LITTLE
BRITAIN—It was first called District no. 10, then 9, then 8.
When the town of New Windsor was divided into school districts
September 15,1814, most of the schools had already been in
existence for some years. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 were in the eastern
part of the town, outside the recognized limits of Little
Britain. The schools of Little Britain were no. 4 Center school
district, later called Mt. Airy; no. 5 Square district, later
called Silver Stream; no. 6 Little Britain Meeting House
district, later called Elmwood; no. 7 Union school district,
later called Clinton school; and numbers 8 and 9 in the western
part of the town. District no. 10 was evidently formed later for
it was located between nos. 5 and 6. The date is uncertain. The
PRECINCT JOURNAL gives June 30, 1814, but the entry is after the
division into school districts dated September 15, 1814.
Ruttenber says it was set up in 1816.
Some of the districts proved to be too large, distance-wise, for the pupils. Jeduthan Belknap was one of the trustees when land was bought from Joseph Belknap in 1783 for the school which was later no. 5 Silver Stream school. No. 10 was built on his land on a plot thirty by forty feet. The deed has not been found. When Jeduthan Belknap’s son Benjamin sold the farm to James Denniston June 6, 1820, exception was made of the school house and lot thirty by forty feet, so we know the school was built before 1820. The same mention is made of the school plot when James Denniston conveyed the farm to his son George A. Denniston by will, and he to his son Alexander Fenniston, for a price, in 1865, and when he sold to Robert E. Morrison in 1873. It is the farm now owned by the Cromes.
In the New Windsor PRECINCT JOURNAL page 125 there is this entry: "District no. 10 in the town of New Windsor is bounded as followwith- Beginning at the south east corner of the lands of Thomas McDowel and runs thence northerly along the east side of the lands of Grant Bower, Linas McCabe, Archibald Milligan, Thurston Wood, William Kernaghan, Alexander I. Kernaghan, John Coleman until come to the town line, then westerly until it comes to the east line of the lands of James Boyd and runs thence south on the west line of the lands of Isaac McDowel, Matthew McDowel, John McDowel and Thomas McDowel and from thence in the place of beginning, which school district shall be known and distinguished by number 10. Thurston Wood and Samuel Falls, commissioners of schools."" Some of these were at first in no. 4, some in no. 5 and some in no. 6.
District no. 9 was evidently in the extreme western part of the town of New Windsor. That part was afterwards cut off to the town of Hamptonburgh. One of the names of the families in district was that of David Buskirk. Burnside was once called Buskirk’s Mills. So New Windsor lost school district no. 9. In 1834, the school commissioners "resolved unanimously that district no. 10 shall hereafter be known as district no.9. Also resolved that George C. Humphrey and Noah Mathewson now belonging to district no. 6, and Job I. Drake, William Callaghan and Hugh Moore now belonging to district no. 5 shall be annexed to no. 9 (formerly no. 10)."
District no. 8 was near the town of Blooming Grove, for in 1825 five families from Blooming Grove were allowed to use this school. It is noted that Blooming Grove built a school at the corner of the roads now called Moffat and Bull. It is still standing, an attractive home. It seems likely that Blooming Grove and New Windsor continued to cooperate, this time New Windsor families using the Blooming Grove school. The date on that building is 1870. The record of when that New Windsor District no. 8 was discontinued has not been found. Number 9 took no. 8’s number when it was available.
The missing pages from the PRECINCT JOURNAL, p. 140-159, right in the section on schools, might clear up several problems.
Just where the thirty by forty foot schoolyard is located is disputed. Miss Ada Brown says that when her mother Charlotte Vance went to the White school it was a little red school house and it stood across the road. But the maps of 1850, 1860 and 1864 show it on the north side of the road, the Little Britain Road near Pig Lane, close to the property next on the east. Mr. Crome says that Mr. Edward Morrison told him that the school was in the southeast corner of the present plot, that is, on the north side of the road. Mr. George Sears says he remembers it there, just over the fence from their garden. Miss Brown makes few mistakes, but the evidence seems weighted against her in this one instance. The early record books of this school are lost. They would doubtless settle the question.
Robert E. Morrison sold about an acre of land to School District of New Windsor, no 8 on February 8, 1888. The deed states "the party of the second part agrees to build keep and maintain all necessary division fences of said Robert E. Morrison, the covenants hereinafter contained are not to apply to that part of said land hereinbefore described which belonged to the party of the second part before the execution of this deed." That is the only reference to the thirty by forty foot plot, and who knows what it means!
So, the second building was erected in 1888, a frame building painted white, at a time when other districts were putting up brick buildings. Miss Nellie Alton taught at the White school in 1902. She says the floor boards at the front of the school, the east end, where the teacher’s desk was, went in the opposite direction from the boards at the back of the room and the floor was higher there by the thickness of the boards. We wonder if the east end of the building was the old school, and it was enlarged by building on to the west. The picture shows the windows not spaced evenly.
Washingtonville Central School has most of the attendance registers from 1902 till the school was discontinued. In 1902-3 the site was valued at $200, the building $550. There were 22 pupils, among them familiar names of Giles, Tilford, Baker, Morrison. Nellie Alton was the teacher who kept the first register. In 1907-8 Iva E. Schoonmaker was the teacher and for the next four years.
The frame building was used thru the school year 1913-14. In 1914 the cement block building was erected, further back on the plot. The frame building was near the row of trees still standing. The new building was valued at $2600.
Miss Ethel Lattimer was the teacher for two years 1922-24. We note with interest that she taught also at Elmwood School, Silver Stream and Mount Airy, much of the time as Mrs. Ethel Crome, and living on the farm where the White school was located.
In 1925 Miss Iva Schoonmaker came back as Mrs. Iva S. Brown and taught thru the school year 1946-47. There were several years when there were forty and more pupils in this school. Think of teaching eight grades in a one-room school of forty!
On April 19, 1946 this item was in Mrs. Mildred Parker Seese’s column in the Middletown Times Herald. "Official and lay visitors were astonished the other day at the White school, New Windsor District Eight. There are seven youngsters in the seventh grade, and during the history hour each drew a copy of EAGER’S HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY. There probably is no other place in the entire world where there are so many copies of the famous old book. The family of every child owns the copy that appeared that day. Every child was impressed by the statement that the current price of EAGER’s (in good condition) is $25, index extra. Pride of ownership was obviously enhanced."
By 1947 the number of pupils had gone down to fifteen. It was thought that the district was finished. In 1947-48 the pupils were sent to Washingtonville by contract. On January 23, 1948 the state education department gave approval to join the Washingtonville system. It was annexed to Washingtonville April 12, 1948. The site was valued at $200, the schoolhouse at $3000, furniture, apparatus and library of 77 volumes at $490.
The property of School district no. 8 was sold October 16, 1948 to Burton Merrit for $4000. They were sure it would never be needed again, as there were so few pupils.
But Stewart Field descended upon Little Britain. More land had to be bought from the same farm for the Little Britain Elementary School. It stands, a large building, next to the discarded White school, now a dwelling.
Created by Elizabeth Finley Frasier
July 4, 2007
