LANCASTER COUNTT. 443 



tUres and to read the Fathers in the original.* To do so effectu- 

 ally, they devoted themselves to the study not only of the dead 

 but also of the living languages; so necessary was this know- 

 ledge considered, that with but few exceptions, none but rare 

 and ripe scholars were found in her pulpits. Hence, the deep 

 and intense interest manifested for the education of the youth, 

 in such of the Lord's vineyards as were planted by their hands. 



We have already shewnf that about the year 1752, the Gov- 

 ernor of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice Allen, Mr. Peters, Secre- 

 tary of the Land Office, Messrs. Turner, Benjamin Franklin 

 and Conrad Wuiser, were appointed trustees and managers of 

 the public schools, which it was intended to establish in the 

 province. Previous to tliis time however, a large number of 

 schools were in successlul operation in several counties, and in 

 the town of Lancaster particularly, through the active exer- 

 tions of the Rev. Michael Schlatter. He was a German Re- 

 formed minister, and cams out at the expense of the Reformed 

 Synod of Amsterdam, A. D. 1746, for this single purpose. It 

 is more than probable, that the schools which it is alleged these 

 trustees established at Lancaster and elsewhere, were only 

 branches of those already in operation under his auspices, and 

 the enterprise of the Lutheran and German Reformed con- 

 gregations, for it is a well known fact, that the plan of the trus- 

 tees named, did not succeed, and the schools soon fell back 

 under their original charge. 



"The Germans are a patient, modest and unassumirlg peo- 

 ple. Their character is either imperfectly understood or wil- 

 fully misrepresented. For their attachment to learning and 

 their untiring efforts in the cause of education, they receive but 

 httle credit, even from those whose acquaintance wit!i the 

 facts — independent of their German origin — should prompt 

 them upon all occasions, to become tlicir readiest defenders. — 

 How many valuable hints have we — whose mother tongue is 

 the English — not received "from this loo-lightly estimated peo- 

 ple 1 How many schemes for the dissemination of knowledge 

 among men," have they not successfully devised, and other 

 iiations as well as ourselves, as successfully put into operation, 



*l'iipy not unfrcquent!}' conversed in Latin and all their correspondence 

 was conJuctoJ clilcfly in tli.it tongue. Vide also page 225 antea. 

 ^Page 259 antea. 



