Columbia Academy, Kinderhook, New York
"The Old Dutch School"
Next to the Church in the esteem of our early settlers was the School. In the first instance and for many years the secular as well as religious instruction of the youth was a part of the work of the Church. The voorleezers, comforters of the sick, and precentors were also schoolmasters. The first of whom we have any knowledge was Hendrick Abelsen, one of the Powell patentees of 1664. He was succeeded by Jochem Lammerse (Van Valkenburgh) and he by the famous Paulus Van Vleg, the occasion of much inconvenience to the church officials, as noted hitherto. One of the deserters from Burgoyne's army, when passing through Kinderhook as prisoners of war, was Andrew Mayfield Carshore, an im- pressed soldier, who established here an English school, 284 Old KinderHooK removing in 1780 to Claverack and attaining distinction as a teacher. The deed of the Schermerhorn-Pruyn estate, 1736, de- scribes the southerly boundary of the tract as running "through the skool house," the site of which we conjecture to have been on the old road which ran near the creek, not far from the home of the late Mrs. Beekman. In Martin Van Buren's early boyhood, as his brother Lawrence well remembered, the village schoolhouse (District No. 8 then, now No. 1.) stood near the present home of Mr. E. L. Hover. It burrowed in the hill, graded since then, and was so dark winter mornings that candles were often used. The Church Records reveal that in 1792 the present site of the Central House was sold by the Consistory to the District as a site for a new schoolhouse. The building erected was much more pretentious than any before possessed. The higher department of the school there established was called "the Academy"; but the formal organization and official recognition of it as such did not occur until 1824. It was, however, the incipient Academy which soon became one of the most notable institutions of its kind in the State. Within the memory of some still living, the wheel of that old Academy bell was in the garret of the Central House, which is in part the old building itself. But little is known concerning the early teachers of what was called for a time the Columbia Academy. In the Albany "Centinel" (1800) was a notice of a quarterly exhi- bition of the Academy, revealing that its curriculum included the Classics; that there were more than sixty students, and that the Principal was the Rev. D. B. Warden. Subsequently he moved to Kingston and in 1804 became private secretary to General John Armstrong, U. S. Minister to France. In March, 1805, the Trustees announced the em- ployment of Mr. Jared Curtis as Principal, and that he had been recommended by President Fitch of Williams College. Elijah Garfield and Joseph Montague are other traditional Churches and ScHools 285 names of early principals of our so-called Academy, the latter in 1813. In 1822 the school Trustees were authorized to sell this schoolhouse and build another on a different site. They sold the property for $900 to Laurence Van Dyck, Jr., and bought the lot on which Mr. George H. Brown's dwelling now stands. His house, in fact, is the very building which they erected. From the original documents, which have been before us, we learn that the lot, fifty feet wide and extending back to the land of Peter Van Schaack, was purchased of Judge Francis Silvester for $175. The deed, dated August 6, 1822, re- veals that the corner lot belonged at that time to Henry L. Van Dyck, and that John Manton, Lucas Goes, and William Barthrop were trustees of District No. 8 to whom the lot was deeded. While work on the new building was in progress (1823) certain public spirited inhabitants of the village formed "The Kinderhook Association for the Promotion of Literature." It was composed of the subscribers to two funds; the first of $430 (subsequently increased) for the enlargement of the building; and the second of $1050 for the salary of Levi Glezen, then a noted teacher at Lenox, Mass., as the Principal of both School and Academy; he to pay his assistant, who was to be a college graduate. Henry L. Van Dyck was President of this Association; Peter I. Hoes, Vice- President, and Peter Van Schaack, Jr., Secretary and Treasurer. There were twenty-four other members of the Association. Their project was carried to a speedy and successful issue, and June 19, 1823, the new Academy was opened with considerable ceremony. A procession was formed in front of the old Academy and proceeded to the new building which was fitly dedicated. The procession then re-formed, and after a march around the square entered the church, where appropriate additional exercises were held, in- cluding an address by Francis Silvester, Esq. The Academy was incorporated April 3, 1824. Its success from the start was remarkable. Its list of enrolled students for the year 286 Old KinderHooK 1823-'24, is of peculiar, and in many cases of very tender interest. Many whom, when aged men and women, we knew and revered, were rollicking boys and girls then. That first year there were students from every adjacent town, not only including many from Hudson, Claverack, and Chatham, but from New York, Albany, Troy, Waterford, Schoharie, Middleburgh, Palatine, Utica, Lockport, and Coxsackie; and also from Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia. For some years this Academy was one of the three or four only in the State that could prepare boys for college. As to the relative importance of the educational institutions of the County we find in the record of the distribution of the Literature Fund of the State by the Regents, that in 1841 the Hudson Academy received $93; Claverack, $170, and Kinderhook $318. In 1851 the sums appropriated were respectively—$13, $40, and $303. In the first instance students from abroad were provided with board in private families at $1.50 per week, washing included. Later, principals received a few students into their own homes, and boarding-houses for students became numerous. What we now know as the Chrysler house was at one time a notable boarding-house. Much of the wood- work of the upper part was scribbled over with names of students, and also with the names of other lodgers; for it was at one time an inn. We deplore the taste which ob- literated them with sandpaper and paint. The Act of Incorporation (1824) requiring the election of twelve Trustees by ballot (subscribers of $5.00 or more being the electors) the following first Board of Trustees was duly elected: Henry L. Van Dyck, Francis Silvester, James Vanderpoel, James Clark, Samuel Hawley, John G. Philip, John P. Beekman, John I. Pruyn, Peter I. Hoes, Julius Wilcoxson, Arent Van Vleck, and Peter Van Schaack, Jr., Mr. Silvester declining to serve, John Manton was chosen to fill the vacancy.
Inscription on the New York State Historic Marker
Early Dutch School. Incorporated March 13, 1797. Became Kinderhook Academy April 3, 1824
https://www.kinderhook-ny.gov/about/points_of_interest.php
Old Columbia (Kinderhook) Academy – Early Dutch school incorporated March 13, 1797. Became Kinderhook April 3, 1824. Albany Avenue, Kinderhook Village Private Home, Historical Marker.
