SCLC #742 · Tonawanda 1881: 128 attendees ≠ manual-labor school open
Finding #742 — Two reports, eight days apart, describe different things. William T. Magoffin (NY local superintendent, Akron, 6 Oct 1881): 163 Tonawanda children aged 5–25, of whom 128 attended school “some portion of the time”; improved average attendance; “the schools” in the plural. Benj. G. Casler (federal NY Indian agent, 14 Oct 1881): the separately funded manual-labor school building “stands idle, unoccupied, and decaying”; $1,000 operating support sought. Compatible: children could attend existing schools while the new boarding/manual-labor facility remained unopened. Magoffin’s total is not evidence of 128 pupils in the manual-labor school; Casler’s empty building does not mean all Tonawanda education had ceased. Primary: NY SPI 28th Annual Report pp.94–95; CIA 1881 p.142 / leaf 224. Craft: reservation-wide attendance ≠ one institution’s occupancy; some-portion ≠ ADA; age 5–25 ≠ compulsory band; idle-decaying ≠ never-opened-forever. repo.