Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== A Memoir of the Late William Hodge, Sen. Bigelow Bros., Buffalo, N.Y. - 1885 (94-100) SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS -------- My school experiences were very simple and primitive. I remember well the log school-houses in which up to 1822 I pursued my education. One, already mentioned, was about where Puffer street enters Main. Another was on Main street near where St. Paul street comes into it. And another was on the east side of Main street, on lot No. 33, be- tween the present Riley and Northampton streets. Though these were common or public schools, there was for several years no school district formed. The teachers were, in summer, females, receiving from one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars per week; in the win- ter, males, receiving from twelve to fifteen dollars per month. The teachers "boarded 'round," with the different families from which children attended the school. These schools were kept three or four months in the winter, and about the same time in the summer. When the districts were first organized, the school numbered One was down in the village, and ours at Cold Spring, was Number Two. At this time, also, the school-house was of logs, and was situated on Main street, near the Cold Spring, where Police Station No. 6 now is. A few years later our district was called Number Three, and so con- tinued till we were included within the city. Our district is now numbered Sixteen. In January, 1822, the log school-house in our district was des- troyed by fire and one of planks was then built; in which the next winter, 1823-4, I attended school. In those times, now about sixty-five years ago, the "schoolmasters were abroad," seeking employment. In 1820 there came into our neigh- borhood a man of ordinary appearance who after a little conversation proved to be of superior intelligence, and sought employment as teacher in our district school, which had been but recently organized. The trustees immediately engaged him for the winter as teacher, his "pay" to be twelve dollars per month, and to "board 'round." He proved to be a good teacher, and when the school closed in the spring of 1821, being out of employment, he offered to teach through the summer at so low a rate that he was re-engaged; women having always before been the summer teachers. He continued to teach through the fall and was again re-engaged for the winter school which closed in the spring of 1822. He was my teacher for these two winters. Being one of the "big boys," I had to stay at home and work except in the winter-time, which was all that I could have for attending school. In both these winter-schools I studied Geography, with two or three others. Our class learned more from him in a short time, than we had ever learned in a much longer time, before. We had then no atlases, charts or maps, but our teacher would take a large slate (black-boards were not known here, then), and mark out the region about which we were studying, and explain to us the situation of places in relation to each other. This made a lasting impression on our minds, such as could not be made by reading alone. In this way, without sticking to the lesson we were studying, he would go on telling us about dif- ferent parts of the world, giving locations, distances, number of inhabitants, productions, and many things which he had seen in his various travels. He was certainly possessed of a very superior mind, far above the ordinary class; and the account he gave of himself was quite remark- able. It was as follows: He was an illegitimate son of ALEXANDER HAMILTON, whom AARON BURR killed in the lamentable duel which history details to us. He called himself LOT STODDARD. He grew up in an ob- scure place, without education, till he was fifteen years old, when, by some accident, he was injured, so that he was unable, for a time, to work, and then, it being in the summer season, he for six weeks attended a school which had a female teacher. This was all the "schooling" he ever enjoyed. He had no home, had been a wanderer over our country, had spent the most of his life since arriving at manhood in several of our principal cities, and been meanwhile an actor in them on the stage; and had been several years on the Island of Cuba as an overseer, or, as it was then termed, a "slave driver." He had a more retentive memory than any other person I ever knew. He was a great reader, and related readily the contents of the books he had read. He conversed freely and familiarly on almost any subject that was brought up in ordinary conversation. He certainly had talents largely partaking of those possessed by him whom he claimed as his father. I have said that Mr. STODDARD had been an actor on the stage. So, the last winter he taught in our school, he proposed to get up some plays for the older scholars and himself. He went to HEZEKIAH A. SALISBURY'S book-store, the only one then in the village, but could not find books containing the plays he wanted. So he procured a novel from which some of the plays had been written, and with the help of these wrote them out in full from memory. He then gave to the scholars the parts which he deemed most suitable for them, respectively, to act. A stage was fitted up in my father's large ballroom in the "brick tavern," and after several rehearsals notice was published in the newspapers of Buffalo and Black Rock, that a free exhibition of the plays would be given on a certain evening. The room was crowded and the plays went off to the great enjoyment and satisfaction of all assembled. I do not remember that there was at that time any theater in Buffalo. In the coming spring it will be sixty-three years since these occurrences, yet how well I remember our school-teacher, who in one of the plays acted the two parts of "Count Flodoardo" and the bandit "Abilino." The plot was this: The Doge of Venice gives a promise to Count Flodoardo, that if he will deliver into his power the bandit robber Abilino, he will give him his daughter Rosibella in marriage. She is brought into the presence of Flodoardo and the Doge, and the promise is renewed. Says Flodoardo: " If Abilino is once in your power, Rosibella shall be my bride." And, with dignity becoming his station, the Doge replies: "She shall, and not till then." Flodoardo then flings off a disguise that he has worn, and there stands before the Doge and the beautiful Rosibella the so dreaded bandit, Abilino. The Doge is astonished, Rosibella quite passive, and the bandit in- sists that the father shall fulfill his promise. He hesitates, —then, intimidated by the bandit's array of pistols in his belt, takes his daughter's hand and places it in Abilino's, when he raises it aloft, as they walk away, exclaiming: "Triumph! Rosibella is the Bravo's bride." While teaching our school Mr. STODDARD went one day to the Indian Village, to call upon RED JACKET. At his home, a small log house, he found him, introduced himself, and told him that he had a great desire to see him, RED JACKET, the famous Chief of the Seneca Tribe. JACKET seemed pleased to see Mr. STODDARD, and they talked together about many things. The Chief could speak English very well when he chose, but always refused to do it, when he could have an interpreter. He exhibited to his visitor all the medals he had received from our Government, one being from GENERAL WASHINGTON. He also went to his chest, unlocked it, and took out and placed upon the table four silver goblets (which had been given him for his services to our cause) and a well filled jug of whiskey. All the goblets were displayed with the stone jug and a pitcher of water for the two to drink from. Finally, Mr. STODDARD came away highly pleased with his visit to RED JACKET. This singular teacher left our neighborhood that spring. I never heard what became of him, though he left here for the west. He had a roving disposition, did not seem to value money, was always poor, and appeared to be one cast upon the world without relatives or friends. Yet, to me, he seemed to be a man above the average of our statesmen at that time, one fitted to have been a great man. The immediate successor of Mr. STODDARD in teaching our winter school (that is, in the winter of 1823-4, and in the new plank school- house), was a person of an entirely different character and position in society. He was a student in a law office in the village, and applied to Capt. Wm. T. MILLER, ALVAN DODGE and WILLIAM HODGE, Sen., Trustees, to take our school. He did this, he said, because it was necessary for him to earn some money in order to continue his studies. They employed him, agreeing to pay him twenty dollars per month, he to "board 'round." He proved to be an excellent teacher, and very gentlemanly, modest and pleasant in his deportment. In one thing I thought his teaching superior to that of any of my former teachers, and this was in "putting out words" for the first class to spell. For, after pro- nouncing the word, and before it was spelled, he gave the definition. His power over the scholars in controlling them, was that of persua- sion; and consisted almost entirely in his pleasing affability and gentleness of manner. He had some pretty noisy and mischievous scho- lars to deal with, yet during the whole winter and spring of his teaching, none of us saw a frown upon his face. He appealed to our better feelings and principles, and, as it were, put us upon our parole of honor; and he never inflicted corporal punishment. This teacher, as I said, like the other, "boarded 'round" with the families whose children went to the school. This was, by the way, the general practice then, except when the teachers' homes were in the district; and then the Trustees paid a sum agreed upon in consid- eration of their boarding themselves. Now when this young law-student boarded at my father's, there was from time to time some frolicking going on between him and my sisters; frequently this took the form of snowballing, and sometimes there was considerable "cutting of capers " among them. Once, for instance, they had come to close quarters in a snow-ball contest, and one of the girls got a hard rubbing by the teacher's hands, with snow. Her hair was pretty thoroughly disheveled, and her face very red and quite clean. As he was much the stronger, and took in this case the position which some nations do, that "might makes right," my sister could not help herself. But she adopted a successful plan for getting even with this young limb of the law, as he discovered next morning, when, going to put on his boots he found them well covered, legs and all, with soft soap. This teacher, after leaving our school, continued his studies, and in due course of time was admitted to practice in our courts of law. Not being over-confident in himself, he opened an office, at first, out in the country; but after practising there a few years ventured to come into the village, and formed a partnership with others. He con- tinued to do a successful business; was elected to the State Legis- lature, and continued to rise in popularity, as a statesman, till, after many years of the highest success, he left the political arena. The last years of his life were quite retired, and when, finally, on the day of his funeral, I was present, amid a vast assembly, to take a farewell look at one of my school-teachers, I was beholding all that was mortal of MILLARD FILLMORE, once President of the United States! Mr. FILLMORE was the last of my school-teachers. I had passed the age of eighteen, and the time had come when I must be occupied winter and summer alike, in labor. Yet, in fact, even in boyhood, when at- tending school both summer and winter (from the time I was eight years old, when we moved into the Brick tavern in December, 1812), I had enough work to do, along with school occupations, to keep me busy. I worked about the house, attending to the fires in cold weather, and waiting upon travelers, officers, soldiers, and indeed all customers when they called. And, in the proper season, through these and later days, I helped to plough, hoe, work at haying, milk cows, take care of, feed and shear sheep, attend to the lambs, feed and raise the calves, pull flax, —indeed take part in all the different kinds of work to be done on a farm. And so my pioneer school-days were all very busy ones. But yet they were not all school-days and work-days, without play, by any means. And now I shall say something about.... ===========================================================================