The History of the Original Forwood School

Forwood School was to have an active life of 140 years, longer than any other public school building in Delaware has yet had. It"s a story that goes back to the very beginnings of real public education not only in this State but in the country.

The late 1700"s were years bubbling with new ideas in government, business, and general ways of living. In 1789 the Constitution of the United States had made a workable single country from the thirteen loosely allied States that had won the Revolution a few years before. Delaware was the first to join that union.

Delaware also drafted a new Constitution for itself in 1791/1792. One of its new ideas was an order to the Assembly to provide for education. This was one of the earliest State Constitutions to do so. There had, of course, been schools in Delaware back to Swedish times. Here, as elsewhere, schools had been of three kinds only : private ventures; church supported; and cooperatives where groups of neighbors hired a teacher for their own children. All types occasionally took in a bright child too poor to pay. Some apprentices were taught to read and write as part of their contracts. But there was nothing reliably available for the ordinary farmers" and craftmens" children.

At least some of the delegates to Delaware"s 1792 Constitutional Convention were thinking in terms of something different when they directed the Assembly to provide for education. One of them, a Wilmington schoolteacher and instrument-maker, had published a pamphlet on the subject a few months before the Convention met. In it he urged tax-supported schools in local districts to teach the basic skills to all the children, not as a private privilege but as the strongest defense a free government could have.

In 1796 the General Assembly founded a School Fund by investing the marriage and tavern license fees that had previously gone for general use. Incidentally, Delaware was possibly the first State to ear-mark for schools money that had been general revenue before. And the sum was not trivial : it had supplied about a fifth of the treasury"s income in the previous year.

So people were thinking and talking about schools all through the 1790"s. In Brandywine Hundred, by the end of the decade, they began doing something about it.

Early in 1799 plans that must have been going on for quite a while finally shaped up in one neighborhood. On June 19^th Richard Justison and his wife Ann deeded half an acre to Robert and Jehu Forwood and Thomas Bird, Jr., in trust for the erection of a school for the use of the families living nearby. The land was given for fifty cents and “the esteem which they bear to their neighbors (and) a regard for the due education of their children”.

We come now to a part of the story told by Avery Bell, our longtime mailman, in a 1960 newspaper column. Part of the account reads as if it were based on actual account books : He reports that volunteers collected local field stone; had lumber processed at Sharpley"s sawmill at Foulk and Shipley Roads; and shingles cut at Webster"s Mill on the Shellpot. Robert Forwood is said to have been the principle builder. Mr. Bell adds that the entire project was completed in two months and ten days, ready for dedication on August 17, 1799.

The finished building was almost square, 20 feet by 22 feet. Mr. Bell says there was a huge oaken desk extending clear across one end. There is no tradition about the students" seats, but these were probably benches arranged around the walls or in a semicircle in front of the teacher"s desk. It may even have been like an old Kent County schoolhouse which had seats back to back, boys facing one way, girls the other. Unfortunately we know very little about that first generation of Forwood"s existence, 1799 – 1830. Tradition says the building was used every year. Each resident who sent children undoubtedly contributed to the salary of a teacher, hired by the quarter. We do not know if the building as originally finished had a fireplace, though we are sure the pot-bellied stoves of our own day were far in the future. Enrollment, too, can only be a guess. Quite likely, in the winter, when farm work was slow, there were mostly big boys with a man teacher; little folks most frequently came Spring and Fall to a woman; and the bigger girls whenever they could best be spared.

By 1829 the School Fund, accumulating since 1796, was producing an income large enough to distribute. Urged on by Willard Hall and others the Assembly passed a Free School Law. This set up school districts of walking-distance throughout the State, each to receive a generous subsidy if it gave instruction “free to all (its) white children”, assumed a certain share of the cost, and taught reading, writing, arithmetic and grammar, plus whatever else the local people cared to add. The voters decided each year whether to open school at all and whether to raise the district"s money by tax or voluntary contribution. Odd as it may sound now this was a very progressive law for its time. Massachusetts was ahead of Delaware (by two years) in abolishing tuition. Very few other States did so for another thirty years or more.

By 1834 the public school program was operating. Forwood School had become Brandywine Hundred District No. 5. (I believe, but cannot document, that the Hundred already had a network of substantially housed subscription schools, founded around the same time as Forwood, that became its other seven public districts. One of them has long been within the limits of Wilmington.) State Auditor"s Reports for the next forty years contain data on School Fund disbursements that give bits of information about Forwood. In 1834 it raised $108.00 locally, received $59.00 from the Fund, paid out $28.00 for general expenses and $126.00 to its teacher. It was in operation for nine months and enrolled 58 students. Between 1834 and 1874 Forwood was always open from 6 ½ to 10 months a year, usually around 8 months. The lowest yearly attendance was 25, the highest 82: the most usual number was 40 to 50 or from 65 to 70. Both local and State support varied widely : $25.00 to $275.00 local; $59.00 to $176.00 for the State money. After 1855 both revenue sources increased steadily.

New Castle County Friends of public education met yearly from 1836 to 1855 to discuss the current situation of the schools and urge needed improvements. In several years Forwood sent one of more delegates and in two of them gave rather detailed reports.

In 1843 the district had 210 residents, including 45 children 5 to 15 years of age. Strangely enough, 40 boys and 28 girls attended school sometime during the year. The building was still 20" by 22", with rather inconvenient seating. A man teacher received $60.00 per quarter. The trustees reported that they still had some difficulty raising funds but that conditions were improving.

In 1855 enrollment was 57 boys and 50 girls. Most of them were only studying reading, writing and arithmetic, but several took geography, grammar, book-keeping, general science (the called “philosophy”) and “mensuration” (possibly surveying). How did 107 people crowd into a twenty-foot square room? They did not try. That year the building was enlarged to its present 40 foot length and the trustees proudly reported desks and benches “according to modern improvements in design”; the desks 36 inches and the seats 18 inches from the floor. Also remember that daily attendance was always poor, and that the older and younger students usually came during different parts of the year. There was, in fact, a man teacher paid $23 1/3 per quarter and a woman receiving $16 2/3 per quarter.

We have found no statistics for later years, but the School obviously continued to serve its children increasingly well. When the hundredth anniversary arrived in 1899 there was a gala celebration with an estimated four hundred present. The original deed was exhibited. The first speaker outlined the history of the School, ending with an original poem about its founding. A second speaker deplored at great length, that public schools were still largely supported by liquor taxes. A third talked of prominent people among former students, among them many Civil War veterans with outstanding records. Most unfortunately the reporters quoted the temperance speech at the greatest length and gave few specific details of the historical account or the notable alumni. The two of the latter mentioned by name were the then-current U.S. Surgeon General, William A. Forwood, and another prominent physician, J. Larkin Forwood. There was music by Thomas Bird"s orchestra, both alone and accompanying soloists and audience. At the end of the afternoon long tables were set up with ice cream, cake, watermelon, and other delicacies to serve everyone present.

In the 1910 decade and into the 1920"s at least the School was flourishing. Although we have no figures, enrollment must have averaged 45 to 60 in most years. We had good standard textbooks, reasonably up to date. Most of the teachers ranged from good to excellent : Miss Carpenter, Miss Moss, Miss Ely, Miss Weist, Miss Wheatley, Miss Prettyman, all fell into that class. Most of us who went on to high schools in Wilmington or occasionally Philadelphia almost always did well. Quite a few went on to professions, the highly skilled trades or responsible positions in business. So in the time of most of us here today, Forwood School was not just a relic of the very beginnings of public education in America : it was a very good school, frequently called the best in the vicinity in spite of somewhat primitive equipment. Some out-of district families paid tuition to send their children here.

I cannot recall that we had a formal PTA when I went (1914 – 1919) but we did have gatherings of parents at the School for entertainments, sociability, and discussion of school affairs, I believe several times a year. New bracket kerosene lamps were mounted in time for an evening Christmas program about 1914 or 1915. There were notable closing-day picnics, too.

An existing PTA minute book begins in October 1927, obviously not the start of the organization for it already had officers and outstanding bills. Members could join at age 12; dues were 5 cents a month. Meetings were fairly regular through September 1934, when the book was filled. The PTA supplied many small items like new window shades,

Door knobs and locks; repaired the clock; obtained new kerosine lamps and a stepladder. There were also more ambitious projects : a long-drawn-out effort to replace the halyard of the flagpole; getting considerable playground and sports equipment; getting a new piano and rhythm band instruments; arranging for electric lights and paying the monthly bills for them; underwriting trips to the County (or State) Field and Track Meet at Newark on at least two occasions; obtaining additional blackboards from a closed district; and lobbying successfully to see that children forced to transfer after the 6^th grade actually got their promised transportation. (it was about 1931 that the State closed the 7^th and 8^th grades in local schools.) The PTA also repaired the roof and replaced the pump in this 1927 – 1934 period. There were several adult education classes held in the building under State auspices but recruited by the PTA.

The teachers of those years were Mrs. Hickman who resigned in 1927; her replacement was Mrs. Duffield who came in January 1928 and stayed through the Spring of 1934; and Miss Berman from Fall 1934, until the school closed.

From the mid-twenties on, a combination of increasing auto traffic and changing educational theory began leeching the enrollment from single districts into the larger consolidations. Some, like Forwood and Arden, fought back bitterly. In Forwood there was a successful referendum to raise the local share for an additional building but an emergency elsewhere claimed the promised State funds. These were never made available though the district repeatedly asked for them instead of consolidation with Alfred I. duPont. In the face of contrary referendums in both districts in the preceeding several years, the State finally forced the merger which neither district wanted. On March 17, 1939 Forwood School was ordered to close at the end of the term in June. It was 140 years from the time the ground was deeded.

Ordinarily a school no longer needed by the State is sold to the highest bidder, but there was strong support in the newspapers and elsewhere for keeping Forwood School in public service of some sort. The Society for the Preservation of Antiquities, founded by Mrs. Henry B. Thompson, became interested; early in 1940 it received a deed to the property. The plan was to renovate the building and grounds as a community center available for meetings, picnicking and general recreation, and possibly for vocational education and a library. The major program was to be under Society sponsorship with a local responsibility for maintenance. Unfortunately there was a delay in getting the needed repairs under way. By the next Spring the threat of our involvement in World War II and actual hostilities after November 1941 interrupted all projects like this one. Before fairly normal conditions returned the Society itself had virtually ceased to exist. The old Forwood property was sold to Mrs. W.P. Forwood in 1947 for conversion to a house. It is still the property of one of her descendants.

In the closing years of Forwood School"s active life a group known as “Forwood Schoolmates” formed. It was composed of former students at Forwood, mostly middle-aged and elderly women the age of our parents and grandparents. Beginning in 1934 it met quite informally in homes. In 1939, shortly after the closing, approximately seventy of the “Schoolmates” met on the grounds for a picnic and reminiscences. Those present came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Washington D.C. as well as from nearby. One of the highlights was a photocopy of the original deed. The “Schoolmates” continued until 1942 when general war conditions made it hard to meet; there was no revival later.

Nevertheless, there were many who still remembered and loved old Forwood. When the Alfred I. DuPont District was erecting a new junior high school a few blocks from it, one of the administrative committees met to choose a name. In November 1960 it selected Forwood. For approximately twenty years the new Forwood Junior High served the seventh, eighth and ninth grades of the vicinity as efficiently as the old school had their parents, grandparents and uncles and aunts. An elementary school adjacent still preserves the name as it starts the education of the area"s younger children.