Book .W? W7 PRESENTED tN" A SON'S TRIBUTE PUBLISHED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION BY C. C. WOOLWORTH V Ube Icntcfterbocfter press NEW YORK 1920 vV ^^ Gift HAi 5 l«20 As I was coming into the hall this evening, I received a program and in it I found my ad- dress named, A Son's Tribute, I am grateful to whoever edited that title into the program. That tribute can never exaggerate the admiration, the affection, and the love of that son for that fa- ther. I never knew an act or heard a word of his that I would have preferred omitted, and I am glad of this appropriate opportunity to make these public declarations. Grace Chamberlain, daughter of Alfred Cham- berlain, later wife of Calvin Walrad, handed me this morning the Jubilee book of 1846, and as it goes back of what I have prepared, even to the first years of my father's work in the Academy, I will read from the historical sketch. "For the last sixteen years the school has enjoyed the effi- cient and successful superintendence of its present principal, and it is no more than a single act of justice to say that it is largely indebted for its commanding position to his untiring energy." This reference, with what follows, completes the sketch of Principal Woolworth's life here from 1830 inclusive to 1852. A SON'S TRIBUTE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY CALVIN C. WOOLWORTH AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF CORT- LAND ACADEMY, CELEBRATED AT HOMER, N. Y., JUNE, I919. I HAVE been asked for reminiscences of the early days of the academy and especially about my fa- ther. I can give a few details in response to the latter part of the invitation by reading from a letter to Dr. VanderVeer, Vice Chancellor of the Regents of the University of the State of New York — as follows : Buck Hill Falls, Pa., August 4, 19 17. Your frequent references to the character and work of my father have been very gratifying and I now want to tell you something of his earlier days. He was born in Bridgehampton, Long Island, in 1800, son of Rev. Aaron Woolworth, D.D. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1822. Then Principal of Monson Academy, Mass., 1822 to 1824. Then principal of Onondaga Academy, 1824 to 7 1830. Then principal of Cortland Academy from 1830 to 1852. He was Trustee of Hamilton CoV- lege from 1836 to 1880; President of the Board g)f Trustees of Hamilton College from 1874 to i88q>, and received from Hamilton the degree of LLX'i. He was the founder and the first President of the New York State Teacher's Association — 1847- 1848. In 1852 he became principal, at that time, of the first and only New York State Normal School at Albany. In 1 856-1 880 he was Secre- tary of the Board of Regents. He was the orig- inator of the Regent's questions, and of the summer convocations of the Regents. He died in Brook- lyn, N. Y., June 30, 1880, and was buried in Homer, July 3, 1880. Eighty years of life, sixty years of public ser- vice as an educator, an uninterrupted life work. It was a grave question whether he should make the change from his established work in the Acad- emy to the new and somewhat experimental Normal School, which had not entirely overcome the prejudice of the public. At Homer he left a school of very high char- acter, of about five hundred pupils. Five thousand pupils had passed under his care. The Academy a financial success, no debt, and some thousands of dollars in the treasury — and he was supported by a community of rugged, sturdy, honest people, who loved the Academy and were united in giving it their undivided support. 8 He once said to me, * * I never had any resistance to my plans, but was always careful to make no suggestions but such as were supported by com- mon sense." Homer, at that time a village of about 1500 people, was settled in the eighteenth century by emigration from New England, who in that beautiful valley, covered by a splendid forest, gradually opened up their farms and with in- dustry, frugality, and clean, honest living: — some- thing like Elihu Root's description in one of his recent addresses, where he says, *' There is a plain old house on the hills of Oneida, in the Mohawk valley, where in my youth truth and honor dwelt." Is it any wonder that such environments should produce such men as at Clinton, Elihu Root, and at Homer, as Andrew White, the Syrian Mis- sionaries, Henry Jessup and Samuel Jessup, Henry A. Nelson, D.D., who during the stormy days of the Civil War was the Union Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Saint Louis, Mo., and whose descendants are now missionaries in Syria, Edward Hitchcock, for many years pastor of the American Chapel in Paris, Theodore Munger; two United States Senators — James, or as we used to call him, Jim Nye of Nevada and Ira Harris, United States Senator for New York; his brother Hamilton Harris, who once said, "But for Cortland Academy we would both he plowing the Preble flats"; Dr. Stephen Smith, Lawrence McCully, 9 Chief Justice of the Sandwich Islands; Frank Carpenter and many other splendid men? The religious influences were important . All the denominations in the village — Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal — were united in love for the Academy, and the weekly winter evening meetings were generally conducted by Professor Gallup, professor of Latin and Greek, himself a Baptist, opening with his favorite hymn, "Alas and did my Saviour bleed," and frequently as- sociated with him was one or another of the clergymen, and in that old Academy lecture room the most solemn and tender atmosphere prevailed. Louis A. Miller, Professor of Mathematics, had risen from an uneducated blacksmith. He be- came interested in Mathematics and so absorbed was he in the subject that he mastered the French language that he might study the works of LaPlace on mathematical astronomy and finally mastered the subject to the solutions of Celeste, an achieve- ment rarely accomplished. He had never thought much of religion until he was finally so impressed with the infinite and majestic work of the Creator that he appeared in one of those evening meetings and undertook to tell how it had led to his conver- sion, and with a broken voice was compelled to sit down, overcome with emotion. This was about 1849, and I was recently de- scribing the event when one of my hearers — 10 Amelia Stone Quinton — said, "I was present and remember it perfectly." One of the Trustees of the Academy was that lovely Dr. Bradford, who as State Senator in about 1850, secured legislation for the relief of the County insane from their deplorable condition. The first movement of the kind and continued by Dr. Ste- phen Smith who has given so many of the ninety- seven years of his life in service for human welfare. He whom you knew as Principal Woolworth was universally beloved by the community and his pupils, and let me assure you these sentiments were appreciated and were reciprocated and he was al- ways glad to continue his interest in and assistance to the Academy from his position as Executive officer of the Regents. Andrew White's Biography says, "From the first the public care of the early settlers has been a church and second a school, and this school has been speedily developed into Cortland Academy, and as a boy of five or six years of age I was very proud to read on the cornerstone of the Academy my grandfather's name, Andrew Dickson, who was one of the original founders and not unlikely there came to my blood the strain which has led me since to feel that the building up of a goodly institution is more honorable than any other work. "An idea which was at the bottom of my efforts in developing the University of Michigan and the founding of Cornell University" (and let me here II add, that at the Cornell Commencement last week President Schurman announced that thirty thou- sand Cornell graduates were scattered throughout the world). "I shall never forget the awe that came over me when as a child I saw Principal Wool- worth with his best students around him on the green making astronomical observations through a small telescope." He wrote me in 1915 — "I wish to thank you especially for the memorial of your father, I have read it with especial interest on various accounts, partly for its historical value and partly for its re- vival of him in the days of his principalship in the little old town. In my early youth I held him in great respect, even awe, and of course not daring to make any near approach to him, but later when in the Senate at Albany I came to know him and prize his work with the Board of Regents. I recall with great pleasure meeting him at Cornell, at Union, and at Hamilton and his direct work for education throughout the whole state exercised an important influence happily felt in various other parts of the Union. ' ' I am glad to know that Elihu Root came under his influence and I presume that his father whom I used to know at Syracuse Academy, before he went to Hamilton owed some of the best features of his development to your father." Seymour Cook, Class of 1849, writes me from Whitewater, Wisconsin, "Your father was a model 12 instructor and a disciplinarian unequaled. The boys were full of mischief but with wonderful tact and experience he was more than a match for the brightest of them, and far better he retained their respect and love." But the boys were not always asleep and one Sunday morning, the distribution of signs the previous night had left a milliner's sign over our door and a blacksmith's sign over the door of Rev. Mr. Fessenden. One afternoon as all the pupils had gathered in the Academy Hall for the closing exercises they saw a lumber wagon on the stage and when Principal Wool worth came in he assumed not to notice it, but just at the close of the exercises he said, "Thomas Smith, Elliot Reed, John Coye (and others) — I wish you to remain after the dismissal." He then told them to replace the wagon where they found it. Homer has always been a clean, well-kept vil- lage and seems to get more attractive every year. And those beautiful acres on yonder hillside have not been neglected, where so many of our beloved — and in my case four generations of ancestors, de- scendents, and wife for fifty-seven years — are now awaiting the dawning of the resurrection morning. These Centennial festivities which we have been so generously invited to share have brought back many faces and memories of more than seventy years ago. It all fills me with emotions I cannot express. 13 Selections 15 looo Park Avenue, New York, December 8, 1919. My dear Cal. Woolworth : Inclosed I send you the substance of my remarks in regard to your Father with something addi- tional. If not suitable for your purposes let me know and will change it. I am glad you are about to memorialize your Father's life and work. I have not received the booklet which the Homer folk are to publish. Trusting you are well and with kind regards to your daughter, Sincerely yours, Stephen Smith. The Principal, Prof. Samuel B. Woolworth, had a State-wide reputation as a successful educator. His familiarity with the habits and social customs of the people peculiarly fitted him for the training of the sons and daughters of the communities of the Homer Academy District. He had a dignified personality and a reserved manner which enforced 17 strict compliance with the rules of the Academy and yet he was most genial and helpful when stu- dents sought his aid or advice in regard to their studies. I was impressed with his genial, social nature on my first attendance at a class recitation. I had studied the languages at home during the intervals of farm work and was not very well qualified to enter a class commencing reading Livy. But that was my classification and I entered the class of twelve students all of whom had studied Latin for two or three years. Our first lesson was, of course, the preface of the history, a page in length. I spent a day and night on its translation and construed only two or three sentences so as to be at all satisfactory. I entered the class greatly depressed and with the determination to request the Professor to transfer me to a less advanced class. At the head of the class was an advanced student of three years and the most intense interest was manifested by the class when he was requested to translate the first sentence. He failed entirely as did each successive member of the class. When the last failed the Professor construed the sentence into the most perfect English and with a few re- marks on the beauties of this remarkable piece of classical Latin dismissed the class. Quite unfamiliar with the rules of Academic etiquette I boldly followed the Professor to his i8 private room and entering without invitation, I said: ''Mr. Woolworth I don't see how you put these words together in such way as to make the sen- tence you gave us in such fine English." Smiling, probably at my boorish impertinence, he discoursed for several minutes on the peculiari- ties of the Latin construction of a sentence com- pared with the English. This explanation was so clear that I never had any trouble with Latin after that interview and soon began to construe correctly the difficult sentences which passed along the class. During the term the Professor was absent a week in New York attending a convention and when he left he assigned me to teach the next lower Latin class much to the annoyance of the older members of the first Latin class. FROM GRACE CHAM BERLIN WALRAD S HISTORICAL ADDRESS AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION No paper would be complete without a special mention of Principal Woolworth. From 1830 to 1852 Cortland Academy had a reputation not ex- celled by any similar institution. Principal Wool- worth was a man of rare ability, an excellent teacher, a good executive and possessed of that rare and much needed quality, tact. 19 Homer, N. Y., July 17, 1919. Mr. C. C. Woolworth, Lee, Mass. Dear Mr. Woolworth: I think it was in the winter of 1849 and 1850 that I attended the Homer Academy for a few weeks. I came from a very retired neighborhood about seven miles west of Homer village where my op- portunities for education were as limited as the very crude teaching of the common schools of those days made it necessary. While in Homer during that brief time, I was helped somewhat by having a little broader vision than before, and received some impressions from the large body of students gathered there and my observation of some of the teachers. Your father especially impressed me very much and I came to think he was a man of great wisdom and of true nobility, and with me he was an ideal man. As he used to read the Scriptures in the morning before the body of students, which I should think was three or four hundred, his selections of those beautiful psalms and other selections, coming from those lips were never quite so beautiful and so in- spiring. I have always cherished the memory of him as he used to look on those occasions and the fact that he represented noble things — that he stood for religion, morality, and righteousness has always been fresh in my thought and an encour- agement to always be true to the best things. 20 I have no doubt but that he was regarded by the mass of the students much the same as I regarded him, and any opposition to the principal of the school would have brought ignominy and disgrace on the part of any pupil or combination of pupils. When we consider the many thousand students that came under his care, we must come to the con- clusion that his influence extended far and wide. I think I received more benefit from my personal knowledge of Dr. Woolworth and the conception I formed of his character and life than I did from the teaching of the schoolroom during my brief stay. I am very glad of this opportunity to express my very high appreciation of your father and my obli- gation to him. Very cordially yours, E. G. Ranney. FROM LLOYD GLOVERS ADDRESS AT THE CORTLAND ACADEMY, JUBILEE, 1846 Here within the influence of Cortland Academy I formed many friendships and acquaintances which even now I should be pained to have broken. On the morning of my departure from this village I took the hand of our principal to bid him adieu. He gave me his recommenda- tion and I then resolved that I would never 21 dishonor it or the precepts which he had taught me. FROM THE ** FAMILY MAGAZINE," 1 838 Cortland Academy has been for some time one of the most flourishing institutions of its kind in the State. It has six teachers (four gentlemen and two ladies) and as many departments. The course of study pursued in this institution is de- signed to present a thorough preparation for ad- mission to colleges and for active business in the various spheres in which the youth of our country are called to act. It is furnished with a valuable philosophical and chemical apparatus, an extensive and valuable cabinet of minerals and geological specimens and a library. Lectures are delivered on chemistry, natural history, and geology. The healthful situation of the institution, the very few inducements to vice, the moral character of the community, and the assiduous attention of the teachers to the duties devolving on them, exert a very favorable and manifest influence over the habits of the student. This institution was founded February 2, 1819. The whole number of students who attended during the year ending December, 1836 was 366 — males, 211; females, 155. S. B. WooLWORTH, A.M., Principal. 22 HOMER ACADEMY, CENTURY RECORD A s Reviewed by the State Department oj Education The following communication from Albert Van- der Veer, M.D., the venerable vice chancellor of the board of regents, University of the State of New York, was read by Mrs. E. W. Hyatt at the opening meeting of the Homer academy centenary celebration, June 25th, and is so interesting and informing to friends of Homer's splendid academy, that it deserves a place in these columns, as many were not privileged to hear it on that occasion : To the President and Trustees of the Cortland Academy and Union School : You are celebrating the one hundredth anni- versary of the founding of an institution whose work has been far above the average. The Cort- land academy was incorporated by the board of regents more than a century ago, the charter being dated February 2, 18 19. No one can estimate the value of the history recorded and the loyal support of the students who have been in attendance dur- ing this period of time. Naturally there have been seasons of disappointments, periods of real anxiety, yet, withal, there have been great successes, or to-day you would not be here assembled to nar- rate these facts, and to fraternize with each other. All of these successful periods of public school 23 life were the great arteries of reproduction and growth of the educational interests of this country, and go back to the establishment of the first com- mon school, in 1633. The University of the State of New York was organized in 1784, by act of the State legislature. In that period of time there had been established within the territory of New York several elemen- tary schools, a few secondary schools, and King's College, now Columbia University. Originally the board of regents did not have jurisdiction over the elementary or common schools, although in various reports to the legislature, as early as 1787, they suggested the establishment of such schools; how- ever, not until 18 12 and 1813 was provision made for a State system of common schools. It may be said the first State system of education was inaug- urated in this act. It was now to be noticed that the educational work of New York State became vested in two bodies, i. e., the regents of the university and the superintendent of common schools ; the former hav- ing jurisdiction over academies and the higher in- stitutions, the latter the elementary and secondary schools. On so important an occasion as this it is but natural you should turn to the legal authority that watched over your early birth, development, growth, and maintenance, and that has ever been your steadfast guide and friend. It has been my good fortune to meet and mingle 24 with some of the graduates who have gone out from this institution, particularly among the mem- bers of the medical profession. I have known some of the teachers, and had a delightful, long acquaintance with one of the many able, earnest principals who have brought this school to its pre- sent high standing. I refer to that eminent educa- tor. Dr. Samuel B. Woolworth, your teacher and principal from 1830 to 1852. I met Dr. Wool- worth some years after he came to Albany, and our friendship continued very closely up to the time of his death. He told me much relating to this in- stitution, and it must be recognized that while he was here was evolved the idea of supplying teach- ers for our common schools, by the development of the normal school, first to make its appearance in Albany, and in which he at one time occupied the position of president. Under the twenty-one years of his principalship this institution you are honoring to-day ranked among the foremost academies of the State. It has retained in a great measure its prominence in classics for which the **old line" academies were distinguished, and, as a result, has probably sent as large a number of well-trained students to the colleges of New York and New England as any academy of the State. It is interesting to refer to the early reports of the academy. In 1846 there were 338 students reported during the year, 137 of whom had pursued classical and higher studies 25 for at least four months. Three years later the attendance had increased to 480, of whom 238 were pursuing classical or higher studies. In 1851, the last year of Dr. Woolworth's principalship, an at- tendance of 575 was reported with 286 pursuing the classics or higher English, notwithstanding the fact that a tuition of five dollars per term was charged; perhaps the pecuniary demands for tui- tion may have been mitigated by the fact that board was procurable for from $1 .50 to $2 per week. In 1839 Dr. Woolworth reported the organiza- tion of a department for the education of teachers under the act requiring every academy in the re- ceipt of more than seven hundred dollars from the literature fund to establish such a department. Students were charged fifteen dollars per annum for tuition though "no student will be debarred from the advantages of this department by in- ability to pay the tuition." In 1840, forty-one young men were reported as taking the course and thirty-six engaged in teaching "with decided suc- cess." The idea of the State Normal School pledges seems to have originated here, as in 1842 it was decided to furnish gratuitous instruction to one young man from each town in the county, in order that they might become professional teachers and they were required to subscribe to the pledge to teach "some common school" for at least one year after leaving the department. 26 But it was more particularly as secretary of the board of regents that I knew Dr. Woolworth so intimately in educational affairs. His belief in the good work of such an institution as the Homer Academy never faltered, and I feel that the suc- cess that has been sufficient to carry you through a period of one hundred years is largely due to his sincere interest and unwavering loyalty. From the beginning of your charter in 1819 many able minds were giving thought to the educational in- terests of this country, particularly in the State of New York. When we look back it seems a long time required for the development of our educational system, and we find recorded many efforts made for a higher education than that afforded by the common school, hence we see the bringing into existence of academies, seminaries, private, select, and boarding schools. Of the latter many were but too plainly built on the hope of commercial success, but, in 1850, and for a few years following that, there was a greater effort for systematic educational instruc- tion, through the organization of such institutions as yours. In 1854 ^^6 3,ct to develop a State department of public instruction evolved two distinct lines of educational interests, and between these two more or less friction continued. Dr. Woolworth was intensely interested in the work of this period and believed that in time there would be a consolida- 27 tion such as would encourage and care for the academies and institutions of higher educational work but this was not consummated until 1904, when the matter was happily adjusted, and Dr. Andrew S. Draper made commissioner of educa- tion. To-day, the High School, under that great act of legislature that provided union free schools, has observed and perhaps cared for in a more system- atic manner, the education of our youth than was followed out by the institutions to which I have previously referred, and which came into existence during the first and beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1850 there were about 165 academies report- ing to the regents. In i860, probably the maxi- mum year, there were about 175 such academies. From this time on the number declined. In 1870 there were about 140; in 1875, about 125; in 1880, about 95; and in 1884 about 84. At present there are less than twenty-five of these "old line" acad- emies in existence, and who are doing such work as enables them to be classed among the successful schools of the State. The schools under the laws in Handbook 24, issued by our State board of regents, and now listed as academies, are schools of quite a different type from the so-called ' ' old line' ' academies. The latter, in a large sense, was a part of the public school system of the State. The charter of each of 28 these institutions provided that the funds of the institution "should never be used for any other purpose than for public academic instruction." The present list of academies is made up mostly of institutions that are either purely private institu- tions, operated for financial gain, or parochial schools. As I have stated, the main reason for the decline of the "old line" academy was the development of the public high school. A large proportion of the "old line" academies were taken over by the public schools and some of them still maintain the old name, although they are purely high schools. What an atmosphere of pride and credit is yours on this important day ! Those of you who gather here, and, perhaps, have not visited the old school in many years, salute each other with an energy that comes from the kind of thoughts that have been maintained in your lives, the high standard of intelligence, and the desire for the continuance of the wholesome instruction that came to you in your dear old Alma Mater. You are to be congratulated, but the word seems hardly sufficiently emphatic. The impressions made upon you result from the good you have seen follow the carrying out of the sturdy, healthy ideas that were inculcated in your minds when here as students. In the board of regents of the Uni- versity of the State of New York you have had loyal supporters. You have been faithful in teach- 29 ing and carrying out loyally the many suggestions that have been made to you by Dr. Wool worth, and others, up to and including our present presi- dent and commissioner, Dr. John H. Finley. Homer is honored by being the birthplace of Andrew D. White, and I believe it was but a short time preceding his death that his birthday was spent at his childhood's home. After a long life of honors here and elsewhere Dr. Woolworth lies in the place he loved so well. It is the wish of the board of regents to see the high standing you have maintained continue, in- creasing the educational advantages you are able to offer, through the generosity of the endowments of old, successful graduates, and by your various friends, for, in the additional courses that are now required in physics, biology, chemistry, etc., greater demands will be made upon your resources. Your teaching must be broad and thorough, not only in preparation of the man of agricultural and industrial life, and the man of business, but for the man or women who enters upon the various pro- fessions, who in after years will look back with comfort and joy upon the early, strong founda- tion of knowledge he has gained within your walls. Albert VanderVeer, M.D., Vice Chancellor, Board of Regents, University of the State of New York 30 FROM THE HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE STATE NOR- MAL COLLEGE, READ AT THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY IN ALBANY, 1 894 Samuel B. Woolworth, LL.D. was elected prin- cipal September 20, 1852. He had been many years in charge of the Homer, N. Y., Academy, in which he had made a reputation known and ac- knowledged throughout the State. He was a po- tential factor in the school for twenty-eight years, for when he resigned, February i, 1856, it was to become secretary of the board of regents and so a member of the executive committee in charge of the school. He thus remained the most active man in its management until his lamented death in 1880. FROM THE ADDRESS OF ANSON J. UPSON, CHANCEL- LOR OF THE REGENTS AT THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE ALBANY STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, ALBANY, 1 894 Samuel Buel Woolworth, a graduate of Hamilton College, the successor of Dr. Perkins in 1852, brought to this Normal School, from Onondaga valley and from Homer, New York, the knowledge and experience of a teacher of twenty-eight years. He had made teaching the business of his life. And among the lessons in education that he had 3J learned before he came to Albany was the pre- eminent importance of classification in the organ- ization of a large school. Before his time in most of the academies of this State, perhaps, necessarily, the work of the teachers was interchangeable. In the Cortland Academy, at Homer, he had insisted upon what seems to us now to be axiomatic — a thorough and fixed division of labor, appointing teachers who each devoted his whole time to a single department, he himself, as principal, super- vising all. His success in this arrangement was so marked that he gained a public confidence which he brought with him to this city. * * Under his influ- ence a reorganization of this school was effected, the departments of instruction were made more distinct and teachers of liberal culture, acknowl- edged ability, and successful experience were se- cured for each department." Legislative hostility had been aroused against the school, but before Dr. Woolworth resigned, in 1855, such had been the effect of his wisdom, sagac- ity, and varied knowledge of men and things, that the confidence of the public had been completely restored. We remember Dr. Woolworth as the laborious, capable, and acceptable secretary of the Regents of the University ; but as a principal of this school he did enough to secure for himself a lasting re- membrance. As he was my dear friend for many years, you will permit me here to repeat the words 32 which I wrote at his death. The lapse of fourteen years has only increased my conviction of their unqualified truth. "Faithful in duty, with broad views of educational administration, suggestive, sagacious, energetic, and public-spirited, he greatly promoted the advancement of academic and col- legiate education in this State; we would cherish affectionately the memory of his useful and hon- ored life and would imitate his unostentatious and beneficent example." By Reverend Henry A. Nelson y D.D.jin "Home and Abroad,'' published by the Presbyterian Board of Home and Foreign Missions HOMER ACADEMY The May number of the Church At Home and Abroad has the following in reference to the Old Academy at Homer: "Nothing in the pages of the Church At Home and Abroad interests me more than the things about colleges and academies. I was right glad, when the church started the new Board, that it was not to be for colleges only, but for academies too. I like that old name 'academy.' When I was a boy, that sort of high schools was more com- mon than they are now. They were founded and managed by Christian people. Their teachers 33 were Christian men and women. They had Chris- tian prayers, with reading the Bible and singing Christian hymns, and many of the teachers were very earnest and faithful and persevering in trying to lead their pupils to Christ. Often they were successful. One of the best of that sort of schools that ever I knew was at Homer, in Cortland County, in the State of New York. Likely there were many more just as good, but I went to that when I was a boy, and I shall never stop thanking God for the good teachers and good teaching which I had there. Sometimes I rang the bell, and built the fires, and swept the rooms for my tuition. Sometimes I boarded myself, as many of the boys and girls did. We would have a room in the vil- lage, and fetch our food in baskets, once a week, from our farm homes, several miles away. This made it very cheap. The academy had a wonder- ful influence in making the farmers' children all around want to get an education. Ira Harris, a United States Senator from New York, when a boy lived about ten miles from Homer, and he went there to school. After he became an eminent man I once heard him say, ' If it had not been for Homer Academy, so near my home, I should never have been anything more than a second-rate farmer on Preble Flats.' Now, I don't want you to think that it was only the boys that got to be senators who thank God for that old academy. The boys that stayed farmers did not stay second-rate f arm- 34 ers. Mr. Woolworth's lectures on chemistry were worth more to our farms than all the 'plaster of paris' we hauled from Syracuse. Better yet, there came to be more intelligence and more character in the families that lived on these farms, by a great deal, than there ever could have been without that blessed old Academy. I hope Mr. Ganse will get ever so many such in the new States and Terri- tories. Wherever he goes if he will inquire whether anybody lives there that ever went to school in Homer Academy, I reckon he will be surprised to see how often he will find them. In Omaha, for instance, let him just inquire for a lawyer by the name of Wool worth, and ask him if he is any rela- tion to the Woolworth that used to be principal of Homer Academy, and who was afterwards Secre- tary of the Board of Regents of the State of New York. He died in a good old age, and was carried to his grave in the old Homer burying ground by his own manly sons. ' ' How I love to remember Principal Woolworth's lovely and encouraging ways of teaching. How plain he made the hard things in our lessons, and how interesting the dull things! How ashamed he made us of mean things and foolish things! How grand he made it seem to be useful ! Almost daily, at chapel prayers, he would pray, 'Let it never be true of any of us that the world is not better for our having lived in it. Help us to fill up our lives with usefulness and with duty. ' Many of 35 his pupils in more than one C9untry, and in many professions, are trying to do that. Blessed Old Homer Academy ! The world is not a little better for its having been in it. "Farmerson." 36 \