The Lower Dublin Academy - Pages 180-193 - The Bristol Pike by S. F. Hotchkin, 1893

 

THE LOWER DUBLIN ACADEMY.——Mr. Oscar Gerson, of Philadelphia is the present principal of this noted school. Miss Eveline Knight, of Tacony, is the assistant teacher. The building is of stone, colored yellow. It stands on a beautiful Site, on rising ground, on the Willits road, near the Bristol Pike. The Academy road branches from the Willits road just at the side of the property.

An ancient building of stone was the abode of the janitor for many years. The quaint old-fashioned cottage, with its small paned windows, is now the residence Of Mrs. Charles Y. Johnson, who is janitrix. A wooden addition has been made on the lower side of the building, and it is adorned with a piazza. The grounds about this rustic cottage are marvelously neat and well kept, and the clean grass plat is a credit to the thrifty caretaker.

On May 8th, 1893, I had the privilege of being at a meeting of the trustees in this building and of receiving permission to use extracts from S. C. Willit's MS. book in my work. Meetings here in May have long been favored with bright weather, and a pleasant spring sun made this a lovely day. The view from the sloping ground over the dwellings at Collegeville, which is a suburb of Holmesburg, is a pleasant one. The pump-house adds to the picture.

In running over the names of trustees we can see a law of descent largely maintained as in the librarianship of the Philadelphia Library, held by those having Logan's blood in their veins, until the death of Lloyd P. Smith, when it passed into the hands of Mr. Barnwell. This is said to have been the only case of the kind in the United States of holding an hereditary office, as it were. Among the Academy Trustees we find the following family neighborhood names: Johnson, Enoch, Peters, Ellis, Nathaniel Lewis, Wm. Phillips, Waterman, G. H. Walker, Henry Tremper, Creigton, Wetherill, Fox, Col. John Clark, Isaac Pearson, Jacob Hall, Knight, Cowperthwait, John Neville, Henry Dewees, Wagner, Finlayson, and Furman D. Holme. Mr. Holme lived in the old mansion near Lynfield, not far from the depot of Holmesburg village. He also owned a farm near the Academy road, not far from the Kuhn place. He died a short time since. The meetings of the Trustees were held in cold and in heat. Committees used to visit the Academy while teacher and scholars trembled. All are now in their graves, and as we read between the lines of the old manuscript book of Mr. Willits, we may imagine something of the unwritten history of each which God knows.

Alexander Brown was at one time President of the Board of Trustees.

The old land titles hereabout run back to the Indian Chief Tammany and to the Swedes.

The present Trustees are as follows: B. Franklin Crispin, President; Andreas Hartel, Vice President; Edward Thomas, Treasurer; George S. Clark, Secretary; Joseph A. Johnson, Joseph H. Brown, Joseph Cartledge, William Rowland, Jr., Jonathan Rowland, Jr., Amos C. Shallcross, Henry V. Massey, George Morgan.