If you have just stumbled on this
history blog, please could I recommend that to understand this article you first
read the preceding one entitled JAMES.
Within a day of posting the material
on JAMES, more information came to light, prompting this sequel. The research
is part of a project that may lead to a small book on THE RUSSELL FAMILY
HISTORY. If that happens, then both these articles will be combined into one
chapter.
As mentioned for the previous
article, comments are very welcome, both here or back-channel. If anyone can
suggest yet further lines of research for James, then please do so. If you spot
a spelling or grammar error please point it out, although please note that the
author’s first language is British English rather than American English.
(Britain and America are two nations divided by a single language - as
attributed to George Bernhard Shaw).
So – enjoy.
Aunt Sarah Russell Morris’ document on CTR’s
Uncle James had this to say about him:
“James was educated at Trinity
College, Dublin, Ireland, conducted his Collegiate and Commercial Institute at
Elmwood Hill, Bloomingdale, N.Y. now included in Central Park near West 103rd
Street.”
We have reviewed the claims about Trinity College
in the previous article; in this we are going to consider his activities in
America.
According to Aunt Sarah the institute that
James was involved with was called the Collegiate
and Commercial Institute at Elmwood Hill, Bloomingdale, New York. This is
well documented. There were some name changes over two decades but always with
James G Russell at the helm.
The New York papers, particularly The Evening Post ran a prospectus and
advertisement for this for a good number of years. Below is one example, taken
from the paper for 10 September 1835. As the reproduction is quite small, the
details will be reviewed after the graphic.
The school had been established at its present location for
the past eight years. That would take us back to around 1827.
It was a boarding school for young boys. There were four
classes covering four years, and the wide range of subjects included: Spelling,
Reading, Writing, Mathematics (including book-keeping), Geography, Elocution,
Mythology, Astronomy, and History (particularly of the United States). If a
young person stayed to the final year they could enjoy:
“Logic, Belle Lettres, Natural and Moral
Philosophy, Chymistry (sic), Political Economy, with an explanation of the
Constitution of the United States, and of the State of New York.”
There were extra charges for those who needed Greek, Latin,
French, Spanish and Drawing. The terms per annum were not cheap but did include
“Board, Tuition, Washing and Mending.”
To offer these services for four classes, which one assumes
ran concurrently, would require the hiring of staff.
The principal (James G Russell of Elmwood Hill) explained
the regime:
“It is exclusively a Boarding
School; and no pupils are admitted but such as will board and reside in the
family, and under the constant supervision of the principal, and pursue the
prescribed course under his immediate direction. The discipline of the school
is mild and parental, but sufficiently energetick to secure the
performance of the prescribed duties; but it has been a favourite object to
dispense with corporeal punishment, and substitute the incentive of emulation,
a sense of honour, duty and propriety. Principles of piety and morality are
constantly inculcated without interfering with the tenets of any particular
sect. The family of the principal, and the pupils, attend the Episcopal
Church.”
It noted in passing that “a small item is charged for pew
rent.”
One trusts that this was a step-up from Dotheboys Hall in
Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby.
Of particular interest is the announcement that ran at the
end of the advertisement for many years that those who wanted a prospectus or
more information could obtain such from Messrs. A.T. Stewart and Co., 257
Broadway. We will see when discussing Charles Tays Russell that his obituary
has him working either with or for Stewart when he came to America. There was
obviously a long connection between Alexander Turney Stewart and some of the
Russell family, even if we can’t join all the dots today.
The advertisements for a New York boarding school featuring
James G Russell go right back to 1820. James would have been about 25 years old
at the time.
The first known appearance of James was in The Evening Post for 9 June 1820.
The heading was ACADEMY AT STATEN ISLAND and it announced its
opening. It offered the usual subjects and noted that:
“A limited number of young
gentlemen, not exceeding 12 years of age, can be accommodated with boarding,
washing and mending in the family of the teacher.”
The location was on the northeast side of Staten Island.
James’ hype concluded:
The local situation of the
academy, in point of beauty, convenience, and salubrity of air, is surpassed by
none. The subscriber flatters himself that the above advantages, joined to his
own exertions, to promote the improvement and regulate the morals of those
committed to his care, shall entitle him to a share of the public patronage.”
It was signed JAMES G. RUSSELL and had references from a
Naval Officer and two Health Officers.
It looked very much like a start-up operation. However, the
date does suggest that James was the first of his generation to travel to
America, therefore able to help younger family members when they arrived.
Charles Tays Russell, for example, was only about 16 years old when he made the
trip in 1822.
By 1824 James’s Academy had moved to the “rear of the Dutch
Church” and was advertised as a “Boarding School at Bloomingdale.” (The Evening Post for 7 May 1824; unless
otherwise indicated, all further references to James’ school will be from this
paper).
In 1825 (9 May 1825) it was “J. G. Russell’s Boarding
School” which was “now open for the accommodation of six or eight young
Gentlemen.”
The advertisements then disappeared for nearly two years,
which may supports the assumption that James went back to the old country to do
courses at Trinity College, Dublin.
When James reappeared in 1827 (3 April 1827) he announced a relocation
of his Boarding school, and revealed his “object is to establish a select
school, exclusively for boarders, the number of whom is limited to 20.”
The idea of the school being “select” – with a specific
class of clientele as a target – comes over in the promise:
“French and Spanish are taught by
a highly approved teacher, who is detained as a permanent resident in the
family, with a view to render the French, as much as practicable, the language
of the family.”
Again, it sounds very much like a start-up venture, or a
re-start-up. It ties in with his 1935 announcement (already reviewed) that the
school had operated in its present form for the past eight years.
By 1930 (27 November 1830) it had become ELMWOOD HILL
JUVENILE INSTITUTE with James G, Russell
as principal, and was now linked to Mr A T Stewart’s premises at 257 Broadway.
The 1931 advertisement (28 May 1831) show the number
accommodated to have risen to about 40, with extensive enlargements underway to
expand further. By now it sounds like a success story.
In 1932 (21 September 1832) the name changed again Now it
was ELMWOOD HILL BOARDING SCHOOL (Six miles from City Hall, New York). James
noted for prospective new clients:
“The number of pupils and limited
and select, and none are admitted but such as reside with the family of the
principal, with whom they fare at a common board, and by whom they are treated
in all respects as children in a well regulated and Christian family.”
By 1834 (6 August 1834), yet more improvements to the
buildings made it possible to expand the business and accommodate additional
pupils. Circulars with more information were still available from A T Stewart’s
emporium.
The 1835 advertisement has already been reproduced in full
and discussed above. By now the name Aunt Sarah remembered, ELMWOOD HILL
COLLEGIATE AND COMMERCIAL INSTITUTE was featured and remained in place (with
just one slight tweak) for the rest of its history.
So James G Russell’s
Collegiate and Commerical Institute was a success story, pitching its services
to the wealthier classes who could afford the ever increasing fees.
Aunt Sarah’s source document gave a brief snapshot for James
in 1832. He is well established in America, married to his own Sarah and living
in Elmwood Hill, New York. Aunt Sarah records that:
“James and Sarah having no
children ‘adopted’ Thomas Russell, son of (his brother) Alexander.”
This Thomas Russell was born in 1833.
It would appear that young Thomas joined the family of
boarders at the Elmwood Hill School.
James’ history leaves a number of questions for which we may
never have the answers. Why did he start a Boarding school in 1920? Why was it
in New York? Once the school was up and running it should have been quite
profitable, but how was he able to fund such a venture initially?
It all seems to have come to an abrupt end in 1840. The
advertisements for the Elmwood establishment suddenly disappeared in May 1840,
never to return.
The final advertisement had a slight change of title:
The reference to “the last ten years” suggests yet another
change of venue back in 1830. As always, more information was available from A
T Stewart’s.
But for all its appearance of a flourishing going concern,
that was it.
What happened next we do not know. We assume this might be
when James and Sarah moved from New York to Pittsburgh, to join his younger
brother, Charles Tays. We don’t know why they moved and we don’t know what they
did when they got there. Was the master plan to start another school, or did
James just work for his brother? We do know that he and Sarah returned to New
York at one point but both were to die in the Pittsburgh area.
There was to be one final try back in New York. From The Evening Post for 2 October 1845.
James called himself “a graduate
of a distinguished University” and offered accommodation for six boys in his
own home at 227 Fulton Street, Brooklyn. It was almost a repeat of his first
advertisement back in 1820. And the contact for more information was still A T
Stewart and Co., Broadway, NY.
It may be that declining health for
both James and Sarah was why this last try was short lived. Within a little
over a year Sarah would be dead, and in a little over two years, so would
James. They would die in the Pittsburgh area and be buried in the plot James
had bought in 1846 at the Allegheny Cemetery.
The Allegheny Cemetery charter laid
down strict legal provisions for inheritance of family plots. They would first
go to children (James and Sarah did not have any) then to parents (who are
assumed to be long dead in the old country), and then to brothers and sisters.
Over the years ownership of the plot would pass first to James’ brother
Charles, and then to his brother Joseph and finally to his son, CTR.
More or less repeating the final
paragraph of the previous article: of Thomas and Fanny Russell’s ten children
who lived to adulthood, James appears as the oldest, the firstborn. He may have
been a pioneer, perhaps the first of the family to travel to America,
specifically to New York. By Aunt Sarah’s account he was well educated. By his
own testimony he was “a graduate of a distinguished University.” What might he
have accomplished had he lived? But sadly, he was to die comparatively young,
several years before CTR was born. Hence, he was to be forgotten by history.
