Continuing the diversified history of the above educational institution, with the establishment of the subscribers a later meeting was held to elect a proper Board of Trustees consisting of eight prominent citizens of the township. Daniel T. Dickinson was chosen President, Daniel S. Dickinson chosen as clerk with the remaining six chosen was John Latham, Dauphin Murray, Rufus Baldwin, Calvin Milles and Phineas Atwater.
A site was chosen for the building that being as written in the previous article opposite the Presbyterian Church and adjacent to the Guilford Creek. The land was owned by Rufus Baldwin who donated the site for a token of fifty cents. This monetary amount was chosen as it was required that money be exchanged to make the sale completely legal.
By the year 1829 the building was completed and the final touch was made in November of that same year. A meeting by the Trustees resulted in a gentleman by the name of Howard Dresser be retained as the first teacher. His salary was a meager amount by today’s standards being $75 for a year and given room and board. Mr. Dresser would continue to serve as a full time educator for three years before giving way to other teachers.
The Academy continued to serve a three-fold purpose that being it housed the Common School District #10 on the first floor and the Select Academy on the second floor. Additionally it continued to serve as a meeting place for at least two churches, one of which was the Christ Episcopal Church later to be erected in the village proper, still later to be destroyed by fire and to be replaced with the structure we see today in the village, though not serving as a religious edifice now. The second religious society to use this Academy building was the Second Methodist Church or Society of Guilford. Still later this Society would erect their own edifice around the corner on the is now known as Marble Road. Still later after the closing of this religious edifice, it would remain vacant, later to be purchased by a private individual and torn down for the site of the Town of Guilford Town Barn and Town Offices. An update this site has now been abandoned as a Town Barn with the new facilities located still further down the Marble Road (this being the old County Road 36).
Guilford Center Academy would continue in this dual purpose for the next twenty years. However by 1844 it was decided to abandon the Select School and turn the building over to the Trustees of District #10 for exclusive use as a Common School. 1876 would see the building continue to be uses as a Common School for many years. The building no longer stands and this writer has been made aware of exactly when it was taken down and by J. W. Bump in 1933. If this writer’s information is correct, Mr. Bump was the owner of the “Angel Inn” at that period of time.
To continue this educational institution’s history Ms. Ann Tobey, now living in Aurora, New York compiled the history of her family entitled “The Tobeys of Afton” which is available for reading at the Guernsey Memorial Library. Included in this book is the documentation of her father John Tobey’s teaching at the one-room school (Guilford Academy) from September 1926 to March 1927. This documentation is quoted verbatim as follows:

TEACHER’S MEMORIES
“I graduated from Smyrna High School in June 1925 (note: the Tobeys were early pioneer settlers of Smyrna) and worked on the family farm that summer per usual. Someone from Morrisville and Norwich came to see me at the farm sometime during the summer and invited me to take Teacher Training Class in either school. [This was a one-year course, offered to high school graduates and often taught in a public high school, which prepared students to teach elementary school or “common branch” subjects. These classes were a major source of one-room district schools in the state.] I had no plans for what I wanted to do so did accept going to Norwich, which was much more practical as I would share an apartment with Marion (Dad’s sister), who had one and was working for the phone company.
Anna Boyd was the class teacher and worked us hard. I figure I learned as much in one year there as I did in 2 years of high school. I also met Mary my wife, while in training class and courted her along with some others until we married June 21st, 1930, so it will be 64 years and two days, this being June 19th [1994].
Trustees from some schools where they needed a teacher came to class and interviewed us. I think Mrs. Ives from Guilford Center School liked me for my size and asked me to come and teach that fall of 1926. They had many discipline problems so was paramount to correct them whether they learned or not. [Note: the school was beside the creek in Guilford Center, on the northwest side of the road to Norwich, near the Pillars Inn and across from the church.]
I had twenty-some students and, I think, 6 classes. I had complete support of all the parents to do what was needed to discipline anyone who needed it. [Note by this writer - how times have changed]. One father came to school the first day with two sons and stated he would bring me a whip if I did not already have one. His sons were OK and actually gave me no trouble. I was advised of the problem and came somewhat prepared. I found a five or six-foot lamp cord, like an electric cord did. I folded it and put some kind of powder in for weight. It made an excellent whip, and I used it only a couple of time as I recall, it be so effective.
There was one young man who was a foster child with the trustee who came to school until he was sixteen, when he quit. He came as a visitor at school one day and during recess caused some problem just outside the front door of the school. I picked him up and carried him to the ditch between the school and the road, where I dropped him. Mrs. Ives came to see me soon after when she found the wed clothes. She apologized for him and was much more disturbed over it than I was.
Another troublesome young man took something from a nearby desk and threw it in the waste-paper basket. He admitted doing it when I asked but refused to come and remove the item and return it to the owner. It was a challenge which I accepted and proceeded to pick him up, carry him to the basket and dump him in it head first. He then did as requested, and that finalized the problem. It did help the others to behave.
I boarded at the Angel Inn for a time at the so-called hotel in Guilford but did drive back and forth week-ends with a teacher in a near-by school who lived in Preston and drove back and forth each day. This worked quite well, but the roads were difficult in those days and it was quite a trip from Preston to Norwich and on past where I taught. [This writer’s note: all persons who travel from Guilford to Norwich and from Norwich to Preston in this modern age will agree that traveling in the wintertime is still a challenge.]
In March of ‘27 Dad [E. P. Tobey] learned of a job opening in the lumber yard which Briggs Lumber Company of Oneonta had just built in ‘26. I applied for the job with Ward Mosley the Briggs manager. I gave it a little thought, but it did appeal more than the teaching job. He agreed I could have the job if the district where I taught would release me. They did, and I started my 48 years with the Company. As I recall, the trustee located a supply teacher in Sidney to finish the year, so no problem to anyone, I guess.”
Ms. Tobey being inspired to look again for anything else there was related to her father’s time as a teacher. First she found his contract for the 1926-27 year with a salary of $28 per week.
As she wrote me “plowing further” she found the account that he had kept for 1926-27. She forwarded to this writer copies of pages from October, November and February to show this writer a representation of his activities. As they are lengthy this writer will only give the total of $625.89, but itemizing briefly, the amount included board, carfare, glasses, batteries, hair cut, etc. Ms. Tobey did state she knew his cost of board varied between $4 and $6 weekly. He did relate he stayed part time at the Angel Inn (Pillars) in the Center and part time at a hotel in the village.
With this Part 2 of the Guilford Center Academy history will be continued again in the next article of this series “Schools of the Past”!