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BY F.R. BRACE, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT.
EARLY SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. - The history of education in Camden County commences with its first permanent settlement, made by a company of Irish Friends in the year 1682. Among these settlers was Thomas Sharp, a young man who was a surveyor and conveyancer. The tract was surveyed and several acres were set apart for a meeting-house and school-house, which was soon afterwards built, thus securing the permanency and good character of the community. Thomas Sharp was chosen the first teacher in this new settlement. He was a man of good education, well versed in arithmetic, surveying, astronomy and literature. He calculated the phases of the moon and the tides for the little community and made an almanac. Besides this, he was something of a poet and, in 1719, wrote a description of the settlement and its progress in verse.
The original copy in his handwriting is in the possession of Judge Clement, of Haddonfield, to whom the writer is greatly indebted for much valuable information herein given. Thomas Sharp, the first teacher in what is now Camden County, was a man of culture and influence, and as such, helped to form a character for diligence, love of knowledge and lofty attainments on the part of his pupils. He was the first clerk of Old Newton township and was a member of the Legislature in 1685, and was appointed judge of the courts in 1700. He was clerk of the Yearly Meeting of Friends at the time of the dispute between George Keith and the Friends in New Jersey, about 1691, and in 1686 he laid out the city of Gloucester. He died in 1729.
The school-house was built near the Old Newton Meeting-house, opposite the present Champion School-house, in District No. 10. It was constructed of logs, was quite small and low and had a clay floor. Most likely it had only one window, containing four lights, bull’s-eye glass. Here was the beginning of the educational work in Camden County. Although the house and appliances were rough and very humble, the work done was good. The truth was taught then that it is not beautiful and costly buildings, supplied with the very best appliances, that produce the best results, but the living, earnest man that presides there.
We cannot but admire the spirit of these early settlers, who, in the very beginning of their settlement, while they were engaged in the hard work of subduing the forest and breaking up the virgin soil, gave earnest attention to necessary provision both for religion and education.
In 1715 the second school was commenced near Haddonfield, in the home of Jonathan Bolton and Hannah, his wife. In this year Robert Montgomery and Sarah, his wife, a daughter of Henry Stacy, removed from Monmouth County to a tract of land about one mile west of Haddonfield, owned by Sarah’s father, and settled thereon.
In the same year they conveyed to Jonathan Bolton and Hannah, his wife, forty acres of land during their lives and the life of the survivor, in consideration of their paying one ear of Indian corn annually, and that the said Hannah would teach, or cause to be taught, the children of the said Robert and Sarah, or any other child that may happen in their family, to read English and do seamstry work. These forty acres were on or near the farm now owned by William H. Nicholson, and here was the second institution of learning in Camden County.
About 1720 the Friends built a meeting-house at Haddonfield, and established a school there which has been maintained with varied success ever since. In 1750 a schoolhouse, sixteen feet square, was built of cedar logs at Ellisburg. The building, slightly altered, is still standing. In 1776 it was weather-boarded up and down and plastered inside. Nothing is known of the first teachers of this place.
About 1750, or earlier, a school was established in Blackwood. A large settlement of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians had been made in the vicinity, and a fulling-mill erected about 1720. A tombstone in the old graveyard near the town has a record of the death of David Wainwright, February 11, 1720. The first school-house was standing in 1800, near the Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1751. The custom of Presbyterians, as well as Friends, was to put up houses of worship and school-houses as soon as they settled in any locality, and this accounts for the prosperity and permanency of the settlements founded by them.
The early teachers of whom information can be obtained were Joseph Thackara, John C. Thackara, Thomas Thackara and Isaac Hinchman. The Thackaras were the descendants of that Thomas Thackara who belonged to the original company that settled on the banks of Newton Creek. Thus the Presbyterians seemed to have gone to the Friends for instructors. John Dunlevy taught here in the beginning of this century. He was the first teacher in several other districts, and was said to have been a man of good education. The school in winter-time was only for large scholars, and in summertime for small ones.
In 1762 (April 15th) Rev. John Brainerd, of missionary fame, one of the trustees of Princeton College, who lived at Brotherton, an Indian village in Burlington County, rode seventeen miles from his home to a small village, then called Long-a-Coming, now Berlin, and took up a subscription to build a meeting-house for the Presbyterian congregation, which was erected in the fall of the year. This was near the head of the Great Egg Harbor River, on the ground where what was called the Thorn School-house (now a chapel for the Berlin Cemetery) stood. Near this meeting-house a school-house was built, but it was removed about 1800, as up to 1833 the old church building was used for church and school. The deed of the lot, containing four acres, on which the church had already been built, was given by Samuel Scull and Ruth, his wife, September 18, 1766, to Michael Fisher, David Roe, Peter Cheesman, Northrop Marple and Henry Thorn.
In 1771 the people near New Freedom established a school in a log building twenty by sixteen feet, and Thomas Shinn was the first teacher.
Gloucester City must have had a schoolhouse before the year 1700, inasmuch as it was the county-seat of Gloucester County from 1689 to 1787, but we have no account of it, unless an old school-house of cedar logs, sixteen feet square, located below Market Street, near the present line of the West Jersey Railroad, was the first one. The first teacher known was a man called Master Johnson, a graduate of one of the English universities. So well were the people pleased with him that they gave him a year’s board gratis to induce him to remain. Another of the early teachers in Gloucester was Richard Snowdon, an Englishman, born at Poulefract, Yorkshire, April 15, 1753, who came to America with his parents and settled in Burlington, in this State. He was first a tutor in the family of John Hoskins, at Burlington, and then a tutor in the family of Joseph Roberts, near Haddonfield. About 1780 he took charge of the Friends’ school at Haddonfield, and taught there until about 1792, when he established a school at Gloucester. How long he remained at Gloucester is not known. While there he wrote a "History of the American Revolution" in the style of the holy Scriptures. In 1795 he published "The Columbiad," a poem, upon the same subject. In 1805 he wrote a "History of America," from its discovery to the death of General Washington. He died in Philadelphia March 31, 1825.
In 1782 an acre of land, as a site for a school-house, was sold by John Estaugh Hopkins, of Haddonfield, to John Gill, Jacob Clement, Edward Gibbs, Joseph Lippincott, John Clement and Thomas Redman, of the Society of Friends.
At a session of a meeting of Friends, held at Salem, with which Haddonfield Meeting was connected, in the year 1790, the 17th day of the Fifth Month, a committee, appointed at a previous meeting, reported that it would be well to raise funds in the respective Monthly Meetings, to be put out at interest, and the interest to be applied, under the care of judicious trustees, for the schooling of poor children of white and of colored parents.
Quite a large amount was given by the liberal Friends of Haddonfield and vicinity for this object, - six hundred and thirty-five pounds, six shillings, equal to two thousand five hundred and forty-one dollars. Among the donors are the names of men whose descendants occupy prominent and honorable positions in Camden County to-day - Gill, Burrough, Glover, Stokes, Hopkins, Clement, Tomlinson, Thorn, Githens, Lippincott, Albertson, Hillman, Nicholson, Jennings, Redman, Mickle, Kaighn and Thompson. The school thus sustained, to whose beginning reference has been already made, has continued to be an active force in educational work in Haddonfield.
The people of Union District, No. 3, began their educational work in 1795. A lot was sold by Thomas Burrough to Thomas Burrough, Isaac Fish and Isaac Morgan, in trust for school purposes, on which a stone school-house, twenty-eight feet long by twenty-four fret wide, was built. It was one story high and was used as a school-house until replaced by a new one, in 1871. The money to build the house was raised by subscription and amounted to £238 8s. 4d. One of the items of expense was one and one-half gallons of rum. On account of the depreciation of the colonial notes, the shilling was worth thirteen and one-third cents in New Jersey, and the pound two and two-thirds dollars. The first teacher in this school was John Dunlevy, a native of Ireland and a man of culture, who continued in the profession until about 1830. His successor was John Ward, an American, also a ripe scholar. He published "The Farmers’ Almanac," which was much sought after. The floor of the old school-house was terraced, there being three terraces, the first, about twelve feet from the door, being raised nine inches, and each succeeding one raised about the same height. At the back of the room, where the larger scholars stood, their heads were very close to the ceiling. This description will also serve for the old Greenville school-house, on the Marlton turnpike, about two and a half miles from Camden.
Prior to 1800 a school was kept at Chews Landing, in a log dwelling-house in a field opposite the tavern, where John Connor taught for many years. He was well educated, a first-class teacher and was considered one of the best penmen in his day. He was also a surveyor, but he indulged in strong drink and finally became worthless. He was the first teacher in a frame school-house built by Friends, in Chews landing, near what is called "the Floodgates," on the north branch of Timber Creek, in 1804. The size of the house was thirty-six by twenty-four feet. It was destroyed by fire in 1818. About 1800 the Friends put up a frame building near a settlement called New Hopewell, on the old Egg Harbor road, about two miles south of New Freedom, accommodating the children in the districts now called Tansboro’ and Pump Branch. Its size was thirty-six by eighteen feet. The first teacher was John Shinn, a preacher in the Society of Friends.
The history of education down to the present century has thus far been traced. The work done by the first settlers is worthy of the highest praise. While they were clearing off the land and getting it ready for cultivation, even before it was in a condition to support them, they built houses of worship and school-houses, knowing that it was only by the maintenance of religion and education that true prosperity and real permanence could be given to the community. The best educated men were selected to teach, and the land on which the school-houses were built was given for a nominal consideration. Early settlers perceived that their property would be greatly increased in value on account of the proximity of a school.
The credit of commencing and continuing the schools is due mainly to the Friends. What education is able to accomplish may be learned from them. It has made them a class of influential and worthy citizens. No class of people has been or is better educated than the Friends, and no class is more earnest and industrious, hard-working citizens. It can be said that they have no poor, at least no paupers. The same can be said of every well educated community in this country and in Europe.
Wherever members of the Presbyterian Church settled, there also the church and the school-house were erected, and very generally the minister acted as school-teacher, besides attending to his ministerial duties.
The schools mentioned, except that of the Friends at Haddonfield, were pay schools. The population of the territory now embraced in Camden County in 1800 was about four thousand, and the proportion of schools to the population was one to every four hundred inhabitants. If the number of children was one-fourth the population, then there was a school for every one hundred children of school age, about the same proportion as at the present time.
In 1803, in Greenville District, No. 6, Joseph Morgan, for five shillings, sold one-half acre to Joseph Champion, Esq., Isaac Thorn, Elizabeth Kay, Benjamin Morgan, Joseph Burrough, Jr., Marmaduke Shivers, Nathaniel Barton, John Rudderow, Thomas Curtis, Jacob Evaul, Frederic Plum and Benjamin Archer. On this land a schoolhouse was built, twenty-seven feet by twenty feet, with the ceiling twelve feet high. It was used seventy-two years. In 1810 a school-house was built in Horner District, No. 9, near the read leading from Haddonfield to Glendale, on land owned by Jacob Horner. The frame was oak and weatherboards cedar. It was twenty-two by eighteen feet, with a ceiling eight feet high, and the sides were lined with bricks. It had six windows, each containing twelve panes of glass, eight by ten inches. The first teacher was John C. Thackara; the next, John Dunlevy; John Stafford, a native of England, also taught here. He was one of Washington’s body-guard during the Revolution, and at the battle of Germantown was thrown from his horse and seriously injured. He recovered from his injury and lived to be a very old man. In 1872 the house was rebuilt on a lot purchased of Montgomery Stafford.
In 1809 the first public school-house was built in Haddonfield. William Estaugh Hopkins gave twenty-seven hundredths of an acre to John Clement, Bowman Hendry, John Roberta, Turner Risdon, Joseph C. Elfreth and John Thompson, trustees of Haddonfield Grove School for the purpose of building a school-house, which was also used as a place of religious worship. In this building the Baptist, the Methodist Episcopal, the Protestant Episcopal and the Presbyterian churches of the town originated. It has been in constant use since it was built. Since the erection of the beautiful and commodious school-house, situated on Chestnut Street, the old house has been used by the school for colored children.
Prior to 1811 a frame school-house was built in Clementon District, of which no records could be found. It stood on what is called the Stafford road, and was torn down in 1811. Another one was built on the road leading from White Horse (now Kirkwood) to Clementon the same year. Its size was thirty feet long and twenty-two wide, the ceiling thirteen feet high. It still does service in die cause of education. The ground on which it stands, consisting of one acre and one rod, was given by Thomas Branson to William Rudderow, Joseph Crawford, Samuel Chambers, Ephraim Hillman, Joseph Dill, Benjamin Tomlinson, John Thorn and William Branson as trustees for the nominal sum of one dollar. The first teachers in this school-house were John Stafford and William Thorn. The inhabitants in the vicinity of Rosendale, living along the Burlington turnpike, two miles from Camden, about 1816, built a log house twenty-four by twenty-two feet, with the ceiling seven feet high. It stood in the grove opposite the present school-house and was called the Baldwin School. The teachers were a woman and her daughter from Philadelphia, who made the school-house their home. In this house Abel Curtis and Edward Ewbanks taught.
In 1827 the building fell down and there was no school in the district until 1838; the children in the mean time went to Greenville School. In 1820 a little square school-house was built in Pump Branch District, No. 37, near Blue Anchor, which was used until 1874, when another and a very superior house was built about three-quarters of a mile from the old site. In 1825 the first school-house was built at Mount Ephraim. It was a frame building about twenty feet square. Mickle Clement was the first teacher. School was held in it until 1859, when the present building was put up. The people of Rowandtown bought half an acre for one dollar from Jacob Clement, in 1828, on the Haddonfield and Camden road, about two miles from Haddonfield. It was a frame building, the sides lined with brick and plastered, and ceiled above. It was twenty-four by twenty feet, the ceiling eight and a half feet high. It was used forty-four years, although the number of children in the district had increased during that time to one hundred and forty. For many years it was the custom to have a male teacher in the winter and a female in the summer. This had become a very general practice about that time, and was continued until about 1870 in many of the districts, to the very great injury of the schools. Dayton Duvall was the first male teacher and Ann Bassett the first female teacher. A brick school-house, octagonal in shape, was built in Westville District, No. 14, since set over to Gloucester County and another house built. School had been held in a log tenant-house before this, about three months each winter. The octagonal building stood until 1873, when it was demolished, and a neat two-story frame building erected on its site.
The first school in Winslow District was commenced in 1831 in a log house. The next year a frame house was built for the joint use of the Methodist Church and the school. The same building, enlarged, is still used as a school-house. Deborah Hunt was the first teacher. In 1806, a school-house was built at Ellisburg, by subscription, and in 1831 Joseph Ellis gave half an acre "to the inhabitants of the town of Waterford for the establishment of a good school for the education of the children of the inhabitants of Ellisburg and vicinity with competent teachers." The school was to be "for the improvement of the moral and literary character of the youth and the more general diffusion of science." On this lot a brick house was built and used both as a school-house and hall for elections and town-meetings. Another story has been added to it. Near Ellisburg, there stood in former years a house known as Murrell’s School-house, but the exact site is not known.
The inhabitants of Jackson District built their first school-house in 1833, on the road leading from Jackson to Hay’s mill, but in 1865 they moved it to the village of Jackson and rebuilt it. In 1838 two school-houses were built, one in Gibbsboro’ District and the other at Sicklerville. One acre at Gibbsboro’ was conveyed by William Wharton to Ahab Fowler, Joseph Graisbury and Washington Schlosser for school purposes. It was made a present to the district by Mr. Wharton. Eliza Ann Dillon was the first teacher. The people of Sicklerville erected their schoolhouse near where the Methodist Church now stands, but afterwards removed it to near the site of the present school-house, built in 1867. Paul H. Sickler was the first teacher.
In 1840 the inhabitants of Spring Mills, thinking that the Blackwoodtown school was too far from them, determined to have one for themselves. A frame house was built for that purpose by the liberality of the proprietors of Spring Mills Fork Works, and Amanda Stevens was employed as the first teacher. So good was the school that many of the children in Blackwoodtown walked to it, a distance of one and a half miles. In 1844 three school-houses were opened for their appropriate work, - one in Laurel Mill District, one in Mechanicsville, No. 20, and one in Glendale, No. 26. John P. Harker was the first teacher. When the house was built, doubtless by the liberality of Ephraim Tomlinson, it was sold to the district by Mr. Tomlinson in 1874, when it was repaired. A frame school-house was built in Mechanicsville District, on the Blackwoodtown turnpike, which was used until 1850, when another one, twenty-three feet long by seventeen feet wide, was erected on the road leading to Almonessen. Rev. R.J. Burt, a graduate of Princeton College, was the first teacher. A small frame building was put up in Glendale District, near Ashland Station, and was used until 1855, when the Methodists built a church at Glendale village, and the inhabitants contributed towards its erection, with the understanding that the basement should be used for school purposes. It has so been used since it was built.
During the period from 1800 to 1846 there seems to have been a decline in the character of the schools. While some of the teachers employed were capable men and women, most of them were able to give instruction only in the merest elements of the ordinary branches. As a general thing, the only branches taught were spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. The text-books most in use were Comly’s Spelling-Book, the Introduction to the English Reader, the English Reader and Sequel, and Pike’s or Rose’s Arithmetic. Any one who went as far as the "rule of three" in arithmetic was considered a well-educated man. This continued the standard in many of the districts until about 1870.
The pupils in the schools in those days were not classified except in reading and in spelling, and the classes in reading were so numerous that almost the whole forenoon was occupied in hearing them. The schools were kept open three months in some places and the whole year in others, the average time being about six months. All the schools were pay-schools, and this feature necessarily prevented poor people from sending their children. The cost was about three cents per day for each pupil. The mode of correction was universally with the rod. "Regular fights would sometimes take place when the teacher would undertake to flog a boy as large as himself. In one instance, a young girl about seventeen years old was beaten so hard on the hand that she had to stay home for several weeks because she was so crippled that she could not use her hand." The school-houses and school furniture had remained unimproved for over one hundred years. The houses were all of the primitive type, small parallelograms, built about large enough to stow away forty or fifty children in, without much regard to health or comfort and none as to ventilation. The furniture consisted of desks ten or twelve feet long, and benches the same length, without any backs and so high that the feet of the little children could not reach the floor. There were no blackboards nor apparatus of any kind. While private dwellings were improving in size, shape and internal arrangements, better and more comfortably shaped furniture was placed within them; while everything pertaining to agriculture, manufactures, mechanics, etc., was being improved, schoolhouses, school furniture and school apparatus were about the same as they were a century before.
NEW SCHOOL LAW. - An important epoch in the history of education in New Jersey began with the passage by the Legislature of the act "that authorized, empowered and required the inhabitants of the several townships, at their annual town-meetings, to raise by tax or otherwise, in addition to the amount apportioned by the State to their use, such further sum or sums of money as they may deem proper for the support of public schools, at least equal to and not more than double the amount of such apportionment." This was brought about by a spirit of dissatisfaction with the then existing condition of education. In many parts of the State an agitation was going on for something better; and in Gloucester County, in 1842, which at that time included Camden County, a very important meeting was held in accordance with the following notice to the school committee of Gloucester County, for a convention to be held at the court-house November 19, 1842, "to take into consideration the state of public education and suggest such alteration and amendments as may be deemed necessary in the State laws respecting public schools."
The following-named persons represented the districts indicated: Waterford township, Benjamin W. Cooper, Joseph Porter, Richard Stafford; Newton township, John M. Kaighn, Jacob L. Rowand, Thomas Redman, Jr.; the city of Camden, Richard Fetters, Thomas Chapman, Joseph W. Cooper.
A public school meeting of inhabitants of Gloucester County was held pursuant to the above notice, 19th November, 1842, at the court-house in Woodbury. Charles Reeves was chosen chairman and Thomas Redman secretary. Waterford, Newton, Deptford, Greenwich and Gloucester were represented. John B. Harrison, Thos. P. Carpenter and Charles Knight were appointed a committee to make a report at next meeting as to best means of improving schools. Adjourned to December 15, 1842, when another meeting was held and the report read. Dr. I. S. Mulford and John B. Harrison were chosen to embody the views into a memorial to present to the Legislature and to get signers.
This gave a great impetus to the cause of general education. In a short time all the townships began to raise the necessary sums of money and a system of partially free schools was inaugurated. An additional impetus was given by the act of 1851, when the townships were permitted to raise three dollars per scholar.
In the Hillman District a school-house was built by the Friends in 1836, and one in Waterford in 1835.
Before 1846 twenty-seven schools had been established in the county outside of Camden City, with an equal number of departments and teachers. Since then nineteen additional schools have been opened and the number of departments and teachers has increased to sixty-six, the greatest increase having taken place in 1866.
In 1848 a new school-house of stone was built in Blackwoodtown, the old one which stood for about half a century having been burned. An academy was opened in that village, in which boys were prepared for business or for college. It was sustained until 1870, when a two-story public schoolhouse was built. The school was put on such a basis that the children could receive as good an education as at the academy, except that Latin and Greek were not taught.
In 1853 a frame school-house was built at Irish Hill, in Centre township, and was occupied until 1881, when a very fine, commodious and well equipped house was built. In 1853 the people of Berlin built a school-house, which did good service until 1874, when the present beautiful and commodious structure was erected, one of the very best school-houses in Camden County. In 1855 a school-house at Greenland, No. 15, was built on a lot donated by Charles L. Willits and was used until 1882, when another of those neat structures that are now found in almost every school district was built. The people in District No. 15 have done nobly in erecting for the colored people the finest school-house for colored children in any country district in South Jersey. It is a two-story frame building, forty feet long and thirty-six feet wide.
During the year 1855 the people in Cheesman District put up a school building. It was located in the woods, more than half a mile from any public road, but has been removed to a more suitable location and the district has been divided.
As Hammonton, in Atlantic County, newly settled in 1859, began to grow and extend into Camden County, the people who settled at North Hammonton (now called Elm), being mostly of New England stock, a school-house was erected in 1861, and a good school has been maintained there ever since, in 1864 Tansboro’ District was divided into two districts, a serious mistake, and in the northern one, called Tansboro’ North, No. 34, a school-house was built. A house was also built in 1858. In 1865 a school was opened in a little building in Milford District, No. 28, belonging to the German Church, and held there until 1884, when a public school-house was erected. In 1867 the settlement at Atco by New England people built a school-house. In 1868 a good building was put up in Bates Mill District, and in 1869 an equally good one was erected in Ancora District. This same year a small house was built in Davisville District, No. 23. During this year the beautiful stone structure that graces the borough of Haddonfield was built, one of the most substantial and elegant school-houses in the State. It has four school-rooms, besides other rooms for class recitations or study purposes. In 1870 Merchantville built its first public school-house, with two rooms. It is quite an ornament to the borough. In 1875 a portion of Waterford District was added to Park District, in Atlantic County, and was called Parkdale District, No. 42. A site was secured in this county and a school-house built. Wrightsville District, No. 43, was. set off from Rosendale in 1877, and soon after a one-story building, capable of accommodating seventy children, was built. In a few years another story was added, giving accommodations for one hundred and twenty children.
In 1877 an additional building was erected in Cheesman District, No. 25, because of the size of the territory, and afterwards a new district was formed, with this schoolhouse as the centre, and called Union Valley, No. 44. To accommodate the increased number of scholars in Rosendale, Champion, Haddonfield and Union Districts, new school buildings have been put up since 1880. In 1882, in Rosendale District, a two-roomed, one-story building was erected, and in Haddonfield, a two-story building, both of them adapted for their work in size, construction, methods of ventilation, furniture and appliances. In 1883 a very neat, one-story house was built in Champion, and in 1885, one in Union. Portions of the county, especially those lying nearest Camden and the boroughs of Haddonfield and Merchantville, are growing with such rapidity that the accommodations for pupils must be increased every few years.
THE PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM. - The progress of education is pretty clearly indicated by the progress in the building of suitable school-houses. The two have gone along together and show a wonderful advance. Nearly every old school-house, with its very limited space, its low ceiling, its small windows, its backless benches, has disappeared, only one of such school-houses being left and the old furniture is nowhere to be seen. The old curriculum of studies has given place to another and a broader one, with very much improved methods in teaching the different branches. The greatest improvement has taken place since 1867, when the present admirable school law took effect, and the supervision of all the schools in the county was placed in the hands of a competent man and the licensing of teachers was confided to a competent board. Rev. Alexander Gilmore was appointed the first county superintendent in 1867. He was succeeded by the present incumbent, Rev. F.R. Brace, in 1870. Intelligent friends of education felt the necessity of such action years before the new law was enacted. Dr. John Snowdon, who was superintendent of Winslow township schools in 1866, said: "I would most emphatically urge the abolition of the power to license teachers, vested in the town superintendents, so as to place it beyond the control of local influences. The majority of the applicants for licenses to teach have either a relative or particular friend in the board of trustees, and if they are not licensed by the superintendent, a great deal of bad feeling is excited against the latter officer." Indeed, even since the new order of things, occasionally an influence, though unsuccessful, has been brought to bear upon superintendent and upon examiners to allow incompetent persons to obtain certificates of license to teach; but the great majority, at least ninety-nine per cent of the whole, approve, indorse and rejoice in the new order of things.
As a result of having a head to the educational interests of the county, a system of instruction was soon devised for all the schools in the county. There was no system before 1871. Each teacher marked out his own course of study. In order that accurate knowledge of the work done in the schools might be reached, circulars were sent to all the teachers in the county, requesting them to send on prepared blanks their schedules of studies for each day, with the time devoted to each recitation. From these it was learned that the time devoted to reading in the different schools varied from forty-eight minutes to two hours and thirty-nine minutes; to spelling, from eighteen minutes to two hours and twenty minutes; to penmanship, from nine minutes to thirty; to geography, from five minutes to one hour; to arithmetic, from thirty minutes to two hours and nine minutes; to grammar, from no minutes to one hour and twenty minutes. Twelve had the highest classes in geography studying in an intermediate geography. The highest classes in arithmetic in seventeen were in fractions, and the highest in grammar in ten were in etymology. Only in ten schools was natural philosophy studied; in six, physiology; in four, algebra; in six, bookkeeping; in seventeen, United States History; and in one, drawing. A convention of teachers and trustees was called in the month of June, 1872. It was very largely attended and a most earnest and enthusiastic spirit shown. After thoroughly considering the whole matter, a course of study was marked out for all the schools in the county and a schedule of recitations adopted as a guide for all the teachers. The good accomplished by this systematic course of study for all the schools in the county was incalculable.
A new spirit was infused into the teachers. They felt that they had something definite and clear to mark out their pathway. This was, however, not fully satisfactory to the superintendent, and so in 1875 he presented to both trustees and teachers a better systematized course of study, together with a recommendation that an examination of all the scholars be held in connection therewith, and that those pupils who should complete the course of study and pass a satisfactory examination therein, should receive a certificate or diploma as a recognition of the fact. This was unanimously adopted, but on account of the shortness of time and the great amount of work to be done for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the regular examination could not be attempted that year, and was therefore deferred to the succeeding year. In the spring of 1877 the first regular examination of the schools was held, the examination in each branch taking place the same day in every school in the county, and the same set of questions, prepared by the county superintendent, being used. The papers of the pupils were examined by a committee of teachers, each member of the committee having, as a rule, only the papers in one branch, to prevent anything like partiality being shown. Twenty-two pupils passed the required examination and received their diplomas. This was the culmination of the county course of study, adopted in 1872.
Since then nearly every county in this State and numerous counties in other States have adopted our Camden County system and with the happiest results. A healthful rivalry has been created among the schools, which brings every teacher up to his best work, and incites pupils to more thorough and faithful study, both teachers and pupils being anxious to have their schools stand in the front rank. Strange to say, some of the best results have been seen in the one department schools, when every few years there are successful pupils to take their diplomas. There are no ungraded schools in the county. The one department schools are all graded. So well has this county system worked that the faculty of the State Normal School adopted a resolution to admit pupils who possessed a county diploma to that institution without further examination. It seemed to some that a still higher step could be taken from a few years’ working of this system, and so it was taken a little while afterwards and called "an advanced course." This almost prepares boys for the Scientific Department of college.
We can look back with satisfaction upon the great advance made during the last sixteen years. No influence has been greater in helping along this advance than the State Normal School. It has done this not only by sending out from its halls teachers, fully prepared, well-trained and eager for the work, but by stimulating others, who could not, by reason of pecuniary inability, attend that institution, to study and work and make themselves equal in every direction, superior, if possible, to Normal School graduates. The motto of this county is still "Forward." The best has not yet been reached, but every day is seeing some progress in that direction.
REV. F.R BRACE was born in the province of Newfoundland, B.N.A., in 1832, and was the son of Richard Brace, who was for over twenty years keeper of the prison either in the Northern District of the island or in the Central District.
He acquired the principal part of his education in the grammar school at Harbor Grace, and was there fitted for college, although he never entered. At the age of sixteen he entered the store of a book-seller in St. John’s and remained there two years. He there, having associated himself with his elder brother, William H., commenced business in Harbor Grace, but gave it up in two years. He left Newfoundland November, 1853, and came to Trenton, N.J., and there taught school in Morrisville, Pa., opposite Trenton, one year, and the next year taught the public schools at Ewing and Millham, near Trenton. In 1855 he was elected assistant teacher of languages and mathematics in Trenton Academy.
In the spring of 1856 he was married to Emma, daughter of Whilldin Foster, of Trenton, N.J. He was elected principal of New Paltz Academy, New York State, March, 1857, and remained there two years. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by Princeton College July, 1857.
Feeling that he was called to preach as well as to teach, he commenced his studies for the ministry, teaching by day and studying in the evenings. He removed to East Millstone, N.J., July, 1859, and opened a select school, classical and mathematical. While there he still pursued his theological studies and after an examination in both collegiate and theological studies by the Classis of New Brunswick, connected with the Reformed Church of the United States, he was licensed to preach by that body.
He removed to Elwood in June, 1861, to take charge of a large missionary field in Atlantic County, preaching at Elwood, Hammonton, Pleasant Mills and Atlantic City. In October of this year he was ordained by the Presbytery of West Jersey. In 1862 he was elected township superintendent of public schools in Mullica township, Atlantic County, and filled that office three years. In 1865 he was elected one of the county examiners of Atlantic County. He removed, in March, 1867, from Hammonton to Blackwood, to take charge of the Presbyterian Church there, and has remained its pastor until the present time.
He has been active in Bible and Sunday-school work and was three years in succession president of the County Sunday-school Association. In 1868 he was elected one of the trustees of the public school in Blackwood, and in 1870 was appointed county superintendent of Camden County, which position he still holds. In 1874 he was elected for that year, president of the State Teachers’ Association. He is now a member of the State Board of Control of the Teachers’ Reading Circle. He is the originator of the graded course of study for all schools in the county, having put it into operation in the county in 1872.
Mr. Brace has two brothers teaching - William H., principal of the High School, Trenton, and Alfred S., professor of music in the State Normal School, Trenton. He has five children living, two of whom are teaching - Mary B. Clayton, in the High School, New Brunswick, and Ada Brace, at Chews landing, in this county.
Some years ago he was urgently pressed to take charge of the West Jersey Academy, Bridgeton. He has received invitations to take the pastoral charge of several churches in South Jersey and Pennsylvania, but has declined them all, feeling that his work was in Camden County and in the quiet and beautiful little village of Blackwood.
SOURCE: Page(s) 308-319, History of Camden County, New Jersey, by George R. Prowell, L.J. Richards & Co. 1886
Published 2010 by the Camden County Genealogy Project