An enticing advertisement was circulated for the Bicentennial event, “Seymour Smith and his Legacy: A History of Education Reform and the Pine Plains Schools.” Co-sponsored by the Little Nine Partners Historical Society and the Pine Plains Free Library, the June 10 lecture was guaranteed to answer the question: What made an ordinary farmer decide to leave his entire estate to a town he had not lived in for most of his adult life, for the sole purpose of establishing a school there?
Pine Plains historian Dyan Wapnick’s presentation provided the explanation, along with rich detail about the history of our local and state school systems. Wapnick has the gift of bringing the past to life, fleshing out historical figures so her audience can appreciate who they were, how they lived and the impact their actions have had on life today.
She deftly delineated the facts about Smith (1779-1863): an eccentric, wealthy bachelor, born and raised on a farm in Pine Plains. One of 12 children, he attended school here until the age of 15. No secondary education was offered in Pine Plains, but Smith was determined to finish his education and enrolled at the Dutchess County Academy in Poughkeepsie. “Room, board, and tuition were expensive!” Wapnick said.
After serving in the War of 1812, Smith leased the Knickerbocker farm for 10 years, then moved to the Clermont area. He never returned to Pine Plains.
Wapnick pointed out that Smith was “the best at anything he tried his hand at.” He won top prizes as an agricultural society exhibitor and owned a lucrative Hudson River boat landing. Smith experimented in sericulture, raising silkworms for the production of raw silk. He was a Clermont Justice of the Peace and Town Supervisor.
Seymour Smith was unconventional. According to Wapnick, “Smith liked to lay in his coffin in his barn for his friends, sort of a dress rehearsal for the elaborate funeral he planned for himself!” Smith had a live-in female housekeeper who is buried with him in his family plot at Evergreen Cemetery. “I’d like to know more of that story!” joked Wapnick.
Smith’s will, dated March 12, 1861, states in part: “I bequeath my entire estate to the town of Pine Plains for the especial purpose of aiding said town in establishing an academy for the promotion of science and useful knowledge.” This $6,000 bequest, the equivalent of $140,000 today, must have stunned the Pine Plains town fathers.
Wapnick surmised that Smith left his estate to “give something back to the town where he’d spent his youth.” He had no offspring, so the children of Pine Plains became his beneficiaries. Smith was a successful farmer, but “likely regretted not being able to continue his education, and wanted to give Pine Plains kids the opportunity that he had missed,” said Wapnick.
The Seymour Smith Institute was erected where the bus driveway is located today (the north side of the Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center on Academy Street), and opened its doors May 8, 1879. The Institute’s educational goal was “the systematic development of the whole being; physical, mental, moral and spiritual.” Tuition was $275 annually ($6,000 today). The first commencement was held in the Methodist Church on July 2, 1879, with eight graduates.
The school was outgrown in 17 years, and remodeled to become the Seymour Smith Academy. Wapnick said that, by 1929, the school was housing 250 students in a structure built for 100; it was condemned by New York State. Pine Plains worked quickly to rebuild. The cornerstone was laid on March 11,1933 at a total cost of $280,000.
The Seymour Smith Institute schooled 1,002 students, with a total of 82 graduates. Boys and girls attended, both black and white (recent history unearthed by Wapnick). Graduates became doctors, lawyers and clergymen. As school board member Samuel Deuel said in 1933, “If we had not had Seymour Smith there would not have been any Seymour Smith Academy, and if it had not been for the Seymour Smith Academy, we would not have had these beautiful school grounds.” Pictures and detailed information about the history of the Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center, the NYS school system, and Seymour Smith can be found here.