Public education in the city of New York: its history, condition. And statistics

Front matter

ClassLAljIiS- BoolcJi^-^

NEW YORK FREE SCHOOL NO. 1.

THE NEW BUILDING OPENED IN 1809 IN TRYON ROW.

I. Schools Of New Amsterdam

ici4-ice4.

Public Schools in Holland, 1585. — West India Company bound to maintain Schools. — First Common School in America. — Adam Eoelaxd- SEN. — Stuyvesant. — Luyck's Latin School, 1G59. — Large number of

j' Schools Page 11

II. Schools During The English Coloxial Period

Schools remain Dutch. — Lord Cornbury's efforts to anglicize them. — Trinity

School, 1710. — Effects of Immigration. — King's School, 1754. — Struggle

of the Dutch for their Language. — Whelp imported from Holland, 1755.

— Eevolution closes all Schools 15

IIL

FROM THE EEVOLUTION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FREE BCHOOL SOCIETY.

City during the Eevolutionary War.— Governor Clinton.— Act of 1795.— Rise of Benevolent Societies. — Educational Societies. — Manumission Society, 1785. — Female Association, 1802. — Teachers' Association. — Common School Fund established 20

IV. Origin And Establishment Op The Free School Society

1805.

Free School Society. — Its Origin and Purpose. — Memorial of 1805. — Lengthy Title. — Lancaster 25

V

First School.— Its Eemovals.— New Charter, 1808.— No. 2.— Effects of the War. — No. 3. — Apprentices. — Mr. Picton, of No. 4. — Arrival of Lancaster. — Separate Departments for Sexes. — Manual. — First Vacation. — Controversy with Baptists and others. — No. 5. — Pupils not restricted to special Districts 21)

viii CONTENTS.

VI. Frek School Society. 1s24-1s2c

No, G.— Improvement in Character of Attendance.— Visit of La Fayette.— Bethel Baptist Church.— Proposition to introduce " Pay Scholars."— Sanguine Anticipations as to theKesults Page 37

VII. Public School Society

Third Charter, and new Title.— Schools become Pay Schools.— Preparatior

for great Increase of Attendance.— No. 7.— No.8.— No. 9.— Establi-

ment of Executive Committee.— Great Extension of Course of Study

Central School. — Application for Assistants refused

VIII. Public School Society. 1s2t-182s

Failure of Pay System.— Disastrous Results.— Caste. — Reports of Committee of Investigation. — First Result. — Poor American Citizens will not be considered Paupers. — Second Result. — Failure of the One-teacher System of Lancaster. — Permanent paid Monitors-general 45

IX. Public School Society

Infant School Society. — Junior Department in No. 8. — Infant Department in

No. 10. — Comparison of the two Systems. — Lancaster vs. Pestalozzi. —

Absurd Conceptions of Pestalozzianism. — Rejection of Lancasterianism

for Infant Pupils 50

PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 1829-1832.

Efforts to abolish the Pay System and establish true Free Schools. — Origin of the half-mill Tax. — School Census. — Grant of one-fourth of the Tax asked for. — Efforts for the Remainder. — Common Council demands Control. — Catholic Orphan Asylum. — Tax granted, and Asylum admitted to participate 54

XL

PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 1S32-1S42.

Final Abolition of the Pay System. — More Primary Departments opened. — Primary Schools established. — Assistant Teachers employed. — Course of

. CONTENTS. ix

Study extended.— Evening Schools.— Transfer of Schools of Manumission Society.— Saturday Normal School.— Trustees' Hall.— Financial Embarrassments. — Application of Catholic Free Schools for Participation in the School Fund.— Exciting Controversy.— Governor's Message. — Act of April 11, 1842, extends the State System to the City.— Organization of the Board of Education Page 59

XII.

BOARD OF EDUCATION AND PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY.

1842-1853.

■difficulties of the New System.— Great Opposition.— Prejudice.— Contrasts of

. the two Organizations. — Their radical DifFerence in Principle.— Direct

^Appeal to the People.— Gradual Development of the Ward Schools.—

|Teachers.— Amendment to the Act.— Progress of the Public Schools.—

High School.— Beneficial Eeaction of Ward Schools on Public Schools.—

Leads to rapid Changes.— Financial Difficulties of the Society.— They

can establish no new Schools.— Free Academy opened.— Its Effects on

the System.— New Style of School-houses.— Further Embarrassments of

the Society.— Interest on Mortgages. — Premonitions of the final Eesult.

— M'Keon's Report. — Mutual Good-will of the two Bodies.— Successive

Steps leading to Consolidation.— Act of June 4, 1853.— Final Meeting, and

Dissolution of the Society. — Summary 68

XIII.

BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1853-1868.

Beneficial Results of the Consolidation. — Measures of the Board. — Influence of the Representatives of the Society. — Depository System. — Extension of Normal School System. — Superintendent's Powers increased. — Rebuilding of old School-houses.— General Introduction of Music. — Effects of the recent War on Teachers' Salaries. — Other Expenses of the Board. — Patriotic Spirit of the Schools, and of the Community they represent. — Amendments of the Law. — Increased Powers of the Board.— Present Constitution of the Board of Education, and of the various local Bodies.. 85

XIV.

THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION.

Religious teaching in the Dutch Period. — Purposes of the Free School Society at its Foundation. — Influence of the Friends. — Voluntary Association of fifty Ladies. — Religious Census of Schools.— Special moral Instruction ordered in 1819.— Visit of Moffit and Sommerfield in 1820.— Address of Moffit. — Non-sectarian Catechism and Scripture Lessons. — Bethel Baptist Church, and the Controversy of 1822. — Controversy of 1832, and Admission of Orphan Asylums to Participation. — Controversy of

X CONTEXTS.

184:0-'42. — Remarkable Excitement. — Expurgation of School-books. — Law of 184:2 establishes the Board of Education. — The present Condition of the Question Page 96

XV.

THE VAGRANT QUESTION.

Original Purpose of Free School Society. — Special Efforts in 1819 and 1821. — Society for the Prevention of Pauperism. — House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents.— Renewed Efforts of 1828. — Appointment of Mr. Seton as Visitor. — His Reports. — Efforts of 1832. — Coercive Measures of the Common Council.— Their Failure.— Extra Meeting of 1838.— Its Report.— Results. — Five Visitors appointed. — Plan abandoned in 1841.— Relation of the Board of Education to the Question. — Industrial Schools. — Truant Laws.— DifHculties of the Subject.— Census 116

XVI.

ORGANIZATION AND PRESENT CONDITION OF SCHOOLS.

Number and Classification of Schools. — Primary Schools. — Grammar Schools. — Evening Schools. — Normal Schools. — Colored Schools. — Condition and Course of Study of each. — College of the City of New York. — Teachers. — Their Examination, License, Appointment, Removal, Salaries. — General Control and Supervision. — Departments of the Clerk and Superintendent 131

XVII.

SCHOOL-HOUSES.

School-houses of the Public School Society. — Successive and Recent Improvements. — Specimens of New Buildings. — Illustrations. — Tlie general Policy of the Board as to School-houses 154

XVIII.

Laws Relative to Public Instruction in the City op New York. 1G6

XIX.

Abstract of School Census of the City op New York, 1867 216

XX.

MEMORANDA — CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.

From 1614 to the Establishment of the Board of Education, 1842 222

IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

SCHOOLS OF NEW AMSTERDAM.

1614-1664.

Public Schools in Holland, 1585.— West India Company bound to maintain Schools.— Eirst Common School in America. — Adam Eoelandsen.— Stuyvesant.— Luyck's Latin School, 1659.— Large number of Schools.

The settlers of New Amsterdam did not neglect to provide for the education of their children. In their native land they had themselves been participators in the advantages of public instruction, furnished by the first system of common schools ever established in Europe. The thrift, energy, and bravery of the citizens of the little republic were early co-ordinated with a wise regard for the cultivation of intelligence, and legal enactments sought to protect the state from the evils inseparable from an ignorant population. " Neither the perils of war, nor the busy pursuit of gain, nor the excitement of political strife, ever caused them to neglect the duty of educating their offspring. Schools were everywhere provided, at the public expense, with good school-masters to instruct the children of all classes in the usual branches of education."^

"With the same forethought, the national authorities bound the West India Company to maintain, in their distant colony in the wilderness of New Netherlands, " good and fit preachers, school-masters^ and comforters of the sick ;" all of which

' Broadhead.

functions seem at first to have been exercised by the same individual. The exact date of the establishment of the first school on this island can not now be definitely ascertained ; but enough is known respecting it from the official records of the town to warrant the assertion that it had the honor of being the first on the continent of America which was maintained at the public expense, and was open to the children of all classes of society. It is true that, like the schools at home, it was under the direction of the Established Church ; no people having yet advanced so far in their conceptions of religious liberty and mutual right as to place the public secular instruction of youth under the control of the civil authorities alone.

As the Government bound the Company, so they, in their turn, obliged the patroons to support, in their several agricultural colonies, a minister and a school-master. It was not till 1633, even in New Amsterdam itself, that the two offices were practically separated ; but at this date, and with the advent of Wouter Von Twiller as governor, we find that Dominie Bogardus is the officiating minister, while Adam Eoe- LANDSEN is at the same time mentioned as the school-master — the first of that long line of instructors steadily increasing in numbers, and now amounting, in the public and private schools of the city, to over four thousand persons.

The school was long without a permanent home, being kept in such premises as could from time to time be obtained. The first efforts to build a school-house were made in 1642; but the financial difficulties of the colony were so pressing that the funds collected were again and again diverted to other uses, chiefly to defense against the Indians, so that the building was probably not erected till after the English occupation. Small private schools were also early established for the children of the more wealthy portion of the community, but, even in these, no one could teach without a license from the civil and ecclesiastical authorities.

The range of study must have been very limited, as appears from a remonstrance from the colonists to the Govern-

SCHOOLS OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 13

ment in consequence of their regularity of the school, especially of one interregnum of three months. They demanded that the school should have at least two good masters, and that there should not only be instruction in reading and writing, but also in the religious doctrines of the Church — an early indication that sectarian had a natural tendency to separate itself from secular instruction, and can only be kept in combination with it by making the minister the school-master, or the school-master the minister. As to other subjects of study, the simplest forms of arithmetic and the keeping of accounts were not taught to youth till the next century, geography not being added till within the last eighty years.

The interest manifested in the schools by Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor, seems to have increased their number throughout the colony. At the close of his administration there were, in New Amsterdam alone, three public schools and a dozen or more private schools, besides a Latin school of such high reputation that pupils were sent to it from Fort Orange, from the Delaware, and even from Virginia. So great an attention to education is certainly very creditable for a town numbering at the most only some fifteen hundred inhabitants, struggling with the privations of a distant colony, and surrounded by a generally hostile Indian population which still roamed over nearly all of the island, and in times of peace were found in the streets of the settlement itself^

The school first established as the Public School is still in existence. It is known as the " School of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church," its peculiar public character and support terminating with the Dutch Government. Fully participating in the advanced views of our time, it is yet in good and thriving condition, and seems likely long to continue, as

* In 1658, the schout, or sheriff, Nicasius D'Sill, complains of the trouble he has had with the " shouting of the Indians," at the same time venting his wrath upon the boys of the town, who, by " cutting of hoe.kies," caused him much annoyance. Many juvenile Manhattanese of other than Dutch extraction still keep up the ancient custom, and play "/iooie^" as in times of yore. — Valentine.

probably the oldest educational institution in the United States. A few years since, on the occasion of the transfer of the school to its present commodious building, its principal prepared a sketch of its history, from which the greater part of this and the following section has been compiled.'

' History of the School of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, by 11. W. Diinshee.

SCHOOLS DUKING THE ENGLISH COLONIAL PERIOD. 15

SCHOOLS DURING THE ENGLISH COLONIAL PERIOD.

Schools remain Dutch.— Lord Cornbmy's efforts to anglicize them. — Trinity- School, 1710. — Effects of Immigration. — King's School, 1754. — Struggle of the Dutch for their Language. — Whelp imported from Holland, 1755. — Revolution closes all Schools.

During the century following the transfer of the colony to the Eno-lish, education received but little attention from the Government. The great majority of the people were Dutch. The tide- waves of immigration that were to set in from the British islands had, as yet, scarcely begun to move ; Dutch customs and the Dutch language long prevailed, and were but slowly supplanted or modified by the national peculiarities of the new-comers. A glance at the names of those who were associated with the English governor in the conduct of public affairs shows that wealth, power, and influence continued to be held by the descendants of the original settlers of New Amsterdam. Their churches and schools went on in the old way, though receiving no governmental support, except that the excellent Latin school of Luyck, established in 1659, was continued by the English authorities for eight years longer.

By the terms of the surrender the people were guarantied ." liberty of consciences in their divine worshij) and Church discipline, with all their accustomed jurisdiction with respect to the poor, and orphans ;" the last phrase being understood to involve the care of the Church schools. This was made more definite by the charter granted by William III., who naturally favored the Dutch settlers, in which it is expressly stated that " Our will and pleasure further is, and we do hereby declare that the ministers of said Church, for the time being, shall and may, by and with the consent of the elders and deacons of said Church, for the time being, nominate and appoint a school-master, and such other under-officers as they shall stand in need of." Notwithstanding this, several of the English governors, whether actuated by zeal for the English Church, or by the enlightened policy of gradually securing uniformity of language and greater homogeneity of the people, endeavored to break up the distinctive Dutch schools throughout the province. Lord Cornbury even " claiming the direct appointment of the school-master." Though partly successful on Long Island, through the severe measures used to effect his object, yet the resolute front presented by the sturdy Dutch burghers of New York thoroughly defeated his plans in the city, and secured for a while longer a continuance of the old customs,

Meanwhile new schools were established by immigrants from Great Britian and the neighboring colonies. In 1710 the school still existing under the name of Trinity School was opened by William Huddlestone, under the direction of a society connected with the English Church. A few years previous to this a free Grammar School had been founded and built on the King's Farm ; an Episcopal missionary, "William Vesey, had opened a school for blacks, and numerous additional private schools had been established under English or Dutch masters.

But a power mightier than a governor's edicts was soon to be at work, slowly gathering a force that would in a few more years overcome all the resistance of the conservatives. The great immigration was about to begin. As late as the census ordered in 1754 at the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the population of the entire province was less than 97,000, the English settlements being chiefly on Long Island and along the river. ^ Within little more than

' The population was distributed in a way that now seems very singular. The City and County of New York returned 10,768 whites and 2272 blacks ; while the City and County of Albany reports 14,805 whites, and 2619 blacks ;

SCHOOLS DURING THE ENGLISH COLONIAL PERIOD. 17

forty years after this the population of the city alone had advanced from thirteen thousand to more than sixty thousand, or nearly fivefold ; while its cosmopolitan character was already indicated in the many dialects of English, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, and Dutch spoken in its streets, and greatly impairing the purity of the English tongue that was finally . .to prevail. In the opinion of Smith, the historian, " the

M language was hopelessly corrupt," there was no uniform

F standard as in the New England colonies, the schools were

in general badly conducted, and good and competent instructors were only to be found in the private employ of those families whose hereditary wealth enabled them to secure the best advantages for their children.

The year 1754 also claims notice in the educational history of the city for the establishment of King's College — the Columbia College of post-Revolutionary times. Its charter was granted by Governor James Delancy, previous to which acts had been passed authorizing lotteries to raise money for its establishment.' Till nearly the close of the century it had to struggle for its existence, one of its first difiiculties having been a controversy as to the character of the special religious influence which should control it, finally terminating in the adoption of the forms of the English Episcopal Church.

Meanwhile the Dutch battled vigorously against the extinction of the language and customs of their fathers. As late as 1755 the Consistory of their Church sent expressly to Holland and imported a genuine Dutch school-master and chorister, one John Nicholas Whelj), who, for what was then thought the generous salary of two hundred dollars a year, the use of a small house and garden, and the payment of the expenses of his voyage, was induced to bring out with him his wife and family, and continued to serve acceptably until his death in 1773. But they were fighting the irresistible.

I total population of the province, OG, 7G5. — From census of 1754, as quoted in

^ "MitclielPs Neiv York in 1807."

_^ ' Mitchell.

Even before the end of Whelp's time English seems to have been introduced into the school itself The Church had already in 1764, just a century after the transfer of the province, been forced reluctantly to alternate its Dutch services with one in the English tongue. This change had been wrought against the most strenuous opposition, but was finally acknowledged necessary, to prevent the young people from abandoning the religious connections of their fathers. The necessity was quite as great for the further continuance of the school ; and the successor of Whelp, appointed in 1773, was expressl}- directed " not only to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, but to instruct the children in the English as well as in the Dutch lan2:uage."'

But the fierce excitements of the Revolutionary period were already upon them. The city was the scene of some of

' In the memoir read by Judge Benson before the New York Historical Society in 18 IG occurs tlie following passage, which is worth preserving ; " There was a day always kept here by the Dutch, and the keeping of it delegated by the mothers to their daugliters still at school — Vrowen Dagh (Woman's Day), the same with the Valentine's Day of the English, and although diflferently, still, perhaps, not less salutarily kept. Every mother's daughter, furnished with a piece of cord, the size neither too large nor too small ; the twist neither too hard nor too loose ; a turn round the hand, and then a sufficient length left to serve as a lash ; not fair to have a knot at the end of it, but fair to practice for a few days to acquire the sleight ; the law held otherwise, dueling. On the morning of the day, the youngster never venturing to turn a corner without first listening whether no warblers were behind it, no golden apples to divert him from the direct course in this race. Schoolboy Ilippomenes espied, pursued by charmer Atalanta : he, encumbered with his satchel, still striving to outrun, and, to add to his speed, bending forward, thereby giving the requisite roundness to the space between the shoulders ; she, too swift afoot for him, and overtaking him, and three or four strokes briskly and smartly laid on ; lie, to avoid a further repetition, stopping and turning ; she looking him steadfast in tlie eye, and perceiving it required all the man in him to keep back the tear ; not all the fruit in all the orchards of the Ilespcrides, and in their best bearing year, to compensate for the exultation of the little heart for the moment.

"The boys requested that the next clay should be theirs, and be called Mannen Dagh (Man's Day) ; but my masters were told, the law would thereby defeat its own very purpose, which was, that they should, at an age and in a way most likely never to forget it, receive the lesson of manliness ; — he is never to strike." — Quoted in Dunshee.

SCHOOLS DURING THE ENGLISH COLONIAL PERIOD. 19

the most memorable events of its early stages. " Here the Provincial Congress met in 1765, and passed the famous Declaration of Rights. Here the stamped paper had been destroyed, and the lieutenant-governor hung in eflQgy, The assembly had refused to provide quarters and provisions for such troops as England wished to march into the colony, and, on the arrival of a cargo of tea in 1773, the Sons of Liberty destroyed it. These and other like measures, when the crisis arrived, led to the early subjugation of the city, which, as the head-quarters of the British army, was under martial law. Many of the citizens fled, all the churches and schools were closed, and naught was heard save the accidents of war.'"

' Diinshcc.

20 IlISTOKY or PUBLIC EDUCATION.

HI.

FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FREE SCHOOL SOCIETY.

1776-1805.

City (luring the Revolutionary War. — Governor Clinton.— Act of 1795. — Rise of Benevolent Societies. — Educational Societies. — Manumission Society, 1785. — Female Association, 1802. — Teachers' Association. — Common School Fund established.

During the seven years that New York was the head-quarters of the British army, the schools and the college remained closed. The business of the city was annihilated, no other portion of the country being so long and so completely isolated and cut off from all commercial relations with the rest. To add to the poverty and distress incidental to such a state of affairs, the two disastrous fires of July, 1776, and August, 1778, swept away a large part of the dwellings and stores, and there were neither means nor inducements to rebuild them. The school history of the period is a completeblank.

But the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781 assured the people that their redemption was at hand. Before the signing of the Treaty of Paris many of the inhabitants had already returned ; while four days previous to that event, and months before the evacuation of the city in November, 1783, the school of the Dutch Church was already opened. It had lost not only its distinctive language, but even its ancient name of "free" or "public" school, which was thenceforth exchanged for the term " Charity School," received in common with all schools supported by the voluntary contributions of religious societies.

Though the condition of education was one of the first subjects to claim and arrest public attention, no definite ac-

BEFORE THE FREE SCHOOL SOCIETY, 21

tion was taken bj the Legislature till 1795. Previous to this, the subject of public instruction had been frequently discussed in the public journals, in the pulpits, and in popular assemblages, and its paramount importance to the future stability and prosperity of the young republic felt and acknowledged. Under this growing interest, the leading schools had so far recovered from their previous prostration as to receive commendatory notice from the governor in his annual message of 1792 : " As the diffusion of knowledge is essential to the promotion of virtue and the preservation of liberty, the flourishing condition of our seminaries of learning must prove highly satisfactory ; and they will, I am persuaded, be among the first objects of your care and patronage, and receive, from time to time, such further aid and encouragement as may be necessary for their increasing prosperity."

In 1795, he distinctly recommended the " establishment of Common Schools throughout the state," and, from his language, we may infer that the subject had already been introduced into the deliberations of the Legislature : " While it is evident that the general establishment and liberal endowment of academies are highly to be commended, and are attended by the most beneficial consequences, yet it can not be denied that they are principally confined to the children of the opulent, and that a great proportion of the community is excluded from their immediate advantages. The establishment of Common Schools throughout the state is happily calculated to remedy this inconvenience, and will, therefore, re-engage your early and decided consideration."

Pursuant to this recommendation, the Legislature passed, April 9, 1795, "An Act for the encouragement of Schools," which approjDriated $50,000 a year for five years, "for the purpose of encouraging and maintaining schools in the several cities and towns i^ this state, in which the children of the inhabitants residing in this state shall be instructed in the English language, or be taught English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, and such other branches of knowledge as are most useful and necessary to complete a good English education.'

Until toward tlie close of the eigliteentli century, efforts for the establishment of systems of public instruction so as to benefit the masses of society by the blessings of education, had been chiefly the work of individuals. About this period, both in this country and in Great Britain, a memorable change took place in the nature and method of these efforts, and in the efiiciency of the means adopted to render them successful. Voluntary benevolent and philanthropic associations were formed, having for their chief purpose the extension of the knowledge of things human and divine among all classes of society. Sunday Schools, the work of which was at first necessarily directed in a great measure to the instruction of neglected children in reading, sprung up and multiplied about the close of the American AVar, and were soon introduced into the United States. At no previous period had religious and legislative bodies manifested so much of intelligent interest in the advantages and necessity of furnishing at least an elementary education to the masses of the people. Bell and Lancaster were just entering upon the work that was to give so great, and wide spread, and permanent an impetus to the cause of popular instruction, by presenting a plan rendered practicable by its thorough organization, and the comparative smallness of the expenditure involved. Other benevolent societies also, for the amelioration of the many evils of the social system, appeared in rapid succession.

Among the earliest of these in this country was an association formed in this city as early as 1785, and soon after incorporated by the Legislature for the purpose of "mitigating the evils of slavery, to defend the rights of the blacks, and especially to give them the elements of education." This organization was known as the Manumission Society, and enrolled among its members a considerable number of persons of the highest social standing in the community, including a

' Gov. George Clinton's Messages for 1792 and 1795, as quoted in tlie vnluable and comprehensive report of Superintendent Rice.

FEMALE ASSOCIATIOlSr, 23

large representation of the Society of Friends. Governor Jay was its first President, and its first school was opened in 1787 in Cliff Street, and numbered about one hundred pupils. It seems to have been conducted on the plan usual in mixed, or ungraded schools, until after the introduction of the Lancasterian system. There were then in the city about 4000 colored persons, more than half of whom were returned as slaves by the census of 1805.' Several schools were established and maintained by this society, and subjected to frequent and vigilant inspection by its ofiicers and members, the funds being supplied by voluntary contributions. The schools were continued, in a state of greater or less efficiency, through a period of about forty years, when, upon the solicitation of the Society itself, the Legislature of 1834 authorized the transfer of the schools and their considerable real estate to the Public School Society ; and these are now the Colored Schools of the Board of Education.

' In 1802 a school for white girls was opened by a Society known as the " Female Association for the relief of the Poor," which had been established some years previously, and consisted of benevolent ladies connected with the Society of Friends, popularly known as Quakers. " It was the original promoter of Free Schools in the city of New York," and so it extended its influence as at one time to have several large elementary schools under its direction and control, the last of which was extinguished in 1846 in consequence of their loss of further state and municipal aid. Besides the other permanent good wrought by this vigorous association during the half-century of its existence, it is definitely known and acknowledged that it was the success and advice of these ladies which induced a number of gentlemen, connected with them by domestic and social relations, to attempt the same kind offices for the neglected boys of the city, thus leading to the establishment of the " Free School Society," which afterward became the Public School Society of the City of New York.