Armstrong County (PA) Schools to 1834
The following passages were taken from "Armstrong County Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present" (Chicago, 1914, J.H. Beers and Co.), pp.59-60.
GROWTH OF EDUCATION IN ARMSTRONG COUNTY
The educational facilities of this county from 1800 to 1834 were of the most primitive kind, but were the best that the pioneers, who had the wilderness to conquer, could afford. All of the schools were of the subscription kind, where the neighbors contributed as far as their means permitted, to pay the teacher and build and furnish the simple log structures which were no better than their own habitations. Often the subscriptions were not paid in coin, frequently in services in the construction of the schoolhouse, or materials for the work. These log schools were mostly square, with a fireplace at the end, but sometimes of octagonal shape, with a stove in the centre, made of sheet iron, that barely kept the frigid temperatures of the old-time winters at bay. Floors were of slabs, seats of the same, without backs, and the window spaces, made narrow and long to save cutting the logs, were filled with greased paper, through which the light dimly filtered. Desks were ranged along the walls, so as to take advantage of the feeble illumination and to enable the teacher to face the pupils, who stood at the desks with their backs to the windows.
The teachers were in truth as well as jest, "Irish schoolmasters." Most of them were old men who could not stand the severe manual labor of the woods and fields, and many of them were confirmed in habits that they had acquired in their days of youthful dissipation. In those days the distillery was a necessity, as they thought, to the settlers, and almost every stream had a small plant along its banks. One teacher in this county in 1820 was Edward Jennings, who held forth at the Peters schoolhouse in Perry township. He used to have long recesses, during which he would repair to Jacob Peters' distillery to fortify himself against the arduous duties of the afternoon.
The educational qualifications of these schoolmasters were limited to a little reading, less writing and a very slight knowledge of arithmetic. Occasionally one was a good penman. William Marshall of Wayne township, and Edward Gorrell of Gilpin township, were among those who were said to have written "a very fine hand."
The pay of these teachers was commensurate with their attainments. Most of them were compelled to collect their salaries a few cents at a time from those who subscribed, and often collections were slow. The average tuition per scholar was $1.50 a quarter, paid as the parents were able. Children came to school as long as their money lasted, and stayed at home and worked for the rest of the time to help pay for another term. All of the teachers "boarded 'round," and they were soon able to discriminate between the good and bad places. They were slow to leave a home where the food and accommodations were good, and it was hard to get them to stop out their proper time at a poorly supplied household. They were sometimes of great help to the farmers themselves in passing the long winter evenings indoors, some of the old instructors being fine "fiddlers." But sometimes they were rather objectionable, and the household found it easy to "speed the parting guest."
One of the early customs of the scholars of these log schools was to "bar-out" the teacher until he "set-up" the cider or other refreshment, and in the affrays that followed there was often serious injury caused to members of both opposing sides. Some of the first teachers in this county were: Cornelius Roley, John Sturgeon, Anthony O'Baldwin, Wright Elliot, John Criswell, Samuel Taggart, Henry Girt, Robert Walker, Thomas Barr, Joseph Bullman, George Forsyth, Robert Kirby, Benjamin Irwin, Bezai Irwin, James Hannegan, James McDowell, John Cowan, Archibald Cook, Thomas McCleary and Archibald Kelly.
The ventilation of these early "temples of knowledge" was generally better than at present, often leaning to extremes. Philip Mechling, one of the prominent men of the pioneer days, and for several years sheriff of the county, once said that in passing a schoolhouse in Red Bank township he could count the scholars through the unfilled chinks in the log walls. It is to be hoped that ere the winter came a few handfuls of clay were daubed over these ventilators.
One of the early school teachers relates that he was often twitted by the friends of later days about his first scholars. It seems that the lower part of the building was open and the pigs used to rest there during the heat of the day, their squealing often interfering with the lessons of the scholars and necessitating the stationing of a boy with a stick at the place of entrance of the porkers to prevent their return until the recitations were over. His friends claimed that the pigs were entitled to be classed as scholars from the punctuality of their attendance.
As time passed the profession of schoolmaster became more honorable in the eyes of the settlers, and many a pastor eked out his meagre stipend by teaching a term in winter. Some of our best citizens have not felt that a course of teaching in these simple edifices was beneath their dignity in the days of their upward struggles to fame. Upon the adoption of the free school system in 1834 these structures were replaced as fast as possible with frame buildings, many of which, we regret to say, are in use still. They were great improvements over the log schoolhouses, but the brick buildings that followed them are a still greater evidence of the advancement of educational methods.