It Happened Here-- The Schoharie County                                                           Seminary Mania

"During the 'seminary epidemic'  of 1850 and 1854 that swept over the county and excited the steady minds of the people and made sad havoc with the accumulation of years of economy and industry, the citizens of this place (Carlisle) erected a fine edifice for the accommodation of 200 boarding pupils."          --p.291 the History of Schoharie County , New York.  William E. Roscoe  1882

                                                                    Crommie Rd.   Carlisle
Incredibly, at the beginning of the middle decade 19th century the  little towns and hamlets in the very rural county of Schoharie erected no less than six boarding schools for higher (secondary) education of students, hoping, presumably to attract students from across New York State and southern New England.     By 1867, all of them had closed and most of them had burned--most under suspicious circumstances!

It was not as if Schoharie county had had no experience with the  financial difficulties of building and maintaining academies/seminaries.  The village of Schoharie had incorporated its academy in 1837, receiving Regents certification in 1839. Beginning with a principal teacher, and three assistants, with French and German branches, it grew and broadened its curriculum  until in 1881 it awarded its first regents diploma, the ninth awarded in the state. In 1904 the old Academy was replaced by a brick public  high school on its site.

The Jefferson Academy, at a central crossroads in  the township of Jefferson predated the Schoharie Academy.  Herman Hickok, a local school teacher began advocating for and soliciting subscribers for a fund to build an academy in 1812,  succeeding in 1817 after he convinced a local landowner to donate land for an academy along with a village green.  With $4000 a building was raised but the Academy struggled financially for years, being forced to close in 1851.

                       cor. N.Harpersfield Rd.  and Park Ave., Jefferson

While local communities struggled to finance   and maintain academies/ seminaries  for secondary education,  a statewide organization with national ties announced its intention to build a seminary in the remote little hamlet of Charlottesville, Schoharie County.  In 1850 the New York State Methodist  Conference began soliciting subscriptions and donations to build a seminary to house 300 students, in the "healthy countryside" away from the  corrupting distractions and vices of towns and busy thoroughfares. Quickly erected and in business, after two years, the seminary was examined by a committee that reported to the Conference that the seminary had "a career of unexampled prosperity" with 350 students,  and had to turn many away for lack of facilities. Extensions were added on the building and, in 1852, a new  three story building was begun to hold an additional 500 students across  the plank road, in front of it! By 1852 there were, besides the principal and preceptress. a staff of 17 teachers.

                                                                                                          cor.  Charlotte Valley Rd. and Meade Rd., Charlotteville

This degree of success and growth could not help but attract the attention of surrounding communities and within months the "Seminary Mania" was beginning.  But what explains the popularity of the Charlottesville Seminary?  First,  long periods of relative prosperity had seen the growth of the middle class with increasing numbers of wealthy farmers, tradesmen, and businessmen seeking education beyond basic literacy for their children in a safe, moral environment.  The Methodist church could ostensibly provide that.  Additionally, there were Methodist churches in nearly every town in New York and beyond. This new educational project was reported and promoted  to the congregations with ministers to  vouch for the new seminary and perhaps provide some charitable support for promising students.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             W. Main St., Richmondville

In the spring of 1852 a group investors from Richmondville  invested "a few thousand dollars" to build a seminary in Richmondville described by Roscoe as "palatial" but in December 1853 "an incendiary laid the whole in ashes" but because the investors had been encouraged by its prospects they raised more money to build a second building in the fall of 1853, investing $60,000 on the two buildings.  It too burned in 1854!

In the Fall of 1852 investors around Carlisle formed a joint stock company promoted by a "Colonel Sellers" raising  $32,000 for a 300  student seminary a short distance from the Great Western Turnpike that ran through Carlisle, with a large chapel, several recitation rooms and "all the conveniences of a first rate institution." By the end of 1854, however, it had become a financial failure, with the institution amassing unpaid bills. It would struggle on for over a decade. with the trustees blaming the investors for not supporting them; the investors blaming the trustees for profligate, unauthorized spending. Expensive litigation followed expensive litigation.  Several local businesses went bankrupt and their owners left for better prospects in the west; others labored on, mired in debt for years.  Eventually the building was sold, taken apart and re-assembled to build two hotels in Rockville and East Worcester, Otsego County.

NYS Rte. 7, Cobleskill

In the fall of 1853 at a cost of $30,000 the Warnerville Union Literary Seminary opened with accomodations for 200 students and a faculty of one principal and twelve assistants, but closed a short time later.  It would open, under a different principal as the Union Literary Institute in November 1861 but close  in a year and a half.  And again it would open in 1870 headed by Professor Dean Smith, as Dean's College,  closing after eighteen months.

                                                                                                       CharlotteValley Rd., Charlotteville

Meanwhile, Charlottesville Seminary soldiered on, buoyed by its popularity and aided by church donations. In 1855  a grand new building was built on the south side of the road.  Four  hundred and eighty feet long , four stories high with additional basement rooms, it was built to house 800 students and slated to transition into a college, "People's College".

But in 1856 tragedy struck.  The north complex of buildings burned. Twelve years later, the south building burned as well.  After the fires Professor  Solomon Sias continued the seminary with  small groups of about 120 students operating out of a local hotel until 1875.                                                            

The problem with seminary boarding schools was, that though popular, they were beyond the economic range of most middle class parents, and in the competition for pupils the seminaries of Schoharie were unprofitable.  The $3 per week, or so, generally charged students could not cover the room, heat, 21 meals,  washing and ironing services and salaries for a principal, preceptress, and dozen or more assistants, and cooks and maintenance personnel required to run such  institutions.  

While their fundamental unprofitability explains their ultimate demise, left unanswered are questions surrounding the fires that destroyed four of the six Schoharie seminaries.  Accidental fires were a constant threat to large  buildings in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.  Large hotels, and resorts were always burning!  In nineteenth century Saratoga, for example, Broadway was lined with hotels, each one larger and more opulent than the last,  but today, only the Adelphi survives the frequent fires of the past.  Wooden construction, wood and coal burning stoves--vented with smoke pipes running up walls and across ceilings, the absence of smoke detection and sprinkler systems made large buildings vulnerable.  The  absence of fire companies, effective fire fighting equipment, and hydrants meant that any small fire would likely result in total destruction.  But beyond accidental fires, Roscoe clearly lays the blame for some of the fires on "incindiarists" but does not elaborate.  Besides Roscoe there appears to be few if any secondary sources/histories which relate the stories of the Schoharie Seminaries and their demise.  Perhaps this article will arouse some interest in  answering  the unanswered questions of  Why? and by Whom? were the disastrous fires started.

        Marker of the Week  Fortnight -- The Prize Fight        that Changed the Shape of New York!

Undermountain Road, Boston Corner  (marker lists the wrong date)

You may have never noticed,  but the border between Massachusetts and New York State runs  from  a point northwest of North Adams to a point  southwest of  Sheffield, MA  in nearly a straight line until it joins with the Massachusetts--Connecticut border at what you might expect to be about an 80 degree angle.  But about two miles north of that intended junction the borderline veers abruptly a few degrees to the east to give to New York a neat little triangle of land in which lies the tiny hamlet, Boston Corner.  Originally part of Massachusetts, the Corner was perhaps the most isolated hamlet in the Bay State, walled off by the Taconic Mountains.  While isolated from the rest of Massachusetts it became conveniently tied to New York City,  Troy and Albany by a spur of the Harlem River Railroad, providing regular  freight and passenger  service to the town.  It didn't take long for individuals pursuing  criminal business to see the Corner was a convenient locale for their shady enterprises--difficult for the local police from Great Barrington, MA  to reach, and thus often ignored, but easy for perpetrators to get to.  The hamlet often became a stash  for stolen livestock and other property, a discrete meeting place for wanted criminals and a venue for duels. Both states forbade dueling by this time. (One story has it that a successful racehorse was shipped to the Corner to be given a dye-job to disguise  it so when it was run again it would get better racing odds for its owner.)  The residents petitioned both states to get their town annexed to New York to get a measure of law enforcement.

 In New York City in the 1850s powerful Irish gangs competed with each other for prestige and power and  one source of bragging rights was the claim of who had the toughest gang members.  Bare-knuckle boxing matches were the preferred method of making and defending such claims, and though illegal,  boxing matches  were avidly followed and were the source of much small and high stakes betting.  In 1853, a young tough, John Morrissey challenged an older experienced battler, reputed to be the champion,  "Yankee Sullivan," a career criminal who had been convicted of theft in Great Britain and sent to an Australian penal colony but escaped and had made his way to NewYork.  A match was arranged; a prize of $2000 set for the winner; and Boston Corner was selected for the fight, where it was  expected no police would arrive to break up the event. 

 Overnight, on October 12, 1853 the little hamlet of some 200 souls was swamped with thousands of "sportsmen" carousing and camping in the streets.  The one local hotel and bar was overrun and drained of its spirits.  (But of course, "fortunately" the visitors had the foresight  to bring plenty of booze along with them.)   The boxing match was held in an abandoned brickyard in a natural bowl with sloping sides. The fight started when both fighters  "threw their hats in the ring", signaling they were ready to fight. The fight lasted an incredible 37 rounds. Each round lasted until a fighter was knocked down or fell to a knee.  The fight continued when each fighter swiped a starting line with his foot. The winner was declared if one fighter was unable to "toe the line." Throughout the fight, fist-fights broke out between spectators. Yankee Sullivan showed early on that he was a better fighter but according to some, Morrissey was declared the winner when Sullivan jumped out of the ring to come to the aid of a friend he saw being attacked on the sidelines, and could not get back to "toe the line" in time while Morrissey's supporters virtually carried the young contender to "toe the line".  When the fight was declared, intoxicated overjoyed supporters of Morrissey joined outraged indignant supporters of Sullivan  to essentially sack the town, stealing whatever valuables and food they could lay their hands on. There were reports of even pigs being stolen from farmers' barnyards, butchered on the spot, and roasted along the roadsides!  And then, the "sportsmen" were gone on the next train.  

The town picked itself up;  redoubled their efforts to get themselves annexed by New York, where they hoped to get better local law enforcement, and this time in 1855 they finally succeeded.