Education in Union Village

In the early 1830s, a Union College graduate named James Irvine Lourie came to Union Village (the present village of Greenwich) to start a private school. The venture proved a success, & in 1836 the Union Village Academy was formed with Lourie as principal.

James Lourie grew up in Jackson, & attended the Cambridge academy. In 1840, he resigned as principal & began practicing law with the Honorable Judge Charles F. Ingalls here in the village. Also in 1840 he married Mary Harriet Robinson. In 1854 he was elected to the NY State Assembly & became an ardent supporter of the Temperance Movement. In 1868 he was elected county surrogate judge. Judge Lourie died July 13, 1888.

The 1st building of the Union Village Academy stood where the Presbyterian parsonage stands. In 1849 the academy built the large brick building at 6 Academy Street.^ In 1869, the academy became part of the free public school system in Greenwich. By 1907, the building was condemned & sold to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge (IOOF). A new high school building was constructed on Gray Ave. The story goes that the Gray Ave site was decided by a vote of 277 to 276. The loosing site was on Bleeker St.* The  new high school building burnt in 1926 & had to be reconstructed.

Union Village Academy after it was sold to the IOOF

In 1850 Union Village Academy had 135 students. By 1937 the Greenwich School District had 756 students. Current enrollment is 1153 students.

Noteworthy students during the early years of the academy...
Daniel Anthony (brother of Susan B.)- governor of Kansas
Reverend James A. "Ticonderoga" Tefft- missionary to the West Coast of Africa
Chester Alan Arthur- 21st President of the US


^ Now the current home of the Village of Greenwich offices, the Greater-Greenwich Chaber of Commerce, the  Greenwich Youth Center, & the fire department. The addition to the building is now condemned & the fire department is search for a safer location.

* Much of the above information can be found in History of Secondary Education in Washington County by Roscoe L. Williams. Originally produced as a Master's thesis in 1937, it was published in 1991 by the Fort Edward Historical Association & is available at their gift shop.

Don't Put Words in the Mouth of an Historical Figure

The other day on Facebook, I came across a news story posted by WRGB, our local CBS station, & I nearly posted a comment. Why did I stop myself you may ask? I didn't post the comment because I stopped & thought about what I was in the process of writing. I re-evaluated what I was writing & realized that it was reactionary &, quite possibly, wrong.

No, this is not going to be an entry about how people need to think before they write something, whether on Facebook, or otherwise (though they should). It is more specifically about how we should not assume we know a person because we learned a few factoids about their life. If you are confused, I will start from the beginning...

The headline I saw on Tuesday (8/7/12) was "Union College snags a top spot as one of the best party schools in the country! Newsweek and The Daily Beast's annual 'Top Party Colleges' list ranks Union College at #5..." My pithy reply was going to be about how alum like 21st President of the USA Chester Arthur must be so proud (sarcasm, blah, blah, blah...). Then I thought about what I have read about Arthur & his family over the years, & stopped. Just because I am an historian, doesn't know I what a person from the past would think about something that happens in the present. I might be able to speculate, but I am not a presidential scholar. I'm not Thomas C. Reeves* or Zachary Karabell^. Even they might not even to presume Arthur"s opinion on whether Union College is deserving of the #5 Party School in the country, & they have written biographies on Arthur.

Here is what I do know, of the Top 25 Party School ranked by Newsweek, Union is one of only six schools with an undergrad population below 5,000. They are the ONLY college on this list without a single arrest for drugs or alcohol made on campus. On campus disciplinary action (DA) for drugs and alcohol was pretty high however. DA for drugs in 2011 was 129 out of 2,260 students (5.7%), which was more in league with the University of Colorado at Boulder (1,404 out of 26,530 or 5.3%). DA for alcohol was at 25.9% with 586 incidents. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/galleries/2012/08/05/college-rankings-2012-top-party-schools-photos.html#slide1

Arthur's opinion? Who knows. As a lawyer, he was sworn to uphold the law & underage purchase of alcohol is against the law. I will say that he & his sister Mary McElroy refused to bend to Frances Willard and the Temperance Movement by continuing to serve alcohol in the White House. Arthur was fond of a drink, though I have not read anything to suggest he was an alcoholic. Mary was a skilled hostess, & her parties during the season were well-received. I can only speculate, based on the time period, how Arthur would have felt about drug use...



For more information on Chester A. Arthur
* Reeves, T. Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 1975.
^ Karabell, Z. Chester Alan Arthur. New York, NY: Times Books. 2004.

Chester Alan Arthur

Did you know... that Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the USA, lived in Greenwich?

Statue of Arthur at Union College

Arthur was born in North Fairfield, Vermont (http://www.historicvermont.org/sites/html/arthur.html) in 1829. After heading various congregations in VT and NY, his father, the baptist minister Rev. William Arthur, moved the family to Greenwich (then Union Village) in 1839. Rev. Arthur remained pastor of the Bottskill Baptist Church until 1844. By that time, young Chet had graduated from Union Village Academy and was attending Union College in Schenectady, NY.

Arthur became president on September 20, 1881, the day after the death of President James A. Garfield. Garfield was shot three months prior, by Charles Guiteau at a train station in Washington, D.C. Arthur was not elected president in his own right. The nomination went to James G. Blaine (R-ME), who lost to Grover Cleveland (D-NY) in 1884.

Chester Alan Arthur died of natural causes on November 18, 1886 at the age of 57. He is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery. (http://www.presidentialgraves.com/graves/chester-a-arthur)



NY State marker



Little is known of the future president's youthful days in our village. His sister Mary, who would serve as hostess during his presidency, was born here in 1841. The house the Arthur's lived in still stands, though it has been moved twice. The old parsonage now sits on Gray Avenue, just a few blocks from its original location. A NY State marker commemorates the site.

Books of Interest:

Adult-

Chester Alan Arthur by Zachary Karabell- ISBN 9780805069518

Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur by Thomas C. Reeves- ISBN 0394460952

The Complete State of the Union Address of Chester A. Arthur- ISBN 9781406589665

Continental Liar From the State of Maine: James G. Blaine by Neil Rolde- ISBN 9780884482864

Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of James A. Garfield by Kenneth D. Ackerman- ISBN 9780786711512

Children-

Chester A. Arthur: Twenty-First President: 1881 - 1885 by Mike Venezia ISBN 9780516254012