462 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



DIYISIOJS" YI. 



EDUCATIONAL. 



The first school seems to have been established by the Seventh Day Baptists, at 

 Ephrata, as early as 1733. They employed a master who taught the primary branches 

 and the classics in German. See Ephrata in Division II. p. 354 sq. 



Within a fev*^ years from that period, we read of Lutheran and German Reformed 

 Schools, in connection with the respective congregations at Lancaster ; they were sup- 

 plied with teachers, books and bibles by the generosity of European friends, and the 

 zeal of the church authorities at home. The Rev. Michael Schlatter, a Gei-man Re- 

 formed minister, and an accomplished teacher, sent out at the expense of the Refonned 

 Synod of Amsterdam, in 1746, had an excellent school in operation at that early pei'iod. 



In 1749 tlie Rev. Leonard Schnell, a Moravian, opened a school at Warwick, which 

 was afterwards transferred to Litiz, and ably conducted by the Rev. B. A. Grube. 



The first Sunday School in America was opened by Ludwig Hacker, at Ephrata, 

 in 1740. 



The Governor of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice Allen, Messrs. Peters, Turner, Benja- 

 min Franklin and Coni-ad Weiser, were appointed Trustees and Managers of the Pub- 

 lic Schools to be established in the province. 



An account of the Moravian Schools at Litiz, and the Latin School which ultimately 

 developed into Franklin and Marshall College, is given beloAV. Bee also Div. II. p. 380 sq. 



Towards the close of last century private schools and academies were founded in the 

 Borough and County of Lancaster. Under the oi^eration of the Act of Assembly of 

 April 4, 1809, entitled "an act for the education of the poor, gratis," numerous poor 

 children were taught the elementary branches, but the system introduced by said act 

 failing to lead to satisfactory results, another act was passed by the Legislature, April 

 1, 1822, entitled "an act to provide for the education of children at the public exjjense 

 within the City and incorporated Boroughs of the County of Lancaster," which pro- 

 vided, that the City and incorporated Boroughs of the County were erected into the 

 "Second School District of the State of Pennsylvania," and that 12 Directors should 

 . be annually appointed by the Court of Quarter Sessions of the county. It prescribed 

 the duties and powers of the Directors, regulated the admission of children, ordered 

 the adoption of the Lancasterian System and provided the expenses, described the sub- 

 division of the District into sections whenever required, and the mode of its accom- 

 plishment. The first and only section of the District was the City of Lancaster. 



The Directors appointed by the Court foi-thwith bought a lot of ground, erected a 

 large and convenient school house, employed teachers of both sexes, adopted the Lan- 

 casterian System and were so successful in their conduct of the school that the City 

 of Lancaster forbore for a long time to accept the General School Law of June 13, 

 1836. But the partiality of the system rendered it very unpopular and at last under 

 the provisions of an act of the Legislatvu-e, passed April 14, 1838, the county by a pop- 

 ular vote accepted, with certain modifications, the Common School System. 



A brief account of this system, the chief promoters of which are intimately con- 

 nected with the county, is given in the following extract from Mr. J. R. Syijher's 



