Kirk - 2
1851 became principal of one of the public schools of Brooklyn. In this city he was elected City Superintendent in 1854, and re-elected annually to that position until 1872, when Mr. Field was made Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Mr. Bulkeley Associate Superintendent. This position he now occupies.
p. 22
At one time (Nemiah P. Stanton, 1827) was interested with others in a plantation of twelve hundred acres of cotton and twelve hundred others in a plantation of twelve hundred acres of corn in the State of Arkansas, which he personally superintended. He was an active member of the New York Stock Exchange for several years; he recently sold his membership for $29,500. He was also supported as a candidate for superintendent of public instruction at the time of Mr. Gilmour's first election.
p. 24
During this session the school commissioners and city superintendents of the state met in Doolittle Hall and organized the Association of School Officers of the State of New York. This body has since met annually. It is not too much to say that the Teachers' Association and the New York School Commissioner did much to secure the passage of the act creating the office of the New York State School Commissioner, and quite naturally these officers have manifested a deep interest in the success of their alma mater. The Commissioner's Association was reorganized at Geneva in 1866 Charles T. Pooler being the first President of the new organization.
p. 31
The following modest sketch of the main incidents of his life was prepared by Mr. V. Valentino himself, for a genealogy of a branch of his family.
"He commenced his career as teacher in the year 1836, in that part of Clinton, in the village of Lancastron, Mass., which is now included in the year of Clinton. In 1837-8-9 he taught in his native town, in 1840, the State of Pennsylvania (where the present wife of General John W. Geary was one of his pupils); in 1841 he was principal of a public school eleven years in Ashland Mass. (where the present wife of General John W. Geary was one of his pupils); in 1842 removed to Albany, N.Y., where he was superintendent of the Mint; in 1852-34, was editor of the Albany Orphan Asylum; in 1853-4, was teacher of the New York Teacher's Association; in 1855 two years and in 1856 two years principal of public school No. 19, Brooklyn (now containing over 1,000 pupils); he also became dean, clerk, chorister and Sunday-school superintendent of Baptist churches in Albany and Brooklyn for many years.
The only specialty he claims in his professional life is his efforts to excite more ESPRIT DE CORPS among teachers. In 1838 he called and presided over the first convention of teachers held in Wor- cester County. In 1845 he originated the New York State Teachers' Association, as mentioned in the previous chapter. In 1857, while President of this Association, he made the first movement in the organization in Philadelphia of the National Teachers' Association, which resulted in the organization in the world's largest and most important body of teachers in the world." p. 31
RESOLVED, that this Association appeals to the legislature of the State to again express the voice of the people, twice expressed at the ballot-box, by the enactment of a GENERAL FREE SCHOOL LAW, and respectfully requests the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to employ his official recommendation and personal influence to secure this legislation of the people.
[stamp: Brooklyn Public Schools]
