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History of Cambria County, V.2

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY. 419
1856, with the following teachers: Henry Ely, principal, $50; J.B. Ewing, his assistant, $30; Misses Mary Swank, Louise E. Vickroy, and Amelia E. Clippinger, as principal assistants, and Misses Mary E. Shaffer, Virginia Roberts and Hortense Kooken, as assistant teachers. The highest grades were not co-educational inasmuch as Misses Swank and Clippinger taught the girls and Messrs Ely and Ewing the boys; Miss Clippinger also aided Miss Kooken in the second grade of boys and girls, and Misses Vickroy and Roberts taught the primary classes of boys and girls. The Johnstown schools were first graded in 1855.
    The rules required twenty-four days to the month, from 8-12, and from 2 to 5 o'clock between April and October, and the remainder of the year, 9 to 12 and 1 to 4 o'clock with a recess not to exceed five minutes. The twelfth article was this:
    “The law of kindness in reproving must be exhausted before the 'rod' is resorted to. The rod as a punishment must be administered with humanity. In the event that neither persuasion nor the rod will subdue the pupil, the same shall be reported to the board, who will suspend or expel as in their judgment seemeth right.” However, the regulations of this period were somewhat in advance of those of December 13, 1837, when Moses Canan was President; Frederick Leyde, Secretary, and Paul Benshoof. Edwin A. Vickroy, Samuel Douglass and Daniel Goughnour, Jr., were the Directors of the borough and Conemaugh Township, which was the school district. They promulgated seventeen articles of rules, of which the first was: “The school quarter shall consist of twelve weeks. No school shall be kept on every second Saturday in the country, and every Saturday afternoon in Johnstown, and on Christmas Day. No 'barring out,” as heretofore usual, will be permitted.”
    It provided also that all persons above four years should be admitted; that the teachers must have the fires made early and room warm. and swept once a day: each scholar must come well provided with books, according to this classification; Cobb's speller, reader and arithmetic; Goodrich's history of the U.S.; Kirkham's grammar and Olney's geography, and, for those whose parents or guardians request it, portions of the Old and New Testament; good paper, quills, and ink, and the teacher must prohibit the use of any other kind; the teacher or one of the leading scholars must read deliberately and distinctly, a portion of the Holy Writ, every morning and evening, at the opening and closing; and these rules and regulations must be read in school every Monday morning.


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Created: 26 Mar 2003, Last Updated:
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Lynne Canterbury, Diann Olsen and contributors