Newburgh is essentially progressive and modern in its educational system, now made free, from the primary to the end of the academic course. Its Board of Education consists of nine members. It has seven public school buildings and one public library building. Other officers besides the board, are its president, vice-president, clerk, who is also superintendent, librarian, counsel and attendance officer. There are also three Glebe trustees and three Glebe auditors. The courses of study are similar to those in other city schools, and the graduate from the Free Academy may be prepared to enter one of the leading colleges, while the Manual Training School is a physical safeguard as well as a means for harmonious muscular development. For reading helps apart from text-books the good library of nearly 35,000 volumes is an opening into general literature.
The reason for the Glebe trustees and auditors referred to dates back to ancient conditions which have been mentioned. The act to amend the charter of the Glebe passed by the Legislature in 1803, directed that $200 should be paid annually to the trustees of the academy, and that the remainder of the money from the Glebe income should be paid to the other schools on the Glebe lands, as the inhabitants should direct. It was applied to the juvenile school which was established in the old Lutheran church in 1803, the last teacher of which was John L. Lyon, who taught from 1843 to 1845, when the school was removed to the academy. In 1849, after the Clinton street school building was erected and became officially known as the Glebe school, it received the revenues of the Glebe above the sum required by law to be paid to the academy. The High school was incorporated in 1829, and opened the next year. The number of pupils registered in this 1851-1852 was 348, and the number in the Glebe school about 120. During the first year of the new order of things, provided for in the act of 1852, the number of pupils was doubled.
Besides the present public schools there are several parish and private schools, the former being under the care of the Roman Catholic Church. Of these St. Mary's Academy, founded in 1883, has become very prominent and useful.
The library, with its 35,000 volumes, is free to the people of Newburgh, and the building includes a teachers' reading room supplied with books adapted to the professional needs of the teachers, and may also be used by citizens and strangers for study and literary work. The library was started in 1852, and is among the oldest of the free circulating libraries. Previous to 1850 there were but four in the State, ten in the New England States, six besides these in the United States, and none in Great Britain, and but one of the libraries then organized has as many books or as large a circulation as the Newburgh library. In September, 1852, the Board of Education resolved that all the school libraries in the village should be consolidated and placed together in the academy room, then ready to receive them, and William N. Reid, first principal of the academy under the new system, was appointed librarian. There were 924 volumes from the high school, 737 from the Glebe and 418 from the academy. In 1862 the books of the Mechanics' Library Association were transferred to the Board of Education, which added 2,801 volumes to the library. Other donations and the purchases have brought the library to its present valuable condition in the number and quality of its books. The fine building which now contains them was completed in 1877.
CHURCHES.
Of Newburgh's churches the oldest is the First Presbyterian, whose legal existence began a few months after the close of the Revolutionary War, although its informal existence had started a score of years before, and been kept up in an irregular and feeble way. The formal organization as a Presbyterian society under the laws of the Slate took place July 12, 1884, with these trustees: Adolph Degrove, Daniel Hudson, Thomas Palmer, Joseph Coleman, Isaac Belknap. The first stated supply was Rev. John Close, who served from 1785 to 1796. His successor was Rev. Isaac Lewis, who continued until 1800 and was followed by Rev. John Freeman, and Mr. Freeman by Rev. Eleazer Burnet. Then came the long and very successful pastorate of Rev. John Johnston, which lasted from July 5, 1807, until his death, August 23, 1855. Nearly a thousand members were added to the church roll during his ministry.
The congregation of the First Associate Reformed Church was formed in 1798, and the society was legally incorporated February 7, 1803. The first pastor, Rev. Robert Kerr, was installed April 6, 1799. The first trustees were: Derick Amerman, Hugh Walsh, Daniel Niven, Robert Gourley, Robert Boyd, John Brown, Isaac Belknap, Jr., John Coulter and Robert W. Jones. The ruling elders were John Currie, Samuel Belknap, Hugh Speir and John Shaw.
The First Reformed Presbyterian Church was planted in Newburgh by several families of the Covenanter faith in 1793, who held services in their homes on Sundays, and, with others, organized a Covenanter society in 1802. This became a branch of the Coldenham congregation, and the connection was continued until 1824, when it separated, and James Clark, Samuel Wright and John Lawson were chosen elders and John Crawford, deacon.
Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1808, when Rev. Samuel Fowler became the first pastor.