paradise.htm

Paradise School

from "Pennsylvania's Soldiers' Orphan Schools" by James Laughery Paul, 1877

This school was located in Paradise village, Lancaster County, about one mile from Leaman Place, on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

In September, 1864, arrangements were made by Superintendent Burrowes with Seymour Preston, then Principal of the Paradise Academy, by which that institution became a soldiers' orphan school. It was very difficult at that time to find suitable persons willing to engage in the new enterprise, as its permanency was doubted, and the price of provisions and all house-furnishing materials were high, and the compensation offered was necessarily low. When flour was from eleven to twelve dollars a barrel, beef from twelve to twenty-five cents a pound, butter fifty cents a pound, ordinary bed-ticking ninety cents a yard, muslin from seventy to eighty cents a yard, and labor and everything else proportionately dear, the inducement to furnish board, lodging, washing, mending, medical attendance, and, in short, every necessity except clothing, for two dollars and eighty cents a week, was not very great in a worldly point of view.

In the latter part of October, preparations were completed to receive thirty orphans, and though orders of admission were promptly issued by the State Superintendent, no children came till the sixth day of December. Opening school with less than a dozen, the number slowly increased. In February, 1865, but twenty were present, and not till May did the thirty children arrive. Mothers seemed reluctant to accept the gratuity of the State.

At first there were accommodations for boys only; but, as families were thus separated, Dr. Burrowes determined that all schools should have conveniences for children of both sexes, and, accordingly, on the 15th of May 1865, eight girls were admitted, who had brothers in the school, from Strasburg (afterwards Mt. Joy), and eight boys who had sisters at Strasburg were transferred to that institution. During the spring and summer of 1865 the school steadily increased, and continued to do so till its close.

Previous to the fall of 1865, the school-room was in the academy building, nearly a half mile from the boarding-house, and pupils who were not soldiers' orphans were received. This Dr. Burrowes said must now be changed. The walk in stormy weather was objectionable, particularly for the smaller pupils, and he wanted the orphans in the schools by themselves, that the instruction and training might be adapted to their special wants. A school-room was therefore fitted up in the seminary building, which had, until now, been used as a boarding-house alone. Here there were accommodations for one hundred and fifty pupils, which were all that were then required. But before a year rolled round the school-room and boarding facilities were insufficient. Consequently, a large private house, on the opposite side of the street, was secured for school purposes, and the basement of the main building was remodelled and used for a dining-room, and the old dining-room as an additional school-room. One hundred and sixty pupils could now be accommodated. Attached to the school was a farm of about twenty acres of land.

The organization of the school now approached completeness, there being three teachers besides the Principal, a physician, a matron, a farm superintendent, a sewing-room instructress, a cook, a baker, a chambermaid, a dining-room girl, besides several other employees.

The health of the school was generally very good. Many of the children were, however, troubled with sore eyes, which were a source of much anxiety and trouble. This disease was brought into the school by transfers from Philadelphia institutions. Also, in the autumn of 1866, typhoid fever appeared in a mild form. Not a single death, or a dangerous case of sickness, or even a serious accident, occurred at the school during the four years of its existence. When the school visited Harrisburg, in the winter of 1866, every pupil went along except one, who had measles; and when the whole school, numbering one hundred and forty-nine, was finally removed, every child was well and able to walk to the railroad station, a distance of nearly halft a mile.

The whole number of orphans admitted during the continuance of the school was two hundred and eight,--one hundred and twenty seven boys and eighty-one girls. The greatest number in school at any one time was one hundred and sixty-one,--one hundred and one boys and sixty girls. This was in the fall of 1867, a short time before the school closed. Eleven pupils--seven boys and four girls--were discharged on age, and one was transferred in the winter of 1867.

On the second day of January, 1868, twenty-two were transferred to Mount Joy, and on the 29th of February following, the balance, one hundred and twenty-seven, were transferred to Chester Springs, and the Paradise School was at an end.



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