Chapter CXII: Section 2 (17)

"The Public Latin School of Boston enjoys the distinction of
being the oldest existing school within the bounds of the
United States. It was founded in the spring of 1635, thus
ante-dating Harvard College, and has been in continuous
existence ever since, with the interruption of a few months,
during the siege of Boston, 1775-1776." The two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the school was
celebrated April 23, 1885, on which occasion the Reverend Phillips
Brooks, D. D., delivered an address from which the following
passages are taken: "The colony under Winthrop arrived in the
Arabella and founded Boston in 1630. On the 4th of September,
1633, the Griffin brought John Cotton from the Lincolnshire
Boston, full of pious spirit and wise plans for the new colony
with which he had cast in his lot. It has been suggested that
possibly we owe to John Cotton the first suggestion of the
first town-school. … However this may be, here is the town
record of the 13th of the second month, 1635. It is forever
memorable, for it is the first chapter of our Book of Genesis,
the very cradle of all our race: 'At a general meeting upon
publique notice … it was then generally agreed upon that our
brother Philemon Pormort shall be entreated to become
scholemaster, for the teaching and nourtering of children
among us.' It was two hundred and fifty years ago to-day
[April 23, 1885] just nineteen years after the day when
William Shakespeare died, just seventy-one years after the day
when he was born. How simple that short record is, and how
unconscious that short view is of the future which is wrapped
up in it! Fifty-nine thousand children who crowd the Boston
public schools to-day—and who can count what thousands yet
unborn?—are to be heard crying out for life in the dry,
quaint words of that old vote. By it the first educational
institution, which was to have continuous existence in
America, and in it the public school system of the land, came
into being. Philemon Pormort, the first teacher of the Latin
School, is hardly more than a mere shadow of a name. It is not
even clear that he ever actually taught the school at all. A
few years later, with Mr. Wheelwright, after the Hutchinson
excitement, he disappears into the northern woods, and is one
of the founders of Exeter, in New Hampshire. There are rumors
that he came back to Boston and died here, but it is all very
uncertain. … The name 'free school' in those days seems to
have been used to characterize an institution which should not
be restricted to any class of children, and which should not
be dependent on the fluctuating attendance of scholars for its
support. It looked forward to ultimate endowment, like the
schools of England. The town set apart the rent of Deer
Island, and some of the other islands in the harbor, for its help.
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All the great citizens, Governor Winthrop, Governor Vane, Mr.
Bellingham, and the rest, made generous contributions to it.
But it called, also, for support from those who sent their
children to it, and who were able to pay something; and it was
only of the Indian children that it was distinctly provided
that they should be 'taught gratis.' It was older than any of
the schools which, in a few years, grew up thick around it.
The same power which made it spring out of the soil was in all
the rich ground on which these colonists, unlike any other
colonists which the world has ever seen, had set their feet.
Roxbury had its school under the Apostle Eliot in 1645.
Cambridge was already provided before 1643. Charlestown did
not wait later than 1636. Salem and Ipswich were, both of
them, ready in 1637. Plymouth did not begin its system of
public instruction till 1663. It was in 1647 that the General
Court enacted that resolve which is the great charter of free
education in our Commonwealth, in whose preamble and ordinance
stand the immortal words: 'That learning may not be buried in
the grave of our fathers, in church and Commonwealth, the Lord
assisting our endeavors, it is therefore ordered that every
township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased
them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith
appoint one within their town to teach all such children as
shall resort to him to write and read.' There can be no doubt,
then, of our priority. But mere priority is no great thing.
The real interest of the beginning of the school is the large
idea and scale on which it started. It taught the children,
little Indians and all, to read and write. But there seems
every reason to suppose that it taught also the Latin tongue,
and all that then was deemed the higher knowledge. It was the
town's only school till 1682."

_The Oldest School in America,
pages 5-24._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1636.
Massachusetts.
Harvard College.

"The first settlers in New England, recognizing the importance
of a higher education than could be given in the common
schools, began at once the founding of a university. The
avowed object of this university was the training of young men
for the ministry. Nothing could show clearer the spirit of
these early colonists. Though less than four thousand in
number, and scattered along the shores of Massachusetts Bay in
sixteen hamlets, they were, nevertheless, able to engage in
such an enterprise before adequate provision had been made for
food, raiment, shelter, a civil government, or divine worship;
at a time when soil and climate had disappointed them, and
their affairs were in a most critical condition; for, not only
were they called to face famine, disease, and death, but the
mother country and the surrounding savage tribes were
threatening them with war. … It was near the close of 1636,
a little more than six years after the landing of the
Puritans, when this first step was taken by the General Court
of the Massachusetts Colony. At this assembly, presided over
by Sir Henry Vane, governor of the colony, the General Court
agreed to give £400 (a munificent sum for the time) towards
the founding of a school or college, but left the question of
its location and building to be determined by the Court that
was to sit in September of the following year. This, it is
said, was the first assembly 'in which the people by their
representatives ever gave their own money to found a place of
education.' At the next Court it was decided to locate the
college at Newtown, or 'the New Towne,' and twelve of the
principal magistrates and ministers were chosen to carry out
this design. A few months later, they changed the name of the
town to Cambridge, not only to tell their posterity whence
they came, but also, as Quincy aptly says, to indicate 'the
high destiny to which they intended the institution should
aspire.' Another year, however, passed before the College was
organized. The impulse given to it then was due to aid which
came from so unexpected a quarter that it must have seemed to
the devout men of New England as a clear indication of the
divine favor. The Reverend John Harvard, a Non-conformist
minister, was graduated, in 1635, from the Puritan college of
Emmanuel, at Cambridge, England, and came, two years later, to
America and settled in Charlestown, where he immediately took
a prominent part in town affairs. His contemporaries gave him
the title of reverend, and he is said to have officiated
occasionally in Charlestown as 'minister of God's word.' One
has recently said of him that he was 'beloved and honored, a
well-trained and accomplished scholar of the type then
esteemed,' and that in the brief period of his life in America
—scarcely more than a year—he cemented more closely
friendships that had been begun in earlier years. The project
of a college was then engrossing the thought of these early
friends and doubtless he also became greatly interested in it.
Thus it happened that, when his health failed, through his own
love of learning and through sympathy with the project of his
daily associates, he determined to bequeath one-half of his
estate, probably about £800, besides his excellent library of
three hundred and twenty volumes, towards the endowment of the
college. This bequest rendered possible the immediate
organization of the college, which went into operation 'on the
footing of the ancient institutions of Europe,' and, out of
gratitude to Harvard, the General Court voted that the new
institution should bear his name."

_G. G. Bush,
Harvard,
pages 12-15._

ALSO IN:
_J. Quincy,
History of Harvard University._

_S. A. Eliot,
Sketch of the History of Harvard College._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1642-1732.
New England and New York.
Early Common Schools.

"New England early adopted, and has, with a single exception,
constantly maintained the principle that the public should
provide for the instruction of all the youth. That which
elsewhere, as will be found, was left to local provision, as
in New York; or to charity, as in Pennsylvania; or to parental
interest, as in Virginia, was in most parts of New England
early secured by law. … The act of 1642 in Massachusetts,
whose provisions were adopted in most of the adjacent
colonies, was admirable as a first legislative school law. It
was watchful of the neglect of parents, and looked well after
the ignorant and the indigent. But it neither made schooling
free, nor imposed a penalty for its neglect. … Schools were
largely maintained by rates, were free only to the
necessitous, and in not a few of the less populous districts
closed altogether or never opened. This led, five years later,
to more stringent legislation. … As suggesting the general
scope and tenor of the law, the following extract is made. …
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'It is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof
that every township within this jurisdiction, after the Lord
hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall
then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such
children as shall resort to him, to write and read; whose
wages shall be paid, either by the parents or masters of such
children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply,
as the major part of those who order the prudentials of the
town shall appoint; provided that those who send their
children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can
have them taught for in the adjoining towns. And it is further
ordered that where any town shall increase to the number of
one hundred families or house-holders, they shall set up a
grammar-school, the master thereof being able to instruct
youths so far as they may be fitted for the university; and if
any town neglect the performance hereof, above one year, then
every such town shall pay five pounds per annum to the next
such school, till they shall perform this order.' … Three
years after the law just cited Connecticut passed a very
similar one. … In Rhode Island there was no attempt at a
school system prior to the efforts of John Howland about 1790.
There were schools in both Providence and Newport; but the
colony was small (with a population of less than ten thousand
in 1700), broken into feeble settlements, and offering little
opportunity for organization. … It is claimed that, at the
surrender of the Dutch in New York (1664), so general was the
educational spirit, almost every town in the colony had its
regular school and more or less permanent teachers. After the
occupation of the province by the English, little attention
was given to education. … Thirteen years after the
surrender, a Latin school was opened in the city; but the
first serious attempt to provide regular schooling was in the
work of the 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel' (1704)
in the founding of Trinity School. The society kept up an
efficient organization, for many years, and at the opening of
the Revolution had established and chiefly supported more than
twenty schools in the colony. About 1732, also, there was
established in New York city a school after the plan of the
Boston Latin School, free as that was free, and which became,
according to eminent authority, the germ of the later King's
(now Columbia) College."

_R. G. Boone,
Education in the United States,
chapter 3._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1683-1779. Pennsylvania.
Origin of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Education had not been over-looked in the policy of Penn. In
his Frame of Government we read: 'The governor and provincial
council shall erect and order all public schools, and
encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences and
laudable inventions, in the said province. … And … a
committee of manners, education and arts, that all wicked and
scandalous living may be prevented, and that youth may be
successively trained up in virtue and useful knowledge and
arts.' The first movement to establish an educational
institution of a high grade was in the action of the Executive
Council which proposed, November 17, 1683, 'That Care be Taken
about the Learning and Instruction of Youth, to wit: A School
of Arts and Sciences.' It was not until 1689, however, that
the 'Public Grammar School' was set up in Philadelphia. This
institution, founded upon the English idea of a 'free'
school,' was formally chartered in 1697 as the 'William Penn
Charter School.' It was intended as the head of a system of
schools for all, rather than a single school for a select few,
an idea which the founders of the Charitable School, fifty
years later, had also in mind—an idea which was never carried
out in the history of either institution. The failure of
Penn's scheme of government, and the turmoil during the early
part of the eighteenth century arising from the conflicts
between different political parties, for a time influenced
very decidedly educational zeal in the province. The
government, which at the outset had taken such high ground on
the subject, ceased to exert itself in behalf of education,
and the several religious denominations and the people
themselves in neighborhood organizations took up the burden
and planted schools as best they could throughout the growing
colony. … Feeling the importance for some provision to
supplement the education then given in the established
schools, Benjamin Franklin as early as 1743 drew up a proposal
for establishing an academy. … He secured the assistance of
a number of friends, many of them members of the famous Junto,
and then published his pamphlet entitled 'Proposals Relating
to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania.' … On all sides
the paper met with great favor and generous support. The
result was the organization of a board of trustees, consisting
of 24 of those who had subscribed to the scheme of the
Academy, with Franklin as president. This body immediately set
about to realize the object of the pamphlet, and nourished by
subscriptions, lotteries, and gifts the Academy was placed in
a flourishing condition. … The Academy comprised three
schools, the Latin, the English, and the mathematical, over
each of which was placed a master, one of whom was the rector
of the institution. … The English School was neglected. The
other schools were favored, especially the Latin School. In
the eyes of Franklin and many of the supporters of the
Academy, the English School was the one of chief importance.
What we would call a 'starving out' process was begun by which
the English School was kept in a weak condition, most of the
funds going to the Latin School. … The success of the
Academy was so gratifying to all interested in it that it was
determined to apply for a charter. This was granted to the
trustees by Thomas and Richard Penn, the proprietors, on July
13, 1753. Desirous at the same time of enlarging the course of
instruction, the trustees elected Mr. William Smith teacher of
logic, rhetoric, natural and moral philosophy. Mr. Smith
accepted the position and entered upon his duties at the
Academy in May, 1754. The history of the institution from this
date, whether known as the Academy or the College, to 1779 is
the history of the life of William Smith."

_J. L. Stewart,
Historical Sketch of the University of Pennsylvania
(United States Bureau of Education,
Circular of Information, 1892, number 2:
Benjamin Franklin and the University, chapter 4)._

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EDUCATION: A. D. 1701-1717.
Connecticut.
Yale College.

"For sixty years the only school for higher education in New
England had been Harvard College, at Cambridge. The people,
and especially the clergy, of Connecticut naturally desired
the benefit of a similar establishment nearer home. The three
ministers of New Haven, Milford, and Branford first moved in
the enterprise. Ten ministers, nine of them being graduates of
Harvard College, met at Branford [1701] and made a
contribution from their libraries of about forty volumes in
folio 'for the founding of a college.' Other donations
presently came in. An Act of Incorporation was granted by the
General Court. It created a body of trustees, not to be more
than eleven in number nor fewer than seven, all to be
clergymen and at least forty years of age. The Court endowed
the College with an annual grant, subject to be discontinued
at pleasure, of one hundred and twenty pounds in 'country
pay,'—equivalent to sixty pounds sterling. The College might
hold property 'not exceeding the value of five hundred pounds
per annum'; its students were exempted from the payment of
taxes and from military service; and the Governor and his
Council gave a formal approval of its application to the
citizens for pecuniary id. … The first President was Abraham
Pierson, minister of Killingworth, at which place he continued
to reside, though the designated seat of the College was at
Saybrook. Eight students were admitted, and arranged in
classes. At each of the first two annual commencements one
person, at the third three persons, received the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. President Pierson was succeeded, at his
death, by Mr. Andrew, minister at Milford, to which place the
elder pupils were accordingly transferred, while the rest went
to Saybrook, where two tutors had been provided to assist
their studies. … For nearly twenty years the College of
Connecticut … continued to be an unsatisfactory experiment.
While the rector taught some youth at Milford, and two tutors
had other pupils at Saybrook, and the few scores of books
which had been obtained for a library were divided between the
two places, there was small prospect of the results for which
institutions of learning are created. Notwithstanding the
general agreement that whatever facilities for the higher
education could be commanded should be brought together and
combined, the choice of the place was embarrassed by various
considerations. … Saybrook, Wethersfield, Hartford, and New
Haven competed with each other for the preference, offering
such contributions as they were able towards the erection of a
college building. The offer from New Haven, larger than that
of any other town, was seven hundred pounds sterling. The plan
of fixing the College there, promoted by the great influence
of Governor Saltonstall, was adopted by the trustees; and with
money obtained by private gifts, and two hundred and fifty
pounds accruing from a sale of land given by the General
Assembly, a building was begun [1717], which finally cost a
thousand pounds sterling. … The Assembly gave the College a
hundred pounds. Jeremiah Dummer sent from England a
substantial present of books. Governor Saltonstall contributed
fifty pounds sterling, and the same sum was presented by
Jahleel Brenton, of Newport, in Rhode Island. But the chief
patronage came from Elihu Yale,—a native of New Haven, but
long resident in the East Indies, where he had been Governor
of Fort St. George. He was now a citizen of London, and
Governor of the East India Company. His contributions,
continued through seven years, amounted to some four hundred
pounds sterling; and he was understood to have made
arrangements for a further bounty of five hundred pounds,
which, however, through unfortunate accidents, never came to
its destination. The province made a grant of forty pounds
annually for seven years."

_J. G. Palfrey,
History of New England,
book 4, chapter 11,
and book 5, chapter 4 (volume 4)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1746-1787.
New York.
King's College, now Columbia College.

"The establishment of a college in the city of New York was
many years in agitation before the design was carried into
effect. At length, under an act of Assembly passed in
December, 1746, and other similar acts which followed, moneys
were raised by public lottery 'for the encouragement of
learning and towards the founding a college' within the
colony. These moneys were, in November, 1751, vested in
trustees. … The trustees, in November, 1753, invited Dr.
Samuel Johnson, of Connecticut, to be President of the
intended college. Dr. Johnson consequently removed to New York
in the month of April following, and in July, 1754, commenced
the instruction of a class of students in a room of the
school-house belonging to Trinity Church; but he would not
absolutely accept the presidency until after the passing of
the charter. This took place on the 31st of October in the
same year, 1754; from which period the existence of the
college is properly to be dated. The Governors of the college,
named in the charter, are the Archbishop of Canterbury, and
the first Lord Commissioner for Trade and Plantations, both
empowered to act by proxies; the Lieutenant-governor of the
province, and several other public officers; together with the
rector of Trinity Church, the senior minister of the Reformed
Protestant Dutch Church, the ministers of the German Lutheran
Church, of the French Church, of the Presbyterian
Congregation, and the President of the college, all ex
officio, and twenty-four of the principal gentlemen of the
city. The college was to be known by the name of King's
College. Previously to the passing of the charter, a parcel of
ground to the westward of Broadway, bounded by Barclay,
Church, and Murray streets and the Hudson River, had been
destined by the vestry of Trinity Church as a site for the
college edifice; and, accordingly, after the charter was
granted, a grant of the land was made on the 13th of May,
1755. … The part of the land thus granted by Trinity Church,
not occupied for college purposes, was leased, and became a
very valuable endowment to the college. The sources whence the
funds of the institution were derived, besides the proceeds of
the lotteries above mentioned, were the voluntary
contributions of private individuals in this country, and sums
obtained by agents who were subsequently sent to England and
France. In May, 1760, the college buildings began to be
occupied. In 1763 a grammar school was established. In March,
1763, Dr. Johnson resigned the presidency, and the Reverend Dr.
Myles Cooper, of Oxford, who had previously been appointed
Professor of Moral Philosophy and assistant to the President,
was elected in his place. … In consequence of the dispute
between this and the parent country, Dr. Cooper returned to
England, and the Reverend Benjamin Moore was appointed praeses pro
tempore during the absence of Dr. Cooper, who, however, did
not return. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary War the
business of the college was almost entirely broken up, and it
was not until after the return of peace that its affairs were
again regularly attended to.
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In May, 1784, the college, upon its own application, was
erected into a university; its corporate title was changed
from King's College to Columbia College, and it was placed
under the control of a board termed Regents of the University.
… The college continued under that government until April,
1787, when the Legislature of the State restored it to its
original position under the present name of Columbia College.
… At the same time a new body was created, called by the
same name, 'The Regents of the University,' under which all
the seminaries of learning mentioned in the act creating it
were placed by the legislature. This body still exists under
its original name."

_Columbia College Handbook,
pages 5-9._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1776-1880.
New England and New York.
State School Systems.

"It was not until over thirty years after the close of the war
of 1776 that a regular system of schools at the public expense
was established. New England boasted with pride of being the
first in education, as she had been in war. Her example was
closely followed by the other States. In New York, in 1805,
many gentlemen of prominence associated for the purpose of
establishing a free school in New York City for the education
of the children of persons in indigent circumstances, and who
did not belong to, or were not provided for by, any religious
society. These public-spirited gentlemen presented a memorial
to the Legislature, setting forth the benefits that would
result to society from educating such children, and that it
would enable them more effectually to accomplish the objects
of their institution if the schools were incorporated. The
bill of incorporation was passed April 9, 1805. This was the
nucleus from which the present system of public schools
started into existence. Later on, in the year 1808, we find
from annual printed reports that two free schools were opened
and were in working order. … It was the intention of the
founders of these schools—among whom the names of De Witt
Clinton, Ferdinand de Peyster, John Murray, and Leonard
Bleecker stand prominent as officers—to avoid the teachings
of any religious society; but there were among the people many
who thought that sufficient care was not being bestowed upon
religious instruction: to please these malcontents the
literary studies of the pupils were suspended one afternoon in
every week, and an association of fifty ladies of
'distinguished consideration ·in society' met on this day and
examined the children in their respective catechisms. … To
read, write, and know arithmetic in its first branches
correctly, was the extent of the educational advantages which
the founders of the free-school system deemed necessary for
the accomplishment of their purposes."

_A. H. Rhine,
The Early Free Schools of America.
(Popular Science Monthly, March, 1880)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1785-1880.
The United States.
Land-grants for Schools.

"The question of the endowment of educational institutions by
the Government in aid of the cause of education seems to have
met no serious opposition in the Congress of the
Confederation, and no member raised his voice against this
vital and essential provision relating to it in the ordinance
of May 20, 1785, 'for ascertaining the mode of disposing of
lands in the Western Territory.' This provided: 'There shall
be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township for the
maintenance of public schools within said township.' This was
an endowment of 640 acres of land (one section of land, one
mile square) in a township 6 miles square, for the support and
maintenance of public schools' within said township.' The
manner of establishment of public schools thereunder, or by
whom, was not mentioned. It was a reservation by the United
States, and advanced and established a principle which finally
dedicated one thirty-sixth part of all public lands of the
United States, with certain exceptions as to mineral, &c., to
the cause of education by public schools. … In the
Continental Congress, July 13, 1787, according to order, the
ordinance for the government of the 'Territory of the United
States northwest of the river Ohio' came on, was read a third
time, and passed [see NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D.1787]. It
contained the following: 'Art. 3. Religion, morality, and
knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness
of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever
be encouraged.' The provision of the ordinance of May 20,
1785, relating to the reservation of the sixteenth section in
every township of public land, was the inception of the
present rule of reservation of certain sections of land for
school purposes. The endowment was the subject of much
legislation in the years following. The question was raised
that there was no reason why the United States should not
organize, control, and manage these public schools so endowed.
The reservations of lands were made by surveyors and duly
returned. This policy at once met with enthusiastic approval
from the public, and was tacitly incorporated into the
American system as one of its fundamental organic ideas.
Whether the public schools thus endowed by the United States
were to be under national or State control remained a
question, and the lands were held in reservation merely until
after the admission of the State of Ohio in 1802. … To each
organized Territory, after 1803, was and now is reserved the
sixteenth section (until after the Oregon Territory act
reserved the thirty-sixth as well) for school purposes, which
reservation is carried into grant and confirmation by the
terms of the act of admission of the Territory or State into
the Union; the State then becoming a trustee for school
purposes. These grants of land were made from the public
domain, and to States only which were known as public-land
States. Twelve States, from March 3, 1803, known as
public-land States, received the allowance of the sixteenth
section to August 14, 1848. … Congress, June 13, 1812, and
May 26, 1824, by the acts ordering the survey of certain towns
and villages in Missouri, reserved for the support of schools
in the towns and villages named, provided that the whole
amount reserved should not exceed one-twentieth part of the
whole lands included in the general survey of such town or
village. These lots were reserved and sold for the benefit of
the schools. Saint Louis received a large fund from this
source. … In the act for the organization of the Territory
of Oregon, August 14, 1848, Senator Stephen A. Douglas
inserted an additional grant for school purposes of the
thirty-sixth section in each township, with indemnity for all
public-land States thereafter to be admitted, making the
reservation for school purposes the sixteenth and thirty-sixth
sections, or 1,280 acres in each township of six miles square
reserved in public-land States and Territories, and confirmed
by grant in terms in the act of admission of such State or
Territory into the Union. From March 13, 1853, to June 30,
1880, seven States have been admitted into the Union having a
grant of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, and the
same area has been reserved in eight Territories."

_T. Donaldson,
The Public Domain,
chapter 13._

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EDUCATION: A. D. 1789.
The United States.

"The Constitution of the United States makes no provision for
the education of the people; and in the Convention that framed
it, I believe the subject was not even mentioned. A motion to
insert a clause providing for the establishment of a national
university was voted down. I believe it is also the fact, that
the Constitutions of only three of the thirteen original
States made the obligation to maintain a system of Free
Schools a part of their fundamental law."

_H. Mann,
Lectures and Annual Reports on Education,
lecture 5._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1793.
Massachusetts.
Williams College.

"Williams College, at Williamstown, Berkshire County, Mass.,
was chartered in 1793. The town and the college were named in
honor of Colonel Ephraim Williams, who had command of the forts
in the Hoosac Valley, and was killed in a battle with the
French and Indians, September 8, 1755. By his will he
established a free school in the township which was to bear
his name. The most advanced students of this free school
became the first college class, numbering 4, and received the
regular degree of bachelor of arts in the autumn of 1795. The
small amount left by the will of Colonel Williams was
carefully managed for 30 years by the executors, and they then
obtained permission from the State legislature to carry out
the benevolent purposes of the testator. The fund for building
was increased by individual subscriptions, and by the avails
of a lottery, which the general court granted for that
purpose. The building which is now known as West College was
then erected for the use of the free school and was finished
in 1790. … The free school was opened in 1791, with Reverend
Ebenezer Fitch, a graduate of Yale College, as preceptor, and
Mr. John Lester as assistant. … The success of the school
was so great that the next year the trustees asked the
legislature to incorporate the school into a college. This was
done, and a grant of $4,000 was made from the State treasury
for the purchase of books and philosophical apparatus. The
college was put under the care of 12 trustees, who elected
Preceptor Fitch the first president of the college."

_E. B. Parsons
(United States Bureau of Education,
Circular of Information, 1891, number 6:
History of Higher Education in Massachusetts, chapter 9)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1795-1867.
The United States.
State School Funds.

"Connecticut took the lead in the creation of a permanent fund
for the support of schools. The district known as the Western
Reserve, in Northern Ohio, had been secured to her in the
adjustment of her claims to lands confirmed to her by the
charter of King Charles II. The Legislature of the State, in
1795, passed an act directing the sale of all the land
embraced in the Reserve, and setting apart the avails as a
perpetual fund for the maintenance of common schools. The
amount realized was about $1,120,000. … New York was the
next State to establish a common school fund for the aid and
maintenance of schools in the several school districts of the
State. The other Northern States except New Hampshire,
Vermont, Pennsylvania, and one or two others, have established
similar funds. … In all the new States, the 500,000 acres,
given by act of Congress, on their admission into the Union,
for the support of schools, have been sacredly set apart for
that purpose, and generally other lands belonging to the
States have been added to the fund. … Prior to the war the
Slave States had made attempts to establish plans for popular
education, but with results of an unsatisfactory character. In
Virginia a school system was in force for the education of the
children of indigent white persons. In North Carolina a large
school fund, exceeding two millions of dollars, had been set
apart for the maintenance of schools. In all of these States
common schools had been introduced, but they did not flourish
as in the North and West. … There was not the same
population of small and independent farmers, whose families
could be united into a school district. … A more serious
obstacle was the slave population, constituting one-third of
the whole, and in some of the States more than half, whom it
was thought dangerous to educate."

_V. M. Rice,
Special Report on the Present State of Education, 1867,
pages 19-23._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1804-1837.
Michigan.
The University.

"In 1804, when Michigan was organized as a Territory, Congress
granted a township of land for a seminary of learning, and the
university to be established in 1817 was to be in accordance
with this grant. The Territorial government committed the
interests of higher education to the care of the Governor and
the Judges, and it is supposed that through the exertions of
Honorable A. B. Woodward, then presiding Judge of the Supreme Court
of the Territory of Michigan, that the act establishing a
university was framed. A portion of this most curious document
of the early History of Michigan will be given. It is entitled
'An act to establish the Catholepistemiad or University
Michigania.' 'Be it enacted by the Governor and Judges of the
Territory of Michigan, That there shall be in the said
Territory a catholepistemiad or university denominated the
Catholepistemiad or University Michigania. The
Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania shall be composed
of thirteen didaxum or professorships; first, a didaxia or
professorship catholepistemia, or universal science, the
dictator or professor of which shall be president of the
institution; second, a didaxia or professorship of
anthropoglassica, or literature embracing all of the
episternum or sciences relative to language; third, a didaxia
or professorship of mathematica or mathematics; fourth, a
didaxia or professorship of physiognostica or natural history,
etc.' The act thus continues through the whole range of the
'thirteen didaxum'; the remaining nine are as follows: Natural
philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, medical sciences, economical
sciences, ethical sciences, military sciences, historical
sciences, and intellectual. The university was to be under the
control of the professors and president, who were to be
appointed by the Governor, while the institution was to be the
center and controlling power of the educational system of the
State.
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It was to be supported by taxation by an increase of the
amount of taxes already levied, by 15 per cent. Also power was
given to raise money for the support of the university by
means of lotteries. This remarkable document was not without
its influence in shaping the public school policy of Michigan,
but it was many years before the State approximated its
learned provisions. Impracticable as this educational plan
appears for a handful of people in the woods of Michigan, it
served as a foundation upon which to build. The officers and
president were duly appointed, and the work of the new
university began at once. At first the university appeared as
a school board, to establish and maintain primary schools
which they held under their charge. Then followed a course of
study for classical academies, and finally, in October, 1817,
an act was passed establishing a college in the city of
Detroit called 'The First College of Michigania.' … The
people contributed liberally to these early schools, the sum
of three thousand dollars being subscribed at the beginning.
… An act was passed on the 30th of April, 1821, by the
Governor and Judges establishing a university in Detroit to
take the place of the catholepistemiad and to be called the
'University of Michigan.' In its charter nearly all the powers
of the former institution were substantially confirmed, except
the provision for taxes and lotteries. … The second
corporation, known as the 'University of Michigan,' carried on
the work of education already begun from 1821 to the third
organization, in 1837. The education was very limited,
consisting in one classical academy at Detroit, and part of
the time a Lancasterian school. The boards of education kept
up and transmitted the university idea to such an extent that
it may be said truly and legally that there was one University
of Michigan, which passed through three successive stages of
development marked by the dates 1817, 1821, and 1837," at
which time it was removed to Ann Arbor.

_F. W. Blackmar,
Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
(United States Bureau of Education.
Circular of Information, 1890, number 1), pages 239-241._

ALSO IN:
_E. M. Farrand,
History of the University of Michigan._

_A. Ten Brook,
American State Universities._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1818-1821.
Massachusetts.
Amherst College.

"Amherst College originated in a strong desire on the part of
the people of Massachusetts to have a college near the central
part of the State, where the students should be free from the
temptations of a large city, where the expenses of an
education should not be beyond the means of those who had but
little money, and where the moral and religious influences
should be of a decidedly Christian character. … The
ministers of Franklin County, at a meeting held in Shelburne
May 18, 1815, expressed it as their opinion that a literary
institution of high order ought to be established in Hampshire
County, and that the town of Amherst appeared to them to be
the most eligible place for it. Their early efforts for a
literary institution in Hampshire County resulted in the first
place in the establishment of an academy in Amherst, which was
incorporated in the year 1816. … In the year 1818 a
constitution was adopted by the trustees of Amherst Academy,
for the raising and management of a fund of at least $50,000,
for the classical education of indigent young men of piety and
talents for the Christian ministry. … This charity fund may
be said to be the basis of Amherst College, for though it was
raised by the trustees of Amherst Academy it was really
intended to be the foundation of a college, and has always
been a part of the permanent funds of Amherst College, kept
sacredly from all other funds for the specific object for
which it was given. … This was for many years the only
permanent fund of Amherst College, and without this it would
have seemed impossible at one time to preserve the very
existence of the college. So Amherst College grew out of
Amherst Academy, and was built permanently on the charity fund
raised by the trustees of that academy. … Although the
charity fund of $50,000 had been received in 1818, it was not
till 1820 that the recipient felt justified in going forward
to erect buildings for a college in Amherst. Efforts were made
for the removal of Williams College from Williamstown to
Hampshire County, and to have the charity fund used in
connection with that college; and, if that were done, it was
not certain that Amherst could be regarded as the best
location for the college. But the legislature of Massachusetts
decided that Williams College could not be removed from
Williamstown, and nothing remained but for the friends of the
new institution to go on with their plans for locating it at
Amherst. … This first college edifice was ready for
occupation and dedicated on the 18th of September, 1821. In
the month of May, 1821, Reverend Zephaniah Swift Moore, D. D., was
unanimously elected by the trustees of Amherst Academy
president of the new institution."

_T. P. Field
(United States Bureau of Education, Circular of
Information, 1891, number 6: History of Higher Education
in Massachusetts), chapter 11._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1837.
Massachusetts.
Horace Mann and the State System.

"When Massachusetts, in 1837, created a Board of Education,
then were first united into a somewhat related whole the more
or less excellent but varied and independent organizations,
and a beginning made for a State system. It was this massing
of forces, and the hearty co-operation he initiated, in which
the work of Horace Mann showed its matchless greatness.
'Rarely,' it has been said, 'have great ability, unselfish
devotion, and brilliant success, been so united in the course
of a single life.' A successful lawyer, a member of the State
Legislature, and with but limited experience as a teacher, he
has left his impress upon the educational sentiments of, not
only New England, but the United States."

_R. G. Boone,
Education in the United States,
page 103._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1840-1886.
The United States.
Proportion of College Students.

"It is estimated that in 1840 the proportion of college
students to the entire population in the United States was 1
to 1,540; in 1860, 1 to 2,012; in 1870,1 to 2,546; in 1880, 1
to 1,840; and in 1886, 1 to about 1,400, Estimating all our
combined efforts in favor of higher education, we fall far
short of some of the countries of the Old World."

_F. W. Blackmar,
Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
in the United States (U. S. Bureau of Education,
Circulars of Information, 1890, number 1), page 36._

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EDUCATION: A. D. 1844-1876.
Canada.
Ontario School System.

"From the earliest settlement of Ontario, schools were
established as the wants of the inhabitants required. The
Legislature soon recognized the needs of the country, and made
grants of land and money in aid of elementary, secondary, and
superior education. Statutes were passed from time to time for
the purpose of opening schools to meet the demands of the
people. The sparsely settled condition of the Province delayed
for a while the organization of the system. It was not until
1844 that the elementary schools were put on a comprehensive
basis. In that year the Reverend Egerton Ryerson, LL. D., was
appointed Chief Superintendent of Education, and the report
which he presented to the House of Assembly sketched in an
able manner the main features of the system of which he was
the distinguished founder, and of which he continued for
thirty-three years to be the efficient administrator. In 1876
the office of chief superintendent was abolished, and the
schools of the Province placed under the control of a member
of the Government with the title of Minister of Education. …
The system of education in Ontario may be said to combine the
best features of the systems of several countries. To the Old
World it is indebted for a large measure of its stability,
uniformity and centralization; to the older settled parts of
the New World for its popular nature, its flexibility and its
democratic principles which have given, wherever desirable,
local control and individual responsibility. From the State of
New York we have borrowed the machinery of our school; from
Massachusetts the principle of local taxation; from Ireland
our first series of text books; from Scotland the co-operation
of parents with the teacher, in upholding his authority; from
Germany the system of Normal Schools and the Kindergarten; and
from the United States generally the non-denominational
character of elementary, secondary, and university education.
Ontario may claim to have some features of her system that are
largely her own. Among them may be mentioned a division of
state and municipal authority on a judicious basis; clear
lines separating the function of the University from that of
the High Schools, and the function of the High Schools from
that of the Public or elementary schools; a uniform course of
study; all High and Public Schools in the hands of
professionally trained teachers; no person eligible to the
position of inspector who does not hold the highest grade of a
teacher's certificate, and who has not had years of experience
as a teacher; inspectors removable if inefficient, but not
subject to removal by popular vote; the examinations of
teachers under Provincial instead of local control; the
acceptance of a common matriculation examination for admission
to the Universities and to the learned professions; a uniform
series of text books for the whole Province; the almost entire
absence of party politics in the manner in which school
boards, inspectors and teachers discharge their duties; the
system national instead of sectarian, but affording under
constitutional guarantees and limitations protection to Roman
Catholic and Protestant Separate Schools and denominational
Universities."

_J. Millar,
Educational System of the Province of Ontario._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1862.
The United States.
Land-grant for industrial Colleges.

"Next to the Ordinance of 1787, the Congressional grant of
1862 is the most important educational enactment in America.
… By this gift forty-eight colleges and universities have
received aid, at least to the extent of the Congressional
grant; thirty-three of these, at least, have been called into
existence by means of this act. In thirteen States the
proceeds of the land scrip were devoted to institutions
already in existence. The amount received from the sales of
land scrip from twenty-four of these States aggregates the sum
of $13,930,456, with land remaining unsold estimated at nearly
two millions of dollars. These same institutions have received
State endowments amounting to over eight million dollars. The
origin of this gift must be sought in local communities. In
this country all ideas of national education have arisen from
those States that have felt the need of local institutions for
the education of youth. In certain sections of the Union,
particularly the North and West, where agriculture was one of
the chief industries, it was felt that the old classical
schools were not broad enough to cover all the wants of
education represented by growing industries. There was
consequently a revulsion from these schools toward the
industrial and practical side of education. Evidences of this
movement are seen in the attempts in different States to found
agricultural, technical, and industrial schools. These ideas
found their way into Congress, and a bill was introduced in
1858, which provided for the endowment of colleges for the
teaching of agriculture and the mechanical arts. The bill was
introduced by Honorable Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont; it was
passed by a small majority, and was vetoed by President
Buchanan. In 1862 the bill was again presented with slight
changes, passed and signed, and became a law July 2, 1862. …
It stipulated to grant to each State thirty thousand acres of
land for each Senator and Representative in Congress to which
the States were respectively entitled by the census of 1860,
for the purpose of endowing 'at least one college where the
leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific
and classical studies, and including military tactics, to
teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture
and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislatures of
the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the
liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in
the several pursuits and professions of life.' … From this
proposition all sorts of schools sprang up, according to the
local conception of the law and local demands. It was thought
by some that boys were to be taught agriculture by working on
a farm, and purely agricultural schools were founded with the
mechanical arts attached. In other States classical schools of
the stereotyped order were established, with more or less
science; and, again, the endowment in others was devoted to
scientific departments. The instruction of the farm and the
teaching of pure agriculture have not succeeded in general,
while the schools that have made prominent those studies
relating to agriculture and the mechanic arts, upon the whole,
have succeeded best. … In several instances the managers of
the land scrip have understood that by this provision the
State could not locate the land within the borders of another
State, but its assignees could thus locate lands, not more
than one million acres in any one State. By considering this
question, the New York land scrip was bought by Ezra Cornell,
and located by him for the college in valuable lands in the
State of Wisconsin, and thus the fund was augmented. However,
the majority of the States sold their land at a sacrifice,
frequently for less than half its value. There was a lull in
the land market during the Civil War, and this cause, together
with the lack of attention in many States, sacrificed the gift
of the Federal Government. The sales ranged all the way from
fifty cents to seven dollars per acre, as the average price
for each State."

_F. W. Blackmar, Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
(United States Bureau of Education,
Circulars of Information, 1890, number 1), pages 47-49._

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EDUCATION: A. D. 1862-1886.
New York.
Cornell University.