Address made at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the settlement of Cazenovia, N.Y., on "school day." June 13, 1893

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ADDRESS

-MADE AT THE"

CELEBSiLTIClT

<£XZ> OF THE -3^vg

Centennial Anniversary

GN5> OF THE-^^©

Settlement of Cazenovia, N. Y.,

"School Day," June 13, 1893,
CHARGES STKBBINS,

Clerk of the Board of Education.

/

iW~ ^w^^>".

ADDRESS I

1ADE AT THE-

CELEBPiLTIOlT

^Z?-OF THE ^S>^

Centennial Anniversary

S^vE^ OF THE -3XJ)

Settlement of Ca^enoYia, N.

• JL »<

"School Dag," June 13. 1893,

— ^BY* —

CHARTS STEBBINS,

Clerk of the Board o¥ Education.

l>*

Presses Of

TheCazenovia Republican,

1893.

The Development of the Common School
System of the State of Ne-vw York.

At the time of the settlement of Cazenovia. there were
no common schools in the state of Xew York, nor was
there any provisions for them.

And this, althongh the first public schools in America
were established in the state of Xew York.

In 1631. when the States General of Holland committed
the government of the infant colony of Xew Amsterdam
to the Dutch West India Company, it was enjoined that
the colony should * "find speedy means to maintain a clergy-
man and a schoolmaster. ' ' and it was required that * 'each
householder and inhabitant should bear such tax and
public charge as should be considered proper for their main-
tenance." Foot years later, the expenses of the school-
master were three hundred and sixty florins, or about one
hundred and fifty dollars, no mean sum for those days.
In 1664. when the colony was surrendered to the English,
every considerable settlement had a public school, taught
by more or less permanent teachers, and supported largely
or wholly, at the public expensr.

With the advent of English rule, all this was changed.
The policy of the English governors was to discourage the
education of the common people, the rulers being appre-
hensive that common schools would nourish and strength-
en a spirit of in dependence, which had even then made con -

slderable headway. Not only was the public aid withdrawn
from the common schools, but the instructions from the home
government to the colonial governors uniformly provided,
that no person should be permitted to come from England
to teach, even in a private school, without a license from the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and that no person here should
do so without the license of the governor. It is true that in
1702, an act was passed entitled "An act for the encourage-
ment of a grammar free school in the city of New York,"
but this bill was passed while the Dutch element was
still strong if not predominant and the governor and coun-
cil refused to approve the measure until it was amendedT
so as to require that the teacher should be licensed by the
bishop of London, or by the governor of the pro-
vince. When by the terms of this act, its j)rovisions expired
at the end of seven years, it was not renewed Thereafter
there were no common schools in the colony of New York.

Under the colonial government, however, Kings, (after-
wards Columbia) College, and several academies were
founded.

Immediately after the Revolutionary war, that greatest
of New York's governors, George Clinton, said to the legis-
lature of 1784, "There is scarce anything more worthy of
your attention than the revival and encouragement of sem-
inaries of learning." In that year, the legislature passed an
act creating the Board of Regents of the University. The
members of this board were the very foremost citizens of
the state. The Regents had jurisdiction only over colleges
and academies, and had no responsibility concerning ele-
mentary schools. Yet in 1787 the board transmitted to the
legislature a report containing the following recommenda-
tions, probably drafted by Hamilton.

"But before your committee conclude, they feel them-
selves bound in faithfulness to add, that the erecting of pub-
lic schools for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic is

an object of very great importance, which ought not to be left
to the discretion of private men, but should be promoted by
public authority. Of so much knowledge, no citizen ought
to be destitute, and yet it is a reflection, as true as it is
painful, that too many of our youth are brought up in ut-
ter ignorance. This is a reproach under which we have
long laboured, unmoved by the examples of our neighbors,
who, not leaving the education of their children to chance,
have widely diffused throughout their state a public pro-
vision for such instruction. Your committee are sensible
that the Regents aro invested with no funds of which they
have the disposal, but they nevertheless conceive it to be
their duty to bring the subject before the honorable the
legislature, who alone can provide a remedy."

The legislature paid no heed to this apjDeal.

Six years after this, and just one hundred years ago,
the Regents recurred to this matter urgently, and in
their reports of 1793, 1794 and 1795, strongly pressed
the subject. In the latter year the old governor spoke to
the legislature in this wise:

"While it is evident that the general establishment and
liberal endowment of academies are highly to be commended
and are attended with the most beneficial consequences, yet
it cannot be denied that they are principally confined to
the children of the opulent, and that a great portion of the
community is excluded from their immediate advantages.
The establishment of common schools throughout the state
is happily calculated to remedy this inconvenience, and
will therefore engage your early and decided considera-
tion."

These representations produced from the legislature of 1795
an act entitled, "An act for the encouragement of schools."
It appropriated $100,000 each year for five years from
the state treasury for the purpose of encouraging and main-
taining schools in the several cities and towns of this state,

in which the children of the inhabitants residing in the
state shall be instructed in the English language, or be
taught English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics and such
other branches of knowledge as are most useful and neces
sary to complete a good education." The sum appropriate^
was munificent, when we consider that the assessed value of
the property in the state was but $100,000,000 and that
the state was heavily in debt. In addition to the state ap-
propriation, each town was required to raise by tax one half
as much money as it received from the state. This gener-
ous action had great and immediate effect. Three years
after the passage of the act, or in 1798, there were within
the state 1,352 common schools with 59,660 pupils.

Still there was provided no general control or supervision
of the schools. It was left to the people of the several
towns, to organize school districts, erect school houses and
maintain schools.

The annual appropriation of $100,000 expired by the
terms of the act in 1800, and, owing to a difference of opinion
in the legislature as to the propriety of providing for a
system of state superintendence, it was not renewed.

The several governors in each of the five succeeding years
brought the subject of common schools to the attention of
the legislature, until in 1805 acts were passed creating a per-
manent common school fund, and from that time the com-
mon school system has, in spite of some neglect and many
set-backs, on the whole grown in strength and useful-
ness.

In the first decade of this century, many acts were
passed for the encouragement of common schools in par
ticular localities, some providing for the raising of money
by local taxation, some by setting apart for the purposes
of schools particular local funds, such as the excise fund.
Notable among these acts, was one passed in 1805 incorpo-
rating DeWitt Clinton and others, as "The society for es-

tablishing a free school in the city of New York for -the
education of such poor children as do not belong to, or are
not provided for by any religious society," a corporation
which had control of the common schools of New York city
until 1853.

Up to 1812, all the acts passed by the legislature were for
the encouragement of public schools; the establishment and gov-
ernment of the schools was left to the discretion of the
towns and the zeal of the inhabitants.

In 1812, the time had come when the state government
was ready to command the founding of comman schools
throughout the state and to provide impsritatively for enabl-
ing every child in the state to have at least the rudiments of
an education. So, on the 19th day of June 1812, was enacted
"An act for the establishment of schools". A State Super-
intendent of Common Schools was to be appointed, with an
annual salary of three hundred dollars, who was to have
the general charge of the common schools of the state and
to distribute the public school monies among the several
counties. In each town, Commissioners of Common Schools
were to be elected at town meeting, whose duty it was to divide
the towns into schoool districts, and to call upon the inhab-
itants of each district to meet for the purpose of organizing
the districts, for the election of trustees, and to provide for
the erection of a school house and the maintenance of the
school. Inspectors of schools were also to be elected in
each town, whose duty it was to examine and license
teachers and to visit schools.

Gideon Hawley, then a young lawyer in Albany, was ap-
pointed State Superintendent, and owing to his energy and
ability, the new system was put into successful operation
throughout the state in an almost incredibly short space of
time. Since that time, every child in the state has had an
opportunity of obtaining the rudiments of an education.

In 1821, the office of State Supertendent was abolished,

and its duties devolved upon the Secretary of State. This
action, which, at the time, it was feared would be disastrous
to the interests of the common schools, proved to be, on
the whole, beneficial, owing entirely to the zeal and
eminent ability af the four great men, who from 1826 to
1845 occupied the chair of Secretary of State — Azariah C.
Plagg, John A. Dix, John C. Spencer and Samuel Young.
To Henry S. Randall, also, Secretary of State in 1852 and
1853, the common school system owes a debt of gratitude
for his invaluable service in its behalf. In 1854 the Depart-
ment of Public Instruction was created. In 1841, the office
of County Superintendent of Common Schools was created,
and it was abolished in 1847. The offices of Town Commis-
sioner and Town Inspector were abolished in 1843 and the
office of Town Superintendent was created. In 1856 the
latter office was abolished and the office of District Com-
missioner was created. Thus we have had supervision of
the common schools by state officers since 1812, by county
or district officers from 1841 to 1847 and from 1856 to the
present time, and by town officers from 1795 to 1856.

At present the system is highly centralized, owing to the
vast powers, original and appellate, which from time to
time have been vested in the Department of Public Instruc-
tion. The Superintendent of Public Instruction is now the
most powerful officer in the state. Practically, he has
complete control of every school officer and every teacher
in the state. His hand reaches into the remotest school dis-
trict, and from his mandate there is no effectual appeal,even
to the courts. It is but just to say these great powers have not
been abused, but have been exercised with the greatest
wisdom and vigor, and have never been prostituted to per-
sonal aggrandizement or political advancement. To
Abram B. Weaver, State Superintendent from 1833 to 1874;
to N"eil Grilmour, Superintendent from 1874 to 1883; and to
Andrew S. Draper, who held the same office from 1886 to

1892, from whose address delivered before the State Teachers'
Association in 1890. many of the foregoing facts are quoted,
we owe, in a great measure, the existing admirable system
for the training and examination of teachers and for the
vigilant superintendence of the schools and school officers.

The first Normal School for the training of teachers in
this state was founded at Albany in 1844, and the second at
Oswego in 1863. There are now within the state eleven of
these institutions, and their influence in raising the
standard of qualifications for teaching cannot well be
over estimated. Not only have those teachers who have
attended those schools been greatly benefited, but their in-
direct influence has been in the highest degree beneficent.
Indeed it may be said, that the effect of these schools has
largely tended to elevate the business of common school
teaching to the dignity of a profession, instead of being a
make-shift for earning a living in the intervals between
other avocations.

In 1849, the policy was adopted providing for the instruc-
tion of classes in academies in the science and practice of
common school teaching, thus giving at a small expense
much needed and useful training to a very large number of
common school teachers.

The first Teachers' Institute was held in Tompkins county
in 1843, by the School Commissioner with an attendance of
twenty eight members. It was a local enterprise, and re-
ceived no aid from the state. In 1847, the legislature ap-
propriated the sum of sixty dollars for the use and benefit
of Teachers' Institutes. From this small beginning has
arisen the existing system with its staff of instructors, its
elaborate methods, and its very large application. The
Teachers' Institute, besides bringing to the knowledge of
teachers the latest methods in pedagogy, and the latest
improvement in school books and apparatus, are invaluable
occasions for the exchange of ideas and for the inspiring of

the esprit du corps which is so necessary in a lonely profes-
sion. The establishment in recent years of the "Regents-
examinations" for the scholars, and of uniform examina-
tions for the teachers, have done very much for the cause of
education.

In glancing at the development of the common school
system in this state, two striking facts force themselves
upon our attention. The first is the steady advance towards
the centralization of power. One hundred years ago, all
elementary schools were private affairs, receiving no aid from
the state, and subject to no control or even supervision. In
1795 and 1805 common schools were encouraged by state
aid, but their establishment was left to local action and
there was no supervision. By the act of 1812. the state com-
pelled the establishment of common schools throughout the
state, and provided for the a state superintendent, but the
government of the schools and the licensing of teachers was
committed to town officers, the state superintendent's office
being little more than a bureau for the distribution of pub-
lic monies, with only advisory powers. Gideon Hawley,
however, exercised these powers with such ability and zeal,
that, at the end of his term, the bureau had become a de-
partment. Thirty years later, county officers were pro-
vided for, having certain appellate jurisdiction over the town
school officers. In 1856, the power of licensing teachers
was taken from the towns and given to the District Commis-
sioners, and in recent years this power has been practically
vested in the State Department. In effect, all power is now
vested in the State Superintendent, whenever he chooses to
exercise it. By the provisions relating tojcosts, even the
courts are practically deprived of the jurisdiction which
they habitually exercise over the other, even the highest
branches of the state government.

Two changes remain to be made to complete a logically
uniform system: First, the abolition of the school districts

and the creation of town boards of education with a paid
practical teacher as executive officer: and Secondly, the abo-
lition of the elective office of District School Commissioner,
and the devolution of its duties upon officers appointed by,
and immediately responsible to, the State Department of
Public Instruction. These changes, in my opinion will soon
be made

This tendency to centralization in the administration of
school matters is well worthy of attention of statesmen, and,
all the more so, because the movement was gradual, and
at each step of its progress scarcely observed, or at least
was little commented on. The same tendency can be noted
in the change made in organization of the militia, and is be-
ginning to be dimly perceptible in the new law relating to
highways. It may be, that we have outgrown the system of
the local administration of public affairs, so highly prized
by our forefathers and that the new conditions imposed
upon us by the vast improvements in the means of communi-
cation, and by the concentration of influences in larger
towns, may demand that the administration of all branches
of government shall be committed to a central bureau.

Again, until 1867, | the expenses of maintaining the com-
mon schools after applying to that purpose the public monies
received from the state, were collected from the parents of
the children attending. This evidently tended to the dim-
in uation of school attendance, and in the villages, to the en-
couragement of private or select schools. In that year the
common schools were made absolutely free. In 1874, an act
was passed requiring that every child between the ages of
eight and fourteen years should attend school at least four-
teen weeks in each year.

Thus, one hundred years ago, a parent, desiring to give an
elementary education to his child, was obliged to provide it
at his own pains and cost. Later, thestate, recognizing the ad-
vantage of general education, encouraged the establishment of

schools by the grant of public monies. Then the whole
territory of the state was mapped out into school districts,
and supervision and inspection by public officers provided
for, the parents however being still responsible for part of
the expense. Next the whole expenses of the common
schools was imposed upon the tax-papers, and the schools
made absolutely free. Finally by law every child in the
state is compelled to attend school long enough to gain a
knowledge of the rudiments of an education.

Thus a century ago, an elementary education was a priv-
ilege which, if enjoyed, must be paid for by the individual.
Now it is a duty, imposed by the state, provided by the
state, and enforced by the state under pains and penalties.

Schools of Cazenovia.

The first school in Cazenovia was kept in a building which
stood south of the west bridge, near the corner of Lake
Avenue and Rippleton road. Who the first teacher was,
we unhappily do not know. To this school in 1796, Gen.
Jonathan Forman, of revolutionary fame, was wont to lead
his little daughter Mary across the low nnrailed bridge
which then spanned the outlet, as yet un vexed by dams. This
little girl grew up to become the wife of Henry Seymour, of
Pompey and the mother of several children, one of whom
was Horatio Seymour, and another is a lady who for more
than half a century has dwelt among us, honored and be-
loved.

About the begining of this century, another school house
was erected on the west side of Sullivan street north of the
Green.

These buildings were successively used for religious ser-
vices until the erection of the meeting house on the Green.

In 1805, stimulated probably by the provisions of the

13

statute of that year, nearly all of the principal inhabitants
united in an agreement to purchase a lot in a more central
locality and to erect a more commodious school house. This
agreement, which is in existence and can be seen at the
Public Library, provides for the raising of the sum of three
hundred and forty-five dollars, in shares of fifteen dollars
each, payable one third in cash, one third in wheat and one
third in Indian corn. The holders of shares were to be en-
titled to one vote in the management of the enterprise for
each share. There were twenty-six subscribers to this agree-
ment, twenty subscribing one share each and six subscribing
half of a share each. It is a singular fact that of only two
or three of those subscribers, are there any descendants now
residing in this place. A lot sixty feet square was pur-
chased of Lemuel Kingsbury, situated on the east side of
Sullivan street where the west end of Seminary street now
is for, forty-five dollars. The remaining three hundred dol
lars were paid to Mr. Lincklaen, who erected the building,
doubtless at an expense exceeding the sum subscribed.
When in 1814, School District No. 1 (late No. 21) was
erected, this lot and building was purchased for its school.
At that time, Seminary or, as it was first called, Court street,
was being opened, and the court house was in process of
erection, and the greater portion of the school lot was ap-
propriated to the new street, the village paying as damages
the sum of $117.50. The school house was then moved
north to the north corner of Sullivan and Seminary streets,
where it still stands in a dilapidated condition. In recent
years it has been used as an engine house. This is doubtless
the oldest school house in this region, though for many
years it has been perverted to base uses.

At the first town meeting after the passage of the act of
1812, were elected three commissioners and six school
inspectors, and the supervisor was authorized to levy for
school purposes double the amount of our j)roportion of the

14

interest of the school fund, on the taxable inhabitants of
the town.

In 1813, the school commissioners proceeded to divide the
town into fifteen school districts, and two more were created
in the following year. Two of the districts were in the
village, the dividing line between them being Mill and
Lincklaen streets. Another district was many years after-
ward created in the north-east part of the village.

It will be seen that the school system was strongly offi-
cered, at least so far as regarded numbers, there being three
commissioners and six inspectors in the town. As a rule the
men chosen to fill these offices were intelligent and patriotic
citizens, but it is evident that "the multitude of counselors"
in the end proved detrimental to the interests of the schools,
and in 1843, the people abolished the offices of town school
commissioners and school inspectors and vested their
functions in a single Town Superintendent. It may be re-
marked in passing that the Inspectors received a salary of
fifty cents per day. In 1814 the school houses were erected
and the common schools were opened, and from that time
to this have been in continuous operation with various de-
grees of success. The school house in the west village dis-
trict was, as has been heretofore stated, on the north corner
of Sullivan and Seminary streets, and that in the east dis
trict was erected on Centre street, which then, at its outlet
into Albany street, was a mere lane. About forty years
ago, the origin 4 school house of the west district was sold
to the village, and a new two story building erected on the
lot where the Union School now stands. About the same
time, the eastern district purchased the house and lot on
the corner of Nelson and Fenner streets, and removed its
school hither. In the latter part of 1875, the three village
districts were united into a Union School District, and in
1887, a new school building was erected on the Sullivan
street lot, in which, since that time, all the departments of
the school have been held.

-15-

Select Schools.

There have been in the village, at all times until the for-
mation of the Union School District, private or select
schools, sometimes as many as seven. It would be impos-
sible, if it were desirable, to enumerate these schools, as
there is, of course, no record of them. Some were kept for
only a single term, and others continued in operation for
years. Some were good, some bad, and some indifferent.
Those that were elementary need no particular mention as
they probably did not differ greatly from the common
schools, except that, being confined mainly to the instruction
of small children, they were more orderly.

I may be permitted to say, however, that one of these
schools was held in the building which I now occupy as an
office, and there I went to school before I was three years
old. Thus I am ending life where I began it, sleeping in
the room in which I was born, and passing my days in the
room in which I began the business of life.

There were some schools of a higher grade.

In 1815, Theophilus Wilson, a young physician of great
promise, and, in the language of the inscription on his
tombstone, "a graduate of Dartmouth college and an orna-
ment to his profession, to society and to the church," died
by taking poison through mistake, leaving a widow, Grace
Wilson, and a son a few months old. The young widow, in
order to support herself and her child, opened a girls' school
on Sullivan street, directly opposite Seminary street, and
continued it for about twenty years. The building was of
two stories and there were two departments, one for young

16

ladies, and one for little girls. The only boy who ever at-
tended this school, besides Mrs. Wilson's son, was the late
Denise Ledyard. The little girls were taught in the lower
room by an assistant, who for many years was Miss Abby
Staples a neice of Mrs. Wilson. The young ladies were
taught above by the principal. The whole school, however
had their lessons in writing from Mrs. Wilson, who excelled
in penmanship, and the assistant taught arithmetic in both
departments, as Mrs. Wilson was not good at figures. Be-
sides the ordinary curriculum, the young ladies were
instructed in embroidery, in drawing and in painting in
India ink and in water colors. In painting and drawing,
monumental urns shaded by weeping willows were the fav-
orite designs, and many specimens of this work are still ex-
tant. Mrs. Wilson lived in a small house situated near
the center of the lot now occupied by the Union School
House. The front yard was full of lilac bushes, with a
grass plot between the house and the school, and an apple
orchard at the sides and in the rear of the house. A lady
who attended this school in 1825 says, "to my childish
eyes this was the prettiest and greenest of spots."

In 1834, a Miss Talcott opened a young ladies' school of
high order, at first kept in Mrs. Wilson1 s school house, and
afterwards in the old Madison County House on the south
side of the public square. Of this school, the same lady re-
marks, "she changed our studies from dry Arithmetic and
Latin to the more interesting ones of History, English Lit-
erature, Physical Geography, etc.. to our great delight. I
must say that old Dr. Blanchard was a splendid teacher of
mathematics."

For some years, about 1850, the Misses Savage, nieces of
Gideon Hawley, the first State Superintendent, had an ex-
cellent girls' school on Mill street.

About 1830, Daniel E. Burhans opened a boy's school in
a building which stood on Seminary street, just west of

the 'Baptist church. Burhans was the son of an Episcopal
clergyman of prominence in Connecticut, and was himself
a highly educated man. He must have been a good teacher for
those times, or his grave faults would not have been so long
tolerated. It was a large school, boys of all ages being ad-
mitted, and there being at all times an assistant teacher.
He was of intemperate habits, and it was not unusual on a
Monday morning to find a notice on the school house" door,
to the effect that the school would be closed for a time on
account of the sickness of the teacher. On recovering from
the effects of his Sunday debauch, he would reappear and the
school would be resumed. He was crael to the last degree.
The boys regarded him with absolute terror, and yet they
had a certain respect for his abiltiies. At last, the time
came when Barhans' sprees became so frequent and so j>ro-
longed, that toleration ceased to be a virtue, and a High
School was instituted in a building which was erected for
the purpose on the corner of Sullivan street and the public
square, under the general auspices of the Rev. E. S. Bar-
rows, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church. I think I am
not mistaken in believing that this school was started in
rivalry with, if not in opposition to, the Seminary. Its
head teachers were college graduates, and its course of
study was about the same as in the academies of those days.
Among its teachers were Lysander H. Brown, afterwards a
prominent lawyer of Northern New York, who died within
the past year; Henry Callahan, who died in 1888, having
for the last quarter of a century of his life been the princ-
ipal of a celebrated school in Delaware County, and a Mr.
Whiting, a queer absent minded man, who afterwards
became a Mormon elder. There was another master of this
school, as to whom I deliberately and solemnly resolved
that, if I lived to "grow up" and ever met him,
I would whip him if I could ; and further, that if I
did not live to ' ' grow up ' ' , or should never meet him, I

would, on the Judgment Day, myself arraign him at the
bir of Almighty God for his cruelty to me. When I did
"grow up" I, of course, thought better of the latter part of
this resolution. The first clause of the resolution I have
never formally recanted. Whether, if we should meet, I
would carry it out, I declare I do not know. I used to long-
to meet him ; now I hope we shall never see each other. It
seems horrible— it is horrible, that I should thus bear an
enmity for a life time. But I vividly recall with what sav-
age glee he lacerated my tender flesh with his cruel raw-'
hide, upon little or no provocation, and now, after the lapse
of more than half a century, my old, sluggish blood runs
hot with indignation, when I recall the physical agony,
and, more cutting than his blows, the deep humiliation, the
abasing degradation which this man inflicted upon me,
causelessly and wantonly. But there was another teacher,
Frederick Dean, just, kind, capable, accomplished, and I
think learned, whom I loved with the passionate devotion
which I think only a school-boy can feel for one of his own
sex. He administered corporal punishment, but for just
cause, not brutally, but as if he suffered more than the cul-
prit, and when it was over, often both teacher and pupil
were in tears. Soon after leaving Cazenovia, he went
as a missionary to far-off and benighted Texas, and died of
yellow fever almost immediately upon arriving there. I
remember that, on the Saturday afternoon after I heard of
his death, instead of joining my fellows in their sports, I
went alone to the cemetery to mourn for my friend who
then lay buried in a distant land. After Mr. Barrows went
away, the High School as such was discontinued, but many
private schools were kept in the school-house on the square,
some for boys, some for girls, and some for both sexes.
Many of these schools were of high character.

The Seminary*

Of the Seminary, it is not within the scope of this ad-
dress to speak. Although it has been of the greatest bene-
fit to the educational interests of the place, its influence has
been general rather than local. " Its sound has gone out
into all lands, and its words unto the ends of the world."
Yet it would be inexcusable not to mention the names of
Augustus W. Smith, erudite and blameless ; of John W.
Tyler, who dying at the age of twenty-six, leaving neither
child nor literary production, yet left a memory which,
after the lapse of sixty years, is still green; of George Peck,
shrewd and far-sighted ; of Alverson and Armstrong,
thorough and enlightened ; of the Bannisters, Henry and Ed-
ward ; and of Bostwick Hawley, not to speak of those now liv-
ing to adorn the highest stations in the church, or the leading
chairs in universities ; or of those, of lesser fame, who
have played well their part in the conflict between igno-
rance and knowledge, between vice and virtue. The glo-
rious history of the Seminary was recited at the semi-cen-
tennial of 1875 and is recorded in the volume published the
next year entitled, " The First Fifty Years of Cazenovia
Seminary." Of its present condition, we shall hear some-
thing later this afternoon.

It would be unpardonable not to mention Orlando Blan-
chard, in even the briefest review of the educational institu-
tions of Cazenovia. He taught in the Seminary, in the
select schools, and gave private lessons. He was a profound
mathematician, an enthusiastic astronomer, a skilful chem-
ist, an expert pharmacist, and a practical mechanic. He

wrote an arithmetic, which, far excelled anything published
before his day. He constructed orreries, clocks and organs.
He calculated for himself the orbits of the planets and
measured the flight of comets. But he loved no man and
hated every woman. " Grand, gloomy and peculiar. ' ' with-
out kindred and without friends, he pursued alone the ten-
or of his way, commanding respect for his splendid and
versatile genius, and repelling all sympathies, by his intol-
erable eccentricites.

Schools of Olden Times.

In speaking of the schools of former times, I can only
speak of them as they were in my school days, that is
from 1830 to 1840.

Two things must be first said. The rural district schools
at that time were superior to the village district schools.
For this, there was good reason. The rural population was
then at its height. The rural population of school age was
at least double what it is now, and they continued their
attendance upon school to a much later age. It was com-
mon for young men and young ladies to attend the winter
district school until the age of from 17 to 21 . So it was, that in
districts where there were in attendance sixty years ago
forty or fifty pupils, there are now no more than fifteen or
twenty, or even less.

In the village, however, there were always select schools,
which took away the larger number, and, on the whole, the
better class of small children, and the young men and young
women went to the Seminary, the high school, or to Mrs.
Wilson or Miss Talcott.

Again, the district schools were not as uniform as they are
now. There was no standard of qualification for teachers,

and no system for their examination. School officers granted
certificates to teachers upon such examination as they
chose to make, or upon no examination. Then there was
no effective supervision. The district commissioners had
not been provided for, and the office of State Superin-
tendent was vested in the Secretary of State.

In fact, every thing depended upon the teacher. If the
teacher was capable, it was a good school. If he was in-
efficient, it could not be helped .

The furniture of the school house was of the rudest
kind There was a continuous desk around the wall for
the older scholars, with backless benches, generally made
of slabs, before them, and smaller benches down the middle
of the room for the little ones. There was a small black-
board about large enough for one or two children to use,
and that was all the apparatus, except the instruments of tor-
ture.

The text books, according to modern standards, were
wretched. They contained rules which were to be learned
by heart, but explained nothing, and illustrated nothing.
Even the geographies were as dry as the multiplication
table.

The teachers were of as many kinds as there are trees in
a forest. They had absolutely no training in the theory
and practice of teaching. Though Pestalozzi had died in
1827, his works were unknown in this country, and Horace
Mann did not commence his great work until 1837. There
were no normal schools, teachers classes, or teachers insti-
tutes. There were no teachers associations, and no period-
icals treating of methods in teaching. The teacher work-
ed in his own way, absolutely uncontrolled and unadvised.
There were some college men, who worked their way by
teaching school in the long winter vacation. There were
other bright young fellows who took up teaching to earn
the necessary means to prepare for the professions. There

-22-

were some hard headed older men, like Enos dishing and
the Severances, who taught school in the winter intervals be-
tween their other avocations. There were a few capable
men and women who made teaching their profession. And
there were a host of young men and women, half educated,
immature and wholly indifferent to their work, who taught
for a term or two, through the favor of the trustees, simply
for the pittance they could earn by it. When a teacher had
a genius for the work, an enthusiasm was aroused which is
never evoked at the present day.

Of methods, there were none. The lessons were learned
from the text book by heart and recited literally. If the
pupil could recite the lesson in the very words of the text
book, it was all right, whether he understood it or not. If
he could not, punishment followed. The teacher sat in his
chair all the time, except when replenishing the fire,
or administering discipline. In arithmetic, we learned the
rules by heart and applied them to the examples, under-
standing nothing of the reason of the processes. I did not
understand square root until I was nearly a man, although
I could work out all the examples. In geography, we were
made to recite in concert the names of the rivers, capes,
mountains, etc., thus : "Lake Maracaibo, Lake Maracaibo,
Lake delosPalos, Lake de los Palos," etc., Cape May, Cape
May, Cape Henlopen, Cape Henlopen," etc., but we knew
nothing of Physical or Political Geography as it is now
taught.

Much attention was paid to oral spelling. Spelling con-
tests were frequent, and often the older inhabitants of
the district would gather at the school house in the evening
and heartily engage in the fray. I do not think, on the
whole, the pupils spelt as well as the school children do
now. Writing was done mainly with the slate and pencil.
Paper was dear and there were no wooden lead pencils. A
very few children had pencil cases of real or base silver,

23

the others had ''[plummets," which were of hammered lead
about as large as a slate pencil, sharpened to a point.
When a child was promoted to the dignity of writing in a
copy book with pen and ink, he brought a goose quill to
school with his copy book, made of cheap paper stitched
together. The time of the teacher between the hearing of
recitations was fully employed in making and mending the
pens, of which there was always a pile on his table, and in
" setting copies.1" In one exercise alone were the schools
of fifty years ago superior to those of the present day. In
reading and in declaiming, the greatest pains were taken.
Saturday forenoons, (for the schools were then kept five
and a half days in the week, ) were given up to reading and
declamation. The boys declaimed and the girls read before
the school at least once a fortnight. Then at the end of
the term there was an " exhibition." at which essays were
read, orations were declaimed, poems were recited, dia-
logues and colloquies were rendered with great effect. I
am very much mistaken, if, at those ''exhibitions " and
even at some of the Saturday morning performances in the
schools, there was not better enunciation, emphasis and
general delivery than is often found at the "readings"
and the '• recitals, " that we now pay money to hear in the
Casa-Nova. I know that Andrews used to "speak " better
on the Seminary chapel stage, than he does now from the
pulpit, and Tench Fairchild on a Saturday forenoon would
deliver Webster's reply to Haynes,or Mark Anthony's ora-
tion over the body of Caesar, with more force and effect than
is now often exhibited on the stage. Oratory seems to
have become a lost art, or least is relegated to the stage and
in a few instances to the lecture platform.

The schools were governed by terrorizing the pupils.
Corporal punishment was administered habitually, daily,
and often with the greatest severity. The ferule, a hard
wood ruler half a yard long and a third of an inch thick,

24

was the usual instrument Besides, there were [he strap of
sole leather, the switch and the terrible raw-hide. These
were applied upon the hands, the thighs, the arms, legs,
and sometimes even upon the head or the feet. Some teach-
ers were very ingenious in devising new tortures. Child-
ren were made to stoop over and hold their finger over a
particular nail in the floor until their backs ached fearfully
from the unusual strain ; they were hung by their hands
upon an open door until the edge made creases in their
fingers ; they were sent out to cut an apple sprout to be
used for their own torture and compelled to harden it in
the stove. A peculiarly irritating punishment was to have
ones ears snapped by a quill pen, especially when it was ad-
ministered by the teacher approaching stealthily from be-
hind. Perhaps the worst piinishment that can be inflicted
upon a child five years old, is to shut him up in a dark
closet with the intimation that, if he made an outcry, some
crawling thing would come out of the dark corners and
bite him. All these punishments and others I have suffer-
ed, and I was a good boy too, as boys go. I do not mean
to say that teachers were uniformly unjust or that all
were intentionally cruel. The children often acted very bad-
ly, and I am sure that the teachers often did not know
how much pain they inflicted. It was the general custom
to flog and to flog severely. It was a point of honor with the
boys to make no outcry, as long as it was possible to re-
frain. The boy who could take a severe whipping with a
grin on his face was the hero of the hour. We never told
our parents of any punishment inflicted on us, and if they
discovered the blisters on our hands or the welts on our
bodies, we made light of it to them. This was partly be-
cause we thought it manly to refain from complaints, and
partly because we believed, often mistakenly, that they
would side with the teacher and punish us again. The ef-
fect of these severe punishments upon the sufferers varied

— ^2S — .

with their dispositions. Some, a very few, became sneaks
and tell-tales ; some became sullen, moody and dispirited,
and some brave spirits bore their pains manfully, and ex-
ercised all their wits and energies in the endeavor to get
even with the teacher. The effect upon the discipline
of the school was unqualifiedly bad. There was almost
constant war between the teacher and the scholars, at least
the male portion of them. This war was open and declared
when we dared. When we did not dare, it was an guerilla
warfare. All sorts of tricks were played, and all kinds of
annoyances contrived to make it unpleasant for him. It
was not uncommon for the teacher to be thrown out of the
school house by the larger boys, and the school to be brok-
en up. It was often stipulated in the contract between the
trustees and the teacher, that he should have no pay, unless
he taught to the end of the term. Some districts acquired
a notoriety for its bad boys, and the principal qualification
for a teacher in them was to be able to whip the whole school.
Fighting was common, both between the boys of the same
school, and between them and outsiders, and no attempt
was made to suppress it. There was war for many years
between the high school boys, with their allies in the vil-
lage, and the Seminary students They fought singly and
by battalions. The Seminarians were called '" Brimstones,"
I suppose because of the fervid character of the Methodist
sermons of those days, and in return they called the vil-
lage boys "Sulphurs." When a party of Seminarians
strayed beyond their precincts, especially in the evening,
the cry of " Brimstones " would be raised and the villagers
would hasten to the fray. All this has happily passed
away, long since.

But our school days were not, on the whole, unhappy.
Some of the teachers were kind, and many were just if
severe, and even the cruel ones had their gracious moods.
Even at the worst, we consoled ourselves with the common

26

maxim, philosophical if imgrammatical: " Scolding don't
hurt none, licking dosen't last ]oug, kill me he dasn't.'
Then there were the joyous recesses and noontimes, with
their " two- old-cat," their " turn-out- jack " and their
"prisoner's base." And there were the blessed Saturday
afternoons, looked forward to with eagerness and remem-
bered with delight, when the "mountains and hills," the
" ice and snow," the "seas and floods," "all the green
things upon the earth," the "beasts and cattle," the
"worms and feathered fowls," and "all that move in the
waters," awaited us. And above all the childish friend-
ships. Other loves there are, more fervent and more dear ;
filial, fraternal, conjugal and paternal. But all these have
something of obligation. The love of a boy for his fellow
alone is unconstrained, free, equal and without a taint of
selfishness. It was my happiness to contract some of these
friendships, which have lasted through life, an d the frag-
rant memory of which, when severed by death, is the
solace of age.

The rural school house in the olden time was much more
the centre of social life of the district than it is now. Be-
sides the spelling matches, there were held in the school
house religious and political meetings, singing schools, de-
bating clubs, and literary societies, at which were often
read essays and poems of no little merit.

The Union Schools.

In the autumn of 1875, as has been heretofore stated, the
village school districts were consolidated into a Union
School District For the remainder of the school year,
however, or until the fall of 1876, the former teachers were
retained and the schools carried on separately as before,
as it was a difficult task to arrange the course of study for
the graded school, and to grade the pupils. A comparison
therefore of the reports of 1876 and 1892, will show the dif
ference between the existing Union School and the district
schools immediately preceding it. In 1876, there were in
the village seven select schools ; now none, except a kinder-
garten for children under the statutory age. In 1876, there
were 516 children in the district between the ages of 5 dil&~
21 ; in 1892, there were 483. The number of resident
children attending the district schools some part of the
year in 1876 was 217 ; the number in 1892 was 329. The
average attendance of resident children in 1 876 was less
than 96 ; in 1892 the number was over 246. The whole
number of days attendance of resident children in 1876 was
16,779 ; the number in 1892 was 47,872. In 1892, every
child in the district, except one, between the ages of 8 and
14, the compulsory age, attended the Union Shcool. The
number of teachers in the district schools in 1876 was 4 ;
in 1892 the number was 7. The expense of the district
schools in 1876 was $1,218.80; in 1892 it was $4,391.04.
The cost of a day's schooling in 1876 was about seven cents;
in 1892 it was about eight and a half cents.

-28-

There is no academic department in the school. The
course of study includes only the ' ' common branches. '
There are nine grades occupying a year each. The pupils are
instructed in reading, writing, spelling, grammar, arithme-
tic, civil government, American history, physiology and
vocal music. There is also a cooking class a part of the
year. In connection with the school there is a savings in-
stitution, the net deposits uf which by the children in the
school year 1892 amounted to $548.04.

There can, I think, be no doubt that this school is, as it
ought to be, by far the best school of its grade that ever ex-
isted in Cazenovia — -as regards the character and capacity
of the teachers, the methods and thoroughness of the in-
struction, the discipline of the school, the behavior and
studiousness of the scholars, and the happiness of both
teachers and pupils.

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