HISTORY: Chapter 10, History of Cayuga Co., NY 1879; Cayuga co., NY

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1789 - History of Cayuga County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches of some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, by Elliot G. Storke,
assisted by Jas. H. Smith. Pub. by D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, N.Y. 1879


CHAPTER X.
PROGRESS OF EDUCATION - SCHOOLS. PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PROGRESS COMPARED
-EFFECTS OF PIONEER LIFE - EARLY DISADVANTAGES - SCHOOL BUILDINGS -
BOOKS-TEACHERS AND TEACHING - SCHOOL DISCIPLINE - ITS BARBAROUS MODES -
INCENTIVES TO STUDY - COUNTY SUPERVISION - IMPROVED SCHOOL BOOKS - TEACHERS'
ASSOCIATIONS - INSTITUTES - NORMAL SCHOOLS - PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF AUBURN.

     The historic records of our County would be incomplete if there were not
found in them some account of the means and agencies employed for the
intellectual and moral development of the people. If there has not been
as manifest and decided progress in the means for the mental, as for the
physical improvement of our people, there have, nevertheless, been very
decided advances made in the former, as will clearly appear in a review of the
early history of our schools.

     Physical progress, the world over, has always outrun the mental. For
this the reasons are obvious. Physical wants are imperious and their supply is
necessary to existence. Life depends upon attention to them. Moreover,
physical progress is easily seen and appreciated by the simplest observer and
its necessity and importance acknowledged. All can see it, for it is manifest
to the external senses. The millions that crowded to our Centennial Jubilee,
saw with wonder and admiration, understood and appreciated the marvelous
creations of the mechanical and artistic genius of the world. In that display,
where the genius and skill of cultivated minds were manifested in external and
sensible objects, all were interested, as they could appreciate the results of
skill and toil applied to material things. But mental and moral progress are
less apparent and the means and agencies by which they are affected are not so
easily seen. They operate so slowly and so obscurely, and their results are so
widely separated from their causes, as to appear only in the lives and
characters of the developed man and woman.

     It has been well said that " the pulsations of a nation's heart are to
be counted not by seconds, but by years;" and so the formative effects of
culture are fully manifested only in matured lives, and those effects are so
far removed from the causes which produced them that their connection is
rarely traced except by the educated. It really requires culture to understand
the needs and advantages of culture.

     But our early settlers were surrounded by circumstances quite
unfavorable to mental progress. The country was new, the people poor, and all
their surroundings demanded close attention in order to meet the absolute
wants of their physical natures. While nearly all of the descendants of New
England ancestry in this County and in the State, and their number was
relatively large, brought with them a love of learning, as they understood it,
their conception of the import of the word was very different from ours. To be
wholly unlettered was a disgrace ; but to be able to read, write and cipher,
was regarded as amply sufficient, and all beyond that, except for the learned
professions, was held to be a mere waste of time and money.

     Of culture, of that discipline and training of the faculties by which
the thorough student of today is prepared, solely by the unaided exercise of
his own disciplined powers, to go on almost indefinitely in the attainment of
knowledge, they knew little. Such was the popular estimate of education among
the masses seventy-five years ago. It was the "dark age" in our intellectual
history ; dark by reason of the inevitable exclusion of intellectual light.
The dense trees of the unbroken forest excluded the sunlight from the soil not
more fully, than did the unfavorable surroundings of the settler shut out from
his children the light of intelligence ; and this was the common condition of
education in the central counties of the State, where the same general causes,
the same hindrances and helps operated to produce kindred results.

     WHY OUR EARLY SCHOOLS WERE POOR. The energies of the first generation
were so severely taxed to remove the forests and all the other diversified
obstacles which beset them as to leave little opportunity for mental
improvement. Discipline of muscle, rather than of mind, was the great demand,
imperious physical wants engrossed and compelled attention for many years.
The first generation in this County were, nevertheless, thoroughly educated in
many very important respects, in lessons not sufficiently taught in the
vaunted schools of today. They were taught many of the nobler lessons of true
manhood. Their education gave them sound bodies, sterling common sense, pure
minds and industrious and economical habits. They were thoroughly schooled in
self-denials. A sense of mutual dependence cultivated in nearly all a mutual
sympathy and helpfulness. To aid the needy, was a common characteristic,
whether in sickness or in the common affairs of life. They were, moreover,
homogeneous, had similar habits, tastes and aspirations, and were, mainly, of
similar nationalities.

     As communities, they were kind, social and orderly ; quite unlike the
gold-hunters and other speculating adventurers of to-day, or the recent
immigrants of diverse, and often opposing nationalities and creeds, who have
since thronged our shores, filled our towns, or spread over our broad domains.
The early settlers of this County and State also differed greatly both from
the settlers of Plymouth and from those who have recently formed, and now
form, the great bulk of our western settlers.

     The settlers of Plymouth comprised a large proportion of thoroughly
educated men, capable of organizing the State, the church and even the
university. The leading minds in that community were men of marked
individuality, distinguished alike for boldness of thought and independence of
action. They had fled from tyranny at home to seek freedom of opinion here, at
the cost of privation and hardship ; and New England owes to those bold, brave
spirits, much of the prestige which she has always maintained in politics,
religion and learning.

     But the struggles and privations of a new country for a century and a
half, while they did not lessen the enterprise and vigor of their descendants
who successively tenanted new region's, took from them the means of mental
culture, so that, for several generations, instead of progress, there was
really a retrogression of learning. But the West was mostly peopled by those
who lived at the East after the "revival of learning," and had carried with
them, and planted along our western parallels, a more enlightened and liberal
system of instruction, perfected during the period from 1830 to 1860.

     EARLY DISADVANTAGES. The children of the first settlers of this County
opened their eyes upon rude surroundings. Those settlers lived in log houses
and, generally, were descendants of pioneers in other places, who for a
generation or more had combated similar difficulties. Their own education was
limited. They themselves felt the need of more thorough instruction, and were
anxious to give it to their children. But how could this be done ? Where were
the books, or the teachers ? Suitable books, for the instruction of children
and youth had not been introduced and competent teachers were not in the
County. But schools they must, and schools they did, maintain, for longer or
shorter periods each year.

     A brief glance at the early school buildings, school books, the teachers
at their daily work, and their method of discipline and instruction, will show
the early condition of our schools.

     OUR EARLY SCHOOL BUILDINGS, like the homes of the children, were
generally of logs. The windows were small and far between, the otherwise
deficient light being supplied by the capacious chimneys, and by crevices in
the walls and ceilings. This is no fancy picture ; nor need we go any further
back in our history than 1844 to find full counterparts of just such school
buildings, still in use in this County. They were fully described in the
reports of the supervisory officers of that day. In such buildings our
ancestors in this County received their first lessons; among them was one who
became president of the United States. (1)

     On dark days the pupils would be arranged before, and around the base
of, the large chimney, utilizing the light which poured down its capacious
throat, and without which, study would have been impossible. The floor and
ceiling were of loose, rough boards, through the joints of which the wind
would freely circulate, affording an abundance of fresh air. The seats were
often formed of riven portions of forest trees, or, where saw mills existed,
of planks or slabs, supported at either end by roughly formed and acute angled
legs, and without backs. Those legs would often seek in vain for a secure rest
upon the uneven floor, but without doing so. From such seats, sufficiently
high for adults, dangled for six tedious hours daily, the uneasy limbs of
children from four to six years of age, with no support for either the legs,
arms or backs. Here they must cling to the plank, or slab, and keep quiet,
under the penalty of a blow from the whip, or ferrule, of the master, or
mistress, of ceremonies. When weary, and they would soon become so, sleep
would over-take, not only their limbs, in which the circulation was impeded by
the sharp-angled seats, but also their entire bodies, and a careless rock of
the uneasy seat would precipitate the sleepers to the floor. But the broad
open fire-places of those primitive school rooms were objects of the highest
interest. It was not alone the light which they supplied, grateful and
necessary as that often was ; they were miniature bon-fires, on which the
otherwise under lighted eyes of the pupils rested with pleasure. They would
gorge, at once, and without crowding, a full quarter of a cord of wood, and,
when in full blast, glowed like the log heaps of the settlers' fallow ground.

     Around the blazing pile, the pupils on their entrance would range
themselves, and, by repeated turnings, would at length so saturate with warmth
their thick, home-made clothing as, for a short time, to be comfortable upon
their seats, but for a short time only ; for " may I go to the fire ? " was,
on cold days, the constant cry of the pupils. In summer those open fire-places
were beautifully adorned by the skill and taste of the sylvan mistress, with
various green branches from the near forest, and with such wild flowers as the
season afforded. Carving was one of the arts into which the school boys of
that day were thoroughly indoctrinated, and the use of the pocket-knife was
well understood by them; for
"The Yankee boy before he's sent to school
Well knows the uses of that magic_tool, The pocket-knife,"
and the benches and forms of all the early school rooms were honey-combed by
his industry. Not having congenial employment for his head, he sought and
found it for his hands. Such were the general condition of the school houses
of the County, for a full generation after its first settlement, and very many
of the same sort existed as late as 1840.

     THE SCHOOL BOOKS. - It should be remembered that at the time, and for
many years after the first settlement of the County, books of any kind were a
luxury rarely seen in the homes of the people, excepting the family Bible
and hymn book, and the annual calendar, or almanac. School books were then
very few, and confined to the three subjects, of reading, spelling and
arithmetic ; the latter for the boys in all cases, but not always for the
girls. The girls, it was thought, were sufficiently educated if they were
taught to read and write. Their fathers, brothers, or husbands could do the "
reckoning" for them. The first books were of English production. Dilworth's
spelling book and arithmetic had been generally used in New England, and many
of them found their way into the early schools of this County, having
descended to the children from the parents, who had used them. Webster's
Spelling Book, published in 1783, was the first American school book printed
in this country, and it soon found its way into our schools to the exclusion
of nearly every other spelling book, and became the constant companion of all
the pupils, from their entrance to their exit, and they were so long and so
thoroughly drilled upon it that some pupils would recite half the words
contained in it.

     The New Testament was a common reading book in the earlier periods into
which the pupil graduated directly from the spelling book. There were then no
"grades " in the schools, or any first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth
readers, as at the present day. Usually one reading book sufficed ; but pupils
would read in whatever book the parents might send, no matter what its title
or subject. It might be Robinson Crusoe, or Pilgrims Progress ; and it was all
the same, if there was but one book of the kind in the school. Webster's
Spelling Book, however, soon became nearly universal. Murray's English Reader
and the Columbian Orator followed, and were fixtures in the schools for a full
quarter of a century.

     These books comprised the finest classical productions of the men of the
age; but were utterly unsuited for the children into whose hands they were
placed, and who mumbled and stumbled through their classic paragraphs, with as
little comprehension of them, as though they had been written in a dead
language. But it should be remembered that comprehension of a lesson, at that
time, was not considered important ; that was not the object. The pupils were
then taught simply to read, not to comprehend. They were too young to
understand the lesson, but would do so when they were older. This false and
pernicious error ran through every study. Lessons were put into the hands of a
child of eight years of age, which developed minds only could comprehend.

     TEACHERS AND TEACHING. It will be con-ceded that the teachers of that
day, as a class, were not competent to their work, nor their instruction
guided by any intelligent rules. They had been very imperfectly educated, and
could not teach others what they did not know them-selves. The very perfect
text-books of to-day supply largely the deficiencies of teachers ; but then
both teachers and text-books were deficient, and the result was what we have
described. But all the schools and teachers of the first generation were not
equally inefficient. There were in the hamlets and villages a few well
educated teachers, who were good instructors ; and fine scholars have
graduated
from even our early backwoods schools ; geniuses, whom no obstacles could
repress, and whose peculiar mental vigor led them on to conquer every obstacle
in their paths.

     The early school discipline was but a counter-part of the prevailing
errors of the time. It was mainly physical. The whip and the ferrule were as
constant companions to the teacher as the book, or the pen. The book in his
hand, the whip or ferrule under his arm, and the pen over his ear, all were
equally intended for use. The pupils were urged to be orderly and diligent by
pungent and often painful persuasion. A goodly store of well seasoned switches
was al-ways ready for extra occasions, when, as often happened, wholesale
floggings were to be inflicted. The whip in the hand of the teacher fell
frequently upon the mischievous or the idle, and generally without warning or
explanation. This impromptu discipline and the thorough preparation of the
teachers for offense or defense, created in many schools a state of merely
suspended warfare ; the relations between the teacher and the pupils being
essentially belligerent, and liable at any time to break out into open
warfare.

     In the teacher, therefore, strong physical pro-portions and firm courage
were very necessary to success. On the entrance of a new teacher, he would be
as carefully scanned as competitors in the prize ring, not to estimate his
mind, manners, or morals, but the power of his muscles, and the probable
chances of success if a conflict should arise.

     With young pupils the whip and the ferrule were supplemented by many
ingenious yet cruel devices, a gag in the mouth, a most barbarous punishment,
standing on one foot, holding an object in the extended or uplifted hand,
resting one hand and one foot upon the floor, holding a heavy weight in both
hands, the body inclined forward. These and many other cruel tortures which
the law forbids to be inflicted upon the felons in our prisons, were regularly
used for more than a generation in Cayuga County, to in-cite in children the
love of order, of books and of schools. Is their general failure a wonder ?
Incentives to study, as we have just shown, were mainly coercive, but
emulation and rewards were also employed ; emulation mainly confined to the
spelling exercises, and rewards to the primaries, place taking in spelling,
and
simple gifts to the small children. The post of honor, the head of the
spelling class, was eagerly sought for, and, in the absence of other proper
incentives, doubtless benefitted the brighter pupils, who usually would carry
off the palm ; but the less gifted were depressed by thus constantly
publishing their inferiority in the little community in which they daily
moved.

     Emulation was also employed in an interesting and exciting form in the
process termed " spelling down," an exercise still continued ; but the
greatest interest centered in the spelling schools of the time, which for the
lads and lasses, had connected with them more pleasant and endearing
associations than any or all of the other school exercises.

     Of all the studies pursued in our early schools, reading was the most
imperfectly taught. The unnatural, listless, drawling monotone in prose, or
the sing-song in poetry, was nearly universal. It was the result of a habit
formed in childhood, continued and confirmed in youth, and immovably fixed in
manhood. So general was this habit of expressionless reading that a good
reader was seldom heard. The schools tended only to form and fix tile habit,
and books and newspapers were so rare that home reading. except of the Bible,
was little practiced, and the idea that the Bible must be read in a peculiarly
solemn tone did not help to form good readers. Among the masses of the people
of this County for about a quarter of a century, good reading had nearly
become one of the "lost arts" It was, at least, but imperfectly preserved,
amid the rigid demands and privations of forest life.

     Arithmetic was better taught. Its utility was apparent to all, and every
boy was initiated into its mysteries, or rather its mummeries, for its
mysteries were seldom revealed. Its operations were largely mechanical, yet so
long and continuous was the drill that most of the boys could " do the sums "
as far as the " rule of three," be-fore they left school. Each pupil was
taught singly without classes or blackboards. Indeed, in 1842, there were but
two blackboards in the entire County. It was a slow and laborious operation
for the teacher to " work out" the various " sums " for the pupils on their
slates as models for them to imitate, for the progress was chiefly one of
imitation, the pupils, by long practice learning to follow their teacher's
model or method of solving the questions under the different " rules." "
Please show me how to do this sum ?" was a question constantly repeated in all
the early schools.

     It would be interesting to compare the copy-books and the facilities for
acquiring the art of writing, existing in our schools fifty to seventy-five
years ago, with those of to-day. The pupils came with home-made copy-books of
coarse, unruled paper, varying in quantity from one to a half dozen sheets,
home-made inks compounded of domestic dyes, a flat lead pencil formed of
hammered lead, a goose quill and a ruler. Ready-made writing books, ruled
paper and steel pens were yet in the future. Pens were " made" and copies "
set " by the teacher. " Please make" or " Please mend my pen," were regular
appeals to the teacher. In cold weather, the fire-place would, each morning,
be surrounded by ink-stands to thaw their frozen contents. The teachers
generally were clumsy penmen, and being changed every few months, there were
very few decent chirographers among the pupils.

     This rude condition of our popular schools was gradually changed. The
rapid increase of our population, averaging for the first thirty years more
than twelve hundred per year, led to a corresponding improvement in the means
and condition of the people. Hamlets and villages arose and educated men in
large numbers became residents of them. The professions and most of the
employments soon had in them men of liberal attainments, whose children were
to
be educated. Nearly all of this class were the organizers ,and patrons of
private schools, the popular schools not being at that time, in their
judgment, or in fact, worthy of intelligent patronage. Hence, though there
were a few educated and competent teachers thus employed in the instruction of
the children of the more intelligent, the public schools were still neglected,
and in them very little improvement was made.

     From 1789 to 1838, the State from time to time, from the sale of
lotteries, appropriations of public lands, and from revenues derived from
United States deposit funds and other sources, had been accumulating a fund,
the income of which was annually appropriated to the support of common
schools. This fund in 1838 amounted to over three-fourths of a million of
dollars. From the administration of Governor George Clinton, every Governor
and Secretary of State has advocated and recommended a liberal encouragement
of common schools, and laws for their internal administration have been
enacted, and from time to time changed. The first general law was passed in
1795. It appropriated $50,000 annually, for five years, to the support of the
common schools. Each county was required to raise by tax an amount equal to
one-half its distributive share of this sum, and town commissioners and
district trustees were authorized to be appointed. On this subject, at that
time, Governor Clinton said :

     "While it is evident that the general establishment and liberal
endowment of academies are highly to be commended and are attended with the
most beneficial results ; yet it cannot be denied that they are principally
confined to the children of the opulent, and that a great portion of the
community are excluded from their needed advantages. The establishment of
common schools throughout the State is happily calculated to remedy this
inconvenience, and will, therefore, engage your early and decided
consideration."

     The same liberal support was given to the common schools by Governors
Jay, in 1800, Clinton, in 1802, Lewis, in 1805, and Tompkins, during his
administration, and defects in the laws were sought to be corrected. In 1811 a
commission was appointed by the Legislature, consisting of five persons, to
revise the system of common school organization, whose report in 1812 was
adopted, and Gideon Hawley was appointed State Superintendent, which position
he held until 1821, when the Secretary of State was made ex-officio
Superintendent of Schools.

     But the practical operation of the school system of the State was far
from satisfactory. At-tempts were regularly made to correct defects. Eight
academies, one in each Senatorial district, were designated in 1835, for the
instruction of common-school teachers. District school libraries were
established in 1838 ; and in 1841 the supervision of the schools was confided
to Deputy or County Superintendents. In 1843 Town Inspectors and Commissioners
were superceded by one Superintendent of Schools in each town. A State Normal
School was organized in 1844, especially intended for the instruction of
common school teachers, and opened on the 18th of December following.

     The office of County Superintendent was continued for six years, and had
been the means of effecting important improvements in the schools, but the
appointments, made by the County Supervisors, were, in some instances,
injudicious, and the office was brought into disrepute and abolished in 1847,
against the earnest protest of the best friends of education in the State. It
was, however, practically restored in 1856, by the institution of the office
of School Commissioner, which is still continued. Free schools throughout the
State were established in 1849, the act being submitted to the people, by
three-fourths of whom it was approved. Its practical operation was found to
impose unequal taxation and a re-submission of the law to a popular vote was
demanded. In 1850 the vote was taken, and the law again sustained, but by a
lessened majority.

     The free school law was abolished the year following, and the provision
was made to raise $$800,000 annually, by State tax, which was afterwards
changed to a three-fourths mill tax, by which the country schools were mainly
relieved from rate bills. The establishment of free, union, or high schools
was permitted by law in 1853. There has, therefore, been no lack of interest
in education on the part of the State, and it has, from first to last,
liberally contributed to its support and advancement. But the great difficulty
has been amongst the people them-selves, as to the right use and application
of the means provided, and a lack of intelligent comprehension of the best
method of giving to their schools the highest efficiency.
Between 1830 and 1850 is the period during which thorough improvements in our
schools had their origin ; and the first important impulse was given by the
introduction of improved school books, prepared by intelligent educators. In
that period, also, the range of studies was greatly enlarged. Grammar,
geography, natural philosophy and algebra found their way into the common
schools, and chemistry, botany, astronomy, geology and mental and moral
philosophy, into our public high schools.

     Much of the credit of this reform must be con-ceded to that now
troublesome and importunate class, the authors and publishers of school books.
There was a great need of better books, and authors and publishers came in
swarms to supply it. Each author, or publisher, acting as critic of the
defects of rival books, and as instructor in the great method of teaching the
subjects embraced in his own. This gradually led to a more careful
consideration of the whole subject and was the first step in educational
reform.

     There was a coincident and great change in the educational literature
for children and youth, of which the "Peter Parley" and the "Abott's Books"
were examples, and of which millions of copies were sold, and whose influence
upon the young was most wholesome. S. G. Goodrich, the author of the Peter
Parley books, who wrote more books for youth than any other American, and who
has been called the " Napoleon of the Pen," gave, in four lines, the " Golden
Rules" which should be the guide of the educator, whether parent or
professional teacher.

"Begin with simple lessons-things
On which the children love to look; 
Flowers, insects, pebbles, birds on wings, 
These are God's spelling book."

     Between 1830 and 1850 was also the period during which education and the
best means for its improvement formed the great subject of discussion, in
which were engaged the ripest scholars and soundest educators of the age :
Emerson, Mann, Woodbridge, Alonzo Potter, David P. Paige, and scores of
others. They prepared masterly papers or books, which were widely disseminated
over the country, enlightening the public and leading to the institution of
the county supervision of our schools in 1841, the establishment of teachers'
institutes in 1842, of the State Normal School for the special training of
teachers, in 1844, followed by seven other similar institutions in different
parts of the State, and of provisions for the free education of all the youth
of the State a few years later.

     The county supervision of the public schools, established in 1841, was
the most efficient agency that had theretofore been employed to reform their
great deficiencies. The officers entrusted with this duty, became among the
people educational missionaries, carrying into all the schools the usages and
practices of the best educators and acting as the instructors of both teachers
and patrons. The people of the several districts were frequently convened, and
the wants and deficiencies of the schools and the means of sup-plying them
carefully pointed out. The teachers themselves were separately convened in
county meetings and practical teaching discussed. Regular teachers'
associations arose from these meetings and have been continued to the present
time, forming important links in the chain of reform ; but the limited time to
which these meetings were restricted, prevented a satisfactory consideration
of the various topics presented.

     Teachers' institutes were a direct and necessary outgrowth of these
associations in which the teachers of a county were held in an annual session
of about two weeks and carefully instructed by competent educators in the
science and art of teaching. The first teachers' institute in the State was
held in 1842. They were held in Cayuga County among the earliest, and at the
first three sessions there was an attendance of over five hundred teachers.
These institutes so enlisted the public favor that they have been regularly
maintained for the last thirty-five years, have been recognized, and in part
sustained by the State, and organized in most of the counties. They were held
in 1877 in fifty-five counties, at which there was an attendance of 11,892
teachers.

     In 1845, coincident with or very soon after the formation of teachers'
associations and institutes in the counties, the State teachers' association
was formed and has since been maintained.

     The County and State association and teachers' institutes were
accompanied by the organization in 1843, of a State Normal School, located at
Albany, and specially designed for the training of public school teachers. It
was so satisfactory in its results that it was afterwards followed by seven
similar institutions in other parts of the State, and they are to-day in
active and efficient operation. The free school system of the State and of its
cities and villages, was also the direct outgrowth of the educational activity
during the decade from 1840 to 1850.

     The results of all these agencies have been a. marvelous change in many
of the common and high schools of the State, and Cayuga County has not fallen
behind in the march of improvement. Her public schools, especially in the city
of Auburn and in the principal villages, that in 1840 were " a by-word and
reproach," not patronized by the wealthy and the intelligent, nor worthy of
it, are now the recipients of the patronage of all classes, and, for the right
instruction of children and youth, are, beyond question, the best schools in
the County. In the city of Auburn, the change has been the most marked and
decided, and is mainly due to the intelligent and persistent efforts of a few
devoted men, amongst whom C. P. Williams, long a teacher in the city and
officially connected with the administration of the schools holds a
conspicuous place. B. B. Snow, under whose quiet but thorough course as
superintendent for many years, the schools have constantly improved, deserves
special mention for the important aid which he has rendered and is rendering
in school reform.

     The board of education of the city, to whom, by law, are confided the
care and management of the schools, are so soon convinced of their efficiency
by personal inspection, as to lead them cheer-fully to adopt the measures
necessary to maintain it. The greatest improvement arose from the institution
of the academic high school, which is the rallying point of the hopes, and
goal of the ambition of all the grades below it. Few, in-deed, may enter it,
yet most of the pupils hope and strive to do so, and it is a constant
stimulant to all in the public schools. Much has been done for the improvement
of popular education in Cayuga County ; yet " eternal vigilance" is necessary
to maintain and perpetuate it.

(1) Millard Fillmore.