Tompkins, vice president of the United States, Colonel Tallmadge and brother, and the Hon. James Kent, L. L. D. " After tli€ removal of Mr. Lewis, the institution appears to have declined for a few years. A revival of its prosperity, however, occurred about 1801, under the Rev. Mr. McNiece. This gentleman is said to have been one of the Irish patriots of 1795, who left his country at the same time with Emmet, Adrain, McNevcji and others, and for the same cause. He was a man of

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 477

learning and an eloquent preacher of the Preshyterian denomination, and the Academy under him had at one time eighty scholars in attendance. From this period the reports to the regents indicate great fluctuations in the number as well as in the advancement of the scholars. Some years present no report from the trustees, from which we may imply that the building was not occupied as a school during a sufficient portion of the year (four months) to entitle them to a share of the literature fund, or that the scholars were not sufficiently advanced to be reported in the higher branches of study. The reports of other years indicate a better condition. And among the teachers are mentioned

- the Rev. HermanDagget, Rev. Abraham Purdy, A.M., Ebenezer Close, Dr. Samuel B. Mead, Rev. Hiram Jelliff, John C. Jones, and G. S. Tozer.

For the last eight years North Salem Academy has held a respectable standing among its sister institutions in this part of the state ; sometime numbering nearly one hundred students and generally during the winter sessions, from seventy to ninety. The last annual catalogue contained the names of one hundred and forty-five pupils. During the revolution, the Academy was used as a jail and court house for the detention and trial of refractory tories.