THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
A HISTORY OF
THE GERMANTOWN ACADEMY
o
A
HISTORY
OF THE
GERMANTOWN
ACADEMY
PUBLISHED UPON THE
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE SCHOOL'S FOUNDING
I 9 I o
PRESS OF
S. H. BURBANK & CO.
PHILADELPHIA
Educatfofl
Library
1501
TO
WILLIAM KERSHAW
MAKER OF THE GERMANTOWN ACADEMY OF TODAY
THIS HISTORY OF ITS EARLIER DAYS IS
DEDICATED BY HIS BOYS
SSl'*'^ o
4 .JL^
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
I The Founding of the School i
II The Opening of the School, Aug. io, 1761 35
III David James Dove and Pelatiah Webster,
1761-1766 59
IV The Years of Pre-Revolutionary Unrest,
1 766-1 774 87
V The Revolution, i 774-1 783 95
VI "The Public School of Germantown,"
1 784-1 793 ^°7
VII In the Yellow Fever Year, 1793 i^9
VIII "The Academy," i 794-1799 ^26
IX The Decline of the German School,
1 800- 1 809 138
X A Period of Educational Experiments,
1810-1820 H5
XI The Principalships of John M. Brewer and
Walter Rogers Johnson, i 820-1 826 i55
XII A Critical Period, 1826-1860 166
XIII The Last Years of the Old Regime,
1860-1877 ^^7
Speeches 207
Our Educational Institutions 209
The University of Pennsylvania 212
The Protestant Episcopal Academy 214
Penn Charter School 217
Founding of The Germantovi^n Academy 22i
Pen Portraits of the Academy 239
Public Education 251
Appendix — The Roll-call of Trustees, Teachers and
Alumni 259
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Germantown Academy in 1910 Frontispiece
The Green Tree Inn Facing Page i
The First Subscription for the Building of
THE SCHOOLHOUSE BETWEEN PaGES 34-35
Hilarius Becker Facing Page 40
Caricature of Dove Page 56
A Personal Letter from Dove to Wharton
Facing Page 72
Charles Mifflin's Bill for Schooling
Between Pages 84-85
Germantown Academy Buildings from the
Playground, 1910 Facing Page 193
Dr. William Kershaw Facing Page 202
Germantown Academy Boys in Battery A,
U.S.V. Taken in Porto Rico, 1898
Facing Page 225
INTRODUCTION
THIS book is a history of the Germantown
Academy from the time the thought of the
school took form in the minds of the
citizens of colonial Germantown until the
principalship of Dr. William Kershaw. The committee
in charge of its publication believe that the boys,
graduated at the school during his headmastership,
have taken as prominent a part in the life of their
town and state and country, as those graduated
during the principalship of any other man. It
would have been pleasant, indeed, to chronicle their
years in the school and in affairs, and to discuss the
educational methods of Dr. Kershaw ; but the com-
mittee have felt that this period is still incomplete, that
its oldest boys have but come to the fulness of their
life-work ; and, as recording history in the making is
always unsatisfactory, the committee have decided to
leave the account of the years 1877 — 19 10 to younger
hands. The committee have felt, too, that as the story
of the school in this generation is a household word in
Germantown there is the less need of recording it now.
In the time at their disposal the Committee have
found it impossible to make this history as full as they
would like. No one can be more aware than they how
much more research remains to be done, especially in
the investigating of the biographies of the graduates
of the school. It is in this respect, indeed, that most
school histories fall short, and the committee feel that
in a school with so long and honorable a history as
ours a matriculate catalogue is as necessary as in a col-
lege. Not until such a catalogue is compiled can there
be written a history of the Germantown Academy
which will fully reveal the contribution of its students
in the development of their country.
In science, both pure and applied, especially in
medicine, for which our city is so famous, the boys of
the school have, many of them, won renown. In the
law, in the ministry, and in the profession of teaching
the graduates of the school have had more than their
proportion of success. In literature and the arts, too,
they have made their mark. In business their names
are among those of the men that have largely attained;
and in public service, both civil and military, German-
town Academy boys have done their part.
The committee is indebted to many for help with
this book: first of all to the late Rev. William Travis,
for his "History of the Germantown Academy"
(1882), which has made easier the way for this history;
and second to Mr. Joseph Jackson, whose knowledge
of old Philadelphia is so extensive, for his research in
behalf of the committee among the school records and
in the library of the Historical Society. Acknowledge-
ment for much aid is due to Mr. R. L. Perot, whose
list of the matriculates of the school is appended; to
Mr. Reed Morgan and to the Rev. Ellison Perot for
theirAlumni Catalogue; to Mr. Harrold E.Gillingham,
whose manuscript material concerning the history of
the school has been freely drawn upon, especially for
the list of teachers and trustees; to Mr. Charles F.
Jenkins, who has read the proofs and corrected them
out of his large knowledge of the history of German-
town; and to Mr. E. I. H. Howell, Captain W.
Franklyn Potter and Dr. Alfred C. Lambdin for
reminiscences of school days and school fellows.
Everett H. Brown, Chairman
Horace M. Lippincott
Guernsey Moore
Sheldon F. Potter, Jr.
Cornelius Weygandt
F. Churchill Williams
ODE
In Commemoration of the One Hundred and
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding
of Germantown Academy
Bell in the belfry-tower !
That hurried our steps to school —
Crown of the ancient rule !
That wast more than a symbolled power —
Walls of Time-touched grey !
That our boyish fingers have crumbled —
Again we come thy way
In a pageant of honor — humbled.
Humbled in praise and song
As humbled in pride and might,
For the days on thy threshold were light,
But the days since our going are long;
In the maze of the march we are blind,
And thou seem'st but a glimmer, a phase —
And our vaunting of strength were as wind
And as wind our outpouring of praise.
Yet what of gladness and pleasure
(Remembering thy days of our youth)
That the sower of mysteries, Truth,
Has culled us in gradual measure
From her thunderous seed-lands of Law,
We bring to this singing-time,
That again we may see as we saw
When we raced to thy belfry-chime.
To-day thou art honoured with years !
With the praise of times that are fled !
O what is there left to be said
That the ghosts of our elder peers, —
Whose feet wore thy door-stone down
When the hand of the king reigned here
In that sign of a rusty crown, —
Knowing not, should come back to hear?
Thou art old with the spirit of Youth,
Thou art young with the raiment of Age,
Thou hast Legend for panoplage,
Thou walkest the ways of Sooth ;
In thyself thou art full of state.
To those of thy breast thou art known :
That Mother is truly great
Who is noble unto her own.
Now we turn to thee with men's eyes,
Knowing thee what thou art —
Keeper of boyhood's heart
From the after-thorns of surprise !
Buckler of boyhood's mind
'Gainst the windy arrows of doubt
Which the chance of a day can unbind,
Yet the task of a hfe not rout.
Now we turn to thee with men's eyes,
Who are more of the child each day.
Lo ! our playthings are taken away,
But we do not learn to be wise.
Yet thou in us art fulfilled,
In our orchard of deeds is thy fane ;
Thou seest in us soil tilled,
In thee we see childhood again.
Bell in the belfry-tower —
Crown of the ancient rule —
Grey walls of the grey old school —
Mystic and cherished dower
From the mind of boy to the man.
From the heart of youth to age.
From the time when light laughter ran
To this harvest of heritage.
Wilton Agnew Barrett
Class of 1905
H
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A HISTORY OF
THE GERMANTOWN
ACADEMY .
CHAPTER I
Founding the School
THE Germantown Academy was born of that
alliance of German Sectarian and British
Friend that has given Pennsylvania so much
that is worthy and substantial. It was founded
as a Union School, and long before it was known as
" The Academy," and even before it was known as
" The Public School of Germantown " it was " The
Germantown Union School." The first entry in the
minute book of the Board of Trustees tells how large
and tolerant and reconciling, how truly union in spirit,
was the purpose of its foundation. "At a meeting of
several of the inhabitants of Germantown, and places
adjacent," runs the first minute, "at the house of
Daniel Mackinett, in said town, on the 6th day of
December, 1759, it was unanimously agreed upon by
those present that a large, commodious school-house
should be erected in said town, near the centre thereof,
two rooms on the lower floor whereof should be for
the use of English and High Dutch, or German
A History of The Germantown Academy
Schools, and be continued for that use, and no other,
forever ; and that there should be convenient dwellings
built for the schoolmasters to reside in." At this first
meeting to inaugurate the movement a Committee was
appointed " to promote and procure subscriptions of
all such well-affected and generous persons, as were
willing to contribute to and assist in said undertaking."
It may be assumed that the members of this Committee
either were present in person or had authorized the
use of their names for any service they could give the
new undertaking. These were Christopher Meng,
Christopher Sauer, Baltus Reser, Daniel Mackinett,
John Jones, Charles Bensell and Daniel Endt. Whether
Joseph Galloway was present we have no means of
determining, but at the meeting for organization in
the January following he was chosen one of the first
trustees.
There were at that time at least two schools well
established in Germantown, the school of the Friends'
Meeting and the German school taught by Hilarius
Becker, or Baker, as the name subsequently appears in
Philadelphia history. At that time it was customary
in the German settlements for such churches as main-
tained an ordained clergyman, to have him also act as
schoolmaster, and there well may have been other
schools of this sort in Germantown.
It was evident the proposed Union School was to
be of a higher grade than those intended to inculcate
a rudimentary knowledge of the three R's. If such
higher education was desired, however, it was already
within reach at the College of Philadelphia, although
it should be borne in mind that Germantown was
Founding the School
farther from Philadelphia in 1759 than it now is,
when the time to be considered in travelling between
the two places is taken into consideration, and when
the means of transport at the disposal of a traveller
then and now are also included in the measuring calcu-
lation. It does not anywhere appear that the children
of the town were being neglected so far as school
training was concerned, but it is patent that the higher
branches desired were to be obtained only at an insti-
tution for whose management neither Friends or
German Sectarians felt sympathetic attraction. While
the Friends maintained an Academy of their own, the
most ancient in the Province, its scope was far more
limited than that of the College and Academy of
Philadelphia. But the sponsors for the latter repre-
sented a party that had grievously offended the
Friends and had given that offence continuously. The
Quaker or Assembly Party still held the whiphand in
the exciting political situation in Pennsylvania, and it
is not difficult to imagine that the Friends in German-
town and in Philadelphia should be willing to lend
assistance in the establishment of a High School that
might be destined to rival the Proprietary Academy in
the capital. By such a move they might be able to
pay off old scores on the Provost and the Episcopalian
Party, and assuredly they would strengthen themselves
with the Germans whose votes kept them in power.
It was the part of good politics to do this, and the
early Friends in Pennsylvania, in a quiet way, were
often able politicians.
In December, 1759, Christopher Sauer, the first of
that name, the many-sided man who was as definitely
A History of The G ermantown Academy
the dominant political power among his fellow country-
men in the Province as any state leader of the present
time who can be named, had been dead over a year.
But his son, who bore the same name, lived, and as he
advanced the printing and publishing business estab-
lished by his father, he also was sufficiently in sympathy
with the public undertakings in which his father had
been interested to take them up, where the able hand
of the old printer had laid them down, and carry them
onward to success. It is not at all unlikely that the
elder Sauer had, before his death, spoken of the possi-
bility of success in establishing a High School for
Germans in the town, although he did not give his
approval to such higher education as was given at the
College and Academy of Philadelphia. What he did
desire, however, was that the children of German
Colonists might be taught in the tongue of their
fathers; not only in the elements but in higher studies,
that, although they might have been born and brought
up in Pennsylvania, they might still be as German as if
their lives had been passed in the Fatherland.
Christopher Sauer the second, who was one of the
representative Germantowners who took part in the
meeting at Mackinett's hostelry, was at that time a
Bishop of the Church of the Brethren, commonly
called, in those days, Dunkards. He was born in Ger-
many, probably at Halle, and was ten years old when
his father brought him first to Germantown in 1731.
At the period when he was taking an active part in
formulating plans for the Union School he was in his
thirty-ninth year. Eleven years before he became a
minister in the Dunkard Church in Germantown, and
Founding the School
in 1753 he had become a bishop. For a year or
two before his father's death he had been very active
in the pubhshing business, and in 1756 we find that he
issued " The Nature and Design of Christianity
Extracted from a Late Author." This book bore the
imprint, " Christopher Sauer, Junior, Germantown,"
but succeeding publications from the same press bore
only the long-familiar name without the distinguishing
appendix. The Sauer home and printing establish-
ment occupied the site of what now is 5253 Main
Street. The second Christopher Sauer established
the first type foundry in America in 1772-73, but in
another property owned by him, the house now num-
bered 5300 Main Street, the parsonage of Trinity
Lutheran Church. He is also noted as a paper
maker, and issued the second and third editions of the
Bible in 1763 and 1776, years before the first edition
of the Scriptures in English was published in this
country. From the Sauer press came forth mainly
religious books and almanacs, although from it issued
the first work on school methods published in this
country.
That the first Christopher Sauer had devoted some
attention to education is proved by his intense interest
in the successful methods of Christopher Dock, who
has been termed " the pious schoolmaster of the Skip-
pack." Dock for a long period held school also in
Germantown on certain days, as well as in Skippack,
and Sauer became so much interested in the schoolmas-
ter's art that he induced him to write for him a small
volume explaining his methods. After considerable
persuasion Dock agreed, and finally handed the manu-
A History of The Germantown Academy
script to the Germantown publisher, but not before
the latter had sought the influence of Dielman Kolb,
the Mennonite minister in Salford, where Dock also
preached, and had promised the book should not be
printed until after Dock's death. Former Governor
Pennypacker, who has translated this treatise, is
responsible for the story that while the manuscript
reached Sauer in 1750, the essay in its entirety did not
appear until nineteen years afterwards, or until the
first Sauer had been in his grave eleven years. At one
time the manuscript was mislaid, and Sauer, through
his newspaper, offered a reward for its return.
Although undiscovered by him, it was in his posses-
sion at the time. The little book, now quite rare,
bore the title : " Eine Einfaeltige und Gruendlich
abgefasste Schul-ordnung darinnen deutlich vorges-
tellt wird, auf welche weisse die Kinder nicht nur in
denen in Schulem gewoehnhchen Lehren bestens,
angebracht sondern auch in der Lehre Gottseligkeit
wohl unterrichtet werden moegen aus Liebe zu dem
menschlichen Geschlecht aufgesetzt durch den wohler-
farnen und lang genebten Schulmeister Christopher
Dock : und durch einige Freunde des gemeinen
Bestens dem Druck nebergeben. Germantown, Ge-
druckt und zu finden bey Christoph Saur, 1770."
The printed book, a copy of which is in the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, consists of 54
small octavo pages, and four of these are devoted to
" Kinder-Liedlein." That part of the book which has
been called the hundred necessary rules of conduct
appeared in Sauer's magazine in 1764, and the quaint
way in which Dock has amplified the Decalogue is of
6
Founding the School
the greatest interest, and might be followed with good
results were they still taught in the Mennonite school-
master's homely way. The manuscript of this little
book having been in Sauer's possession many years
before the time seemed ripe for a modern school in
Germantown, seems to be an indication that the
scheme for its establishment had long been on the
mind of the elder Sauer. Upon the appearance of the
Rev. Michael Schlatter, the agent of the Rev. Dr.
William Smith and his party in their effort toward the
anglicization of the Pennsylvania Germans, and what
the Germantown printer must have regarded as inter-
ference by the Society for the Propagation of Christi-
anity among his fellow colonists, it may be imagined
that more than ever he desired to show the Proprietary
Party the independence of the Germans, and their
ability to establish and support their own schools in
their own way. For such ambitious plans, however,
the time was not yet ripe, and the printer died without
seeing his scheme actually tried.
Daniel Mackinett's(or Mackenet, as the name some-
times is encountered) was the most popular public
house in Germantown, and it continued, as the Green
Tree tavern down into the nineteenth century, when
it became noted for the cheer sleighing parties found
there, and for the Widow Mackinett's cuisine. The
building was erected in 1748, and was maintained by
its builder, Daniel Pastorius, as a hostelry until his
death in 1754. Mackinett is believed to have married
his widow, and ten years later, she appears to have
been widowed for a second time. Contemporary
chronicles of the Battle of Germantown allude to the
A History of The Germantown Academy
"Widow Mackinett's Tavern," and describe how
General Wayne's forces had penetrated thus far into
the town. When Lafayette visited Germantown in
1825 the Green Tree was still there, and what was
more interesting, a Mackinett was its master. The
house, however, was found too small for the dinner it
was desired to give in his honor, so this feast was given
at Cliveden, the house of the Chews.
This Mackinett, who gave his assistance and, no
doubt, the best room in his inn for the purpose of
assisting the projected school, evidently was a public-
spirited man, and a skillful innkeeper. There is every
indication that he was one of those rare, useful, tireless
and enterprising men who are in evidence where an
organization is successful. Mackinett worked like a
beaver on the committee on subscriptions, and when
account was taken of the amounts subscribed, it was
found that the largest return — more than one-third the
total — was made by the innkeeper. He was advisedly
elected one of the first trustees.
The Christopher Meng, who is mentioned as one
of the Committee, was John Christopher Meng, a
native of Manheim, Germany, where he was born in
1697. ^^ ^7^3 ^^ married Anna Dorothea Baumannin
von Elsten, and five years later came to this country
and settled in Germantown. With him he brought a
certificate from his pastor in Germany testifying that
the worthy " Burgher and Stone-mason," and " his
honorable housewife," had been faithful in their relig-
ion. He settled on part of what is now Vernon Park,
and his son, John Melchior Meng, became noted for
his collection of trees and shrubs and flowers. They
Founding the School
occupied a comparatively modest home on Main
Street, but when the City of Philadelphia came into
possession of the property for park purposes, this
ancient building was razed. It has been suggested
that Meng was the architect and builder of the
Academy building, and it may well have been so, for
it was customary in those times for the stone-mason to
design as well as erect structures. The architect, as
we know him, excepting in some historic instances,
was in those days generally either the builder, or a
person connected with the building trades. At other
times the designs were the exhibition of talented
amateurs, such as those of Christ Church, and the old
State House in Philadelphia.
Not a great deal is known of Baltus Reser, who
was another member of the committee. That he was
a prosperous master tanner, and was early established
in the town, is certain. That he was one of the
townsmen actively interested for the Lower Burying
Ground is a matter of record, and his connection with
the Germantown Academy is another indication of his
pubhc spirit, and that he was one of the town's promi-
nent men is shown by the fact that he was selected for
the committee to secure subscriptions, which means
that he must have been regarded as a man of persua-
sive power. He was one of the founders of the
Fishing Company of Fort St. Davids, at the Falls of
Schuylkill.
John Jones, another member of the Committee on
Subscriptions, who seems to have been less fortunate
in this than in his business, was another master tanner.
He was a neighbor of Dr. Charles Bensell, on the
A History of The G ermantown Academy
Main Street above Schoolhouse Lane, which in those
days was named for the Bensells, who owned the land
on either side of it. Mr. Jones at this time was
approaching middle age. We find him admitted a
member to the Schuylkill Fishing Company on May
ist, of the same year, and the previous year he had
returned from the directorate of the Philadelphia
Contributionship, the first insurance company estab-
lished in America and, owing to its badge of the
clasped hands, frequently alluded to as the Hand-in-
Hand Insurance Company. His death is said to have
occurred between the years 1775 and 1780. His son
became a prominent merchant in the city of Philadel-
phia after the Revolution.
Like Baltus Reser, or Raser, John Jones was one
of the founders of the Fort St. Davids Fishing Com-
pany. Indeed, it is curious to note that on the
Committee on Subscriptions were four members of
that famous but only dimly traced social organization
which had its "Fort" at the Falls until after the Revo-
lution. In this organization were many of the best men
of Germantown, and there has been included among the
names that of Dr. Charles Bensell. The list of mem-
bers of the Fishing Company, bearing the date of
1763, shows some carelessness in orthography, and we
may be forgiven when we translate Charles Pensyl as
Charles Bensell, for the former probably is the way the
writer pronounced it. The other member of the
society and of the committee was David Endt, whose
name is written Ent in the list referred to, and who
lived at Fisher's Lane.
From what has been told the high character and
10
Founding the School
substantial standing of the founders will at once be
evident. All of the men actively interested were like-
wise men accustomed to the business of meetings, and
all of them were business men. One of the most
prominent figures on the committee was Dr. Charles
Bensell. His name was originally written Carl
Benzelius. He was a man of education and family,
his father being Bishop of Upsala, Sweden. Dr. Bensell
is believed by Townsend Ward, from a tombstone
inscription in the Lower Burying Ground, to have been
born April ii, 1725, and to have died March 17, 1795.
The stone house he erected at Schoolhouse Lane and
Main Street, where the building of the Bank of
Germantown now stands, was formerly one of the land-
marks in the town, and at the time the meeting in
Mackinett's was held, it must have been only recently
completed, if it were not erected later.
Of Daniel Endt little more is known than has been
told. He was part owner with Baltus Reser, in 1776,
in a lot in the lower end of the town. While he does
not appear to have been, like Reser, a founder of the
Fort St. Davids Fishing Company, he was an early
member. That he was related to Theobald Endt, the
clockmaker, seems to be probable, but in what degree
the relationship was does not now appear.
Theobald Endt's house at 5222 Main Street has
become historic because of the meeting held there in
1 741 between Count Zinzendorf and representatives
of other German religious sects, to consider their unifi-
cation into one body.
On December 18, 1759, the Committee on Sub-
scriptions held a meeting, and prepared the call which
II
A History of The G ermantown Academy
appeared in Franklin and Hall's " Pennsylvania Ga-
zette " on December 20th of that year :
*' Germantown, December 18, 1759.
" These are to give Notice to all such persons as
were pleased to subscribe to the building of a large
and commodious School-house in Germantown for the
Good of the Publick whose Subscriptions amounted to
Forty Shillings or upwards, and to those who may be
pleased to subscribe as aforesaid on or before the
First Day of January next, that the Advice and Assist-
ance of such Contributors is requested to chuse suit-
able Persons as Superintendents or Overseers and
Managers of said Building, and Trustees for the
Schools, and to agree upon a Plan of necessary regu-
lations for the well ordering of the same hereafter for
the Good of the Publick, and agreeable to the Institu-
tion thereof. The said first Day of January next at two
o'clock in the afternoon, is therefore appointed for
the meeting of such as aforesaid, at the House of
Daniel Mackenet, in said Town."
From the minutes, we learn at this meeting for
organization, held on New Year's Day, 1760, it was
found that a " considerable number, both of the said
town, and places adjacent," had become contributors,
or rather subscribers, and that the Committee had
every encouragement to believe that their numbers
would be increased. A rough draft of " the funda-
mental article, concessions and agreements " was ten-
tatively adopted, but was voted to be placed into the
experienced legal hands of Joseph Galloway, " to be
put into form and engrossed." Managers of the build-
12
Founding the School
T
HIS is to certify, that ^^^yz^^^^Ju^^e^/ —
o^J^ffx^uijy ^i;;2/^rb hath contribii|@d the
Sum of /s^ii/O ^^a^i/j * — to the
UNION SCHOOL-HOUSE of GERMANTOWN, and
is thereby vefted with all the Rights, Po\('ers and
Privileges of a Contributor to the faid School-Houfe.
Witness my Hand tliis tA^hi^ — Day of t^/jrlS
^760 M^M^^n- Treasurer.
Certificate of Thomas Livezey's Contribution to the
Union School-house
Ing, a Treasurer, and Trustees were chosen, and the
idea may be said to have now taken definite form.
The " managers of the buildings," which really was
a committee to see that a site was purchased and that
the buildings were erected, consisted of Christopher
Meng, as he seems to have been called, and as proba-
bly he called himself, omitting his first given name,
John ; Conrad Weaver, Baltus Reser, Jacob Coleman,
Peter Leibert, John Bringhurst and Jacob Engle.
Richard Johnson was chosen " Treasurer of the
Community," and the Trustees, elected for a year,
were Christopher Sauer, Thomas Rose, John Jones,
Daniel Mackinett, Jacob Keyser, John Bowman,
Thomas Livezey, David Deshler, George Alsentz,
Joseph Galloway, Charles Bensell, Jacob Neglee and
Benjamin Engle.
In the "Pennsylvania Gazette" for January 17,
1760, will be found this advertisement :
"Germantown, January 13, 1760.
" Agreeable to the Resolution of the last Meeting
13
A History of The Germantown Academy
of the Contributors, The Trustees of the School and
School House, intended to be established and erected
in Germantown, for the Education of Youth, having
purchased a commodious Piece of Ground for that
Purpose, and prepared the fundamental Rules, Arti-
cles and Regulations ; do hereby give Notice, that the
Hour of One o'clock, on Friday the Twenty-fifth of
this Instant, is appointed for the meeting of the said
Contributors, at the House of Daniel McKinnet, in
Germantown, in order to execute the same, and to
consider what further Measures are necessary for
prosecuting their laudable Design."
Before delving into the personalities of the found-
ers not previously described there needs to be said
something here about the " commodious piece of
Ground," which had been purchased. The lot was
bought from John and George Bringhurst for ;!^I25,
but although the advertisement mentions its purchase,
the money was not passed over, nor the transaction
completed until April, 1760. The lot had originally
been one of the Germantown " Town lots towards
Schuylkill," and had passed from Jacob Van Bebber
and Jacob Tellner, in whose names it stood in 1689, to
John Jarrett, who was recorded as owner in 1714. In
1766, that part of the lot not occupied by the school
was variously owned in parcels by Abram Griffith,
John Wynn, Christopher Meng, William Ashmead,
David Deshler and Charles Bensell. As has been said,
Dr. Bensell lived on the other side of the lane on which
the school property was situated, and which was called
Bensell's Lane in those days.
14
Founding the School
At the meeting referred to in the advertisement,
which from the minute book appears to have been held
on January 8th, there was adopted "fundamental Rules,
Articles and Regulations." As these formed the first
system of government for the school they may be in-
serted here :
CERTAIN AGREEMENTS AND
CONCESSIONS
Entered into and concluded in by and between the
trustees and managers of a certain Schoolhouse and
School about to be erected in Germantown, this 8th
day of January, 1760.
Whereas, a large sum of money has been sub-
scribed for and towards building and erecting
a schoolhouse in Germantown, by the inhabi-
tants of the said town and divers other persons,
according to, certain contributors. And whereas,
the said contributors at a general meeting had
appointed certain Trustees of said School and
Schoolhouse for the building and erecting of
the said Schoolhouse. And whereas, the said
Trustees have purchased a commodious lot of
ground, for the purpose aforesaid, and the said
Trustees and Managers are now met together,
in order to prosecute the laudable design afore-
said, and have mutually agreed in the following
articles:
First
That the said Managers shall with all con-
venient speed, build or cause to be built, a
15
A History of The Germ an tow n Academy
Commodious large Stone House agreeable to
the plan agreed on at its last meeting and de-
livered to them by the Trustees afs'd; and for
that purpose shall agree and contract with any
person or persons for materials necessary; and
to agree and contract to erect and build the
said house.
Second
That the said Managers are to draw orders
on the Treasurer of the said School, agreeable
to the original Articles and Concessions, for the
payment of the workmen and other persons of
whom the materials afs'd shall be purchased;
and for defraying all other costs and expenses
that shall arise and accrue or contracted for by
the managers for the purpose afores'd.
Third
That the Trustees shall call the Managers,
Collectors and Treasurer together, a month at
least before the next General Meeting of the
Contributors ; who shall make a report of their
proceedings in writing to them, the s'd
Trustees, in order that the same may be laid
before the said Contributors at the said meeting.
Joseph Galloway,
in behalf of and by order of the Trustees.
Christopher Meng,
in behalf of and by order of the Managers.
i6
Founding the School
These Articles, referred to as the Fundamental
Agreements and Concessions, were signed by Mana-
gers, Treasurer, Trustees and by a considerable num-
ber of Contributors, thirty-six in all, at the meeting
held on January 25, 1760. At the meeting held on
April 17, 1760, it was agreed to have two hundred
copies of these agreements printed by Sauer for distri-
bution, and now these little pamphlets are quite rare,
and have become bibliographical treasures.
That the " managers of the buildings " did not
hold their positions from any consideration of policy,
and that their office was not ornamental is shown in
the Order Book of the Trustees, in which is entered
all orders on the Treasurer. They were, all of them,
practical men, in their different lines of industry, and
the Trustees evidently made no effort to have the
work done by any but their own members who lived
in the town, Conrad Weaver, who is the second
mentioned in the list, owned a mill on Wingohocking
Creek, about half a mile from the site of the new
school, and furnished some of the material. Baltus
Reser, who, perhaps, was a carpenter or lumber dealer
as well as a tanner, was paid ^10 12s. 6d., for " squar-
ing girders and for wood ;" George Bringhurst, a
younger brother of John and, like him, engaged in
building carriages and wagons, sold thirty perches of
stone for the building, for £1^ los.; Jacob Coleman
was paid £6 6s. for " boring girders," and conse-
quently may have been a carpenter at that time ; and
Melcher (John Melchior) Meng, who was a son of
John Christopher Meng, received £\^ is. 8d., for
" digging the cellar and other services."
17
A History of The Germantown Academy
Of all these managers of buildings, perhaps the
best remembered name other than that of Meng is
that of John Bringhurst. His name has been given
one of the streets of Germantown and the " Bring-
hurst Big House," which John Bringhurst built, was,
until 1909, still in existence, though remodelled. Its
numbers were 5233-37 Main Street. John Bringhurst
was born in 1725 and died in 1795. Not only did he
erect the large house which bears his name, but he
owned considerable property in the town, and is
handed down to history, quite apart from the part he
played in founding the Germantown Academy,
through building a chariot for George Washington,
in which vehicle Mrs. Washington was carried from
Philadelphia to Mt. Vernon in June, 1780.
Jacob Colemen is best known to fame from having
been the enterprising promoter to run the first coach
with an awning. This stage plied between the King
of Prussia Inn, already mentioned, and the George
Inn at Second and Arch Streets. Both these ancient
structures are still in existence, but both are greatly
altered from the time when both were stage-coach
offices and inns. Coleman is said to have made the
innovation in stage coaches in 1761. Like the other
founders, he was at that time a man of property, own-
ing lots on both sides of the Main Street, and being
neighbor to Dr. Bensell and to the Rev. Mr. Alsentz,
of whom we shall speak later.
Peter Leibert was a fellow both in religion and
craft with Christopher Sauer, Jr. It was Sauer who,
as a Bishop of the Brethren or Dunkards, had married
Leibert, in 1749, to Molly Neiss, and it was Sauer, too,
18
Founding the School
who taught him his trade of printer. It is evident,
both from his selection as a member of the Managers
of the Building of the Germantown Union School and,
later, in 1775, as a member of the Building Committee
of the Concord School in Upper Germantown, that
Leibert, like many another Germantowner of early
days, had knowledge of more than one business. It
was Leibert, too, who had charge of the alterations
that were made in the Pettikoffer House, to adapt it
to the meetings of the Brethren, whose meeting house
was afterwards built just back of it, and still stands, a
monument ahke to the piety and good taste of the
Dunkards. Leibert lived across the way from the
church and a little lower down Germantown Road.
When the Sauer press was sold in 1777, "Leibert and
John Dunlop," says Dr. Brumbaugh in his " History
of the Brethren," " purchased most of the printing
material" . . . and in 1784 the former established, in
connection with Michael Billmeyer, a printing estab-
lishment in Germantown. This was situated on the
Billmeyer property, at the northern corner of German-
town Avenue and Upsal Street, the house upon whose
horse-block General Washington is said to have stood
for a while directing the attack upon the Chew House to
the southeastward. In 1791 Leibert's son, William,
took the place in the firm his son-in-law, Billmeyer, had
held until 1788. In 1787 Leibert became a Trustee of
the Germantown Academy, holding office until 1799.
Leibert lived to the great age of 85, dying on June 9,
1 8 12, and being buried in the graveyard of the
Church of the Brethren, Germantown.
Jacob Engle, of the Managers of the Building,
19
A History of The G ermantown Academy
was the son of Paul Engle, one of the earliest settlers
in the town, and mentioned as one of those natural-
ized in the year 1709, when, in order to hold lands,
the Germans had to take the oath of fealty and alle-
giance. At the time the school was in process of for-
mation Jacob Engle was owner of one of the lots in the
upper part of the town on what is now Johnson Street.
Jacob Engle had been sent to the school of Pastorius.
He was, as was his neighbor Leibert, also of the
building committee of the Concord School. The fam-
ily were tanners and shoemakers.
Some of the members of the first Board of Trustees
have been described, but there are, in the list given a
few pages back, a few that have not before been men-
tioned. The certain agreements and concessions were
signed by thirty-six contributors, and it may be
assumed that many of these signers had attended the
previous meetings. They may well be entitled to the
honorable title of founders ; but we are now more
interested in discovering who were the men of action
who succeeded in giving form to a most ambitious
scheme for educating youth. It will be noted that
there was no president or chairman regularly provided,
and this custom was followed by the Trustees for
many years, the meetings probably being presided
over by a member selected on each occasion. The
Treasurer was the only officer elected, and to this
important office great care seems to have governed the
selection. Richard Johnson, the first treasurer, was
the son of Dirk Jansen, as the name was first written,
who came to Germantown from Holland in the year
1700. The Jansens or Johnsons were members of the
20
Founding the School
Society of Friends, and it is interesting to note that
for a century or more a member of that family has
been represented on the Board of Trustees. No Ger-
mantown family has maintained so close a connection
with the interests of the old Academy, certainly none
can point to a period of interest in the institution's
welfare that is so extensive as theirs. Dirk (for
which in English we read Richard) Jansen, purchased
lot No. 17 of the Town lots towards the Schuylkill.
This, and other property purchased by the first of the
family in the town, comprised about fifty acres, and
through lot No. 17, which extended to the western
limit of the town on the old Township Lane, the
present Walnut Lane was cut. The Johnsons were a
numerous family. Richard, this first Treasurer of the
Germantown Union School, was a pupil of Pastorius,
and married Ann Brinckley. His brother John mar-
ried Agnes Klincken. In 1765 Richard sold part of
his property lying east of the Main Street to Benjamin
Chew, who thus was enabled to extend the grounds of
Cliveden.
Thomas Rose, of the first Trustees was one of the
assessors of the town and the first clerk of the School's
Board. He was part owner of the original lot No. 8
of the section on the East side of Main Street, de-
scribed as the City lots towards Bristol, and, in 1764,
we find his name in the list of subscribers to the fire
engine, Shagrag, the result of the first organized effort
in the town to provide fire protection. Jacob Keyser,
mentioned as another Trustee, was a tanner. His
family were tanners and shoemakers and part of their
original tannery is still to be seen. Jacob was a grand-
21
A History of The Germantown Academy
son of Dirck Keyser, the founder of the family in
Germantown, and one of the earliest colonists. His
father's name was Dirck, and he became one of the heirs
to the Keysers' property, which included lot No. 22 of
the City or Town-lots Towards Bristol, and the so-
called side-lot of the corresponding number on the
section noted as Towards Bristol. Jacob Keyser also
should be noted as one of the subscribers to the first
fire-fighting apparatus in the town. Of John Bowman
little is known. He is mentioned as part owner, in
1776, of No. 19 of the Town-lots Towards Bristol, and
as owner, with Paul Engle, of Side-lot Towards Bristol
of the corresponding number. His public spirit and
his prominence may be assumed from the fact that he
was one of the subscribers of the first fire company
already mentioned, and from the fact that a street was
named for the family. This, formerly Bowman's Lane
and Falls Lane, is now Queen Lane, being shortened
from Indian Queen Lane.
Livezey is a name associated with the Wissahickon,
and the old family homestead may still be seen. This
Thomas Livezey, who was one of the Trustees, was a
miller, who had his mill on the Wissahickon, at the
foot of Livezey's Lane. Beside his grist mill Thomas
Livezey lived for many years, and cultivated a large
farm and cared for a fine vineyard on the hillside, from
which the wine he drank at table came. His wine,
indeed, brought him a little modest renown, for Robert
Wharton sent a dozen bottles of it to Franklin. One
of Livezey's daughters, Rachel, married a son of John
Johnson, a brother of Richard Johnson, the School's
Treasurer. Livezey, who was Provincial Commissioner
22
Founding the School
in 1765, was long a friend of Joseph Galloway, and
while interested in the law himself, enjoyed an oppor-
tunity to playfully cast aspersions upon its practition-
ers. In a long piece of easy verse, which he sent to
Galloway, under date of "Roxborough, 12th mo. 14th,
1765," he refers to his secluded home as "this lonely
seat of bliss," and continues :
"This is the place of my abode, where humbly here I dwell,
Which, in romantic Lawyer mood, thou hast compared to Hell,
But Paradise where Adam dwelt in blissful love and ease,
A Lawyer would compare to hell, if thence he got no fees.
Canst thou prefer thy Heaven on earth — thy fee the Root of Evil —
To this my lovely harmless place, — my Hell without a Devil ?"
Livezey, who attained a rare old age, died in the year
1790.
David Deshler was one of those men with sense of
honor and moral obligation so conspicuous that his
fellows referred to him as "Honest David Deshler,"
or said, as of a patent truth, "as honest as David
Deshler." Deshler was a native of Baden, who, after
prospering as a merchant in Philadelphia, again sought
the society of his countrymen by purchasing a country
seat in Germantown. On the map of 1776 he is men-
tioned as being one of the owners of lot No. 9, of the
Town-lots Towards Schuylkill. This lot fronted on
Main Street, and it was the house he built here in
1772-3, now numbered 5442, that became famous as
the home of Washington during the yellow-fever epi-
demic in Philadelphia in 1793. For a few months it
was the Executive Mansion of the Federal Govern-
ment in Philadelphia. Deshler's business in Philadel-
phia, which was that of a hardware merchant, was
located at what, in 1791, was numbered 97 Market
23
A History of The German town Academy
Street. His counting-house was located on the North
side of the street between Second and Third Streets,
about five doors west of Grindstone Alley. Mrs.
Deshler is said to have given her name to a curative
that once was much used, and probably still is remem-
bered. She is said to have obtained the recipe from
a butcher for £^^ and when a suffering world first knew
of it, it was called "Butcher's Salve"; but other gen-
erations welcomed it as "Deshler's Salve." Although
the firm of Deshler and Roberts is noted as "iron-
mongers" in the Philadelphia Directory for 1791, they
were doing a more extensive business than that term
might indicate. They were in the commercial lan-
guage of the times "merchants," and it is said that
their business interests extended even to the remote
East Indies. Success crowned their efforts, and Desh-
ler accumulated a valuable estate. Mrs. Deshler died
during the Revolution, and he was laid at rest in 1792,
when the stone house he built passed into other hands.
The Rev. John George Alsentz, or Alsantz, for the
name is found spelled each way, was the pastor of the
German Reformed Church, where often, it is said, the
Rev. Michael Schlatter, with whose views on education
the elder Sauer did not agree, preached. He was the
eighth pastor of this congregation, which has now for
many years been known as the Market Square Presby-
terian Church. The Rev. Mr. Alsentz took charge
of the congregation in 1758, and under his pastorate,
which did not terminate until 1767, he doubled the
size of the original building by erecting an addition to
it in the rear.
Jacob Naglee, who had stamped his name on the
24
Founding the School
elevation which seems to form a natural boundary on
the south of Germantown, lived in a rambling, expan-
sive two-story house, now numbered 4518-4520 Main
Street. This house was erected by James Logan
between the years 1727 and 1734, while Logan was
awaiting the completion of Stenton. Naglee followed
him in possession of the building and part of the
grounds, being noted in 1766 as, with James and
William Logan, owner of what appears as lots ic and
2 of the Side-lots Towards Bristol. Naglee was one
of the founders of the Fishing Company of Fort St.
Davids.
Benjamin Engle probably was the Shem Engle
mentioned in the list of members of the Fort St.
Davids Fishing Company in 1763. He built, in 1758,
the house known by his name, now numbered 5938
Main Street, He was brother to the Jacob Engle
already mentioned, and probably, Hke his father, was a
tanner and shoemaker. It is said his father declined,
in the year 1703, from conscientious scruples, the
office of chief burgess. His grave in the Httle bury-
ing-ground on the Skippack is marked by its oldest-
dated stone, bearing the year of his death, 1723.
Of Joseph Galloway, the man of all those concerned
in the founding of the school who loomed largest in
the little colonial world of that time, and who was
afterwards to loom still larger in England as well as in
America, we fortunately know a good deal, far more
than there is space here to record. He was at this
time a well-known lawyer, whose Friendly parentage
had not prevented him, and at an early age, from tak-
ing to worldly ways. Management of his father's
25
A History of The Germ antown Academy
estate led him naturally into law, and he was at this
time a well-known authority upon real estate and
contracts.
Galloway was one of those remarkable men who, in
their time, are so active and so necessary that the im-
pression they make is believed by their contempo-
raries to be so deep as to be indelible; yet who, when
they pass off the stage of their activities, are forgotten
by their associates and neglected by history.
Galloway, however, has been re-established in reputa-
tion through the industry of Dr. Ernest H. Baldwin,
whose effective study of the man is to be found in the
pages of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography for the year 1902. Born in the town of
West River, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in
the year 1731, Galloway came of a family that had ac-
quired considerable land of Lord Baltimore. When
he was about nine years old, his father, Peter Galloway,
removed with his family to Kent, upon the Delaware,
below Philadelphia. Not long after this removal, the
elder Galloway died, leaving a large estate, and as this
required intelligent management, young Galloway, as
stated above, came to Philadelphia to study law. How
rapidly he proceeded in his chosen profession may be
imagined from the fact that before he was twenty years
old he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court
of the Province. He was early a member of the
Schuylkill Fishing Company. He married, in 1753,
Grace Growden, the daughter of Lawrence Growden,
a former Speaker of the Assembly, and a member of
the family which owned the famous iron-works at
Durham, on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware,
26
Founding the School
below Easton. Thus, at twenty-three, Joseph
Galloway was one of the leading lawyers of Philadel-
phia, a man of means, and husband of an heiress.
Although, as has been related, Joseph Galloway
does not appear to have been a member of the Society
of Friends, his lineage and his associates, to a large
extent, seem to have been Quakers. In 1756 affairs in
the Province were unsettled. The French and Indian
War was proceeding ; a Militia Law, which, while not
making service compulsory, showed which way the
political wind was blowing, had been passed, and it
became necessary for the Assembly to raise troops and
vote them supplies. The Quakers remaining true to
their cardinal principles, did not care to be put on
record as voting for war, so they extricated themselves
from an awkward situation by declining re-election.
But they had no intention of abandoning their political
supremacy, and while they wanted the troops and
supplies voted, so that their tranquility might not be
threatened by having the French or Indians reach
Philadelphia and sack the capital of the Province, they
decided to send in their places to the Assembly men
who would have no similar scruples, and who, at the
same time, could be trusted. Galloway, by reason of
his ability, his talents, and above all, by his sympathy
for the Quakers, was one of the men elected to the
Assembly at this time, 1756. Immediately Franklin,
then the leader of the Assembly Party, as distinguished
from the Governor's Party, made the young lawyer his
assistant, and when, the following year, the great
Utilitarian departed for London to represent his
Province, the leadership fell into the hands of Galloway.
27
A History of The G ermantown Academy
That so keen and discerning a critic of men as Frank-
lin should have entrusted the leadership to a man of
twenty-seven or twenty-eight years, is indicative of the
trustworthiness and useful talents of his successor.
Galloway entered Pennsylvania politics during their
stormiest period in the eighteenth century. Factional
differences never were so bitterly discussed, and this
being an age of pamphleteering, there came from the
presses in Philadelphia numerous satires and much
controversial literature. While attacks on men and
principles and events were made with a force that often
overstepped the bounds of decency, perhaps, for that
reason, as well as to enable their authors to cover their
retreat if a libel suit followed, almost without exception,
these energetic and often untruthful " exposures " of
the " other side " or the " opposition " were issued
anonymously. Franklin, having been guilty in previous
times of exposing abuses or persons not to his liking,
under the safety of anonymity, frequently was blamed
for some of these printed attacks, but it has since been
discovered that, at most, he only inspired some of them.
In the years 1755 and 1756 there appeared in Brad-
ford's bookstore two pamphlets that gave great concern
to the Quakers, who justly felt scandalized by them.
These not only appeared without the name of their
author, but they bore imprints that gave the impres-
sion they were printed in London. It is believed upon
the strongest circumstantial evidence that they were
printed in Philadelphia and, even at the time they were
being read by the Quaker Party, it was well enough
known to be common property that they were written
by the Provost of the College and Academy, the Rev.
28
Founding the School
William Smith. The young Provost had taken an
active hand in the politics of his time, and feeling it
necessary to use any means in his power to defeat the
Quakers and others who were in opposition to the
Proprietary Party, launched determinedly into the
paper war. The writing of anonymous pamphlets,
showing what he regarded as the scandalous and un-
patriotic attitude of the Quakers, and demanding that
they be forbidden the right of membership in the
Assembly, might make him unpopular with those
interests, and might advance his personal ends. At
any rate, the consequences were not likely to be
serious. Yet they had, what he probably could not
have foreseen at that time, made an antagonist of Gal-
loway, who had then only entered the Assembly. It
was unfortunate for Dr. Smith that he had made a
political enemy of this man, for the following year he
was to find him acting as prosecutor for the Assembly,
before which he, himself, stood charged with having
libelled that august body.
His love for pamphleteering was responsible in a
measure for the Provost's position, and it is not un-
likely that the more romantic reason — that of coming
to the assistance of the father of a beautiful heiress, who
had not discouraged the young clergyman's attentions
— was an equally prominent factor. William Moore,
of Moore Hall, was a man of great landed interests in
Chester County, where he was a judge of the County
Court, and whence he was elected to a seat in the
Assembly. Being an influential friend of the Pro-
prietaries, he took an active part in the disputes
between the Assembly and the Governor, in the
29
A History of The Germantown Academy
Autumn of the year 1775. He wrote to the Assembly
that two thousand men in Chester County were
coming down to the Capital to compel the Legislature
to pass a proper militia law, and, closely following this
threat, the Assembly received petitions complaining of
Judge Moore's tyranny, extortion and unjudicial
demeanor. Finally, the Assembly asked for his re-
moval from office. The following year an article,
ostensibly written by Judge Moore, was printed in
several of the Philadelphia newspapers, among them
Franklin and Hall's "Gazette." In this piece of invective
against the Assembly, the Judge did not search for
cunning synonyms, or seek to sugar-coat his unpalatable
statements. He referred to the action of the Legislature
as " virulent and scandalous," and as a " continued
string of the severest calumny and rancorous epithets
conceived, in all the terms of malice and party rage."
He also declared that the action was based upon
petitions procured by a member and tool of the
Assembly at a tavern, when the signers were incapable
of knowing what they did.
Judge Moore's arraignment of the Assembly ap-
peared on October 19, 1757, and shortly afterward
the new Legislature, mainly composed of members
returned by the election, took their seats. For the
honor of the body, one of the earliest official acts of
the Assembly was to issue a warrant for Moore's
arrest, and a warrant for the Rev. Dr. Smith was also
issued, it having been surmised that he was the real
author of the offending document. Joseph Galloway,
the young leader, was the sponsor of this action.
When the petitions had been flooding the Assembly
30
Founding the School
denouncing the Judge and calling for his removal, that
body appeared to be unmoved, but referred them to
the Committee on Grievances. Then Galloway, dis-
covering a chance to repay the Proprietary Party and
the Provost in their own coin, took up the matter when
it was referred to the Committee on Grievances, to
which he had been appointed in the place of Franklin.
As a result of the investigation that followed it was
decided that Moore ought to be removed from office,
and Galloway was assigned to the duty of preparing
the address to the Governor. This he did, and then
no further action was taken until the session of 1757.
In the meantime the libellous article was published.
Once more, Galloway had what evidently he regarded
as a pleasant duty, that of leading the prosecution of
the offender, he having been chosen to draw up the
articles of impeachment. The Governor naturally
refused all requests made for Moore's removal, but he
could not keep either the Judge or the Provost out of
the Walnut Street jail, where they remained until the
Assembly was dissolved.
It has been thought worth while to record this
episode of the young lawyer's career in some detail, as
it perhaps led to some of the enthusiasm with which
he espoused the cause of the School in Germantown, a
school that might become a rival of the College and
Academy of Philadelphia. Why he left the Board of
the School in 1769 is not known, but perhaps his
activities as Speaker of the Assembly, to which office he
had been chosen in 1766, and which he held until 1774,
required so much time in themselves and in the duties
they involved him in, that he had no longer time to
31
A History of The Germantoivn Academy
give to the School. Perhaps, too, in the re-align-
ment of interests brought about by the disturbances
following on the Stamp Act, his attitude toward
Provost Smith was changed. In 1774 Galloway sub-
mitted a plan of union — a plan, really, of imperial feder-
ation — by which the American colonies were still to be
in allegiance to England, but with autonomy in their
own affairs. " The plan," writes Dr. Baldwin, " pro-
vided for a union of Great Britain and the thirteen
American colonies, by means of a British-American
Legislature, consisting of a President-General and
Grand Council, forming an inferior branch of the
British Parliament and incorporated with it . . .
The President-General was to be appointed by, and
hold office during the pleasure of, the King ....
The Grand Council was to consist of representatives
chosen by the Colonial Assemblies once in every three
years ; representation was to be proportional."
Galloway has been severely attacked by some
historians as a traitor to his country, but it should
always be remembered that, while he was an advocate
of measures designed to compel England to redress
the grievances of the colonists, he was always too
wanting in trust of the common people to favor really
democratic government, and always too strongly
attached, sentimentally, to England, to favor absolute
separation. When independence was imminent, Gallo-
way took sides with the loyalists and, thereafter,
despite all persuasion and threatening, stood stead-
fastly by his King. He left Philadelphia, joined the
royal army in New York in December, 1777, accom-
panied it into New Jersey and Philadelphia, remaining
32
Founding the School
in this city until its evacuation by the British in 1778,
when he went to England.
In 1779 Galloway was examined before the House
of Commons with regard to the doings of the British
in America, and his testimony did not do credit to the
British commanders. He attributed the failure of the
British cause largely to Lord Howe.
In 1788 the Pennsylvania Legislature confiscated the
estates of Galloway, which were estimated to be worth
;^40,ooo. A large portion of this property, however,
was afterward restored to his daughter. Galloway
never returned to this country, dying at Watford,
Hertfordshire, England, on August 29, 1803. The
publications of Galloway were numerous, including
" Letters to a Nobleman on the Conduct of the War
in the Middle Colonies," addressed to Lord Howe
(1779) ; " Historical and Political Reflections on the
American Rebellion" (London, 1780); "Brief Com-
mentaries Upon the Revelation and Other Prophecies
as Immediately Refer to the Present Times, in Which
the Several Allegorical Types and Expressions of
those Prophecies are Translated unto Three Literal
Meanings" (1802); "Cool Thoughts on the Con-
sequences of the American Independence ; " " Candid
Examination of the Claims of Great Britain and her
Colonies ; " " Reflections on the American Rebellion."
Enthusiasm for their "laudable design" did not
cause the founders of the School to neglect the very
necessary and practical feature of that founding — the
funds and financial support essential to success. The
printer Sauer produced some neatly printed subscrip-
tion blanks which were handed to those men of sub-
33
A History of The Germantown Academy
stance looked upon as favorable to the project. These
blanks contained the following details of the scheme
proposed :
"Whereas the education of the Youth in usefull
Learning, and in proper regular Mannerly, well-quali-
fied Persons, being a Matter of great Moment and
concern to all thinking People, and regular and neces-
sary Plans for Purpose laudable and commendable:
It has for a considerable time past, been desired by
the Inhabitants of Germantown to lay some foundation
of that kind ; in Order, and from a well-grounded
Expectation, that the same may be improved hereafter.
. . . That the said Schoolhouse shall be free to all
Persons of what Denomination soever and wheresoever
residing, to send their Children thereto, without any
regard to Name or Sect of People ; provided they be
regular and subject to the proper and necessary Regu-
lations of the Master and Trustees."
During the first year the subscriptions amounted
to the then very considerable sum of ^1120 2s. id.
Some of the subscriptions noted in the books are not
without interest. We find, for instance, that Christo-
pher Sauer, Jr., gave ^50 from his father's estate and
£20 in his own name ; Dirk Jansen, ;^20, and his son,
the Treasurer, ^25, and his son, John, ^15; Benjamin
Engle put his name down for ^^15; George Bensell,
brother to Dr. Charles Bensell, £1^]; and Dr. Bensell,
/^20. The collectors made returns as follows : Daniel
Mackinett, £^1'^ 6s. 6d.; John Jones, £ic,6 14s.; Chris-
topher Sauer, /"i89 15s.; Charles Bensell, ^162 12s. 6d.;
David Deshler, £^2 los.; Richard Johnson, £'}^2 4s.
id.; Baltus Reser, ^20 5s.; John Van Deering, £1^] ;
Daniel Endt, £() los.; Christopher Meng, £6 5s.
34
WHEREAS the Erfurannn offoe Ynuth in ufefc I I^rmr
Mfflncr by wrli qualified Pcrf.t», being » Mf=f »' B'«
thmkina People, acxJ reRulnr Mid nectlTiry Plans for ihat
memiable : Ic has Sr » inlWerable Tiine wfl been moch defired hv
"^^ro lay feme FcHUidaiion otrhat hd,m Order, and from « .^
lliM tile lime ray be improved upon hctcafter
■efore !
U.^/^^'^
lid in < proper repilM
',mcm & concern to ali
rpofe laudable & com-
inWmants ofOrrmm-
grnunded ElCI>ocV2tluii,
',1c Number ol (he diiti
l" hXi^ms of ib^ faid Tovvn, anZiTfo fame Inhlbiiartb ot the adjactm '""^/''^"''ir'^,'",SJr2
r r(5:;iif.t't^.-«- ^for^."" ^ "'f "^^^
build and creft a School hou(e on t^ie [ u.li^K uroui fu.,ft.,nrul BuiWuiE, properly
Town, the enfuinR Sprinc and Summer, i^ »* ''T '^ '".°=,J P' p ,„/'Vnd ]o be connnuerTfor
accomodated ^'•■i.'^^'P'^ f"'"""A^^°t<'^! T. i m ^Sher L e whaifoever, .nd ro be fub-
xrth?s:^riAt',^^t;^4.'^^^^^^ ^>'^ •^"-
^"^rarteL™'l:.:Jot;^fc S be a^e to a„ Pe^^n, o, what Denotn.at^^^
pS-;;;^tfe;^c;^^^^;^;^^^i^o;:^^"S S;;'i.e^ut..n. orth.
l^lS£lZ.>:X'^^«g to any PI J^hich may bcr^her be rc^a,. agreed upon by the
in Forwardnefs atvJ Materals preparing for the SanKL ^
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The First Subscription for Building the Schoolhouse
Photographed from the Original Document
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Photographed from the Original Docl
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Reverse of Managers' Building Account
Photographed from the Original Document
CHAPTER II
Opening the School, August io, 1761
THROUGH the vivifying medium of the
minutes of the Trustees, we have been able
to watch the long-cherished scheme take
form. Joseph Galloway, the lawyer, and
the authority on contracts, has drawn up with full legal
phraseology the agreements by which the organization
bound itself to do certain things. It bears no resem-
blance to modern Constitutions and By-Laws, but it
answered the purpose of the men and their time.
With money and subscriptions being received, and
a piece of ground all but purchased, there was still
much to be accomplished before the concrete sub-
stance — the actual building with its equipment, its
masters and its pupils — was to be realized.
At the meeting held on February 8, 1760, the
Managers laid before the assemblage a draft of the
Schoolhouse and of the houses for the masters, " the
which was also agreed on, the Dimensions settled in
every part and the Managers were to proceed and go
on with the same agreeable to the Draft and Dimen-
sions agreed on as soon as the season and other cir-
cumstances w'd permit ; but the estimation of the
costs of s'd Buildings could not be made until the
plans as afores'd was agreed on." We learn further
from the minutes of this meeting that, " upon the
motion being made that the said School House should
have a name peculiar to itself it was agreed that
the same be hereafter called and known by the name
of the Germantown Union School House."
35
A History of The Germantown Academy
On April 17, 1760, the deed for the lot was pro-
duced and was executed by John Bringhurst and his
wife, and George Bringhurst, who had been paid in
full on April loth, "which, with the Fundamental Arti-
cles of Agreements and Concessions, and a book to
keep the Treasurer's accounts, was put into the care
and custody of the Treasurer together with a chest to
hold the same, for all of which he has given his receipt
to the Trustees, which receipt is put into the hands of
Thomas Rose for the present."
It may be assumed that work on the operation had
been begun, for five days later the masons began to
lay the foundation of the Schoolhouse. It is not known
just what exercises were held on this occasion, but Dr.
M. G. Brumbaugh, in commenting on the one absence
of Christopher Sauer from the meetings of the Board
of Trustees, during the time he was a member, which
absence was on this day, observes that "the building
was dedicated with Masonic rites." From the
Trustees' Books, however, we learn that all of the
Board, save Sauer and Galloway, were present, the
latter being kept away by public business. And it is
not hazarding too much to say that probably the curi-
osity of the town was sufficiently inflamed to cause
many to visit the spot and see Christopher Meng
superintend, and, most likely, himself lay the four
corner stones for the building that was to open a new
era to the little town. Those specifically mentioned
as present on this historic occasion were John Jones,
John Bowman, Jacob Naglee, Benjamin Engle, Daniel
Mackinett, Dr. Charles Bensell, Thomas Livezey, the
Rev. George Alsentz, Thomas Rose, Jacob Keyser
and David Deshler.
36
Opening the School
As the building began to assume shape, some of
the contributors wrote to the Board of Trustees ob-
jecting to the plan. It was pointed out that the first
story had a ceiling too high and it was urged, on this
account "it was not so warm for the scholars." The
question was debated at several meetings, but all the
while the masons continued at work, and finally the
Board, having sat in judgment on the complaints,
agreed that "as the dimensions of the said stories in
the said schoolroom have been already settled, the
same is to continue and be as heretofore settled."
The Trustees pushed the work, for on April 4th
they had agreed that the Managers should proceed at
once to put the three buildings under roof, " there
being a sufficiency of money subscribed to go safely on
so far." Little additions were made to the Treasury
from time to time by the fines collected from delinquent
members of the Board. Being absent from a meeting
without a sufficient excuse subjected the Trustee to a
fine of one shilling, and coming late to a meeting re-
sulted in the tardy one paying two pence. Dr. Bensell,
in this way, contributed a shilling, and Christopher
Sauer, as aforesaid, and the Rev. George Alsentz and
Benjamin Engle each two pence.
In three months' time, the work had progressed so
well that the stone walls were ready to receive the
" upper girders and Joyce " and " the rafters and
bellfry." Today the workmen affix a flag to the first
iron beam that is put in place on the top, marking the
attainment of the final height of the building. In the
eighteenth century they observed a different and
rather more convivial custom. Those in charge set
37
A History of The Germantown Academy
out the " cakes and ale " for the workmen when this
point in the construction of a pubHc building was
reached. It may be recalled that there was such an
entertainment when the old State House in Philadelphia,
now called Independence Hall, was near completion,
and the founders of the Germantown Union School
were adherents to the same old custom. Consequently
there is a minute, dated July 21, 1760, stating that it
was agreed to give an entertainment to the men
engaged in building the Schoolhouse. We read on
the minutes that the Board agreed " that each Trustee
and the Treasurer do contribute ten shillings " to this
purpose. The entertainment, which was to be given
" on the day of putting on " these girders and joists
and rafters of the belfry, is believed to have actually
been held on August 21, 1760. So that from the
time when Melchior Meng was digging, or having
dug, the cellars for which he received payment on
May 7th, until the time when the roof was in process of
construction from the girders bored by Joseph Cole-
man, four months and a few days had elapsed, and, all
things taken into consideration, we are forced to
admit they builded quickly even as they builded well.
At the close of the year 1760, the first year of effort,
the Treasurer's report showed an apparent deficit.
Orders were drawn upon this officer for £^0 3s. 6d.,
and to meet them he had only ^16 8s. 3d. This state
of affairs was not discouraging because there were
subscriptions to the amount of £110 12s. 6d. that had
not yet been collected. It is curious to note here that
among the Agreements and Concessions adopted sub-
sequently to the Fundamental Agreements, was an Arti-
38
opening the School
cle, No. 13, declaring that the Treasurer "shall keep
the Ancient Charter granted by William Penn, together
with the deed of the PUBLIC GROUND at the
Market House, and also all the public papers belong-
ing to said town." This Article indicates that the
Schoolhouse was expected to be, as they very often
were in early days, the chief building, a kind of Town
Hall, Apart from it, and the churches, the town could
boast of no really public building, and this fact seems
to explain the desire to make the practical completion
of so important and necessary a headquarters an event
worthy of a special celebration. A note to the original
of the "Agreements and Concessions" gives the infor-
mation that " These records were afterward removed by
the law of the State to the office of Records in
Philada."
By the opening of the New Year, 1761, the building
must have been completed, and it is possible that the
first annual meeting of the Trustees, held on January
I St, of that year, was held in the Schoolhouse. There
was an election of Trustees, and from the names of
the new body we find that nine of the original Board
were re-elected, as was the Treasurer, Richard Johnson.
The new members were Charles Hay, William Dewees,
Esq., Thomas York and Thomas Wharton, they hav-
ing been substituted for Mackinett, Keyser, Bowman
and Livezey.
William Dewees was a son of that William Dewees
who was one of the first settlers, and who built for the
town its first pound, and subsequently became known
as the Elder of White Marsh. The younger Dewees,
who is here mentioned as Trustee, went to Pastorius'
39
A History of The Germantown Academy
school, and we find his name among the contributors
to the first fire company.
Thomas Wharton was cousin to that Thomas
Wharton whose father, Joseph Wharton, owned Walnut
Grove in Southwark, where the famous pageant and
entertainment known as the Meschianza was held. He
was a prominent merchant in Philadelphia, a friend of
Galloway and of Goddard, the printer, and was part-
ner with them in the establishment of the latter's news-
paper, the Chronicle. In the trying times yet to come,
Wharton was found on the King's side, and, having
been arrested as a Tory by order of Congress, was
sent into exile in Virginia, and his estates confiscated.
Of Thomas York and Charles Hay, even less seems
to be known. The former was a member of the Fish-
ing Company of Fort St. Davids, and the latter of
the family of Peter Hay who, in 1766, is mentioned as
owning part of lot No. 4 of the Side-Lots Towards
Bristol, on Fisher's Lane, and part of Cresheim Lot 3 at
the upper end of the town, on what now is Allen's Lane.
Early in the year, in fact, at the next meeting, Jan-
uary 8, 1 761, which was held in the house of John Jones,
the Trustees had selected one of the masters for the
school. This was Hilarius Becker, "who has for some
time past kept a German School in Germantown to
general satisfaction." The minute from which this
quotation is made continues to relate that Becker,
"being proposed to be the German Schoolmaster at
the Union School House, he being willing to undertake
the same, and being a capable person for said under-
taking, and well approved of by his employers, and
the Trustees present, it is agreed that he be the Ger-
40
HiLARius Becker
First German Teacher, Appointed January 8, 1761
Born 1705, in Bernheim, Germany
Died 1783, in Philadelphia
Opening the School
man Schoolmaster at the Schoolhouse, and that he be
admitted to reside in one of the dwelling houses, and
to move thereto on the first of April next, or as soon
as the same be ready for him to move thereto."
There is comparatively little to be learned of
Becker. He seems to have been one of those careful,
quiet, conscientious teachers who give the best there is
in them to their young charges and then, silently
admiring their result, modestly efface themselves.
But if Hilarius Becker is unknown to fame, he left
descendants who served the City of Philadelphia at
different times for some years, and one of his sons
also became a teacher in the Union School House.
Becker is said, by Mr. Julius F. Sachse, to have been
born in Bernheim, near Frankfurt, Germany, in the year
1705, and to have died June 23, 1783. He remained
as German Master in the School until he finally
retired from active life in 1778. His son, George
Adam Baker, who anglicised the spelling of his name,
was born in Germantown in the year 1763, and early in
life was in the mercantile business on Arch Street near
what then was the ferry. He dealt in wine, spices,
salt, tea, shoes, crockery — a general merchandizing
business, in short, but later became a conveyancer. He
served the City of Philadelphia in Common Council
during the years 1801 and 1802; was City Treasurer
three times, 1802-3, 1807-9 and 1811-13. He was
very active in Masonic circles and served for many
years as R. W. Grand Secretary of Lodge No. 2, of
the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Another son of
Hilarius Becker, Hilary Baker, was Mayor of Phila-
delphia from 1796 to 1798.
41
A History of The Germantown Academy
It might be mentioned that on the only other
minute adopted at the meeting of Trustees, when they
agreed so unanimously upon the selection of a German
teacher for the School, was one increasing the fines
upon the tardy or non-attending members of the
Board. Evidently there had been a noticeable increase
in tardiness, for the fine for being late was jumped from
the original " tuppence " to eighteen pence imposed on
each of the Trustees who are delinquent to meet
precisely at the hour appointed for meeting, unless
such reasons be given for such omission as may be
satisfactory.
Even if there was not internal evidence in the
minutes to support the theory, it seems to be self
evident that Becker was intimately known to every
member of the Board. No rate was then fixed for
tuition in his school ; his salary even was not mentioned,
but a mutual understanding upon both most probably
was reached between the master and the Trustees.
He probably was willing and anxious to attach him-
self to such a promising school, which not only was to
be the largest in Germantown, but very nearly equal to
the already well-advertised College and Academy in
Philadelphia, the foremost educational institution in
the Province. But with the English Master greater
care was shown, not only in his selection, but in
arranging all the details of his duties and prerogatives.
There was no haste in starting either upon his career,
but the German Master was the first to be installed.
There was at that time in Philadelphia, an instructor
who made a reputation in his profession during the
eleven years he had been in the city. He had been a
42
opening the School
successful master in the College and Academy of
Philadelphia; he had taken the first step in the
Province, perhaps in this part of the world, towards
supplying, what we now call, the higher education for
women. In the middle years of the eighteenth
century his instruction evinced a commendable spirit
of advance and introduced its author as an innovator.
This remarkable man, at the time he was called to
Germantown, was conducting a school for boys up a
narrow thoroughfare, then named Viddall's Alley. He
was a restless spirit ; a political pamphleteer ; a talented
artist ; a satirical versifier ; and from the standpomt of
the founders of the Germantown Union School, on the
right side in poUtics. Joseph Galloway knew him ; so
did Thomas Wharton, but so did everybody in public
life in Philadelphia, for he was a character, and his
name was David James Dove.
About a month after the German master had been
selected, or, at the meeting held on February 5, 1761,
in the house of Jacob Coleman, the King of Prussia
Tavern, "it was unanimously agreed that David James
Dove be the master who is to enter into the service as
soon as the schoolhouse be ready and to continue for
one year, and his salary to be one Hundred pounds."
At the same meeting it was decided that "each scholar
admitted to the EngHsh School shall pay the sum of
forty shillings per annum." It was also agreed " that
the Dutch School be kept in the East End of the
building and the English School in the West End."
But the schoolhouse was not ready in March, and
in April it is noted on the books that there was un-
certainty when it would be finished. Dove was
43
A History of The Germantoivn Academy
waiting anxiously for his new post, and probably made
some inquiries as to when his year was to begin, for at
this meeting, dated April 3, 1761, it was "determined
that the pay of David James Dove, as English school-
master, shall begin the middle of June next, unless the
schoolhouse be sooner ready."
This delay in completing the school and other
buildings was due to the carpenter who had the con-
tract. At the meeting on February 16, 1761, "it was
represented to the Trustees that a number of children
will be sent this year to the English School to learn to
spell and read only, and that it will contrive to settle
some uneasiness which has arisen among contributors
respecting the Price to be paid for such children to
lessen the same. It is therefore unanimously agreed
that no more than thirty shillings be paid for such
children as shall be taught by the master to spell and
read only; and that when they be put to writing and
arithmetick or either of them, that then, and not before,
there shall be paid for such child forty shillings."
While awaiting the completion of the building, the
Trustees thought the time had arrived to advertise the
merits of the new institution, at least so far as its
physical and moral environment were concerned, and
in the " Pennsylvania Gazette " for March 5, 1761, some
months before the carpenter had finished his work —
expected to be completed in April — they inserted an
advertisement, descriptive of the establishment. From
it, it is learned :
"The School House consists of 80 feet in Front,
and 40 Feet in Depth, two Stories in Height, with six
commodious Rooms for the Use of the several Schools.
44
opening the School
To which are added as Wings, two convenient Dwell-
ing-houses, with a lot of Ground to each, for the Resi-
dence of the Masters and their Boarders.
"The Advantages of the School, with respect to
Situation, must, if duly considered, contribute not a
little to its Promotion and Encouragement. The
House is built on a fine, airy Hill, a little removed from
the Public or Main Street. The Air is known, from
long Experience, to be pure and healthy ; often recom-
mended by the best Physicians, to Invalids; and indeed
the Place, without Exaggeration, may be justly termed
the Montpelier of Pennsylvania. The Opportunities
and Examples of Vice and Immorality, which ever pre-
vail in large Cities, here will seldom present themselves,
to decoy the youthful Mind from its natural Inclina-
tion of Virtue. Its Retirement for want of Objects to
divert the Attention will fix the Mind to Application
and Study. Its small Distance from the City of Phil-
adelphia will enable the Citizen, in some Measure, to
superintend both the Health and Education of his
Child."
This seems to have had the desired effect, for
when the school opened there were enrolled as pupils
in " This Montpelier of Pennsylvania," 131 children,
of whom 70 were in the German department.
By April 3d of the same year, 1761, the school
remained unfinished, and a committee consisting of
Thomas Rose, Jacob Naglee, Christopher Sauer and
Charles Bensell was appointed to request the managers
that " they cause the schoolhouse to be perfected as
soon as possible and to observe to the managers that
it will become them to enforce the articles entered into
45
A History of The Germantown Academy
with the carpenter, provided he don't comply with
this agreement."
While Dove's term of office was arranged to begin
in the middle of June, he seems to have had little
more than preparatory work to occupy his time during
that summer, for the school did not open until August
lo, 1761. What, if any, ceremonies attended this aus-
picious occasion is unknown ; even the date for the
opening is fixed by circumstantial evidence. In the
Trustees' book, under date of August 4, 1761, we
learn that a special fund of ;^6o having been sub-
scribed, Thomas Pratt was employed as Usher in the
English School, and he was to enter upon his duties
on " Second-day next, when said School is intended to
be opened." Now, a little investigation will show that
the next Second-day, or Monday, fell on the loth of
the month, although, by some curious accident, all
historical sketches of the Academy give the opening
date as August nth. The only guide to the date has
been given, but it is known to a certainty that on
September 4, 1761, the school was open, for the min-
utes refer to the fact in these words : " As the school
is now open, it appears necessary that some general
rules should be fixed for the good order and govern-
ment of the same."
David James Dove, the first master of the English
school, was a much talked of man in and about
Philadelphia in the nineteen years he spent here,
though these are those in which a man passes from
middle to old age. From a letter to Dr. Johnson,
written to Boswell's hero by Franklin soon after
Dove's arrival in Philadelphia, we obtain the first in-
46
opening the School
dication of his probable age when he came to this
country. In this letter, which bears the date of
December 24, 1751, Franklin wrote: "The English
master of the Academy and College of Philadelphia is
Mr. Dove, a gentleman about your age, who formerly
taught grammar sixteen years at Chichester, in
England. He is an excellent master, and his scholars
have made a surprising progress." Now, Dr. Johnson
was born in the year 1709, and at the time FrankHn
wrote, Dove must have been about forty-two years of
age. That he came to this country in the year 1750,
we have the minutes of the Trustees of the College
and Academy of Philadelphia for evidence. On the
minutes under the date of December 17, 1750, we find
this record :
" Mr. David James Dove having lately come hither
from England where the Trustees are informed he had
the care of a School for many years and having offered
himself for an English Master, The Trustees being
in a great measure strangers to him do order that he
be accepted for the English Master in the Academy
for one year, to commence on the seventh day of
January next, for the Sallary of one hundred and fifty
pounds in order to make Tryal of his care and ability."
Dove took hold of the English Mastership at the
College on the day appointed, and in the meantime
seems to have had for boarder at his house one of the
tutors at the same institution, a tutor who was destined
to become more famous — Charles Thomson. In spite
of his peculiar methods. Dove seems to have been held
in high regard by the Trustees, and to have been an
able instructor. He built up the school at a surprising
47
A History of The G ermantown Academy
rate and soon had to have an assistant or usher, this
Charles Thomson aforesaid. Soon after this time
Thomson, who did not like his surroundings at the
Doves, left their fireside for another home. Appre-
ciating the reckless manner in which Dove was known
to have referred to practically everybody with whom he
came into contact, and how he repeated spiteful and
sarcastic things of them when they were not present,
Thomson, for a while, was undecided how best to quit
the house. In order to frustrate any such spiteful
attempt upon himself after he had gone, he hit upon a
most original method of forestalling unfavorable gos-
sip, had Dove ever intended it. Thomson himself has
told us how he proceeded on this occasion :
"He gravely inquired of them (Mr. and Mrs.
Dove) one evening if his conduct as a boarder had
been satisfactory to them. They promptly replied in
the affirmative.
'"Would you, then,' said Thomson, 'be willing to
give me a certificate to that effect?'
'"Oh, certainly!'
"A certificate was accordingly given, and the next
day he departed from them in peace."
Not content with his duties at the College, which
daily were growing more draining on his time and
attention on account of the increase in the numbers of
his pupils — to which increase there seems to be no
doubt his reputation as a teacher was largely responsi-
ble — in August, Dove announced the opening of a
school for young ladies at the College. That this
was done with the consent of the Trustees seems evi-
dent, although the minutes on this point are silent.
48
opening the School
In the "Pennsylvania Gazette" for August 29, 1751,
Dove advertised :
"As the Scheme formed by the Gentlemen of Phil-
adelphia, for the regular Education of their Sons, has
been happily carried into Execution; the Ladies excited
by the laudable example, are solicitous that their
Daughters too might be instructed in some Parts of
Learning, as they are taught at the Academy. Mr.
Dove proposes to open a school at said Academy for
young Ladies, on Monday next, in which will be care-
fully taught the English Grammar; the true Way of
Spelling, and Pronouncing properly; together with
fair Writing, Arithmetick, and Accounts ; So that the
Plan recommended by the Universal Spectator may be
exactly pursued. Price Ten Shillings Entrance and
Twenty Shillings per Quarter."
What may have been the Trustees' estimate of the
value of Mr. Dove may be imagined from the fact that
he was paid the highest salary of any of the instruct-
ors, excepting only William Smith, who subsequently
became the Provost. In December of the same year
there were ninety pupils in the English Department,
and Dove was given another assistant, the first usher
allotted him having been put at his service in the pre-
vious July. His new assistant, Mr. Peisley, for whose
ability Dove vouched, did not long remain with him,
and the master selected two of his promising boys
from his class for the duties, and each was awarded
twenty dollars by the Trustees as compensation for
their services.
It was during this period that Dove had as a pupil
Richard Peters, Jr., nephew of Richard Peters, one of
49
A History of The Germantown Academy
the Trustees, later the owner of Belmont, and a Judge
in the United States District Court. From him we
learn that Dove was a " sarcastic and ill-tempered dog-
gerelizer, who was but ironically Dove\ for his temper
was that of a hawk, and his pen the beak of a falcon
pouncing on innocent prey."
It soon became apparent to the Trustees that the
real reason why Dove wanted two ushers and an assist-
ant was that he might be able to devote more atten-
tion to teaching the young ladies "the true way of
spelling, and pronouncing properly, together with fair
writing, arithmetick and accounts." In the minute of
the Board dated November 15, 1752, we find: "The
Trustees being informed that Mr. Dove makes a prac-
tice of leaving his School at Eleven o'clock in the
morning, and at four in the afternoon ; and such fre-
quent absences of the Master being thought a Disad-
vantage to the School, Mr. Franklin and Mr. Peters
are desired to speak to him about it, and request his
Attendance during the School Hours."
That the committee failed is shown by the minutes
of the next meeting of the Trustees. There it is
written that these gentlemen reported that " Mr.
Dove acknowledged what had been reported of him
concerning his leaving the School, and that he seemed
desirous of being indulged in that practice, but the
Trustees considered it as a bad example and too great
a Neglect of the children under his care, and desired
him to be informed they would expect he will attend
the School at the appointed Hours."
Dove did not give up without a fight with the
Trustees. He insisted in conducting his private
50
Opening the School
school, and in neglecting, at certain hours each day, his
classes in the Academy, He made a proposition to
the Academy to continue in his position, but the
Trustees denied his request for other hours on
February 13, 1753, and, in the minutes of the meeting
on that occasion, the challenge is thrown down to the
Master, the Trustees refusing to recede from their posi-
tion, and noting, " as he had said, in Case his present
Request was not granted, he would continue to take
care of the School for a Quarter, or till they could pro-
vide another Master, so they, on their part, would give
him a Quarter's notice when they had been provided."
In July of the year 1753, Dove gave over the
Mastership to Mr. Kinnersley, who, also, was destined
to become better known than this truly remarkable
man. Until the Germantown Union School enlisted his
services. Dove continued to conduct a school in Phila-
delphia. For a part of this time we have little informa-
tion of his movements, although it is safe to assume
that a man of his character never was idle. How long
he maintained a school for young ladies is not known,
but in 1758 or 1759 he was keeping a school for both
boys and girls in Videll's Alley, a small thoroughfare
which runs west from Second Street, below Chestnut,
and now bears the name Ionic Street, being also known
to a recent generation as Carter's Alley. It was while
located here that Graydon, whose Memoirs give some
of the liveliest pictures we have of the eighteenth
century in Philadelphia, was one of his pupils. It
probably was in 1760 that Graydon went to Dove, for
he says he was about eight years old at the time, and
he was born in 1752.
51
A History of The Germantown Academy
" It was his practice in his school," relates the
writer of " Memoirs of a Life," etc., " to substitute
disgrace for corporal punishment. His birch was
rarely used in canonical method, but was generally
stuck into the back part of the collar of the un-
fortunate culprit, who, with this badge of disgrace
towering above his nape like a broom at the mast-
head of a vessel for sale, was compelled to take his
stand upon the top of the form for such a period of
time as his offence was thought to deserve. He had
another contrivance for boys who were late in their
morning attendance. This was to dispatch a committee
of five or six scholars for them, with a bell and lighted
lantern, and with this ' odd equipage,' in broad day-
light, the bell all the while tingling, were they escorted
through the streets to school. As Dove affected a
strict regard to justice in his dispensations of punish-
ment, and always preferred a willingness to have an
equal measure of it meted out to himself in case of his
transgressing, the boys took him at his word ; and one
morning when he had overstayed his time, either
through laziness, inattention, or design, he found him-
self waited on in the usual form. He immediately
admitted the justice of the procedure, and putting
himself behind the lantern and bell, marched with
great solemnity to school, to the no small gratification
of the boys and the entertainment of the spectators.
But this incident took place before I became a scholar.
It was once my lot to be attended in this manner, but
what had been sport to my tutor was to me a serious
punishment.
" The school at this time was kept in Videll's Alley,
52
opening the School
which opened into Second Street, a little below
Chestnut Street. It counted a number of scholars of
both sexes, though chiefly boys ; and the assistant, or
writing master, was John Reily, a very expert penman
and conveyancer, a man of some note, who, in his
gayer moods, affected a pompous and technical
phraseology. He is characterized under the name of
' Parchment ' in a farce written some forty years ago,
and which, having at least the merit of novelty and
personality, was a very popular drama, though never
brought to the stage."
It may be said, in passing, that this character
appears in the very diverting, but very broad " comic
opera," called " The Disappointment," written by
Thomas Forrest, who was one of Dove's pupils and,
in time, as shall be related in its place. President of the
Board of Trustees of the Germantown Academy.
After Dove left the Germantown Union School in
the summer of 1763, he opened his own Academy in
a building directly west of the Academy on School-
house Lane. This house in later times has been known
as the Chancellor House, from the circumstance that
early in the last century William Chancellor, a son of
Dr. William Chancellor, and of Salome Chancellor, a
daughter of John Wister the elder, purchased the
property and to some extent modernized it.
Dove remained here until 1768, when we find him
back in Philadelphia again, maintaining a school on
Front Street, near Arch. In April of the following
year, this eccentric man died, and the records of Christ
Church show that he was buried in Christ Church
burying ground, April 4, 1769. It is not improbable
53
A History of The G ermantow n Academy
that he was an elder brother to that Nathaniel Dove
(1710-1754) who was master of a school at Hoxton,
near London, and gained some celebrity as a callig-
rapher, and author of "The Progress of Time."
After his retirement from the Germantown Union
School, Dove showed his dislike to Quakers in an
anonymous pamphlet, entitled "The Quaker Un-
mask'd," which was published early in the year 1764,
and relates to the Paxton Boys. The pamphlet for
many years was attributed to Franklin, but the dis-
covery of a copy in the Moravian Archives, which, in
an inscription in a contemporary hand names Dove as
the author, has caused it now to be assigned to the
latter. Its full title is "The Quaker Unmask'd; or
Plain Truth; humbly addressed to the Consideration of
all Freemen of Pennsylvania, Printed in the Year of our
Lord, 1764." It pictures the Quaker as a very shifty
person, and says the Frontier inhabitants have been both
loyal and peaceable members of society and that the
Quakers were glad to have these "Back Inhabitants"
removed as "lessening a growing party against them."
Although the preface is dated " Second Street, February
18, 1764," that was not merely a subterfuge on the
part of the author, but indicated the address of the
printer. A, Stewart.
Dove was keeping school at Germantown at the
time, and, as the Paxton Boys halted within a few
hundred feet of the school, it seems to be certain that
he interviewed some determined backwoodsmen, and
may have been present on that eventful Sunday morn-
ing when Franklin, Galloway, Benjamin Chew and
Thomas Willing met them and persuaded them to
54
opening the School
return to their homes instead of marching on Phila-
delphia to massacre the Indians that had taken refuge
there.
Between 1757 and 1765, Dove was responsible for
a great deal of the pamphleteering and caricaturing in
Philadelphia. He was doubly responsible, for he was
answered and lampooned in turn, one of his chief
adversaries in this campaign being Isaac Hunt, a
young lawyer's apprentice, just fresh from the College
and Academy of Philadelphia, from which institution
he was dismissed. He will be recalled as the father of
Leigh Hunt. In 1 757 there was done by Dove a carica-
ture entitled " Labor in Vain; or, An Attempt to Wash
a Black-Moor white," which was a bitter attack upon
Judge William Moore, then under arrest by the
Assembly. Neither this caricature, which is not en-
graved but etched, nor another equally rare but
known caricature by Dove, entitled "The Counter-
medley" can well be reproduced in this age owing to
the nature of its humor. The latter print occupies
the upper part of a broadside sheet given over to a
Hudibrastic attack on the Quakers and the anti-
Proprietary Party, and especially upon the author of
" The Medley," which, by some curious perversion has
been assigned to Dove, although it accuses him of
immoral practices.
"The Medley," which probably was, so far as its
verses are concerned, the work of Hunt, is embel-
lished by an etching evidently by Henry Dawkins. As
a picture of Dove is presented by the verses, some of
the lines are given here, from the copy in the collection
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. One or two
55
A Miracle ? A Miracle ! without Difpntey
A tame DOFE* lueumorphos^d into a Brute !
7eath me tofcdU prodigous-mndeJ DOVEi
Mountain cfTrea/on^ ugly as tie DeviH
Let that eoftfounded hateful Mouth of thine
Learn me to rail malicious as thyfelf-^'
Weirds thai mgbt Jbame all BiUingfgate tofpeah !
Fielding s Tom Thumb
56
opening the School
lines, owing to the manner in which the broadside had
been folded, are indecipherable:
" See Lilliput with Beehive wig,
(An old abandoned sinner)
Would ... or sow with pig,
To gain thereby a dinner
From Germantown, rode like Quixote,
Or Sancho on his dapple
Methinks, 'tis pity He's forgot
The Horespond and that apple.
" They're lies says he, they are dam'd lies
They're charges most unjust, sir,
I conscientiously despise.
All letchery and Lust, sir."
Old Gravity in wig comes there,
Possess'd of pupils ticket.
Instead of one, receives a pair ;
(You know boys will be wicked)
" It's best he cries to be secure.
For fear that one wont do sir.
For if they should reject the poor,
The rich may put in two sir."
Some that pretend to know him best.
Swear he was only funning.
It may be so — by, gad, he might ;
And did not show his cunning.
At such a time (you know 'tis said)
We ever are distrustful!,
Of Priests, of Levites, good and bad ;
The Rich, the Great, the Lustfull.
In nearly all of the lampoons against him. Dove is
accused of being a most immoral person, and this
character seems to have been derived from the
" Adventures of the Life of the Chevalier John
Taylor," a notorious old Empiric and quack, whose
three volumes called his " Adventures " were published
57
A History of The German town Academy
in the years 1761-1762. It is the most monstrous book
of its kind ever issued as a volume of genuine adven-
tures, and its exaggeration of the truth is only a little
less careless than is to be found in the adventures of
the mythical Baron Munchausen. A careful perusal of
the three volumes failed to show the references to
Dove frequently alleged. At the time of their ap-
pearance, some keen literary detective must have
discovered parallels in some of the passages in the
volumes to legends of Dove's life abroad, but, at this
distance, these no longer are distinguishable. As an
artist Dove showed considerable skill, but none of his
etchings, which are as free as any of Gilray or Row-
landson, give evidence of training. The provocation
for the caricatures and lampoons of 1764 was the
election, into which the defenders of the Paxton Boys
on the one hand and the Quaker Party on the other
threw themselves with all the bitterness of party strife.
Hunt issued the following year a pamphlet, entitled
" An Humble attempt at Scurrility in imitation of those
Great Masters of the Art, The Rev. Dr. S— th, the
Rev. Dr. Al — n, the Rev. Mr. Ew — n, Esq.," showing
that " the irreverend Dove," like a true poHtician, was
back with the Proprietary Party again, having shifted
as conditions changed.
58
CHAPTER III
David James Dove and Pelatiah Webster
1761-1766
THE austere manners of Dove, the English
master of the school, soon began to have
their effect. The school was opened in the
August of 1761, and in October of that
year the first usher, Thomas Pratt, who had been em-
ployed at a salary of ^70 a year, because the Board
could not get him for £^0^ appeared before the Trus-
tees and said it did not suit him to continue. The
next assistant to the English master, John Points, or
Punch, who was only to be paid ^11 a year, was dis-
missed May 18, 1762. Joshua Acton, the next usher,
who was noted on the minutes as a "stranger" was
put on a quarter's trial, but he appears to have
"absconded" on July 5th of that year. Evidently the
English master did not have a temperament that was
agreeable to the majority of those who came under its
influence. Jonathan Dickens was chosen as the suc-
cessor of the absconded usher, but he, too, after a
quarter's experience with Dove, resigned, and received
^15 for his services. Then John Woods (perhaps
the Yale graduate of that name in the class of 1755)
entered upon " tryall at the rate of sixty pounds per
annum," but in December, 1762, was down with
smallpox.
Dove's discipline also caused itself to be felt in
other quarters, and we find the Trustees recording on
their minutes: "The Board of Trustees taking into
59
A History of The Germantown Academy
their consideration that the instruction of youth, both
in the rudiments of learning and that in good manners,
is chiefly aimed at by this Institution; nevertheless, it
being represented to this Board, that some of the
children of the people, called Quakers, are in the
practice of accosting the masters and others by un-
covering the heads, which being inconsistent with the
practice of that people and has been the cause of
giving some uneasiness to the parents of such children;
it is therefore unanimously agreed upon by this Board
that the master shall give express orders to the
children of persons of that Society, that they do not
accost him or any other in that manner or mode of
uncovering the head at any time; and that it is the
duty of the master (especially to such children as are
boarders with him) to know that they regularly attend
the places of worship belonging to their several
parents, at least on the first days of the week, if such
places of worship be kept in this town, and the Clerk
of this Board is requested to give the Master a copy
of this minute."
Dove seems to have been an excellent schoolmaster,
but he was not one of those men who thrives on harmony.
It was not long before he and the Trustees found
themselves in a strained situation. At the December
meeting in the year 1761, the Trustees, among other
actions, placed 40s. in the hands of its clerk, Thomas
Rose, to give to Dove for distribution " among the
schoolboys in such manner as he may think proper as
a gratuity for their expertness and aptitude in their
learning, the Trustees present having an opportunity
of hearing several of them to satisfaction." Two
60
David James Dove and Pelatiah Webster
members of the Board were required to visit the
school every month as a Visiting Committee, and these
seem to have approved of Dove at this time.
On January 15, 1762, gratuities of los. each were
voted to the German and English Masters to be pre-
sented to their respective " monitors." On April 6th
of the same year, the English Master was directed to
procure a suitable woman to teach " the first parts of
reading," but he seems to have neglected to do so.
Early in the year 1761, the Trustees, emulating the
example of many worthy institutions and churches,
" made," according to the annalist, John F. Watson,
" a lottery to draw in Philadelphia, of 6667 tickets at
$3, to raise I3000 at 15 per cent," to finish the school
buildings. Nothing regarding the lottery, however,
appears in the minutes of the Board until April 4,
1762, when that body took " into consideration the
unsettled state of the lottery set on foot for the benefit
of the school, and agreed that a letter be sent to the
Managers, requesting that an adjustment might be
made thereof." A committee appointed to follow up
the matter was headed by Joseph Galloway, and it found
that several of the managers of the lottery had balances
in their hands belonging to the school. Galloway
collected during the following month ^93 12s. iid.,
but the treasurer, presumably from conscientious
scruples, refused to receive the money and it was
placed in the hands of a special agent to appropriate
it to the payment of debts due. In December, Thomas
Wharton " produced an account in which is included
several sums of money received from the following
persons: From Thomas Yorke in part of Lottery
61
A History of The Germantown Academy
money, ^173 los. ^d. ; From James Child the balance
of his Lottery a ^97 is." Out of the monies received
^191 2s. i}4d. had to be paid to William Moor for
" money advanced by him to pay off some of the
prizes of said lottery." The experiences of the
Trustees with this lottery were so disappointing that
they never again attempted to raise money by this
means. The settlement of the lottery was delayed for
several years, and some of the money passed to the
Trustees, after the death of Thomas York, from his
estate.
At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on April
4, 1762, the English Master, Dove, was directed "to
collect the subscriptions made and the monies arising
from the Schooling of persons in and about German-
town ; and for the scholars who come from Philadelphia
and elsewhere" and to " keep clear accounts thereof."
The first night school was opened October 14,
1762, under the care of the Usher, John Woods, for
which he was to receive the compensation of los. a
quarter, part of it in advance. This school had
sessions from six to nine o'clock, and each scholar was
to find his own candle, and to pay 2s. 6d. for firewood.
None was to be admitted for less than a quarter.
It seems evident that trouble had been brewing for
some time, and early in the year 1763, decided dis-
satisfaction presented itself. At the meeting of the
Trustees held on January 6th, there was received " A
Remonstrance of Representation," signed by twenty-
one contributors and presented to the Board by Ubry
Meng. This document contained a series of com-
plaints against the English schools :
62
David James Dove and Pe latiah Webster
"That they think the price of schoohng their
children, with the additional charge for firewood, is too
high considering the advantage the Master has by
living free of rent.
"That the Schoolhouse which was originally in-
tended to be reserved and kept for that purpose and
for the necessary meetings of the Trustees and Con-
tributors, is, considerable part thereof, turned into a
dwelling and boarding house.
"And that the inhabitants of this place are deprived
of the benefits they expected by taking in Boarders by
the present Master's engrossing to himself, the whole
advantage thereof, and to the manifest prejudice of
his proper functions."
This petition or "Remonstrance" was regarded so
seriously that a special meeting to consider it was
called for the 20th of the same month. After hearing
charges and grievances "that may have happened in
the economy and management of the schools" the
Board came to these conclusions:
"That no person shall be obliged to pay any more
than 2s. 6d. for each scholar to purchase firewood for
the ensuing year.
"George Alsentz, Christopher Sauer, John Jones
and Nicholas Rittenhouse, are appointed a Committee
to receive the applications of such as conceive them-
selves uncapable to pay the present price settled for
schooling and firewood, and report their proceedings
herein to next meeting in order that the Board may
consider on what may be further necessary to be done
therein."
In regard to the improper use of the schoolhouse
63
A History of The G ermantown A cademy
it was "resolved that there be no Ironing or other
work done or any fire kept in the said upper rooms
after night and that it be particularly recommended to
the English Schoolmaster to take care that this resolve
be literally and duly fulfilled."
"The English School Master" received rather
peremptory orders not to send boys on errands during
school hours, and the other question which had been
a burning one in some of the Burghers' minds — his
boarders — was disposed of diplomatically. Dove was
to be allowed to retain his boarders "until the 15th of
June next," but he was "not to engage any more," and
the reason is set forth more explicitly in another
minute:
" The Board at the same time maturely deliberated
on one of the intentions of erecting this Union School-
house, which was, that the inhabitants of Germantown
might reap some benefit by taking in Boarders who
might be sent to said school, do direct that such
members of this Board as reside in this town should
immediately recommend it to such of the inhabitants
as are desirous of taking in Boarders, that they publish
an advertisement in the Dutch and English newspapers
expressive of their inclination to do so in order that
the benefit resulting from dieting and lodging of youth
may be enjoyed by them."
That Dove counted largely upon the privilege of
boarding his pupils for his compensation is self-
evident. Evidently, from his point of view, based
upon long experience, it was a prerogative of the
master. Yet, now, he was given until June 15th to
abandon a remunerative practice because he had
64
David James Dove and Pelatiah Webster
successfully competed with the townspeople. At the
time, Dove had twenty boarders, and at the meeting
in May, the Trustees relented so far as to tell him he
might retain them so long as they desired to stay ; but
that he must not take any new boarders " unless the
present number be reduced to sixteen, and then only
such as shall make up the said number of sixteen."
At this same meeting a step was taken to provide
a schoolmistress, who was to be employed to take
charge of " their daughters and young children in
reading, writing, &c., &c.," if the number offered
should be enough to support a mistress. It was also
ordered that " no person in future be admitted as a
scholar to the English School but upon application
first made to two of the Trustees, who are hereby
declared to be the judges of the propriety of such
admission, and that the Master shall not receive any
child in the school but upon receipt of a permit
agreeable to the resolution of the 4th of September,
1761."
Some astonishment has been caused by the fact
that Dove was able to keep twenty boarders in
quarters nowadays regarded as none too large for one
quarter of that number of persons. In the small west
master's house which he occupied, there were two
rooms on the ground floor and two on the second
floor, but it is conceded that he had commandeered
some of the spare rooms in the school-building,
although now it was designed to usurp some of them
for a schoolmistress and her primary class. But,
viewed in the light of those years, there was nothing so
very wonderful in Dove's management of his numerous
65
A History of The Ge rm ant own Academy
boarders. He very probably lodged them in dormi-
tories, and, consequently, very comfortably, if not very
hygienically, stowed them away in the two second-story
rooms.
In the Board's decision to control the admission of
pupils to the English School, through a special com-
mittee appointed for that purpose, may be seen the
foreshadowing of the end of Dove's reign. It is true,
when his usher, Wood, resigned, he was ordered to
secure a proper person to serve in the station of
usher, but that order probably arose from the fact
that the Board did not know where to look for such
a person, or did not have the time to spare to do so.
It is very plain that Dove's insatiability, so far as his
"hotel keeping" went, was at the bottom of the
trouble. Certainly, the time had arrived when there
was to be a parting of the ways, and it came sooner
than Dove expected that it would. It must have
become known to the Board that the new house that
was going up almost alongside of the school, was to be
tenanted by Dove. He was scarcely the kind of man
who could have kept his intentions secret, even if he
had not taken the Trustees into his confidence.
That Dove intended to repeat in Germantown what
he had begun in Philadelphia — holding a Mastership
in the Academy, and conducting a private school
independently — seems to be evident, from the fact
that he had scarcely taken up the work at the Union
School before he made arrangements to build a
boarding school almost beside the former. He was
only about fifty-one or fifty-two years old at the time,
and ambition was still warm within him. He was
66
David James Dove and Pelatiah PFebster
enterprising, and had more of " arithmetick and
accounts" in his make-up than the average school-
master of the time. Whether or not thrift was one of
his virtues we do not know, but that he was eager
for gain is only emphasized by the few glimpses of him
that we get through his contemporaries.
If the action taken by the Board was expected to
discipline Dove, and make him amenable to the
Trustees, it missed its mark. Dove went on in his
usual way, as if nothing had happened. He thoroughly
understood his business, and had the independent
spirit of the experienced man. As he refused, or
neglected, to obey instructions, the Trustees decided
to dismiss him. So, at the meeting on June 24, 1763,
the Board adopted a minute, which, at least, gives the
Trustees' side of the quarrel :
" This Board being informed that the present
English Schoolmaster, David James Dove, publicly
declared in the presence of one of them, that he
would not obey the resolutions of the Board any
longer than until he had his building finished which he
is now erecting contiguous to the schoolhouse; thereby
trampling on the authority of the said Trustees, and
effectually subverting the order and economy of the said
school ; moreover, it was proved to the satisfaction of
this Board, that the said David James Dove has, in
several instances, behaved himself in a very unjustifiable
manner, tending very much to the injurious education
of said School.
" Wherefore it is unanimously resolved, to remove
the said David James Dove from the office of English
Schoolmaster of said school, with this condition that
67
A History of The Germantown Academy
he may remain three months from this time, to occupy
that station (but no longer), provided he conducts in
a sober, decent, and regular manner during the said
time.
" As soon as the Board had formed the above res-
olution of removing the said D. James Dove from
the station aforesaid, they desired him to attend them
at their Chamber, when they immediately informed him
of this said resolve, to which he immediately acquiesced
by replying in these words : ' It is very well, gentle-
men.' "
At the same meeting steps were taken to provide
a successor to Dove, and a most modern method was
used to achieve the purpose — the Trustees advertised
for him in the " Pennsylvania Gazette" of July 7, 1763.
At the same time they called a meeting to change the
time of year of the annual meeting. As the whole
advertisement is interesting it is given in its entirety :
" The Trustees of the Germantown School having
fallen into consideration that several inconveniences
attended the meeting of the contributors to the said
school on the first day of January occasioned by the
severity of the season and the badness of the roads ;
it was therefore resolved that the general meeting of
the said contributors should be requested at the
School House on Monday, the 8th day of August
next, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, in order to con-
sider and determine whether it would not be greatly
to the interest of the said School if the Anniversary
Day for electing the Trustees and Treasurer thereof,
was changed from said first day of January to the first
Thursday in the month of May yearly? The con-
68
David James Dove and Pelatiah Webster
tributors are therefore desired to attend on the said
8th day of August for that purpose.
*' N. B. — A Schoolmaster, capable of teaching the
English language grammatically, and of instructing
youth in writing, arithmetic, &c., is wanted for the
aforesaid School. Anyone qualified for such service,
is desired to apply to Joseph Galloway, or Thomas
Wharton in Philadelphia, and they will inform him of
the salary, &c., that will be given."
It is very evident which section of the trustees
desired the change in the time of year for holding the
annual meeting. Those who lived in Germantown had
comparatively such short distances to cover between
their homes and the school that the state of the roads
in January could scarcely affect them seriously. That
it was the English or Quaker contributors who lived
in Philadelphia, and who seem to have been in control,
who desired and advocated the change is proven by a
protest in the possession of Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh,
Superintendent of Public Schools in Philadelphia. This
document bears the signatures of forty-two German
burghers, all of them contributors to the school, who
protest, fearing, as Dr. Brumbaugh suggested in his
address on December 6, 1909, that if the English stock-
holders could thus easily set aside one fundamental
rule, what was to prevent them setting all of the
original agreements aside. What the good burghers
feared was only too well founded on fact and soon to
be realized, and that was the inevitable English dom-
ination of the institution. They arise now and again
with other protests, and as some of them are innocent
enough, the Board meets them halfway with a compro-
69
A History of The Germatitown Academy
mise. Gradually, in spite of the reaffirmation that the
German and English schools are to be " forever "
maintained, the need for the former, as the American
spirit catches hold of the second and third generation
of the founders of the town, diminishes, and the School
becomes what was its destiny — an English Academy.
Now, we are not told how many qualified or un-
qualified schoolmasters applied to Joseph Galloway or
Thomas Wharton in answer to the advertisement, but
there was in Philadelphia at the time a man, equally as
remarkable as Dove, who did apply, and his qualifica-
tions evidently were regarded as satisfactory, for at the
meeting of the Board on August 17, 1763, he was
chosen to succeed the militant Englishman. It has
been said he entered upon his work on August 24th of
that year ; but evidently that is a mistake, for Dove
was given until September 24th to retire, and, as will
be apparent from a communication, addressed evi-
dently to Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wharton,
intimating very plainly that Dove " held the fort " for
at least two more days. This document, which is
among the Wharton papers printed in the Pennsyl-
vania Magazine of History and Biography for April,
1909, throws considerable light upon, even if it fails to
entirely clear up, this episode.
"Germantown, Septr. 26th, 1763.
" Gentlemen —
"After Meeting this Morning at Seven o'clock we
sent a Letter Requesting your Meeting us at Three in
the afternoon When our Messenger Inform'd us one
was gone out of town and the others so Engaged in
70
David James Dove and Pelatiah Webster
their own privet affairs that they Could not attent.
Therefore wee take this second Oppertunety (in one
Day) to Let you Know that wee have Done Nothing,
but adjurn'd till tomorrow at Ten o'clock at which
time wee Ernestly Request you Will Meet us to Take
Possession of the Schoolhouse that Webster may
Enter Agreeable to our contract with him. We pay
so much Respect to your Cityzens that wee are Deter-
mined to Do Nothing in the present affairs without
you Except you Which wee Cannot Suspect Should
prove Cowards in the Day of Battle Until which time
wee Shall Subscribe our Selves your Real friends.
My frd.
I will waite on Thos Whar- George Alsentz
ton tomorrow Morning 9 Christopher Sower
O'clock, if he goes in a Chair John Jones
I'll take a Seat, if not attend Rich Johnson
him on Horseback, & Convince Jacob Naglee
those Gent, at Germt. we are Niclaus Rittinghouse
not cowards. John Vanderen
J. G. (alloway) Tho. Livezey."
From this letter it is evident that Dove did not
retire without a struggle. Yet why he should be so
perverse and fail to accept the inevitable is past under-
standing. He had been dismissed ; he had been given
a quarter's notice and, doubtless, a quarter's pay; his
successor had been appointed and was waiting to take
over his new duties, and in spite of these reasons for
his retirement, he evidently was holding the school in
defiance of the Trustees. While the picture now is
71
A History of The G ermantown Academy
very ludicrous the good burghers probably failed to
appreciate the humor of the situation.
Whatever may have been the dispute between Dove
and the Trustees, there is ample evidence in the min-
utes of the meetings of the Board that it extended
nearly a year, and that the Trustees were heartily sore
about the matter. We learn from the minutes of the
meeting held August i6, 1764, that they had decided
to bring the dispute to an end. "The consideration
of making the final settlement with the late English
Master, David James Dove," runs the minute, " being
again resumed and thought necessary to have it done
without loss of time, it is recommended to Jos'h
Galloway, Esq., Thomas Livezey and Abel James to
attend thereto and moreover obtain from him the
Parchment Roll containing the list of scholars admitted
during the time he taught, and an ax and saw for cut-
ting wood said to have been detained by him."
This would point to a possible difference over a
financial transaction, and to the possibility of Dove
keeping the parchment roll, the ax and saw for
cutting wood, until the Trustees had paid him money
he believed still due to him. Though this is the
merest conjecture, such a transaction was characteristic
of Dove.
Before turning attention to Pelatiah Webster, there
is another letter in the Wharton papers from which the
above letter was taken, which is not without interest in
throwing light on the School's early days, and as also
showing the comparatively careless manner in which
contagious diseases in those times were regarded:
72
cJ^
l/i'//7/n'/iA!,
(~^A />
>^ ///^2
Jv-^- t^d. was a cash balance in the hands of the
Treasurer ; ^74 los. unpaid subscriptions for the
support of an Usher; ;^82 los. 6d. in small unpaid
subscriptions for the Building Fund, and ;^34 unpaid
tuition. In addition to this the Committee reported
84
■Un-^(, yu.c:<^^ ^i/f'^f////y ^''uAiy ff /^-^ ^.' Vt-x.^//, ■ /i/yy?^^-,
c.,...
. //* , /a /U^>4a^, /^..^<^-^'.
/
:^ /x ^^:x^
Charles Mifflin's Bill for Schooling Rendered to His Guardian
Thomas Wharton
Photographed from the Original Document
Charles Mifflin's Bill for Schooling Rendered to His Guardian
Thomas Wharton
Photographed from the Original Document
David James Dove and P e I at i a h We biter
that £^o was due from the estate of the late Thomas
York, " said to be retained .... on account of
an action against the lottery managers."
From what we learn of the school during this
period, the year 1764 was marked by a policy of
progressiveness and expansion. We do not hear
much of the German school, which began with more
pupils than the English department, and it may be
assumed that it followed the even tenor of its way.
There was apparently no necessity to emphasize this
department. Germans who desired such a school for
their children knew of it ; the Quakers, and other
English speaking persons gave it no thought ; conse-
quently, if the school was to become an institution of
note, that position could be attained solely through
popularizing and extending the English department.
The trustees evidently held this view, and this year,
after looking the ground over carefully, prepared for
adding to the departments. The reorganization was
agreed upon at the meeting of the Board on Novem-
ber 23d, and included the separation of the "Latin
School " from the English, the placing of the latter
under an independent master ; the lowering of the
rates of tuition for the branches in the English school,
" reading, writing, and cyphering," and the making
the salary of the Latin master depend upon the num-
ber of his pupils. Webster was furnished with a copy
of these resolutions, which were to become effective
the second quarter of the following year.
The plan, however, does not seem to have been
tried at the time appointed, for shortly before then, or
in March, 1765, Webster resigned. He had been
85
A History of The Germantown Academy
transferred to the new department, and is named as
the " Latin Master." He made a voyage to South
Carolina after he left the school, evidently having
gone south with the hope of securing another posi-
tion, and this impression is strengthened by the fact that
after his return to the school in July of that year, when
he bowed to the commands of the Trustees and began
work upon the Latin school, which soon failed owing
to lack of pupils, he requested a recommendation
" relative to his conduct here." This was prepared
for him by a committee appointed for the purpose,
and in March, 1766, Pelatiah Webster, who was to
outline the constitution of the United States, found
himself practically forced out of a country school,
and with a neatly written and carefully worded recom-
mendation in his pocket went out into the world seek-
ing a position as tutor.
A strange fatality seems to have followed this
man's career. It was his fate to be appreciated by few
during his life ; to be ignored by the statesmen who
acted upon his suggestions ; to be forgotten by his
Alma Mater, when it celebrated its Bi-centennial anni-
versary ; to lie in an obscure grave, and to be unknown
to his countrymen who have prospered and enjoyed
the fruits of the governmental system of his invention.
Even the shops and dwellings he occupied in Philadel-
phia are gone, and not a vestige remains of the house
in which he died.
86
CHAPTER IV
The Years of Pre-Revolutionary Unrest
1 766-1 774
WHEN Webster took his leave of the
Trustees, placed his boxes on the
Philadelphia stage and re-entered the
metropolis to make a new trial of his
fortunes, the school had been in operation for nearly
five years. That was time enough for the enthusiasm
for, and the novelty of, the new school to become
blunted by familiarity. Begun as a rival to the
College and Academy of Philadelphia, the inability of
the trustees to handle that eccentric, but very efficient
instructor. Dove, caused him to set up a rival institution
beside the Union School. At that time it was
beyond the wildest hope for two academies to prosper
and thrive in so small a village as Germantown then
was. With Dove contented at the Union School
there might have been a very different sequel to relate.
But this was not to be. His was an independent
spirit, inspired by the knowledge of his own professional
value. The good burghers were of a different
temperament, and could not understand such a man.
They had no eccentricities and their lives were the
kind that follows the lines of convention. They were
by nature incapable of understanding Dove, and
he, being a man of talent and experience, was im-
patient under their restraining hand. The result, as
has been related, was the founding of a rival establish-
ment by the " irreverend " one.
87
A History of The G ermantown Academy
Any attempt to prove that the Union School did
not suffer by this rivalry, or that the depression into
which it fell was to be attributed to other circumstances,
must inevitably fail; yet, it may be urged that this view
is unsustained by proof. The school was evidently
going back when Webster took charge ; certainly,
when Dove had his school finished, there must have
been some desertions from its roll of pupils. The
attempts to lend variety, the little gratuities of ex-
pansion, were not made until the hand was forced by
the opposition.
But the trustees struggled on. They had what
their rival lacked — they had a community, a small one
to be sure, but yet a harmonious body of inhabitants,
at their back. Dove was only one, but the trustees
and contributors were nearer fifty.
Before Webster resigned in March, 1765, to make
his trip South, the Trustees had provided a tutor for
the English school. This was John Woods, who had
been an usher under Dove, had opened the first night
school, but who had left the institution in 1763, possibly
to take a position at Dove's school. Woods was made
master of the English School " for reading, writing
and arithmetick," on March 25, 1765, and remained
until October i, 1769, when he resigned. During the
three months Webster was absent from the school, it
probably was his duty to teach the higher branches as
well. From March, 1766, until June of that year there
was no Latin school, when on June 19th, Abel Evans
was chosen Latin master. But a year later, owing to
the want of enough pupils, he was dismissed and the
Latin school once more closed. That teaching in the
88
The Years ofPre-Revolutionary Unrest
English school before this division was made was not
very agreeable to the master, and probably not so
effective in the pupil as was desired, is rather evident
when it is considered that the classical courses had to
be taught together with the primary English branches.
Abel Evans, when he took charge of the Latin depart-
ment, seems to have been treated with more liberality
than the trustees exhibited in their treatment of
Webster. He was to be paid £60 a year and, in
addition, whatever the proceeds of the tuition might
exceed this amount. With this reasonable compensa-
tion went the privilege " to lodge in the westerly room,
middle story."
It was about this time that the " Rules and Orders"
for masters and pupils, which had been in contempla-
tion since the opening of the school, were at last
formulated. On October 31, 1766, the committee
entrusted with their preparation, reported nine rules
" to be enjoined to be observed by the masters and
scholars of the Germantown Union School." One is
struck by the far-reaching power assumed by the
school in dealing with pupils, for one of them even
defines their conduct in their own homes.
The 1st Rule defines the periods of the sessions.
In winter they are from 9 A. M. until noon, and from
2 P. M. until probably dark, as the time is not
mentioned, and as darkness in the winter season sets
in comparatively early. In summer, the morning
session begins an hour earlier, and lasts until noon, and
the afternoon session begins at 2 P. M. The time for
dismissing the pupils in the afternoons is not given in
these rules, but from the agreement entered into by
89
A History of The G ermantow n Academy
John Downey as English master, and the trustees, in
the year 1769, we know the hour for dismissing the
class was 5 o'clock.
In the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Rules, tardiness, absence,
truancy, and neglect of duty are dealt with, and are to
be punishable at the discretion of the master.
The 5th and 6th Rules forbid the children to leave
the class room without permission of the trustees, or
to play in or about the schoolhouse, after being
dismissed.
There is an echo of old Dock's " Rules of Conduct "
in the 7th Rule, which requires " every scholar when
abroad to treat all people with civility, modesty, and
good manners, more especially their known superiors
and elders; and when at home, their own parents, &c.,
with all dutiful respect and affection."
The 8th Rule commands " That the master shall
punish or correct every scholar for any misdemeanor,
neglect of duty or disorderly behavior in such manner
as they shall, in their discretion, judge to be proper
and equal to the offense committed."
According to the 9th Rule these rules are to be
read before the School on the opening of school every
Monday morning.
Although the trustees were improving the ma-
chinery of the school and making the curriculum more
comprehensive, it appears to have steadily declined. At
the annual meeting in May, 1769, the Trustees came
to the conclusion the Latin school was a losing venture,
and that it would be "impracticable to support" it
during the coming year. Evans, the Latin master, was
informed that at the end of the quarter his services
90
The Years of Pre-Revolutionary Unrest
would be dispensed with, and June 19th he retired.
The Treasurer reported to the meeting a balance in
the treasury, but as this amounted to only ^'j 8s. 6d.,
prudence was displayed in abandoning the classical
department, which was evidently considered to be re-
sponsible for the condition of the finances.
The condition which confronted the men who had
tried so hard to render their experiment in education
successful and profitable, was a serious one. In those
days, as in these, when a business venture was beginning
to fail, the tendency was to " cut prices." So the
Board decided that success was denied the institution
because it was, while giving a high grade of education,
also charging high prices for the tuition.
At the meeting of the Board on June 4, 1767, the
new remedy was proposed. Just how the trustees
expected to mend the fallen fortunes of the school may
be learned from the minutes of that meeting :
" The Board taking into consideration a proposal
of Margaret Thomas of keeping a mistress' school in
one of the upper or middle rooms of the schoolhouse;
as several of the Trustees present are well acquainted
with her, the said Margaret and her carrecter, which
is allowed to be unacceptional, and is also allowed to
be very capable of managing such an undertaking to
satisfaction. It is, therefore agreed that she have lib-
erty to open and keep school in the back room over
the Dutch schoolroom, when the present Latin mas-
ter's time is up, and she is allowed the front room,
over the said Dutch schoolroom for a lodging-room,
and may take possession of the last-mentioned as soon
as it may suit her conveniency. Subject nevertheless
91
A History of The Germantown Academy
to be removed by order of the Board of Trustees at
any time hereafter upon having three months previous
notice for that purpose."
How Margaret Thomas succeeded with her project,
which it is presumed she carried on at her own risk, for
there is no indication that she was employed by the
Board, we do not know. The very plain inference,
however, is that she appeared during a period of
depression, and must have been a victim of it. After
having given her permission to keep a " Mistress'
School," and ordering for the new enterprise " two
convenient benches," the Trustees make no mention
of what followed. Excepting for the annual or con-
tributors' meeting in May, there does not appear to
have been any meetings of the Board. Although the
German school seems to have continued on its smooth
course uninterruptedly, the English school so far as
we can learn must have merely existed. The Latin
School, as has been told, was abandoned.
In this humdrum way the school continued for
about two years, when Woods, the English master,
who must have had a very unremunerative experience,
resigned. His resignation was to take effect on
October i, 1769, and in September of that year, the
Board succeeded in persuading John Downey to sign
an iron-clad agreement with them. This agreement,
which reads like a landlord's lease, only omits the
waver of the "exemption law" because if there was
one it would not apply to the case, and does not
demand that the English master renounce the " Benefit
of Clergy" because that ancient custom had become
a legal curiosity. But it tied the master up by such
92
The Years ofPre-Revolutionary Unrest
a wonderfully, beautiful mass of contract phraseology.
If Joseph Galloway had not retired from the Board the
previous May its authorship would surely be attrib-
uted to him. It may be found in toto in the address
of Dr. Brumbaugh printed at the end of this history.
After their disagreeable experience in ridding them-
selves of Dove, the trustees had made up their minds
to have no repetition of such strife. They made it
plain, too, who was to be responsible for broken
window panes, the schoolhouse pump, the fences,
garden and orchard. Even so small a subject as the
right of way to the entry was stipulated. And the
schoolmaster was to remove himself with celerity and
without stirring up trouble if they wanted to put
somebody in his place. The agreement, no matter
how it is viewed, is a most remarkable document, and
shows more plainly than any contemporary gossip
could, what expedients the Trustees, in their fight to
preserve the institution, were forced to adopt.
Downey evidently was the man for the situation.
Small as must have been his compensation, he seems
to have been so well satisfied that he continued for
almost five years to head the English department.
Then, on April i, 1774, having given the required
notice, it is presumed, he left the institution. What-
ever his qualifications, the fact that he remained for
four and a half years indicates that he was able to
conduct the school through the first critical stage in its
career. At the outbreak of hostilities during the
Revolution, Downey seems to have taken up arms. He
was captain of the Second company of Philadelphia
Mihtia, Second Battalion of Foot, in July, 1777. His
93
A History of The Germ antow n Academy
knowledge of surveying caused the Supreme Council
of Pennsylvania to require Colonel Bradford to assign
him to the duty of surveying the Delaware River from
Cooper's Ferry to Salem, His command at that time,
July, 1777, was stationed at Billingsport. After the
war he settled in Harrisburg and taught school there
for a number of years. Going into politics he became
Justice of the Peace, Town Clerk, and a member of
the State Assembly. In 1796 he came into prominence
as an advocate of a system of education to be carried
out by the state, advancing his views in a letter to
Governor Mifflin, which is regarded today as one of
the important documents in the history of education
in Pennsylvania.
94
CHAPTER V
The Revolution, 1774-1783
UNLESS some arrangement was made, and
there is no evidence that it was, there must
have been several days in the year 1774
when the English School was without a
head. Downey's resignation took effect on April ist,
and it was not until their meeting on April 5th that
the Trustees named his successor. This was Thomas
Dungan, who, like his predecessor, had later a credit-
able record in the patriot army.
The curtain had been rung up on the prologue to
the Revolution. For nine years the country had been
filled with unrest, and to this cause some of the
depression into which the School had fallen should
be ascribed. If we were possessed of no other records
of the Revolution than such intimation of the " distrest
times" found in the minutes of the Trustees, the
details of that struggle would pass unknown. None
of the exciting movements of those troublous times
found their way into the neatly written pages. The
passage of the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, the
Townshend Acts; all those innumerable aggravating,
tantalizing impositions on the Colonists, which had
made democrats of the Massachusetts men, and
enemies to England of all lovers of their country, are
unnoticed in the minute book, which throws absolutely
no light upon the times. There is a reason for this,
which perhaps need not be examined here, but briefly
the explanation is to be found in the fact that the
95
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