It Happened Here--  The Learning Continues:                                                                         Academies &  Seminaries

                                                                 The Academy in Clermont

                                                                       U.S. Rte 9 Germantown

                              Rte 9H, Claverack

In their earliest years the first Academies and Seminaries [1] provided a "classic education" emphasizing languages, especially ancient languages --Greek and Latin, and mathematics to prepare students to attend one of the few colleges in the northern colonies/states--Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth or Kings (Columbia) but soon they were offering more practical instruction, as well. Clinton Academy in East Hampton. for example, offered courses in surveying and navigation.  And for their female students (as yet, a rarity) courses in ettiquette, social graces and household management. Some schools offered an "ornamental education" for the "fairer sex" and many offered what today might be called

remedial education to insure students of both genders had basic literacy.

In 1787 New York State established a board of Regents to recharter Kings College (now Columbia University) as Columbia College and to encourage the development of schools. In 1787 they were given the authority to charter academies, though some schools would be chartered by the legislature, itself. By the end of the 19th century over  400 Academies and Seminaries would be chartered. A blend of private and public, most academies would be privately financed through tuitions charged to their students but would be administered by public trustees selected from the communities in which they were located. Many operated as live-in boarding schools.

                                                                                           cor. Crown St, John  St. Kingston

                                                                                          Kingston Academy located in a solid two-story 

                                                                                                            stone building, would survive the British burning of the city,                                                                                                                 relocating to Academy Park in 1830, continuing until 1916                                                                                                                      when it would be replaced by Kingston High School

                                                                             Albany Av. (Co. Rte 21) Kinderhook

                                         Kinderhook's Columbia Academy developed from its early Dutch common school

The Regents would  administer grants  to academies from time to time and a " Literacy fund" was created in 1813 to provide subsidies on a more regular basis.

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Rte. 28 Milford

Hartwick Seminary developed out of the work of John Christopher Hartwick who spent his life while a frontier missionary amassing land to establish a christian utopian settlement but died before he accomplished this, but he left a request that a theological seminary be established. Three pastors, Dr. John Christopher Kunze, a leading Lutheran theologian, Rev. Anthony Braun a teacher of sciences and languages from Albany and Rev. John Frederick Ernst a primary school teacher established their school on the Hartwick patent in 1815 with a theological department for training for the ministry, and a classical department  for college preparation.  Beginning with 60-70 students, by the 1880's the student body regularly exceeded 100.  A freshman year of college courses was added in 1888 and  in 1927 it moved to Oneonta and became Hartwick College a four year liberal arts college.

Like Hartwick, some academies would grow and become colleges while others would survive only by re-trenching, becoming primary schools.

Spencertown Academy was housed in an impressive building. It was opened in 1847,  the work of the indefatigable blind pastor of St.Peter's Church,  Timothy Woodbridge. It was opened as a teacher training academy but closed after only a decade .  Taken over by the Spencertown and Austerlitz school districts it operated as a two room school.  Later it became part of the Chatham Central School district  until 1970 where today it is a community arts center hosting exhibits, performances and events.

                                          NY Rte 203, Spencertown

Some academies appear to have come and gone rather quickly, while  a very few evolved into colleges and even great universities.

                                                                                                                                                                             Livingston St., Saugerties

                                

   College St., Lima

Founded in 1831 [2]  by the  Genesee  Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, this seminary began  with 341 students, growing steadily until 1849 when Genesee  College was formed out of it. Seeking to become more centrally located in a transportation hub, the  administration attempted to re-establish the college in Syracuse in 1869 but was blocked by  the town of Lima which didn't want to lose its college.  In 1870 Syracuse University got its own charter and finally in 1875 the faculty and student body of Genesee College, in effect, transferred en masse to the new university. 
Genesee college closed but the Genesee Wesleyan      Seminary (prep school) continued until the beginning of World War II.

Though some schools (like the Charlotteville Academy, featured in the next post) sought out remote locations to protect their students from the dangers and vices of cities and transients on the open roads and turnpikes, most sought out and benefited from the easy access to towns and turnpikes.

                                                                                                                         Albany Tpke at Co.Rte.  13  Old Chatham

 

                                                                                        

            

Adjacent villages or hamlets or sections of a town often quarreled over where an academy or seminary would be located.  

                                                                                                                      Co.Rte. 68,  White Creek

"Site of 

Cambridge Washington Academy

Incorporated by Regents 1815

Merged with Union School,1873"

  --Academy St., Cambridge--sign missing

The dispute between the village of Cambridge and the hamlet of White Creek went on for over a decade. In 1799 the citizens of Cambridge  and North White Creek (part of Cambridge) decided to build an academy but at a vote to determine its location the Cambridgers dominated, locating the new academy in the western end of town.  The Whitecreekers revolted, withdrawing their support, eventually building their own academy in the hamlet of White Creek. Cambridge was able to build an academy with the support of the Presbyterian congregation in Coila, a hamlet on the northern border of Cambridge but only after it was agreed that        students would be required to attend religious services twice a week.

By the first decade of the 20th century most communities would decide that the growing needs for higher education could not be met by the random collection of private tuition-based academies that occasionally received public support.  Instead there needed to be publicly funded high schools, free to all.

[1]  Today, Seminaries are most often thought of as theological schools for training priests and clergymen but throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the terms were used pretty much interchangeably, a seminary being a place where knowledge was "disseminated."

[2] Several written sources cite 1831 as  Genesee Wesleyan's founding date.

--Besides the usual internet sources I would like to point out some pieces I found useful.

--The New York Almanack's  recent"Guest Contributor" article of March 30,2025, "Education in NewYork:   Academies and Common Schools" (newyorkalmanack.com) gave me a basic framework and orientation on a subject I heretofore knew very little.

--Ken Gotty, "History of Cambridge Schools" (csindians.com) illustrates some of the kinds of territorial disputes that could happen between towns/villages/hamlets looking to create new schools/academies.

--History of ______County.  In the 1870's-1890's several publishing houses produced large county-wide local histories for subscription sale, featuring lots of granular, local historical detail including generous amounts of historical stories/myths etc. Though often difficult to navigate through, most are available in PDF on line.  I have used volumes from Schoharie, Columbia, Ulster, Rensselaer, and  Oneida counties with varying degrees of success.

                                                                          ********

 Next Time--  The Schoharie County  "Seminary Mania" and How seminary failures and fires devastated the small towns and hamlets of Schoharie

                                                                           ********

 Marker of the Week  Fortnight (!)  -- The Marker that started it all.

It's just perverse to take a 12-14 year old boy, who has spent his whole summer back in the early 1960's engrossed in reading  Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and  Edmonds Drums Along the Mohawk  to Lake George and to show him this sign without explanation.

If you don't know the backstory, I'm not going to tell you!  At least YOU have the internet!  :)