Academy History in Albany

    Salient Dates



Topic: Other Schools & Educational Topics


On Thursday, March 28, 2024, 10:03 AM (MT)
Sent to 3.235.251.99
© John McClintock, Albany, NY, 2018
www.albanyacademyhistory.org
Header November 16, 1779   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #obituary #school #city #classics #Union College
Event In April of 1779, responding to a citizen petition, the City Council organized a classical academy. George Merchant was called from Philadelphia to run the school, and himself taught Latin and Greek. The academy opened this date in rented space in the building built in 1725 by Johannes Beekman on Pearl street later known as Vanderheyden Palace. A second master, or usher, was also appointed. He was Suel Chapin. In November, 1780, the Common Council ordered the clerk to purchase an iron stove for Merchant's academy and city officials attended the first public examination. The academy closed in 1797, but Merchant remained in a large home on State street as one of Albany's leading citizens. He was an original trustee of Union College and the Mechanics and Farmers Bank. He died August 14, 1830.
Header June 14, 1784   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #streets, roads, turnpikes
Event John McClintock advertised that he would open a school on the 14th June "in a lower apartment of that house in which the printing office is at present held." This is believed to have been on the south-west corner of Maiden lane and James street. [vM]
Header September 8, 1784   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school
Event Nicholas Barrington opened a school at the house opposite to Mr. Burgess's, "money being very scarce at the low prices of 10, 12 and 14s. per quarter, for spellers, writers and scypherers, and three pounds for bookkeeping and navigation." [vM]
Header May 3, 1785   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school
Event Elihu Goodrich and John Ely opened a school "in the house occupied by Michael Hollenbake," who had "left keeping tavern." They taught Greek and Latin for 40s. a quarter; grammar, arithmetic and writing for 30s; reading and spelling for 20s. The hours of study were from 6 to 8, and 8 to 12, in the forenoon; and from 2 to 5, and 6 to 8, in the afternoon. This to the magisters of our day, may appear to have been a pretty thorough drilling of "the young idea." [vM]
Header April 11, 1786   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college #New York City
Event The first commencement of Columbia college, New York, when, the papers of the day say, "the public with equal surprise and pleasure, received the first fruits of reviving learning, after a lamented interval of many years." [vM EDB]
Header April 13, 1787   NY   United States
Tags EDU #state #Regents
Event Board of regents of the university of the state of New York established. [vM EDB]
Header January 4, 1792   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #city #College #Union College
Event The corporation resolved to convey to trustees thereafter to be appointed, a part of the public square in the city for the purposes of a college, and a subscription was opened by the citizens with a view of carrying the project into immediate effect. This movement resulted in the establishment of Union College at Schenectady. [vM] [Eventually, but an academy interim JM]
Header January 29, 1793   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Union College #Regents
Event The Board of Regents issued a charter to the Academy of the Town of Schenectady. Rules of the Regents provided that an academy could be, meeting certain requirements, upgraded to a college. This was proposed and on February 25, 1795, the Academy became Union College.
Header December 22, 1794   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #city #college #Regents
Event It was contemplated to establish a college here [in Albany], and a petition which had been circulated for signatures was presented to the corporation for the purpose of moving that body to some action in the matter. Considerable effort was made to have it located here, instead of Schenectady, and £6000 subscribed towards it; but the regents of the university, by a vote of 11 to 3, fixed upon the latter place. [vM]
Header December 24, 1794   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Union College #Regents
Event In regards to the incorporation of the Academy of the Town of Schenectady, parties in Schenectady and Albany lobbied separately for the incorporation of a college in their cities. The Albany Common Council had resolved on January 2, 1792, to convey a portion of the Public Square for such a college. For this date, a subscription list of almost 100 Albanians is preserved in the records of Union College and reproduced in Munsell, Annals, volume 7, and presents a fascinating comparison to the later subscribers of Albany Academy and Union School. Their petition stated:

"The subscribers severally promise to pay the sums annexed to our respective names to John Tayler in trust to be paid by him to the trustees of any college which may be founded in the city of Albany, the payment of one half of the said sums to be made whenever the regents of the University of the state of New York shall by an instrument under their common seal approve of the plan on which and the funds with which it is intended to found and provide the same college." The Regents decided 11 to 3 in favor of Schenectady. Its Academy thus became Union College.
Header February 25, 1795   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #college #Union College
Event Union College founded in Schenectady, the thirty-sixth college in the colonial and post-Revolutionary period and the second in New York.
Header April 7, 1795   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #state
Event An act passed the legislature, at its last session, appropriating £20,000 annually for the term of five years, for the purpose of encouraging and maintaining schools in the state. The proportion allotted to Albany county was £1,500, or $3750; the law to go into operation on the 7th April. It was the foundation of the free school system. [vM]
Header April 9, 1795   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #state #school
Event An act for the encouragement of common schools passed by the legislature of New York. [vM EDB]
Header May 20, 1796   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #city #school
Event "Whereas the Mayor, Aldermen & Commonalty of the city of Albany in Common Council convened, did, by a law, passed May 17th 1796. institute a SCHOOL, to be called "Albany City School," in which the children of the Inhabitants shall be Instructed in the English Language, English Grammar, Arithmetic, Mathematics, and such other branches of knowledge, as are most useful & necessary to complete a good English Education; & and for carrying that purpose Into effect, did appoint Thomas Ellison, John B. Johnson & Wm M'Clelland, Trustees.

"The Trustees so appointed, do hereby give notice, that they will, on Tuesday, the 5th day of July next, at ten o'clock A.M., and in the city hall, appoint a Schoolmaster, who shall receive a salary of three hundred dollars per annum, & a Schoolmistress who shall receive a salary of two hundred dollars per annum, for discharging the duties of their respective offices, in such building as the Trustees shall provide." [Albany Gazette]
Header September 30, 1796   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #city #school
Event The Albany city school, announced on May 20, 1796, was operating the following fall. On this date, a notice appeared: "With the highest pleasure we announce, the flourishing situation of the City School, which offers to all the benefit of useful instruction, at a cheap rate, according to their several ability. The school, at present, consists of seventy scholars, and is under the conduct of Mr. Seth Y. Wells, and Mrs. Martha Wilson, who are approved competent to the office.

"On an examination held by the Trustees, on Monday and Tuesday last, the scholars acquitted themselves in a manner highly satisfactory, much to the credit of their teachers and of themselves." The school may have run four years, but it certainly expired after the State in 1800 failed to renew the 1795 law.
Header May 3, 1797   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #Union College
Event The first commencement of Union college for conferring degrees in the arts and sciences. [vM EDB]
Header August 1, 1801   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #obituary #Union College
Event Jonathan Edwards, president of Union college, died; a man of uncommon powers of mind. [vM EDB]
Header March 16, 1802   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college
Event United States Military Academy founded at West Point on the Hudson. It was the third college in New York.
Header March 16, 1802   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college
Event A military institution established by government at West Point, which was the origin of the present academy there. [vM EDB]
Header April 23, 1806   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #city #school
Event Frederick Beasley, John B. Romeyn, and John M. Bradford made proposals to the city for the establishment of a grammar school of such a nature that it might be easily converted into an academy. The first step required by the proposers was a fund of $10,000. [vM]
Header October 14, 1811   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #city #Lancaster School #New York City
Event The Lancaster system had been introduced in New York City in 1806, and originated with Joseph Lancaster after 1793. Most accounts peg 1812 as the beginning of the Lancaster School in Albany. That was the year the Legislature incorporated the Lancaster School Society, which became its governing board. In fact "A Law establishing a Lancaster School" passed this date in 1811 and the actual roots of the school are earlier.

The city Corporation considered a Lancaster school as early as 1810. Here is the account in Munsell, Annals: "In August, 1810, the corporation had under consideration the project of establishing a free school, on the plan of Joseph Lancaster. As yet it is believed there were no public schools in the city. The society of mechanics had a number of years previously erected a building in Chapel street, called Mechanics Hall, and maintained a school out of their own funds, but it is presumed that its benefits were chiefly confined to the children of mechanics."

The admission of children was undoubtedly more inclusive, for the City used the Uranian Hall of the Society of Mechanics to experiment with the Lacasterian system well before October, 1811. In a letter from Lieutenant Governor De Witt Clinton to Stephen Van Rensselaer [III] read at the first meeting of the Lancaster trustees (see 10/25/1811) we find a recommendation for William A. Tweed Dale as teacher of the Lancaster School, with this phrase, "who has taught a Lancaster School in the City of Albany for six months."

On this date, the Mayor and Commonalty appropriated 400 dollars annually for a Lancaster school. The school would be governed by ten persons as the "Directors of the Lancaster School," to be chosen annually by the Common Council, and that three of the directors shall be members of the Common Council including the mayor (or in his absence the recorder) and that the remainder be chosen from among the Reverend clergy and other citizens, and that the directors shall elect a President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Visiting Committee. This first minute also laid out the provisions as to operations, visits, premiums, and every three months a report to the Common Council and a public examination of the school, hiring teachers, price of tuition, giving preference to children whose parents "may not be of sufficient ability to furnish their children a good English education."

And that the Common Council of the City of Albany at the time of passing appoint the following:

Hon Philip S. Van Rensselaer, Mayor or in his absence John Van Ness Yates, Recorder, ex-officio
Elisha Jenkins and Charles R. Webster Members of the Common Council
Rev. William Neill
Rev. John M. Bradford
Rev. Timothy Clowes
Rev. John McJimsey
Simeon DeWitt Esq.
Archibald McIntyre Esq.
Stephen Van Rensselaer Esq.
Header October 25, 1811   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School #Scotland
Event The first meeting of the Lancaster trustees occurred this day at the home of Charles R. Webster on State street. The trustees elected Mayor Philip S. Van Rensselaer president, Rev. Timothy Clowes, secretary, and Archibald McIntyre treasurer. Webster was publisher of the Albany Gazette and was at that time president of the Mechanics Society, Clowes was rector of St. Peter's, and McIntyre was a partner in the law firm of Yates and McIntyre, a founder and vice-president of St. Andrew's Society (the first benevolent society in Albany: "No needy, honest, Scot, man or woman, appeals to it in vain.").

The trustees hired William A. Tweed Dale for a term of one year commencing in one week, November 1, 1811, at a salary of $1,000 and appointed a committee to draft regulations for the school.
Header October 31, 1811   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The second meeting of the Lancaster trustees occurred this day. The trustees named the visiting committee: Mayor (or recorder, etc.) Messrs Neill, Clowes, and Elisha Jenkins. They adopted the regulations drafted by the committee and set the tuition at not less than 25 cents nor more than one dollar per quarter. They appointed That Messrs Yates and Clowes to prepare an address to the public on the institution of the Lancaster School.

Rev. William Neill was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. John Van Ness Yates was the City Recorder. He had read law with John V. Henry and was master in Chancery in 1808. Elisha Jenkins was a member of the Common Council, president of Albany Insurance Company and former New York State Secretary of State and Comptroller.
Header December 6, 1811   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster School trustees notified the Common Council by petition that the school was full at nearly its physical capacity of 200 pupils and that 500 were expected in the near future and that a proper school house would soon be necessary.
Header April 21, 1812   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster trustees approved a plan for teacher Dale to have fourteen days to go to New York to attend the examination of the Lancaster School in that city.
Header May 26, 1812   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The New York State Legislature incorporated the Lancaster School Society. The preamble of the act stated:

"Whereas Philip S. Van Rensselaer, John Lansing, Jr., Simeon De Witt and other have associated themselves for the laudable purpose of establishing a school in the City of Albany for the diffusion of common education, And Whereas the said persons have presented a petition to the Legislature setting forth the benefits that would result to society from such an institution by implanting in the minds of children the principles of religion and morality and by assisting their parents in providing suitable situations for them where habits of industry and virtue may be acquired and that it would enable them more effectively to accomplish the benevolent objects of their institution if their association were incorporated: Therefore, be it enacted" etc.

The act named the trustees: PSVR, Simeon De Witt, SVR III, Elisha Jenkins, Archibald McIntyre, John M. Bradford, William Neill, Timothy Clowes, John McJimpsey [sic], John Lansing, Junior, James Kent, John V. Henry, and Charles R. Webster.
Header May 26, 1812   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college
Event Hamilton College founded at Clinton on the Hudson. It was the fourth college in New York.
Header June 1, 1812   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School #state
Event An act passed the legislature incorporating the Albany Lancastrian School Society. [vM]
Header June 19, 1812   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #state
Event An Act for the Establishment of Common Schools: This New York State law required each town in the state to appoint school commissioners who were to divide the town into school districts; moreover, each district was to have a school house and site. Money for the support of these schools was to come from district, town, and state funds. The state funds had to be equally matched by the local funds. See, however, how this law applied to the City of Albany.
Header March 11, 1813   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #church
Event It was announced that a Sunday free school would be opened on Sunday, March 21, at the school room of George Upfold, in Van Tromp street, where several branches of English education would be taught from the hours of 6 to 8 in the morning, and 12 to 2 in the afternoon, free of all expense. [vM]
Header July 29, 1815   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School #Albany Academy
Event At this time the Academy was being built, for the endowment of which grants had been made; also, for the erection of a school-house for poor children, on the plan of Lancaster. The appropriations of the city to these purposes, exclusive of the sites, were not less than a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

The Academy is represented as situated on the northwest corner of the public square, on a line with the Capitol. The main building is 80 feet long by 70, and the wings 30 feet by 45. The building to be three stories high.

The Lancaster school-house is to be on a scale sufficiently large for the reception of 500 children in one room. The building to be two stories, exclusive of the basement story. Its site is in Eagle street, at its intersection with Lancaster street, formerly Tiger street, a very happy and appropriate change in the name, and we trust ominous of great good to the rising generation.

The comerstone of the Academy was laid on Saturday afternoon, at four o'clock, July 29, by Philip S. Van Rensselaer.

To expand the circle of social intercourse and human happiness, by the mild influence of the arts and sciences, which so eminently embellish and invigorate the intellectual faculties of man, our corporation have munificently contributed, by laying the cornerstone of the Albany Academy on Saturday last, with an adequate appropriation to complete it.

That this ancient city should be thus late in the establishment of a permanent seminary for the higher grades of education, might excite some surprise, if the genius of the government under which it was founded, the successive revolutions it experienced during its colonial dependence, the change of language and laws imposed by its cession to the English, and the superior attractions of its younger sister on the seaboard, were either unknown or disregarded.

Until the New England colonists, who, laboring under common apprehensions, and actuated by a common impulse, transported their families and religious institutions, matured by a strict discipline, under the fostering care of pious and intelligent men, whose prominent object was to secure for themselves and their posterity a permanent asylum from religious intolerance, this city was first peopled by emigrants from most of the provinces of the United Netherlands. Induced to abandon their native country from the greatest variety of motives by which freemen, accustomed to roam at will in quest of wealth, comfort or enjoyment, through every accessible region of the globe, could be influenced--unallied by the ties or hopes of a common creed--under the auspices of a great and opulent mercantile company, of limited duration, but whose charter limits comprised a vast extent of countries, abounding with the richest productions, incomparably more estimable, in a commercial point of view, than this, and whose pursuits, connected with immediate emolument, rendered remote objects either of perfect indifference or of minor importance.

As with the language, laws and manners of the English, the Dutch were wholly unacquainted, the old and new inhabitants, repelled by mutual dislike, had little intercourse with each other, the latter gradually neglected their common schools. To substitute others, required a long series of years, protracted by national feelings, antipathies and prejudices, which were slowly but progressively subsiding, when the Revolution, like an irresistible torrent, leveled every barrier of separation, by presenting the most fascinating point of union within the range of human propensities--a contest for equal rights, which had been highly cherished, gallantly defended, and successfully asserted by both nations; and while the recollections which so enthusiastically identify the deeds of national ancestors with the feelings and passions of their posterity were forcibly associated with the objects of the strife, the banners of freedom waved over their united bands--elevated their minds above the petty distinctions which divided brethren into discordant sections--taught them truly to estimate each other's worth, and inspired those liberal and manly sentiments which have so salutary a tendency to absorb private into public interests. The establishment of an academy, the effect of a united effort, is one of the many happy fruits of this concord.

While in every revolving year some traces of distinct European origin is merged in the national stream, the elevating connection is daily becoming more impressive, that the proudest national boast of the natives of this highly distinguished country is, that they have the honor to be Americans.

The copper plate deposited at the laying of the cornerstone had the following inscription: Erected for an Academy, anno 1815 / By the corporation of the city of Albany / Philip S, Van Rensselaer, Mayor / John Van Ness Yates, Recorder / Building Committee--Philip S. Van Rensselaer, John Brinckerhoff, Chauncey Humphrey, James Warren, and Killian K. Van Rensselaer. Seth Geer, Architect. H. W. Snyder, Sculpt. [vM]
Header December 21, 1815   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster School continued at Uranian Hall under increasingly crowded conditions through 1812, 1813, 1814. and 1815. On this date the Common Council accepted a report from the trustees and resolved to "procure from Mr. Hooker, at the expense of this board, a copy of the plans of the building now erecting for a Lancaster School House."
Header February 10, 1816   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event Reports on the Lancaster School were made annually in February. On this date, the annual report stated that 400 children had been educated over the course of the past year, the constant number of which was about two hundred. And that "the building which the munificence of the Common Council has made the necessary provision has progressed some distance above the foundation."

The report specified the progress made in 1815 in great detail, noting the number of pupils advancing through the stages of monosyllables (57), disyllables (65), trisyllables (73), and polysyllables (100). Similarly, the stages of accomplishment in arithmetic: simple rules (25), compound rules (17), reduction (8), simple proportion (15), practics (8), calculation of interest (5), rebate discount (1), tare and trett (1), vulgar fractions (3), geometrical progression (1), square root (1). All of the 400 learned to write, except 20 pupils not advanced beyond the sand desk, where they printed their letters in sand.
Header March 18, 1816   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #societies
Event A meeting of the citizens was held at the Capitol, for the purpose of organizing a society for the purpose of establishing an African Sunday school. The prominent actors were Isaac Hutton, Timothy Clowes, Theodore Sedgwick, Geo. Upfold, Jr., John Stearns, &c., who were among all the popular benevolent movements of the day. [vM]
Header April 10, 1816   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School
Event The legislature provided by law for a school in Albany for colored people. [vM]
Header April 12, 1816   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School
Event The Act of the Legislature passed this day made the following "free people of color" trustees of Albany School for Educating People of Color: Benjamin Lattimore, Francis Jacobs, Thomas Elcock, Samuel Edge, Baltus Hugenon, John Williams, and Richard Thompson. In her wonderful book, Refusing Ignorance, Marian Hughes, identifies them, respectively, as Benjamin Lattimore, a licensed cartman, Francis Jacobs, a chimney sweep, Thomas Elcock, a day laborer, Samuel Edge, a shoemaker, Baltus Hugenon, John Williams and Richard Thompson, grocers.

Benjamin Lattimore is mentioned in the Act as the conveyor of the property and it is to him that Hughes gives the major credit for the establishment of the school. The lot and school building were at 12 Malcolm street.

Lattimore was born in Connecticut (c.1761), served in the Continental Army, and moved to Albany after the Revolution. A "mulatto" and a man of "irreproachable character and uprightness," he became a member of the First Presbyterian Church (1799). His children, and those of his relative, Thomas Lattimore, were baptized there. In 1834, Lattimore went instead to the newly established African Methodist Episcopal Church. Benjamin Lattimore died in 1838.
Header March 14, 1817   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The trustees met in the newly completed Lancaster School House designed by architect Philip Hooker, to plan the opening ceremonies for May 5, 1817. They requested that Dr. beck give the opening address and that the Reverends Bradford and Chester open and close the affair with prayer; that Messrs De Witt, Webster, and McKown be a committee of arrangements and that the Corporation of the City and the Society members generally be invited to attend.

The total expense of the building at Eagle and Lancaster streets was $23,918.93. In 1839, it became the first home of the Albany Medical College. At least one room remained available to the reduced number of Lancaster School students until 1841.
Header May 5, 1817   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School #college
Event The Lancaster school was removed into the building prepared for it by the corporation, at the foot of Jay and Lancaster streets, on Eagle; the building occupied at this day as the Albany Medical College. The address delivered by Dr. Beck was published on the 12th in the Advertiser. [vM]
Header September 4, 1818   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event Mr. Joseph Lancaster, who had arrived in this city, was invited to give an address to the public by the trustees of the Lancaster School. He visited the school, where he was addressed by Simeon De Witt, and made a speech in return. [vM]
Header March 5, 1819   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college
Event Colgate University founded at Hamilton, NY. It was the fifth college in New York.
Header March 9, 1819   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Troy Female Seminary #women
Event Charter of Emma Willard's school, Waterford Female Academy. It was removed to Troy as Troy Female Seminary in 1821. The program fulfilled many of Willard's ideas expressed in her 1819 "Address to the Public, Particularly the Members of the Legislature of New York, Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education." The Plan called for a curriculum of religion and morality, literary studies, natural philosophy, history, etc, and domestic science and the arts. Amos Eaton and Emma's sister, Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, helped develop the science program in 1823. Emma wrote general textbooks; Almira wrote science textbooks. Science was to provide the disciplined study experience that classics served for the boys. Troy Female Seminary was charterd in 1837. Emma Willard's first school was established in 1814 in her home in Middlebury, Vermont.
Header February 8, 1821   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster School trustees passed a resolution to assist the trustees of the Albany School for the education of People of Colour by paying a sum on their mortgage payment. Trustees Webster and Hawley were appointed committee to carry this out. See next, 2/5/1822.
Header February 5, 1822   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School #Lancaster School
Event In the minutes of the Lancaster trustees this day, Rev. Lacey reported:

"The Committee to whom was refered the Petition of the African School of this city to be placed under the superintendency of the Trustees of the Lancasterian Society beg leave respectfully to report:

"That the school consists of about sixty pupils who are regularly taught to read, write, & cypher; that it is kept by a colored man who appears remarkably well qualified for his station; and that his scholars are making all the advancement in their respective studies and in good behavior that could be reasonably expected. And judging from the character the school has uniformly sustained for nearly two years--the period of its existence--they have every reason to believe that it will be a [blessing] not only to the coloured children instructed in it, but likewise to the city generally. And as this unfortunate portion of our population is excluded from the instruction imported in the Lancasterian institutions, your committee deem it consonent to justice & sound policy to grant the prayer of the petitioners and extend to them the aid of council and patronage. Believing that this measure is [ ] to perpetuate the existence of the school, your committee, cheerfully recommend it, subject however to the following conditions to wit:

"1. That the African School shall be under the superintendency of a committee, that shall be appointed by the board for that purpose.
2. That the teacher of the school shall make an annual report of its condition to the Board of Trustees.
And that on complying with these conditions the Treasurer be authorized to pay the Teacher twenty five dollars per quarter for ensuing one year commencing on 1st January last.

"All which is respectfully submitted.
[s.] Wm B. Lacey"

The Lancaster trustees accepted Lacey's report, made the necessary resolution to carry it into effect, and appointed Messrs. Lacey, Webster, and Hawley the committee to superintend the school.
Header April 10, 1822   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college
Event Hobart College founded in Geneva. It was the sixth college in New York.
Header November 5, 1824   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #college
Event Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute founded in Troy by Stephen Van Rensselaer. It was the seventh college in New York. Date signifies SVR's constitutional letter.
Header February 7, 1825   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The annual report of the Lancaster School by teacher W. A. Tweed Dale indicated that 947 children had attended in 1824, its greatest number ever. At any one time, the greatest daily attendance was 386. The full printed report is pasted in the Minutes of this date.
Header March 27, 1826   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster School trustees again established a committee "to consider and report to this Board on the propriety of establishing one or more schools in this city for the education of children of colour under the superintendence of this board." The members appointed were Rev. John Chester, Charles R. Webster, and Gideon Hawley.

The trustees also resolved "to pay Mr. Andrew McKaig, the teacher of the African School in Liberty Street: Fifteen dollars immediately and Ten dollars on the first of May next."
Header February 4, 1828   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School #Lancaster School
Event Teacher Andrew McKaig of the "African School" reported to the Lancaster Board that there had been 70 students in attendance in the course of the past year and that their studies continued in reading, writing, arithmetic, and English grammar, and "a few have been studying geography."

"The children in general seem to love learning, and in the endowment of their mental faculties, to be like others. Their behavior is decent and orderly; and some of them give good promise of being useful hereafter. O ! that they might all be so. I hope the time will come when all the children of the coloured race, will be placed in a like situation with them. Much might be said on this interesting subject; but let this suffice. I do all that is in my power to instruct them in the things needful for time and eternity." See next 2/1/1830.
Header February 1, 1829   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster School Society trustees published a comprehensive annual report, reviewing the history of the society and its significance. Available in the site archives.
Header February 1, 1830   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Albany School #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster School trustees annual report showed that 1,197 students were instructed in the Lancaster School, with average daily attendance between 300 and 400; also that the average quarterly attendance in the school for coloured children was 83. Further, with respect to that school and the Society's involvement:

"The trustees have the high satisfaction of being able to state that the experience of another year has strongly tended still more fully to demonstrate its utility, and to illustrate the wisdom of their determination, as explained in their former annual reports to take it under their immediate charge, and to apply a portion of the funds of the society to its support. Without their aid it could not have been sustained: it is now prosperous and efficient."
Header April 18, 1831   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college #New York City
Event New York University founded, the It was the eighth college in New York.
Header July 16, 1833   NY   United States
Tags EDU #college
Event Cornerstone of New York University laid. [vM EDB]
Header October 24, 1838   Albany    NY   United Kingdom
Tags EDU #obituary #Lancaster School
Event Joseph Lancaster, promulgator of the Lancasterian system of mutual instruction, died in New York, aged 68. [vM EDB]
Header February 16, 1839   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #medicine, therapies #college
Event Incorporation of Albany Medical College, the third in New York State and the nineteenth in the Colonies and U.S. Preceded in NY by Medical Faculty of King's College (1767) [College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University], Medical Institution of Geneva College (1834) [Upstate Medical College, SUNY]. Prominent among the founders were Dr. Alden March, who first proposed it, his associate, Dr. James Armsby, Erastus Corning and other prominent Albany men, the City (which granted free use of the Albany Lancaster School building) and the Legislature. The college was initiated, faculty selected, and students admitted from May, 1838, the previous year. Classes commenced January 3, 1839.
Header April 10, 1841   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #school #Lancaster School
Event The Lancaster School breathed its last In April 1841, as seen from two letters, one from its principal and one from the president of its trustees: "I have done the last act that I can do for the benefit of the Lancaster School…." (signed [Principal] Edward Small). "As these will be the last that you will have to receive from the Lancaster School, I hope you will be able to accommodate them." (signed A. McIntyre).

This last refers to the fact that since 1823, four boys a year were promoted to the Albany Academy for a gratuitous education. This number was reduced in 1836 to one, because in that year the trustees decided to allow each district school to send one scholar. See Statutes of the Albany Academy, 1837.
Header August 26, 1849   Albany    NY   United States
Tags EDU #obituary #Union College
Event J. A. Yates, an eloquent divine and learned professor of Union college, died, aged 49. [vM EDB]
Header September 22, 1852   NY   United States
Tags EDU #obituary #college #societies
Event Philip Milledoler, president of Rutgers college, died at Staten Island, aged 77. He was one of the framers of the American Bible society, and was an eminent minister of the Dutch reformed church. [vM EDB]


Items ending with "vM" are taken verbatim from Munsell's "Notes from Newspapers"
Items ending with "vM EDB" are taken verbatim from Munsell's "Every Day Book"
If Munsell used variants for the same word, one is chosen to simplify searches
Untagged items are copyright, John McClintock, Albany, NY.

return to top of page


     About Us   Contact Us     
© John McClintock, 2020, Albany, New York