The Early Development of Pelham Schools in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries
For years I have continued a quest to assemble research on the history of education in the Town of Pelham. A small portion of that quest has involved research to identify the earliest schools in Pelham and to understand the context within which early Pelham schools developed.
Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog is an effort to summarize some of the current research on early efforts to educate the young people of Pelham. Unlike most such postings, so as not to interrupt the flow, I have chosen to use "Endnotes" to document sources.
Undated Photograph of the One-Room Schoolhouse Built
in About 1838 in City Island on Land Now Thought To Be
the Current Playground of Public School 175 Located at
200 City Island Avenue, City Island, The Bronx, NY, 10464.
The Earliest Years of Schools in Pelham
The Duke of York’s Laws in the
Province of New York included a decree implemented in 1665 that constitutes New
York’s first compulsory education law. It
required that all children in New York receive instruction not only in “Matters
of Religion and the Lawes of the Country,” but also in reading, writing, and
arithmetic.”[i] According to one authority on the subject,
under the Duke of York’s decree:
“The inhabitants were not obliged to
send their children, and servants or apprentices to school, but they were
required to ‘instruct or cause to be instructed’ all children in their
care. Instruction was given by parents,
masters, older children, tutors, ministers and schoolmasters.” [ii]
There is no evidence that, during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the handful of residents of the Manor of Pelham did anything other than to instruct their youngsters in the home and, later, in "Sunday School" for religious instruction in churches such as St. Paul's Church of Eastchester and Trinity Church of New Rochelle.
The earliest school yet identified by this author as built on any of the lands acquired by Thomas Pell in 1654 is a school
erected on lands that Pell sold to the ten families who settled in
Eastchester. According to Bolton:
“The first school-house was erected in
1683, for at a public meeting of the inhabitants, held on the 15th
of October of that year, it was ordered, ‘that a school-house be erected upon a
site between the property of Richard Shute and William Haiden, and
encouragement given to Mr. Morgan Jones to become the school-master.’
This building occupied the site of the
present village school-house. Thus the
ground has been used for this purpose one hundred and sixty-four years.” [iii]
Although nearby communities began to develop schools during the eighteenth century, the Manor of Pelham remained in the hands of relatively few landowners who apparently saw no need for dedicated schools, continuing to teach their young people in the home or by sending them away to school. After the Revolutionary War, however, on April 9, 1795, the State of New
York undertook its first effort to create a system of common schools throughout
the State. It enacted “An Act for the
Encouragement of Schools” which provided, in part:
“out of the annual revenue arising to
this State from its stock and other funds, excepting so much thereof as shall
be necessary for the support of government, the sum of twenty thousand pounds,
shall be annually appropriated for the term of five years for the purpose of
encouraging and maintaining schools in the several cities and towns in this
State, in which the children of the inhabitants residing in this 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
necessary to complete a good English education; which sum shall be distributed
among the several counties”. [iv]
In April, 1795 when this statute was enacted, the Town
Supervisor of the Town of Pelham was Philip Pell. Philip Pell was among the members of the
Board of Supervisors of the County who participated in the apportionment of
State education funds under the statute to the various Towns of the
County. The extant records of the Town
of Pelham begin in 1801, however. Thus, no record
of the apportionment of funds to the Town of Pelham in 1795 has yet been uncovered. It seems rather likely, however,
that some amount was apportioned to the Town of Pelham. If so, this likely would have been the origin
of public funding of public schools in Pelham.[v]
It is clear, however, that by 1801
there was a school house in the Town of Pelham.
It is not known where that school house stood. Given that the Town’s population at the time
resided principally along the roadway known today as Shore Road, on Rodman’s
Neck and nearby areas, and on City Island, it is possible that the school was
near the shore on the mainland not far from City Island.
Minutes of the Town Board of the
Town of Pelham for the year 1801 reflect the following reference to “the school
house in the town of Pelham”:
“At a town meeting held at the school
house in the town of Pelham, on Tuesday the seventh day of April, 1801, for the
purpose of electing town officers for the said town to serve the ensuing year,
the following persons were appointed to the following offices and places . . .”[vi]
Additionally, the “Town Minute
Book 1801 – 1851” for the Town of Pelham contains a list of the “Commissioners
of Schools” for the Town of Pelham in 1801.
They were: Philip Pell, John
Bartow, Alexander Henderson, William Bayley, Esaie Guion, Rem Rapelyea [aka Rem Rapelje] , and
John Williams.[vii]
It is clear from the same records
that at least as early as 1801 and apparently for each year thereafter until
1818, the annual town meeting during which town elections were held took place
in a structure referred to as “the school house in the town of Pelham,” “the
school house,” or “the schoolhouse in said Town.” [viii]
In short, it is likely that some arrangement for a public school in Pelham was made shortly after New York enacted a statute entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Schools" on April 9, 1795. It seems certain, however, that a school existed in Pelham at an as yet undetermined location as early as 1801 and during at least the first two decades of the 19th century.
The Early “Common School” Years in Pelham
The records of the annual meetings
of the Town of Pelham held from 1802 through 1813 reflect no elections for any
“Commissioners of Schools.” In 1814,
however, the records reflect a significant change in the history of schools in
Pelham.
The records of the annual meeting
of the Town of Pelham for the year 1814 reflect that on April 5, 1814, town
voters elected three men to serve as “Commissioners of Schools.” They were Philip Pell, David J. Pell, and Augustine
J. F. Prevost.[ix] Voters, for the first time, also elected six
men as “Inspectors of Schools.” They
were Augustine J. F. Prevost, David J. Pell, Caleb Pell, George Crawford,
Nicholas Haight, and William Crawford.[x] Most significantly, voters authorized the
Town to raise a sum of money equal to the sum provided by the State of New York
“for the support of common schools.”[xi]
The April 5, 1814 entry is
significant. As early as 1784 (four
years before the Legislature created the Town of Pelham by statute), the Board
of Regents and the Governor of New York began urging the Legislature to
establish and fund a system of “common schools” throughout the State. Finally, in 1795 (as noted above), New York enacted its law
authorizing the expenditure of 20,000 pounds annually for five years to support
schools with the state aid being augmented by a local tax.[xii] Although the Legislature ended the program in
1800, it authorized use of funds from a statewide lottery to support the
State’s “common schools.”[xiii] Five years later the New York Legislature
created a fund for support of the common schools and allocated to that fund
“proceeds from state land sales and other assets.”[xiv]
In 1812, New York enacted a
landmark “common schools” law. In 1814,
New York amended the law to require local authorities to establish common school
districts, a then-developing factor that seemed to prompt the votes at the
annual town meeting of the Town of Pelham held on April 5, 1814.[xv] As one authority on the subject has written:
“In 1812 a landmark law established a
statewide system of common school districts and authorized distribution of
interest from the Common School Fund.
Town and city officials were directed to lay out the districts holding
school at least three months a year, according to population aged 5-15. Revenue from the town/county property tax was
used to match the state school aid.
While the 1812 act authorized local authorities to establish common
school districts, an 1814 amendment required them to do so. After 1814, if the cost of instruction
exceeded the total of state aid plus local tax, as it generally did, the
difference was made up by charing tuition, or ‘rates,’ itemized on ‘rate
bills.’ . . . The typical district had a one- or two-room schoolhouse where
children learned reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, and geography. The 1812 common school act shaped the future
of public education in New York by establishing that 1) common schools are a
state function under state control; 2) funding of public schools is a joint
state-local responsibility; 3) the school district – not the county or the town
– is the primary administrative unit for public education.”[xvi]
There seems to have been some form
of technical irregularity in the election of the Commissioners of Schools and
the Inspectors of Schools during the annual town meeting held on April 5,
1814. Town records reflect that a
special town meeting was held “at the Schoolhouse in the Town of Pelham” on
June 18, 1814. Minutes of the special
meeting state:
“At a special Town Meeting held at the
Schoolhouse in the Town of Pelham in the County of Westchester on Saturday the
18th day of June 1814 for the purpose of electing two Commissioners
and six Inspectors of Common Schools to serve the ensuing year They being
choose [sic] the last annual Town Meeting but are not qualified therefore [sic]
the law directs that they may be reelected by special Town Meeting when the
following persons were elected to the following Ofices [sic] and places
Viz:
James Harvey
} Commissioners of Common Schools
Joshua Huestis
Augustine J. F. Prevost
David J. Pell
Caleb Pell
} Inspectors of Schools
Nicholas Haight
William Crawford junr.
George Crawford
David
J. Pell, T. Clk.”[xvii]
It seems safe from the foregoing
to infer that by 1814, the Town of Pelham had at least one school funded in
part by the State and in part by the Town that operated at least three months a
year. It seems likely that the school
was on the mainland because, as will be seen shortly, there are indications
that City Island began educating children on the island during the 1830’s.
By 1821, there were only 65 school
age children in the entire Town of Pelham.
According to a report filed by the Commissioners of Common Schools for
the Town of Pelham with the State Superintendent of Common Schools in
September, 1821, Pelham had a single school district with a single school
overseen by a single instructor with an annual budget of $50. The County of Westchester provided $15 toward
the budget; the Town of Pelham raised the remaining $35 through Town
taxes. Thirty-five children attended the
school for four months and twenty-one days during the year with plans that year
not to operate the school during the winter season. The textbooks used by the students were "Pickets’
American School Class Books." Albert
Picket (1771-1850) was the principal author of this series of textbooks first
published in the early 19th century with many subsequent editions
that included works on spelling, reading, grammar, geography, and writing.[xviii]
City Island Begins Schooling Its Children on the Island
By the 1830s, it would appear that Pelham residents who lived on City Island were beginning to agitate for arrangements to teach their school age children on the island. (This, of course, further supports the earlier inference that Pelham's only school house in the early 19th century likely was located on the mainland, though likely near City Island.)
Three of the earliest efforts to educate the young people of City Island were: (1) a teacher named Rachel S. Fordham who conducted classes in her home during some unspecified time in the 1830s; (2) the opening of the first City Island public school (a one-room schoolhouse) on June 3, 1839; and (3) the construction of a newer and larger school house on property purchased in 1860 at the corner of Orchard Street and Main Street (now City Island Avenue).
I have written extensively of the development of early schools on City Island and will not repeat that account here. For details, see: Mon., Apr. 07, 2014: History of A Few of the Earliest Public Schools in the Town of Pelham.
ENDNOTES
[i] See Seybolt, Robert Francis, The Act of 1795 for the Encouragement of
Schools and the Practice in Westchester County, p. 3 (Albany, NY: The University of the State of New York,
1919).
[ii] Id., pp. 3-4.
[iii] Bolton,
Robert, History of the Several Towns,
Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester, From Its First Settlement to
the Present Time, Carefully Revised by Its Author, Vol. II, p. 214 (NY,
NY: Chas. F. Roper, 1881) (Edited by
Cornelius Winter Bolton). Cf.
Barr, Lockwood Anderson, A Brief,
But Most Complete & True Account of the Settlement of the Ancient Town of
Pelham Westchester County, State of new York Known One Time Well &
Favourably as the Lordshipp & Manour of Pelham Also The Story of the Three
Modern Villages Called The Pelhams, p. 149 (Richmond, VA: The Dietz Press, Inc. 1946) (“THE first
mention of a school in that section of Westchester County, in the tract owned
by Thomas Pell, is found under the date of August 13, 1683. This school was
located in the tract which he sold to the "Ten Families," not far
from Old St. Paul's Church in Eastchester. The school was under the
jurisdiction of the Rector of the Congregation, according to Bolton's History
of Westchester, Vol. II, p. 100. [sic]”;
hereinafter “Barr”).
[iv] Laws of the State of New York, 1789-1796,
Vol. 3, pp. 626-31 (Albany, NY: 1881)
(amended Apr. 6, 1796, as reflected in id.,
p. 702).
[v] The
establishment of a school in Pelham at about this time seems all the more
likely when the records of nearby localities are reviewed. There seems to have been a rush to establish
schools in the region around Pelham following passage of the new statute in
1795. See, e.g., Seybolt,
Robert Francis, The Act of 1795 for the
Encouragement of Schools and the Practice in Westchester County,
p. 13 et al. (Albany, NY: The University of the State of New York,
1919) (reflecting establishment of a school near Delanceys Bridge in the Town
of Westchester, another school in the upper part of the Town of Westchester
near the Widow Bartow’s property, another school on Throggs Neck, and another
school near the property of Cornelius Leggett in the Village of West Farms).
[vi] Town Minute
Book 1801 – 1851, Town of Pelham, New York State American Revolution
Bicentennial Commission Historical Records Microfilm Program, Microfilm p. 1
(microfilm held in collections of New York State Archives) (hereinafter “Pelham
Town Minute Book 1801 – 1851”).
[vii] Id.
[viii] E.g., id., p. 5 (1802); p. 6 (1803), p.
8 (1804), p. 12 (1806), p. 17 (1807), p.
19 (1808), p. 21 (1809), p. 23 (1810), p. 24 (1811), p. 26 (1811 – special
meeting), p. 28 (1812); p. 30 (1813); p. 32 (1814); p. 35 (1815), p. 38 (1816);
p. 40 (1817). The annual meeting began
to be held in the “house of George Berrian, an innkeeper” beginning in
1818. See, e.g., id., pp. 42 (1818); 46 (1819); 48 (1820); 51 (1821); 57
(1822). Annual town meetings then began
to be held in the “house of William A. Berrian” [perhaps the same location]
beginning in 1823. See, id., pp. 59 (1823);
61 (1824); 62 (1825);
[ix] Id., pp. 32-33. These same three men were re-elected
“Commissioners of Schools” in 1815. Id., p. 35.
[x] Id., pp. 32-33. These same six men were re-elected
“Inspectors of Schools” in 1815. Id., p. 35.
[xi] Id., p. 34 (“Voted at this meeting that
there be a sum equal to the sum of money given by the State raised in the Town
for the support of Common Schools.”).
[xii] Folts, James
D., History of the University of the
State of New York and the State Education Department 1784-1996
(electronic version of history originally published in paper format in Jun.
1996 by the New York State Education Department), visited Sep. 21, 2014
(hereinafter, “Folts”).
[xiii] Id.
[xiv] Id.
[xv] At the time, a
“common school” in New York was an elementary school (kindergarten through
eighth grade) and a “common school district” was a school district authorized
to operate elementary schools but not high schools. In 1853 the Legislature authorized the
creation of “union free school districts.”
Such districts typically were the union of two or more “common school
districts” (i.e., school districts
that were not authorized to operate high schools) to create a new school
district “free” from the restrictions that barred common school districts from
operating high schools.
[xvi] Id.
[xvii] Pelham Town
Minute Book 1801 – 1851, p. 37. The same
town records continue to show the annual election of “Commissioners of Common
Schools” and “Inspectors of Common Schools” in each of the following
years: 1816 (p. 37); 1817 (p. 41); 1818
(pp. 43 & 45); 1819 (pp. 46 & 47); 1820 (p. 49); 1821 (p. 51); 1822
(pp. 54 & 56); 1823 (p. 59); 1824 (p. 60); 1825 (p.
[xviii] Town Minute
Book 1801 – 1851, Town of Pelham, New York State American Revolution
Bicentennial Commission Historical Records Microfilm Program, Microfilm, Entry
for Sept. “th,” 1821 (microfilm held in collections of New York State
Archives).
posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:59 AM
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