Sunday, October 12, 2008

School Trustee Minutes from 1819

In April of 1819, the Trustees engaged Harmon Landon to teach six months. He received $15.00 a month and board, again from home to home. New Trustees elected in May decided to purchase a stove for the schoolhouse. They agreed to meet the following Saturday to take down the chimney. Those who did not help would be held liable to pay the price for 1/2 a day's labor which was estimated at 27 cents. They also decided to hire Alfred Briggs to teach at $15.00 and board for four months.

Lucy Crocker (remember Lucy Crocker?) must have done a suitable job as she was hired again in April to teach for six months. Her salary went up a little; from $2.00 a week to $9.00 a calendar month and her board. Her first day, when school began the summer term, was April 17th, 1820.

2 comments:

Roger A. Post said...

Sandie, I have been trying to connect Harmon Landon to the Landon family of southern Cayuga Co., without much success. If Harmon Landon was a young man in 1819, he may well have been a son of Ezekiel Landon, who settled in the Stewart's Corners area of Venice (then part of Scipio) around 1800 according to Storke (1879:436). Ezekiel, who seems to have removed from Litchfield Co., CT and appears in the 1800 census at Scipio, Cayuga Co., NY, did have 3 males between 16 and 25 in his household in 1820. The only reference to a Harmon Landon that I could find was a notice of marriage to Betsey Cranson, daughter of Thomas Cranson, Esq., of Sempronius, in 1828. One wonders what ever became of Harmon.

Sources:
Elliot G. Storke, History of Cayuga County, New York 1789 - 1879, (D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, NY 1879), p. 436, "Ezekiel Landon, Samuel Robinson and Amos Rathbun were among the first settlers, the former two at Venice, and the latter at Poplar Ridge."

United States, 1820 Census: Scipio, Cayuga Co., NY, (Roll: M33_68 http://ancestry.com), p. 117, "Ezekiel Landon [Males:] 1[<10] 2[10<16] 0 3[16<26] 0 1[45+] [Females:] 0 1[10<16] 2[16<26] 0 1[45+]."

"MARRIED. . . . In Sempronius, on the 20th inst. by Sherman Beardsley, Esq., Mr. Harmon Landon to Miss Betsey, daughter of Thomas Cranson, Esq. . . ."
-- Thomas M. Tryniski (scan), Roger Post (transcriber), Cayuga Patriot, Auburn, Cayuga Co., NY, Wednesday, 26 March 1828 http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

Sandie Stoker Gilliland said...

It seems logical that there would be some relationship between Harmon, and the Landons who have been a part of our community for many years. Maybe continued reading of the Trustee minutes will provide a few more details that will help solve this mystery!