Henry B. Swartwout, M.D.
J. B. Hulett, M.D.
EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS.
The eastern part of the State of New York, including all those portions which were settled in the seventeenth century or in the early part of the eighteenth, have this common feature in their educational history. They all show three periods of development, separate and distinct from each other, and these periods are characterized, largely, by the initiative under which the schools were organized and maintained.
The first of these periods, which we may call the colonial period, reaches from the first settlement of the country down to the time of the Revolutionary War. During this time, about seventy-five years, whatever schools there were in Orange County, were organized and supported entirely by the settlers in the different neighborhoods, for the instruction of their own children.
There were no large villages in Orange County at that time. The communities were purely agricultural, with small hamlets scattered here and there, such as are found in agricultural districts to-day, and the educational advantages were very limited. This period culminated in the struggle for independence, during which even these limited advantages were almost entirely swept away.
During the war of the Revolution, the settled portions of the State were overrun by armed bands again and again. The valley of the Hudson was harried by the contending armies, back and forth for years, and, even where there were no armies, the virulence of the feeling which existed between the patriots and the Tories, was such that there was little more safety for life and property in those localities than there was at the very seat of war.
Under these circumstances, the schools were generally closed and the generation which grew up during the Revolution was largely without regular instruction.
John M. Dolph.
Toward the end of the war, when actual hostilities had largely ceased, there was a great awakening throughout the State to the necessity for more and better schools than had ever existed heretofore. Mingling with those who had enjoyed better educational advantages, in the camp and on the field, had taught the pioneers the value of education, and they determined to make it possible for their children to become better equipped, educationally, than they had been.
Private academies, for classical training, were established in the small towns and villages and a new period, which we may call the period of the private schools, began.
In response to this sentiment in favor of higher education, the Legislature passed the University law in 1784, establishing the University of the State of New York and giving the authority and the aid of the State to the academies which had already been established and encouraging the establishment of others. The object of this movement by the Legislature, as defined in the act establishing the University, was "to encourage and promote education in advance of the common, elementary branches."
It is a characteristic feature of the thought and feeling of this period that the State should give its aid and authority to private institutions for secondary instruction long years before it recognized in any way, its duty to the common school and elementary instruction.
Soon the private academies became so numerous that the opportunity for higher education reached to every part of the State. These schools did a grand work. For three-quarters of a century they opened up opportunities for the ambitious boys and girls whose parents were able to pay for their tuition.
Then, a new idea appeared in educational matters—the idea that the child of the poor man has as much right to the opportunity for education as the child of the rich, and that it is the duty of the State to provide this opportunity for rich and poor alike. So the period of the free schools followed that of the private academies.
THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
The first settlements in what is now Orange County were made not far from the same time in both the eastern and western extremities. The county then included what is now Rockland County, and was bounded on the north by the line separating the counties of Orange and Ulster. This line ran from the mouth of Murderer's Creek (now Moodna) "westward into the woods as far as the Delaware River." These settlements were made previous to 1700, but the time is not absolutely certain with respect to either of them.
In the western part of the county, in what is now the town of Deerpark, the first settlers were Dutch and Huguenot families, who came from Kingston and New Paltz. In the eastern part the settlers came up the Hudson River and consisted almost entirely of English speaking people from New York and the Long Island towns. In fact, so close was the association with New York, that for some years the New York reports included Orange and our county had no independent county government.
In 1693, according to the report of Governor Fletcher, made by Matthew Clarkson, secretary of the province, there were in "Orange County not above twenty families, for the present under the care of New York."
In 1698 there were reported to Governor Bellomont about thirty families and 140 children in Orange.
These children were scattered over a wide district, in pioneer homes, where luxuries were unknown and where even the necessaries of life were difficult of attainment. There were no schools for their instruction at this time, nor for a number of years afterward, but it is evident that many of them at least did secure the elements of an education, either from their parents or from some other source, for we find them later, in the Dutch and Huguenot settlements at any rate, as the men of affairs, prominent in the church and in the community, able to read and write and to transact business in a business-like manner.
By 1723 a second generation had grown up and new settlers had come into the county. In that year 543 children are reported. By this time the pioneers had overcome the greater difficulties of the early settlement. Their farms yielded abundant supplies and there was opportunity to make provision for the instruction of their children. That this opportunity was made use of and that some provision was made, in most parts of the settlements, for the instruction of the boys and girls, there is little reason to doubt.
The young people of this generation learned "to read and write and cast accounts," at any rate. There were few, if any, schoolhouses, and tradition has it that the teachers, like the tailors and the shoemakers, went about from house to house, giving instruction in the three R's.
At this time no text-books had been published in America and books of all kinds were very scarce in the frontier settlements, so that the few books attainable were quite generally provided by the teacher as the tools of his profession. The hornbook was used for teaching beginners. This was a flat piece of wood with a handle. On the flat part of this there was fastened a piece of horn, scraped thin to make it transparent. A strip of paper on which the lesson was written or printed, was placed between the horn and the wood. These lessons, protected by the horn, would last a long time and could be used by many different pupils. The hornbook was used for teaching the letters, some of the combinations of vowels and consonants and either the Lord's Prayer or some other verses of easy reading. A copy of the Bible was often the only printed book in the school and was used as a reading book.
The material for the instruction in arithmetic, in language and the more difficult words in spelling were contained in the teacher's note-book, which he had carefully prepared, under the direction of some other teacher, similarly equipped. These note-books contained the rules and tables in arithmetic, many problems, lists of words for spelling and selections for memorizing. In fact, the teacher's note-book was his tool-chest, and its size and completeness were his recommendations. The possession of a Bible, a psalm book, a copy of Dillingham's arithmetic or some other English work, and a few books of general literature were sufficient to mark the pioneer pedagogue as a man of great distinction in his profession.
On the hornbook the letters of the alphabet were usually followed by the character &, to which were added the Latin wordsper seand the English wordand,making& per se and.Many of the teachers knew no Latin and condensed this into "Ampersand," and this word has come down to us meaningless, except as we know its origin.
When the pupils had learned to use the quill pen, which the teacher fashioned for them with his penknife, they were provided with a few sheets of paper, bound together in strong covers, and they proceeded to make, more or less carefully, a note-book like the teacher's. Some of these note-books, still preserved, show the character of the work done in these early schools. Besides the matters enumerated above some have riddles and anecdotes, evidently intended as practice in language. One which I have seen, written by a young lady, has the following exercise for punctuation:
"There is a lad in this landHath twenty nails upon each handFive and twenty on hands and feetAnd this is true without deceit."
Much attention was paid to penmanship, and the copies prepared by the teacher were often as perfect as the engraved copies of the modern copy-book. These copies were kept by the pupil and practiced with painstaking care. A reproduction of a copy written by Joseph Dolph, with a quill pen of his own make is given to show the skill in lettering with which some of these old schoolmasters prepared their copies.