Page 43
History of Orange County
Town of Montgomery
Page 43
MONTGOMERY ACADEMY.

     The subscription to found this Academy is dated in 1787, and contains 277 names, subscribing from 4s. to £6, and covered a population of fifteen miles square.  The sums subscribed amounted to £319; and the subscribers appointed the following persons trustees: Arthur Parks, Benjamin Sears, Adam Crans, Jacob Newkirk, Henrick Smith, Johanes Miller, Henrick Van Keuren, William Jackson, Jas. Jackson, Philip Millspaugh, Martinas Crist, Matthew Hunter and Gideon Pelton.
     The trustees purchased a frame already put up several miles distant, as they could get it for some small sum; made a frolic, and carted it down to the village.  This was but the work of a day in those patriotic and free-will times.  The building was entirely put up and finished.  The teacher they wished to employ (the Rev. Alexander Miller of New Jersey,) was married, had a family and horse, and could not come unless they could be accommodated as well as himself.  The trustees doubled their exertions, built a kitchen adjoining the Academy, put up a stable, and permitted Mr. Miller to live in the ground floor, tendered him £80 for the first year and after that all he could make, which was accepted.  The school opened with fair prospects and has been in as flourishing condition ever since as any country academy in the State.  Among its early teachers we name Nathaniel Howell, Nathan H. White, Ruben Neely and William H. Weller.  Tuition was from £5 to £2 per year, according to what the pupil studied.
This building, never very substantial, was removed in 1818, and the present brick edifice put up in its place at an expense of over $5,000.  The Institution had some funds on hand, a rare fact at this day, which with $1,500 raised by subscription and $2,000 of quit rents on three patents in this county, then uncancelled, enabled the trustees to complete this noble educational structure.  The building is 60 by 40 feet, two stories high, with a small cellar for coal and wood.  Each story is divided into two rooms, a large and small one.  The Institution was incorporated April 13th, 1792.  There are but three academies in the State older than this.

REVOLUTIONARY HOUSES STILL STANDING.

     1. The old house at Neelytown built by William Eager, now owned by Mr. Mulford.
     2. The old house at Neelytown built by James McCobb, owned many years by Mr. James Jackson, and now by Mr. Sherwood.
     3. The old house now owned by Mr. Foster Smith, on the Walkill near Capt. William Jackson, and where the Rev. Robert Annan lived during the Revolution.
     4. The old Coldenham stone house built by Lieut. Gov. Golden.
     5. The old Rockafellow house near the village of Montgomery, known as the camp.
     6. The old stone Hedden house near the Goodwill Church.
     7. The old Charles Booth house, now owned by Mr. Lewis Booth, on the road from Neelytown to Campbell Hall.
     8. The old Henry Van Keuren stone house near Goodwill Church, owned by Doct. James Van Keuren.
     9. Hans Youngblood’s stone house near the Muddy Kill, where there was a German School in 1761.
     10. The old stone Hendrick Smith house on the State Road, built by his father Willhelemus Smith in 1759, the stone were brought from Comfort’s Hill.  They drew a day or two and then mend up the road a day or two.
     11. The old house known as the Beemer house, on the State Road near Mr. Samuel Hunter’s.

AGRICULTURAL PREMIUMS.

1820.
Gideon Pelton,
Second Best Potatoes,
$5.00
John Blake,
Best Coverlid,
2.00
1822.
Johannes Miller,
Best Farm in the town,
10.00
A pair of woollen stockings presented by Miss Mary Ann Miller
were considered very superior.
1823.
Joseph Caldwell,
Best Winter Wheat, 38 bush. per acre,
10.00
James Wait,
On Cheese,
5.00
1824.
Frances Miller,
Best piece of Carpeting,
6.00
George S. Miller,
Second                    do.,
3.00
James O. Miller,
Best Piece of Linen,
5.00
              do.
Third Best piece of Diaper,
2.00
     SPORTSMEN, TAKE NOTICE !—In consequence of the repeated violations of the statute against Horse Racing, and in order to discourage and prevent the vices which are commonly attendant on races, the subscribers give notice that every violation of said law within the town of Montgomery, which may hereafter come within the knowledge of either of them, shall be prosecuted according to law.

Johannes Newkirk,
John Blake, Jr.,
Thomas McKissock,
Adam Dickerson,
David Ruggles,
Charles Fowler,
Lemuel W. Ruggles,
James. R. Boyd,
Daniel Cozens,
David Mason,
Isaac Smith,
Joseph Caldwell,
William H. Weller,
Henry Crosby,
Luther Pratt,
John Chandler,
John Scott,
Nathaniel Caldwell,
Peter A. Millspaugh,
Phineas Camp,
Walter Mead,
John McMichael,
1813.

AGRICULTURE.

     As agriculture is the great basis of the support and welfare of society in the United States, and needs the light of science as well as experience to be shed upon it, to render the occupation more pleasant, profitable and certain than heretofore, we cannot do lets than occupy a page of our paper to inform all interested in the subject what is now doing with a view to improve the farming interest of the county.

     ORANGE COUNTY SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE.—The design of this Institute is, to afford the most efficient means for the acquisition of a combined Scientific and Practical knowledge of Agriculture.
     A number of farmers residing in the same neighborhood in the town of Montgomery, from seven to nine miles west of Newburgh, having united under a written contract one with the other, to become instructors to such pupils as may he committed to their care through the undersigned, their officers, present the institute to the attention of the public.
     Each pupil will he under the practical instruction of the member of the association with whom he may reside.
The scientific instruction will be under the care of Mr. James Darrach, a graduate of Yale College, a gentleman of scientific attainments, and in common with his associates, the holder of his own plow.
     This part of the institution will embrace most of the academic studies, Natural History, and the principles of Agricultural Economy.
     The peculiarity of this Institute which recommends it to parents is, that the practical instruction will be given by practical farmers, whose duty and interest compel them to attend to the economy as well as the general management of a farm.
     It presents also the following features: family discipline and care; constant companionship with the instructors; varied husbandry and soil which the pupils will be constantly directed to observe and compare.  In the neighborhood are places of worship within convenient distance for all to attend—Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Reformed Dutch, Scotch Presbyterian and Methodist,
     Terms—$125 per annum for tuition and board, payable semi-annually in advance.
     Mail and other stages that pass over the Newburgh and Cochecton Turnpike connect our places daily with Newburgh.
      Enquiries and applications may be addressed to either of the undersigned at Coldenham, Orange county, New York.
                                                                            SAMUEL WAIT, Jr., Secretary.     LINDLEY MURRAY FERRIS, Pres’t.

     At the opening of this Institution on the 20th May, 1846, an Introductory Lecture was delivered by Professor James Darrah, on the nature and object of the institution, mode of instruction, &c., and widely circulated at the time.  We commend the address to the careful perusal of every farmer, and should be pleased to lay it before them here, but are prevented by its great length.  The Institute is in practical operation with several students from abroad in attendance, giving its friends and patrons a flattering promise of future success.  The novelty and beauty of the principle of the school is, that theory and practice walk arm in arm and commune daily together.  If such an establishment by such mode of instruction does not succeed and elevate the great farming interest of the county we do not know what will, and we may then hopelessly ask what can be done which has not been attempted. We are not a practical farmer and therefore may be judged incompetent to advise and intrusive in our remarks, still we must be borne with as we have their interest deeply at heart.  We hold the opinion that there is a moral and political dignity which surround and rest on the farming interest of the county which invest it with peculiar importance, of which the agriculturalists are not aware or do not sufficiently appreciate and act up to—that there is a science essential to its profitable conduct which that class of citizens do not possess to the requisite extent demanded of them at this enlightened period of the world, when the loud cry in every other department of human pursuit, is “advance, progress, improve,” and that at this day in this county with lands at least partially exhausted of many essential properties of a virgin soil, it is madness to decry the application of the arts in various ways to increase and insure the products of the soil.— We cannot for the life of us see, considering the science and chemical combinations which invest every handful of earth and affect its fruitfulness, why the farming interests of the country at large are not more than anxious to bestow upon the sons of the plough the best possible education in all the departments by which the soil may be thoroughly understood.
“In ancient times the sacred plough employed
The Kings and awful fathers of mankind;
And some, with whom compared your insect tribes
Are but the beings of a summer’s day——
Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm
Of mighty war: then with unwearied hand,
Disdaining little delicacies, seized
The plough, and greatly independent lived.”


AGRICULTURAL ANCEDOTE.

     Pliny, the elegant Roman historian, relates that Cresinus was originally a slave—that after being made a freeman he purchased a small piece of ground, from which by great industry and skill he obtained larger crops than others who had much larger farms.  Their envy was excited and they complained of him as using magic charms to fertilize his lands and impoverish those of his neighbors.  He was summoned by the Edile (a Roman officer) to appear and answer the charge before the people.  He obeyed the mandate and took his daughter with him, a fresh and healthy looking girl, whose charms were increased by the simplicity of her dress.  He also carried with him his tools and implements of husbandry which were in excellent order.  The mattocks were heavy, his plough enormous, his cattle sound and fat. “Behold,” said this dignified and indignant farmer, “behold my whole magical equipage! behold the charms which I have recourse to!  There are others indeed which I am incapable of producing before you; I mean the sweat of my brow, and incessant toil both by day and night.” This native eloquence decided the matter; he was honorably acquitted by the unanimous voice of the large assembly.  Farmers, this ancient anecdote of an industrious farmer is related for your benefit, the point, industry and care in the manufacture and good-keeping of the instruments of your honorable profession.