One hundred and fifty years of school history in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Preface

Nearly a tliird of a century ago, in searching through a mass of discarded councilmanic proceedings on the second floor of the " Station House," the author accidentally came into possession of a half dozen time-worn record hooks, containing the deliberations of the Lancaster City School Hoard from 1838 down to 1878. Culled from the contents of these resurrected volumes, a hastily-Avritten article was contributed to the Sunday edition of the n.vaiiiiiicr and Express of January 25, 1880 — possibly the first authentic sketch to appear in the public prints bearing on our local system of schools. Considered of some importance, it was later inserted in Peck and Everts' " History of Lancaster County." A year ago, a second article was prepared and read before the " Lancaster County Historical Society," from which the present volume had its beginning. Along in the eighties, a series of sketches on the various school officers were w^ritten by the late J. M. Johnston for the Intelligencer. To these the author is largely indebted for nuKdi valuable information.

In the prospectus issued during the year 1904, the author took occasion to say, " I have undertaken to publish a comprehensive history of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with incidental reference to the schools of our county and state. Attention will be given to the early church schools of the citv and their influence ; to the period of the so-called charity schools, forerunners of the common school system and to the development of the latter from the time of its adoption by the Legislature in 1834. In

vii

Vlll

PREFACE.

addition, there will be included sketches and half-tone plates of the eighteen presidents, fourteen secretaries and six treasurers, covering a period of sixty-seven years. The expansion and development of the course of study, the diverse personalities of the teachers, the political and personal changes in the school board, the financial administration of the system, the relation of directors to teachers and schools, of teachers to pupils and parents ; and of this branch of popular government to other departments of civic life and municipal development will be reviewed. The conscientious aim of the author will be to relate all the important events and to tell faithfully the story of education in Lancaster. The work, it is hoped, will be of permanent value, being written not as a financial venture, but rather as a gratuitous contribution to local history."

In how far the author has fulfilled his mission, after a year of search and research among more than five thousand pages of time-worn records of other days, is for the intelligent, sympathetic reader to determine. As the free school system is the common heritage of all, so this work has been written to meet every phase of public opinion, with the hope, that sufficient of value may be gleaned from its pages to cause the reader to appreciate more fully the manifold blessings which the free schools have so bountifully provided for the youth of our city, county and state.

To the Lancaster City School Board who gave the author substantial aid, as well as to all our friends who have given encouragement in the preparation of this work, we extend our

hearty thanks.

William Riddle.

May is, 1905.

Introduction

The patrons of this work, who encouraged and stimulated the author of it to prepare and publish a history of education in the Cit>- of Lancaster, have no occasion to apologize for or to regret the undertaking. The education of a people is at all times a very large share of their history ; and to trace the men who, and the intluences which, developed, organized and operated the educational forces of a community is in a large measure to set forth the history of that section of our county, our Commonwealth and our country. James Russel Lowell says : " It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free repul)lics of America was practically settled."

During the past decade a great impulse has been given to the study and publication of our local history. It has come to be recognized that the investigation of it in detail must precede the fashioning by some master hand of this material into a compact and well-proportioned story of a great county, and of its most interesting and historic shire-town.

The many monographs which have enriched the proceedings of the Lancaster County Historical Society have, each and all, no less immeasurable permanent value than passing popular interest. Originally projected as such a casual paper, the story of the schools of Lancaster grew into a volume. To have razeed it into a mere sketch would have been to discard and possibly forever lost annals that years (and even centuries) hence posterity would have vainly sought with labor and expense to recall and restore.

X INTRODUCTION.

Fortunately this task fell into fit hands. For more than half a century the author of this work, as hoy and man, as pupil, teacher, school director and dispenser of educational needs, has been identified with the common school system of Lancaster County. He can fairly say, as yEneas of old, retelling- the story of Troy : " Much of which I saw, and part of which I was."

He has rescued from the danger of oblivion records telling with accuracy the complete story of the Pennsylvania common school system in a city which has grown, since the adoption of that system, from a population of less than 8,000 in 1838, to nearly 50,000 in 1904; from an investment of $7,000 in school property during the same period, to more than $700,000 sixty-seven years later ; from 700 pupils at the opening of the schools of 1838, to 6,000 in 1904; and from 16 teachers to 120 on the present roll of the Lancaster School Board.

He has traced the development of the curriculum and the broadening of the courses of study, until " the poor man's free school " has become " the people's college." The progress that has been made in hygiene and the laws of sanitation, as applied to the buildings and equipment of the common schools, is here depicted. Contrasts and improvements in school architecture and apparatus are set forth from the view-point of one with practical and mechanical ideas. The clash and contiict of partisan and political interests in school control are sketched with discriminating and impartial analysis of men and motives.

I kit he has done nnich more. He has linked the earlier history of education in Lancaster city and county wdth the story of the system founded by the State; he has given fair credit

INTRODUCTION. xi

to the church schools and the incalciilahlc work of reHj:^ions bodies in nicjulchni;- the cnUure and character of our youth; he has emphasized the fact that no town in all the State by the personality of its educators — Bnrrowes, Crumbauoh, Wickersham, Higbee, McCaskey and Schaeffer — has been so conspicuous in the cause of popular education as Lancaster; that no county has been better represented in the work of those twin forces of po]nilar education, the Normal School and the " small college," than our own, by Millersville State Normal School and Franklin and Marshall College; and, finally, he relates how for three generations the leading citizens of Lancaster, men representative of its best business and professional life, have, unselfishly and without reward, given their time, their genius and their labor to the education of the boys and girls of the people among whom they dwelt. Pen and pencil, author and artist, have been artistically and intelligently employed to tell the story of the lives of the members of the Lancaster City School Board ; to depict their features and to perpetuate their words and works. The long roll of teachers ; the faithful record of their labors, and the fit appreciation of their infiuence enhance the value of this work. Mewed, therefore, from whatever standpoint, I connnend it as a faithful historical record, a graphic narrative and a sympathetic appreciation of interests second only to the religious life of a great conmninity. No school library in the county or Commonwealth • is complete without it. It is a good work well done ; and more than that need not be said of anything this side of the river.

CHAPTER I. Page. Early Chukch and Private Schools • i

CHAPTER H.

The Lancasterian System I9

CHAPTER HI.

Lafayette's Vlsit 34

CHAPTER IV.

James Buchan.vn's Prophecy 4.3

CHAPTER V.

Lancaster Accepts "^

CHAPTER VI.

Monitorial S ysteisi Abandoned So

CHAPTER VH.

Rules and Regulations 93

CHAPTER VHI.

Ways and Means lO/

CHAPTER IX.

Ownership of Lancasterian Building I2i

CHAPTER X.

Passing of the Old Academies ^33

CHAPTER XI.

xiii xiv CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIL The Rev. John S. Ckumb.\ugh 167

CHAPTER XHI.

The Schoolmaster on the Hnx 185

CHAPTER XIV.

Thomas H. Burrowes, the Sixth President 203

CHAPTER XV.

Dawning of the War Period 219

CHAPTER XVI.

Newton Lightner, the Eighth President 234

CHAPTER XVII.

Combined German-English Schools 257

CHAPTER XVIII.

A Glance at Rural Districts 274

CHAPTER XIX.

John W. Jackson, the Eleventh President 288

CHAPTER XX.

Erection of a High School 303

CHAPTER XXI.

New School Houses for Lancaster City 321

CHAPTER XXII.

Daniel G. Baker, the Fourteenth President ^^y

CHAPTER XXIII.

A Question of Local Jurisdiction 347

CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTER XXIV.

Adjustment of Teachers' Salaries 362

CHAPTER XXV.

Tribute to the Memory of Dr. E. E. Higbee 378

CHAPTER XXVI Indications of a Greater Lancaster 391

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Stevens High School 406

Appendix

List of Directors 423

List of Teachers. 427

List of Members of the Alumni Association 432

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Author Frontispiece.

William Penn i

Adam Reigart 4

John F. Steinman 7

Rev. Samuel Bowman 9

Benjamin Franklin 11

Franklin College 12

Dr. John L. Atlee 14

Dr. Samuel Humes 17

Christopher Hager 19

Lancasterian School Building 22

John Baer 22

J. Barrett Kerfoot's Address

TO Lafayette 34

William Augustus Muhlenberg, D.D 36

Dr. Frederick Augustus

Muhlenberg 37

General Lafayette 38

Amos Slaymaker 39

James Buchanan 42

Thaddeus Stevens (1835).... 48 George Wolf, Governor from

Joseph Ritner, Governor from

Samuel F. Dale 61

The Old Court House — 1787-

1853 63

John King Findlay 64

George Musser 73

Louis C. Jungerich 75

Old School Buildings, South

Duke Street 90

John Mathiot no

Robert Moderwell 112

John W. Forney 1x5

Peter M'Conomy 118

George M. Steinman 119

Rev. John S. Crumbaugh 167

Common School Celebration

Program 172

Evening Program, Common

Schools Diploma 173

John Piersol McCaskey 177

Rev. John C. Baker 194

Samuel O. Nourse 196

Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes. . . 202

William B. Wiley 204

Rev. Bernhard Keenan 206

Hon. a. L. Hayes 208

Newton Lightner 234

H. S. Gara 236

Hon. J. B. Livingston 242

William P. Brinton 257

Frederick S. Pyfer 258

Miss Christie Musser 268

The Children's Home 286

William A. Morton 288

John W. Jackson 289

Charles F. Eberman 291

John L Hartman 308

Boys' and Girls' High School,

1876 311

John B. Warfel 315

\'Villiam O. Marshall 318

BUEHRLE 330

East Lemon Street School,

1881 335

Daniel G. Baker 337

Dr. John Levergood 347

George W. Zecher 350

J. M. Johnston 353

Thomas F. McElligott 362

Miss Maria E. Gill 368

Hon. J. P. Wickersham 378

Dr. D. R. McCormick 383

Dr. E. E. Higbee 389

South Duke Street School

Building, 1892 394

South Mulberry St. School,

1892 395

Hon. David McMullen 396

George Forrest 400

Interior Strawberry Street

School 402

H. A. Schroyer 409

Miss Matilda Zug 412

Thaddeus Stevens 41 5

Nathan C. Schaeffer 418

Lancaster High School Orchestra 420

GEORGE N. ALLEBACH, J. C. BROCK, DR. R. M. BOLENIUS.

JOHN BUCHER, JOHN C. CARTER, HENRY CARPENTER, F. M. DORWART,

C. E. DOWNEY, B. F. DAVIS,

F. S. EVERTS, GEORGE FORREST, R. T. FARVER, W. W. GRIEST, JOHN J. JEFFRES,

D. E. LONG,

THOMAS McELLIGOTT, REV. EMIL MEISTER, DAVID McMULLEN, CHARLES NICKEL, W. D. E. POISAL, JACOB PONTZ, FRED. S. PYFER, E. D. REILLY, DR. OLIVER ROLAND, W. H. ROLAND, SIMON SHISSLER,

A. H. SCHROYER, P. E. SLAYMAKER,

B. F. TROUT, JOHN B. WARFEL, PETER N. WOHLSEN, JR.

CHARLES WINGENDER, A. C. WELCHANS.

XVll

©rpni^atian of tl)c ^oarti, 1S3S.

ADAM REIGART, President. JOHN YOST, Tax Collector.

JOHN K. FINDLAY, Secretary. MATHIAS ZAHM. Messenger.

GEORGE MUSSER, Treasurer.

Superintendence Committee.

REV. SAMUEL BOWMAN, Cluiinitan.

REV. BERNHARD KEENAN, DR. F. A. MUHLENBERG,

DR. JOHN L. ATLEE, DR. SAMUEL HUMES.

Committee on Rules and Regulations.

REV. J. T. MARSHALL DAVIE, Chairman.

CHRISTOPHER HAGER, JOHN R. MONTGOMERY,

JOHN BAER, WILLIAM COOPER.

Committee on Ways and Means.

DR. JOHN L. ATLEE, Chairman.

REV. BERNHARD KEENAN, JOHN F. STEINMAN,

DR. F. A. MUHLENBERG, SAMUEL F. DALE.

Personal Property-Tax Committee.

PETER M'CONOMY, Chairman, JOHN ZIMMERMAN, DAVID COCKLEY,

PETER G. EBERMAN, JOHN MATHIOT.

Members of the Lancaster City School Board in 1838.

GEORGE MUSSER,

GEORGE H. KRUG,

WILLIAM COOPER,

REV. SAMUEL BOWMAN,

DR. F. A. MUHLENBERG,

ADAM REIGART,

REV. J T. MARSHALL DAVIE,

REV. BERNHARD KEENAN,

DR. SAMUEL HUMES,

DR. JOHN L. ATLEE,

JOHN MATHIOT,

JOHN R. MONTGOMERY,

SAMUEL F. DALE, JOHN F. STEINMAN, CHRISTOPHER HAGER, LOUIS C. JUNGERICH, JOHN BAER, HENRY KEFFER, JOHN EBERMAN, PETER M'CONOMY, DAVID COCKLEY, JOHN K. FINDLAY, JOHN ROHRER, PETER G. EBERMAN.

XVlll

DAVID M'MULLEN, President. GEORGE FORREST, Secretary.

H. A. SCHROYER, Treasurer.

.f'tanbing Committees: Superintending Committee.

JOHN B. WARFEL, Chairman, DR. D. R. M'CORMICK, DR. OLIVER ROLAND,

WM. O. MARSHALL, THOS. F. M'ELLIGOTT.

Finance Committee.

JOHN C. CARTER, Chairman, P. E. SLAYMAKER, E. D. REILLY.

Building and Grounds Committee.

F. S. EVERTS, Chairman, JOHN J. JEFFRIES, W. H. M'COMSEY,

DAVID D. LONG, CHARLES WINGENDER.

School Law and Compulsary Education Committee.

Committee on Text Books and Course of Instruction. DR. R. M. BOLENIUS, Chairman, J. C. BROCK, CHARLES E. DOWNEY,

REV. EMIL MEISTER, SIMON SHISSLER.

Committee on Furniture and Apparatus.

JACOB PONTZ, Chairman, G. N. ALLABACH, PETER N. WOHLSEN, JR.

Committee on Soldiers' Orphans and Home for Friendless Children. JOHN BUCHER, Chairman, CHARLES NICKEL, FRED. S. PYFER.

Committee on Night Schools.

D. W. E. POISAL, Chairman, R. T. FARVER. REV. EMIL MEISTER,

F. M. DORWART, A. C. WELCHANS.

Committee on Hygiene.

DR. D. R. M'CORMICK, Chairman, DR. OLIVER ROLAND, FRED. S. PYFER.

Committee on Printing.

PETER N. WOHLSEN, JR., Chairman.

HENRY CARPENTER, JOHN BUCHER.

xix

CHAPTER I.

EARLY CHURCH AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

Penn's Plan of Education— Act of Assembly— Lancaster in 1729— Church and School-house — Germans — Subscriptions to Support of Advanced Teacher, Samuel Magraw — Jacob Loeser — Franklin College — Marshall College — Curriculum in the Twenties — Various Private Schools Opened — German and English Education.

To revive historic memories, to perpettiate tlie deeds of noble men and women who in times past devoted their best years to the cause of popular education, and to bring about a fuller appreciation of the causes which have contributed so largely to our prosperity as a people — our solid and triumphant success in religion, in morality, in education, as well as in all things conducive to happiness — this volume has been written.

More than a half century ago, the first reliable historian of Lancaster county gave expression to the following prophetic words : " The permanency of all republics depends upon the enlightenment of the masses ; and to the extent that their education is encouraged or neglected, so will their foundation be sure and stable or loose and unsettled." This idea, so forcibly expressed, was not even at that time entirely new ; it had been promulgated centuries before — to be accepted l)y the few. But the multitude, moved by the blind leaders of the blind, stood ever ready to yield to the mistaken notion that the education of the people at large was an impracticable dream.

With the development of this idea, extending back to remote times, it is not the purpose of the writer to deal. It is safe to assume, however, that with the landing of William Penn on the shores of the Delaware the good seed was sown. This seed, well watered and nourished, took deep root in the hearts of the settlers, and by slow degrees developed into the 1 1 grandest system of free schools that has ever blessed the descendants of a liberty-loving- people.

The two treaties of love and friendship made with the red men of the forest — the one nnder the open sky by the Delaware, the other on the banks of our own Susquehanna — though not confirmed by oath, nor ratified by seals and signatures, were kept inviolate. These two treaties were the very foundation upon which rests that enlightened public sentiment, that fervid, religious conviction, which has guided and directed the good people of Lancaster for nearly two centuries.

In his work entitled "Reflections and Maxims," William Penn presents some very admirable thoughts on education ; thoughts as potent to-day as they were two hundred years ago. Indeed, as we review the history of his life, we are surprised at the author's far-seeing grasp of educational needs.

" The world," he wrote at that early day, " is certainly a great and stately volume of natural things and may not be improperly styled the hieroglyphic of a letter ; but alas ! how few leaves of it do we seriously turn over ! This ought to be the subject of education of our youth who, at twenty, when they should fit themselves for business, know little or nothing of it. We are in pain to make them scholars but not men ; to talk rather than to know, which is true canting. The first thing obvious to children is what is sensible ; and that we make no part of their rudiments. We press their memory too soon, and puzzle and load them with words and rules to know grammar and rhetoric, and a strange tongue or two, that it is ten to one may never be useful to them."

" To be sure," he continues, " languages are not to be despised or neglected ; but things are still to be preferred. Children had rather be making tools and instruments of play, shaping, drawing, framing, building, etc., than getting some rules of propriety of speech by heart ; and these would also follow with more judgment, and less trouble in time. It were

WILLIAM PENN.

hajipv if we studied nature more in natural things; and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain and reasonable."

Of the numerous laws passed by the General Assembly which met at Chester a short time after Penn's arrival, none evince a broader educational spirit than the following provision :

"That, to the end that the poor as well as the rich may be instructed in good and commendable learning, which is to be preferred before wealth,

'^Bc if cnacfcd. That all persons in this province and territories thereof, having children, and all guardians and trustees of orphans, shall cause them to be instructed in reading and writing, so that they may l)e al^le to read the Scriptures, and to write by the time they attain the age of twelve ; and then they be taught some useful trade or skill — that the poor may work to live, and the rich if they become poor may not want ; of which every county court shall take care. .And in case such parents, guardians or overseers shall be found deficient in this respect, every such parent or guardian shall pay for every such child five pounds, except there should appear an incapacity in body or in understanding to hinder it."

It is evident then, that the law-makers who passed this enactment contemplated the establishment of schools under public authority throughout the province and territories. They recogifizecl the prime need of the young becoming good citizens, and required them to become acquainted in the schools, " with the laws b_\' which they were governed." Strange as it may seem, it took the Pennsylvania Legislature more than two hundred years to reenact this old law of the first Assembly. But only recently has it done so, in the " Compulsory Attendance Act," which requires all children in the commonwealth to attend school for a certain period during the year.

Too much stress cannot be laid upon this old-time enactment, which was allowed to slumber on the shelves for so many years. All children, it will be noticed, were required to be instructed in reading" and writing by the time they were twelve years of age ; they were also to be taught some useful trade — all this under a penalty of five pounds, a real hardship at that time. That this law, after remaining in force ten years, was abrogated by William and Mary of England, in no way afifects the principle upon which it was based. However, it was reenacted by Governor Fletcher in 1693, by and with the advice of the representatives of the Province ; and although it became a " dead letter/' there is no evidence that it was ever repealed.

If the facts above set forth appear irrelevant to a history of the schools of Lancaster, it should ever be remembered that before the common school system can be thoroughl}- understood, it is necessary first to ascertain the underlying conditions which preceded or were coincident with the enactment of the law of the General Assembly. And furthermore, let it be understood at the very beginning of the story, that the free school system is by no means the invention or discovery of the master minds of the past seventy years. We admit, that the law creating the free schools was passed in the year 1834, and all its numerous supplements during later years. But the seed from which it sprang into existence was scattered broadcast throughout the province nearly two centuries before, awaiting a favorable epoch to burst forth and blossom.

To a much earlier date than this closing year 1904, I now ask the reader to journey with me. We shall find the Lancaster of today a mere hamlet in the year 1729 when the old town was first laid out by James Hamilton. This is the same Hamilton whose name has become so familiar to our citizens and with whose estate many have been compelled to settle their annual "Tound-rcnt tax.

JOHN F. STEINMAN.

Near the Square, where now looms our Soldier's Monument, stood, long years ago, according to tradition, a hickory tree. Historian Harbaugh mentions a creditalile tradition that the bell of the Reformed Church, when it was first procured, hung for some time upon a hickory tree in the neighborhood of Centre Square (no doubt the famous hickory-tree wdiere the Indians held their council) and was rung there until the steeple was ready to receive it. This is no doubt the same bell mentioned in 1746. Tradition has also preserved the fact that on the emergency occasioned by a sudden incursion of hostile Indians into " Hickorytown," as Lancaster was first called, a heroic woman rushed into the church and gave the alarm to the neighborhood by ringing the bell. This bell, burst in 1774, on the occasion of a hasty ringing in very cold weather. In 1784 another bell burst; they were both sold afterwards at eleven pence per pound. While the sound of these bells has long since died, as have those who heard them, others have come to take their place — pleasing reminders of days gone by.

Possibly the old hickory tree was more than a tradition, for here the Conestogas often met to deliberate or to barter away the furs of wild animals for which the surrounding country was noted. The present city is two miles square, and was named by John Wright, after that English county from which he emigrated in the year 17 14.

Prompt as Lancaster has been since the year 1818, when it became a city, to part with many of its old-time customs, habits and traditions, some of its streets, we rejoice to say, still bear the old names — King, Queen, Duke, Orange, Prince — a legacy handed down from the provincial government of the mother country. We believe councils in years gone by did right in preserving these familiar titles. It is well to be able to point to these staunch and faithful reminders of the atmosphere in which our town was born. For in these names, so familiar in their homes across the sea, the men of that early day sought to enshrine their loyalty and devotion to the mother country.

We may dwell upon this circumstance for a moment, in order to get a true perspective of the long line of historic events which occurred in the years before the city ever showed signs of becoming a " Greater Lancaster." To fully appreciate the manifold blessings on every hand so generously displayed ; to anticipate what the future may have in store, and to more fully realize the innumerable blessings of the past, now so little appreciated, requires an acquaintance with the times and the deeds of those who have passed away in the fullness of their years, and left on " the sands of time " a heritage for their descendants which should ever be held in grateful remembrance.

It is somewhat difificult to determine how or when education in Lancaster had its beginning. That it was contemporaneous with the founding of the earliest church schools, history makes perfectly clear. To attempt to trace these in chronological order, however, so as to do entire justice to each in turn, has caused more than one local historian to dififer with those who had gone before.

It is a well recognized fact that, from the time of the first settlement made on the banks of the Conestoga by the English and Quakers as far back as the year 1729, when the city of Lancaster was not yet a borough, the terms religion and education were synonymous. If the former was the main pillar upon which the Spiritual w'as to rest, the latter was just as indispensable to the worship of Almighty God ; for, to fully comprehend the Scriptures required at least a knowledge of the elements of an education. As time ran on, with the incoming of the sturdy Germans, each congregation was regarded as a sort of " spiritual municipal corporation " having a three-fold purpose — first, the erection of places of worship ; second, to supply these with those who should minister to their wants in holy things ; and third, to secure the services of a competent schoohnaster to instruct their children in the elements of a good German or English education.

So deeply grounded was this In'oad principle of Christian culture, that we may well wonder how a system of free schools eliminating all religious instruction was ever to gain a foothold among these all-powerful sects. For their inherent faith rested upon the hroad proposition that all instruction of a secular nature was Init secondary to that higher and holier purpose for the preservation of which they had abandoned the Fatherland for the banks of the Conestoga, where thev might worship God and educate their children in accordance with the dictates of their own conscience.

The force of the foregoing will appear all the more clear a? my story continues. Nor has this religious fervor eulirclv ceased to be a disturbing factor in educational development. Far from it. The battle was fought as strenuously during the first years of the common school system as it had been a hundred years before, and may be a century hence — unless, perchance, our lawmakers meanwhile stem the tide of our modern-day course of study, from which the Bible has been almost, if not entirely, eliminated.

As has been said, there was from the time of the first settlement of this old town the nucleus of an English population in Lancaster. It was small in number at first, but all-powerful in scholastic training and religious conviction, elements that have ever dominated the social, political and intellectual life of this city from then to the present day. This, however, is in no way intended to convey the impression that the Lutheran, the Moravian and German Reformed congregations, the oldest with the possible exception of the Friends, were any the less intelligent or aggressive. But they dififered from the English settlers in adhering more strictly to their own denominational schools and places of worship ; and they manifested little interest, at least for many years, in the political and secular affairs of the community.

Another condition must be met and considered. It must not be inferred that Lancaster was or is an oasis in a desert, drawing its power and inspiration wholly from within itself. On the contrary, the county of which the city is but a part, may be considered the territory from which the city, like a river, has ever drawn a store of wealth, wisdom and intelligence. A more diversified nationality is scarcely to be found elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Here, not only may be found the Germans, the Moravians, the Scotch-Irish, the Huguenots, the Welsh, but the English and Quakers as well ; all embraced within an area of nine hundred and seventy-three miles. What other county in the state can point to such a multiplicity of races, whose opinions when crystallized into one harmonious whole is all-powerful in state and nation ? It may be taken for granted as my story continues, that what has enured to the city from an educational standpoint, has had its counterpart in the schools of the county. r)Oth have kept pace, one with the other, in the sphere of religious and educational development

But to get back to the thread of my story : It has always been the custom among the Germans to plant churches and schools together. The Lutherans had their first church as early as 1733 ; the Reformed congregation, in 1736. The history of the German schools, is, therefore, bound up in the history of the early churches of Lancaster. Although church records of the early times are meagre, and have little to say concerning schools, there is no doubt that both the Lutheran and Reformed churches, from 1734 on, maintained schools in their respective congregations. Far be it from the writer to impugn the motives of the loyal and patriotic citizens, differing widely in nationality, tradition and creed from the English. They stood united for two great needs of the Province — education and religion.