Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/126

 95   COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES of 1834 provided that each township could accept or reject the plan, but this was found to be unwise, and in 1849 the act was made compulsory on every township. In 1857 the general supervision was taken out of the hands of the secretary of the Commonwealth and the same year the normal school law was passed. The school laws found some opposition in Columbia county from the Germans, who were greatly attached to their native tongue and feared the teaching of English would cause its abandonment by the younger generation. Their forebodings were afterwards realized, the stronger tongue gradually forcing out the weaker, and English now prevails over all other languages. The equipment of the scholar of the olden days was simple. A Webster speller, an English reader or a Testament, Daboll’s arithme­tic, a slate, a goose quill and a few sheets of coarse writing paper covered the entire range of known material winter after winter, so long as he attended school. Later on Maltebrun’s geography and Smith’s grammar were added, and perhaps a Colton atlas. Contrasted with the vast array of books laid before the present scholar these first essentials were few and simple.

S M A L L B E G I N N I N G S

The first organized educational movement made in the county w as that of the Society of Friends at Millville, who partitioned off one end of their meetinghouse for use as a school­ room by Miss Elizabeth Eves. This school was not sectarian in character, the children of all denominations being welcomed. Other schools were established—by the residents of Fishingcreek in 1794, Benton in 1799, Berwick in 1800, and other townships in rapid succession thereafter. These local schools are treated in chapters devoted to the various townships. The ambition for higher education was early developed in this county, Berwick taking the lead with her academ y in 1839. It served its purpose, and finally the building was torn down in 1872. Millville high school was established in 1851, became Greenwood Seminary in 1861 and is still running, although with but few scholars. Orangeville Male and Female Aca­demy was incorporated in 1858, opened the following year, continued as an orphans' school during 1864-66, and in 1894 was sold to the township for common school uses. Catawissa Seminary was chartered in 1866, having been operated since 1839 as an academy, and finally suspended in 1872. The history of these insti­tutions, as well as that of the State Normal School, will be found in the chapters devoted to the local history of their home towns.

S T A T I S T IC S

Complete reports of the schools for different years since the beginning of State supervision would take up too much room in this work. Reports may be had from the proper author­ities at any time. We will, however, give a few isolated figures for comparison, in addi­tion to the latest reports available from the county superintendent. A writer of 1847 states that general educa­tion had been neglected in many of the town­ ships, although but two—Mifflin and Valley— had failed to adopt the common school system. The compensation of the teachers—$16 for the men and $9 for the women—was not such as to induce competent persons to take up the profession of teaching. At that date there were in the county 104 schools, in operation seven months in the year, employing 98 men and 31 women teachers. In 1885 there were 196 schools, in operation for a little over six months; 97 male teachers and 124 female teachers, the men receiving an average of $35 and the women $28 per month; and the number of scholars in attendance was 4,602 males dnd 4,187 females. The resources of the schools in that year were $2,300 and the liabilities $26,445, while the total expenditures were $66,469.

M O D E R N D E V E L O P M E N T S

Possibly in no other particular is there clearer evidence of the growth of Columbia county in the last quarter of a century than that shown by the advancement of education. Perhaps the most fundamental improvement has been the establishment of a uniform course of studies. The boroughs were the first to see the wisdom o f this plan and the country dis tricts soon followed their example. The coun­try children are now graded just as carefully as those in the towns, promotions are made in the same manner, and, in fact, there is little to choose between the city and country school. One of the best results of systematic study and work in the county has been the stimulus  it has given to the establishment of township high schools. Under the old methods the pupils never advanced by grades, never graduated, and there was no means of determining where the common school should leave off and the high school begin. As soon as the present sys-