He named the trustees and

donation in land and notes on interest. appointed them to erect a free school. They were incorporated in May, 1781, as "The Trustees of the Staples Free School," and authorized to hold property yielding an income of not over $1,000.1

2

In 1770 the first academy in Windham County was organized, at Plainfield. This was chartered in 1784, and in 1816 had a fund of $834, given by Isaac Coit, of Plainfield, from the interest of which with the tuition of some 80 scholars the school was supported. To the school, which Samuel and Eliphalet Nott taught in their youth, came students not merely from Connecticut, but also from the two-thirds of Rhode Island nearest it.3

In Woodstock a rival academy was founded in 1800 and chartered two years later. It was built by the voluntary contributions and labor of the people of the neighborhood, and the building was dedicated on February 4, 1802. Many men of note received their education there. In 1868 $10,000 was raised to put the academy on a firm foundation and a new building was erected.1

In 1802 the Berlin Academy was incorporated, and in 1803 the Bacon Academy, at Colchester. For this a fund of $36,000 was given by Mr. Bacon and "a very beautiful building," 73 by 34 feet and three stories high, was erected. This school being well endowed, became very large, having in 1816 some 200 pupils.

In 1806 Noah Webster wrote of Connecticut:

By law a grammar school may be established in any town in the State by a vote of the inhabitants in legal meeting, and many academics are established and maintained by private funds. In these are taught not only the primary branches of learning, but geography, grammar, the languages, and higher branches of mathematics. There are also academies for young ladies, in which are taught the additional branches of needlework, drawing, and embroidery. Among the academies of the first reputation are one in Plainfield, and the Bacon Academy, at Colchester. The most distinguished schools for young ladies are the Union School," in New Haven, and one in Litchfield.

In 1806, the Stratford Academy was incorporated and, three years later, one at Wallingford, which had 45 scholars and no fund in 1816. It then taught Greek, Latin, English grammar, and other branches of useful knowledge."

In 1814, the Danbury Academy was incorporated; in 1821, that at Fairfield; in 1823, that at Goshen; in 1825, Lee's Academy at East Guilford, now Madison (this was succeeded by the Hand Academy in

1 Trumbull, 11, 546. The Fairfield Academy was chartered in 1804.

1886, the gift of Daniel Hand,' the well-known philanthropist), and the Greenwich and Tolland academies in 1829. Other academies were one at Wilton, founded in 1817; the one at Brooklyn, incorporated in 1830; Hill's Academy in Saybrook, in 1833; the Killingworth, North Greenwich, and Ellington ones, in 1834. The last one, in 1832, had the endorsement of the officers of Yale College that "the school, after a trial of three years, has fully answered expectation and is distinguished for the fidelity of its trustees and the accuracy and completeness of its system of instruction."3

The Hartford Female Seminary, founded in 1815, was incorporated in 1827. From about 1825 to 1833 it was conducted by Miss Catherine E. Beecher with great success, drawing from 120 to 160 pupils from without the State. In 1832, there were other female academies worthy of note at Litchfield, New London, and Norwich,5 chartered respectively in 1827, 1819, and 1829.

The Brainerd Academy at Haddam was incorporated in 1839; the Durham Academy, in 1842; the Parker Academy at Woodbury, in 1851, and the Waramaug Academy at New Preston, in 1852. This last was a continuation of the unincorporated New Preston Academy, a famous old school, which the father of President Day, of Yale College, taught, and in which many men of note were educated. In 1854 Mrs. Sarah Griffing gave $10,000 for the Guilford Institute. But by this time the public high schools had begun their successful career.

6

THE HARTFORD GRAMMAR AND HIGH SCHOOLS.

The moribund condition in which the former institution was left continued up to 1789, when the pastors of the churches were added to the committee managing the school, and arrangements were made for examinations of candidates for admission and monthly examinations of students. The presence of the clergy inspired fresh vigor, as their supervision, here as elsewhere, was regarded by them as a duty to be

1

1 Daniel Hand, a native of Guilford, having made his fortune in the South before the War of the Rebellion, gave during his life $1,000,000 to the American Missionary Association for the education of negroes, and made the Association his residuary legatee.

2 Contribution to Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut. 251 (D. N. Camp). Common Schools and Academies.

3(B. B. Edwards.) Educational and Literary Institutions, 1832. American Journal of Education, XXVIII, 311.

American Journal of Education, XXVIII, 69–82.

American Journal of Education, XXVII, 311.

Other academies not mentioned in the text were the Middlesex at Middletown, incorporated in 1828, the Morris Academy at Litchfield in 1819, the New Haven Scientific and Military Academy in 1824, the New Township Academy in New Haven in 1809, the Newtown Academical Association in 1838, the Waterbury Academy in 1848, the Seymour High School in 1851, and the Connecticut Female Institute at Ellington in 1840.

"American Journal of Education, XXVII, 185.

sacredly performed. In truth, education suffered after the power of the clergy died away, and the young lawyers, who took their places in the management of the schools, performed their duties perfunctorily. The consequent decline was one cause of the passing of the act of 1838, already referred to, whereby a paid supervision of schools was established.1

In April, 1793, it was voted

That that part of the regulations heretofore adopted, that permits English to be taught two days in each week, be, and the same is hereby, annulled and repealed, and free use of the building is voted the teacher for teaching the pupils English Branches and arithmetic in those hours not appropriated to said school, at the expense of the parents and guardians of said youths.

This is interesting, as showing the narrowness of the previous curriculum.

On December 23, 1797, the trustees voted to apply to the town for permission to be incorporated, and this being granted the desired act passed the General Assembly in May, 1798.2 The school was to "be constituted, according to the original intent of the donor, for the education of youth in the rudiments of the higher branches of science, not taught in common schools, of Latin, Greek, and other useful languages, of Grammar, of the English tongue, of geography, navigation, bookkeeping, surveying, and other similar studies, preparatory to an edu cation at the University, or a life of active employment.""

Thence onward to 1828 there were on an average about thirty students, taught by a recent graduate of Yale. Up to 1817 there was no charge, then until 1828 a fee of $1 per quarter was paid by each pupil. In 1828 the plan of instruction and accommodations were enlarged and the one man classical school became a New England Academy with four teachers. The new plan was not a success, the large expense for a building diminished the fund, and the increased tuition caused attendance to fall off. Many men of note were principals of the Grammar School in the first half of this century; among them Edward Beecher, Lyman Coleman, F. A. P. Barnard, A. D. Stanley, E. A. Sophocles, and N. P. Seymour. The conviction arose that the city ought to have a public High School and this was first advocated by the Hon. Henry Barnard in a speech on July 4, 1838. In 1839 the first School Society in Hartford discussed the "expediency of establishing a High School for the older and more advanced scholars of this school society," but no final action was taken for nearly eight years.

On January 16, 1847, the subject was again brought before the School Society, considerable agitation having been aroused by the

1Conversation with H. Barnard. Clergy and Popular Education (W. C. Fowler). American Journal of Education, XVII, 211.

2 American Journal of Education, XXVII, 185.

3 Barnard's History of Education in Connecticut.

4 Public High School in Hartford. American Journal of Education, XXVIII, 224–256.

publication in 1846 of a tract by the Hon. Henry Barnard, entitled "Considerations respecting a High School in Hartford." As a result, on March 8, 1847, it was "voted that this Society proceed to establish a free High School for instruction in the higher branches of an English and the elementary branches of a classical education, for all the male and female children of suitable age and acquirements in this Society, who may wish to avail themselves of its advantages." At the same time $12,000 were appropriated and a building was immediately erected on the corner of Asylum and Ann streets, which was dedicated on December 1, 1847.2 With this High School the Grammar School was incorporated and the income of its fund has since been used for the support of the classical teacher in the school. The first building, which had a capacity of 300, became too small and a second one was erected in 1869, on the present site in Hopkins street. This cost $159,000 and would seat 380 pupils. In 1877 an addition was made, at the cost of $24,000, which seated 200 more. On January 24, 1882, the whole building was burned with all its contents, but only four recitations were lost before the school was housed in temporary quarters. The third and present building was dedicated on January 3, 1884, and cost, with land and apparatus, $315,000. It has a capacity for 625, and in 1888 556 students were enrolled. The building is fire-proof, and in the secular Gothic style. The basement is of rock faced brown stone; the outer walls are of Philadelphia pressed brick with brown stone dressings.

3

The Hartford High School has a wide reputation, as being one of the best of its kind in New England, or indeed in the Nation, its graduates showing clearly the thoroughness of the education therein obtained.

THE HOPKINS GRAMMAR SCHOOL AT NEW HAVEN.

This school has continued its separate existence and has been fairly successful, offering, from its situation in New Haven, some advantages as a fitting school for Yale.

In it, as in the Hartford School, the principals for many years were recent graduates of Yale. Among the most distinguished ones have been the Rev. James Murdock, Dr. Eli Ives, Prof. C. A Goodrich, the Rev. E. T. Fitch, Prof. Elisha Mitchell, George Hill, the Rev. W. C. Fowler, President Hector Humphreys, President Noah Porter, and Hawley Olmstead, under whom the school was very flourishing.

On July 24, 1860, the school celebrated its two hundredth anniversary, at which time the Rev. L. W. Bacon delivered the Historical Address. Mr. George L. Fox is the present principal. It is situated on the corner of High and Wall streets and possesses a brick schoolhouse with an adjoining play ground.

1Hartford High School, American Journal of Education, XVII, 339,

It cost $17,000.

3 Geer's Hartford Directory (History, p. 69).

THE HOPKINS BEQUESTS.

It is interesting to note how the talents have been improved by the various recipients. From Mr. Hopkins, Hartford received £400; in 1852 this amounted to $20,000, yielding $1,500 income, and in 1878 to $37,580, yielding $2,262, of which $1,200 was paid to a classical teacher, $40 to the treasurer, and the rest was added to the capital. New Haven's £412 in 1878 was represented by a house and lot for the school and $3,000 endowment; in all some $20,000. Hadley's £308, with some other small gifts, amounted to $35,000 in 1878, yielding an income of $2,621.

Harvard's £100 has entirely disappeared. The £500 adjudged to it, with questionable propriety in 1712, with additions from the General Court, in 1878 equaled $53,847 and a Detur fund of $1,200.

THE NORWICH FREE ACADEMY.

This is a school of which the city on the Thames may well be proud, and which, better than almost any other in the State, combines the good features of the old academy with those of the new high school. The first settlers of Norwich were too much occupied with watching neighboring tribes of Indians to pay much attention to education, and, in 1700, the town was presented by the grand jury, " for failing to maintain a school to instruct children." But, as affairs grew more settled, an interest in learning sprung up here, and in 1787, four years after the Revolution was ended, Dr. Daniel Lathrop endowed a free school with a gift of £500 and presented it to the town.1 After many years of useful service, Dr. Lathrop's school was given up by the town, "on account of some impracticable conditions attached to the gift."

Then came an era of private academies, some of the heads of which were actively engaged in efforts to reform the public schools and to elevate their standard. The old system of school societies and districts had run riot in Norwich, where "upon the territory of the original nine miles square were no less than forty independent school organizations, each having its distinct officers and independent authority."2

A movement for the consolidation of these districts and the grading of the schools was begun about 1836 and was submitted to the voters in 1840 by Rev. Mr. Paddock and Deacon Francis A. Perkins, the school visitors.

It was rejected by a large majority; but the subject was continually discussed. Prof. John P. Gulliver, now of Andover Theological Seminary, was very prominent in the movement; but it was seen that public initiative could not be awaited, and therefore the advocates of better education turned to private endowment.

For two years Prof. Gulliver labored to raise the sum needed, and 'American Journal of Education, II, 664, and III, 190, on "Norwich Free Academy." ? Prof. J. P. Gulliver's Address at the "Dedication of the Slater Memorial Building, of the Norwich Academy."