The Yates Polytechnic Institute was founded in 1824 by
John B. Yates John Barentse Yates (February 1, 1784 – July 10, 1836) was an American politician who was a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from New York (state), New York.
Born in Schenectady, New York, Yates completed preparatory st ...
in the village of
Chittenango,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
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Film and television
* '' ...
,
United States. The large building in which the institution was located was constructed in 1814 as a
tavern before it was purchased by Yates. The institution considered itself to be one of the earliest
manual labor schools
A manual labor college was a type of school in the United States, primarily between 1825 and 1860, in which work, usually agricultural or mechanical, supplemented academic activity.
The manual labor model was intended to make educational opportuni ...
in the nation. The school was organized as follows: Rev. Andrew Yates, principal; Rev. David A. Sherman, professor of
philology and ancient languages; Benjamin F. Joslin, professor of
natural science
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
; Jonathan Ely, professor of practical
agriculture and natural science; Stephen Alexander, professor of
natural philosophy and
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
.
Yates, who bore the titles of judge, lawyer, state assemblyman, congressman, and who was also the owner and investor of many local enterprises including
flour mills, a lime and plaster mill, a woolen factory, stores, and
dry dock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
and
boat yard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...
s, founded the Yates Polytechnic Institute after a long time of entertaining the idea of starting a school of practical instruction. His brother, Andrew Yates, who at the time was a professor at
Union College, left his position and became president of the Yates Polytechnic Institute.
[Nichols.]
References
{{coord missing, New York (state)
Schools in New York (state)
Madison County, New York
1824 establishments in New York (state)
Educational institutions established in 1824
Buildings and structures in Madison County, New York