Connecticut western news., 1911-10-12
THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE
RecoIIections of an Early Teacher.
 Written in 1873.

1 stood on Elm street, near the railroad crossing, had been abandoned for the new building on the hill, and before it was purchased by Frank VanDeusen and moved to Butchers bridge, and rebuilt for a dwelling house, the following "ap- preciation" was written by the late New ton Reed, of Armenia, one of the first teachers in the structure, and printed In The News of Nov. 2, 1879:
 "It is fifty years. since that old school house was built, and its doors opened to the young learner. This humble and forsaken structure is like a dead body now, but it had soul once, full of intel lectual and moral life. The body is silent and desolate, but the life, which began in it fifty years ago, has not gone out. The mental culture of the young never dies. That life has expanded, and has given character and activity to a wide and widening circle in the social world.
 "The fathers of the intelligent rural community felt the need of higher edu- cation for their children, and they wisely determined to set up among themselves suitable school where they could safely place their children near home, and where all the young people of suitable age might enjoy the advantages of super for instruction. In 1929 they built the house, of which the lower room was for the district school, and the upper room | g.I.
 times called an Academy. Thus they anticipated the public spirit of the present day by almost half century. Near the close of the year MT. Samuel Judson, of Goshen, was installed in the upper room as preceptor. Tn the following summer | Miss Frances Cowles was the teacher, and in the fall of I83o Newton Reed, of Armenia, N. Y, became the teacher in the upper room, and in the next winter he had both schools united in one. In the autumn of 1883 large number of l pupils were gathered for his instruction | in the upper room, and those in the lower room were taught by MT, H. Milton Hart, of Cornwall, The pupils in the upper room were, a considerable number of 1 them, young men and women, who came together with such high sense of the value of a good education that 1t was a l pleasant task to lead them in the way of it, and all the pupils of these schools came out of such a home training that there was required in the school room no sever ity of discipline.
 "The personal history of the members of this school is traced with affecting in l terest. The name of one after another has dropped out of the catalogue till only few are left. One of the frst-perhaps the first-was the amiable Maria Beckley, and only not long ago, after almost half century, MT. George Gillette. One drew out the tears of the nation when he fell in battle Who could have dreamed that such a death was to come to the cheerful and pleasant David Cowles1
 "Various were the spheres of action in which, these pupils exerted their wide in- fuence. Some entered with success into schemes of profitable industry, many of them became teachers, and some entered the learned professions and literary labors. But of most of them it may be written that they served their genera ton nobly in, the unobtrusive but honor able duties of domestic and social life.
 "The Canaan of that day was qu te un- like the present. Where the village at the railroad is now, there was but a single house, that which was pulled down by the late George Gillette in 1873. It stood there alone more than a hundred years. There was no railroad in the country then The stage between Albany and Hartford went through Canaan each way every day, and hauled up, about noon, at the old tavern, which was kept at one time by the Landons. It was common for the neighbors to drop in when the stage drove up, to see the pas sengers and each other, and to hear the news. How that old historic stone at the door would catch the eye of the in- quiring traveller. The postoffice was in MT. Franklin's store, which stood where MT. Adams garden is, and there were piles of boards along that side of the street, for Canaan lumber had a whole sale market as early and as extensive as Canaan lime.' It was around the fire in that store that the neighbors were accus- toned in the evening to discuss the ques- tions of the time. MT. Huntington and Col. Gillette were there, and MT. Church, as handsome a man as MT. Lincoln. It was in those days, when the removal of the deposites' was discussed, and Web ster's great speech in answer to Hayne.
 "In the begin ming of this period, just concident with the first schools, Dr. Wright entered upon his profes sional career in Canaan, and occupied room