Evening star., 1935-12-22

YE OF LWenCleCn century
NA/ America believe that the
~ foundations of our democ-
racy rest upon our free or
public school system supported by
tax payers for the benefit of all those
Of school age throughout the land
without regard to race, sect or color.
In the early days Of our country,
free schools as we know them today
existed only by private subscription,
George Washington being recorded as
IAN annual subscriber of so pounds
for the instruction of poor children
in Alexandria" In a sermon printed
in London In 1851, Rev. Thomas
Bacon, rector Of st. Peters Parish in
Talbot County, Md, comments upon
the general educational plight Of the
time to. this effect: Education is
hardly to be attained at any rate by
the children of the poor"
That there were strivings on the
part of the citizens Of this vicinity
to remedy this condition less than so
years later is attested to by an early
petition. In fact, this school-mind-
ednesS had its glimmerings just three
years after Congress in 1880 accepted
the tract Of land on the Potomac ten
dered as a seat of Government The
commissioners appointed by the same
Congress the following year 10 have
jurisdiction over the planning and
general laying out of the Federal Ter
ritory, as the Capital was then desig-
mated. were in 1893 petitioned to by
certain of its inhabitants to erect
temporary school house" on one Of
the Government public lots. That a
school was actually opened there, is
not Of record. Years afterward, we
find two of these lots figuring In public
school history.
Tuition Schools Interesting.
Meantime, schools free only in the
sense that those who had the cost of
tuition were privileged to attend form
an interesting chapter in the early
educational development of this city.
Previous comment has been made
upon the first of these early schools
known as the Columbian Academy,
founded by DR.. Balch, Presbyterian
clergyman, in Georgetown.
Rev. George Ralph, Episcopal rector
of Christ Church, near where the Navy
Yard is now located, started one of the
first schools on Capitol Hill, "on the
north side Of East Capitol street Just
east of First" 1t appears to have
drawn patronage both as a day and
boarding school. Today the Supreme
Court grounds include its former site.
In addition to his pastoral and teach
ing duties, he ofioiated at the Sunday
religious service held at the Capitol,
then under construction.
A year later Mr.. Ralph left Wash
ington to assume the principalship of
the Charlotte Hall School, In st.
Marys County, Md, where it was be-
lieved an even wider scope would be
found for his varied talents than was
afforded in the new Federal city Just
coming into being. This school was
the predecessor of the present Char
lotte Hall Military Academy. Mr..
Ralph'S successor at Christ Church,
Rev. Alexander T. Mccormick, also
continued the school lin q building
near the Capitol"
Other Early Era Schools.
Other schools Of this early era were
those Of Richard Dinmore, opened in
1893, and of Rev. Michael Arthur, a
clergyman from England. who In 1900
announced his intention of imparting
instruction to youthful minds, in con-
nection with st. Andrews Presbyterian
Church near the vicinity Of where
Woodward & Lothrop's store and St.
Patrick's Church are today.
The schools previously mentioned
had only the training and education
Of the lads Of the community in mind,
but a Mrs. Phillips, late from Eng
land" about the same time entered
the educational arena with q young
ladies' school, which she opened near
Lear's wharf, between Eighth and
Ninth streets southwest"
The years 1902 and 1904 were his
tory making for the cause of public
school education in the seat of the
Nations Government. In 1902 the
City Council of Washington requested
and in 1904 received from Congress
the authority to enact a notable city
ordinance having to do with a plan
whereby parents unable to provide
their children with the elements of
an education were to have tuition pro-
vided for them at the expense Of the
city.
However, the lists of these poor"
''pauper," charity" or corporation
scholars" as they were variously des-
ignated, were so widely known and
pubncized that the odium attached