabin-boy on a 
 French merchant vessel; at twenty-three, was in command of a 
 ship, with a cargo of his own ; in 1 776, seemingly by an accident, 
 came to Philadelphia, and soon after opened a small shop on Water 
 Street, and commence'd that career as merchant, banker, dealer in 
 real estate, and loaner of money, which resulted in the accumulation 
 of the millions with which was established and is maintained the 
 noble institution called by his name. At the time he made his will, 
 1828, he lived in a plain way, dressed like a countryman from a 
 back district, rode about in an old chaise or gig with an antiquated 
 horse, was cold, close and sharp; and the only alternative that can 
 
g EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 be presented as a set-off to the charge that he was narrow and sor- 
 did, is that he was husbanding his resources for the execution of 
 the grand scheme of charity for which he made such munificent 
 provision, and which is his ever-enduring monument. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA MILITARY ACADEMY. 
 
 Various attempts have been made to establish Military Schools 
 in Pennsylvania, but with little success, except in the single instance 
 of the Pennsylvania Military Academy, founded and still conducted 
 by Colonel Theodore Hyatt. This institution was incorporated in 
 1862, by an Act of the Legislature, under the title of the Chester 
 County Military Academy. The name was subsequently changed 
 to Pennsylvania Military Academy. It possesses the power to con- 
 fer the usual collegiate degrees. The Academy was at first located 
 at West Chester, but about the close of the civil war it was moved 
 to the Crozer Normal School building at Chester. Here it rapidly 
 grew in public favor, and, in 1868, buildings of its own were erected. 
 These were destroyed by fire early in 1882, but before the close of 
 the year it supplied itself with larger and better ones. The main 
 building is two hundred and seventeen feet long, and has accommo- 
 dations for one hundred and fifty students, with the officers required 
 for their instruction and government. In addition there are the 
 Laboratory building, the Drill Hall, and the Gymnasium. The 
 parade ground comprises nine acres, and the ample grounds about 
 the buildings are laid out in walks, and decorated with shade trees. 
 The curriculum includes a collegiate course of study, but the insti- 
 tution is both in instruction and spirit technical. During its whole 
 history, scarcely half a dozen students have graduated Bachelors 
 of Arts. The military instruction and drill are conducted under the 
 direction of a United States army officer detailed by the Secretar>- 
 of War for the purpose. The number of students is usually about 
 one hundred and fifty. 
 
 WAGNER FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE. 
 
 The aim of the Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia, is 
 to become a great Technological College. Its founder was Profes- 
 sor William Wagner, who died in 1884, at the advanced age of 
 ninety-two. Professor Wagner, having collected at home and 
 abroad an immense number of specimens in all departments of nat- 
 ural science, and having arranged them in a building erected with 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. .■.-, 
 
 his own means for the purpose, began, about 1850, to deliver 
 courses of lectures, using his collection by way of illustration. 
 Induced by the apparent want of such an institution, he resolved to 
 found a permanent school of science upon the basis already formed. 
 An Act of incorporation was obtained from the Legislature in 1855. 
 The City Councils granted the use of Spring Garden Hall for the 
 first lectures, and here the Institute was inaugurated on the twenty- 
 first of May, 1855. Among others, addresses were delivered on the 
 occasion by Governor Pollock, Mayor Conrad, and Bishop Potter. 
 The lectures were entirely free, open to both sexes and to persons 
 of all ages, and embraced the subjects of Mineralogy, Geology, 
 Anatomy, Physiology, Palaeontology, Ethnology, Agricultural 
 Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Botany, etc. The Institute was 
 transferred to its own Hall in 1859. An Act supplementary to the 
 Act of 185s, and of a more comprehensive- character, was obtained 
 in 1864; and under the Act, the Institute possesses full collegiate 
 powers. During his life the management of the Institute remained 
 mainly in the hands of Professor Wagner, but upon his demise it 
 was placed in charge of a board of trustees, to whom he had exe- 
 cuted a deed of trust for the whole property. This board, fully ad- 
 vised concerning the plans of Professor Wagner, and in sympathy 
 with the work of the Institute, will spare no effort to build wisely 
 on the foundation already laid. 
 
 The property donated to the Institute by Professor Wagner, 
 valued at more than four hundred thousand dollars, is as follows: 
 The Hall of the Institute, with lecture-room, laboratory, and recita- 
 tion rooms, and two large lots of ground, 550,000 specimens of 
 minerals, 550,000 geologic specimens, 400,000 specimens of shells, 
 225,000 specimens of plants, a library of 18,000 volumes, and a large 
 collection of apparatus, maps, diagrams, engravings, etc. The en- 
 dowment provided by the same generous donor consists of seven- 
 teen houses and lots, estimated to be worth two hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Instruction at the Institute has as yet been wholly by lectures, 
 two courses of which are delivered yearly. The attendance is usu- 
 ally from eight hundred to a thousand. An attempt was made, in 
 1865, to introduce regular class instruction, but it was soon after 
 abandoned. And yet the design still is to establish a Polytechnic 
 School after the model of the great schools of this character in 
 Europe, and it only waits a proper time for fulfillment. 
 
. , g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 SPRING GARDEN INSTITUTE. 
 
 The Spring Garden Institute, Philadelphia, was organized in 1857. 
 It is managed by a corporation of stockholders. From a small 
 bep-inning it has grown to be an institution of great usefulness. It 
 maintains a reading-room, a library, courses of lectures, and schools 
 of drawing and mechanics. The library contains about thirteen 
 thousand volumes, and the tables of the reading-room are well sup- 
 plied with newspapers and magazines. The Institute owns the 
 building in which it is held, and the endowment fund has now 
 reached the sum of ^100,000. 
 
 Both the schools of drawing and the schools of mechanics are 
 open during the day-time and in the evenings. The former include 
 instruction in mechanical drawing, free-hand drawing, architectural 
 drawing, modeling and wood carving, and painting and design- 
 ing; the latter have classes in mechanical handiwork, mechanical 
 drawing, mechanics, geometry, physics, metallurgy and chemistry. 
 Special instruction is given in china, stained glass, tile and tapestry 
 painting. Two kilns on the premises are used to fire such work of 
 the students as requires this mode of fixing the colors. There are 
 five large apartments fitted up with benches, a forge, machines 
 driven by a gas engine, and all the appliances of a first-class ma- 
 chine and pattern shop. In these the students receive thorough in- 
 struction in practical mechanics. During the year 1883—4, the 
 niitnber of students in attendance at all the schools was eight hun- 
 dred and twenty-six. The Principal of the Institute is William A 
 Porter. There are about twenty professors and assistants. 
 
 i\:USEUM AND SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ART. 
 
 Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park, used during the Centennial Ex- 
 hibition as an Art Gallery, is now occupied by the Pennsylvania 
 Museum and School of Industrial Art, and in its spacious rooms is 
 displayed one of the finest collections of objects relating to indus- 
 trial art to be found in America. The Pennsylvania Museum and 
 School of Industrial Art was incorporated by an Act of the Legisla- 
 ture in 1874. During the Centennial Exhibition hundreds of arti- 
 cles, representing industrial art at different periods and in different 
 departments, were purchased by its officers, mostly from foreign 
 exhibitors; others were subsequently obtained both at home and 
 abroad; and, as soon as practicable after Memorial Hall was 
 vacated, the whole was embraced in one collection in the empty 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. ..^ 
 
 rooms and the display opened to the public. The collection has 
 since been greatly enlarged and improved, and there is now 
 scarcely a department of ancient, mediaeval or modern industrial art 
 that has not some representation. There are sculptures; mosaics; 
 carvings in ivory, bone and horn; wood-work and metal-work in 
 great variety; many specimens of coins, medals, medallions and 
 embossed plaques; collections of arms and armor; silversmiths' and 
 goldsmiths' work; enamels on metal; pottery, earthen and stone- 
 ware; porcelain from the most famous manufactures; glass vessels 
 of many kinds ; leather-work ; textile fabrics, including embroider- 
 ies ; lace ; musical instruments ; paintings, drawings and engravings 
 — in all over ten thousand specimens. 
 
 The school maintained by the corporation, located at 1336 Spring 
 Garden street, was established soon after the opening of the Museum. 
 It has three courses specially designed for the needs of designers and 
 skilled workmen, the first, in drawing, painting and modeling; the 
 second, in painting and design, and the third, in industrial drawing. 
 
 The Museum is drawn upon for illustrations, objects to be copied, 
 and models for imitation. Eighty-four students received instruc- 
 tion in 1883, and the report says of them : "The day class is com- 
 posed of young men and women in about equal proportions, who 
 are fitting themselves to be draughtsmen, designers and teachers ; 
 and the night class is filled with young men who are already en- 
 gaged in occupations which demand accurate draughtsmanship, or 
 which offer opportunities for the application of artistic skill." 
 
 SCHOOLS OF DESIGN FOR WOMEN. 
 
 The Philadelphia School of Design for Women dates back to the 
 year 1847. It is said to have grown out of a movement on the part 
 of the Franklin Institute. Mrs. Peter, wife of the British Consul 
 at Philadelphia, was active in starting it. It first occupied rented 
 rooms on Walnut street. In 1853, it was incorporated. In 1863, 
 it purchased the Collins mansion on Filbert street. It now 
 occupies a large edifice at the south-west corner of Broad and Mas- 
 ter streets, with a frontage of one hundred feet on Broad and two 
 hundred on Master. This building contains a well-lighted gallery 
 of statuary, reception-rooms, school-rooms, a lecture-room and a 
 conservatory. The school is well equipped with models, copies of 
 the masterpieces of art, casts of ornaments, drawings, engravings, 
 and many valuable books appertaining to art in its several depart- 
 
^ . - ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 440 
 
 merits. The attendance of students was during the year 1 883-4 
 over three hundred. Miss Elizabeth Croasdale, a graduate of the 
 South Kensington School, London, England, has been Principal for 
 many years, and it has been during her administration that the 
 school has taken its high rank. She is assisted by twelve profes- 
 sors and teachers. The methods of teaching closely resemble those 
 of South Kensington. 
 
 The Pittsburgh School of Design for Women, incorporated in 
 1865, was modeled after that in Philadelphia. It has not yet 
 acquired a home of its own, but occupies a suite of pleasant I'ooms in 
 the building of the Young Men's Christian Association. In its 
 course and facilities for study it resembles the Phil'adelphia'institution, 
 but is not so fully developed. The present Principal is Miss Annie 
 W. Henderson, who with three assistants has under instruction 
 about one hundred and fifty students. 
 
 NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ELOCUTION AND ORATORY. 
 
 J. W. Shoemaker commenced teaching elocution in the city of 
 Philadelphia in 1866. His success was so satisfactory that in 1873 
 he organized an institution which was chartered under the name of 
 the National School of Elocution and Oratory. The attendance of 
 students in 1 874 was eighty-eight ; it is now about two hundred and 
 fifty. Prof Shoemaker died in 1880, and the institution was carried 
 on for several years under the direction of Mrs. Shoemaker, who had 
 previously acted as an assistant teacher. She is now Vice-President, 
 the Presidency having been accepted by Dr. Edward Brooks, form- 
 erly Principal of the State Normal School at Millersville. 
 
 COMMERCIAL COLLEGES. 
 
 There are about twenty Commercial or Business Colleges in 
 Pennsylvania. The eldest and best known of these are Duff's Mer- 
 cantile College, Pittsburgh, organized in 1840; Crittenden Commer- 
 cial College, Philadelphia, organized in 1844, closed in 1884; 
 Bryant and Stratton's Business College, Philadelphia, organized in 
 1857; Curry Institute and Union Business College, Pittsburgh, 
 organized in i860; and Peirce's College of Business, organized in 
 1865. Several of these have an annual enrollment of over five hun- 
 dred students. The catalogue of Peirte's College for 1884 con- 
 tained the names of eight hundred and thirty-four, and that of 
 Bryant and Stratton probably an equal number. 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. ^.j 
 
 INDIAN SCHOOL AT CARLISLE. 
 
 Since 1879, the old United States military barracks at Carlisle 
 have been used for an Indian school. There were schools for 
 Indians in Pennsylvania more than one hundred years ago, the 
 experiment was destined to be renewed upon the same soil. In the 
 Spring of 1875, seventy- five Indian prisoners were sent from the 
 Indian Territory to Florida in charge of Capt. R. H. Pratt, of the 
 regular army. Capt. Pratt had been much among the wild tribes 
 of the West, and had come to entertain the idea that educating the 
 Indians was better and cheaper then fighting and destroying them. 
 He therefore with the aid of some benevolent ladies began to teach 
 the grown-up Indian men under his care, and to furnish them oppor- 
 tunities for work. In 1878, the prisoners were released, but such 
 had been the effect of their treatment, that twenty -two of the 
 younger ones preferred to remain and obtain more education and a 
 better knowledge of civilization before returning home. Some 
 charitable people volunteered to pay their expenses, and a majority 
 of them went to Hampton Institute, Virginia. The others did much 
 to create a desire in their several tribes for more knowledge. As a 
 result a number of children, including girls as well as boys, through 
 the agency of Capt. Pratt, were sent to Hampton. The matter com- 
 ing to the attention of Congress, in 1879, authority was given to 
 detail an officer "for duty with reference to Indian education." 
 Capt. Pratt was detailed, and with the consent of the Washington 
 authorities undertook to establish an Indian school in the Govern- 
 ment buildings at Carlisle. The school was opened November i, 
 1 88 1, with one hundred and forty-seven pupils. There are now, 
 1884, five hundred pupils belonging to the school, about one-third 
 of whom are girls. Several hundred have returned to their homes. 
 Thirty-eight separate tribes have been represented by children at 
 the school. 
 
 The young Indians are taught to speak English, and to read, 
 write and cypher. Other branches are then added. But the greatest 
 attention is paid to industrial training. Instruction is given to the 
 boys in carpentry, blacksmithing, wagon-making, harness-making, 
 tailoring, tin-smithing, shoemaking, printing, baking and farm-work. 
 The girls are taught to cook, sew and do house-work, laundry work, 
 etc. As a rule the half of each day is devoted to school, and the 
 other half to work. A farm of one hundred and fifteen acres be- 
 longs to the school, and is worked mainly by the pupils, and places 
 
ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 442 
 
 are found in families for a considerable number of both boys and 
 girls who are allowed to earn what they can while remaining under 
 the watchful care and direction of the school. A good family is 
 thought to furnish even better advantages than the school for learn- 
 ing the English language and the common arts of civilized life. 
 The expense of the school is ostensibly borne by the Government, 
 but the insufficient appropriations are largely supplemented by the 
 contributions of the charitable. 
 
 A second Indian school, exclusively for girls, has been recently 
 opened at the Lincoln In.stitution, Philadelphia. 
 
 INSTITUTIONS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB, BLIND AND FEEBLE-MINDED. 
 
 Among the noblest charities of Pennsylvania are the provisions 
 made for the special instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, the Blind 
 and the Feeble-minded. 
 
 The first institution for the education of deaf-mutes in the United 
 States was established at Hartford, Connecticut, in 18 17, by Rev. 
 Thomas H. Gallaudet. New York followed almost immediately 
 with an institution of the same kind, and then Philadelphia took up 
 the work in 1820. The movement in the latter city seems to have 
 been started independently, without reference to what had been done 
 in Hartford or New York. It grew out of the efforts of Daniel G. 
 Seixas, a benevolent Israelite, who in connection with a little shop 
 on Market street in which he sold crockery-ware, gave instruction 
 gratuitously to a class of eleven or twelve deaf-mute children. He 
 had learned the method of imparting such instruction in Europe, 
 where it had been long practiced. The humble work of Mr. Seixas 
 coming to the knowledge of certain philanthropic citizens of Phila- 
 delphia, the most active of whom were Roberts Vaux, Bishop White, 
 Horace Binney, William -M. Meredith, and Dr. N. Chapman, a pub- 
 He meeting was called to consider the subject of deaf-mute education, 
 an association was formed for the purpose of establishing an institu- 
 tion for the deaf and dumb, an address drafted by William M. Mere- 
 dith was issued to the people of Pennsylvania, the Legislature was 
 petitioned for help and generously responded, a suitable house was 
 leased and the good work begun. Bishop White was the President 
 of the first Board of Directors. The Institution moved to build- 
 ings of its own at the corner of Broad and Pine streets in 1825, 
 and these, greatly enlarged and improved, are still occupied. Its 
 property is now valued at between three and four hundred thousand 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. ..^ 
 
 dollars. Mr. Seixas was the first Principal of the Institution, but he 
 remained but a short time at its head. The number of pupils in 
 attendance is now over three hundred, those aided by the State 
 remaining six years. More than two thousand children have 
 received the benefits of the Institution, and it is much to its credit 
 that the great majority of them become able to support themselves 
 and to assume a respectable position in society. The course of in- 
 struction is similar to that of other schools, but the method of 
 imparting knowledge is necessarily somewhat different. In addition 
 to the study of the branches of learning, the girls learn housekeep- 
 ing, needle-work, etc., and the boys set type, make shoes, and do 
 other kinds of shop work. Sign-language is for the most part used 
 in the principal Institution, but there is a branch school in the city 
 with about seventy pupils, in which instruction is given by the 
 method of articulation. It is said that no other institution of the 
 kind in the world is so catholic in its methods of instruction. 
 
 The Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the 
 Deaf and Dumb received its first State recognition and appropria- 
 tion in 1875. Previously, however, it had an interesting history. 
 In 1868, Joel Kerr, the Superintendent of a Mission Sabbath 
 School in Pittsburgh, became interested in a little, deaf-hiute, 
 colored boy who attended his school. The services of W. R. Drum, 
 who had attended the Institution in Philadelphia, were secured as 
 an instructor. Mr. Kerr began to look around for other unfortun- 
 ates of the same class, and eight or ten were gathered into the 
 school. A pay school for deaf-mutes was proposed, the aid of the 
 Central Board of Education was invoked, and the sum of eight hun- 
 dred dollars was obtained to start the school. Pupils began to 
 make application from a distance, and a Home was provided for 
 them, the attendance soon reaching forty or fifty. The Institution 
 was incorporated in 1871. James Kelly, of Wilkinsburg, donated 
 ten acres of valuable land for a site for the Institution, large dona- 
 tions were made by benevolent friends towards the erection of 
 buildings, the State assisted by generous appropriations, and, in 
 December, 1884, one of the finest and best-arranged buildings of 
 the kind in the country was opened with appropriate ceremonies for 
 the accommodation of the deaf-mute children of Western Pennsyl- 
 vania. In its organization and in its relation to the State, the Insti- 
 tution is similar to its elder sister in Philadelphia. 
 
 To Roberts Vaux, the friend of free schools, and prominent in 
 
ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 444 
 
 the work of establishing the Institution for the Instruction of the 
 Deaf and Dumb, belongs the honor of originating the project for 
 founding the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the 
 Blind. He began to agitate the subject certainly as early as 1824, 
 before the existence of any such institution in this country, and in 
 1829 addressed a letter to J. Francis Fisher, a citizen of Philadel- 
 phia, at that time traveling abroad, begging him to familiarize him-' 
 self with the method of instructing the Blind in use in Europe, that 
 he might upon his return aid in organizing a school for this class 
 of unfortunate people in Pennsylvania. Mr. Fisher complied with 
 this request, and sent home descriptions of his visits to some of the 
 most celebrated schools for the blind in France and England, to- 
 gether with specimens of the books and apparatus in use in them. 
 But he deemed a thoroughly-trained instructor essential to success, 
 and as the services of such a person could not easily be procured, 
 the project of establishing the school was delayed. In 1832, JuHus 
 R. Friedlander, an experienced instructor of the blind, hearing in 
 some indirect way in his German home, of the want of a teacher in 
 Philadelphia with the qualifications he possessed, resolved to come 
 to Pennsylvania and offer his services. Upon his arrival, at the 
 request of Mr. Vaux, he undertook the instruction of several blind 
 boys. The results were so satisfactory that an organization of citi- 
 zens was formed for the purpose of establishing a school ; contribu- 
 tions were asked for ; a small house on Twelfth street was rented, 
 and the school began under the devoted Friedlander with only three 
 pupils. The first State appropriation was made in 1834, after an 
 exhibition given by the pupils in the House of Representatives at 
 Harrisburg. Since that time the State has paid the Institution for a 
 certain number of indigent pupils, and has given in addition large 
 sums for building purposes. The Institution was located at the 
 corner of what was then called Schuj'lkill Third, and Race streets, 
 and the building first erected cost ^23,000. The property is now 
 worth over ^200,000. The number of pupils admitted since the 
 beginning reaches about a thousand. The Institution possesses 
 shops as well as schoolrooms, and work is as prominent a feature 
 of the place as study. As an auxiliary to the Institution, there was 
 established some ten or twelve years ago, a " Working Home for 
 Blind Men." Those connected with the Home number about one 
 hundred. They are furnished with work suitable for them, and 
 with facilities for doing it in the best way. The products of their 
 
TECHNICAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 445 
 
 labor, in the shape of brooms, brushes, carpets, rugs, mattresses, 
 etc., are sold. Its great purpose is to convert helpless blind per- 
 sons into self-supporting mechanics. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children is 
 located on the Philadelphia and West Chester railroad, near Media. 
 The buildings, which are of granite and very imposing, stand on a 
 wooded eminence and command a beautiful view. The preliminary 
 steps taken to found the institution began on February 10, 1853. 
 It was incorporated in April of that year. Previously, there had 
 been, in Germantown, a private school for feeble-minded children, 
 and the public effort to do something for this most unfortunate class 
 of human beings grew out of it. The institution was removed to 
 Media in 1857. Its equipment consists of buildings of an ample 
 size, furnished with all the appliances of such an institution, a farm 
 of over one hundred acres, gardens and shops. No institution in 
 Pennsylvania has warmer or more liberal friends. The State pays 
 for the maintenance of indigent children, and has made large appro- 
 priations for buildings. The number of children in the institution 
 is about four hundred. Dr. Isaac N. Kerlin has been at its head for 
 many years, and no words can describe the devotion he has shown 
 in his self-sacrificing work. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 SECONDARY EDUCATION. 
 
 ACADEMIES, FEMALE SEMINARIES AND BOARDING SCHOOLL. 
 
 IMPOSSIBLE as it is in this history even to name all of the many- 
 hundreds of Academies, Female Seminaries and Boarding Schools 
 that have at one time or another been established in the State, many 
 of them to continue in operation but for a brief period, it would be 
 an unpardonable omission not to give some account of such of 
 them, hitherto not spoken of, as flourished for the longest time, or 
 became most noted as institutions of learning. In doing so, it will 
 be most convenient to follow the alphabetical order of counties. 
 
 Adams. — Gettysburg Academy, one of those aided by the State, 
 was chartered in 1810. The building was a large two-story brick, 
 with two rooms on each floor. At times it was well taught and 
 well attended; but it finally became involved in debt, and being 
 forced to a sale, was purchased for the use of the Preparatory 
 School that grew into Pennsylvania College. After the College had 
 provided a building of its own, the old Academy building continued 
 to be used for school purposes by different private parties. From 
 1856 to 1871, Rev. David Eyster and wife conducted in it a "Fe- 
 male Institute" of much repute. 
 
 The Gettysburg Female Seminary was established about 1830 
 and received appropriations under the Act of 1838. The brick 
 building occupied was erected by subscription, and is still used as a 
 private school. 
 
 The New Oxford College and Medical Institute was established at 
 New Oxford, about 1840, by Dr. M. D. G. Pfeiffer. An edifice, now 
 greatly dilapidated, was erected for the institution. Dr. Pfeiffer was 
 a learned German, with some peculiar views on the subject of 
 education and human improvement. His learning and enthusiasm 
 proved insufficient to make them acceptable to the public, and his 
 well-meant effort failed. 
 
 Allegheny. — Little can be ascertained concerning Pittsburgh 
 Academy, chartered in 1787, prior to its becoming, in 18 19, the 
 
 (446) 
 
SECONDAR Y EDUCA TION. ^7 
 
 Western University of Pennsylvania. In 18 10, it was in charge of 
 Rev. Joseph Stockton, the author of text-booi<s, and a leading edu- 
 cator of the day. There was an Academy of some repute in Alle- 
 gheny as early as 1820. 
 
 The Edgeworth Ladies' Seminary, established at Pittsburgh, in 
 1825, by Mrs. Mary Gould Oliver, was the first higher institution 
 of learning for girls in Western Pennsylvania. After remaining two 
 years at Pittsburgh, the Seminary was transferred to Braddock's 
 Fields, where for ten years the extensive buildings occupied were 
 crowded with students, not only from Pennsylvania, but from the 
 country west of it. In 1837, the Seminary was removed to the 
 large and costly buildings which had been erected for its accommo- 
 dation in Sewickley Valley. Here, after five prosperous years, the 
 Seminary lost its accomplished head and founder, and though there- 
 after at times receiving liberal patronage, it never recovered the pop- 
 ularity of its earlier years. The buildings were burned in 1865. 
 The Edgeworth Seminary received appropriations from the State 
 under the Act of 1838. 
 
 William M. Nevin and John B. Camp established an Academy 
 for boys in Sewickley Valley in 1838. Prof Nevin left it in 1841 
 to accept a Professorship in Marshall College, and a year later his 
 place was taken by Joseph S. Travelli, who continued at the head 
 of the school until 1864, when it closed. Mr. Travelli was a teacher 
 of remarkable zeal, and the inspiring character of his work is still ■ 
 attested by many prominent men who were his pupils. There is 
 still a Sewickley Academy, which may perhaps be considered a con- 
 tinuation of the old one. 
 
 The Episcopalians have the Bishop Bowman Institute in Pitts- 
 burgh, founded in 1862, and the Catholics St. Mary's Academy and 
 St. Ursula Academy, both recently established, and the Curry Insti- 
 tute and the Riverview Normal and Classical Institute, without 
 denominational bias, are doing a good work ; but the most noted 
 institutions of learning not already mentioned, are the Pittsburgh 
 Female College, Methodist, and the Pennsylvania Female College, 
 non-sectarian. The former of these was incorporated in 1854, and 
 has graduated regular classes since 1857. It has an attendance of 
 over four hundred students. The buildings are one hundred and 
 forty-eight feet, by one hundred. The school is fairly supplied with 
 philosophical apparatus, cabinets of specimens in natural history, 
 and libraries. The departments of instruction consist of a College 
 
^g ED UCA T/ON IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 of Liberal Arts, a Conservatory of Music, a School of Drawing and 
 Painting, a School of Elocution, and a School of Modern Lan- 
 guages. The President is Rev. \. C. Pershing, D. D. The latter 
 is now, 1884, in its fifteenth year. The College buildings are lo- 
 cated on Fifth avenue, three and a half miles from the centre of the 
 city. The grounds consist of ten or eleven acres, and are very 
 beautiful. The buildings are commodious and well adapted to their 
 purposes. The institution possesses a library, an art collection, and 
 adequate means of illustrating the instruction in the several natural 
 sciences. In addition to the regular collegiate department, there is 
 an academical department, and departments in music and art. The 
 President is Miss Helen E. Pelletreau. 
 
 As a powerful auxiliary in the work of secondary instruction, 
 special mention must be made of the Pittsburgh High School, with 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL, PITTSBURGH. 
 
 its fine building, its ample facilities, its broad course of study, and 
 its six hundred students. The Pittsburgh High School was organ- 
 ized under a special law about 1855. Small in its beginnings, it 
 has grown greater year by year, until now its place is by the side 
 of the best institutions of the kind in the country. The present 
 
SECONDAR Y EDUCA TIOM. ^.g 
 
 building was occupied in 1869. One of the strilcing features of the 
 school is a department for the training of teachers. 
 
 Armstrong. — An Academy chartered and aided by the State was 
 established at Kittanning, in 1821. Many of the leading men in 
 that section of the State were educated within its walls. After 
 being in operation about forty years, the building was found to 
 stand on ground belonging to the county, and the trustees were 
 compelled to abandon it. In 1866 the furniture was sold and the 
 school closed. Rev. H. Kirkland's Academy at Freeport was an 
 institution of much merit. It was opened in 1836 and closed in 
 1868. 
 
 Doanville Female Seminary was established about 1840 by Rev. 
 B. B. Killikelly. The buildings were situated on the Allegheny 
 river, a short distance above Kittanning. State appropriations were 
 granted it under the Act of 1838. As it was, when established, the 
 only high school for girls in Armstrong or the adjoining counties, 
 it was well patronized. Dr. Killikelly left the Seminary and re- 
 turned to it twice, each time changing its name. It continued its 
 good work about thirty years. 
 
 Glade Run Classical and Normal Academy, and Dayton Union 
 Academy, both near Dayton, opened in 1851 and 1852 respectively, 
 are small and unpretending institutions of learning, with excellent 
 records. There are like institutions, not so old, at Leechburg and 
 Elderton. 
 
 Lambeth College, first known as Kittanning Collegiate School, 
 was incorporated by the Court in 1868. It started out with a full 
 faculty, some of whom were ladies. Its patrons were mostly mem- 
 bers of the Protestant Episcopal church, and the charter declared 
 that the object of the corporation was to promote " liberal learning 
 on a distinctive church basis." It closed in 1876. 
 
 Beaver. — Beaver Academy, Beaver, chartered in 1800, was a 
 County Academy or Public School managed by trustees elected by 
 popular vote. The State had granted in 1 79 1 five hundred acres of 
 land for the support of such an institution. The land was located 
 near the town. In its early days the Academy was a noted centre 
 of intellectual light, later its prosperity became somewhat spasmodic, 
 and finally, after an existence of about three-quarters of a century, 
 the property was placed in the hands of the school board of Beaver 
 borough to establish and support a public high school open to chil- 
 dren from the county at large. There was also an Academy at 
 29 
 
. - _ EV UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAJVIA. 
 
 45° 
 
 Greersburg, established in 1806, which received aid from the State 
 
 at the time it was founded ; and both this Academy and a Female 
 
 Seminary at New Brighton received appropriations under the Act 
 
 of 1838. Neither seems to have left any marked impression. As 
 
 little is known of a German Seminary established at Phillipsburg in 
 
 1840. 
 
 There are at Beaver two institutions of learning for girls, of high 
 grade, Beaver College and Musical Institute established in 1853, 
 and the Beaver Female Seminary established a year later. The 
 Principal of the former is Rev. R. T. Taylor and of the latter Rev. 
 Thomas Kennedy. Both have good buildings and are well patron- 
 ized. 
 
 Bedford. — Bedford Academy was incorporated in x8iO. The 
 State assisted in founding it. The trustees were elected by popular 
 vote like members of the Legislature. The Academy was fortunate 
 for many years in its masters, the earliest of whom in succession 
 were Rev. James Wilson, Rev. Jeremiah Chamberlain and Rev. Alex- 
 ander Boyd. These gentlemen were fine scholars and excellent 
 teachers. While they were in charge of it, students flocked to the 
 Academy from the southern counties of Pennsylvania and from 
 Maryland. In 1835, the building was sold for debt; but a private 
 school was continued in it for some years. 
 
 The Legislature, in 1853, chartered the Allegheny Male and 
 Female Seminary at Rainsburg. It was under the control of the 
 Baltimore Conference of the Methodist church. The funds to estab- 
 lish it were raised by sub.scription. The institution flourished for 
 some years, devoting special attention to the training of teachers, 
 but involving itself in debt, the property was sold by the sheriff". 
 
 Berks. — Reading Academy, incorporated by the State in 1788, 
 with a donation of five thousand acres of land, seems not to have 
 gone into operation until 1 807, when it received further aid from the 
 State. About the same time it received the benefit of a lottery set 
 on foot for its support. A special appropriation was granted it in 
 1832, on condition that four students in indigent circumstances 
 should be prepared annually for school teachers. The Academy 
 was sold in 1839, but another lot was purchased the same year and 
 a new building erected. This building was transferred to the school 
 board of Reading in 1850, and is now the Female High School. 
 
 The Reading Academy; Union Academy, Womelsdorf; Franklin 
 Academy, Kutztown, and Reading Female Seminary, shared in the 
 
SECONDAR Y EDUCA TION. .r j 
 
 appropriations under the Act of 1838. Union Academy was estab- 
 lished in 1828 and continued to flourish until 1855. The school 
 had good buildings, a considerable library and a fair supply of philo- 
 sophical apparatus. It was instrumental in educating a large num- 
 ber of the leading men of the surrounding country. An effort to 
 revive the Academy in 1866, was partially successful. Franklin 
 Academy was established in 1836 and incorporated in 1838. Among 
 its facilities for instruction was a good library. Alexander Ramsey, 
 subsequently United States Senator from Minnesota and Secretary 
 of War, was one of its earliest teachers. The Reading Female 
 Seminary left little behind but its name. 
 
 Tulpehocken Academy, near Stouchsburg, flourished from 183 1 to 
 1837. Stouchsburg Academy appears then to have taken its place. 
 This Academy remained open until 1862. Mt. Pleasant Seminary, 
 Boyertown, open to both sexes, was founded in 1 842 ; in 1 849, a 
 new building was erected. P. D. W. Hankey was Principal for 
 thirteen years. In 1867, L. M. Koons assumed charge. It has 
 always been one of Berks county's best schools. Kallynean Acad- 
 emy is also located at Boyertown. It dates from 1866 and is at- 
 tended by about sixty students. Oley Academy, founded in 1857, 
 is open to both sexes and has met with gratifying success. Selwyn 
 Hall, Reading, is a school established in 1875, under the auspices 
 of the Protestant Episcopal church. D. B. Brunner, formerly 
 County Superintendent of Berks county, has conducted, for eight 
 or ten years, a Scientific Academy in Reading, with marked success. 
 
 Bla'ir. — Williamsburg Academy, at Williamsburg, established by 
 a stock corporation, is the oldest institution of its class in the county. 
 The building was erected in 1847, and the school was chartered in 
 1851. John Miller, subsequently Superintendent of schools in 
 Altoona, one of the finest scholars among the schoolmasters of his 
 time, was Principal for some years. 
 
 The Franklin High School, later the Juniata Collegiate Institute, 
 at Martinsburg, was opened in i860. Established by a stock cor- 
 poration, it soon passed into the control of the Lutheran church, and 
 subsequently into the hands of private parties. After many ups and 
 downs, and at least seven changes in its Principal, it now seems to 
 be meeting with success. 
 
 The Hollidaysburg Female Seminary, at Hollidaysburg, is one of 
 the leading high schools for girls in the State. It was chartered in 
 1866 and opened for students in 1869. The property is owned by 
 
. c 2 JED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN I A. 
 
 a Stock corporation, but the school is under Presbyterian influenqe. 
 The main building has a front of one hundred and fifty feet, and 
 cost ^75,000. The school is well equipped for the purposes of in- 
 struction, has a liberal course of study, and is attended by about one 
 hundred students. Its success is greatly owing to the judicious 
 management of the first Principal, Rev. Joseph Waugh. 
 
 Bradford. — As early as 1797, the citizens of Tioga Point, now 
 Athens, raised a fund for the erection of an Academy, the building 
 to be occasionally used as a place of public worship, and for other 
 public purposes. The building completed, they found themselves 
 in debt, and, in 1 808, they advertised the property for sale. The 
 claim seems to have been satisfied in some other way, for no sale 
 took place, and soon after the time fixed for it, the trustees began 
 with some courage to prepare for the future by passing a resolution 
 forbidding any person's storing hay, flax, or other articles in the 
 building, and directing it to be repaired. The Academy was char- 
 tered by the Legislature in 18 13, and shared the State's bounty to 
 the extent of ^2,000, but never became noted as an educational 
 institution. The building was burned in 1842, and a new one 
 erected in 1845. The property was sold to the board of directors 
 of the public schools in 1872. 
 
 In addition to the Academy at Athens, two other Academies and 
 one Female Seminary in Bradford county received appropriations 
 under the Act of 1838, viz.: Towanda and Troy Academies, and 
 McKean Seminary. Neither of them attained any celebrity or lived 
 more than a few years. 
 
 The Susquehanna Collegiate Institute at Towanda is one of the 
 most noted and most successful institutions of learning in Northern 
 Pennsylvania. The movement to establish it was started by the 
 Presbytery of the Susquehanna at a meeting held at Wyalusing in 
 1849. One of its declared objects was "to prepare suitable teachers 
 for parochial and common schools." A charter was granted by the 
 Court in 1850, and the school opened in 1854. The building occu- 
 pies a commanding position near the town, and is a large four-story 
 brick edifice. The school is most indebted to Rev. S. F. Colt, one 
 of its projectors, and long its head. State Superintendent Coburn 
 was an assistant teacher from the beginning, until elected Superin- 
 tendent of the public schools of the county, in 1857. 
 
 Bucks. — The first and most famous school of the secondary class 
 in Bucks county, already spoken of in another connection, was Ten- 
 
S£ CO NBA R Y ED UCA TION. 4 c ^ 
 
 nent's "Log College," opened in 1735. The Acadeniy or Free 
 School, at Newtown, chartered in 1790, and the Union Academy, at 
 Doylestown, chartered in 1805, both received grants of money from 
 the State. The former, with Attleboro' Academy and Ingham Fe- 
 male Seminary, were aided by appropriations under the Act of 1838. 
 The Newtown Academy, for many years, ranked high as an educa- 
 tional institution and was attended by a large number of young men, 
 who subsequently occupied prominent places in society. The build- 
 ing is now used as a private school. The Academy building, at 
 Doylestown, was erected in part by means of the proceeds of a lot- 
 tery authorized by the Legislature. Rev. Uriah Du Bois was the 
 first Principal and remained at the head of the school until his 
 death, in 182 1. Among his successors was Rev. Samuel Aaron, 
 afterwards, for many years, a teacher in Norristown. The building, 
 after answering for a long time the purposes of an Academy, went 
 into the hands of the school board of the borough for the use of 
 the public schools. The Attleboro' Academy or High School, at 
 Attleboro', now Langhorne, was established in 1836. It had a 
 checkered career, being sometimes in sunshine and sometimes in 
 shade. Of late years it has been known as Bellevue Institute. Ing- 
 ham Female Seminary, at Doylestown, incorporated in 1838, was 
 maintained as a Boarding School only about five years. From 1834 
 to 1852, a school of high grade for both sexes was kept open in 
 Warminster township, in a house built by Amos Darrah, on his own 
 property. Rev. A. R. Home opened, in 1858, a Normal and Clas- 
 sical School, at Quakertown. It was largely attended and did 
 much to awaken an educational interest in the northern part of 
 Bucks county. In 1865, it was converted into a Soldiers' Orphan 
 School. Rev. F. R. S. Hunsicker established, in" 1859, at Carvers- 
 ville, the Excelsior Normal Institute. Under the principalship of 
 William T. Seal, who succeeded him, the institution assumed the 
 character of a Normal School, and attracted many students who de- 
 sired to fit themselves for teachers. Doylestown Female Seminary, 
 opened in 1866, and Lincoln Female Seminary, opened in 187 1, 
 both at Doylestown, present excellent advantages to girls for ob- 
 taining a higher education. 
 
 Butler. — Butler Academy was chartered in 18 10, and the build- 
 ing, erected the next year, was constructed partly with money ap- 
 propriated by the Legislature. The ground was donated by the 
 Cunninghams. The house was built of stone. For many years it 
 
- . EDUCATION IN PEMNSYLVANIA. 
 
 was the only school of high grade in the county, in the hands of 
 a succession of able teachers, it was the centre of learning ajjd 
 light. About i860 the school was suspended, and by the authority 
 of the Legislature its funds were divided between Witherspoon Insti- 
 tute, Sunbury Academy, and the Academy at Zelienople. The 
 property in the borough was transferred to the school board, and 
 upon the site of the old Academy now stands the fine public school 
 building. Of the Female Seminary in Butler that in connection 
 with the Academy, drew appropriations under the Act of 1838, 
 nothing is known save that it was short-lived. 
 
 Charles Cist opened a Female Seminary at Harmony, in 18 17. 
 No amount of enterprise could maintain such an institution in that 
 wild country at that early day, and the school soon closed. Har- 
 mony Institute, opened at the same place some fifty or sixty years 
 later, has done much good. Witherspoon Institute for both sexes, 
 Butler, was chartered by the Court in 1848. A new building was 
 erected in 1877. The school is noted for the thoroughness of its 
 instruction and seems likely to enjoy continued prosperity. Sun- 
 bury Academy has been in successful operation since 1855. 
 
 Cambria. — ^An Academy or Public School was chartered by the 
 Legislature at Ebensburg, in 18 19, and granted the sum of ^2,000 
 as an endowment. In 1824, a substantial brick building with four 
 rooms was erected, and soon after teachers were employed and the 
 school opened. It continued in operation until 1845, when it closed, 
 the property remaining in the hands of trustees. The building has 
 been for many years leased to the school board of the borough. 
 About 1852, there were in Johnstown two flourishing schools of 
 high grade, but after some years, meeting with reverses, they were 
 discontinued. The Catholics have Academies or Seminaries at 
 Carrolltown, Loretto, Johnstown and Ebensburg. 
 
 Cameron. — Cameron county was organized in i860, and while 
 the people are greatly interested in public education, they have 
 never had an Academical institution of high grade. 
 
 Carbon. — Carbon county has at this time neither an Academy 
 or a Female Seminary. The Park Seminary at Mauch Chunk, 
 established in 1832 by a stock corporation, soon closed for want of 
 patronage. The Carbon Academy and Normal School Association 
 was organized at Weissport, in 1853. A house was purchased and 
 fitted up for a school, but at the end of three years the property was 
 sold for debt. R. F. Hofford, subsequently and for many years 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION. .^^ 
 
 superintendent of the public schools of the county, became the pur- 
 chaser and reopened the school. Beginning with ten pupils, the 
 school soon largely increased, but unfortunately, in 1862, the build- 
 ing was destroyed by a flood in the Lehigh river. A new building 
 was erected the same year at Lehighton. In 1867, A. S. Christine, 
 an unassuming gentleman but a teacher of rare skill, took charge of 
 the school, which continued to flourish until his death a year or two 
 later, when it closed. 
 
 Centre. — ^James Dunlap and James Harris, the owners of the 
 land on which the town of Bellefonte is located, gave, in 1800, to 
 the trustees of Centre county organized that year, certain " lots and 
 lands" adjoining the town, a portion of the proceeds of which was to 
 be used to support an Academy. Bellefonte Academy was incor- 
 porated in 1805, and by the provisions of the Act these "lots and 
 lands " were transferred to the trustees of the institution. The next 
 year the State granted in its further aid the sum of ^2,000. The 
 Academy was established as a Public School for the county, and its 
 trustees were to be elected by a vote of the people. The original 
 building was small, there being but a single room ; the furniture 
 consisted of a few pine benches and two heavy oak tables, each 
 sufficiently large for eight or ten boys to sit around it, and an 
 immense six-plated stove; and the course of instruction as late as 
 1824 is described by one who planned the curriculum, as "Latin in 
 the morning, and Latin and Greek in the afternoon. Latin and 
 Greek on Monday, and Greek and Latin on Tuesday. Wednesday 
 brought the same studies, and Thursday the same. And Friday, 
 ' repetition day,' as it was called, a review of the whole week's 
 previous study." In brief, Bellefonte Academy was a fair specimen 
 of an old-fashioned classical school; but with all its plainness in 
 buildings and furniture, and the monotonous character of its course 
 of study, it made scholars, and sent forth a long list of men who 
 became distinguished in every walk of life, among them Judges 
 James Burnside and Samuel Linn, Robert J. Walker, Secretary of 
 the Treasury under President Buchanan, and Andrew G. Curtin, 
 Governor of Pennsylvania and Minister to Russia. For some years 
 after 1854, the Academy was in possession of the school board of 
 the borough and used for a High School ; but in r868 the trustees 
 of the Academy re-opened it as a classical school under the princi- 
 palship of Rev. J. P. Hughes. Soon after the old buildings were 
 thoroughly repaired, and large additions were made to them. Girls 
 
g ED OCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 were at times admitted to the Academy, but generally received 
 instruction in classes by themselves. About 1840, a building was 
 erected adjoining the Academy and occupied as a Female Seminary, 
 drawing appropriations as such from the State, under the Act of 
 1838. In 1852, this building was surrendered to the trustees of the 
 Academy. Under Professor Hughes the two sexes were for some 
 time taught in the same rooms, but they now occupy different 
 departments. 
 
 Pine Grove and Boalsburg Academies were opened about 1852, 
 and have continued to do good work as local educational institu- 
 tions. Penn Hall Academy, opened about 1866, had under the 
 principalship of Rev. D. M. Wolf, now County Superintendent, an 
 attendance of about fifty students. 
 
 Chester. — Chester county is noted for its large number of Acad- 
 emies, Seminaries, and Boarding Schools. Something has already 
 been said of the old Presbyterian Academies or Classical Schools 
 at Fagg's Manor, New London, Nottingham, Brandywine Manor, 
 and Upper Octoraro, and of the Friends' Boarding School at 
 Westtown; the institutions that remain to be noticed are of an un- 
 sectarian character or of later date. 
 
 Chester county had two of the old class of State-aided County 
 Academies, the Chester County Academy, in West Whiteland town- 
 ship, on the Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike, and the West 
 Chester Academy, at West Chester, both incorporated in 1813. 
 The former, under the principalship of Samuel Turney, its first 
 Principal, stood deservedly high as a school of the classics, and was 
 well attended. Subsequently, it experienced seasons of alternate 
 prosperity and adversity, and finally closed its doors, the property 
 going into the hands of the school board of the district. The latter 
 was for more than fifty years one of the leading schools of its class 
 in eastern Pennsylvania. Among those who studied within its walls 
 were many of the most distinguished citizens of Chester and sur- 
 rounding counties. The men who stood highest in their profession 
 among its Principals were Jonathan Cause, Anthony Bolmar, James 
 Crowell, and William F. Wyers, and Pennsylvania has few such 
 names on its roll of teachers. In 1869, the property was donated 
 by the trustees for the purpose of establishing a State Normal 
 School. The Normal School at West Chester has therefore this 
 staunch old Academy as a foundation. 
 
 Enoch Lewis, after teaching in the Friends' School in Philadel- 
 
SECOMDAR Y EDUCA TION. . , - 
 
 phia and at Westtown, opened, in 1808, a Boarding School in New 
 Garden, which continued successful for many years. Mr. Lewis 
 was a profound mathematician, and the author of some excellent 
 works on mathematics. His school attracted many students who 
 had special taste for that branch of study. 
 
 Jonathan Cause, after relinquishing the charge of the West Ches- 
 ter Academy, in 1828, organized a school called the West Chester 
 Boarding School for Young Men and Boys, but three years later 
 removed to his farm in West Bradford township, and opened Green- 
 wood Dell Boarding School. In 1839 he became Principal of 
 Unionville Academy, but, in 1847, returned to Greenwood Dell 
 School, and continued at its head until 1865, having been actively 
 engaged in teaching for more than fifty-seven years. He was a 
 master of the teacher's art, especially in those of its departments, 
 whose aim it is to form character and shape life. 
 
 Joshua Hoopes opened Downingtown Boarding School for Boys 
 in 1817, removed to West Chester in 1834, and established Hoopes' 
 Boarding School for Boys, which he conducted until 1862. Joshua 
 Hoopes was not only an excellent teacher, but one of the most pro- 
 found scientists of the day. To be under his instruction was to 
 acquire a taste for the sciences he Joved. 
 
 Joseph C. Strode had charge of East Bradford Boarding School 
 for Boys, established in 18 16, with brief intervals from 18 18 to 
 1846. As a mathematician he had few equals in the United States. 
 The school he taught so long was closed in 1857. 
 
 Emmor Kimber established the French Creek Boarding School 
 for Girls in 1817. The school, unsectarian in character, was gov- 
 erned without punishment of any kind. Its one rule was love. In 
 its best days students came to it from many States, and from the 
 West Indies. It closed with the death of its founder in 1850. 
 
 The present New London Academy was organized in 1828. It 
 retains the name of the old school of Dr. Alison, and is in the same 
 locality. From thirty to eighty young men are usually in attend- 
 ance. 
 
 The Unionville Academy was established in 1834. The build- 
 ing, a two-story brick, was erected by the contributions of citizens, 
 and the school was controlled by a board of trustees. The board- 
 ing house was erected about 1837. The school received State 
 appropriations under the Act of 1838. For more than fifty yeai-s 
 this institution has continued its good work. He who pens this 
 
g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 line, with many hundreds of others, owes to it a deep debt of grati- 
 tude. 
 
 A joint stock company erected a splendid building in West Ches- 
 ter during the years 1837 and 1 838 for a young ladies' Seminary. 
 At its head was placed Mrs. Almira H. Lincoln Phelps, author of 
 a work on botany. The school was well attended.-but the company 
 failed, and the property was sold in 1840 to Anthony Bolmar, who 
 resigned the principalship of the West Chester Academy to take 
 charge of a Boarding School for boys, which he opened in it and 
 conducted until his death in i860. Mr. Bolmar was a native of 
 France, and the author of several text-books on the French lan- 
 guage. In instruction he was thorough, and in discipline syste- 
 matic, if not severe. His school was one of the most flourishing 
 institutions of the kind in the country. From 1862 to 1865, the 
 building was occupied by a Military School under the direction of 
 Col. Theodore Hyatt. In the latter year it was purchased by Wil- 
 liam F. Wyers, who had previously been Principal of New London 
 and West Chester Academies, and opened under the title of Wyers' 
 Scientific and Classical Institute for Boys. Wyers was a German 
 by birth, thoroughly educated, an excellent teacher, and a broad- 
 minded, big-hearted man. At his death, in 187 1, the school was 
 conducted a short time by Robert M. McClellan, and then the 
 property was purchased by the Catholic Convent of the Immaculate 
 Heart, and a school opened under the direction of the Sisters. 
 
 Ercildoun Seminaiy was established in 1 851, by Smedley Dar- 
 lington, as a boys' Academy, but three years later it was changed to 
 a school for girls. In 1861, Smedley Darlington was succeeded in 
 the direction of the school by his brother Richard. The buildings 
 were demolished in 1877 by a tornado and the school removed to 
 West Chester. Here it is well fitted up and largely attended. Its 
 Principal enjoys an enviable reputation as a skilled instructor. 
 
 Oxford Female Seminary dates from about the year 1835. Its 
 founder was Rev. John Miller Dickey, an earnest friend of education 
 in all its departments. The institution received the State appropria- 
 tion under the Act of 1838. Its patronage has always come largely 
 from Maryland and Delaware. 
 
 Among the other most noted Chester county schools of high 
 grade, some of them still in active operation, may be named Uwchlan 
 Female Seminary, conducted by William Trimble from 1825 to 
 1835; Brandywine Boarding School, conducted by George Peirce 
 
SECONDAR y EDUCA TION. . ,„ 
 
 from iSi6to 1823; Moscow Academy in Sadsbury township, which 
 flourished from 1826 to 1840; Evan Pugh's Jordan Bank Academy; 
 Howard Academy at Rockville ; Price's Boarding School for girls, 
 at Westchester; the Misses Evans' West Chestei- Female Semi- 
 nary; Robert McClellan's Institute for Eoys, West Chester; Mary 
 B. Thomas and Sister's Boarding School for Girls, at Downingtown; 
 F. Donleavy Long's Academy for Boys, Downingtown ; Blair Hall, 
 at Fagg's Manor ; the Eaton Institute for Girls, Kennett Square ; 
 Joseph B. Philips' Academy, Kennett Square; Unionville Female 
 Seminary; West Grove Boarding School for Girls; Hopewell 
 Academy ; Parkesburg Academy ; Thomas M. Harvey's School for 
 Young Men, in Penn township ; Fairville Institute ; Jesse E. Philips' 
 Fremont Academy, East Nantmeal ; Oakdale Academy, at Pugh- 
 town, and Ivy Institute for Girls, at Phcenixville. 
 
 Clarion. — Clarion Academy was incorporated in 1840, and 
 received a grant of ^2,000 and appropriations under the Act of 1838. 
 It never attained the rank of some other institutions of its class, and 
 in 1865, the property consisting of a two-story brick building went 
 into the hands of the school board of the borough, and has since 
 been used for public school purposes. 
 
 Callensburg Institute for both sexes, chartered in 1858; Clarion 
 Collegiate Institute at Rimersburg, founded by the Clarion Classis 
 of the Reformed church ; Reid Institute, on the banks of Piney 
 creek near Reidsburg, established in 1862, by the Clarion Baptist 
 Association, and for some time under its control ; and West Free- 
 dom Academy, founded in 1861, have all proven themselves useful 
 educational institutions. 
 
 Carrier Seminary is an incorporated institution located at Clarion. 
 The grounds comprise ten acres, and the building, erected in 1868, 
 is one hundred feet in front and cost ^75,000. The school is under 
 the auspices of the Methodist church. At one time it contem- 
 plated enlarging its buildings and making application to become a 
 State Normal School, but the project was abandoned. 
 
 Clearfield. — The only notable school of high grade in Clear- 
 field county continued for a considerable time was the Clearfield 
 Academy. It was chartered by the State and granted an appropria- 
 tion in 1827. The lots on which it was located and a thousand 
 dollars in money were the gifts of Abraham Witmer, of Lancaster 
 county. In its day it proved a great blessing to the community, 
 many leading citizens freely acknowledging their indebtedness to it 
 
gQ EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 for instruction and training. Among the masters who had charge 
 of the Academy was William A. Wallace, subsequently State and 
 United States Senator. By an Act passed in 1872, the Academy 
 was united with the common schools, the public High School taking 
 
 its place. 
 
 Clinton. — About 1820, Rev. J. H. Grier opened a classical school 
 in Pine Creek township which attracted a considerable body of 
 young men not only from the vicinity but from a distance. This 
 institution or one growing out of it received appropriations under 
 the Act of 1838. 
 
 Lock Haven Academy, established in 1840, was chartered and 
 aided by the State like other county Academies. When compelled 
 to rely upon its own resources, it became involved in debt and was 
 sold by the sheriff. Bought by citizens, it was continued as an 
 Academy for a number of years. In 1 870, it was again sold and 
 torn down to make room for other buildings. 
 
 Columbia. — Berwick Academy was erected in 1837. It received 
 appropriations under the Act of 1838. The school flourished for a 
 number of years, but finally became merged in the system of public 
 schools. The building was torn down some years ago. The old 
 Academy at Bloomsburg was two years younger than the one at 
 Berwick. The building contained four rooms. The first master 
 advertised among other things to give instruction in the Hebrew 
 language. Doubtless like most other institutions of its class it was 
 a good classical school. The building was used for many years for 
 public school purposes, but about 1875 was abandoned. 
 
 An Academy at Catawissa, founded in 1838, and continued for 
 some years, is now occupied by the public schools. 
 
 Greenwood Seminary, established in 1850, and Orangeville Acade- 
 my, established in i860, both still open, though of good repute, 
 have never been largely attended. The latter was, in 1 866, changed 
 into a Soldiers' Orphan School, but continued as such for only two 
 years. 
 
 Crawford. — While the only school at Meadville was kept in the 
 block-house, loop-holed for muskets, erected by the early settlers as 
 a defence against the Indians, a provision was inserted in the Act 
 organizing Crawford county, passed in 1800, requiring the citizens 
 of the town to contribute four thousand dollars either in money or 
 land towards founding a seminary of learning, as a condition to 
 making it the county seat. As a part of the required donation to 
 
SECOND AR Y ED UCA TION. .g I 
 
 the contemplated institution, David Meade deeded to the trustees 
 of the county, who were authorized to receive it, the block-house in 
 which the school was then kept and the lot on which it stood. In 
 1805, the trustees of the Academy erected a one-story building with 
 two rooms at the corner of Chestnut and Liberty streets, and a 
 school was opened under the direction of Rev. Joseph Stockton, a 
 noted pioneer among Western Pennsylvania teachers. The Acade- 
 my was formally incorporated by the Legislature in 1807, and three 
 years later it received an appropriation of ^1,000. In 1825, a brick 
 building two stories high was erected. With seasons of prosperity 
 and adversity, the school continued until 1852, when Samuel P. 
 Bates, subsequently Deputy State Superintendent of Common 
 Schools, and T. F. Thickston became joint Principals. The build- 
 ing was greatly improved, modern furniture was procured, a good 
 library and a considerable collection of apparatus were added to its 
 facilities for instruction, and the number of students ran up in 1853 
 to six hundred and sixty-eight, about one-half being females. Prof. 
 Bates was elected County Superintendent in 1857, and soon after 
 Prof. Thickston left the institution and the school began to decline. 
 In 1861, the property was conveyed to the school board of Mead- 
 ville for the use of the public schools. 
 
 A Female Seminary was incorporated at Meadville in 1802, and 
 seems to have had a close connection with the Academy, for upon 
 the erection of the first Academy building, the block-house lot was 
 transferred to the Seminary and sold for its benefit. In 1806, the 
 State gave it a grant of ^1,000, the only favor of the kind shown an 
 institution of learning for girls before the adoption of the common 
 school system. The Meadville Seminary also received appropria- 
 tions under the Act of 1838. 
 
 Cumberland. — There was a Classical School at Carlisle prior to 
 the Revolutionary war. Among the students was Gen. John Arm- 
 strong, subsequently United States Senator from New York, Min- 
 ister to France, and Secretary of War under Madison. Carlisle 
 also had a Female Seminary that drew appropriations under the 
 Act of 1838, but it seems to have died upon the withdrawal of the 
 State's bounty. 
 
 Hopewell Academy, noted for the attention given to classical 
 studies, was established about 1 810 by John Cooper, who contin- 
 ued to act as its Principal until 1832, when his health failed and the 
 school closed. Newville enjoyed the advantages of a classical 
 
g2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 school, with short intervals, from 1835 to 1855. David Denlinger 
 opened White Hall Academy in 185 1. It was well attended for a 
 number of years. In 1864, it was converted into a Soldiers' Orphan 
 School. Sunnyside Female Seminary was opened under a charter 
 from the Legislature, at Newburg, in 1858, with Mrs. CaroHne Wil- 
 liams as Principal. It was in operation eight or ten years. Ship- 
 pensburg Academy, started in 1861, sustained itself five or six years. 
 
 A select school was opened at Mechanicsburg about 1850. By 
 1853 it had so prospered that it was able to occupy a building -of 
 its own. The name then assumed was the Cumberland Valley 
 Institute. I. D. Rupp, the historian, was Principal in 1857. The 
 school is still in successful operation. Irving Female College, Me- 
 chanicsburg, was founded by Solomon P. Gorgas in 1856. It was 
 incorporated as a College by the Legislature in 1857. The build- 
 ings are commodious, and situated in a beautiful grove. The grad- 
 uates number about two hundred. 
 
 Dauphin. — ^John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, granted the 
 rents, issues and profits of his ferry across the Susquehanna as an 
 endowment for an English and German Academy. With the 
 income from this source, and the aid of subscriptions on the part of 
 the citizens, in April, 1786, when the county was but one year old, 
 an Academy was founded which is still in existence. It was care- 
 fully watched over in its early years, as appears from the fact that 
 in 1792 the trustees passed a resolution directing that the master, 
 Samuel Barnes Davis, " shall submit for the approbation of the trus- 
 tees copies of all such extracts or speeches as he intends the chil- 
 dren under his care shall speak at public exhibitions." The rules 
 required a certain number of poor children to be admitted gratui- 
 tously, but the names of such children were kept secret. The Har- 
 risburg Academy was chartered in 1809, and aided at different times 
 by State appropriations. The building at present occupied stands 
 on the river bank, and was originally the residence of William Mc- 
 Clay, erected in 1791. This institution, although at times suffering 
 from financial difficulties, has continued its good work for nearly 
 one hundred years. Among its earliest teachers, Alfred Armstrong, 
 who had charge of it from 183 1 to 1846, seems to have left the 
 deepest impression. Jacob F. Seller, the present Principal, has 
 rendered faithful service since 1 860. 
 
 The Commissioners of Dauphin county were authorized by an 
 Act of the Legislature in 1827 to establish at Harrisburg a Public 
 
SECOND AR Y ED UCA TION. ^Q , 
 
 School on the Lancasterian plan. The large brick building on 
 Walnut street, still used as a schoolhouse, was erected in accord- 
 ance with this Act, and all children then educated at the public - 
 expense in Harrisburg, or within a mile of the town, were required 
 to attend the school. Those able paid tuition fees. Dr. John M. 
 Keagy, a teacher whose professional ideas were far in advance of 
 his time, was the first Principal. In the days of its prosperity the 
 attendance was upwards of three hundred. 
 
 Captain Alden Partridge, from 1 8 1 2 to 1 8 1 8 Superintendent of 
 West Point Military Academy, established at Harrisburg in 1845 a 
 Military Academy as a branch of the so-called Military University 
 at Norwich, Vermont, of which he was President. It was at first 
 well organized, and seemed to promise permanent success, but after 
 a few years it began to lose ground, and soon closed. A Female 
 Seminary at Harrisburg received appropriations under the Act of 
 1838, but it did not continue in operation long enough to have 
 much history. 
 
 In 1849, ^■'^- Anna Le Conte established at Harrisburg a school 
 for girls that attained a high rank. It was incorporated by the 
 Legislature. The course of instruction embraced all the studies of 
 our best Female Seminaries. The school closed about 1867. The 
 Pennsylvania Female College at Harrisburg was chartered by the 
 State in 1853. Provision was made for a regular College course. 
 The building occupied is known as the Harris mansion, and is now 
 the residence of Hon. Simon Cameron. The school closed upon 
 the death of the President, Rev. Beverly R. Waugh. An unassum- 
 ing, but one of the most meritorious private high schools for girls 
 in the State, is that opened in 1 86 1 by Miss A. Y. Woodward, and 
 still continued. 
 
 Delaware. — The school of Christopher Taylor, the learned 
 Quaker, established on Tinicum island in 1684, was without doubt 
 the first school of high grade in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Among the notable schools now closed may be named Sharon 
 Female Seminary at Darby, which flourished some years before 
 1855 ; the Boarding School for both sexes at Village Green, opened 
 in 1856 and closed in 1868, and the Upland Normal Institute, near 
 Chester, whose fine buildings were erected about 1855 by John P. 
 Crozer, at a cost of ;^45,ooo, and are now occupied by the Crozer 
 Theological Seminary. 
 
 The most notable schools of those still in operation are the fol- 
 
5 . ED UCA TION IN- PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 lowing: Brooke Hall Female Seminary at Media, founded in 1856 
 by H. Jones Brooke, a warm friend of education, and one of Dela- 
 ware county's most honored citizens. Brooke Hall is widely known 
 as one of the best institutions of the kind in the State. It is under 
 Episcopal church influence. The Principal is Mrs. M. L. Eastman. 
 Its graduates number two hundred. Maplewood Institute for both 
 sexes at Concordville, established in 1862 by Joseph Shortlidge, its 
 present Principal, and incorporated by the Legislature in 1 870. It 
 is well attended and ably conducted. The Chester Academy at 
 Chester, established in 1862 by Charles W. Deans, at the time one 
 of the most prominent and promising teachers of the State. Pro- 
 fessor Deans was succeeded by George Gilbert, who .extended the 
 course and improved the school. The Media Academy for boys, 
 established in 1874 by Swithin C. Shortlidge. This institution has 
 an able corps of instructors, and prepares boys for the best Colleges. 
 The students number from one hundred and twenty to one hun- 
 dred and fifty. 
 
 Elk. — An Academy and Convent were founded at St Mary's, in 
 1852, by Mother Theresa Ripp and two other Benedictine Sisters 
 from Bavaria. The Academy has a good reputation, and has done 
 much to prepare teachers for the public schools in that section of 
 the State. 
 
 Erie. — The two old, State -incorporated. State-aided Academies 
 or Public Schools in Erie county, one at Erie and the other at 
 Waterford, are still in operation. Both were incorporated in 181 1, 
 and both received generous aid from the State in the shape of outly- 
 ing land, city lots, and money. The Academy at Erie was opened 
 as a Lancasterian school, but soon changed its plan of instruction. 
 It has always been a positive force in the educational history of the 
 county. Pleasantly situated near the centre of the city, and directed 
 for the most part by competent masters, it has attracted many of the 
 most talented young men in the vicinity, and " its graduates and 
 students" says one who speaks from personal observation, "are 
 scattered over the county, filling places of trust and power." Some 
 unsuccessful attempts have been made to connect the Erie Academy 
 with the public schools. The property is estimated to be worth 
 ^75,000. The Academy building at Waterford was erected in 
 1 82 1. Its good work for nearly three-quarters of a century is shown 
 in the intelligence and enterprising character of the men who have 
 been educated within its walls. 
 
SECOND AR Y ED UCA TION. 46 5 
 
 The Legislature incorporated in 1840 an Academy at Albion, 
 under the name of Joliet Academy. A building was erected by 
 subscription. The institution was especially designed to prepare 
 teachers, and for a time was largely attended. When it closed its 
 work in 1862, the buildings passed into the hands of the local 
 school board. A stock corporation at Girard, erected in 185 1 a 
 commodious building for an Academy. The school at first met 
 with good success, but in 1864 it closed, and the building has since 
 been used by the public schools. Lake Shore Seminary, at North 
 East, was established in 1871 under the auspices of the Methodist 
 church. The building is one of the best of the kind in northwestern 
 Pennsylvania, and for a time the school flourished. At length mis- 
 fortunes overtook it and the property was sold to the Catholic Order 
 of Redemptorists. It is now the seat of the St. Mary's College. 
 The institution is not a College in the ordinary sense, although 
 Collegiate studies are pursued, but a school preparatory to a Theo- 
 logical course. The architecture of the College is modern French, 
 the building being one hundred and fifty feet long and two stories 
 high, with a mansard roof The students number about one hun- 
 dred and twenty. St. Benedict's Academy for Young Ladies, Erie, 
 is under the care of the Benedictine Sisters. 
 
 Fayette. — The Xcademy or Public School of Fayette county, 
 incorporated in 1808, became the property of Madison College in 
 1828. A Female Seminary at Brownsville received appropriations 
 from the State under the Act of 1838, but never accomplished any- 
 thing worthy of record. Dunlap's Creek Presbyterian Academy, at 
 Merrittstown, opened in 1848 and closed in 1873, and George's 
 Creek Academy, in Smithfield, under Baptist control, opened about 
 185 s and closed in 1875, did a good work in their respective neigh- 
 borhoods. 
 
 Forest and Fulton. — There has never been an Academy, Semi- 
 nary," or Boarding School of high grade within the limits of either 
 of these thinly-settled counties. 
 
 Franklin. — Benjamin Chambers, the founder of Chambersburg, 
 set apart two lots in the plan of the town for educational purposes. 
 Chambersburg Academy was chartered in 1797, and the school 
 opened the same year under the direction of James Ross, the author 
 of Ross' Latin Grammar, printed at Chambersburg in 1798. Two 
 years later the State donated to the Academy the .sum of ^2,000. 
 For many years the institution ranked as one of the best of its 
 30 
 
. 55 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 class. In the burning of Chambersburg in 1864 by a body of Con- 
 federate cavalry, the Academy, with all its archives, books, and 
 apparatus, was completely destroyed. A new building was erected 
 in 1868, and under the administration of Dr. J. H. Shumaker, from 
 1868 to 1883, the Academy attained high rank as a classical school. 
 It is one of the few old Academies that still flourish. The Female 
 Seminary at Chambersburg that drew appropriations under the Act 
 of 1838 could not have lived more than a few years. 
 
 About 1825, James Walker, a wide-awake teacher of the old 
 school, went to Lancaster, learned the Lancasterjan method of 
 teaching in the institution established there, and returning, intro- 
 duced the new method in a school at Greencastle. His school 
 flourished for some years. The Fayetteville Academy and Semi- 
 nary started in 1852, and closed in i860. Dry Run Academy, in 
 the northern part of the county, opened in 1874, continues to enjoy 
 a fair share of patronage. 
 
 Wilson Female College, now in its fifteenth year, is beautifully 
 located near Chambersburg. It takes its name from Miss Sarah 
 Wilson, who contributed largely to its funds. The buildings are 
 commodious and well adapted to their purpose. The charter grants 
 the institution collegiate powers, and the aim of its projectors was 
 to make it a great College for girls. Vassar College, New York, 
 was taken as a model, and the leading teachers at first came from 
 the noted school on the Hudson. In addition to the College course, 
 there is a .Preparatory course, and a Music and Art department. 
 The number of students is about one hundred. Rev. J. Edgar is 
 the President. 
 
 Greene. — Greene County Academy, at Carmichaelstown, was 
 chartered in 18 10. It was aided by the State, like other institutions 
 of its class. The charter was obtained a considerable time before a 
 school could be opened, but when started if was patronized by 
 many of the most influential families in the county. Finally the 
 building and the money belonging to the school were turned over 
 to the local school board for the use of the public schools. 
 
 Huntingdon. — An Act was passed in February, 1790, for found- 
 ing and endowing a Pubhc School in the town and county of Hunt- 
 ingdon. A school was opened in 1791, under the direction of Rev. 
 John Johnson. A lot containing two acres was donated to the 
 trustees by Dr. William Smith, long at the head of the College, 
 now University, at Philadelphia, and the owner of much of the land 
 
SECOND A R Y ED UCA TION. g- 
 
 upon which the town of Huntingdon is located, " in trust for the 
 use of a Pubhc Grammar and Free School;" but no building was 
 erected for many years. The first one was built in 1844, and a 
 better one in 1874. The latter is now in use by the public schools. 
 The institution was chartered in 18 16, and received the customary 
 State aid. Though so long without a building of their own, the 
 trustees managed to maintain a school that attracted a large num- 
 ber of talented young men. Samuel Calvin, an honored name in 
 central Pennsylvania, took charge of it in 1833. Among his pupils 
 were Judge Porter, of Philadelphia, Senators William A. Wallace 
 and Titian J. Coffey, and United States District Attorneys George 
 A. Coffey and H. Bucher Swoope. 
 
 Shirleysburg Female Seminary and Aughwick Collegiate School 
 at Shirleysburg continued in operation from 1851 to 1863; Miln- 
 wood Academy at Shade Gap, opened by Rev. J. Y. McGinnes, a 
 Presbyterian clergyman, prospered for some years but closed in 
 1875; Cassville Seminary, established in 1851 under the auspices 
 of the Methodist church, erected buildings in 1852 and 1854 and 
 gave fair promise of success, but in 1865 was converted into a 
 Soldiers' Orphan School ; Mountain Seminary at Birmingham, incor- 
 porated in 1857, although twice sold by the sheriff, is now quite 
 prosperous, with good buildings, fifty acres of ground and an able 
 corps of teachers. 
 
 A select school was started in Huntingdon, in 1876, by J. M. 
 Zuck, in the interest of the United Brethren or Dunkers. He had 
 at first only three students; but the school grew rapidly and in 1878 
 it was incorporated under the name of the Brethren's Normal 
 College, with the right to confer degrees. Ground was purchased 
 and a building erected, one hundred and two feet in front and four 
 stories in height, surmounted by a tower. The institution has a 
 faculty of nine or ten and an annual enrollment of three or four 
 hundred students, nearly one-half of whom are preparing to become 
 teachers. In aim, method and spirit it is more like our State 
 Normal Schools than our Colleges. Prof Zuck died in 1879. 
 Elder James Quinter is President of the College, and J. H. Brum- 
 baugh is chairman of the Faculty. 
 
 Indiana. — Indiana Academy, at Indiana, was chartered by the 
 Legislature in 1814. The sum received from the State was ^2,000. 
 Several years elapsed before the first, small, one-story stone build- 
 ing was erected and the school went into operation. The building 
 
^g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 was replaced in good time by a larger brick one. After holding its 
 place as a centre of learning for about fifty years, the school closed 
 and the property was transferred to the school board of the borough. 
 The Female Seminary that was opened at Indiana about 1840 con- 
 tinued open but a short time. 
 
 Blairsville is noted as a centre of educational influence. Blairs- 
 ville Academy has been in operation since 1842, and Blairsville 
 Female Academy since 1853. Both have met with a good degree 
 of success. 
 
 Rev. Alexander Donaldson, who has for nearly fifty years con- 
 ducted a classical school at Eldersridge, is one of the most distin- 
 guished teachers in western Pennsylvania. The good he has done 
 in a quiet, unostentatious way is simply incalcuable. Graduating at 
 Jefferson College in 1835, he settled at Eldersridge. In 1838, he 
 commenced giving private lessons, first in his own study and after- 
 wards in the second story of a log spring-house. In 1847, he 
 opened Eldersridge Classical and Normal Academy for Males and 
 Females. The first building erected, 185 1, was a one-story frame, 
 the second a two-story brick. The property was owned by Dr. 
 Donaldson, and the enterprise was wholly private until 1875, when 
 the institution, then wholly free from debt, was chartered and placed 
 under the management of trustees, its former proprietor still remain- 
 ing at its head. The Academy has been attended by about three 
 thousand students, one hundred and thirty of whom became minis- 
 ters of the Gospel, sixty-nine lawyers, sixty-five physicians, and 
 several hundred engaged in the work of teaching. They constitute 
 a choice body of men and women shaped into useful members of 
 society by a master hand. 
 
 Jefferson. — Higher in.struction has been given at times in select 
 schools at Brookville, Punxsutawney, Reynoldsville, Whiteville, 
 Corsica, Perrysville and Bellview, but there is no permanent, well 
 organized Academy or Female Seminary in the county. The 
 Academy at Brookville that received State appropriations under 
 the Act of 1838, was like the other schools of high grade in Jeffer- 
 son county, short-lived. 
 
 Juniata. — -Tuscarora Academy was for years the most noted in- 
 stitution of the kind in the Juniata Valley. Opened in 1836, and 
 drawing the State appropriations under the Act of 1838, it con- 
 tinued in operation until 1876. Airy View Academy was opened 
 in 1852 and closed in 1875. It enjoyed a good reputation. 
 
SECOND A R y ED OCA TION. ^ 5g 
 
 McAlisterville Academy was established in 1855. Col. George F. 
 McFarland purchased the buildings in 1858 and became Principal 
 of the school. In 1862 he went into the army and took with him 
 many of his older boys, and the school was closed. Upon his 
 return in 1863, crippled with wounds, it was reopened, to be soon 
 after converted into a Soldiers' Orphan School. 
 
 Lackawanna. — The oldest and most noted school of high grade 
 in the new county of Lackawanna, is Madison Academy at Waverly. 
 In 1842, Gilbert S. Bailey, who had been a student at Oberlin 
 College, opened a select school at Waverly, in which he prepared 
 young men for college or for business. Two years later a charter 
 was obtained and a building erected. The school at this time num- 
 bers over one hundred students. Mr. Bailey resigned the Princi- 
 palship in 1845, and since then the school under different names 
 has met with varying success. Prof H. D. Walker, a well known 
 teacher in northern Pennsylvania, has had charge of it most of the 
 time. J. L. Richardson was Principal when appointed County 
 Superintendent of Luzerne county in 1855. In 1873, Rev. Thomas 
 M. Cann established a private school of high character in the city 
 of Scranton. It is now called the School of the Lackawanna. The 
 students that have attended it number over five hundred. 
 
 Lancaster. — The school of the Seventh Day Baptists at Ephrata, 
 the Moravian schools at Litiz, the Episcopal church school in Caer- 
 narvon, the Presbyterian classical schools in Salisbury, Donegal, 
 Drumore, and at Strasburg, have been spoken of elsewhere, as has 
 also the Lancaster County Academy, incorporated in 1827 and 
 merged in Franklin College in 1839. 
 
 A public school on the Lancasterian plan was opened in Lancas- 
 ter in 1823. The handsome and commodious building erected for 
 its accommodation is still used for school purposes, and the ellipti- 
 cal curves around which the children stood in receiving instruction 
 from the monitors, remain to this day marked upon the floors. It 
 was an institution of high repute in its day. Gen. Lafayette visited 
 it as the lion of the town in 1825, and teachers came from a distance 
 to acquaint themselves with its methods of instruction. Children 
 who were able paid for their instruction, others were admitted free. 
 Needle-work was a branch of instruction in the female department. 
 The Lancasterian school closed in 1838, to be re-opened as a pub- 
 lic school under the law of 1834. A Lancasterian school was 
 established at Columbia, but it continued in operation a shorter 
 time, and met with less success than the one at Lancaster. 
 
470 
 
 ED UCA riON IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 The only private schools of high grade now in operation in Lan- 
 caster county are the following : Chestnut Level Academy, owned 
 by the Presbyterian church at that place. It was established in 
 1852, and with some seasons of depression, has been in the main 
 successful. Union High School, Coleraine, established in 1859, by 
 James W. Andrews. And Yeates Institute, Lancaster, founded in 
 1857, and endowed by Miss Catharine Yeates. 
 
 LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLHOUSE, LANCASTER. 
 
 Among the most noted Academies and Seminaries that have 
 closed or are now idle, may be mentioned Abbeyville Institute, 
 near Lancaster, opened as an Academy of high rank, in 1835, but 
 continued only for a few years ; James Damant's Female Seminary, 
 Lancaster, an institution that received State appropriations under 
 the Act of 1838; Cedar Hill Seminary, established in 1837, by 
 Rev. N. Dodge, one of the most distinguished teachers of his day, 
 and continued under his direction with marked success for nearly 
 forty years; the Strasburg Academy, founded by Rev. David 
 McCarter, in 1839, continued by him with a wide field of patron- 
 age until 1853, and subsequently in the hands of others until 1858; 
 the- Susquehanna Institute, established at Marietta by a stock com- 
 pany, about 1843, followed by the Marietta Academy, an institution 
 
SECOND AR Y ED UCA TJON. ^7 I 
 
 for both sexes, opened by James P. Wickersham in 1845, and con- 
 ducted by him until 1854, when he was elected County Superinten- 
 dent of public schools for Lancaster county; the Mount Joy 
 Institute, established in 1838, by John H. Brown, subsequently 
 an active teacher in Philadelphia, and the first President of the 
 State Teachers' Association; The Mount Joy Academy, a chartered 
 institution founded in 185 1, the buildings long closed, and now 
 used as a Soldiers' Orphan School ; the Churchtown Academy; 
 continued from 1854 to 1872; the Paradise Academy, continued 
 from 1859 to 1865; and the Washington Institute, Columbia, char- 
 tered in 1853, and continued with varying^ success until about 1875, 
 when it was rented to the school board for the use of the public 
 schools. 
 
 Lawrence. — About the year 1829, an English teacher from Phila-r 
 delphia established a Lancasterian school at New Castle, but it 
 continued in operation only a few years. 
 
 New Castle Female Seminary, chartered in 1838, and sharing in 
 the State appropriations granted by the Act of that year, became a 
 popular school and flourished for about ten years. The building is 
 still standing. 
 
 Lebanon. — Lebanon Academy incorporated in 1816, and Leb- 
 anon Female Seminary incorporated in 1838, were both beneficiaries 
 of the State. The buildings of the former were leased to -the school 
 board in 1852, and those of the latter in part in 1852 and altogether 
 in 1870. Many leading citizens of Lebanon county received their 
 education in these institutions. 
 
 The Schaefferstown Academy started in 1849, flourished for some 
 years, and the buildings were then sold for a private residence. The 
 Swatara Collegiate Institute, near Jonestown, was incorporated in 
 1859. The corner-stone of the building was laid with Masonic cere- 
 monies. I. D. Rupp, the historian, was , Principal for some years. 
 After changing owners several times, and being burned down in 
 1875 and rebuilt, the institution is now, under the name of Heilman 
 Hall, a popular school for both sexes. Palmyra Academy, a private 
 High School, was founded, in 1863, and is in successful operation 
 under the direction of Peter B. Whitmer and son. 
 
 Lehigh.— Lehigh, like nearly all of the older counties, had its 
 Academy or Public School located at Allentown. It was incorpor- 
 ated in 1 8 14, but owing to a condition in the Act requiring a thous- 
 and dollars to be .raised by subscription before State aid could be 
 
.-2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 made available, the building was not erected for ten or twelve years 
 and the school was not opened until 1827. The most flourishing 
 period of the Academy was during the Principalship of I. N. 
 Gregory, a teacher of rare gifts in the line of his profession. Upon 
 his resignation in 1865, the light of the Academy grew faint and in 
 1868 went out altogether. The building was at length sold, and is 
 now the site of a private residence. The only relic remaining is the 
 old bell, cast by Matthias Tonimerup at his .foundry in Bethlehem 
 in 1769. Placed in the belfry of the Academy, it was used to mark 
 the hours of school for nearly half a century. 
 
 A Female Seminary was opened at AUentown, in 183 1, by Misses 
 S. and A. C. DeBarthold, whose course of study included astrono- 
 my with the use of globes, history, sewing, music, embroidery, and 
 painting on wood and velvet. 
 
 In 185s, the Lehigh county High School was opened at Emaus 
 under the direction of James S. Shoemaker. During the few years 
 it was in operation, the ancient and modern languages as well as the 
 higher branches of mathernatics were taught. 
 
 AUentown Female College was established in 1868 under the 
 auspices of the Reformed church. The first President was Rev. W. 
 R. Hofford. The course of instriiction is similar to that of other 
 Female Colleges. It has power to confer degrees, and graduates 
 small but regular classes. 
 
 The Bishopthorpe Boarding School for Girls is at Fountain Hill, 
 Lehigh county, near Bethlehem. The school was established by 
 Episcopalian influences, and is maintained as a church school. It 
 ranks high as an educational institution. 
 
 Luzerne. — If some old citizen of Wilkesbarre were asked to 
 name the institution that had done most for that town and the 
 county of Luzerne, he would most likely point to the place where 
 the building stood in the public square, and say, with an affection 
 still warm, the Wilkesbarre Academy. Unlike most institutions of 
 its class, it was open from the first to both sexes, and on its rolls 
 were the names of the leading families of the Wyoming Valley. 
 Wilkesbarre Academy was chartered in 1807; in 1838, with other 
 alterations in the charter, the name was changed to Wyoming 
 Academy. An old log building, used as a Court-house prior to 
 1804, was the seat of the Academy for thirty-one years, when it 
 gave place to a more pretentious brick structure. Garrick Mallery, 
 afterwards President Judge, was the first Principal. Among the 
 
SECOND AR Y ED UCA TION. 473 
 
 students who became prominent, may be, mentioned Judge George 
 W. Woodward, Congressman Hendrick B. Wright, Doctor S. D. 
 Gross, Bishop Samuel Bowman, and Professor John S. Hart. 
 
 A Female Seminary was opened in Wilkesbarre about 1840, but 
 it met with little success, and soon closed. In 18 15, the citizens of 
 Plymouth erected a two-story frame building for educational pur- 
 poses. A classical school of high grade was opened in it in 1828, 
 and continued for some years. The house is now occupied by the 
 public schools. New Columbus has had for ma,ny years an Acad- 
 emy building, and at times there has been a good school kept in it. 
 The Luzerne Presbyterial Institute, in Kingston township, was pro- 
 jected in 184s, and occupied the building erected for it in 1849. 
 Its ■ curriculum embraced the Latin, Greek, French, and German 
 languages, with higher mathematics, music, drawing, and painting. 
 It possessed considerable philosophical apparatus, a collection of 
 specimens in natural science, and a library. The last Principal 
 resigned in 1861, and the building has since been either used for a 
 small select school, or for public school purposes. 
 
 In 1844, under the auspices of the Mejhodist church, the Wyom- 
 ing Seminary was established at Kingston. It commenced with a 
 small brick -structure, but new buildings have been added from time 
 to time, until now the property is valued at ;^200,000, and its facili- 
 ties for instruction are unexcelled by any institution of the kind in 
 the State. Twice the buildings have been partially burned down, 
 but they were at once rebuilt on improved plans. The attendance 
 of both sexes is usually three or four hundred. The course of 
 study is that of a high grade Academy or Female College. Rev. 
 Reuben Nelson conducted the school with rare tact and skill for 
 twenty-eight years. Since 1872, Rev. David Copeland has been 
 Principal. 
 
 , LvcoMiNG.-^The Williamsport Academy was chartered by the 
 State in 181 1, and went into operation in a building ot its own the 
 next year.. It was a county Public School, with, six trustees, two 
 of whom were elected annually by the qualified voters of the 
 county. Upon the passage of the free school law of 1834, the 
 Academy closed, and the building was rented by the board of direc- 
 tors of the school district of Williamsport. In 1839 the property 
 was sold, and with the proceeds the trustees erected a plain brick 
 building, two stories high, which after some vicissitudes became a 
 part of Dickinson Seminary. 
 
.^4 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Dickinson Seminary is in nearly all respects a counterpart of the 
 Wyoming Seminary at Kingston. It was founded and built up 
 under the auspices of the Methodist church. Starting with the 
 Academy lot and building, which were transferred in 1849 to the 
 trustees of the Seminary by the town council of Williamsportj in 
 whose possession the property then was, additional grounds were 
 purchased, and additional buildings were erected, until the school 
 became one of the most commodious and attractive institutions of 
 the kind in the State. It had boarding accommodations for two 
 hundred students, and school accommodations for two hundred 
 more. After a struggle of twelve years under a heavy debt, the 
 property was sold, but it went into the hands of friends, who did 
 not suffer its relation to the church to be disturbed. In more recent 
 years the school has had its seasons of depression, but has enjoyed 
 a fair share of prosperity, and scattered the blessings of learning 
 throughout a large section of the State. Rev. Samuel Bowman, 
 now Bishop, was its first Principal, and continued at its head for ten 
 years. 
 
 A female Seminary at Muncy received appropriations under the 
 Act of 1838, but nothing further is known of its history. 
 
 The West Branch High School, located at Jersey Shore, was 
 founded in 1852, by the Presbyterian church. For one or two 
 decades it was very popular, attracting a large number of students; 
 Then followed some years of depression, a change of name to Eclec- 
 tic Institute, a reorganization and revival. At present the prospect 
 is again dark. A private Normal School at Montoursville has been 
 conducted since 1870. Its founders and most active promoters 
 have been T. F. Gahan, W. R. Bierly, and J. T. Reed, the first and 
 •last named. County Superintendents. An excellent Female Semi- 
 nary, conducted by the Misses Wilson, has existed at Williamsport 
 since 1865. 
 
 McKean. — Smethport Academy was chartered by the State in 
 1829, but not opened until 1837. Among its Principals are the 
 well-known names of Glenni W. Schofield, Byron D. Hamlin, For- 
 dyce A. Allen, and Warren Cowles. In the days of its prosperity 
 it was largely attended from McKean and other counties. About 
 i860, the building went into the hands of the local school board. 
 
 Mercer. — The Mercer Academy was chartered by the State in 
 181 1. It received a grant of ^2,000 and appropriations under the 
 Act of 1838. After occupying the position of the principal educaT 
 
SECONDAR V EDUCA TION. .75 
 
 tional institution in the county for many years, it closed about 1 850, 
 the property being conveyed to the school board, the proceeds to 
 be used in the erection of a union school building. There was an 
 Academy in Greenville with one hundred students in 1853. 
 
 A Seminary esfablished at Jamestown in 1858 has been fairly 
 successful, the attendance being from one hundred to one hundred 
 and fifty. Pine Grove Normal Academy, Grove City, was founded 
 in 1876. Under the energetic management of Isaac C. Ketler, the 
 Principal, the number of students has reached nearly five hundred. 
 
 Mifflin. — Lewistown Academy was incorporated in 1815, but it 
 had no building of its own until 1826. The school was at first 
 taught in the Sessions House of the Presbyterian church. In the 
 hands of a line of teachers many of whom were men of learning and 
 ability, Lewistown Academy has continued down to the present day 
 to dispense its blessings to the youth of the Juniata Valley. It has 
 adhered more strictly to the old course of study and to the old 
 methods of teaching than almost any other institution of its class in 
 the State. Even down to a recent period its course of study con- 
 sisted mainly of the classic languages and mathematics, and they 
 were taught without much use of the artificial aids introduced in 
 modern schools. The system of instruction was greatly modernized 
 in 1877. The building, which has been much improved within a 
 few years; is pleasantly located and surrounded with delightful 
 grounds. One of the early Principals of the Academy was John 
 H. Hickok, father of State Superintendent Hickok. 
 
 A select school taught by Miss Sarah Black, in a small plain 
 building, grew into Kishacoquillas Seminary, chartered in 1854. 
 The buildings are commodious but not expensive. During the 
 Principalship of Solomon Z. Sharp, Martin Mohler and J. M. Bell, 
 the school placed itself in direct connection and sympathy with the 
 common schools and attracted many students who desired to fit 
 themselves for teachers. It still flourishes. 
 
 Monroe. — Stroudsburg Academy, incorporated in 1839, reteived 
 from the State a grant of ^2,000 and the appropriation made under 
 the Act of the preceding year. The building is a plain two-story 
 brick located on " Academy Hill," north of the town. The school 
 never attained high rank. The building has been for twenty-five 
 years used for public school purposes, but still belongs to trustees. 
 
 In 1855, Rev. Mr. Howell, a Presbyterian clergyman, erected a 
 fine school building at Delaware Water Gap, and conducted a pros- 
 
476 
 
 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VAN/A. 
 
 perous school until 1862, when he left it to enter the army. Samuel 
 Alsop, a Friend, the author of several mathematical works and a 
 teacher of high standing, bought the property and opened a school, 
 but soon after sold the place for a summer resort. 
 
 Montgomery. — The institution now called Lower Merion Acade- 
 my, was originally established about 18 12 by a bequest of Jacob 
 Jones, a Friend. A large biailding was erected for its accommoda- 
 tion. Since 1836, it has been virtually a free school managed by 
 a board of trustees. By a similar bequest of Robert Loller, made 
 about the same time, a school of high grade was opened at Hatboro. 
 The buildings consist of the Academy,' sixty-one by forty-two feet, 
 two stories high, and a large dwelling house. The grounds com- 
 prise seven acres. An excellent Boarding School was in operation 
 at Plymouth Meeting-House from early in the century till about 
 1850. 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, NORRTSTOWN. 
 
 Montgomery had its old State-aided Academy or Public School 
 at its county seat, like most of the other counties, though it never 
 seems to have attained as high a rank as some of them. It was 
 
SECONDAR Y EDUCA TION. ^jj 
 
 chartered in 1805. The property was rented to the school board 
 of Norristown in 1836, and sold to it in 1849, the proceeds being 
 used in building the Oak street public school. One of the condi- 
 tions of this arrangement, was that Latin and Greek and the higher 
 branches generally should continue to be taught in a department of 
 the school the funds of the Academy had aided in establishing. 
 Thus the High School of Norristown in a certain sense grew out of 
 the Academy. It is a striking example of a transition that is of 
 marked historic interest. The Norristown Academy, and the Lol- 
 ler Academy at Hatboro, as well as Academies at Sumneytown and 
 Pottstown, and a Female Seminary at the latter place, received the 
 benefits of the State appropriations under the Act of 1838. The 
 building at Sumneytown is still standing, devoted for a portion of 
 the year to the use of the public schools. The early schools at 
 Pottstown did not continue long, but they doubtless furnished the 
 germs that ripened into the institutions of learning for which Potts- 
 town became distinguished in later days. 
 
 Oakland Female Institute for girls was established at Norristown, 
 in 1845, by Rev. J. Grier Ralston. The school began with four 
 pupils, but its growth in all respects was truly wonderful. The 
 grounds of four and a half acres were gradually improved and beauti- 
 fied. Additions were made from time to time to the buildings until 
 they reached a frontage of two hundred and twenty-five feet. The 
 institution supplied itself from time to time with the best appliances 
 for instruction. Pupils were drawn to the school from all the States 
 in the Union and from foreign countries. Owing to the ill health 
 of the proprietor, the school was closed from 1874 to 1877. It was 
 again closed in 1883. 
 
 Samuel Aaron was a teacher in the Norristown Academy, then 
 in a private school at Norristown, and in 1844 opened Tremount 
 Seminary, located on a site commanding a beautiful view of the town, 
 the Schuylkill river and the surrounding country. Samuel Aaron 
 was one of the ablest men in the profession, but he was too positive 
 and out-spoken in his opinions, and too aggressive in his mode of 
 acting, to attract students in large numbers or to build up a great 
 school, and hence he involved himself in debt and his property was 
 sold by the sherifiT in 1858. The present Principal, John W. Loch, 
 who had previously been connected with it, purchased the school in 
 1 86 1, and since that time has greatly enlarged and improved the 
 buildings. The attendance of students averages about one hundred 
 
478 EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 and twenty, and the school has the full confidence of a host of 
 patrons. 
 
 Pennsylvania Female College, at CoUegeville, was established in 
 1851, by Rev. J. W. Sunderland. It has power to confer the usual 
 collegiate degrees. The value of the grounds and buildings is 
 estimated at ^^50,000. The number of students is less than a hun- 
 dred, few of whom are in the regular course. 
 
 Washington Hall Collegiate Institute, Trappe, was founded in 
 1830. For many years it has been under the direction of Abel 
 Rambo, for several terms Superintendent of the public schools of 
 Montgomery county. There were some years ago two large flour^ 
 ishing Seminaries at Pottstown, Cottage Seminary and Hill Semi- 
 nary; the latter was reorganized in 1876, destroyed by fire in 1 883, 
 but soon rebuilt upon a greatly imjjroved plan. Its present condi- 
 tion is promising. Perkiomen Valley Seminary and North Wales 
 Academy are flourishing institutions. 
 
 Ogontz School for Young Ladies now occupies the magnificent 
 building erected for a country-seat by Jay Cooke in the days of his 
 prosperity. The school was removed to Ogontz in 1882 from Phil- 
 adelphia, where it had been known for over thirty years as the 
 Chestnut Street Seminary. At Ogontz the students enjoy not only 
 the advantages of a good school, but the luxuries of a splendid 
 home. 
 
 Since 1879 work has been in progress on the building designed 
 for Bryn Mawr College. The purpose of the College is to make 
 the fullest provision for the higher education of women. It was 
 founded and endowed by Dr. Joseph Taylor, of Burlington, New 
 Jersey. Dr. Taylor was a Friend, and the management of the Col- ' 
 lege will be exclusively in the hands of Friends. The grounds con- 
 sist of thirty-two acres, and all the arts of the landscape gardener 
 will be called upon to make them beautiful. The erection of Tay- 
 lor Hall, the main College building, was begun by the founder in 
 1879, but it was not completed at the time of his death, some two 
 years later. This building is one hundred and thirty feet in front, 
 and three stories high. It contains a chapel, recitation rooms, read- 
 ing rooms, and rooms for chemical, biological, and botanical labora- 
 tories. No expense has been spared to make it a model structure 
 of its kind. One or two buildings have been erected for dormitories 
 and study rooms, and others are to follow, as the plan of a division 
 of the students into families has been adopted. Buildings for a 
 
SECONDAR y EDUCA TION. > -„ 
 
 gymnasium and a laundry have been provided. The course of study 
 adopted is very broad and full, with a specialist at the head of each 
 department. There will also be post-graduate courses with fellow- 
 ships in Greek, English, Mathematics, History, and Biology, and a 
 European scholarship. Young women at this institution will have 
 all the advantages that young men can obtain at any College. The 
 plan after which the institution has been modeled is in the main 
 that of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. The endowment 
 of the generous founder amounts to ^800,000. The school is 
 expected to open in 1885, under the direction of James E. Rhoads, 
 President. 
 
 Montour. — Danville Academy, chartered in 1818, received no 
 direct aid from the State, although it shared in the appropriations 
 under the Act of 1838. The lot on which it stood was donated by 
 Gen. William Montgomery and his kinsmen, and the two-story 
 brick building first occupied was erected under the auspices of the 
 Presbyterian church. The church has always elected the trustees. 
 In 1855 a new building was erected with many modern improve- 
 ments, and the school still flourishes. The teachers of the Acad- 
 emy have usually been men of learning, enabling it to hold the 
 leading place among the schools of the county. 
 
 The Limestoneville Institute was established in 1862, by an asso- 
 ciation of stockholders. Rev. Lucian Cort was the first Principal. 
 It continues to be well patronized. 
 
 Northampton. — The famous institutions of learning established 
 by the Moravians at Bethlehem and Nazareth are in Northampton 
 county. One of the oldest classical schools in the State was opened 
 in 1785, by the Scotch-Irish settlers, in Allen township. It was 
 situated on Monocacy creek. The fiFst Principal was Robert 
 Andrews, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Governor George 
 Wolf was both a student and a teacher in this Academy. The 
 school closed in 1826. 
 
 A meeting of the citizens of Easton was held at the Court-house, 
 March 8, 1794, to consider the question of establishing a school. 
 Out of the movement grew Union Academy, chartered the same 
 year. The German influence in its establishment is shown by the 
 provision in the charter granted by the Supreme Court, requiring 
 that the pastors of the Lutheran and Reformed churches should be 
 members of the board of trustees, and that five additional members 
 should be chosen from each congregation, making twelve out of the 
 
4Sq. 
 
 EDVCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 seventeen members. The remaining five were required to be pro- 
 fessors of Christianity. The course of study to be begun at once 
 was " the English and German languages, Reading, Writing, Arith- 
 metic, and Psalmody," to be followed as soon as practicable by "the 
 learned and foreign languages, the mathematics. Algebra, Theology, 
 the elements of History, Geography, Moral and Natural Philos- 
 ophy, and other branches of the arts, sciences, and literature." An 
 Academy building was erected of stone, sixty by thirty-four feet, 
 and some years afterwards there was added to it a small brick edi- 
 fice, designed for a teacher's residence. The Academy never ful- 
 filled the design of its founders, or attained the high rank of some, 
 other institutions of its class. At intervals a teacher would open a 
 school in one of the rooms, and give instruction in the ancient lan- 
 guages and the higher branches of an English education, but dur- 
 ing nearly all the years of its existence, the building was at the dis- 
 posal of almost any one who could organize a school, high or low. 
 The trustees were either unable or unwilling to plan and direct the 
 management. After 1828 the board never convened, and by an 
 Act passed in 1835, the property was transferred to the borough. 
 The old building is still used for public school purposes. 
 
 Northumberland. — The Academy at Northumberland was in- 
 corporated in 1804. It received ;^2,000 from the State when incor- 
 porated, and ;^2,ooo more in 1808, the latter sum in lieu of a grant 
 not to exceed three thousand dollars, previously offered on condi- 
 tion that the institution should receive as a donation the valuable 
 library of Dr. Joseph Priestley, then a resident of Northumberland. 
 The library never came into the possession of the Academy. The 
 Academy building was a large two-story brick. The school was 
 reasonably prosperous in its earlier years, but subsequently fell into 
 decay, and the greater part of the property was sold to pay debts. 
 What remained was by a special Act of the Legislature transferred 
 to the local school board, and the proceeds used to construct school- 
 houses. Rev. Isaac Grier and his son, Robert C. Grier, afterwards 
 one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, were 
 among the Principals of the Academy. 
 
 An Academy at Milton was taught by Rev. David Kirkpatrick, 
 from 1822 to 1835. Few teachers in Pennsylvania have left so deep 
 an impression upon their pupils or upon the community in which 
 they labored as Mr. Kirkpatrick. An Irishman, with the quick 
 perception, ready wit, enthusiasm, and sympathy of the Irish nature. 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION. .gl 
 
 he was a teacher of rare skill. Among his pupils were Governors 
 Pollock and Curtin, and a large number of other distinguished men. 
 Proud that one of his boys should have been elected Governor of 
 the State, then a very old man, he came to Harrisburg from West- 
 moreland county, where he resided at the time, in January, 1855, 
 to attend the ceremonies connected with the inauguration of Gov- 
 ernor Pollock. Very unexpectedly to himself, he was honored 
 with a banquet at Coverly's hotel. Ten of his old pupils, among 
 them the newly-inaugurated Governor and his Secretary of State, 
 all occupying prominent positions, sat, with him around the table. 
 A report states that " the venerable preceptor, borne down with the 
 weight of years allowed to mortals, addressed his whilom pupils 
 with all the simplicity and earnestness of a doting grandfather 
 addressing children. It was perhaps the proudest day of his life, 
 and he wept like a child as he recalled the happy memories of other 
 days, and pointed to the now mature and eminent minds he had 
 shaped in boyhood." 
 
 In 183d; a building was erected in Milton, for a school to be con- 
 ducted on the Lancasterian plan. A. T. W. Wright, subsequently 
 Principal of the Normal School for Girls in Philadelphia, had charge 
 of it in 183 1. The attendance of pupils at that time was two hun- 
 dred and forty. In 1802, Rev. John Bryson, a Presbyterian clergy- 
 man, opened a classical school in his own dwelling near Turbutville 
 and continued it several years. Elysburg Academy was opened in 
 
 1849, and notwithstanding some reverses, still flourishes. Both an 
 Academy and a Female Seminary, at Sunbury, received appropria- 
 tions under the Act of 1838. The Academy continued in operation 
 for about thirty years with a fair attendance of students. 
 
 Perry. — Perry county has had in operation at different times since 
 
 1850, and in different places, a number of Academies and select 
 schools, but all of them were of a private character and none attained 
 more than temporary prosperity. Perhaps the best attended and 
 longest continued was the Landisburg classical school, subsequently 
 the Mount Dempsy Academy. 
 
 The Bloomfield Academy was chartered in 1838 as a County 
 Public School, and received appropriation.s from the State under the 
 Act of that year as well as a special grant of ^2,000. The school 
 was opened in 1839, although the brick building which is still 
 standing was not erected until the following year. In its best days, 
 the Academy had an attendance of one hundred and twenty pupils. 
 31 
 
482 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 In 1852, the property was sold to the county, and, in 1853, went 
 into the hands of private parties, who have continued the school in 
 operation with more or less success down to the present time. 
 
 Philadelphia. — The three oldest schools of a Secondary grade 
 in Philadelphia, are the William Penn Charter School, the German- 
 town Academy, and the Protestant Episcopal Academy, the first 
 dating from 1689, the second from 1760, and the last from 1785. 
 Of the first named nothing remains to be said ; concerning the other 
 two some further facts will be given. 
 
 The Germantown Academy stands on Schoolhouse Lane. The 
 building was erected in 1761 by subscription with the aid of a 
 lottery. Connected with it were provided two smaller buildings for 
 the residences of the masters. In 1821, the State gave it a donation 
 of ;$2,ooo. The first name adopted was the Union Schoolhouse, so 
 called because it was built by the combined efforts of English and 
 German, and was designed as a place for the instruction of the chil- 
 dren of all classes. The Legislature chartered the school in 1784 
 under the title of the Germantown Public School, but it is best 
 known by its more modern name of Germantown Academy. The 
 Germans under the lead of Christopher Sower, the publisher and 
 Dunker Elder, seem to have been most active in starting the move- 
 ment which resulted in the establishment of the Academy, and when 
 the school opened in 1761, Hilarius Becker, master of the German 
 department, had seventy pupils, while David James Dove, master of 
 the English department, had only sixty-one. The Quaker children 
 were excused from taking off their hats to the masters. As early 
 as 1764, the Latin and Greek languages and higher mathematics^ 
 were taught, and at the present day the Academy can look back 
 upon a long-continued liberal course of study and a long line of able 
 masters. Besides, there are about the old school many associations 
 of an interesting historical character. In the belfry hangs a bell 
 which came from England in the tea-ship Polly in the year 1774, 
 was sent back with her cargo and brought over a second time after 
 the Revolutionary war. Above the belfry, the vane is still sur- 
 mounted by the royal crown of England, an honor done it nowhere 
 else in the United States. After the battle of Germantown, the build- 
 ing was used as a hospital by the British, and near the grounds is the 
 burial place of six British soldiers who died of wounds. In 1793. 
 the Congress of the United States held a session within its walls, 
 and during the prevalence of the yellow-fever in 1798, the use of the 
 
SECONDAR Y ED UCA TWN. 
 
 483 
 
484 
 
 EDUCATION JN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 lower floor and cellar was granted to the Banks of North America 
 and Pennsylvania. 
 
 Founded in 1785 under the auspices of Rev. William White, 
 D. D., afterwards the first Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Academy of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church was chartered two years later with 
 a bonus from the State of ten thousand acres of land. In 1846, 
 under the advice of Bishop Potter, the Academy was reorganized 
 on a broader basis. The building now occupied, located at the cor- 
 ner of Locust and Juniper streets, is commodious and admirably 
 adapted to its purpose. The school is well equipped with all the 
 modern facilities of an 'institution- of learning, among them an ample 
 gymnasium and a large play- room, and is so well endowed and so 
 generously supported that it has always commanded the services 
 of the best masters. The best English Public Schools are taken 
 as models, and the course of instruction is very full and very 
 thorough. James W. Robins, D. D., is the present Head Master. 
 
 Some of the more noted schools of the class under consideration 
 opened in Philadelphia, but long since discontinued, are the follow- 
 ing: Joseph Neef's school at the Falls of the Schuylkill. Neef 
 was a pupil of the celebrated Swiss educator, Pestalozzi, and had 
 taught in Paris. How it was brought about that he came to Phila- 
 delphia is told elsewhere. His school was governed without pun- 
 ishment of any kind. The pupils used no books, but were taught 
 orally, and mainly in the open air. Frequent excursions were taken 
 that the instruction might be fresh from the book of nature. A 
 school in Bank street, opened in 1832 by one who had studied 
 with De Fellenberg at Howfyl. At one time there were one hun- . 
 dred and thirty pupils in attendance. A classical and military 
 school, opened near Germantown in 18 12. The students vyore 
 uniform. Clermont Seminary, on the road from Frankfort to 
 Germantown, established in 1806, by John Thomas Carre and 
 Charles Carre. Mt. Airy Seminary, opened under Catholic auspices 
 in 1807. 
 
 There are at present probably one hundred schools in Philadel- 
 phia in which instruction is given in the languages and the higher 
 branches of learning. The following are some of the most promi- 
 nent. The Academy of the Sacred Heart was established in 1847, 
 on a farm of ninety acres at Torresdale, and in 1849 was incorpor- 
 ated. Mt. St. Joseph Academy was transferred from McSherrytown, 
 Adams county, in 1858, to Chestnut Hill, where it possesses large 
 
SECOND AR Y ED UCA TION. ^g c 
 
 and handsome buildings. The Chegary Institute, Spruce Street, 
 established in New York in 1 8 14, and removed to Philadelphia, has 
 long been known as an excellent school for young ladies. Broad 
 Street Academy is in its twenty-second year. Fewsniith's school 
 on Chestnut street has been in successful operation for twenty-nine 
 years. Miss Anable's English, French, and German school, Pine 
 street, was established in 1848, and has enjoyed continued prosper- 
 ity. Madam Clement's School for Young Ladies, Germantown, 
 was founded in 1857. French is the family language, and oppor- 
 tunity is afforded of learning the art of house-keeping. Lauderbach 
 Academy, South Fourth street; Rugby Academy, Locust street; 
 the Classical Institute, Thirteenth street; the Supplee Institute for 
 Young Ladies, established in 1855, Spruce street; Philadelphia Sem- 
 inar)', North Broad street; the School for Young Ladies, 41 17 Wal- 
 nut street; Rittenhouse Academy, Eighteenth and Chestnut; Young 
 Ladies' Academy, Poplar street; Philadelphia Collegiate Institute, 
 Spruce and Sixteenth streets; and the French Protestant School, 
 Germantown, are all ably conducted and well patronized. The 
 Friends of both branches have high schools in Philadelphia; the 
 Hebrews have one or more such schools, and the Catholics exer- 
 cise control over at least twenty Academies and select schools. 
 
 Pike. — In 1827 the State incorporated an Academy or Public 
 School at Milford, and made it a grant of ^2,000. A building was 
 erected, and for a time a good school was maintained, but when the 
 appropriations under the Act of 1838 ceased, it soon closed. The 
 property still belongs to the county, but for many years has not 
 been used as an Academy. About 1840 there was an Academy of 
 some repute at Dingman's F'erry, but the building has Jong been 
 used by the Delaware common school district. 
 
 Potter. — In 1867 John Keating donated a square in Couders- 
 port, and one hundred acres adjoining the town, towards the estab- 
 lishment of an Academy or Public School, and five hundred dol- 
 lars towards the erection of buildings; but it was not until 1838 
 that the institution was incorporated and received the customary 
 aid from the State. When the State withdrew its appropriations, 
 by special Act the county was authorized to pay at first two hun- 
 dred and afterwards three hundred dollars towards the support 
 of the Academy. These payments were continued until 1866. In 
 1869 the whole property was conveyed to the school district of 
 Coudersport, to be used for the purpose of a graded school, with a 
 
4S6 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VAN I A. 
 
 high school department open to all the children of the county upon 
 the payment of certain small tuition fees. The building was soon 
 afterwards repaired, and the school, under this unique arrangement, 
 combining the features of an Academy and a public school, has 
 proven very successful. 
 
 In 1859 a building for an Academy was erected at Lewisville. 
 J. A. Cooper, for many years at the head of the State Normal 
 School at Edinboro, was the first Principal. An excellent school 
 was built up by him and his successors; but in 1873 it was con- 
 verted into a graded school like the one at Coudersport. 
 
 Schuylkill. — In 18 13 the Orwigsburg Academy was incor- 
 porated at Orwigsburg, then the county-seat. It was a County 
 Academy or Public School, the trustees being elected by a vote of 
 the people of the county, and as such received aid from the State. 
 Located in the midst of a rich and beautiful country, the Academy 
 was well attended, and from 1830 to 1850 it held the rank of one 
 of the foremost institutions of the kind in the State. Subsequently 
 it began to decline, and the building, used for some years for com- 
 mon school purposes, was at last torn down. The Arcadian Insti- 
 tute, opened by W. J. Burnside in the old Court-house in 1854, 
 succeeded the. Academy, but continued in operation only about ten 
 years. 
 
 The Pottsville Institute was opened in 1832 by A. A. Wood, a 
 graduate of Amherst. The course of instruction was very full, 
 embracing all the branches now taught in Academies of the highest 
 grade, including lectures on " School-Keeping." A brick building 
 was erected for the Institute in 1833. In 1847 the name was 
 changed to Pottsville Academy. Elias Schneider, who took an 
 active part in the school affairs of the State from 1850 to i860, was 
 Principal about the time the name was changed. This school, as 
 well as a Female Seminary in Pottsville, and the Academy and a 
 Female Seminary at Orwigsburg, drew appropriations from the State 
 under the Act of 1838. 
 
 Snyder. — In 1853 an Academy was erected at Freeburg. Two 
 years afterwards it was burned down, but soon rebuilt. Its success 
 as a school of high grade was not marked ; and in 1 863 it began to 
 admit pupils from the public schools, and is now virtually a public 
 school. 
 
 The Lutherans organized Susquehanna Female College at Selins- 
 grove in i860. Its purpose was to afford girls the advantages of a 
 
SECONDARY EDUCATION. a^j 
 
 College. After graduating four classes, it became involved in debt, 
 and the buildings were sold to private parties and the school closed. 
 
 Somerset. — Somerset Academy was incorporated in 1810, and 
 the State grant of ^2,000 was used to erect buildings. Adam 
 Snyder donated the square of ground on which the buildings were 
 placed. The teachers best remembered by the old students are 
 Henry L. Holbrook, who taught from 1826 to 1838, and Col. J. R. 
 Edie, who in 1842 is said to have introduced the first blackboard 
 used in the county. The building has long been used for public 
 school purposes. 
 
 Sullivan. — The Friends have a school in which the higher 
 branches are taught in Elkland township. It has been in successful 
 operation nearly forty years. A Normal Institute for teachers has 
 been open during the summer season for many years. 
 
 Susquehanna. — Susquehanna Academy at Montrose, incorporated 
 in 1 8 16, was one of the State-aided Public Schools. As in most 
 other institutions of its class, great attention was paid to the classics 
 and nearly all the early masters were College graduates. Women 
 were employed as teachers in some of the more elementary depart- 
 ments. A new building was erected in 1850. A Normal School 
 under the Principalship of John F. Stoddard was opened in it in 
 1857. About 1863 the building was leased to the school directors 
 and opened for a graded public school. 
 
 Rev. Lyman Richardson established a classical school at Harford, 
 in 1817. In 1830, it was incorporated as Franklin Academy, and 
 drew appropriations under the Act of 1838. Later the name was 
 changed to the more ambitious one of Harford University. For 
 nearly fifty years the institution continued its good work, and bears 
 upon its roll of students many names that became distinguished, 
 among them Presidents of Colleges, Governors of States, Senators, 
 Congressmen, Judges, etc. Of those best known in Pennsylvania 
 mention may be made of John Guernsey, State Senator; John G. 
 Stiles, Congressman ; Henry W. Williams, President Judge ; Galusha 
 A. Grow, Speaker United States House of Representatives, and 
 Charles R. Buckalew, United States Senator. The buildings were 
 converted into a Soldiers' Orphan School in 1865. 
 
 An Academy was established at Dundaff, in 1833. After some 
 years of effort to maintain it, the Academy was closed, and the 
 building has since been occupied by the public schools. This insti- 
 tution, as well as a Female Seminasy opened at Montrose in 1839 by 
 
488 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VAN I A. 
 
 Miss Elizabeth Wood, received appropriations under the Act of 
 1838. 
 
 Tioga. — The Tioga County Academy or Public School, located 
 at Wellsboro, was incorporated in 181 7, and received the customary 
 State aid. Trustees were elected by popular vote. For many years 
 this was the only school of high grade in the county, and was at- 
 tended by a body of its choicest young men. In 1871, the building 
 was sold to the local school district. 
 
 Union Academy in Deerfield township, opened in 1848, was 
 burned in 1S71. It was a school of good repute. A similar insti- 
 tution was started at Willardsburg about the same time, but it re- 
 mained in operation only a few years. 
 
 Union. — Like several of its sister counties. Union had its " Log 
 Cabin " Academy. It was located at Lewisburg, and built by sub- 
 scription in 1805. It stood on the present site of the parsonage of 
 the Presbyterian church. The most famous of its teachers was 
 James Aiken, whose professional services were given to the public 
 schools long after the Academy was closed. The Grammarian, 
 Kirkham, was one of Aiken's pupils, and taught school himself in 
 Lewisburg. Contemporary with the Academy, there was a German 
 school of about equal grade. The building stood on the present 
 site of the Lutheran parsonage. The more modern Lewisburg 
 Academy was founded in 1830. Two years later a building was 
 erected, containing an assembly hall and two rooms for study and 
 recitation. It was at times attended by fifty students. 
 
 The State-aided Academy of Union county was chartered at Mif- 
 flinburg, in 1827. The school opened in what was called th^ 
 Franklin Schoolhouse, but a more suitable building was erected in 
 1839. James McClure, afterwards Professor in the Philadelphia 
 High School, was the first Principal. The school enjoyed a fair 
 degree of prosperity for many years. In 1854 the property was 
 purchased by the borough of Mififlinburg; a new building was 
 erected in 1863, which was used for public school purposes for 
 some years, and is now occupied by private parties. 
 
 In 1854 the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the Evangelical 
 Methodist church, established a Seminary at New Berlin. A three- 
 story brick building was erected. Four departments were organ- 
 ized, classical, scientific, English, and primary. During the first 
 five years the attendance averaged over two hundred students. 
 Without an endowment, the school became involved in debt and 
 
• SECONDARY EDUCATION. ^go 
 
 was sold, but in the hands of private parties it still enjoys a fair 
 degree of success. 
 
 Venango. — The Venango County Academy, chartered in 1812, 
 was located at Franklin. The State gave it both money and land. 
 The first building was erected about 1815, but a better one was 
 erected in 1854. Its history is not unlike other schools of its class, 
 and, in 1867, the property was transferred to the school board of 
 Franklin, on condition that the same facilities for higher instruction 
 afforded to the youth of the county by the Academy should continue 
 to be furnished. 
 
 The Cherry Tree Academy did good work from 1854 to 1873, 
 since which time the building has been occupied by the public 
 schools. Sunville Seminary, established in 1873, with good build- 
 ings and pleasant grounds, continues in operation, with an attend- 
 ance of about one hundred students. Scrubgrass Academy has 
 been in successful operation since 1875. 
 
 Warren. — The County Academy at Warren, chartered in 1822, 
 received from the State the customary grant of money and five hun- 
 dred acres of land. The house, after, much effort, was completed 
 about the time the charter was obtained. It was a very plain, one- 
 story building. The building known in later years as the Warren 
 Academy was erected in 1834-5. It met with some success, but 
 upon the erection of suitable buildings for the common schools, it 
 fell into decay, and soon closed altogether. There are, however, 
 still in existence some Academy lands and an Academy fund, but 
 the proceeds at present are not used for educational purposes. A 
 Seminary has recently been established at Sugar Grove. 
 
 Washington. — For a hundred years Washington county has 
 never been without home facilities for the higher education of its 
 youth. The story has already been told of the development of its 
 early classical schools into Academies, and these into Colleges, but 
 other meritorious institutions remain to be named. 
 
 West Alexander Academy was established in 1828 by Rev. John 
 McCluskey, a Presbyterian clergyman, who conducted it for twenty- 
 six years. It was chartered in 1840, and is still in operation, 
 Forty-four of its students have become ministers of the Gospel. 
 Cross Creek Academy was opened in 1828. Both sexes were 
 admitted. At times the attendance was large. It was closed about 
 the beginning of the civil war. Florence Academy, opened in 1833 
 and closed about 1848, grew out of a select school. During some 
 
49° 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 sessions the names of seventy students appear on its rolls. Con- 
 temporary with Florence Academy, there flourished Florence Fe- 
 male Seminary, conducted by Mrs. Rachael Lambdin. Thomas R. 
 Hazzard, in 1S48, opened an Academy at Monongahela City. 
 While in operation, it was taught by able masters, and educated 
 many who became prominent in all the walks of life. Hoges' Sum- 
 mit Academy, an unpretending but meritorious institution, has long 
 been in operation under the Principalship of John C. Messenger. 
 Mrs. Olivia J. P'rench enlarged a private school, in 1848, into a 
 Seminary, and carried it on successfully for a number of years. In 
 1857, over eighty students were in attendance. Pleasant Hill Sem- 
 inary was organized in 1846. Good buildings were erected, and 
 when in the full tide of its prosperity it was attended by one hun- 
 dred students, and graduated regular classes. 
 
 WASHINGTON FEMALE SEMINARY. 
 
 Washington Female Seminary is one of the best known and most 
 noted institutions of the kind in the State. The movement to estab- 
 lish it was begun in 1835, it was opened in 1836 and chartered in 
 1839. The buildings are commodious, the surroundings attractive, 
 and the school well equipped for the purposes of instruction. Mrs. 
 Sarah B. Hanna, a pupil of Mrs. Emma Willard's, was Principal 
 from 1840 to 1874, and ranks among the very first female teachers 
 in the State. The attendance is usually from one hundred to one 
 hundred and fifty, and the list of graduates numbers some seven 
 hundred many of whom are engaged in teaching. Miss Nancy 
 Sherwood is now at the head of the Seminary. 
 
 Wayne. — There were two State-aided Academies in Wayne 
 
SECOND AR Y EDUCA TION. ^q , 
 
 county, Beechwoods Academy at Bethany, and Delaware Academy 
 at Damascus, both chartered in 1813. The building at Bethany 
 was a brick, two-stories high. It continued with fair success until 
 1855, when, by an Act of the Legislature, the property was sold and 
 the proceeds appropriated to an institution called the Northern Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania. The University, an Academy with a high- 
 sounding name, was chartered in 1848. John F. Stoddard was Prin- 
 cipal in 185 1, and among the teachers about that time was Edward 
 Brooks. The University buildings were destroyed by fire in 1857. 
 The old Academy building is now a residence. The building at 
 Damascus was a wooden structure, two-stories high. As an 
 Academy it never ranked high, and it is now simply a private ele- 
 mentary school. 
 
 Honesdale Academy chartered in 1833, and Honesdale Female 
 Seminary chartered in 1838, closed soon after the State appropria- 
 tions under the Act of 1838 were withdrawn. 
 
 Westmoreland. — Greensburg Academy, designed as a Public 
 School for the county, was chartered in 18 10. The building was a 
 plain, two-story, brick edifice, with four windows and a door on the 
 first story,/ and five windows on the second. Rooms were fitted up 
 in it as a residence for the master and his family. Both sexes were 
 admitted, but each was assigned to a different room. Jonathan 
 Findlay, a brother of Governor Findlay, was one of the earliest 
 masters, as was also Bishop Atnes of the Methodist Church. Most 
 of the masters were graduates of the best Colleges, one of St. 
 Andrew's, Scotland, and another of St. Omer's, France. The build- 
 ing was burned in 1850, and the property was conveyed to the 
 school board of Greensburg in 1862, with the condition that a school 
 of Academical grade should be maintained, open to all the youth 
 of the county. There was a Female Seminary at Greensburg 
 about 1840. An excellent institution of this character flourished 
 there in 1 853. Another was established under the auspices of the 
 Reformed Church in 1874. 
 
 The Western Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific Institute was 
 opened, at Mount Pleasant, in 1873. The institution is under Bap- 
 tist control and occupies the buildings previously known as West- 
 moreland College. It is the outgrowth of fifty years of discussion 
 among the leading men of that denomination in southwestern Penn- 
 sylvania. As early as 1833, a convention of delegates was held at 
 Peters' Creek, " to consider the propriety of organizing a Manual 
 
4Q2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Labor Academy," and a charter for such an institution was obtained 
 from the State in 1 826. Since in their present hands, the build- 
 rngs purchased by the Institute, have been greatly improved and 
 others have been added, so that the institution now has ample 
 accommodations for the students that are flocking to it from all 
 parts of the section of country in which it is situated. Both sexes 
 are admitted, but the girls occupy a building by themselves. The 
 location of the school is in a grove of oaks overlooking a beautiful 
 country. The curriculum includes full classical and scientific 
 courses, and special attention is paid to preparation for teaching. 
 The Principal is Rev. Leroy Stephens. 
 
 St. Xavier's Academy, Beaty, is a Female Seminary under the 
 direction of the Sisters of Mercy. It was opened in 1845. The 
 attendance is about one hundred, 
 
 Wyoming. — Wyoming county was organized in 1842. The Pres- 
 byterians have a small school of high grade at Factoryville, Monroe 
 Academy; and the Baptists a large one. Keystone Academy, The 
 latter was opened in 1869, since which time the average attendance 
 has been in the neighborhood of one hundred and sixty. Both 
 sexes are admitted. The course of study requires three years after 
 the completion of the common English branches. Special classes 
 for teachers are regularly formed. 
 
 York. — York Academy is almost one hundred years old, having 
 been established under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal 
 church in 1787. It was a school of high grade from the first, 
 Robert Hetterick being engaged in the beginning to teach Latin, 
 Greek, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Geography, Astronomy and History. 
 At the same time James Armstrong gave instruction in Reading, 
 Writing and Mathematics, and the Principal, Rev. John Campbell, 
 had charge of the classes in Moral Philosophy and Divinity. In 
 1799, the Academy was converted into a Public School for the 
 county of York, and received ^2,000 from the State, which, being 
 well invested, still yields a revenue. Persons who could not afford 
 to pay tuition fees were permitted to send their children without 
 charge. Girls as well as boys were instructed either in the same or 
 in different departments until 1 870. Among the trustees occur the 
 names of the most prominent citizens of York. Dr. Robert Cath- 
 cart and Dr. C. A. Morris each served in the board more than fifty 
 years. In the list of teachers is the name of Thaddeus Stevens. 
 Dr. Geo. W. Ruby, the late Principal, held the position for thirty- 
 
SECONDAR Y EDUCA TION. 
 
 493 
 
 four years, having had under his instruction in that time about six 
 hundred students. 
 
 YORK ACADEMY. 
 
 Samuel Small, whose broad charity had previously established a 
 Home for friendless children, in 1873, founded the York Collegiate 
 Institute. The cost of the building and ground was ^Ijo.ooo, and 
 the endowment is II/o.OOO. The gift of the founder amounted to 
 ^110,000. Mrs. Small presented the Institute with a fine library 
 named, in honor of her father, the Cassatt library. The Institute is 
 well equipped in all that is needed by such an institution. The at- 
 tendance is usually over one hundred. 
 
 The building known as Cottage Hill College, is located on the 
 north bank of the Codorus creek, near York. No institution of the 
 kind in the State has undergone more changes, now in the hands of 
 one party then in the hands of another, sometimes prosperous and 
 sometimes idle, its life has always seemed to hang by a* thread. The 
 building is used at present as a boarding-house. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL, 1852 TO 1857. 
 
 BIGLER, HUGHES, BLACK, DIFFENBACH. POLLOCK, CURTIN, HICKOK. 
 
 AFTER the years occupied in first organizing the system, 1852 
 to 1857 measured the most eventful period in the history of 
 public education in Pennsylvania, marking as it does an era in which 
 occurred important educational movements, and the enactment of 
 laws that have done much to give life and strength to our system 
 of common schools. 
 
 In 1852, looking back to 1834, no friend of free schools could 
 be entirely satisfied with what had been accomplished in their be- 
 half The system had grown immensely, but this growth was mostly 
 of an outward, material character. There had been a large increase 
 in pupils, schools, teachers and expenditures; but it was seriously 
 questioned whether the finer and far more vital work of teaching the 
 young had made much progress. Teachers were no better paid in 
 1852 than they were in 1835, and it is fair to presume that they 
 were little better qualified ; the average school term was no longer 
 at the later than at the earlier date, and this almost certainly demon- 
 strates a continued want of popular interest. Governor Johnston, in 
 his message of 1850, expressed in the following words the general 
 feeling of disappointment: " Notwithstanding the revision by the 
 last Legislature of the laws in relation to common schools, the sys- 
 tem will require modification. It does not receive from the citizens 
 the favor that a sound and enlightened scheme of education deserves, 
 and the evil must exist in the laws which control its practical opera- 
 tion." And Thomas H. Burrowes, in an address to the Educational 
 Society of Lancaster county, in 185 i, thus puts the case: "A sys- 
 tem with this promising history, this vast and strong frame, and these 
 astonishing results, may well appear, to the casual observer, to be 
 either perfect, or yet only defective in some of its minor details. 
 But alas ! they who watch it clo.sely and are familiar with its actual 
 workings, are compelled to think differently. While they admit the 
 original and grand design to be as nearly perfect as any institution, 
 
 (494) 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. .ge 
 
 merely human, can be, they read its eventful history as plainly sug- 
 gestive of other and great difficulties still to be overcome. When 
 they closely examine its vast frame, they behold only a rude though 
 well-compacted skeleton, still wanting the rounded proportions and 
 the fit leverage of its muscles, and the last moving power of 'the 
 breath of life.' And in counting its results, they are saddened to 
 miss from among them that ample and protracted feast for the ris- 
 ing and hungering generation, and that fair compensation to its 
 faithful ' breakers of the bread of knowledge,' which the one so 
 urgently demands and the others so richly deserve." 
 
 Perhaps too much was expected. The many nationalities repre- 
 sented in the people of Pennsylvania, and the multitude of religious 
 denominations into which they are divided, not only offered a seri- 
 ious obstacle to the adoption of a common school system, but for 
 years materially interfered with its effective working. Besides, like 
 a tree, a system of schools based upon the will of the people must 
 require time in which to attain the growth and strength necessary 
 for the production of fruit. Certain it is, however, that about 1852 
 a reform in public school affairs was pressingly needed, and its 
 coming steps were heralded by a series of significant movements. 
 
 A State convention of the friends of education was held at Har- 
 risburg, January sixteenth and seventeenth, 1850. Every part of 
 the State was well represented by delegates. Thomas H. Bur- 
 rowes, of Lancaster, was the temporary, and James M. Porter, of 
 Northampton, the permanent President. The convention was in no 
 sense a meeting of professional educators, its personnel including 
 many of the leading politicians and public men of all parties, and 
 citizens who had distinguished themselves by their efforts in behalf 
 of free schools. No educational convention ever held in the State 
 was attended by so many men of high social and political standing. 
 Among those best known were George Darsie, Dr. Jonas R. Mc- 
 Clintock, and James K. Moorhead, of Allegheny; John Allison 
 and Thomas Nicholson, of Beaver; John Cessna, of Bedford; 
 George R. McFarlane, of Blair; Gordon F. Mason, of Bradford; 
 Henry S. Evans, of Chester ; J. Porter Brawley, of Crawford ; J. C. 
 Bucher, of Dauphin; John H. Walker, of Erie; Thomas H. Bur- 
 rowes, of Lancaster; John W. Killinger, of Lebanon; William F. 
 Packer, of Lycoming ; John N. Conyngham, of Luzerne ; James M. 
 Porter, of Northampton ; William D. Kelley and Jo'el B. Sutherland, 
 of Philadelphia; Benjamin Bannan, of Schuylkill; Eli Slifer, of 
 
496 EDUCA riON IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 Union ; Henry D. Foster, of Westmoreland ; George V. Lawrence, 
 of Washington, and Glenni W. Scofield, of Warren. Many of these 
 gentlemen were in attendance at Harrisburg at the time as mem- 
 bers of the Legislature. 
 
 Townsend Haines, the State Superintendent, addressed the con- 
 vention, and Thomas H. Burrowes was chairman of the business 
 committee and seems to have been the guiding spirit of the conven- 
 tion. 
 
 The convention, among other conclusions of less importance, 
 adopted resolutions approving the founding of two State Normal 
 Schools ; the organization of teachers' institutes and associations in 
 each county; the creation of a Department of Education distinct 
 from the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth ; the publication 
 of a " Common School Journal " by the Department of Education, 
 and the establishment of the office of the County Superintendent. 
 The proceedings of this notable convention were published in pam- 
 phlet form by direction of the Legislature. Its resolves at once 
 became the platform of the friends of education throughout the State. 
 
 Before the meeting of this convention the work of organizing 
 educational associations and teachers' institutes had begun in a 
 number of counties. The earliest of these were formed in the city 
 of Philadelphia and in the counties of Warren, Erie, . Lawrence, 
 Washington, Allegheny, Crawford, Lancaster, Indiana, Westmore- 
 land, Chester, Susquehanna, Beaver, Fayette, Armstrong, Schuyl- 
 kill, Huntingdon, Mercer, Wayne, Somerset, Bucks, Blair, Centre 
 and Montour. Bodies of teachers had held regular meetings for 
 professional instruction in all the counties named, and perhaps in 
 others, before the close of the year 1853. In some instances, the^ 
 meetings were held periodically for a day, when addresses were de- 
 livered, papers read and questions discussed; and, in others, they 
 lasted for three or five days and were devoted more strictly to mat- 
 ters of professional improvement. Progressive school directors and 
 citizens interested in education nearly always attended the meetings, 
 and . frequently took part in the exercises. As may be supposed, 
 these bodies of teachers had no small influence in creating a public 
 sentiment favorable to educational reform, and in strengthening the 
 hands of those in authority who were then contemplating an advance 
 movement in the Legislature relating to free schools. 
 
 In January, 1852, the first number of the Pennsylvania School 
 Journal was issued. It was edited by Thomas H. Burrowes, and 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. .gy 
 
 published at the request of the Lancaster County Educational So- 
 ciety. At first, it was simply intended as a county publication, but 
 it soon began to circulate outside of the county, and was enlarged 
 to meet the growing demand. Educational magazines had been 
 published in the State previously, but they were without exception 
 short-lived and confined to a narrow .sphere of influence. The 
 School youmal, under the control of an editor who had been State 
 Superintendent and enjoyed a wide reputation as an able and earn- 
 est friend of public education, soon became a powerful agent in the 
 work of school reform, then in progress. Its influence in creating 
 more general interest in the cause of education, in originating and 
 shaping measures for the good of the schools, in making itself the 
 organ of teachers and school officers throughout the State, and the 
 medium by which the proceedings of their meetings were made 
 known to the public, can hardly be overestimated. In favor of every 
 good word and work calculated to improve the system and against 
 every act that would tend to weaken or destroy it, the potent voice 
 of the School youmal was always heard, with the fearlessness of a 
 soldier fighting for what he deems most sacred. 
 
 As a natural outgrowth of local bodies of teachers, the State 
 Teachers' Association was organized in December, 1852. The 
 Allegheny Association of Teachers issued a call for an educational 
 convention to be held at Harri.sburg, and it was concurred in by 
 similar Associations in Philadelphia and the county of Lancaster. 
 The convention continued in session two days, with John H. Brown, 
 Principal of the Zane Street Grammar School, Philadelphia, as tem- 
 porary, and Thomas H. Burrowes, of Lancaster, as permanent Pres- 
 ident. The result was the formation of a State Association, with a 
 regular Constitution, and a fixed time of meeting. Of this body of 
 educators, the Editor of the School youmal said : " It was one of 
 the most talented and efficient bodies of men we have ever seen in 
 the Harrisburg Court-house, and we have seen many there ; " and 
 the Harrisburg Pennsylvania Telegraph thus spoke of it: "The 
 Convention was composed of an able body of men, most of them 
 young, and just engaging in the career of life. But it,-was most 
 cheering to find that they possessed a due appreciation of the 
 responsibilities intrusted to them, a proper energy to perform the 
 duties of their trusts, and an ardent desire to advance the progress 
 of education in our State. Our hopes were cheered by the talent 
 and spirit manifested by the Convention." 
 32 
 
. gS ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 At Harrisburg, in 1852, and subsequently in 1853, at meetings 
 held in Pittsburgh and Lancaster, the questions most earnestly dis- 
 cussed by the State Association were those relating to the estab- 
 lishment of an independent State Department of Education, the 
 County Superintendeilcy, and Normal Schools. As these measures 
 met with great favor, means were taken to agitate them before the 
 people, and to send memorials to the Legislature, asking for the 
 enactment of laws necessary to make them a part of the system of 
 common schools. The leading teachers of the State were painfully 
 sensible of the practical defects that retarded the progress of the 
 system, and were ready to engage in a combined effort to remove 
 them. 
 
 These several movements served to strengthen the cause of edu- 
 cational reform in the Legislature, and to help forward, if not to 
 prompt, the advanced steps taken to improve the school system by 
 the State administration. The report of the State Superintendent 
 for 1853 thus notices the disinterested efforts of teachers and friends 
 of education: "It would be unjust to the friends of education 
 throughout the Commonwealth, to close this report without refer- 
 ence to at least some of the causes which have given the great 
 impulse to the common school system manifested during the pa.st 
 year. Of these, none have been more efficient in calling public 
 attention to the importance of the subject, than educational meet- 
 ings and teachers' associations held in various parts of the State, by 
 eliciting discussion and the submission of plans for the improve- 
 ment of the system, the qualification of teachers, and the promotion 
 of education generally. The dissemination of sound and practical 
 intelligence by means of papers, documents, and periodicals devoted 
 to the cause of educational progress, have been of immense service." 
 
 William Bigler took his seat as Governor in January, 1852. He 
 was a native of Cumberland county, but at the time of his election 
 he had resided for many years at Clearfield. Governor Bigler's 
 opportunities for obtaining an education were limited to those 
 afforded by a common country school ; but some years of work in 
 a printing office, and industrious self-reading and self-reflection had 
 stored his mind with a good stock of book knowledge; and his 
 naturally well-balanced judgment, the thoroughness with which he 
 was accustomed to master practical affairs, with a character of spot- 
 less purity, won for him in an unusual degree the confidence of his 
 fellow-men. Before he was elected Governor he had served two 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. 4gg 
 
 terms in the State Seriate. He came into the Executive office deter- 
 mined to take decisive steps for the improvement of the system of 
 common schools, and so informed the officers in immediate charge 
 of the Department. A few months after his inauguration, he pre- 
 sided at an educational convention held at Oxford, Chester county, 
 at which resolutions were passed favoring a separate State Depart- 
 ment of Education, the office of County Superintendent of schools, 
 and Normal Schools for the preparation of teachers. He attended 
 and addressed the convention that organized the State Teachers' 
 Association at Harrisburg, and on divers occasions during his term 
 of office delivered addresses of an educational character. In his 
 messages, he is generally content to call attention to the recommen- 
 dations of the Superintendent of Common Schools and to emphasize 
 them, but in that of 1855 he shows the depth of his attachment to 
 the system by saying : 
 
 I earnestly recommend the common school system to your guardian care 
 as the most sacred of all our institutions. The offspring of a constitutional 
 injunction in the Legislature, the extension and perpetuity of its usefulness is 
 the plain duty of all. Resting at the very foundation of the Government, its 
 practical workings should be a true reflection of our republican system, and 
 its blessed opportunities made available to all, regardless of rank, or condi- 
 tion, or persuasion. It should aid the poor, advance the rich and make the 
 ignorant wise. I confidently anticipate for it a day of greater perfection and 
 wider influence. No better object can engage the attention of government, 
 or consume its means, than the education of the people in the most compre- 
 hensive sense of the term, embracing the use of letters, the cultivation of the 
 moral faculties and the diffusion of Christian truth. 
 
 The Governor was constantly consulted during the preparation of 
 the bill of 1854 revising the school laws, used his personal influ- 
 ence and the influence of his administration in its behalf while 
 under consideration in the two Houses, and signed it when passed 
 without regard to its effect upon his own political future. One very 
 near him at the time says : " He declared, with more than ordinary 
 animation, that he too keenly felt the want of facilities for good 
 common school education to disregard the needs of the youth of the 
 State for fear of personal consequences, and that he would sign the 
 bill even though it would sink him so deep in political oblivion that 
 he would never again be thought of in connection with public life." 
 
 There were two Secretaries of the Commonwealth and Superin- 
 tendents of Common Schools during Governor Bigler's administra- 
 tion, Francis W. Hughes and Charles A. Black. The former was 
 born in Montgomery county in 1817. He received the greater part 
 
CQQ ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 of his education at Milton, in the noted classical school of Rev. 
 David Kirkpatrick. He studied law, opened an office at Pottsville, 
 and served ovef ten years as Deputy Attorney General for Schuyl- 
 kill county. At the age of twenty-five he was elected a member of 
 the State Senate and he was only thirty-five when he received the 
 appointment of Secretary of the Commonwealth and Superintendent 
 of Common Schools. His only report on education is a concise, 
 straight- forward, positive statement of the defects of the school sys- 
 tem and the remedies thought necessary to remove them. The 
 defects, with a few verbal changes, are formally stated as follows: 
 
 1. The want of a corporate name or title for each school district, and for 
 the service of legal process therein. 
 
 2. The want of a provision for the collection of debts due by a school dis- 
 trict. 
 
 3. The want of adequate means for the collection and enforcement of the 
 school tax. 
 
 4. The want of power to tax stock in Banks chartered or re-chartered since 
 April 16, 1850. 
 
 5. The want of power to levy a special tax to purchase ground and erect 
 school buildings. 
 
 6. The want of clear power to sell real estate in use, with the view to invest 
 again for school purposes. 
 
 7. Sub-districts — these should be either abolished, or the laws relating 
 thereto amended. 
 
 8. The want of power to provide a school architecture. 
 
 9. The want of power to enforce the teaching of the rudimental branches 
 of learning iii all school districts. 
 
 10. The want of more guards against the employment of incompetent teach- 
 ers, and the adoption of measures to increase the number and secure the ser- 
 vices of such only as are competent. 
 
 To remedy the last-named defect, the want of competent teach- 
 ers, the Superintendent recommends : 
 
 I. The appointment of a competent Examiner or Board of Examiners for 
 each county; 2. The division of the State into districts, and the appointment 
 of an officer having supervisory authority, to be called the District Visitor; 
 3. Increased duration of the periods for keeping the schools in operation in 
 each school district; 4. Normal schools; 5. The more general employment 
 of female teachers ; 6. Good salaries. 
 
 Of teachers' institutes, then in their infancy, the Superintendent 
 says: 
 
 If a few institutions were established at eligible points throughout the Com- 
 monwealth, with a corps of professors, and a hall suitable for the accommo- 
 dation of six or eight hundred persons, in which lectures could be delivered 
 and instruction given in the sciences, literature, and the art of teaching, to 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. 501 
 
 sucli of the teachers throughout the State as should attend, the present gen- 
 eration of teachers would be thereby vastly improved. The instruction 
 should be given free of charge, and teachers permitted to attend at such times 
 as their school vacations or engagements would warrant. The cost of sus- 
 taining such institutions would not much exceed the salaries of the professors, 
 while perhaps no plan that can be devised would be more likely to impart 
 more immediate and general improvement. Such institutions might readily 
 be united with the Normal Schools proper, and such practical regulations 
 adopted as would enable both kinds of students to receive due attention. 
 In this way both the present and the future could be provided for with but 
 comparatively trifling cost, and without delay. 
 
 In 1852, Superintendent Hughes issued a pamphlet containing 
 the "Decisions of the Superintendent of Common Schools, with 
 Explanatory Instructions and Revised Forms." This was the re- 
 vival, in a more systematic way, of a form of giving information to 
 school directors and others interested in the management of public 
 schools, begun by Superintendent Burrowes fifteen years before. 
 The following year the Legislature, by resolution, authorized the 
 Superintendent of Common Schools to print seven thousand five 
 hundred copies of the school laws of Pennsylvania, with his decis- 
 ion annexed, two thousand in English and five hundred in German, 
 for the use of the Senate, and five thousand for the use of the House 
 of Representatives. This resolution was largely owing to the gen- 
 eral interest created in the subject by the publication of the current 
 decisions of the Department in the Keystone, at Harrisburg, by chief 
 clerk Dieffenbach, then one of the editors. The decisions are very 
 full, clearly expressed and systematically arranged. 
 
 Charles A. Black, when called to the post of Secretary of the 
 Commonwealth and Superintendent of Common Schools, was a 
 distinguished lawyer at the Greene county bar. He had served a 
 term in the State Senate, where he had been an active member of 
 the Committee on Education. His first report, as Superintendent 
 of Common Schools, was written soon after assuming the duties of 
 the office. It bears unmistakable marks of a friendly feeling towards 
 the system, but contains no marked features. The recommenda- 
 tions of his predecessor in regard to the preparation of a work on 
 .school architecture, the abolition of sub-districts, an enlargement of 
 the course of study in common schools, the appointment of officers 
 to supervise the schools, and the establishment of Normal Schools, 
 are heartily endorsed. 
 
 It had long been the custom to entrust the formal work of the 
 School Department to one or more clerks specially assigned to that 
 
C02 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 duty. At the period of which we are writing this Department had 
 become quite distinct from the office of the Secretary of the Com- 
 monwealth, although the two continued under one head. At the 
 instance of Governor Bigler, at the beginning of his administration, 
 Superintendent Hughes placed Henry L. Dieffenbach in charge of 
 the School Department as chief clerk. The choice could hardly 
 have fallen into better hands. Born in Montour county in 182 1; 
 descended from old German stock; educated theoretically in the 
 " day schools " of the time, with a brief term at Danville Academy, 
 and practically in sundry printing offices in central Pennsylvania; a 
 warm friend of the free school system, and, as a school director, for 
 a number of years, well acquainted with its practical operations; 
 slow to act, but when once moved to action, unbending in firmness 
 and of unflinching courage; a Pennsylvanian through and through, 
 and in sympathy with Pennsylvania thought and feeling — Henry L. 
 Dieffenbach was just the man to fill the important place assigned 
 him in the administration of the school affairs of the State, at the 
 critical period through which they were then passing. That he did 
 much of the thinking for the system, as well as the greater part of 
 the work of the Department, his superior officers have always been 
 free to acknowledge. Retiring from office with Governor Bigler, in 
 1855, he was soon after appointed County Superintendent of Clinton 
 county, which position he held but a short time; and subsequently 
 served as a trustee of the Normal Schools at Millersville, Blooms- 
 burg and Lock Haven. He was Deputy Secretary of the Common- 
 wealth during the administration of Governor Packer. 
 
 The first practical step in the direction of the important school 
 legislation of 1854, was the preparation by Superintendent Hughes 
 of a school bill based upon the law of 1 849, but revising that law and 
 adding the new features recommended in the report already quoted. 
 In his work on the bill, the Superintendent freely consulted his 
 chief clerk and was aided by the counsel of the Governor; and, out- 
 side of the Department, he received suggestions on certain points, 
 if not drafts of sections, from Thomas H. Burrowes and Bishop 
 Alonzo Potter. The sections relating to the establishment of 
 teachers' schools were without doubt drawn by the pen of the former 
 of these gentlemen ; and the latter is to be credited for suggesting 
 the section which provided for the preparation of a work on school 
 architecture. This bill differed in many minor respects from that 
 which was passed in 1854, but mainly in providing for one or two 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. cq, 
 
 examiners of teachers in each county in addition to a "school 
 visitor," and for two teachers' schools, one in the eastern and the 
 other in the western part of the State, at a cost for lots, buildings 
 and furniture, of not over twenty-five thousand dollars each. It was 
 late in the session of 1853 when Superintendent Hughes submitted 
 his bill to the Legislature, and either for want of time or a disincli- 
 nation to take up the subject, it was not considered. 
 
 The administration, however, was earnestly in favor of school 
 reform. The discarded bill was kept on the desk of the chief clerk 
 under the hammer of the criticism of the officers of the Department 
 and of outside friends of education all the long Summer and Fall, 
 and by the opening of the session of the Legislature, January 1854, 
 it was so changed and perfected as to be in a shape to be pressed to 
 a passage. The most marked improvement in it was the substitu- 
 tion of the office of County Superintendent for the clumsy arrange- 
 ment of teachers' examiners and school visitors. Meantime, Super- 
 intendent Hughes had resigned and Superintendent Black had taken 
 his place. Both Superintendents, with the Governor, gave the bill 
 much thought, but for the final draft as presented to the Legislature 
 the principal credit is undoubtedly due to chief clerk Diffenbach. 
 
 The bill thus prepared was read in place, in the Senate, January 
 20, by Dr. Jonas R. McClintock, of Allegheny county. Chairman of 
 the Committee on Education. Dr. McClintock was a warm friend 
 of public education, his efforts in behalf of the measure of which he 
 became the foster-father were indefatigable, the speech he deliv- 
 ered in favor of the bill was an able exposition of its several provis- 
 ions and the improvement it was expected to effect and a masterly 
 answer to what had been said by those who had taken ground in 
 opposition to it; and it is only just to say that to him the passage 
 of the bill in the Senate was mainly due. The other members of 
 the Committee on Education who actively aided the Chairman, 
 were Henry S. Evans, of Chester, who had been Chairman of the 
 Education Committee of the House in 1849, and had charge of the 
 school legislation of that year, and Edward C. Darlington, of Lan- 
 caster. 
 
 The bill, as it came from the School Department, like that of the 
 preceding year, contained certain sections providing for the estab- 
 lishment of Normal Schools ; these were struck out by the Senate 
 Committee, and the section was defeated authorizing boards of 
 school directors to select sites for schoolhouses in the same way as 
 
C04 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 land is taken for the opening of public highways. Several unim- 
 portant amendments were adopted, but the bill would have met 
 little opposition in the Senate, had it not been for the provisions 
 relating to the office of County Superintendent. These were fought 
 bitterly at every step. Failing in an effort to strike them out alto- 
 gether, motions were made to fix the salary of the Superintendents 
 at two dollars a day, and to limit it to five hundred dollars a year;, 
 but happily they were voted down. Senator Charles R. Buckalew, 
 who strongly opposed the bill, made an effort to have the County 
 Superintendents appointed by the State Superintendent, but failed. 
 With all the advantages of the administration at its back, and able 
 advocates on the floor of the Senate, the bill passed finally by only 
 one majority, sixteen to fifteen. Five Senators subsequently filed a 
 formal protest against its passage, alleging as a reason, the opposi- 
 tion of their constituents to the County Superintendency. 
 
 Robert E. Monaghan, of Chester county, then a very young man, 
 but an enthusiastic friend of public education, was at the head of 
 the Education Committee of the House. The school bill was mes- 
 saged from the Senate to the House on the twenty-ninth day of 
 March, and was referred to the Committee on Education, where it 
 received little attention before the middle of April. It was then 
 taken up, and Chairman Monaghan, with characteristic energy, 
 pushed it through his Committee, some of whose members were 
 hostile to it, carried a motion for a special session of the House to 
 consider it, managed to avoid a prolonged discussion or a bitter 
 fight on particular sections, and succeeded, with a few changes of 
 details, in having the bill passed finally, April 26th, by a vote of 
 fifty-three to thirty-six. Subsequently some slight differences be- 
 tween the two Houses were settled by a Conference Committee. 
 
 But though it was passed with little waste of time, the County 
 Superintendent feature of the law of 1854 was scarcely more popu- 
 lar in the House than in the Senate. Shrewdly as the passage of 
 the bill was managed, there were some sharp, if short, speeches 
 made against it, and a motion to exempt from its operation the 
 counties of Lehigh, Crawford, Monroe, Berks, Montgomery, Mer- 
 cer, Venango, Bucks, Cambria, Westmoreland, Fayette and North- 
 ampton, was favored by the unanimous voice of the members of 
 these counties, and faikd only by a vote of thirty to thirty-five. On 
 another occasion there were forty-six yeas to forty-nine nays on a 
 motion to make it optional with conventions of school directors 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. 505 
 
 called to elect County Superintendents, whether they would accept 
 or reject the office. These narrow escapes increase our admiration 
 for the skill that engineered the bill in safety through such threat- 
 ening dangers, and deepen our sense of obligation to the men who 
 risked much in their devotion to an unpopular cause. 
 
 The school law of 1854 was an administration, but not a party 
 measure. Some of its most earnest friends in the Legislature were 
 anti-administration members, and some of its bitterest enemies were 
 the political friends of the administration. Justice to such staunch 
 old Whigs as Henry S. Evans, Edward C. Darlington, William A. 
 Crabb, George Darsie and John C. Kunkle, of the Senate, and 
 Gideon J. Ball, John A. Hiestand, Matthew W. Baldwin, George H. 
 Hart, Thomas J. Bigham and John S. Parke, of the House, requires 
 it to be said that by voice and vote they favored the bill in all its 
 stages. 
 
 The Governor approved the bill. May 8, fully aware, from the cir- 
 cumstances of its passage through the Legislature and the unfavor- 
 able comments of the press of the State, that a large majority of 
 the people were opposed to it, but determined, like Governor Wolf 
 on a similar occasion, to risk his own future and the future of his 
 administration on a measure which he clearly foresaw was fraught 
 with great public good, and destined to mark an important era jn 
 the progress of education in the Commonwealth. 
 
 The principal new features introduced into the school system by 
 the law of 1854, were the following : 
 
 1. School districts were given the power of bodies corporate. 
 This power was necessary to enable them to borrow money, buy 
 and sell property, sue and be sued, etc. 
 
 2. Sub-districts were entirely abolishe'd. The divisions of town- 
 ships into what were called sub -districts, each containing a single 
 school, controlled for the most part by a local committee, had from 
 the first greatly distracted the workihg of the system! As a feature 
 of our school system, it had been borrowed from the school systems 
 of New England and New York, and was popular in counties 
 settled by emigrants from these States. The law of 1854 made the 
 township practically, what it had always been theoretically, the unit 
 of the system. It also repealed all special acts creating what were 
 called " Independent School Districts," or districts not subject to 
 the control of the boards of directors of the townships in which they 
 were located ; but a supplement temporarily postponed its action in 
 
1 06 £^ UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN I A. 
 
 this respect, and the next Legislature passed a law continuing them 
 permanently in a modified form. 
 
 3. The minimum school term was made four months. A pro- 
 vision in the Act of 1849 required a four months' term, but, in 185 1, 
 this provision was repealed. The Act of 1854 restored it. 
 
 4. School directors were required to establish separate schools 
 for negro or mulatto children, " whenever schools could be so 
 located as to accommodate twenty or more pupils." Previously, 
 such children were received into any public school at which they 
 presented themselves ; but the prevailing prejudice against them 
 was so great that many preferred rather to remain away from school 
 altogether than to face it. The provision for separate schools was 
 practically a boon to the colored people, although it probably grew 
 out of an indisposition to permit their children to attend school 
 with white children. Under it, schools for colored children were 
 established in many towns and in some country districts ; and not- 
 withstanding the law was repealed in 1881, nearly all the separate 
 schools continue in operation as before. 
 
 5. The State Superintendent was authorized to take measures to 
 have prepared and published a work on school architecture. Under 
 this provision, Sloan and Stewart, of Philadelphia, architects, were 
 engaged to furnish plans of school buildings for different grades of 
 schools, and drawings of the most improved school furniture, and 
 Thomas H. Burrowes agreed to supply the necessary descriptions and 
 explanations and to edit the work. The book as completed formed 
 a quarto volume of nearly three hundred pages, and was entitled the 
 " Pennsylvania School Architecture." It included chapters by A. 
 M. Gow, of Washington county, and J. P. Wickersham, of Lancas- 
 ter county. A copy was placed in the hands of every school-board 
 in the State. 
 
 6. "Orthography, Reading, Writing, Grammar, Geography and 
 Arithmetic, as well as such other branches as the board of directors 
 or controllers may require," were directed to be taught in every dis- 
 trict. This was the first attempt made to arrange a course of study 
 for the public schools. Previously, the whole matter was at the dis- 
 cretion of boards of directors, and in thousands of schools through- 
 out the State instruction was confined to Reading, Writing and Arith- 
 metic, while in a smaller number instruction in the common branches 
 was neglected to make room for Algebra, Mensuration, Surveying, 
 Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and studies, of a like 
 
THE EDUCATIOXAL REVIVAL. 
 
 507 
 
 character. To broaden the course of instruction on the one hand, 
 and to secure on the other due attention to the inculcation of that 
 fundamental knowledge which is the main object of every public 
 
 school system, was the purpose of the framers of the law. School 
 directors were expressly authorized to establish grades of schools, 
 and, in its proper place, instruction in the higher branches met with 
 no legal obstruction. 
 
CQg EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 7. By provisions in the Acts of 1838 and 1849, "endowed schools 
 and schools under the care of religious societies " could receive sup- 
 port from the school fund of the districts in which they were located 
 without surrendering themselves to the control of the proper school 
 directors. These provisions, however wise as concessions to a 
 class of meritorious institutions in the earlier years of the school 
 system, were clearly inconsistent with the principle that underlies it, 
 and the Act of 1854 did well in repealing them. 
 
 8. It was made the duty of school directors to select the books 
 to be used in their schools, with the advice of the teachers in their 
 employ, and the use of all others was prohibited. 
 
 9. The State Superintendent was authorized to "appoint one of 
 the clerks employed by him to be his general deputy, who may per- 
 form the duties of Superintendent of Common Schools, in case of 
 his absence or a vacancy in the office." Henry L. Diefifenbach was 
 made Deputy Superintendent under this Act, and was the first 
 officer in the State with that title. 
 
 10. The provision establishing county supervision of schools was 
 the great feature of the law of 1854, the feature that aroused the 
 opposition met with in the Legislature and before the people, but 
 the feature that was destined to vitalize and make more effective the 
 work of the whole system. The establishment of the office of 
 County Superintendent was not a new proposition. The first 
 common school law, that of 1834, contained a provision for the ap- 
 pointment of school inspectors, and the better supervision of schools 
 had, in one form or another, been recommended by most of the 
 State Superintendents, some of the later ones advocating the office 
 of County Superintendent by that name. Besides, the establish- 
 ment of this office was the measure most strongly urged by teach- 
 ers and the friends of education, as the one from which they hoped 
 most in the work of educational reform. But all honor to the ad- 
 ministration of Governor Bigler, and to McClintock and Monaghan 
 and their coadjutors of all parties in the Legislature, for braving a 
 fierce and powerful opposition and placing on our statute-book a 
 law that has been of untold benefit to the cause of popular educa- 
 tion in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Soon after the passage of the law of 1854, on the twenty-fourth 
 of May, Deputy Superintendent Diefifenbach issued a circular to 
 school directors, impressing upon them the importance of the office 
 they were called upon to fill on the first Monday of June following. 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. 
 
 509 
 
 setting forth the quaHfications a County Superintendent of schools 
 must possess in order to effect the needed reforms in the working 
 of the system, and expressing an earnest hope that the efficiency of 
 the office would not be crippled by attaching to it a salary that 
 would be inadequate to the duties required of the incumbent. He 
 also advised the directors to secure the services of the best teachers 
 within their reach as superintendents, stating that it was of primary 
 importance that the person chosen should be " skilled and experi- 
 enced in the art of teaching," and adding these wise words : " Unless 
 a County Superintendent understands the business of teaching 
 thoroughly as a science, theoretically and practically, he will prove 
 an incumbrance and an annoyance to the schools, instead of an able 
 director and promoter of their best interests." 
 
 The conventions of directors met at the respective county towns 
 on the day appointed, and the names of the persons elected County 
 Superintendent and commissioned as such, and the salary voted to 
 each respectively, are as follows : 
 
 Adams, David Wills . . . 
 Allegheny, James M. Piyor. 
 Armstrong, John A. Campbell 
 Beaver. Thomas Nicholson. . 
 Bedford, T. W. B. McFadden 
 Berks, Wm. A. Good . 
 Blair, Hugh A. Caldwell. . 
 Bradford, Emanuel Guyer . 
 Bucks, Joseph Fell . . . 
 Butler, Isaac Black .... 
 Cambria, Robert L. Johnston 
 Carbon, Joseph H. Siewers. 
 Centre, Wm. J. Gibson . . 
 Chester, R. Agnew Futhey. 
 Clarion, Robert W. Oit . 
 Clearfield, A. T. Schryver . 
 Clinton, R. C. Allison . . . 
 Columbia, Joel E. Bradley . 
 Crawford, S. S. Sears . . . 
 Cumberland, Daniel Shelly. 
 Dauphin, S. D. Ingram . . 
 Delaware, George Smith., . 
 Elk, Wm. B. Gillis .... 
 Erie, Wm. H. Armstrong. . 
 Fayette, Joshua V. Gibbons. 
 Forest, John O. Hays . . 
 Franklin, James McDowell. 
 Fulton, Robert Ross. . . . 
 Greene, John A. Gordon. . 
 Huntingdon, James S. Barr. 
 Indiana, Sam. P. Boll man . 
 Jefferson, John C. Wagaman , 
 
 The school directors who composed the conventions that elected 
 the first County Superintendents were largely hostile to the office 
 
 
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 00 
 
 
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 GO 
 
 
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 Juniata, David Laughlin . . 
 Lancaster, J. P. Wickersham 
 Lawrence, Thomas Berry . . 
 Lebanon, John H. Kluge . . 
 Lehigh, Charles W. Cooper . 
 Luzerne, John W. Lescher . 
 Lycoming, J. W. Barrett . . 
 McKean, Fordyce A. Allen . 
 Mercer, James C. Brown . . 
 Mifflin, Robert C. Ross. . . 
 Monroe, Chas S. Detrick . . 
 Montgomery, Ephraim L. Acker 
 
 Montour, Paul Leidy 
 
 Northampton, Valentine Hilburn 
 Northumberland, J. J. Reimensnyder 
 
 Perry, Adam Height 
 
 Pike, Ira B. Newman. . . 
 
 Potter, M. R. Gage 
 
 Schuylkill, J. K. Krewson . . . 
 Somerset, Jos. J. Stutzman . . . 
 Sullivan, Richard Bedford . . . 
 Susquehanna, Willard Richardson 
 
 Tioga, J. F. Calkins 
 
 Union, J. S. Whitman 
 
 Venango, Manly C. Bebee . . . 
 Warren, Theo. D. Edwards . . . 
 Washington, John L. Gow . . 
 Wavne, John F. Stoddard. . . . 
 Westmoreland, Matthew McKinstry, 
 Wyoming, Cornelius R. Lane 
 York, Jacob Kirk 
 
 $2GO 
 
 1,500 
 500 
 760 
 500 
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 25G 
 400 
 50G 
 30G 
 600 
 
 35° 
 62S 
 
 350 
 300 
 
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CIO ^^ ^^-^ '^^'^^ ^^ PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Probably there was not a single one of them that would not, had 
 the chance been given, have voted no County Superintendent with a 
 hurrah. Under these circumstances, in many instances, little atten- 
 tion was given to the qualifications of those elected, and included in 
 the list were teachers too old for active service, and without a spark 
 of the enthusiasm, necessary in the work they were about to under- 
 take, nearly a dozen clergymen, three or four lawyers, and as many 
 doctors — few of whom knew much about teaching school — and sev- 
 eral farmers, who seemed to think superintending schools might 
 properly enough be made a branch of the business of managing a 
 farm. But there were also among the Superintendents elected, the 
 names of some of the ablest, most skillful, and most energetic edu- 
 cators Penn.sylvania has ever had, and to these it is owing that the 
 office was not wrecked at the very start. The marked success 
 achieved in certain counties proved that where failures occurred, it 
 was the officer and not the office that was in fault, and there can 
 be no doubt that such examples saved the system from certain dis- 
 aster. 
 
 The small salaries given to the Superintendents by the conven- 
 tions in most of the counties were partially the result of a want of 
 an adequate knowledge as to the duties of the office, and the time 
 it would require to perform them, and partially an expression of 
 the opposition felt to the office itself The New York Tribune, in 
 commenting upon the subject at the time, justly remarked: "Of 
 course, at such rates either, first, feeble men have been appointed, 
 who will effect nothing; second, capable men have been chosen, 
 who are not expected to devote their time to their work; or, third, 
 good men are expected to give their services for half their value, 
 for the sake of the cause." Fortunately, there were "good men" 
 willing to make the necessary personal sacrifice. 
 
 That an organization' of the newly-elected Superintendents might 
 be effected and that their work might be properly mapped out and 
 systematized, State Superintendent Black issued a call requesting 
 them to meet at Harrisburg on the twelfth of July. Thirty-six 
 counties were represented. The State Superintendent called the 
 convention to order and opened the proceedings with an address. 
 Dr. George Smith, of Delaware, who has already been named among 
 the benefactors of free schools in their early days, was elected Presi- 
 dent. A business committee reported the following subjects for 
 consideration, and recommended a special committee on each : 
 
THE ED UCA TIONAL RE VIVAL. c j j 
 
 Grades of Teachers' Certificates, Mode of Examining Teachers, 
 Grades of Schools, Visitation of Schools, Teachers' Institutes, Best 
 Mode of Interesting Directors, Best Mode of Securing the Co6pera- 
 tion of Parents, and Uniformity of Text-Books. In accordance with 
 the recommendation of the committee, each of the subjects named 
 was committed to three members except the first in the list, on 
 which five members were appointed, viz., Messrs. Wickersham, 
 Stoddard, Gow, Futhey, and Gibson. Their report was very much 
 the most elaborate presented to the convention, elicited the most 
 earnest and prolonged discussion, and resulted in the adoption of 
 the pohcy concerning the granting of teachers' certificates which has 
 in substance ever since been adhered to. Changes of a minor 
 character have taken place, but teachers' certificates, in number, in 
 grade, in form, in purpose and in name, are to-day very much the 
 same as reported by the committee and agreed upon by the first 
 convention of Superintendents in 1854. The committees on other 
 subjects made reports, a special committee was appointed to prepare 
 and publish an address setting forth such matter as shall seem to 
 them " calculated to promote the improvement of the schools," a 
 resolution was passed recommending the calling of a similar conven- 
 tion once a year, and the members returned to their homes with new 
 light in respect to their duties, and freshened spirit to engage in the 
 great work that lay before them. 
 
 Directly after the adjournment of the convention, as if to keep 
 alive the zeal it had awakened, State Superintendent Black sent out 
 a circular letter to the County Superintendents, giving full informa- 
 tion concerning the duties they were expected to perform under the 
 law, and earnestly warning them of the danger that would result 
 from any neglect. He also gave notice that the Department had 
 adopted the Pennsylvania School Journal as an organ in which to 
 publish current decisions on school questions and other official 
 papers of value, and recommended the organization of teachers' 
 associations and institutes, and the use of the local press for spread- 
 ing educational information among the people. 
 
 Superintendent Black's last report explained the most important 
 features of the new law and their working. In advocating the 
 County Superintendency, he states that the Legislature was impelled 
 to adopt some means " by which new life and vigor might be in- 
 fused into the languid veins and arteries of the system." For " In 
 many parts of the State the schools were flourishing but in too many 
 
r J 2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 Others they exhibited a species of still-Hfe existence, without the 
 vitaHty of a single healthy pulsation. In many districts no schools 
 were opened, no taxes were levied, or if levied, were used as a mere 
 pretext to obtain a portion of the State appropriation. Directors in 
 such districts were frequently the reflex of this apathetic spirit, and 
 if not actually hostile, were indifferent to the system and suffered it 
 to fall into disuse." To correct these evils, the County Superinten- 
 dency was adopted. Nothing better could be devised. The unpop- 
 ularity of the office was foreseen by its friends, but they hoped that 
 with well qualified men as Superintendents it must soon vindicate 
 itself The forces of the enemy were now massed against it, and 
 the struggle had become one for existence. The County Superin- 
 tendents and the friends of education generally must bestir them- 
 selves in its defence, or it might be swept away, and with it perhaps 
 the whole system of which it was a part. Having given this timely 
 note of warning, the report closed with recommendations for the 
 establishment of Normal Schools, and the separation of the State 
 and School Departments. 
 
 The reports of the County Superintendents were published as an 
 appendix to the State report. These officers had then served only 
 a few months, but their reports show that they were engaged in 
 making surveys of the field, and that some of them had already 
 done work that was beginning to produce the most beneficial re- 
 sults. The editor of the School Journal, in October, four months 
 after the County Superintendents had been commissioned, said: 
 "Though this office is too new amongst us to justify the formation 
 of a definite opinion of its general results over the State, yet enough 
 is known to warrant the conclusion that wherever zealously and 
 intelligently administered, it is producing all the good 'that was an- 
 ticipated. From ever}'- county in which men of the right stamp 
 were chosen, we hear favorable accounts ; and the good news is in 
 exact proportion to the fitness and faithfulness of the officers.'' 
 
 But the storm that had been brewing was about to burst. The 
 County Superintendency was popular at first in very few localities. 
 The anti-free school element, still powerful, arrayed its whole 
 strength against the new office. This force received accessions 
 from a class of persons who had hitherto been engaged in teaching, 
 but who, now, either feared to face the ordeal of an examination or 
 failed to pass it, and were thus thrown out of employment. Most 
 numerous in counties where the examinations were most strict, the 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. 
 
 SI3 
 
 very best of Superintendents were apt to find themselves much an- 
 noyed by the clamor, if not greatly crippled in their work by the 
 persistent fault-finding of dissatisfied schoolmasters. Many school 
 directors, some of them of the more intelligerit class, looked coldly 
 upon what they considered an attempt to limit their prerogatives or 
 lessen their power. Parsimonious citizens everywhere asserted that 
 the money paid for salaries to the Superintendents was wasted. In 
 almost every section of the State a movement was started to send 
 petitions to the next Legislature, asking for the repeal of the offen- 
 sive Act. In some counties the question of repeal was made a polit- 
 ical issue, and for the second and last time, in the history of our 
 common schools, men were nominated for the Legislature pledged 
 to vote against a law that had the support of the best friends of pub- 
 lic education. A bitter struggle at Harrisburg was inevitable, and 
 further on we shall see how it ended. 
 
 While the ill feeling towards the office lasted, the County Super- 
 intendents, in performing their work, had to row against a strong, 
 rough tide. Their examinations were often unjustly criticised, their 
 visitations were unwelcome, their advice was unheeded, and even 
 their presence was considered an offence. Under these circumstan- 
 ces, the weak did nothing, the timid shrunk from the conflict, and 
 none but the strong and brave could make, a fight with any hope of 
 winning it. 
 
 Adding greatly to the critical condition of school affairs, a change 
 took place, January, 1855, in the State administration. Governor 
 Bigler was a candidate for a second term, but, by the sudden burst- 
 ing forth of one of those unaccountable cyclones that now and then 
 disturb the political as they do the physical world, he was defeated, 
 and with him were swept overboard those associated with him in 
 launching the new school ship and in guiding it in the first stages 
 of its perilous voyage. Bigler, Black and Dieffenbach, gave place 
 to Pollock, Curtin and Hickok. It was generally expected that the 
 new administration would quietly suffer, if not openly favor, the 
 repeal of the unpopular school legislation of the preceding year. 
 Advice to this effect was given by some of its most influential 
 friends. An unauthorized assumption that such would be the case, 
 had in some places considerable influence in the canvass. But as 
 Ritner manfully accepted Wolfs policy in favor of free schools, and 
 made it his own, so Pollock, having in view a broad public rather 
 than a narrow party end, took up Bigler's fight on the County Super- 
 33 
 
r 1 4 ED UCA TWN IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 intendency and determined that the new office should have at least 
 a fair trial; and Curtin, as Secretary of the Commonwealth and 
 Superintendent of Schools, and Hickok, as Deputy Superintendent 
 of Schools, proved themselves, not less than their predecessors, 
 warm friends of educational reform. Indeed, the new administra- 
 tion, if less cautious in school affairs, was more active than the old 
 one ; if less firm, more positive ; if less diplomatic, more aggressive 
 — it was, in fact, the fiery Scotch-Irish blood in contrast with the 
 slower, perhaps safer, currents of the German. 
 
 James Pollock was born at Milton, Northumberland county, in 
 1810. His ancestors came from the north of Ireland as early as 
 1760. Prepared at Kilpatrick's Academy in his native town, he 
 graduated at Princeton College with the highest honors of his 
 class in 1831. Studying law, he was District Attorney, a member 
 of Congress for six years, and President Judge of the Eighth Judi- 
 cial District before he was elected Governor in 1854. 
 
 Governor Pollock devoted a large space in his messages to educa- - 
 tion, and no other Governor ever wrote more eloquently on the 
 subject. In his very first message, to the delight of its friends and 
 to the disappointment of its enemies, he declared himself in favor of 
 the County Superintendency, saying : " The experiment of the 
 County Superintendency, wherever faithfully carried out, has not 
 disappointed the expectations of the advocates of the measure. The 
 improve^ condition of the schools and the greater efficiency of the 
 system clearly establish the propriety and utility of such super- 
 vision." He earnestly recommends the establishment of Normal 
 Schools, and makes a strong argument in their favor. Teachers' 
 Institutes he thinks an agency of unquestionable value. And upon 
 one of the most tender points of all, the increase of the State appro- 
 priation, he boldly says : " If the Legislature should feel warranted 
 and the measure has all the sanction this Executive document can 
 give it, to make a large addition to the annual State appropriation 
 to common schools, I believe that all will be done which the patriot- 
 ism of the people's representatives can now effect ; and I do not 
 hesitate to express the opinion that the time has come for this 
 prompt, full and decisive action." 
 
 Of the County Superintendency, in his second message, the 
 Governor says : " Whatever defects time and experience may de- 
 velop in this or any other branch of the system should be promptly 
 corrected; but until the necessity for change is established, the 
 
THE ED UCA TIONAL RE VIVAL. j 
 
 system in its unity and integrity should be maintained, or if 
 changed, changed only to render more certain the accomplishment 
 of its noble purposes and objects." In this message the establish- 
 ment of Normal Schools is thus urged : "In a former communica- 
 tion to the Legislature, the establishment of State Normal Schools 
 for the education of teachers, was urged as indispensably necessary 
 to the perfection of the system. With full confidence in their 
 utility and necessity, I again recommend them. These institutions, 
 with their proper professors and appliances, supported by the State, 
 would meet the wants and elevate the character of our common 
 schools." 
 
 The Governor in his third and last message commends the Act 
 of the Legislature in establishing an independent School Depart- 
 ment, and expresses strong faith in the good to come from the 
 recently enacted Normal School law. Of the latter he says : " It is 
 a movement in the right direction, full of encouragement and hope 
 for the greater perfection and usefulness of the system." With 
 pardonable warmth in a friend so tried, among his last words, he 
 utters the following exhortation : " In the great work of popular 
 education, there should be no retrograde movement in Pennsylvania, 
 no yielding to the impotent clamor of ignorance, selfishness or 
 prejudice, in their attempts to stay its progress. These, one and 
 all, may denounce and condemn, but virtue, patriotism, truth, bid 
 you onward. Let the system be maintained in its unity and useful- 
 ness ; let it be improved and perfected in its details ; but let no act 
 of yours impair its strength, or mar the beauty or harmony of its 
 proportions." 
 
 Governor Pollock did not confine his efforts in behalf of education 
 
 to his office. His eloquent voice was heard in many places pleading 
 
 for better schools. One of his first addresses was delivered at 
 
 Reading, where he took strong ground in favor of maintaining the 
 
 County Superintendency at least until it had been given a fair trial. 
 
 An address delivered at thie dedication of the "James Pollock 
 
 Schoolhouse," Philadelphia, was notable for the advanced position 
 
 taken and the progressive views expressed on the question of school 
 
 reform. A formal visit to the schools of Harrisburg, with an 
 
 address in each, was long pleasantly remembered by directors, 
 
 teachers and pupils. The hands of the County Superintendents, at 
 
 their meeting in Harrisburg in 1855, were greatly strengthened by 
 
 the encouraging words of the Governor and his bold declaration 
 
5 J 6 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 that no backward step in the educational affairs of the Common- 
 wealth should be taken during his term of office. And an enthusi- 
 astic speech at an Educational Harvest Home in a grove near 
 Millersville, Lancaster county, did much to create that sentiment 
 among the people of the neighborhood which made possible the 
 establishment of the State Normal School at that place. But no 
 words spoken by the Governor did as much for the cause of -educa- 
 tion as a knowledge of the fact that he was determined to suffer no 
 injurious blow to be struck at the school system while he occupied 
 the Executive Chair, serving as it did to keep hostile forces at bay 
 at a most critical period, and enabling the friends of the system to 
 concentrate their whole strength upon the work of rendering it 
 invulnerable to any attack that might be made in the future. 
 
 Andrew G. Curtin was born at Bellefonte, in 1817. His father 
 was a Scotch-Irishman, and came to America in 1793. Dr. Keagy, 
 at Harri.sburg, and Dr. Kirkpatrick, at Milton, were his chief in- 
 structors. He had attained eminence as a lawyer, and was well 
 known as a politician, before he was called by Governor Pollock to 
 the office of Secretary of State and Superintendent of Common 
 Schools. As Governor of the State during the civil war, he made 
 himself conspicuous among high officers of his class, for the ability 
 and zeal shown in his efforts to support the General Government 
 against the common enemy, and the faithfulness with which he 
 looked after the interests of the soldiers called into the field, and 
 the widows and orphans of those who died for their country. 
 
 Superintendent Curtin wrote two reports, those for the years 1855 
 and 1856. In the first of these, he begins with a statement of the 
 defects in the working of the system that had led the Legislature 
 to seek a remedy in the establishment of the office of County Super- 
 intendent; among them are named defective reports from school 
 districts, frauds practiced upon the Department in drawing the 
 State appropriation, incompetent teachers, poor schools, and an 
 indifferent public; and in view of such neglect and bad manage- 
 ment, he adds with great force : " Mercantile business, trade, or the 
 pursuit of any of the mechanic arts, commenced under the fairest 
 auspices, and with abundance of capital, if conducted with such 
 irregularity and want of faith, would end in inevitable bankruptcy. 
 The richest and the most productive farm in the Commonwealth, 
 if cultivated with a like indifference and want of supervision, would 
 soon present dilapidated buildings, broken fences, scanty harvests, 
 
THE ED UCA TIONAL RE VIVAL. , - 
 
 and starving cattle." Then follows an argument in support of the 
 County Superintendency, admitting its shortcomings on account of 
 the obstacles that stood in its way, and the incompetent men 
 elected to fill the office, but alleging that wherever efficient officers 
 had been chosen, it had already infused new life into the system, 
 and conferred upon it the most substantial benefits. The report 
 recommends Normal Schools, Teachers' Institutes, and an increase 
 in the State appropriation to common schools. 
 
 In his second report, the State Superintendent thus sums up the 
 good that had already resulted from the County Superintendency 
 in counties having competent, faithful, and sufficiently compensated 
 officers : 
 
 Organized, well-attended, and efficient institutes and associations by teach- 
 ers for self-improvement. 
 
 Largely increased interest by directors in the duties of their office. 
 
 Improvement in schoolhouses and furniture. 
 
 Great increase in uniformity of text-books, and improvement in the classi- 
 fication of schools. 
 
 The enlargement of the number of promising qualified teachers in the pro- 
 fession, and the retirement of by far more, who were found to be incompetent. 
 
 Increase in the salaries of teachers, and in their standing and influence as 
 members of society. 
 
 Manifest improvement in the schools, with a strong tendency towards grad- 
 ing them, and the introduction of a more liberal course of study. 
 
 More frequent visits to the schools by parents, and a greater interest on 
 their part in the means provided by the State for the intellectual culture of 
 their children. 
 
 Numerous public examinations and exhibitions of the schools at the close 
 of the term, well attended by parents, and showing a noble conviction on the 
 part of teachers that their duty has been so discharged as not to fear the pub- 
 lic eye. 
 
 But the subject presented most conspicuously in this report is 
 that of State Normal Schools. They are considered essential to the 
 success of the system, and an* elaborate plan is proposed according 
 to which it is thought they ought to be established. This plan was 
 substantially adopted by the Legislature, and embodied in the Nor- 
 mal School law of 1857. It is also to the credit of the State Super- 
 intendent that he discovered even at that early day the necessity of 
 a closer supervision of schools than that provided for by the office 
 of County Superintendent, and states in his report that he had, in 
 circular form, addressed the boards of directors throughout the 
 State, informing them that they might, under the law, intrust the 
 duty of visiting schools to the Secretary of the Board, require him 
 
c I g ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 closely to inspect the schools and report their condition to the 
 board, and pay him for his services in this regard. This decision 
 opened the way indirectly for the establishment of the District 
 Superintendency, and was the means of accomplishing much good. 
 
 Superintendent Curtin did not perform much field-work during 
 his term. This for the most part he intrusted to the hands of his 
 Deputy. But he addressed the convention of County Superinten- 
 dents that met at Harrisburg during the session of the Legislature, 
 in 1855, and wisely guided its counsels at that critical period, and 
 also performed a like service for a similar convention held in con- 
 nection with the State Teachers' Association, at Williamsport, in 
 August, 1856; and he was present and made addresses at the meet- 
 ings of the State Teachers' Association at Philadelphia, in Decem- 
 ber, 1855, and at Harrisburg, in December, 1856. While favoring 
 all progressive movements in educational affairs that seemed to his 
 judgment safe and politic. Superintendent Curtin was more conserv- 
 ative and cautious than others connected with the administration of 
 which he was a part, and no doubt steadied the work of school 
 reform, thus serving as a counterpoise to that radical spirit among 
 school men which, at the time, was apt to push measures forward 
 prematurely. 
 
 Henry C. Hickok was born in Cayuga county, New York, in 
 1818. The family had come from Connecticut. His father and 
 mother were both teachers. They came to Union county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, in 1822, where they opened a private school. Later, they 
 were eight years in charge of Lewistown Academy. Young Henry 
 received the greater part of his education from his parents, but 
 spent a year in Missouri at a Manual Labor School, called Marion 
 College. He studied law at Chambersburg, but was admitted to the 
 bar at Harrisburg, where he opened an office. Governor Porter ap- 
 pointed him clerk of the Nicholson Court, concerned in settling mat- 
 ters connected with the estate of Robert Morris, and subsequently 
 he was in turn Deputy Attorney General for Perry county, a Com- 
 missioner of Bankruptcy, and editor of the Lewisburg Chronicle. 
 Before becoming Deputy Superintendent of Common Schools, he 
 had served as a school director, and had written numerous articles . 
 on school affairs for his paper. In the School Department he was 
 for the most part the working head of the system, attending to its 
 correspondence, writing its decisions on questions of law, projecting 
 plans for its improvement, guiding legislation respecting education, 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. t\n 
 
 and strengthening the cause by visiting schools and attending teach- 
 ers' institutes and educational meetings in many parts of the State. 
 Notes of his visitations to many counties were published in the 
 School youmcd. He worked up to the full measure of his strength, 
 and beyond it, and the State never had in a school officer a more 
 devoted friend of public education. When, in 1857, an Act was 
 passed separating the School and State Departments, it was natural 
 and proper that the Deputy Superintendent should be advanced to 
 the position of Superintendent. 
 
 The office- work during the Curtin-Hickok administration was of 
 an amount and a character to severely tax the ability and strength 
 of those in charge of the Department. The period was one of tran- 
 sition ; the old routine of school-keeping had been broken up, and 
 something more vigorous and vital was about to take its place. 
 The new spirit that . had been infused into the school system 
 throughout the State brought up new questions; the delicate ma- 
 chinery of the County Superintendency just beginning to move, 
 required nice adjustment and careful handling; old schoolmasters 
 and old school directors, forced out of their accustomed ruts, were 
 at sea without marks to guide them, and demanded new charts to 
 steer by. But unfortunately no records remain to tell in detail the 
 story of this difficult work. Not a copy of a single letter or circu- 
 lar written by Superintendents Curtin and Hickok is to be found on 
 file in the School Department. The decisions, forms, information 
 and advice to school officers and circulars to Superintendents and 
 directors, that were published in the official columns of the School 
 Journal, are, however, sufficient to show that clear heads and skill- 
 ful hands were at the helm. 
 
 The most important laws relating to schools passed during the 
 years 1855, 1856, and 1857, are those providing a mode of in- 
 creasing the salary of a County Superintendent during a term, con- 
 stituting th^ Pennsylvania School Journal the official organ of the 
 Department, giving the Courts power, with certain limitations, to 
 establish Independent School Districts, separating the School from 
 the State Department, and establishing Normal Schools. 
 
 The first named of these laws supplied an omission in the Act of 
 1854. Several counties, Berks, Crawford, Venango, and Warren, 
 had previous to its enactment secured the passage of a bill increas- 
 ing the salaries of their Superintendents; but this bill Governor Pol- 
 lock promptly vetoed on the ground of special legislation, and 
 
C20 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 because, while its aim seemed to be to strengthen the Superinten- 
 dency in the counties to which it applied, it insidiously gave the 
 conventions of school directors, called under its provisions, power 
 to abolish the office. In his message vetoing this bill, the Gover- 
 nor gave the Legislature to understand that he would favor the bill 
 then pending, giving the school boards of all the counties in the 
 Commonwealth power to increase the salaries of Superintendents 
 insufficiently compensated, and also intimated that any measure 
 tending to cripple or destroy the County Superintendency before 
 the office had been fairly tried, would meet with his opposition. 
 
 An educational magazine as the organ of the School Department, 
 in publishing its current decisions and other information intended 
 for school officers, had been favored from the earliest days of the 
 school system, by a number of the State Superintendents. Superin- 
 tendent Black recognized the Pennsylvania School Journal as such 
 an organ, in a semi-official way, and it only remained for Superin- 
 tendent Curtin to secure the passage of a law giving it formal recog- 
 nition and providing for furnishing a copy to each board of directors 
 at the State's expense. The relation still continues. 
 
 Sub-districts, the division of a township into districts with a single 
 school and possessing restricted powers, were abolished by the Act 
 of 1854. Independent Districts constituted of a part of a township 
 or of adjacent parts of two or more townships, with the full powers 
 of a school district, were not sanctioned by any general law prior to 
 1854, although many had been created by special laws. The Act 
 of 1854 was meant to sweep them all away with the sub-districts; 
 but there was signed at the same time a supplement to that Act con- 
 tinuing them until after the session of the next Legislature. The 
 Legislature of 1855 continued them another year, authorized the 
 courts of common pleas to continue them permanently at their dis- 
 cretion, and provided a way for the courts to create new ones. Under 
 the power thus given, so many Independent Districts were formed in 
 some counties as to greatly mar the symmetry of the general system, 
 and, in 1857, the Legislature passed an Act providing a mode of 
 abolishing such of these districts as had been too hastily created, 
 •and another requiring thereafter the unanimous concurrence of the 
 court in creating an Independent District, and declaring that the 
 meaning of the law concerning the creation of Independent Districts 
 " is to provide in a guarded manner for exceptions to the general 
 rule, and to protect and promote the educational welfare of occa- 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. 521 
 
 sional localities that, from natural and other adequate obstacles, 
 could not be properly provided for under the organization of town- 
 ship districts ; and further, it was not the intention to cut up town- 
 ships into single districts, nor to carve out the wealthier from the 
 poorer portions of a township or townships, to the prejudice of the 
 rights and interests of the latter." 
 
 The separation of the School from the State Department had 
 been recommended many times by Governors and State Superinten- 
 dents, and was favored by teachers and the friends of education gen- 
 erally. It is creditable to those concerned that the separation was 
 effected during Governor Pollock's administration. 
 
 On the twentieth day of May, 1857, Governor Pollock signed 
 the bill entitled '" an Act to provide for the due training of teachers 
 for the common schools of the State." As the full history of this 
 important Act will be given in another place, it is sufficient to say 
 here that there never was a time when the friends of the public 
 school system of Pennsylvania had not deemed some plan of pre- 
 paring teachers essential to its success. At an early day it was 
 thought by many that teachers could be properly trained in Colleges 
 and Academies ; and, with this end in view, liberal appropriations 
 were made to these classes of institutions by the State. Distrusting 
 this policy, some of the State Superintendents, from the first, recom- 
 mended the establishment of Teachers' Seminaries or Normal 
 Schools; and, when it was found that the work of a College or 
 an Academy and that of a Normal School could not be profitably 
 combined in the same institution, such recommendations became 
 more frequent and more urgent. Every State school report, for 
 years prior to 1857, sets forth an argument in favor of Normal 
 Schools, and an appeal to the Legislature to establish them. The 
 bills of 1853 and 1854, revising the school law, contained as pre- 
 sented to tfte Legislature sections providing for Normal Schools. 
 And outside of official circles, the demand for Normal Schools 
 among teachers and the friends of education was general, as the 
 proceedings of numerous meetings bear testimony. But withal the 
 coming of Normal Schools might have been much longer delayed, 
 had their necessity not been made more apparent by the working of 
 the County Superintendency. Indeed, the Normal School law of 
 1857 may fairly be considered the fruit of that agency. The County 
 Superintendents who had been foremost in refusing to certificate the 
 old, incompetent teachers, were forced to exert themselves to pro- 
 
c 2 2 £D UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANTA. 
 
 vide new and better qualified ones. Hence, temporary Teachers' 
 Schools, Normal Institutes as they were called, were established in 
 a number of counties. The largest of these and the one that 
 attracted most public attention was located at the littlp town of 
 Millersville, Lancaster county. This institution had no small influ- 
 ence in shaping the Normal School policy of the State, and even- 
 tually bfecame the first of our State Normal Schools and the mother 
 of all of them. Such are the most important circumstances out of 
 which grew the Normal School Act of 1857; but all honor to 
 Governor Pollock and the State school officers who took advantage 
 of the flowing tide to safely harbor the coming ship. 
 
 The bills separating the School from the State Department and 
 providing for the establishment of Normal Schools, do not seem to 
 have met with any serious opposition in the Legislature. Neither 
 called for the expenditure of money. Upon the first, the yeas and 
 nays were not called in either House. The second was referred in 
 the Senate to a select committee, of which Titian J. Coffey, of 
 Indiana, was chairman. In reporting it back affirmatively, the com- 
 mittee made a report taking strong ground in its favor ; and, while 
 under consideration in the Senate, Senator Brewer, of Franklin 
 county, one of the committee, made an earnest speech supporting 
 it. No one, as far as the records show, voted in the negative. In 
 the House, May 20, the bill was taken up out of order by a two- 
 third vote, sixty-four to twenty-five, considered in committee of the 
 whole and on second reading, and on a motion to suspend the rule 
 that prohibits two readings of a bill the same day, and to read the 
 bill a third time, the yeas were sixty-seven and the nays twenty-four. 
 After this test of its strength, the bill was allowed to pass without 
 dissent. Behind this apparent unanimity, however, there was an 
 opposition to both measures that was overcome or quieted by skill- 
 ful management on the part of the officers of the School Depart- 
 ment, who warmly pressed their passage. 
 
 But the enactment of new laws gave the State school officers less 
 concern, and cost less labor, than the preservation of what was con- 
 sidered an essential feature of the old ones. As previously stated, the 
 main point of attack by the enemies of free schools, for years after 
 its creation, was the office of County Superintendent. The danger 
 here was constant and pressing. This stronghold carried, they knew 
 the whole line must give way. Skirmishing between the contending 
 forces began in every county of the State soon after the passage 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. .-,■, 
 
 5^3 
 
 of the Act of 1854; in some counties the fight became a pitched 
 battle. The struggle was eventually transferred to the Legislature 
 of 1855. The House of Representatives for that year contained a 
 large majority of members opposed to the County Superintendency, 
 and a determined disposition was manifested early in the session to 
 repeal the law of the preceding year, creating it. Petitions asking 
 for the repeal were presented from nearly every county in the State. 
 Franklin county sent eighteen petitions; Montgomery, seventeen; 
 Chester, sixteen; Crawford, seven; Westmoreland, seven; Dauphin, 
 eight; Berks, seven, and others, a smaller number. In the aggre- 
 gate the number of signatures was very large, almost alarming. 
 A bill providing for repeal was read in place, referred to the Com- 
 mittee on Education, and reported favorably. The State school 
 officers and the friends of the Superintendency in the House, 
 united in an effort to delay action upon the bill until something 
 could be done that it was thought might avert the threatened 
 disaster. With this view Superintendent Curtin called the County 
 Superintendents to meet in convention at Harrisburg, April 11. 
 Forty-one of these officers responded to the call. Thomas 
 Nicholson, of Beaver, was made President, and the State Super- 
 intendent opened the sessions with an address. A business com- 
 mittee, with the Superintendent of Lancaster county as chair- 
 man, advised by the State officers, recommended an afternoon 
 meeting in the House of Representatives, with an address by 
 Thomas H. Burrowes, to be followed by a number of brief 
 reports from County Superintendents, giving an account of 
 the work done in their several counties and its effects upon the 
 schools. It was known that many members of the Legislature 
 would be present, and the object of this programme was to con- 
 vince them, if possible, of the usefulness of the office whose exist- 
 ence was then at stake before them. The address was delivered. 
 Reports were made by Nicholson, of Beaver; Barr, of Huntingdon; 
 Wickersham, of Lancaster; Gow, of Washington, and Shelly, of 
 Cumberland. Some of these reports were made with much force 
 and enthusiasm, and the session resulted in the good expected 
 from it. 
 
 The convention continued its sessions through two busy days, 
 but its proceedings will not be followed further than to note two 
 remarkable utterances that filled the hearts of the Superintendents 
 present with gladness, and renewed their faith in the ultimate tri- 
 
C24 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 umph of their cause. Dr. J. R. McClintock, who was at the time 
 Chairman of the Committee on Education in the Senate, and who 
 had been Chairman of the Committee the year before, and had done 
 more than any other member of the Legislature to pass the Act of 
 1854, dehvered an address before the Convention, in which he said 
 there need be no fear of the repeal of the County Superintendency 
 at that session, for " Sir, a barrier has been erected in the Senate, 
 whatever blow shall threaten, strong and high enough to resist 
 assault." The result justified the.se emphatic words. Later, Gov- 
 ernor Pollock, in a speech of great eloquence and power, declared 
 before the Convention in the most positive manner, that during his 
 administration "there should be no backward step in our educa- 
 tional progress," meaning, as was understood by all, that no bill 
 abolishing the County Superintendency would receive his signature. 
 The strengthening effect of this bold declaration was at once felt by 
 the schools from one end of the State to the other. 
 
 The Convention of Superintendents adjourned April 13th. The 
 opposition to the County Superintendency in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives was somewhat demoralized, but not broken, and April 
 23d, a special session was ordered to consider the pending bill abol- 
 ishing the office; but frightened by the lions which the members 
 favoring the bill now saw in their path, the majority of the Senate 
 and the veto of the Governor, the independent bill was quietly 
 dropped, and in lieu thereof, at the proper time, there was shrewdly 
 inserted in the General Appropriation bill, where it could not be 
 easily voted down or vetoed, the following provision : 
 
 " Provided, That said whole amount," meaning the appropriation 
 to common schools, " shall be distributed pro rata to the respective 
 counties ; and where any county refuses to employ a County Super- 
 intendent, the amount received by such county shall go into the 
 common school fund of the respective districts of said county, and 
 all laws inconsistent therewith be and the same are hereby repealed ; 
 And Provided further , That it shall be lawful for the school directors 
 of the several counties to meet in convention, at the Court-house 
 of their respective counties, on the first Monday of June next, and 
 decide whether they will any longer continue the office of County 
 Superintendent in their respective counties." The vote on inserting 
 this provision was fifty-four yeas to thirty-one nays, which, after all 
 that had been done to overcome it, shows the great strength of the 
 feeling against the County Superintendency, and the risk run by the 
 public officials who antagonized it. 
 
THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL. 
 
 525 
 
 The Appropriation bill, with its proviso virtually repealing the 
 County Superintendency, was sent to the Senate. The committee 
 to which it was referred struck out the proviso, and efforts to restore 
 it in the Senate and to insert it as a new proposition both failed, the 
 latter by the decisive vote of five yeas to twenty-two nays. Among 
 the nays was the vote of Senator Buckalew, who the year before 
 opposed the enactment of the law, but was now willing it should 
 have a fair trial. In 1835 it. was the House that saved the school 
 law; in 1855, it was the Senate. The Senate barrier had proven 
 strong enough to resist the assault, as Dr. McClintock had foretold 
 the County Superintendents. 
 
 Bills to abolish the County Superintendency were introduced at 
 subsequent sessions of the Legislature, but they never had strength 
 enough to make them dangerous. The opposition most to be feared 
 took the shape of movements to do away with the office of County 
 Superintendent in particular counties. These continued to threaten 
 the system for many years, and sometimes cost the School Depart- 
 ment much trouble and annoyance before they could be checked. 
 
 The County Superintendency, during the first term of the office, 
 had a poor chance to achieve any marked success. In a few coun- 
 ties, there were competent officers with fair salaries. In some others 
 the officers were competent, but the salaries were insufficient. Then, 
 there were counties with medium salaries, and men of all degrees 
 of fitness for the office, and counties with low salaries, and men who 
 hardly earned the amount paid them for their services. Few con- 
 ventions of directors either appreciated the duties of the office or 
 understood what qualifications were necessary to fill it. Persons 
 were chosen who thought the place a sinecure. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, it is not to be wondered at that changes were made 
 during the three years in nearly one-half of the counties in the 
 State, and in some cases a change had to be made a second time. 
 But with all the drawbacks, marked progress was made and an im- 
 pulse given the system that brightened its whole future. 
 
 Excluding Philadelphia, the following is a comparison between 
 certain statistics of the year 1854 and those of 1857: 
 
 i8S4 
 1857 
 
 Districts. 
 
 1,555 
 1,688 
 
 Schools. 
 
 10,186 
 10,956 
 
 Term. 
 
 5m. 4d. 
 5m. 13d. 
 
 Teachers. 
 
 11,967 
 12,474 
 
 Salaries 
 Male. 
 Jao.31 
 24.00 
 
 Salaries 
 
 temale. 
 
 $12.81 
 
 16,60 
 
 Scholars. 
 
 488,492 
 54i,.'47 
 
 Appropriation . 
 
 Ji 56,389.25 
 164,723.5s 
 
 Expenditures. 
 
 $1,286,541.59 
 1.754,215.49 
 
 The most significant figures in the table are those which show 
 the increase in the length of term, in the salaries of teachers, in the 
 
J26 EDUCATION m PMNNSYLVANIA. 
 
 State appropriation, which is exclusive of the salaries paid the 
 County Superintendents, and in the general expenditures for the 
 system. If improvement in the qualification of teachers could be 
 measured in figures, the increase would undoubtedly be much 
 greater than in any of the items named. In the logic of events, 
 such an improvement had to come and be appreciated before longer 
 terms and better salaries were possible. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ADJUSTING THE WORK. 1857 TO 1866. 
 
 AN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DEPARTMENT. HICKOK. SULLIVAN. GOVERNOR 
 PACKER. BURROWES. BATES. COBURN. 
 
 THE period from 185710 1866 is marked in our school history 
 by peculiar characteristics. The task now was to enforce the 
 laws that had been passed, to apply the system that had been organ- 
 ized, to lead to battle and to victory the forces that had been mus- 
 tered. This was in a peculiar sense a work of adjustment— the 
 adjustment of the means given to the accomplishment of the end 
 sought. 
 
 When the Legislature of 1857 adjourned, there were upon the 
 statute-book about all the laws the friends of education had consid- 
 ered necessary to perfect the system. The Act of 1854 had been 
 shaped to suit their views, county supervision, so long demanded, 
 had been secured, provision had been made for Normal Schools, 
 the want of an independent School Department and an organ to 
 speak for it had been supplied ; in short, the law- makers had done 
 their part, a vast machine had been constructed, and the question 
 now was to make it work. A great ship had been launched, and 
 was ready for the voyage ; but was she seaworthy ? and would she 
 be able to reach her destined haven ? 
 
 Earlier, there had always been ground for anxiety lest the sys- 
 tem of common schools, either as a whole or in part, should be 
 abolished. The Act of 1854 was born in a storm. It required a 
 fierce battle to save the County Superintendency in 1855. There 
 was more or less danger for two years longer. But after the 
 second election of County Superintendents in 1857, there remained 
 little fear that county supervision, the least popular feature of the 
 law, would be disturbed, and certainly none that an attack would 
 be made upon any. of the other leading provisions of the system. 
 Thus the field of active operations was transferred from Harris- 
 burg to counties and school districts ; and the State school officers, 
 measurably released from the task of watching legislation, were 
 
 (527) 
 
c 28 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VAN/A. 
 
 much more free than their predecessors had been to aid local efforts 
 in behalf of schools. Indeed, politicians and men influential with 
 parties, lawyers to frame and interpret laws, useful as they had been 
 in the past at the head of the School Department, possessed no 
 longer in any eminent degree the special qualifications needed to 
 administer the system, and we shall see during the period of which 
 we speak, a line of State Superintendents learned in the law suc- 
 ceeded by a line of teachers learned in the business of educating 
 youth and managing schools. Hickok and Burrowes, lawyers by 
 profession but teachers in spirit, fitly mark the transition. 
 
 The results of the nine years of work, when we come to measure 
 it, will be found less satisfactory than might be expected, but it may 
 be well to remember in starting, that, in 1857, a financial crisis 
 greatly disturbed the business affairs of the whole country, and that 
 scarcely had its effects ceased when the great civil war broke out, 
 which, for four long years, continued to drench the land with blood. 
 Our schools were not dead amid the clash of arms, as the laws are 
 said to be, but marked progress in their improvement could hardly 
 be expected. 
 
 The School was separated from the State Department by the Act 
 of April 18, 1857, and Henry C. Hickok entered upon his duties, 
 as the head of the new Department, on the first Monday of June, 
 following. There had been great unanimity among the friends of 
 public education in asking for this separation, but as the Act pro- 
 viding for it neither widened the scope nor increased the force of the 
 ofifice, some disappointment was expressed concerning the change. 
 Indeed, its effect at first was to weaken rather than to strengthen 
 the Department. The influential hand of the Secretary of the 
 Commonwealth was withdrawn from the management of school 
 affairs, and no adequate provision was made to supply the loss; 
 and, what was of even more consequence, the Governors of the 
 State henceforth scarcely considered their administrations responsi- 
 ble for the conduct of school affairs, much less took it upon them- 
 selves to lead in the march of improvement. Still, the separation 
 came most likely in the only way it was possible ; and, doubtless, 
 the best thing to do was to accept it and allow time to remove such 
 defects in the law as experience might develop, thus following the 
 tentative course pursued with many other measures connected with 
 the system and with the system itself A great point was gained in 
 the fact that the system had now an independent head, with no 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. ^ 
 
 Other interest to distract or divide attention. For some months 
 after the separation, the Department continued to do its work in 
 the room previously occupied, and Superintendent Hickok, in his 
 report for 1857, thus speaks of the want of proper facilities for 
 transacting business : " This Department has less clerical force, in 
 proportion to its heavy labors, than any other branch of the Gov- 
 ernment. It is destitute of more than one-half of its own reports, 
 and the history of the system is not to be gathered from its ar- 
 chives. It is without a library of standard or current educational 
 works for use or reference. Purdon's Digest, a dictionary, a post- 
 office directory, an occasional report from other States, and a few 
 odd volumes of the Acts of Assembly and Journals of the Legis- 
 lature, complete the catalogue. It is in receipt of but one educa- 
 tional periodical, besides our own School Journal, and that is a do- 
 nation." Before the issue of the next report, the Department had 
 obtained the use of a fine room, known as the " Governor's Room," 
 in the second story of the capitol building, which had been com- 
 fortably fitted up for the purpose, and thus become not only legally 
 but locally divorced from the State Department. As completed, the 
 organization of the Department consisted of a Superintendent, a 
 Deputy Superintendent, two clerks and a messenger. John M.-Sul- 
 livan, who had served as Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth 
 during Governor Pollock's administration, was appointed Deputy 
 Superintendent of Common Schools. Mr. Sullivan was educated 
 for the bar, and had no special fitness for the place. He continued 
 in office till the end of the term, but, although pleasant in manners 
 and genial in his official relations, his influence was never felt to any 
 extent in school affairs. In effecting the organization of the new 
 Department, the Superintendent was sorely perplexed by the at- 
 tempted control of political leaders and the persistent claims of ap- 
 plicants for place. Bills were presented, in the Legislature of 1858, 
 for the repeal of the Separation Act, but they did not meet with 
 much favor. 
 
 With the establishment of an independent School Department, 
 the Governor of the Commonwealth ceased to be an important 
 factor in the work of education. The common schools were always 
 noticed in the annual messages, the general school statistics com- 
 piled by the State Superintendent were usually included, and now 
 and then an original suggestion or a new proposition concerning 
 education came from an Executive; but the personal and official 
 34 
 
c,Q EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 influence exerted in behalf of the public school interests by Wolf 
 and Ritner, Bigler and Pollock, was a thing of the past. The Gov- 
 ernors from 1857 onwards, William F. Packer, Andrew G. Curtin, 
 John W. Geary, John F. Hartranft, Henry M. Hoyt, and Robert E. 
 Pattison, were without exception warm friends of free schools, and 
 had there been necessity, would without doubt have done as much 
 as any of their predecessors to promote the good of the system ; but 
 as it was plain that the work of the School Department had become 
 technical, they saw the propriety of leaving it in the hands of those 
 to whom as experts they had intrusted it. Possibly Governor 
 Packer, as the link that connected the old Executive policy of man- 
 aging school affairs with the new Executive policy of appointing 
 skilled officers to manage them, is an exception. In his first mes- 
 sage he took an advanced position in regard to an independent 
 School Department, not only recommending that this Department 
 should remain separate, but that it should be " fully organized and 
 effective." He says that "the mere care and promotion of our sys- 
 tem of common schools, important and extensive as it obviously is, 
 should not be the sole object of such a Department. If it is true 
 that the power to punish crime includes also the right to prevent it 
 by providing for the proper intellectual and moral training of the 
 people, it would seem to follow that the Department charged with 
 the latter momentous duty, should also be in possession of all the 
 sources and subjects of information calculated to shed light upon 
 the object of its action. Hence the collection, arrangement, and 
 practical deductions from population and industrial statistics; from 
 natural defects, such as deafness and dumbness, blindness and lun- 
 acy; from crime in its various forms and developments; together 
 with such control over all the literary and scientific institutions in 
 the State, as shall bring their full condition into view — should also 
 belong to the same Department." For the reasons thus stated, the 
 Governor urges that in place of the School Department as then 
 organized, there be established a Department of Public Instruction, 
 with powers adequate to the performance of the comprehensive 
 work proper for such a Department. This was higher ground than 
 •even the most advanced school men of the day were prepared to 
 •occupy. In all his messages Governor Packer recommends liberal 
 appropriations to aid in establishing and maintaining State Normal 
 Schools. 
 
 But it is not so much for the recommendations of his messages, 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. c-j 
 
 as for the vetoes by which he arrested certain pernicious legislation 
 that would have paralyzed all efforts to establish schools for teach- 
 ers under the act of 1857, and been a virtual repeal of the Act itself, 
 that the friends of education should honor the name of Governor 
 Packer. At the session of 1859, a bill passed both Houses of the 
 Legislature, and was presented to the Governor for his signature, 
 appropriating to Westminster College, Lawrence county, the sum 
 of twelve hundred dollars annually for five years, on condition that 
 free tuition in all branches of English Literature and Science, and 
 in the Art of Teaching and Government, should be furnished to not 
 less than fifty, nor more than three hundred pupils, to be selected 
 by the County Superintendents and directors of common schools 
 from the counties of Lawre^ce, Beaver, Mercer, Butler, and Ve- 
 nango. This was a revival in a most objectionable form of the old 
 unsuccessful plan of preparing teachers in departments connected 
 with Colleges. Had the bill become a law, other Colleges would 
 have followed the example, and the State would have experienced 
 another prolonged experiment, and another disastrous failure. For- 
 tunately, the Governor prevented the mischief by a veto. At the 
 same session another bill came into the hands of the Governor, 
 entitled "An Act to incorporate the California Seminary, Wash- 
 ington county," which gave to a small private Academy all the 
 powers and privileges of a State Normal School and a common 
 school combined, without either requiring it to conform to the pro- 
 visions of the Normal School law, or subjecting it to the control* of 
 the common school authorities. A more vicious combination could 
 hardly be imagined, and the Governor very properly withheld his 
 signature, and returned the bill to the House of Representatives, 
 where it originated. The Normal School law was thus saved from 
 mutilation or destruction by a firm Executive, when both the 
 School Department and the friends of education in the Legislature 
 found themselves too weak to protect it. 
 
 Superintendent Hickok, at the outstart of his administration, 
 expressly stated in his first official report that " No changes in the 
 school law are proposed." None of much consequence took place 
 during his term of office. Perhaps the most important was the sup- 
 plement to the Normal School law, passed in 1859, putting in a 
 more practical shape some of the details of that Act, and providing 
 a way for the recognition of a single school, without waiting for 
 four to be ready to apply contemporaneously, as originally required. 
 
-,2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 But for this change the School Department was not responsible. 
 The bill was written and explained to the members of the Legisla- 
 ture by the Principal of the Normal School at Millersville, then 
 about in readiness to become a State Normal School under the law. 
 But while the State Superintendent asked for the passage of no new 
 laws, it required great vigilance on his part to prevent the mutila- 
 tion or repeal of old ones. It was an era of unrest and experiment 
 in school affairs, and nearly every member of the Legislature 
 thought it his duty to go up to Harrisburg with one or more bills 
 in his pocket relating to education. The attempt to tinker with the 
 subject became almost a mania in the Legislature, and there was 
 probably not a single session from 1854 to 1874, when the new 
 Constitution put an end to this kind of special legislation, that hun- 
 dreds of bills did not appear upon the files of members, proposing 
 changes of some kind in the laws relating to common schools. 
 Most of them were of a local character, but the passage of any con- 
 siderable fraction of them would have left us a multitude of broken, 
 disjointed fragments of school laws, instead of a compact and har- 
 monious system of public education. This locust-like swarm of 
 special legislation was more than ordinarily dangerous during the 
 years immediately following the new departure in school matters 
 taken in 1854. It consisted for the most part of attempts to repeal 
 what were then considered objectionable features in the law; and 
 failing to get rid of them as a whole, resort was had to local bills, 
 with the hope of getting rid of them in pieces. The County Super- 
 intendency was subject to attack in this way for years, and from 
 many quarters. Superintendent Hickok, during the whole of his 
 term, stood guard for the system, and used his best efforts, some- 
 times by open opposition and sometimes by quiet management, to 
 prevent it from being marred, if not undermined. 
 
 The first report of Superintendent Hickok was mainly an exposi- 
 tion of the nature and workings of the general law of 1854, and the 
 Normal School law of 1857. It announced no special line of policy, 
 and proposed little new in the way of improvement. Its chief aim 
 seems to have been to maintain the ground then occupied. The 
 report for 1858 was for the most part made up of a history of what 
 had been done during the year. Feeling stronger, in the report for 
 1859 ^ change was suggested in the law establishing the office of 
 County Superintendent, providing a fixed salary for the office, 
 allowing assistant superintendents in large counties, and defining the 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. 
 
 533 
 
 exact powers of the State Superintendent in removing a County 
 Superintendent from office. A liberal increase in the State appro- 
 priation for school purposes was also recommended. The follow- 
 ing is the closing paragraph : 
 
 The expiration of the term of office of the State Superintendent, with the 
 close of the school year on the first Monday in June next — six months in 
 advance of the meeting of the next Legislature, and at a time which will not 
 permit the present incumbent to report the operations of the last year of his 
 official connection with the system — may, perhaps, justify the remark upon 
 this occasion, that the services and sacrifices of its friends during the last five 
 years are not likely soon to be forgotten by the various functionaries of the 
 system, who have borne the brunt of the contest during that disturbed and 
 difficult transition period, and who can now rejoice with them in the ultimate 
 success which has been achieved. Five years ago the dubious question was, 
 Can the immense fabric of the revised school system be held together, until 
 it can be successfully operated, and its merits demonstrated by results ? Now, 
 with an enlarged organization, and firmer foothold, the only question is, how 
 can it best be improved, expanded and strengthened ? In transferring the 
 arduous guidance of the system to other hands, at the appointed time, the 
 undersigned is happy in the consciousness that, through the combined opera- 
 tion and protecting influences that have been at work, the system is in belter 
 condition, and upheld by a more appreciative public sentiment, than at any 
 former period in its history ; and with no adverse, and some slight progres- 
 sive legislation at this propitious period, it will enter at once, with larger 
 powers and more adequate resources, upon a career of extensive and unex- 
 ampled prosperity. 
 
 Outside of the usual routine, the most notable office-work per- 
 formed during the term of Superintendent Hickok was the prepara- 
 tion and publication of plans of buildings for Normal Schools ; the 
 compilation of special statistics exhibiting minutely the condition 
 of education in the State ; the editing and printing of a new Digest 
 of School Laws ; the issue of an improved style of teachers' certifi- 
 cates, and the furnishing for the official department of the School 
 Journal of a large amount of valuable matter, including decisions on 
 questions of law, explanations, instructions to Superintendents, 
 directors and teachers, forms, and other documents. The designs 
 for the Normal School buildings were prepared under the direction 
 of the Superintendent by Alfred Biles, a Philadelphia architect, and 
 years afterwards they were followed with certain modifications in 
 the construction of the buildings at West Chester, Shippensburg, 
 Indiana and Lock Haven. The special statistics were collected by 
 the County Superintendents, and compiled and published by the 
 Department. They concern the condition of schoolhouses, school 
 furniture, schools and teachers. Those of 1857 show among other 
 
c-,. EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 things that in the opinion of the County Superintendents, there were 
 about three thousand schoolhouses in the State " unfit to be the 
 training places for youth;" four thousand with insufficient or injur- 
 ious furniture ; three thousand schools in which there was " neither 
 grading of the school nor classification of the pupils," and at least 
 five thousand teachers who had never read a book or a periodical 
 on teaching. 
 
 Superintendent Hickok did much more work outside of the 
 Department than had been customary with his predecessors. There 
 were few counties or considerable towns that he did not visit, and 
 he addressed large numbers of teachers' institutes and other educa- 
 tional meetings. An effective speaker, and fully alive to the great 
 interest intrusted to his care, he did much to remove objections to 
 the system, to improve its local administration, and to strengthen its 
 hold upon the public mind. Of this work in his report for 1859, 
 he thus speaks: 
 
 Visiting different portions of the Commonwealth, from time to time, during 
 the past five years, to adjust controversies; explain the policy and details of 
 the school law ; confer with citizens, superintendents, directors and teachers ; 
 address meetings and institutions, and endeavor to infuse life and uniformity 
 into the workings of the system, has required official travel to the extent of 
 nearly forty thousand miles, sometimes under favorable, sometimes under 
 inauspicious circumstances, yet it is believed not wholly in vain. It was soon 
 discovered, from the avalanche of correspondence pouring into the Depart- 
 ment that there were difficulties in public sentiment lying behind the individ- 
 ual questions presented, that could be better adjusted by oral explanations in 
 a public meeting or personal interview than by the most elaborate correspond- 
 ence. The County Superintendency being greatly misunderstood, it was 
 found that the office and officer not unfrequently needed explanation and 
 defence from headquarters. In other States these visitations are enjoined by 
 law and provision made for them accordingly. Here they have been volun- 
 tary, or rather involuntary, under the pressure of necessity. 
 
 Thomas H. Burrowes became Superintendent of Common 
 
 Schools for the second time on the first Monday in June, i860. If 
 
 any one not a professional teacher was qualified for the place, he 
 
 was the right man to fill it. His was the hand that had done most 
 
 to organize the system when first established, and he had ever 
 
 watched its growth with a father's interest. He was an educator, 
 
 if not a teacher, although he had few of the qualifications that would 
 
 have fitted him for the practical duties of the school-room. But 
 
 with all his fitness for the office, Superinten ent Burrowes, while 
 
 serving his second term, was never at his best. There were now no 
 
 plans to devise, no system to organize, no laws to frame, no founda- 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. 535 
 
 tion principles to enunciate. This work had been done. The 
 special qualifications then most needed at the head of a system, in 
 addition to those of an executive character, were the knowledge and 
 skill of an expert in the art of teaching and managing a school. 
 These Superintendent Burrowes did not pretend to possess. Besides, 
 his talents very much better fitted him for planning work for others 
 than for executing it himself. But what remained to do in his line 
 he did well. In his first report he began by recommending an in- 
 crease of the State appropriation, aid to Normal School's and 
 teachers' institutes, salaries of County Superintendents to be fixed 
 according to amount of service, authority to trustees to convey 
 Academy property to school districts, an additional clerk in the 
 Department, and changes in some of the minor details of the system 
 in which its working machinery seemed to require amendment. 
 His second report in substance repeats these recommendations; 
 but its most prominent feature is " A review of the origin and estab- 
 lishment ,of the different institutions in our educational system and 
 their relation to each other." In this review it is shown that out of 
 the diversity in nationality and religion of the original settlers upon 
 the soil of Penn.sylvania, and the circumstances that caused them to 
 scatter far and wide over a great extent of country, there grew up a 
 system of education here differing from that of New England, on 
 the one hand in giving less attention to the education of the masses, 
 and from that of the Southern Colonies, on the other, in making 
 some provision for the education of children of all classes. In 
 Pennsylvania, speaking generally. Colleges were first established, 
 and then, growing downwards, came Academies and Seminaries, 
 and finally there sprang up common schools and Normal Schools 
 to prepare teachers for them. The report gives the following as the 
 theory of our State system of education : 
 
 The common school, wherever a sufficient number of pupils can be col- 
 lected together to constitute a day school, for none but a day school can ever 
 be a common school, for rudimentary training: and as soon as circumstances 
 will permit, the same common schools so graded that the highest m the series 
 shall fit the students for the general pursuits of life, or for admission uUo Col- 
 lege The High Common School, and the Boarding Academy and Seminary 
 -the last two to receive the pupil from the ungraded common school, wher- 
 ■ ever that imperfection of the latter exists-from the larger cit.es desiring to 
 send a portion of their youth to the pure air of the country, and from other 
 sources; and all to prepare their students for entrance into actual life or into 
 College And finally, at the one extreme, the College, for tha broad libe.al 
 cuUufe based upon Ais generous preparation, which shall fit its students for 
 
c ,5 ED UCA riON IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 the proper acquisition of professional knowledge, or for the spheres of the 
 highest intelligence in life ; and at the other the Normal School, infusing true 
 mental development, life and success into the whole. 
 
 This theory, the report further maintains, excludes all denomina- 
 tional religious instruction by public authority or under State aus- 
 pices. Such instruction is excluded from the common school, but 
 it is assumed that it will be given in the family or by the church. 
 As in Colleges, Academies, and Normal Schools, the students are 
 from home, and must either receive religious instructioti in these insti- 
 tutions or not at all, the State is compelled to leave this higher form 
 of education to the guidance of private individuals or corporations, 
 though she is free to aid it with appropriations, or to regulate it in 
 a general way. Neither does the State find a place in her system 
 for technical schools, or schools of an exclusively professional char- 
 acter. She cannot undertake to prepare all her citizens for a pro- 
 fession or an avocation in life, and therefore she must not undertake 
 to prepare any. The education she imparts must stop at the end of 
 a course that is equally accessible and equally advantageous to all. 
 
 The new projects brought forward in the report for 1862 were, 
 first, the abolition of the office of County Superintendent as then 
 constituted, and in it's stead the adoption of a provision for the 
 division of the State into about twenty-five districts, with the ap- 
 pointment of a Superintendent of Schools in each. The Superin- 
 tendents thus appointed were to be men of "high literary and 
 scientific acquirements, and of full professional skill, and of recent 
 professional experience." Their salaries were to be fixed by law, 
 and equal in amount. They were to be relieved in part of the duty 
 of visiting schools, their place in this respect being filled by an offi- 
 cer to be appointed by each board of directors, called a District 
 Superintendent. An attempt was made at the session of 1863 to 
 pass a bill of this character, but it met with little support in the 
 Legislature, and never had the sanction of any considerable num- 
 ber of the active friends of public education. Second, an appropria- 
 tion from the State to Colleges, Academies, Seminariesi and High 
 Scl^ools, on certain conditions as to courses of study, number of 
 students, inspection by State authority, and an annual report. This 
 project, like the first, was received with little favor. 
 
 In 1862, Superintendent Burrowes prepared a supplement to the 
 school law, which passed the Legislature and was approved by the 
 Governor, April iith. It was a lengthy Act of nineteen sections, 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. ,^7 
 
 but was intended to amend the general law only in matters of minor 
 detail. The provision of most importance was that which reduced 
 the school month to twenty-two days, closed the schools on Satur- 
 days, and required two Saturdays in each month to be appropriated 
 to institutes for the improvement of teachers. That part of the Act 
 which made District institutes obligatory was unfortunately repealed 
 in 1865. 
 
 The decisions made by Superintendent Burrowes on points of 
 school law, with the explanations, instructions and advice that ac- 
 companied them, constitute a good commentary on the whole sub- 
 ject. Seven hundred and twenty-nine articles of this character 
 appeared in the official columns of the School Journal during the 
 years 1861 and 1862. Besides these, several thousand letters were 
 written deciding cases of local difficulty and giving information to 
 school officers and citizens. Copies of these letters, made at the 
 time, are still preserved in the Department. In 1862, the Superin- 
 tendent was engaged for some months in revising and re-arranging 
 the Digest of School Laws. For the first time an attempt was 
 made to collect, under a series of distinct heads, all the sections, 
 decisions and explanations that belonged to each respectively. The 
 result was a Digest much more methodical than any hitherto in use. 
 
 Early in his term. Superintendent Burrowes endeavored to raise 
 the standard of qualifications used in certificating teachers, and 
 make it more uniform throughout the State. To this end he issued 
 instructions to the County Superintendents, first insisting upon the 
 adoption of a minimum standard below which no certificate should 
 be granted, and then naming in detail the degrees of scholarship in 
 the several branches taught in common schools requisite in his 
 judgment as conditions for granting the different kinds and grades 
 of teachers' certificates. The movement was timely and in the right 
 direction. The law of 1854 was from necessity construed at first to 
 permit the granting of certificates to teachers with very moderate 
 acquirements, even in the branches they were expected to teach. 
 This forced -construction of the law was considered a less evil than 
 that of allowing one-half or three-fourths of the schools in the State 
 to remain idle, but it was meant to be a mere temporary expedient, 
 as was plainly indicated by the name " Provisional " given to the 
 certificate of lowest grade, and by the length of time for which it 
 was granted, a single year. Seeing danger to the system, should 
 the granting of these low-grade certificates become a permanent 
 
C38 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 policy, the State Superintendent determined first to elevate the 
 standard according to which they were granted, and eventually to 
 dispense with them altogether. The difficulty of the task was 
 much greater than he supposed, but his well-meant effort no doubt 
 resulted in good. 
 
 As had been his custom when he first held office. Superintendent 
 Burrowes made frequent official visits to different sections of the 
 State, everywhere doing what he could in a general way to 
 strengthen the system; but as he was no teacher, he was com- 
 pelled to leave the more strictly professional field-work of his ad- 
 ministration to another. He intrusted it to the hands of his Deputy, 
 Samuel P. Bates. 
 
 Dr. Bates was deputy State Superintendent during both Bur- 
 rowes' and Coburn's administrations. He was born in Massachu- 
 setts, and graduated at Brown University in 185 1. Coming to 
 Pennsylvania in 1852, he was for some time tutor in the family of 
 Edgar Huidekoper, of Meadville. He then became in succession 
 Principal of the Meadville Academy, County Superintendent of 
 Crawford county, and Deputy State Superintendent. Subsequently, 
 he compiled for the State the voluminous History of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Volunteers. Dr. Bates had instructed classes of teachers 
 while in charge of the Meadville Academy, and later wrote " Insti- 
 tute Lectures," and other works on education, so that he was 
 thought to be specially qualified to visit schools and give needed 
 professional advice to teachers and Superintendents. His work in 
 this regard extended to almost every county in the State. During 
 the year 1862, he spent some weeks at a Gymnasium in Boston, 
 fitting himself to introduce at teachers' institutes improved methods 
 of physical training. He also visited the leading New England 
 Colleges, that he might obtain information for use at home. 
 Although a clerk was added to the Department force in 186 1, the 
 work in the office was still too heavy to spare the services of the 
 Deputy Superintendent. The demand for work outside was still 
 more imperative, and in the emergency, the Deputy Superintend- 
 ent was made " Traveling Agent," and an officer was appointed to 
 take his place in the Department, to be paid by the voluntary con- 
 tributions of his fellow-officials, until such time as the Legislature 
 might be pleased to make the needed appropriation. As Traveling 
 Agent, Deputy Superintendent Bates, during the year 1863, in- 
 spected the schools of a number of the large towns of the State, and 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. ,-_ 
 
 visited many Colleges, Normal Schools, Academies, and Female 
 Seminaries. The results of his observations were published in a 
 series of articles in the School Journal, and in the State report for 
 that year. The extent of his labors appears from the statement 
 that he traveled during the year in the discharge of his duties eight 
 thousand miles, delivered one hundred and twenty-two addresses, 
 and visited one hundred and forty-eight schools. When Coburn 
 became the head of the Department, Bates resumed his place at the 
 desk, but he continued to perform much of the out-door work of 
 the Department as before. 
 
 Charles R. Coburn, by the appointment of Governor Curtin, 
 became Superintendent of Common Schools on the first Monday of ' 
 June, 1863. Mr. Coburn was born in a log cabin, in Bradford 
 county, in 1 809. He had no advantages of education except those 
 obtained in a rudimentary country school. He taught school at 
 Owego, New York, in 1827, at eight dollars a month. Disposed to 
 make teaching a business for life, he commenced about this time, 
 without assistance, a course of study in the higher mathematics and 
 in other branches. He was an assistant teacher in Owego Acad- 
 emy in 1837; was present at the organization of the New York State 
 Teachers' Association in 1845, and was elected President in 1848; 
 became one of the editors of the New York Teacher in 1852, and 
 at the same time acted as Principal of Binghamton Academy ; as- 
 sumed charge of the Normal and Mathematical department of the 
 Susquehanna Institute in his native county in 1854, and three years 
 later was commissioned County Superintendent of that county. 
 While serving as County Superintendent, he was elected President 
 of the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Association. Mr. Coburn was 
 the first professional teacher placed at the head of the school inter- 
 ests of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Superintendent Coburn was an honest, hard-working, pains-tak- 
 ing man, and a devoted friend of public education; but he was too 
 cautious to assume great responsibilities, and distrusted his own 
 abilities too much to be a leader. He preferred hiding from an 
 enemy rather than fighting him, and never risked a battle, if he 
 could help it, where there was a possible chance for defeat. His 
 teaching and ideas of teaching were the best of an old-fashioned 
 kind; naturally conservative, and mechanical in his methods, the 
 so-called modern improvements in the profession had httle of his 
 support or sympathy. 
 
c ,Q EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 While the new Superintendent was settling himself to work in 
 his Department, the Confederate forces under Lee, flushed with 
 victory, had, invaded Pennsylvania and were approaching Harris- 
 burg. The danger to the Capital was deemed so threatening that 
 he shipped, June i6th, the books and records in his care to Phila- 
 delphia, where they remained until after the battle of Gettysburg 
 and the enemy had left the State. This was but the beginning ; the 
 effects of the war seriously disturbed the working of the Depart- 
 ment during the whole term. 
 
 The State school reports for 1863, 1864 and 1865, are exceedingly 
 plain documents, without a single striking feature. They contain 
 carefully compiled statistics for the respective years, faithful accounts 
 of the work that had been done in and out of the Department, and 
 some business-like comments upon such features of the system as 
 seemed to attract attention ; but this is all. Their .spirit is wholly 
 negative. No improvements to the system of any moment are sug- 
 gested, no legislation of importance is asked for, no advance-ground 
 is pointed to as the object of a campaign, no call is made upon the 
 educational forces of the State for a forward movement in any direc- 
 tion. This conservative policy was without doubt partly owing to 
 the terrific struggle then at its height, which taxed the energies and 
 resources of the State and the nation to the exclusion of all other 
 objects, however meritorious. 
 
 Little legislation of moment took place during Superintendent 
 Coburn's term. A clause in the appropriation bill of 1863 provided 
 that the money appropriated to common schools should be distrib- 
 uted to the different districts in proportion to the number of children 
 attending school, instead of in proportion to the number of taxables, 
 as had been previously the case. The Department found the new 
 basis so unreliable that action in making the distribution was 
 delayed until the meeting of the Legislature of 1864, when at its 
 instance the old basis was restored. In 1864, a bill providing for 
 the establishment of District School Libraries became a law. It was 
 prepared by Ex-Superintendent Burrowes. The law still continues 
 in force ; but as it confers no power to raise money for the purchase 
 of books, it is almost wholly inoperative. At the same session, an 
 Act called the General Bounty law was passed, requiring school 
 directors under certain circumstances to levy, assess and collect a 
 tax to pay bounties to volunteers. As the purposes of this Act had 
 no connection with school affairs, and in some localities it was very 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. . , , 
 
 unpopular, the attempt to enforce it did much to injure the system, 
 by introducing into school boards confusion, controversy and party 
 spirit. Several boards were broken up in consequence, and the 
 schools of their districts remained closed. 
 
 A supplement to the school law was prepared by the Department 
 in 1865, and without important changes passed the Legislature. 
 Its design was merely to perfect certain details of the system. The 
 most important amendment was a section defining the character of 
 the returns to be made in the election of County Superintendents, 
 and providing a mode of making objections to the issue of a com- 
 mission to these officers ; and a section fixing the age at which a 
 child could be admitted to a common school at six instead of five 
 years. By a further supplement the holding of District institutes, 
 obligatory under the Act of 1862, was left to the discretion of boards 
 of directors. This was a backward step, as Superintendent Coburn 
 himself, in his report for 1863, stated that the Act of 1862 had 
 quadrupled the number of District institutes. Of the change the 
 Editor of the School Journal thus spoke feelingly : " At any time 
 this would have been deplorable, for it is the first retrograde step 
 that has marred the history of our State system of education; but 
 at the present juncture, when better teachers are everywhere needed, 
 and therefore when every means of improving teachers should be 
 cherished and promoted, to strike down this generally admitted 
 good mode, at the requirement of unwilling Superintendents, hos- 
 tile boards, and unimproving teachers, does seem to be anything 
 but loyalty to the system." 
 
 During the whole of Superintendent Coburn's term, matter inter- 
 esting to school officers and teachers continued to appear in the 
 official department of the School journal; and, in 1865, there was 
 published, under the direction of the Superintendent, a revised 
 Digest of School Laws, based upon the Digest of 1862, but in 
 pocket size, a form that proved very convenient. The following, 
 from the report of 1864, presents a summary of the work for that 
 year both in and out of the Department: Letters written and re- 
 corded, one thousand one hundred and thirty-four; letters written 
 but not recorded, eight hundred and thirty-one; the usual number 
 of blanks, circulars and reports, prepared and forwarded ; institutes 
 attended by the Superintendent and Deputy in thirty counties, and 
 seventeen thousand four hundred and forty-five miles traveled by 
 these officers in the discharge of official duties. The other years 
 
r^2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 of the term were not less exacting in labor. Notes of the institutes 
 attended and of the schools visited, from the pen of the State Super- 
 intendent, frequently appeared in the columns of the School journal. 
 
 Mention must now be made of the leading educational events 
 occurring from 1857 to 1866, which were not directly connected 
 with the School Department. 
 
 The second election of County Superintendents took place May 
 4, 1857. The office was still far from being popular with many of 
 the conventions of school directors which were called to fill it; but 
 they understood much better than at the first election, three years 
 previous, the character of the duties to be performed and the quali- 
 fications needed in a Superintendent. Of the Superintendents 
 elected, fourteen were of those first commissioned, and thirty-one 
 of the sixty-four were entirely new to the office. Forty-eight of 
 those chosen were practical teachers; but, though a strong disposi- 
 tion was manifested to exclude candidates from other professions, 
 ten clergymen, three lawyers, and three doctors, found a way to 
 secure an election. Most of these, however, had at one time been 
 engaged in teaching ; and several of them, when elected, had charge 
 of schools. In the list were to be found the names of tried and ex- 
 perienced men like Good, of Berks; Shelly, of Cumberland ; Ingram, 
 of Dauphin; Gibbons, of Fayette; Bollman, of Indiana; Kltige, of 
 Lebanon; Detrick, of Monroe; Acker, of Montgomery; Reimen- 
 snyder, of Northumberland, and Krewson, of Schuylkill. Of the 
 new men subsequently well known to the school and other interests 
 of the State, may be named Charles R. Coburn, of Bradford; Wil- 
 liam H. Johnson, of Bucks; S. B. McCormick, of Cambria; Frank- 
 lin Taylor, of Chester; Samuel P. Bates, of Crawford; Charles W. 
 Deans, of Delaware; Charles R. Early, of Elk; John S. Crumbaugh, 
 of Lancaster; Calvin W. Gilfillan, of Mercer, and J. R. McAfee, of 
 Westmoreland. No doubt the statement of Superintendent Hickok 
 is correct, that " there was more good material and better qualifica- 
 tions thrown into the office than at any former period." Besides, 
 the salaries were more equalized, and increased in the aggregate 
 ^9,608.50. 
 
 Of the election of County Superintendent?, in t86o and 1863, it 
 needs only be said that there was an increase in the professional 
 ability and experience of the men chosen to the office, and a small 
 advance in the average salary, the amount voted in 1857 being $38,- 
 870; in i860, ;g39,56i ; and in 1863, ;^40, 164. At the election in 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. r^■. 
 
 i860, only five of the first Superintendents were elected for the 
 third time, Ingram, Gibbons, Bollman, Detrick, and Krewson ; but 
 two others, Gordon and Stutzman, came back to the work after 
 being out of it for a term. In 1863, Ingram and Stutzman alone of 
 the old corps remained; but of the new men elected in i860, and 
 re-elected in 1863, those most distinguished for long and meritor- 
 ious services to the cause of public education must be named: they 
 were A. T. Douthett, of Allegheny; John S. Ermentrout, of Berks; 
 S. S. Overholt, of Bucks; W. W. Woodruff, of Chester; S. R. 
 Thompsonj of Crawford; David Evans, of Lancaster; Henry Houck, 
 of Lebanon ; Charles H. Dale, of Venango ; W. F. Dalrymple, of 
 Warren ; Elias O. Ward, of Wayne, and S. S. Jack, of Westmore- 
 land. 
 
 Conventions of County Superintendents were held at Reading, in 
 July, 1857; at Harrisburg, in January, 1864; and at Pittsburgh, 
 November, 1864. Hickok called the Convention held at Reading, 
 and Coburn those held at Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. No Con- 
 vention of Superintendents was held during the last two years of 
 either Hickok's or of Coburn's administration ; and Burrowes, for 
 some reason, deemed it inexpedient to call one at any time. At 
 Reading, fifty-eight of the sixty-four Superintendents were in atten- 
 dance. Superintendent Shelly presided. The State Superinten- 
 dent thus sums up its work in his annual report : 
 
 Two days were closely occupied by instructive and valuable reports on the 
 object and best method of conducting teachers' examinations; the annulment 
 and renewal of teachers' certificates; district institutes; county institutes; 
 uniiormity of text-books; graded schools in town and country; voluntary 
 efforts for the improvement of schoolhouses and grounds, together with profit- 
 able discussions of numerous other matters of practical importance connected 
 with the duties of County Superintendents and the interests of the school 
 system. 
 
 About fifty Superintendents attended the Convention at Harris- 
 burg; Superintendent Evans was elected President, and the pro- 
 ceedings were very spirited and interesting. The questions most 
 earnestly discussed were those relating to teachers' certificates, the 
 improvement of teachers, educational statistics, parental coopera- 
 tion, institutes, increase in the school term, and decrease in the 
 number of directors. Governor Curtin read a stirring speech, and 
 addresses were delivered by Messrs. Burrowes, of the School Jour- 
 nal, Wickersham, of the State Normal School at Millersville, and 
 Cooper, of the State Normal School, at Edinboro. But nineteen 
 
c^ ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN! A. 
 
 Superintendents attended the Convention at Pittsburgh; Superin- 
 tendent Thompson presided, and although somewhat discouraged 
 by the smallness of their numbers, those present continued in ses- 
 sion three days, and faithfully transacted the business that had 
 brought them together. The Convention favored a modification of 
 the law establishing District institutes, a change in the mode of 
 fixing the salaries of County Superintendents, and a greater uni- 
 formity in text-books; but most of its time was occupied in consid- 
 ering practical questions connected with the work of superintend- 
 ing schools. 
 
 Annual reports from the County Superintendents were regularly 
 published in the State report during the nine years under review. 
 They contain a detailed history of the educational events transpir- 
 ing in the several counties. They give descriptions of school- 
 houses, school grounds, school furniture and apparatus, pointing 
 out deficiencies, and making mention of every step in the way of 
 improvement; they speak of the schools, their grade, their classifi- 
 cation, the branches taught, the books used, and the methods of 
 instruction practiced, noting always the changes made for the bet- 
 ter; they report the result of the examination of teachers, mention- 
 ing their age, the extent of their professional education, the length 
 of time they have taught, the grade of certificate held, their success 
 or failure in the schoolroom, and the efforts they are making for 
 improvement; they enumerate the teachers' institutes and other 
 educational meetings held in the several counties, and are careful 
 to note all signs of progress ; they introduce the school boards, and 
 are glad to tell when they perform their duties well according to 
 law, furnishing the best facilities for instruction within their means, 
 employing good teachers and paying them fair salaries, grading 
 their schools when practicable, visiting them regularly, and doing 
 all they can to promote the cause of free schools in their districts ; 
 they note the condition of public sentiment respecting education, 
 rejoicing at every indication of improvement, and welcoming every 
 encouraging word from influential citizens, and from press and pul- 
 pit; they give an account of their own work, the miles travejed, 
 the teachers examined, the schools visited, the institutes held, the 
 addresses delivered, the time employed in instructing teachers, the 
 articles written for magazines and newspapers ; nor are they back- 
 ward in speaking of the opposition met with, the hindrances that 
 stand in the way of progress, and the means best calculated to 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. CAt 
 
 advance the cause in which they are engaged — all this and more 
 may be found in the story told year by year in the reports of such 
 County Superintendents as loved their work, and were competent 
 to perform it. This long series of reports may seem to the casual 
 reader monotonous, to continually repeat themselves. Not so; 
 they show the movement, fast or slow, by which our great scheme 
 for the education of the whole people perfects itself, lifting with it 
 as it does, the whole social fabric. Dull eyes only cannot see it. 
 
 The Normal School movements, that had been started by the 
 operation of the County Superintendency, began to ripen and mul- 
 tiply after the passage of the Act of 1857. That at Millersville 
 shaped itself into conformity with the Act, and was officially recog- 
 nized as the first of our State Normal Schools during the adminis- 
 tration of Superintendent Hickok, in 1859. Those at Edinboro and 
 Mansfield followed the example and became State Normal Schools, 
 under the law, in 1861 and 1862, respectively, while Superintendent 
 Burrowes was at the head of the Department. There were move- 
 ments of the same kind at other places, but although they accom- 
 plished much good, they were either later in reaching maturity 
 than the institutions named, or their strength was insufficient to 
 enable them to mature at all. 
 
 The reports of the Normal Schools began to appear regularly in 
 the State reports as soon as they formed an official connection with 
 the common school system. The first Millersville report, 1859, 
 states that the cost of the grounds, buildings and equipment of 
 the school was ^60,000, and the number of students in attendance 
 four hundred. In the second report, i860, the Principal thus de- 
 fines the method of teaching in a Normal School as compared with 
 that in institutions for general education : " More attention is paid 
 to the logical relations of the several parts of each branch of study, 
 and of the several branches of study to one another. All pupils 
 are well instructed in the elements of knowledge, before entering 
 upon the study of the higher branches. Pupils are required not 
 only to know thoroughly what they study, but to explain it in con- 
 cise^ clear and methodical language." He also states that instruc- 
 tion in the science and art of teaching, at Millersville, consists, in 
 addition to school economy and school government, of a course 
 upon " the nature of the several branches of study and the methods 
 of teaching them," and a course upon " the nature of the human 
 powers and faculties, and the means and methods of their culture." 
 35 
 
c>5 EDUCA riON IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 This general and technical instruction is supplemented by sufficient 
 practice in the Model School. 
 
 In 1 86 1, Edinboro reports an outlay for grounds, buildings and fur- 
 niture of ^24,000 and an attendance of one hundred and thirty-seven 
 students in the Normal Department. In 1862, Millersville had in 
 the Normal Department four hundred and forty-nine students and 
 Edinboro one hundred and thirty-six. The students in the Normal 
 Department at Millersville, in 1863, were four hundred and seventy- 
 four, at Edinboro, one hundred and ninety. In 1864, Mansfield 
 joins the other two schools, with a report estimating the value of its 
 plant at ;^26,700, and giving one hundred and ninety-seven as the 
 number of its students in the Normal Department. During this 
 year Millersville reports five hundred and twenty-nine students, and 
 Edinboro three hundred and forty-nine. In 1865, the three schools 
 reported students in their respective Normal Departments, as fol- 
 lows : Millersville five hundred and sixty-five, Edinboro five hundred 
 and eighty-four, and Mansfield two hundred and forty-nine. The 
 graduates were, Millersville twelve, Edinboro eight. The first State 
 appropriations to the Normal Schools were made in 1861. By 
 1865, each of the three schools, then in operation, had received 
 ^15,000. 
 
 From 1857 to 1866, the State Teachers' Association met at 
 Chambersburg, in 1857; ^^ Indiana, the same year; at ScrantoH, 
 in 1858; at West Chester, in 1859; at Greensburg, in i860; at 
 Lewisburg, in 1861; at Reading, in 1863; at Altoona, in 1864, and 
 at Meadville, in 1865. The invasion of the State in 1862 prevented 
 the holding of a meeting for that year. A Western Pennsylvania 
 Teachers' Association was organized at Pittsburgh, in December, 
 1858, and subsequently held meetings at Pittsburgh, New Brighton 
 and Washington, and then merged with the State Association at 
 Greensburg. In addition, county teachers' associations in from 
 one-half to two-thirds of all the counties, and teachers' institutes in 
 as many or more, kept alive among teachers an interest in their 
 work and did much to promote their improvement. Nor was there 
 a time, while the schools remained in session, during any one of the 
 nine years, when from four to six hundred district institutes were 
 >not holding monthly meetings for the purposes of mutual improve- 
 ■ment. As an aid to influences of the character just mentioned, there 
 was scarcely a newspaper in the State that did not publish occasional 
 articles on the subject of education, and from one to two score of 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. ,. .„ 
 
 them devoted special columns to the discussion of topics relating to 
 schools. But details concerning these agencies must be looked for 
 in another chapter. 
 
 The most notable educational events occurring during the period 
 of which we speak, were the legislative visit to the Normal School 
 at Millersville, the educational convention at Harrisburg, in 1862, 
 the formation of the National Educational Association at Philadel- 
 phia, in 1857, and its meeting at Harrisburg, in 1865, and the or- 
 ganization of the Soldiers' Orphan Schools, under State authority, 
 in 1864. 
 
 To visit an educational institution in a body and in the middle of 
 a session, was a new thing for the Legislature of Pennsylvania. A 
 day was spent by the members at the Normal School, inspecting 
 the buildings, witnessing the recitations, watching the pupil-teach- 
 ing in the Model School, eating a dinner and making speeches. 
 They seemed to be delighted with the school, and the school was 
 greatly cheered and strengthened by the visit. 
 
 The Educational Convention of 1862 met August Sth, in the 
 House of Representatives at Harrisburg. It was called at the 
 instance of the State Superintendent, and it had for its leading 
 object the unification of the varied school interests of the State. 
 The call was addressed to "The Professors and Trustees of Col- 
 leges and Normal Schools, the Principals and Assistants of Acad- 
 emies and Female Seminaries, and the Trustees of such as are 
 incorporated, the Principals and Assistants of the High and Graded 
 Common Schools, the teachers of such other common schools as 
 can attend, the directors and County Superintendents of the State, 
 and the active friends of education generally." This invitation was 
 broad, but not broader than the body that responded to it, or the 
 proceedings that took place at the meeting. County Superinten- 
 dent Coburn presided, and among those who actively participated 
 in the meeting, were leading men of all the classes designated in 
 the call, including in addition to the officers of the School Depart- 
 ment, three Presidents of Colleges, E. V. Gerhart of Franklin and 
 Marshall, J. R. Loomis of Lewisburg University, and H. M. John- 
 son of Dickinson; eight Principals and Professors of Normal 
 Schools ; sixteen Principals of Academies, Seminaries, and High 
 Schools; twenty-nine County Superintendents, ten school direc- 
 tors, and thirty-three teachers who were unclassified. During the 
 three days the Convention remained in session, all phases of the 
 
c.g EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 educational question were discussed, and if practical difficulties 
 were found to stand in the way of a unity of interests, there were 
 none that interfered with the flow of good feeling. 
 
 The National Educational Association, for many years the larges]: 
 and most influential body of educators in America, was organized 
 at Philadelphia, August 26th, 1857. The Pennsylvanians who 
 actively participated in the proceedings were State Superintendent 
 Hickok, James P. Wickersham, of Lancaster county, and William 
 Roberts and P. A. Cregar, of Philadelphia. Born in weakness upon 
 our soil, the Association came back to us in strength a few years 
 later. In August, 1865, a three days' meeting was held at Harris- 
 burg. Peace had come, the country was glad, and the stir of the 
 new national life and its promises for the future brought together 
 for conference some hundreds of leading teachers and school offi- 
 cers, from all sections of the Union except the extreme South. 
 Governor Curtin warmly welcomed the visitors to the State, the 
 citizens of Harrisburg entertained them at a splendid banquet, and 
 an excursion was given them to the battle-field of Gettysburg, still 
 roughly scarred with the dreadful marks of the recent struggle. 
 As a return for this hospitality, a Pennsylvanian, James P. Wicker- 
 sham, was made President of the Association. Mr. Wickersham 
 had read one of the principal papers laid before the Association on 
 the timely topic, " Education as an Element in the Reconstruction 
 of the Union." 
 
 In another place will be told the story of the Pennsylvania 
 Soldiers' Orphan Schools — how thousands of children, orphaned 
 and left destitute by the war, were gathered into schools and main- 
 tained and educated until able to care for themselves. Here it 
 need only be said that the first steps in this good work were taken 
 in 1864. 
 
 Better than any other one thing, the work of grading schools 
 measures the progress of our system of public instruction. When 
 this work stops, progress in all directions stops; and when it 
 advances, it is sure to carry with it an advance of the whole line. 
 In a few favored localities the common schools were graded soon 
 after the adoption of the system. All of the State Superintendents 
 noted movements of this kind and commended them. Under the 
 law of 1854, increased effort was made to grade the schools in 
 many cities and towns, and even in some rural districts. Superin- 
 tendent Hickok, in his report for 1857, stated that the number of 
 
ADJUSTING THE WORK. 
 
 S49 
 
 graded schools in forty-eight counties was eight hundred and 
 seventy-five. This would indicate about a thousand in the State 
 outside of Philadelphia. In his report for 1858, he speaks of the 
 new "Union" or Graded School buildings in Pittsburgh, Erie, 
 Reading, Williamsport, Harrisburg, Washington, Norristown, War- 
 ren, Lock Haven, New Castle, Lewisburg, Scranton, Hyde Park, 
 AUentown, Easton, Chambersburg, Pine Grove, Minersville, Tre- 
 mont, Gettysburg, and North Lebanon, as " admirable illustrations 
 of the improvement in school architecture during the last few 
 years." Similar buildings, he said, were in course of erection at 
 Greensburg, Bedford, Providence, and other places. A year later 
 he announces as the beginning of a promising movement, the estab- 
 lishment of rural graded schools in Allegheny district, Armstrong 
 county ; Penn district, Berks county ; Wells district, Fulton county ; 
 East Donegal district, Lancaster county, and Jenkins district, Lu- 
 zerne county. To Hickok's list of towns where new buildings for 
 graded schools had been erected, Burrowes, in i860, adds the fol- 
 lowing: Beaver, Doylestown, Mauch Chunk, Phoenixville, Marien- 
 ville, Indiana, Mercer, Milton, Freeport, Amity, Salona, Perrysville, 
 Patterson, Monroe Valley, and Catasauqua. 
 
 The most important school statistics of the State, outside of Phil- 
 adelphia, from 1857 to 1866, are included in the foUbwing table: 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 y 
 
 
 S^ 
 
 1' 
 
 rf 
 
 s? 
 
 .1 
 
 .t 
 
 3 
 
 
 ?■ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 P- 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 1857 
 
 1,688 
 
 10,956 
 
 *5mo. 
 
 id. 
 
 12,474 
 
 $24 CX) 
 
 $16 60 
 
 541,247 
 
 ^231,500 
 
 ?i,754,2i5 49 
 
 1858 
 
 1.709 
 
 11,281 
 
 *5mo. 
 
 8d. 
 
 12,828 
 
 24 25 
 
 17 22 
 
 569,880 
 
 280,000 
 
 1.943,007 16 
 
 1859 
 
 1.755 
 
 ".485 
 
 *Smo. 
 
 10 d. 
 
 13,058 
 
 24 36 
 
 17 79 
 
 5Z5'25i 
 
 280,000 
 
 2,103,294 28 
 
 i860 
 
 1,778 
 
 ",577 
 
 *5mo. 
 
 loid. 
 
 13,003 
 
 24 12 
 
 18 II 
 
 585,669 
 
 280,000 
 
 2,100,574 36 
 
 1861 
 
 
 11,910 
 
 *5nio. 
 
 12 d. 
 
 14,297 
 
 25 68 
 
 19 71 
 
 596,765 
 
 280,000 
 
 2.155.685 50 
 
 1862 
 
 l.'soS 
 
 11,990 
 
 51110. 
 
 10 d. 
 
 14,380 
 
 23 81 
 
 ■ 8 55 
 
 615,087 
 
 308,000 
 
 1,955.316 04 
 
 1863 
 
 1,820 
 
 12,161 
 
 5 mo. 
 
 gd. 
 
 14,442 
 
 23 94 
 
 18 56 
 
 634,499 
 
 303,625 
 
 2,143,363 88 
 
 1864 
 
 1,82s 
 
 12,566 
 
 5 mo. 
 
 12 d. 
 
 14,668 
 
 25 42 
 
 20 16 
 
 637,785 
 
 316,825 
 
 2,396.409 00 
 
 1865 
 
 1,837 
 
 12,547 
 
 Snio. 
 
 14 d. 
 
 14,286 
 
 31 82 
 
 24 21 
 
 ■629,587 
 
 316,825 
 
 2,775,484 06 
 
 1866 
 
 1,863 
 
 12,773 
 
 smo. 
 
 15 d. 
 
 I4,'84i 
 
 34 34 
 
 26 31 
 
 649,519 
 
 354,436 
 
 3,266,509 00 
 
 *By a different method of calculation, the terms for the years 1857, 1858, 1859, i860 and 1861 were 
 made, respectively, 5 mo. 13 d., 5 mo. 5}^ d., 5 mo. 2 d., 5 mo. s% d., and 5 mo. 1% d. They are 
 given in the table as calculated by a method adopted in 1862, and subsequently followed. 
 
 These statistics show that not only did the doors of the public 
 schools remain open during all the troubled years of this period, 
 but that the system continued to grow. There was, during the nine 
 years, a decided advance even in such vital matters as the length of 
 school term and the salaries of teachers. Had these years not been 
 at first years of severe financial depression, and afterwards years of 
 terrible war, the advance in all respects would doubtless have been 
 
ceo ^^ '-"^'^ TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 much greater. With four hundred thousand of our best men in the 
 field, with every branch of industry palsied by the drain of men and 
 money, with the armies of the enemy constantly threatening our 
 borders and once offering pitched battle upon our soil, the wonder 
 is that schools could be sustained at all, much less make substantial 
 progress. 
 
 More teachers entered the army, in proportion to their numbers, 
 than of any other profession or class of our people. Superintendent 
 Coburn, in 1864, estimated that more than three thousand teachers 
 had turned soldiers, or nearly one-half of all the male teachers in 
 the State. Of these, he stated, two were colonels; three, lieutenant 
 colonels; three, majors; twenty-five, captains; thirty-five, lieuten- 
 ants, and thirty-eight, non-commissioned officers. In 1863, the 
 Confederate forces reached the Susquehanna, opposite Columbia, 
 and the smoke of the burning bridge, that spanned the river at that 
 point, could be seen plainly from the State Normal School at Mil- 
 lersville. The school was immediately closed, and a call was made 
 for soldiers. In less than two weeks, a regiment, enlisted for ninety 
 days, and including more than a hundred students and teachers of 
 the school, was armed and equipped at Camp Curtin, and ready to 
 march. Under the command of the Principal, who had become a 
 Colonel, with thousands of citizen-soldiers like themselves, it fol- 
 lowed the enemy, who had been beaten at Gettysburg, to the Poto- 
 mac. In 1 86 1 and in 1863, the school buildings at Harrisburg were 
 used as hospitals, and filled with wounded soldiers. A year later 
 Chambersburg was destroyed by fire. The border counties suffered 
 terribly from repeated raids. In the face of all this, though greatly 
 disturbed, the schools were still maintained; and, as a whole, not 
 only suffered no backward step, but made a record of which we 
 may well be proud, as the cold statistics show. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 AN ERA OF GROWTH, 1866 TO 1881. 
 
 WICKERSHAM SUPERINTENDENT. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENTS HOUCK, 
 CURRY, LINDSEY. 
 
 WE have reached the year 1866. The war was over. The 
 armies had been disbanded. The industries of peace had 
 begun to flourish anew. The nation seemed about to take a fresh 
 start in hfe. Business interests of all kinds betokened a stir, and a 
 strength unknown before. It was the forces generated in the recent 
 struggle turned into new channels. With this material develop- 
 ment, there came such a quickening of intellectual activity, and 
 such a breaking up of the old conservative crust that had long 
 obstructed all educational progress, as to give a promising outlook 
 to the future of school affairs. A well-directed forward movement 
 seemed certain to succeed. The iron was hot, and only waited for 
 the timely stroke. 
 
 Governor Curtin offered the appointment of Superintendent of 
 Common Schools to James P. Wickersham, of Lancaster county, 
 in the Spring of 1866. The offer was accepted, with the under- 
 standing that the appointee would not be required to vacate the 
 Principalship of the State Normal School at Millersville, the posi- 
 tion he then occupied, until the end of the school year in Septem- 
 ber. An arrangement was accordingly made by which Superin- 
 tendent Coburn should remain at the head of the Department for a 
 few months beyond the expiration of his term, and afterwards be 
 retained as Deputy Superintendent. Wickersham assumed full 
 charge of the Department on the first day of November, and con- 
 tinued, through successive appointments by Governors Geary, Hart- 
 ranft and Hoyt, to discharge the duties of the place until April i, 
 1 88 1, a period of fourteen years and five months. 
 
 James P. Wickersham was born in Newlin township, Chester 
 county, in the year 1825. He was of the fifth generation in direct 
 descent from Thomas Wickersham, who settled, in 1 701, on a tract 
 of a thousand acres of land in East Marlborough township, Ches- 
 
 (550 
 
r e 2 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 ter county, deeded in England, in 1682, to his father-in-law, An- 
 thony Killingbeck, by William Penn, and by Killingbeck to Wick- 
 ersham and his children in 1700. The Wickersham family came 
 from the parish of Bolney, in the county of Sussex, England. The 
 name, however, is undoubtedly of Saxon or German origin. 
 
 James, the subject of this sketch, attended the first common 
 schools opened in his neighborhood, and studied the sciences. 
 Mathematics, and the Latin and French languages, at the Unionville 
 Academy. His degree of A. M. was conferred by Washington 
 College, and his degree of LL. D. by Lafayette. He commenced 
 teaching at the age of sixteen; became Principal of the Marietta 
 Academy, Lancaster county, in 1 845 ; was elected the first County 
 Superintendent of that county in 1854; opened the Normal School 
 at Millersville, in 1855, mainly as a school for the teachers of the 
 county, guided it through its several stages of development until it 
 became a State Normal School in 1859, and remained at its head 
 with the exception of one session, that of 1855-6, until the time of 
 his appointment as State Superintendent. If professional experi- 
 ence can be considered a criterion, he was well prepared for his 
 new duties. His services as a teacher in the common schools, as 
 the head of an Academy and a Normal School, and in the office of 
 County Superintendent, had covered about the whole field of the 
 labors of a State Superintendent. Besides, he had been largely 
 engaged in giving instruction at teachers' institutes and in writing 
 articles for the press on educational subjects. No one in the State 
 had enjoyed better opportunities of being advised concerning the 
 condition of education or the significance of educational move- 
 ments. He had helped organize the Lancaster County Educational 
 Association, and was its second President in 1853; had helped 
 organize the State Teachers' Association, and was its fourth Presi- 
 dent in 1855 ; had helped organize the National Educational Asso- 
 ciation, and was its seventh President in 1865. His books entitled 
 " School Economy," and " Methods of Instruction," treating of the 
 science and art of teaching, had at the time a large general circula- 
 tion, and were in use as text-books in nearly all the institutions 
 throughout the country established for the training of teachers; 
 and they have since been translated into the Spanish, French, and 
 Japanese languages, and are largely read in countries where these 
 languages are spoken. Shortly after he left the office of State 
 Superintendent, he was appointed by the President of the United 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. rr. 
 
 States, in part as a recognition of his educational services, Minister 
 to Denmark. 
 
 The new State Superintendent was quick to see the grand oppor- 
 tunity the times afforded for an advance movement in behalf of 
 education, and he determined at once to make ready all the forces 
 at his command, and to push them forward with the utmost vigor 
 and dispatch. The story of what was accomplished is to be told, 
 but it may be said in advance that never before was there a time in 
 the history of the State when such rapid progress was made in the 
 development of our system of public education, as during the years 
 of the Wickersham administration. In many respects the advance 
 in these years was as great as during all the preceding years the 
 system had been in operation. The yearly expenditures for school 
 purposes were well nigh trebled, and more money was spent for 
 schoolhouses in the single year of 187 1 than was spent for a similar 
 purpose during the twenty years from 1835 to 1855, and two-thirds 
 as much as during the succeeding fen years from 1855 to 1865. 
 The amount paid for school supervision was much more than 
 doubled ; graded schools increased at the rate of about two hun- 
 dred a year; the State appropriation to common schools went up 
 from a little over ^350,000 to ^1,000,000; teachers' salaries were 
 advanced thirty-three per cent., and the average length of the 
 school term increased two-thirds of a month. Every muscle and 
 nerve of the system felt the stir of a new life. And Pennsylvania, 
 long considered as a backward State in school affairs, came to be 
 considered all over the country as a leader in the great work of 
 popular education. It was an era of growth, and as such it is a 
 period of great interest in our educational history. 
 
 The annual report for 1866, containing the statistics for the year 
 and an account of the working of the system, was in such a state 
 of forwardness when Superintendent Wickersham took his place in 
 the Department, that he thought best to publish it without change; 
 but in connection with it he presented a report of his own, in which 
 he named the four directions in which he proposed to push forward 
 at once the work of school reform. These were : the better grading 
 of the schools, more complete supervision, increased provision for 
 improving the qualifications of teachers, and greater efforts to 
 awaken popular interest in education. The existing deficiencies in 
 these respects were pointed out, and earnest words were used in 
 urging attention to the means necessary to bring about a change 
 
c , . EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 for the better. " Much," he said in the closing paragraph on the 
 subject, " ought to be accomplished in awakening public attention 
 to the work we have in hand, with the force at our command, if all 
 prove good soldiers. We have sixty-five County Superintendents, 
 over eleven thousand directors, and sixteen thousand teachers; and 
 this great army, fighting in a cause which aims to effect an end so 
 beneficent as that of the education of a whole people, cheered on- 
 ward by all good men and smiled upon by Heaven, ought to be 
 invincible. Once convince the people that it is their interest, their 
 honor and their glory to have good schools, and the victory is 
 won." 
 
 The most prominent feature of this report, however, was a classi- 
 fication of all the educational institutions in the State, including 
 those of a charitable character, and the presentation of a plan for 
 bringing about a closer union among them. This plan contem- 
 plated the enlargement of the Department of Common Schools, 
 with, in addition to the work" then entrusted to it, certain powers 
 and duties respecting Colleges and Academies and other literary 
 and scientific institutions, which thereafter were to be incorporated 
 into a comprehensive system of public instruction, without losing 
 any of their chartered privileges or religious preferences, and to 
 receive State aid. All institutions of a charitable character, sup- 
 ported wholly or in part by appropriations from the State, such as 
 the Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb, Blind and Feeble-Minded, 
 the Hospitals for the Insane, the Houses of Refuge, and the 
 Schools and Homes for destitute orphans or friendless children, 
 were also to be subject to its inspection, and to a proper extent 
 under its control. The idea was that of a great central office, acting 
 for the State in carrying into effect and making efficient its policy 
 in regard to educational, correctional and charitable institutions, and 
 thus unifying and harmonizing the whole, and making each helpful 
 to the others. The plan was not adopted as its author proposed but 
 it was not without influence in promoting good feeling among all 
 classes of educational workers, and did. much in leading the way to 
 the establishment of the Board of State Charities, in 1869. The 
 spirit with which it was advocated appears in the following sen- 
 tences from the report: "We must have union and harmony among 
 those who are striving to reach the same goal. We must move 
 upon the .strongholds of ignorance in solid column, not in broken 
 detachments. The cause of education suffers from clashing inter- 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. ,ct 
 
 ests and divided efforts in its behalf. Our common schools do not 
 enlist as fully as they deserve the sympathy of educated men. Our 
 youth, by hundreds, are going out of the State for an education 
 which they ought to receive at home, and our Colleges and Acad- 
 emies are attracting comparatively few students from abroad. Our 
 charitable institutions, which have in many respects common aims 
 and common interests, have not, as at present managed, any system 
 of communication or bond of union. There must be a new awak- 
 ening. Pennsylvania has a giant's power; it must be evoked." 
 
 In all. Superintendent Wickersham issued fifteen volumes of 
 common school reports. Each volume contained the school sta- 
 •tistics for the year, statements of the results attained and the work 
 in progress, suggestions for the improvement of the system, and 
 recommendations to the Legislature; but, like the report for 1866, 
 the reports for all the remaining years gave prominence to some 
 practical educational topic, the discussion of which was believed to 
 be at the time specially called for. No attempt will be made even 
 to summarize what was said in these reports, covering, as they well 
 nigh do, the whole ground of public education, as understood when 
 they were written, but to fix their place in history, an enumeration 
 of the leading features of their contents cannot be omitted. 
 
 1S6'/. — The educational condition of. the inmates of our penitentiaries, 
 county jails, and p6or-houses, showing that ignorance is a fruitful source of 
 crime and poverty. The relation of education to wages in manufacturing 
 establishments, making clear the fact that the best educated among the em- 
 ployees receive the highest salaries. 
 
 1868. — The State in relation to higher education. The proposed bill for the 
 incorporation, recognition and support of Colleges. 
 
 i86g. — An exposition of the Pennsylvania public school policy : the direc- 
 torship, the Superintendency, teachers' examinations and certificates, courses 
 of study, uniformity of text-books, attendance at school, school revenues, 
 high schools. 
 
 iSfO. — Professional instruction. This want only partially supplied by the 
 Normal Schools. Competitive examinations for the National Schools at West 
 Point and Annapolis. The proper aims of a system of public schools. 
 
 i8jl. — Reconstruction and broadening of the School Department. Ques- 
 tions concerning the education of truant, vagrant and neglected children. 
 Better provision for higher education. 
 
 i8j2. — The provisions concerning education which our State Constitution 
 ought to contain. Education and labor. 
 
 1S73. — General survey of the condition of education in the State. Work 
 needed below the common schools. Work needed above the common schools. 
 What is being done for technical education. 
 
 18J4. — Education under the new Constitution. State uniformity of text- 
 
c c6 ED VGA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 books. A revised course of study for the common schools. The results of 
 nine years of work as State Superintendent. 
 
 187s- — Preparation for the Centennial Exposition. Sanitary condition of 
 our schools. Education for work. Is the school system in danger? The 
 school as an agent in moral reform. 
 
 i8';6. — Education at the Centennial Exposition. The State exhibit. For- 
 eign exhibits. Lessons for Pennsylvania. 
 
 i8yf. — Practical suggestions concerning the revision of the school laws, the 
 school organization of cities, free text-books, Normal Schools, the election of 
 Superintendents, High Schools, children out of school, and education for 
 work. This is a volume of nearly a thousand pages, containing a local his- 
 tory of education in the State, written by the County City, and Borough 
 Superintendents, under the direction of the School Department. 
 
 j8y8. — Education in Europe. Personal observations made by the State 
 Superintendent on schools and school systems abroad. What other nations ' 
 are doing for industrial education. 
 
 i87g. — The statistics for the year. The Legislature not in session. 
 
 j88o. — Education and crime. The problem of non-attendance at school. 
 Children in poor-houses. The proposed bill concerning the education of 
 neglected children. 
 
 The County Superintendency, professionally elevated and in- 
 creased in efficiency by the Act of 1 867, and strongly reinforced by 
 the City and Borough Superintendents, had never done so much to 
 improve the schools and to form a right public sentiment on the 
 subject of education as during the years from 1866 to 188 1. The 
 triennial conventions of directors began to demand higher qualifica- 
 tions for the office, and with a fair degree of liberality, they voted 
 increased salaries every time they met. Such came to be the 
 strength of the office that, in 1878, during the progress of the bill 
 through the Legislature, fixing the salaries of the County Superin- 
 tendents by law, with an opportunity of striking it a blow that 
 would have been seized with avidity in previous years, not a hand 
 was raised in hostility. The reports of County, as well as those 
 of City and Borough Superintendents, appear regularly in all the 
 reports of the School Department. They contain a mass of inform- 
 ation concerning every matter of educational interest in the several 
 localities. No one can read them without wondering at the aston- 
 ishing growth that was taking place. The State seemed alive with 
 an educational interest unknown before. 
 
 Meetings of Superintendents were held at Harrisburg, in Decem- 
 ber, 1866; in July, 1868; in July, 1869, and in June, 1871. In the 
 summer of 1873, for the purpose of a closer and more careful con- 
 sideration of the schpol affairs of the different localities, conferences 
 of the State school officers and the Superintendents were held in 
 
AN ERA OF GRO WTH. . 
 
 rin- 
 
 vanous parts of the State, as follows: City and Borough Superi.. 
 tendents, at Harrisburg, May 20; County Superintendents, at Read 
 ing. May 30, at Harrisburg, June 3, at Williamsport, June 5, at 
 Pittsburgh, June 11, at Franklin, June 13, and at Scranton, June'24. 
 In 1874, the Superintendents held meetings at Shippensburg be- 
 tween the .sittings of the State Teachers' Association. Four days 
 were spent in convention by the Superintendents, at Harrisburg, in 
 April, 1877. Eighty-three out of the ninety-one Superintendents 
 met again at Harrisburg, in April, 1880. Special sessions were 
 held by the two classes of Superintendents in the mornings, but 
 in the afternoons and evenings both united in their deliberations. 
 Never before had a body of educators so able and so earnest met 
 in Pennsylvania. As compared with the members of the first con • 
 vention of Superintendents that met in Harrisburg twenty-six years 
 before, there had been a remarkable growth in a knowledge of the 
 duties of the oflSce, and in professional skill and spirit. To one who 
 witnessed the proceedings of both, it was as the faint dawnings of 
 the morning to the full breaking of the day. At this convention 
 were present W. W. Woodruff, who, after having served Chester 
 county three terms, was now in his second term in Bucks ; Jesse 
 Newlin, who had been Superintendent in Schuylkill for nearly eigh- 
 teen consecutive years, and Reuben F. Hofford, who had looked 
 after the schools of Carbon for the same length of time; D. H. E. 
 La Ross, who had been elected four times in Dauphin, and A. D. 
 Glenn, of Armstrong, B. F. Shaub, of Lancaster, J. O. Knauss, of 
 Lehigh, T. F. Gahan, of Lycoming, W. H. Curtis, of McKean, B. 
 F. Reasley, of Northampton, and A. S. Burrows, of Union, each 
 almost at the end of his third term. Aaron Sheeley, of Adams, 
 should be classed among those who had served longest, but was 
 absent. These were veteran County Superintendents. The average 
 experience was even greater among the City and Borough Superin- 
 tendents. W. W. Cottingham had, with rare professional ability 
 and tact, supervised the schools of Easton under the law of 1867 
 and under special laws previously for twenty-eight years, and H. S. 
 Jones, of Erie, George J. Luckey, of Pittsburgh, B. F. Patterson, of 
 Pottsville, R. K. Buehrle, of Reading, but formerly of Allentown, 
 and W. H. Shelley, of York, had all filled, with great acceptance, 
 the ofifice of Superintendent, from the time the law of 1867 had 
 gone into effect in the several cities and boroughs in which they 
 resided. With these were united in counsel others less experienced, 
 
c c 8 ^D UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 but of equal ability and zeal. Devoted as all were to this work, it is 
 not too much for an impartial historian, much less for a co-laborer 
 and friend, to say that Pennsylvania owes a heavy debt of gratitude 
 to the faithful officers whose names have been mentioned, and she 
 can honor none who have aided in building up her great system of 
 public instruction, without honoring them. 
 
 Of the school legislation between 1 866 and 1 88 1 , the first as well 
 as the most important enactment was the law of 1867. This law, 
 though passed without a serious struggle, was scarcely less valuable 
 in its results upon the school interests of the Commonwealth than 
 the law of 1854. The bill was prepared in the School Department, 
 and pushed through the Legislature by its influence. 
 
 The first section of the Act provides that boards of school direc- 
 tors shall have the right of eminent domain in the selection of sites 
 for the erection of schoolhouses. A section to this effect in the Act 
 of 1854 was stricken out in the Senate. Subsequently, a special 
 law was passed, giving the right to the school boards of the coun- 
 ties of Chester and Delaware; and at different times this law was 
 extended to the counties of Allegheny, Mercer, Cambria, Indiana, 
 Jefferson, Pike, Westmoreland, Crawford, Wayne, Erie, Fayette. 
 Warren, Potter, and Susquehanna. It was now made general. No 
 law could have been more opportune. The State was about to 
 enter upon an era of schoolhouse building. Nearly twenty millions 
 of dollars were to be invested in this way within the next ten years ; 
 and, thanks to the law, it was ho longer necessary to pay an exor- 
 bitant price for land upon which to erect a schoolhouse, or to be 
 forced to occupy for the purpose an unsuitable location. The law 
 made it feasible to choose an eligible site for every schoolhouse in 
 the State. 
 
 The second section made Teachers' Institutes obligatory in all 
 the counties of the Commonwealth, and required aid to be extended 
 to them from the respective county treasuries in proportion to 
 attendance, but between the limits of sixty and two hundred dol- 
 lars. Such a law was enacted for Chester county in 1855, and in 
 subsequent years it was in substance extended to the counties of 
 Lancaster, York, Schuylkill, Westmoreland, Perry, and Indiana. 
 With some modification, it was now made to apply to the whole 
 State. The result was that while, in 1867, under the loose volun- 
 tary system that prevailed, only 3,954 teachers attended the County 
 Institutes, in 1868, under the new law, the number in attendance 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. ccn 
 
 swelled to 10,286. In 1880, it reached 16,847. The measure of 
 improvement was quite as great in organization, in efficiency, in 
 professional spirit and popular interest, as in the increase of niim- 
 bers> To make these educational bodies still more useful, and to 
 widen their, influence, the State Superintendent suggested that one 
 day of the week of the Institute be set apart for school directors, 
 and be called "Directors' Day." This suggestion was generally 
 adopted, and it became a common thing on the day appointed to 
 see from fift>- to a hundred of these officers engaged with the teach- 
 ers in considering questions about schools, of mutual concern. It 
 is safe to say that the Teachers' Institutes of Pennsylvania, under 
 the law, and in the spirit with which it was carried into effect, have 
 been unequalled in attendance, in the character of the instruction 
 given, and in their influence for good, by those of any other State 
 in the Union. 
 
 Another section provided for the election of City or Borough 
 Superintendents of schools, in cities and boroughs containing ten 
 thousand inhabitants. In subsequent years, as the office proved its 
 value, the ten thousand inhabitants at first required was reduced to 
 seven thousand, and later to five thousand. The law was not obli- 
 gatory, but the inducement was held out to the cities and boroughs 
 enforcing it, of exemption from the paynient of any part of the sal- 
 aries of the County Superintendents. Thus it was left to recom- 
 mend itself, and to go into operation upon its own merits. The 
 necessity, however, was so strongly felt for a supervision of schools 
 that would not only be able to examine teachers and make widely- 
 separated vi3its to schools, but fix grades, arrange classes, plan 
 courses of study, exemplify methods of teaching, and look after 
 admissions and transfers, that within a few months after the passage 
 of the law, Easton, Meadville, and Erie elected Superintendents. 
 Their example was soon followed by AUentown, Pittsburgh, Scran- 
 ton, Williamsport, Altoona, Chester, Harrisburg, and Pottsville. 
 In 1870, there were fourteen cities and boroughs that had elected 
 Superintendents; in 1876, twenty-four; in 1 881, thirty-three, and 
 in 1884, forty-two. The average salary of a Superintendent in the 
 cities and boroughs is considerably more than the average salary 
 ■ of a Superintendent in the counties, his tenure of office is longer, 
 and his influence fully equal upon the school interests of the Com- 
 monwealth. Before the passage of the law of 1867, there had been 
 officers called Superintendents, elected by the school boards, in 
 
c 60 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 Easton, Pottsville, Scranton, Lancaster, Reading, and Erie; but 
 nowhere except in Easton were they exempt from the jurisdiction 
 of the County Superintendent, or free to perform any duties other 
 than those they discharged as the agents of the directors. In 
 Easton, the Superintendency has an interesting history. It began 
 with the District Superintendency under the law of 1843. Directly 
 after the passage of the law of that year. Rev. John P. Hecht was 
 elected District Superintendent. He was followed by others, and 
 in 1853, W. W. Cottingham was elected. When the District Su- 
 perintendency was abolished by the law of 1854, Easton continued 
 the office without any formal enactment until it was legally restored 
 in 1856, by a provision in the borough charter. A special law was 
 passed in 1866 for the borough of Easton, establishing the office of 
 Borough Superintendent of schools, and defining his duties and 
 qualifications. This Easton law was made the basis of the law of 
 1867, and thus a link is found that connects the City Superinten- 
 dency of the present with the District Superintendency of the past. 
 An important change was made in teachers' certificates by the law 
 of 1867. It was enacted that no teacher could thereafter receive a 
 certificate who did not possess " a fair knowledge of Orthography, 
 Reading, Writing, Geography, English Grammar, Mental and Writ- 
 ten Arithmetic, the History of the United States, and the Theory 
 of Teaching." This was a great advance upon the old " Provisional 
 Certificate," which, though it had outlasted its usefulness, was still 
 granted, much to the detriment of the system, to persons having 
 the merest elementary knowledge of Reading, Writing and Arith- 
 metic. The History of the United States was added as a new 
 branch, on the ground that no person is qualified to teach a school 
 who does not know something of the history of his own country. 
 It was not expected that many teachers could at first pass an exam- 
 ination in the Theory of Teaching, or even that many Superinten- 
 dents would be able to conduct such an examination; but it was 
 thought that the time had come when all concerned in the work of 
 education should commence the study of the foundation principles 
 of their profession. There was no mistake in the calculation. Both 
 Superintendents and teachers began at once to prepare for the pro- 
 fessional part of the examination required by the new Act. Thous- 
 ands of volumes on Teaching were obtained and read the first 
 year; and wherever, since that time, an efficient Superintendent has 
 labored, there has been a continual growth in professional knowl- 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. ,^ 
 
 Soi 
 edge among teachers. There is power enough in this single meas- 
 ure to uphft the whole profession, and to keep it moving upward for 
 all the coming years. 
 
 It was enacted also that the "Professional Certificates," granted in 
 large numbers in the early years of the Superintendency, to incom- 
 petent persons who had long weighed down the profession and 
 clogged the system, should be annulled, with the privilege of re- 
 newal without a re-examination where worthily held. This work of 
 revision was completed by authorizing the issue of a new certificate 
 of high grade, to be called a " Permanent Certificate," in the grant- 
 ing of which directors. Superintendents, the School Department, and 
 the teachers themselves, have a voice. These changes were radical 
 in their character; they did not go into effect without opposition; 
 but they formed, for the first time, a solid basis for a great profes- 
 sion. Said Dr. Burrowes in the School yournal, in speaking of the 
 old forms of teachers' certificates in contrast with the new, " And it 
 is somewhat remarkable that the same officer who devised this then 
 wise expedient, has had, as State Superintendent, the privilege as 
 well as the duty of taking the first effectual steps toward render- 
 ing the teacher's certificate what it should be, an evidence of full 
 qualification and permanent standing in a learned profession." 
 
 The County Superintendency was a success from the first, in 
 every county where a competent person was elected to fill the office. 
 All the trouble came from the fact that in one-half of the counties 
 men were chosen who did not possess the necessary qualifications. 
 This mistake sadly crippled the office in its earlier years, and at 
 times threatened its very existence. An important section of the 
 Act of 1867 applied a remedy to this evil. Thereafter, no one 
 could hold the office of County, City or Borough Superintendent 
 who was not a graduate of a College or a Normal School, or who 
 did not possess a teachers' certificate of high grade. Such a one 
 must also have had "successful experience in teaching within three 
 years of the time of his election." The evidence of these qualifica- 
 tions was to be forwarded to the School Department by the trien- 
 nial conventions of directors, with the certificate of election; .the 
 State Superintendent was made the judge of their sufficiency, and 
 if not found up to the requirements of the law, he was authorized to 
 set aside the election and appoint a competent person to fill the 
 office. The salutary effect of this provision was at once felt 
 throughout the whole State, and the office was at the next election 
 36 
 
562 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 placed upon a purely professional basis that added greatly to its 
 power for good. Its strengthened hold upon the public was soon 
 shown in a practical way. The Superintendents were not provided 
 by law with offices, in which to transact business ; in response to a 
 simple request from the State Superintendent to that effect, suit- 
 able rooms were set apart for them by the Commissioners of two- 
 thirds of all the counties in the State. 
 
 The law of 1 867 also provided a way of securing by the volun- 
 tary action of school boards a uniformity of text-books in counties, 
 but its working in this respect proved so unsatisfactory that two 
 years later it was repealed. 
 
 In the years following 1867, no legislation was more important 
 than that relating to non-accepting school districts. No compulsorj' 
 measure was ever used to force the people of Pennsylvania to adopt 
 the common school system. At first it was accepted or rejected by 
 a popular vote. Even after it was made general by the Act of 1848, 
 if a school district was willing to lose its State appropriation, it was 
 not compelled to maintain free schools. Superintendent Wicker- 
 sham found, in 1866, twenty-three districts, in eleven different coun- 
 ties, with six or seven thousand children of school age, that had 
 refused to put schools in operation under the system. He deter- 
 mined that this blot should be removed, and that these children 
 should be wronged no longer. As a first step, he secured, in 1868, 
 the passage of a law offering to pay any of the twenty-three dis- 
 tricts, that would establish free schools within two years, all their 
 forfeited appropriations back to i860. With this inducement in 
 hand, he opened a correspondence with leading citizens in the 
 recusant districts; prevailed upon Superintendents and prominent 
 public men in the several counties to visit them, hold meetings and 
 discuss the subject, and called the attention of the Judges of the 
 proper courts to the matter, and urged, if possible, the appointment 
 of directors who would enforce the law. These measures were 
 reasonably successful, but the two years expired, and several dis- 
 tricts still remained without schools. A supplement was passed, 
 in 1,871, extending the time in which a district could open schools 
 and secure its back appropriations. Finally, but a single district, 
 Overfield, Wyoming county, held out against all efforts made to 
 introduce free schools ; and it required a personal visit by the State 
 Superintendent to remove the stubborn prejudices of the people. 
 In announcing the fact, in his report for 1874, that the system was 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. eg, 
 
 in operation in every district in the Commonwealth, the Superinten- 
 dent said : " This ends the work in this direction. For the first time 
 in our history, the door of a public schoolhouse stands open to 
 receive every child of proper age within the limits of the State." 
 
 One of the unpopular features of the law of 1854, was the mini- 
 mum school term of four months. The people, however, had grad- 
 ually grown up to it. In 1872, it was thought the time had come 
 for another step forward in this direction, and the Legislature was 
 asked to make the minimum length of the school term five months. 
 It was done, and though the opposition was so determined in some 
 sections of the State, that a visit of the State Superintendent to 
 certain counties barely reconciled the school boards and the peo- 
 ple to the change, no effort was made to repeal the enactment. 
 
 The mode of fixing the salaries of County Superintendents by 
 the votes of the conventions of directors that elected them, had 
 never been satisfactory. As determined in this way, they were apt 
 to be unequal, ill-adjusted to the work to be done, and subject to 
 partiality, caprice, prejudice, and other feelings of a personal char- 
 acter. The question of salary was oftentimes so connected with the 
 question of candidates, as to cripple the office. Unqualified men at 
 low salaries were likely to be more popular than qualified men at 
 high ones. Hickok, Burrowes, and Coburn, had each attempted to 
 remedy the evil without success, and it was not until 1878 that a 
 law was passed fixing the salaries of Count)' Superintendents. The 
 salaries under the provisions of this law are graded mainly according 
 to the number of schools in the several counties; but any county 
 can vote a larger salary than the law allows, by taking the addi- 
 tional sum out of its own State appropriation, and the minimum 
 and maximum salary are fixed at ^800 and ^2,000 respectively. 
 In counties with over one hundred schools, the salary can not be 
 less than ;^i,ooo, and a salary not less than ;^ 1,500 is allowed in 
 counties having two hundred and ninety schools, twelve hundred 
 square miles of territory, or a school term exceeding seven and a 
 half months. As adjusted according to the Act of 1878, the sal- 
 aries of the County Superintendents aggregated ^79,396.75, an 
 increase of ^6,596.75 over the salaries received at the time of the 
 passage of the Act. Owing to the increase in the number of 
 schqols, the aggregate salaries in 1881 amounted to ^82,4r7.76. 
 In 1866, they summed up ^57,520, showing an increase during the 
 Wickersham administration of neariy ^^25,000, with a provision for 
 
-g. EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 a further increase in many counties as the number of schools 
 increase. 
 
 Four projects warmly favored by the State Superintendent, and 
 zealously pressed upon the attention of the Legislature, failed. The 
 first of these, in the order of time, was the College Bill of 1868. 
 The leading provisions of this bill, as given in the State reports for 
 1867 and 1868, were as follows : 
 
 1. A provision fixing the requirements of every institution claiming to be a 
 College, and asking the benefits conferred by law. 
 
 2. A provision requiring all Colleges accepting the Act to make annual 
 reports to some properly constituted State authority, and to be open to the 
 visitation of competent officers appointed by that authority. 
 
 3. A provision granting a certain number of free scholarships to pupils 
 coming up properly prepared and properly recommended from the common 
 schools, through the Academies, Seminaries, and High Schools of the State. 
 
 4. A provision giving a liberal annual appropriation from the State Treas- 
 ury to all Colleges accepting the Act. 
 
 A conference concerning the bill was held in the rooms of the 
 School Department, at Harrisburg, early in 1868, which was 
 attended by the Governor, the Presidents or other representatives 
 of the principal Colleges, the Chairmen and other members of the 
 Legislative Committees on Education, and a number of prominent 
 gentlemen interested in the subject. The result was a unanimous 
 approval of the bill, and its passage was subsequently petitioned for 
 by the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Lewisburg, the 
 University of Western Pennsylvania, Lincoln University, Dickinson 
 College, Franklin and Marshall College, Haverford College, Lafay- 
 ette College, Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania College, Wash- 
 ington and Jefferson College, and Westminster College, as well as 
 by a large number of leading citizens in different parts of the State. 
 The opposition in the Legislature came partly from those who 
 thought the State should do no more for education than to main- 
 tain a system of common schools, and partly from those who were 
 determined to withhold all State aid from- institutions of learning 
 under the control of particular religious denominations. At any 
 one of several sessions, the bill would probably have passed the 
 Senate, but the House was always so strongly against it, that no 
 attempt was made to push it to the issue of a vote. 
 
 On several different occasions an effort was made to add drawing 
 to the branches required to be taught in common schools, but 
 always without success. This action was taken not so much on 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. ^n.- 
 
 account of the value of drawing as a branch of instruction, great as 
 it is, but for the purpose of using it as a foundation for a course of 
 industrial education. If a boy learns to draw, he will be attracted 
 to the arts in which drawing can be used to most advantage, and 
 as a man he will be more likely to seek employment in a shop, a 
 mill, a factory, than at the desk of an office or behind the counter 
 of a store. If light clerical employments now entice too many of 
 our young men, nothing better can be done to divert their attention 
 in a different direction, than by giving them early instruction in 
 drawing. But a majority of the members of the Legislature could 
 never be convinced by this kind of reasoning, and for the fact that 
 drawing is taught in some five thousand of our schools, credit is 
 due alone to the voluntary action of Superintendents, teachers, and 
 directors. 
 
 No measure occupied more of the thoughts or enlisted more of 
 the sympathy of the Superintendent than tliat by which he hoped 
 to bring into school the tens of thousands of little ones who are 
 growing up either wholly without education, or with so little that it 
 is of small benefit to them. Again and again, he presented the sub- 
 ject to the Legislature in his annual reports, collecting statistics, 
 suggesting plans, pointing to examples, and appealing for the adop- 
 tion of some measure that would tend to cure or mitigate the evil. 
 Finally, in 1 878, he prepared an elaborate bill, entitled " An Act to 
 provide Education and Maintenance for Destitute and Neglected 
 Children," published it in pamphlet form, with comments, and gave 
 it a wide circulation, stating that he meant to press its consideration 
 upon the Legislature, then about to assemble. Its main features 
 were, first, the requirement that school boards should see that all 
 children of proper age, in their respective districts, shall have the 
 benefit of an elementary education, and making it their duty to 
 report triennially the names of all children within their several juris- 
 dictions, between the ages of six and sixteen, with information as to 
 the number receiving no instruction in the public schools or other- 
 wise, and a statement as to the cause of the neglect. After having 
 exhausted all milder means, power was given them to arrest truants, 
 vagrants and children so neglected as to be growing up in ignorance 
 or vice, and send them to the Homes provided for such children. 
 Second, a provision for the establishment of Homes for destitute 
 children and children arrested by virtue of the powers given to school 
 boards by the Act. Third, a section directing the officers in the 
 
5 65 ^^ UCA riON IN FENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 several counties having charge of the poor, to transfer all children 
 in poorhouses, over the age of three years, to the Homes provided 
 for destitute children, and in future to refuse to admit such children 
 into poorhouses. This bill, defeated in the House of Representa- 
 tives in 1879, was '^g^'.in, slightly modified, presented to the Legisla- 
 ture in 1880, and again defeated. In substance, however, its pro- 
 visions in regard to the establishment of County Homes for iSae 
 admission of the children in poorhouses, and other destitute chil- 
 dren, were adopted, in 1883, at the instance of the State Board of 
 Charities. To secure the adoption of the remaining provisions or 
 something like them, designed to bring under instruction the one 
 hundred thousand children in the State now deprived almost en- 
 tirely of all the advantages of education, is a work of the future. 
 
 The Pennsylvania laws relating to schools, written by many dif- 
 ferent hands and enacted by many different Legislatures, are a mass 
 of fragments, without consistency of thought, logical coherence or 
 clearness of expression. A Commission to revise the civil code of 
 the State was appointed in 1867. The State Superintendent was 
 invited by this Commission to prepare for their consideration a 
 revised code of school laws. This was done at the cost of months 
 of labor, the manuscript covering more than five hundred pages of 
 foolscap paper. In an effort to revise this revision, the Commis- 
 sioners so changed the form and meaning of the most important 
 existing laws, that the School Department was compelled to assume 
 a position of hostility to the adoption of the report. This opposi- 
 tion, however, was not neceesary to defeat the proposed change, for 
 the whole civil code, as revised, never came before the Legislature 
 for consideration, and remains a dead letter. The necessity of a 
 revision of the school laws was not lessened by these proceedings; 
 but the Legislature, although repeatedly urged to take such action 
 as would secure the accomplishment of the work, .always declined 
 to comply with the request. 
 
 No movement was pushed with more vigor, by the School De- 
 partment, than that whose object was the grading of the public 
 schools and the establishment of departments for imparting instruc- 
 tion in the higher branches. Such a development was considered 
 necessary to the ultimate success of the system. What was accom- 
 plished is shown by the fact that in 1866 there were one thousand 
 nine hundred and twenty-one graded schools in the State, and in 
 1 88 1 the number reached five thousand one hundred and eighty- 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. .g_ 
 
 two. The increase embraced many hundreds of schools of two 
 grades in villages and thickly settled neighborhoods, and many 
 hundreds more in cities and large towns, with more numerous 
 grades, crowned with a high school. The effect was to elevate and 
 broaden the whole work of education. The Academies and Semin- 
 aries the State had fostered years before had for the most part 
 passed away, but in the public high schools planted in every town, 
 their place was much more than supplied. 
 
 An effort was made in 1874, by a kind of syndicate of book pub- 
 lishers and politicians, to secure the enactment of a law providing 
 for a uniformity of text-books in the several school districts in the 
 Commonwealth, by the adoption of such a series as might be 
 approved by a Commission, and the purchase of the copyrights 
 thereof, or, in case it should seem more expedient, the preparation 
 and publication of the books needed to supply the schools. The 
 books were to be uniform, and the State was to publish and virtu- 
 ally to own them, and furnish supplies to the districts. The "text- 
 book bill," as it was called, passed the Senate by a large majority, 
 but it was defeated in the House, after a most determined battle in 
 its behalf. The State Superintendent earnestly opposed its passage 
 at every stage. He considered it dangerous to concentrate at Har- 
 risburg the powers conferred by the bill. The text-books pur- 
 chased for use in the schools of Pennsylvania cost two millions of 
 dollars a year, and such an interest in the hands of politicians 
 would, he thought, be ill-managed, if not corrupting. Besides, 
 local control of school affairs is a fundamental principle of the 
 Pennsylvania system of public education; and it seemed to him 
 best to leave the selection of school books, as well as the building 
 of schoolhouses and the employment of teachers, in the hands of 
 the immediate neighbors and representatives of the people they 
 serve. / 
 
 The school at Kutztown, Berks county, became a State Normal 
 School in September, 1866. Then followed the schools at Blooms- 
 burg, Columbia county, in 1869; at West Chester, Chester county, 
 in 1871; at Shippensburg, Cumberland county, in 1873; at Cali- 
 fornia, Washington county, in 1874; at Indiana, Indiana county, in 
 1875; and at Lock Haven, Clinton county, in 1877. Preceding the 
 recognition of each school there occurred preliminary conferences, 
 public meetings, corner-stone layings and inspections, in most of 
 which the State Superintendent took an active part. While still 
 
r58 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Principal of the Normal School at Millersville, he had written that 
 part of the Sixteenth Section of the General Appropriation bill of 
 1866, which provided, on certain conditions, that the State should 
 pay fifty cents a week towards the expenses of all students of Normal 
 Schools over seventeen years of age, or a dollar a week if they had 
 been disabled as soldiers in the service of the United States or 
 their fathers had been killed in such service, who were preparing to 
 become teachers, and fifty dollars to each graduate who should 
 teach two full years in the public schools. As a State officer he 
 now favored a liberal policy towards the Normal Schools, believing 
 that through their agency must come the much-needed supply of 
 well-qualified teachers ; and not only was the provision, of 1 866, to 
 aid students continued, but large appropriations were made to build 
 and equip the schools themselves. In the two ways, the Normal 
 Schools received, between 1866 and 1881, the great sum of ^1,074,- 
 567.96. 
 
 By the provisions of the Act of 1857, the State Normal Schools 
 were private corporations. Their management was vested in the 
 hands of trustees elected by stockholders or contributors. Even 
 dividends on the capital stock could be declared. The State laid 
 down certain general principles according to which they were regu- 
 lated, but with these all control ended. This unrestricted private 
 interest was a plague to the system from the beginning. It 
 narrowed the aims and almost ruined the prospects of some of the 
 schools. Efforts were made from time to time to counteract its effects, 
 in 1866, by requiring that charges for the boarding and tuition of 
 students at the Normal Schools must be approved by the State 
 Superintendent, in 1872, by enacting a law placing two trustees in 
 the board of each school to represent the State, and in 1874 and 
 1877, by providing that the State representation in each board 
 should be one-third of the whole number of trustees, that in voting 
 upon all questions relating to financial matters a three-fourths vote 
 of all the trustees present at any meeting should be necessary to 
 carry a motion or resolution upon a call of yeas and nays, and that 
 all changes in the by-laws and rules regulating the proceedings of 
 the boards must be subject to approval by the State authorities, as 
 in the case of charges for boarding and tuition. Care was also 
 taken to lay the foundations of most of the later schools upon a 
 platform broader than the law, and the money to erect and equip 
 them was contributed with the express understanding that it was a 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. 56^ 
 
 free gift to the institution, and not an investment from which pecun- 
 iary returns could be expected.' The board that conducted the 
 examinations of the graduating classes at the State Normal Schools 
 in the earlier years consisted of three Principals of such schools, 
 including in the number the Principal of the school whose class was 
 under examination. This arrangement was found in practice to be 
 about equivalent to no examination at all, and, in 1870, it was 
 enacted " that all examinations of the graduating classes at the State 
 Normal Schools shall be conducted by a board of which the State 
 Superintendent, or his Deputy, shall be President, two Principals of 
 Normal Schools, of whom the Principal of the school whose 
 students are under examination shall be one, and two Superintend- 
 ents of the district in which the school is located, to be appointed by 
 the State Superintendent." In 1874, when it was found that a 
 board of examiners even constituted as that of 1870, was too much 
 subject to local influences, the law was further modified so that it 
 required four out of the five members of the board to vote affirm- 
 atively in order to grant a diploma. The State Superintendent 
 assumed the responsibility for these changes, unpopular as some of 
 them were ; and he labored hard in other ways to elevate and 
 broaden the aims of the Normal system. He called meetings of 
 trustees and principals, made personal visits to the schools, gave 
 prominence to the science and art of teaching at the annual' exami- 
 nations, compelled the candidates for graduation to prove their skill 
 as teachers by actual practice with the model school classes, proffered 
 frequent advice as to courses of study and methods of teaching, and 
 was ever watchful concerning their interests in the Legislature. 
 As the result, his administration began, in 1866, with 3 schools, 
 1,543 students, 43 graduates, and property worth ^161,376; and 
 ended, in 1881, with lO schools, 3,284 students, 270 graduates, and 
 property worth ^1,418,822.38. 
 
 The School Department as organized in 1866, consisted of the 
 State Superintendent, the Deputy State Superintendent, three clerks 
 and a messenger. The salary of the Superintendent was ^1,800, 
 that of the Deputy ^1,600, the clerks received ^1,400 each, and the 
 messenger ^900. In 1868, the Legislature increased the salary of 
 the Superintendent to ^2,500 and that of the Deputy to ^1,800, the 
 increase to begin with the year 1867. By an Act of the Legislature 
 passed, in 1866, the fine rooms, till then occupied by the State 
 Library, were assigned to the School Department, and a liberal 
 
570 
 
 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VAN/A. 
 
 appropriation, to be expended under the direction of the Superintend- 
 ent, was made for fitting them up. The Department moved into its 
 new quarters in September 1867. Mr. Coburn, although frequently 
 suffering from ill health, continued to discharge the duties of Deputy 
 Superintendent until the winter of 1868-9. ^^ ^^^^ time he became 
 so seriously sick that he thought it best to go to his family, then at 
 Nichols, New York, for home comforts and medical attendance. 
 He never returned to Harrisburg. His death occurred March 8, 
 1869. His place in the Department was soon after filled by the 
 appointment of Henry Houck, of Lebanon county. The appointment 
 of an additional Deputy was authorized by the Legislature, in 1872, 
 but no choice was made for the place until June i, 1873, when 
 Robert Curry, of Pittsburgh, was selected. During the year the 
 position remained vacant, several prominent educators were appointed 
 special deputies to attend teachers' institutes. Those that rendered 
 service in this way were W. W. Woodruff, Andrew Burtt, C. L. 
 Ehrenfeld, A. N. Raub, F. A. Allen, Dr.. Franklin Taylor, and E. 
 Hubbard Barlow. The first named of these gentlemen was also 
 deputized to visit mills, factories, mines, poor-houses and other estab- 
 lishments where children were to be found, and to inquire into their 
 educational condition. Mr. Woodruff discharged this delicate duty 
 in the most satisfactory manner, and his report on the subject was 
 published in the State report for 1873. Mr. Curry resigned the 
 deputyship in 1876, when William A. Lindsey, of Cumberland 
 county, was appointed. 
 
 Henry Houck was transferred to the deputyship from a desk in 
 the Department, which he had occupied about two years. He has 
 discharged the duties of the office with great acceptance and profit 
 to the school interests of the State for upwards of fifteen years. 
 Descended from ancestors of old German stock, Henry Houck was 
 born in Lebanon county, in March, 1836. He received his educa- 
 tion in the common schools, with some years of instruction at the 
 Annville Academy, and at the Arcadian Institute, at Orwigsburg. 
 He commenced teaching at an early age, and while thus engaged, 
 took lessons from a private tutor in the Latin and Greek languages. 
 In 1859, while Principal of the High School of North Lebanon, he 
 was appointed County Superintendent of Lebanon county, by Su- 
 perintendent Hickok. So acceptable were his services in this posi- 
 tion, that he was continued in it by election in i860, 1863, and 
 1866. In 1867, he resigned the County Superintendency to become 
 
AN ERA OF GRO WTH. e 7 j 
 
 Recording Clerk in the School Department, a position that was 
 offered him without solicitation on the part of either himself or 
 friends. Merit alone advanced him to the place he has filled so 
 long, and the State has never had a more popular or more faithful 
 school officer. 
 
 Robert Curry is a Pennsylvanian, and a graduate of Jefferson 
 College. His whole life has been spent in the work of education. 
 He began his career as a teacher in a public school, but subse- 
 quently was for some years Principal of an Academy. In 1854, ie 
 established a school in Pittsburgh for the training of teachers, the 
 first institution of the kind in Western Pennsylvania. He left Penn- 
 sylvania to accept the Principalship of the State Normal School of 
 Nebraska. While Deputy Superintendent, he visited many schools, 
 gave instruction at a large number of institutes, and rendered valu- 
 able services in connection with the Centennial Exposition. 
 
 William A. Lindsey held the office of Deputy Superintendent for 
 nine years, 'resigning in 1883. He had previously been for some 
 years a clerk in the Department. He is of Scotch-Irish parentage. 
 Mr. Lindsey served as a soldier during the war, attended the Nor- 
 mal School at Millersville, taught a common school, studied law 
 and was admitted to the bar at Carlisle, was appointed County 
 Superintendent of Cumberland county in 1869 and served one 
 term. While acting as Deputy, he, conducted the greater part of 
 the correspondence of the Department, and had charge of its 
 archives. The records show. that he discharged his duties carefully 
 and with ability. 
 
 As the school interests of the State increased in magnitude and 
 became more diversified, the correspondence of the central office 
 naturally grew larger. The leading principles of the system were 
 settled, and needed little explanation; but letters concerning its 
 ever-multiplying details, and letters asking advice as to the means 
 of improving it, continued to pour into the Department like a flood. 
 Besides, a live campaign, with all the forces in the field, tends 
 largely to increase the work at headquarters. The nature and 
 extent of this work from 1866 to 1 88 1, are shown in the numerous 
 volumes at Harrisburg containing a record of the correspondence. 
 Editions of the Digest of School Laws were issued in 1866, 1870, 
 1873, 1876, and 1879. That of 1870 was a great improvement over 
 any preceding edition, in the arrangement of the matter, in the 
 accuracy of the quotations and references, and in the simplification 
 
rn2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 of forms. Several omissions made in the older editions were sup- 
 plied, some new forms were added, and a code of parliamentary- 
 rules for the use of directors was introduced for the first time. The 
 official department of the School yournal during the Wickersham 
 administration was well sustained, the columns for each month 
 being filled with matter of interest to all concerned in the work of 
 education. In an editorial in 1869, Dr. Burrowes thus commends 
 it: "Conducted as this department now is, it comes up to the idea, 
 formed some years ago, of the value of regular official communica- 
 tion between the School Department and the schools." The fol- 
 lowing quotation from the answer given in 1869 by the State 
 Superintendent to inquiries made by the Senate Committee on Re- 
 trenchment and Reform, will show in a general way the character 
 of the duties then devolving upon the School Department : 
 
 It holds important official relations with all the teachers in the State, nearly 
 seventeen thousand in number, granting certificates to some, and furnishing 
 certificates to all ; with the twelve thousand school directors,' giving them 
 advice and instruction, furnishing them blanks, receiving their reports, and 
 paying them the State appropriation for their respective districts; with 
 County, City, and Borough Superintendents, calling conventions for their 
 election, commissioning them, watching their work and removing the incom- 
 petent, filling vacancies in their number, issuing instructions to them, pro- 
 viding blanks for recording and tabulating their work, receiving and publish- 
 ing their reports, and paying the salaries of the Superintendents of counties; 
 with teachers' institutes, furnishing them with forms for reports, giving assist- 
 ance in their management, and attending them when practicable; with the 
 State Normal Schools, examining their fitness for recognition, approving their 
 courses of study and charges, inspecting their work, prescribing their forms, 
 attending their examinations, issuing diplomas to their graduates, receiving 
 and publishing their reports, and paying them their State appropriations; 
 with Colleges, Academies, and High Schools, receiving, tabulating, and pub- 
 lishing their reports ; with the Legislature, in making an annual report con- 
 taining information concerning the condition of the system, and proposing 
 plans for its improvement; and with the people of the State, giving informa- 
 ■ tion and advice concerning schools to every citizen that asks for it, and 
 deciding all disputed questions that may arise in the administration of the 
 system, without expense to the parties that may present them. 
 
 There had come to be quite as much necessity for work by the 
 officers of the School Department outside as inside of the office. 
 The Normal Schools had to be visited and their graduating classes 
 examined, the Superintendents needed advice, sometimes support, 
 and it was impossible not to heed the cry for help that came up 
 from the teachers' institutes. Calls were frequent to attend the lay- 
 ing of the corner-stones, or to assist at the dedication of school- 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. cy, 
 
 houses; and addresses were in constant demand on the occasion of 
 school celebrations, the opening or closing exercises of schools, and 
 public educational meetings. Up to 1872, either the Superinten- 
 dent or the Deputy, was engaged in. this kjnd of outdoor work 
 nearly the whole time ; and to the second Deputy, when appointed, 
 was assigned exclusively duties in the field. In 1868, Deputy 
 Superintendent Coburn made, at the request of the State Superin- 
 tendent, a visit of inspection to the Normal Schools, and his obser- 
 vations were published in the State report. In 1874 and 1875, 
 Deputy Superintendent Curry embodied the results of his labors in 
 his special field of work outside of the Department in reports which 
 were published as addenda to the State reports for those years. 
 Early in the year 1872, the State Superintendent announced in the 
 School yournal ihaX. he had kept a good resolution formed at the 
 beginning of his official career, of visiting as soon as practicable 
 every county in the Commonwealth, "for the purpose of seeing 
 schools and schoolhouses, and conferring with Superintendents, 
 directors, teachers, and citizens, in reference to the school interests 
 of their respective localities." The task, he stated, was completed 
 at Somerset, on Friday, December- 29th. From the detailed state- 
 ment published at the time, it appears that he had visited the sev- 
 eral counties each as follows: Seven counties, five or more times; 
 four counties, three times ; sixteen counties, twice, and the remain- 
 ing counties once. One address and sometimes several were made 
 at each visit. This was the work of five years ; a like record could 
 be shown for the ten remaining years of the term. 
 
 Certain educational movements more or less connected with the 
 system of public instruction must be noted in this place. 
 
 In response to a suggestion contained in the report of the Super- 
 intendent of Common Schools for 1866, as to the want of a properly 
 constituted agency to supervise the correctional and charitable insti- 
 tutions of the State, many of which were receiving large annual ap- 
 propriations from its treasury, and to communicate to the Legisla- 
 ture information in reference to their condition and wants. Dr. 
 Wilmer Worthington, chairman of the Committee on Education in 
 the Senate, offered a resolution, which was adopted, providing for the 
 appointment of two senators, who in conjunction with the Superin- 
 tendent of Common Schools, should visit and inspect all such insti- 
 tutions, and report their conclusions to the Senate. The mover of 
 the resolution and Senator Russell Errett, of Pittsburgh, were ap- 
 
574 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 pointed, and with the State Superintendent, who acted as Secretary, 
 visited, during the summer of 1868, the State Penitentiaries, the 
 Houses of Refuge, a number of county jails and poor-houses, the 
 Asylums for the Insane, the Institutions for the Blind, Deaf and 
 Dumb, and Feeble-minded, Girard College and all the principal 
 hospitals and homes for orphans and destitute children. The 
 report, which was written by the Secretary, gave a full description 
 
 WICKERSHAM SCHOOL, PITrSBURGH. 
 
 of all the institutions visited ; and, after discussing at length the 
 proper State policy respecting them, advised the organization of a 
 board to have the supervision of such of them as were either estab- 
 lished by the State, or wholly, or partially dependent upon State aid. 
 The bill prepared by the committee was adopted in 1869, and thus 
 originated the Board of State Charities. 
 
 In October, 1870, J. P. Wickersham and J. P. McCaskey pur- 
 chased the School Journal, which was established and had always 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. 575 
 
 been owned and edited by Thomas H. Burrowes. Mr. McCaskey 
 was Principal of the High School at Lancaster, a position he still 
 occupies, and had been for some years associated in the manage- 
 ment of the Journal. Dr. Burrowes was at the time President of 
 the State Agricultural College, in Centre County, and found his 
 strength no more than sufficient to perform the duties of that posi- 
 tion. Besides, in making the sale, he may have been impelled by 
 an unconscious foresight of what was soon to come, for he died 
 within a few months thereafter, at the age of sixty-six. The Journal 
 under the new management, with Wickersham as Editor and 
 McCaskey as Business Manager, while striving to maintain its past 
 position as an inspirer, a shaper, and a chronicler of educational 
 movements, became at once more strictly professional, and spoke 
 more directly to and for teachers. In consequence, its circulation 
 largely increased in Pennsylvania and spread out considerably into 
 neighboring States. So well did it become known as an authority 
 and a power in the United States, that the educational organs repre- 
 senting the Government in France, Spain and Italy, asked for an 
 exchange; and on its exchange list also, were the principal maga- 
 zines devoted to education in Canada, England, Ireland, Switzerland 
 and other countries. Its voice, too, now more than ever before, 
 became the voice of the School Department, and it was used as an 
 auxiliary in all its plans for the improvement of the system. 
 
 The Soldiers' Orphan Schools were placed by an Act of the Leg- 
 islature in the hands of the Superintendent of Common Schools in 
 1 87 1. Up to this time they had been under the care of an independ- 
 ent department. The change was owing to dis.satisfaction with the 
 management. The Orphan Schools were established in 1864. 
 Their design was to provide homes, education and maintenance for 
 the destitute little ones who had lost their fathers in the war. In 
 1 87 1 the system embraced thirty-nine separate schools, located in 
 different sections of the State, and having in charge thirty-six hun- 
 dred children. It was managed by a Superintendent, two inspectors 
 and two clerks, a force almost equal to that of the Common School 
 Department. The duties of directing and supervising this system 
 of Orphan Schools were henceforth required to be performed by the 
 Superintendent of Common Schools. He found the task of correct- 
 ing the abuses that had crept into the management, and reorganizing 
 the schools, an exceedingly delicate and difficult one. During the 
 years the system remained under his control, ten thousand children 
 
r 76 El^ l^CA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 were provided with homes, fed, clothed, instructed and cared for, 
 and four millions of dollars were expended in the good work. With 
 more children in school and better provision for them in all respects, 
 the expenditures for 1872 were over ^80,000 less than for 1871, 
 a fact that greatly strengthened the system in the Legislature, and 
 with the people. 
 
 During the sittings of the convention that framed the Constitu- 
 tion adopted in 1874, the State Superintendent felt it a duty to keep 
 himself in communication with a number of members known to 
 entertain liberal opinions on the subject of education. The President 
 of the Convention, William M. Meredith, consulted him freely in 
 regard to the formation of the committee that would have this 
 subject in charge. He appeared in person before that committee in 
 Philadelphia, explained his views as to the educational provisions 
 which he thought the Constitution should contain, and left with the 
 chairman a draft of an article in which they were embodied. This 
 draft was not adopted either in form or words, but in substance it 
 was largely incorporated into the work of the Convention. Col- 
 lected into one body, the provisions relating to education in the 
 Constitution of 1874 may be stated as follows: i. A broad and 
 solid foundation for a system of public schools ; in the words of the 
 Constitution, " The General Assembly shall provide for the main- 
 tenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public 
 schools where all the children of this Commonwealth above the age 
 of six years may be educated." 2. An appropriation by the State 
 of not less than a million of dollars a year to carry on the system. 
 3. The prohibition of all special legislation in relation to school 
 affairs. 4. The recognition of Normal Schools as a part of the 
 public school system, and of their right on this account to receive 
 State appropriations on the same conditions as the most favored 
 State institutions. 5. The School Department ranked as one of the 
 five constitutional departments of the State Government, and its 
 head, under the new and broader title of Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction, made the only executive officer exempt from removal 
 " at the pleasure of the power " by whom he is appointed. 6. 
 Money raised for public school purposes not to be appropriated to 
 the uses of sectarian schools. 7. Women made eligible to all 
 offices under the school laws of the State. 
 
 Speaking of the educational provisions of the new Constitution 
 at a meeting of the State Teachers' Association, in August, 1874, 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. ._„ 
 
 the State Superintendent said: "On the whole, the educational 
 provisions of the new Constitution, in comparison with those of the 
 old one, show a wonderful degree of progress. Indeed, their adop- 
 tion marks a new era in our school affairs. We have now a firm 
 foundation embedded in the organic law of the State, on which to 
 erect the grand educational structure of the future. Those of us 
 who have spent the greater part of our lives and our best efforts in 
 the good cause of the education of the people find here the fruition 
 of our labors. The past at least is secure, crystallized in a constitu- 
 tion that may last a century, and the door of the future is wide open 
 to admit the throng of vigorous young workers whose task it is to 
 extend, strengthen and perfect." 
 
 Education in Pennsylvania made a creditable showing at the 
 great Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876; but this 
 result was reached only through much tribulation, and by over- 
 coming many serious difficulties. The directory of the Exposition 
 organized every other interest with some degree of care; education 
 they left to organize itself Knowing that much would be expected 
 of the State in which the Exposition was held, timely effort was 
 made by the School Department to direct the attention of schools 
 and school men to the subject. The authorities of the Exposition 
 were repeatedly requested to furnish definite plans, that the prepa- 
 ration of material might begin. The State Superintendent, before 
 the State Teachers' Association, in 1875, thus urged the importance 
 of making a full educational exhibit: 
 
 The educational interests of the United States must be represented at the 
 Exposition. Foreign nations will expect it of us. Thousands of distin- 
 guished citizens from abroad will visit Philadelphia next year for the sole 
 purpose of studying our systems of public education. These systems are 
 everywhere recognized by thinking men as the only salt that can save institu- 
 tions like ours. They are the centre of our national life. In them is found 
 the chief source of the strength of the Republic. The political philosopher 
 who understands them will find no difficulty in understanding all we have to 
 show — all we are. 
 
 In the educational, as well as in all other features of the Exposition, Penn- 
 sylvania must take a conspicuous part. The Exposition is intended to com- 
 iTiemorate a grand historic event that occurred within her borders. It was 
 projected by her citizens. It is to be held upon her soil. She has contrib- 
 uted a large part of the money used in erecting buildings and making the 
 necessary preparations. Her position among her sister States, her popula- 
 tion, her resources, her past. history and her future prospects, alike entitle her 
 to a prominent place. In addition, we claim to have a school system well 
 organized, purely American, and capable of producing when fully developed, 
 37 
 
578 
 
 EDUCATION IN' PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 the richest kinds of educational fruit. We must not if we could, and we can- 
 not if we would, escape the measure of responsibility thus placed upon us. 
 But to represent our educational interests creditably, we must have action, 
 speedy, earnest, intelligent, enthusiastic. 
 
 But as is told in the State School Report for 1876: 
 
 With every disposition to engage in an effort to have the schools of Pennsyl- 
 vania creditably represented, no way of doing much in that direction pre- 
 sented itself until February, 1876. A visit to Philadelphia at that time 
 revealed the fact that owing as was alleged to the small amount of space ap- 
 plied for, by those interested in education, the whole educational exhibit of the 
 United States had been assigned to the gallery in the Main Building near the 
 south entrance, and that the wall space contained in it did not exceed five 
 thousand square feet. Of this space, Pennsylvania could hardly expect more 
 than one-tenth, an jimount so small that it seemed totally useless to attempt 
 to compress into it the intended exhibit. Two alternatives were therefore 
 presented, either to abandon the whole project, or to erect at once a special 
 building for ourselves on ground offered for the purpose by the Commissioners 
 in charge of the Exposition. The first of these alternatives could not be ac- 
 cepted without shame ; and the second was beset with the most serious diffi- 
 culties. Scarcely three months remained until the Exposition would open ; 
 the money necessary to erect the building and make the exhibit had to be 
 procured ; the work of construction had to be done on the Centennial grounds 
 amidst the rush and confusion of the last months preceding the opening day; 
 educational institutions and school officers throughout the State had to be 
 stirred up to make the most vigorous preparation ; the material furnished had 
 to be organized and arranged, and a vast amount of incidental work had to 
 he. performed. Still, for the good name of the State, the task was undertaken. 
 A location on the grounds was chosen, a plan of building was adopted, archi- 
 tects and builders were employed, and the Pennsylvania Educational Hall 
 was under roof before any money was obtained with which to pay for it. The 
 fifteen thousand dollars generously appropriated by the Legislature came in 
 time to render further private risk unnecessary, and liberal school boards 
 and patriotic teachers and citizens contributed in addition the sum pf three 
 thousand six hundred and eighty dollars and eighty-five cents towards the ex- 
 penses of the project. The call for material was handsomely responded to 
 by common schools, orphan schools, academies, normal schools, colleges, 
 charitable institutions, schools of design and elocution, commercial schools, 
 book publishers and the manufacturers of school furniture and apparatus, so 
 that on the tenth of May when the Exposition opened, Pennsylvania had her 
 own building, containing twenty thousand square feet of wall surface, up and 
 filled with a comprehensive exhibit of her educational products. That it was 
 creditable to her no one has questioned. As a whole, it was not only much 
 the largest, but good judges pronounced it the best exhibit of the kind on the 
 ground. 
 
 Notice of the building and of the exhibit appeared in a large 
 number of newspapers and magazines, both domestic and foreign. 
 The following from the " Home Companion and Canadian Teacher" 
 Canada, expressed in few words the general sentiment: " No other 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. 
 
 579 
 
58o 
 
 ED UCA TION IN PEN AS YL VAN I A. 
 
 State or even Nation has done so nnich to show the world what she 
 is doing in educational matters as Pennsylvania." The Pennsylva- 
 nia Board of Centennial Managers in their report, thus compliment 
 the display : " As a State exhibit, the Board have felt it their duty 
 to refer to it at some length, and they avail themselves of the occa- 
 sion to join publicly in the high commendation which it has gener- 
 ally received." 
 
 The labor of collecting and installing the material and of fitting 
 up the display was mainly performed by the officers of the School 
 Department. Deputy Superintendent Curry spent nearly the whole 
 season in attendance at the Hall, and the State Superintendent taxed 
 his whole strength in an effort to perform the extra duties the exhi- 
 bition involved. 
 
 The uses of the Hall are thus stated in an editorial in the School 
 Journal for August, at the time the Exposition was at its height : 
 
 Pennsylvania never made a better investment than when the money was 
 appropriated for the erection of an Educational Hall on the Centennial 
 grounds. The exhibition there is not only a source of pride to our own 
 people, but it furnishes a means for the advancement of the geneial interest 
 of education. If the work of preparation were now to be done over again, 
 twice as much could be done and better done with the same effort. Many 
 who stood entirely aloof when called upon last spring for help, are now 
 greatly ashamed of their backwardness, and would gladly if the time had not 
 passed by, proffer their assistance. But with all its defects, the exhibit made 
 is a great success. For the past month the average number of persons visit- 
 ing the Hall is estimated at five thousand a day, and while mullitudes drop 
 in merely from curiosity, many seek the place to observe and study. There 
 is never a time when, among the crowd of visitors, persons with note-books 
 and pencils may not be seen at work. Visits to the Hall are especially profit- 
 able to teachers and school directors, and we are satisfied that the improve- 
 ment growing out of the exhibition to these classes alone, will pay its cost 
 many times over. 
 
 Besides, the Hall is the constant resort of foreigners seeking information 
 on the subject of American education. Gentlemen connected with almost 
 every nation represented at the Exposition have visited it for this purpose — 
 among them Russians, Austrians, Hungarians, Germans, Italians, French- 
 men, Swedes, Norwegians, Japanese, Chinese, Belgians, Hollanders, Span- 
 iards, Portuguese, Englishmen, Turks, Egyptians, Swiss, Canadians, and 
 South Americans of various nationalities. The Emperor of Brazil, Dom 
 Pedro, made an early morning visit to the Hall, uninvited, and with a view 
 to special study, accompanied by a single attendant, and spent some two 
 hours almost alone in examining what is to be seen. He expressed himself 
 very much pleased with the exhibit, and took occasion subsequently to show 
 that such was the fact. And, be it understood, the visits of these foreigners 
 are not the visits of mere sight-seers, but are made mostly by persons in offi- 
 cial position, or such as come to the Exposition charged with the duty of 
 investigating educational systems. 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. 
 
 581 
 
 Without any effort in that direction on the part of those who had charge of 
 it, the Pennsylvania Educational Hall has become a kind of headquarters for 
 all interested in education who are in attendance at the Exposition. Begin- 
 ning about the first of June, International Conferences have been held there 
 twice a week, at which the systems of education in the several States of the 
 American Union and in foreign nations have undergone examination. They 
 have been well attended both by American educators and educators from 
 abroad. A more formal International Congress of teachers and friends of 
 education has just closed its sessions, which were mostly held at the Hall. 
 Its proceedings attracted general attention, and are to be published by the 
 Bureau of Education at Washington. 
 
 Seeing from the Centennial Exposition how much could be 
 learned from a study of the school systems of the Old World that 
 would be profitable in America, the State Superintendent so 
 arranged the work of his Department that he could spend the sum- 
 mer of 1878 in Europe. His special object was to visit and inspect 
 schools of an industrial character. To aid him in his investigations 
 he was constituted by Governor Hartranft " a commissioner, in the 
 name and for the benefit of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
 with full power and authority to inquire into and examine the 
 industrial schools and systems of general and technical education 
 in the various countries of Europe ; " and commended " to the espe- 
 cial confidence and courtesy of foreign Governments and those in 
 authority under the same." During the tour, visits were made to 
 the Universities of Dublin, Edinburgh, Oxford, Heidelberg, Mu- 
 nich, Berlin, Leipsic, Vienna, and Zurich; the High School of 
 Edinburgh; several of the great Public Schools of England, Charter 
 House, Westminster, Eton, and Rugby; a number of Gymnasia 
 and Higher Biirger schools in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; 
 a multitude of elementary schools along the whole line of travel, in 
 cities, villages, and country places; Normal schools in various 
 countries; the great Polytechnic Schools at Zurich, Munich, 
 Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and Paris; many agricultural and 
 trade schools, and schools of art and industry; and the Conserva- 
 tory of Arts and Trades at Paris, the German Industrial Museum 
 at Berlin, the National Bavarian Museum at Munich, the Museum 
 of Art and Industry at Vienna, the South Kensington Museum at 
 London, and the Industrial Museum of Scotland at Edinburgh. A 
 month was spent at Paris, mostly in the study of education as rep- 
 resented at the International Exposition, then in progress. Valu- 
 able information on all the aspects of the educational question was 
 obtained, which was subsequently utilized in the preparation of the 
 
582 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 account of European schools and school systems which appeared 
 in the Report of the Department for 1878, in numerous articles on 
 the subject written for the School yournal, and in frequent ad- 
 dresses delivered at teachers' institutes and educational meetings. 
 
 As the rapid educational growth of Pennsylvania became known 
 throughout the Union, the correspondence of the Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction outside of the State greatly increased. Calls 
 were made upon him continually for opinions and, advice. Scarcely 
 was there a system of public schools organized in any new State in 
 the West without asking help from Pennsylvania, and probably 
 more than any other State Pennsylvania was consulted by the able 
 and zealous but inexperienced school officers of the reconstructed 
 States of the South. As a return for such services, Pennsylvania 
 was accorded high honors and unusual weight in all national assem- 
 blages of teachers and superintendents of schools. In addition, 
 distinguished foreigners came to the State as never before, seeking 
 information concerning our system of public instruction. In 1867, 
 Seiior Sarmiento, then the Minister to this country from the 
 Argentine Republic in South America, afterwards President of the 
 Republic, spent some weeks in Pennsylvania, mostly at Harrisburg, 
 in the study of our school laws and methods of managing schools. 
 So well pleased was he with what he learned that he made a strong 
 effort to have the State Superintendent resign his position and go 
 with him to South America, and undertake the task of doing for 
 education in the Argentine Republic what had been done for 
 education in Pennsylvania. During the winter of 1872, Fujimaro 
 Tanaka, a Commissioner for the Empire of Japan, sent to examine 
 the educational systems of the United States, came with an inter- 
 preter and suite to Harrisburg. He remained several days, each 
 morning being spent in listening to an explanation of our system by 
 the State Superintendent, and in taking notes of the most important 
 points. When about to leave, the Commissioner directed the inter- 
 preter among other things to say : " Penn.sylvania has the best 
 school law for an intelligent people of any with which he has been 
 made acquainted; but in Japan, where the masses are yet ignorant, 
 hundreds of years must elapse before such a law can be adminis- 
 tered." Commissioner Tanaka subsequently became Minister of 
 Education in Japan, and grateful for the aid given him at Harrisburg 
 continued to correspond with the Department up to 1881. Dr. 
 Philippe Maria Da Motta D'Azevedo Correa, Commissioner in 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH. 583 
 
 charge of the educational department of Brazil at the Centennial 
 Exposition, and previously Professor in the Imperial , College at 
 Rio Janeiro, remained in Pennsylvania some months after the close 
 of the Exposition, visited many schools, and gave much time to the 
 study of our system of education. A delegation of eminent French 
 educators, with M. Buisson, now Director General of Primary Edu- 
 cation in France, at its head, commissioned by the Government 
 to visit the Exposition, made the Pennsylvania Educational Hall 
 their head-quarters while at Philadelphia, attended the meeting of 
 the State Teachers' Association at West Chester, and visited a 
 number of our schools. A school celebration in Solebury town- 
 ship, Bucks county, held during the Centennial Exposition, was at- 
 tended by Sir Charles Reed, M. P., President of the School Board 
 of London, England ; Count Guiseppe Dassi, of Italy; Col. Marin, 
 of Spain ; Monsieur Fouret, of France ; and Paul Liptay, of Hun- 
 gary. These gentlemen were greatly delighted with the appearance 
 of the children, the intelligence of the people, and the working of 
 the school system in a representative American rural district. The 
 Department sent small but comprehensive exhibits to International 
 Expositions in Chili and France, and was accorded silver medals 
 therefor. But far better than words can do it, the following tables 
 tell the story of the wonderful growth of the school interests of the 
 State during the years from 1866 to 1881. The falling off in the 
 amount expended for schoolhouses in 1876 and onwards for several 
 years was partially owing to the fact that the pressing wants of the 
 system in this respect had been fairly supplied by the large expendi- 
 tures of the preceding years, and partly to the financial disturb- 
 ances that grealty depressed all kinds of business during this period. 
 To this stagnation in the money-market, that affected most disas- 
 trously all the material interests of the country, is also attributable 
 the reduction in teachers' salaries shown in the later years embraced 
 in the tables. Matters were made worse by the thousands of per- 
 sons thrown out of other employments who sought positions as 
 teachers, at almost any salary they could obtain. The reduction 
 over the State was from five to fifteen dollars a month; but happily 
 it was only temporary. The year 188 1 brought a marked change 
 for the better, and soon all the lost ground will be recovered. The 
 bright lining to the cloud is the fact that the school term was but 
 slightly reduced at any time and the aggregate amount paid for 
 tuition during all the years of depression remained at about the 
 
5 84 ED UCA riON IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 highest figure. The State stood still waiting for better times, indi- 
 vidual teachers suffered, but no backward step was taken in the 
 great work of educating the people. 
 
 TABLE SHOWING EDUCATIONAL GROWTH. 
 
 v 
 
 si 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 f 
 
 
 !«; 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 is; 
 
 !S! 
 
 !?; 
 
 
 IS 
 2 
 
 Si 
 
 II 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 
 
 5--< 
 
 t 
 
 1 
 
 
 • 5 »■ 
 
 IS" 
 
 •?3 
 
 
 ^1' 
 
 
 
 1 366 
 
 6S 
 
 3.704 
 
 1,921 
 
 5 mo. IS 
 
 d. 
 
 9,280 
 
 6,917 
 
 9.404 
 
 1,426 
 
 695 
 
 6,015 
 
 1867 
 
 68 
 
 3.944 
 
 2.147 
 
 5 mo, i6J 
 
 d. 
 
 9,825 
 
 7,458 
 
 9.377 
 
 2,113 
 
 787 
 
 6,327 
 
 1B6B 
 
 7S 
 
 10,268 
 
 2,382 
 
 5 mo. ig. 
 
 d. 
 
 10,434 
 
 9.339 
 
 10,553 
 
 2.054 
 
 725 
 
 6.437 
 
 iBbq 
 
 76 
 
 11,321 
 
 2,445 
 
 5 mo. 201 
 
 d. 
 
 10,528 
 
 10,992 
 
 10,544 
 
 1,909 
 
 959 
 
 7.047 
 
 1870 
 
 70 
 
 lI,2IO 
 
 2,892 
 
 5 mo. 21 
 
 d. 
 
 11,016 
 
 11,274 
 
 10,927 
 
 2,040 
 
 946 
 
 6,407 
 
 1B71 
 
 81 
 
 11,890 
 
 3.431 
 
 5 mo. 2t 
 
 d. 
 
 11,716 
 
 12,139 
 
 11,536 
 
 2,438 
 
 88 1 
 
 7,268 
 
 1872 
 
 8s 
 
 11,625 
 
 3.414 
 
 6 mo. 
 
 
 10,856 
 
 10.599 
 
 10,599 
 
 2,381 
 
 909 
 
 S.17S 
 
 1873 
 
 86 
 
 12,302 
 
 3,827 
 
 6 mo. 6J 
 
 d. 
 
 11,418 
 
 12,870 
 
 11,206 
 
 1,826 
 
 1,201 
 
 5.690 
 
 1B74 
 
 86 
 
 13,970 
 
 3.923 
 
 6 mo. 8 
 
 d. 
 
 12,129 
 
 13,167 
 
 12,154 
 
 1,683 
 
 1,127 
 
 6,016 
 
 1875 
 
 "7 
 
 13.864 
 
 4,112 
 
 6 mo. 10 
 
 d. 
 
 12,690 
 
 12,700 
 
 12,530 
 
 2,273 
 
 1,308 
 
 6,427 
 
 1876 
 
 Bg 
 
 13.523 
 
 4.079 
 
 6 mo. 10 
 
 d. 
 
 12,539 
 
 12.774 
 
 12,867 
 
 2.430 
 
 1,492 
 
 6,506 
 
 "■In 
 
 Bo 
 
 13.109 
 
 4.357 
 
 6 mo. 8 
 
 d. 
 
 12,927 
 
 12.923 
 
 13,198 
 
 2,522 
 
 1,754 
 
 6,941 
 
 1878 
 
 go 
 
 13,303 
 
 4,453 
 
 6 mo. 4 
 
 d. 
 
 12,758 
 
 13,583 
 
 13.457 
 
 2,565 
 
 1,943 
 
 7,133 
 
 1870 
 
 pi 
 
 13,308 
 
 4.748 
 
 6 mo. 8 
 
 d 
 
 13,802 
 
 12,009 
 
 12,768 
 
 2,748 
 
 2,254 
 
 6,841 
 
 1880 
 
 1)2 
 
 15,809 
 
 4.9S7 
 
 6 mo. s\ 
 
 d. 
 
 13.277 
 
 14,201 
 
 13.368 
 
 2,642 
 
 2,13s 
 
 6,782 
 
 I88I 
 
 99 
 
 15,709 
 
 5,182 
 
 6 mo. 6 
 
 d. 
 
 13.987 
 
 14.665 
 
 14,630 
 
 3,407 
 
 2.473 . 
 
 7,386 
 
 This table is exclusive of Philadelphia. It is mainly compiled 
 from the annual reports of the County, City and Borough Superin- 
 tendents of schools, and the irregularities noticeable in some of the 
 columns are for the most part attributable to the fact that for some 
 years the statistics were more perfectly collected than for others. 
 The general rise in the figures shows the growth that was taking 
 place. 
 
 TABLE SHOWING FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 ^ 
 
 2 
 
 \ 
 
 * 
 
 :^ 
 
 !k. 
 
 « 
 
 « 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 II 
 
 1:1- 
 
 
 
 ?f 
 
 <* 
 
 r^ 
 H 
 
 
 3^ 
 
 
 is; 
 
 1- f 
 
 :W 
 
 • ^3 
 
 1' 
 
 ■ i. 
 
 l| 
 
 ■ 1. 
 
 1866 
 
 $49,802 47 
 
 $354,436 
 
 $34 34 
 
 $2631 
 
 52,748,795 08 
 
 $725,000 00 
 
 $4,195,256 57 
 
 
 1B67 
 
 60,520 00 
 
 355,000 
 
 3587 
 
 27 51 
 
 3,028,065 78 
 
 1,262,798 68 
 
 5,160,750 17 
 
 
 1B68 
 
 68,915 67 
 
 355.000 
 
 37 28 
 
 28 76 
 
 3,273.269 43 
 
 1.991.152 55 
 
 6,200,539 96 
 
 $10,556,765 00 
 
 iB6g 
 
 73.370 00 
 
 500,000 
 
 3g 00 
 
 30 52 
 
 3.500,704 26 
 
 2,455,847 71 
 
 6,986,148 92 
 
 14,045,632 00 
 
 1B70 
 
 88j45o 00 
 
 500,000 
 
 40 66 
 
 32 39 
 
 3.745,415 81 
 
 2,765,644 34 
 
 7,791,761 20 
 
 15,837,183 00 
 
 1B71 
 
 93,7" 00 
 
 500,000 
 
 41 04 
 
 32 86 
 
 3,926,529 88 
 
 3,386,263 51 
 
 8,580,918 33 
 
 16,889,624 00 
 
 1B72 
 
 99,960 00 
 
 650,000 
 
 41 71 
 
 34 60 
 
 4,104,273 53 
 
 2,864,113 35 
 
 8,345.072 78 
 
 18,689,624 00 
 
 iii73 
 
 108,886 ,00 
 
 700,000 
 
 42 69 
 
 34 92 
 
 4.325.797 47 
 
 1.753.812 36 
 
 8.345.B36 41 
 
 21,750,209 00 
 
 1874 
 
 109,386 00 
 
 760,000 
 
 42 95 
 
 35 87 
 
 4,527,308 03 
 
 2,160,514 87 
 
 8,847,939 88 
 
 22,569,668 00 
 
 1875 
 
 105,550 00 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 41 07 
 
 34 09 
 
 4.746,875 52 
 
 2,059.465 83 
 
 9,363,927 07 
 
 24,260,789 00 
 
 1876 
 
 108,750 00 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 39 76 
 
 33 60 
 
 4,856,888 91 
 
 1.735,148 87 
 
 9,163,928 68 
 
 26,265,925 00 
 
 1B77 
 
 108,750 00 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 37 38 
 
 32 30 
 
 4,817.563 33 
 
 1,276,578 55 
 
 8.583.379 44 
 
 25,460,761 00 
 
 1B7B 
 
 105,850 00 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 35 5B 
 
 31 32 
 
 4,755,620 11 
 
 1,118,185 92 
 
 8.187,977 41 
 
 24,839,820 61 
 
 1879 
 
 110,811 25 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 33 62 
 
 29 69 
 
 4,605,986 65 
 
 1,031,130 65 
 
 7.747,787 04 
 
 24,063,137 75 
 
 18B0 
 
 112,381 35 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 3"!^ 
 
 28 42 
 
 4,510,196 87 
 
 952,695 08 
 
 7,482,577 75 
 
 25,467.097 00 
 
 iBBi 
 
 122,811 35 
 
 T, 000 ,000 
 
 33 66 2g 03 
 
 4,677,016 50 
 
 1.207,011 13 
 
 7,882,705 01 
 
 26,605,321 00 
 
 •■■ Including Philadelphia. 
 
AN ERA OF GROWTH.. 58$ 
 
 Superintendent Wickersham's last term ended on the first Monday 
 of June 1880; but as the Senate was not in session he remained at 
 the head of the Department by request of Governor Hoyt until the 
 following April, when Rev. E. E. Higbee, D. D., was appointed his 
 successor. Henry Houck and William A. Lindsey were retained 
 as Deputy Superintendents. Mr. Lindsey having resigned on ac- 
 count of ill health, John Q. Stewart, on the first day of April 1883, 
 was promoted from a desk in the Department to the position of 
 Deputy, where his services have been very efficient. Dr. Higbee 
 having served one term, was reappointed in 1885. He is therefore 
 still in office ; and as history cannot be written until it is made, our 
 story so far as it relates to the administration of the common schools 
 must close at this point. The system is in safe hands, and its future 
 progress and ultimate triumph are assured. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 CHILDREN ORPHANED BY THE WAR MAINTAINED AND EDUCATED. 
 
 LEAVENED by the benevolent principles of the founder of the 
 State and the religious Society to which he belonged, Pennsylva- 
 nia has been characterized from the beginning by her works of 
 charity. She was the foremost among her sister States in ameli- 
 orating the discipline of prisons, in establishing hospitals for the sick 
 and disabled, in providing special institutions for the education of 
 the blind and deaf and dumb, and in seeing that the poor received 
 instruction. The year 1 864 witnessed the inauguration within her 
 borders of a scheme of benevolence without a parallel in the history 
 of any other State or nation. 
 
 Pennsylvania sent to the field during the civil war nearly four 
 hundred thousand men. It is calculated that of these fifty thousand 
 fell in battle or died in hospitals, and certainly fifty thousand more 
 returned to their homes greatly disabled with wounds or badly 
 shattered in health. Many of the dead soldiers left wives and chil- 
 dren in destitute circumstances, and multitudesof those who escaped 
 with their lives were henceforth to be rather a burden than a help to 
 their families. The war had not continued long before hundreds of 
 the orphaned or worse than orphaned children of soldiers were re- 
 duced to want and beggary, or were compelled to find food and 
 shelter in some alms-house or charitable home for the poor and 
 friendless. It was then that the great, patriotic heart of Pennsylva- 
 nia was moved, and the plan formed by which to June, 1884, twelve 
 thousand seven hundred and seven children of dead and disabled 
 soldiers had been collected into schools, maintained, educated, and 
 cared for to the age of sixteen years, and then placed in circum- 
 stances giving an opportunity for a fair start in life at an expense of 
 seven millions six hundred and thirtyrtwo thousand three hundred 
 and fifty-four dollars and seventy cents with a prospective increase 
 of the amount to nine millions of dollars before the work will be 
 
 complete. 
 
 (586) 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. eg. 
 
 The first step towards the establishment of the Soldiers' Orphan 
 Schools was the recommendation contained in the annual message 
 of Governor Andrew G. Curtin, in 1864. The paragraph is as 
 follows : 
 
 I commend to the prompt attention of the Legislature the subject of the 
 relief of the poor orphans of our soldiers who have given, or shall give, their 
 Hves to the country during this crisis. In my opiijion their maintenance and 
 education should be provided for by the State. Failing other natural friends 
 of ability to provide for them, they should be honorably received and fostered 
 as children of the Commonwealth. The fifty thousand dollars heretofore 
 given by the Pennsylvania railroad company, referred to in my last annual 
 message, is still unappropriated, and I recommend that this sum, with such 
 other means as the Legislature rhay think fit, be applied to this end, in such 
 manner as may be thought most expedient and effective. In anticipation of 
 the adoption of a more perfect system, I recommend that provision be made 
 for securing the admission of such children into existing educational establish- 
 ments, to be there clothed, nurtured and instructed at the public expense. I 
 make this recommendation earnestly, feeling assured that in doing so I repre- 
 sent the wishes of the patriotic, the benevolent and the good of the State. 
 
 The fifty thousand dollars spoken of by the Governor as donated 
 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was generously offered to 
 assist in paying bounties to volunteers, at a critical time, after the 
 failure of the Peninsula campaign in 1862, and pending the call of 
 the General Government for three hundred thousand additional 
 men ; but it could not then be accepted for the purpose, owing to a 
 want of the necessary authority from the Legislature. In his mes- 
 sage for 1863, the Governor recommended that the donation should 
 " be applied towards the erection of an asylum for our disabled 
 soldiers;" but a year later the greater necessity of relief for the 
 "poor orphans of our soldiers who have given "or shall give their 
 lives to the country during this crisis " caused him to change his 
 recommendation as to the direction in which he deemed it best the 
 money should be used. The idea, therefore, that the State should 
 take under her care the destitute children orphaned by the war, as- 
 sumed definite shape in the mind of the Governor sometime between 
 1863 and 1864. It is said to have been suggested by two children 
 who called at the Executive Mansion on Thanksgiving Day, 1863, 
 and asked for bread. The Governor happened to meet them at the 
 door, and to his questions they answered in their childish way "that 
 their father had been killed in battle, their mother had since died, 
 and they had been left utterly friendless and alone." This was 
 God's sermon to the head of the Commonwealth ! For two years he 
 had been calling for troops and urging men to the field, and, behold, 
 
egg EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 their children had become beggars ! More Hkely, however, this inci- 
 dent served to give shape to a thought that had been for sometime 
 forming, for the Governor had frequently before sending newly 
 enlisted troops to the seat of war solemnly promised to protect and 
 care for their wives and little ones ; and he was without doubt aware 
 that at the Northern Home in Philadelphia, the Soldiers' Orphan 
 Home, in Pittsburgh, and other similar institutions, several hundred 
 soldiers' children left destitute were already dependent upon the 
 charity that supported them. 
 
 Soon after the publication of the message containing the recom- 
 mendation in relation to orphan children of soldiers, the Governor, 
 bent on his patriotic purpose, requested James P. Wickersham, then 
 Principal of the State Normal School at Millersville, whom he had 
 known as a school officer when State Superintendent of Common 
 Schools, to prepare a bill to be laid before the Legislature that 
 should embody such provisions as were necessary to carry into 
 effect the measure as recommended. The request was complied 
 with and the bill so drawn was approved by the Governor, read in 
 place in the House of Representatives by Dr. Robert L. McClellan, 
 of Chester county, chairman of the Committee on Education, and 
 considered and reported favorably by the committee. An editorial 
 in the Scliool Journal for May, 1864, thus speaks of it: "A bill is 
 also on file in the House, having been reported by the Committee on 
 Education, providing for the maintenance and education of the 
 children of soldiers from this State who have been killed or died in 
 the service of the United States, during the existing war, and who^ 
 have' left their families in limited circumstances. Of these the num- 
 ber is now not less than five thousand. The proposed law is a 
 good one, and it is sincerely hoped will pass this session." 
 
 As this bill, although it never became a law, was the foundation 
 upon which the whole system was based, it will be presented in full 
 as it may be found in the archives of the House in the handwriting 
 of its author : 
 
 ORIGINAL BILL PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SOLDIERS' ORPHAN 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 Section i . Be it enacted, etc. : That as soon as convenient after the pas- 
 sage of this Act, there shall be appointed by the Governor, with the consent 
 of the Senate, an officer to be called the Superintendent of Schools for 
 Orphans, whose duty it shall be to carry into effect the several provisions of 
 this Act, and to make an annual report to the Legislature, which shall con- 
 tain a full account of his proceedings, the expenses incurred in the past year 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 589 
 
 and the sums required for the ensuing year, the institutions recognized as 
 orphan schools and the number of pupils in each, and all such matters relat- 
 ing to the instruction and training of the orphan children of soldiers as he 
 may deem expedient to communicate, and whose salary shall be sixteen hun- 
 dred dollars per annum, and necessary traveling expenses, to be paid 
 quarterly ; said Superintendent of Schools for Orphans to hold his office for 
 three years, commencing on the first Monday of June, one thousand eight 
 hundred and sixty-four, and his successors to be appointed every third year 
 thereafter; all such officers to be subject to removal by the Governor at any 
 lime for misbehavior or misconduct during their respective terms, and the 
 vacancies in any wise occurring to be supplied for the unexpired terms by 
 new appointments: Provided, That in case of removal, the Governor shall 
 at the time communicate his reasons therefor, in writing, to the Superintend- 
 ent of Schools for Orphans thus displaced, and also to the Senate, if in ses- 
 sion, and if not, within ten days after its next meeting. 
 
 Section 2. Any institution now established, or which may hereafter be 
 established in this Commonwealth, may apply to the Superintendent of 
 Schools for Orphans, to be recognized as a suitable school or home for the 
 instruction and training of the destitute orphan children of soldiers ; and 
 after full opportunity shall have been given for all such institutions as desire 
 to do so to make application, it shall be his duty without delay to visit the 
 several institutions thus applying, make a careful examination as to their 
 means of imparting physical, industrial, intellectual and moral instruction 
 and training, and their ability to furnish proper food and clothing, and select, 
 subject to the approval of the Governor, from among them those best adapted 
 in all respects to become schools or homes for the said orphan children of 
 soldiers. 
 
 Section 3. That the Superintendent of Schools for Orphans shall, with the 
 approval of the Governor, appoint a committee of both sexes in each county 
 to serve gratuitously, whose duty it shall be to make application to the Super- 
 intendent of Schools for Orphans for the admission into one of the institutions 
 selected as suitable to become schools or homes for the destitute orphan chil- 
 dren of soldiers, of any child who resides in Pennsylvania and is between the 
 ages of five and fifteen, whose father was killed while in the military service 
 of the United States, or died of wounds received or disease contracted in that 
 service, and whose circumstances are such as to render him or her dependent 
 Upon either public or private charity for support : Provided, That all such ap- 
 plications must be accompanied with a statement, certified to by oath or affir- 
 mation, of the name and age of the child, the place of residence and nativity, 
 the extent of destitution, the name of the father, his regiment or vessel on 
 which he served, rank and the manner of his death. 
 
 Section 4. The Superintendent of Schools for Orphans shall grant all ap- 
 phcations for admittance into the institutions selected as orphan schools or 
 homes that seem to him proper, and assign the children so applying to such 
 one of them as he may consider most convenient and suitable, having regard 
 as far as possible to the religious denomination or faith of their parents. It 
 shall be his further duty to visit each institution so, selected at least once in 
 three months, and carefully inspect its arrangements for promoting the health 
 and comfort of its pupils, the methods of instruction pursued, and the kind of 
 food and clothing furnished ; and if any of the schools so selected prove dere- 
 
jQO EDUC/ITION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 lict in duty in these or other respects to the orphan children placed under 
 their care, he shall lay the fact before the Governor, and with his approval 
 refuse longer to recognize them in the capacity of orphan schools : Provided, 
 That such a decision shall in all cases be made known to the institution con- 
 cerned one month before it is carried into effect. 
 
 Section 5. It shall be the duty of the authorities of all institutions selected 
 as orphan schools or homes, to record the names of all persons who may 
 desire to take into their service any orphan child connected with said institu- 
 tions, and they shall have authority to bind such children as apprentices with 
 the consent of the mother, if living; but all contracts to apprentice or bind 
 out an orphan child must be made at the time of the tri-monthly visit of the 
 Superintendent of Schools for Orphans, and be signed by him. 
 
 Section 6. All institutions instructing and training the orphan children of 
 soldiers, and providing them with food and clothing, as prescribed in the 
 preceding sections, shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the State 
 an amount to be determined by contract between the authorities of said 
 schools respectively, and the Superintendent of Schools for Orphans, and 
 approved by the Governor, to be graduated by the respective ages of the 
 children, but in no case to exceed one hundred dollars per annum, for each 
 child thus instructed and cared for, to be paid in quarterly installments upon 
 warrants issued by the Superintendent of Schools for Orphans : Provided, 
 That before the payment of any quarterly installment, the authorities of the 
 institutions to which payment is to be made shall have made under oath or 
 affirmation a quarterly report stating the number of orphan children of sol- 
 diers, admitted according to the provisions of this Act, there were in the 
 institution at the commencement of the quarter, the number admitted and 
 discharged during the quarter, with the respective dates, and the number 
 remaining. 
 
 While the bill was pending, the Governor sent a special message 
 to the Legislature urging prompt action on the subject. It was the 
 twenty-ninth of April before the bill was taken up for consideration 
 in the House, and it was then met by strong opposition. Those 
 who antagonized the bill, in the main, favored a measure making it 
 the special duty of school boards in the several districts to provide 
 for the education and maintenance of such soldiers' orphans as 
 they might find in destitute circumstances. The debate on the bill 
 and the amendment was warm, and lasted for several days, and it 
 finally became apparent that the time that remained till the close of 
 the session was too short to properly consider and perfect a meas- 
 ure of so much importance. The bill was therefore dropped by its 
 friends, although the votes taken showed they outnumbered the 
 opposition, and the following, prepared by Thomas Cochran, of 
 Philadelphia, was adopted as a substitute: 
 
 Section i. Be it enacted, etc.. That the Governor of the Commonwealth 
 of Pennsylvania be and is hereby authorized ta accept the sum of fifty thou- 
 sand dollars donated by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, for the educa- 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. cqj 
 
 lion and maintenance of destitute orphan children of deceased soldiers and 
 sailors, and appropriate the same in such manner as he may deem best calcu- 
 lated to accomplish the object designed by said donation, the accounts of 
 said disbursements to be settled in the usual manner, by the Auditor General 
 and the Governor, and make report of the same to the next Legislature. 
 
 This Act left to the Governor's discretion the entire plan, so 
 far as it could be carried into effect by the expenditure of fifty 
 thousand 'dollars. Mr. Wickersham was again invited to a confer- 
 ence on the subject, the result of which was a resolve on the part 
 of the Governor to organize a system of soldiers' orphan schools 
 upon the principle of the bill lost in the House of Representatives, 
 not doubting that the Legislature would eventually vote the money 
 necessary to sustain it, and to offer the appointment of Superintend- 
 ent of Orphan Schools to the veteran educator, Thomas H. Bur- 
 rowes. Dr. Burrowes was at first disposed to decline the offer, but 
 in the end consented to accept it. The salary was fixed at six 
 dollars a day and necessary traveling expenses, and a clerk was 
 allowed at not more than one hundred dollars a month. In his 
 letter enclosing a commission, the Governor requested the Superin- 
 tendent to prepare " a plan for carrying into effect the intentions of 
 the Legislature." This plan as prepared was much more complete 
 in details than the Wickersham bill, but differed from it in no essen- 
 tial particular. Indeed, it seems almost to assume that the bill had 
 become a law. In speaking of the two measures in the School 
 Journal, July,- 1864, Dr. Burrowes said: "The bill that was thus 
 lost had been carefully prepared by Prof Wickersham, Principal of 
 the Normal School of the Second District, whose knowledge and 
 experience in school organization will not be questioned ; and its 
 main features have been adhered to in the plan now adopted." Dr. 
 Burrowes' plan as approved by the Governor contained full details 
 as to, I. The persons entitled to the benefits provided; 2. The mode 
 of making application for the benefit ; 3. The kind of education and 
 maintenance proposed to be furnished; 4. The schools to be 
 .selected; 5. The control of the orphans in the schools; 6. The 
 fund at command, and; 7. The administration of the trust. The 
 plan boldly assumed that the State would make provision for the 
 education and maintenance of all the destitute soldiers' orphans 
 within her borders, and broadly laid the foundations of a system 
 that would carry into effect a scheme of benevolence upon this grand 
 scale. If millions of dollars had been at command, instead of fifty 
 thousand, the plan could not have been more comprehensive. 
 
^2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 The preliminaries settled, Dr. Burrowes opened an office in Lan- 
 caster, appointed as clerk Prof. James Thompson, of Pittsburgh, a 
 gentleman of large experience in school affairs, and commenced the 
 work of organizing the system. The first months were spent in 
 preparing forms of various kinds, selecting citizens in the different 
 counties to act as Superintending Committees, seeking suitable 
 institutions willing to receive soldiers' orphans, and carrying on a 
 large explanatory correspondence. 
 
 The plan did not at first contemplate the founding of new schools, 
 but its purpose was to secure the admission of the orphan children 
 into institutions already established. Comparatively little difficulty 
 was met with in the case of children under the age of ten years. 
 The Northern Home for Friendless Children, in Philadelphia, had 
 already provided, without any expectation of compensation, for 
 many such children, and was ready to receive more at the expense 
 of the State. The Soldiers' Orphan Home, at Pittsburgh, estab- 
 lished expressly as a home for the destitute orphans of soldiers, 
 before the State took action in the matter, mainly by the efforts of 
 James P. Barr, assisted by other benevolent and patriotic citizens, 
 was ready at once to begin the good work on the State's plan. 
 And these notable examples were soon followed by the Allegheny 
 Home for Friendless Children, the Children's Home of Lancaster, 
 and the Church Home for Children and the St. Paul's Orphan 
 Asylum at Philadelphia. But the task of finding suitable institu- 
 tions willing to receive on the required conditions orphan children 
 above the age of ten years, was one of extreme difficulty, and a 
 man less hopeful and less persistent than Dr. Burrowes would ndt 
 have succeeded in accomplishing it. He had but fifty thousand 
 dollars at his command, the Legislature -had in no wise committed 
 itself in favor of the system or placed itself under obligation to 
 appropriate an additional sum, the -Normal Schools declined the 
 venture of erecting buildings for the orphans as an attachment to 
 their model schools, few Boarding Schools cared to be troubled at 
 the rates offered with a class of children for whom they had no 
 special accommodations, and more discouraging than all else, there 
 was a general want of confidence in the permanency of the enter- 
 prise that chilled every effort. Still, full of faith and zeal, the Su- 
 perintendent labored on in his good work, and at last the obstacles 
 that had stood in his way were one by one overcome, and the sys- 
 tem was placed upon a comparatively firm basis. The pioneer 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. -q, 
 
 schools that trustingly opened their doors to the advanced class of 
 children on the terms proposed, were the McAlisterville Academy, 
 Juniata county, George F. McFarland, Principal; the Paradise 
 Academy, Lancaster county, Seymour Preston, Principal; the 
 Mount Joy Academy, Lancaster county, J. R. Carothers, Principal ; 
 the Orangeville Academy, Columbia county, H. D. Walker, Prin- 
 cipal, and the Quakertown Academy, Bucks county. Rev. Lucien 
 Cort, Principal. 
 
 The first report of the Superintendent, dated December 31, 1864, 
 gives a full account of what had been done, names the schools and 
 homes that were ready to admit children under the trust, and states 
 that one hundred and eighteen soldiers' orphans from eighteen dif- 
 ferent counties had placed themselves in the care of the State. It 
 also contains a lengthy statement of the principles by which he was 
 guided in the prosecution of the work. This report, the best that 
 could have been made under the circumstances, was not of a char- 
 acter to make a favorable impression upon the Legislature. It gave 
 in detail plans and preliminaries, told how fairly the future prom- 
 ised ; but was necessarly poor in the recital of those accomplished 
 results which tell most upon the practical mind of the average 
 legislator. The session of 1865 was therefore approached with 
 many misgivings by the friends of the new system. Will the pro- 
 ject be adopted by the State ? Will an appropriation be made suffi- 
 cient to carry on the work already begun ? were the questions they 
 asked, with grave doubts as to the answer that would be given. 
 
 The Governor in his message to the Legislature heartily com- 
 mended what had been done .under the Act of the year before, and 
 strongly urged a liberal appropriation by the State to continue and 
 perfect it. But some of those who had opposed the bill of 1864 in 
 the House, were still members, with no abatement in their hostility. 
 Their ranks were joined by others ; and, instead of making an ap- 
 propriation in aid of the work already begun, a bill was passed that 
 would have rendered that work abortive by substituting for the plan 
 in operation a method of providing education and maintenance for 
 destitute soldiers' orphans radically different and much less liberal. 
 One of its leading provisions made it the duty of school directors 
 " to make arrangements for the maintenance and schooling of the 
 orphans resident within their district, by contracting with suitable 
 parties, with the consent of the mother, relative or other friend, upon 
 such terms that the services of said children shall either in whole or 
 
CQ4 EDUCATION JN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 in part be accepted as an equivalent for the necessar)' expenses in- 
 curred in their maintenance and schooling." The amount allowed 
 for each child was from ten to thirty dollars per annum, according to 
 age, extent of destitution, state of health, and other circumstances. 
 The bill in principle extended the laws in reference to the care of 
 pauper children to the soldiers' orphan.s. 
 
 The Senate rejected the House bill and adopted in lieu of it a bill 
 leaving the matter where it had been placed the year before, and ap- 
 propriating seventy-five thousand dollars to carry on the work for the 
 ensuing year. This was the first distinct legislative recognition of 
 the principle that the destitute orphans of soldiers were to be treated 
 as the children of the State. The victory was not gained without a 
 struggle. The leader in the Senate in opposition to the House bill 
 and in favor of an appropriation to carry on the system as begun, 
 was Dr. Wilmer Worthington, of Chester, as earnest then as he had 
 been thirty years before in the House in favor of free schools. " It 
 would be a burning shame upon Pennsylvania," he cried in the 
 midst of an eloquent speech, " if she permitted these children to go 
 destitute after the great sacrifice their fathers have made for their 
 country." Patriotically forgetting that the measure he was support- 
 ing originated with a Republican administration. Senator William A. 
 Wallace, of Clearfield, characterized the House bill as "a pauper ar- 
 rangement, making it a disgrace to the Commonwealth instead of a 
 noble charity." Berks county also came to the rescue in the person 
 of her Senator, Hiester Clymer, who used words like these : 
 " We to-day fill our schools with orphan children in order that here- 
 after we may not fill our almshouses and prisons with paupers artd 
 criminals." But back of these and other liberal Senators stood the 
 Chief Executive of the State, tireless in his efforts to save the system 
 which he had so recently inaugurated, and which seemed to promise 
 so much good. 
 
 The conference committee that was appointed to reconcile the 
 differences between the two Houses recommended that the House 
 should concur in the Senate amendments, but their report was re- 
 jected and the committee instructed to make another effort to com- 
 promise the differences. The committee again reported as before, 
 and finally the House reluctantly gave way, and by a vote of sixty- 
 four to twenty-four accepted the Senate bill. The guiding hand in 
 shaping this result in the House committee and in the House was 
 Matthew S. Quay, of Beaver, a member of the committee. 
 
SOLD/ERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. cgc 
 
 Strengthened by the action of the Legislature, the Superintendent 
 of Orphan Schools now pushed forward the work of organizing 
 schools and admitting children with much increased vigor; and at 
 the close of the year 1865, there were in operation eight schools for 
 the older children and seventeen homes or asylums for the younger 
 ones, with an attendance of one thousand three hundred and twenty- 
 nine. The expenses for the year are stated to have been one hun- 
 dred and three thousand eight hundred and seventeen dollars and 
 sixty-seven cents. 
 
 But the day of trial had not yet passed. The orphans presented 
 themselves for admission to the schools in unexpected numbers. 
 By the first of Januar}^ 1866, all the money in the hands of the 
 Superintendent had been expended, and he was compelled to inform 
 those in charge of the schools that if they kept the children after 
 that date, they must do so at their own risk, although he believed 
 the Legislature would make the needed appropriation at the ap- 
 proaching session. 
 
 The Legislature met at the usual time. Governor Curtin's an- 
 nual message contained the following appeal for support to the 
 orphan .schools: 
 
 I have heretofore commended this charity to you, and I deem it unneces- 
 saiy to add another word, in asking a continuance of an appropriation which 
 is to provide for and educate the best blood of the State, and support the liv- 
 ing legacies whicli have been bequeathed us by the men who laid down their 
 lives for the country. When we remember that every sort of public and pri- 
 vate pledge that the eloquence of man could devise or utter, was given to our 
 soldiers as they went forward, that if they fell their orphans should become 
 the children of the State, I cannot for an instant suppose that you will hesi- 
 tate to continue an appropriation which is to bless their little ones, providing 
 comfortable homes, instead of leaving them in want and destitution, many 
 of them to fall victims to vice and crime. 
 
 These eloquent words fell upon deaf ears in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. Instead of making the appropriation asked for, a bill 
 similar in principle to the bill which met with so much favor in the 
 House the year before, was passed by a vote of fifty- five to twenty- 
 two. This bill, like its predecessor, provided for the maintenance 
 and education of the destitute orphan children and brothers and 
 sisters of soldiers and sailors who had lost their lives in the service 
 of the country, at their homes in the several school districts, under 
 the direction of the respective boards of directors. They inight 
 reside, under a contract for maintenance and education, with a 
 parent, relative, or friend, or be provided with homes in the families 
 
5 q5 ED UCA riOK IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 of other persons living in their own or an adjoining district. They 
 were to be allowed at least four months of schooling annually. 
 The expense of each individual was in no case to exceed thirty dol- 
 lars a year, and " in every instance the services of the child " were 
 to be received, " if possible, as an equivalent for its maintenance and 
 support." In other words, the children were to be farmed out like 
 paupers, at the least possible expense. 
 
 For the second time all hope of saving the system centered in 
 the Senate ; but even in that body there was wavering among the 
 friends who had hitherto stood by it, in view of the fact, then becom- 
 ing apparent, that the expense it would incur would reach a sum 
 greatly beyond the original calculation. The Superintendent asked 
 for three hundred thousand dollars for the current year, an amount 
 that frightened all but the boldest advocates of the system. The 
 passage of the House bill seemed inevitable, when a happy thought 
 brought the children of the schools at McAlisterville, Mount Joy, 
 and Paradise, one hundred and ninety-two boys and one hundred 
 and fifty-one girls, to Harrisburg. Public exercises were held in 
 the hall of the House of Representatives and in the Court-house. 
 The children delivered little speeches appropriate to the occasion, 
 recited stirring selections, and sang with great effect such songs as 
 " Rally Round the Flag, Boys," " Dear Old Flag," " Tenting on the 
 Old Camp Ground," and " Uncle Sam is Rich Enough to Send us 
 All to School." Addresses were made by Superintendent Burrowes, 
 Governor Curtin, Gen. Harrison Allen, of Warren county, and Ed- 
 ward G. Lee, of Philadelphia. The touching character of the exer- 
 cises, the eloquent addresses, but above all the children themselvfes, 
 healthy, neatly dressed, bright and happy, coupled with the sad 
 thought that they had been orphaned and left destitute by fathers 
 who had given their lives to save the nation, created an enthusiasm 
 in the vast audience present seldom witnessed. The question was 
 settled. Objections to the system were overwhelmed by a tide of 
 sympathy for the children. The House bill was never even con- 
 sidered in the Senate; but on the contrary, the three hundred thou- 
 sand dollars a.sked for to carry on the system for the ensuing year 
 were voted with little dissent. 
 
 Freed from the anxiety as to the permanence of the system, the 
 Superintendent directed his whole attention to its extension and 
 improvement. In April, Amos Row and Colonel William L. Bear, 
 both teachers of large experience, were appointed additional officers 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. -g^ 
 
 to examine and inspect the schools. Several new schools were 
 opened, and detailed instructions relating to the management of the 
 system in all its departments were issued. The Principals of the 
 schools were called together for conference with the State Superin- 
 tendent at Lancaster. As the result of these efforts, the schools be- 
 gan to work with more uniformity and a new life seemed to diffuse 
 itself throughout the system. In July, nearly twelve hundred 
 orphan children participated in the ceremonies connected with the 
 return of the battle-flags of Pennsylvania regiments to the State 
 authorities, in Independence Square, Philadelphia; and it was diffi- 
 cult to say which excited the greatest interest and enthusiasm on 
 that noted day, the brave soldiers who bore the flags and who had 
 often followed them in the shock of battle, the bullet-riddled, smoke- 
 begrimed flags themselves, or the soldiers' orphans, the saddest 
 of all mementoes of the honored dead. 
 
 The report for the year shows, at thirty-six different institutions, 
 two thousand six hundred and eighty-six children in school and 
 an expenditure of three hundred and nine thousand one hundred 
 and forty-nine dollars and twenty-six cents. 
 
 John W. Geary was elected Governor in 1866, and five months 
 after his inauguration, upon the expiration of Dr. Burrowes' term of 
 three years, he appointed Colonel George F. McFarland, Superin- 
 tendent of Soldiers' Orphans. Col. McFarland was Principal of an 
 Academy at McAlisterville, Juniata county, before the war. In 
 1862 he raised a company of soldiers, many of them young men 
 who had attended his school, became Lieutenant Colonel of the 
 One Hundred and Fifty-First Pennsylvania regiment, followed its 
 fortunes to Gettysburg, where in the first day's battle, while in its 
 command and gallantly covering the retreat of the outnumbered 
 Union troops at the Seminary west of the town, he lost one leg and 
 had the other disabled for life. Before his wounds had fairly healed, 
 he was among the first to offer to undertake the work of organizing 
 a soldiers' orphan school according to the plan proposed by Dr. 
 Burrowes. After having opened the school in his buildings at 
 McAlisterville, he left it to the care of a deputy and accepted a 
 position as clerk in the State Department at Harrisburg. From 
 this place he was advanced to the office of Superintendent of 
 Soldiers' Orphans. 
 
 The system of soldiers' orphan schools was administered for 
 nearly three years without the express sanction of law. The Gov- 
 
5g8 EDUCATJON IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 ernor was authorized, in 1864, to expend the donation of the Penn- 
 sylvania Railroad Company for the soldiers' orphans as he might 
 "deem best." The appropriations of 1865 and 1866 were made 
 without conditions as to the method of expenditure, thus carrying 
 with them an imphed sanction of the plan then in operation under 
 the direction of the Governor. It was considered unwise, if not 
 unsafe, to allow this state of things to continue. Early in 1867, a 
 resolution was adopted in the Senate instructing the Committee on 
 Education to prepare and report a bill covering the whole subject. 
 The draft of the bill adopted by the Committee and subsequently 
 p£LSsed by both Houses without material change, was mainly the 
 work of Col. McFarland, prior to his appointment as Superinten- 
 dent. The Act did not make much change in the system as it 
 then existed, but it put in the shape of law much that had pre- 
 viously depended entirely upon the will of the Executive, and added 
 .several new features of value. It was in fact the Wickersham bill 
 resurrected and improved by the experience of three years. " The 
 rejected stone " of 1864 thus became " the head of the corner.'' 
 
 Governor Geary pledged himself in his inaugural address "to 
 increase the efficiency and multiply the benefits of the schools and 
 institutions, already so creditably established for the benefit of the 
 orphans of our martyred heroes," and he kept his word faithfully. 
 In addition to the appointment of a Superintendent under the law, 
 it was his duty to name an " Inspector and Examiner, and a lady 
 Inspector and Examiner.'' These positions he filled by the ap- 
 pointment of Rev. C. Cornforth, of McKean county, and Mrs. Eliz- 
 abeth E. Hutter, of Philadelphia. Mr. Cornforth was a graduate 
 of Union College, New York, and studied theology at the Roches- 
 ter Seminary. He had served as a private in the famous Pennsyl- 
 vania Bucktail Regiment, was badly wounded and taken prisoner at 
 Fredericksburg, and after his release and recovery became chaplain 
 of the One- Hundred and Fiftieth regiment of Pennsylvania volun- 
 teers. He was County Superintendent of common schools in 
 Mckean county when called to the position of Inspector and Exami- 
 ner of orphan schools. By education, by service in the field and by 
 natural disposition and tact,he was well qualified for the place. No 
 name connected with the soldiers' orphan schools is deservedly- 
 more honored than that of Elizabeth E. Hutter. The daughter of 
 Col. Jacob Shindel, of Lebanon, the wife of Dr. Edwin W. Hutter. 
 well known in early life as a prominent politician and later as an 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. ,„ 
 
 eminent Lutheran minister, she was noted for her executive ability 
 and works of charity years before she received an appointment from 
 the Governor of the State. The Northern Home for Friendless 
 Children, Philadelphia, a model institution of the kind, owes to her, 
 the President of its Board of Managers from the first, in great 
 measure its wonderful success. A warm-hearted patriot, she was 
 one of the foremost ladies in the State in her efforts for the comfort 
 of our soldiers in the field and for the relief of the sick and. 
 wounded; and with the tenderness of a mother she was accustomed 
 to gather the destitute orphans of soldiers under the broad wings 
 of her charity at the Northern Home long before the State took 
 steps to care for them. Mr Cornforth gave his services to the 
 soldiers' orphans until 1879, twelve years, and Mrs. Hutter still 
 continues to bless them with her womanly affection and her watch- 
 ful care. Upon the resignation of Mr. Cornforth, the Legislature 
 declined to make an appropriation for the payment of the salary of 
 an Inspector and Examiner, but Maj. Samuel R. Bachtell and Rev. 
 John W. Sayers, each at the instance of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic and by request of the Department, discharged some of the 
 principal duties of the place at a nominal salary. The appropriation 
 was restored in 1883, and Mr. Sayers was formally appointed In- 
 spector and Examiner. 
 
 Governor Geary also appointed John D. Shryock, of Washington 
 county, chief clerk of the Orphans' School Department; but owing 
 to failing health he was soon succeeded by Col. James L. Paul, who 
 still retains a place in which his services have been of great benefit to 
 the system. Col. Paul was a soldier during nearly the whole war, 
 and subsequently acted for some time as a clerk in the War Depart- 
 ment at Washington. In 1876, he prepared a detailed history of. 
 the Soldiers' Orphan Schools, a work that is a credit to his ability 
 and industry, as well as a just tribute to one of the grandest schemes 
 of human charity and to the State that founded and fostered it. 
 The full organization of the Department was completed by the 
 appointment of Edmund R. Sutton, of Indiana county, as messenger. 
 Mr. Sutton became warrant clerk in 1 87 1, and continued in that 
 position during the ten succeeding years. 
 
 The administration of Col. McFarland continued from May i, 
 1867, to June I, 1 87 1, four years and one month. During this time 
 he established several new schools, among them the school for 
 colored soldiers' orphans at Bridgewater, Bucks county, and dis- 
 
6oo ^D UCA riON IN PENNS YL VAN I A. 
 
 pensed with some old ones ; but beyond this he had Httle to do in 
 the way of general organization. This difficult task had for the 
 most part been performed by his predecessor. He was therefore 
 able to direct his undivided attention to the internal management 
 and discipline of the schools. He introduced a better system of 
 reports from the schools to the Department, prepared an improved 
 course of study for the children, provided for annual examinations 
 and inspections, and required more attention to be paid to training 
 and instruction of an industrial character. But unfortunately, Col. 
 McFarland, like his predecessor, was not an expert business man or 
 a careful financier, and he was persuaded by outside parties to do 
 things of which his better judgment must have disapproved. The 
 Department was largely in debt when he took charge of it, and he 
 incautiously allowed this debt to increase during his first year to 
 one hundred and forty-one thousand five hundred and sixty-one 
 dollars and sixty-nine cents. The Legislature made provision for 
 this large deficit and for those that followed in the succeeding years, 
 in addition to the large general appropriations required ; but not 
 without seriously questioning the policy that permitted them to 
 accrue. The public press commented with some severity upon such 
 loose financial management, and this led to other criticisms that were 
 calculated to render the whole system as well as its administration 
 unpopular. The Governor deeming the blame cast upon the 
 Department unjust, for a long time defended Superintendent 
 McFarland and his official management; but he at last concurred 
 with the Legislature in an Act placing the orphan school trust in 
 the hands of the Superintendent of Common Schools. James P. 
 Wickersham, the author of the original bill to establish soldiers' 
 orphan schools, thus became the head of the great system of charity 
 that had grown out of the movement he had in its infancy tried to 
 shape. 
 
 By the change in Superintendents, no change was made in inspec- 
 tors or clerks. There were however important changes in the 
 management. Orders of admission were at once given to about five 
 hundred children, some of whose applications had been on file in the 
 Department awaiting action for several years. The restriction 
 which had been in force forbidding the admission of children under 
 the age of eight years was removed. A meeting of the principals 
 and managers of the several orphan schools was called at Harris- 
 burg, and the whole subject relating. to them underwent an extended 
 
SatWEHS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 601 
 
 and thorough discussion, A blank form for an exhaustive report 
 of each visit to a school by one of the inspectors was prepared, and 
 a neat diploma was procured for all children honorably discharged 
 from the schools at the age of sixteen years. At the request of the 
 Superintendent, the law in regard to furnishing clothing for the 
 children was changed. Instead of his purchasing clothing 
 for all the children and furnishing it to the several schools upon 
 requisition, after the manner of an army quartermaster, it was made 
 the duty of each school to furnish clothing for its own children as it 
 provided their food, under the direction of the Superintendent as to 
 kind, quality and amount. These changes proved very beneficial 
 to the schools, especially the change as to the manner of furnishing 
 clothing to the children, with respect to which there had been very 
 serious complaints. The schools at once began to emulate each 
 other in dressing their children and in taking care of their clothing, 
 with a result that added much to their appearance. Inspector Corn- 
 forth, in his report for 1872, stated that "the orphans are much 
 better clad than they were a year ago. This is the testimony of 
 every one, without exceptioa, who has the means of knowing." 
 
 But as the weak point of the system had been its financial manage- 
 ment, strict business principles were now made the rule in all its de- 
 partments. The money appropriated was considered a sacred trust, 
 no dollar of which must be wasted in doubtful experiments or bad 
 bargains. The results for the first year of this change in manage- 
 ment as stated in the Superintendent's report for 1872 were as 
 follows: "The actual number of children in school and the average 
 number drawing money from the State were greater, during the past 
 year, than they were during any other year since the system of 
 orphan schools went into operation ; and yet it is with the highest 
 degree of satisfaction I am able to inform you, and as you will see 
 in full detail further on in the report, that with the money placed at 
 my disposal by the Legislature, I have succeeded in paying all bills 
 of my own contracting, in meeting every demand upon the Depart- 
 ment by payments in cash, in liquidating an outstanding debt 
 incurred by my predecessor in office of ^38,685.15, and in leaving a 
 balance in the State Treasury to the credit of the Department at the 
 end of the year, of ^25,431.72." The expenditures proper for 1872 
 were eighty-two thousand four hundred and seventy-seven dollars 
 and thirty-four cents less than in 1871. The second year, with a 
 small falling off in the number of children in school, and a dec;:ease 
 
(5o2 ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/ A. 
 
 in the appropriation of forty thousand dollars, left a balance in the 
 State Treasury to the credit of the Department of forty-two thousand 
 two hundred and forty-eight dollars and eighty-eight cents. It was 
 in recognition of this economy in the use of the public money that 
 the Legislature, in 1873, added of the amount saved an odd sum of 
 sixty thousand dollars to the appropriation to common schools, 
 making it for that year seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars. 
 
 John F. Hartranft was inaugurated Governor of Pennsylvania on 
 January 21, 1873. The ceremonies of the inauguration were more 
 than usually imposing. A long line of carriages filled with distin- 
 guished citizens, a column of several thousand soldiers, and a civil 
 procession of many squares in length, escorted the Governor to the 
 capitol. No part of the brilliant display attracted so much attention 
 or called forth so many cheers from the immense crowds that lined 
 the side-walks as the eight hundred and nineteen fatherless boys 
 from the soldiers' orphan schools, who marched under their own offi- 
 cers, with the step of veterans, to do honor to the brave soldier who 
 was about to take his seat in the Executive chair. The Governor in 
 his address did not forget to say a good word in behalf of the soldiers' 
 orphan schools ; and as soon as he was able to free himself from the 
 distinguished throng that is apt to surround a newly-made Governor 
 on inauguration day, he repaired to the Court-house and told the 
 orphan boys that he meant to be their friend. He kept his promise. 
 
 It was observed that some of the orphans, before leaving school at 
 the age of sixteen, gave evidence of possessing talents and tastes that 
 fitted them for teachers. This fact being brought to the attention of 
 the Legislature, an appropriation of two thousand dollars was made* 
 in 1872 to assist those who seemed most likely to profit by the 
 privilege in attending a Normal School; in 1873, this appropriation 
 was made three thousand dollars, and, in 1874, it was still further 
 increased to five thousand dollars. With the money thus generously 
 furnished, several hundred orphan boys and girls were prepared to 
 become teachers, and soon found ready employment in the public 
 schools of the several counties at fair salaries. 
 
 Had no children been admitted into the soldiers' orphan schools 
 but the class originally provided for, the orphans of soldiers who lo.st 
 their lives during the war, they would have been closed in 1880 or be- 
 fore ; but the Legislature at different times extended the privileges 
 of the schools to the children of soldiers who died after the close of 
 the war of wounds received or disease contracted in it, and to the 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 Himi 
 
 601 
 
604 ^^ UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 children of soldiers so disabled by such wounds or disease as to be un- 
 able to earn a livelihood for their families. At present, 1885, consid- 
 erably more than one-half of the children in the schools are orphans. 
 
 The orphan schools would have closed finally in 1885, but at the 
 urgent solicitation of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organiza- 
 tion that has always been keenly alive to the interests of the children 
 of their dead and disabled comrades, the Legislature of 1883 repealed 
 the law of 1869 closing them, and enacted that they should remain 
 open five years longer, to 1890. 
 
 Mr. Wickersham continued in charge of the orphan schools until 
 his retirement from the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 in [881, or a period of nearly ten years. During that time some 
 ten thousand children were under his care, for whom he expended on 
 the part of the State about four millions of dollars. Upon quitting 
 office, the system went into the control of his successor, Dr. E. E. Hig- 
 bee, with little change in subordinate officers and none at all in policy 
 or plan. God grant that it may prosper to the end, and then forever 
 like a halo continue to brighten the history of the land of Penn. 
 
 Paul's history gives a detailed account of the institutions that 
 have received soldiers' orphans under the system, and makes proper 
 mention of managers and teachers. The following statements pre- 
 sent important information of the same kind in a condensed form. 
 
 INSTITUTIONS SPECIALLY ESTABLISHED AS SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 Institutions, 
 
 Coujity. 
 
 When 
 Opened. 
 
 When 
 Closed. 
 
 By Whom Founded. 
 
 No. of 
 Children 
 to 1883. 
 
 McAlisterville 
 Soldiers' Or. Ins. 
 Paradise. . . 
 Mount Joy. . 
 Orangeville. . 
 Quakerto«'n . 
 North Sewickley 
 Cassville. . . . 
 Harford. . . . 
 Phillipsburg . . 
 Wliite Hall . . 
 Jacksonville . . 
 Uniontown . . 
 Andersonburg . 
 Dayton .... 
 Mansfield . , . 
 Titusville . . . 
 Mercer .... 
 Bridgewater . . 
 Chester Springs. 
 
 Juniata . . 
 Philadelphi 
 Lancaster 
 Lancaster 
 Columbia 
 Bucks . 
 Beaver . 
 Huntingdon , 
 Su.squehanna. 
 Beaver . . . 
 Cumberland . 
 Centre . 
 Fayette. 
 Perry. . 
 Armstrong 
 Tioga. . 
 Crawford 
 Mercer . 
 Bucks. . 
 Chester . 
 
 Nov. 3, '64 . 
 Nov. 25, '64. 
 Dec. 6, '64. 
 Dec. 20, '64. 
 Jan. 3, '65 . 
 Jan. 18, '65. 
 April 27, '65. 
 Nov. 6, '65. 
 Nov. 6, '65. 
 March, '66 . 
 May, '66. . 
 June, '66. . 
 Sept. 19,' 66. 
 Sept., '66. . 
 Nov. I, '66. 
 Oct. I, '67. 
 Dec, '67. . 
 Jan. I, '68 . 
 June, '68. . 
 186S. . . . 
 
 Still open 
 Still open 
 Jan., '68. 
 Still open 
 Mav, '68. 
 1868 . . 
 Jan., '67. 
 Early, '74 
 Still open 
 Aug., '76. 
 .Still open 
 Jan., '71. 
 Still open 
 1878 . . 
 .Still open 
 Still open 
 1874. . 
 Still open 
 Sep., '79. 
 Still open 
 
 Geo. F. McFarland 
 A Board .... 
 Seymour Preston . 
 J. R. Carothers. . 
 H. D. Walker . . 
 Rev. Lucien Cort. 
 Rev. Henry Webber, 
 A. L. Guss . . . 
 Charles W. Deans 
 Rev. W. G, Taylor 
 David Dcnlinger . 
 Rev. D. G. Klein. 
 Rev. A. H. Waters 
 M. Motzer. . . . 
 A Company . . . 
 F. A. Allen . . . 
 Gordon S. Berry . 
 Reynor & White . 
 Freedmen's Aid Soc 
 A Company .... 
 
 t,o88 
 1,020 
 217 
 1,210 
 241 
 189 
 145 
 495 
 932 
 610 
 
 I. OSS 
 
 175 
 775 
 218 
 904 
 84s 
 453 
 919 
 25s 
 858 
 
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 5^- 
 
 PERMANENT INSTITUTIONS ADMITTING SOLDIERS' ORPHANS. 
 
 Institution, 
 
 Soldiers' Orphan Home . . 
 Church Home for Children 
 St. John's Orphan Asylum . 
 Home for Friendless Children. 
 Bethany Orphans" Home. . . 
 Emmaus Orphan House . . . 
 
 Children!' Home 
 
 Orphans' Home 
 
 Church Home Association . . 
 Protestant Orphan Asylum . . 
 Tressler Orphan Home . . . 
 
 Catholic Home 
 
 St. Vincent College 
 
 St. Vincent Orphan Asylum . 
 Home of the Friendless . . . 
 Home of the Friendless . . . 
 St. James' Orphan Asylum . . 
 Orphans' Home for Girls . . 
 Orphans' Farm School for Boys. 
 
 Nazareth Hall 
 
 Lincoln Ins. and Ed. Home . 
 School for Feeble-minded . . 
 
 Orphan Home 
 
 St. Paul's Orphan Asylum . . 
 Industrial School 
 
 Location. 
 
 Pittsburgh . . 
 
 Philadelphia . 
 
 (( 
 
 Lancaster . . 
 Womelsdorf . 
 Middletown . 
 York .... 
 Germantown. 
 Pittsburgh . . 
 Allegheny . . 
 Loysville . . 
 Philadelphia . 
 Near Latrobe, 
 Tacony . . 
 Wilkesbarre . 
 Allegheny . . 
 Lancaster . . 
 Zelienople . . 
 
 Nazareth . . 
 Philadelphia . 
 Media . . . 
 Butler . . . 
 Pittsburgh . . 
 Philadelphia . 
 
 Opened. 
 
 1864 . . 
 1864 . . 
 1864 . . 
 
 1864 . . 
 Jan., '65. 
 May, '65. 
 May, '65. 
 
 1865 . . 
 Sep., '65 
 Oct., '65. 
 1865 . 
 1865 . 
 1865 . 
 1865 . 
 Feb., '66. 
 i856 . . 
 
 1865 . . 
 
 1866 . . 
 
 1866 . . 
 Jan., '65. 
 Jan., '67. 
 
 1867 . . 
 
 1868 . . 
 1870 . . 
 1870 . . 
 
 Closed. 
 
 Apl. I, '70 
 Still open 
 1883 . 
 1875 . 
 
 Still open 
 1880 . . 
 Sep., '73. 
 Sep., '74. 
 Still open 
 1876 . . 
 Still open 
 
 187s ■ . 
 Sep., '73. 
 
 1873. . 
 1872 . . 
 
 1875. . 
 1875 . 
 
 Still open 
 
 871. . 
 Still open 
 
 Denomina- 
 tion. 
 
 Catholic. . 
 Episcopal . 
 Catholic. . 
 ■Not denom. 
 Reformed . 
 Lutheran . 
 Not denom. 
 ft 
 
 Episcopal . 
 Protestant . 
 Lutheran . 
 Catholic. . 
 
 Not denom. 
 
 Episcopal . 
 Lutheran . 
 
 Moravian . 
 Episcopal . 
 Not denom. 
 Reformed . 
 Catholic. . 
 
 No. of 
 Children 
 to 1883. 
 
 71 
 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 182 
 
 125 
 
 72 
 
 90 
 
 III 
 
 43 
 
 232 
 
 366 
 
 30 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 '37 
 
 54 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 320 
 
 14 
 82 
 27 
 30 
 
 No words could close this chapter so appropriately or with so 
 much eloquence as the following statement of the appropriations 
 and expenditures made for the system : 
 
 STATEMENT OF APPROPRIATIONS 
 
 AND EXPENDITURES. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Appropriations. 
 
 Expenditures. 
 
 Children in school. 
 
 1864 
 
 * 
 
 110 
 
 186s . . . 
 
 $75,000 00 
 
 To Dec. I 
 
 1865, ;?i03,8i7 64 
 
 1,226 
 
 1866 . . . 
 
 300,000 00 
 
 To Dec. I 
 
 1866, 
 
 309,149 26 
 
 2,681 
 
 1867 . . . 
 
 350,000 00 
 
 To Dec. I, 
 
 1867, 
 
 .311.038 35 
 
 3.180 
 
 1868 . . . 
 
 572,631 46 
 
 To June t. 
 
 1868, 
 
 236,970 26 
 
 3.431 
 
 1869 . . . 
 
 505,000 00 
 
 To June i. 
 
 1869, 
 
 505,971 62 
 
 3.631 
 
 1870 . . . 
 
 609,666 88 
 
 To June 1 , 
 
 1870, 
 
 514,126 42 
 
 3.526 
 
 1871 . . . 
 
 530,000 00 
 
 To June 1, 
 
 1871, 
 
 519,037 66 
 
 3.607 
 
 1872 . . . 
 
 480,000 00 
 
 To June 1, 
 
 1872, 
 
 475.245 47 
 
 3.527 
 
 1873 ■ ■ ■ 
 
 460,000 OD 
 
 To June 1, 
 
 1873, 
 
 467,132 84 
 
 3.261 
 
 1874. . . 
 
 440,000 00 
 
 To June i. 
 
 1874, 
 
 450,879 49 
 
 3.071 
 
 ■875 ■ • • 
 
 400,000 00 
 
 To June 1, 
 
 1875. 
 
 423,693 76 
 
 2,788 
 
 1876 . . . 
 
 381,121 88 
 
 To June 1, 
 
 1876, 
 
 403,652 IS 
 
 2,729 
 
 '877 • • ■ 
 
 360,000 00 
 
 To June i. 
 
 'S77. 
 
 380,656 70 
 
 2,619 
 
 1878 . . . 
 
 360,000 00 
 
 To June 1, 
 
 1878, 
 
 372,748 05 
 
 2,653 
 
 '879. • . 
 
 727,273 25 
 
 To June 1, 
 
 1879, 
 
 377,207 40 
 
 2.431 
 
 1880 . . . 
 
 
 To June i, 
 To June 1, 
 
 1880, 
 1881, 
 
 351.43' 59 
 360,033 60 
 
 2,580 
 
 r88i . . . 
 
 700,000 00 
 
 2,602 
 
 1882 . . . 
 
 
 To June i. 
 To June 1, 
 
 1882, 
 '883, 
 
 381,764 15 
 361,051 80 
 
 2,497 
 
 1883. . . 
 
 625,000 00 
 
 2,362 
 
 1884. . . 
 
 
 To June i, 
 
 1884, 
 
 352,141 62 
 
 2,306 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 EARLY EFFORTS TO EDUCATE TEACHERS. THE COLLEGES AS TEACHERS' 
 SEMINARIES. NORMAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 THERE is a natural aptitude for teaching school, as there is for 
 the practice of other professions and kinds of business. Teach- 
 ers, like poets, " are born and not made," but only in the same sense 
 as lawyers, doctors, engineers and bankers. With talent of the high- 
 est order for the duties of the school room, there is much that must 
 be learned either by personal experience or through, the instruction 
 of others. The simpler, rougher kinds of work, in school as else- 
 where, may be done by novices ; but teaching as an art can be 
 mastered only after a long and severe course of preparatory training. 
 Indeed, the most delicate and difficult work God has left in human 
 hands is the education of his own species. Hence Normal Schools 
 are a necessity, and no nation can advance far in perfecting a sj?3tem 
 of education for the people without establishing them. They are 
 always found to be most numerous where public education has 
 made the greatest progress. Pennsylvania is believed to have been 
 the first of our American States to inaugurate the work of preparing 
 teachers ; and to-day, in number,, in the attendance of students, in 
 building and equipment, her Normal Schools will compare favorably 
 with any that can be found elsewhere at home or abroad.- 
 
 The University of Pennsylvania, begun as an Academy in 1749, 
 was designed partially as a school for teachers. Dr. Franklin, the 
 chief among its founders, in addressing the Common Council of the 
 city for aid in its behalf, states that as the country is suffering greatly 
 for want of competent schoolmasters, the proposed Academy will 
 be able to furnish a supply of such as are " of good morals and 
 known character," and can "teach children reading, writing, arith- 
 metic and the grammar of their mother-tongue." And it is a fact 
 that in its early days, young men attended the institution for the 
 purpose of preparing themselves for teachers, and left it to engage in 
 teaching. While the plan of increasing the facilities of education 
 
 (606) 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 507 
 
 among the Germans in Pennsylvania was in operation under the 
 direction of Schlatter and Smith, the faculty gave special instruction 
 to several persons who were preparing to take charge of the schools 
 established. 
 
 The preparation of teachers was made an object at the Westtown 
 Boarding School established by the Society of Friends, and opened 
 for students in 1799; with what success appears in the following 
 extract from the report of the committee of Friends in charge of the 
 school in 1824: "Among the many advantages which it was con- 
 templated would accrue from an institution of this description, 
 several of both sexes have so profited by the course of studies and 
 the mode of instruction thus derived as to be qualified for teachers 
 of schools in many parts of the country ; and so far as can at pres- 
 ent be ascertained, the number who have thus devoted a part of 
 their time and talent is at least sixty-nine young men and one hun- 
 dred and eighty-one young women, the ability and example of 
 many of whom, we trust, have diffused such views of the economy 
 and management of schools, as have tended to raise in due estima- 
 tion this important and highly useful occupation." 
 
 The Moravians with characteristic foresight as educational 
 pioneers, established, in 1807, at Nazareth Hall, a special depart- 
 ment for the preparation of teachers, in which young men received 
 such instruction as qualified them either to teach in schools estab- 
 lished at home or to open and conduct schools in the missionary 
 field. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Rush was ah active and influential friend of educa- 
 tion. He had much to do in founding Dickinson College, in 1783. 
 In an address to the Legislature in 1786, he favors the establishment 
 of a system of free schools, of one University at Philadelphia and of 
 three Colleges, one at Carlisle, one at Lancaster, and one at Pitts- 
 burgh, and adds, " the University will in time furnish masters for 
 the Colleges, and the Colleges will furnish masters for the free 
 schools." This was the beginning of the policy adopted by the 
 State and continued for half a century, of chartering Colleges and 
 Academies and aiding them by appropriations from the public 
 treasury, on the ground, and with the expectation, that in addition 
 to their proper functions they would prepare teachers for schools 
 of lower grade. Indeed, many such institutions were chartered and 
 received pecuniary aid from the State on the condition that they 
 would educate a certain number of poor children gratuitously, it be- 
 
6o8 ^D UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 ing thought, as the records show, that such children properly in- 
 structed would be likely to become teachers. Sometimes, the acts 
 of the Legislature of this character were more specific and required 
 instruction to be given free to a stated number of young men desir- 
 ing to fit themselves for teachers. The following are examples : 
 
 In 1 83 1, the State gave five hundred dollars a year to Washing- 
 ton College, on condition " that the trustees shall cause that there 
 be instructed, annually, gratis, twenty students in the elementary 
 branches of education, in a manner best calculated to qualify them 
 to teach common English schools." A year previous the trustees of 
 the College had established, as the President announced, " a Profes- 
 sorship of English Literature with the special view of qualifying 
 young men for taking charge of common schools." In 1832, an appro- 
 priation of two thousand dollars annually for five years was made to 
 Jefferson College on the condition that twenty-four students should 
 be prepared for teachers of the English language ; and the same year 
 the Reading Academy received the sum of three thousand dollars 
 with the proviso that " the trustees should cause to be educated 
 annually four students in indigent circumstances, for the term of five 
 years, free of expense for tuition, for teachers of common English 
 schools.'' The charter of Pennsylvania College granted in 1832, 
 required the institution to prepare young men to become teachers 
 in German schools; and, in 1834, three thousand dollars were 
 appropriated to this College annually for six years on the condition 
 that fifteen young men were to be educated for common school 
 teachers. Allegheny College received, in 1834, a grant of two 
 thousand dollars a year for four years for which there were to be in- 
 structed annually " twelve students, free of expense, for teachers in 
 the English language." Marshall College was granted six thou- 
 sand dollars in 1837, three thousand in 1838, and three thousand in 
 1839, provided "the institution would furnish free instruction to 
 twenty students annually in a manner best calculated to qualify them 
 for teachers in the English language." 
 
 Several Colleges undertook the work of preparing teachers with- 
 out any pecuniary inducement on the part of the State. Lafayette 
 was one of these. Dr. George Junkin, President, in 1834, in a letter 
 to Senator Breck, chairman of the Joint Educational Committee of 
 the Legislature, then engaged in preparing the common school law 
 passed that year, strongly urged the plan •' of establishing in the ex- 
 isting colleges of our State, Model Schools and a teachers' course." 
 This plan he explained as follows : 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. goo 
 
 1. Let each College fix upon a liberal course of studies for school teach- 
 ers, and constitute a new degree in graduation. 
 
 2. Let a common school, to be kept full of children from the neighbor- 
 hood, ill every respect, such as is desirable to see established in every district 
 of the State, be established contiguous to the College buildings, which school 
 shall be a model in its buildings, its fixtures, desks, books, apparatus, rules 
 and regulations and mode of management. 
 
 3. Let the candidate for the collegiate honor of a school teacher's diploma, 
 be, in every respect, on the same footing in College with other students, study 
 in the same class his own particular branches, submit to the same discipline 
 etc. ; and let him in. addition to these, spend a part of every day in the com- 
 mon school, as a spectator and occasionally as an assistant. 
 
 4. When he shall have completed his course which will take two years, 
 let him pass a final examination, and if approved, receive the honorable tes- 
 timonial of the board of trustees. 
 
 5. Let every teacher thus qualified, who shall teach within the State re- 
 ceive, besides the provisions made for his support by the people, a yearly al- 
 lowance from the school fund, for every year he shall teach in one place. 
 
 The trustees of Lafayette determined to test by experiment the 
 President's plan of a teachers' school that seemed to promise so 
 much in theory. In 1838, they erected a building for a Model 
 School, established a teachers' course, and called to their aid in the 
 training of teachers a distinguished Scotch educator, Prof Robert 
 Cunningham, subsequently Principal of the Normal Seminary at 
 Glasgow. On the Fourth of July of that year, Dr. Junkin, with a 
 laudable degree of exultation, delivered an address " in commemora- 
 tion of the founding of the first Model School for the training of 
 Primary School Teachers in Pennsylvania, and the first, as believed, 
 in the United States, in connection with a Collegiate Institution." 
 The public were not then ready to sustain Lafayette in this progres- 
 sive step, and the project failed, many parts of it to be revived in the 
 Normal School policy of a later day. 
 
 One of the principal objects had in view by the broad-minded 
 Friends who founded Haverford College in 1833, as shown by their 
 correspondence and early action concerning the subject, was to pro- 
 vide a school of high grade for the education of teachers ; and this 
 object long continued to be a matter of concern. 
 
 The first school in Pennsylvania and, it is believed, in the United 
 States, established specially for the education of teachers, was the 
 Model School at Philadelphia. The first State Normal School in 
 Massachusetts was opened at Lexington, in 1839. There were in 
 New England earlier Teachers' Seminaries of a private character. 
 Samuel R. Hall, author of lectures on " School-Keeping," was at the 
 head of one at Concord, New Hampshire, in 1823, and another at 
 
5io EDUCATJON IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Andover, Massachusetts, in 1834; and James G. Carter was Principal 
 of a private Teachers' Seminary at Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1827, 
 These institutions, Barnard classes as the first in the United States 
 whose special object it was to prepare teachers. The Philadelphia 
 Model School was established by law, in 18 18, expressly as a teach- 
 ers' school and is therefore the oldest school of the kind in the 
 country. The law required the Board of Controllers of the public 
 schools of the city to establish a Model School " in order to qualify 
 teachers for the sectional schools and for schools in other parts of 
 the State," and thus in a sense made it a State Normal School. 
 
 The Lancasterian system, according to which the public schools 
 of Philadelphia were organized under the law of 1818, embraced in 
 its full development schools for the training of teachers. The public- 
 spirited citizens of Philadelphia who first investigated its merits and 
 then obtained the necessary legal enactments to secure its adoption, 
 had no idea of introducing a half-way measure ; and, therefore, when 
 they determined to have Lancasterian Schools, they determined 
 likewise to train Lancasterian teachers to take charge of them. 
 With the system they imported the name " Model " from England, 
 where it was used to designate a school in which young persons 
 could observe and practice the art of teaching. To be certain of 
 success, as they thought, they also brought over, fresh from the 
 mother-school in London, Joseph Lancaster, the founder of the 
 Lancasterian schools and after whom they were named, and placed 
 him at the head of their school for teachers. As in England, the 
 Model school was used both as a pattern after which to conduct 
 other schools and as a school of practice for young teachers and* 
 monitors. It was teachers prepared in this school who were sent 
 out by the " Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public 
 Schools," in 1828, as stated in their report, to " several remote parts 
 of the Commonwealth," to take charge of schools to be conducted 
 according to the Lancasterian method; and that other teachers, 
 similarly trained, were willing to follow their example appears from 
 a circular letter, dated in 1829, and addressed to the citizens of 
 Pennsylvania, by Roberts Vaux, President of the Society as well as 
 of the Board of Controllers of the public schools, offering " to furnish 
 well qualified teachers at reasonable salaries." The report of the 
 Board of Controllers for 1829 states that " several persons of both 
 sexes have recently availed themselves of the privilege of acquiring 
 a knowledge of the Lancasterian plan of instruction by attending 
 
THE ED UCA TION OF TEA CHERS. g , , 
 
 the Model and other schools, and some of the individuals thus 
 qualified are candidates for employment in Pennsylvania." Of the 
 experimental infant school connected with the Model School, the 
 report for 1834 thus speaks : " It has exhibited, under the direction 
 of its accomplished teacher, a constant and rapid improvement in the 
 children, and at the same time furnished an admirable seminary for 
 the instruction of infant school teachers, numbers of whom have 
 regularly devoted their time to the acquirement of practical skill in 
 conducting these schools, and are believed in several instances to be 
 now competent to take charge of similar establishments." 
 
 The Model school continued its work of preparing teachers on 
 the Lancasterian plan till 1836; from that time to 1848, the teaching 
 was done by graduates of the school acting as assistants, instead of 
 by monitors selected from the students. With the decay of the 
 Lancasterian system, the training of teachers as a special object was 
 in great measure lost sight of, but the name Model school was pre- 
 served, and with it somewhat of the function it implies. Unlike the 
 sectional schools, it remained under the immediate direction of the 
 Board of Controllers, was always considered a pattern-school, and 
 there never was a year when young persons desirous of becoming 
 teachers did not resort to it for instruction. During the time the 
 work of training teachers was discontinued at the Model School, it 
 was in part taken up at the High School for boys. " It appears, 
 too," says the report of the President of the Board of Controllers 
 for 1842, "that the High School will serve essentially as a Normal 
 School for the education of male teachers ; ten of the class who are 
 to leave the school in July intending to become teachers." And 
 from 1845 to 1848, under the direction of the Board, Saturday 
 classes of female teachers and girls from the Grammar schools were 
 taught in the High School by the several professors. 
 
 In 1848, the Model School was formally converted into a Normal 
 School of the modern type, for female teachers, with schools of 
 practice and other necessary auxiliaries. Dr. A. T. W. Wright, 
 who had been for some years connected with the school, and who 
 is universally recognized as one of the ablest and most devoted of 
 Philadelphia teachers, was placed at the head of the new organiza- 
 tion. He at once revised the course of study, adapting it to the 
 purposes of a Normal School, and introduced the most approved 
 methods of teaching. During his administration of six years, the 
 school was largely attended and did much to improve the public 
 
6 1 2 ED UCA TION /A' PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 schools. His successor was Philip A. Cregar. In 1859, the nani2 
 of the school was changed to that of the Public High School for 
 Girls, the Schools of Practice were discontinued, and the course of 
 study was modified and enlarged. This was a blow to the institu- 
 tion as a school for teachers ; but it was not intended to destroy 
 entirely its distinctive Normal features, for it was provided that 
 students who desired to become teachers could still receive special 
 instruction. A year's experiment convinced the Board of Con- 
 trollers that a mistake had been made in changing the character of 
 the school, and they then named it the " Girls' High and Normal 
 School" and directed that the Senior class should be strictly a 
 teachers' class, and that the preparatory class should be used to 
 furnish the required exercises in practical teaching. In 1868, the 
 school was restored its original name, and has since been known as 
 the "Girls' Normal School." Prof Cregar was succeeded, in 1865, 
 as Principal of the school, by George W. Fetter, who still remains at 
 its head, and who has shown himself to be a teacher of teachers of 
 the highest order. During the Centennial year, the magnificent 
 structure at present occupied by the school was completed, and the 
 Girls' Normal School of Philadelphia is now, after its long years of 
 growth and its numerous vicissitudes and changes, in buildings, 
 equipment, course of study, schools of practice and methods of 
 instruction, one of the first institutions of the kind in the world. 
 
 The discussion concerning public education that preceded the 
 passage of the free school law of 1834, involved the question of the 
 education of teachers. The friends of free schools were the friends 
 of schools for teachers, and the two were generally spoken of as 
 necessarily connected. 
 
 Walter R. Johnson, Principal of the Germantown Academy, in 
 1825 published a pamphlet in which he strongly urges the establish- 
 ment by the State of " Schools for Teachers," and makes some 
 admirable suggestions in regard to their organization and course of 
 study. He presented his views on the subject to the legislative 
 committees on education in 1833. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools, 
 the Society that did so much to secure the adoption of the free 
 school system, repeatedly recommend in their reports the establish- 
 ment of institutions for the training of teachers ; and in their report 
 for 1830 they take ground in favor of a Normal School for each 
 " Congressional District " in the State, and were therefore the first 
 
THE EDi'CAT[0:\ OF TEACH EKS. 
 
 6; 
 
 to suggest the policy of dividing the State for Normal School pur- 
 poses. 
 
 Fetterman, of Bedford, chairman of the Committee on Education 
 in the House of Representatives in 1S31, commends the plan of 
 
 /-"^^^ ^^ 
 
 educating teachers in Colleges and Academies, then much in favor; 
 but looks forward to the establishment of" two or more seminal ies 
 of learning for the education of teachers." 
 
6i4 
 
 EDLCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 The House of Representatives, in 1833, directed the Committee 
 on Education to inquire into the expediency of establishing, at the 
 expense of the State, a Manual Labor Academy for the instruction 
 of persons to officiate as teachers in the public schools. Matthias, 
 of Philadelphia, for the committee, made a strong report favoring 
 the measure and accompanying it with a bill. The school was to be 
 located at or near Harrisburg, to have accommodations for two hun- 
 dred students, and combined in its course of training, '" agricultural 
 and mechanical pursuits with intellectual and moral instruction in 
 the German and English languages." Each student after leaving 
 the institution was expected " to engage as a teacher in the public 
 schools of the Commonwealth for the term of twelve months." The 
 bill did not pass, but that such a bill could have strong support at 
 that early period is significant. 
 
 Governor Wolf advocated in his messages measures to secure 
 good teachers, about as earnestly as he advocated measures to secure 
 free Schools. And Breck's free school bill, as reported from the 
 committee in 1834, contained sections providing for the education 
 of teachers, and appropriating eight thousand dollars a year for this 
 purpose ; but these sections, although strongly supported in the re- 
 port that accoillf>anied the bill, were omitted before its passage, on 
 the ground that a new ship should not be too heavily freighted. 
 The friends ef education, howeiVer, did not consider the question 
 settled, and they soon renewed their eSofis in behalf of a measure 
 they considered essential to the success of the system. 
 
 In October, 1 836, a public meeting was called in Philadelphia " to 
 consider the condition and improvement of institutions of publiS 
 instruction in Pennsylvania.'' Dr, Ludlow, Provost of the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania, presided. A " plan for a Teachers' Seminary " 
 was presented by Rev. Gilbert Morgan, who had recently been 
 President of the Western University, at Pittsburgh. This plan con- 
 templated an independent institution, with a full faculty and course 
 of study and an opportunity of practice in a large common school. 
 It met with much favor from those present, and meetings were sub- 
 sequently held at Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and other places, to forward 
 the project. 
 
 Prof Robert Cunningham, of Lafayette College, published, in 
 1 839, a lecture in which he developed a plan of a Normal Seminary 
 after the model of those in Prussia and other European countries ; 
 and during the same year appeared the report of Alexander Dallas 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 515 
 
 Bache, President of Girard College, on " Education in Europe," in 
 which he gives an account of the " Seminaries for the preparation 
 of teachers for primary schools " in Prussia, Holland, France and 
 Switzerland. In 1843, Prof Lemuel Stephens, of Philadelphia, in a 
 letter from Berlin to the State Superintendent, presents his views of 
 the Normal Schools of Germany, and lays down the principles which 
 he thinks should govern the organization of similar institutions in 
 Pennsylvania. An Act of the Legislature, approved March 10, 
 1840, provides " That there shall be, and hereby is established in 
 the village of Joliet, in the county of Erie, an Academy for the in- 
 struction and qualification of teachers of common schools, and for 
 the instruction of youth in the useful arts and sciences and litera- 
 ture in the English and other languages, by the name, style and title 
 of the Joliet Academy and school for teachers." What was accom- 
 plished by this early school for teachers is unknown, but the move- 
 ment establishing it was a significant sign of the times. 
 
 Every State Superintendent of Common Schools, from Burrowes, 
 in 1836, to Curtin, in 1857, when the Normal School law was 
 passed, contained recommendations in one form or another in favor 
 of Normal Schools. Burrowes, in 1838, abandoning the plan of 
 educating teachers in departments connected with Colleges and 
 Academies, which he had previously preferred, advocates with much 
 force the establishment of " separate free State institutions for the 
 instruction of teachers." He thinks two such institutions, one in 
 the east and the other in the west, might be sufficient for the pres- 
 ent, but looks forward to the establishment of others in the north- 
 east, north-west and centre. He would man each of them with 
 six professors, and provide a comprehensive and thorough course of 
 study in all the branches of an English education, with a " full and 
 careful course of theoretic and practical instruction in the art of 
 teaching." His plan includes model schools, and he sees no objec- 
 tion to admitting into the institutions thus organized students who 
 do not intend to become teachers. In these propositions may be seen 
 rude germs that were shaped twenty years later into the Normal 
 School law. Shunk, 1840, recommends that the State be divided 
 into Normal School districts, not more than five, and that as soon 
 as convenient a school for teachers be established in each, beginning 
 with one in a central location. Haines, 1849, urges the establish- 
 ment of Normal Schools in each county, and a central institution of 
 the same character, but of higher grade, for the whole State 
 
(3i6 EDbCATlON IN PENNSYL VAN/A. 
 
 Russell, 1850, favors a Teachers' Seminary in each Congressional 
 district, with Model Schools for practice. Hughes, 1853, thinks 
 there must be Normal Schools, but, in view of the expense of their 
 establishment, proposes as a temporary substitute courses of instruc- 
 tion for teachers, to continue three or four months during their vaca- 
 tion. Curtin, 1856, advocates the establishment of Normal Schools 
 with two departments, one for the improvement of teachers already 
 engaged in teaching, and the other to furnish a regular course of 
 professional instruction ; and the same officer, broadening his con- 
 ception of the want to be supplied, 1857, recommends, in substance, 
 the provisions of the Act which was passed by the Legislature dur- 
 ing the session oithat year. 
 
 Outside of official sources, some effective work was done during 
 the earlier years of the common school system to prepare the way 
 for State Normal Schools. 
 
 At a meeting held at Pigeon Creek church, Washington county, 
 November 23, 1849, resolutions were passed in favor of "well quali- 
 fied teachers and a system of Normal Schools for their training;'' 
 also, proposing "a county committee to examine teachers, with 
 authority to call a convention of teachers twice a year for instruc- 
 tion by lectures in the science of teaching." James Hamilton, of 
 Carlisle, one of the earliest and most devoted common school men 
 in the State, prepared a bill embracing " a plan and system of a 
 teachers' Seminary" and, in 1839, placed it in the hands of the 
 Superintendent of Common Schools. It provided for five schools to 
 be located in different parts of the State, each to have suitable build^ 
 ings, a Model School, six professors, and accommodations for two 
 hundred and fifty students. In an Act, probably framed .by the 
 same hand, regulating the schools of the borough of Carlisle, passed 
 in 1850, the board of school directors vvas authorized to establish a 
 Normal School, with the privilege of admitting students from the 
 country, outside of the district, upon such terms as might be agreed 
 upon with other school boards. Directly after the passage of this 
 Act, the Carlisle school board issued a call inviting each district in 
 the county to send a delegate to a convention to mature a plan for 
 the contemplated school, which it was proposed to open within a 
 short time for a term of four months. The Convention was small 
 and the school was nevjer opened, but the effort was a seed that 
 produced fruit in later years. The great educational Convention 
 held at Harrisburg, in 1850, of which mention is niade elsewhere. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. (", , j 
 
 adopted a resolution declaring that the State should establish two 
 Normal Schools ;, and the State Teachers' Association from the time 
 it was organized, in 1852, to 1857, seldom held a meeting at which 
 some action was not taken calculated either to influence the Legis- 
 lature or to better public sentiment on the Normal School question. 
 In a prospectus of the Pottsville Institute, dated September 24, 
 1832, among other advantages promised to students were, familiar 
 lectures on " schoolkeeping." The Joliet Academy, Erie county, 
 incorporated in 1840, was conducted partially as a school for teach- 
 ers. And all along, from 1834 to 1857, there were numerous 
 Academies and Seminaries that advertised the possession of special 
 facilities for the education of teachers ; but the earliest school known 
 to have been established and conducted as a distinctive Normal 
 School was that of Dr, Franklin Taylory at Kennett Square, Chester 
 county, in 1852. "This institution," says an early circular, "is 
 designed for the education of young ladies who wish to qualify 
 themselves thoroughly for instructors in our common schools or 
 higher institutions of learning." Dr. Taylor was elected County 
 Superintendent of Chester county, in 1857, and soon after trans- 
 ferred the Kennett Square school to West Chester, where he asso- 
 ciated with him in its management Fordyce A. Allen and Dr. 
 EUwood Harvey. Later it went into the hands of Prof Allen alone, 
 under whose direction it flourished for several years. In 1852, the 
 board of directors of the city of Reading, at the request of the 
 'teachers, organized a Normal School, to be open on Saturdays for 
 instruction in " the methods of teaching different branches, also of 
 managing and governing schools." This was the first of many 
 movements of the kind in the State, and the school is still con- 
 tinued. It has attached to it a good teachers' library, begun in 
 
 1853- 
 The tokens in the educational sky towards the end of the second 
 
 decade after the adoption of the free school system were decidedly 
 favorable to the early establishment of State Normal Schools; but 
 .several circumstances are still to be mentioned that had a direct 
 bearing upon the coming of that important event. 
 
 The Hughes school bill of 1853 contained eleven sections provid- 
 ing for the establishment of teachers' schools. This bill was not 
 acted upon by the Legislature; but, in 1854, the same bill, in a 
 somewhat modified form, but without material change in its pro- 
 visions in relation to teachers' schools, was again laid before the 
 
f3i8 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Legislature and its passage asked for by the School Department. 
 After some consultation in the Senate, where the subject was first 
 considered, the friends of the bill deemed it expedient to drop the 
 sections providing for teachers' schools, both for the reason that this 
 feature seemed likely to jeopardize the passage of the bill as a whole, 
 and because it Was foreseen that county supervision, if secured as 
 the bill proposed, would soon make schools for teachers a necessity. 
 While pending in the Legislature, the State Teachers' Association 
 gave its unanimous approval to that part of the bill which concerned 
 teachers' schools, and had a memorial presented to that effect. 
 
 The sections providing for teachers' schools struck out of the bill 
 of 1854, though fathered by the School Department, were drafted 
 mainly if not altogether by the hand that subsequently drafted the 
 Normal School law of 1857, that of Thomas H. Burrowes; and in 
 many respects the living law resembles the dead bill, although in 
 others the two are wholly unlike. 
 
 The bill of 1853 and 1854 made provision for two teachers' 
 schools at the public expense, one in the eastern and the other in 
 the western part of the State ; for the purchase of lots each of four 
 acres in size, the erection of buildings, with a hall capable of seating 
 a thousand persons and rooms for Model Schools, libraries, appara- 
 tus and museums; for a faculty consisting of a Principal, three pro- 
 fessors, teachers for the Model School and necessary assistants, with 
 duties substantially as in the existing law ; for the admission of two 
 classes of students of both sexes free from all charges for tuition, the!" 
 first to consist of practical teachers fresh from their work in the 
 school-room and ready to pledge themselves to return to it, and the 
 second of pupils from the common schools, one annually from each 
 district, properly recommended by the respective school boards and 
 willing to remain under training for three years, and then to engage 
 in teaching common schools for a period of at least five years ; for 
 the granting by the faculty of certificates of competency to practical 
 teachers who should attend the school for at least three months and 
 be found qualified, and of more formal diplomas to regular graduates 
 setting forth their character and qualifications and the branches 
 which they were prepared to teach ; and for the appointment of com- 
 missioners and the appropriation of money to carry the Act into 
 effect. 
 
 As had been pfedicted by its friends, the county superintendency 
 greatly increased both the necessity and the demand for bettering 
 
THE EDLCATION OF TEACHERS. gjQ 
 
 the existing facilities for the preparation of teachers. Thousands of 
 those who had previously been employed as teachers were found by 
 the more rigid examinations instituted by the County Superintend- 
 ents to be incompetent, and the vacancies thus created had to be 
 supplied, and multitudes of others, warned of their deficiencies by the 
 low grade certificates received, resolved to seek the earliest oppor- 
 tunity of improving themselves. Indeed, the whole profession was 
 seized with a new ambition, and means of instruction of all kinds, 
 schools, institutes for teachers, educational books and magazines, 
 were sought with an eagerness previously unknown. During the 
 first year of the superintendency, the Superintendents of Allegheny, 
 Berks, Centre, Indiana, Lancaster, Mifflin, Perry and Somerset 
 established, and to a greater or less extent directed, temporary 
 schools for teachers ; and their example was soon followed by the 
 Superintendents of Cumberland, Juniata, Susquehanna, and perhaps 
 other counties. In addition to these special schools for the improve- 
 ment of teachers. Normal departments were opened in connection 
 with existing Academies and Seminaries in all parts of the State. 
 Of the institutions thus quickly conforming their courses of instruc- 
 tion to the spirit of the times may be named Oxford Academy and 
 Hampton Institute, Adams; Susquehanna Collegiate Institute, 
 Bradford j Meadville Academy, Crawford ; Davis' Academy, 
 Beaver ; Wyoming Seminary, Presbyterial Institute and Madison 
 Academy, Luzerne ; University of Northern Pennsylvania, Wayne ; 
 • Eldersridge Academy, Indiana ; Harford University, Susquehanna, 
 and the Arcadian Institute, Schuylkill. The first projected of these 
 efforts to supply the new demand for better qualified teachers, the 
 largest, the most vigorous and the most complete in all respects, 
 was the " Normal Institute " established and directed by the County 
 Superintendent of Lancaster county in the spring of 1855, at Millers- 
 ville. In its plan it included a full course of study divided into de- 
 partments, a full faculty, theoretical and practical instruction in the 
 science and art of teaching, Model Schools, scientific lectures, etc.; 
 little being wanting that is now found in connection with the best 
 equipped Normal Schools. The success of the school was without 
 a parallel in Pennsylvania; and the body of public-spirited citizens 
 who owned the unfinished buildings in which the Institute was held, 
 taking the tide at its flow, determined to enlarge them and place the 
 whole in condition for continuing the institution, so auspiciously 
 begun, as a permanent county Normal School. 
 
620 EDUCA TION IN PENA':, YL VAN/A. 
 
 These movements on the part of school officers to improve teach- 
 ers, and on the part of teachers to improve themselves, not only 
 made more plain the necessity of Normal Schools, but seem to have 
 worked an important change in the minds of those who were at the 
 time engaged in shaping for the State a Normal School policy. Dr. 
 Burrowes, when framing the Normal School sections of the school 
 bills of 1853 and 1854, had favored the policy of Normal Schools 
 established, owned and controlled by the State; in August, 1856, at 
 the close of the educational meetings at Williamsport, he announced, 
 as he states in an article in Barnard's Journal, that he had reached 
 the conclusion that " Normal Schools, like other professional institu- 
 tions, ought not to be established by and at the expense of the State, 
 and should be no further controlled by the State than is necessary 
 to give value and authority to their diplomas." State Superintend- 
 ent Curtin changed his views about the same time, for in 1855 he 
 advocated distinctive State Normal Schools; in 1856, he proposed 
 as a more practical plan, " a combination of the best elements of the 
 State and the private school," and outlines the principal features of 
 the bill he was about to lay before the Legislature. 
 
 The bill of 1857, to establish Normal Schools, was drawn by 
 Thomas H. Burrowes. The Normal School sections of the bills of 
 1853 and 1854 constituted its basis; but the structure was much 
 changed to conform to the new views its author had come to enter- 
 tain on the subject. In preparing the bill, the Principal of the 
 Normal School at MillersviUe, and doubtless the officers of the 
 School Department, were consulted. 
 
 It should be noted as having a bearing on the history of the sub- 
 ject that during the legislative session of 1855, Benjamin Bannan, a 
 leading citizen of Pottsville, long officially connected with the pub- 
 lic schools as a director, wrote a lengthy letter to Governor Pollock 
 suggesting a plan of dividing the State into twelve or fifteen districts 
 and establishing a Normal School in each, partly at the State's and 
 partly at private expense, and presenting a cogent argument in 
 favor of it. The letter was placed in the hands of Deputy State 
 Superintendent Hickok, and was subsequently forwarded to Dr. 
 Burrowes with the request that he should consider it in preparing a 
 bill to be presented to the next Legislature. The division of the 
 State into districts for Normal School purposes was not new ; but 
 the feature of Mr. Bannan's plan that was entirely original was the 
 proposition that Normal Schools should be rather private than pub- 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. ,621 
 
 lie institutions. This feature was adopted in the Act of 1857, and 
 has distinguished the Normal School policy of Pennsylvania from 
 that of most of her sister States. 
 
 Having placed a draft of his bill for the education of teachers in 
 the hands of the State school officers, Dr. Burrowes left the duty 
 with them of presenting it to the Legislature and looking after its 
 passage through the Houses. It was first considered in the Senate, 
 where an able report was read in its favor by Titian J. Coffey, of 
 Indiana, Chairman of the Committee on Education. The bill so 
 far as the records show met with no opposition ; but those who 
 closely watched its progress are free to say that it had numerous 
 enemies who were only prevented from making an open attack upon 
 it by skillful engineering on the part of the officers of the School 
 Department and the members of the two Houses who cooperated 
 with them in pressing the measure. The bill as passed and signed 
 by the Governor possessed the following leading features : 
 
 1. The division of the State into twelve districts, with provision for establisli- 
 ing a Noimal .School in each. 
 
 2. The Normal Schools to be established and managed by private com- 
 panies or corporations composed of contributors or stockholders. Annual 
 reports to be made to the School Department. 
 
 3. The principal requfeites for a Normal School under the Act to be 
 grounds to the extent of ten acres ; buildings large enough to accommodate 
 three hundred students, with a hall of a capacity to seat a thousand persons ; 
 rooms for libraries and cabinets ; at least six professors of liberal education, 
 each to have charge of a department, with necessary tutors and assistants ; a 
 Model School with accommodations for one hundred pupils. 
 
 4. The course of study and qualifications of students for admission to be 
 fixed by the several principals. The course of study to include the theory 
 and practice of teaching. 
 
 5. One student to be admitted, annually, from each common school district 
 within the Normal School district, at a cost for tuition of twenty dollars a 
 year. 
 
 6. Practical teachers to be admitted for a month or longer at a cost of two 
 dollars per month. 
 
 7. Examinations for graduation to be conducted by a board of principals, 
 and the certificates or diplomas granted to be permanent licenses to teach. 
 
 8. The State Superintendent to approve the regulations for the government 
 of the schools and the course of study adopted. 
 
 9. No inducement in money from the State, either present or prospective, 
 was held out for the establishment of the Normal Schools. The prestige of 
 their connection with the State and with the school system, and the power 
 granted them of licensing teachers, were expected to bring them into existence 
 as rapidly as they could be supported. 
 
 The Act had much inherent strength, as the result proved, but it 
 
622 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 was soon found that it contained weak points that sadly crippled its 
 working. These were partially removed in subsequent years by 
 amendments intended for the most part to increase the power of the 
 State in the management of the schools. This became the more 
 necessary when the State began to aid the schools by appropriations 
 from its treasury. Of this change of policy some account will be 
 found elsewhere ; we must now give a brief sketch of the history of 
 the several institutions that became State Normal Schools under the 
 Act, as follows: Millersville, Lancaster county, 1859; Edinboro, 
 Erie county, 1861; Mansfield, Tioga county, 1862; Kutztown, 
 Berks county, 1866; Bloomsburg, Columbia county, 1869; West 
 Chester, Chester county, 1871 ; Shippensburg, Cumberland county, 
 1873 ; California, Washington county, 1874; Indiana, Indiana 
 county, 187s ; and Lock Haven, Clinton county, 1877. 
 
 MILLERSVILLE. 
 
 During the summer of 1854, a few citizens of the little town of 
 Millersville, Lancaster county, desiring better educational advantages 
 for their children than the country common schools afforded, agreed 
 to unite in the establishment of an Academy^ purchased ground, and 
 commenced the erection of a building. The prime-mover in this 
 enterprise was Rev. L. M. Hobbs, then and for some years pre- 
 viously a teacher in the common schools of the neighborhood. 
 The citizens who most actively cooperated with Mr. Hobbs, and who 
 constituted the building committee, were Barton B. Martin, Jacob R. 
 Barr, John Brady, Daniel S. Bare and Jonas B. Martin, all residents 
 of the village. To these must be added the names of Abraham 
 Peters, Jacob M. Frantz, Dr. Peter W. Heistand and David Hart- 
 man, who a little later began a series of self-sacrificing efforts in 
 behalf of the school, which continued many years. The building 
 was unfinished in February, 1855, when County Superintendent 
 Wickersham made his first official visit to the schools of the village. 
 
 As elsewhere, the working of the County Superintendency in 
 Lancaster county made evident the necessity of teachers' schools, 
 and before he had reached the end of his first series of examinations 
 in the Fall of 1854, the County Superintendent announced his pur- 
 pose of establishing one as a part of his official duty. The teachers 
 of the county seconded the movement at an institute held at Hinkle- 
 town, in November, 1854, bypassing a formal resolution urging the 
 County Superintendent to carry the project into effect. Some steps 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. (^^T, 
 
 were taken looking towards opening the proposed school at Lancas- 
 ter, hut the visit to the schools of Millersville mentioned above 
 brought about a change in the location. On that occasion, a lecture 
 was delivered in one of the schoolhouses in which the proposed 
 teachers' school formed a topic of discussion. Among other obsta- 
 cles in the way, it was mentioned that the building that could be had 
 in Lancaster was not altogether suitable. Two weeks later a mes- 
 senger came to the County Superintendent, then in a distant part of 
 the county, with an invitation to open his contemplated teachers' 
 school in the new Academy building at Millersville, and stating that 
 the trustees would agree to have it ready for occupancy, would 
 charge nothing for its use, and in addition would contribute if 
 necessary a thousand dollars towards the expenses of the school. 
 After some consideration the proposition was accepted, and the 
 school, under the name of the Lancaster County Normal Institute, 
 was opened at Millersville, April 17, 1855, a day memorable in the 
 annals of Pennsylvania Normal Schools. It continued in session 
 for three months, the County Superintendent acting as Principal 
 without compensation. There were about one hundred and fifty 
 students in the Normal department, and one hundred and ninety 
 pupils attended the Model Schools. So successful was the school, 
 and so evident did it make the want it was intended to supply, that 
 before its close the trustees of the Academy, aided by other inter- 
 ested citizens who then joined the movement, changed their original 
 intention in regard to the character of the school, and resolved to 
 enlarge their building and open a permanent Normal School. Their 
 purpose was carried into effect ; and in less than four months from 
 the close of the Lancaster County Normal Institute, the Lancaster 
 County Normal School, as the institution was then called, was ready 
 to receive students. John F. Stoddard, who had served the Institute 
 as Professor of Mathematics, and who was favorably known to the 
 educational public as a teacher and author, was elected Principal ; 
 and associated with him as heads of departments were Robert T. 
 Cornwall, who had occupied a chair in the Institute, and Edward 
 Brooks, who eleven years later was advanced to the Principalship. 
 At the opening of the Spring term, 1856, the County Superintend- 
 ent returned to the school, bringing with him as before a large num- 
 ber of the teachers of the county, the permanent faculty for the time 
 being acting under his direction. During the term, Prof Stoddard 
 gave up the Principalship, and after much hesitation the County 
 
624 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Superintendent was induced to resign his office and accept the 
 vacant place. Thus James P. Wickersham became the head of the 
 school whose foundations he had laid in the temporary Institute of 
 the year before. 
 
 Soon after the passage of the Normal School law of 1857, pre- 
 paration was begun at Millersviile to bring the school up to its re- 
 quirements. More ground was needed, additional buildings had to 
 be erected, and it was necessary to spend large sums in furniture 
 and equipment. There was then no promise or prospect of State 
 aid, and the task that confronted the friends of the school was hercu- 
 lean. Among the means used to raise the required funds, a great 
 mass meeting was held in a neighboring grove, at which addresses 
 were delivered by Governor Pollock, State Superintendent Hickok, 
 and prominent speakers from the several counties composing the 
 district, Lancaster, York and Lebanon. The institution was at last 
 ready for inspection, and on the second day of December, 1859, 
 amid great rejoicing, it became the first State Normal School in 
 Pennsylvania, and the model after which all the others were pat- 
 terned. 
 
 Millersviile was full of students when it became a State school and 
 it continued so. Even the war with all its disturbing influences did 
 not break in upon the flow of its prosperity ; and after the war 
 closed the rush of applicants was so great that although none were 
 admitted for several years but such as desired to become teachers, 
 large numbers could not be accommodated. The last year of Prof 
 Wickersham's administration closed with an attendance of six hun- 
 dred and fifty-two in the Normal School, and one hundred and fifty- 
 five in the Model School. 
 
 In 1866, Prof Wickersham resigned the Principalship of the 
 school to accept the position of State Superintendent of Common 
 Schools offered him by Governor Curtin, and Edward Brooks was 
 elected his successor. Prof Brooks had been connected with the 
 school almost from the beginning, was thoroughly acquainted with 
 its working and had won high reputation as a teacher and author. 
 He was born at Stony Point, New York, in -1831, and had dis- 
 tinguished himself as a teacher in that State before coming to Penn- 
 sylvania. He continued at the head of the Millersviile school from 
 i866 to 1883, when he resigned. During his long administration, 
 aided by generous contributions from the State, the buildings were 
 much enlarged and improved, the faculty was increased, and their 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 625 
 
 work better distributed, and numerous additions were made to the 
 apparatus and other means of instruction. The graduating classes 
 were naturally larger during the administration of Dr. Brooks than 
 previously, but the attendance of students remained without material 
 change, the year 1883 closing with an attendance in the Normal 
 School of five hundred and twenty-three, and in the Model School 
 of one hundred and sixteen. The largest attendance was in 1 871, 
 when in the two schools respectively there were seven hundred and 
 forty-seven and one hundred and thirty-seven. While at Millers- 
 ville, Dr. Brooks wrote a series of Mathematical text-books, " Men- 
 tal Science and Culture,'' " Methods of Teaching" and other works. 
 B. F. Shaub is now Principal of the Millersville School. He is 
 one of its graduates, had taught in its faculty, and for eleven years 
 before his election had acceptably served the people of Lancaster 
 county as Superintendent of schools. The future prosperity of the 
 school seems assured ; and as to its past record, it may well claim 
 to have done more to develop the science of education and to intro- 
 duce improved methods of teaching than any other educational in- 
 stitution in the State. 
 
 EDINBORO. 
 
 Edinboro is a pleasant little town in the southern part of Erie 
 county. Here is located the Normal School of the Twelfth Dis- 
 trict. This school owes its existence to no outside influence; it is 
 exclusively a home-production, the result of the efforts of the citi- 
 zens of the village and surrounding neighborhood. In the Autumn 
 of 1855, a movement was begun with the object of founding an 
 Academy. A subscription was started and a charter obtained. In 
 1857, a building was erected on a lot that had recently been a dense, 
 wild forest. J. R. Merriman was elected Principal and opened the 
 school. While this work was in progress the passage of the 
 Normal School law became known and the possibility sugge.sted it- 
 self of so increasing the grounds and enlarging the buildings as to 
 bring them within the requirements of that Act. After much effort 
 additional money was raised, the necessary ground was purchased 
 and two more buildings were erected. The trustees were now 
 heavily in debt and much in doubt as to the sufficiency of their 
 work. In this emergency State Superintendent Hickok was in- 
 duced to visit the place; but greatly to the disappointment of all 
 concerned he informed them that creditable as was what they had 
 done it was not nearly all that the law made necessary for a Normal 
 40 
 
626 ED I -CATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 School. There was not a rich man in the village, but there were 
 many with big hearts and free hands, and an extraordinary effort 
 was successful in drawing from purses already well drained money 
 sufficient to erect the buildings still needed; and in January 23, 
 1 86 1, the school was recognized as a Normal School by the State 
 authorities. The cold of a winter day near the lakes could not chill 
 the rejoicings of a people who had accomplished what they had long 
 striven for. Of the citizens foremost in the good work there must 
 be named Isaac R. Taylor, E. W. Twitchell, and William Camp- 
 bell. 
 
 James Thompson became Principal during the <;onstruction of 
 the buildings. He was a graduate of Union College, a warm friend 
 of popular education, an excellent scholar and very thorough in his 
 teaching; but as he had spent most of his life either in charge of 
 small select schools or as a professor in a College, he lacked the 
 practical talent necessary in the management of the miscellaneous 
 throngs of students that gather into a Normal School. He resigned 
 the position in 1862, and Joseph A. Cooper, a Professor in the in- 
 stitution, was placed at its head, where he has remained to the present 
 time. Prof Cooper is a native of New York, a graduate of Yale 
 College, a fine scholar and a good teacher. He is admirably 
 endowed with the practical common sense that is not less necessary 
 to success in a school than in other kinds of business. The school 
 when he took charge of it had less than a hundred students; the 
 first catalogue he issued contained the names of two hundred and 
 ninety, and there have been j'ears since that time when seven hun- 
 dred students crowded the Normal Department. From time to time, . 
 the grounds have been improved and beautified, new buildings have 
 been constructed and the old ones altered and repaired, libraries, 
 reading-rooms, collections of apparatus and objects for illustrating 
 the natural sciences have been supplied, until the school is now well 
 equipped and well adapted to its high purpose. 
 
 MANSFIELD. 
 
 The third State Normal School in the order of recognition, is 
 located in the borough of Mansfield, Tioga county. No other 
 school in the State has changed Principals so frequently or passed 
 through so many vicissitudes. In 1855, an organization was formed 
 at Mansfield for the purpose of establishing a classical Seminary 
 under the patronage of the East Genesee Methodist Episcopal 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 627 
 
 Conference. The principal originators of this movement were J. S. 
 Hoard and Dr. J. P. Morris. The school was opened in January, 
 1857, J. R. Jacques, Principal. Three months after, the building 
 was burned. Another was erected in 1859, ^^ effort taxing most 
 severely the resources of this community of men of small means. 
 Rev. J. Landreth became Principal of the school when opened in 
 the new building, but within a year E. Wildman succeeded him. 
 In 1862, the institution applied for recognition as a State Normal 
 School, and although in most respects it was far short of the 
 requirements of the law, a generous feeling, on the part of a com- 
 mittee of inspection appointed by Superintendent Burrowes, towards 
 a, people who had invested in the enterprise all they could afford 
 and more, induced the granting of the application. The citizens to 
 whom the institution is most indebted for efforts in its behalf are 
 the brothers S. B. Elliott and Dr. C. V. Elliott. 
 
 Rev. W. D. Taylor was the first Principal of the Normal School, 
 but within a short time Fordyce A. Allen was elected to the posi- 
 tion. Prof Allen was a prominent figure in Pennsylvania school 
 affairs from 1848, when he conducted one of the first teachers' insti- 
 tutes held in the State, to 1880, when he died at Mansfield. He 
 was born in Massachusetts in 1 820, came when very young with 
 his parents to Mansfield in this State, the scene of the labors of his 
 later life, picked up such knowledge as he could in the common 
 schools of the day and attended for a short time an Academy in 
 New York, commenced teaching at the age of nineteen, and in 1845, 
 entered upon the work for which few men were better fitted and of 
 which no one in the whole country did more, giving instruction at 
 teachers' institutes. He was Principal of Smethport Academy, 
 when in 1854, he was elected the first County Superintendent of 
 McKean county, and although his salary was only two hundred 
 and fifty dollars a year, he performed in full measure the duties of 
 the office. In 1858, he became connected with the private Normal 
 School at West Chester whence he was called, in 1862, to the Princi- 
 palship of the State Normal School which had been established at 
 his old home, Mansfield. Here he introduced many improvements 
 and drew students to the school from all parts of Pennsylvania. In 
 1867, he established in connection with the Normal School a school 
 for soldiers' orphans intending to use it for the purposes of a Model 
 School. Prof. Allen resigned, in 1868, and was succeeded by J. D. 
 Streit. Prof Streit died soon after his election and Charles H. 
 
628 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 Verrill took the vacant place. He continued to act as Principal 
 until 1873, when J. N. Fradenburg was elected. Two years later, 
 Prof. Verrill returned to the charge, but was succeeded, in 1877, by 
 Prof. Alien, who thus became Principal a second time and continued 
 to act in this capacity until his death. During 1873 and 1874, a 
 large additional building was erected and the old one was much 
 changed and improved. A good supply of apparatus and other 
 appliances was procured about the same time. The school has 
 never been as large as the two older schools at Millersville and 
 Edinboro, but it has sent forth many more graduates in propor- 
 tion to the number of students in attendance than either of them. 
 D. C. Thomas has had charge of the school since the death of Prof. 
 Allen, and it has never been more prosperous or promising. Prof. 
 Thomas is a scholar, has had large experience as a teacher, has 
 increased and broadened his knowledge of schools by foreign 
 travel, and is ambitious to make the school a model in the work of 
 training teachers. 
 
 KUTZTOWN. 
 
 Berks is one of the most distinctive German counties in Pennsyl- 
 vania, and the village of Kutztown is located in one of the most dis- 
 tinctive German parts of it. Here, in 1836, was established Frank- 
 lin Academy, which flourished for some years. From its seed 
 sprang, in i860, mainly through the efforts of Rev. J. S. Herman, 
 Fairview Seminary. This institution under the charge of H. R. 
 Nicks, gave some attention from the beginning to the preparation of 
 teachers. The President of the Board of Trustees, Rev. B. E. 
 Kramlich, in 1862, suggested the idea of converting it into a Nor- 
 mal School; and as early as 1857, H. H. Schwartz, then County 
 Superintendent of Lehigh county, now a Judge in the Berks County 
 Courts, named Kutztown as a proper place for the Normal School 
 of the Third District, consisting of Berks, Lehigh and Schuylkill 
 counties. In 1865, Maxatawny Seminary, by which name the 
 school was then called, possessed a good building commanding a 
 magnificent view of the surrounding country, five acres of grounds, 
 and an attendance of nearly one hundred students. At this time 
 John S. Ermentrout, then County Superintendent of Berks county, 
 connected himself with the school for the purpose of giving normal 
 instruction to the large number of teachers who had been gathered 
 there through his influence. The success of this movement con- 
 verted Maxatawny Seminary into a State Normal School, With 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. gjQ 
 
 great liberality and public spirit the citizens of the village and 
 neighborhood, prominent among them the Hottensteins, the Biebers, 
 Doctor Gerasch, David Schaefifer and others, united in purchasing 
 five acres more ground, and in the erection of additional buildings 
 so as to comply with the conditions of the Normal School Act. 
 The corner-stone of the new building was laid September 17, 1865, 
 and, in the language of Prof. Ermentrout the work was dedicated 
 "to the honor of Almighty God, to the service of a sound Christian 
 morality and to the educational interests of the State of Pennsylva- 
 nia." On the thirteenth of September, 1866, the school was duly 
 inspected and recognized as a State Normal School. 
 
 John S. Ermentrout was the first Principal of the Kutztown school, 
 serving from 1866 to 1 871. Prof Ermentrout was born at Womels- 
 dorf, graduated at Marshall College, taught a select school in Read- 
 ing and was serving his third term as County Superintendent of 
 Berks county when elected Principal of the Normal School he had 
 done much to found. The school prospered, but for reasons of a 
 private character Prof Ermentrout resigned in 1 87 1 . After a short- 
 interval. Rev. A. R. Home succeeded him and continued to act as 
 Principal until 1877, when the present Principal, Nathan C. Schaeffer, 
 was chosen to fill the place. Prof Home is a graduate of Pennsyl- 
 vania College. Early in his career he opened a normal and cla.ssi- 
 cal school at Quakertown, Bucks county, in which he prepared 
 many young men for teachers ; and, later, he was Superintendent of 
 Schools in Williamsport. For many years he has conducted an 
 educational periodical called the " Educator." Dr. Schaeffer was 
 born within a few miles of Kutztown, was one of the three students 
 at the Fairview Seminary on its opening day, attended the Normal 
 School, graduated at Franklin and Marshall College, taught in the 
 Normal School and for a few months following the resignation of 
 Prof Ermentrout was its acting Principal, travelled and studied in 
 Europe, returned and for a time was Principal of the Academy con- 
 nected with his Alma Mater. During his administration, the Nor- 
 mal School buildings have been greatly enlarged, the facilities for 
 instruction have been much improved, and the school has drawn to 
 it constantly increasing numbers of students. Among the citizens 
 who have been most active in promoting the interests of the school 
 may be named Rev. B. E. Kramlich, H. H. Schwartz and Col. 
 Thomas G. Fister. 
 
630 
 
 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 BLOOMSBURG. 
 
 On an eminence overlooking the borough of Bloomsburg, Colum- 
 bia county, and commanding a magnificent view of some of the 
 finest scenery in the State, stand the buildings of the Normal School 
 of the Sixth District. As a Normal School the institution dates 
 from February 19, 1869. 
 
 A body of citizens, under the leadership of Rev. D. J. Waller, es- 
 tablished an Academy in Bloomsburg, in the year 1839. This 
 institution was at times very flourishing, but as the common schools 
 grew strong it seems to have grown weak. In 1856, some of the 
 same persons who had established the Academy, with others, 
 obtained a charter for an institution they called the " Bloomsburg 
 Literary Institute ; '' but nothing was done under it for some years. 
 In April, 1866, a stranger came to Bloomsburg and opened as an 
 experiment, a small select school. He was a man of uncommon 
 energy, skilled in school management, and soon his rooms were 
 crowded with pupils. This stranger was Henry Carver. As a re- 
 sult of the interest in education created by Prof Carver's school, a 
 permanent institution of learning was projected, the charter of the 
 Bloomsburg Literary Institute was resurrected and found available, 
 a site was purchased, a building was erected and a school opened 
 under the name they found ready to their hand in the charter they 
 had appropriated. The organization under which this work was 
 done consisted of Rev. D. J. Waller, President, L. B. Rupert, 
 William Robinson and William Neal, of the original founders of the 
 Academy, together with William Snyder, J. K. Grove, Elias Men- 
 denhall, E. C. Burton, J. G. Freeze and Robert F. Clark. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1867, the State Superintendent, having an offi- 
 cial call to the northeastern part of the State, passed Bloomsburg on 
 the railroad in the evening. From a window of the car he saw the 
 newly-erected structure ablaze with light from the students' lamps, 
 which seemed to shine from every part of it, and the thought oc- 
 curred to him that the location would be a good one for a State 
 Normal School. He sought an early opportunity to deliver an ad- 
 dress in Bloomsburg, advocating the conversion of the institution of 
 learning the citizens had established into a State Normal School. 
 The meeting was held in the large hall of the school building, which 
 was filled to overflowing. The result was the purchase of additional 
 ground, and the erection of a large boarding-house during the 
 following summer. The corner-stone was laid by Governor Geary 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 631 
 
 in the presence of an immense assemblage of people, June 25, 1868. 
 Accepted by the State authorities, the school commenced its Normal 
 work in April, 1869. In September of that year there were one 
 hundred and fifty students in the Normal department and eighty in 
 the Model School. 
 
 Prof Carver acted as Principal until in the Fall of 1871. His 
 resignation was unexpected, and for a time the school seemed almost 
 rudderless, and could hardly be said to have a permanent head until 
 the election of Dr. T. L. Griswold, in 1873. These were dark days 
 for the school, and the bravest among its friends, oppressed by the 
 weight of its debt which they were compelled to bear, wearied by 
 the cares its management involved, and discouraged by the decreas- 
 ing number of its students, almost despaired of success. The school 
 was just fairly on its feet under Dr. Griswold, when, ten days after 
 the opening of the school, the fourth of September, 1875, a terrible 
 fire left the main building, which had probably cost forty thousand 
 dollars, in ashes. Plucking up courage from the depth of this des- 
 pair, a new building was erected the following summer on the site 
 of the old one, but larger, handsomer, and much better suited to the 
 purpose. D. J. Waller, Jr., was elected Principal in 1877, and has 
 continued to discharge the duties of the place to the present time. 
 . He was born in Bloomsburg, is the son of the D. J. Waller who as- 
 sisted in founding the institution, is a graduate of Lafayette College, 
 and discharges the difiRcult duties of the place with ability and tact. 
 The school is now verily a city set on a hill, giving light to the 
 whole country for fifty or a hundred miles around it. In addition to 
 the persons already named as active in founding the school, among 
 its firmest friends in every trial have been William Elwell, Samuel 
 Knorr, John A. Funston, Daniel A. Beckley and Charles G. Barkley. 
 
 WEST CHESTER. 
 
 At the time the country was about to engage in the second war 
 with Great Britain, and while the clash of arms resounded along our 
 borders, the public-spirited citizens of West Chester were engaged 
 in the laudable work of organizing an Academy, which long years 
 afterwards was destined to become the foundation of the West 
 Chester State Normal School. Within two years from the time the 
 first meeting was held in the Court-house to consider the subject, 
 September 26, 181 1, a substantial building had been erected, and 
 the school was ready to open. For nearly sixty years the Academy 
 
6^2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 continued in operation, furnishing a good education to several gene- 
 rations of the young men of Chester and adjoining counties. A 
 society known as the " Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science " 
 was organized at West Chester in 1826, and after having erected and 
 occupied for many years a three-storied building in which were 
 housed a good library, a museum of curiosities, and collections of 
 nearly all the known minerals, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles and 
 insects to be found in Chester county, as well as numerous speci- 
 mens from abroad, the whole property was conveyed to the trustees 
 of the West Chester Academy for use in its courses of instruction. 
 But the time came when the Academy grew old, and its methods of , 
 teaching were considered obsolete. The trustees, therefore, discern- 
 ing the signs of the times, after careful deliberation among them- 
 selves and free consultation with the State Superintendent of 
 Common Schools, resolved to dispose of the property, and make 
 use of the money thus obtained in establishing a Normal School 
 under the Act of 1857. In accordance with this resolution an Act 
 of the Legislature was obtained authorizing them to sell the real 
 estate, from which they realized the sum of twenty-eight thousand 
 dollars. Over fifty thousand dollars in addition were raised by sub- 
 scription. With these funds and the appropriations njade by the 
 State, a magnificant building of green serpentine faced with white 
 marble, was erected on a beautiful site near the borough. The 
 corner-stone was laid by State Superintendent Wickersham, Sep- 
 tember 14, 1870, when addresses were delivered by him. Dr. Wilmer 
 Worthington, the prime-mover in the project, and Rev. William E. 
 Moore, one of its firmest friends. The inspection of the State 
 authorities took place in February, 1871, and the institution became 
 the fifth in the family of State Normal Schools. A public meeting 
 held in the Court-house to celebrate this event, was presided over 
 by Dr. Worthington, and addressed by Joseph J. Lewis, who had 
 from the first taken a deep interest in the school, Col. John W. 
 Forney, one of the inspectors, the State Superintendent, and County 
 Superintendents Baker of Delaware, Eastburn of Bucks, and Maris 
 of Chester. 
 
 The school opened September 25, with one hundred and sixty 
 students. E. H. Cook, a New England teacher of high standing 
 was the first Principal. He remained at the head of the school but 
 a single year, when William A. Chandler was chosen. His term of 
 service, however, was no longer than that of his predecessor. Prof. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 5,^ 
 
 Chandler's successor was George L. Maris, a native of Chester county, 
 graduate of Michigan University, a practical teacher and popular in 
 the county as County Superintendent of schools, in which office he 
 had served one term. Under the energetic administration of Prof 
 Maris, the school largely increased its attendance of studei\ts, a 
 wing was added to the building, and the facilities for instruction 
 were much improved. Prof. Maris resigned in 1880 and was suc- 
 ceeded by George M. Philips, under whom another wing has been 
 erected and still the buildings are too small to accommodate all 
 the students who apply for admission. Prof Philips was born in 
 Chester county, is a graduate of Lewisburg University, taught in 
 the Normal School over which he presides, was subsequently 
 elected to a chair at Lewisburg, whence he was called to the Princi- 
 palship at West Chester. In his hands the future success of the 
 school is assured. 
 
 SHIPPENSBURG. 
 
 Cumberland county has a very creditable record on the question 
 of Normal Schools. James Hamilton, of Carlisle, nearly twenty 
 years before the passage of the Act of 1857, prepared and placed in 
 the hands of State Superintendent Shunk a bill providing at the 
 public expense for the establishment of five Normal Schools in dif- 
 ferent parts of the State, each to have six instructors and a Model 
 School with one teacher. By a law passed in 1850, the board of 
 school directors of Carlisle was authorized to establish a Normal 
 School and to open it to students from the county. The plan con- 
 templated a Model School and a course of thorough instruction for 
 teachers. In December, 1857, the teachers' institute, in session at 
 Newville, appointed a meeting of directors, one from each township, 
 to consider the feasibility of establishing a Normal School for Cum- 
 berland county. This committee agreed to accept the generous 
 proposition of citizens of Newville to furnish gratuitously the neces- 
 sary buildings, and the school was opened under the principalship 
 of the County Superintendent, Daniel Shelly. This school held 
 successful sessions in 1858, 1859 and i860. In 1865, the citizens 
 of Newville pledged twenty-one thousand dollars towards the 
 expense of establishing a State Normal School at that place, but no 
 further steps were taken in the matter. 
 
 Some years after Newville dropped the project, Shippensburg took 
 it up and carried it forward to completion. After some preliminary 
 talk upon the subject by the citizens of the town, a public meeting 
 
534 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 was called and State Superintendent Wickersham invited to address 
 it. This was done, resulting in a resolution to make Shippensburg 
 the seat of the Normal School of the Seventh District. A call for 
 subscriptions was liberally responded to, a charter was obtained, a 
 site was chosen, in August, 1871, the corner-stone of the buildings 
 was laid with imposing ceremonies, and Feb. 21, 1873, the school 
 was accepted by the State, the Legislature having previously aided 
 it to the extent of fifteen thousand dollars. The cost of grounds, 
 buildings, furniture and equipment, was estimated at one hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars. The citizens most active in the work of 
 establishing the school were John C. Hays, John A. C. McCune, 
 Edward J. McCune and George R. Dykeman. 
 
 George P. Beard was the first Principal. Prof. Beard was born in 
 New Hampshire, and had previously served as the Principal of a 
 Normal School in the State of Missouri. Rev. I. N. Hays suc- 
 ceeded him in 1875. Three years later E. A. Angell became the 
 head of the school, followed in 1879 by B. A. Potter, who at the 
 end of three years gave place to S. B. Heiges. Prof. Heiges was 
 an instructor in the first teachers' school in the county, that under 
 the direction of County Superintendent Shelly in 1857, and subse- 
 quently served as County Superintendent of York county and as a 
 teacher in the York Collegiate Institute. The school has suffered 
 greatly from these frequent changes in the principalship, and from 
 financial embarrassment and disunity in the Board of Trustees ; but 
 it is well located, possesses commodious buildings and an ample 
 equipment, is the centre of a rich and beautiful country, has now at 
 its head a man well qualified for the place and fully meriting the 
 confidence of the educational public, and there is no doubt of its 
 final success. 
 
 CALIFORNIA. 
 
 On the Monongahela river, near the little town of California, 
 Washington county, is located the Normal School of the Tenth 
 District. It became a State school in 1874; but this result was the 
 product of a long line of antecedent circumstances. As in other 
 counties, the County Superintendency created a pressing demand 
 for teachers' schools. To meet it, J. H. Langdon, County Superin- 
 tendent, opened temporary Normal Schools, at Millsboro in 1858, 
 at West Middletown in 1859, and at Monongahela City in i860. 
 All of them were well attended. Influenced by the success of these 
 movements, Thomas J. Horner erected a building at Millsboro and 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. g.c 
 
 opened therein, 1862, what was designed to be a permanent Normal 
 School. The school, under the name of the "South Western 
 Normal School," had not been long in operation when Prof. Horner 
 died, and his principal teachers, A. J. Buffington and J. C. Gilchrist, 
 seeing little prospect of obtaining State recognition for the school, 
 accepted an invitation to go to California, where the project of 
 establishing a State Normal School had been for some time under 
 consideration. 
 
 An Academy had been in operation at California since 1852. Its 
 effect was to so elevate the educational aims of the community that 
 from the time the success of the experiment of the Normal School 
 at Millersville, in 1855, became known, the undertaking of a similar 
 enterprise was freely discussed. Foremost in pushing forward the 
 movement was Job Johnson, a lone Quaker in this Scotch-Irish 
 country, and a man of great public spirit. An attempt was made in 
 1859 to secure the passage of an Act by the Legislature incorpora- 
 ting the Academy with the privileges of a State Normal School, 
 without the conditions imposed by the general law, but this ill- 
 advised proceeding was arrested by a veto from Governor Packer. 
 A charter was, however, granted by the Legislature, in 1865, to an 
 institution of which the existing Academy was to be the nucleus, 
 and which was to bear the name borrowed from the Horner School 
 at Millsboro, " South Western Normal College," " until and before 
 the time it may be recognized as a State Normal School." Gilchrist 
 and Buffington, after coming from Millsboro, were in accord with the 
 California people in their plans concerning a State Normal School, 
 and while in their charge the Academy was united with the newly 
 chartered Normal College. Gilchrist was elected County Superin- 
 tendent in 1866, and Buffington remained at the head of the school. 
 The State Superintendent visited the place, a site was selected for 
 the school, and some progress was made in the erection of build- 
 ings ; but it was found impossible to secure subscriptions from citi- 
 zens to any large amount without a guarantee that the State would 
 accept the institution when completed as proposed, and the project 
 stood still. Under the circumstances, application was made to the 
 Legislature for aid, and in 1869 the following Act, entitled an Act 
 to aid the So'uth Western Normal College of Pennsylvania, was 
 passed : 
 
 Section i. That whenever the trustees of the South Western Normal Col- 
 lege located at California, Washington county, incorporated by an Act 
 approved the sixteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
 
636 
 
 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 five, shall obtain from the Superintendent of Common Schools an approval 
 of the location of said College, with reference to its becoming a State No'mal 
 School for the Tenth Normal School District, and also of the plans of the 
 buildings now in course of erection, he shall issue, annually, during the three 
 years next succeeding the approval of this Act, a warrant of five thousand 
 dollars upon the State Treasurer from money not otherwise appropriated in 
 favor of the trustees of said College ; Provided, That the President of the 
 Board of Trustees at the time of the applying for the issue of the first warrant, 
 shall certify to the Superintendent of Common Schools, under oath or affirma- 
 tion, that said College has a bona fide subscription fund for the erection of its 
 buildings of at least twenty thousand dollars, and that there is expended in 
 the erection of their buildings a sum of at least ten thousand dollars, and at 
 the application for the second warrant that there is expended an additional 
 sum of at least fifteen thousand dollars since the preceding warrant was issued, 
 and at the application for the third that there is expended an additional like 
 sum. 
 
 Section 2. That the said South Western Normal College shall have none 
 of the privileges of an Act establishing Normal Schools, approved the 
 twentieth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty seven, until it is 
 duly recognized as a State Normal School ; and that the State Superintendent 
 shall be invested with such authority over said College as he now exercises 
 over the recognized Normal Schools of the State. 
 
 Section 3. That the said South Western College shall not be diverted from 
 its design of training teachers for the Common Schools of the Commonwealth, 
 without refunding to the State such money as it may receive under this Act; 
 and that prior to its acceptance as a State Normal School, no conveyance of 
 property of said College to any party or parties shall be valid unless said con- 
 veyance shall receive the signature of the Superintendent of Common 
 Schools. , 
 
 This Act marked an important change in the policy of the State 
 in relation to the Normal Schools. The law of 1857 held out no 
 promise of help to liberal citizens in establishing a Normal School, 
 and no assurance was given that their work when done would be 
 accepted. They subscribed money, performed labor, incurred re- 
 sponsibilities, trustingly, not even being certain of obtaining the 
 collateral advantages offered by the law, and expecting nothing 
 more. This was the condition of things under which all the earlier 
 schools were established ; the school at California and those at Ship- 
 pensburg, Indiana and Lock Haven were built up under the stimu- 
 lus of laws guaranteeing both State recognition and State appro- 
 priations. 
 
 Prof Gilchrist had continued to have an interest in the California 
 school during his term as County Superintendent, and, at its close 
 in 1869, took charge of it as Principal. By his energy the buildings 
 were pushed rapidly forward towards completion, the central one 
 being ready for occupancy in the Spring of 1870. The school had 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. q^- 
 
 not continued long in its new quarters when Prof. Gilchrist resigned 
 and removed to Iowa, where he became Principal of the Normal 
 School of that State. G. G. Hertzog, one of the instructors, assumed 
 temporary charge of the California school; and, in 1871, Rev. C. L. 
 Ehrenfeld was elected Principal. Through his efforts a special ap- 
 propriation of ten thousand dollars was in 1872 obtained from the 
 State ; and with this sum the buildings were made ready for inspec- 
 tion, and in May, 1874, the long-delayed State recognition of the 
 school took place. Says the Principal : " The day of recognition ; 
 the enthusiasm of the multitude present ; the outbreak of joy, solemn 
 and tearful with many, when the decision of the Committee was 
 announced at the public meeting in the College chapel ; the fire and 
 elevation of the speeches ; the singular impressiveness of the meet- 
 ing, as if the muses and all the virtues and religion were hovering 
 over the assembly, and had kindled a divine warmth in all hearts, 
 and had loosened the tongues of the orators in unwonted eloquence 
 — these things have consecrated the opening of the school's new era 
 in the hearts of very many." 
 
 Shortly after the school was accepted as a State school, an addi- 
 tional wing was erected, and since that time many improvements have 
 been made in grounds, buildings and equipment. Dr. Ehrenfeld 
 was called, in 1877, to a clerkship in the School Department, and 
 was soon after appointed State Librarian. He is now a Professor in 
 Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio. His successor at California 
 was George P. Beard, who had left Shippensburg. Prof Beard, who 
 did much to build up the school and increase its facilities for study, 
 resigned in 1883, and T. B. Noss, the vice-principal of the school, 
 was placed at its head. Prof Noss is a Pennsylvanian by birth, 
 graduated at the Shippensburg Normal School in 1874, and at the 
 University of Syracuse, New York, in 1880, spent six months in 
 Europe in travel and study, and had taught in several institutions 
 before he became connected with the California school. It should 
 be added that the largest contributor to the school and the leading 
 spirit for many years, in pushing forward the enterprise was John 
 N. Dixon. 
 
 INDIANA. 
 
 The Normal School of the Ninth District is located at Indiana. 
 The discussion among the citizens that led to its establishment began 
 in 1869. Some eighteen or twenty thousand dollars were then sub- 
 scribed in aid of the project but there the movement stopped. Tn 
 
g^g EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VAN/A. 
 
 1 87 1, mainly through the efforts of Gen. Harry White, then a State 
 Senator, an Act was passed to aid the Indiana Normal School simi- 
 lar to the Act of 1 869 granting aid to the school at California. This 
 infused new life into the movement. The subject was considered at 
 the county teachers' institute held in the Fall of 187 1, subscriptions 
 were resumed and from that time the work was pushed forward 
 vigorously. A beautiful site was chosen a little west of the town ; 
 the ground was purchased; plans of buildings were prepared; the 
 approval of the State Superintendent of what had been done was 
 secured after a personal visit of inspection on the part of that officer; 
 the building, an immense .structure, two hundred and twenty-one feet 
 long and one hundred and fifty feet in depth, with two wings each 
 one hundred and thirty-five feet by forty-five feet, the whole four 
 stories high, was placed under contract, and the school was finally 
 inspected and recognized as a State institution on the twenty-first 
 of June, 1875, in the presence of an immense audience of rejoicing 
 citizens. Among those who shared in the effort to establish the 
 school and in the anxiety and self-sacrifice the undertaking required, 
 none deserve such high honor as John Sutton and Silas M. Clark. 
 The school is their monument — they will need no other. 
 
 The Indiana school was attended the first session by some two 
 hundred and twenty-five students, and the prospect was fair for 
 doubling the number in the near future when it was discovered that 
 the Principal, Edmund B. Fairfield, D. D., LL. D., able, scholarly, 
 and eloquent as he was, knew little about the management of a 
 Pennsylvania Normal School, and the bright expectations of the 
 institution seemed likely to be disappointed. At the close of the 
 first year, however, the Principal and a number of the faculty 
 resigned, and a new teaching force was organized. David M. 
 Sensenig, a graduate of the Millersville Normal School and long a 
 teacher there, was placed at the head of the school ; and although 
 modest and unpretentious, he was able to restore health to the 
 broken institution and regain for it in some measure its lost popu- 
 larity. Owing to ill-health, Prof Sensenig, in 1878, declined a 
 reelection, and John H. French was chosen Principal. Dr. French 
 had been State Superintendent of schools in Vermont, had written a 
 number of school text-books and had taught successfully in this State 
 at teachers' institutes and at the State Normal School at Mansfield. 
 The school continued to grow stronger during his administration, 
 but he remained connected with it only two years. L. H. Durling 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. * 6,q 
 
 was then called from the superintendency of schools in the city of 
 Allegheny to the vacant Principalship, and still continues in office. 
 Prof Durling is an Ohio man. After teaching several terms in 
 different places, he graduated at the National Normal University at 
 Lebanon, Ohio. Some two years later, he came to Pittsburgh and 
 was elected Professor of Natural Science in the Central High School 
 which position he held until elected Superintendent of the school 
 of Allegheny. His success at Indiana is proven by the large in- 
 crease of students, the buildings being filled as never before in the 
 history of the school. 
 
 LOCK HAVEN. 
 
 It was well known that the State Superintendent of Common 
 Schools as early as 1 867, was anxious to see a State Normal School 
 established in the Eighth District, composed of the counties of 
 Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Cameron and Potter. He had so 
 stated at public meetings, and meetings of teachers held within the 
 district, and in correspondence with persons interested in the subject. 
 In the Spring of 1 869, at the request of citizens of the town, he made 
 a special visit to Emporium, and spent a day in that locality in an 
 effort to select a suitable site for such a school. Lock Haven was 
 sufficiently central within the district to be an eligible location, and 
 the Normal School question was discussed there as elsewhere. A. 
 N. Raub was at that time Principal of the Lock Haven High School, 
 and as he was a graduate of a Normal School and well acquainted 
 with the requirements, working and advantages of such, an institu- 
 tion, he was the natural leader in the discussion. He found a ready 
 listener and a warm friend of the project in Rev. G. W. Shinn, Rec- 
 tor of St. Paul's church ; and, among the other citizens who at this 
 early day looked most favorably upon the enterprise, or later stood 
 most firmly by it, were Philip M. Price, Seymour D. Ball, George 
 O. Deise, L. A. Mackey, Warren Martin, O. D. Satterlee, William 
 Parsons, T. P. Rynder and J. H. Barton. The movement grew 
 stronger as the discussion proceeded, but the first public action re- 
 specting it was taken at the teachers' institute held in October, 1869. 
 The State Superintendent on that occasion went to Lock Haven on 
 purpose to deliver an address to teachers and citizens on the sub- 
 ject of " A State Normal School at Lock Haven." At the close of 
 the address, Philip M. Price arose and offered to donate all the land 
 that might be needed for the school. Other proffers of aid followed, 
 and a good beginning was made. County Superintendent Strayer 
 
640 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 in his report for 1 870, says, " This year's institute will always be 
 ■remarkable from the fact that the project for locating here the 
 Normal School for the Eighth District, had its origin in it. The 
 stirring address of the State Superintendent, to the teachers and 
 citizens on the Tuesday evening of the session, put the matter in 
 motion and it has grown most encouragingly." The institute was 
 followed by several public meetings of citizens held in the interest 
 of the movement, Mr. Price's generous donation, valued at five 
 thousand dollars was accepted, subscriptions were obtained, the 
 institution was chartered, plans of buildings were adopted, and the 
 work of construction was begun. In 1872, the Legislature came to 
 the aid of the school at Lock Haven as had been done in the case 
 of the schools at California, Shippen.sburg and Indiana; but even 
 with this assistance, it was found exceedingly difficult to push for- 
 ward the work- with much rapidity, and it was not until July 4, 1873, 
 that the corner-stone of the main building was laid, and the State 
 inspection and recognition was delayed until September, 1877. 
 This event gave great joy to the whole people of the city and county, 
 who thus at last were able to gather the harvest, the seed of which 
 they had sown eight years before, and whose growth, threatened by 
 many dangers, had been a source of constant anxiety and trouble. 
 
 A. N. Raub was the first Principal of the Lock Haven School, 
 and continued at its head from 1877 to 1884, when he resigned. He 
 is a native of Lancaster county, and was one of the earliest graduates 
 of the Normal School at Millersville. At the time of his election he 
 had taught public schools of different grades, served for a time as a 
 Professor in the Normal School at Kutztown, been Principal of the 
 High School and City Superintendent of schools in Lock Haven 
 and County Superintendent of Clinton county, and was well known 
 to the educational public of Pennsylvania as an instructor at teach- 
 ers' institutes. He has written text-books on Reading, Grammar, 
 Arithmetic and Teaching. Prof Raub is a skillful teacher and under 
 his management the school while not largely attended graduated a 
 number of classes of unusual size. Prof Raub was succeeded by 
 George P. Beard who had previously been connected with the 
 schools at Shippensburg and California. 
 
 There is much condensed history in the following tables, compiled 
 from the annual reports of the Department of Public Instruction : 
 
THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 6a I 
 
 TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN THE NORMAL 
 
 DEPARTMENTS OF THE SEVERAL STATE NORMAL 
 
 SCHOOLS SINCE DATE OF RECOGNITION. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 1 
 
 i860 
 
 394 
 443 
 449 
 474 
 529 
 565 
 652 
 652 
 654 
 558 
 723 
 747 
 
 696 
 718 
 
 739 
 427 
 602 
 669 
 601 
 492 
 569 
 503 
 523 
 499 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1861 . 
 
 
 137 
 109 
 192 
 349 
 S84 
 S70 
 
 42s 
 397 
 4SS 
 455 
 438 
 389 
 520 
 
 553 
 693 
 594 
 533 
 605 
 522 
 
 463 
 476 
 
 5" 
 
 437 
 426 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1862 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1863. 
 1864. 
 1865 . 
 1866 
 
 192 
 197 
 
 249 
 321 
 282 
 268 
 225 
 
 251 
 222 
 212 
 218 
 242 
 20s 
 178 
 229 
 280 
 284 
 
 259 
 212 
 186 
 210 
 259 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1867 . 
 1868 
 
 343 
 388 
 240 
 301 
 
 215 
 
 250 
 
 299 
 381 
 410 
 360 
 312 
 
 215 
 
 262 
 312 
 348 
 424 
 
 478 
 431 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1869. 
 1870. 
 
 1871 . 
 
 1872 . 
 •873- 
 1874. 
 1875. 
 1876. 
 1877. 
 1878. 
 1879. 
 1880. 
 1881 . 
 1882. 
 1883. 
 1884. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 281 
 227 
 191 
 141 
 
 207 
 
 257 
 
 260 
 
 223 
 
 180 
 
 187 
 
 214 
 224 
 
 237 
 258 
 272 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 194 
 209 
 289 
 2J6 
 231 
 203 
 
 175 
 179 
 
 265 
 259 
 331 
 348 
 402 
 
 
 
 
 
 217 
 382 
 
 329 
 201 
 218 
 
 212 
 
 1-7 
 177 
 187 
 162 
 
 181 
 
 
 
 
 134 
 255 
 
 366 
 344 
 309 
 351 
 355 
 339 
 333 
 
 
 
 145 
 256 
 222 
 
 34t 
 
 211 
 271 
 282 
 314 
 316 
 387 
 
 200 
 192 
 198 
 
 145 
 142 
 
 215 
 215 
 
 TABLE SHOWING GENERAL STATISTICS OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Millersville. . 
 Edinboro . . 
 Mansfield . . 
 Kutztown . . 
 Bloomsburg. . 
 West Chester . 
 Shippensburg . 
 California . . 
 Indiana . 
 Lock Haven . 
 
 1859 
 1861 
 1862 
 1866 
 1869 
 1871 
 1873 
 1874 
 1875 
 1877 
 
 ■- 3 • 
 a? « o 
 
 Si s ^ 
 "i S ;5 
 
 9° 3<5 
 
 14.477 
 
 579 
 
 10,833 
 
 451 
 
 5,181 
 
 236 
 
 5.969 
 
 332 
 
 3.359 
 
 224 
 
 3.341 
 
 257 
 
 2,608 
 
 217 
 
 3.287 
 
 299 
 
 2,745 
 
 275 
 
 1.307 
 
 187 
 
 '% 
 
 
 
 23 
 14 
 II 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 10 
 10 
 
 15 
 II 
 
 
 2 
 
 I- 
 
 717 
 280 
 
 484 
 277 
 325 
 186 
 
 233 
 
 242 
 
 156 
 315 
 
 :l 
 
 S!2i7,i7o 23 
 
 114,920 00 
 
 96,425 00 
 
 126,092 16 
 
 150,610 00 
 
 206,186 77 
 
 170,600 00 
 
 106,350 00 
 
 197,641 00 
 
 124,706 54 
 
 «-» Co 
 
 ^70,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 95.000 
 75,000 
 
 130,000 
 
 75,000 
 
 1 1 2,000 
 
 75.000 
 
 103,000 
 80,000 
 
 do "^ "^ 
 
 " 6? 
 
 j!i03,809 64 
 76,252 52 
 51.742 59 
 54,967 45 
 29,278 70 
 21,625 10 
 24,194 94 
 
 32,337 5' 
 20,076 10 
 
 25.064 59 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 
 
 AGENCIES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS : ASSOCIATIONS, INSTITUTES, 
 
 MAGAZINES, BOOKS. 
 
 NORMAL Schools are not the only means adopted for the im- 
 provement of teachers. Other agencies usually antedate and 
 lead up to them. The professional instinct among teachers first 
 prompts the formation of associations for mutual counsel and in- 
 struction, and out of these in due time grow a literature in the shape 
 of periodicals and books. Finally schools for the preparation of 
 teachers are established and the profession becomes consolidated 
 and efficient in the accomplishment of its objects. The preliminary 
 agencies which gave rise to the teachers' profession in Pennsylvania 
 are the subject of the present chapter. 
 
 For more than a hundred years after the founding of the first 
 English school in Pennsylvania, it is almost vain to look for any 
 organization among teachers. They were too few in number and 
 too much scattered to hold meetings had they been so disposed, 
 and many were not disposed because the schools they taught were 
 either under sectarian influence or competing for patronage. Nor 
 did they see much necessity for study or aid in the perform- 
 ance of their plain duties. Few among them had any idea that the 
 right teaching of a school is a work of high art with principles 
 underlying it as profound as any with which the human mind ever 
 grappled, and with a practice based upon them wonderfully complex 
 and difficult. The possibilities that lie m the soul of a child, ready 
 to awaken and unfold at the touch of the magic wand of a skilled 
 teacher, were for the most part unknown and unthought of by the 
 men who in their rough way taught our rough ancestors to read, 
 write, and cypher. 
 
 Associations of the teachers of private schools are known to have 
 existed in Philadelphia early in the present century; but little can 
 be ascertained respecting them save that they were mainly of a 
 social character, their members meeting for the purpose of eating 
 and drinking. The only item of business that seems to have been 
 
 (642) 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 643 
 
 discussed had reference to the rates charged for tuition. In 1814, 
 there was an organization in Philadelphia entitled a " Society for the 
 promotion of a rational System of Education," John Goodman, Presi- 
 dent. In 1 8 17, James Edward presided over the " Philadelphia and 
 Pennsylvania Association of Teachers of the Lancasterian System 
 of Education." The " Society for the Promotion of Public Schools 
 in Pennsylvania" formed in 1827, of which Roberts Vaux was Presi- 
 dent, and among whose officers appeared the names of such leading 
 citizens as Matthew Carey, Gerald Ralston, John Sergeant and John 
 Wurtz, while it greatly aided the cause of education and included 
 teachers in its membership, was not a teachers' association. In 
 183 1, an association of teachers was formed in Philadelphia, which 
 included the names of William Russell and A. Bronson Alcott, both 
 from Massachusetts, and subsequendy among the most distinguished 
 teachers in that State, then in charge of Germantown Academy, 
 Rev. M. M. Carll, Dr. J. M. Keagy, Walter R. Johnson, Anthony 
 Bolmar, Dr. Brewer and others. One of its primary objects was 
 stated to be, in a circular addressed to " Teachers and Friends of 
 Education throughout the State of Pennsylvania," " to investigate 
 those principles appertaining to the philosophy of mind, its faculties, 
 their management, the connection subsisting between the moral, 
 intellectual and physical powers, and their best method of develop- 
 ment." Another object considered scarcely less important was to 
 awaken public attention to the subject of education. "A general 
 convention of teachers " to be held once a year was also contem- 
 plated. This association continued to hold meetings for a year or 
 two, listened to a number of lectures on topics like " Principles of 
 Early Education " and " Methods of Teaching," issued four or five 
 numbers of a magazine devoted to education, and there the brief 
 record ends. There was in Philadelphia, in 1835, a " Philadelphia 
 Lyceum of Teachers " of which Dr. J. M. Keagy, N. Dodge, Josiah 
 Holbrook and John H. Brown were among the prominent members, 
 and a " Pennsylvania Association of Monitoral Teachers " at the 
 head of which was Dr. A. T. W. Wright. The " American Asso- 
 ciation for the Supply of Teachers " was organized in Philadelphia, 
 in 1835, Horace Binney, President, and other leading citizens with 
 several teachers among its officers. Its object was to assist schools 
 in finding teachers, and to assist teachers in finding schools. Wil- 
 liam Roberts, President of the State Teachers' Association in 1856, 
 and twenty years earlier a teacher in a public school in Philadelphia, 
 
644 
 
 EDUCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 States that when he began to teach, there were only ten schoolhouses 
 in the city and ten male teachers. These teachers occasionally met 
 on call to discuss questions appertaining to the salary received or an 
 increase in the number of assistant teachers, but no permanent 
 organization existed then or for years afterwards. The " Philadelphia 
 Association of Principals of Public Schools" was organized in 1850 
 with John H. Brown as President. Its monthly meetings were well 
 attended and very profitable until partially broken up by the war. 
 The war over, the Association regained its lost vigor and still con- 
 tinues in active operation. It was felt, however, that an organization 
 was needed broad enough to include all the public school teachers 
 in the city; and, in 1867, an Act was passed incorporating the 
 Teachers' Institute of Philadelphia. The second section states the 
 purposes of the Act as follows : " The object and designs of the 
 said corporation shall be the improvement of the teachers of the 
 public schools of the city and county of Philadelphia, by means of 
 lectures, essays and discussions upon educational topics, practical 
 illustrations of modes of teaching, the formation of a teachers' 
 library, by readings and other elocutionary exercises, and by such 
 other means as may from time to time be determined, either by the 
 by-laws or resolutions of said corporation : and it shall also be law- 
 ful for the said corporation to receive any real or personal estate by 
 gift, grant, bargain, sale, will or bequest, from any person or per- 
 sons whomsoever, and to hold the same upon trust, to apply the 
 income thereof to the relief of those who have been, are, or may be 
 teachers in the public schools of the said city or county of Philadel- 
 phia, who, from infirmity of years, sickness or other disability, may 
 need relief" These purposes have been well carried out and the 
 Institute continues to hold regular meetings, has a pleasant readmg- 
 room and a good library, supports courses of lectures, and devotes 
 considerable sums to the relief of sick, old and infirm teachers. 
 
 Outside of Philadelphia, the oldest organization of teachers in the 
 State of which we have any account, is the " Schoolmasters' Synod " 
 in Lehigh county. Meetings of this body were advertised in the 
 newspapers of Allentown in 1827 and 1829. The Lehigh Herald 
 contained the following : " The Schoolmasters' Synod will meet on 
 Saturday, June 24, 1829, in propria forma, precisely at four P. M., at 
 the usual place. Punctual attendance is requested." This notice is 
 signed by Zach. Anselmus, President, and John O. Adams, Secre- 
 tary. Nothing is known of the proceedings of this " Synod." 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 645 
 
 July 15, 183s, a committee appointed by the Philadelphia 
 " Lyceum of Teachers," and headed by Dr. John M. Keagy and N. 
 Dodge, issued a call for a State Convention to be held at West 
 Chester, August 18. "Nothing has done so much," says this call, 
 '• or promises so much for the success of schools and universal edu- 
 cation, as conventions, lyceums, and other voluntary associations for 
 the advancement of this great and common cause." And further, 
 ■■ a prominent object of the convention is the organization of a State 
 Lyceum with auxiliaries in all the counties." The convention was 
 held, and the proceedings published in pamphlet form. John Beck, 
 Principal of the Academy, Litiz, Lancaster county, acted as Presi- 
 dent, and among the teachers present were the following honored 
 names: Joshua Hoopes, William H. Johnson, Jonathan Cause, Cheney 
 Hannum, Dr. John M. Keagy, Rev. N. Dodge, L Daniel Rupp, 
 Josiah Holbrook, John H. Brown, Joseph C. Strode and Dr. A. T. 
 W. Wright. A constitution was adopted, the association calling 
 itself the " Pennsylvania Lyceum," permanent officers were chosen, 
 and upon adjournment, it was agreed to meet at York, August, 
 1836. Whether a second meeting was ever held is unknown. At 
 the West Chester meeting, among the educational bodies repre- 
 sented, were the " Bucks County Education Society," the " York 
 Association of Teachers," and the " Mechanicsburg," Cumberland 
 county, " Mutual Improvement Society," but of neither of these can 
 anything be said except that the Bucks County Society had its cen- 
 tre of activity at Newtown, and had been in existence for several 
 years. 
 
 Contemporary with these attempts at .organization, and equally 
 shortlived was the "Teachers' Association of Adams county." 
 Almost the only thing now known of it is a notice in the Gettysburg 
 papers of November 18, 1834, given by the Secretary, Frederick 
 Ashbaugh, of a meeting to be held in Pennsylvania College. A 
 convention of teachers and friends of education met in the Court- 
 house at Carlisle, December 19, 1835. Dr. Isaac Snowden presided. 
 After discussing several educational questions, the meeting adjourned 
 until June 25, 1836, when the following topics, about as important 
 now as then, were adopted for consideration : 
 
 1. What is the best mode of securing a competent number of well-qualified 
 teachers of common schools to meet the exigencies of the county? 
 
 2. The influence of education on the character and stability of civil institu- 
 tions, and the direction and modification which it gives to political relations. 
 
 3. The evils existing in our common schools, and appropriate remedies. 
 
646 
 
 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 4. The influence of employing visible illustrations in imparting instruction 
 to children. 
 
 5. Best modes of governing children and of exciting their interest in their 
 studies. 
 
 6. Importance of a uniformity of text-books. 
 
 About the year 1850, teachers everywhere began to feel the stir 
 of a new life. Among them, inquiry, discussion, organization for 
 mutual improvement, movement in advance became the order of 
 the day. Erie county, in 1846, organized an Educational Society, 
 and in 1853 published a pamphlet containining its Constitution and 
 transactions up to that date. An association of teachers in Alle- 
 gheny county met in the University building, in 1847; in 1852, 
 this association issued the call for the convention which at Harris- 
 burg formed the State Teachers' Association. A well-attended and 
 spirited convention of teachers was held in Centre county, in 1849; 
 out of it grew a Teachers' Institute, which was held at Oak Hall 
 during the first week of October, 1850. Sessions of the Common 
 School Association of Washington county were held at Washing- 
 ton, in the years 1850, 1851, and 1853; ^"^ ^t the earliest of these 
 resolutions prepared by a committee consisting of Prof. R. P. Milli- 
 gan, Martin Ely, and John C. Messenger, were passed, recommend- 
 ing, among other measures, a system of Normal Schools, the care-, 
 ful examination of teachers by a county committee, a ten months' 
 school term, uniformity of text-books, a State School Department 
 with a distinct head, a State journal of education, and regularity of 
 attendance at school. The teachers of Mercer and Crawford coun- 
 ties, mainly through the efforts of J. F. Hicks, a young teacher, , 
 who visited in person and on foot a large number of schools, for the 
 purpose of creating an interest in education, formed a permanent 
 association at Exchangeville, Mercer county, in 1850, and held 
 soon after their first regular meeting at Meadville. Mercer formed 
 an independent association in 1851. " In order to commence the 
 work of reform in this region," said a committee of teachers in 
 Northumberland county, March 29, 1850, consisting of J. J. John, 
 George W. West, and A. J. Madison, " a convention will be held 
 at Elysburg, on the second Saturday in April, at one o'clock p. m., 
 to which the teachers of the public schools of the several adjoining 
 districts and counties are respectfully invited to attend." The 
 meeting discussed the following questions : " How can the salaries 
 of teachers be increased?" "How shall teachers improve them- 
 selves in the art of teaching?" and "What text-books shall be 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 647 
 
 recommended?" In response to an anonymous call published in 
 the Lancaster papers, subsequently ascertained to have been writ- 
 ten by John C. Martin, a young teacher of Penn township, about 
 thirty persons, mostly teachers, assembled August 2, 185 1, and 
 laid the foundations of the Lancaster County Educational Associa- 
 tion. Rev. N. Dodge, then Principal of Cedar Hill Seminary, pre- 
 sided, and James P. Wickersham was made Chairman of the com- 
 mittee to prepare a constitution. The Schuylkill County Educa- 
 tional Association was organized as early as 185 1. Benjamin Ban- 
 nan was President. A two days' session was held at Tamaqua, 'in 
 July, 1852. At this meeting Elias Schneider was elected President, 
 A. K. Brown was made Secretary, and Bishop Potter delivered an 
 address. 
 
 These were pioneer movements, though there may have been 
 others equally early, for soon after associations of teachers were 
 holding meetings in the counties of Susquehanna, Westmoreland, 
 Beaver, Armstrong, Blair, Huntingdon, Perry, Cumberland, Adams, 
 Berks, Lehigh, Chester, Somerset, Fayette, Juniata and Mifflin. In 
 some of the counties instead of teachers' associations meeting for a 
 day and considering questions of a general character. Teachers' Insti- 
 tutes, of which something is yet to be said, were organized, holding 
 their sessions for several days or a week, and getting down more 
 closely to the details of subjects strictly professional ; and these were 
 soon found to be so much more profitable than any other form of 
 organization, that after a few years nearly all the associations were 
 changed into institutes. 
 
 The convention that formed the State; Teachers' Association met 
 at Harrisburg, December ^S, 1852. The call was issued by the 
 Allegheny County Association of Teachers and Friends of Educa- 
 tion, but it was concurred in by associations in Philadelphia, 
 Lancaster, Indiana, and other counties. The convention was small 
 but its members were principally young men, able, earnest and de- 
 voted to the great cause they had espoused. Thomas H. Burrowes 
 was made President. The Vice-Presidents were John H. Brown of 
 Philadelphia, James Thompson of Pittsburgh, A. O. Hiester of Dau- 
 phin, and J. M. McElroy of Indiana ; Secretaries, James G. Barn- 
 well of Philadelphia, and A. K. Browne of Schuylkill ; Treasurer, 
 Conley Plotts, of Philadelphia. Three committees were appointed, 
 a committee on constitution, of which Conley Plotts, of Philadelphia, 
 was chairman, a committee on Teachers' Institutes, of which William 
 
6^8 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Travis, of Lawrence, was chairman, and a committee on resolutions 
 or general business of which James P. Wickersham, of Lancaster, 
 was chairman. Governor William Bigler and State Superintendent 
 Francis W. Hughes delivered addresses, a constitution was adopted, 
 and the Association organized with John H. Brown as President, and 
 resolutions were passed favoring " well-qualified teachers as County- 
 Superintendents," an increase in the length of the school term, and 
 State aid to Teachers' Institutes. 
 
 The State Association at first held meetings semi-annually, but 
 since 1857 it has met but once a year. For thirty-three years the 
 meetings have formed an unbroken series, except in 1 862, when there 
 was no meeting owing to the threatened invasion of the State by the 
 Confederate army, and, in 1879, when the National Educational 
 Association met in Philadelphia. In 1853, the Association met at 
 Pittsburgh and Lancaster ; in 1 854, at Pottsville and Lewistown ; in 
 1855, at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia; in 1856, at Williamsport and 
 Harrisburg; in 1857, ^t Chambersburg and Indiana; in 1858, at 
 Scranton; in 1859, at West Chester; in i860, at Greensburg; in 
 1 86 1, at Lewisburg ; in 1863, at Reading; in 1864, at Altoona; in 
 1865, at Meadville; in 1866, at Gettysburg; in 1867, at Bellefonte; 
 in 1868, at AUentown; in 1869, at Greensburg; in 1870, at Lancas- 
 ter; in 1 87 1, at Williamsport; in 1872, at Philadelphia; in 1873,3! 
 Pittsburgh; in 1874, at Shippensburg; in 1875, at Wilkesbarre; in 
 1 876, at West Chester ; in 1877, at Erie; in 1878, at Reading; in 
 1880, at York; in 1 881, at Washington; in 1882, at Pottsville; in 
 1883, at Williamsport; in 1884, at Meadville; and in 1885, at 
 Harrisburg. 
 
 The several Presidents of the Association, with the positions oc- 
 cupied at the time of their election, are as follows : John H. Brown, 
 Principal Zane Street Grammar School, Philadelphia; James 
 Thompson, Principal private Classical Seminary, Pittsburgh; 
 William V. Davis, Principal High School, Lancaster; James P. 
 Wickersham, County Superintendent, Lancaster County; William 
 Roberts, Principal Grammar School, Philadelphia; John F. Stod- 
 dard, President Northern University, Bethany, Wayne County; 
 Franklin Taylor, County Superintendent, Chester County ; Charles 
 R. Coburn, County Superintendent, Bradford County ; Andrew 
 Burtt, Principal Grammar School, Pittsburgh ; Azariah Smith, 
 County Superintendent, Mifflin County ; Samuel D. Ingram, County 
 Superintendent, Dauphin County ; Fordyce A. Allen, Principal 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 649 
 
 Normal School, Mansfield; Samuel P. Bates, Deputy Superintend- 
 ent of Common Schools; William F. Wyers, Principal Academy, 
 Westchester; Edward Brooks, Principal Normal School, Millers- 
 viUe; Samuel S. Jack, Ex-County Superintendent, Westmoreland 
 County; Henry S. Jones, City Superintendent, Erie; Albert N. 
 Raub, Principal High School, Lock Haven ; Henry Houck, Deputy 
 Superintendent of Common Schools; Edward Gideon, Principal 
 Grammar School, Philadelphia; George J. Luckey, City Super- 
 intendent, Pittsburgh ; W. W. Woodruff, Ex-County Superintend- 
 ent, Chester County ; James P. Wickersham, State Superintendent 
 of Public Instruction ; George L. Maris, Principal Normal School, 
 West Chester; W. N. Aiken, County Superintendent, Lawrence 
 County ; B. F. Shaub, County Superintendent, Lancaster County ; 
 Jesse Newlin, County Superintendent, Schuylkill County; J. r! 
 Andrews, Principal Grammar School, Pittsburgh; Nathan C. 
 Schaeffer, Principal Normal School, Kutztown ; S. A. Baer, City 
 Superintendent, Reading; John Morrow, City Superintendent, 
 Allegheny, and John Q. Stewart, Deputy State Superintendent. 
 Nearly all of these names appear elsewhere in this narrative, and as 
 a whole form a galaxy of which any profession might be proud. 
 
 It is impossible here to follow this body of teachers to their thirty 
 odd meetings ; to commend the zeal of the noble men and women 
 who have for many years together been constant in their attendance 
 whether August suns shone hot, winter storms blocked the routes 
 of travel or Rebel hordes hung bent upon destruction on the State's 
 borders ; to note the papers read, the questions discussed, the influ- 
 ence exerted upon the profession and upon our general educational 
 policy ; or even to mark the changes in the personnel of the Asso- 
 ciation, the growth of a better professional spirit among its members, 
 or the advance made in the study of the deep things that constitute 
 the science of teaching — it would be pleasant, but it is impossible. 
 This however must be said, that at the time of the organization of 
 the State Association, there was little vitality in the public school 
 .system, and all attempts at a union among teachers had proven 
 short-lived and abortive. The Association bound the teachers of 
 the State together in a common brotherhood, and at once became a 
 powerful agency in securing the county superintendency, a separate 
 School Department, an educational journal, and Normal Schools. 
 All these measures would probably have failed, had they not been 
 advocated and sustained by a public sentiment in good part of its 
 
(350 EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 creation. The leading feature of the early meetings of the Associa- 
 tion was the discussion of questions of State school policy. Memor- 
 ials were sent to the Legislature, and committees were appointed to 
 prepare and press forward bills relating to education. Every meet- 
 ing had about it the flavor of reform — the action taken being posi- 
 tive, persistent, aggressive. In later years this early zeal cooled 
 down, the fighting spirit grew tame, the great battle was over and 
 its fruits could be best enjoyed in quiet. The exercises of the Asso- 
 ciation are now rather intellectual and social, than practical and re- 
 formatory. Able papers are read, animated discussions take place, 
 the profession grows broader and deeper, but there is no arming for 
 the protection of what is held dear, no marshalling for a forward 
 movement into an enemy's field, no fierce onset of battle as in the 
 days when the county superintendency. Normal Schools or .the 
 system itself were to be fought for or saved. 
 
 To secure an agency more local in its influence than the State 
 Association, the Educational Association of Northern Pennsylvania 
 was organized at Williamsport, July 7, 1853. Howard Malcolm, 
 D. D., President of Lewisburg University, was elected President, 
 and resolutions were passed favoring a State Department of Educa- 
 tion, Normal Schools, the county superintendency and uniformity 
 of text- books. Subsequent meetings were held at Jersey Shore and 
 Danville. Following this example, both in making a fair start, and 
 in stopping after holding two or three meetings, there was organized 
 at Pittsburgh, December 28, 1858, the Western Teachers' Association. 
 Samuel P. Bates, then County Superintendent of Crawford county, 
 was the first President. A second meeting was held at New Bright- 
 on, Beaver county, and a third at Washington, and there the story 
 ends. 
 
 The first Teachers' Institutes in the United States seem to have 
 Ijeen held in Connecticut, in 1839, under the direction of Henry 
 Barnard. They were transplanted to New York in 1842, and to 
 Massachusetts and Ohio in 1845. Across the borders of New York 
 and Ohio, they came into Pennsylvania. 
 
 A Teachers' Institute has characteristics so well defined that no 
 one has any difficulty in calling a body of teachers organized in 
 this form by the wrong name. This was not the case when the 
 institute was first introduced into Pennsylvania. Bodies of teach- 
 ers alike in all respects were then known indiscriminately as associ- 
 ations, conventions, or institutes; and it is therefore quite impos- 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. gj , 
 
 sible to point with certainty to the place where the first institute 
 proper was held. But we can trace out the beginnings of institutes 
 as we have traced out the beginnings of the associations, both being 
 parts of the same movement. 
 
 The first well defined Teachers' Institute of which we can find 
 any record was held at Columbus, Warren county, in 1848. It 
 continued in session at least two weeks, and was conducted by 
 Fordyce A. Allen and J. C. Moses, both then teaching in the 
 neighboring county of Chautauqua, New York, where they had 
 previously aided David P. Page and others in institute work. Some 
 female teachers from Warren county had attended these New York 
 institutes, caught the infection, .and carried it into Pennsylvania, 
 where within a few years it was destined to spread all over the State. 
 
 Following the example of the Ohio counties across the border, 
 the teachers of Lawrence county held an institute for one week, 
 commencing October 27, 1851. Eighty -five teachers were present, 
 and among the officers and instructors appear the names of Wil- 
 liam Travis, prominent as one of the founders and early supporters 
 of the State Teachers' Association, and Martin Gantz, for many 
 years the Principal of the High School and Superintendent of 
 Schools at New Castle. 
 
 Growing out of an interest created by a local teachers' associa- 
 tion, a Teachers' Institute held a session of a week at Blairsville, 
 Indiana county, commencing October 25, 1852. It was named the 
 Conemaugh Institute, and was attended by teachers from Indiana 
 and Westmoreland counties. The leading spirits in calling and 
 directing it were J. M. McElroy and John M. Barnett, two of the 
 enthusiastic young men who a few months afterwards organized the 
 State Teachers' Association. The principal instructors were from 
 Ohio. 
 
 The first Teachers' Institute in Eastern Pennsylvania, that of 
 Lancaster county, held during the fourth week of January, 1853, 
 grew out of the Conemaugh Institute. Thomas H. Burrowes, who 
 had attended the institute at Blairsville, and took part in the exer- 
 cises, returned home thoroughly convinced of the value of such 
 agencies in the work of improving teachers. At his suggestion the 
 Lancaster County Educational Association appointed the following 
 committee, who called and had general charge of the institute: 
 Thomas H. Burrowes, Amos Row, James P. Wickersham, D. S. 
 Kieffer, and J. F. Houston. David Parsons, from Ohio, who had 
 
gC2 EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 been the principal instructor at Blairsville, was brought to Lancas- 
 ter; the other instructors were John F. Stoddard, Dr. Calvin Cut- 
 ter; Prof. S. S. Haldeman, Dr. Franklin Taylor, and James P. Wick- 
 ersham. 
 
 The next counties to establish institutes lasting a week or more 
 were Crawford, Chester, Erie, Wayne, and Susquehanna. The 
 county superintendency, in 1854, soon made them general. 
 
 The law requiring the several counties to grant aid to Teachers' 
 Institutes, originated in a special Act passed for the county of 
 Chester. This Act was first extended to some half a dozen other 
 counties, and, in 1867, with slight modification was made general. 
 The author of the original law as well as the projector of the first 
 Chester county institute was Dr. William Darlington. Dr. Darling- 
 ton delivered, in the summer of 1853, a series of open-air lectures on 
 botany in a grove near West Chester. Some time during the fol- 
 lowing winter he invited his hearers in the grove and a few other 
 friends to meet in his library, where, after a full discussion, it was 
 resolved to hold a Teachers' Institute, and a committee was 
 appointed to carry the project into effect. The institute met on the 
 second Monday in April, 1854, and continued in session a week. 
 The instructors from abroad, Prof John F. Stoddard, Dr. Calvin 
 Cutter, Prof James Thompson, William Travis, Thomas H. Bur- 
 rowes, and James P. Wickersham, gave their services without charge, 
 and the teachers in attendance were entertained gratuitously by the 
 citizens of West Chester. It was seen that future institutes could 
 not be held without expense, and to meet it Dr. Darlington and his 
 friends, William F. Wyers, Principal of the Academy, Rev. William 
 E. Moore, Pastor of the Presbyterian church, Sanford Culver, Prin- 
 cipal of the High School, and Alexander Marshall, a member of the 
 school board, devised the law which enabled Chester county at each 
 annual session of the institute to draw two hundred dollars from the 
 County Treasury towards its expenses. 
 
 Before a profession or any kind of business can support a periodi- 
 cal devoted to its interests or an organ to speak for it, it must have 
 acquired considerable strength in numbers, in organization, in 
 wealth and in public spirit. Teaching in Pennsylvania until within 
 a generation or two could make no pretension to either. There 
 were multitudes of men and women teaching school, it is true, but 
 few of them had chosen the business as a permanent profession and 
 still fewer felt the influence of professional ties or professional duties. 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSJON. g.. 
 
 Hence there was no felt want that a magazine or newspaper devoted 
 to the interests of education could supply. Still some attempts in 
 this direction were made, and these have an historical interest. 
 
 In 1818, Samuel Bacon, of York, issued the prospectus of "The 
 Academical Herald and Journal of Education." In it he says : " It 
 seems strange that almost every art, science and profession has its 
 peculiar vehicle of information, while the science of education is 
 without its advocate. Law, Medicine, and Divinity, Commerce, 
 Agriculture, and even the fashions and follies of the age, have their 
 ' Journals,' while the art of improving the human mind, the source 
 whence all others derive their consequence, is abandoned to chance 
 or neglect." The seeds of this gospel fell on stony ground, and 
 Mr. Bacon received so little encouragement that his project was 
 abandoned. 
 
 The Philadelphia Association of Teachers, in 1831, issued a semi- 
 monthly sheet of twelve pages, under the title of the "Journal of 
 Instruction." William Russell was editor-in-chief, assisted by 
 other members of the Association, Alcott, Carll, Keagy and John- 
 son. Only three numbers were pubhshed, but these were charac- 
 terized by marked ability. 
 
 In 183s, Dr. E. C. Wines published in Philadelphia the " Monthly 
 Journal of Education;" but in about a year he seems to have 
 removed his magazine to Princeton, New Jersey, and changed its 
 name to " Schoolmaster and Advocate of Education." 
 
 John Frost, Philadelphia, published in 1836 some numbers of a 
 periodical called " The Schoolmaster." State Superintendent Bur- 
 rowes, in February, 1836, in writing for a copy, adds: "I am fre- 
 quently called on for written opinions on doubtful points of school 
 law. It would spare me much trouble had I some such channel of 
 communicating them to the public, as your publication." This is 
 the first of many similar expressions on the part of the early State 
 Superintendents, favoring some medium of communication between 
 the School Department and local school officers and teachers, and 
 resulting at last in the law of 1855 concerning the Pennsylvania 
 School Journal. 
 
 In April, 1838, President Junkin, of Lafayette College, and Pro- 
 fessors Robert Cunningham and E. Schmidt, commenced, at Easton, 
 the publication of the " Educator," issued every second week, and 
 alternating with a German paper containing nearly the same mat- 
 ter. The "Educator" took ground in favor of education in the 
 
654 EDUCATION IN PENNSYL VAN/A. 
 
 largest sense, but was mainly devoted to the interests of common 
 schools and the education of teachers. Its articles, original and 
 copied, expressed the best educational thought o/ the day. It 
 labored hard to make successful the Normal class and Model 
 School established in connection with the College, and with the 
 failure of these projects it failed also, after a tough struggle of a 
 year and a half. 
 
 The first number of the "Common School Journal of the State 
 of Pennsylvania" was issued at Philadelphia, January 15, 1844, 
 John S. Hart, Principal of the High School, Editor, and Edward C. 
 Biddle, Philadelphia, and Hickok and Cantine, Harrisburg, Publish- 
 ers. This publication was a monthly, and twelve numbers are to 
 be found in the State Library. An early number contains an 
 article on Teachers' Institutes in New York, and recommends their 
 introduction into Pennsylvania. State Superintendent McClure, in 
 his report for 1843, commends this publication, and in that of the 
 following year enumerates the uses the School Department could 
 make of such a periodical, and asks the Legislature to make 
 arrangements for supplying each board of directors in the State 
 with at least one copy, at a cost not exceeding a dollar a year. 
 
 A few numbers of a Magazine called " The Teachers' Guide and 
 Family Monitor" were issued in Pittsburgh, in 1850. 
 
 At a meeting of the Lancaster County Educational Association 
 held on the third day of January, 1852, John C. Martin, who has 
 already been named as having issued the call for the meeting that 
 organized the Association, offered the following resolutions, which 
 were adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That it is expedient to establish at the earliest period, a monthly 
 paper devoted exclusively to the spread of information relative to education. 
 
 Resolved, That the President of the Association be requested to issue a 
 prospectus for such a periodical, forward it to each member, and undertake 
 the editorial managemejit of the paper as soon as a sufficient number of sub- 
 scriptions shall have been received to defray all expenses. 
 
 Thomas H. Burrowes was the President of the Association, and 
 accepting its action, to quote his own language, " as a call to duty," 
 with characteristic faith in the future and disregard of the financial 
 responsibilities assumed, he issued the first number of the Lancaster 
 County School Journal, dated January, 1852, before one hundred 
 names had been placed on the subscription list. At the instance 
 of teachers and friends of education outside of the county, at the 
 end of six numbers the Journal became a State magazine, was 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 6e; 
 
 enlarged to double its original size, and assumed the name Pennsyl- 
 vania School Journal, which it has ever since borne. From the first 
 the Journal was the accepted mouth-piece of the State Teachers' 
 Association; and, in 1855, an Act was passed making it "the official 
 organ of the common schools of this Commonwealth, in which the 
 current decisions of the Superintendent of Common Schools shall be 
 published free of charge," and a copy was authorized to be sent at 
 the public expense to each board of school directors in the State. 
 After an editorial career of nearly nineteen years, failing health and 
 duties connected with the Agricultural College induced Dr. Bur- 
 rowes to part with the Journal, and it went into the hands of James 
 P. Wickersham, then Superintendent of Common Schools, and J. P. 
 McCaskey, the latter of whom had been for some years associated 
 in the editorship. At the end of another period of ten years, the 
 Journal became the sole property of Mr. McCaskey, with Dr. E. E. 
 Higbee, the then Superintendent of Public Instruction, as Editor. 
 
 The Pennsylvania School Journal is of the same age a-3 the Ohio 
 Educational Monthly, and these twin magazines are the oldest 
 periodicals of the kind in the United States; but in size, in quantity 
 of matter and in circulation, the Pennsylvania publication has always 
 exceeded its Ohio contemporary. The year 1852 was about the 
 beginning of the great educational reform in Pennsylvania, and the 
 Journal appeared just in time to aid in shaping the movement. The 
 Editor, with a remarkable talent for organizing, at once began 
 through its columns to encourage the well-meant but often ill- 
 directed efforts for improvement made by teachers and others inter- 
 ested in schools then starting in all parts of the State, and his influ- 
 ence for good in this respect can hardly be overestimated. As the 
 organ of the State Teachers' Association, the Journal published its 
 full proceedings from the first, and made the voice of this body of 
 teachers heard in every county in the Commonwealth. And teach- 
 ers everywhere, no matter how obscure their names or how small 
 their meetings, found in its generous columns a friend to appreciate 
 and cheer. Since 1855, as the organ of the School Department, 
 the Journal has contained all official reports, decisions, circulars,* 
 letters of advice, etc., emanating from the State Superintendent, 
 thus enabling him to reach with a guiding hand every school dis- 
 trict in the Commonwealth. The Journal has been a potent agent 
 in securing every measure of school reform adopted since the date 
 of its establishment. It labored in the interest of the County Su- 
 
656 EDVCA TION IN PENNSYL VANIA. 
 
 perintendency, Normal Schools, an independent School Department, 
 and Teachers' Institutes. Combined in its thirty-two large vol- 
 umes there is a storehouse of facts concerning educational efforts 
 and results, and a record of educational events, equalled in this 
 country only by Barnard's American Journal of Education. 
 
 The following list includes, as far as known, the educational 
 magazines, with location and the names of the editors or proprie- 
 tors, started in Pennsylvania within the last thirty years : 
 
 1854. Schuylkill County School Journal, Pottsville; by teachers of the pub- 
 lic schools. 
 
 1855. Teachers' Institute, Brownsville; L. F. Parker. 
 
 1857. School Journal, Philadelphia; G. N. Townsend. 
 
 1858. Teachers' Journal, Allentown; R. W. McAIpine. 
 
 1859. Educator and Educational Record, Pittsburgh; Samuel Findley. 
 i860. National Educator, Pittsburgh ; Robert Curry. 
 
 i860. National Educator, Quakertown ; A. R. Home. 
 
 i860. Educational Record, Lancaster; D. L. Sanders. 
 
 1861. Pennsylvania Teacher, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. » 
 
 1868. Teachers' Advocate, Johnstown. 
 
 1868. The Teacher, Philadelphia; Eldredge & Brother. 
 
 1868. Educational Gazette, Philadelphia. 
 
 1868. School Casket, Pittsburgh ; Rev. M. B. Sloan. 
 
 1870. School Chronicle, Pittsburgh ; Rev. M. B. Sloan. 
 
 1875. Educational Voice, Pittsburgh; Teachers' Institute. 
 
 1878. Allegheny Teacher, Allegheny; Allegheny Teachers. 
 
 1879. Teachers' Advocate, Mercer; A. T. Palm. 
 
 1 88 1. Educational Review, Pittsburgh; Palm, Fitch & Co. 
 
 1883. Pennsylvania Teacher, Pittsburgh; A. T. Palm. 
 
 1884. Educational News, Harrisburg; A. N. Raub. 
 
 Most of these ventures were short-lived, a number of them not 
 lasting long enough to complete a volume. The notable excep- 
 tions are Home's National Educator, Eldredge & Brother's 
 Teacher, and Palm's Pennsylvania Teacher. The former of these 
 was established by its present Editor in i860, while Principal of 
 the Bucks County Normal School at Quakertown. It was then in 
 folio form. Subsequently the Editor resided at Turbotville, Nor- 
 thumberland county, Williamsport, and Kutztown, and now his 
 Jiome is at Allentown ; but in all his wanderings he has carried the 
 Educator with him as one of his household gods. The following 
 from his own pen defines the field of labor occupied : " The main 
 object of the Educator has always been- to fill the position of a 
 practical teacher devoted to advanced methods of school manage- 
 ment. Its articles are short and practical, such as the Editor, in 
 his one-third of a century's experience as a teacher, Superintendent, 
 
THE RISE OF THE Tj^ACHERS' PROFESSION. Q-y 
 
 Normal School Principal, and institute instructor, has proved by 
 his work and found meritorious. It was during the first twenty 
 years of its existence specially devoted to the interests and neces- 
 sities of the Pennsylvania Germans, whose cause it earnestly 
 espoused, and for whose intellectual elevation as a class it endeav- 
 ored to labor. Of late years its aim has been more general." 
 
 Eldredge & Brother are at the head of an enterprising publishing 
 house in Philadelphia, and use their Teacher as a means of advertis- 
 ing their school books. The magazine is handsomely printed, is 
 furnished at the low price of fifty cents a year, and contains much 
 valuable educational matter. 
 
 A. T. Palm, then County Superintendent of Mercer county, started 
 the Teachers' Advocate in 1879. I" 188 1, the Educational Voice 
 of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny Teachers of Allegheny were consoli- 
 dated with it, and the name adopted for the three combined publica- 
 tions was Educational Review. The name was changed, in 1883, to 
 Pennsylvania Teacher. The magazine is now edited and published 
 by A. T. Palm at Pittsburgh. It is handsomely printed, filled with 
 interesting matter, and bids fair to be permanent. 
 
 The Educational News is a weekly magazine of eight pages. 
 Dr. A. N. Raub, the Editor and Proprietor, has had large experience 
 as a teacher and school officer, and nothing will be wanting on his 
 part to make this new venture a success. 
 
 As a rule the law of supply and demand applies to professional 
 literature as well as to other commodities. Even books relating to 
 education will be written for the most part only when there are 
 teachers and others waiting to read them. Few of the old school- 
 masters in Pennsylvania had any conception of teaching beyond 
 the mechanical routine they practiced of hearing lessons and keep- 
 ing order; and as this simple work could be performed without help, 
 they felt no need of books or of any kind of special instruction. 
 Under these circumstances, nothing could be expected beyond a few 
 volumes, the product of minds in advance of the times. 
 
 The " Schul-Ordnung " of Christopher Dock is the oldest work 
 on the art of teaching published in Pennsylvania, or in the United 
 States. It was written in 1750, but the publication was delayed 
 until 1769. Some account of it is given in another connection. 
 But while Dock's was the first book of the kind printed in the 
 country, Rupp states that educated men among the early German 
 schoolmasters in Pennsylvania were attentive readers of a treatise 
 42 
 
5 c 8 E.D UCA TION IN PENNS YL VANIA. 
 
 on education published in Berlin and Stettin, Germany, entitled : 
 " Gedanken, Vorschlage und Wiinsche zur Verbesserung der offent- 
 lichen Erziehung als Materialien zur Padagogick, herausgegeben 
 von Friederick Gabriel Resewitz." This is a very thorough and 
 exhaustive work on Pedagogy, published in four large volumes. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Rush, Philadelphia, published, in 1796, a small 
 volume giving an interesting " Account of the Philadelphia Society 
 for the Establishment of Charity Schools." 
 
 The following is a copy of the title-page of a 12 mo. volume, 
 printed for the author in Philadelphia, in 1808: "Sketch of a Plan 
 and Method of Education founded on an Analysis of the Human 
 Faculties and Natural Reason, suitable for the Offspring of a Free 
 Peiople, and for all Rational Beings, by Joseph Neff, formerly a 
 co-adjutor of Pestalozzi at his school near Berne, in Switzerland." 
 The author of this book was a disciple of Pestalozzi's, and one of 
 his co-laborers. In 1802, at the instance of the master, he opened 
 a school in Paris. The circumstances of his coming to Americz^ as 
 he relates them in the introduction to his book, are as follows: 
 
 "In the summer of 1805, Mr. William Maclure of Philadelphia, 
 one of Pennsylvania's worthiest and most enlightened sons, hap- 
 pened to visit Helvetia's interesting mountains and valleys. He 
 was accompanied by Mr. C. Cabell, a brother of the present Gover- 
 nor of Virginia. Pestalozzi's school attracted their notice. They 
 repaired thither, and were soon convinced. of the solidity, importance, 
 and usefulness of the Pestalozzian system ; indeed, to see Pesta- 
 lozzi's method before his eyes, and to form an unalterable wish of 
 naturalizing it in his own country, were operations succeeding each 
 other with such rapidity that Mr. Maclure took them for one and 
 the same operation. As soon as he had returned to Paris, Mr. 
 Maclure sought and sent for me. ' On what terms,' said the mag- 
 nanimous patriot, ' would you go to my country and introduce there 
 your method of education? I have seen Pestalozzi, I know his 
 system ; my country wants it, and will receive it with enthusiasm. I 
 engage to pay your pa.ssage and to secure your livelihood. Go and 
 be your master's apostle in the new world.' My soul was warmed 
 with admiration at such uncommon generosity. Republican by 
 inclination and principle, and of course not at all pleased with the 
 new Order of things that was established under my eyes, I was not 
 only glad to quit Europe, but I burnt with desire to see that 
 country, to live in and to be useful to it, which can boast of such 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. grg 
 
 citizens. But what still more heightens Mr. Maclure's magnanimity 
 is that I did not at that period understand English at all. Two 
 years at least were to be allowed for my acquiring a sufficient 
 knowledge of the language of this land, during which space of time 
 I had no other resource left but Mr, Maclure's generosity. But 
 neither this nor any other consideration could stagger his resolu- 
 tion. Thus it was that I became an inhabitant of the new world." 
 
 The style of the book, as may be seen in the extract above given, 
 written by a foreigner who had just acquired the use of the Eng- 
 lish tongue, was not unexceptionable; but it is full of valuable 
 suggestions from a Pestalozzian standpoint on methods of teach- 
 ing Speaking, Reading, Numbers, Geometry, Drawing, Writing, 
 Grammar, Ethics, Natural History, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, 
 Gymnastics, Languages, Music, Poetry, Geography, and Lexi- 
 cology. 
 
 With the introduction of the Lancasterian system of teaching 
 in!o Philadelphia, there appeared, in 1817, an American edition of 
 the " Manual of the Systenj of Teaching Reading, Writing, Arith- 
 metic, and Needle- Work in the Elementary Schools of the British 
 and Foreign School Society.'' This work contains all needed 
 directions for opening and conducting schools on the Lancasterian 
 plan, with diagrams of rooms, furniture, and apparatus. 
 
 Walter R. Johnson commenced, in 1822, a series of publications 
 on education, which continued for more than twenty years. For 
 the most part they were printed in pamphlet form. Some of the 
 most important of them were as follows : 
 
 " Thirteen Essays on Education with Suggestions for Establish- 
 ing a System of Common Schools in Pennsylvania." Harrisburg, 
 1822-3. 
 
 "Six Essays on Education." Philadelphia, 1823. 
 
 " Observations on the Improvement of Seminaries of Learning 
 in the United States, with Suggestions for its Accomplishment, and 
 a Plan of a School for Teachers." Philadelphia, 1825. 
 
 " Remarks on the Duty of the Several States in Regard to Pub- 
 lic Education." Philadelphia, 1 830. 
 
 "Remarks on the Nature and Importance of Enlarged Educa- 
 tion in view of the present State of Society in Europe and Amer- 
 ica." Philadelphia, 1 831. 
 
 "A Concise View of the General State of Education in the 
 United States." Philadelphia, 1831. 
 
56o ED UCA TION IN PENNS YL VAN/A. 
 
 " Legislative Enactments of Pennsylvania on the Subject of Edu- 
 cation from the first Settlement of the State, with Remarks." Phil- 
 adelphia, 1833. 
 
 In 1825, Harrison Hall, Philadelphia, published "Essays on 
 Education by Rev. William Barrow, LL. D." This was a reprint 
 of a book published in London in 1804. Dr. Barrow presided for 
 many years over one of the principal Seminaries in London, and 
 was a fine scholar and a successful teacher. His book consists of 
 a series of chapters, each containing an essay on an educational 
 subject. 
 
 Alexander Dallas Bache, President of Girard College for Or- 
 phans, after spending several years in Europe studying schools 
 and school systems, published, in 1839, "^ "Report on Education," 
 giving the results of his observations and study. It is a book of 
 great value, and had a marked influence on the form.ation of a right 
 public sentiment concerning education in Pennsylvania. 
 
 In 1839, Dr. E. C. Wines, then a Professor in the High School 
 at Philadelphia, subsequently a Professor in Washington College, 
 and later engaged at home and abroad in ameliorating the discip- 
 line of prisons, published a little work entitled " Letters to School 
 Children." Though addressed to children, and to some extent 
 used as a text-book in schools, it contained many suggestions to 
 teachers. A year earlier, and before coming to Philadelphia, 
 although the book wa? published in that city, Dr. Wines had pub- 
 lished " Hints on a System of Education," his object being, as he 
 stated, "to trace the outlines of such a system of public instruction 
 as every State in the Union ought to adopt." This work was a 
 pioneer in its field, containing chapters on the " Necessity of Popu- 
 lar Education," "The Duty of Educating the People," " Branches of 
 Study Proper for Common Schools," " Qualifications of Teachers," 
 " Compensation of Teachers," " Books, Cabinets, and Apparatus," 
 " Location and Architecture of Schoolhouses," the " Organization 
 of a System of Education," etc. So valuable was the work consid- 
 ered, that the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, on motion 
 of Thaddeus Stevens, ordered the purchase of one hundred and 
 fifty copies, one for each member, and the rest for the State Library. 
 
 In 1843, Job R. Tyson published, in Philadelphia, as a part of 
 the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, "Social 
 and Intellectual Condition of the School System of Pennsylvania 
 prior to 1843." It is not a work specially designed for teachers, 
 but contains much calculated to interest them. 
 
THE RISE OF THE TEACHERS' PROFESSION. 66 1 
 
 J. Smith's " History of Jefferson College, and an Account of the 
 Early Log Cabin Schools and Canonsburg Academy," was pub- 
 lished at Pittsburgh, in 1837. 
 
 E. Lamborn, a devoted and long-experienced teacher, published 
 at Lancaster, in 1855, "The Practical Teacher, or Familiar Expla- 
 nations and Illustrations of the Modus Operandi of the School 
 Room." The work consisted of one hundred and thirteen pages, 
 and was designed mainly as an aid to young teachers. 
 
 The following works have been published within the last twenty- 
 five years, and therefore need no description : 
 
 Samuel P. Bates' Institute Lectures, Barnes & Burr, New York, 
 i860; and Methods of Teachers' Institutes, and Theory of Intel- 
 lectual Education, 1862. 
 
 James P. Wickersham's School Economy and Methods of In- 
 struction, J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1864 and 1865. 
 
 J. R. Sypher's Art of Teaching School, J. M. Stoddart & Co., 
 1872. 
 
 Edward Brooks' Normal Methods of Teaching, Lancaster, 1879. 
 
 Albert N. Raub's Plain Educational Talks, Claxton, Remsen & 
 Haffelfinger, Philadelphia, 1869; and School Management, Lock 
 Haven, 1882. 
 
 By such agencies has the teachers' profession risen; by such 
 agencies strengthened and improved, must it be lifted up to a .still 
 higher plane. The teacher makes the school, and the body of 
 teachers makes the system of education. Without knowledge, and 
 skill and devotion to his work on the part of the teacher, success 
 in educational effort, even with the best laws and the most perfect 
 organization, is impossible. The measure of what is done for the 
 teacher, therefore, will be the measure of what is done for the 
 schools. Wise legislation seeks to elevate the teacher, for in ele- 
 vating him not only are the interests of education advanced, but 
 the most effective means are taken to promote all that is worthy 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aaron, Rev. Samuel, 453, 477. 
 
 AbbeyvUle Institute, 470. 
 
 Abercrombie, Rev. Tames, 279. 
 
 Abolition Society. Establishes a School for 
 Negroes, 253. 
 
 Academy and Chaiitable School of the 
 Province of Pennsylvania. Proposed by 
 Franklin, 58; Franklin's plan of an 
 Academy, 58, 59; Franklin's paper pre- 
 sented to the City Council, 60; early 
 history, 61, 62; Academy becomes a Col- 
 lege, 62; growth, trustees, teachers, 62, 
 63; Indian students, 62; Dr. William 
 Smith, the first Provost, 63 ; his efforts to 
 build up the College, 63, 64 ; establishes 
 a Medical and a Law Department, 64; 
 College disturbed by lievolutionary War, 
 64 ; deprived of its charter, 64, 65 ; Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania established, and 
 the two institutions united, 64, 65 ; the 
 design of the founders, 376. 
 
 Academy of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, Philadelphia, 98, 484. 
 
 Academies. State aid received by, under 
 Act of 1838, 369, 387; State aid re- 
 ceived by, from the close of the Revolu- 
 tionary War to 1834, 379, 380; chartered 
 in 1838, 1839 and 1840, 385, 386. 
 
 Academies, Seminaries and Schools of high 
 grade in Philadelphia, 484, 485. 
 
 Acrelius on intellectual condition of 
 Swedish and Dutch settlers on the Dela- 
 ware, 12, 13; complains of poor schools, 
 79, 80; visits the Moravian schools at 
 Bethlehem, 153. 
 
 Adams county. Secondary education in, 
 446. 
 
 Adams, Mrs. John Quincy, quoted, 157. 
 
 Adelphic Schools, 252. 
 
 Adolphus, Gustavus. Efforts in behalf of 
 education, 3; character, 6; part taken in 
 Thirty Years' War, project of planting a 
 colony in the New World, death, 6. 
 
 African College, 417. 
 
 African Education Society, 254. 
 
 Agreement between Johannes van Eck- 
 kelen, schoolmaster, and the town of 
 Flatbush, Long Island, in 1682, 10, 11. 
 
 Agiicultural School, 429. 
 
 Ake, Jacob. Establishes a school, 181. 
 
 Alcott, A. Bronson, 643. 
 
 Alden, Major Roger, 403. 
 
 Alden, Rev. Timothy. First President of 
 Allegheny College, 403. 
 
 Alison, Rev. Francis. Founds a Public 
 School at New London, in. 
 
 Allegheny College. State aid to, 378; his- 
 tory, 403-405 ; Presidents, 405 ; under- 
 takes to prepare Teachere, 608. 
 
 Allegheny County. Secondary education 
 in, 446. 
 
 Allegheny Male and Female Seminary, 450. 
 
 Allen, Fordyce A., 474, 570; conducts a 
 Normal School at West Chester, 617 ; 
 sketch of, 627 ; Principal Normal School 
 at Mansfield, .627; instructor at first In- 
 stitute, 651. 
 
 AUentown Female Seminary, 472. 
 
 Allison, Rev. Burgess, 279. 
 
 Alsop, Samuel, 93, 476. 
 
 American Association for the Supply of 
 Teachers, 643. 
 
 Amsterdam, City of. Care concerning ed- 
 ucation in its colonies, 9; agrees to build 
 a schoolhouse at New Castle, 11. 
 
 Amish. Attention to education, 168. 
 
 Andalusia College, 426. 
 
 Anderson, Dr. Samuel. Report, 302, 328. 
 
 Anthony, Joseph B., 291. 
 
 Arithmetic. How taught in the early 
 schools, J 92. 
 
 Arithmetics. Dilworth's, 199; Cough's, 
 Jess', Daboll's, Pike's and others, 200; 
 German Arithmetics, 200; Cocker's 
 Arithmetic, 201 ; Arithmetics including 
 other branches, 201. 
 
 Armstrong County. Secondaiy education 
 in, 449. 
 
 (663) 
 
664 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Armstrong, Gen. John, 461. 
 
 Arrowsmith, I., 96. 
 
 Associations of Teachers. Early, 642-647. 
 
 Atherton, Henry, 83. 
 
 Audenried, Senator, 292. 
 
 Avery College. History, 416; Presidents, 
 
 416. 
 Avery, Rev. Charles. Founder of Aveiy 
 
 College, 416. 
 
 Bache, Dr. Alexander Dallas. President 
 Girard College, Principal Philadelphia 
 High School, 289; report on Education 
 in Europe, 615, 660. 
 
 Bachtell, Maj. Samuel R., 599. ' 
 
 Bacon, Samuel, 653. 
 
 Bancroft, quoted, 12, 36. 
 
 Bannan, Benjamin. Letter concerning 
 Normal Schools, 620, 647. 
 
 Baptists. Earliest settlers in Pennsylvania, 
 100; form an Association, loo; oldest 
 churches, 100, loi ; early schools, loi ; 
 school at Lower Dublin, loi, 103; 
 Movements in behalf of higher educa- 
 tion, loi, 102; inaugurate the project of 
 founding Brown University, 102, 103 ; 
 establish the school which becomes Co- 
 lumbia University, 104; Seventh- Day, 
 
 •73- 
 
 Barclay, Robert. Author of the " Apology," 
 favors higher education, 28. 
 
 Barlow, E. Hubbard, 570. 
 
 Barnard, Henry, 610; the father of Teach- 
 ers' Institutes, 650. 
 
 Barnett, John M., 651. 
 
 Barr, James P., 592. 
 
 Barr, J. S. Address by, 523. 
 
 Barrow, Dr. William, 660. 
 
 Bates, Samuel P., 461 ; Deputy Superinten- 
 dent of Common Schools, 538; sketch 
 of. 538; work as "Travelling Agent," 
 538. 539; books, written by, 661. 
 
 Bear, Col. Wm. L. Inspector Soldiers' Or- 
 phan Schools, S96. 
 
 Beard, George P. Principal Normal School , 
 Shippensburg, 634; Principal Normal 
 School, California, 637 ; Principal Normal 
 School, Lock Haven, 640. 
 
 Beaver Academy, 449. 
 
 Beaver Collegiate and Musical Institute, 
 45°- 
 
 Beaver County. Secondary Education in. 
 449- 
 
 Beaver Female Seminary, 450. 
 
 Beck, John. Establishes an Academy at 
 Litiz, 159; character and success as a 
 teacher, 159, 645. 
 
 Becker, Peter, 162. 
 
 Bedford Academy, 450. 
 
 Bedford County. Secondary Education in, 
 450. 
 
 Beech woods Academy, 491. 
 
 Beissel, Conrad. Founder of Community 
 at Ephrata, 173. 
 
 Bell, Dr. Andrew, 283. 
 
 Bellefonte Academy, 455. 
 
 Benezet, Anthony. Teacher at German- 
 town, 83 ; member of educational com- 
 mittee of Friends, 85 ; prepares a Primer 
 and Spelling Book, 194, 195; character 
 and services as a teacher, 216; views on 
 education, 217; against slavery, 248. 
 
 Berks County. Secondary Education in, 
 450. 
 
 Berwick Academy, 460. 
 
 Bigler, Gov. William. Sketch of, 498 ; at- 
 tends educational meetings, 499; extract 
 from message, 499; aids in preparing 
 Revised School Law of 1854, 499, 502;. 
 signs the bill, 505. 
 
 Biles, Alfred. Prepares plans for Normal 
 School buildings, 533. 
 
 Binney, Horace, 442, 643. 
 
 Bishop Bowman Institute, 447. 
 
 Bishopthorpe Boarding School, 472. 
 
 Black, Charles A. Superintendent of Com- 
 mon Schools, 499; sketch of, 501 ; re- 
 ports, 501, 511 ; calls convention of 
 County Superintendents, 510; issues cir- 
 cular, 51 1- 
 
 Blair County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 451- 
 
 Blair, Rev. Samuel. Establishes a Classical 
 
 . School at Fagg's Manor, no. 
 
 Blairsville Academy, 468. 
 
 Blairsville Female Seminary, 468. 
 
 Bloomfield Academy, 481. 
 
 Blythe, Calvin. Secretary of the Common- 
 wealth, 274; report on education, 274, 
 275. 
 
 Boalsburg Academy, 456. 
 
 Boehler, Peter. Moravian leader, 150. 
 
 Boehm, Rev. Jolin Philip, 126. 
 
 Bolivar, General, 285. 
 
 Bolmar, Anthony, 456, 458, 643. 
 
 Bomberger, Dr. J. H. A., 423. 
 
 Books on Teaching, 657-661. 
 
 Boone, James, 89. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 65; 
 
 Bowd«n, quoted, 86. 
 
 Bowman, Rev. Samuel, 474. 
 
 Boyd, Rev. Alexander, 450. 
 
 Bradford County. Secondary Education in, 
 452. 
 
 Brainerd, Rev. David. Labors among the 
 Indians, 246. 
 
 Bray, Rev. Thomas. Efforts in behalf of 
 education of Negroes, 249; founds schools 
 in Philadelphia, 249, 250. 
 
 Breck, Samuel. Senator, Chairman Joint 
 Committee on Education, 309 ; sketch of, 
 309 ; diary showing how the free school 
 law of 1834 was passed, 309, 310 ; ex- 
 tracts from report, 312, 313 ; quoted, 384, 
 429. 
 
 Brethren's Normal College, 467. 
 
 Brewer, Senator. Speech in favor of Nor- 
 mal Schools, 522. 
 
 Bristol College. History, 424. 
 
 Broadhead. On education among the 
 Dutch settlers in New York, 4. 
 
 Brockden, Richard, 83. 
 
 Brooke Hall Female Seminary, 464. 
 
 Brooke, H. Jones, 464. 
 
 Brooks, Edward, 491 ; as connected with 
 Normal School at Millersville, 623-625 ; 
 sketch of, 624 ; books written by, 625 ; 
 work on Teaching, 661 ; President Na- 
 tional School of Elocution and Oratory, 
 440. 
 
 Brookville Academy, 468. 
 
 Brown, Enoch. Massacred by the Indians, 
 109. 
 
 Brown, John H., 471 ; President State 
 Teachers' Association, 497; 643, 644, 645, 
 647. 
 
 Brownsville Academy, 465. 
 
 Brunholtz, Rev. Peter, 132. 
 
 Brunner, D. B., 451. 
 
 Bryn Mawr College, 478. 
 
 Buckalew, Charles R. Opposes County 
 Superintendency, 504 ; supports the law 
 when passed, 525. 
 
 Bucks County. Secondary Education in, 
 452. 
 
 Budd, Thomas. Views on Education, 51. 
 
 Buehrle, R. K., 557. 
 
 Buffington, A. J., 635. 
 
 Buisson, M. Visits Pennsylvania Schools, 
 
 583- 
 Burnside, W. J., 486. 
 Burrowes, Thomas H. Sketch of, 346, 
 
 347; Secretary of the Commonwealth 
 
 and Superintendent of Common Schools, 
 346; reports, 347-353! field-work, 351; 
 publications as Superintendent, 354; bills 
 prepared by, 355 ; quoted, 381, 384, 494; 
 President State Educational Convention, 
 495; edits the School Journal, 496; 
 President Convention that organized State 
 Teachers' Association, 497, 502; Super- 
 intendent of Common Schools a second 
 time, 534; not at his best, S34; reports, 
 S35>S36; prepares supplement to school 
 law, 536; decisions, 537; revises Digest of 
 School Laws, 537 ! efforts to improve 
 teachers, 537 ; work outside of Depart- 
 ment, 538 ; address by, 543 ; calls a State 
 Educational Convention, 547; President 
 State Agricultural College, 575 ; Superin- 
 tendent Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 591 ; 
 prepares plan for conducting them, 591 ; 
 opens an office at Lancaster, 592 ; reports, 
 593 ; prepares Normal School bill, 620, 
 647, 651, 652 ; founds and conducts Penn- 
 sylvania School Journal, 654. 
 
 Burrows, A. S., 557. 
 
 Burtt, Andrew, 570. 
 
 Butler Academy, 453. 
 
 Butler County.- Secondary Education in, 
 
 453- 
 Butler Female Seminary, 453. 
 
 Callensburg Institute, 459. 
 
 Cambria County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 454- 
 Cameron County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 454- 
 
 Camp, John B.. 447. 
 
 Campanius, Rev. John. Swedish clergy- 
 man, 13, 16, 239. 
 
 Carbon Academy and Normal School, 454. 
 
 Carbon County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 454- 
 
 Carlisle. Educational meeting at, 300. 
 
 Carlisle Classical School, 461. 
 
 Carrier Seminary, 4S9. 
 
 Carver, Henry. As connected with the 
 Normal School at Bloomsburg, 630. 
 
 Cassel, Abraham H., 170. 
 
 Cassville Seminaiy, 467. 
 
 Catawissa Academy, 460. 
 
 Catechists for Negroes, 249. 
 
 Catholics. Efforts to educate themselves, 
 113; the first who came to Pennsylvania, 
 114; eariy schools, 114-116; settlements 
 and schools in Western Pennsylvania, 
 
666 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ii6, 117; Academies in Cambiia County, 
 
 454- 
 
 Cattell, Rev. Wm. C. Work at Lafayette 
 College, 409, 
 
 Cedar Hill Female Seminary, 470. 
 
 Centennial Exposition. Pennsylvania Edu- 
 cational Exhibit, 577, 578; what was 
 thought of it, 578. 
 
 Centre County. Secondaiy Education in, 
 
 455- 
 Chalkley, Thomas, Visited Indians, 240. 
 Chamberlain, Rev. Jeremiah, 450. 
 Chambersburg Academy, 465. 
 Chambers, Benjamin, 465, 
 Chambers, Judge George, quoted, 106, 113. 
 Chandler, Joseph R., 212, 301. 
 Chandler, Wm. A. Principal Normal 
 
 School, West Chester, 632. 
 Cherry Tree Male and Female College, 427. 
 Chester County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 456. 
 Chester County Academy, 456. 
 Chester County Academies and Seminaries, 
 
 458, 459- 
 Chestnut Level Academy, 470. 
 Christina, Queen of Sweden, favors educa- 
 tion, 3. 
 Christine, A. S., 454. 
 Church and school connected, 3, 105, 124, 
 
 320. 
 Churches. Used as schoolhouses, 15, 82, 
 
 107, 166. 
 Churchman, George, 91. 
 City and Borough Superintendents. Law 
 
 establishing, 559; how the office came 
 
 into operation, 559, 560. 
 Clarion Academy, 459. 
 Clarion County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 459- 
 
 Clarion Collegiate InsHtute, 459. 
 
 Clarkson. On Education among Friends, 
 80. 
 
 Clarkson, Joseph G. Reports, 303, 305; 
 bill, 304; quoted, 383. 
 
 Clay, quoted, 17. 
 
 Clearfield Academy, 459. 
 
 Clearfield County. Secondary Education 
 in, 459. 
 
 Clinton County. Secondary Education in, 
 460. 
 
 Clinton, Gov. De Witt, quoted, 283. 
 
 Clymer, Hiester. Supports Soldiers' Or- 
 phan Schools, 594. 
 
 Coburn, Charles R., 452; Superintendent 
 
 of Common Schools, 539; sketch of, 
 539 ; character as Superintendent, 539 ; 
 removes books and archives, 540; re- 
 ports, 540; legislation during term, S40; 
 office and outside work, 541 ; contribu- 
 tions to School Journal, 541 ; presides at 
 Educational Convention, 547 ; administra- 
 tion disturbed by the war, 550. 
 
 Cochran, Thomas, 590. 
 
 Coffey, Titian J., 621. 
 
 College Bill of 1868, 564. 
 
 College of the Holy Ghost, 419. 
 
 Colleges. State aid received by, under Act 
 of 1838, 369, 387; State aid previously 
 received, 377, 378. 
 
 Colt, Rev. S. F., 452. 
 
 Columbia County. Secondary Education 
 in, 460. 
 
 Comenius, John Amos. Educational labors, 
 148, 149. 
 
 Comly, John, 83, 91, 93, 198, 199. 
 
 Commercial Colleges, 440. 
 
 Committees on Education. Report of 
 Senate, 274; report of House, 275, 291, 
 302, 303, 304, 305 ; how constituted, 
 308, 309; extracts from report of Joint 
 Committee, 312, 313; Senate Committee, 
 1835, 326; House Committee, 1835, 
 328; Senate Committee, 1836, 340; 
 House Committee, 341. 
 
 Common School Journal, 654. 
 
 Conrad, Henry W., 332. 
 
 Constitution of 1776. Educational Pro- 
 visions, 256. 
 
 Constitution of 1790. Educational Pro- 
 visions, 258, 259. 
 
 Constitution of 1838. Educational Pro- 
 visions, 259. 
 
 Constitution of 1874. Educational Pro- 
 visions, 576, 577. 
 
 Conventions of County Superintendents, 
 510,511,523,543,556,557. 
 
 Cook, E. H. Principal Normal School, 
 West Chester, 632. 
 
 Cooper, J. A., 486; address by, 543; 
 Principal Normal School, Edinboro, 626. 
 
 Corn Planter. Request of Friends, 240. 
 
 Com Planter Indians. Education among, 
 
 241, 242; letter to State Superintendent, 
 
 242, 243. 
 
 Comforth, Rev. C. Inspection of Soldiers' 
 
 Orphan Schools, 598. 
 Cornwell, Robert T. Professor in Normal 
 
 School it Millersville, 623. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Cottage Hill College, 493. 
 
 Cottingham, W. W., 557. 
 
 Couderspoit Academy, 485. 
 
 County Superintendeiicy. A feature of the 
 school law of 1854, 508; opposition to, 
 512, 513; fight on, in the Legislature, 
 522-525; impediments met with during 
 first term, 525 ; fruits of, 556; when most 
 successful, 561; strengthened by law of 
 1867, 561. 
 
 County Superintendents. List of Superin- 
 tendents first elected, 509'; salaries of, 
 510; difficulties encountered by, 513; 
 election in 1857, 542; old officers re- 
 tained and new ones chosen, 542 ; elec- 
 tions in i860 and 1863, 542, 543; those 
 most experienced, 542; reports of, 544, 
 556; those who had seen most service, 
 557; tribute 10,557,558; salaries fixed 
 by law, 563. 
 
 Craig, Rev. H. R., 423. 
 
 Crawford County. Secondary Education in, 
 460. 
 
 Cregar, Philip A., 548, 612. 
 
 Croasdale, Elizabeth, 440. 
 
 Crowell, James, 456. 
 
 Crozer, John P., 463. 
 
 Culver, Sanford, 652. 
 
 Cumberland County. Secondary Education 
 in, 461. 
 
 Cumberland Valley Institute, 462. 
 
 Cunningham, Prof. Robert, 609, 614. 
 
 Curry Institute, 447. 
 
 Curry, Robert. Deputy Superintendent of 
 Common Schools, 570; sketch of, 571. 
 
 Curtin, Andrew G. Superintendent of 
 Common Schools, 513; sketch of, 516; 
 reports, 516, 517; addresses by, 518; 
 ofiice work, 519; school laws enacted 
 while Superintendent, 519-522; calls a 
 
 . Convention of County Superintendents, 
 523 ; troubled by the opposition to the 
 County Superintendency, 525 ; elected 
 Governor, 530; address by, 543; recom- 
 mends schools for the orphan children of 
 soldiers, 587 ; urges the adoption and sup- 
 port of a. system of such schools, S90; 
 messages pressing the matter on the atten- 
 tion of the Legislature, 593, 595 ; on 
 Normal Schools, 620. 
 
 Curtis, W. H., 557. 
 
 Da Motta, Dr. Philippe, 
 sylvania school system. 
 
 Studies the Penn- 
 582. 
 
 667 
 
 Danville Academy, 479. 
 Darby Monthly Meeting. Extracts from 
 Minutes concerning a school, 81. 
 
 Darlington, Edward C , 503. 
 
 Darlington, Richard, 458. 
 
 Darlington, Smedley, 458. 
 
 Darlington, Dr. William, 652. 
 
 Dassi, Count Guiseppe, 583. 
 
 Dauphin County. Secondary Education in, 
 462. 
 
 Dayton Union Academy, 449. 
 
 Deans, Charles W., 464. 
 
 Delaware Academy, 491. 
 
 Delaware county. Secondary Education 
 in, 463. 
 
 Dickey, Rev. John Miller, 416, 458. 
 
 Dickinson College. State aid to, 377, 387; 
 History, 394-398; Presidents, 397, 398. 
 
 Dickinson, John, 395. 
 
 Dickinson Seminary, 474. 
 
 Dieffenbach, Henry L. Chief Clerk in 
 School Department, 501 ; sketch of, 502; 
 aids m preparing school bill of 1854, 
 503 ; appointed Deputy .Superintendent 
 of Common Schools, 508; issues circu- 
 lar to school directors, 508 ; retires from 
 office, 513. 
 
 Dillingham, Wm. H., 354. 
 
 Doanville Female Seminary, 449. 
 
 Dobbin, Rev. Alexander. Founds a Clas- 
 sical School at Gettysburg, H2. 
 
 Dock, Christopher. Mennonite school- 
 master, 165 ; views on school manage- 
 ment, 222-225, 657- 
 
 Dodd, Thaddeus, 400. 
 
 Dodge, Rev. N., 470, 643, 645, 647. 
 
 Donaldson, Rev. Alexander, quoted, 190, 
 468. 
 
 Dove, David Jones. Method of punishing 
 pupils, 214, 215. 
 
 Downey, John. Views on Education, 218, 
 219. 
 
 Doylestown Female Seminary, 453. 
 
 Draufton. Suit in the Upland Court, 17. 
 
 Drawing. As a branch of instruction in 
 common schools, 564. 
 
 Drum, W. R., 443. 
 
 Dry Run Academy, 466. 
 
 Duke of York. Laws established by, af- 
 fecting education, 5. 
 
 Dundaff Academy, 487. 
 
 Dunkers. Origin, 170; what they did for 
 Education, 171; the Sowers, Dunker 
 Elders, 171; assist in establishing Ger- 
 
668 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 mantown Academy, 17;, 172; opposition 
 to higher education, 172; collegiate insti- 
 tutions under their control, 172. 
 
 Dunlap, Thomas, quoted, 287. 
 
 Durling, L. H. Principal Normal School 
 at Indiana, 638. 
 
 Dutch. Settlements on the Delaware, I ; 
 instructed to maintain clergymen and 
 schoolmasters, 8. 
 
 Easton. Law authorizing High School, 
 
 371- 
 Eaton, Rev. Isaac, 102. 
 Ebensburg Academy, 454. 
 Edgeworth Ladies' Seminary, 447. 
 Edinboro Normal School. Becomes a State 
 
 school, 545. 
 Education. Condition of, among the Dutch 
 
 at Manhattan, 9, 10; how retarded in 
 
 Pennsylvania, 54-57 ; state of, before and 
 
 after Revolutionary War, 255-257 ; of 
 
 the poor as a class, 255-276. 
 Educational Associations. Early, 496. 
 Educational Conventions. At Harrisburg, 
 
 495 ; at West Chester, 645 ; at Carlisle, 
 
 645- 
 
 Educational Hall, 579; its uses, 580. 
 
 Educational News, 657. 
 
 Education of Teachers, 606-642. 
 
 Educational Revival, 494-526. 
 
 Edwards, Rev. Jonathan. Founds a Board- 
 ing School for Indians, 238. 
 
 Edwards, Rev. Morgan. Prime-mover in 
 founding Brown University, 103. 
 
 Ehrenfeld, Rev. C. L., 570; Principal 
 Normal School at California, 637. 
 
 Ehrenzeller, Jacob, 278. 
 
 Eldersridge Classical and Normal Academy, 
 468. 
 
 Eliot, John. Efforts to Christianize the 
 Indians, 238. 
 
 Elk County. Secondary Education in, 464. 
 
 Ellwood, Thomas. On Education among 
 Friends, 28. 
 
 Emlen Institution, 254. 
 
 England. Public Education at the begin- 
 ning of the Seventeenth Century, 5 ; state 
 of affairs in, at the time Quakerism arose, 
 20; relation of Church and State, 94. 
 
 English. Early settlement on the Dela- 
 ware, I, 2. 
 
 Episcopalians. Their views of Church and 
 School, 94, 95 ; establish a school in 
 connection with Christ Church, Philadel- 
 
 phia, 96 ; early schools at Oxford, Ches- 
 ter, Marcus Hook, Radnor, Pequea and 
 Churchtowu, 96-98; found Academies 
 at Philadelphia and York, 98, 99. 
 
 Epphinstone, Mr., 278. 
 
 Era of Growth, 551-585. 
 
 Ercildoun Seminary, 458. 
 
 Erie Academy, 464. 
 
 Erie County. Secondary Education in, 
 464. 
 
 Ermentrout, John S., 543 ; as connected 
 with Normal School at Kutztown, 628, 
 629. 
 
 Errett, Russell, 573. 
 
 Evans, Henry S., 371, 503. 
 
 Evertson, Erent. Schoolmaster at New 
 Castle, 12. 
 
 Eyster, Rev. David, 446. 
 
 Factoryville Academy, 492. 
 Fairfield, Dr. Edmund B. Principal Nor- 
 mal School at Indiana, 638. 
 Fayette County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 465- 
 Female Association for Colored Children, 
 
 252. 
 Female Seminary at AUentown, 472. 
 Female Seminaries. State aid under Act 
 
 of 1838, 369, 387; State aid prior to 
 
 1834, 379, 380; chartered in 1838 and 
 
 1839. 385. 386. 
 Fetter, George W. Principal Nonnal 
 
 School, Philadelphia, 612. 
 Fetterman, N. P. Reports, 275, 291, 292; 
 
 on Education of Teachers, 613. 
 Fight for Free Schools, 290-316; renewed, 
 
 317-338. 
 Findlay, Governor. Extract from Message, 
 
 267, 268; quoted, 383. 
 Findlay, James. First Superintendent of 
 
 Common Schools, 325 ; first report, 326; 
 
 second report, 340. 
 Finley, Rev. Samuel. Founds Nottingham 
 
 Academy, in, 395. 
 Fisher, J. Francis, 444. 
 Fletcher, Governor, quoted, 54. 
 Flower, Etioch. School at Philadelphia, 
 
 41. 
 Forest County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 465- 
 Forsythe, John, 91. 
 Fortescue, Charles. Examined for a school, 
 
 97- 
 Foulke, Joseph, 93. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Fouret, M., 583. 
 
 Fox, George. Early life and religious ex- 
 perience, 19; advises the establishment 
 of schools, 27 ; prepares a Primer, 27 ; 
 death, 27 ; preaches to Indians, 239. 
 
 Fradenburg, J. N. Principal Normal School, 
 Mansfield, 628. 
 
 Frame of Government. Penn's, 32, 33 ; 
 new, 39 ; Markham's, 40. 
 
 Francke, Dr. August Hermann. Founderof 
 the great schools at Halle, 130, 131. 
 
 Francke, Dr. Gotthelf August. Friend of 
 Pennsylvania Lutherans, 130. 
 
 Franklin Academy. Harford, 487. 
 
 Franklin Academy. Kutztown, 451. 
 
 Franklin and Marshall College. History, 
 399 ; Presidents, 399. 
 
 Franklin College. Histoiy 145-147, 398; 
 State aid to, 377 ; first officers, 14b. 
 
 Franklin County. Secondary Education in, 
 465. 
 
 Franklin, Dr. Benjamin. Efforts in estab- 
 lishing the Academy and Charitable 
 School of the Province of Pennsylvania, 
 58-60; trustee of German schools, 68; 
 aids in founding Franklin College, 146, 
 147; views on Education, 228-232; 253; 
 donation to Washington Academy, 402. 
 
 Franklin High School, 451. 
 
 Franklin Institute, 430, 431. 
 
 Freeburg Academy, 486. 
 
 Free Schools. Fight for, 292-317; the 
 growth of a century and a half, 293-295; 
 established, 313; opposition to, 318-321 ; 
 meeting to oppose in Delaware County, 
 321 ; attempt to abolish, 323-333. 
 
 French, Dr. John H. Principal Normal 
 
 School at Indiana, 638. 
 Friedenshiitten. Moravian Indian town, 
 
 244. 245- 
 
 Friedensstadt. Moravian-Indian town, 244, 
 245. 
 
 Friedlander, Julius R. Instructor of Blind, 
 444- 
 
 Friends. Doctrine bearing on education, 
 21-25 ; learned men among them, 25 ; 
 character of first settlers, 26; objections 
 to higher education, 26, 27 ; early school- 
 masters among them, 27, 28; early ef- 
 forts to establish schools, 28, 29, 80, 81 ; 
 early meeting-houses, 82; schools con- 
 nected with meeting-houses, 82, 83 ; 
 Yearly and Monthly Meetings on Educa- 
 tion, 84-87 ; schools increase, 87 ; man- 
 
 669 
 
 agement of schools, 88 ; early schools in 
 the Counties of Bucks, Montgomery, Del- 
 aware, Chester, Berks, Lancaster and 
 York, 88-90; advanced schools, 90, 91; 
 establish Westtown Boarding School, 91 ; 
 endowed schools, 93, 94; treatment of In- 
 dians, 239-242 , German Friends oppose 
 Slavery, 248; concern for welfare of 
 Negroes, 249 ; efforts in behalf of the Edu- 
 cation of Negroes, 250-252 ; opposition 
 to Free Schools, 319. 
 
 Friends' Public School, Philadelphia. How 
 started, 42; petition for establishment, 
 43 ; charters, 43-48 ; seal, 46; buildings, 
 49; success, 49, 50; design of its foun- 
 ders, 376. 
 
 Friendly Association for Regaining and 
 Preserving Peace with the Indians by 
 Pacific Measures, 240. 
 
 Frost, John, 653. 
 
 FuUeiton, David, 326. 
 
 Fulton County. Secondary Education in, 
 465. 
 
 Funk, Heinrich, 162. 
 
 Gahan, T. F., 557. 
 
 Gallatin, Albert. Favors a system of Public 
 
 Schools, 261. 
 Gallaudet, Rev. Thomas H., 442. 
 Gallitzin, Prince de, 117. 
 Gantz, Martin, 651. 
 Gause, Jonathan, 93, 456, 457, 645. 
 Geary, Gov. John W., 212, 530, 597, 598, 
 
 630. 
 Geneva College. History, 423. 
 George, Rev. H. H., 424. 
 Geography. Not taught in the early schools, 
 
 193- 
 
 Geographies. Smiley's, Olney'.s, Dwight's, 
 201 ; Morse's, Pinkerton's, Workman's, 
 202 ; a German Geography, 202. 
 
 German High School, Lewisburg, 488. 
 
 Germans. First settlers, 122, 123; plain 
 sects, 159-161 ; objections to higher edu- 
 cation, 162, 163; opposition to free 
 schools, 320, 321. 
 
 German Society of Pennsylvania. Efforts 
 in behalf of Education, 144, 145. 
 
 Germantown. School established at, 81. 
 
 Germantown Academy. When opened, 
 142; German department, 143, 482. 
 
 Germantown Day College, 419. 
 
 Germantown Manual Labor Academy, 429. 
 
 Gettysburg Academy, 446. 
 
670 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Gettysburg Female Seminary, 446. 
 
 Gilbert, Amos, 301. 
 
 Gilchrist, J. C, 635. 
 
 Girard College. History, 434-436; Presi- 
 dents, 435. 
 
 Girard, Stephen. Sketch of, 435. 
 
 Glade Run Academy, 449. 
 
 Glenn, A. D., 557. 
 
 Gnadenhiitten. Moravian-Indian town, 
 244. 
 
 Gow, John L. Address by, 523. 
 
 Gowen, James, 432. 
 
 Graded Schools. Contemplated by free 
 school men from the beginning, 371 ; 
 opinions of State Superintendents, 372. 
 
 Grammar. Not taught in early schools, 193. 
 
 Grammars. Lowth's, Sheridan's, Webster's, 
 Harrison's, Murray's, Comly's, 202; Ger- 
 man and English Grammars, 202 ; Kirk- 
 ham's, Smith's, 202. 
 
 Graydou, quoted, 214. 
 
 Great Law. Its provisions concerning Re- 
 ligious Freedom and Education, 38. 
 
 Greaton, Rev. Joseph, 1 14. 
 
 Greene County. Secondary Education in, 
 466. 
 
 Greene County Academy, 466. 
 
 Greensburg Academy, 491. 
 
 Greenwood Seminary, 460. 
 
 Greersburg Academy, 450. 
 
 Gregory, I. N., 472. 
 
 Grier, Rev. J. H., 460. 
 
 Griscom, Mr., 278. 
 
 Griswold, Dr. T. L. Principal Normal 
 School at Bloomsburg, 631. 
 
 Haddington College, 425. 
 
 Haines, Townsend. Superintendent of 
 
 Common Schools, 365 ; sketch of, 365 ; 
 
 repoits, 365, 366; address by, 496. 
 Hall, Harrison, 660. 
 Hamilton, James, 300 ; Labors in behalf of 
 
 Normal Schools, 633. 
 Hanna, Sarah B., 490. 
 Hannum, Cheney, 645. 
 Harrisburg Academy, 462. 
 Harrisburg Lancasterian school, 463. 
 HaiTisburg Military Academy, 463. 
 Hart, Dr. John S. Principal High School, 
 
 Philadelphia, 289; 362; 654. 
 Hartranft, Gov. John F., 530; address to 
 
 soldiers' orphans on inauguration day, 
 
 602. 
 Haverford College. Histoi-y, 413, 414 ; 
 
 Presidents, 414 ; as a school for teachers, 
 609. 
 
 Hays, Rev. I. N., 634. 
 
 Hazzard, Thomas R., 490. 
 
 Hefferman, John, 278. 
 
 Heiges, S. B. Principal Normal School at 
 Shippensburg, 634. 
 
 Henderson, Annie \V., 440. 
 
 Hertzog, G. G., 637. 
 
 Heston, Zebulon. Mission to Indians, 240, 
 
 Hickok, Henry C. Deputy Superintendent 
 of Common Schools, 5r3; sketch of, 
 518, 519; office-work, 519; Superiten- 
 dent of Common Schools, 528, 531 ; on 
 want of facilities, 529; stands guard over 
 the system, 532; reports, 532, 533; work 
 in the Department, 533 ; work outside 
 of the Department, 534; quoted, 542; 
 attends National Convention, 548; on 
 graded schools, 548 ; 624, 
 
 Hickok, John H., 475. 
 
 Hicks, J. F., 646. 
 
 Hiester, Governor. Commends Lancaster- 
 ian System, 268, 287 ; quoted, 383. 
 
 Higbee, Dr. E. E., 426 ; Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, 585 ; Superintendent 
 of Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 604; Ed- 
 itor School Journal, 655. 
 
 High Schools. Philadelphia, 343; Pilfi- 
 burgh, 371; Easton, 371. 
 
 Hobbs, Rev. L. M., 622. 
 
 Hochhanmer, Henry. Grant to, 7. 
 
 Hocker, Ludwig. Schoolmaster at Eph- 
 rata, 174 ; author of text-books 175; 222. 
 
 Hofiford, Reuben F., 454, 557. 
 
 Holbrook, Josiah, 643, 645. 
 
 Holland. The first country in Europe to 
 establish public schools, 3, 4 ; state of 
 education, 4. 
 
 HoUidaysburg Female Seminary, 451. 
 
 Holme, Thomas. On schools in Philadel- 
 phia in 1696, 277. 
 
 Holmes, John, 100. 
 
 Honesdale Academy, 491. 
 
 Honesdale Seminary, 491. 
 
 Hood, Alexander H., 301. 
 
 Hoopes, Joshua, 93, 457, 645. 
 
 Hopewell Academy, 461. 
 
 Hopkins, William, 312, 332. 
 
 Hornbook, 193, 194. 
 
 Home, Rev. A. R. Opens Normal School 
 at Quakertown, 453; Principal Normal 
 School at Kutztown, 629 ; educational 
 career, 629 ; quoted, 656, 657. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Horner, Thomas J., 634. 
 
 Horton, Mr., 278. 
 
 Hoskins, Joseph, 88. 
 
 Houck, Henry, 543; Deputy Superinten- 
 dent of Common Schools, 570; educa- 
 tional work, 570 ; sketch of, 570 ; 585. 
 
 Hoyt, Gov. Henry M., 530. 
 
 Hughes, Francis W. Superintendent of 
 Common Schools, 499 ; sketch of, 499 ; 
 extracts from report, 500, 501 ; pamphlet 
 of decisions and forms, 501 ; prepares 
 school bill of 1853, 502. 
 
 Hughes, J. P., 455, 456. 
 
 Hulings, Marcus, 404. 
 
 Huntingdon county. Secondary Education 
 in, 466. 
 
 Huntingdon Public School, 466. 
 
 H utter, Elizabeth E. Inspector of Sol- 
 diers' Orphan Schools, 598 ; sketch of, 
 598, 599- 
 
 Hyatt, Col. Theodore. Founder of Penn- 
 sylvania Military Academy, 436, 458. 
 
 Indiana Academy, 467. 
 
 Indiana county. Secondary Education in, 
 467. 
 
 Indians. Early efforts to educate, 238-246; 
 boys at the University of Pennsylvania, 
 246. 
 
 Indian School at Carlisle, 441. 
 
 Indian School at Philadelphia, 442. 
 
 Infant Schools. In Philadelphia, 285 ; be- 
 come a part of the public school system, 
 285. 
 
 Infant School Societies. Support a school 
 of negro children, 253 ; when organized, 
 285. 
 
 Ingham Female Seminary, 453. 
 
 Inner Light. The doctrine of, as held by 
 the Society of Friends, 21-25. 
 
 Insane. First asylum, 1678, 18. 
 
 Institute for Colored Youth, 252. 
 
 Institution for the Blind, 443, 444. 
 
 Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Phila- 
 delphia, 442, 443. 
 
 Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Pitts- 
 
 442, 443- 
 Irving Female College, 462. 
 Ismar, F. A., 429. 
 
 Jefferson College, State aid to, 377, 387 ; 
 
 history of, 400, 401 ; Presidents, 401 ; 
 
 undertakes to prepare teachers, 608. 
 Jefferson County. Secondary Education in. 
 
 671 
 
 Jennesedago. Com Planter village, 242. 
 
 Jesuits. In Pennsylvania, 238. 
 
 John, Dr. J. J., 646. 
 
 Johnson, Dr. H. M., 547. 
 
 Johnson, Walter R. Quoted, 49 ; work as 
 a teacher, 219; views on education, 220; 
 favors schools for teachers, 612, 643; as 
 an author, 659. 
 
 Johnson, Wm. H., 645. 
 
 Johnston, Gov. Wm. F., 356; quoted, 494. 
 
 Joliet Academy, 465. 
 
 Jones, H. S., 557. 
 
 Jones, Rev. Samuel. Establishes a board- 
 ing school at Low er Dublin, 103. 
 
 Jones, Richai-d M., 50. 
 
 Jones, Rowland. Master at Radnor, 98 ; 
 method of teaching, 213, 214. 
 
 Juniata County. Secondary Education in, 
 468. 
 
 Junkin, Rev. Georga. President Lafayette 
 College, 407, 408; plan for preparing 
 teachers, 609 ; edits the Educator, 653. 
 
 Journal of Instruction, 653. 
 
 Kallynean Academy, 45 1 . 
 
 Keagy, Dr. John M. His teaching, 220, 
 221; efforts in behalf of his fellow 
 teachers, 221 ; work on object lessons, 
 222 ; teaches at Harrisburg, 463 ; 643 ; 
 645. 
 
 Keating, John, 485. 
 
 Keith, George. Master Friends' Public 
 School, 42, 248. 
 
 Kelly, James, 443. 
 
 Kennedy, Dr. Alfred. Founder of Poly- 
 technic College, 431. 
 
 ICerlin, Dr. Isaac N., 445. 
 
 Kern, Jacob, 326. 
 
 Kerr, Joel, 443. 
 
 Kessler, Rev. C. R., 4^1. 
 
 Keystone Academy, 492. 
 
 Killikelly, Rev. B. B., 449. 
 
 Kimber, Emmor, 93, 457. 
 
 King, Rev. John. Founds a classical 
 school in the Conococheague settlement, 
 112. 
 
 Kinnersley, Rev. Ebenezer, 10 1. 
 
 Kirkland's Academy, 449. 
 
 Kirkpatrick, Rev. David, 480, 500. 
 
 Kishacoquillas Seminary, 475. 
 
 ICittanning Academy, 449. 
 
 Kittanning University, 425. 
 
 Knauss, J. O., 557. 
 
 Kolb, Dielman, 162. 
 
6/2 
 
 Kunze, Rev. John Christian. Opens a 
 German seminary, 143; takes charge of 
 German Department in University of 
 Pennsylvania, 143. 
 
 Kurtz, John Nicholas, 132, 137. 
 
 Lackawanna County. Secondary Education 
 in, 469. 
 
 Lafayette College. State aid to, 378, 387 ; 
 history, 407-409 ; Presidents, 408 ; as 
 a school for teachers, 608, 609. 
 
 Lake Shore Seminary, 465. 
 
 Lambeth College, 449. 
 
 Lamborn, E., 661. 
 
 Lancaster County. Secondary Education 
 in, 469. 
 
 Lancasterian Schools, 270 ; introduced into 
 America, 283; adopted in Philadelphia, 
 284; room described, 284; teachers, 
 284; school at Lancaster, 469; school at 
 Columbia, 469; school at Milton, 481; 
 school at Newcastle, 471 ; 610. 
 
 Lancaster, Joseph, 282 ; plan of instruc- 
 tion, 282, 283 ; lectures, 283. 
 
 Lancaster, Second School District, 270. 
 
 Langdon, J. H., 634. 
 
 Langley, Prof. S. P., 406. 
 
 La Ross, D. H. E., 557. 
 
 La Salle College, 419. 
 
 Latta, Rev. James. Founds classical school 
 at Chestnut Level, 112. 
 
 Lawrence County. Secondary Education 
 in, 471. 
 
 Lawrence, George V., 371. 
 
 Lawrence, Joseph, 341. 
 
 Lawunakhannock. Moravian-Indian town, 
 244. 
 
 Lay, Benjamin, 248. 
 
 Lebanon Academy, 471. 
 
 Lebanon County. Secondary Education in, 
 471. 
 
 Lebanon Female Seminary, 471. 
 
 Lebanon Valley College, 422; Presidents, 
 422. 
 
 Le Come, Anna, 463. 
 
 Legislature. Acts passed directly after Rev- 
 olutionary war, 256, 257 ; Act of 1786 
 appropriating lands for public schools, 
 257, 258 , Acts from 1790 to 1834 char- 
 tering Colleges and Academies, 260, 261 ; 
 propositions under discussion in 1792 and 
 1794, 262, 263; Act of 1802, 263, 264; 
 Act of 1804, 264, 265 ; Act of 1809, 265, 
 266; Philadelphia Acts of 1812 and 1818, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 269; special Acts for certain counties, 
 269, 270; Act of 1824, 270-272; agita- 
 tion in, concerning the question of public 
 schools, 272, 273; report of Committee 
 on Education, Senate, 274; communica- 
 tion of Secretary of Commonwealth, 274, 
 275 ; report of Committee on Education, 
 House, 275 ; Act of 1831 creating a 
 school fund, 292, 293 ; vote in House on 
 resolutions appointing Commissioners to 
 collect information in relation to school 
 systems, 302; the Senate of 1832-3 
 against public education, but the House 
 more favorable, 303-306 ; passage of the 
 Act of 1834, 313; provisions of the Act 
 of 1834, 313-316; election of anti-free 
 school members, 323 ; Senate repeals Act 
 of 1834, 326, 327; the House on the 
 question of repeal, 328-334; passage of 
 the Act of 1836, 341 ; provisions of the 
 Act of 1836, 342; the Legislature of 
 1837-8, 353, 354; Act of 1840 author- 
 izing the examination of teachers, 368; 
 Act of 1843 providing for district super- 
 vision, 368; school appropriations re- 
 duced, 368; free school law made gen- 
 eral, 369; Act of 1849, 370, 371; ap- 
 propriations made to Colleges, Acad- 
 emies, and Female Seminaries, 385 ; Sen- 
 ate on Act of 1854, 503, 504; House on 
 Act of 1854, 504, 505 ; laws passed dur- 
 ing sessions of 1855, 1856, and 1857, 
 519-522; bills separating State and School 
 Departments, and establishing Normal 
 Schools, 522; opposition in 1855 to 
 County Superintendency, 522; law re- 
 pealed in the House, but saved in the 
 Senate, 524, 525 ; bills to abolish the 
 County Superintendency, 525 ; legisla- 
 tive work completed, 528; District School 
 Libraries provided for, 540 ; supplements 
 to school laws, 536, 541 ; visit to Nor- 
 mal School at Millersville, 547 ; law of 
 1867, 558—562; law relating to non- 
 accepting school districts, 563; law fix- 
 ing salaries of County Superintendents, 
 563; proceedings concerning establish- 
 ment of Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 588- 
 
 S91; 593-596. 
 I^ehigh County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 471. 
 Lehigh County High School, 472. 
 L/ehigh University. History, 420, 421 ; 
 
 Presidents, 421. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Leutbecker, Casper, 128. 
 
 Lewisburg Academy, 488. 
 
 Lewis, Christianus. English schoolmaster, 
 came in 1683, 81. 
 
 Lewis, Enoch, 93, 456. 
 
 Lewistown Academy, 475. 
 
 Limestoneville Institute, 479. 
 
 Lincoln Female Seminary, 453. 
 
 Linden Hall Seminary, Litiz, 158. 
 
 Lindsey, Wm. A. Deputy Superintendent 
 of Common Schools, 570; sketch of, 571 ; 
 585. 
 
 Loch, John W., 477. 
 
 Lock Haven Academy, 460. 
 
 Loeser, Jacob, 133. 
 
 Loock, Rev. Lars Carlsson, 14, 15, 16. 
 
 Loomis, J. R., 547. 
 
 Loskiel, quoted, 244, 245. 
 
 Lower Merion Academy, 476. 
 
 Luckey, George J., 557. 
 
 Ludwick, Christopher. Bequest, 282. 
 
 Ludwig, Rev. Wm. H., 410. 
 
 Luzerne County. Secondary Education in, 
 472. 
 
 Liizenie Presbyterial Institute, 473. 
 
 Lycoming County. Secondary Education 
 in. 473- 
 
 Lutheran Church. Policy concerning edu- 
 cation in the Fatherland, 124; church 
 and school planted side by side in Penn- 
 sylvania, 12$; the earliest schools, 125, 
 126; why no more was done for educa- 
 tion, 126; early schools and schoolmas- 
 ters, 126-129; state of education unsatis- 
 factory, 129, 130; the coming of Muh- 
 lenberg, 131 ;' educational work of Muh- 
 lenberg, Schaum, and Kurtz, 131-133; 
 schools established in Philadelphia and 
 in the counties of Bucks, Montgomery, 
 Lancaster, Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, 
 Lebanon, York, Dauphin, Perry, 135- 
 139; contract with a schoolmaster, 140; 
 efforts in behalf of higher education, 142- 
 147; interested in College at Philadel- 
 phia, 143 J part taken in founding Frank- 
 lin College, 145-147. 
 
 Lutherans. Opposition to free schools, 319. 
 
 Mack, Alexander, 162. 
 
 Madison Academy, 469. 
 
 Madison College. State aid to, 378, 387 ; 
 
 history, 424. 
 Magazines, educational. List of, 656. 
 Magaw, Rev. Samuel, 279. 
 43 
 
 Makin, Thomas. Master Friends' Public 
 School, 43. 
 
 Malcolm, Dr. Howard, 650. 
 
 Mansfield Normal School. Becomes a 
 State school, 545 ; reports, 546. 
 
 Manual Labor Academy. Attempt to es- 
 tablish, 305 ; designed as a school for 
 teachers, 614. 
 
 Maplewood Institute, 464. 
 
 Marietta Academy, 470. 
 
 Marin, Colonel, 583. 
 
 Maris, George L. Principal Normal School 
 at West Chester, 633. 
 
 Markham, William. Deputy Governor, 37 ; 
 Frame of Government, 1696, 40; charter 
 to Friends' Public School, 43. 
 
 Marshall College. State aid to, 378, 387 ; 
 history, 399; Presidents, 399; undertakes 
 to prepare teachers, 608. 
 
 Martin, John C, 647 ; 654. 
 
 Matthias, Benjamin. Report on Manual 
 Labor Academy. 306. 
 
 McAlisterville Academy, 469. 
 
 McAllester, Mary, 278. 
 
 McCaskey, J. P. Connection with Penn- 
 sylvania School Journal, 574, 655 ; Prin- 
 cipal Pligh School, Lancaster, 575. 
 
 McClellan, Dr. Robert L., 588. 
 
 McClintock, Dr. Jonas R. Chairman Sen- 
 ate Committee on Education, 503 ; efforts 
 in behalf of the school law of 1854, 503 ; 
 defends the law, 524. 
 
 McCoy, Gen. Robert, 300. 
 
 McClure, Charles. Superintendent of Com- 
 mon Schools, 362; sketch of, 362; re- 
 ports, 362, 363. 
 
 McElroy, J. M., 647, 651. 
 
 McFarland, Col. George F., 469, 597 ; Su- 
 perintendent of Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 
 597 ; prepares bill for conducting Soldiers' 
 Orphan Schools, 598; administration, 
 
 599- 
 
 McFarquhar, Rev, Colin. Founds a Clas- 
 sical School at Donegal, 112. 
 
 McKean County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 474- 
 
 McKean, Governor. .Urges attention to ed- 
 ucation, 263. 
 
 McKean, Samuel. Secretary of the Com- 
 monwealth, 306; report to Legislature, 
 306-308 ; quoted, 383. 
 
 McKean Seminary, 452. 
 
 McMillan, Rev. John, III, 113, 400. 
 
 Meadviile Academy, 460, 461. 
 
6/4 
 
 Meadville Female Seminary, 461. 
 
 Mease, Dr., quoted, 280. 
 
 Media Academy, 464, 
 
 Mennonites. Immigration, 164; send for 
 books for children, 164; settlements, 165; 
 early schools, 165-167; higher educa- 
 tion, 167; opposition to free schools, 319. 
 
 Mercer Academy, 474. 
 
 Mercer County. Secondaiy Education in, 
 
 474- 
 
 Mercersburg College, 426. 
 
 Meredith, Wm. M. President Constitu- 
 tional Convention, 1874, 442, 576. 
 
 Merriman, J. R., 625. 
 
 Methodists. Zeal in behalf of education, 
 117; support public schools, 118; origin 
 of, 118; first churches established, 119; 
 marvellous growth, 119; church interest 
 in education, 119, 120; distrust of Theo- 
 logical Seminaries, 120; prominence given 
 to industrial education, 121. 
 
 Methods of instruction. Instruction in Al- 
 phabet, 203; in Spelling, 204; in Read- 
 ing, 204, 205 ; in Writing, 205 ; in Arith- 
 metic, 205 ; in Geography and Grammar, 
 206 ; girls taught needle-work, 206 ; good 
 manners taught, 206; religious exercises, 
 206, 207 ; pupils free to choose their own 
 studies, 208, 209. 
 
 Mifflin County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 475- 
 
 Mifflin, Gov. Thomas. Messages concern- 
 ing education, 26 1. 
 
 Mifflinburg Academy, 488. 
 
 Milford Academy, 485. 
 
 Miller, Jesse. Superintendent of Common 
 Schools, 364; sketch of, 364; reports, 
 
 364, 365- 
 Miller, John, 451. 
 Miller, Peter, 162. 
 Millersville Normal School. Becomes a 
 
 State School, 545; reports, 545. 
 Milne, William, 278. 
 Milton Academy, 480. 
 Model School. Connected with Lafayette 
 
 College, 609 ; at Philadelphia, 609. 
 Monaghan, Robert E. Chairman House 
 
 Committee on Education, 504; active in 
 
 securing passage of school bill of 1854, 
 
 504. 
 Monongahela College. History, 423. 
 Monroe County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 475- 
 Monteith, Rev. John, 429. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Montgomery County. Secondary Educa- 
 tion in, 476. 
 
 Montgomery, Miss, quoted, 193. 
 
 Monthly Meeting of Friends, Philadelphia. 
 Establishes a School for negro children, 
 250, 251. 
 
 Monthly Journal of Education, 653. 
 
 Montour County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 479- 
 Montoursville Normal School, 474, 
 Moore, Rev. Wm. E., 632, 652. 
 Moravian Brethren. Interest in education, 
 
 148; early educational history, 148, 149; 
 
 their coming to Pennsylvania, 149, 150; 
 
 settlements, 150; " Economy," 151 ; early 
 
 schools, 152-155; establish Indian schools, 
 
 243-246. 
 Moravian College, 421, 422. 
 Moravian Seminary, Bethlehem, 156, 157. 
 Mountain Seminary, 467. 
 Mount Joy Academy, 471. 
 Mount Pleasant College, 425. 
 Mount Pleasant Seminary, 451. 
 Muhlenberg College, 421 ; Presidents, 421. 
 Muhlenberg, Rev. H. A., 339. 
 Muhlenberg, Rev. Henry Melchoir. Comes 
 
 to Pennsylvania, 130; takes charge of 
 
 congregations, 131 ; teaches school, 132; 
 
 labor performed, 132, 133. 
 Murray, Lindley. Author of Grammar and 
 
 Readers, 198. 
 Museum and School of Industrial Art, 438. 
 
 Nain, Moravian town, 244. 
 
 National Educator, 656. 
 
 National Educational Association. Organ- 
 ized at Philadelphia, 548 ; meets at Har- 
 risburg, 548. 
 
 National School of Elocution and Oratory, 
 440, 
 
 Nazareth Hall, 156, 157; as a school for 
 teachers, 607. 
 
 Neglected Children. Bill providing for 
 their education, 565. 
 
 Neff, Joseph, 484, 658. 
 
 Neighborhood Schools. Defined, 178; how 
 oiiginated, 179, 180; character, 180; how 
 started, 181; Neighborhood Schools in 
 the counties of Delaware, Lancaster, 
 Cumberland, Carbon, McKean, Centre, 
 Washington, and Susquehanna, 182-184; 
 regulations, 185; higher branches in, 186. 
 
 Nelson, Rev. Reuben, 473. 
 
 Nesbit, Rev. Charles. President of Dick- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 675 
 
 inson College, 396; quoted, 396 j jour- 
 ney to Carlisle, 397. 
 
 Nevin, Rev. John W., quoted, 124, 399. 
 
 Nevin, Prof. Wm. M., 447. 
 
 New Castle College, 426, 
 
 New Castle Female Seminary, 471.' 
 
 New Gnadenhiitten. Moravian-Indian town, 
 244. 
 
 Newlin, Jesse, 557. 
 
 New London Academy, III, 457. 
 
 New Oxford College and Medical Institute, 
 446. 
 
 Newtown Academy or Free School, 433. 
 
 Nicholson, Thomas. Address, 523. 
 
 Non-accepting districts. Number in 1 845, 
 370; law of 1868, 562, the last district 
 brought under the law, 563. 
 
 Normal and Classical School, Quakertpwn, 
 453- 
 
 Noi-mal Institute, Lancaster county, 619. 
 
 Normal School, Philadelphia, 609-613. 
 
 Normal Schools. Law passed establishing, 
 521 ; schools organized under the law, 
 545; oldest in the United States, 609; 
 meetings concerning, 614; views of 
 State Superintendents, 615; meetings in 
 behalf of, 616, 617; institutions ppened 
 as Normal Schools, 617; before the Leg- 
 islature, 617-621 ; establishment brought 
 about by County Superintendency, 618, 
 619; features of Normal School law of 
 1857, 621 ; original policy modified, 635; 
 statistics, 641. 
 
 Northern Home for Friendless Children, 
 588, 592. 
 
 Norristown Academy, 476. 
 
 Northumberland Academy, 480. 
 
 Northumberland County. Secondary Edu- 
 cation in, 480. • 
 
 Northampton County. Secondary Educa- 
 tion in, 479. 
 
 Noss, T. B. Principal Normal School, Cal- 
 ifornia, 637. 
 
 Oakland Female Institute, 477. 
 O'Callaghan, quoted, 10. 
 Ogontz School for Young Ladies, 478. 
 Oley Academy, 451. 
 Oliver, Mary Gould, 447. 
 Orangeville Academy, 460. 
 Orwigsburg Academy, 486. 
 Oxford Female Seminary, 458. 
 Oxenstiern. Carries out the plans of Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus, 6. 
 
 Packer, Asa. Founder of Lehigh Univer- 
 sity, 420. 
 
 Packer, Gov. Wm. F., 530; recommends a 
 State Department of Public Instruction, 
 530; vetoes, 531. 
 
 Page, David P., 651. 
 
 Palatinate College, 422 ; Presidents, 423. 
 
 Palm, A. T., 657. 
 
 Pardee, Alio. Benefactor of Lafayette Col- 
 lege, 409. 
 
 Pardo, Marmaduke. Schoolmaster at Ab- 
 ington, 83. 
 
 Park Seminary, 454. 
 
 Parrish, Anne. Establishes a school in 
 Philadelphia, 281. 
 
 Parsons, Anson V. Superintendent of Com- 
 mon Schools, 360; sketch of, 360; re- 
 port, 360-362. 
 
 Parsons, William, 70. 
 
 Pastorius, Francis Daniel. First schoolmas- 
 ter at Germantown, 81, 82, 161, 248. 
 
 Partridge, Capt. Alden, 463. 
 
 Patterson, B. F., 557. 
 
 Pattison, Gov. Robert E., 530. 
 
 Paul, Col. James L. Chief Clerk Soldiers' 
 Orphan Department, 599; author his- 
 tory Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 599- 
 
 Pelletreau, Helen E., 448. 
 
 Pcnn, John, quoted, 395. 
 
 I'enn, Thomas, 393. 
 
 Penn, William. Early life, 29, 30 ; acts as 
 trustee of the Province of West New Jer- 
 sey, 31; extracts from letters, 31, 32; ex- 
 tracts from Preface to Frame of Govern- 
 ment, 32; provisions of Frame relating 
 to education, 33 ; \ lews on education, 34- 
 36; new Frame, 1683, 39; letter to 
 Thomas Lloyd concerning a " Public 
 Grammar School," 41 ; , relation to his 
 Province, 54, 55 ; treatment of Indians, 
 239 ; concerned for welfare of negroes, 
 249. 
 
 Penn Hall Academy, 456. 
 
 Pennsylvania Association of Monitorial 
 Teachers, 643. 
 
 Pennsylvania College. State aid to, 378, 
 387; history, 409, 410; Presidents, 410; 
 undertakes to prepare teachers, 608. 
 
 Pennsylvania Female College at CoUege- 
 ville, 478. 
 
 Pennsylvania Female College at Harris- 
 burg, 463. 
 
 Pennsylvania Female College at Pittsburgh, 
 
 44S. 
 
676 
 
 Pennsylvania Military Academy, 436. 
 
 Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Contri- 
 bution to Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 587. 
 
 Pennsylvania School Journal, 496 ; quoted, 
 497. 5i2> 541. 56i> 572, 588, 591 ; made 
 official organ of School Department, 520; 
 changes hands, 574 ; circulation and influ- 
 ence, 575 ; origin, 654-656. 
 
 Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of 
 Public Schools. Memorial, 291 ; consti- 
 tution, 296; reports, 296-300; memo- 
 rials to Legislature, 300; efforts in be- 
 half of a system of public schools, 300, 
 302; efforts to provide for the prepara- 
 tion of teachers, 610, 612, 643. 
 
 Pennsylvania Teacher, 656. 
 
 Pennsylvania Telegraph, quoted, 497. 
 
 Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble- 
 minded Children, 445. 
 
 Pennypaclcer, Elijah F., 193, 312, 333. 
 
 Pennypacker, Samuel W., 222, 227. 
 
 Perry County. Secondary Education in, 
 481. 
 
 Pershing, Rev. J. C, 438. 
 
 Petitions to Legislature. In favor of public 
 schools, 291 ; for repeal of law of 1834, 
 330, 331. 
 
 Pfeiffer, Dr. M. D. G., 446. 
 
 Phelps, Almira H. Lincoln, 458. 
 
 Philadelphia. First School District, 269; 
 private schools, 277-283; Lancasterian 
 schools, 282-285 ; infant schools, 285 ; 
 law of 1818 establislring Lancasterian 
 public schools, 286; the schools public 
 but not free, 286, 287 ; law of 1836 mak- 
 ing the schools free, 287; Lancasterian 
 system abandoned, 288; Model School, 
 288, 289 ; High School, 289, 343 ; edu- 
 cational meeting, 301 ; Secondaiy Educa- 
 tion in, 482. 
 
 Philadelphia Association of Principals of 
 Public Schools, 644. 
 
 Philadelphia Association for the Instruction 
 of the Poor, 282. 
 
 Philadelphia Lyceum of Teachers, 643. 
 
 Philadelphia Society for the Establishment 
 and Support of Charity Schools, 282. 
 
 Philips, George M. Principal Normal School 
 at West Chester, 633. 
 
 Pickering, Timothy. Efforts in behalf of 
 education in the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of 1790, 258, 259. 
 
 Pietersen, Evert. The first schoolmaster in 
 the settlements on the Delaware, 9, 12. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pike County. Secondaiy Education in, 485, 
 
 Pine Grove Academy, 456. 
 
 Pine Grove Normal Academy, 475. 
 
 Pittsburgh Academy, 446. 
 
 Pittsburgh Female College, 447. 
 
 Pittsburgh High School, 371, 448. 
 
 Pollock, Gov. James. Sketch of, 514; in- 
 terest in education, 514; upholds the 
 County Superintendency, 514; advocates 
 Normal Schools, 515; messages quoted, 
 
 514, 515 ; efforts in behalf of education, 
 
 515, 516; gives notice that no backward 
 step shall be taken during his adminis- 
 tration, 524; 624. 
 
 Pollock, Joseph, 329. 
 
 Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, 389, 
 
 431. 432- 
 
 Poor, John. One of the first to engage in 
 the higher education of girls, 279; con- 
 ducts a Young Ladies' Academy in Phil- 
 adelphia, 279 ; 390. 
 
 Porter, Gov. David R., 354, 356. 
 
 Porter, James M., President State Educa- 
 tional Convention, 495. 
 
 Porter University, 427. 
 
 Potter, B. A., 634. 
 
 Potter, Bi.shop Alonzo, 502; address by, 
 647. 
 
 Potter County. Secondary Education in, 
 485. 
 
 Pottsville Institute, 486; as a school for 
 teachers, 617. 
 
 Pratt, Capt. R. H., 441. 
 
 Presbyterians. Presbyterianism and Educa- 
 tion in Scotland, 104; first Presbyterians 
 in Pennsylvania, 105 ; efforts to establish 
 schools, 105, 106; schools and school- 
 masters, 106; early schools in Philadel- 
 phia and in the counties of Bucks, Mont- 
 gomery, Delaware, Chester, Lancaster, 
 Dauphin, York, Cumberland, Franklin, 
 Adams and Clinton, 106-109; early 
 schools in Western Pennsylvania, 109; 
 efforts in behalf of higher education, 1 10- 
 
 "3- 
 
 Priestley, Dr. Joseph, 480. 
 
 Primers. Used among the first settlers on 
 the Delaware, 193; brought from Eng- 
 land and Germany, 193; George Fox's 
 Primer, 194 : Anthony Benezet's Primer 
 and Spelling Book, 194, 195 ; New Eng- 
 land Primer, 195 ; " Child's Guide," 196, 
 197; German Primers, 197. 
 
 Prince of Orange. Establishes schools, 3, 4. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Printz, Governor, 2; instructions to, 7; 
 
 builds a church, 13. 
 Proud, Robert. Principal Friends' Public 
 School, so ; on education among Friends, 
 
 80; 211. 
 Public School at AUentown, 471. 
 
 Qualierism. The principles on which it is 
 grounded, 20, 21; antagonisms involved 
 in. 54-57- 
 
 Quarter Sessions Court at Chester. A 
 schoolmaster's suit in, 40. 
 
 Quay, Matthew S. Efforts in behalf of Sol- 
 diers' Orphan Schools, 594. 
 
 Ralston, Rev. J. Grier, 477. 
 
 Ramsey, Alexander, 451. 
 
 Raub, A. N., 570; aids in founding Normal 
 School at Lock Haven, 639 ; becomes 
 Principal, 640; Editor Educational News, 
 657; author of works on teaching, 661. 
 
 Rauch, Rev. Christian Henry, 129. 
 
 Rauch, Rev. Frederick A., 399. 
 
 Reading. How taught in early schools, 
 191. 
 
 Reading Academy, 450 ; undertakes to pre- 
 pare teachers, 608. 
 
 Reading Female Seminary, 451. 
 
 Readers. Webster's, Murray's, 198; other 
 Readers, 199. 
 
 Read, Almon H., 341. 
 
 Reasley, B. F., 557. 
 
 Reed, Joseph, 64. 
 
 Reed, Sir Charles, 583. 
 
 Reformed Church. Policy concerning ed- 
 ucation in the Fatherland, 124; church 
 and school planted side by side in Penn- 
 sylvania, 125 ; the earliest schools, 125, 
 126; why education was neglected, 126; 
 early schools and schoolmasters, 126- 
 129; unsatisfactory state of education, 
 129, 130; work of Schlatter, 133, 134; 
 schools established in Philadelphia and 
 in the counties of Bucks, Montgomery, 
 Lancaster, Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, 
 Lebanon, York, Dauphin, Perry, 135- 
 139; early school regulations, 140, 141; 
 efforts in behalf of higher education, 142- 
 147 > interest in the College at Philadel- 
 phia, 143 ; part taken in founding Frank- 
 lin College, 145-147 ; opposition to free 
 schools, 319. 
 
 Reid Institute, 459. 
 
 Reigart, Emanuel C, 328, 329, 332. 
 
 677 
 
 Revolutionary War. State of education at 
 its breaking out, 255. 
 
 Rhoads, James E., 479. 
 
 Richards, Lewis W., 329. 
 
 Richaids, B. W., 301. 
 
 Richardson, Rev. Lyman, 487. 
 
 Ripp, Mother Theresa, 464. 
 
 Rise of Teachers' Profession, 642-661. 
 
 Ritner, Joseph. Governor in 1835, 344; 
 sketch of, 344, 345; upholds and advo- 
 cates free schools, 345, 346; recommends 
 a large increase in the State appropriation 
 to schools, 345; at Edinboro, 346; last 
 days, 346; quoted, 383. 
 
 Rittenhouse College, 426. 
 
 Rittenhouse, David, 162. 
 
 Rittinghausen, Willem, 161. 
 
 Riverview Normal and Classical Institute, 
 
 447- 
 
 Roberts, WiUiam, 548, 643. 
 
 Robins, Dr. James W., 484. 
 
 Roelansen, Adam, 9. 
 
 Ross, James, 465. 
 
 Roth, Rev. H. W., 423. 
 
 Row, Amos. Inspector Soldiers' Orphan 
 Schools, 596. 
 
 Rupp, I. D., 462, 471, 645, 657. 
 
 Rush, Dr. Benjamin. Interest in education, 
 232; "Plan for establishing Public 
 Schools," 232-233 ; essay on " Mode of 
 Education proper in a Republic," 233, 
 234; views on a course of study, 234, 
 235 ; assistance given in establishing 
 Sunday-schools, 281 ; the prime-mover 
 in the founding of Dickinson College, 
 395; quoted, 607; 658. 
 
 Russell, Alexander L. Superintendent of 
 Common Schools, 366; sketch of, 366; 
 reports, 366, 367. 
 
 Russell, William, 643, 653. 
 
 Sandiford, Ralph, 248. 
 
 Sarmiento, Seiior D. F. Visits Harrisburg, 
 
 582. 
 Sayers, Rev. John W. Inspector Soldiers' 
 
 Orphan Schools, 599. 
 Schaeffer, Nathan C. Principal Normal 
 
 School at Kutztown, 629. 
 Scattergood, Thomas. Active in providing 
 
 instruction for the poor, 282; Schools use 
 
 Lancasterian method, 284. 
 Schaum, John Helfrich, 132. 
 Schlatter, Michael. Labors in America, 
 
 65 ; report in Europe of educational des- 
 
678 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 titution among the Germans in America, 
 65 ; interest created thereby, 66 ; ap- 
 pointed to establisli and supervise schools 
 in Pennsylvania, 68; official labors, 72, 
 73; resignation, 74; mission in the inter- 
 est of the Reformed Church, 133, 134. 
 
 Schmucker, Rev. Dr., quoted, 125. 
 
 Schneider, Elias, 486, 647. 
 
 Schneider, Rev. Theodore, 115. 
 
 Schnell, Rev. Leonhard, 155. 
 
 School Bill of 1853, 502. 
 
 School Department. Separated from State 
 Department, 524, 528; work of, 572. 
 
 School Directors. Labor and responsibility, 
 
 374- 
 
 School Discipline. Severity of in early 
 schools, 207 ; use of the rod, 207, 208 ; 
 offensive epithets, 208. 
 
 School Districts. Accepting and rejecting, 
 322; non-accepting in 1845, 37°! non- 
 accepting in 1867, 562; effort to change 
 them to accepting districts, 562 ; law of 
 1S68, 562; supplement of 1871, 562; 
 free schools universal, 563. 
 
 Schoolhouses. Description of in several 
 counties, 187-igo. 
 
 School law of 1854. By whom favored, 
 505 ; approved by Gov. Bigler, 505 ; new 
 features in, 505-508. 
 
 School law of 1867, 558-562. 
 
 Schoolmasters. How selected in early 
 times, 210, 211; schoolmasters who be- 
 came distinguished in other fields, 212; 
 Rowland Jones, 213, 214; David Jones 
 Dove, 214, 215; John Todd, 215, 216; 
 Anthony Benezet, 216, 217; John 
 Downey, 218, 219 ; Walter R. Johnson, 
 219, 220; John M. Keagy, 220-222; 
 Ludwig Hocker, 222 ; Christoi^her Dock, 
 222-224; Andrew McMinn, 225; Thomas 
 Neill, 225 ; James NowUns, 226 ; Baron 
 Stiegel, 226; Andrew Forsythe, 226; 
 Mary Paxon, 226, 227 ; Eliza Frick, 226, 
 227; "Paddy" Doyle, 227; Robert 
 . Williams, 227, 228. 
 
 Schoolmasters' Synod, 644. 
 
 School policy of Pennsylvania, 343, 344. 
 
 Schools. Disturbed by the civil war, 550. 
 
 Schools for Indians, 241-246. 
 
 Schools for Negroes, 249-254; in Harris- 
 burg, 253 ; in Pittsburgh, 254. 
 
 Schools of Design for Women, 439, 440. 
 
 School Term. Law of 1872, 563. 
 
 Schul-Ordnung, 222, 657. 
 
 Schuylkill County. Secondary Education 
 in, 486. 
 
 Schwenkfeldt, Caspar de, 162, 168, 169. 
 
 Schwenkfelders. Arrival at Philadelphia, 
 168; origin, 168, 169; settlement, 169; 
 attention to education, 169, 170; build a 
 High School, 170. 
 
 Seal, William T., 454. 
 
 Secondary Education, 446-493. 
 
 Seiler, Jacob F., 462. 
 
 Seixas, Daniel G., 442. 
 
 Selwyn Hall, 451. 
 
 Sensenig, David M. Principal Normal 
 School at Indiana, 638. 
 
 Saparatists. Account of, 176; interest in 
 education, 176, 177. 
 
 Sergeant, John, 285, 296. 
 
 Seventh-Day Baptists. History, 173; com- 
 munity at Ephrata, 173, 174; school at 
 Ephrata, 174, 175; Sabbath-school, 175. 
 
 Sharon Female Seminary, 463. 
 
 Shaipless, Joseph, 279. 
 
 Shaub, B. F., 557; Principal Normal 
 School at Millersville, 625. 
 
 Sheeley, Aaron, 557. 
 
 Shelley, Wm. H., 557. 
 
 Shelly, Daniel, 523. 
 
 Sherwood, Nancy, 490. 
 
 Shinn, Rev. G. W., 639. 
 
 Shippen, Edward, quoted, 287. 
 
 Shoemaker, J. W. Founder National School 
 of Elocution and Oratory, 440. 
 
 Shulze, Governor. Extracts from messages, 
 268, 269. 
 
 Shunk, Gov. Francis R., 212; Superinten- 
 dent of Cominon Schools, 356 ; sketch 
 of. 357; reports, 357-360. 
 
 Sigoigne, Madam, 279. 
 
 Simon, Menno, 161. 
 
 Sites for Schoolhouses, 558. 
 
 Slaves. In Pennsylvania, 246, 247 ; causes . 
 of introduction, 247 ; right to hold firet 
 questioned by Friends, 248; action con- 
 cerning by Quaker meeting at German- 
 town, 248. 
 
 Smethport Academy, 474. 
 
 Small, Samuel, 493. 
 
 Smith, Dr. George, quoted, 16; educational 
 services, 311; recollections concerning 
 the passage of free school law, 311, 
 333; sketch of, 340, 341; prepares act 
 of 1836, 341 ; County Superintendent of 
 Delaware County, 509 ; President Con- 
 vention of County Superintendents, 510. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 679 
 
 Smith, Dr. William. First Piovost of the 1 
 College at Philadelphia, 63 ; learning and 
 executive ability, 63; imprisoned, he 
 continues his lectures, 63 ; goes to Eng- 
 land to collect funds for the College, 63 ; 
 success of his mission, 63, 64; troubles 
 during Revolutionary War, 64,65 ; labors 
 in behalf of the education of the Ger- 
 mans, 66—68; a trustee of the German 
 schools, 68; in charge of a German 
 newspaper, 70; becomes Superintendent 
 of German Schools, 74; quoted, 246; 
 donates a lot in Huntingdon for a Public 
 School, 466. 
 
 Smith, Rev. Joseph, 113, 400, 661. 
 
 Smith, Rev. Robert. Founds a classical 
 school at Pequea, III. 
 
 Snyder county. Secondary Education in, 
 486. 
 
 Snyder, Gov. Simon. Extracts from mes- 
 sages, 266, 267. 
 
 Society for the Establishment of Sunday- 
 schools. Petitions the Legislature in be- 
 half of a general system of education, 261. 
 
 Society for the Free Instruction of Black 
 People. Establishes schools, 251, 252. 
 
 Society for the Promotion of Public Econ- 
 omy, 286. 
 
 Society for the Promotion of a Rational 
 System of Education, 643. 
 
 Society for the Propagation of Christian 
 Knowledge among the Germans in Amer- 
 ica. Origin, 65-68 ; Schlatter in Amer- 
 ica and Europe, 65 ; Dr. William Smith 
 in England, 66-68 ; Dr. Samuel Chand- 
 ler, Secretaiy, 65 ; trustees in America, 
 68 ; instructions to trustees, 68, 69 ; pro- 
 ceedings of trustees, 69-71 ; Rev. Heniy 
 Melchoir Muhlenberg's letter concerning 
 the project, 69; German printing press 
 established , 69 ; deputy trustees appointed, 
 70; letter from a deputy trustee, 70, 71 ; 
 schools opened, 70-72J Christopher Sower 
 in opposition, 72, 73 ; the Friends stand 
 aloof, 73; Schlatter's reports, 73; Dr. 
 Smith, Superintendent, 74; the project 
 fails, 74. 
 
 Society of Free People of Color. Opens a 
 school, 253. 
 
 Soldiers' Orphan Home, Pittsburgh, 588, 
 592. 
 
 Soldiers' Orphans at Han'isburg, 596. 
 
 Soldiers' Orphan Schools. Change in ad- 
 ministration, 575; history, 586; how 
 
 originated, 587; bill providing for, 588; 
 plan for conducting, 591 ; the schools 
 first opened, 593 ; first report of Superin- 
 tendent, 593; in the Legislature, 594- 
 596; days of trial, 595, 596; managed 
 without law, 597; Act of 1867, 598; 
 system reorganized, 598, 599 ; system at- 
 tached to Common School Department, 
 600; schools improved and system 
 strengthened, 601, 602; statistics, 604, 
 605. 
 
 Somerset Academy, 487. 
 
 Somerset County. Secondary Education 
 in, 487. 
 
 Sower, Christopher, father. Opposed to 
 the scheme of educating the Germans, 
 72, 73 ; printing office, 171. 
 
 Sower, Christopher, son. Continued his 
 father's business as a printer and pub- 
 lisher, 171 ; active in founding German- 
 town Academy, 171; views on educa- 
 tion, 172, 235-237. 
 
 Spangenberg, Bishop, Augustus Gottlieb. 
 Forms a. society in London, 65 ; organ- 
 izes numerous congregations in Pennsyl- 
 vania and establishes schools, 154. 
 
 Spelling-book. Dihvorth's, 197, 198 ; Web- 
 ster's, 198; Comly's, 199; others, 199. 
 
 Spring Garden Institute, 438. 
 
 State Administration, change in, 513. 
 
 State and Higher Education, 375-390; 
 grants to Colleges, 377-378 ; grants to 
 Academies and Female Seminaries, 379- 
 380; purpose of the grants, 381 ; policy 
 pursued, 382 ; failure of the plan, 382, 
 383 ; Act of 1838, making appropriations 
 to promote higher education, 385-389; 
 payments under the Act, 3S7 ; the aid 
 withdrawn, 388 ; higher female educa- 
 tion promoted, 389, 390. 
 
 State Board of Charities, 574. 
 
 State College. History, 432-434; Presi- 
 dents, 434. 
 
 State Educational Conventions, 495, 547. 
 
 State Normal Schools. History, 622-642; 
 Millersville, 622 ; Edinboro, 625 ; Mans- 
 field, 626; Kutztown,628; Bloomsburg, 
 630; West Chester, 631; Shippensburg, 
 633; California, 634; Indiana, 637; 
 Lock Haven, 639; Statistics, 641. 
 
 State Teachers' Association. Organization, 
 497 ; meetings at Pittsburgh and Lancas- 
 ter, 498 ; first officers, 647 ; meetings, 546, 
 648 ; Presidents, 648 ; proceedings, 649. 
 
68o 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Statistics. Of Public Schools in 1837, 349, 
 350; from 1835 'o 1852, 373; showing 
 State grants to Academies and Female 
 Seminaries, 379, 380 ; of Public Schools 
 in 1854 and 1857,. 525; from 1857 to 
 1866, 549; from 1866 to 1881,584; of 
 Normal Schools, 641. 
 
 Stephens, Prof. Lemuel. Letter on Ger- 
 man Schools, 364, 615. 
 
 Stevens, Thaddeus, 212; sketch of, 333; 
 opposes the repeal of the school law of 
 1834, 333 ; extracts from speech in House 
 of Representatives in 1835, 333-336; 
 secures State aid to Pennsylvania College, 
 336 ; extracts from speech in House of 
 Representatives in 1838, 336-338; letter 
 
 of. 338; 341; 410. 
 
 Stewart, John Q. Deputy Superintendent 
 of Common Schools, 585. 
 
 St. Francis College, 419. 
 
 St. Gregory College, 427. 
 
 St. Joseph's College, 419. 
 
 St. Mary's Academy, 447. 
 
 Stockton, Rev. James, 199, 447, 461. 
 
 Stoddard, John F., 487, 623, 648. 
 
 Stowe, Rev. Calvin E. Report on Schools 
 in Europe, 353. 
 
 Stouchsburg Academy, 451. 
 
 Strasburg, Meeting at, 301. 
 
 Strasburg Academy, 470. 
 
 Strode, Joseph C, 193, 457, 645. 
 
 Strohm, John, 312. 
 
 Stroudsburg Academy, 475. 
 
 Sturgeon, Rev. Wm. A catechist among 
 Negroes, 249. 
 
 St. Ursula Academy, 447. 
 
 St. Vincent College, 418, 4.19 
 
 St. Xavier's Academy, 92. 
 
 Sub-districts abolished, 520. 
 
 Sullivan County. Secondary Education in, 
 487. 
 
 Sullivan, John M. Deputy Superintendent 
 of Common Schools, 529. 
 
 Sunbury Academy, Butler, 454. 
 
 Sunbury Academy, Northumberland, 481. 
 
 Sunday-schools. Established in Philadel- 
 phia, 281 ; earliest established by the 
 Schwenkfelders, 170; and Seventh-Day 
 Baptists at Ephrata, 175. 
 
 Sunderland, Rev. J. W., 478. 
 
 Susquehanna Academy, 487. 
 
 Susquehanna Collegiate Institute, 452. 
 
 Susquehanna County. Secondary Educa- 
 tion in, 487. 
 
 Susquehanna Female College, 486. 
 Suther, Rev. Samuel, 129. 
 Swatara Collegiate Institute, 471. 
 Swarthmore College. History, 414-416; 
 
 Presidents, 416. 
 Sweden. State of education prior to 1638, 
 
 3- 
 
 Swedes. Settlements on the Delaware, I ; 
 directed to treat the Indians well and to 
 support schools, 7, 8 ; educational con- 
 dition, 13-15; clergymen and school- 
 masters, 13-16; children instructed at 
 home, 16; write to Sweden for school 
 books, 16, 17; continue to speak their 
 own language for one hundred and fifty 
 years, 79 ; maintain their own schools, 
 79; condition of schools in 1722,79,80; 
 Swedish schoolmasters, 79, 80; efforts to 
 Christianize the Indians, 239. 
 
 Sypher, J. R., 661. 
 
 Tanaka, Fujimara. Japanese Commissioner, 
 
 investigates the Pennsylvania educational 
 
 system, 582, 
 Taney, Chief Justice, quoted, 395. 
 Taylor, Christopher. A profound scholar, 
 
 26 ; teacher in England, 27 ; school on 
 
 Tinicum Island, 81, 463. 
 Taylor, Dr. Franklin, 570; establishes a 
 
 school for teachers, 617 ; 652. 
 Taylor, Dr. Joseph, 478. 
 Taylor, Rev. W. D., 627. 
 Teachers' Association of Adams Count}-, 
 
 645. 
 Teachers' Certificates, 511, $37, S6o, 561. 
 Teacher's Guide and Family Monitor, 654. 
 Teachers' Institute of Chester county, 652. 
 Teachers' Institute of Philadelphia, 644. 
 Teachers' Institutes, 496 ; made obligatory, 
 
 558 ; history, 650-652, 
 Teachers in the army, 550. 
 Technical and Special Education, 429-445. 
 Tennent, Rev. William. " Log College," 
 
 110, 453- 
 Text-books. Want of uniformity in the 
 
 old schools, 203. 
 The Academical Herald and Journal of 
 
 Education, 653. 
 The Educator, 653. 
 The Teacher, 656. 
 The Schoolmaster, 653. 
 Thickston, T. F., 461. 
 Thiel College, 423. 
 Thomas, Gabriel, 277. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 681 
 
 Thomas, D. C. Principal of Normal 
 
 School, Mansfield, 628. 
 Thompson, Judge James, 312, 328. 
 Thompson, Prof. James, 592, 626, 652. 
 Tioga County. Secontjary Education in, 
 
 488. 
 Tioga County Academy, 488. 
 Todd, John. Mode of punishing pupils. 
 
 215,216. 
 Towanda Academy, 452. 
 Torkillus, Rev. Reorus, 13. 
 Travelli, Joseph S., 447. 
 Travis, William, 647, 651, 652. 
 Trego, Charles B., 341. 
 Tremont Seminary, 477. 
 Troy Academy, 452. 
 Tulpehocken Academy, 451. 
 Turney, Samuel, 456, 
 Tuscarora Academy, 468. 
 Tyson, Job R., 660. 
 
 Union Academy, Doylestown, 453. 
 Union Academy, Easton, 479. 
 Union Academy, Tioga county, 488. 
 Union Academy, Womelsdorf, 451. 
 Union County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 488. 
 Union Society. Supports schools for people 
 
 of color, 253. 
 Unionville Academy, 457. 
 University at Lewisburg. History, 410-41 2; 
 
 Presidents, 412. 
 University of Pennsylvania. State aid to, 
 
 377. 387; history, 391-394; Presidents, 
 
 394; as a school for teachei-s, 607. 
 Universities and Colleges. History, 391- 
 
 429. 
 Upland Normal Institute, 463. 
 Ursinus College. History, 423. 
 
 Van der Donck, Adriaen, 9. 
 
 Vaux, Roberts. Supports Infant Schools, 
 285; chairman Committee on Public 
 Schools, 285 ; active in securing the adop- 
 tion of Lancasterian schools, 296; Presi- 
 dent Board of Control, 296; President of 
 Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion 
 of Public Schools, 296; letter of, 312; 
 prime-mover in establishing Institutions 
 for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, 442, 
 4435610. 
 
 Venango County. Secondary Education in, 
 489. 
 
 Venango County Academy, 489, 
 
 Verrill, Charles H. Principal of the Nor- 
 mal School at Mansfield, 627. 
 Vigera, John Frederick, 132. 
 Villa Nova College. History, 418. 
 
 Wagner Free Institute of Science, 436, 437. 
 
 Wagner, Prof. William. Founder of Wag- 
 ner Free Institute of Science, 436. 
 
 Walker, H. D., 469. 
 
 Walker, James, 466. 
 
 Wallace, Wm. A., 460, 467, 594. 
 
 Waller, Rev. D. J., 630. 
 
 Waller, D. J., Jr. Principal Normal School, 
 Bloomsburg, 631. 
 
 Ware, Matilda, 254. 
 
 Warren County. Secondary Education in, 
 489. 
 
 Warren County Academy, 489. 
 
 Washington. Meeting at, 301. 
 
 Washington College. State aid to, 378, 
 387 ; history, 402 ; Presidents, 402 ; as a 
 school for teachers, 608. 
 
 Washington and Jefferson College. His- 
 tory, 402, 403; Presidents, 403. 
 
 Washington County. Secondary Education 
 in, 489. 
 
 Washington Hall Collegiate Institute, 478. 
 
 Washington Institute, 471. 
 
 Washington Female Seminary, 490. 
 
 Waterford Academy, 464. 
 
 Watson, Rev. John 401. 
 
 Watson, Thomas. School for Indians, 240. 
 
 Waugh, Rev. Joseph, 452. 
 
 Wayne County. Secondary Education in, 
 490. 
 
 Waynesburg College. History, 412, 413; 
 Presidents, 413. 
 
 Webster, Noah. Master Episcopal Acad- 
 emy, Philadelphia, 98; author of text 
 books, 198. 
 
 Wechquetank, 244. 
 
 Weiser, Conrad, 128. 
 
 Weiss, Rev. George Michael, 126. 
 
 Weissinger, Rev. Daniel, 130. 
 
 Wesley, Rev. John, 1 18. 
 
 West Alexander Academy, 489. 
 
 West Branch High School, 474. 
 
 West Chester Academy, 456. 
 
 Western Pennsylvania Classical and Scien- 
 tific Institute, 491. 
 Western Teachers' Association, 546, 650. 
 Western University of Pennsylvania. State 
 aid to, 378; history, 405,406; Presidents, 
 406. 
 
682 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 West Freedom Academy, 459. 
 
 West India Company. Plants colonies in 
 America, 8 ; instructions concerning edu- 
 cation, 8. 
 
 Westminster College. History, 412, 413; 
 Presidents, 413.. 
 
 Westmoreland County. Secondary Educa- 
 tion in, 491. 
 
 Westtown Boarding School. History, 91- 
 93 ; as a school for teachers, 607. 
 
 Weyman, Rev. Mr., quoted, 249. 
 
 White, Bishop, 281, 442. 
 
 White's Directory, 1785. Names of teach- 
 ers, 278. 
 
 White, Gen. Harry, 638. 
 
 White Hall Academy, 462. 
 
 Whitefield, Rev. George, 118; school for 
 Negroes, 119, 150. 
 
 Wickersham, James P., 471 ; County Super- 
 intendent, 509; Chairman Committee, 
 511 ; addresses by, 523, 543 ; President 
 National Educational Association, 548 ; 
 Superintendent of Common Schools, 551 ; 
 sketch of, 551, 552; prepares for an ad- 
 vance movement, 553 ; reports, 553-556; 
 prepares the law of 1867, 558; other 
 legislation secured by, 562-564 ; projects 
 that failed, 564-566; work in revising 
 school laws, 566; pushes the grading of 
 schools, 566; opposes the text-book bill, 
 567 ; aids in establishing Normal Schools, 
 567 ; measures taken in their behalf, 
 568 ; reorganization of School Depart- 
 ment, 569; work in doors, 571, 572; 
 work in the field, 572; visits to counties, 
 573 ; aids in organizing the Board of 
 State Charities, 573 ; edits School Jour- 
 nal, 574, 655 ; made Superintendent of 
 Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 575, 599; ef- 
 forts in behalf of education in connection 
 with the Constitutional Convention, 576; 
 makes an educational exhibit in connec- 
 tion with the Centennial Exposition, 577— 
 581 ; goes to Europe, 581 ; work outside 
 of the State, 582 ; makes educational ex- 
 hibits in Chili and France, 583 ; prepares 
 bill establishing Soldiers' Orphan Schools, 
 588; policy as Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction, 600-604; retires from office, 
 604; as connected with the State Normal 
 .School at M iUersville, 622-624; 647; 
 652; author of works on teaching, 661. 
 
 Wiegand, John, 312. 
 
 Wilkesbarre Academy, ^72. 
 
 Willets, Samuel, 416. 
 
 William.sburg Academy, 451. 
 
 Wines, Dr. E. C, 653, 660. 
 
 Wilson, Alexander, 212; School at King- 
 sessing, 280. 
 
 Wilson, Rev. James, 450. 
 
 Wilson Female College, 466. 
 
 Witherspoon Institute, 454. 
 
 Wimmer, Rev. Abbott Boniface. Founder 
 of St. Vincent Abbey and College, 117, 
 418. 
 
 Wolf, Governor George, 212; extracts from 
 messages, 290, 295, 301, 302, 323, 324, 
 325 ; re-elected Governor, 302 ; presses 
 the enactment of a public school system, 
 308; extract from mess^e of 1833, 308; 
 nominated for a third term, but defeated, 
 339 ; a martyr to his free school prin- 
 ciples, 339; last words in behalf of 
 free schools, 340; quoted, 429; a 
 teacher, 479 ; favored teachers' schools* 
 614. 
 
 Women. Higher Education of, 427, 428. 
 
 Wood, Dr. George B., quoted, 393. 
 
 Woodbridge, Rev. William, quoted, 279. 
 
 Woodruff, W. W., 543, 557; Acting Dep- 
 uty Superintendent of Common Schools, 
 
 570; 649- 
 
 Woodson, Lewis, 254. 
 
 Woodward, Miss A. Y., 463. 
 
 Woolman, John. Mission to Indians, 240 ; 
 against slavery, 248. 
 
 Worthington, Dr. Wilmer. Member of 
 Legislative Committee that prepared free 
 school law of 1834, 311, 312; quoted, 
 309 ; Chairman Senate Committee on 
 Education, 573 ; supports Soldiers' Or- 
 phan Schools, 594. 
 
 Wright, Dr. A. T. W. Principal Normal 
 School, Philadelphia, 289, 6l i ; 481 ; 643 ; 
 
 645- 
 
 Writing. Confined to boys in the early 
 schools, 192; how taught, 192. 
 
 Wurts, John. Report, 274; 296. 
 
 Wyers, Wm. F., 456, 458, 649, 652. 
 
 Wyoming County. Secondary Education 
 in, 492. 
 
 Wyoming Seminary, 473. 
 
 Wyoming Valley. Territoi^ and settle- 
 ment, 75 ; action taken in regard to 
 schools, 75, 76; public schools established, 
 76; town school meetings, 76, 77; in- 
 fluence in shaping State school legisla- 
 tion, 77. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 683 
 
 Yearly Meeting of Friends. At London, 
 extracts from minutes relating to educa- 
 tion, 28, 29; "Advices" from concern- 
 ing education, 84; at Philadelphia, wges 
 the establishment of schools, 84-87 ; ef- 
 forts to promote peace with the Indians, 
 241. 
 
 Yeates Institute, 470. 
 
 York Academy, 492. 
 
 York Collegiate Institute, 492. 
 
 York County. Secondary Education in, 
 
 492. 
 Young, Rev. Alexander, quoted, 190. 
 
 Zeisberger, David. Moravian Missionary, 
 150, 240; prepares books for Indians, 
 
 245- 
 
 Zinzendorf, Count, 149, 168; opens a Mo- 
 ravian school at Germantown, 152. 
 
 Zuck, J. M., 467.