IX. SCHOOLS AS THEY WERE IN THE UNITED STATES

SIXTY AND SEVENTY YEARS AGO.

Fifth Article.

VISIT TO DR. DWIGHT'S SCHOOL AT GREENFIELD HILL, FAIRFIELD, CT.*

BOSTON, July 13th, 1790.

On my way to this place I stopped at the house of the Rev. Mr. - in Connecticut. My acquaintance with him began at Cambridge during the late war, and I was very happy to renew it. He now teaches an academy consisting of sixteen boys, most of whom board in his family. He prevailed upon me to rest at his house two days, both of which I spent in the most agreeable manner. I was pleased with the order of his family. His wife is a pleasant, sensible woman, and he has three promising children. But I was principally struck with his manner of teaching, and his behavior to his scholars. By particular invitation I went into his school, where I met only six of his boys. The rest were getting their lessons under trees on different parts of his farm. The six boys just mentioned composed a class. They were learning geography. Never did I hear this science taught in such an agreeable manner. The whole class sat down before him, and the lecture was after the manner of a conversation. The teacher entertained them with anecdotes of places, picked up from modern travels, all of which were new to me, and extremely interesting to young people. The class asked him questions, which he answered with ease and politeness. In short, I began to think I saw the father of a family talking to his children, rather than a schoolmaster instructing his boys. After this class was dismissed a second was called, who said a lesson in the same easy manner upon the history of England. A third class concluded the exercises of the forenoon by exhibiting specimens of their skill in a very common and useful species of composition. They had been made to correspond with each other, and their letters were examined with the most scrupulous exactness by their master in grammar, punctuation, the proper place for capitals, and in perspicuity of expression. I recollect he found fault with only one of this class, and that was for not placing dots over the í and strokes across the t as often as those letters occurred in his performance. Such omissions, he said, betray haste and carelessness, and lead gradually to the writing of a slovenly and unintelligible hand.

On the afternoon of the second day I spent with this excellent man his whole school accompanied him into his meadow, where they assisted him in hauling home his hay, and securing it in his barnyard. In our walk home, after the

Extract from a letter written "to a friend in Wilmington, Delaware," and published in the Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, (Phil.,) for Sept., 1790, under the title of "Improved Mode of Education."

↑ The blank in this letter can probably be filled with the name of Rev. Timothy Dwight, who had the most remarkable private academy in New England, at Greenfield Hill in the town of Fairfield, on the post-road between New York and Boston, between the years 1783 and 1795.

work of the day was over, he gave his boys a lecture upon the different kinds of grasses; he mentioned the time of the first use of each of them in agriculture, the best methods of cultivating them, and the different kinds that were most proper for different animals. The conversation at meals was truly delightful and instructing. It would fill a small volume to mention all the new and useful observations which fell from him at his table, all of which were calculated to improve the understandings, or better the hearts of his pupils. I shall only mention one thing which struck me very agreeably. He read a chapter in the New Testament every morning, and one in the Old Testament every evening, as part of family worship. After reading a chapter in the evening, he explained the meaning of many of the ceremonies of the Jewish church, and showed their fulfillment in the history of our Saviour, or in some of the doctrines of Christianity. The next evening he examined his scholars upon the subject of the preceding lecture. Their answers were extremely pertinent and satisfactory. A better mode could not be devised to instruct young people in the Christian religion, or to furnish them with arguments against the deists.

Before I parted with my kind host, I asked him whether he had adopted the idea of Dr. Franklin, Dr. Rush, and others, respecting the inutility of the dead languages. He told me that he had adopted it in part, but that the prejudices of his countrymen forbade his banishing those languages entirely from his school. He said that he had discovered a new way of teaching them, and that none of his boys ever spent more than two years in learning them. He added, that he thought the time was coming when it would be as absurd to teach the Latin and Greek languages indiscriminately in our schools, as it would now be to navigate a vessel by coasting instead of a magnet.

"BOARDING ROUND" IN VERMONT.

We make the following extract from a little pamphlet, illustrative of the life of a country schoolmaster in Vermont, when "boarding round" was practiced.

Monday-Went to board at Mr. B's; had a baked gander for dinner; suppose from its size, the thickness of the skin and other venerable appearances, to have been one of the first settlers of Vermont; made a slight impression on the patriarch's breast. Supper-cold gander and potatoes; family consisting of the man, good wife, daughter Peggy, four boys, Pompey the dog, and a brace of cats; fire built in the square room about nine o'clock, and a pile of wood lay by the fireplace; saw Peggy scratch her fingers, and couldn't take the hint; felt squeamish about the stomach, and talked of going to bed; Peggy looked sullen, and put out the fire in the square room; went to bed, and dreamed of having eaten a quantity of stone wall.

Tuesday.-Cold gander for breakfast, swamp tea and some nut cake-the latter some consolation. Dinner-the legs, &c., of the gander, done up warm-one nearly dispatched. Supper-the other leg, &c., cold; went to bed as Peggy was carrying in the fire to the square room; dreamed I was a mud turtle, and got on my back and could not get over again.

Wednesday.-Cold gander for breakfast; complained of sickness, and could eat nothing. Dinner-wings, &c., of the gander warmed up; did my best to destroy them, for fear they should be left for supper; did not succeed; dreaded supper all the afternoon. Supper-hot Johnny cakes; felt greatly revived; thought I had got clear of the gander, and went to bed for a good night's rest; disappointed; very cool night, and couldn't keep warm in bed; got up and stopped the broken window with my coat and vest; no use; froze the tip of my nose and one ear before morning.

Thursday.-Cold gander again; felt much discouraged to see the gander not half gone; went visiting for dinner and supper; slept abroad, and had pleasant dreams.

Friday.-Breakfast abroad. Dinner at Mr. B's; cold gander and hot potatoes the latter very good; ate three, aud went to school quite contented. Supper-cold gander and no potatoes, bread heavy and dry; had the headache and couldn't eat: Peggy much concerned; had a fire built in the square room, and thought she and I had better sit there out of the noise; went to bed early; Peggy thought too much sleep bad for the headache.

Saturday.-Cold gander and hot Indian Johnny cake; did very well, glad to come off so. Dinner-cold gander again; didn't keep school this afternoon; weighed and found I had lost six pounds the last week; grew alarmed; had a talk with Mr. B——, and concluded I had boarded out his share.

REMINISCENCES OF SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS IN WILMINGTON, DELAWARE.

The following extracts from Miss Elizabeth Montgomery's "Reminiscences of Wilmington," (Del.,) published in 1851, were copied and forwarded by Miss M. S. Gilpin:—

The next place of note was an humble Methodist meeting-house, founded by a meek and lowly people, who would shudder at the Popish name of a church, though they did decorate it with evergreens on Christmas, and kept the day as a religious festival. It has been so often enlarged that hardly a relic of the original is left. Now it can vie with many buildings in large cities, and is called "Ashbury Church."

We must not pass this primitive place of worship without a tribute of respect to John Thelwell, its devoted patron from its early dawn, and (with his worthy wife) faithful unto death. It would be easier for us to say what he did not than to recount his numerous duties. He was a ruler, an exhorter, and an efficient class-leader with these people. He was clerk of the market too, and once he weighed a woman's butter which was wanting in balance, and was about to take away the basket. She being near-sighted, and he having but one eye, she took the advantage by daubing a pound in the other eye, and thus made off with her effects.

He held the office of bell-man from time immemorial as crier. Many at this day remember Daddy Thelwell and his big bell, tingling as he passed, and warning the burgesses to attend their meeting in the little town chamber over the end of the lower market-house. Those are yet living who heard the joyful sound of his old bell ringing in their ears, arousing them from repose, his voice echoing loud and long, "Cornwallis is taken!" Could you believe, after being faithful to all these duties, he should be a schoolmaster, and of some note, too! The more ancient hornbook, scarcely now remembered, became out of use in this country, and ceased to be imported from England when we undertook to teach ourselves learning after the Revolution. It was soon below our expectations, for it only contained the alphabetic letters, the numerals and the Lord's Prayer. These, fastened on a small thin board, about the size of a small spelling-book page, were securely nailed to it with a strip of bright brass for a margin, and covered with a plate of horn so transparent as to render the text clearly to be read, yet fully defended from the unwashed fingers of the pupils. One of the British poets has immortalized this elementary guide to all the future learning of our advanced age:

Hail, ancient book, most venerable code,
Learning's first cradle and its last abode;
The huge unnumber'd volumes which we see,
By lazy plagiarists are stolen from thee;

But future times to thy sufficient store
Shall ne'er presume to add one letter more.
Thee will I sing in homely wainscot bound.
The golden verge encompassing around,
The faithful horn in front from age to age
Preserving thy invaluable page.

But the intruding successor to teach the alphabet, spelling, reading and grammar, was Dilworth's spelling-book, with small print, like worn out newspaper type. The present generation would not now study such dim lights.

At the foot of Quaker Hill Mr. Thelwell had commenced teaching, but was soon promoted to the little senate chamber over the market-house, and this, at the corner of King and Third streets, was long his room. Most boys and girls were his pupils, at least during a part of their school-days. The boys' entrance was front, the girls' up an alley. Even in those primitive days there were some unruly children; but he adhered most strictly to the letter of Solomon's advice, and 66 never spared the rod." The rattan or ferule seemed to be in perpetual motion, and were as common in his seminary as gymnastics at this day, and woe to the boy mounted to receive the reward of his exploits or omissions! But wondrous strange if after such an exhibition he should return to school subdued. It can only be accounted for, that independence was not fully understood in the young Republic. Certainly it was not carried out as in this day.

The Bible was used for the senior class, and also Gough's Arithmetic, with sums in simple division that would fill a large slate, and puzzle many a brain, and cause showers of tears. This school was opened every morning by prayer and singing a hymn.

The village all declared how much he knew;
'Twas certain he could write and cipher too;
Lands he could measure, times and tides presage,

And e'en the story ran that he could guage.
But past is all his fame. The very spot

Where many a time he triumphed is forgot.

Miss Debby Thelwell, the eldest daughter, assisted and kept the girls in order; she was a very worthy woman, but with no literary pretensions. Miss Polly rarely entered; she was timid and more refined. After the father's death the sisters united and taught young children for many years, until this worthy family were removed by death from useful employment.

On the northeast corner of Second street was a school of long standing for girls

There, in her noisy mansion, skilled to rule,
The village mistress taught her little school;
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
The day's disasters in her morning face.

Mrs. Elizabeth Way was a celebrated teacher of needle-work, so important for misses in those times that even the art of shirt-making was strictly attended to, and fitting and cutting were taught here with neatness and care. Most of the older females, brought up in this town, have been her pupils.

Mrs. Way was a very respectable and worthy woman; she had received an education superior to most women of her day, and was endowed with a strong mind and strict principles of morality, yet an irritable temper was a drawback to her usefulness, and it was annoying to some of her pupils. She was a disci