The following information may be of interest to readers.  Rev. Chauncey
Lee (1763-1848)  became principal of the Lansingburgh Academy in
1796.  He recognized the need for a text book employing the new
decimal system, and authored "The American Accompantant: Being a
Plain, Practical and Systematic Compendium of Federal Arithmetic,"
published in Lansingburgh in 1797.  This is understood to have been the
first arithmetic text using the decimal system, and the first place where
the dollar ($) sign appeared in a printed work.  Lee was looked at as
somewhat of a radical for issuing this work, when many still used the
older English monetary system.