Class _l3Alli- 
 
 Book. J^IlE^ 
 
 Copyright 1J"__- — 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
era 
 
CHARLES LEWIS EHRENFELD. 
 
 First Principal of The Southwestern (Pennsylvania) State Nor- 
 mal School. 
 
BRIEF STORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Founding of the 
 Southwestern State Normal School 
 
 AT CALIFORNIA, PA. 
 
 INCLUDING THE 
 
 History of the Change of Financial Policy 
 
 of the State toward all her Normal 
 Schools, consequent upon the action 
 of the Legislature of 1872 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX 
 
 BY 
 
 C. L. EHRENFELD, Ex-Principal 
 
 Press of 
 
 The new Era printing company 
 
 Lancaster, Pa. 
 
 I910 
 

 Copyriglit, 1910 
 By Charles I^ewis Ehrenfeld 
 
 ©G!,A26805g. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The interest in the chapter of financial history of 
 the Southwestern State Normal School which con- 
 stitutes the essential part of this book and which has 
 been the occasion of its publication, has prompted 
 an earnest call for a history of the institution from its 
 beginning, and of the circumstances attendant upon 
 its origin. Who may worthily write such history is a 
 matter for the future, and nothing additional to the 
 body of the book has been attempted in these pages 
 beyond an introductory sketch of the financial efforts 
 and experiences of the board of trustees in their long 
 struggle to accomplish what they had undertaken and 
 what with their limited knowledge of the subject and 
 their meager resources was impossible for them from 
 the first. 
 
 A comprehensive history of the school, including in 
 addition to the essential matter of its financial affairs 
 a clear apprehension and a just conception of the 
 scholastic and cultural ideas that have dominated it; 
 of the moral and religious spirit that has animated it; 
 of the pedagogical aims that have warmed its opera- 
 tions as well as a proper recognition of the several 
 men who at different times have been at its head; 
 including also in addition to its important historic 
 events as many as practicable of the humorous and 
 serious incidents in the manifold life of the school 
 which operating all together bind the hearts of all 
 connected with the institution as graduates and stu- 
 
iv The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 dents, by invisible but imperishable ties, to the associa- 
 tions of its recitation and literary halls and to the 
 memorable personalities that have gone in and out 
 before them in the flowing years that have carried us 
 all along with them — such history properly conceived 
 and written would be both interesting and useful ; and 
 it would be well if it were written before failing mem- 
 ory forgets the faithful work that has been done; also 
 before the myth-making activity, which, perhaps, has 
 already set in, is allowed with impunity to invent 
 things that had no basis in fact but which, in the 
 absence of adequate original records is, to some extent, 
 possible even already and will become more so when 
 the few persons that yet survive and that can be con- 
 sulted shall also have passed from this life. 
 
 It will be well therefore to add here a record, though 
 brief, of the several different school epochs at the 
 borough of California prior to the establishment of 
 the Southwestern State Normal School in 1874. To 
 prevent confusion it is noted here that the *^ California 
 Seminary'* and ^^California Academy'* stand for the 
 same thing, the former having been the original title 
 of that early institution while the latter term or simply 
 the academy was used in common reference to it. 
 
 The Different Epochs. 
 
 1. First, the Public or Common school, 18 51. 
 
 This was the first school in the place and was taught 
 by (Rev.) Samuel Rothwell, who lived until within 
 a few years of this date. 
 
 2. Second, the ^^ California Seminary, ^^ 1 852-1 865. 
 The founders of the village, and foremost among 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. v 
 
 them, Job Johnson, being believers in advanced edu- 
 cation as well as anxious to boom their new town 
 enterprise, conceived the idea of turning their public 
 school into an academy by adding some higher bran- 
 ches to the common school course of studies ; and with- 
 out waiting or troubling themselves to get a charter, 
 they called it the * 'California Seminary''; and from 
 that day till this the public school of the borough, 
 though distinct in idea, has not been separate from, 
 first, the ''seminary'*, afterwards, the normal college, 
 and finally the state normal school. Of course then 
 the public school moneys were the fund of the "semi- 
 nary" plus whatever came in as tuition from outside 
 students. Prof. Ellis N. Johnson, a nephew of Job 
 Johnson's, was elected as principal and held the place 
 from 1 852-1 859. He seems to have been a very fit 
 man for the position. The school then had two rooms, 
 a brick building having been erected which constitutes 
 a part of the present old building on the hill. The 
 "seminary" directors and the town seem to have co- 
 operated in erecting the necessary school house, and 
 in the enthusiasm of the double enterprise of the new 
 town and the "seminary" they warmed to each other 
 like a swarm of bees in a new hive. After Professor 
 Johnson's resignation Professor J. C. Gilchrist, and 
 others in the absence of Mr. Gilchrist at Fayette City 
 and at Brownsville from 1863-5, had charge of the 
 seminary till 1865. The occasion of Professor Gil- 
 christ's retiring from the seminary was that owing to 
 the financial condition of the country, the political 
 turmoil and the oncoming storm of the Civil War the 
 attendance of students from the outside was arrested 
 and moreover the early interest in the enterprise was 
 not so controlling as it had been. 
 
vi The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 3. Third, the Southwestern Normal College, 1865- 
 
 1874. 
 
 In 1859 an effort had been made to obtain a charter 
 for the ''seminary'' as the normal school of the district, 
 and although it passed the Legislature it was vetoed 
 by the Governor. The effort was renewed in 1865 
 and a charter obtained under the name given above. 
 Professor Gilchrist, who with Job Johnson and others 
 had obtained the charter, was chosen as principal, 
 although the income proved still insufficient for his 
 proper support; but in the following year 1866 he was 
 chosen as superintendent of the Washington County 
 schools, and although having resigned as principal of 
 the normal college his remaining practically its head 
 was probably the occasion of his defeat as a candidate 
 for reelection as county superintendent. After his 
 term as county superintendent had expired he was 
 again elected principal of the normal college but re- 
 signed in 1870 for reasons that are given on a following 
 page. 
 
 Professor C. L. Ehrenfeld was secured as principal 
 in 1 87 1 and remained at the head of the normal college 
 till the close of its epoch in May, 1874, when the 
 sunrise of ''recognition'' brought in the long-looked-for 
 morning of the State Normal School; of this Mr. Ehren- 
 feld then became the first principal. He remained at 
 its head till February, 1877, when he resigned to 
 accept the position of financial secretary of the Depart- 
 ment of Public Instruction. 
 
 Before dismissing the earlier periods the writer 
 wishes to say that if he were writing anything in the 
 way of a full history of the normal college and of the 
 "California Seminary" he would have to speak of a 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. vii 
 
 number of other teachers and notably of Prof. W. N. 
 Hull and of Hon. A. J. Buffington. 
 
 4. Fourth, The Southwestern State Normal School, 
 May 26, 1874, and since. 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld was principal continuously of the 
 normal college and of the state normal school from 
 July, 1871, to February, 1877. He sent in the last 
 annual report of the Southwestern Normal College 
 which may be found on page Ixxx of Pennsylvania 
 School Report for 1873 in "Statement T, showing 
 Statistics of Academies, Seminaries and Female Col- 
 leges.*' 
 
 The report of it as a state normal school occurs 
 naturally for the first time in 1874, since it was only 
 then it had been recognized as such. This report 
 may be found on pages 233-235 in State School Report 
 for 1874. 
 
 The occasion of its "recognition'* was so great a 
 day that a paragraph from the principal's report will 
 be read with interest by the present generation. 
 
 "At last, after many years of toil and waiting the 
 Southwestern Normal College makes report as one 
 of our State Normal schools. . . . The day of recog- 
 nition; 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 ele- 
 vation of the speeches; the singular impressiveness of 
 the meeting 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 
 
viii The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 schoors new era in the hearts of very many. May 
 such opening prove prophetic of a corresponding fu- 
 ture." 
 
 Southwestern State 
 
 Normal School, 191 o. 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 
 
 The following chapter of history was prepared sub- 
 stantially many years ago, though with but little 
 thought of its publication; subsequent events however, 
 and some recent occurrences as at the **01d Timers' " 
 Reunion in 1905, suggested the propriety if not the 
 necessity of its being given to the public. Moreover, 
 the emphatic urgency of a number of those who have 
 read it in manuscript has decided the matter in favor 
 of its publication. 
 
 The readers of the following narrative will at once 
 perceive that the story which it tells of the appeal to 
 the Legislature is interwoven throughout with the 
 story of the material life of the institution in whose 
 behalf the appeal to the Legislature was made. Nei- 
 ther can be properly told separately from the other. 
 
 The appeal, though made primarily in the interest 
 of an individual school, involved, in the logic of its 
 success, and in its actual results, the interests alike 
 of all the normal schools in the commonwealth. 
 
 It should be stated, for the information of those not 
 familiar with the early history of the Pennsylvania State 
 Normal Schools, that the Legislature, while passing 
 the act authorizing their establishment; and outlining 
 the mode of procedure in order to obtain a charter, 
 and designating in particular the several necessary 
 buildings and other material equipments, and indi- 
 cating the scholastic and pedagogical departments and 
 the minimum number of properly qualified instructors 
 
2 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 for the several departments— while setting forth all 
 these and other things alike necessary in order to its 
 obtaining recognition from the State and therewith 
 authority to graduate and license teachers, did not at 
 the same time provide, nor did it intend to provide, 
 the money to establish them or to support them after- 
 wards. In his volume, ^^Education in Pennsylvania,*' 
 page 621, Dr. Wickersham says: **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 
 school system and the power granted them of licensing 
 teachers, were expected to bring them into existence 
 as rapidly as they could be supported.** 
 
 A potential conviction of Superintendent Wicker- 
 sham's was that in the best interests of the people 
 themselves they ought themselves to establish and 
 support the normal schools. The people needed the 
 invaluable education and the intelligent sympathy 
 with the schools, and the experience which they would 
 and could acquire only by having to pass through the 
 struggle of actually planting, equipping and supporting 
 them. To conceive the idea of establishing such a 
 school in a community and to get a charter for it were 
 not very difficult things, and would likely occur to 
 more than one in any intelligent community, but to 
 found it, to obtain the needed money to put into it 
 and the wise intelligence to equip it according to the 
 law, and thus obtain recognition from the State and 
 therewith authority to graduate and license teachers 
 —this was the trying thing to get done ; this only gave 
 the institution a foundation. This he expected each 
 proposed school to do and not expect the State to 
 do it. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 3 
 
 As to the wisdom of this view there might possibly 
 be no serious question, but that in the political and 
 social not to say educational conditions of this com- 
 monwealth, great as it was and is, it was impracticable. 
 
 Moreover, the State could not afford to wait for 
 normal schools any more than it could have afforded 
 to wait for the establishment of the system of free 
 common schools. 
 
 But it is very plain now if it was not then, that if in 
 so important an undertaking, so vital to the interests 
 of the public schools and so new to the experience of 
 the commonwealth, the State intended actually to 
 restrict these schools to their own financial resources, 
 it ought to have provided a competent and resolute 
 board of control by whose authoritative and faithful 
 oversight the efforts and expectations of the schools 
 might have been kept within the provisions of the law. 
 
 Whether this was practicable at the time when the 
 normal school law was enacted is, perhaps, a question 
 but it would, for several reasons, have been very de- 
 sirable, and especially so as to guard against the at- 
 tempt by enthusiastic, not to say ambitious com- 
 munities, without population or financial resources 
 and where the effort must sooner or later collapse and 
 fail unless the State should finally step in and itself 
 furnish the means, contrary to its own statute. 
 
 When the law authorizing the normal schools was 
 enacted in 1857 the purchase of the ground and erec- 
 tion of the required buildings could not, even in that 
 day of cheap materials and low prices of labor, have 
 been successfully undertaken without many ten thous- 
 ands of dollars in hand or in sight, for the purchase of 
 the land, for the erection of the recitation halls, chapels 
 
4 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 and dormitories, and with much more prospectively 
 available for equipment and beginning of operations, 
 with, at least, an approximately full faculty. 
 
 But after the Civil War, when prices of building 
 material and of labor had been doubled, only a popu- 
 lous, wealthy and liberal community could hope to 
 succeed in establishing one of these institutions, in 
 accordance with the demands of the law. 
 
 What then were the resources of the borough of 
 California in 1865 when it succeeded in obtaining a 
 charter for the academy at that place as State Normal 
 School of the Tenth District? 
 
 Before answering this, one should not omit stating 
 the fact that application had been made by the same 
 academy for a charter as a State Normal School, al- 
 ready in 1859; that an act granting it passed the 
 Legislature but was vetoed by Governor Packer. 
 
 It is worth while to give the Governor's reasons, as 
 set forth in an address by Mr. T. B. McCain at the 
 Old Timers' Reunion, in 1905. He said: *The Gover- 
 nor promptly vetoed it for three reasons: (i) Because 
 it proposed to combine the three-fold functions of 
 the common school, of an endowed private seminary, 
 and of a state normal school; (2) because its provi- 
 sions were inconsistent with each other, and with the 
 common school law, as well as with the general law 
 in regard to state normal schools, and (3) because the 
 practical operations of the bill would be subversive 
 of the interests and prosperity of the common schools 
 of the borough, and of the rights and interests of the 
 tenth normal school district, under the act establishing 
 normal schools." 
 
 The Governor is quoted further as follows: * There 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 5 
 
 is no apparent reason why the tenth normal district 
 should be organized under a special law, nor why the 
 California Seminary should be recognized as the nor- 
 mal school of that district before it has been properly 
 organized and established under the general law." 
 
 Mr. McCain proceeds himself to make comment, 
 saying: *'It was a wise veto. . . . Think of a great 
 institution like this being successfully managed under 
 a tripartite agreement between the borough school 
 board (subject to annual change, often for political 
 reasons) , the trustees of the Academy, and the repre- 
 sentatives of the stockholders of the normal school! 
 Such a triangular arrangement would be sure to result 
 in a tripartite disagreement.'' 
 
 In answer now to the question as to the material 
 resources of the borough of California when the first 
 application for a charter for the academy as a state 
 normal school was made. In the absence of conven- 
 ient statistics for 1859 let those of i860, one year after- 
 wards, be given. In that year the total population 
 of California (borough) men, women and children, was 
 476. Five years afterwards in 1 865 , when it succeeded 
 in obtaining the charter, the population, men, women 
 and children, was 567. The number of its school 
 children was 220. The amount levied for school 
 purposes was $527. 
 
 Adding to these figures the like statistics of the 
 neighboring borough of Greenfield (now Coal Center), 
 thus including the whole community, we have a popu- 
 lation in 1865 of 945! Five years after this, in 1870, 
 the total population of the two boroughs was 1,045, 
 having increased one hundred in the intervening five 
 years. Its assessments for school purposes in both 
 
6 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 boroughs for 1870 was $855.49, and the State appro- 
 priation for both was $140.22. 
 
 These figures tell their own story, ^'Ex eo argumen- 
 ta." 
 
 It is hardly to be wondered at that a hardheaded 
 member of the Legislature should have remarked that 
 ''those people must have regarded the requirements 
 of the normal school law as a joke or have looked at 
 their academy through an immense magnifying glass." 
 
 It could hardly be expected that the people of 
 Washington County would sympathize with a com- 
 munity, so diminutive in population and wealth, in 
 their undertaking of an enterprise that would have 
 seriously taxed the financial resources of the most 
 populous and wealthy town or community within the 
 four counties of their normal school district. 
 
 But the enterprising and determined men who a 
 few years before had founded the borough and had 
 now succeeded in obtaining for their academy the 
 charter for the State Normal School of the Tenth 
 District, seem not to have consciously realized, not 
 even partially, how impossible it was financially for 
 them to accomplish what they had undertaken. 
 
 The great asset in their minds was the academy 
 which now since they had obtained the charter, carried 
 the dignified name of ''The South Western Normal 
 College,'* and seemed to have blinded them to the 
 fact that they were no nearer the goal financially than 
 they had been before. 
 
 But the introduction of normal methods by Pro- 
 fessor J. C. Gilchrist had brought many actual and 
 prospective teachers each summer to the "Institute 
 Term'* of six weeks to make special preparation for 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 7 
 
 the annual examination by the County Superintend- 
 ent, and this attendance was much increased when 
 Professor Gilchrist himself had become County Super- 
 intendent, though he then resigned his position at the 
 head of the ''California School/' 
 
 In the light, however, of this normal work it became 
 a matter of earnest inquiry, on the part of the average 
 citizen, why the school should not be at once ''recog- 
 nized'* by the State; and this naturally helps to ac- 
 count for the several active efforts of the board of 
 trustees to obtain "recognition'' without being re- 
 quired to meet the demands of the law in respect of 
 buildings and equipments. 
 
 It was therefore thought and said by some educa- 
 tors, who were in the normal school work of the State, 
 that it was unfortunate for this school that it had gone 
 into operation as a normal school previous to its hav- 
 ing erected the necessary buildings and furnished the 
 necessary equipments, and accordingly other schools, 
 and perhaps all of them thereafter, did not attempt 
 to begin operations till after they had obtained "recog- 
 nition" by having first met the demands of the law. 
 
 But, returning to the financial situation, we find 
 that, like the determined men that they were, they 
 had struggled to raise money by subscription and by 
 the selling of stock; and in 1868 they purchased the 
 necessary ground and began a central building, at 
 whose corner-stone laying Governor Geary and other 
 State officials were present. Although this outwardly 
 encouraging step had been taken, we find the financial 
 situation was not enhanced, but the work soon came 
 to a standstill. In Wickersham's "Education in Penn- 
 sylvania," already quoted, we read on page 635, that 
 
8 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 ''he had seen the site selected and that some progress 
 had been made in the erection of buildings, but that 
 it was found impossible to secure subscriptions from 
 the citizens to any large amount without a guarantee 
 that the State would accept the institution when com- 
 pleted as proposed; and the project stood still." 
 
 Of course, no such guarantee could have been given 
 further than was already provided in the law, nor 
 could any guarantee have availed to enable them to 
 make any further subscriptions, because it was not 
 within the financial possibilities of the community. 
 
 Superintendent Wickersham could not in the short 
 visit of a day penetrate the financial situation. It 
 had done its utmost and it had no resources outside 
 of itself. It had not enlisted the interest of the people 
 beyond its immediate vicinity, and this is not said in 
 criticism of the people in the little town or of those 
 beyond. As a fact, therefore, the project had not 
 only come to a ** standstill,'* as Superintendent 
 Wickersham had said, but it had no prospect of means 
 to resume work on the arrested building operations. 
 
 But the good work of the academy under Professor 
 Gilchrist and others, both before and after it had 
 succeeded in obtaining the charter as the *^South 
 Western Normal College,*' had gained it a reputation, 
 under whose prestige an appeal was made to the Legis- 
 lature in that year, 1869, when the work had come to 
 a standstill. 
 
 During the three preceding years the State had 
 changed its policy to the extent of giving each normal 
 school $5,000 after it had met the requirements of 
 the law and had obtained recognition. In view of 
 this fact a bill was introduced in the Legislature by 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 9 
 
 Hon. A. J. Buffington, a member from Washington 
 County, and a former teacher in the ** California 
 School/' appropriating $15,000 to this school to be 
 paid in three annual installments, under certain speci- 
 fic stipulations. This was in continuance of the move- 
 ment that led to the policy of giving that amount to 
 each of the several normal schools. The senator rep- 
 resenting the district, Hon. A. W. Taylor, of Beaver 
 County, spoke forcibly on Normal Schools and in 
 favor of the bill, notwithstanding that it proposed to 
 give this large amount, and to give it before instead of 
 after the institution had fulfilled the requirements of 
 the law and before it had obtained recognition. 
 (Legislative Record, 1869, pp. 1043,-1066.) 
 
 In like spirit Senator White of Indiana County said: 
 **I have listened with great interest to the history 
 which the senator from Beaver has given of the efforts 
 to establish this school. I confess my sympathies are 
 all with them and I would be sorry to see the enter- 
 prise of the people in that direction all checked by 
 the failure to come within the technical meaning of 
 the law. The County of Washington has justly earned 
 the title of promoting liberal education.'' (Legis- 
 lative Record, 1869, p. 1067.) While there was some 
 decided opposition to the bill it was nevertheless 
 passed, and the more readily because Senator Taylor 
 said: *'The institution will be ready for recognition 
 at most within a year." 
 
 With the help of this appropriation the work on the 
 building was resumed and carried forward and put 
 under roof with some recitation rooms ready for oc- 
 cupancy. Quoting from Professor G. G. Hertzog, 
 we read: *ln the fall of 1870, although the building 
 
lo The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 was far from completed and poorly furnished, the 
 school was removed from the old building to the new." 
 
 While this was a step forward it fell far short of what 
 had been expected and promised as possible upon re- 
 ceiving the appropriation of $15,000. To those inside 
 of the actual situation the prospect was not hopeful. 
 Quoting again from Professor Hertzog we read that, 
 shortly after the removal to the new building, *Tro- 
 fessor Gilchrist, wearied with long waiting and in- 
 sufficient support, tendered his resignation to become 
 principal of the state normal school at Fairmount, 
 West Virginia.'' 
 
 This is one of the most pathetic incidents in the 
 early history of the school, that the man who, not- 
 withstanding the manifest inability of the community 
 to furnish the means to establish the school, had 
 nevertheless attempted it and had labored so resolutely 
 against the adverse conditions, toiling and teaching, 
 until weary of the growing burden he felt it his duty 
 to resign when his efforts were seemingly doomed to 
 disappointment. 
 
 It was evident that the prospect of obtaining * 'recog- 
 nition" within a year, as Senator Taylor had been 
 authorized to announce, could not be realized, and, 
 in view of the exhausted funds probably not in many 
 years if at all, for not only was the recent appropria- 
 tion of $15,000 actually or potentially all expended, 
 but the outlook for any future assistance from the 
 State was darkened by the fact that an appropriation, 
 and so large a one, had been made to a school not yet 
 recognized; for it had given no little offence, in dif- 
 ferent quarters of the commonwealth, as may be seen, 
 in part, from the debates cited in the following account 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. ii 
 
 of the discussion, upon the appropriation applied for 
 three years afterwards, in 1872. The action of the 
 Legislature in the appropriation of $15,000 in 1869 
 was not in accordance with the poHcy of the Depart- 
 ment of Education, and Senator Taylor seems to have 
 been misinformed when he stated that the proposed 
 appropriation had the approval of the Superintendent 
 of Common Schools. 
 
 The writer of this happens to know that when in 
 1 871, two years after the appropriation of $15,000 
 had been made and paid over to the school, and ex- 
 pended, and the work of building, not to speak of 
 equipment, was again at a standstill with the incom- 
 plete building mortgaged for all it could bear, and a 
 floating debt besides lying against it, the State super- 
 intendent was not pleased and was discouraged, and 
 all the more because he had been led by the confident 
 expressions from the school to announce its being 
 ready for recognition at an early date. 
 
 The effect of the desolate financial condition after 
 the assurance had been given of early readiness for 
 recognition if the $15,000 were granted, was to drive 
 the State department into a more determined purpose 
 than ever to favor no further pecuniary assistance to 
 any of the schools, but to insist on their being estab- 
 lished and not merely chartered and normal work 
 undertaken, but really founded and equipped by the 
 community which had obtained the charter and had there- 
 by bound itself to erect the buildings and equip them 
 before asking for recognition. 
 
 When therefore the new principal of the *^ California 
 School,'* Mr. Ehrenfeld, decided to go before the Leg- 
 islature, in 1872, for an appropriation, he had to en- 
 
12 The Southwestern Normal School, 
 
 counter a very decided opposition to any further ap- 
 propriation to the normal schools at all, as may be 
 seen in the following narrative; but one of the most 
 remarkable and naturally unexpected things was that 
 the Senator from Indiana County, whose plea in the 
 Legislature of 1869 in favor of the school at California, 
 and that was made chiefly in the name of Washington 
 County and that was largely the deciding word that 
 carried the appropriation of the $15,000, was now, 
 in 1872, the most persistent, not to say denunciatory 
 opponent of the proposed appropriation to the same 
 school. 
 
 But this senator and others who opposed the ap- 
 propriation had the law indeed on their side, albeit 
 negatively, as it did not forbid, only it did not author- 
 ize nor intend to authorize any appropriation by the 
 State; but to the new principal of the * ^California 
 School,'' whose responsibilities compelled him to study 
 the whole question of these institutions and of the law 
 authorizing them, it had become evident that what- 
 ever the law did or did not contemplate, the time had 
 come for the normal schools to be taken hold of, lifted 
 up and put in the arms of the Commonwealth, for 
 the Commonwealth itself to rear and foster; and upon 
 this conviction he made his appeal. 
 
 And while that appeal for an appropriation suc- 
 ceeded and in its effect finally reversed the financial 
 policy of the State towards her normal schools, it 
 did not then, nor has it yet, quickened in the conscious- 
 ness of the people any adequate realization of what 
 potentialities of benefit to each rising generation are 
 embodied in the enginery of these institutions, if their 
 needs were considered with anything like the devotion 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 13 
 
 bestowed on the material and political interests of the 
 State. Even in their cramped conditions and imper- 
 fections they are among the very most useful institu- 
 tions within the reach of our people. That great and 
 much lauded institution, established in 1834, the com- 
 mon school, still awaits its truer realization and larger 
 fruition, through increased efficiency of its army of 
 teachers, and this can be attained only through in- 
 creased efficiency of the normal schools. 
 
 There have been and still are some who speak of 
 getting a supply of good teachers without efficient 
 training schools, and not a few instances are cited of 
 very capable teachers who never had help of a normal 
 school. 
 
 We have sometimes heard elderly people speak of 
 how when they were young they gathered strawberries 
 in the meadow and often found large, luscious berries 
 equal to any produced now; and it was true, as many 
 as a dozen large ones in a measure, but now, under 
 the culture of that berry, the whole measure is filled 
 with large ones. The whole army of teachers and 
 also the schools have been immensely uplifted and 
 improved by the normal schools, as any one of forty 
 or fifty years' observation can abundantly testify. 
 
 Pennsylvania is a great State, but her greatness is 
 not unsearchable. She needs self criticism. She is 
 rich in her material endowments, rich also in the strong 
 races that have sought and builded their homes in her 
 garden-like valleys and among her hills, but her heter- 
 ogeneous races have not yet become a thoroughly 
 homogeneous people, hence remain serious political 
 and educational problems for her statesmen and her 
 educators. 
 
14 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 We cannot drop this subject without saying that 
 our State has no important subject before it— no new 
 Capitol however splendid outwardly and built with 
 or without fraud — nothing more fully and intensely 
 charged with the energies needful for the proper evo- 
 lution and rightful realization of her possible high 
 destiny than the subject of providing well and highly 
 trained teachers, intellectually and morally, for the 
 generations of children that one after another are 
 coming up over the horizon and entering upon her 
 fields and into the avenues of her varied activities 
 as well as into the serious obligations of citizenship. 
 
 The following chapter of history, together with this 
 slight prefatory sketch, aims only to give in brief out- 
 line the effort of the little community, of the little 
 band of determined men in it, who, without any ma- 
 terial resources, with only a bright little academy in 
 the village, sought to make it the state normal school 
 of the district, but who found the conditions imposed 
 by the law beyond their ability to meet and, notwith- 
 standing their zeal and sacrifices, could only come to 
 a standstill, yet nevertheless at last obtained the re- 
 luctant interposition of the State itself and the moneys 
 from it to assure a foundation for the struggling enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Although this sketch cannot enter upon the matter 
 of distributing honor to whom special honor is due, 
 yet there is one who is still tarrying with us and re- 
 taining his lively interest in the institution, at the 
 great age of four score and six years, John N. Dixon, 
 of whom a word must be said. 
 
 Mr. Dixon was a wealthy farmer and coal operator, 
 living beyond the Monongahela River, in Fayette 
 
The Southwestern Normal SchooL 15 
 
 County, whose interest in the school was secured at 
 an early day. He was unmarried, but may be said 
 to have taken the school as his bride and with a 
 generous spirit that never lapsed, came to the help 
 of the school in its sorest need. 
 
 Even when the State appropriated money it was 
 never equal to the schooFs necessities and then it was 
 often long withheld, so that for this reason as well as 
 from accumulating obligations, the empty treasury of 
 the school had to be replenished by borrowing; but 
 the school had no assets upon which it could obtain 
 money from the banks. At these times it was Mr. 
 Dixon that put his potent name on the paper and 
 secured the loans. There were some others, but it 
 was chiefly he, and oftener than can be counted, who 
 gave the effective endorsement. 
 
 There are yet other things to be said of this strong, 
 honest man, but they need more space than the com- 
 pass of this paragraph. 
 
 The following chapter together with this introduc- 
 tory sketch deals primarily with the long and dreary 
 financial struggle of those who attempted to plant the 
 Normal School of the Tenth District at the borough 
 of California, and the rescue of it from failure when 
 the State was itself induced at last to step in and save 
 it; but the story of its inner life, of its varied, deeply 
 engraven experiences also before but especially during 
 the now thirty-five years since its * ^recognition,*' and 
 while not forgetting others, yet preeminently of him, 
 our late, lamented principal, whose long headship con- 
 ducted the school to the high level on which it stands; 
 of his absorbing and resolute devotion to the highest 
 pedagogical aims; of his fine spirit of culture and 
 
1 6 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 altruism that gave to the school the warmth of a 
 home; of the sudden and pathetic close to his life 
 and to his long and memorable administration — this 
 story remains to be written. 
 
 We are permitted to use the following letter from 
 Hon. Henry Houck. 
 
 Harrisburg, May 20, 1909. 
 My dear Doctor Ehrenfeld: 
 
 I am under many obligations to you for sending me the 
 Historical Sketch which I have read from beginning to end. 
 I have personal knowledge of many of the facts therein con- 
 tained. This sketch should be preserved and I hope you will 
 find your way clear to have it published. Perhaps this would 
 be done by your school. It should appear in pamphlet form 
 and be widely circulated throughout the State. What a 
 wonderful history it is, and it is only due you that the friends 
 of our normal schools should know the work you did at a time 
 when it was very badly needed. ... 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Henry Houck. 
 
 Also, from among numerous others, the following 
 from W. H. Cooke, editor of the News Standard, 
 Uniontown. 
 
 Mr. Cooke was a student of the old **California 
 Academy'* under Professor Gilchrist and subsequently 
 at the normal school under Professor Ehrenfeld. 
 
 Uniontown, Pa., Dec. 29, 1909. 
 
 Dear Doctor: 
 
 I have read the Chapter of History with much interest. It 
 is a very valuable contribution to the school's history — ad- 
 mirably prepared. The records quoted are convincing that 
 it is real history. 
 
REV, THEODORE BLAND NOSS, 
 Principal i883-i909. 
 
 A.M. AND Ph.D., SYRACUSE: STUDENT, BERLIN. JENA AND PARIS. 
 
 (Born May lo, 1852. Died February 28. 1909 ) 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 17 
 
 It is very important that this be preserved. The school 
 needs it in permanent form and should have it printed and 
 bound. ... I thank you for the pleasure the reading of it 
 has given me. I will want some copies when it is printed. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Wm. H. Cooke. 
 
A CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF THE SOUTH- 
 WESTERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT 
 CALIFORNIA, PENNSYLVANIA; 
 
 AND History of the Change, by the State, of its 
 Financial Policy Towards its Normal Schools, 
 Consequent upon the Successful Appeal of 
 THIS School to the Legislature by its Prin- 
 cipal, FOR AN Appropriation of $10,000, in 1872. 
 There have been more than a few articles written 
 and pubHshed on the history of the above institution, 
 but not a Httle remains yet to be written and pubHshed 
 for the proper information of some, even, who have 
 been closely identified with the school. 
 
 One of the most valuable, probably the most valu- 
 able of all yet published in regard to the early history 
 of the school, previous to 1871, is the article entitled: 
 "The Normal (School) prior to 1874," by Professor 
 G. G. Hertzog. 
 
 This was read upon occasion of the reunion of the 
 "Old Timers'' held at commencement, in the Normal 
 Chapel of the school, June 27, 1905. 
 
 Several other papers were prepared for the same 
 occasion but reference is here made only to the one 
 above named, because what is proposed to be set forth 
 in the following article will connect itself closely with 
 that, at the year 1871, and will overlap it for the 
 period between 1871 and 1874, and it will also supply 
 some very important historic facts not included in the 
 
 18 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 19 
 
 above article, as well as also correct some errors con- 
 tained therein. 
 
 What is proposed in this article is a chapter of his- 
 tory in the life of this school, and involving the other 
 normal schools of the State, that has never been given 
 to the public in any connected or adequate narrative, 
 although some of the facts have been recognized in a 
 casual way. 
 
 The chapter will begin with the principalship of 
 Professor Ehrenfeld, who entered upon his duties in 
 July, 1 871. The topics will be: 
 
 1. The financial rehabilitation of the school. 
 
 (a) By obtaining an appropriation of $10,000 from 
 the State and thereby, since it involved a change of 
 the financial policy of the State toward the normal 
 schools, insuring the future assistance by the State. 
 
 {b) By securing the passage of an act of the Legis- 
 lature supplementary to the charter, authorizing the 
 issue of bonds on a first mortgage paying eight per 
 cent, interest, thereby securing the fund with which 
 to continue building operations and so obtain recog- 
 nition. 
 
 2. The consequent resumption of building opera- 
 tions. 
 
 3. The attainment of recognition by the State of 
 this institution as one of the regular state normal 
 schools. 
 
 First, then, of the financial rehabilitation of the 
 school. A sentence from Professor Hertzog's article 
 alluded to above, will serve to introduce this part of 
 the subject. He said: ''In the fall of 1870, although 
 the new building was far from completion and poorly 
 furnished, the school was transferred from the old 
 
20 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 building to the new, and shortly afterwards, Septem- 
 «, . ^. . „ ber 5, Professor Gilchrist, wearied 
 
 Resignation of Pro- .11 . . 1 • m • 
 
 fessor GUchrist and the With long waiting and insumcient 
 
 reason* t 1 1 • • • 
 
 support, tendered his resignation 
 to become principal of the State Normal School at 
 Fairmount, West Virginia/* Discouraging as the fi- 
 nancial situation was to Professor Gilchrist (and he 
 was not easily discouraged), and dark as it was to the 
 members of the board of trustees, it had not improved 
 during the winter after Professor Gilchrist left, nor dur- 
 ing the interval between his departure and the coming 
 of Professor Ehrenfeld in the following July, 1871. 
 
 Election of Professor C. L. Ehrenfeld. 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld had, upon invitation of the board of 
 trustees, with a view to his taking the principalship, 
 visited the school in May, 1871, while it was in session 
 with Professor G. G. Hertzog acting as principal ; and 
 while Mr. Ehrenfeld was pleased with the activity of 
 the school and its remote possibilities, yet the outlook 
 and the surroundings of the school were so little en- 
 couraging that he felt he ought not to accept the 
 position; and having written thus to the board of 
 trustees after his return home, they wrote and urged 
 him to consider the matter further. 
 
 It may be as well to quote official documents at 
 this point. The following is the official notification 
 of his election: 
 
 South Western Normal College, 
 California, Pa., June 6, 1871. 
 Prof. C. L. Ehrenfeld, 
 
 Dear Sir: I have the honor to say to you that the board 
 of trustees have unaminously elected you principal of our 
 institution for the ensuing year at a salary of $1,500. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 21 
 
 I hope that you will not hesitate to accept the position. 
 Providence has certainly opened to you a wide door of use- 
 fulness, and extensive field of labor. 
 
 Our fall session will begin July 18, and continue twelve 
 weeks. Hoping to hear from you quite soon, I am, 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 G. G. Hertzog, Sect'y. 
 
 The following letter from Mr. Edward Riggs to 
 Professor Ehrenfeld came after he had written and 
 indicated his refusal. 
 
 California, Wash. Co., Pa., June 14, 187 1. 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld, 
 
 Dear Sir: We were exceedingly sorry to hear from your 
 letter to Mr. Hertzog, of your adverse decision. . . . Please 
 let me know at your earliest convenience if there is no pos- 
 sibility of your yet accepting the proffered position. Your 
 friends here feel a deep solicitude that you should do so, if 
 you can do so without too much sacrifice. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 Edward Riggs. 
 
 Another from the same gentleman on the following 
 day: 
 
 California, Wash. Co., Pa., June 15, 1871. 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld, 
 
 Bear Sir: Since writing my last, we had a special meeting 
 of the board of trustees of our college, and am officially author- 
 ized to say to you that we are solicitous for you to accept 
 the position to which you have been chosen and that it is 
 indispensable for us to know your decision within the next 
 ten days. Yours respectfully, 
 
 Edward Riggs. 
 
22 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 Meanwhile, also a letter from the State Department, 
 written by Mr. Houck, came to Mr. Ehrenfeld, urging 
 him to accept. He then wrote his acceptance and 
 entered upon his duties, as already indicated. When 
 Professor Ehrenfeld arrived at the school, the institute 
 term of six weeks was just opening, and the attendance 
 seemed encouraging. As this institute came in the 
 summer vacation, between the spring and fall terms, 
 and as Professor Gilchrist was having his vacation at 
 the same time, the opportunity had been seized to 
 employ him for the term of the institute, as Mr. 
 Ehrenfeld*s acceptance was then uncertain. 
 
 For the proper understanding of the history of this 
 school, it should be borne in mind that it had been in 
 existence already many years as an academy, before 
 it obtained its charter to become a state normal school, 
 and that it continued to do academic and normal work 
 until it arrived at recognition and adoption as the 
 State Normal School of the Tenth District. 
 
 The Financial Rehabilitation. 
 
 At a meeting of the board during the term of the 
 institute, August 19, 1871, the financial situation was 
 the special topic of consideration; Professor Gilchrist 
 had offered a series of resolutions on the seventh of 
 August, which were held over till August 19, when they 
 were adopted and which Professor Hertzog has given 
 in his article. It is sufficient here to give the points 
 of the resolutions. The first declared it to be the 
 true policy of the board to ''go forward*' without inter- 
 ruption to complete the buildings. The second re- 
 solved to ''Proceed to execute a mortgage to an amount 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 23 
 
 not exceeding $50,000 to run six years/* etc. The 
 third resolved on an immediate effort to borrow the 
 amount proposed to be secured by mortgage and, if 
 possible, begin the erection of the dormitories in the 
 fall. That was in the same autumn of 1871, and it 
 was then already August. 
 
 In the comment which immediately follows the reso- 
 lutions in Professor Hertzog's article, the author says, 
 among other things: ^^an effort was made to move 
 along these lines. The Legislature authorized the loan 
 on a first mortgage, but money was not so abundant 
 then as now . . . and although the rate was made eight 
 per cent., and the time fifteen years, the bonds to the 
 amount of only $16,000 were sold. Meanwhile Pro- 
 fessor Ehrenfeld was elected principal and entered 
 upon his duties July i, 1871.*' 
 
 The inference seems natural from the above com- 
 ment, that as a result of action taken in obedience to 
 those resolutions, legislation was obtained authorizing 
 a loan on a first mortgage, at eight per cent., etc., but 
 such inference is entirely without facts to support it. 
 The legislative action on which **the loans that were 
 made on a first mortgage, at a rate of interest of eight 
 per cent., and the time fifteen years, and bonds to the 
 amount of $15,000 sold,*' was approved April 10, 1873, 
 and in pursuance of a series of resolutions passed by 
 the board of trustees (not in August, 1871, but) on the 
 third of March, 1873, which was more than a year and 
 a half, more than twenty months, after the passing of 
 the resolutions given in the historical article above 
 quoted; all of which also occurred after Professor 
 Ehrenfeld's successful appeal to the legislature in 1872 
 for $10,000, but after which it was still necessary not 
 
24 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 only to effect a loan, but also to get authority for it 
 and to obtain such authority, the act of April lo, 1873 
 was secured by application of the board to the Legis- 
 lature through the agency of Professor Ehrenfeld; all 
 of which facts, and the preliminary proceedings of the 
 board of trustees, and, afterwards, of the Legislature, 
 will be given as fully as practicable when each point 
 is reached in its proper place in the course of this narra- 
 tive. It is apparent, also, that the statement at the 
 end of the above comment, that * 'meanwhile. Professor 
 Ehrenfeld was elected and entered upon his duties in 
 1 871," needs explication. It reads very much as if 
 he had come in while the things named in the above 
 comment were going on, or had been done; but none 
 of them had, as yet, been even begun or thought of, 
 nor were they accomplished without his chief agency. 
 Indeed, in the body of the bonds themselves, it is said: 
 **and in pursuance of a resolution of the board of 
 trustees of said college, adopted at a meeting thereof, 
 on the third of March, 1873 and entered on their 
 minutes of that date,'* so that the date of the board's 
 action and statement of the bond, negatives the impli- 
 cation of the comment. 
 
 The errors that occur in the article were, of course, 
 unintentional, and were evidently due to the author's 
 being without the historical facts and official docu- 
 ments at that point in his statement. 
 
 The action and resolutions of that meeting, August, 
 1 871, did not result in any practical measures, but 
 did make still clearer the fact that the trustees were at 
 the end of their resources. 
 
 Recurring to the date of the meeting at which the 
 above resolutions offered by Professor Gilchrist were 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 25 
 
 passed, we proceed with our narrative. The summer 
 institute had closed ; Professor Gilchrist had returned 
 to his own field, and the *'fall term'' began with many 
 fewer students than had been enrolled in the term of 
 the institute, those attendant upon it having been 
 mostly teachers who had attended in order to equip 
 themselves better for the work of teaching, during the 
 ensuing year. 
 
 If the school had, at that time, had authority to 
 graduate teachers, it might, at once, have commanded 
 a very respectable attendance. 
 
 It was, in some ways, pathetic to hear the repeated 
 inquiries of young people who were struggling to ac- 
 quire scholastic and official equipment to teach, as to 
 when the school would obtain state recognition and 
 have authority to graduate teachers. Many had a 
 dim, yet sort of positive feeling that the new principal, 
 having come under rather friendly relations with the 
 State Department, might be able, soon, to get the 
 school out of its unfortunate condition. This eager- 
 ness in the minds of the student teachers intensified 
 the feeling of discomfort in the board of trustees that 
 they could not obtain adoption by the state. 
 
 Indeed, this was the dominant feeling in their ex- 
 perience; and, in their solicitude, they had, at times 
 already earlier, indulged in the fond hope that the 
 law requiring dormitories and other large equipments 
 in order to obtain recognition, might be set aside. 
 Accordingly, six months before this date, the minutes 
 of a meeting held January 3, 1871, record the following 
 action: ^^ Resolved, that a committee of three be ap- 
 pointed to obtain an enabling act, by which we can 
 be recognized without dormitories." 
 
26 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 Of course, no such enabling act could be secured, 
 chiefly because the purpose of dormitory life had 
 entered essentially into the idea of the Pennsylvania 
 normal schools, as conceived by the authors of the 
 statute establishing them. Indeed, an important fact 
 ought here to be noted, that at the time when the 
 Pennsylvania normal school system was conceived, its 
 law framed and established in 1857, the cost of living 
 and the cost of building were very low, and the f ramers 
 of the normal school law thought that, by any com- 
 munity containing the resources to justify a charter, 
 they could be established, the required ten acres of 
 land secured, the buildings erected, and, with the 
 proceeds from boarding and room-rent in the dormi- 
 tories, the schools could be supported. In the en- 
 thusiasm that generally possesses the founders of new 
 institutions, the projectors of the Pennsylvania system 
 did not gather into their thought all the conditions 
 that were actual at the time, not to speak of any new 
 ones that would inevitably arise. So, whatever might 
 have been possible, had civil, social, and economic 
 conditions remained as they were before the upheaval 
 of the Civil War, there was ho room for any such idea 
 in the conditions since that period. 
 
 But recurring again to the efforts and anxieties of 
 the trustees, there were still some who hoped that 
 something might be done to modify the terms of 
 recognition. Accordingly, at a meeting of the board 
 held August 7, 1871, during the institute term, the 
 minutes say: 'Trofessor Ehrenfeld was requested to 
 attend the State Teachers* Association, in order [to 
 endeavor] to create a more favorable sentiment 
 towards the normal schools, and to obtain some defi- 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 27 
 
 nite knowledge as to what will be required for recog- 
 nition." 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld, accordingly, went to that meeting 
 at Williamsport, had an interview with Mr. Wicker- 
 sham, which, while it showed his kindly spirit and his 
 earnest desire that the school should, as soon as pos- 
 sible, achieve recognition, nevertheless, encouraged no 
 hope of its reaching that goal, except by meeting the 
 requirements of the law. No other result could have 
 been expected. 
 
 At length, after having sought in vain to get the 
 State to relieve them of the necessity of erecting the 
 additional buildings which the law required, they con- 
 ceived the idea of an effort indicated in the following 
 record : 
 
 Appeal to the Legislature for an Appro- 
 priation OF $10,000. 
 
 At a meeting of the board of January 15, 1872, 
 some five months after the above events, the minutes 
 say: *' Professor Ehrenfeld was directed to open cor- 
 respondence with the State Normal School Depart- 
 ment and with the members of the Legislature and 
 with normal school principals, etc., with a view to 
 obtain the passing of a bill giving additional appro- 
 priations to the normal schools.*' 
 
 The minutes do not record what was the first pro- 
 position of the board and discussed by them, namely, 
 that Professor Ehrenfeld should visit, in succession, 
 the several existing normal schools and consult with 
 their principals and leading directors, with a view to 
 inducing a concerted movement towards the desired 
 end. 
 
28 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 After some discussion, this was changed from the 
 idea of a visit by Professor Ehrenfeld to the several 
 normal schools, to the plan of correspondence by him, 
 according to the action above quoted. 
 
 To both of the above methods Professor Ehrenfeld 
 objected. While he was entirely willing and anxious 
 to do whatever he could towards the desired result, 
 he expressed his decided conviction that any effort 
 of his upon either line of procedure above suggested 
 would be doomed to failure; and for the following 
 reasons: 
 
 1. The other schools would very probably regard 
 it as presumptuous on the part of a man who had been 
 in connection with the normal schools for only seven 
 months, and principal of one which was not yet one 
 of the recognized state normal schools, to take it upon 
 himself to attempt to start such a movement, and who, 
 in addition to being the youngest in the service, was 
 also probably the youngest in years of all the prin- 
 cipals. 
 
 2. That it would practically be impossible to secure 
 unity of effort in face of the known policy of the State 
 Superintendent, who did not favor additional appro- 
 priations beyond the $15,000 given to each school 
 and that this school had already received. 
 
 3. That to ask for an appropriation of $100,000, 
 as was suggested, to be divided among the several 
 schools, or even only $75,000, would be to ask an 
 amount which the Legislature would not think of 
 granting, and especially not in the face of the general 
 indifference to the normal schools, not to speak of the 
 actual opposition to them in some places. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 29 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld's Plan. 
 
 But Mr. Ehrenfeld proposed to go to Harrisburg 
 with a statement of the critical situation of this school, 
 and, into which it had come, not by any fault of its 
 own, but simply by its endeavoring to do what the 
 State required of it; of how it had done all it could 
 do to establish itself; of how it was staggering under 
 the load of debt it had incurred and was brought to a 
 standstill in its efforts to meet the requirements of 
 the state normal school law. 
 
 This situation he proposed to set before the State 
 Superintendent, Dr. Wickersham, and also before cer- 
 tain members of the Legislature with whom he was 
 acquainted, some of them being personal friends from 
 whom, therefore, he could obtain a sympathetic hearing, 
 and ask of the Legislature a special appropriation of 
 $10,000 for this school, to enable it to proceed with the 
 erection of the necessary buildings and to obtain the 
 equipments requisite to secure adoption by the State. 
 
 By this plan Mr. Ehrenfeld thought he might pos- 
 sibly be successful: (i) Because he would be unham- 
 pered by others in presenting the needs of the normal 
 schools in general. (2) He was well acquainted with 
 Senator Rutan, the Speaker of the Senate, and had a 
 strong personal friend in Major B. L. Hewitt, who 
 was the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee 
 of the House which, at that time, was also the Com- 
 mittee on Appropriations, and besides was chairman 
 of the Committee on Congressional Apportionment, 
 being also in prominent positions on four other com- 
 mittees, and was probably the most influential member 
 of the House at that time. He was a man of great 
 
30 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 force of character, as well as a man of broad culture, 
 (3) The amount of $10,000 for this one school would 
 not be a startling sum to ask for. (4) And, really 
 most important of all, if successful, it would effect 
 as real a change in the policy of the State relative to 
 the normal schools as if a general law were passed to 
 that effect, without the delay of doing battle for such 
 a law, while, moreover, a general law could not bind 
 succeeding legislatures. 
 
 The Acceptance of this View by the 
 Trustees. 
 
 The board of trustees accepted this view of the 
 matter, and, in a few days, raised among themselves 
 $50 to pay Mr. Ehrenfeld's railroad fare and hotel 
 expenses in prosecuting his mission. 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld goes to Harrisburg. 
 
 He went to Harrisburg on Monday the fifth of 
 
 February, 1872. On Tuesday he had an interview 
 
 Goes to Harrisburg with Dr. Wickcrsham, and laid 
 
 on his mission. ^^ie casc before him with a state- 
 
 ment of his purpose to go before the Legislature with 
 a direct appeal for a special appropriation. After the 
 matter had been gone over at length, and Dr. Wicker- 
 sham had patiently and kindly listened to what seemed 
 to him a rather daring movement, as indeed it was, 
 he finally said that he need not repeat his views on 
 the subject of additional appropriations to the normal 
 
 Interview with Mr. Schools, but that, in vicW of his 
 
 wickersham. (]y[j-^ Ehrenfcld's) statement, he 
 
 would not oppose his effort, though he did not think 
 he could succeed. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 31 
 
 After thanking Dr. Wickersham for his kindly atti- 
 tude, Mr. Ehrenfeld went, the same afternoon, to see 
 Messrs. Leatherman and Mickey, members of the 
 Legislature from the home district of the school, but 
 he sought a special interview with Mr. Hewit, Chair- 
 man of the Ways and Means Committee. To him, 
 he opened the whole question and expressed his con- 
 viction that the schools, as pro- 
 jected in the act authorizing 
 them, could never be established in accordance with the 
 requirements of the law except upon large and generous 
 help from the State. On this point, he called Mr. 
 Hewit's attention to the breadth of plan and extent 
 of equipment required by the normal school law, citing 
 Interview with Mr. especially the several paragraphs 
 
 ^®^^*- of the original act of 1857, and 
 
 expressed the decided conviction that unless the Com- 
 monwealth rose to a comprehensive view of what had 
 been authorized and was required in its name, and 
 would give them the necessary financial assistance, 
 the whole grand project would lapse into a pitiful 
 simulacrum of the original scheme. Mr. Hewit be- 
 came deeply interested, not to say touched in his 
 sympathies, and being himself an educated and broad- 
 minded man, he entered heartily into the subject 
 and said to Professor Ehrenfeld that the Ways and 
 Means Committee would meet the following after- 
 noon, Wednesday, and that he should prepare a 
 statement for him (Mr. Hewit) to take with him into 
 the committee meeting and that he should hold him- 
 self in readiness to be called in before the committee, 
 if necessary. 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld prepared his statement with much 
 
32 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 care, making it as comprehensive and compact as he 
 Mr.Ehrenfeid»s state- could, showing what had been 
 
 '^®^** done by the people, the amount 
 
 of debt, the arrest of the work of building, but espe- 
 cially pressing the point that whatever the Legislature 
 might or might not do for the normal schools in 
 general, immediate relief must be had for this school 
 in the straits into which it had come, in its ardent 
 effort to do what the State required, and he, therefore, 
 asked an appropriation of $10,000. 
 
 Mr. Hewit took the paper and soon after the com- 
 mittee had met, Mr. Ehrenfeld went to the rotunda 
 near the door of the committee room. After waiting 
 nearly an hour, Mr. Hewit came out and told Mr. 
 ,, ^^ ^ ,^, Ehrenfeld that he needed not to 
 
 Mr. Enreniela's sue- i r i • 11 
 
 cess with the Ways and go bet Ore the Committee, that he 
 
 Means Committee. 11 1.1 jj\ . , . 1 
 
 had read them the statement and 
 had made some remarks upon it and that the committee 
 had agreed to his request, and that he (Mr. Ehrenfeld) 
 should now write a section making the appropriation. 
 The latter, thereupon, took a piece of paper, laid it on 
 the crown of his hat and wrote the section as follows: 
 'Tor the completion of the Southwestern State Nor- 
 mal School of the Tenth District, $10,000." 
 
 This was inserted verbatim and was made section 
 fifty of the appropriation bill (and it remained un- 
 changed until it was amended to include like appro- 
 priations to two others of the normal schools). 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld then went to Dr. Wickersham and 
 reported progress. To say that he was surprised, is 
 
 Legislative Journal, tO pUt it VCry mildly. But he 
 
 1872, page 403. cautioucd Mr. Ehrenfeld not to 
 
 think the battle was won, saying that it was indeed a 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 33 
 
 most encouraging beginning, but that it would have 
 to encounter great and probably fatal opposition. 
 
 After remaining some days longer at Harrisburg, to 
 confer upon the normal school interests, he returned 
 to his school, leaving the matter of his appropriation 
 for the time, to the care, especially, of Mr. Hewit and 
 of Mr. Rutan, as the men who, by official position and 
 weight of influence, could do most for it, though others, 
 as will appear, were active and helpful. 
 
 Soon after the appropriation to this school had been 
 agreed to by the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. 
 Brockway, member of the Legislature from Columbia 
 County, encouraged by Mr. Ehrenfeld's success, pre- 
 sented the case of the Bloomsburg school, and it 
 having been found also in an especially needy con- 
 dition, the sum of $10,000 to it was included in the 
 appropriation bill, as section 5 8. (Legislative Journal, 
 1872, p. 406.) 
 
 On February 21, Mr. Hewit, as chairman of the 
 
 Ways and Means Committee, submitted the general 
 
 Discussion on section appropriation bill, and on the 
 
 ^'ont^l^tiw^sfe^r- next day, called it up. (Leg. 
 
 Normal School. Jour., p. 398.) When section 50 
 
 was read, appropriating $10,000 to this school, Mr. 
 Mahon of Franklin County moved to add an appro- 
 priation of $15,000 to the Cumberland Valley School, 
 of the Seventh District, to aid in the erection of its 
 building. This had not been asked for by that school, 
 but was apparently volunteered by Mr. Mahon, mem- 
 ber from that district. 
 
 This precipitated a lengthy discussion. In reply 
 to Mr. Mahon, Mr. D. N. White, of Allegheny, said: 
 *^There was an agreement made that every normal 
 
34 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 school should have $15,000 and I believe they have 
 all had it. The Southwestern had its $15,000 but 
 the Committee of Ways and Means, after hearing 
 their case, thought it proper to give $10,000 more/' 
 Legislative Journal, Afterwards, in the same debate, 
 
 page 403. when other normal schools were 
 
 brought in for appropriations, the same Mr. White 
 said: *1 wish merely to say that there is no evidence 
 before the [appropriations] Committee that these 
 [other] institutions need this money or are in debt. 
 The claims of these institutions to which the appro- 
 priations have been made [the Southwestern and the 
 Bloomsburg] were pressed very strongly, and strong 
 evidence was produced that they needed the money. 
 For this house to make appropriations to those not 
 asking it, to be used by the board of trustees as they 
 choose, is certainly a very great squandering of public 
 funds. Let us begin with those that are really in 
 need.'' (Leg. Jour., p. 405.) 
 
 After several speeches by others, Mr. Hewit, the 
 chairman, said : *'I do not desire to make any extended 
 remarks upon this subject. There are two sections 
 to this bill (sections 50 and 58) each relating to a 
 normal school of the State, both of which received the 
 state appropriation of $15,000. It was a new ques- 
 tion presented to the Ways and Means Committee, 
 that of making an appropriation beyond the $15,000 
 granted to each of them, and we had it very fully 
 discussed. Very reliable testimony was brought be- 
 fore us from these respective districts. I think this 
 amendment [for the Cumberland Valley School] should 
 not receive the favorable consideration of this house. 
 The normal schools are twin sisters to the common 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 35 
 
 school system and sooner or later, the Commonwealth 
 will have to assist them, and it will be proper and right, 
 but let them go on . . . and after they have exhausted 
 all their means, let them go before the Ways and 
 Means Committee and I have no doubt they will have 
 their claims fully considered, and will receive all they 
 should from the Commonwealth. This school in Col- 
 umbia County [Bloomsburg] put in a claim . . . and 
 made a statement to the committee which satisfied 
 them that their claim was just. 
 
 ^'In relation to the claim from the Southwestern at 
 California in Washington County, it was shown that 
 men there had given one tenth of all they were worth 
 in the world, to erect that normal school building. 
 I shall vote against this proposition [of the Cumber- 
 land Valley School] now, with the hope that the con- 
 sideration of the Legislature will be given them when 
 they show that their necessities require it.'' (Leg. 
 Jour., p. 403.) 
 
 The aim of Mr. Hewit was to keep before the Legis- 
 lature the fact that the situation of the two schools, 
 for which the appropriations of $10,000 to each had 
 been allowed, called for extraordinary measures on the 
 part of the State, if the interests, both of the State 
 and of the schools, were to be secured. 
 
 Mr. Mickey, of Washington County, also spoke 
 forcibly to the same point as Mr. Hewit. The dis- 
 cussion was continued at length, and very earnestly, 
 by other members, and the amendment to include the 
 Cumberland Valley School (Seventh District) was 
 carried, notwithstanding the chairman's opposition. 
 (Leg. Jour., p. 406, col. 2.) 
 
 After another topic had been taken up and disposed 
 
36 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 of, Mr. Hewit, chairman of the Ways and Means Com- 
 mittee, recurred to the subject of the special normal 
 school appropriations and succeeded in having the vote 
 on the Cumberland Valley School reconsidered, and 
 the appropriation to it stricken out. But again, after 
 another legislative topic had been taken up and dis- 
 posed of, Mr. Mahon, of Franklin County, who had, 
 meantime, rallied enough friends of his amendment 
 in behalf of the Cumberland Valley School to hold 
 back adjournment, although it was then late in the 
 day, was able to reinstate his amendment and to have 
 it passed, by a close vote, however, of 3 1 to 29. (Leg. 
 Jour., p. 408.) 
 
 Mr. Hewit, in his opposition to including an appro- 
 priation to the Cumberland Valley School, was not 
 unfriendly to that school or to any other, but he saw 
 clearly that the effect of adding the amendment, mak- 
 ing an appropriation to a school that had neither itself 
 asked for it, nor, at the time, was in need, would be 
 to defeat the appeal that had been made for the im- 
 perilled schools of California and afterwards of Blooms- 
 burg (of the Tenth and Sixth Districts). 
 
 Anyone in doubt as to the correctness of his opinion 
 needs but to consult the Legislative Journal for 1872, 
 pages 403 to 406, in order to discover the dominant 
 sentiment upon the subject. While there were not a 
 few members of the House who spoke very favorably 
 of the normal schools and of their probable needs, 
 notably, Mr. Mitchell, of Tioga, there were not a half 
 dozen who were in favor of an appropriation to every 
 one of them, or of any large ap- 
 
 Opposition. . . ' ^1 J: 11 T- • 
 
 propriation to them at all. Evi- 
 dence of this appears especially in the remarks of Mr. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 37 
 
 Elliott, the speaker of the House, in reply to Mr. 
 Mitchell, who had moved an appropriation of $10,000 
 to each of the five schools already recognized, adding 
 that it would be only $50,000. To this, Mr. Elliott 
 replied: ^^The gentleman says, this is only a matter 
 of $50,000! Fifty thousand dollars, only a small 
 matter! But it is $50,000 to institutions that are 
 not asking it at our hands, and it is a voluntary con- 
 tribution on the part of this Legislature to parties that 
 are not seeking our favor! When the institution lo- 
 cated in the gentleman's neighborhood is in distress, 
 and comes into this House, representing its condition, 
 then it will be a question for this House to consider, 
 whether it will relieve that institution or not. But 
 to say that this House shall grant $10,000 to each 
 normal school in the State, when these normal schools 
 do not come here and ask it, seems to me to be a pre- 
 posterous proposition.*' (Leg. Jour., p. 405.) Re- 
 marks of others to the same purport might be added. 
 
 The appropriation bill passed the House, finally, 
 on the same day, namely, the twenty-first of February, 
 including the appropriations to the Southwestern and 
 Bloomsburg schools with no recorded opposition, and 
 the appropriation to the Cumberland Valley School, 
 by a majority of two votes, in a call of the yeas and 
 nays. 
 
 As soon as the success of Professor Ehrenf eld's ap- 
 peal, in behalf of the Southwestern School at Calif- 
 ornia, became known among the other normal schools, 
 a movement was begun by them to attempt a larger 
 measure, and, under the lead of the Cumberland Valley 
 School, a circular was issued to all the state normal 
 schools calling a convention of the principals and other 
 
38 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 representatives of them to meet at Harrisburg, March 
 6, 1872, with a view to arrest the appropriations under 
 way and to substitute for them a bill to carry an ap- 
 propriation to all the schools. 
 
 Harrisburg Convention of March 6. 
 
 The convention was held accordingly. Professor 
 Ehrenfeld, the principal, and Mr. Dixon, chairman of 
 the board of trustees of the Southwestern Normal 
 School, represented it. Not only were the principals 
 of the several schools present and members of their 
 boards of trustees, but some members of both houses 
 of the Legislature, representing the districts in which 
 the different schools were located, attended the con- 
 vention. 
 
 After much discussion, a committee was appointed 
 of trustees of the different schools to prepare a paper 
 expressive of the thought of the convention and to 
 formulate a bill to be presented to the Legislature as a 
 substitute for the appropriations under way for the 
 Southwestern School and others that had been added. 
 
 The committee made their report as the first busi- 
 ness of the afternoon, but many difificulties presented 
 Mr. Ehrenfeid's state- thcmsclvcs and somc began to 
 
 ment of his plan. doubt the wisdom of their move- 
 
 ment. At this juncture. Professor Ehrenfeld was 
 asked to make a statement. He had previously kept 
 silent except to answer questions. He now gave the 
 history of his procedure ; how his school in its financial 
 prostration had desired him to visit the several normal 
 schools or enter into correspondence with them with 
 a view to inducing a concerted movement, such as 
 they were now proposing to undertake; how he, as a 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 39 
 
 new man among the normal principals, shrank from 
 assuming such an undertaking; that, moreover, from 
 his opinion of unpreparedness of the people of the 
 State for such a large appropriation as they were con- 
 templating to the normal schools, he doubted its pres- 
 ent practicability; but that he had felt that while 
 success of such a large and general demand in behalf 
 of the normal schools was not, at that time, to be hoped 
 for, he had thought that, possibly, by the statement of 
 the facts in the situation of his school, a situation into 
 which it had come in its honest and strenuous endeavor 
 to meet the large requirements of the law, and in view 
 of the large scheme of the normal school system, 
 which was as yet but dimly apprehended, an appro- 
 priation of $10,000 might be granted; and that if the 
 appeal did succeed, it would inevitably result in like 
 appropriations to all the schools by subsequent legis- 
 latures. 
 
 After a few remarks from others. Senator Waddell 
 
 of West Chester, afterwards Judge Waddell, a trustee 
 
 Speech of Senator of the West Chester Normal 
 
 '^^^^®^* School, made a short speech to 
 
 the effect that he felt their best policy would be to 
 drop what they had come together for, and not inter- 
 fere with what Professor Ehrenfeld had been able to 
 get done; and he moved that they now **adjourn and 
 go home, leaving the gentleman from Washington 
 [Professor Ehrenfeld] alone,'' as he believed his appro- 
 priation would go through. 
 
 Notwithstanding this appeal of Senator Waddell's, 
 a majority of the convention, but not a majority of 
 the principals, adhered to their view as to the substitu- 
 tion of their bill for the appropriation under way and 
 
40 The Southwestern NormaljSchooL 
 
 adopted it; and two days afterwards, on the eighth 
 of March, they gave their proposed substitute into 
 the hands of Senator Graham of Allegheny, chairman 
 of the Finance Committee of the Senate. 
 
 But the proposed substitute was not presented in 
 the Senate till the twenty-sixth of March, more than 
 two weeks after the session of the convention. Mean- 
 while, the general appropriation bill had come from 
 Action of the Senate the Housc to the Senate and the 
 
 prZS paU'd bT Finance Committee of the Senate, 
 
 the House. Jed by Senator Graham, the chair- 
 
 man, had struck out Section 50 of the House bill 
 appropriating $10,000 to the Southwestern Normal 
 School and had put matter of an entirely different 
 nature into that section, and this, without having 
 brought the matter of that appropriation before the 
 Senate at all. This, the financial committee of the 
 Senate, probably, had the prerogative to do, and it 
 was done in order to arrest and set aside the action of 
 the House appropriating $10,000 to the *' California 
 School'' and to make a place for the substitute pro- 
 posed by the committee of the March convention. 
 (See Leg. Jour., 1872, p. 910, Sen. Graham.) 
 
 This action of the senate committee and the appar- 
 ent attitude of senators generally, discouraged some 
 of our friends so much that Mr. Mickey, one of our 
 Washington County members, sent the following tele- 
 gram. 
 
 Harrisburg, Pa., March 12, 1872. 
 
 Professor Ehrenfeld, California, Pa. 
 
 The passage of the appropriation is doubtful. Will it 
 answer as well if we can get you relieved from building dormi- 
 tories? Answer by telegram. 
 
 J. M. Mickey. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 41 
 
 Mr. Ehrenf eld's reply was in the negative; for while 
 Mr. Wickersham was keeping his hands off of the 
 effort to get an appropriation, he would have opposed 
 Mr. Mickey's proposition with might and main. 
 
 When the appropriation bill had been taken up in 
 
 the Senate and was under consideration, and the point 
 
 The Appropriation had been reached where the said 
 
 Biu in tiie Senate. appropriation to this school had 
 
 been stricken out (p. 909, Leg. Jour.), Mr. Rutan 
 
 moved that section 50 of the house bill, which 
 
 ^ , « , , had been stricken out by the 
 
 Senator Rutan*s move . - . - 
 
 to restore the House senate committee, be remserted 
 as follows: *Tor the completion 
 of the Southwestern Normal School of the Tenth Dis- 
 trict, $10,000.'' 
 
 After he had made his motion, he said: 'While I 
 am on the floor, I just wish to say one word in reference 
 to this school. The normal school is in Washington 
 County, in my district. They have put up a very 
 fine large building for the purposes of the school and 
 have not money to put up the dormitories required 
 under the general law. The citizens of the adjoining 
 community have contributed very liberally to put up 
 the building already erected. I believe it is said that 
 citizens of that town have given one tenth of all their 
 wealth to put up that building. Now then before 
 they can be recognized under the general law of the 
 State, they are required to put up a certain number 
 of dormitories; they have raised some money for that 
 purpose but it is impossible to save it to the State 
 unless the State contributes more. The House have 
 heard the whole question and have put in this section 
 giving them $10,000. I think it is very evident if 
 
42 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 help be not given that that school with a number of 
 others of the same kind in the State will be useless and 
 the money already contributed will be lost. There is 
 every reason why we as senators should vote to restore 
 this section and give this school this money.'' 
 
 Considerable discussion ensued upon technical 
 points that were raised as well as upon amendments 
 that were offered, during which Senator Graham, 
 chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate, 
 said: **There are some seven or eight institutions of 
 this kind in the State and they are all worthy of state 
 aid. ... At a convention of superintendents [prin- 
 cipals] of the different normal institutions of the State, 
 held in Harrisburg some two weeks ago, the proposi- 
 tion was submitted to them and I have a communica- 
 tion from them in my hand. The Committee of 
 Finance, unwilling to discriminate between them, 
 thought it better to refer the entire matter to the 
 Senate and allow them to appropriate as in their wis- 
 dom they might see fit to these institutions." (Leg. 
 Jour., p. 910.) 
 
 Thereupon, Senator Strang of Tioga offered an 
 amendment appropriating $5,000 to the Mansfield 
 school of the Fifth District to assist in paying its 
 debts. 
 
 Then Senator Purman of Greene County said : '*Mr. 
 Speaker, I think the section ought to be restored as 
 proposed by the Senator from Beaver, Mr. Rutan. 
 The people of this district [of the Southwestern Nor- 
 mal] have gone to a very great expense and have built 
 a very fine house, which they were not able to com- 
 plete so that it can be recognized by the State, and 
 it is a great pity that they should be delayed any Ion- 
 
The Southwestern Normal School, 43 
 
 ger in the full enjoyment of the money and property 
 that they have contributed for its erection. As to 
 the amendment from the senator from Tioga, I think 
 that school is entitled to the money/' (Leg. Jour., 
 p. 910.) 
 
 Mr. Strang followed, saying: ''Mr. Speaker, I have 
 made up my mind in response to the appeal of the 
 senator from Beaver [Mr. Rutan, the Speaker] and 
 other gentlemen that I will not load his amendment 
 with mine. I will withdraw my amendment with per- 
 mission of the Senate and offer it as a separate section 
 of the bill.'' (Leg. Jour., p. 910.) 
 
 Mr. Graham then offered the substitute proposed 
 by the committee of the normal school convention 
 several weeks before, instead of the sections making 
 appropriations to the Southwestern Normal School, 
 etc. 
 
 The proposed substitute is of such historical impor- 
 tance that is is here reproduced. 
 
 Harrisburg, Pa., March 8, 1872. 
 
 Hon. James L. Graham, Chairman of the Senate Finance 
 Committee : 
 
 Sir: We, the undersigned, a committee appointed by a 
 
 convention representing the several state normal schools of 
 
 The March Conven- ^^e Commonwealth,^ respectfully re- 
 
 tion's proposed substi- quest, as per resolution of said con- 
 vention, that you will substitute in the 
 appropriation bill, the following section in lieu of those in the 
 bill as it passed the House of Representatives, making appro- 
 priations to the normal schools at California, Bloomsburg and 
 Shippensburg, the following: That an appropriation of $5,000 
 each shall be made to the several normal schools now recog- 
 
44 The Southwestern Normal School, 
 
 nized by the State, including the schools at California and 
 Shippensburg. They also recommend that the appropriation 
 of $15,000 made as it passed the House (for the education 
 of teachers) be increased to $30,000, and that the allowance 
 to students in the several schools expressing their intention 
 to become teachers be, hereafter, one dollar per week instead 
 of fifty cents. (Leg. Jour., p. 910.) 
 
 To this, Senator Delameter offered an amendment 
 including Edinboro and Indiana. 
 
 Senator Buckalew interposed at this point, depre- 
 cating the shape into which the matter was being put, 
 and said: ^'Now here, in the House Bill is a distinct 
 case [Southwestern Normal]. I submit as to whether 
 it is not best for us to act upon that by itself and de- 
 cide it. On further, in the bill, there is another case 
 [that of Bloomsburg] .... These were cases sent us 
 by the House. I am in favor of acting upon these in 
 succession and determining them upon their merits 
 and then take up the case of the senator from Tioga, 
 the Fifth District, which is one of signal merit, appeal- 
 ing to us more strongly perhaps than any other one 
 in the Commonwealth, and act upon that. And if 
 other gentlemen have other propositions to make, let 
 them be made one at a time, and each of them receive 
 due consideration, but if, in the commencement of 
 the consideration of this subject of normal schools, 
 we are to have a heap of amendments rolled up to- 
 gether, we shall get into great confusion. I may be 
 obliged to vote against all the amendments when they 
 are piled together. If we accept one amendment to 
 this proposition of Washington County, we shall have 
 to take another and after a little while, we shall have 
 the same scene occur we had this morning. Now let 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 45 
 
 us take up each one of these cases which the House 
 has proposed and determine them on their merits and 
 afterwards let us take up the Senate cases. I appeal 
 to gentlemen, then, not to offer amendments now and 
 get us into a sort of omnibus bill that will oblige mem- 
 bers to vote against the whole concern when they are 
 in favor of some of them.'* (Leg. Jour., p. 910.) 
 
 But Mr. Davis, Senator from Berks County, spoke 
 in favor of $5,000 to all and of not making any dis- 
 crimination among them. (Leg. Jour., pp. 910-91 1.) 
 
 Thereupon, Senator Graham of Allegheny said: 
 **That is just the proposition made by the convention 
 of superintendents.*' 
 
 Mr. Rutan then said: ''Will the senator from Alle- 
 gheny allow me to ask him a question? If the super- 
 intendents [principals] of the normal schools of the 
 State did not inform him that if it would endanger 
 the passage of the section that I have moved to restore, 
 and another section or two of the same nature in the 
 bill, that they would withdraw their proposition; that 
 they thought it so important that the $10,000 should 
 be given to the Washington County School and one 
 or two others of the State for the purpose of completing 
 them, that they would not injure the passage of those 
 sections by the amendment proposed by the senator 
 from Berks.** (Leg. Jour., p. 911.) 
 
 Mr. Graham: ''I would answer that question by 
 saying that the communication itself states distinctly 
 that the superintendents [principals] of the normal 
 schools do not desire those schools to have $10,000 
 but to have $5,000.** (Leg. Jour., p. 911.) 
 
 Mr. Graham was under a misapprehension. He 
 did not distinguish between the principals of the nor- 
 
46 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 mal schools and the other members of the convention 
 who were members of their boards of trustees. He 
 confounded the two under the term ''superintendents/' 
 The names signed to the paper of the convention pro- 
 posing^fe substitute were all names of trustees. It 
 was supposed that the trustees who had the finances 
 of the schools in their hands were the proper ones to 
 propose action in the matter of obtaining an appropria- 
 tion, but the principals, as a rule, had a better appre- 
 hension of the situation and needs of the schools than 
 the trustees. Mr. Graham was not himself a member 
 of that convention and was personally no more familiar 
 with its discussions than Senator Rutan was, but the 
 latter was substantially correct in his statement, for 
 while previous to the meeting of the convention the 
 principals were opposed to the effort of Professor 
 Ehrenfeld to get an appropriation for his school, some 
 of them had become convinced, as had Senator Wad- 
 dell, of the wisdom of Professor Ehrenfeld 's plan and 
 that it would be wise not to interfere with the appro- 
 priations that were so well under way, since the pros- 
 pect was that they would pass. This sentiment kept 
 increasing in the minds of the principals as will appear. 
 At this time Senator Allen moved as substitute for 
 Senator Delameter's amendment that ''The sum of 
 $5,000 be given to each of the State normal schools." 
 This amendment having been accepted. Senator Davis 
 of Berks suggested to Senator Rutan that if the Senate 
 agreed to appropriate $S,ooo to each of the normal 
 schools and there should be particular circumstances 
 in that senator's district that required $10,000 instead 
 of $5,000, that question could then be brought up.'* 
 (Leg. Jour., p. 911.) 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 47 
 
 To this Senator Rutan replied that he had no objec- 
 tion if the Senate now desired to take a vote on the 
 proposition of giving $5,000 to each school and then 
 let the other come up as a separate proposition, but 
 continuing he said: ^ 'While I am up, I just desire to 
 say that I am informed by the chairman (Mr. Hewit) 
 of the Ways and Means Committee of the House that 
 it was the understanding with the superintendents 
 [principals] that if it would injure the schools named, 
 this proposition should not be pressed.*' (Leg. Jour., 
 p. 91 1 .) Thereupon Senator Waddell of West Chester 
 district said: ''Mr. Speaker, I had the honor, sir, to 
 be in that convention as a trustee from the normal 
 school in our district (the First). The proposition 
 there was that the bill should be permitted to remain 
 as it was passed by the House appropriating $10,000 
 to each of these three schools. I discussed that pro- 
 position in the convention, and favored the views of 
 the gentlemen as they there suggested them, although 
 it was against the interest of my own school. We 
 discussed the matter for some hours. The majority 
 of the convention were against that proposition and 
 were in favor of asking the Senate to appropriate 
 $5 ,000 to each of all the schools. I voted against the 
 proposition, but the majority was in favor of that 
 view of the case and finding that to be so, we, who 
 were in the minority, moved that it should be made 
 unanimous, that the Senate should be asked to appro- 
 priate to each school $5,000. A committee was ap- 
 pointed with a member from each district and were 
 instructed to wait upon the Senate Finance Committee 
 and present the views of that convention. They have 
 done so, sir, and you have the communication before 
 you.** (Leg. Jour., p. 911.) 
 
48 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 This was followed by an aggressive speech from 
 
 Senator Wallace in which he dwelt on the requirements 
 
 Opposition of Senator of the normal school law, on what 
 
 ^^^^^^- course alone was proper to be 
 
 pursued, and spoke in a rather contemptuous manner 
 of those who had not completed the required buildings 
 and yet * 'coolly*' ask the Legislature *'to vote them 
 the money that the residents of another locality had 
 taken out of their pockets and put in the building/' 
 and he asks: ''Is this just? Is it honest?" He pro- 
 ceeds: "Hence I shall vote against every one of these 
 appropriations; I do not think any of them are justi- 
 fied. They are clearly outside of the provision of the 
 Act of 1857." (Leg. Jour., p. 911.) 
 
 Senator White of Indiana followed in a direct attack 
 
 on the Southwestern School at California. He said: 
 
 ^c, . "Mr. Speaker, there is a little bit 
 
 Opposition of Senator r i • i i 
 
 White to California ot history about the appropria- 
 
 tion of $15,000 to this California 
 School, known now as the Southwestern School, that 
 it would be well enough for the Senate to know. The 
 Senator from Clearfield, Mr. Wallace, correctly stated 
 the law. The act of 1857 required certain things to 
 be done in the way of private enterprise before the 
 school is entitled to $15,000. That is the general 
 law .... 
 
 "I have some little feeling about this, because it is a 
 matter of principle and fair dealing with the normal 
 schools. Now I sympathize entirely with what my 
 friend the Senator from Chester [Mr. Waddell] has 
 said upon this subject. I was also invited to partici- 
 pate in that convention, but had other duties and 
 could not be present .... Now as to the normal 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 49 
 
 school in Washington County and the special appro- 
 priation to the one in Bloomsburg, I have a word to 
 say. As the Senator from Clearfield [Mr. Wallace] 
 has properly stated, the general law of 1857 provided 
 for an allowance of $15,000 to all these normal schools 
 —that is the State policy. This normal school at 
 California, known as the Southwestern Normal School, 
 was started as a private enterprise. At the session 
 of 1867 or 1868 [actually 1869], a special act of As- 
 sembly was passed allowing the payment of $15,000 
 to this school previous to the time contemplated by 
 the general law of 1857; that was done in aid of this 
 school. I recollect, at that time, the Superintendent 
 of Common Schools resisted that legislation as being 
 invidious and as marring the harmony of the general 
 normal school system. Since that, Mr. Speaker, from 
 time to time, acts of Assembly have been passed, 
 allowing these infant enterprises the benefit of this 
 appropriation of $15,000 as soon as the Superintendent 
 of Common Schools had inspected the site and ac- 
 cepted it as a State normal school. While this has 
 been done, we have never gone beyond the $15,000. 
 I submit tonight, that, if you make invidious distinc- 
 tions, in view of the friendly legislation which you 
 have given these schools heretofore . . . you will mar 
 the harmony of our normal school system. I know 
 that this effort has not the sympathy of the Common 
 School Department of the Commonwealth. I know 
 it will excite hard feelings in the breasts of others. 
 . . . We have already been kind to this Washington 
 County Normal School. I am opposed to this special 
 appropriation of $10,000 to the Washington County 
 and Bloomsburg Normal Schools.** (Leg. Jour., pp. 
 911-912.) 
 
JO The Southwestern Normal School, 
 
 Senator Buckalew followed: ^'Now, Mr. Speaker, a 
 
 great many members are in favor of voting only for 
 
 Senator Buckalew, in the institutions which are con- 
 
 ^^^°^* tained in the House bill ; that was 
 
 the judgment and sentiment of the House. However, 
 here in the Senate, some gentlemen suppose that it 
 ought to be shaped and passed to give each of these 
 schools the sum of $5,000. If that be the general 
 sentiment of the Senate, so be it, but let us add that 
 to the proposition sent here from the House. . . . 
 Then the two Houses will be agreed. In the case of 
 these institutions, the money is absolutely needed. 
 . . . They are peculiar cases standing upon their 
 own merit. The normal schools lie at the bottom, or 
 as some might say, at the top of our common school 
 system, and their efficient management, conduct, and 
 operation will be the main instrument by which our 
 common school system will be worked satisfactorily 
 to the people. I believe that no portion of the money 
 devoted to the purpose of education in this Common- 
 wealth is better bestowed than that which is applied 
 to this object." (Leg. Jour., p. 912.) 
 
 Mr. White having asked for a division of the proposi- 
 tion. Senator Allen said: ^^Mr. Speaker, in offering the 
 proposition which I have presented, I have done it 
 with no desire to injure the normal school system of 
 Pennsylvania. While offering that amendment and 
 desiring to act in accordance with the recommendation 
 of the committee that was here I have since then been 
 informed that the other three institutions named have 
 special necessities and I have deemed it but just, sir, 
 to accept that as a part of the amendment I have 
 offered. ... I hope the Senate will adopt the prop- 
 osition as before us.'' (Leg. Jour., p. 912.) 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 51 
 
 Senator Wallace spoke again showing at length what 
 the provisions of the act of 1857 were and what depart- 
 ures from it there had been in making some of the ap- 
 propriations and argued very earnestly against any 
 further grants of money except in accordance with the 
 letter of the law. 
 
 In answer to an inquiry by one of the senators, the 
 Speaker said: 'The question before the Senate is on 
 the amendment which proposes to give each of the 
 normal schools in the State the sum of $5,000." (Leg. 
 Jour., p. 912.) 
 
 After brief explanatory remarks by several members, 
 
 Senator Brooke of Delaware County followed in the 
 
 Further antagonism samc line as Senator Wallace, and 
 
 to California School. gp^j^^ particularly against the 
 
 proposed appropriation of $10,000 to the school of 
 California, which, although it had received $15,000 
 by special favor was **not built yet.'' He proceeded: 
 ''Now I can feel for this school at California. A small 
 village without wealth attempted to get up an institu- 
 tion ; the speaker of this body tells us that they have 
 taxed themselves an excessive per cent, of all they are 
 worth to get an institution where it ought not to have 
 been placed because they had not means when they 
 began, to meet the requirements of the law, and now 
 when they have stuck fast, they come to the Legis- 
 lature and ask us to help them out. Why, sir, we 
 have instances of that kind all over the State." (Leg. 
 Jour., p. 912.) 
 
 At this point. Senator A. A. Purman, of Greene 
 Senator Purman in Couuty intervened, sayiug : "Mr. 
 
 behalf of California. Speaker, in regard to the Tenth 
 Normal School District at California, I beg leave to 
 
52 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 differ with the Senator from Delaware when he says 
 that that school was improperly located. It was lo- 
 cated in a beautiful section of the country, in a wealthy 
 region of easy access, and they have expended over 
 $50,000 in building. . . . They have the school now 
 in operation, although they are not in a situation to be 
 recognized by the State under the provisions of the 
 act of 1857, and this little appropriation is asked for 
 the purpose of making this act effective. 
 
 *'We have as much power today by an act of the 
 Legislature of this session, to say that we will enlarge 
 the appropriation to these normal schools ... as our 
 predecessors had to say here that they would give 
 only $15,000. The practical question for considera- 
 tion as to this school in the Tenth Normal District 
 is this: shall we close up the treasury after an expen- 
 diture of over $50,000 besides $15,000 by the Com- 
 monwealth and allow that school to fail, or will we 
 give them the small sum of $10,000 and aid the people 
 there to complete this school? So far as the appro- 
 priation of $5,000 to all the normal school districts 
 in the Commonwealth is concerned, the act of 1857 
 presents the terms upon which the money is to be paid, 
 and until they bring themselves within the provisions 
 of that law the appropriation, of course, can not be 
 drawn and when they have brought themselves within 
 its provisions, $20,000 is not too much. It has always 
 been my opinion that the sum of $15,000 is too small, 
 and I am therefore prepared to vote for the proposi- 
 tion to appropriate $5,000 to each of the normal dis- 
 tricts and an additional $5,000 to the other districts 
 named.'* (Leg. Jour., pp. 912-913.) 
 
 In the further discussion that followed, Senator 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 53 
 
 Strang of Tioga asked unanimous consent to insert 
 the Fifth District Normal School among those in the 
 second clause of the proposition, that is, among those 
 that were to have $5,000 additional to the $5,000 
 contained in the first clause to all the schools. Sena- 
 tor White objected, so unanimous consent was not 
 granted. Senator White said he was not opposed to 
 Senator Strang's having the Mansfield school inserted, 
 but that he * 'intended to vote against the whole propo- 
 sition.*' (Leg. Jour., p. 913.) 
 
 Senator Buckalew, whose attitude was friendly to 
 the cause, and his remarks always illuminating, said 
 in regard to the Bloomsburg school: *'I merely wish 
 to say that in regard to the school in the Sixth District 
 — I have not spoken a word about it yet — in a com- 
 paratively poor section of the State the inhabitants 
 there have raised over a $100,000; they are in debt, 
 and hence the appropriation is an absolute necessity." 
 (Leg. Jour., p. 913.) 
 
 Senator White's objection to the inclusion of the 
 Fifth District, Mansfield, having been withdrawn, it 
 was made part of the second clause of the substitute 
 and the vote on it was taken. The yeas and nays 
 having been called for, the result was twenty for, and 
 nine against, so the second clause of the Senate's 
 substitute for the action of the house was adopted. 
 (Leg. Jour., pp. 913-914.) This ended the discussion 
 which had continued until late in the night and it 
 occupies, as abbreviated, some thirteen columns of the 
 Legislative Journal. Nor was there any further dis- 
 cussion of the subject, the date of final adjournment 
 being only a few days ahead. The appropriation bill 
 was passed finally in the Senate in the morning session 
 
54 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 of the next day, March 27. (Leg. Jour., p. 913.) 
 
 Senator Rutan immediately telegraphed to Professor 
 
 Ehrenfeld that it had passed the Senate. On the 
 
 Tvr«« .^«.„r*^«n^ «* same day in the afternoon session 
 
 JNon-concurrence or •' 
 
 the House in the Sen- of the House, it refused to concur 
 
 ate*s action, and ap- • i o > • i 
 
 pointment of conference in the benate s action upon the 
 
 committee. 111 • . • / 
 
 normal school appropriations (as 
 well as upon some others), and appointed a conference 
 committee. (Leg. Jour., p. 954.) 
 
 At the evening session of the Senate, of the same 
 date, the House reported to the Senate its non-concur- 
 rence in the latter's substitute and amendments and 
 its appointment of ^'Messrs. Hewit, Starr, and Mc- 
 Connell as a committee of conference to confer with 
 a similar committee of the Senate (should the Senate 
 appoint such a committee) upon the differences ex- 
 isting between the Houses in relation to said bill.*' 
 
 '*0n motion, the Senate insisted on its amendments 
 and Messrs. Graham, Brooke, and Purman were ap- 
 pointed to confer with the committee of the House 
 already appointed.'* Record of these appointments 
 may be found on page 936 of the Legislative Journal, 
 foot of third column. 
 
 April 2, in the Senate, Mr. Graham, chairman of 
 the committee of conference on the appropriation bill, 
 reported the result of their joint action. In Legisla- 
 tive Journal, page 1050, second column, and on page 
 1065, second column, may be found the corresponding 
 report of Mr. Hewit to the House; and on page 1157, 
 Fmai action of the Legislative Journal, in the appro- 
 
 itL^of HoSfeanT" pnatiou bill as passed finally by 
 
 Senate. both houscs and signed by the 
 
 Governor, we find : * ^Section 50. To the Southwestern 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 55 
 
 Normal School of the Tenth District, the Bloomsburg 
 Normal School of the Sixth District and to the Mans- 
 field Normal School of the Fifth District, each $10,- 
 000." 
 
 Thus was restored and finally passed the original 
 proposition of Mr. Ehrenfeld with the addition of the 
 schools of the Fifth and Sixth Districts, of Mansfield 
 and Bloomsburg. How this result was reached in face 
 of the strong opposition in the Senate and partly in 
 How this result was the House was as follows: The 
 
 reached. normal school principals, with an 
 
 exception, perhaps, became convinced that the plan 
 of Professor Ehrenfeld, as presented to the convention 
 of March 6, was the only one that had good prospect 
 of success, and they were more anxious that some ap- 
 propriation should be made and thus change the policy 
 of the State towards the normal schools than they 
 were as to which school should, at that time, get it. 
 But they had little faith or even hope that the measure 
 before the Senate would pass, for when the March 
 convention met and proposed a substitute to be intro- 
 duced in the Senate in lieu of the action taken by the 
 House, only three weeks of the legislative session re- 
 mained, although it was afterwards extended a week 
 longer. In addition to prospective brevity of time, the 
 character of the substitute was such as to call for a 
 different line of argument from that which had ap- 
 pealed successfully to the House; it asked for an 
 amount which the people and their representatives 
 were not prepared at that time to grant to the normal 
 schools. That the prospect of any appropriation grew 
 dark soon after the substitute of the March convention 
 was thrust in place of the measure of the House, 
 
56 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 appears from Mr. Mickey's telegram, which has been 
 given on a previous page. 
 
 On the other hand, in respect of the measure passed 
 by the House, the principals of the normal schools 
 beheld prospects of success, for they saw not only two 
 of the most capable members of the Legislature, but 
 the two most influential by position, namely, Mr. 
 Hewit, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, 
 and Mr. Rutan, Speaker of the Senate, committed 
 to it, together constituting a combination that could 
 not probably be effected soon again. The result was 
 a meeting for consultation of most, if not all of the 
 princiapls of the normal schools and of some members 
 of both houses at which the action finally proposed 
 by the conference committee of the two houses was 
 agreed upon. Of this consultation and probable final 
 action, Mr. Hewit informed Professor Ehrenfeld, al- 
 ready as early as the twentieth of March. This was 
 six days before the tardy Senate took up the appro- 
 priation bill at all. 
 
 Further account of this matter will best be given by 
 
 citations from the records of the next Legislature, 
 
 r. ^ . ^. namely of 1873. (See Leg. Tour., 
 
 Confirmatory discus- _ '^^ \a .. 
 
 sion from Leg. Jour., 1 873 , p. 805 .) Appropriations to 
 
 ^' ' normal schools was the subject 
 
 of discussion; Senator Rutan was protesting against 
 
 the extremes in building to which he thought some 
 
 schools were running. 
 
 Senator Davis (Berks) followed, saying: '*One diffi- 
 culty that strikes me in regard to this matter is this: 
 that last winter an appropriation of $10,000 was made 
 to each of three normal schools. Previous to that, 
 the policy had been to treat all these schools alike; 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 57 
 
 and that certainly was a fair and proper feeling. The 
 other normal schools which did not receive the $10,000 
 last winter, come here and now claim that they be put 
 on a level with those who did receive it. I think that 
 we ought to recognize every claim to an equality, and 
 as we cannot undo what was done last winter and get 
 back the $10,000 which was appropriated (and which 
 should not have been) it seems to me that we are 
 bound to treat the other normal schools as the three 
 exceptional ones were treated last winter.'* (Leg. 
 Jour., 1873, p. 806.) 
 
 Senator Rutan: *^Does not the Senator remember 
 the fact that the principals of all the normal schools in 
 the Commonwealth waived their claim in favor of these 
 three normal schools when this appropriation was 
 made?" 
 
 Senator Davis: **I did not know that then. Is the 
 senator certain of that now?'' Senator Rutan: ''Yes 
 sir. They recommended all the schools, but in case 
 an appropriation could not be made to all, they recom- 
 mended these three especially." 
 
 Mr. Waddell: 'The Senator from Beaver is partly 
 correct and partly in error. The three schools that 
 eventually got the appropriation made were originally 
 in the appropriation bill, then the other schools met in 
 consultation and desired to be joined in, but it was 
 thought best at that time not to complicate the matter 
 and to allow these three schools to take care of them- 
 selves the best they could and the remaining ones 
 drew out of the contest." 
 
 In the above statement of Senator Waddell's, there 
 is a mistake as to the three schools originally included 
 in the House appropriation bill. The Cumberland 
 
58 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 Valley school had been included in the House bill only 
 after a contest in which it won by two votes, but in the 
 committee of conference, the Mansfield school was 
 shown to be greatly needy, and it was substituted in 
 place of the school at Shippensburg. Otherwise the 
 statement of Senator Waddell is entirely correct. 
 
 Enough has been quoted to explain the success of 
 this effort. Its success was at last a surprise to many, 
 and nothing but the steadfast adherence to the original 
 plan carried it through. The March convention that 
 was called for the purpose of defeating the original 
 effort was probably the occasion of its success. It 
 gave opportunity to the principal of the *' California 
 School'* to put his plan before a large number of the 
 friends of the normal schools when it not only won the 
 approval of Senator Waddell but arrested the thought- 
 ful attention of most of the principals, who gradually 
 accepted it with the result already seen; and under 
 the conviction that it would force the State to a 
 change of its policy, which, it has been seen, it accom- 
 plished. 
 
 And this was the most important point in the suc- 
 cess of the measure, for while its immediate object was 
 the relief of the school at California and of those that 
 were joined with it, its most valuable result was the 
 revolution it effected in the financial attitude of the 
 Commonwealth towards these schools, opening the 
 way to a proper fostering and larger equipment of 
 them in order to accomplish their great aims. 
 
 Accordingly, in the Legislature of 1873, notwith- 
 standing the opposition that was made to further 
 appropriations, we find that the precedent of the pre- 
 vious Legislature was cited, and a much larger appro- 
 
The Souihewstern Normal School, 59 
 
 priation than that of the previous year was granted. 
 (See Leg. Jour., 1873, p. 1309.) 
 
 Opposition that had to be met. 
 
 One of the trustees of normal school, and 
 
 a member of the previous Legislature, and a member of 
 the March convention, was very active in attendance 
 upon this legislature, and in urging upon those who 
 had been his colleagues in the previous legislature, to 
 vote against the ^'California'' appropriation. So ac- 
 tive and prospectively hurtful was his activity, that 
 Hon. A. J. Buffington, formerly a teacher in the school 
 at California, also county superintendent and a mem- 
 ber of the preceding legislature from Washington 
 County, went along with Mr. Ehrenfeld on one of his 
 trips to Harrisburg, and urged his former colleague to 
 *'take his hands off and go home,'' which he agreed to 
 do. There was still some opposition from the same 
 direction but it was not open, and meanwhile a change 
 was going on in the mind of Superintendent Wicker- 
 sham himself as he closely, and at last, sympathetically 
 followed Mr. Ehrenf eld's effort in the Legislature; 
 and he well knew what antagonistic influences had 
 to be overcome by him ; and when at a normal school 
 meeting at Harrisburg, some months afterward, the 
 principal of one of the other schools, that likewise got 
 an appropriation along with the California school, 
 was speaking rather largely of what they had done in 
 the matter of getting the appropriation passed, Mr. 
 Wickersham, who knew from many years' experience 
 what it meant to get appropriations through the Legis- 
 lature and having known from the beginning that Mr. 
 
6o The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 Ehrenfeld had started this one, and had effected 
 the combination that carried it to success, interrupting 
 him, said rather bluntly: ^^You got your appropriation 
 through simply by taking hold of Professor Ehren- 
 feld 's coat tails and getting pulled through by him.*' 
 
 While some history is writing here, it may be instruc- 
 tive to include some other things that the effort had 
 to encounter. 
 
 One of these was the fact that the '* California 
 School'* had been given the $15,000 in 1869, as it was 
 hotly contended, before it was entitled to receive such 
 appropriation. This may be seen by recurring to the 
 speeches of some of the senators, as already cited, 
 whose irritation was not all suppressed. This school 
 was an institution **non grata,'* not only as to this 
 point as alleged, of its not having been entitled to the 
 former appropriation, but there seemed to be some 
 feeling against the town itself. One member came to 
 Professor Ehrenfeld and said: *^I am willing to do 
 anything for you personally, but I don't care a penny 
 for your town of California." To which Mr. Ehren- 
 feld replied that he had no responsibility for the name 
 of the town and did not like it any better than he did, 
 but that if he wanted to do him a personal favor, 
 he should suppress his feeling on that point and help 
 get the appropriation to the school, and this he did. 
 
 Perhaps while this account is being written another 
 thing ought to be included here. One of the principals 
 of the normal schools, who, at first, not only took 
 offense at the effort of the Southwestern School at 
 California to get an appropriation for itself, but was 
 also offended at the success of the effort from the start, 
 intimated in an educational journal of which he was 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 6i 
 
 editor, that money had been used to obtain the favor- 
 able action. It would not be worth while to speak of 
 this if it had not been published and the paper itself 
 is probably on file in the school of which he was then 
 principal. Those who know anything of the financial 
 stress upon this institution at the time, need not be 
 told of the absurdity of the suggestion. The fact was 
 that the board raised $50 and gave it to Professor 
 Ehrenfeld to pay his railroad fare and hotel bills. 
 This was the entire amount of money he received for 
 use in his effort to get an appropriation, and with this 
 he made three visits to the Legislature. 
 
 The fact was that Mr. Ehrenfeld had a number of 
 personal friends in that Legislature, and among them 
 several of unusual ability, and what was still more 
 important was the fact of their occupancy of positions 
 in both the Senate and the House that made their 
 influence very effective. These men perhaps without 
 exception fell in with Professor Ehrenfeld's ideas in 
 regard to the aims and necessities of the normal schools 
 and he was thus able to effect a combination that grew 
 in strength from the beginning and that triumphed in 
 the end. This was the only bribery that was used. 
 This was possible also because Dr. Wickersham had 
 promised Mr. Ehrenfeld that he would not oppose his 
 effort though, at that time, against his own views. 
 
 Superintendent Wickersham. 
 
 A word ought to be said at this point relative to Dr. 
 Wickersham. As already stated, the effort to obtain 
 additional appropriations from the State was contrary 
 to his ideas, and he was on record against it, and the 
 
62 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 reader of the foregoing debate in the Senate will recall 
 the use of that fact in the arguments of two senators 
 against granting this appropriation. 
 
 It was no pleasant thing for Superintendent Wicker- 
 sham to be neutral during those four or five weeks. 
 He had been very frank with Professor Ehrenfeld as to 
 his own views but said he would not oppose his effort 
 to get an appropriation. To keep that voluntary- 
 promise against his own record and especially against 
 the influences around him at Lancaster, and of his 
 own former school, not to speak of influential members 
 of the Senate, would have been too much for a weaker 
 man. 
 
 Senator A. A. Purman. 
 
 While many things have been omitted from this 
 narrative for the sake of brevity, it would not seem 
 proper to overlook the helpful attitude of Senator A. 
 A. Purman, of Greene County. Besides speaking a 
 good word for the town of California when in the 
 course of the discussion such word was seriously 
 needed, he did not suffer himself to be hampered in 
 action on the proposed appropriations by the con- 
 ditions which had been imposed upon the normal 
 schools at the time when the act authorizing them was 
 passed, nor by the limited conceptions entertained at 
 that time in the Legislature of what might become 
 necessary in the course of their growth. He had a 
 forward look as to their future needs, while some 
 others among the most influential members of the 
 Senate persistently, and no doubt honestly, strove 
 to prevent any appropriations additional to the 
 amounts formerly thought of as the maximum of what 
 
HON. BENJAMIN L HEWIT. 
 June 4. 1833-MARCH lO. 1899. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 63 
 
 the schools ought to obtain from the State. Senator 
 Purman did not think that the action of a previous 
 Legislature should put any bonds upon those coming 
 after, and accordingly he said, among other things 
 already quoted: 'We have as much power today by 
 an act of the Legislature of this session to say that 
 we will enlarge the appropriation to these normal 
 schools as our predecessors had, that they would give 
 only $15,000,*' etc. Mr. Purman's statement sounded 
 an inspiriting note in the discussion. 
 
 Mr. Benj. L. Hewit. 
 
 A further word of Mr. Hewit Without his watch- 
 ful forethought and legislative skill, together with the 
 cooperation of Senator Rutan, the measure could not 
 have survived the opposition to it and have come up 
 safely out of the conference committee or, for that 
 matter, have gotten into the conference committee 
 at all. To him, more than to any other member or 
 members was due the survival of the original section 
 making the appropriation, as also its final passage. 
 He did not, however, desire to have the matter much 
 spoken of; and, indeed, to one looking forward to 
 political advancement, devotion to the normal schools 
 was not, at that time, helpful. To this reticence it 
 was owing that the normal schools did not learn who 
 had been their so efficient friend. 
 
 It should be mentioned that Hon. Geo. V. Lawrence, 
 at that tme in Congress but formerly and afterwards 
 again in the State Senate, advised and supported his 
 successor. Senator Rutan, in our favor. 
 
 Others from the ''California school*' district, spoken 
 of in Professor Hertzog's article, namely, Messrs. 
 
64 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 Billingsley and Anderson, did their good work in after 
 years when they had been chosen to the Legislature 
 and their opportunity came. 
 
 The success of the appeal to the Legislature brought 
 great relief and encouragement to the Southwestern 
 Normal School and the board of trustees immediately 
 took measures looking to the erection of the necessary 
 buildings. Accordingly, in April, 1872, the board ap- 
 pointed W. W. Jackman to ascertain cost of material, 
 etc., for the new building and to make contract for 
 foundation stone. 
 
 But after this action had been taken, the outlook for 
 early addition of dormitories or even of one was still 
 beclouded. The appropriation of $10,000 was not 
 equal to the debts already upon the property, so that 
 much more money was needed in order to proceed 
 with the needed buildings. 
 
 Not delaying to dwell on the situation in further 
 detail, we note the action of the board, February 3, 
 1873, when they directed the finance committee to 
 make a report on the money situation which report 
 was made at the next monthly meeting, March 3, 1873. 
 (Minutes, p. 161.) The report of the finance com- 
 mittee is embraced in the following resolutions: 
 
 1. Resolvedy that the board of trustees issue bonds for the 
 amount of $15,000 to be a first mortgage in the normal school 
 property, to run from five to fifteen years with interest at 
 eight per cent, per annum, to be paid semi-annually. 
 
 2. That the board issue bonds for the additional amount 
 of $15,000 to be a second mortgage on the normal school 
 property, also to draw eight per cent, per annum, to be paid 
 semi-annually; these second mortgage bonds to run from five 
 to twenty years and to be guaranteed by members of the 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 65 
 
 board of trustees and other friends of the institution indi- 
 vidually. 
 
 The resolution was discussed at some length when it was 
 moved that action on the above resolution be suspended till 
 the next meeting. It was carried. 
 
 Minutes of next meeting, March 10, 1873 (Minutes, 
 p. 162): 
 
 *The resolution laid over at our last meeting was 
 then taken up and passed unanimously. . . . Professor 
 Ehrenfeld was appointed to inquire into the legal 
 points relating to the issue of the bonds." 
 
 Next meeting, minutes of March 17, 1873 (Minutes, 
 p. 163) say: **. . . Professor Ehrenfeld made a care- 
 fully prepared report as to the legal points relating to 
 the issue of bonds. 
 
 ''Moved and carried that Professor Ehrenfeld be 
 directed to open correspondence with a view to obtain 
 a supplement to our charter to enable us to borrow 
 money at eight per cent, per annum." 
 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld proceeded immediately in the matter 
 of obtaining the enactment of the proposed supple- 
 ment to the charter and after corresponding with our 
 Senator J. S. Rutan, he, under direction of the board, 
 and in consultation with them, drew up and sent the 
 senator a draft of the desired act. Mr. Rutan prompt- 
 ly introduced the matter in the Legislature and by 
 the tenth of April, within a little over three weeks, the 
 proposed act was passed and was signed by the Gover- 
 nor as it may be found in Pamphlet Laws, 1 873 , page 
 774, as follows: 
 
 '*No. 89 Supplement .... 
 
 To an act incorporating the Southwestern Normal College: 
 6 
 
66 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 Be it enacted, etc., . . . that the board of trustees of the 
 Southwestern Normal College be empowered to borrow the 
 money authorized by the charter at a rate of interest not 
 exceedinging eight per cent, per annum and to issue bonds 
 therefor with or without coupons, which shall be exempt from 
 taxation except for state purposes. 
 Approved the Tenth day of April, A. D. 1873. 
 
 J. F. Hartranft. 
 
 This was the legislation authorizing a loan on a first 
 mortgage, a:t eight per cent., etc., on which bonds, to 
 the amount of $16,000 were sold,'* as stated in the 
 paragraph quoted above from Professor Hertzog's 
 article. It is proper to insert here a copy of the letter 
 of those bonds: 
 
 Southwestern Normal College, 
 
 State of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Know all men by these presents, that the Southwestern 
 Normal College of the Tenth Normal District of the State 
 of Pennsylvania, in the borough of California, County of 
 Washington, is indebted to C. L. Ehrenfeld or bearer in the 
 sum of . . . dollars, the same being a first mortgage on said 
 College which the Trustees of said college promise to pay in 
 fifteen years with the privilege of paying the same in five 
 years after date at the First National Bank of Brownsville 
 with interest at the rate of eight per cent, per annum, payable 
 semi-annually at said Bank on the first days of June and 
 December in each year, on the presentation of the proper 
 coupon for the same, for which payment of principal and inter- 
 est, well and truly to be made the faith, property, and income 
 of said College are hereby pledged under the authority granted 
 by an act of Assembly to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
 entitled an act to enable the Trustees of Southwestern Normal 
 College to borrow money and issue bonds approved April 10, 
 1868 and in pursuance of a resolution of the Board of Trustees 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 67 
 
 of said College adopted at a meeting thereof on the third day 
 of March, 1873 and entered on their minutes of that date. 
 
 The bond, although legal by its inclusion of the 
 resolution of March 3, 1873, on which the act of the 
 Legislature of April 10, 1873, supplementary to the 
 charter, was obtained authorizing the borrowing of 
 the money designated in the charter itself and to issue 
 bonds therefor, etc., ought, nevertheless, to have in- 
 cluded the reference to the supplementary act which 
 was necessary to **empower them to borrow the money 
 authorized by the charter and to issue bonds therefor.'* 
 
 The occurrence of the name of Mr. Ehrenfeld in 
 the body of the bond was there without his knowledge 
 and explained by Mr. Dixon's saying that some name 
 had to be inserted and he thought as Mr. Ehrenfeld 
 had been the instrument in getting the Legislative 
 authority to issue the bonds it was fitting that his 
 name should go in. 
 
 Of the bonds authorized by the above quoted sup- 
 plementary legislation, enough were at length sold to 
 enable the trustees to proceed with the work of build- 
 ing, but the sale of the bonds was not effected as easily 
 as was anticipated, but proved a decidedly ''uphill 
 business.'' The bonds did not appeal to persons who 
 had money, as was hoped. After different persons 
 had been appointed as agents to sell the bonds, and 
 having met with poor success, we read in the minutes 
 of the board of September 22, 1873, p. 170, as follows: 
 ''After a full discussion of our financial condition, it 
 was resolved that Mr. A. P. Smith should devote his 
 entire time during the next week to the sa'e of bonds 
 and that we meet to hear his report September 29." 
 
68 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 But there was no meeting on September 29, and we 
 find it stated in the minutes of October 6, p. 170, that 
 ''the meeting for September 29 was deferred because 
 Mr. Smith was not ready to report." But he "re- 
 ported progress and hoped at an early date to raise 
 the full amount of funds required.** This hope was, 
 however, not realized, and it was not till December 15 
 that he made his report. At the meeting of that date, 
 we read, p. 174, as follows: ''The financial question 
 was then considered. The financial agent, A. P. 
 Smith, said the prospect was not favorable, that but 
 little additional subscription had been taken on the 
 second mortgage.'* The record of the minutes pro- 
 ceeds: "It was now evident if the work was to go for- 
 ward at all, the trustees would have to shoulder the 
 responsibility. AH present seemed to comprehend 
 this, but many felt, taking into account what they 
 had done in previous donations and loans, together 
 with the promise already given in the subscription to 
 the present loan, that it was not possible for them to 
 do more. But, promised aid from the State and hope 
 of speedy recognition prevailed at last, after one of 
 the most exciting and eventful scenes the board has 
 ever witnessed. From $7,750 the loan went up to 
 $14,300 and the remaining $700 was to be distributed 
 among the members if not otherwise secured soon. 
 All seemed to breathe easier after this, for it was felt 
 that while fresh responsibility had been assumed, the 
 final success was assured.** 
 
 Success was assured; the work went on; the north 
 dormitory was completed and furnished. The house- 
 hold department was installed and recognition ob- 
 tained by the State on the twenty-sixth of May, 1874. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 69 
 
 A great deal is omitted here that cannot be included 
 in this sketch. 
 
 A senior class was formed, but in the long waiting 
 for recognition, the students generally who had hoped 
 to enter a graduating class had left and only two re- 
 mained who were prepared to enter. The next class 
 had six and the third one nine, among whom were the 
 present Dr. J. B. Smith, of the faculty of the school, 
 and the late lamented Professor Wilbur S. Jackman, 
 Dean of the School of Education, founded by Mrs. 
 Emmons Blaine, and connected with the University of 
 Chicago. 
 
 Before this third class was graduated, Mr. Ehren- 
 feld was asked to enter the School Department of the 
 State and act as its financial secretary, but ^^not to 
 leave the school until a successor had been elected.*' 
 Professor George P. Beard was chosen. Mr. Ehren- 
 feld went to Harrisburg with his family, on the second 
 of February, 1877, and to his desk in the Department 
 of Public Instruction. 
 
 The nucleus of a library was begun by the purchase 
 of a copy of Appleton^s New American Cyclopedia 
 and other volumes. There was no library whatever 
 when Mr. Ehrenfeld came. The trustees had now 
 enough to do to maintain the existence of the insti- 
 tution. 
 
 Though Mr. Ehrenfeld was no longer in connection 
 with the school at California, he was able to render 
 it another valuable service. When the State Com- 
 mission, consisting of the superintendent of Public 
 Instruction, the Governor and the Attorney General, 
 were making distribution of the money appropriated 
 by the Legislature, and the several schools were each 
 
70 The Southwestern Normal School, 
 
 striving for as large a share of it as they could obtain, 
 Mr. Ehrenfeld was consulted by the commission as to 
 the needs of the school of California, and he was able 
 to convince them that any further reduction in the 
 amount to that school was not to be advised, and he 
 was instrumental in preventing a further cut of at 
 least $500 or $1,000 in the amount allotted. 
 
 Another point yet before ending this section of our 
 history. In the historical article above referred to 
 occurs the following statement: **At the regular meet- 
 ing in June, the board authorized the expenditure of 
 $150 in the purchase of books and apparatus, and 
 this was the beginning of the present grand library of the 
 school y 
 
 The date of that meeting was June 5, 1865. The 
 author of the article was in some way misled in the 
 statement that that was the beginning of the present 
 library of the school. This is altogether an error. 
 Going back in the records, it is found that on January 
 28, preceding, a committee on library and apparatus 
 had been appointed and consisted of Messrs. J. C. 
 Gilchrist, Job Johnson and W. N. Hull. 
 
 March 6, 1865, minutes say: ''Report of committee 
 on library received and committee continued. On 
 motion the entire management of library was given 
 to the committee on the same, with instructions to 
 prepare rules." 
 
 April J, following, the minutes say: * 'Moved and 
 carried that report of committee on library be received 
 and the committee discharged. Moved that the com- 
 ^ mittee present its bills to the committee on accounts 
 and that said account committee draw an order for 
 the amount.'* 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 71 
 
 The word * ^discharged'' above must have been in- 
 advertently written for continued, for the committee 
 was continued. 
 
 May J, following, the minutes say: ^'It was moved 
 that the committee on library be instructed to expend 
 $100 for books and apparatus as soon as present 
 liabilities are liquidated. The motion was made the 
 special order of the next meeting.*' 
 
 June 5, 1865 J minutes say: *^It was moved and 
 carried that the motion of the library committee be 
 taken up. It was moved that the original motion be 
 amended by increasing the amount from $100 to $150. 
 Carried. This motion then passed as amended." 
 
 October 2, 1865, we read in minutes: ^^Reports of 
 committee on library and on instruction received and 
 accepted." There is no record of the reports. 
 
 Eight months afterwards. 
 
 June 4, i866y minutes say: * ^Committee on library 
 reported that it is still in existence and is paying some 
 of last year's expenses. Estimated value of library 
 at present, $150." 
 
 September j, 1866: * 'Committee on library and in- 
 struction and apparatus reported." No record of any 
 report. 
 
 May 6y 1867, minutes say: * 'Committee on library 
 and instruction (report) that there is a room obtained 
 and the library in use." 
 
 (Previously, it had been reported that there was no 
 room nor shelves for the library.) 
 
 April 20 y 1868 y minutes say: ''Report of committee 
 on library was made by the chairman, that the library 
 was not in full use for want of a suitable room, but 
 that it would be preserved and used as far as possible. 
 
72 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 June I, 1868, minutes say: ''Committee on library 
 reported that owing to the want of a suitable room no 
 public library could at present be kept." 
 
 This seems to have been the last reference made in 
 the minutes to that collection of books. Of course, 
 there could have been but a small number of volumes. 
 
 Whatever may have been the fate of that library, 
 it does not appear that it was carried along when the 
 school was transferred to the new normal building 
 from the old ''Seminary Hall.'' There was no library 
 whatever at the school when the new principal came 
 in July, 1 871. In due time he put his own private 
 library in his office in the normal college building, and 
 that was the only library there was in the school until 
 after the Southwestern Normal College became the 
 "Southwestern Normal School'* May 26, 1874— in 
 other words the State Normal School of the Tenth 
 District. 
 
 Among the important things undertaken immedi- 
 ately after "recognition," was the matter of a normal 
 school library. 
 
 A subscription was taken and the paper circulated 
 chiefly by T. R. Wakefield, then a student, and others, 
 and enough was in a short time contributed by the 
 students and teachers to purchase Appleton's Ameri- 
 can Cyclopedia and a considerable number of other 
 valuable books, especially works of reference. 
 
 This collection of books, kept at first in room "M," 
 was, it seems, afterwards divided between the two 
 literary societies, but subsequently the books were all 
 placed together again and have probably remained so; 
 and this was the beginning of the present library of 
 the Southwestern Normal School. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School, 73 
 
 Other facts and important events in this history 
 must await a later pen. 
 
 The above sketch, though somewhat lengthy in 
 parts, is, nevertheless, in fact, a condensed account 
 of the material— not the scholastic —events included 
 in the time it covers, that is, the time of the incumb- 
 ency of Professor Ehrenfeld. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 (The writer is indebted to the courtesy of Dr. J. P. 
 McCaskey, Lancaster, Pa., for a copy of the Pennsyl- 
 vania School Journal of September, 1876, containing 
 the report of the Proceedings of the State Teachers' 
 Association at West Chester from Tuesday, August 
 8, to Thursday, August 10, inclusive, which is used in 
 the following pages.) 
 
 The inclusion of what follows in an appendix to the 
 foregoing chapter of history has been decided upon 
 rather by the earnest advice of other than the writer's 
 own judgment. It is thought to be valuable as throw- 
 ing light upon the situation of the normal schools at 
 that time and as not wanting in pertinence to their 
 present condition and needs. 
 
 The following paper was read by the author, the 
 principal of the normal school at California, Pa. He 
 had been especially appointed to prepare such paper 
 because of the hampered conditions of those institu- 
 tions; and the still unremedied conditions have been 
 the occasion of advising the inclusion of the paper in 
 the fourth-coming volume. 
 
 MR. EHRENFELD'S ADDRESS. 
 
 State Normal Schools. 
 
 'The State of Pennsylvania keeps school. The 
 common or free schools are a state institution. They 
 differ in their origin from the academies, colleges, theo- 
 logical, medical and law schools. These, like rail- 
 roads, agricultural societies, coal companies and the 
 
 74 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 75 
 
 like, are established by individuals, associations or 
 corporations, but the common schools are established, 
 instituted, supported, kept by the State. Tracing 
 their constitutional history, we find in the constitution 
 of Pennsylvania, as adopted in 1776, the following 
 article: *A school or schools shall be established in 
 each county by the Legislature 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/ 
 
 **This, it is seen, was not yet the free school, though 
 it is foreshadowed; but the constitution as amended 
 in 1790, Art. VIL, reads: '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,^ This 
 is quite an advance upon the last. The constitution, 
 as amended in 1838, has the same article. The pres- 
 ent constitution, Art. X., Sec. i, reads: The gen- 
 eral assembly shall provide for the maintenance and 
 support of a thorough and efficient system of public 
 schools wherein all the children of this common- 
 wealth above the age of six years may be educated, 
 and shall appropriate at least one million dollars each 
 year for that purpose.' 
 
 ''Here we have the full fledged Free or Common 
 Schools. They have long since been established and 
 provided for by statute in accordance with these provi- 
 sions of the constitution. Clearly, the common or 
 free school is a state institution. They are not some- 
 thing merely which the state allows or only authorizes: 
 it establishes them, it gives them existence. The State 
 then having begotten them, must see to it that they 
 
76 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 are rightly conducted and maintained: and the stat- 
 utes relating to the common schools, give evidence in 
 all their parts, that the State feels itself obliged to 
 them, bound in obligation to them as parents to chil- 
 dren. 
 
 **Now, there are many things needful for the right 
 conduct of the schools, but one thing is needful be- 
 yond all others. There may be poor houses and yet 
 they may succeed ; there may be poor text-books and 
 yet no failure in the schools; there may be lack of ap- 
 paratus and want of public spirit, and the school may 
 still do good work; but if the teacher be incompe- 
 tent, then is the whole institution a failure. As is the 
 teacher so is the school. The Pennsylvania Railroad 
 might as well attempt to run its trains with incompe- 
 tent engineers, or the steamship companies their ves- 
 sels over the ocean with bungling pilots and captains 
 as to attempt carrying on the common schools without 
 skilled teachers. And the peril to humanity in the 
 latter case is incalculably greater. 
 
 ''Whence may competent teachers be obtained? 
 Are they like poets, 'born not made' ? and, unlike poets, 
 born to the number of many thousands every year, 
 to take the places that need to be annually filled in 
 the district schools? Nearly 20,000 teachers are re- 
 quired for the common schools of this state. Can 
 we go out every autumn and pick them up in suffi- 
 cient numbers, as the Israelites went out of a morning 
 and picked up the manna, dropped down from heaven? 
 Can anything like an adequate number of competent 
 teachers— teachers professionally qualified for 'this 
 finest art of modern life,' be supplied without agen- 
 cies to prepare them, without institutions to train 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 77 
 
 men and women for the work? There are those who 
 think they can; who think they can be secured in 
 sufficient numbers — young men and young women, 
 from the farms and dairies, from the workshops, from 
 private schools, academies, and colleges. This was 
 the way at one time. 
 
 *Tifty years since there were no normal schools in 
 this country, and one hundred and fifty years ago the 
 idea of normal schools, so far as we know, had not 
 entered into the mind of any one. And there are 
 always those who think an institution is not needed, 
 simply because the world at one time got along without 
 it. They do not consider that new times have their 
 new needs and call for new institutions. They do not 
 recognize the fact that as each individual, each mem- 
 ber of the human family, is subject to the law of growth 
 and passes from the period of childhood and few wants 
 into the time of adult life and manifold necessities, 
 so the race itself is personal and individual, has its 
 law of growth, is ever passing out of its narrower into 
 its larger self; is ever unfolding new needs, and, from 
 age to age, is reaching out farther and making larger 
 demands on itself, on nature, on the universe. 
 
 '^Humanity is a seed with untold germinal forces in 
 it. Some have unfolded, others yet, doubtless, lie hid- 
 den and quiet, awaiting their time. The time is in the 
 life of the tree when its structure is very simple, but 
 the day comes when it must put forth its great 
 branches ; afterwards when it must furnish the material 
 for blossom and for the succeeding yet greater de- 
 mands, for the fruit and the energy to ripen it. Time 
 is in the life of the corn when it is the simple blade, 
 but the days come when it must build its stalk strong; 
 
78 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 afterwards as its Inner life unfolds, it must supply the 
 substance for the ear and institute the husk, to house 
 and protect it till it is perfected. New wants arise, 
 other and larger demands are made and new functions 
 must be performed. So, if the idea of progress is not 
 a delusion, as the human tree grows the time comes 
 from period to period when new demands are made 
 of the race; when new ideas must be realized; when 
 new institutions are needed and must be established. 
 And to oppose these demands, or to try and get along 
 without them, is as foolish as it would be in the corn 
 to cry out against instituting the ear and its husk, be- 
 cause it has got along very well in its previous history 
 without either. 
 
 ^Trom Adam until now new times have quickened 
 new activities, and the unfolding activities of the 
 race have created new times, and these have de- 
 manded new institutions; and so it will be through 
 the decades and centuries to come. Neither can any 
 prophet foretell what bloom and fruit will yet appear 
 on the human tree— on the tree Igdrasil, whose top- 
 most boughs, in the Scandinavian story, eternally 
 dance in the light of heaven— no prophet can foresee 
 what bloom and fruit will yet appear in those branches 
 in* the spring-times and summers of the unfolding 
 cycles of the future. 
 
 ''Now, in the course of human progress or of the 
 race's ongoing, the time came that quickened the 
 dormant idea of universal education and it rose into 
 consciousness. This occurred in modern times: it is 
 a modern idea. The thought was in individual minds 
 long enough ago ; it is expressed in some of the oldest 
 of the sacred Scriptures ; but it had no wide nor prac- 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 79 
 
 tical recognition in the common consciousness till in 
 recent times. The common or free school of which we 
 speak is the idea made actual. The time was when 
 the world got along without the common school, but 
 to oppose it therefore would be like the tree's opposing 
 its own blossom and fruit. 
 
 **But the common school is accepted, is accepted 
 long since even by the politician, who is the last to 
 accept a new idea. It is, as we have seen, an institu- 
 tion established, supported, kept by the state. But 
 the effort to establish and put in operation the common 
 schools quickened and waked into consciousness an- 
 other idea, that of the teacher. Not that the world 
 had no teachers before. The teacher as an announcer 
 of new truth, as the bringer forth of original things, 
 as an oracle— these the world has had of old. Moses, 
 Isaiah, above all Jesus of Nazareth, and again Socrates, 
 Plato and other names of power— but the teacher as 
 one who takes the things of knowledge and of science, 
 the things revealed by the former class of teachers, 
 and communicates them to the youth of the land ; who 
 drills them into their minds ; who broods over the souls 
 of his pupils with a tender, fruitful and continuous 
 power, and quickens their latent energies into activity 
 —of him the world in former times had no conscious 
 thought. Of the teacher, therefore, as a universal 
 factor in the state, more needful than ships and armies, 
 than warriors, legislatures and kings; still further, of 
 the teacher in any such numbers, and of trained skill 
 in the profession — and of so important a profession — 
 the idea has come into conscious recognition so late as 
 since the common school, though necessarily evoked 
 by the emergence and attempted realization of that. 
 
8o The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 "This idea of the profession of teaching is fairly in 
 the thought of to-day, but it has been, as yet, only 
 partially realized in practice. We are still only in 
 the process of getting the grand idea embodied in fact. 
 Up to date, teachers have been, as already stated, 
 partly picked up, partly gathered from private schools 
 and out of other professions, with more recently a 
 sprinkling from the normal schools; but we wish to 
 reach the day when there shall be not only a few good 
 teachers as there have always been, long before normal 
 schools or even colleges were thought of, when the 
 instruction of our children shall be in the hands of a 
 skilled army of teachers, all of whom shall enter the 
 profession with conscious skill and therefore with con- 
 scious power; who shall press to their vast undertaking 
 as the armies of Moltke moved against Weissenburg 
 and Worth, against Metz, Gravellote and Sedan. 
 
 "The day of the teacher is at hand. More than 
 ever *the schoolmaster is abroad.' He is called for 
 as never before, and by the tens of thousands. The 
 number required for the common schools of our state 
 equals, I apprehend, if it does not exceed the number 
 of ministers of all the different religious denominations 
 added to the lawyers and physicians. Though called 
 for so numerously, he is scanned as never before. 
 The people are getting practical on the subject. They 
 are getting alive to the fact that persons are not more 
 qualified to teach without training for the profession 
 than young men and young women would be to prac- 
 tice medicine or law without being trained for it. 
 They are considering how solemn and intrinsic the 
 work is; coming to perceive that it requires a knowl- 
 edge of the ways of children, a clear apprehension of 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 8i 
 
 the best methods of conducting the mind into the 
 knowledge of the things to be learned, moreover that 
 it asks a cultured soul; a patient and subdued yet 
 quick and courageous spirit; and that these qualities 
 and this skill cannot be obtained in any wide or ade- 
 quate measure without normal schools. And we must 
 have them, no matter how the world did without them 
 once. To refuse them now would be as if the corn 
 should refuse to put forth the ear or the tree to follow 
 up the blossom with the fruit. To refuse them would 
 be to undo the common schools which have developed 
 the necessity of the normal schools. We must have 
 them. This way lies destiny. This way move the 
 stars in our sky. 
 
 *'Well, you have the normal schools, why are you 
 not satisfied? 
 
 ''Yes, we have them, it is true. The need of them 
 was recognized in our State more than a score of years 
 ago, and the Legislature was prevailed upon to pass 
 an act establishing them in 1857. Rather an act al- 
 lowing them to be established, but particularizing the 
 requirements needful for recognition of them by the 
 State. I think no one will demur if I say that the 
 Legislature did not pass the act because it was an idea 
 in their conscious thought, pressing upward for birth, 
 but the matter was brought (I need not say by whom) 
 to the attention of the leading members of the Legis- 
 lature and urged upon them— who then secured the 
 passage of the act. 
 
 ''But the State in this action had but the dimmest 
 
 apprehension of what it was doing; nor has it either 
 
 in respect of the body of the people or in its legislative 
 
 capacity, ever yet apprehended the idea of the normal 
 
 7 
 
82 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 schools in anything like its (the idea's) full scope; 
 nor has it yet consciously felt the squeeze of the logic 
 that necessitates them or the obligation they throw 
 back upon the State since they have come into exis- 
 tence under the law. They have been and are still, 
 to a large extent, regarded as if they were something 
 to which the State owed no duty: as if they were 
 foreign to the legislative interests of the Common- 
 wealth and which had no claim upon it for help. 
 They are looked upon as if the question of normal 
 schools were still an open question with the world, 
 whereas it is a question settled long ago, as much so as 
 the idea of the common schools themselves. Now, I 
 am not ignorant of what the State has done, nor 
 coldly insensible to it; and great progress has been 
 made in the last jfive years, but I am ready to say 
 with emphasis that the State will never have fulfilled 
 its duty in this matter till it has planned the normal 
 schools on ample pecuniary basis and sees to it that 
 they are sufficiently equipped for the right perform- 
 ance of their work. 
 
 ''The State owes this to itself and to its free schools: 
 owes it to itself in a way more vital than any of us 
 realize. It must take hold as it has never done before. 
 Its past attitude will not do. The past policy (and I 
 am not arraigning any one; it is probable that the 
 past policy was the only one possible) —the past policy 
 may sometime, in the future, secure us normal schools 
 with sufficient equipment, but it will be after the waste 
 of what is infinitely more precious than money, time, 
 and the fine energies of noble men who are perishing 
 in the toil. 
 
 'The law makes such requirements in buildings and 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 83 
 
 amount of ground as befits such institutions ; but with- 
 out assistance from the state the number of acres re- 
 quired would of itself have kept them away from the 
 cities and large towns where land is dear, but where 
 there is wealth and intelligence, and would have re- 
 sulted in locating them in the country, at villages, 
 where land is cheap, but where there is not sufficient 
 intelligence nor capital. This has been the case, at 
 least with most of them. The consequence has been 
 that here were great schools to be founded in and by 
 communities where they had neither the money nor 
 any just conception of the idea of the schools. The 
 project was in each case undertaken and the work 
 got under, way, but the efforts remind one of the at- 
 tempt to haul a six-horse load with a team of little 
 ponies, and some of them false; after much talking, 
 urging and jerking, the load got started and dragged 
 forward to rising grade, and then the melancholy fact 
 became evident that the force, the means, was utterly 
 inadequate. 
 
 ^The legitimate result was an appeal to the State, 
 and it answered the appeal ; but so insufficiently, with 
 such uncertainty of appropriation, and during the last 
 two years, with such utter diasppointment— while yet 
 the prospect of help was so promising, that men put 
 in still more of their means in the assurance of relief, 
 and then, finally, by the Governor's veto of the appro- 
 priations taking away the food already spread before 
 starving men— as to put the few faithful souls who 
 took the burdens on their shoulders under a stress too 
 grievous to be borne, and some of the schools into peril, 
 out of which they may not all escape. 
 
 ^'But I have no inclination nor disposition to dwell 
 
84 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 upon this part of the subject. I answer then again, 
 Yes, we have the normal schools; we are sorely con- 
 scious of that fact, but we have them in no satisfac- 
 tory condition. One, two, or three perhaps— owe es- 
 pecially—got under way so early and under such 
 auspices that what I have said does not apply; but I 
 am speaking of the present average condition of them. 
 Their situation ought not to be satisfactory to the 
 State, it cannot be endured by those who are uphold- 
 ing them, and it is painful to all who have a proper 
 conception of the high equipment and excellence that 
 is their aim. 
 
 'This condition of things must be remedied, and it 
 rests on the State to do it. And there should be no 
 halting about it but a laying hold of the matter with 
 both hands. It is time for the State in its legislative 
 capacity to take the interests of these institutions into 
 new, careful, patient and thorough consideration, and 
 not lay the matter down until it has a clear apprehen- 
 sion of their original idea and function ; of the State's 
 relationship to them according to the law as it stands ; 
 of their present condition and necessities; and then 
 determine what improvements are needed in their 
 statutory relations to the State and what appropria- 
 tions are requisite to lift them out of their embarrass- 
 ments and put them into right equipment and endow- 
 ment for their work. 
 
 **This will take time and wise deliberation. It will 
 require considerable appropriations but not nearly as 
 great as some other states have made and are making. 
 The property of our normal schools according to last 
 year's report is valued at about $1,200,000. Of this 
 the state has appropriated $250,000, only a little over 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 85 
 
 one fifth of the whole amount. That amount more 
 will put them in easy condition. But if the State 
 should ultimately have to appropriate twice that or 
 altogether a million, rightly to capacitate them for 
 their work, it would be a royal investment, and would 
 not exceed or equal what some of our sister states are 
 doing or have done in the same cause. 
 
 *'By taking such hold of them the state will, in a 
 closer relationship to them, be able to correct evils 
 that have been complained of, while, in the easier 
 condition of the Staters assistance, others will correct 
 themselves. The schools can, and doubtless will, then 
 be more entirely confined to their professional work 
 of training teachers; though I do not see the fairness 
 of the cry against their doing academic work, when all 
 around some of them at least the academies and col- 
 leges have normal departments attached and claim to 
 do that special work. This is especially so in my 
 own district. Some of them may have been mis- 
 managed. It could hardly be otherwise under all 
 the circumstances of their origin and their indifferent 
 relationship to the state. But a wiser policy may 
 remedy the past and avert similar evils in the future. 
 
 'It is urged that the provision of the law appropri- 
 ating the half dollar per week and the fifty dollars 
 at graduation to those who pledge themselves to teach, 
 is an unwise provision. I have the conceit that I 
 could myself improve that clause of the law, but that 
 the State has suffered any serious loss from the viola- 
 tion of their pledges by any considerable number of 
 those who gave them, I am convinced, after a good 
 deal of investigation, is a mistake. The statistics on 
 the subject, I am sure, will compare favorably with 
 
86 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 those of religious societies who support beneficiaries 
 and especially with the statistics of the United States 
 naval and military schools. 
 
 **Also, it is urged that there are too many of them. 
 This may be so. The law originally provided for 
 twelve, and the Legislature of 1873-74 divided one 
 of the districts, making provision for thirteen. Nine 
 are in operation, and they are by no means too many 
 to do the work needed in our great Commonwealth. 
 Nor is their number too great for the State to support: 
 nor do I believe there will be any trouble in that 
 particular when the state once fully rouses itself to 
 the measure of the cause. The experience of New 
 York on the subject of few or many schools is worth 
 citing. I read from the Report of the United States 
 Commissioner of Education for 1873, p. 287: 
 
 '* ^New York has eight normal and training schools 
 in full and successful operation. The first one was 
 established as an experiment in 1844. For nineteen 
 years it was the only institution of the kind in the 
 State, and was surrounded by a multitude of acade- 
 mies professing to do similar work in training teachers 
 for common schools. A trial of the two plans through 
 that period, and a comparison of results, led to the 
 conclusion that normal and training schools, organized 
 and conducted with special reference to the object 
 in view, were the proper institutions to educate teach- 
 ers for the public schools. Accordingly, provision was 
 made for a second normal school at Oswego in 1863, 
 and in 1866 a law was passed authorizing certain 
 officers of the State to act as a commission to locate 
 six others. When the new normal schools were opened 
 to the public, a feeling of hostility was manifested on 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 87 
 
 the part of many persons interested in the private 
 academies, which developed itself in the legislature of 
 1872 by an unsuccessful attempt to defeat the usual 
 appropriations. There was no real provocation for 
 this assault, except the success of the normal schools, 
 whose excellence and popularity were such as to dimin- 
 ish the attendance at the academies. . . . The ordi- 
 nary annual expense of maintaining all the normal 
 schools is about $150,000. . . • Whether it is advis- 
 able, says the State Superintendent, to expend the 
 sum mentioned to educate competent teachers, or to 
 expend the whole amount to pay poor teachers, is not 
 debatable with those who believe that the improve- 
 ment of the common schools is the first duty to the 
 taxpayers who support them. 
 
 ''Other examples might be cited. I think we shall 
 find that even nine or more schools in full and success- 
 ful operation will not be able to supply the demand for 
 our public schools. 
 
 ''The fear has been expressed that a system of nor- 
 mal schools, bound in the unity of one administration 
 and furnishing the teachers, would establish a bureau- 
 cracy and make the profession in time a sort of close 
 corporation. It is a needless alarm. If our ten nor- 
 mal schools had each five hundred students and were to 
 graduate, each, a hundred every season, it would not 
 furnish a fourth of the thousands annually required 
 to fill up the ranks of the profession ; for of the nearly 
 20,000 teachers needed for our district schools, some 
 three to four thousand must annually be replaced. 
 There will always be a demand for every competent 
 teacher, come from what quarter he may. We shall 
 always need many more and be compelled to take them 
 from other sources. 
 
88 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 'Tet the State then lay hold of and help our normal 
 schools. They deserve it. Amid all their trials they 
 are doing a work of inestimable value for the public 
 schools. Under the wise administration of our school 
 department they ^have bated no jot of heart or hope 
 but have kept right onward,* with the primal idea of 
 the normal school kept steadily in view. I say again, 
 they are doing a noble work. The poorest of the 
 teachers who have been at the normal schools carry 
 a new light into the districts they occupy, and carry 
 in them and breathe around them a higher purpose, 
 a nobler aspiration. I appeal to this association to 
 take a deeper interest in this matter. They are no 
 private concern. There is nothing in our affairs of 
 more vital moment to the public. The question of 
 the normal schools I hold to be the supreme educa- 
 tional question of the hour. I know of nothing more 
 important for this convention than to turn itself with 
 unity of purpose to the consideration of this subject 
 in any way that might help perfect these institutions. 
 And I should be glad, if not impracticable, to see 
 appointed a committee empowered to prepare an ad- 
 dress to the Legislature presenting the condition of 
 these schools, their claims upon the state, with sug- 
 gestions for their consideration relative to any remod- 
 eling of the law establishing them, that might be 
 wisely made. 
 
 **This is not a matter in which those only are inter- 
 ested who are connected with the normal schools; it 
 is, I reiterate, a common, a public interest. For my- 
 self, I am not originally of the normal schools; but I 
 have put a number of my best years into them at 
 much sacrifice, and am there to-day not because it is 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 89 
 
 comfortable for me or profitable, but because to pass 
 out seemed the abandoning of a work to which I had 
 been set by Providence. But I shall no longer feel 
 obliged unless the State takes hold and helps to per- 
 fect what has been begun, and to ripen the precious 
 seed which, I know, some of us have cast into this 
 soil. I want nothing in this, but what is for the up- 
 lifting of our profession, nothing but what is legitimate, 
 nothing but what may enable these schools to fulfill 
 their mission and occupy their true place in the 
 rounded grandeur of our Commonwealth." 
 
 Discussion. 
 
 '*0n motion of the chairman of the Executive Com- 
 mittee, speeches by members in the regular discussions 
 of the association were limited to ten minutes each. 
 
 '*Dr. John S. Hart, of New Jersey, was introduced 
 by the chair as *a native of Pennsylvania' to which 
 he added 'born in Massachusetts.' He had been 
 transplanted young, however, and now called himself 
 a Pennsylvanian, as he was never quite so happy as 
 when on Pennyslvania soil, and in the company of 
 teachers of the common schools, for they are the base 
 of our great pyramid, which is more important than 
 its apex. The argument in the paper was so complete 
 and entire that there is nothing left for others to do, 
 except to say *amen,' and subscribe to it. It has been 
 well said that the great exhibition will compel us to 
 come down several pegs. We were going to show 
 the world how superior we are in all respects, particu- 
 larly in the matter of education; but, here too, we 
 must come down. The normal school which is our 
 present subject of discussion, is not a * Yankee notion' ; 
 
90 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 Europe had it before us, and has carried it to greater 
 perfection than even Pennsylvania with her nine noble 
 schools. We cannot fail to recognize and emphazise 
 the fact that the Europeans are ahead of us in the 
 training of teachers. 
 
 *'He was glad to see our discussions open on the 
 question in popular education. We are growing up 
 to the idea that it is something more to know how to 
 teach a thing than simply to know the thing. It is as 
 preposterous to suppose anybody born a teacher as 
 to suppose him born an engineer. The state should 
 appropriate more liberally than any state has yet 
 done, to the support of these training schools. The 
 five years spent by himself in normal work school had 
 more fully employed his entire manhood than any 
 other period in his experience. The state of Pennsyl- 
 vania has already done a great work in the direction 
 of normal schools but he hoped to see it quadrupled." 
 
 *'Supt. Geo. J. Luckey, of Pittsburg, endorsed the 
 paper so far as it went, but it did not go far enough. 
 The idea of the normal schools was good, and they 
 have done a good work; but there is a defect in the 
 law, which works to their injury. The requirement 
 of ten acres of land shuts them out from the cities, 
 where alone large numbers of professional pupils can 
 be furnished; and so they degenerate into academies 
 for the education of the children of trustees and stock- 
 holders, and their immediate neighbors. Why should 
 the people of the whole state be taxed for the advan- 
 tage of particular localities? Why not support other 
 academies as well as these? These schools should be 
 reorganized before they receive further aid from the 
 state; they need to be made in fact what they now 
 are only in name — Normal Schools.'* 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 91 
 
 '*Dr. Edward Brooks said that all new enterprises 
 must fight their way into public favor, and the normal 
 schools are no exception. .We have done a good deal 
 of fighting in this state, being constantly called on for 
 *a reason for the faith that is in us/ We feel that the 
 normal schools are a part of the system by which the 
 state is trying to train up good citizens; that their 
 relation to the state is the same as that of the common 
 school ; yet an effort seems made to crowd us into the 
 position of interlopers. 
 
 'We do not attack either the superintendency, the 
 colleges, the academies, or any other form of educa- 
 tional work; but one or other of them almost every 
 year makes an onslaught upon us. We might have 
 better superintendents, even of cities ; as well as better 
 normal professors, principals, and schools; but we do 
 not consider it necessary to be continually talking 
 about it. We have often believed we had buried this 
 corpse beyond resurrection; but ever and anon its 
 ghost stalks among us. . . . It is not generally under- 
 stood—although such is their privilege— that gradu- 
 ates of colleges or practical teachers may appear before 
 the State Examining Board on precisely the same 
 terms as the normal graduates, and receive the same 
 grade upon the same examination.'* 
 
 '*Supt. Luckey said that if the State assumed the 
 entire support of the schools, as well as their entire 
 control, many objections would be removed, and the 
 schools would serve a better purpose than at present. 
 
 ^'Deputy Supt. Curry said the propriety of estab- 
 lishing and maintaining normal schools does not seem 
 to be questioned; all live teachers consider them a 
 necessity. The question is. How shall we bring them 
 to a higher plane, and make them more useful? The 
 
92 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 time has come when they seem about to crystallize; 
 and their best friends do not desire that they should 
 crystallize in exactly their present form. It is proper, 
 therefore, to consider the whole question, and the best 
 method of rectifying such evils as may be found to 
 exist in their organization or operation. This is a 
 critical period for those schools which incurred debts 
 in prosperous times, and must now, in order to keep 
 their heads above water, take children almost from 
 the alphabet. He thought the Legislature had done 
 right and could not endorse the veto, which was a 
 severe blow in many quarters. He hoped something 
 might be done here to secure larger appropriations to 
 these schools. Their debt should be wiped out, and 
 these institutions for training teachers placed upon a 
 professional basis. 
 
 **Dr. Brooks said the Pennsylvania normal school 
 idea did not involve making them purely state schools; 
 the faculty were not appointed by the State, nor under 
 the absolute control of the State. The same is true 
 of the common schools; the State supports them, the 
 local authorities control them; there is government 
 by the people and supervision by the State. It is a 
 question whether we should do better to place the 
 absolute control of our system, or any branch of it, 
 at Harrisburg. For himself, he believed it was safer 
 to trust the people than the politicians.'* 
 
 After considerable further discussion : 
 
 'It was requested that the author of the paper 
 should present some definite resolution to which the 
 discussion should be confined, instead of firing at ran- 
 dom, and on motion it was agreed that a resolution 
 from Mr. Ehrenfeld — embodying such points as had 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 93 
 
 been presented in his report, or recommending such 
 other action in the premises as seemed advisable — 
 should be the first order to-morrow morning, to which 
 time the further discussion of the subject under con- 
 sideration was postponed/' 
 
 Wednesday Morning, 
 the normal schools. 
 
 'The first order of the morning was then taken up 
 — the following resolution being offered by Prof. C. L. 
 Ehrenfeld : 
 
 '' Whereas, The subject of our normal schools is 
 of very great importance, and the necessity of some 
 early action is urgent; Therefore, 
 
 '* ' Resolved y That a committee of nine be appointed 
 by the president of this convention, whose duty it shall 
 be to take up the subject of our normal school law 
 and the policy based upon it, the needs of the schools 
 pecuniarily and professionally, and make such sug- 
 gestions and propose such changes in the present law 
 and present policy as shall seem to them best after 
 the widest possible consideration of the matter; and 
 further, to prepare an address to the legislature on 
 the subject, with the aim of securing careful, patient 
 and thorough consideration of the question by that 
 body, and of obtaining such legislation relating thereto 
 as may give us a truer and more successful policy for 
 the normal schools in our Commonwealth.*'* 
 
 *'Dr. Brooks moved the adoption of the resolution, 
 which was seconded. 
 
 *'Mr. Luckey said the resolution was entirely too 
 vague; we want something more definite. The com- 
 
94 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 mittee, if appointed, should be instructed what to do. 
 There should be some definite expression by this meet- 
 ing concerning the future management of the normal 
 schools. He thought everybody who was not directly 
 interested would agree that we should either have 
 state schools in reality, or cut off all state aid and con- 
 nection. Let the State appropriate money to buy 
 these buildings, if necessary; let the State pay the 
 faculty and regulate their standard, and thus make 
 them state institutions. The unfavorable influence 
 of local interests under the present system must be 
 patent to everybody. If the State supported the 
 schools, they would not need to receive children as 
 pupils, in order to keep them alive. They would be 
 lifted above their present level, and made worthy of 
 the name they bear. He hoped this committee would 
 be instructed to report to the Legislature in favor of 
 taking the schools out of the hands of local boards of 
 trustees and placing them under full control of the State, '' 
 
 *'Dr. Brooks said there were two standpoints from 
 which the subject might be treated — with reference 
 to the system, and with reference to their work. By 
 considering these two aspects separately, we shall have 
 a more intelligent discussion. Much of the antago- 
 nism we meet with concerns the work of the schools; 
 but he believed the work to be better than the system. 
 Like all human things, both system and work have 
 their defects; yet he thought normal schools showed 
 no more or greater imperfections than the other edu- 
 cational agencies of the country. 
 
 ''Of the stronger criticisms, selected from a large 
 number of weak ones, are these: (i) That we have 
 too many academic pupils. (2) That our students do 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 95 
 
 not remain long enough in the profession to pay the 
 state for its appropriations. (3) That there is too 
 much local control, and not enough power in the state. 
 With regard to the first, the percentage who do not 
 contemplate teaching is small; and though the time 
 may come when an ideal system shall exclude all these, 
 thus far the state has received manifold benefits from 
 these 'academic' pupils. Second, he had been sur- 
 prised on looking over his catalogue yesterday to find 
 that the students remain in the profession so long. 
 The ladies, of course, having distinguished themselves 
 as teachers, are apt to be sought for as housekeepers; 
 but they stand out against it as long as possible, as 
 long as they think it safe. And when they become 
 wives, the State loses nothing; they make good 
 mothers, and prepare their husbands to become good 
 school directors, or become such themselves where 
 the people have sufficient liberality and intelligence 
 to elect them. Third, as the large majority of our 
 students come from a distance, the 'local' objection 
 falls. 
 
 ''It is to be remembered that these normal schools, 
 like Topsy, grew up themselves; the state, instead of 
 fostering them, was at first indifferent, even antago- 
 nistic. If our educators had waited on the legislature 
 they would probably have been waiting to-day. The 
 normal schools are, so to speak, an accident of the 
 system; no wonder then that they are imperfect. 
 When they began their work they could get only 
 academic pupils — the teachers were too poor to come. 
 But we took those who came, and indoctrinated them, 
 and made teachers of them. There are hundreds of 
 good schools to-day, whose success testifies that those 
 'academic* pupils are a blessing to the state.'' 
 
g6 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 "Mr. Luckey said Dr. Brooks always made a good 
 speech, and if this one had been made yesterday per- 
 haps he would have been converted. He merely rose 
 to set himself and his friends right. We are not anti- 
 normal men. We honor the men who have been 
 instrumental in building up the schools, and appreciate 
 the success they have achieved; but we do not want 
 to stop where we are; we desire to finish their good 
 work, and have true normal schools.'* 
 
 The discussion was continued in lively and incisive 
 handling of the normal schools, both pro and con, in 
 which Professors R. K. Buehrle, N. C. Schaeffer and 
 others took active part, after which Professor F. A. 
 Allen said * Ve must abandon details or we shall soon 
 come to swords' points.'* 
 
 To make the question more definite, he offered the 
 following substitute for the resolution under discus- 
 sion: 
 
 ** Resolved, That we recognize the necessity of normal 
 schools. 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That a committee of nine be appointed 
 to remodel the system, so as to make these schools 
 far more efficient, and to meet the demand for a much 
 larger number of trained teachers. 
 
 ''Resolved, That this committee be required to meet 
 at Harrisburg, and make and publish their report two 
 months prior to the session of the Legislature." 
 
 The debate had become so warm that it ran on 
 in rapid current which did not keep entirely within 
 its proper bounds. 
 
 In this further discussion Miss Martha Schofield 
 and Miss Elizabeth Floyd took a noticeable part and 
 asked ''that woman be represented upon this impor- 
 tant committee." 
 
The Southwestern Normal School, 97 
 
 A vote was at length taken upon Professor Allen's 
 substitute modified by suggestion of Superintendent 
 Baer, directing the committee to report to the next 
 session of the association and it was adopted. 
 
 On the following morning the committee on re- 
 organization of the normal school system was an- 
 nounced as follows: Messrs. C. L. Ehrenfeld, Geo. J. 
 Luckey, F. A. Allen, Edw. Brooks, R. K. Buehrle, 
 N. C. Schaeffer, J. W. Weaver, Misses Elizabeth 
 Floyd and Jane E. Leonard. 
 
 STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 Recommendation Towards Their Reorgani- 
 zation. 
 
 *'(To the editor of the Pittsburg Commercial.) 
 'The committee appointed at the last convention 
 of the State Teachers' Association to prepare a plan 
 for the reorganization of the state normal schools, 
 and which consisted of Professors C. L. Ehrenfeld 
 (chairman), G. J. Luckey, Edward Brooks, F. A. 
 Allen, N. C. Schaeffer, J. W. Weaver, Superintendent 
 Buehrle, and the Misses Jane E. Leonard and Eliza- 
 beth Floyd, met at the School Department, Harris- 
 burg, on Tuesday, November 14. The members of 
 the committee were all present except Professors 
 Luckey and Weaver. Superintendent Buehrle was 
 appointed secretary, and deputy Superintendent 
 Houck was invited to sit with the committee and 
 represent the school department in the absence of 
 State Superintendent Wickersham. 
 
 ''After the above preliminaries the chairman, Pro- 
 fessor Ehrenfeld, read the draft of an act which pre- 
 
98 The Southwestern Normal School, 
 
 sented a comprehensive and carefully prepared plan, 
 both in general and detail, for the reorganization of 
 normal schools and for their establishment upon a 
 new basis. The proposed act aimed to plant the 
 schools over on a new foundation chiefly under State 
 control, thus binding them more fully to professional 
 ends as well as securing their deliverance from finan- 
 cial difficulties; but the plan presented was thought, 
 by most of the committee, to be more revolutionary 
 in some of its essential features than would be found 
 practicable at this period in the history of our normal 
 schools; so the adoption of it was not pressed, but the 
 following recommendations of the committee were, 
 after full discussion, adopted unanimously, excepting 
 a partial dissent in a few points : 
 
 ''i. That the State assume the present legitimate 
 indebtedness of the schools, except the interest, said 
 indebtedness to be paid in five years in as many annual 
 installments. 
 
 ''2. That the minimum number of trustees shall 
 be six and the maximum number eighteen, but that 
 whatever the number fixed upon by any school the 
 one half shall be appointed by the Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, and the other half elected by the 
 stockholders ; the term of office to be three years and 
 the incumbents to be chosen and appointed that the 
 one third shall go out of office annually. 
 
 ''3. That the board of trustees shall meet semi- 
 annually or oftener if they prefer, and they shall have 
 authority to appoint two or more of their number who, 
 with the principal, shall constitute a prudential com- 
 mittee to manage the affairs of the school in the in- 
 terim between the meetings of the board. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 99 
 
 "4, That in the appointment of principal the board 
 of trustees shall nominate the candidate for that office 
 to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with 
 whom shall rest the power of confirmation; the term 
 of the principal shall be three years, and that he shall 
 be ex-officio a member of the board of trustees. 
 
 **5. That the principal shall nominate to the board 
 of trustees the other professors and teachers for terms 
 of office not exceeding one year, and the board shall 
 have authority to confirm; but that no trustee shall 
 be eligible to the position of teacher or steward nor 
 the steward or any teacher eligible to the office of 
 trustee. 
 
 ''6. That no person shall be eligible to any position 
 as professor or teacher who has not been a practical 
 teacher for at least five years and who does not 
 hold as evidence of scholarship at least a normal 
 diploma of the master's degree or a diploma from a 
 regular constituted college, except in the case of 
 teachers of music, elocution and graphics, who may be 
 chosen without possessing the above diploma. 
 
 **7. That the State provide to make tuition free to 
 all who fulfill the four conditions enumerated in the 
 following section (8), and that the fifty dollars at 
 graduation be continued as heretofore. 
 
 *^8. That the conditions of admission into a normal 
 school shall be as follows : 
 
 '\a) Males shall be at least seventeen and females 
 sixteen years of age. 
 
 *'(&) All shall possess a sound physical constitution 
 and good moral character. 
 
 '\c) Average intellectual abilities with a fair know- 
 ledge of the common school branches. 
 
loo The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 ''(d) All shall sign a paper expressing their intention 
 of preparing to teach in the public schools of this 
 commonwealth. 
 
 *^Other students may be admitted, provided there 
 is room upon payment of a tuition fee as fixed by the 
 board of trustees. 
 
 **9. That all revenues accruing from the boarding 
 department or otherwise shall be devoted to improve- 
 ments of the school and under no circumstances shall 
 be appropriated to the payment of dividends. 
 
 **io. That there shall be connected with each school 
 a department of observation and training in which 
 the members of the senior class shall spend at least 
 three fourths of an hour each day for half a school 
 year observing the work of the teacher and also teach- 
 ing therein ; this work to be under the supervision of the 
 principal and the appropriate professors in teaching. 
 
 **ii. That the normal school shall be visited semi- 
 annually by the State Superintendent or one of his 
 deputies to see that the letter and spirit of the law 
 are properly carried out. 
 
 ^'i2. That the examinations of the senior classes in 
 the different schools shall be held on the same day, 
 and that the candidates for graduation shall be tested 
 by written questions, the same for all, and furnished 
 by the superintendent of public instruction, who shall 
 also fix the percentage of correct answers which shall 
 be required to entitle the candidates to their diplomas. 
 
 ^'13. That hereafter there be no additional normal 
 schools recognized except the one already mentioned 
 at Lock Haven, in the eighth district, and one each 
 for the cities of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, and that 
 in the case of these two cities the provisions in the 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. loi 
 
 present law requiring ten acres of land with dormi- 
 tories and dining halls shall be held inoperative in 
 respect of the normal schools offered by them for 
 recognition. 
 
 *The above recommendations were left at the ad- 
 journment of the committee in the hands of the chair- 
 man, with the instruction that he should put them in 
 the form of an act for the Legislature; but both on 
 account of domestic affliction which has engaged his 
 time constantly since the committee met, and oh ac- 
 count of desiring to consult further in respect of the 
 matter in hand, he has done nothing more at present 
 than to put the recommendation into as clear a state- 
 ment as practicable and arrange them as has herewith 
 been done, leaving the subject of drafting the form 
 of a bill to be attended to hereafter. 
 
 C. L. Ehrenfeld, 
 'Tittsburg, Pa., 
 
 November 27, 1876." 
 
 It appeared in The Commercial the next day. 
 
 The foregoing movement did not reach the Legis- 
 lature, chiefly because those most deeply interested 
 in the movement and who had best apprehension of 
 the prospect of accomplishing what was desired 
 thought it would be a case of Love's Labor Lost. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
The Faculty,' 1910-11. 
 
 HERBERT BURNHAM DAVIS, Principal, 
 
 Psychology and Pedagogy. 
 A.B, Bates College; Ph.D., Clark University. 
 
 JOHN DANIEL MEESE, Vice-Principal, 
 
 English Language and Literature. 
 
 M.Ph., Mount Union; A.M., Franklin and Marshall; Litt. D., 
 
 Heidelberg (Ohio) University. 
 
 REV. CHARLES LEWIS EHRENFELD, Ex-Principal. 
 Associate Professor of Latin and English. 
 A.B., A.M. and Ph.D., Wittenberg College. 
 
 JAMES BOYDEN SMITH, Registrar. 
 Ph.D., Waynesburg. 
 
 GEORGE GANS HERTZOG, 
 Higher Mathematics. 
 
 MRS. MARY GRAHAM NOSS, 
 
 German, Geography and Art. 
 
 M.E., Southwestern State Normal School; Student, Universities of 
 
 Berlin and Paris. 
 
 SOUTHWESTERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 ANNA MAY SHUTTERLY, 
 
 Librarian. 
 
 M.E., Southwestern State Normal School. 
 
 iNames, after the officers of the faculty, are arranged in the order 
 of time of service. 
 
^Resigned. 
 
 The Southwestern Normal School. 103 
 
 ANNA BELL THOMAS. 
 
 Training Teacher, First Grade, 
 
 M.E., Southwestern State Normal School. 
 
 ANNA BUCKBEE, 
 
 History and Civil Government. 
 
 M.E. Mansfield, Pa., State Normal School. 
 
 HENRIETTA MILLER LILLE Y, 
 
 Training Teacher, First Grade. 
 
 M.E., Southwestern State Normal School; 
 
 Chicago Normal School 
 
 LOUISE MAE WARD. 
 
 Assistant Librarian. 
 
 M.E., Southwestern State Normal School; 
 
 CHARLES STEPHEN CORNELL. 
 Voice Culture; Chorus Director. 
 
 ELIZABETH LINDSAY ROTHWELL, 
 
 Drawing and Painting. 
 
 M.E., Southwestern State Normal School; 
 
 Graduate Chicago Art Institute. 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELLA TRUMAN, 
 
 Training Teacher, Eighth Grade. 
 
 Student, Buffalo State Normal School; 
 
 Student, University of Chicago. 
 
 AGNES BIRKINSHA, 
 
 Training Teacher, Fourth Grade. 
 
 M.E.. Southwestern State Normal School. 
 
 WALTER MITCHELL.i 
 
 Mathematics. 
 A.M., Mt. Union; Ph.D., Allegheny. 
 
104 The Southwestern Normal School. 
 
 SOUTHWESTERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 CHARLES VEON, 
 
 Instrumental Music. 
 
 B.M., Geneva College; Graduate Conservatory of Musical Art of 
 
 Western Pennsylvania; Graduate Monguio School of Piano. 
 
 Student Berlin and Paris. 
 
 INA C. PRATT, 
 
 Training Teacher, Sixth and Seventh Grades. 
 
 Graduate Northfield Seminary and Framingham Normal School; 
 
 Student at Heidelberg and Munich. 
 
 EDWARD HARRISON KNABENSHUE, 
 
 Science. 
 A.B., West Virginia University; 
 Student in Chicago University. 
 
 ERNEST A. COFFIN, 
 
 Latin and Pedagogy of Latin. 
 
 A.B., and A.M., University of Toronto. 
 
 H. JUSTIN COLBURN, Principal of High School. 
 
 History and Pedagogy of History. 
 
 A.B., and A.M., Harvard. 
 
 MRS. ADA H. PILLSBURY, 
 
 Oratory and Training of the Speaking Voice. 
 
 Graduate of Emerson College of Oratory. 
 
 MARY T. NOSS. 
 
 French. 
 
 A.B., Wellesley. 
 Matriculated Student at the Sorbonne, Paris, 1906-7. 
 
 IVY E. MORSE. 
 
 Training Teacher, Sixth Grade. 
 
 Graduate of Farming ton (Me.) State Normal School. 
 
The Southwestern Normal School. 105 
 
 J. L. CROW, 
 
 Lecturer on Oral Hygiene. 
 
 D.D.S., Western University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 R. O. WITCRAFT. 
 
 Mathematics and Athletics. 
 
 B.L., Ohio Wesley an University. 
 
 J. F. KINSLEY, 
 
 Commercial Branches. 
 
 B.L., Mt. Union College. 
 
 BERTHA F. THOMPSON. 
 
 Physical Instructor for Women. 
 
 New Haven School of Gymnastics, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 ELEANOR JOY CLEAVER, 
 
 Trained Nurse. 
 
 George Washington University, 
 
 Washington, D.C. 
 
 JOHN H. ADAMS, 
 
 Science. 
 
 A.B., and A.M., Hanover College. 
 
 EVELYN D. KOLBE, 
 
 Rhetoric and Composition. 
 
 A.B., Women's College, Baltimore. 
 
 CORA MILLER ERASER, 
 
 Training Teacher Fifth Grade, 
 
 M.E., Southwestern State Normal School. 
 
o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
LBJe 
 
PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 AND THE 
 
 FOUNDING OF HER 
 NORMAL SCHOOLS 
 
 'Tantaemoliserat'