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Rev. Ives was born September 29, 1798 Hoosick, Rensselaer County, New York. He was
the son of Jared and Joanna Smith Ives. |
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Educational opportunities during the days of the Republic of Texas were few. Children were often taught at home by their mothers, or families in some communities joined together to hire a teacher for their children. The local minister, usually the most educated person in the community, supplemented his religious duties with educational duties.
The settlement of the town of Matagorda began in the late 1820s after the arrival of the Little Zoe with new residents to join the few already living there.
The schooling of Matagorda children during the late 1830s through the Civil War was carried out by private academies.
In May, 1838, Henry M. Shaw posted a notice in the Matagorda Bulletin stating his intention of opening the Matagorda Academy in a building belonging to Colonel J. W. E. Wallace on Cedar Street. Tuition for reading, spelling, and writing $15; higher branches of English $20; Latin and Greek $25.
The Rev. Caleb S. Ives, born 1798 in Rensselaer County, New York, had been a pioneer Episcopal missionary in Alabama in the 1830s. It was in Tuscaloosa on February 6, 1834, that he and Katherine Duncan Morison (1806-1882) were married. While living in Mobile, he accepted an invitation to establish a school in Matagorda. He offered his services to the Foreign Committee of the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church. On September 25, 1838, he was appointed Missionary to Texas. He, his wife, Katherine, and son, Angus, arrived in Matagorda on December 12, 1838 and on Christmas morning, Rev. Ives celebrated Holy Communion with eight men and women in a school room. The ceremony was the first recorded communion observed in the Republic of Texas according to the Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The small congregation organized into a parish on January 27, 1839, led by Rev. Ives.
Rev. and Mrs. Ives took charge of Matagorda Academy. The following ad ran in the San Luis Advocate, San Luis, Texas, Tuesday, October 6, 1840 and many other papers in 1840. A regular ad appeared in the Telegraph and Texas Register, in Houston, Texas, for many years.
MATAGORDA ACADEMY The Rev. C. S. Ives and Lady would respectfully inform the citizens of this place and its vicinity that they are now prepared to receive pupils of both sexes into their institution and to instruct them in all the branches of a substantial and finished education.
From the delightful location and health of Matagorda from the comforts and convenience of a well built town; from a strong desire of the people to establish and maintain a. high tone of moral feeling in the community; from the laudable observance of the Lord's day and regular attendance of the citizen on Divine Service which is now held uninterruptedly on every Sunday; and from their being a regular Sunday School in town this cannot but be a very desirable place for an institution for the education of the young.
Mr. Ives is a graduate of one of the first colleges in the United States; and Mrs. Ives was educated in the best schools for young ladies in New England; besides which they have both for many years been engaged either as Principals or Assistants in the first literary institution in the United States. For their qualifications success and reputation in teaching they leave the following testimonials lo speak.
TESTIMONIALS
"I have been long acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Ives and know him
to be an excellent classical and English scholar. Mrs. Ives taught a
female seminary for several years in the city of Hartford
Connecticut with distinguished reputation. I have full confidence in
the qualifications of Mr. and Mrs. Ives to conduct a seminary of the
highest order in such a manner as to afford general satisfaction:
"I have been acquainted with the Rev. Caleb S. Ives for many
years past and during the last two years have been associated with
him as an officer of this institution. I have found him excellently
fitted in all respects to be an instructor of youth. His industry
decision and patient good temper qualify him in a high degree as a
governor of the young while his accurate scholarship and untiring
zeal render him equally successful as a teacher. In committing their
children to the instruction of Mr. Ives, parents may feel the most
perfect assurance that they are placing them under the care of one
who Is perfectly competent to all he undertakes and who will look
with the most scrupulous care to the fulfillment of every trust
committed to him. Tuition.
Spelling, Reading, Writing, and First Lessons in Arithmetic--S3
per month.
There will be one vacation in the year commencing on the first of July and ending on the first of October.
All the above prices to be paid in current money. Texas money will be received at its market value.—Bills to be paid at the end of each month. No pupil can enter the school for a period less than a month and no deductions made for absence except for sickness. Fuel at the expense of the scholars.
In addition to preaching each Sunday, he taught Sunday School and at the Academy. He wrote, “All the children in this place with few exceptions are with me Monday morning until Sunday night, either in the Academy or Sunday School.
“His advent into the place was soon followed by a marked change in the tone of society and manners and morals of the people…His generous temper, his warm affections, the elevation and simplicity of his life and conversation the urbanity of his manner, and the cordial sympathy of his daily greetings, threw a charm over his intercourse with all around him, and did much in forming our social circle, one of the most civil and refined in the State.”
While he was there it became evident the congregation needed a church building. He left Matagorda in May, 1839, to go to the United States for the purpose of raising funds for the building. He obtained a portion of the funds, and the remainder came in slowly. His efforts were rewarded and the first service in the new building was held Easter Day, April 11, 1841.
A committee report from the Texas House of Representatives on Monday, January 20, 1845, included, “Mr. Smyth…reported favorably on the bill to incorporate Matagorda Academy.”
The Academy was known as “one of the best academies in the State,” and Rev. and Mrs. Ives continued operation until his health declined. William L. Sartwelle, who had been teaching at the Academy since 1847, assumed operation of the school.
During the summer of 1849, the Ives family left Matagorda. “His arduous labors there, together with the enervating character of the climate, had so undermined his health that he was constrained to leave his post and seek renewed strength for his Master’s work in his native air of Vermont.” Unfortunately, the return to Vermont did not restore his health and he passed away on July 27, 1849 at the age of fifty-one. He was buried at Tinmouth Cemetery, Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vermont.
His work lives on in the church he founded that still serves the
religious needs of the residents of Matagorda and in countless
families of his students. |