William Fincke and his wife Helen, it was originally called The Manumit School for Workers' Children.
Its curriculum provided a progressive "workers' education" focus during a time of growing socialist optimism in America.
William Mann Fincke and his wife, Helen Hamlin, founded Manumit as a co-educational boarding school for elementary-level students on a working farm in Pawling, New York.
[12] The school was relocated to Bristol, Bensalem Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Local political manipulations were suspected due to recent housing projects surrounding the school and objections to its interracial status.
The Board inspector had repeatedly singled out the school for complaints, raising suspicions of prejudice against its integrated nature.
[20] William Mann Fincke died on January 4, 1968, in Stonington, Connecticut, where he had been teaching remedial reading since 1963.