I20 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



lost, the exercises of the school were, for several 

 years, SLispended. 



Besides these gentlemen here named, others were 

 occasionally employed as assistants, whenever the 

 number of scholars justified the expenditure ; and, 

 until the breaking up of the village, in 1836, the state 

 of the school generally warranted the employment 

 of an assistant. The principal teacher was elected by 

 the Board of Trustees for one year. He was provid- 

 ed with a house, received a salary of a thousand dol- 

 lars, and was required to receive a certain number 

 of boarders at a fixed rate. These boarders were for 

 the winter months only, as their parents were gener- 

 ally in the village in the summer. It would, per- 

 haps, be invidious to notice more particularly any 

 of these gentlemen. I shall make one exception. 

 Mr. Yorick Sterne Gordon appeared before the 

 trustees with credentials from the highest authority 

 in New England. A letter from the venerable 

 Jedediah Morse secured his election. He went to 

 Pineville with a large collection of school-books, all 

 of which he introduced into the academy, and on 

 his first appearance in the school-room spoke so 

 threateningly to the boys, that such an impression 

 was made on their minds, that he never had occa- 

 sion to resort to punishment. He exacted lessons 

 from the boys of inordinate length, and many a tear 

 have we shed when bedtime found us with our task 

 not more than half accomplished. Never did 



