CHAPTER V.
THE WASHINGTON SEMINARY.
Pages 35-47
In the after records of times of war, it is often forgotten that the paths of peace were still to be trodden, homes were to be maintained, children were to be trained and educated. Dr. Gebhard had hardly settled in his new parish when he was called upon to receive youths into his family, that they might pursue classical and higher mathematical studies under his direction. Some of these boys were sent from Philadelphia and New York. Many also were growing up about him, lacking even the elements of an education. His own youth had been favored in this respect. Before long he would have boys of his own old enough to educate. These combined reasons led to an effort on his part which resulted in the establishment of Washington Seminary at Claverack, in which project he was ably supported by prominent members of his congregation.
[page 36] A record of the first years of this seminary is still in existence. The whole account is kept in Latin, as Dr. Gebhard was in the habit of keeping other records committed to his charge. This is not to be wondered at, considering the statement of Dr. Livingston, who attended the University of Utrecht at a time contemporaneous with Dr. Gebhard's residence there as a student. Dr. Livingston says that at this period all the lectures were delivered in the Latin language, and before he left the University he could speak Latin almost as readily as his native tongue, "he thought, wrote, and even prayed in secret undesignedly in Latin."
A translation of the title and preamble on the fly-leaf of this ancient book, reads--
"The Seminary of Washington in North America, founded in the first year after the Declaration of Independence in the year of the Lord 1777, and erected in the middle of the War 1779."
"Most learned Master and Trustees, Richard Morris, Chief Justice; Hendricus J. Van Rensselaer, Petrus Weissmer, Jacobus Blattener, Jun, Stephanis Hoogheboom, Georgius Monel, Walterus Vroman Wemple, [page 37] Hendricus Wilhelmus Ludlow, and Johannes Gabriel Gebhard having erected this Washington Seminary with greatest difficulty and unwearied labor, have admitted Masters Dudley Baldwin and Abraham Fonda, the first as teacher in the Latin language, the last as teacher in the English language, preceptors under the supreme jurisdiction of Johannes Gabriel Gebhard."
These trustees, together with David Sherts and Peter Mesick were large contributors toward the establishment of the Seminary.
The Constitution of Washington Seminary provided that "A house should be built which should accommodate Masters, Tutors, Ushers, and Professors; that Writing, Arithmetic, Latin, and Greek should be taught, and such other branches of Literature as the Trustees should from time to time find the means to support;
"The Seminary should be open to all persuasions.
"There should be eleven Trustees, of which the Senior Minister of the Reformed Dutch Church in the town of Claverack should always be one, the Governor of the State for the time being always one other, the Chief Justice of the State for the time being always [page 38] one other, the Senior Branch of the Van Rensselaer Family holding the Claverack estate always one other, and the remaining seven elected annually by ballot. There were rewards for learning, and fines for disobeying rules. The Superintendent visited the school every day and reported to the Trustees, and taught the senior classes in cases of death, sickness, or absence."
The records begin June 28th, in the opening term in the new building, and continue through the following three years. The names of the pupils and their fathers are given, and to what class they are each assigned. Though the Academy was pre-eminently designed for a classical, higher English, and mathematical course, the elementary branches were not neglected, and we find the kindergarten here under the learned title of--
"A. B. C. darian children."
The "names of youth to be educated in the Latin language and admitted to this Washington Seminary in 1779," include John, Jacob, and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, sons of Colonel Robert Van Rensselaer, and John, the son of Hendrick Van Rensselaer of Claverack, [page 39] Henry, son of Walter Livingston, James, son of James Duane, and James Cochrane, the last three of Livingston Manor; Alexander, son of Gerhard Jacob Lansing of Albany, also Herman Ten Broeck, Charles Van Kleeck and John Dow of Albany, John Huyck and John Ten Broeck of Claverack, and John Thomas of Rhinebeck.
The "A. B. C. darian class" had among others in it, Jeremiah and Elizabeth Muller, William Van Ness, the Dominie's eldest son Jacob Gebhard, Maria Bay, Catherine Salisbury of Catskill, Elberta Hogeboom, Jacob Philip, and Volkert Whitbeck, and as suggestive of the feeling of the period, Gabriel Esselstyn had sent his slave girl Anna to learn her letters.
In 1780 Henry Bedlow of New Winsor, and Robert Morris of Claverack were added to the Latin class, also William Nichol and Killian Van Rensselaer of Albany. It would seem that the learned languages were not deemed necessary to the education of girls at this time, since we find none in the Latin classes, but they abound in the earlier divisions, including English and writing classes. Each year discovers a younger child added from many families, Maria Bay [page 40] is now accompanied by her brother, William, and Killian Hoogeboom by Anatji, and the Dominie's second boy Philip attends school with his brother Jacob.
It will be seen that the Seminary drew pupils from Albany to Rhinebeck, but Claverack showed its pride in its seat of learning, and its desire to educate its children by sending pupils from nearly all its prosperous families, even during this strenuous war period. It is also worthy of note that having begun their education, no one of the pupils seems to have dropped by the way, but as long as the record lasts, the names repeat themselves. In a number of instance, with the Dominie as leader, a father offers a term of schooling to some other child beside his own.
The school books of the succeeding decades tell stories between their covers. Books, even school books, were valued in these early days of our Republic. A yellow-leaved, profusely illustrated copy of Virgil has on the inside of its cover, and scattered through the book, the names of "John Gebhard, Cornelius Miller, Gabriel Gebhard, John Van Rensselear, Charles Gebhard, and Robert Monel" with varying dates, and the statement "his writing" after each name [page 41] as s sort of witness to the various ownerships. The margins of some leaves are worn far into the notes, which must have been a trial to the later owners. Loose leaves are carefully sewed together, and numbered in pencil, while at various points through the book are statements, such as--
"Recited here the 10th of July, 1782," or "Thus far has Lewis Gebhard rehearsed this Book, June 14th 1808."
The blank sides of the historically illustrated pages were utilized by the young America of that day, to inscribe facts in the own youthful history. The last of these blank page legends reads--
"Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer's
Property, New Haven,
And
Lewis P. Gebhard's
Property, Claverack
Dec. 6th, 1805."
"Ego Carolus Gebhardus" states in Latin that he has mastered one-quarter of the book, giving date and year in the same tongue, or, for the moment forgetting themselves and their classical acquirements, [page 42] a margin passes the information down the century, that their teacher, Andrew M. Carshore, was a "poet and a philosopher."
That their classical learning was utilized to make records still more erudite, though in boyish fashion, is proved by a mixed Latin and English meter of a young relative of the Gebhard family which is a type of the times.
"John Bausman's Book."
"Hic liber pertinet,
Who can it deny,
Ad Johannem cum Bausman,
That clever young boy,
In Baltimoriensem Collegiam,
He is to be found,
Sed non morietur,
And Laid in the ground;
Ab omnibus malis,
The Lord him defend,
In vitam aeternam
World without end,
Amen."
In 1780 N. Meigs was appointed principal and [page 23] served until succeeded by Andrew Mayfield Carshore. The latter had come to this country with General Burgoyne as an impressed British soldier. After the surrender at Saratoga, he went to Kinderhook, where he opened an English school. Leaving this he came to Claverack and entered the family of Dr. Gebhard, where he acquired a knowledge of Latin and Greek. Dr. Gebhard's superintendency of Washington Seminary continued so long as it remained a classical academy, and the duties of his office were varied and unique. Beside an oversight of courses of study, and the general management of the school, he instructed its early teachers in the higher branches, in which they were expected later to teach their scholars. It is said that Mr. Carshore easily kept ahead of his classes in this parsonage night-school, but when as occasionally occured, the translation of an intricate passage escaped his memory, or the higher mathematical problems became too knotty for his lately acquired knowledge, the pupil was dispatched to the parsonage with his slate and book, or Virgil or Horace under his arm, and the President of the Seminary laid aside theological studies, to turn his attention to the scholar in a di-[page 44] lemma.
This plan of peripatetic education could not have been wholly distasteful to a boy or girl on a warm spring day, when nature in every age has invited the boy shut up in the school-room to "come out," and it is questionable if the call of Claverack creek and a fishing rod, did not many times conduce to the infliction of the "fines" mentioned in the Constitution. Winter storms and snow drifts could not have been as pleasant, yet even these offered snow ball bouts, and we may venture to believe that the path from the Seminary to the parsonage was a pleasant one, and that the Master's stumbling blocks were eagerly watched for by the students.
In time Mr. Carshore became an able teacher, a man of unusual genius and culture, and during the twenty-five years of his connection with the Seminary the institution became famous. Pupils continued to come from Albany, Poughkeepsie, New Rochelle, Livingston Manor, Hudson and Claverack, and at time Washington Seminary had more than one hundred students.
Among those educated at this period were General [page 45] John P. Van Ness, Attorney-at-Law and member of the Congress, Honorable William P. Van Ness, Judge of the Southern United States District, Honorable Cornelius P. Van Ness, Governor of Vermont, Minister to Spain, and Collector of the Port of New York, General Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, Secretary of State of New York, and often a Member of Congress, General Jacob Gebhard, Senator of New York State, Honorable John Gebhard, first Judge of Schoharie county, and Member of Congress, and Doctor Lewis Gebhard, for over fifty years a leading physician and resident of Philadelphia, Joseph D. Monell, and the sons and daughters of the Philip and the Miller families. These were all natives of Claverack. Ambrose L. Jordan, Dr. William Bay of Albany, Martin Van Buren and Robert H. Morris, and many others afterward prominent in public life were also educated in their youth at Washington Seminary.
Treasured among the old-time possessions of some of the Van Rensselaers, and other noted men who once attend Washington Seminary, are the written recommendations of Dr. Gebhard, attesting to the in-[page 46] tegrity and ability of the young man about to start out to make his way in the world, outside of rural Claverack. The after career of some of these men would go to show that the Dominie was a reader of character, and the possessor of a prophetic eye where youths under his charge were concerned, as well as in larger matters.
The love of education had traveled from Heidelberg and Utrecht over the sea in the heart of a young German clergyman and scholar, and out of it had sprung a seedling from the older institution. In a new land it had trained the rising generation in old world literature and the scholarship of the day. A large part of the citizens of the Colonies fought bravely to win the country's independence. All honor to the men who risked their lives and fortunes in so noble a cause! But when the cause was won, the country called of trained men for rulers, intelligent citizens to obey the laws, instructed minds to meet new conditions. The old world would no longer send America its leading men. The United States would rise or fall as her own citizens met the great summons, and the great needs, and emergencies of an independent nation.
[page 47] This was the work to which Dr. Gebhard and the educators of his class consecrated their lives. With prophetic vision they saw a future for this country, and while other men fought on battle fields, they were laying foundation stones in the education of the youth of the land, for future senators and governors, judges and foreign ministers, and also presidents of the new Republic. They were training citizens and moulding the men of a nation, and in this work Washington Seminary bore a large share.
For more than a hundred years this Classical Seminary, and its outgrowth, the Claverack College and Hudson River Institute, continued a controlling power in the educational life of Columbia county, as well as drawing within its beneficient (sic) influence pupils from many States in the Union.
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