Cornelius Thurston Chase (1819–1870), originally of Massachusetts, was Florida's first

Superintendent of Public Instruction A state education agency or state department of education is the state-level government organization within each U.S. state or territory responsible for education, including providing information, resources, and technical assistance on educationa ...

and wrote a book about schoolhouses and cottages in the south as well as a book on school law of Florida. A statewide system of public education was established in the

1868 Florida Constitution The Constitution of the State of Florida is the document that establishes and describes the powers, duties, structure, and function of the government of the U.S. state of Florida, and establishes the basic law of the state. The current Consti ...

. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

has a collection of his family's papers. His father was also a clergyman named Cornelius Chase (1780–1868). Florida's school system was in rough shape when Chase was appointed in the wake of the American Civil War. His work included establishing the first school superintendents and school boards in Florida counties. An annual report draft from 1870 and letterbooks from his tenure are part of the Florida Office of Commissioner of Education archives. His son, Cornelius Thurston Chase, attended New York University, was the class poet for three consecutive, then went on to Divinity School at Chicago Theological Seminary and in Berlin, before becoming pastor of a Congregational Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY. His grandson, Cornelius Thurston Chase, Jr., was headmaster of the

Eaglebrook School Eaglebrook School is an independent junior boarding and day school for boys in grades six through nine. It is located in Deerfield, Massachusetts, on the Pocumtuck Range near Deerfield Academy and sited on an campus which is also preserved by ...

in Massachusetts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, C Thurston 1819 births 1870 deaths American educators