OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 465 



to publish a manual of School Architecture,! and Directors were authorized to levy a 

 'building tax' and to locate schoolhouses. The law i)rovided that <,a'()<rrai)hy and 

 grammar, together with such liigher branches as the Directors niiglit prescribe, should 

 be added to the list of studies taught in every school; the Directors were empowered 

 to establish graded schools, and to assign pupils to the proper grades. The office of 

 County Superintendent was established, and the law prescribed the (lualilications and 

 duties of that office. 



" The appointment of a Deputy Superintendent of schools was authorized, whose duty 

 it was to administer the system, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Conunon- 

 •wealth, who still remained ex officio Chief Superintendent, and hnally, the School term 

 was increased to four months for each ye^r. The old law reipiired only three months. 



" The county superiutendency soon proved itself worthy to be called the 'riglit arm' 

 of the system. Under the guidance of the Department, it organized the educational 

 forces in every part of the State, and infused greater energy into the work. The Deiv 

 uty State Superintendent and the County Superintendents aroused and educated public 

 sentiment, and the Directors, clothed with ample powers, carried out with considerable 

 zeal the much needed reforms. 



"To these stimulating influences were added the efforts of teachers, .stniggliiig, by 

 means of Institutes, County and State Associations, and annual conventions, not yet 

 authorized by law, to improve themselves and to elevate their calling to tlie dignity of 

 a learned profession. 



"The act of 1857, which separated the school superiutendency from the office of tlie 

 Secretary of the Commonwealth, and made it an independent department, and which 

 placed the system in all its parts above and beyond the arena of party politics, greatly 

 increased its power for good. But the Normal School Law, passed by the legislature 

 in the same year, was the crowning work of school legislation in Pennsylvania. It set- 

 tled the public policy on the subject of education, set a high standard for futui-e gen- 

 erations to work up to, and substantially completed the organic structure of the Com- 

 mon School System. 



"The State is divided into twelve normal districts, and each district is authorized to 

 erect a State Normal School. The first institution established under this law was the 

 Normal School for the Second District, at Millersville, in Lancaster county, recognized 

 \yy State authority in 1859. The Normal School for the Twelfth Di.strict, at Edinboro", 

 in Erie county, was recognized in 1861; for the Fifth District, at ]\Iansfield, Tioga 

 county, in 1862, and for the Third District, named 'Keystone Nonnal School,' at 

 Kutztown, in Berks county, in 1866." 



An account of the State Normal School, at :Millersville, is given below. 



The actual condition of popular education in the county is exhibited in the following 

 tabular statement from the official report of the State Superintendent, tlie Hon. J. P. 

 Wickersham, for the year ending Jund 1, 1868. 



1. This manual, prepared by Dr. Thomas H. IJurrowes, was published by the State Department, and 

 contained numerous cuts, and illustrations giving plans, accompanied by esplanatioiis, for the erection 

 of schoolhouses suitable ibr every grade. 



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