USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 19
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At the present time Albion is very strong in most of its departments. There is an imperative need for two or three additional chairs, and it is needless to say that the college will always need more money and re- sources. The writer believes that there is no place in the wide world where money will go so far and do so much as that which is placed in the
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endowment fund of a Christian college. Does the church at large under- stand that money so plaeed can never be expended, but is set at work repeating itself over and over while the institution endures? A hun- dred or a thousand dollars, earning five percent interest, will repeat it- self every twenty years whether the donor is dead or alive; whether he is generous at the present time or not; whether he regrets his former gift or is glad of it. This is the exceeding precious consideration eon- cerning every gift made to the college.
The year book of the college for 1911-12 shows the following names of those who at that time were members of the Board of Trustees and the Faculty.
Board of Trustees: Samuel Dickie, ex-officio; Rev. D. II. Ramsdell, D. M. Christian, Rev. William Dawe, James II. Simpson, Rev. C. W. Baldwin, Durand W. Springer, Rev. D. D. Martin, M. L. Cook, Rev. John Graham, E. K. Phelps, Edwin N. Parsons, Rev. Hugh Kennedy, Frank A. Fall, Rev. Luther Lovejoy, Charles M. Ranger, Robert W. Baldwin.
Faculty : Sammel Dickie, M. S., LL. D., John Owen, professor of philosophy ; Delos Fall, Se. D., LL. D., David Preston, professor of chemistry ; Frederick Lutz, A. M., Litt. D., professor of modern lan- guages : Charles Elisha Barr, A. M., professor of geology and biology ; Frederic Samuel Goodrich, A. M., D. D., alumni professor of the English Bible, acting professor of Greek language and literature; Mrs. Helen Knappen-Scripps, A. M., dean of women, instructor in English literature ; Frederic Coe Demorest, A. M., D. D., professor of Latin; Charles Henry Woolbert. A. M., professor of English and oratory (W. Scott Brown chair of Belles Lettres) ; Clarence Wilson Greene, A. M., Ph. D., professor of physies : Frank Tracy Carlton, A. M., Ph. D., professor of economies and acting Ilenry M. Loud professor of history; E. Roseoe Sleight, A. M., W. HI. Brockway, professor of mathematics, acting Ezra Bostwiek, pro- fessor of astronomy ; John Zedler, A. M., associate professor of modern languages ; Frank W. Douglas, A. M., assistant professor of chemistry ; Eleanor T. Avann, A. M., assistant professor of Greek; Charles Albert Langworthy, A. B., instructor in English; Harlan J. Cozine, director of conservatory, instructor in voice and the art of singing; Raymond L. Havens, head of piano department, pianoforte; T. Stanley Skinner, head of organ department, pedal organ, musical history and theory ; John B. Martin, head of orchestral department, violin and orchestral instruments; Elam Agnes Blackman, instructor in piano; Nema Phipps, instruetor in piano; Myra C. Salisbury, instruetor in voice; George L. Griswold, principal of commercial department; Milton H. Northrop, teacher of shorthand and typewriting; Sarah Estella Woolsey, instructor in art; Walter S. Kennedy, athletic director; Esther II. Auten, A. B., director of physical education for women ; Rosa Ball, B. S., librarian, and instruc- tor in library methods; Jennie Columbus, president's secretary.
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CHAPTER X GENERAL EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
MICHIGAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM-LEADING CALHOUN COUNTY EDUCA- TORS-RURAL SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY (BY FRANK D. MILLER)- REGISTER OF STATE AND COUNTY OFFICERS-DR. DELOS FALL-VILLAGE SCHOOLS (BY FRANK D. MILLER).
The real importance of men's lives is measured, not so much by what they appear to accomplish in the day and generation in which they live, as by the influences they set in motion that affect for good or evil the generations that come after them. Measured by this standard, two of the most influential men in the history of Michigan; men whose influence will be a positive force for good as long as the Commonwealth endures, lived in Calhoun county. The one, a graduate of Brown University and of an Eastern Theological school, came to Marshall when it had but two shacks and one unfinished double log house, as the accredited repre- sentative of the American Home Missionary Society. The other, a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Trinity College of that state, a lawyer of two years' practice at the bar of his native state, who came to Mar- shall soon after the missionary.
MICHIGAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM
These two men, the Rev. John D. Pierce and Isaac E. Crary, attorney- at-law, lived for a time beneath the same roof and amidst their rude sur- roundings soon found that they had much in common, and early became fast friends. About this time the tide of immigration had set in strongly toward the then territory of Michigan and soon there was talk of State- hood. Men of the intellectual equipment, experience and observation, not to say ambition, of Pierce and Crary could hardly be otherwise than interested in the progress of events that were rapidly tending toward the formation of a new state.
Both men were much interested in education, which had been greatly neglected in the territory. About this time there chanced to fall into the hands of Mr. Pierce, a translation of the report of the Prussian school system, made by Cousin to the French Minister of Public Instruc- tion. Both Pierce and Crary read the report and mentally compared notes. Many an interesting discussion these two cultivated men had over the importance of education in the prospective new state. Mr.
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Pierce speaks particularly of one long conference he and Crary had one Sunday afternoon, seated on a log on the hill north of the court house. The tree beneath which they sat still stands in the yard of the home of the late General Charles T. Gorham. Before their conference had adjourned, tentative outlines of a proposed public school system were agreed upon.
Crary was a member of the convention that met in 1835 to frame a State Constitution, and in the assignment of committee positions, was made chairman of the Committee on Education, and as such, drafted the educational provision in our first constitution. Among other things, provision was made for a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, an office hitherto unknown in the United States. He was to be nominated by the governor and confirmed by both houses of the legislature.
The Constitution having been adopted by the people, Stephen S. T. Mason was elected the first governor, and Isaac E. Crary the first mem- ber of Congress from the new state of Michigan. On his way from Mar- shall to Washington to take his seat in Congress, Crary stopped in De- troit, the then seat of state government, and had a long conference with Governor Mason on state matters. During the conference, Crary called the attention of the governor to the special qualifications of his friend, Pierce, for the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction. So favorably impressed was the governor by Crary's representations, that he sent for Pierce to come to Detroit and after a somewhat protracted interview, he decided to nominate him to the legislature for the office of Superintendent of Publie Instruction, which he subsequently did and the nominee was unanimously confirmed by both houses of the legis- lature.
The Ordinance of 1787 provided that a section of land should be set apart in every township in each of the five states that were subsequently formued out of that territory, and the proceeds of sale devoted to school purposes. In other states the land had been at the disposal of the township authorities, and in many cases had been dissipated and so, fallen far short of what the framers of that celebrated ordinance had intended. Crary had conceived a different method of disposing of the funds arising from the sale of these lands. While at Washington awaiting the tardy action of Congress in admitting the state before he could take his seat, he was in frequent conference with the committee charged with framing the act of admission, and was courteously invited to make such suggestions as he might deem best to have incorporated. It was at this time that Crary succeeded in getting all public school lands put under control of the state and as a result we now have over five millions of dollars, proceeds from the sale of school lands, as a permanent fund held in trust by the state, the interest on which is to be forever used in support of the public schools of the state. Congressman Crary was also instrumental in secur- ing seventy sections of the public lands for the support of the university. For his statesmanlike foresight and accomplishments, he has put Michi- gan under perpetual obligation to him. Crary and Pierce were also influential members of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, the latter being chairman of the Committee on Education.
It may not be inappropriate in this place to give an estimate of this
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public servant by one who has enjoyed exceptional opportunities of know- ing and judging of the public men of the state for more than half a century. "If," says Homer Barber, "I was called upon to express an opinion as to who was the most useful man to the state and its people for all time in official life among the able and eminent delegates and representatives and senators in Congress during the formative period of our institutions, and especially in shaping our educational system, for he procured the grant of seventy-two sections of land for our State University, the choice would fall upon Isaac E. Crary."
The legislature passed a resolution requiring the Superintendent of Public Instruction to prepare a plan for the organization and support of primary schools, a plan for a university with branches, also a plan for a disposition of the primary and university school lands and have it ready to submit to that body when it met in January, 1837. Pro- foundly impressed with the importance of the work committed to him, Superintendent Pierce, soon after his confirmation, set out on a journey eastward with a view of consulting with the most eminent American educators of the time. After his return, he drew up a plan as required and submitted it to the legislature when it again convened and hy which, with a few slight changes, it was adopted.
The report embraced three general divisions as follows:
First: Organization and support of the primary schools.
Second : Re-organization of the university.
Third: Disposition of university and primary school funds. Under this plan, the common schools of the state were re-organized. Designs for school buildings and apparatus and township libraries were part of the general plan. There was a great dearth of teachers and to meet this want, a system of secondary schools was recommended, which should serve as preparatory schools for the university and for the train- ing of teachers. Under the Constitution of 1850, the secondary schools were done away with, academies flourished for a time, when these gave way to the normal and the high school, with the university as the undis- puted centre and crown of our state educational system. Pleading with the legislature to adopt his recommendation to have in the university one great central institution supported by the state, he said, "It is to be borne in mind that the policy now adopted is destined to affect the literary character and standing of the state, not only for the time of the present generation, but so long as the republic and its institutions shall be preserved." He further declared that "an unenlightened mind is not recognized by the genius of republican institutions." Again he said, "Our government proceeds from the people, is supported by the people and depends upon the people." This declaration was made years before Mr. Lincoln's oft quoted saying that, "Ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people." It will be seen that the same thought underlies both and that the sentences have the same rhythm.
LEADING CALHOUN COUNTY EDUCATORS
Oliver C. Comstock, of Marshall, served as State Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1843 to 1845. He, in turn, was succeeded by
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Ira Mayhew, of Albion. Francis W. Shearman, long one of Marshall's most prominent citizens, was the last person to hold this important office under the Constitution of 1835, which provided that this officer should be appointed by the governor and confirmed by both houses of the legislature, and the first to hold it under the Constitution of 1850, which provided he should be elected by the people. Mr. Shearman served from 1849 to 1854 inclusive. In 1854 Ira Mayhew was elected and served from 1855 to 1858 inelusive. It was forty-two years before another Calhoun County man was chosen to this office.
In the fall of 1900, Professor Delos Fall, of Albion College, one of the best known educators of the state, was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and filled the office with great acceptability from January 1, 1901, to January 1, 1905. Professor Fall was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of 1909, and as such, served as Chairman of the Committee on Education. It is a singular and unusual distinction that has come to Calhoun county, not so much that five of her citizens have been chosen to the important office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction and whose aggregate terms of service to 1912 equal one-third the entire life of the state under the three Constitutions, unparalleled as that is; as in the fact that in the convention that framed the Constitution of 1835 Isaac E. Crary was chairman of the Committee on Education, that in the convention that framed the Constitution of 1850 John D. Pierce was chairman of a like committee, and that in the convention that framed the Constitution of 1909 Delos Fall was chairman of the Committee on Education. These three men, all from Calhoun county, have, in the order named, probably done more to shape the educational system of the state than any other like number of men in all its history. Add to this the fact that credit is given to George Willard, of Battle Creek, for causing the door of the university to be opened to women, and we think it may be said, with- out exaggeration and without boasting, that for all time, from an educa- tional point of view, the state of Michigan has been placed under obliga- tion to Calhoun county.
RURAL SCHOOLS OF CALHOUN COUNTY
By Frank D. Miller County Commissioner of Schools
The educational history of Calhoun county must necessarily be a his- tory of progress. While Michigan was still a territorial possession, Calhoun county was the home of John D. Pierce, a man of keen intellect, and a prophet who had faith in his gift of prophecy. To him was intrusted the initiatory work in education in the First Constitutional Con- vention of 1836. He was an advanced thinker and many of the doctrines which he was unable to work out at that time have since become effective. He maintained that it was an obligation on the part of the state to suffer none to grow up in ignorance, and that the state had the right to require the education of all children and youth, both for the welfare of the in- Vol. 1-10
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
dividual instructed and the security of the state. Mr. Pierce believed that "the most perfect organization of the entire system in all the varied departments of instruction must fail of securing the desired results without a sufficient number of competent teachers." To this end it was advised that every teacher in the public schools should be given a regular course of training. He also recommended district libraries. While these theories were much in advance of the educational sentiment of those times, they were seeds sown in fertile soil and have been nurtured and brought to a degree of maturity through the earnest efforts of other educators, prominent among whom were Isaac E. Crary of Marshall, who had the honor of being chairman of the Committee of Education in the Constitutional Convention of 1835, John D. Pierce of Marshall, in 1850, and Prof. Delos Fall, of Albion, former Superintendent of Public Instruction of the state, who held a similar position in the Consti- tutional Convention of 1908.
Calhoun county was indeed fortunate in its pioneers. Immediately after building their own rude homes and doing what clearing and sowing that was necessary to insure them an existence, they turned their atten- tion toward erecting schools. When we consider that Sidney Ketcham, the recognized pioneer of Calhoun county, first settled here in 1830, yet that in May, 1832, a school house had been built and school was in ses- sion, and that within six years there were from one to four schools in each organized township in the county, we cannot fail to honor them for their strength of purpose and achievements.
The first school house in the county was built in May, 1832, on what is now Mansion street in the city of Marshall. This school house was used for school purposes, as a church, and as a town hall, all territorial elections being held there until after the adoption of the Constitution when Michigan became a state. The first school teacher was Eliza Ketcham. A school house was erected in Battle Creek in the fall of 1834, at the cost of eighty dollars. Warren B. Shepard, sometimes called the Pioneer Schoolmaster, was the teacher during the winter of 1834-5, and in 1836 a school house was erected in Fredonia township, about eighty rods west of where the Houston district school house now stands. Janette Baldwin was the teacher and the late John Houston was the only pupil. It is related that Miss Baldwin, whose home was near Brace Lake, in Eekford township, blazed the trail from her home to the school house by tying strings of calico on the bushes. The following year, 1837, Miss Baldwin taught the first school in what is now No. 4 in Eckford. Among other early organized schools we note the following: 1833, first school in Emmett township, with Cynthia Maynard as teacher; Cook's Prairie, Clarendon, in 1833, Timothy Hamlin, teacher; private school in Sheridan township on the Horace Bidwell farm, in 1832, with Mr. Bidwell's daughter, Ursula, teacher; first school in Athens on Sec. 34 in 1833, with a Miss Acres as teacher; on Goguac Prairie in 1834, Arantha Thomas, teacher; on E. Kimball's farm in Marengo in 1833, Mrs. Skinner, teacher; and on the Chisholm farm, same township, in 1834, with S. Powers, teacher; on present site of No. 3, Eckford in 1834, with W. N. Wilder, teacher; in Homer township, J. Cross taught in 1835 and Hannah Leach taught the same year in school located in the village;
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
No. 6, Tekonsha, was the location of the first school district in that township; in 1837, Mary Buckingham tanght the first school in Burling- ton where the high school is now located, and Polly Lee had charge of the school at Abascota the same year; John Mains taught the first school in No. 4, Clarendon, in 1837; Sarah Root, the first in Convis in 1838.
We find no records of the organization of any schools in Leroy town- ship previous to 1838, when the inspectors met and organized nine dis- tricts, each containing four sections. The inspectors were D. N. Bush- nell and Polydore Hudson.
In 1828, Congress had passed an act setting off the sixteenth section of each township for school purposes, but at that time land was so cheap that little was realized from the sale of the school lands. With houses to build, land to clear, roads to make and streams to bridge, it was im- possible for the attention to be given to education that otherwise would have been given. Up to and including 1836, there were but 39 organized townships in the state, eight of which were in Calhoun county, and fifty- five school districts with an enrollment of but 2,337 pupils in the entire State. The adoption of the Constitution in 1836 gave impetus to the educational movement so that four years later, in 1840, we find there were 324 organized Townships with a total of 1,506 school districts, en- rolling 49,850 pupils. At this time, the average length of the school year was 4 4-10 month, while the average pay for the male teacher was $15.61 per month and for the female teachers was $1.27 per week. The teachers "boarded around." The average age of the male teacher ranged from 17 to 20, while the ages of the female teachers ranged from 14 to 17 years.
In 1850, the average length of the school year was five months, and the average pay of the male teachers had been diminished to $14.00, while the average for female teachers had increased to $6.00 per month.
A limited tax could be imposed by the qualified voters and assessed upon the property of the district for building purposes, repairs, ap- pendages, etc., but not one dollar could be collected for the support of the teacher, with the exception of the small primary fund, and the teacher had to he paid by money collected by the Rate Bill. Form of Rate Bill and Warrant are herewith appended :
Name of person sending to school
No. days sent
Amount of Fees Amount for
school bill
fuel
Total
Chas. Miller
312
$3.15
$0.15
$1.50
$4.80
Fred Smith
104
1.05
.05
.50
1.60
"To the Assessor of School District No ..... , Township of You are hereby commanded to collect from each person named, the several sums set opposite their names, within the next six days after date of delivery hereof; and upon the collection of the same, or any part thereof or at the expiration of the time allowed therefor by law to pay over the amount so collected by you (retaining five per cent for your fee) to the order of the Director of said District, countersigned by the Moderator thereof; and in case any person therein named shall refuse
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
on demand, to pay amount on said Rate Bill for which he is liable, you are to collect the same by distress and sale of chattels of such persons, wherever found in counties iu which said district is situated, having first published said sale at least ten days by posting up notices in three public places in the Township where such property is to be sold.
"Given under our hands this day of
A. D.
A .B
Director C. .. D.
"Moderator.'
The moneys collected by the Rate Bill was about equal to the pri- mary money, in many districts, and in some cases it exceeded the amount of money received from the State.
Many schools at this time and even for many years later had made no provision for regularity of attendance; for uniformity of text books ; for any form of graduation or definite plan of visitation. The houses were crude, poorly lighted, poorly equipped, poorly ventilated. Yet notwithstanding all the hardships the people had undergone-the finan- cial panic of '37, disease, etc .- they still insisted on having a better system of schools and Calhoun County's three representatives, Messrs. Pierce, Crary and Morrison, went into the Constitutional Convention of 1850, and were instrumental in having the Constitution so amended that a free school must be maintained in every district at least three months during the year. There was a provision, however, that arranged that the Legislature should provide for such schools within five years, so it was actually seven years before any results were secured.
As the Constitutional Convention of 1850 practically closes one epoch in the educational history and commences another, for comparison, we quote from the report for the year ending May, 1851, as given by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Francis W. Sherman : Number of districts, 150; number of children on census list, 6,403; number of children attending school under four years of age, 92; num- ber of children attending school over 18 years of age, 231; whole num- ber who have attended school during the year, 5,049. Whole amount of wages paid the teachers in the County, $7,757.55. Amount raised by rate bill, $3,556.43; primary money received, $2,983.36; raised for building purposes, $7,759.60 (a union school building was built in Mar- shall during this year, which is included in this amount) ; support of school, including teachers, $3,355.87 ; mill tax assessed, $1,401.53; aver- age length of school year in rural districts, five months. Average length of school year in union schools, thirty-five weeks. The average salary of teachers $11.35. (Board for rural teachers cost from $.75 to $1.25 per week, while in the village it cost from $1.25 to $1.75).
Notwithstanding the fact that the Superintendent of Public In- struction had, through his reports, announced that it was not obligatory for any one to board the teacher, practically all the teachers "boarded around." In connection with the system of "boarding around", an amusing incident is a matter of record in the Board of Supervisors' Re- port of 1874 and 1875, where the Superintendent of the Poor submitted
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