History

Easton Business College opened in 1873.  Charles Lincoln Free was principal of the school from 1884 to 1901, developing the Actual Business program.  In 1901 the school was reorganized as Easton School of Business with a focus on typing and shorthand.  Under the direction of Addison L. Jones, E.S.B. operated until at least 1916, when it last was listed in the city directory.   In 1911 William E. Churchman, former manager of E.S.B., opened a competing business school which operated until 2004. 

 

To reach the widest audience, Easton Business College was a co-educational school with evening classes, a year-round calendar, and correspondence courses.  The E.B.C. Journal noted that the college offered “all the subjects that go to make up a full, complete and satisfactory commercial education."  These included “Theory of Accounts, Actual Business, Commercial Law, Commercial Arithmetic, Commercial Correspondence, Business penmanship, Reading, Spelling, Grammar and Phonography.”

 

The strength of E.B.C. was its progress from theory to the Actual Business department.  Actual Business was a nine-month program in which each student operated a business—first alone, then with a partner, then with multiple partners--settled an estate, and did both single entry and double entry bookkeeping.  In the next sequence of classes students  went through the entire process of buying, selling and  transporting goods, and accepting commissions on the goods.  In the final sequence, students operated the First National College Bank, transacting with student banks in other cities, operating deposits, collecting accounts, drafting notes and certificates of deposit, issuing stocks, and discounting foreign bills.