History of Public School Education in Delaware. Bulletin, 1917, No
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DEPARTMENT OI THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION BULLETIN. 1917, No. 18 HISTORY OF PUBLIC SCHOOL .EDUCATION IN DELAWARE By STEPHEN B. WEEKS ' BUREAU OF EDUCATION 7 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1917 ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION NAT BR PROCURZU VIVI/A THZ SUPIRINTINDINT OF DOCUltILLITS GOVZINNINT PRINTING OMCZ WASHINGTON, S. C. AT 20 CENTS PER COPY In the Nene serie a: 'Bulletin, 1912, No. 27.History of Public School Education in Arkansas. Bulletin, 1915, No. 12.History of Public So loolJEducation in Alabama. In preparation: Hbtory of Public School Education In Arizona. 13btory of Public School Education In Tennessee. 4 CONTENTS. NO. Letter of transmittal 5 Acknowledgments Chapter I. Colonial growth and development 7 I. Original settlements: The Swedes, the Dutch, and the English- 7 Education among the Swedes and the Dutch 10 III. Education among the English settlers before the Revolution 14 Chapter II. The first attempts at State education 19 I. The State school fund period, 1798;1829 19 II. The beginning of school legislation 23 The laws of 1817, 1818, and 1821 The reasons for their failure 26 III. Sunday school legislation 27 IV. Further legislative discussion 28 Gov. Collins's message of 1822 29 Discussion by following governors 30 V. Statistical summary of the school fund to 1829 34 Chapter III. The beginnings of public schools 36 I. Willard Hall, 1780-1875 36 I I . The free school act of 1829 and its later amendments, 1830- 1660 38 Provisions of the act of 1829 39 Amendments of the act of 1829 and Their significance 41 III. The educational conventions of New Castle<County, 1838-1855;the growth in demand for centralization 44 The New Castle County educationalconventions summarized, 1836-1855 45 Judge Hall opposes normal schools.. 47 Decentralizers versus centralizers. 57 IV. Actual accomplishment, 1829-1861 66 The Delaware School Journal, 1854-55 67 Beginnings of public schotils in Wilmington 69 Supplementary agencies 70 Normal schools discussed 70 Statistics for the period 72 Chapter IV. The first State taxation for schools 73 I. Educational legislation, 1861-1875, 74 The proposed bill of 1873 78 II. The Delaware State Normal University, 1866 -1871 79 III. Progress during the period 82 Chapter V. The State system: Administrations of Groves and Williams, 1875-1887 84 I. The free school law of 1875 and its accomplishments 85 Summary of the law 85 Administration of J. H. GrOves 88 Administration of Thos. N. Williams 91 II. The development of incorporated town and city schools '92 General deyelopment of incorporated schools and the law of 1879 93 The fiirthes evolUtion and growth of Wilmington schools ' '94 I CONTE/0i 116. Chapter V. ti State systemContinued. Page. I evelopment of State education for negroes 99 Beginnings in Wilmington 99 Work of the. Delaware Association for the moral and educationalim- provement of the colored people , 99 The provisions of the act of 1875 begin connection with theState.. 102 Transfer of negro schools So the State completed, 1892 105 Statistics _107 Chapter VI. The State system: Administration of the State Boardof Edu- cation, 1887-1893 108 I. The State school law of 1887: Later legislation, 1891-1895 109 Superintendent's office abolished 109 Provisions of the new law 110 The law of 1829 finally repealed 110 Reapportionment of State money 111 Legislation on negro schools 1.11 II. Public school development, 1887-1898 113 Condition of the school fund 114 Disadvantages of decentralization 116 Need of a normal school 117 The free textbook law 117 Decay of he schools 120 Chapter VII. The State system : Reorganization and development,1898-1913 122 ° Influence of the constitution of 1897 p12:3 I. The revised school law of 1898 124 II. DevelopMent and legislation, 1898-1913 127 The State board on the weaknesses of the system 127 Its report for 1898 128 Grading of schools and development of high schools 128 Method of distributing funds revised 130 Provision for normal training in other States 131 Irregular attendance 132 Library development 133 State board abolished in 1911 and reorganised 134 Chapter VIII. The reorganized State board of educan and its report of 1913; the State superintendency reeeta ;the more recent legis- lation 138 I. The report of the State board in 1913 139 II. The State superintendency reestablished 149 III. The campaign of 1916: Discussions and investigations 152 School buildings 152 School attendance 153 IV. The school legislation of 1917 158 Chapter IX. Retrospect and prospect 160 Public school statistics 169 I. School population, teachers, property andrevenue, enrollment and at- tendance 169 °II. School receipts and expenditures, State only 170. III. Statistics by counties, 1832-1911 171 Bibliography Odex 76 179 A LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington.. January 2, 1917. SIR: Legislative and executive officers,teachers, and citizens in the State of Delawareare now cooperating as -they have not done before for the advancement of 'public educationand the improvement of public schools in that State.. Forsome time this bureau has been cooperating with- the State commissioner ofeducation and others in this movement and has beguna survey of education of the State Which will now he continued by and underthe direction of a commis- sion created by act of the legislattfreat its recent session.As a part of this general survey and asa background to the study of present educational conditions in the State, I recommendthe publication of the accompanying manuscript on the Historyof Public School Educa- tion. in Delaware.It ha..\ been prepared at my request by StephenB. Weeks, of this bureau. Respect fully submitted. P. P. CLAXTON, ('ontznis&iorter. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTK The author of this study wishes to acknowledge with thanks the many courtesies that he has enjoyed at the hands of citizens of Dela- ware.The Hon. James H. Groves, lust superintendent of free schools of the State, of Delaware, the Hon. Henry C. Carpenter, aiEulitant secretary, and, Dr. Charles A. Wagner, the first commissioner under the reorganization of 1913, have read the manuscript aid made valued suggestions.Information has also been courteously fuVnished by Mr. Clifford J: Scott, superintendent-of the city schools of Wil- mington' by the Hon. George S. Messersmith, formerly secretary of- the State board of education and now United States consul at Curacao, West Indies; and by the Hon. Henry C. Conrad, judge of the supreme court of 'Delaware; while the detailed and accurate Ifietory of Education in Delaware by the Rev. Lyman P. Powell. D. D., LL. D., now president of Hobart College, has been always a valued guide and a constant source of inspiration and delight. '. S. l3, W. 6 HISTORY OF PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION IN DELAWARE. , . ehapter 1. COLONIAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT. 1. ORIGINAL SETTLEMENTS: THE SWEDES, THE DUTCH,AND THE ENGLISH. The territory known at the middle of the seventeenthcentury as Now Netherlan4zi extended from the Hudson (or North River)to* the Delaware (or South River).The first settlements in wbat is now the State of Delaware Were made by the Dutch and the Swedes. In actual attemptti at settlement the Dutch took pfecedence:David PieteNzen do Vries, toward die close of 1830, embarked Inpepaen with a company of about 30 adventurers, who commenceda f;ettlo- meat the next -year on the'Sciuth, or, asig now called, the Delaware River, near the present site of Lewes."' The voyage of De Vries,' says the eloquent and exact historian of the United States,"was the cradling of a State: that Delaware exists -asa separate Common- wealth is due to the ,,Tony of De Vries? ''' Such was the sentiment of students of two generationsago.7Those of the present are in close accord. with thisc_onclusion.- Says Rt. Rev. Frederick 4371iinsman, Bishop of Delaware, inan address delivrred on oorasion of the Iludson ter-centennial in 1909: It. is, i.evertheless, unmistakably true that there is nothing in historymore lutrly Delawarean than Delaware's early connection with the I)utch. Two Wu make this especially evident: First. the great river from whichour State takes its lams, the South Itkver of New Netherlands. was made known to the civilized world thmugh discoveries of a Dutch 'expedition; and, second, the Dutch settlementat Swa.anendael (Lewes) in 1631 .,,as indirectly the means of Delaware's becomingan independent colony and Commonwealth. Had the followers of De Vriesnever spent those few months preceding their massacre at this spot, we should all now be citizens of Maryland, and all that has madesbelawarean history must. have assumed a different aspect stud have lost its diStinet character.' But it was not given the Dutch to make their first colonyon the South River a permanent one, for when Do VrieS returnedto the Bancroft's History of the United States, orig. ed., 11, 281. I See the introductory note to Gerard Troosttrinalation of the Voyages of David rioters= de Vries (Hoorn, 1855), printed in the Col'ections of the New York Historical Society, 2 aeries, vol. I, 1841,p. 245. For other volumes of documents bearing an the early history of Dalawale, see: Dootuninta Relating to the Colonial History of New York, vol. 12, D. 0.1 (Albany, 1877); Papers Relating to the Colonieson the Delaware. 414-1882. in Pa. Archives, 2 s.. vol. 5 (Iiirrisbnrg, 1877); and Narrative" of Early Pa., N. 1., anu Del., ed. by A. C. Myers (N. Y., 1912). Ste the Celebration of the 3000 Anniversary of the Landing of the De Vries Colony at Limos,, Sept. 22, 1909.Del. LIMA. Soc. Publications, No. 54. 7 . ,8 PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION IN DELAWARE. Delaware in 1632 he found his colony destroyedand the site laid itrasta, .withciut A, solitary survivor to make known their 'fate.It was sufficiently apparent, however,- that this had been the workof the.