CONTINUED FROM FEBRUARY 23, 2013
13 July, 1829. Approximately 1600
hours. Buffalo's new school building sits ready for it's first class of 55
young men, even now marching up Main Street, accompanied by the Buffalo Band, officials, administrators and close to a
thousand spectators, including proud families. It's not likely their formation
was even close to West Point standards, but that would come in time.
The procession crosses Goodell
Street arriving at the new academy building where a half-flight of stairs leads
up to the first floor entry. As the parade enters the three-story brick
building with its cupola and bell, some turn their heads to glimpse the sunlit
river slightly over a mile off to their left. They enter and climb to the third
floor in the July heat, filing into the lecture room. Once inside seats are
taken and the opening ceremonies begin. In addition to the 500 or so fitted
inside, an equal number gather outside. The edge is taken off the stifling air
only by the feeble eddies stirred up by ladies' fans and whatever air moves in
through open windows.
If 1943 reporter Walter
McCausland was able to find the texts of the various speeches delivered on that
day in 1829, he doesn't mention it. I'll spare you, as well. The assemblage was
not as lucky - but entertainment wasn't easily come by anyway, so perhaps they
didn't mind too much. The inaugural class probably didn't sleep too much that
night. Tomorrow was another big day; classes began. Thoughts would not only be
on the subjects older brothers had told them about, but on promised classes in
"topography, construction of maps, navigation, fencing, ethicks, natural
theology, evidences of Christianity, and metaphysicks." Parents most
likely did not sleep much that night, either. Such a full educational menu
came, as usual, at a price. The cost for a full 46-week academic year was $200,
around $1,200 in our own time. (The average canal laborer made about 30¢ day).
This did include classes and board, as well as washing and mending. Clothing
and medical expenses were extra, as were fees for French, Spanish and Fencing.
Five dollars was charged annually for fuel and the use of a bed; you could
knock off a couple of bucks by not taking advantage of a bed. And, you were assured
a small discount if you and your family were of the "lower classes".
The school apparently started off
with a partial term (presumably with a price discount), but by late autumn the
typical annual pattern emerged. Classes began in November. Christmas break
isn't mentioned, perhaps they just had the day off; a week of exams were held
in May, then it was back to the books (and fencing foils) until September
exams. Six weeks off and then the cycle began all over again. McCausland tells
us, "Every Sunday those cadets whose parents had not designated another
place of worship paraded with their instructors from the Academy to First
Presbyterian Church, which occupied the site on which now stands the Erie
County Savings Bank. What a spectacle they presented, as they marched down Main
Street in military order, resplendent in stiffly starched white duck trousers
(dark blue in Winter) and blue coats sprinkled plentifully with globe-shaped
silver buttons!"
The spectacle, however, was to
last less than two decades. The academy would eventually become too expensive
to run and sometime around 1846 the building would be taken over by the Sisters
of Mercy and converted into a hospital.
© 2005 David Minor/Eagles Byte
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