The Contribution of Conneacticut to the Common School System of Pennsylvania (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV EDUCATION IN WYOMING The Wyoming settlers, therefore, brought with them to Pennsylvania the results of more than a hundred years of educational endeavor for the Commonwealth, and an established conviction of the value to the state of the common school. The first steps in the provision for religious and moral care of the new community were taken by the action of the Susquehanna Company at Windham on April 17, 1763, when it was voted that a suitable person or persons should be procured by the settlers to carry on religious instruction and worship. This general provision for religious care found specific expression in the later action of the Company in 1768, when it was resolved that three rights or shares in each of the five townships planned should be appropriated for the support of religion and education.1 All the towns settled by the company were under the same conditions as the first five; and the three rights or shares were subsequently devoted by the settlers exclusively to school purposes.2 The appropriation of several thousand acres in the eastern part of the state for the use of the Indian school maintained by Dr. Wheelock has been previously mentioned.3 The offer was not accepted, and the school was established not in Pennsylvania, but in New Hampshire and later became Dartmouth College.4 The educational history of the Wyoming region began in 1770, when the Wilkes-Barre town plot was surveyed and lots were drawn by the proprietors of the townships.6 The will of the Susquehanna Company was carried out by the setting aside of two lots, containing about four hundred acres of land, for the first settled minister and for schools. The spirit of religious 1 Supra, p. 28. 2 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Pennsylvania, 187...