Manumit School: Brief Chronology
1924—Rev. William Mann Fincke and his wife, Helen Hamlin, founded Manumit as an elementary level, co-educational, boarding school on a working farm in Pawling, NY.
1926—Henry I. Lineman became interim Director upon illness of Rev. Fincke.
1927—Rev. Fincke died.
1927/28—Nellie M. Seeds became Director.
1933—William Mann Fincke assumed Co-Directorship, with wife, Mildred Gignoux ]
1938/39—Progressive Schools' Committee for Refugee Children formed under leadership of Mildred and William Fincke.
1942—First two years of high school added to the elementary school.
1943—William I. Stephenson became Director.
1943—Fire destroyed major school building, the “Mill.”
1944—William M. Fincke (“Billy”) resumed directorship with wife, Amelia Evans.
1944—School moved to Bristol, Bensalem Township, Bucks County, PA. along with many members of the so-called old American group…Judaism, Catholicism, Quakerism and Ethical Agnosticism as well as Protestantism are stimulatingly included in the backgrounds…” (W. M. Fincke fund-raising document, c. 1945-46.).]
1947—Benjamin C. G. Fincke (“Ben”), with wife, Magdalene (“Magda”) Joslyn, became Co-Director.
1949—Final two years of High School created.
1950—School adopts “work project” experiment.
1951—First full High School graduation.
1954—Benjamin Fincke resigned.
1954—John A. Lindlof, student at Pawling and teacher at Bristol, became Co-Director.
mid-‘50’s – “Manumit … growth toward its interracial ideal was no mere token thing…”
1956—Overt external attacks on school began.
1957 /58—School closed following denial of license renewal for 1958 by the State Board of Private Academic Schools, PA Department of Public Instruction.
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