without his receiving applications by parents to take into his store a son of uncommon genius-one altogether too smart to work. Were I asked where the greatest amount of virtue and worth is to be found, I should answer, Among the common people."

NINTH ANNUAL MEETING.

At the ninth annual meeting, held in Oswego, August 1st, 2d, and 3d, 1854, over which Mr. Rice presided, addresses were delivered by Marcius Willson, on Classification in Schools; James Johonnot, on Geography; W. D. Huntley, on the Union of the Practical and Theoretical in Teaching; Horace Greeley, on the Teacher's Profession; William Waring, on Agricultural Science; Professor Taylor, of Albany, also delivered an address. Marcius Willson, of Allen's Hill, presented a prize essay on Practical Education, and Mrs. C. H. Gildersleve, of Buffalo, a prize poem, The Teacher's Mission. Mr. James Johonnot, of Syracuse, was appointed State agent of the Association at a salary of $1000 per

annum.

Resolutions were passed expressing the regret of the Association at the removal of Charles R. Coburn to another State, and making him an honorary member of the Association. Miss Susan B. Anthony presented a resolution in favor of women being represented among the officers of the Association, which elicited debate. Henry Howe, Esq., presented resolutions expressing approbation that the office of State Superintendent had been separated from that of Secretary of State.

The tellers announced the result of the election as follows: President, Reuben Dean Jones; Vice-Presidents, H. M. Aller, I. B. Poucher, S. S. Kellogg, Mrs. H. B. Hughes Corresponding Secretary, John H. Fanning; Recording Secretaries, D. S. Heffron, Daniel Cameron; Treasurer, M. H. Beach.

REUBEN D. JONES.

Reuben D. Jones was born in Dover, Vt., November 13th, 1815. His educational advantages in early life were those which the district school of his native place afforded. Thoroughly inbued with the spirit of self-help, he engaged in studies by himself, and equipped himself as completely as was possible for the profession of teacher, in which he engaged for some years.

After Mr. Jones had taught one or two terms in Vermont, he went in 1838 to Fulton County, N. Y. Here and in Montgomery County he remained teaching until 1841. Then he went to Livingston County, where he for six years devoted himself to teaching. In 1847 he went to Rochester, and was editor of the Rochester Daily American for the two following years.

In November, 1849, he was made the superintendent of the public schools of Rochester, which office he held until 1855. With the exception of fifteen years spent as clerk of the Supreme Court of New York, he has been engaged in journalism. Before leaving his native State he had contributed frequently to the editorial columns of the Vermont Phanix. Besides the Daily American, he has been connected as editorial writer with various journals, but chiefly with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, of which he was for a time managing editor, and where he is at present.

The following very suggestive language was used by Mr. Jones in his speech at Utica :

'The candidate for the teacher's profession should carefully examine himself. He should be able to decide within his own mind whether he possesses the essential qualifications for the business in which he would engage. If he feels that he is possessed of that power, if he have the elements of the true teacher, let him persevere and make every fact acquired subservient to his pur

pose; he will grow wiser and stronger by the showers and sunshine, philosophy bestows.

"We have heard of the young lady who had finished her education and regarded her books like the pattern of a last year's dress, fit only for lighting the fire. She is not alone in her glory; she has a companion, though Dame Fortune, for wise reasons, may never have joined their hands. It is the schoolmaster, who, having barely solved the intricacies of Daboll, and learned from Murray that prepositions govern the objective, plumes himself upon his erudition, and imagines that he has reached the goal of all knowledge. New thoughts are forever banished from the pale of his oracular mind.

"What has thrown such an odor of conceit around so many of the profession? Why do they stand apart from the rest of mankind, and by their singularities provoke the pen of the satirist? They promised fair in the morning of their career. Some were persons of high promise, giving evidence of superior intelligence and wisdom. They entered the profession, and ran well for a time. Erelong they ceased to look ahead; no new facts were gathered, and as every day demonstrated that they possessed knowledge vastly superior to those they were instructing, it was not long before all persons were regarded as equally inferior. The atmosphere they inhaled petrified their thoughts and habits. gent men, of their own and other professions, did not regard them as the embodiment of wisdom, but rather as fossils of the school and its ideas where once they vegetated. Teachers, I beseech you, that however profound and varied the learning you now possess, however broad the fields of science and literature you may have explored, be not satisfied with present attainments. does not stand still, and so long as its physical revolutions are continued, so long will each recurring revolution spread out new fields of thought, and at the very time the progressive mind is prepared for their investigation."

Intelli

The world

The Oswego meeting closes the first decade of the Association. We find during this period the influence of the Association exerted for good chiefly in two ways-first, by increasing the general knowledge of teachers through a larger acquaintance with each other's views and methods; and secondly, by its effect upon educational progress in the State as evinced in legislation and increased interest among the people.

The annual appropriation for teachers' institutes, the establishment of the Albany Normal School, the Free School Act, and the Union Free School Law were among the important measures of this period, all of which were materially assisted if not directly due to the efforts of the Association. A conflict at one time seemed likely to arise between the Association and the State Normal School when first founded, but it eventually disappeared.

ECON

CHAPTER III.

SECOND DECADE OF THE ASSOCIATION.

Tenth Meeting at Utica, 1855-Leonard Hazeltine-Eleventh Meeting at Troy, 1856-Organization of Commissioners and Superintendents-Thomas W. Valentine-Twelfth Meeting at Binghampton, 1857-National Teachers' Association-George L. Farnham-Thirteenth Meeting at Lockport, 1858-Oliver Arey-Fourteenth Meeting at Poughkeepsie, 1859-James N. McElligott-Fifteenth Meeting at Syracuse, 1860-Edward A. Sheldon-Sixteenth Meeting at Waterloo, 1861-James Cruikshank-Seventeenth Meeting at Rochester, 1862-Emerson Č. Pomeroy Eighteenth Meeting at Troy, 1863-James B. Thomson-Nineteenth Meeting at Buffalo, 1864-Edward North-The University Convocation-Review.

TENTH ANNUAL MEETING.

The annual meeting of the Association was held in Utica, beginning August Ist, 1855.

In this year the world was watching with anxiety the result of the Crimean War, across the water, while in this country the agitations resulting from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill were exciting no less attention. Whether these matters had any influence or not, it is at least true that considerable feeling was engendered at this meeting, so that some even asserted it to be "a falling off from the high tone and spirit that had characterized some of the former

sessions." 1

The duties of the presiding officer were unusually arduous. But the fairness and promptness which characterized his decisions gave perfect satisfaction. At the close of the meeting the contending parties united in resolutions complimentary Few State conventions," said one of the Utica papers, so fortunate as to have a presiding officer of the ready decision and ability of Mr. Jones.'

to the chairman.

66

are

The addresses delivered by E. Peshine Smith, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction; ex-Governor Seymour, David B. Scott, Professor Ormiston, of Toronto; Professor Davies, and Hon. J. D. Philbrick, State Superintendent of Connecticut, were of a high order of merit, and well received.

After some discussion, the State agency was abolished.

Resolutions were passed, recommending that institutes be held in every county in the State, and that teachers' classes of longer duration be formed wherever practicable; also recognizing the importance of the office of County Superintendent, and pledging their influence to secure its restoration to our system of pub

lic instruction.

The following officers were elected: President, Leonard Hazeltine; VicePresidents, S. W. Clark, Edward North, E. A. Sheldon, and M. R. Atkins; Cor

1 New York Teacher for May, 1860.