Historic Pelham

Presenting the rich history of Pelham, NY in Westchester County: current historical research, descriptions of how to research Pelham history online and genealogy discussions of Pelham families.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

1883 Budget for Pelham School District No. 2 on City Island in the Town of Pelham


The schools within our little Town of Pelham operate within the "Pelham Union Free School District."  What, exactly, does that mean?  

The concept of a union free school district reflects the historical evolution of public school systems within the State of New York.  Such a district results from the union of multiple common school districts that, by virtue of such a combination are rendered free from previous State-law restrictions that barred smaller so-called "common school" districts from operating high schools.  

In 1795, the State of New York established a Statewide system of support for public schools.  In 1812, the State established common schools that operated within "common school districts" and provided public support for such schools.  Common school districts tended to serve small localities and were not authorized to operate high schools.  

With the proliferation of common school districts throughout the State, New York embarked on a major reorganization of its public school system in 1853.  Part of that reorganization involved the establishment of so-called "union free school districts" authorized to operate secondary schools.  To reduce the proliferation of common school districts and to gain some economies of scale, the State authorized the combination of common school districts into union free school districts authorized to operate high schools.  

Few in Pelham realize that the Town once had two school districts:  School District No. 1 that served the mainland and School District No. 2 that served City Island when that community was part of the Town of Pelham.  Today's Historic Pelham article presents the 1883 budget for Pelham School District No. 2 as reported in a local newspaper on October 14, 1882.

On October 10, 1882, the annual meeting of Pelham School District No. 2 was held at the local school house.  This school house was the second one built on City Island.  It was built in about 1860 and was located on land once owned by David Scofield located at the intersection of Orchard Street (today's Hawkins Street) and Main Street (today's City Island Avenue).  The detail from a map published in 1868 shown immediately below indicates the location of the school building where this annual meeting was held on October 10, 1882.



Detail from Map of "City Island, Pelham Township, Westchester Co.,
N.Y. [with] Town of Pelham, Westchester Co., N.Y.," Published by
F.W. Beers in 1868 in the "Atlas of New York and Vicinity from
Actual Surveys by and Under the Direction of F.W. Beers,
Assisted by A.B. Prindle & Others." NOTE: Shows the Location of
the Second Dedicated School Building on City Island on Property
Acquired in 1860 from David Scofield on the Northwest Corner of
the Intersection of Orchard Street and Main Street (Now City Island
Avenue).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

The report suggests that the entire budget for Pelham School District No. 2 for the 1882-83 school year was about $2,970 (about $98,700 in today's dollars).  Pelham taxpayers funded $2,270 of that amount with New York State providing $700 from the State school fund (23.7% of the total annual budget). 

There were at least three teachers (described as "under teachers" so there may have been one or more additional).  The budget provided $1,800 for teachers' salaries.  Interestingly, although the budget provided $150 for "incidental expenses," nowhere does it provide any explicit appropriation for books or other academic resources.  The budget appropriated $100 for each of three categories:  janitor, cleaning (presumably supplies), and fuel (likely coal -- or wood -- for a heating stove).  The budget also provided $20 to pay for "census" taking (presumably the need to determine the number of school age children within the district for planning purposes).  

In addition to passing the school budget for the year, the annual meeting elected a trustee, a clerk and a tax collector to collect school taxes.  Mr. Thomas Martin was elected trustee.  William Anderson was elected Clerk.  William E. Loundes was elected collector.  The meeting then adjourned to the second Tuesday of October in the following year (1883).  

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I have written a number of times about the early public school system in the Town of Pelham.  See, e.g.

Thu., Jan. 28, 2016:  The Early Development of Pelham Schools in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries.

Mon., Jun. 19, 2017:  A Little About the History of the Pelham School System During the Mid-1850s.

Mon., Apr. 07, 2014:  History of A Few of the Earliest Public Schools in the Town of Pelham.

Thu., Feb. 26, 2015:  The Use of Pelham's Town Hall on Shore Road as a Public Schoolhouse During the 1880s.

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Transcribed below is the text of the news article on which today's Historic Pelham article is based, followed by a citation and link to its source.  

"CITY ISLAND.  --  At a meeting of the Republican Association of the town of Pelham on Saturday last, Dudley R. Horton was elected President.  There was a full attendance, and much earnestness was manifest.  It was unanimously resolved, not only to vote the straight Republican ticket, but to use all honorable means to elect the entire ticket.  The following named were elected delegates to the County convention:  Dudley R. Horton, Jerome Bell, and W. H. Sparks, the above named also to the Assembly convention.

The annual school meeting of District school No. 2, of Pelham, was held at the school house, City Island, on the 10th inst.  Mr. Thomas Martin was elected Trustee, Wm. Anderson, Clerk, William E. Loundes, Collector.  After which the following appropriations made:

For teachers salary,         -          $1,800
"     janitor,     -     -     -     -     -         100
"     fuel,        -      -     -     -     -         100
"     cleaning school,  -     -     -         100
"     taken census      -     -     -            20
"     incidental expenses  -     -          150

Total             -      -     -     -     -    $2,195 [sic]

Seven hundred dollars is received from the State school fund.  The yearly salaries of the three under teachers were raised $100 each.  After which the meeting adjourned until the second Tuesday in October, 1883."

Source:  CITY ISLAND, New Rochelle Pioneer, Oct. 14, 1882, Vol. XXIII, No. 27, p. 3, col. 7.


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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Additional Obituaries of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor


Many in Pelham Manor drive by the two lovely homes that stand at 952 Pelhamdale Avenue and 964 Pelhamdale Avenue every day without giving either a second thought.  The two homes, however, once formed the school buildings of The Taft School for Boys founded in Pelham Manor in 1890 and, today, one of the nation's premier preparatory schools.  Today the school is located in Watertown, Connecticut.  (Interestingly, the Taft School for Boys took over the two homes from Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls who also used them as school buildings the prior year before moving the girls' school to buildings constructed on Esplanade at Boston Post Road.)


964 Pelhamdale Avenue, Once the Main School Building of
the Taft School for Boys in the Early 1890s.  Source:  Google
Maps.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.


952 Pelhamdale Avenue, One of Two Adjacent Residences that Once Were
Part of The Taft School for Boys That Operated in Pelham Manor 1890 - 1893.
Photograph Taken in 2005 by the Author.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Horace Dutton Taft founded the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor. Taft was a brother of William Howard Taft who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and, in 1909, became the nation’s 27th President. 

Horace D. Taft had no training in school administration. Indeed, his only exposure to the teaching world reportedly involved tutoring Latin for three years at Yale, his alma mater. Horace Taft was, however, a friend of a prominent Pelham Manor resident – Mrs. Robert C. (Mary G. Witherbee) Black. Mrs. Black was the wife of a member of the internationally renowned jewelry firm of Black, Starr & Frost. The Blacks owned large tracts of land in Pelham Manor and had a palatial home known as “Dogwood” located almost directly across Pelhamdale Avenue from 952 and 964 Pelhamdale Avenue. The home faced the Esplanade on plots where homes located between 955 and 999 Pelhamdale Avenue stand today. 

Robert and Mary Black had two sons: R. Clifford Black, Jr. and Witherbee Black. Mrs. Black reportedly contacted family friend Horace Taft seeking a tutor for her boys. She convinced Taft to open a boarding school for boys in Pelham Manor. Mrs. Black reportedly named the new school “Mr. Taft’s School” although it quickly became known as The Taft School for Boys. 

The home that stands today at 964 Pelhamdale Avenue reportedly served as the main building for Mr. Taft’s School. According to a letter prepared in 1936 by one of the students who attended the school during its first year of operation, DeWitt Clinton Noyes, there were two homes that served as the grounds of the school when it opened in 1890 for the 1890/91 school year (see newspaper announcement of upcoming opening of the school transcribed below). The letter stated: “The main house belonged to Mrs. Robert C. Black and was directly behind her own on Pelhamdale Avenue. The second house was smaller and next door to the West.” The house that stands today “next door to the West” of 964 Pelhamdale is the home located at 952 Pelhamdale. After only three school years in Pelham Manor, Mr. Taft’s School moved to Watertown, Connecticut where it is located today. 

Another of Horace D. Taft's brothers was a New York City attorney who lived for many years in Pelham Manor. His name was Henry Waters Taft, an important early Pelham Manor resident. 

Horace Dutton Taft operated the Taft School for Boys as a for-profit boys' preparatory school for most of the years he served as its headmaster.  In 1926, Taft donated his majority ownership interest in the school to the Board of Trustees of the institution for them to run as a non-profit institution.  The Board reportedly "promptly elected him president of the board of trustees and headmaster."  He served in those roles until the late 1930s when he became headmaster emeritus.  He died on January 28, 1943 at the age of 81.  His death was reported in newspapers all over the country.

I have transcribed a few such obituaries before.  See Wed., Feb. 04, 2015:  Obituaries of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.  Today's Historic Pelham article transcribes additional such obituaries (and a brief newspaper announcement of the planned opening of the school in 1890) immediately below.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.


Horace Dutton Taft in an Undated Portrait.
NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"PERSONAL AND POLITICAL. . . . 

-- Mr. Horace D. Taft, son of Judge Alphonso Taft, will open a boarding and day school for boys next September at Pelham Manor, Westchester county, New York.  The announcement says that, while the object is to prepare boys for college, nothing will be sacrificed for the sake of gaining time."

Source:  PERSONAL AND POLITICAL, The Buffalo Commercial [Buffalo, NY], May 23, 1890, p. 4, col. 4 (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"HORACE D. TAFT SUCCUMBS AT 81
-----
Brother of Late President Founded Taft School
-----

Watertown, Conn., Jan. 28 (AP). -- Horace D. Taft, 81, brother of the late President William Howard Taft, and founder and for many years headmaster of the Taft School for Boys at Watertown, died at his home tonight.

Starting out to be a lawyer, Taft changed his mind after a year's practice.  He spent three years as Latin tutor at Yale, and then started his own school in Pelham Manor with 10 pupils.  For the rest of his life he was its headmaster.

In later years, after it moved to Watertown, it grew to be one of the leading preparatory schools of the country.  And in 1926, he gave his majority holdings to the trustees for them to run as a non-profit institution.

They promptly elected him president of the board of trustees and headmaster, a post which he relinquished several years ago to become headmaster emeritus.

Born in Cincinnati, he was the son of Alphonso Taft, judge of the Ohio Supreme Court, who served in several administrations as the Secretary of War, as Attorney General and as U.S. Minister to Austria and Russia."

Source:  HORACE D. TAFT SUCCUMBS AT 81 -- Brother of Late President Founded Taft School, The Wilkes-Barre Record [Wilkes-Barre, PA], Jan. 29, 1943, p. 6, col. 1 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"Horace D. Taft Died.

WATERTOWN, Conn., Jan. 28 (AP) -- Horace D. Taft, 81, brother of the late President William Howard Taft, and founder and for many years headmaster of the Taft School for Boys at Watertown, died at his home tonight.

Starting out to be a lawyer, Taft changed his mind after a year's practice.  He spent three years as Latin tutor at Yale, and then started on his own school in Pelham Manor with ten pupils.  For the rest of the his life he was its headmaster.

In later years, after it moved to Watertown, it grew to be one of the leading preparatory schools of the country.  And in 1926, he gave his majority holdings to the trustees for them to run as a non-profit institution."

Source:  Horace D. Taft Died, Standard Sentinel [Hazleton, PA], Jan. 29, 1943, Vol. 77, No. 23,670, p. 1, col. 6 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

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I have written on numerous occasions about the Taft School for Boys as well as Horace Dutton Taft and his brother, Henry Waters Taft, who lived in Pelham Manor.  For a few examples, see:  

Mon., Apr. 24, 2017:  More on the World Famous Taft School for Boys that Began in Pelham Manor in 1890.

Wed., Feb. 04, 2015:  Obituaries of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Mon., Jan. 15, 2007:  Brief Biographies of Henry Waters Taft and Horace Dutton Taft of Pelham Manor (and Other Family Members).

Tue., May 30, 2006:  A Biography Published in 1906 on the Life of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Wed., Nov. 14, 2007:  1890 Advertisement for Taft's School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Mon., Aug. 15, 2005:  952 Pelhamdale Served as a 19th Century School for Girls, Then a School for Boys.

Bell, Blake A., The Taft School in Pelham Manor, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 23, Jun. 4, 2004, p. 12, col. 1.

Fri., Mar. 14, 2014:  “Life and Practice" of a Country Lawyer Living in Pelham Manor in the 1880s.

Tue., Feb. 14, 2006:  An Account of the Blizzard of 1888 by Pelham Manor Resident Henry W. Taft.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Laying of the Cornerstone of Pelham's New High School in 1909, Now Known as Siwanoy Elementary School


Not long after the turn of the Twentieth Century, the population of the Town of Pelham began to explode.  In 1900, the population of the Town was 1,571.  In 1905, the population had reached 1,841.  By 1910, the population had grown to 2,998 -- nearly doubling over a ten-year period.  With the expanded population came expanded needs for young scholars in the Town. 

Pelham, however, did not have its own high school.  The Pelham public school system offered only eight grades of study.  It sent its young scholars who wished to continue their education to the high schools of other communities such as Mount Vernon and New Rochelle.  The time was ripe.  The need was great.  The citizens of Pelham and their Board of Education stepped up and created the "Pelham High School, and Siwanoy Grammar School."  The school building they built we know today as Siwanoy Elementary School located at 489 Siwanoy Place in the Village of Pelham Manor.



Undated Postcard View of Pelham High School with Notation: "Pelham
High School, Pelham, N.Y."  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

I have written rather extensively before about the history of Pelham's new high school and grade school opened in 1911.  See Mon., Mar. 10, 2014:  Dedication of Pelham's New High School in 1911, Now Known as Siwanoy Elementary School.  Today's Historic Pelham article, however, focuses on the laying of the cornerstone in 1909.

The cornerstone of the new High School was laid on Saturday, October 23, 1909 during an elaborate and well-attended ceremony centered around placing a copper box time capsule to be opened by future generations of Pelhamites.

The ceremony was attended by Town, Village, and School Board officials as well as citizens and students of all three grade schools in Town:  the old Prospect Hill School (a predecessor to today's Prospect Hill Elementary School), the old Pelham Heights School (a predecessor to today's Colonial Elementary School), and the old Hutchinson School (a predecessor to today's Hutchinson Elementary School) began with a prayer led by the Reverend Lewis G. Leary, Ph. D., Pastor of Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church.  The school children of Pelham next offered a song and were led by Hutchinson School Principal Isaac C. Hill.  School Board President Robert A. Holmes then introduced Judge Charles G. F. Wahle who delivered the keynote address.  (Seventeen years later Judge Wahle delivered a similar address and helped lay the cornerstone of the new Colonial Elementary School in 1926.)

Luckily, The Daily Argus of Mount Vernon printed the substance of Judge Wahle's keynote address that day.  He outlined briefly the history of educating young scholars in New York from the days of New Amsterdam to the present.  He then turned to the ceremonial copper box time capsule to be placed in the cornerstone.  Significantly, he listed in his remarks the contents of the time capsule.  They are:

"Statistics of the fire department, of the town of Pelham, of the villages of Pelham Manor, North Pelham, and Pelham, of St. Catherine's [sic] Church, the Church of the Redeemer, Huguenot Memorial Church, Congregational Church, the Mothers Club of Pelham, the Pelham Village Club, the police departments of the three villages, copies of the by-laws of the board of education of the Union Free School District, of the town of Pelham, reports and school census of the board of education, the contract for the building, copies of current local papers, copies of current New York papers, copies of New York papers containing accounts of the Hudson-Fulton celebration, Masonic statistics, coins, stamps and copy of the program of exercises."

Upon the laying of the cornerstone, the young students and the audience sang "America."  The ceremony then ended with a benediction by Reverend Leary.

Deep within the cornerstone of today's Siwanoy Elementary School is a blackened copper box that continues to contain these relics of a forward-looking day nearly 110 years ago when much of Pelham gathered to celebrate education and its young people.  God only knows when that box will be opened and its contents unveiled.

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"FRONT ELEVATION
SCHOOL HOUSE.  DISTRICT NUMBER 1 OF THE
TOWN OF PELHAM, N.Y."
PELHAM, IS LAIDThe Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Oct. 26, 1909,
p. 11, cols. 1-2.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"CORNER STONE FOR NEW SCHOOL IN TOWN OF PELHAM, IS LAID.
-----

Pelham Manor, Oct. 26 -- With impressive and interesting exercises the corner stone of the high school building was laid Saturday afternoon the presence of a large gathering of people and pupils from the three schools of the town.  An instructive and inspiring address was delivered by Judge Wahle.

The exercises opened with prayer by the Rev. Lewis G. Leary, Ph. D., after which there was a song by the pupils of the public schools in charge of Principal I. C. Hill.  President Robert A. Holmes, of the board of education, then introduced Judge Wahle.

After referring to the early customs of laying corner stones for institutions Judge Wahle said in part:  'so we have come here this afternoon with our children to set this corner stone realizing the fact that this the corner stone of the public school is the corner stone of our nation.  The beginnings of the free common school reach back to the earliest Colonial times.  In New England, at least, the predominant motive for promoting education was religious rather than political.  The elementary school of that period quickly merged into the academy or secondary school, where the promising lads were prepared for college.  However, the idea, that the early education should be free and in considerable degree compulsory upon all, found early expression.

'The general court of Massachusetts in 1642 enjoined upon town authorities the duty of seeing that all children acquired at least the rudiments of an education.  The order even went so far as to require the removal of children from those parents who persisted in bringing up their offspring in ignorance.  The selectmen of every town were further required to have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices, so much learning as may enable them perfectly to reach the English tongue and obtain a knowledge of the capital laws; upon penalty of 20 shillings for each neglect therein.  In 1635 Boston made public provision for the support of a school.  In 1638 New Haven set up a school under Ezekiel Cheever, who was paid out of the common stock of the town.  Rhode Island established a public school at Newport in 1640 and Providence one, 20 years later.  In 1633 the first Dutch school master arrived at Manhattan.  By 1650 the 800 inhabitants of New Amsterdam paid their schoolmasters regularly from the public treasury.  The pay was doubtless meagre enough, but the principle of free public education was in active operation.

More or less rudimentary beginnings of public education are found in the older colonies as in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas.  In the South, however, the free school idea was not so hospitably received as in New England and in New York.  An oft quoted expression by Governor Berkeley of Virginia may be cited.  When the English commissioners of foreign plantations asked what course was taken in Virginia for instructing the people in the Christian religion, Governor Berkeley replied:  'the same that is taken in England out of towns, every man according to his ability of instructing his children'  He also added:  'I thank God there are no free schools or printing presses, and I hope that we shall not have them, these three hundred years, for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world and printing has divulged them and libels against the best of governments; God keep us from both.  So far as Virginia and the remainder of the South was concerned good Governor Berkeley had his wish for it was not until after the Civil War that that section of the United States was supplied with anything like a system of free public schools.

'I mention these facts because you can draw the dividing line between those parts of the country where the public schools were first started in this country and that part where the public schools were not tolerated.

'So we come to this ceremony today.  The box which you see there will vanish.  We are told that in ancient days when the important ceremonies of laying corner stones were held, molten gold and silver were poured upon the boxes containing the valuable records and votive offerings.  So we place in this box our votive offering.  But what you put in their will some day vanish.  The papers will rot; the bronze will tarnish and the gold and silver will blacken.  Future nations will not be able to read what is in there.  But that which we plant in the hearts of our children that to which we make them inheritance, future fathers and mothers yet unborn, that will have its influence in the centuries to come.'

The laying of the corner stone then occurred and Clerk Kneeland S. Durham placed in the opening in the rock the copper box, the inventory of the contents being as follows:  Statistics of the fire department, of the town of Pelham, of the villages of Pelham Manor, North Pelham, and Pelham, of St. Catherine's [sic] Church, the Church of the Redeemer, Huguenot Memorial Church, Congregational Church, the Mothers Club of Pelham, the Pelham Village Club, the police departments of the three villages, copies of the by-laws of the board of education of the Union Free School District, of the town of Pelham, reports and school census of the board of education, the contract for the building, copies of current local papers, copies of current New York papers, copies of New York papers containing accounts of the Hudson-Fulton celebration, Masonic statistics, coins, stamps and copy of the program of exercises.

Following the laying of the corner stone the school pupils and audience sang 'America,' after which the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Leary.

The new high and graded school building will be one of the most attractive structures of its kind in Westchester county when completed.  It will stand on high ground overlooking Witherbee avenue and will be reached by a sloping walk from the street on either side of which will be a beautiful lawn.  The building will be 115 feet long and 60 feet 6 inches in width; two and a half stories high and will contain nine class rooms and an assembly hall which will seat several hundred people.  The main entrance for the public will face the street and there will be entrances for the school children on either side.  The building will be of stone foundation, brick and the roof will be slate with two cupolas.  The structure will be graced with large attractive windows, the upper portions of which will be oval, providing plenty of light for the scholars.

On the platform Saturday were Robert A. Holms, the president of the board of education; Judge Wahle the speaker of the day; the Rev. Mr. Leary, James F. Secor, School Trustee Willard P. Brown; School Trustee Henry L. Rupert; School Trustee H. Elliott Coe; Clerk, Durham and Contractor Dominick Smith, who is erecting the building.

The building committee is composed as follows:  James F. Secor, chairman; Trustees Holmes, Francis, Rupert and Seymour.  The board of education is as follows:  Robert F. Holmes, President; James F. Secor, Lewis W. Francis, Willard P. Brown, Walter A. Seymour, Hugh Herndon, Henry L. Rupert, H. Elliott Coe, Charles T. Johnston."

Source:  CORNER STONE FOR NEW SCHOOL IN TOWN OF PELHAM, IS LAID, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Oct. 26, 1909, p. 11, cols. 1-2.


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Monday, April 24, 2017

More on the World Famous Taft School for Boys that Began in Pelham Manor in 1890


One of the nation’s premier college preparatory schools, The Taft School (now located in Watertown, Connecticut), began in Pelham Manor in 1890.  Horace Dutton Taft founded the institution.  Taft was a brother of William Howard Taft who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and, in 1909, became the nation’s 27th President.  Horace Taft had no training in school administration.  Indeed, his only exposure to the teaching world reportedly involved tutoring Latin for three years at Yale, his alma mater.  

Horace Taft was, however, a friend of a prominent Pelham Manor resident – Mrs. Robert C. (Mary G. W.) Black.  Mrs. Black was the wife of a member of the internationally renowned jewelry firm of Black, Starr & Frost.  The Blacks owned large tracts of land in Pelham Manor and had a palatial home known as “Dogwood”.  The home faced the Esplanade on plots where homes located between 955 and 999 Pelhamdale Avenue stand today. 

Robert and Mary Black had two sons:  R. Clifford Black, Jr. and Witherbee Black.  Mrs. Black reportedly contacted family friend Horace Taft seeking a tutor for her boys.  She convinced Taft to open a boarding school for boys in Pelham Manor.  Mrs. Black reportedly named the new school “Mr. Taft’s School” although it quickly became known as The Taft School for Boys. 



1890 Newspaper Advertisement for The Taft School
for Boys in Pelham Manor.  Source:  MR. TAFT'S SCHOOL
for BOYS [Advertisement], New Rochelle Pioneer, Oct. 4, 1890,
Vol. XXXI, No. 26, p. 3, col. 6.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.
TEXT READS:  "MR. TAFT'S SCHOOL for BOYS, PELHAM
MANOR, A Boarding and Day School to prepare boys for College.
The principal a graduate of Yale, and for the last three years a
Tutor in that University.  For circular and references address MR.
HORACE D. TAFT, Pelham Manor, N.Y."

The home that stands today at 964 Pelhamdale Avenue reportedly served as the main building for Mr. Taft’s School.  According to a letter prepared in 1936 by one of the students who attended the school during its first year of operation, DeWitt Clinton Noyes, there were two homes that served as the grounds of the school when it opened in 1890 for the 1890/91 school year.  The letter states: “The main house belonged to Mrs. Robert C. Black and was directly behind her own on Pelhamdale Avenue.  The second house was smaller and next door to the West.”  The house that stands today “next door to the West” of 964 Pelhamdale is the home located at 952 Pelhamdale.  After only three school years in Pelham Manor, Mr. Taft’s School moved to Watertown, Connecticut where it is located today.  

Mr. Taft's School began as a boarding and day school with ten "boarding scholars" in 1890.  By the end of its third year in the spring of 1893, the tiny little school had expanded to capacity with twenty "boarding scholars."  Rather than expanding in Pelham Manor (which had no suitable facility into which the school could move and expand over the summer before the next school year), Horace Dutton Taft moved the school to Watertown, Connecticut during the summer of 1893.

During the three years the Taft School for Boys operated in Pelham Manor, it graduated eight young scholars.  The school graduated its first two scholars at the end of its first year of operation in the spring of 1891.  One was Daniel O'Neill of Pittsburgh.  O'Neill attended Yale University beginning the following fall, but died tragically during his first semester in the fall of 1891.  The other graduating scholar in the first class that graduated from the school while it was located in Pelham Manor was Stillman Witt Eells.  He also attended Yale after graduating from the Taft School.  He graduated from Yale in the Class of 1895 and, the same year, married Helene Florence Watterman of Minneapolis.  In 1896 he became Secretary of the Chicago Drop Forge & Foundry Co.  The following year he became President of the Wheeler Mfg. Co. and the Alegnum Co. and served in that role until 1903.  He resigned in 1903 and traveled for four years in Europe, Canada, and the United States.  He then settled for a short time in Cleveland and then moved to Hamilton, Bermuda.

At the end of the Taft School's second year, in the spring of 1892, the institution graduated five students:  (1) S.C. Alger; (2) Walter Bingham Brayton who later worked for The Standard Car Wheel Company in Cleveland; (3) Edward Laurence Brownell (died in 1905); (4) Neil Bernard Mallon (died in 1909); and (5) James Dwight Rockwell who graduated from Yale in 1896 and worked in the chemical business until his health deteriorated and he moved into the Yale Club in New York City.



S.C. Alger Who Graduated from the Taft School for Boys in 1892
When It Was Located in the Village of Pelham Manor.  NOTE:
Click on Image to Enlarge.


James Dwight Rockwell Who Graduated from the Taft School
for Boys in 1892 When It Was Located in the Village of Pelham
Manor.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

At the end of the Taft School's third year (its last in Pelham), in the spring of 1893, the institution graduated a single student:  James Hart Welch, Jr.  Thereafter he worked in the real estate business in Douglaston, Long Island.  



952 Pelhamdale Avenue, One of Two Adjacent Residences that Once Were
Part of The Taft School for Boys That Operated in Pelham Manor 1890 - 1893.
Photograph Taken in 2005 by the Author. NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.


Horace Dutton Taft in an Undated Portrait.
NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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I have written on numerous occasions about the Taft School for Boys as well as Horace Dutton Taft and his brother, Henry Waters Taft, who lived in Pelham Manor.  For a few examples, see:  

Wed., Feb. 04, 2015:  Obituaries of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Mon., Jan. 15, 2007:  Brief Biographies of Henry Waters Taft and Horace Dutton Taft of Pelham Manor (and Other Family Members).

Tue., May 30, 2006:  A Biography Published in 1906 on the Life of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Wed., Nov. 14, 2007:  1890 Advertisement for Taft's School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Mon., Aug. 15, 2005:  952 Pelhamdale Served as a 19th Century School for Girls, Then a School for Boys.

Bell, Blake A., The Taft School in Pelham Manor, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 23, Jun. 4, 2004, p. 12, col. 1.

Fri., Mar. 14, 2014:  “Life and Practice" of a Country Lawyer Living in Pelham Manor in the 1880s.

Tue., Feb. 14, 2006:  An Account of the Blizzard of 1888 by Pelham Manor Resident Henry W. Taft.

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Below is the text of several items that form the basis for today's Historic Pelham article.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.  

"Mr. Taft's Own Account

The Taft School was founded by Horace D. Taft in the fall of 1890 in the village of Pelham Manor, Westchester County, New York.  Mr. Taft had graduated from Yale in the class of '83 and during the three years prior to the opening of the school had been a member of the Yale Faculty.

The first year of the school there were only ten boarding scholars.  The buildings were ordinary residences, the rooms of which were made to serve as school room, class rooms, etc., as well as they might.  Altogether, it was a very small beginning and in some respects comical.  During the second and third years there were twenty boarding scholars, all that there was room for.  In the summer of 1893 the school was moved to Watertown, Connecticut, and located in an old hotel building, the Warren House.  There a new beginning was made with thirty boarding scholars and an enlarged faculty.  Everything about the school, as we look back on it now, was primitive and inefficient, but after Pelham Manor days it seemed magnificent.  A higher standard, both in scholarship and discipline was attained.  Athletic teams were organized and the various activities of school life began.  The hotel building had to be changed in many respects to meet the requirements of a school.  A new plant for heating and plumbing was installed and a gymnasium was built.  The old Fair Ground was leased for an athletic field. . . ."

Source:  "Mr. Taft's Own Account" in Wiggin, Lewis M., ed., The Taft School Biography Book, Vol. 1, p. 9 (Rutland, VT:  The Tuttle Company, 1912).  

"1891
Stillman Witt Eells

Mr. Eells holds the proud distinction of being the oldest living graduate.  He has been followed by several cousins, among them William and James Symington and a nephew, Samuel Eells.  He is the only remaining member of the first class to be graduated from Pelham Manor, the other member of the class, Daniel O'Neill of Pittsburgh, having died during the fall of his Freshman year at Yale.  Eells was graduated from Yale in the class of 1895, having spent his summer vacations traveling in Europe, Canada and the West.  In 1895 he was married to Miss Helene Florence Watterman of Minneapolis and spent the following year in Europe.  In 1896 he became Secretary of the Chicago Drop Forge & Foundry Co. 1897 to 1903 was spent as President of the Wheeler Mfg. Co. and the Alegnum Co.  He resigned in 1903 and spent the following four years traveling in Europe, Canada and the United States.  In 1907 he made Cleveland his headquarters, having since then lived in Bermuda.  His permanent address is P. O. Box 4, Hamilton, Bermuda.

Daniel O'Neill

Deceased.

1892
S. C .Alger

Alger claims that he was graduated the year the school started in Pelham Manor, but the records show it to have been in the second year of the school's history, 1892.  It is on this that he bases his claim to being the oldest alumnus of Taft School, but whether he is or not, he is certainly one of the best.  Graduated from Yale in the class of 1896 S.  He was married in 1896, and has one daughter who was born in 1900. 

Permanent address:  250 West 94th Street, New York.

William Bingham Brayton

Brayton was a member of the 1894 class at Sheff, but did not graduate.  His address is care The Standard Car Wheel Company, Cleveland, Ohio.

Edward Laurence Brownell

Brownell graduated from Sheff. in the class of 1895.  He died in 1905.

Neil Bernard Mallon

Graduated from Yale in 1896.  Died in 1909.

James Dwight Rockwell

The following is Rockwell's own account of how it has happened:  'I went to Yale and graduated, 'mirable dictu,' in 1896.  In 1900 I became associated in the chemical business with the late Edward L. Brownell, '92.  In 1905 my health broke down and I have never succeeded in recovering it, having been confined to my room for several years.  As befits one of the very Oldest Living Graduates, I have all the characteristics of extreme old age, except the whiskers, in proof of which I offer in evidence a photographic crime committed in 1902.'

Permanent address:  Yale Club, New York.

1893
James Hart Welch, Jr.

Welch now in real estate business at Douglaston, L.I. . . ."

Source:  Wiggin, Lewis M., ed., The Taft School Biography Book, Vol. 1, pp. 37-38 (Rutland, VT:  The Tuttle Company, 1912).

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Friday, April 07, 2017

The Twentieth Annual Commencement of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls Held on June 2, 1909


In 1889, Emily Hall Hazen who had taught at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, opened a private girls' school in Pelham Manor.  It almost immediately became one of the finest girls’ schools in the country.  The school closed twenty-five years later at the end of the 1914-1915 school year. 

Officially named "Pelham Hall," the school was known far and wide as "Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls."  By the time the school reached its final academic year, it had served over a thousand students from forty-two States and over two hundred and fifty towns and cities throughout the country.  

I have written about Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls on many occasions.  I have included a list of links to numerous such articles at the end of today's posting.  

The year 1909 was a special year for Pelham Hall.  On Wednesday, June 2, 1909, Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls held its twentieth annual commencement ceremony.  The ceremony was held in a large auditorium in "Edgewood House," one of the three school buildings on the campus, a large gray building that faced Edgewood Avenue that was built by Benjamin Corlies and was leased to the school.  The other two buildings, also built by Corlies and leased to the school, faced Esplanade and were known as "Chester House" and "Marbury House."



1906 Post Card View of the Pelham Hall Complex, Showing
Chester Hall on the Left, Edgewood House in the Center and
Marbury House on the Right.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.



Source: Double-Page Map on Plate 22 in Fairchild, John F.,
Atlas of the City of Mount of Vernon and the Town of Pelham.
Compiled from Official Records, Personal Surveys and Other
Private Plans and Surveys. 1899. Compiled and published by
John F. Fairchild. Civil Engineer and Surveyor. Rooms, 10-11
Bank Buliding, Mount Vernon, N.Y. (1899) (Lionel Pincus and
Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library).
NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.



"Edgewood House" Built Facing Today's Edgewood Avenue
(with Rear Toward the Esplanade).  Edgewood House, Which
No Longer Stands, is the Pelham Hall Building that Included
an Auditorium in Which the 1909 Graduation Exercises Were
Held.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Ten young women graduated from Pelham Hall that late spring day.  Because it was the twentieth annual commencement exercise, former graduates of the school came "from all parts of the United States" to attend the ceremony and various events that were held during commencement week.  Although it rained heavily throughout the morning, attendance at the ceremony was "good."  

Commencement ceremonies had been held in the large auditorium of Edgewood House since that building was constructed on the campus in 1894.  As was the annual custom, the auditorium was decked with evergreen boughs.  Evergreens carried important symbolic significance.  Because they stay green through the winter, they symbolized such qualities as strength, revitalization, invincibility, determination, and stoicism -- a perfect symbol for a high school graduation celebration.

Seated on the platform during the ceremony that day were:  (1) Mrs. Emily Hall Hazen, founder and headmistress of Pelham Hall; (2) "Miss McKay" and "Miss Tracy," the two Associate Principals of the school; (3) Rev. Lewis Gaston, pastor of Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church, located nearly across the street from the school; (4) Rev. Herbert Haight Brown, pastor of the Church of the Redeemer in the Village of North Pelham; and (5) keynote speaker Dr. Edward Howard Griggs. 

Dr. Edward Howard Griggs (1868-1951) was a noted historian, lecturer, author, and inspirational speaker of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  He compiled and published dozens of biographies as well as social and moral critiques of history's greatest thinkers, philosophers, religious figures, and humanists.  Later in his career, during the 1930s, Griggs became known for a regular radio program broadcast nationally known as the "Lives of Great Men Program."  



Undated Photograph of Edward Howard Griggs.
NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

In 1904, only a few years before he was the keynote speaker at the 1909 commencement ceremony at Pelham Hall, Griggs published an influential book entitled "Moral Education" that undoubtedly was one of the principle reasons he was invited to speak to the graduating class of Pelham Hall that day.  See Griggs, Edward Howard, Moral Education (NY, NY:  B. W. Huebsch, 1904).  According to one reviewer of the work:

"The first seven chapters deal with fundamental principles of education, laying the foundation in the nature of the child.  Here Mr. Griggs follows closely the methods and results of the child-study movement; and his treatment culminates in the consideration of the type of character to be fostered by moral education, which is described as 'a strong and effective moral personality, reverently obedient to the laws of life and controlled by clear-sighted reason; seeing, loving, and willing the best on the plane of life that has been reached, strong in moral initiation, and able to grow independently ever toward the loftier vision and nobler action' (p. 66).  In connection with this ideal of character, it will be well to cite the author's conception of a moral life, which is that of 'happy and helpful living':  and this is to be attained, on the whole, by the kind of culture which initiates one into the best life of the race, but which tends to strengthen the individual to independent living in all the ranges of thought and conduct."

Source:  Sprague, Leslie Willis, "MORAL EDUCATION.  By Edward Howard Griggs, Author of 'The New Humanism,'" in International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 15, No. 3, April 1905, pp. 379-81 (Chicago, IL:  University of Chicago Press, 1905).

All students of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls attended the commencement ceremony that day.  During a processional hymn sung by the attendees, the non-graduating students marched into the auditorium to their seats, then waited as the ten graduating students marched in dressed in white graduation gowns and white graduation caps.

At the conclusion of the hymn, attendees were seated and Mrs. Hazen spoke.  Her brief remarks focused on the fact that those in attendance were part of the twentieth annual commencement ceremony at Pelham Hall.  Following Emily Hazen's remarks, Associate Principal Tracy delivered an annual report on the school and its students.

Following the annual report, the students sang songs for the crowd.  Thereafter, academic awards and prizes were given to the students.  Six of the graduating seniors received awards:

Helen Audry Almy - Abbe Hageman Hall Memorial Prizes in United States History, Second Prize
Katherine Lea Donald - Corlies Literary Prize
Frances Emily Gwyer - Robert C. Black Recreation Prize
Gladys Shafer - Houghton Scholastic Prize
Mary Arnold Swoope - Abbe Hageman Hall Memorial Prizes in United States History, First Prize
Georgie Derrick Temple - Edith Hazen Tiers Honor Prize

Ten other students who were not graduating 

Mabel Marie Damon - Intermediate First Prize 
Marie Madeline Doelger - A Testimonial
Winifred Mary Margaret Heath - A Testimonial 
Helen Rogers - A Testimonial
Anne Hubbell Seymour - Primary Second Prize
Aline Katherine Tiedemann - Primary First Prize
Helen Dorothy Tiedemann - Intermediate Second Prize
Gertrude Schultz Watson - Hatch Medal
Alys Sinclair - Hazen Medal
Agnes Winston - A Testimonial

In addition, because Associate Principal McKay was retiring after serving at Pelham Hall for eleven years, the students of the school presented her with "a beautiful silver cup."  After the presentation, the attendees sang The Star Spangled Banner.

After the singing of the Star Spangled Banner, Edward Howard Griggs delivered an "interesting address."  Research has not revealed any record of the substance of the address by Dr. Griggs that day.  

At the conclusion of the keynote address by Dr. Griggs, Pelham Hall students sang "Alma Mater."  The ceremony closed with a prayer by Reverend Leary, the singing of the Doxology, and a benediction by Rev. Brown.   

Indeed, today's students of Pelham Memorial High School would recognize the commencement ceremony -- indeed, it would seem familiar today -- though it was celebrated nearly 108 years ago by the students of Pelham Hall, Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls.    

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"AT THE HAZEN SCHOOL
-----
Commencement Exercises Hold Attention.

Pelham Manor, June 3.  --  The twentieth annual commencement exercises of Mrs. Hazen's school, Pelham Manor was held in Pelham hall yesterday morning.  In view of the fact that it was twenty years ago since the school was founded, many of the former graduates came from all parts of the United States to be present at the various events which take place during commencement week.  

Notwithstanding the rain, the attendance was good.  The interior of Pelham hall presented a scene of unusual beauty with its decorations of green boughs, while in the rear of the platform was the word 'Pelham Hall' in white letters on a green background.  Seated on the platform were Mrs. Hazen, Miss McKay and Miss Tracy, associate principals, the speaker of the day and the well known writer, Edward Howard Griggs; Rev. Lewis Gaston Leary, Ph. D., pastor of the Pelham Manor Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. H. H. Brown, rector of the Church of the Redeemer, in North Pelham.

The exercises opened with the processional hymn, during the singing of which the scholars marched to their seats in the hall, followed by the graduates, attired in white gowns and white caps.  

At the conclusion of the hymn, Mrs. Hazen made a few remarks, in which she called attention to the fact that it was twenty years ago that the school was established.

After the annual report of the department work had been read by Miss Tracy and singing by the school, the awards of prizes, testimonials and diplomas took place, as follows:  Abbe Hageman Hall memorial prizes in United States history, first, Miss Mary Arnold Swoope second prize, Miss Helen Audry Almy; Corlies literary prize, Miss Katherine Lea Donald; Houghton scholastic prize, given by two sisters who succeeded each other in the school as graduates who wished to perpetuate their name for all around scholarship, Miss Gladys Shafer; Robert C. Black recreation prize, Miss Frances Emily Gwyer; Edith Hazen Tiers honor prize, Miss Georgie Derrick Temple; intermediate first prize, Mabel Marie Damon; intermediate second prize, Helen Dorothy Tiedemann; Hatch medal, Gertrude Schultz Watson; primary first prize, Aline Katherine Tiedemann; primary second prize, Anne Hubbell Seymour; Hazen medal, Alys Sinclair.

Miss McKay, who retired as associate principal after being in the school eleven years was the recipient of a beautiful silver cup from the pupils.

Testimonials were awarded to Miss Marie Madeline Doelger, Miss Winifred Mary Margaret Heath, Miss Helen Rogers and Miss Agnes Winston.

The following were the graduates:  Margaret Adams, Helen Audry Almy, Katherine Lea Donald, Frances Emily Gwyer, Marion Winston Hoyle, Helen E. Williams Hyde, Gladys Shafer, Minnie Carlotto Splane, Mary Arnold Swoope, Georgie Derrick Temple.  As each graduate stepped to the front of the platform when her name was called Mrs. Hazen made brief remarks about the young lady's attainments during her school course.

After the singing of the Star Spangled Banner, Mr. Griggs delivered an interesting address.

The exercises were brought to a close with the singing of 'Alma Mater' by the school, prayer by the Rev. Lewis Gaston Leary, Ph. D., while the benediction was pronounced by the Rev. H. H. Brown after the doxology was sung."

Source:  AT THE HAZEN SCHOOL -- Commencement Exercises Hold Attention, New Rochelle Pioneer, Jun. 12, 1909, Vol. 51, No. 11, p. 2, col. 4.  

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I have written extensively about the private school known as "Pelham Hall" and "Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls."  For a few of the many examples, see:

Bell, Blake A., Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls: Pelham Hall, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 40, Oct. 8, 2004, p. 12, col. 1.

Wed., Dec. 30, 2015:  Interesting Account of 1894 Graduation Exercises Conducted by Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls in Pelham Manor.

Wed., Mar. 18, 2015:  Account of Women's Cricket Match Played by Pelham Manor Women in 1898.

Tue., Feb. 03, 2015:  1907 Commencement Exercises at Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls in Pelham Manor.

Mon., Feb. 02, 2015:  The Three Houses of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls in the Late 19th Century.

Tue., Nov. 25, 2014:  Too Smart for Late 19th Century Scammers: Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls.

Tue., Mar. 11, 2014:  An Early History of Mrs. Hazen's School For Girls in Pelham Manor, Published in 1913.

Mon., Aug. 15, 2005:  952 Pelhamdale Served as a 19th Century School for Girls, Then a School for Boys. 

Fri., Oct. 14, 2005:  A Reunion of Alumnae of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls

Tue., Aug. 22, 2006:  Early Advertisements for Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls in Pelham Manor.  

Wed., Sep. 6, 2006:  Pelham Hall Shelter, a "Refuge for Erring Girls", Founded by Alumnae of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls in Pelham Manor.  

Thu., Jul. 12, 2007:  The Infamous Burglary of the Girls of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls in Pelham Manor in 1905.  

Mon., Mar. 3, 2008:  1891 Advertisement May Reflect Summer Rental of One of the Dormitories of Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls.

Fri., Jul. 24, 2009:  Late 19th Century Photos of Students with Tennis Rackets at Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls in Pelham Manor.

Tue., Feb. 16, 2010:  Photograph of Only Known 19th Century Women's Baseball Team in Pelham, New York.


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