Catalogue of the Trustees, Officers and Students of Union Academy, Bellville, N.Y. For the Year ending December 22, 1830.

Watertown, Jefferson County, New York: W. Woodward, Printer, 1830. Broadside, 17.25” x 13.25” (printed area), 19” x 15.25” overall. CONDITION: Chipping and short tears along margin, tiny punctures, damp-staining; partial loss to one word.

An unrecorded broadside for Union Academy in Belleville, New York, published the year the school was incorporated, with an emphasis on the Academy’s Female Department.

Located near the shores of Lake Ontario, Belleville is a hamlet in the town of Ellisburg, in Jefferson County, New York. Union Academy had its inception in the work of Baptist clergyman Rev. Joshua Bradley in 1824. The school building was completed in 1828, the school formally dedicated in 1829, and the institution incorporated in 1830. The Academy was the center of education in Belleville, and in 1841 its number of pupils increased when it received students from Rev. J. G. King's Belleville Methodist and Classical school. The Academy’s peak attendance reached 342 pupils in 1866. The majority of its students, as well as its trustees, came mostly from farming homes. Rev. Bradley also organized the Union Literary society at Belleville, and opened an advanced school.

This broadside begins by listing the Academy’s twenty-nine Trustees and President, Col. Elisha Camp, and the Academy’s three Officers: the Principal, Tutor and Instructress. In 1830, the school embraced thirty-nine Young Ladies, and ninety-five Young Gentlemen. Each student is listed with their place of origin, these students hailing predominately from nearby New York towns and villages Steuben County, Pulaski County and Oswego County, while other students came from Huntington, Connecticut; Buckland, Mass., and Danby, Vermont. Depending on the individual student’s course of study, the cost of tuition per year at the school ranged from $16 to $20. Subjects included History, Geometry, Algebra, Book-keeping, Surveying, Mensuration, Geography, Globe and Map drawing, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Botany, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, and Grecian and Roman Antiquities. It is noted that “If circumstances shall permit, Lectures will be given on Natural History, and as soon as apparatus shall be obtained, on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy.”

An appeal is made for patronage: “At no previous period have the Trustees of Union Academy addressed the public with higher expectations of their liberal patronage, than at the present time.” (As Sandy Creek News notes, “The financial history of the institution, the annals of the voluntary funds for building and the maintenance funds, also furnish ample proof that local farmers have taken a keen and vital interest in the academy at their doors.”) The largest portion of the text is devoted to the school’s Female Department, which is detailed as follows:

There have been such uncommon efforts made to elevate this department to the first degree of respectability, and to furnish young ladies with every advantage they could enjoy at other institutions, that the Trustees deem it proper to give it a distinct and separate notice. Through the praiseworthy exertions and vigilance of the present officers of the institution, a total reform has been effected in the relations subsisting between the two departments. A separate building is provided for the young ladies exclusively. No visiting them by young gentlemen, either in or out of the institution, is allowed. All communication between the sexes, if any communication is necessary, must be through the Principal or one of the other instructors. The female instructor resides in the same building with the young ladies, and exercises a subordinate jurisdiction over them. In short, this department is now guarded that parents may feel satisfied that their daughters will be as safe from annoyance at Union Academy, as they would round their own domestic fireside. The Trustees have the gratification to announce that Miss Frances M. Boardman, of Schenectady, is engaged to take charge of this department. Miss Boardman is an experienced and successful leader, having taught with reputation for several years in the city of Schenctady, and comes highly recommended by President Nott and Professor Yates of Union College. It is customary in all seminaries to charge an extra price for Drawing. This, however, will not be the case for the first term. Miss Boardman will instruct in drawing and all kinds of painting, on paper, wood, velvet, silk, and ivory, and in the fashionable art of Chinese painting, without any additional charge being made.

The text concludes by outlining the price of board, and concludes with a nota bene: “A strict account will be kept of proficiency, absences and delinquencies of each pupil, and transmitted to parents and guardians at the close of each term. By order.”

No copies recorded in Worldcat.

REFERENCES: Ellis, Florence. Township of Ellisburg in Jefferson County, State of New York (1925) at freepages.rootsweb.com; Historical Sketch: Union Academy Belleville at freepages.rootsweb.com.