The Newtown bee., 1880-01-21

aNsRknDkAHS SAeAcneS Os NeWIGWn Academy.
 At the time of my admission to the Newtown Academy, Jan. 1lth, 1841, there were between ninety and one hundred students under ths charge of Rev. J. c. Corson Of these quite |; number were from the Southern States notably, from Virginia. There were two or more by thesname of Custiss, Leatherby and Dun can. CD and there was one large boy iron, the same territory, hy the name of Ham, mersly, Ger something very like it.)
 During George $. Foote's administra- tioa of tie affairs of the Institution, the number Of pnpils had amounted to 125 or more, and thc little building was full even to the music and recitation rooms. From the time he left; there was d grad ual falling off in the numbers, and conse- quently more comfort for those who re- mained. The territorial limits from which pupils came, was lso more con- tracted. until at length Connecticut fur nishcd nearly all of the students of the famous Newtowu Academy.
 Some fifteen SouthronS were fellow students with me. Then there was the Hon. David B. Booth, of Dlnbury, with whom 1 once "swapped knives" "un- sight unseen" and received wooden one for a tolerably fair broken -bladed jack-knife, and Booth had made the wooden knife himself.
 Joseph c. Starr, who was d roommate of mine in the summer following. boarded with MT. Corson during this first winter, and was, I think, beloved by every fellow in the school. Joseph went to Louisville, Ky, in Sept, 1S41, and died in that city in April, 1842-died a happy Chrirtian, at the age of eighteen l am going altogether too fast MT. CorsOn was called very handsome man. He taught in the Academy dur ing five and one half days of the week, and preached to large congregation in Trinity Church (the old wooden structure) on Sunday. At his house he kept number of the pupils as boarders, among whom were the above-named, HoG. D. B. Booth, Joseph c. Starr, and one young man from Stamford by the name of Ferris.
 Mr. COrson was good man and a good liver. If he used tobacco, and have no doubt about it, he did not use q spittoon in the school room, nor did he soil the floor by the ejection of soiled saliva. remember that at one time he gave me siXpenc9 to go to Mir. D. H. Johnson's $ store, next door but one to the Academy to get d paper oi Mrs. Miiier's chewing tobacco. It cost three cents then. anl after absorbing goOdly portion of the quantity I gave him, he bade me keep the three cents for my troublei Why any one of us would do anything for MT. Cor son that was in the possible limits ot reason, and he lnev"r was known to as! anything unreasonable.
 Miss Mary Foote Was the assistant fe male teacher. Her station was ill thu upper room of the building, and there i where 1 was initiated into the principle
 
 Physics, as well as into the element of chemistry, and the Latin grammar ant I made our first acquaintance fin the up per room of Newtown Academy, wher Miss Foote was the assistant teacher.
 There have been many changes il Newtown within the last thirty-nin years. Although the main street retain characteristics of the time gone by, tn transformation is none the less real. Tn little low-rO 'feG store of Messrs. Baldwin & Beers ir that time, has been replaced by the commodious building of Sanfor, X Hawley. With Messrs. Baldwin Beers, the Hon. Henry Sanford was onl Il clerk, and perhaps a junior one at that at the time of my advent to the town The store of Baldwin & Beers, on the cor ner, was in close competition with tha low browed Institution of MT. David H Johnson's, next door but one below tn Academy, where Ferris Hawley hell forth in all the glory of clerkship Among my schoolmates at this time wer three daughters and two sons of the lat David H. Belden, Esq, counsellor at law and two daughters of the late Dr. Bootl now the wives of Hons. Henry Sanfor and Mare us c. Hawley. Old Judg Blackman owned and occupied the hous on the corner of Main and West Streets where now stands the Grand Central Hc tel, and MT. $. P. Barnum was propri, tor and landlord of the hotel, now greatl enlarged and occupied by Mir. George E Browne.
 The old residents of the main stree so far as know, are all dead and las but not least among them, my dear an kind old friend, Blakeslee, the watchmi ker. Mr. Blakeslee has spent houl over an old watch of mine, and made useful, when any other artist in that liI would have sent me travelling to see another man who would perchance, haN : told me the truth, that really the watc was almost worthless.
 When I think of those old times, al :. the people who were then in the fes
 and think of the noU, l must rest, for Dickens says, We must sometim
 wait upon time, as well as upon remer brances." s. G. B.. ;- To the Charitable.