tributions were made; the King gave £200, Lord Dartmouth 50 guineas. In all £7,000 were obtained in England and between £2,000 and £3,000 in Scotland. A few years later, in 1770, Dr. Wheelock determined to move the school to some newer part of the country, to increase its usefulness. Hanover, N. H., was the spot pitched upon and from the Indian school sprang Dartmouth College.1

ACADEMIES.

Toward the end of the colonial period the private academies began to spring up here and there. Most of these were founded after the colony became a State, but a tendency toward them was visible previous to that change."

In 1743 Governor Trumbull established an academy at Lebanon for not more than 30 scholars. Tuition for a Latin scholar was 35 shillings per quarter, old tenor; and for a reading scholar, 30 shillings. This acquired a celebrity second to hardly any other in New England. All the sons, and daughters, too, of the governor went there and it became so widely known that pupils came from the West Indies, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, as well as from the northern colonies. It was kept over thirty years by Nathan Tisdale, a Harvard graduate.3 In 1774 the legislature incorporated 12 proprietors of the "Union School of New London." It was intended "to furnish facilities for a thorough English education" and in classics to fit for college. In its early days it was a noted school, yielding a large income, and from its principalship went forth to the Continental army, Nathan Hale, the martyr spy. It was in good repute for many years, but languished as the free schools improved and it finally died about 1850. *

This account is from Deforest's Indians of Connecticut, pp. 453-459, and contributions to the Ecclesiastical Hist. of Conn., pp. 148-149.

2 Master Tisdale and the Lebanon School, Am. Jour. of Ed., xxvIII, 792-797.

3 Stuart's Jour., Trumbull, 59; Conn. Rec., XIV, 383.

4Caulkin's New London, 622.

CHAPTER III.

EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF CONNECTICUT AS A STATE (1776 to 1890).

SCHOOL SOCIETIES.

For about twenty years after the Declaration of Independence there was no important change in the school laws of Connecticut.

In 1794, school districts (subdivisions of ecclesiastical societies) were allowed by a two-thirds vote, to lay a tax for a schoolhouse and locate it, and choose a collector of the tax. But the acts of 1795 and 1798 revolutionized the whole system. By the former a committee of eight, with Governor Treadwell as chairman—

2

Were authorized to sell all lands owned by the State west of Pennsylvania, reserved in the cession to the United States in 1782 and the proceeds of the sale were to go to a perpetual fund, the interest of which was to be divided annually among the several societies constituted, or which might be constituted by law, within certain limits, and each society could, by a two-thirds vote, improve its proportion of the interest, for the support of the Christian ministry, or the public worship of God. All inhabitants who have right to vote in town meeting, are to meet in October annually, organize themselves into societies and transact any other business on the subject of schooling in general, and touching the monies hereby appropriated to their use.1

This, it will be seen created a "school society," separate and distinct from the old ecclesiastical society, and the management of the schools went to these new bodies, while the support of the schools was to come from a permanent fund. This system was different from that of the other New England States. In 1798 a second act perfected the new system and fully substituted it for the old. Each society was given power to appoint a suitable number of persons, not exceeding nine, of competent skill and letters, to be overseers or visitors of schools. These are "to examine, approve, and dismiss school-teachers, appoint public exercises at their discretion, and give honorary marks of distinction." County towns are no longer required to have a Latin school, but every society might, by two-thirds vote, institute a school of higher order, for the common benefit of the inhabitants, "the object of which shall be to perfect the youth admitted therein in the rudiments of English grammar, in composition, in arithmetic, and geography, or, on particu

'Barnard's History of Education.

2 This was the foundation of the School Fund, which will be discussed separately. "Previous to Oct., 1708, towns and ecclesiastical societies appointed school committies but there was no law till 1750. (Barnard p. 142.)

lar desire, in the Latin and Greek languages; also in the first principles of religion and morality, and, in general, to form them for usefulness and happiness in the various relations of social life."1 To these, pupils were to be admitted who shall have "passed through the ordinary course of instruction in the common schools and shall have attained to such maturity in years and understanding, as to be capable of improvement in said school, in the judgment of the overseers," and if too many for the accommodation of the school apply "they shall be instructed in such course and order as to give all an equal opportunity." One wonders how this was done. The private schools then were few; the books few and imperfect, but uniform. In 1796, Farmington used Webster's Institutes as a reader, and Dwight's Geography.

1

In 1799, in Middlesex County, an "association for the improvement of common schools" was founded and Rev. William Woodbridge, the principal of a young ladies' school in Middletown, made its president.3 In May, 1799, an act was passed which was virtually a codification of previous laws. The taxes for schools were to be $2 in each $1,000 of the assessment. The nine school visitors were to visit all schools twice yearly and two of them were to be present at each visit. No time for keeping schools open was specified, so they were closed when the funds ran out. This fact made them of widely varying duration in different towns. On the whole, it can not be said that the new system worked well.

In 1799, the first apportionment of the interest of the school fund was made, and in 1810 an act was passed whereby the expense of the district schools over the public money was apportioned according to the number of days each proprietor had sent a scholar or scholars to school.

In 1813, a bill compelled proprietors of factories and manufacturing establishments to see that the children in their employ were taught to read, write, and cipher, and had attention paid to the preservation of ́ their morals. To see this carried out, the selectmen and civil authority were made a board of visitors.5 Governor Wolcott, at the May session in 1825, said the schools were "insufficient and recommended the introduction of the Lancasterian system, as used in New Haven." This suggestion was taken up in several towns and such schools were held for some years. In the same year the first educaţional magazine in the country was projected and the "American Journal of Education," with Prof. William Russell as editor, was begun in 1826. There was no supervision of common schools by the State and the first move in this

3

6

'Barnard's History of Education.

Middlesex School Association, American Journal of Education, XIV, 397.
Barnard, p. 113.

This is noteworthy as a very early instance of factory legislation.
"Smith's History of Guilford, p. 82.

direction was Hawley Olmsteds' motion in 1826, resulting in a committee, which reported in favor of such supervision; but nothing was then done.

In 1827, a society was organized in Hartford for improvement of the public schools.

DECLINE OF COMMON SCHOOLS.

Meantime the educational system of Connecticut had excited the admiration of several other States. A Kentucky legislative document, in 1822, said the "Connecticut system has become an example for other States and the admiration of the Union." This was once true; but under the system of no supervision, the schools were running down. On November 13, 1830, a convention of teachers at Hartford made complaint of the decline of schools. The school fund produced apathy and carelessness among the towns. In the next year Governor Peters recommended a tax of a cent on each dollar of the assessment list to be collected and paid for benefit of the district schools. The legislature gave $10,000 for colleges, but did not heed this suggestion.

In 1836, Governor Edwards complained of deficiency in the character of teachers. The same year, at an extra session in December, the Town Deposit Fund' was received from the surplus in the United States Treasury. Things steadily grew worse; in 1838 an investigation was held at Governor Ellsworth's instance, and an official report made. From it we learn that parents took little interest in the schools; the school visitors were not always faithful; teachers were often poorly qualified and inefficient; their pay, being on the average $14.50 for men and $5.75 for women, exclusive of board, was not adequate to their deserts, or equal to the rewards of skill and industry in other fields of labor. The great diversity of schoolbooks was an evil, the schoolhouses were often unfit for use, and over 6,000 children of school age were out of school. Furthermore, private schools were established in nearly every place of any size, and 10,000 children of the richer classes were in them, there being 60,000 or 70,000 in common schools. In consequence of these things an act was passed to "provide for the better supervision of common schools."3 By it the governor, commissioner of the school fund, and eight others, one from each county, to be annually appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate, were made a board of commissioners of common schools. They were to report annually; to them in turn the visitors of the school societies were to report, and unless the latter did so they were not to have their schools certified as "kept according to law," and hence they would lose their share in the school fund. This board was to have a secretary, to receive not over $3 a day and expenses while in service. Under this new system the common schools, which seemed "struck with paralysis," were soon to revive.

This will be discussed separately.

Barnard, p. 165; American Journal of Education, v, 114.
3 Barnard, p. 166.

THE SCHOOL FUND.

The original charter of Connecticut gave her "to the South Sea on the West parte," and after the grant of New York to the Duke of York the colony claimed her grant still ran from where his ended. With this view, she settled the Wyoming Valley; but the United States having given that to Pennsylvania, after hearing the case, the Connecticut claim then extended from the eastern boundary of Ohio to the Pacific Ocean.

On September 30, 1786, by a deed of cession, she gave all that vast territory to the General Government, as she had agreed to do sometime before, reserving a tract extending 120 miles west from Pennsylvania and, on the average, 52 miles wide. This was the northeast corner of Ohio, and contained 3,300,000 acres. The tract is known in common parlance yet as "New Connecticut," or the "Western Reserve," and comprises the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahoga, Medina, Lorain, Huron, Erie, and the north part of Mahoning, and Summit.2

In May, 1800, Connecticut relinquished to the United States all rights to jurisdiction over it, the United States giving up all claims to the soil. In 1791, an attempt was made to sell it and use the proceeds for the support of the ministry. In 1792, 500,000 acres of it, the socalled "Fire Lands," were given to the sufferers from the depredations of the British during the Revolution. In May, 1793, the State voted to. sell the rest of the land. In October of the same year another attempt was made to give the proceeds from the sale for the support of religion. A substitute to the original bill passed, much to the dissatisfaction of some towns, who adopted resolutions disapproving the measure. The matter excited much interest and the debate was printed in full in the papers, a thing that then rarely happened. The act provided that— The monies arising from the sale of the territory belonging to this State, lying west of the State of Pennsylvania, be and the same is hereby, established a perpetual fund, the interest whereof is granted and shall be appropriated to the use and benefit of the several ecclesiastical societies, churches, or congregations of all denominations in this State, to be by them applied to the support of their respective ministers or preachers of the gospel, and schools of education, under such rules and regulations as shall be adopted by this or some future session of the general assembly.3

In view of the disapproval shown, the act was repealed by the lower house in May, 1794, but to this the upper house did not consent; finally both agreed to pass a resolution suspending the sale of lands for the present.4

In October, 1794, the upper house passed another bill, much like the former one, and the lower house, ordering it to be printed, continued

1 Conn. Manual, 1888, 53.

2 Barnard, 55-110. Hollister, Hist. of Conn., II, 571–576.

3 Barnard, pp. 65–73.

4 Barnard, pp. 74-95.