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Tioga Eagle – January 10, 1839
During the official term now drawing to a close.
Three years ago there were 32,544 children in the common schools of the State. There are now about 230,000. The schools were then kept open not quite three and a half months. They are now open about seven months in a year. The whole amount of State appropriation was then 75,000 dollars annually. It is now equal to one dollar for each taxable, which will amount to 350,000 for the next school year.
Tioga Eagle – March 4, 1840
Poetry.
[For the Tioga Eagle.]
Commons Schools
Who will not love the schoolroom all his days?
And recollect the morning he first entered?
How ever object caught his wandering gaze,
And while on him the gaze of other centered.
As to his teachers side at length he ventured,
And promptly her authentic voice obey’d
Then o’er his alphabet he quickly said
Though needing not the services which she tendered.
2
For o’er his fragile limbs could walk so far,
He doubtless, when at home, had learned his letters,
Taught by some older sister’s faithful care,
Without the trammels or the mental fetters,
Which school-rooms sometimes have for those whose natures
Require free exercise, instead of fare
Like what the law provides insolvent debtors:
Confinement to a stool and poisonous air.
3
I trust that the same superstition which
Bound prattlers to a stool of plank all day,
And when they slept, applied th’ enlivening switch
To drive their dull propensities away,
And laws to imprison men without delay,
The sons of poverty thus to enrich,
And lest their creditors, they should bewitch,
Made laws to hang them when they could not pay.
4
I say, I hope this bungling superstition,
Which yet obtains in part among the states,
Will undergo a general perdition
As when the witch-laws shared their proper fates,
For who can long repress their inward hates,
Or quell the motives lending to sedition,
When for distress, the powers provide a prison,
And for the mind deadning weights?
5
But still who will not prize his education,
Even such, as in his childhood, was bestowed
Upon the mass, who in his situation
Their cheering draughts of knowledge, chiefly ow’d
To stream like those which though New England flow’d.
And that Economy of legislation
Which from it fathers crowns each generation
And like their prayers, blesses each childs abode.
6
I mean the privilege of common schools.
The rou?? of knowledge when compared with others,
Because they utterly exclude all fools,
And vile attempts to make the people tools
For aristocracy, their virtue smoothers,
And binds all men to walk by equal rules,
In rank, establishes a band of brothers,
Honoring the laws as children do their mothers.
T.P.
Wellsboro’ Feb. 25:
Education.
That the property of the community is pledged for the education of that community, is a principle equally as clear as any other maxim of republicanism, as the proper enlightening the whole people is necessary in order to ensure their individual as well as the public good. Every person, therefore: having a right to a proper education from the hands of the community of which he is a member and a component part, it is the duty of the government to provide the means whereby he can obtain it, and they have ample power to carry out, and necessary to enforce this duty. A very simple course of instruction is necessary to qualify every person for discharging his duty to society, and the means and opportunity for obtaining that course, should be furnished gratuitously. Pennsylvania has commenced a system which is intended and calculated to carry out these principles and we trust she will go onward, until the blessings of education shall be placed within reach of, and enjoyed by every individual.
Tioga Eagle – November 4, 1840
Census of Tioga County, Pa., 1840.
| Townships. | No. of Inhabitants. |
| Jackson, |
1123
|
| Liberty, |
1128
|
| Union |
288
|
| Middlebury, |
725
|
| Morris, |
120
|
| Delmar, |
346
|
| Wellsboro’, |
368
|
| Tioga, |
792
|
| Horacetown, |
82
|
| Lawrence, |
888
|
| Elkland, |
710
|
| Farmington, |
503
|
| Chatham, |
689
|
| Westfield, |
921
|
| Rutland, |
692
|
| Sullivan, |
1378
|
| Richmond, |
742
|
| Covington, |
940
|
| Charleston, |
1010
|
| Shippen, |
192
|
| Deerfield, |
615
|
| Brookfield, |
431
|
| Gaines, |
215
|
|
------------
|
|
|
15497
|
Number of persons in the county employed in, viz.
Mining, 43. – Agriculture, 4465. – Commerce, 80. – Manufactures and trades, 558. – Navigation of the ocean, 2. – Navigation of canals, lakes and rivers, 3. – Learned professions and engineers, 55.
Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military services, 23 – Number of persons deaf and dumb in the county, 19 – Blind, 5. – Insane and idiots at private charge, 15. – Coloured, 1.
Schools, &c.
Academy and grammar school, 1
Number of scholars, 75
Primary and common schools, 57
Number of scholars, 1962
Number of scholars and public charge, 1762
No. of free colored persons in the co., 68
Tioga Eagle – April 14, 1841
Common Schools.
To the Directors of Common Schools in Tioga County:
Gentlemen: The following statement is made in accordance with the school law, passed in 1836.
I am yours respectfully,
FRS. R. Shunk,
Supt. Com. Schools.
Harrisburg, Feb. 23d, 1841
The amount of tax every district must levy to entitle itself to its share of State appropriation, is a sum equal to at least sixty cents for every taxable inhabitant in the district, according to the last triennial enumeration made in the spring of 1839. A list of taxables in each district is hereto appended.
Districts that have already accepted the Common School system, and received their share of the appropriation for former years, will on levying the proper amount of tax, be entitled under existing laws to receive for the School year 1842, which commences on the first Monday of next June, one dollar for every taxable.
Number of taxable inhabitants in the several School Districts of the
county, according to the enumerations of 1835 and 1839.
|
|
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| Brookfield, |
71
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96
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| Chatham, |
84
|
112
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| Charleston, |
175
|
197
|
| Covington, |
103
|
158
|
| Deerfield, |
122
|
121
|
| Delmar, |
170
|
201
|
| Elkland, |
110
|
161
|
| Farmington, |
37
|
94
|
| Gaines, |
33
|
|
| Jackson, |
210
|
234
|
| Lawrence, |
214
|
188
|
| Liberty, |
177
|
217
|
| Middlebury, |
115
|
159
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| Morris, |
20
|
29
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| Richmond, |
142
|
150
|
| Rutland, |
152
|
143
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| Shippen, |
82
|
48
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| Sullivan, |
183
|
274
|
| Tioga, |
145
|
167
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| Union, |
42
|
58
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| Wellsborough, |
91
|
85
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| Westfield, |
118
|
154
|
Tioga Eagle – October 22, 1845
Common Schools.
It is of the highest importance to improve our Common Schools. The elevation of our State character, the moral power of our state, the prosperity of all our people will be effected by this improvement. There can be no real improvement but from the people themselves taking an interest in this matter, and using suitable exertions. If they will take pains in any degree becoming the subject, they can have as good schools as they please. There has been encouraging improvement. The districts which have manifested an interest in this school convention, are all improving. The school dividend we find diminish this year. The cause should be inquired into. Still, however, our school dividends are larger than those i the most favored States of the Union.
I have heard a very important suggestion for improving our schools, viz: That the teachers have a meeting in which they shall discuss the principles and practice of teaching. It is proposed that at the next convention on the second of September all teachers present shall hold a meeting in the intermission, and arrange a plan for this purpose. –We hope, therefore, that teachers from all the school districts will be present.
We ask every thoughtful person to consider how much of the mass of mind
in our State depends for its ability to begin cultivation how much of the
talent of the State depends for its ability to begin cultivation how much
of the State depends for impulse to give it any motion, upon common schools.
We say to every parent, your children have mind enough to become useful
and respectable, probably enough to elevate them to honorable trusts. But
all will be lost, unless you afford to them means of good elementary education.
Every district school can furnish these means. –Del. Gaz.
Tioga Eagle – April 8, 1846
Common Schools.
We have heard, of late, some murmurs against our present system of Public Schools, or, perhaps we should say, against the manner in which the details of the system are carried out. There is, unquestionably, much to find fault with, and many gross abuses which ought to be remedied, but the system, we contend, is purely a republican institution, and as such, ought to be cherished and supported to the utmost extent. A Public School education is the most appropriate for the citizens of a Republic. The struggles for success and distinction, commenced at school, are a ??? preludium to the more arduous task of ambition in after life, and serve to impress the pupils with a proper estimation of the industry, perseverance and zeal, necessary for the establishment of a reputation which shall be able to stand the proof of public scrutiny. Public Schools also teach, at an early age, the importance of establishing a character for truth and honesty, and corrects in many instances, the faults of the more tender education, under the parental roof. The indulgences the lad are accustomed to at home are now or should be, cut off, and he is obliged to depend on his own energies for the approbation of his instructor and a standing among his class mates. The necessity, too, of treating the latter with a proper degree of respect, and of estimating them according to their individual merit – the example practiced every day before his eyes, of preference given to talent, character and labor, over the mere accidental advantages of birth and fortune, cannot but be productive of the most salutary consequences, and accustom him, thus early, to judge himself and others, by the only standard which is not able to misguide his reasoning faculties, or make him attach expense of ??????. In this respect, therefore, the tendency of a Public School education is truly a natural one, and for this reason we consider the organization, and administration of Public Schools, as deserving the utmost attention of the people. Universal education, and Democracy, are synonymous terms. The whole history of the emancipation of the human race, is the history of the gradual diffusion of knowledge among the masses. None but the ignorant is truly a slave.
In many parts of this State, and especially in this county, the system has not been properly sustained. In many of the School Districts the administration has been wretched, in point of talent and energy. Men have been chosen Directors, who were totally incompetent to discharge the duties of the office, and, as a natural consequence, Teachers have been selected, who were neither filled by nature or education for the task. Thus, the system has been somewhat impaired in the public eye, in consequence of the inability and carelessness of the administration. All must see, then, the great importance of electing competent men for School Directors – those who are willing to take an interest in the welfare of the system, and the rights and privileges of the rising generation. Directors should not fail to visit the schools in their respective districts, occasionally, and see and hear for themselves. Much good would result from this course, as the several teachers would, under such an administration, be more active and zealous in the discharge of those duties, which, as instructors of youth, are so very important to the community at large.
The moral part of the education, however, ought never to be taken away from the parents, unless the latter are entirely destitute of virtue, which we are far from supposing to be the case with any of our community. At an early age, the force of example is more powerful than the loftiest precept, and we opine that few parents, even if they were vicious, would expose their ???? to their innocent offspring, and thereby destroy their morals. During the school hours, the instructor is generally able to prevent both improper language and acts, but out of school is ????? successful. The early separation of children from their parents, is in many instances, attended with bad consequences, and generally proves destructive to the holiest sentiment of our nature – final piety. Foster then, the Common School system as the very salvation of the country. It is by this system that that class of population, to which is particularly entrusted the wealth and prosperity of the state, and the safe keeping of the institutions of the country, are in-
Tioga Eagle – December 30, 1846
Wellsboro' Academy.
The winter term of this Institution, will commence on Monday, the 7th of December.
This Seminary has now been under the charge of Mr. E. J. Hamilton, and lady, for the last two years, and under their superior care and management, has not only given entire satisfaction to the community, but won for itself a character for usefulness and high standing, not surpassed by any other similar institution in the State. In recommending this school, therefore, to the attention and patronage of the public, as one of superior excellence, the trustees, feel that they are but doing and act of strict justice to Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, whose amiable deportment, mild, yet efficient government, and skill and tact in teaching, have obtained for them this universal approbation of both parent and pupil.
The ensuing term will, as usual, consist of eleven weeks, and the prices of tuition remain as heretofore, to wit:
Reading, Writing, and Orthography, 1.50
Geography, Arithmetic and Eng. Grammar, 2.00
Philosophy, Chemistry, Botany, Rhetoric, Book-Keeping, Astronomy, &c., 3.00
Surveying, Geometry, Algebra, &c., 4.00
Greek, Latin, French and Drawing, 5.00
Board may be obtained at boarding houses, or at private families, on reasonable terms.
S. W. Morris, President
Trustees:
L. I. Nichols,
Jas. Kimball,
Wm. Bache,
J. W. Guernsey.
Tioga Eagle – January 27, 1849
Education of Farmers’ Daughters.
Mr. Editor – Sometime since, I noticed an article in your paper signed "Ida," in which the writer, freely and ably descants upon the fashionable follies of the day, and the want of a proper education in the daughters of the present age. I consider this a most important subject, and one which out deeply to interest the heart, not only of every mother in the land, but of all who seek the improvement of our race, and the general view of the education of females occupying different stations in life, I shall confine my remarks to that class least affected by our modern systems of fashionable education, namely, the daughters of farmers, and shall endeavor to show that even among them a reformation is much needed. It is a lamentable fact that with all the advantage of circumstances, many of our farmers’ daughters enter upon the responsibilities of the marriage state as ignorant of domestic duties, as the versed devotee of fashion. I do not say that this is generally the case, for I know of many young ladies, daughters of farmers, who are well qualified for wives and mothers, who combine domestic with intellectual pursuits, and are not deficient in what is called ornamental education. Yet it cannot be denied that in many cases a sad deficiency, in regard to a knowledge of house wifery exists, and that the number of such cases is rapidly increasing. And why is it so? The wife of the agriculturist possesses superior advantages for the domestic education of her daughters. Fashion does not require that the wife and daughters of the farmer should spend their mornings or afternoons in the absurd custom of making and receiving calls. It has been and is still to some extent the case, that farmers, wishing to give their daughters finished education, have felt themselves obliged to send them from home, and in most cases a very injurious selection of schools is made. The young lady is not infrequently placed in a fashionable boarding school where she is taught a mere outward show of accomplishments, and thus the expense of her education is lost. And worse still, she is made vain by her polite attainments, and taught to disdain the petty cares of a family as beneath the notice of her refined and sentimental mind. And thus should she assume the responsible duties of a wife, she will most assuredly render herself and all around her miserable, unless her desire of shining in the fashionable world can be gratified.
We would have farmers and farmers’ wives feel that their daughters must be educated – thoroughly educated. Woman should occupy a more respectable station in social life than that of a mere household drudge, or "pretty trifler." But until this idea of finishing is given up, the useful and ornamental cannot be made to harmonize sufficiently. Our agricultural men becoming men of science, and shall their wives and daughters be behind them in the attainment of a permanent and useful education. While the son of the agriculturist is climbing the rugged hills of science shall his daughter be carried down the giddy whirlpool of fashion? To prevent this, we would recommend that mothers take charge of the entire education of their daughters. "This," says Mrs. Hale, "If the mother have time and health for the duty, is the richest boon she can bestow."
By this we do not mean that children should not be sent to school. The aid of schools is usually necessarily in commencing systematically, a judicious course of study, and from the age of six to fourteen at least, children of farmers should be sent to common school. But let the mother take a deep interest in all the studies of her daughters, watch carefully over their habits of thought as well as conduct, and never permit them to think that their superintendence is unnecessary, because they have a teacher at school.
At the age of fourteen it is generally thought that a young lady is old enough to be sent to a boarding school. But would it not be much better if from this age daughters were educated entirely at home? If the mother is incompetent to the task, the assistance of a private teacher or master when necessary could be obtained at less expense than would be required for sending the daughters abroad. While the advantages secured both to mother and daughter would be many and important. In this system of domestic education the mother would find a strong motive to retain those accomplishments in which she wished her daughters to excel, and the young lady by seeing her mother interested in intellectual pursuits, would find that they were compatible with house hold duties, and when married she would be likely to enter upon those duties with much more zeal and energy than one who had been taught to view them as distant and incompatible with each other.
I am aware that I shall meet with objections from many farmers’ wives. "We have not time" say they "to attend to these duties." "We have large families and our domestic labors take up so large a portion of our time that we cannot attend to the education of our daughters." The mother of Mrs. H. M. Tracey might have urged all these objections. The wife of a farmer in moderate circumstances mainly dependant upon her own exertions for household comforts, while the father toiled hard to provide the necessary sustenance for his family, and to gain somewhat to bestow upon the needy and destitute, yet by economy in the regulation of her domestic establishments, she gained sufficient leisure to study for the purpose of instructing her daughters, and thus she not only secured an advantage to herself, but has now the unspeakable satisfaction of seeing her home-educated daughters stand high in the ranks of American writers, both prose and poetic. But to those who make such objections let me say, that in this system of domestic education you secure to yourselves the assistance of your daughters in your daily avocations, which will more than compensate you for the time given to their instruction – and though their progress may not be a rapid as at our best schools, yet we believe that a young woman who studies two hours each day under the eye of a judicious mother, and spends the remaining part of the day in attending to domestic duties, and in teaching the younger members of the family will not only be in possession of a more healthy and vigorous tone of constitution, but will be more truly wise than those who are learned in the usual fashionable ways, to say nothing of the greater amount of happiness secured by such a course.
Still if there are farmers who must educate their daughters abroad, we would recommend that they send them to the Manual Labor Schools. Such schools are well calculated to correct the fashionable feeling that all labor both manual and menial, as mere drudgery. We have good schools of this description, which farmers would do well to patronize. But do not, if you regard the welfare and happiness of your daughters – do not send them to a fashionable boarding school.
[O. Cultivator
North Rochester, Oct, 1816]
Tioga Eagle – February 28, 1849
The School Master.
The Trenton Daily News remarks on the improvement of the present age, that the school-master is abroad in the United States. The American people are improving every day, hour and minute; our little boys who play abinney and break our shins in the generous exuberance of youthful vivacity, know considerably more than their grandfathers. More is taught in our common schools, that was formerly taught in colleges. All the people of the United States are great readers and nearly half of them great writers. Once the education of a young lady of moderate fortune was thought complete if she knew how to read, write and spin; now she learns the languages, botany, geology, physiology, phrenology and forty other ologies. The boys who play marbles draw the circle by Euclid. Coats are cut according to Gunter. Shoe soles are made on scientific principles. Rat traps are constructed by the most infallible rules of engineering. Men eat, drink and sleep scientifically. the general diffusion of knowledge is the leading characteristic of the age. But knowledge, observe, is not always wisdom, and it may be asked seriously if the world is wiser now than it was two hundred years ago Notwithstanding the means of information which are at everybody's elbow, people are surprisingly ignorant of many things which most nearly concern them. Great mistakes are still made in the science of government, religious errors of the most monstrous character are as prevalent now as ever they were, impostures of the most glaring nature are constantly successful. What then is the great us of our abundant knowledge? Or rather, we may say, what is the great use of our means of information if we do not apply them to the right purposes? It is well enough, we grant, to have our costs cut with scientific accuracy – to have our potatoes stewed on the most philosophical plan, to have our rat traps contrived on the un??sing principle of engineering; but if in pursuit of these objects, we overlook our political and religious interests and lose the power to discriminate between good and bad governments and true and false systems of faith – why then a fiddlestick's end for all the prodigious intellectuality of the age! It is customary to talk as if our predecessors in Jefferson's times, were in a state of pitiable mental obscurity, but we doubt if the people of those times would have elected, in a fit of boyish enthusiasm, a mere soldier to the Presidential chair. We doubt if Mormonism, Mulerism, and several other theological absurdities could have flourished in those times as they have done at a much later period. It does not appear then, that, in the most important points, the world is much later period. It does not appear then, that, in the most important points, the world is much wiser than it was before steamboats, steam presses and magnetic telegraphs were invented. We are sorry, and a little ashamed, to make the acknowledgement – but this constant bugging on our supposed superiority over the people of past times is a mischievous weakness and needs some correction. We have met with many a learned fool in the course of our earthy pilgrimage, and we have made the discovery that the wisdom of a learned and "enlightened age," may sometimes have a considerable dash of foolishness. This saying was formerly hard to be understood, "but the times have given it proof." We rather suspect that "the school-master is abroad, if he would be at home and attending to his business in the right way, we should like it much better.
Tioga Eagle – March 7, 1849
Township Officers Elected at the Spring Election,
in Tioga County, February, 1849.
Bloss.
Justice of the Peace – John Evans.
Constable – G. R. Goff.
Assessor – William Alworth.
Commissioner – David Hutchison.
School Directors – William Butler, John E. James.
Brookfield.
Constable – S. L. Knapp.
Assessor – E. H. Murdock.
Commissioner – H. A. Frazer.
School Directors – L. D. Seely, E. N. Barker.
Charleston.
Constable – Hiram Brooks.
Assessor – Joel Culver.
Commissioner – Silas Johnson.
School Directors – A. E. Niles, Joel Catlin.
Chatham.
Constable – Mahlon Miller.
Assessor – Charles Avery.
Commissioner – Samuel Strawn;
School Directors – N. Hastings, W. R. Rich, and Stephen Wade.
Covington.
Constable – Jacob A. J. Johnson.
Assessor – George Knox.
Commissioner – David Caldwell.
Deerfield.
Constable – Samuel May, Jr.
Assessor – Eddy Howland.
Commissioner – Truman Crandall.
School Directors – C. Toles, N. Cloos.
Delmar.
Constable – Isaac F. Field.
Assessor – Israel Stone.
Commissioner – Samuel Dickinson.
School Directors – D. B. Wilcox, C. Royce.
Elkland.
Constable – John M. Hammond
Assessor – J. L. Davenport.
Commissioner – Lemuel Davenport.
School Directors – Jos. Campbell, F. Thorp.
Farmington.
Constable – Charles McCollum.
Assessor – C. Chamberlain.
Commissioner – Wm. Baxter.
School Directors – B. S. Mulford, S. Huntsinger.
Gaines.
Constable – James Carsaw.
Assessor – David Rexford.
Commissioner – David Smith.
School Directors – A. Warren, S. Babcock.
Jackson.
Constable – George Kelly.
Assessor – Charles Tillingbast.
Commissioner – George Runbard.
School Directors – N. Smith, W. Dunham.
Lawrence.
Constable – Andrew Briggs.
Assessor – Austin Lathrop.
Commissioner – Joseph Guile.,
School Directors – Jos. Guile, J. M. Smith.
Lawrenceville.
Justice of the Peace – Samuel B. Brooks.
Burgess – Pardon Damon.
Council – J. S. Warner, J. Huntoon.
Constable – Ethel Harris.
Assessor – Smith Stevens.
Supervisor – Isaac Miller.
School Directors – M. P. Acton, J. S. Warner, J. Adams.
Liberty.
Constable – Benj. Brion.
Commissioner – Jeremiah Black.
School Directors – D. S. Mackey, John Sebring.
Middlebury.
Constable – Jesse Keeney.
Assessor – Daniel Holliday.
Commissioners – E. H. Briggs.
School Directors – Benj. King.
Morris.
Justice of the Peace – John S. Williston.
Constable – John Duffy.
Assessor – H. S. Archer.
Commissioner – John S. Williston.
School Directors – William Blackwell, J. W. Lewis
Richmond.
Constable – Samuel Hunt.
Assessor – D. C. Holden.
Commissioner – Peter Wittaker
School Directors – O. Elliott, Alvin Gaylord.
Rutland.
Constable – Daniel Watson.
Assessor – Geo. Crippen
Commissioner – P. Wheeler.
School Directors – Charles Sherman, Abner Buckley.
Shippen.
Justice of the Peace – Jesse Locke.
Constable – Job Rexford.
Assessor – Thomas P. Stowell.
Commissioner – Horace Broughton.
School Directors – Thomas P. Stowell, R. Ward.
Sullivan.
Constable – Arad Smith.
Assessor – Aaron Rumsey.
Commissioner – Thomas Reynolds.
School Directors – A. Green, M. Rockwell.
Tioga.
Constable - ?. H. Borden.
Assessor – C. H. Place.
Commissioner – Barnabus Roberts.
School Directors – C. F. Milery, B. C. Wickham, Jos. W. Guernsey.
Union.
Constable – H. P. Kilburn.
Assessor – H. T. Spencer.
Commissioner – M. R. Harrington.
School Directors – P. B. Harrington, James Garton.
Wellsboro.
Burgess – David Sturrock.
Council – f. Christinot, J. L. Hance.
Constable – Gideon S. Cook.
Assessor – B. B. Smith.
Ass't Assessors – C. Robinson, L. I. Nichols.
Supervisor – John Gray.
School Directors – R. G. White, Jos. Hitchcock.
Westfield.
Constable – John J. Roberts.
Assessor – David V. Webber.
Commissioners – S. Baker.
School Directors – O. S. Babcock, F. Swimler.
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