Footnotes to Long Island History
Old Miller Place
Academy
by
Thomas R. Bayles
An
educational landmark in Brookhaven town a hundred years ago was the
Miller Place academy, which was organized and built in 1834.
A meeting
of the residents of Miller Place was held on April 8, 1834 “For the
purpose of Taking into consideration the building of an academy in this
village.” At that meeting a committee was appointed to circulate a
subscription paper, and the appointed men were Samuel Hopkins, Charles
Miller, Conklin Davis and Thomas Helme. A meeting held May 17 in the
same year appointed a building committee consisting of Nathaniel Miller,
Thomas Helme, Joel Brown, Charles miller, Samuel Hopkins, Charles
Woodhull and Horace Hudson.
Fifty-six
shares were subscribed at a value of $25 each, and each shareholder had
as many votes as he held shares. The shares were mostly taken by the
people of the village, but among the original stockholders appear the
names of Thomas S. James, Benjamin Strong and Samuel Thompson of
Setauket, Caleb and Albert Woodhull of New York city, John Roe of
Patchogue, and Nathaniel Tuthill of Greenport.
The
building committee, who were empowered to “circulate a subscription
academy, pay off the bills and complete the work,” promptly went to work
and engaged the services of Isaac Hudson of Middle Island to erect a
two-story building, which is still standing. The cost of the building
was $1,600, and it was completed and school opened on November 1, 1894,
only seven months from the date the first meeting was held. Frederick
Jones was the first principal.
The need
for such an institution must have been appreciated by the residents of
the surrounding villages as well as those of Miller Place, and in 1835
at the opening of the second term, the students included Joel L. G.
smith and Moses R. Smith of Smithtown, and Floyd T. Floyd of Mastic.
The academy
was the pride of the residents of Miller Place, for they had invested
not only their money, but also their hearts in the enterprise, and their
reward came in seeing their young people well educated for those years,
and fitted for the various positions in life they had chosen.
Orlando
Hand of Amagansett was one of the pupils in 1839, and he was taken there
at the age of 13 by his father in his buggy and boarded at the home of
Colonel Charles Woodhull, who lived opposite the academy. Five boys
boarded at the hospitable home of Colonel Woodhull and his wife, Aunt
Polly, who was a noted housekeeper. Their only son, Merrit Woodhull,
was a student at the academy, and in later years became a steamboat
captain on the run from New York to Savannah. Two brothers of the
Colonel were prominent men in New York.
The
principals of the academy were mostly young college men and their terms
of service were usually not very long, although J. Bryan Marshall taught
for ten years. As public schools improved, the usefulness of the
academy passed, and the winter of 1867-1868 was the last term for the
school. From 1902 the lower room of the building was used for a public
school, until the present schoolhouse was built a few years ago.
During the
34 years of its operation the number of pupils attending the academy
varied from 25 to 60. Tuition was $10 per term, and the out-of-town
boys were boarded in local homes for $1.50 per week.
In 1839,
$100 was appropriated “to purchase chemical, philosophical and
mathematical instruments.” The trustees at the annual meeting in 1859
decided that “algebra, navigation and surveying shall be included with
the languages for $10 per term.”
The roll of
students at the academy included the names of many who in later years
became prominent in Suffolk county. Among these are the names of James
H. Tuthill, county judge and surrogate for 10 years; of whom his
biographer says, “James won distinction in the Miller Place academy,
where he studied for three years.” Benjamin K. Payne, recognized as the
father of the Suffolk county bar, Edward L. Gerard of Yaphank, Charles
S. Havens, for several years Supervisor of Brookhaven town. Dr. Charles
S. Robert and John S. Robert of Mastic. Robert R., James W., and John
F., sons of William Sidney Smith of Longwood, Dr. Gilbert Swezey of
Yaphank, T. Benjamin Wood and Elliott R. Smith of Smithtown and Benjamin
F. Jayne of Setauket.