The History of Pittsburgh by Sarah Hutchins Killikelly

Author:Sarah Hutchins Killikelly [Killikelly, Sarah Hutchins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2018-05-15T22:00:00+00:00

THE SCHOOLS

Colonel Bouquet, when in charge of Fort Pitt, ordered in 1761, a numbering of the people in Pittsburgh; according to this there were forty-eight children, and James Kenney, a storekeeper, recorded in his diary that the inhabitants hired a schoolmaster and paid him sixty pounds per annum, but there is no record of the length of his stay nor the quality of his service. There was, however, no schoolmaster when all the villagers were crowded into the fort during the siege of Pontiac, from May to August, 1763. Nor is there evidence of any attempt to school the children when tranquility was restored along the border in the early autumn of 1764. Year succeeded year, and, among the meagre records of the doings of men, there is no mention of their endeavor to educate the children. The sixties passed away; the seventies witnessed the bitter dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia regarding the territory including Pittsburgh; but in the desperate throes of rending the new continent from the old, this local issue lost its preeminence.

The advantageous position of Pittsburgh, as a base of supplies, for the operations against Detroit and the lake country during the Revolution, increased its importance, and this, in conjunction with other causes, brought about an increase in population, and there may have been other schools beside the one mentioned by James Kenney. The first vague trace of" the old Pittsburgh Academy " is to be found in 1783, and the first definite information regarding schools is in one of the articles by H. H. Brackenridge in the Gazette of September, 1786, in which he stated that'' one or two schools are established to teach the first elements, but it is greatly desirable that there be such which can conduct to more advancement in science." It was due to the individual and indefatigable efforts of Judge Brackenridge that the Pittsburgh Academy, the first educational institution of note in the town, was founded.

Whether the " one or two schools," mentioned by Judge Brackenridge, taught the " first elements " to boys only, is not stated. The earliest indisputable record of a Pittsburgh school appeared in the Gazette of November tenth, 1786, listed in this fashion:

"A Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies,

Will be opened on Wednesday, the fifteenth instant, by Mrs. Pride, in the house where John Gibson formerly lived, behind his stone house, where there will be taught the following branches of needle-work, namely, plain work, colored work, flowering, lace, both by the bobbin and the needle, fringing, Dresden, tabouring and embroidering. Also reading, English, and knitting if required. Mrs. Pride from the long experience she has had as a teacher and the liberal encouragement she has met with hitherto both in Britain and in Philadelphia flatters herself that by the utmost attention in teaching the said branches as also taking the strictest care to the morals and good breeding of the young ladies placed under her care that upon trial she will also merit the approbation and encouragement of the inhabitants on this side the Allegheny mountains.

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