“The first school in Belleville was taught in a blacksmith shop in the year 1805; and in 1807 a log school-house was built. This building was without floors and its roof was of elm bark. It was, indeed, a long step in progress from this very humble beginning in educational equipment to the Union Academy of later days which became, and today remains, the center of the education and prosperity of the village of Belleville, of the township of Ellisburg and it’s influence extending to adjoining townships; and it is not too much to add that it is nation wide” (“Township of Ellisburg in Jefferson County, State of New York” By Florence Ellis, 1925)