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 (sic) 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 1924; 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.
