The History of Orange County New York

by Unknown

SCHOOLS.

The school system of Middletown was originated by the holding of a meeting April 6, 1813, to take steps to comply with the statute of 1812, for the organization of the common school system of the State. The first commissioners elected were William Hurtin, Jacob Dunning and Benjamin Woodward. In 1844 a system of supervision by town superintendents was inaugurated. Previous to that several citizens were selected who decided upon the qualifications of the teacher. John G. Wilkin, afterward county judge of Orange County, was the first town superintendent of Wallkill, which included the village of Middletown. About the year 1856 a law was passed providing for the election of superintendents for assembly districts, thus doing away with the town system, and this system has ever since been continued.

On the 30th of January, 1841, a meeting was held to initiate the work of founding Wallkill Academy. It was started as a private enterprise, stock to the amount of $3,656.75 was subscribed by 115 stockholders, the shares being $5.00 each. Application was made to the Legislature for an act of incorporation, which was passed in May, 1841. The building was completed in October, 1842, and soon thereafter school sessions were opened, the first teacher being Rev. Phineas Robinson, who remained in charge for two years. For a number of years Wallkill Academy was continued under the plan of its first incorporation, but subsequently passed over to the village of Middletown as a part of its school system. The school system of the village of Middletown was always well managed and excellent results were attained. This system was afterward merged in the city school system upon the incorporation of the city of Middletown in 1888.

The management is now under a board of education consisting of nine members, with superintendent of schools. There are now eight schools in the educational system of Middletown. The high school was erected on the site formerly occupied by the Wallkill Academy, and is a very imposing building with all modern facilities and conveniences. It employs thirteen teachers in the academic department, and eight in the grammar grades. The seven primary schools are located in various parts of the city, so as to accommodate the pupils, but upon graduation in the primary grades all of the pupils are promoted to the high school in its various grades.

The free public library of Middletown, known as the Thrall Library Building, is architecturally an ornament to the city, and is fitted up in the most modern style for library purposes. The lot was formerly used as a location for the village school. Mrs. S. Maretta Thrall left a legacy of $30,000 to the city, with which the library was built. Mrs. Thrall, by her liberality, provided Middletown with a library of which its citizens are justly proud, and erected for herself a monument in our city and in the hearts of its people which will be as enduring as time. The library at present contains 10,500 volumes. The legacy bequeathed by Mrs. Thrall was to be used exclusively for the building, and was so used.

CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT ORGANIZATIONS.

In the year 1880, the matter of establishing a Children's Home for Orange County was brought up in the board of supervisors. A committee, consisting of the Hon. William H. Clark, Selah E. Strong and William B. Royce, was appointed to take the matter under consideration and report. After a careful investigation and examination of a large number of properties, the committee reported that in its judgment the property known as the Israel O. Beattie property in the village of Middletown was better adapted for the purpose than any other property that had been brought to the notice of the committee. The property, at the time, was owned by the Mutual Life Insurance Company of the city of New York, and after negotiations, a price was fixed by the company at $8,000. The price was approved by the board and the committee was ordered to purchase the property, which was subsequently done. The sum of $2,000 was appropriated for the use of the committee in making such necessary repairs and changes as might be deemed necessary to fit the property for immediate use. The committee, having completed its duties, reported to the board on the 21st of November, 1881, that its work was completed and that there had been expended $9,910.05, leaving a balance of $89.95 in the hands of the committee.

Previous to the making of this report, the property had been turned over to the county superintendent of the poor, and it was formally opened on February 7, 1881. On the first day of January, 1882, forty-four children were being cared for in the home. This number has fluctuated during the intervening years, sometimes the number of children being as low as sixteen, and at other times approximating the original number reported.

The Orange County Home for Aged Women is located at No. 27 South street, in the city of Middletown, and like the Children's Home, is not limited to the city of Middletown with regard to the territory from which its inmates are received. It was incorporated in 1884, the idea emanating from the fertile brain of Dr. Julia E. Bradner. The home now has become a well-known institution, not only in the city of Middletown, but in the county of Orange.

It is difficult to realize that Thrall Hospital, so much an integral part of the civic life of Middletown to-day, was not dreamed of a quarter of a century since. It is not an easy matter to make plain to the lay mind just what is behind the bald statistic, "One typhoid—discharged." Statistics may number the bandages and weigh out the drugs, but they never take reckoning of the anxieties, the heartaches, that broad utilitarianism which under the name of the Middletown Hospital Association began its beneficent work.