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 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
The building was completed in 1875 and cost, ready for occupancy with furnaces, furniture, carpets, superintendence and labor of building committee, the sum of fifty-four thousand six hundred and eighty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents. The building is still an ornament to the City of Marshall and a credit to the county. The outside basement walls are built of boulder stone, from the concrete bottom of the grade line; above the grade line and between the base course and the water, Marshall sandstone; all other cut stone is of Ohio sandstone. The out- side face walls are all pressed brick. The building is rectangular in form with projections on the north, front and rear and has a total area of about forty-five hundred square feet. The corners, antes, window caps and sills are of cut stone and the whole surmounted by a neat cupola. The building is finished in ash, butternut and black walnut. The Court- room occupies the upper floor with the necessary rooms for consultation purposes. Fireproof vaults are provided for the County Clerk, Register, Treasurer and Probate Judge in their respective offices.
A NEW JAIL
The second jail was a brick structure, separate and apart from the Court House, with accommodations for the sheriff's family in the lower and for about thirty prisoners in the upper part. It was located very near where the present jail now stands.
The jail in use at this time was built in 1869. It is constructed of briek, stone and steel. Besides providing quarters for all the prisoners, it furnishes a good home for the sheriff and his family. The cage room is 50 by 53 feet with six cells. Each cell is designed to care for six men.
In 1904 an addition was built on to the structure. This addition furnishes an office for the sheriff, and a place for Circuit Court prisoners serving time. This has a capacity for twenty-two. There is provided a padded cell for the insane which is located just off from the office. There are also two cells for women, occupying a different part of the building and removed from close proximity to the male prisoners.
The total number of prisoners received for the year ending June 30, 1911, was 665. While Calhoun County ranks seventh in population, in the number of prisoners received during the year named it is eleventh. Of the 665 prisoners there were but nine males and one female under eighteen years of age. In the number of prisoners charged with high crimes and misdemeanors the county ranks tenth. While in the number of prisoners the county is eleventh, in the total cost for board, clothing,
4
27
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
medieal attendance, traveling expenses incurred in investigating and taking prisoners to jail and in taking prisoners to penal and reformatory institutions it ranks twenty-second; the total expense for the entire year being but $5,260.00 Food is furnished the prisoners by the sheriff at a stipulated price per meal. This price, in this year, 1912 aggregates but $2.61 per week per prisoner, being among the very lowest among the counties of the state.
THE CALHOUN COUNTY HOME
On the 20th day of December, 1849, the Board of Supervisors bought 134 acres of land two miles northeast of Marshall for a county poor farm, paying for the same two thousand dollars. At that time the dis- tinetion between township and county poor was abolished and all the inmates were made a county charge. The home was opened on Sep- tember 20, 1850, when seventeen inmates were admitted. The original building was a frame structure and was put up in 1850-51. Additions were made from time to time as the necessities required. The main building was heated by hot air furnaces. In the earlier years not only the poor but the insane, the feeble minded and the homeless and neg- leeted children were cared for here. Gradually the state has provided for all but the first named class in institutions specially adapted to their eare. But the Board of Supervisors makes an annual appropria- tion for the support to the county's indigent insane in some one of the state hospitals and also for support of the criminal insane in the state hospital at Ionia.
In 1890 a brick building was put up, costing $10,000.00. In 1904 a new county home was built of briek at a cost of $25,000.00. This building is steam heated, and is lighted by electricity. A beautiful maple grove stands a little way in front of the home, while between it and the main building is a well kept lawn with flowers and shrubbery, giving a homelike air to the exterior, while within the inmates are made as comfortable as possible. Generally speaking, the beneficiaries of the home are elderly people of whom about two-thirds are men and one- third women. There are in the home a few young men and women who are mentally deficient.
The Superintendents of the Poor in their report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, say that the Board of Supervisors made an appro- priation of $18,000.00 for the support of the poor, $3,000.00 for the support of the insane, and two hundred dollars for support of the criminal insane. Out of the $18,000.00 for the support of the coun- ty's poor, $8,283.00 was disbursed to the cities and townships. Out of the latter sum the only townships in the county that did not draw any aid from the poor fund were Battle Creek and Clarence. Fredonia town- ship drew but six dollars and Sheridan township but six dollars and fifty cents.
The county farm will average fairly well with the general run oľ farms in the county. It is stocked with horses, cows, hogs and poultry. Last year, 1911, the farm raised 550 bushels of potatoes and 15 tons of hay. The proceeds of sales from the farm for the year amounted to
28
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
$616.69. The men in charge of this responsible trust are known as the Superintendents of the Poor. At this time they are: Henry A. Whitney ; Frank Laberteaux, Albion; David Walkinshaw, Marshall.
COUNTY OFFICERS
The Calhoun county officers in 1912 are as follows: Circuit Judge, Walter H. North; Judge of Probate, William H. Porter; Sheriff, La Verne Fonda; County Clerk, Ray E. Hart; Register of Deeds, C. Howard Daskam; County Treasurer, George S. Barnes; Prosecuting Attorney, Robert Kirschman; Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Edward R. Loud; Circuit Court Stenographer, Roy E. Eldred; County School Commis- sioner, Frank D. Miller; Drain Commissioner, L. C. Williams; Circuit Court Commissioners, A. N. Ford, Battle Creek, Charles O. Miller, Marshall.
CHAPTER VII
MEN AND MEASURES
MARSHALL MEN AND MEASURES IN STATE AND NATIONAL HISTORY (BY JOHN C. PATTERSON )-BATTLE CREEK AS A STATION ON THE UNDER- GROUND RAILWAY (BY CHARLES E. BARNES)-THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (BY BURRITT HAMILTON )-CALHOUN COUNTY AGRICULTURE (BY J. H. BROWN )-ROADS AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF ROADS.
MARSHALL MEN AND MARSHALL MEASURES IN STATE AND NATIONAL HISTORY #1
By John C. Patterson
Emerson has said, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." It can with equal propriety be said that a beneficent achieve- ment and a progressive reform are the lengthened shadow of some effi- cient leader seemingly raised up for the purpose, whose influence on mankind is beyond measure. Marshall has had several such leaders, men who have formulated measures, perfected governmental policies and have set in motion political forces which have brought forth results and have produced consequences of far-reaching magnitude. While as citizens of Marshall, we cherish a local pride in elaiming them as pioneer citizens of our city, we cannot claim them as all our own, for their work, influence and achievements were not confined to our city, county or
*Note by the Editor :- The above article will well repay a careful reading by every would-be well-informed citizen of the county and of the state. It treats uot only of a number of the county's most prominent citizens of a former generation; of measures which in their influence, reaching far beyond the limits of the county and of the state have become nation wide in extent and permanent in character. The article was originally prepared for the historical collection of the Michigan Pioneer Society.
The author, the Hon. John C. Patterson, recently deceased, was a native of Cal- houn county, having been born in the township of Eckford in the year 1838. He graduated from Hillsdale College in 1864, receiving the degree of A. B. in cursu .. and in 1867 from the law'department of Union University, N. Y. His professional life was spent in the city of Marshall. As a lawyer, he took high rank among the attorneys of the county. He was long a member of the Board of Trustees of his Alma Mater and for two terms was a member of the State Senate. Mr. Patterson was a man of high personal character and greatly esteemed by his fellow-citizens of the county. It is said that the preparation of the above article ocenpied his leisure time for more than two years.
1 Delivered at midwinter meeting, Jan. 13, 1909.
29
30
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
State, but have been rendered, exercised and felt over the United States, and in fact over the whole world. This city, this State, this nation and the world at large are under lasting obligations to Isaac E. Crary,2 the founder of the public school system of Michigan, to John D. Pierce,3 the organizer of the said public school system and the father of the Home- stead Exemption Law of Michigan, and to Charles T. Gorham, Oliver C. Comstock, Jr., Asa B. Cook, Jarvis Hurd, John M. Easterly, George Ingersoll, Herman Camp, Randal Hobart, Platner Moss, William Parker,
HON. JOHN C. PATTERSON
Charles Berger, James Smith, Hovey K. Clarke, Erastus Hussey and other citizens of Marshall, in arousing sentiments, directing influences, and in starting forces into action which eventually overthrew American slavery. It is not to be forgotten that many other workers were labor- ing for the same end, and for years had been preparing the way ; but the acts, counsel and influences of these Marshall men can be traced directly in a continuous course and by a connected chain of events into measures, and organization which eliminated African slavery from our land. It is the purpose of this paper to trace the little leaven while it was leaven- ing the whole lump, and to follow its influences and acts to final results.
2 See sketch, Vol. XIV, p. 282, this series.
3 See sketch, Vol. XXXV, p. 295, this series and Bingham Biographies, 582.
31
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
I.
ISAAC E. CRARY,
The Founder of the Public School System of Michigan
Isaac E. Crary was an influential member of the constitutional con- vention of 1835 which formulated our first state constitution. As chair- man of the Committee of Education, he drew up, reported and secured the adoption of the article on education in that instrument which, for the first time in American history, provided for the separate department of public instruction in the state government, with a constitutional officer at its head and which, for the first time in our history, provided that the title of section sixteen in each township, reserved in the ordinance of 1785 and consecrated by the ordinance of 1787 for the primary schools, should be vested in the State as trustee for the perpetual support of the common schools throughout the State, and which also, for the first time provided that the title to the university lands should be vested in the State as trustee, and that the income therefrom should become an endow- ment fund for the maintenance of the state university. These provisions not only applied to the lands already granted but to all lands which should afterwards be granted to the State.
In this article on education, which in the final arrangement became Article X of the constitution of 1835, conceived, formulated and reported by Isaac E. Crary, the separate department of education with an execu- tive officer at its head, was established, the broad scope of public instruc- tion was provided for, and the financial foundation of our public school system was secured. This article is now and always has been the Magna Charta of our public schools.4 Few persons have any adequate concep- tion of the broad scope and far-reaching influence of this article.
Isaac E. Crary was the founder of the public school system of Michi- gan. This proposition is not in accord with the popular opinion and is in conflict with much that has been published, and the original documents must be appealed to in order to determine his real historic status. On the fourth day of April, 1835, Isaac E. Crary was elected a delegate from Calhoun county to the constitutional convention to convene on the 11th of May following. On the 13th of May, Mr. Crary in convention moved a standing committee on education.5 On the 14th of May, Mr. Crary was appointed chairman of such committee." On the second day of June he reported the article on education7 and on the fifth day of June the said article without material change was adopted by the convention.8 On the 23d day of June, Mr. Crary was appointed a member of the com- mittee on the ordinance submitting the said constitution to Congress,9 and on the 24th day of June, the said ordinance was reported and
4 Report of Superintendent of Publie Instruction, 1880, pp. 297, 315; History of the University of Michigan, Hinsdale and Demmon, pp. 17, 18.
5 Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1835, p. 18.
6 Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1835, p. 26.
7 Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1835, p. 88.
8 Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1835, pp. 120-126.
9 Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1835, p. 218.
32
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
adopted by the convention. This ordinance, recognizing the then exist- ing policy of vesting the title of the school lands in the township, pro- posed a new policy and required that the title of the school lands be vested in the State as trustee for the support of the schools throughout the State as one of the conditions for admission into the Union. This proposed tenure of primary school lands would change the uniform practice of the federal government during its entire existence, and this provision was inserted in such ordinance by Mr. Crary to secure a change of such policy and to vest the educational lands in the State by con- gressional enactment as provided for in said Article X of the constitu- tion.
The constitution and accompanying ordinance10 were formulated and adopted by the convention in May and June, 1835, and three thousand copies were immediately published and distributed broadcast throughout the Territory. Thus these three new measures which have since revolu- tionized public school matters in this country were published to the world in the summer of 1835.11 This constitution was ratified by the people of the Territory on the first Monday of October, 1835, and at the same election Mr. Crary was elected a member of Congress. He went to Washington at the opening of the following session of Congress relying on the constitution as the foundation for his credentials, but in conse- quence of the boundary controversy, he was not seated for over fifteen months thereafter. The said constitution and accompanying ordinance were submitted to Congress by the President on the ninth of December, 1835.12 On the fifteenth day of June, 1836, Congress "accepted, rati- fied, and confirmed" the said constitution and thereby adopted Mr. Crary's system of land tenure, but it took no action on the accompany- ing ordinance.13 In the supplemental act of June 23, 1836, Congress rejected said ordinance as a whole, but it made a counter proposition to Michigan which contained Mr. Crary's system of vesting the title of educational lands.14
Mr. Crary, though not given his seat in Congress, was in Washington guarding and guiding this new measure. While working with the com- mittee, having charge of the legislation of Michigan's admission to the Union, fortunately the work of drawing up the ordinances of June 15th, and of June 23rd, 1836, were assigned to Mr. Crary. He discreetly drew the said ordinance of June 15th so as to obtain the assent of Congress to the provisions of said Article X of the constitution, and on the rejection of said ordinance he carefully drew the counter propo- sition to Michigan in the act of June 23rd so as to again secure the same result.15 Mr. Crary's influence is apparent upon the face of these meas-
10 Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1835, pp. 219-220; Publie Instruction and School Laws of 1852, p. 17.
11 Journal of Constitutional Convention of 1835, p. 221.
12 The Old Northwest, Hinsdale, p. 330.
13 U. S. Laws, 1835-1859, p. 337; 1 Brightly's Digest of the U. S. Laws, 1789 to 1859, p. 614; 5 U. S. Statutes at Large 49.
14 9 U. S. Laws, 1793 to 1859, p. 397; 1 Brightly's Digest of U. S. Laws, 1789 to 1859, p. 615; 5 U. S. Statutes at Large 59; Mich. Pioneer and Historical Colls., Vol. VII, p. 21.
15 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 40; Cooley's History of Michigan, p. 320.
33
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
ures. Fortunate indeed, was it for Michigan and for the cause of public instruction, that Mr. Crary was in Washington and secured by congres- sional compact his great measures embodied in the article on education in the constitution of 1835. This counter proposition of Congress to Michigan, containing the said ordinance of June 23rd, so far as the tenure of educational lands was concerned, was accepted by the legisla- ture of Michigan, July 28th, 1836.16 In this manner, the titles to the primary school lands and seminary lands were secured and forever vested in the State as trustee for the maintenance of such schools and university, by constitutional enactment and by congressional and legis- lative compact long before January 26th, 1837, when Michigan was formally admitted into the Union.
Mr. Crary's policy of vesting the title of the primary school lands in the State, as trustee for the people of the State at large, changed the policy of vesting the title of such school lands in the several townships to aid the schools therein, which had for fifty years been uniformly followed by the federal government. The ordinance of 1785 for the first time reserved school lands for public purposes, reserving section sixteen in each township "for the maintenance of the public schools within such township." In Ohio and Indiana, the primary school lands in each township had been "granted to the inhabitants of sueh townships for the use of schools."17
Such lands in Illinois had been "granted to the inhabitants of such townships for the use of schools."18
The school lands of Michigan were excepted from sale by the act of March 26th, 1804, as "section sixteen shall be reserved in each township for the support of schools within the same.''19
Mr. Crary clearly realized the weakness and dangers of the federal policy. He was also familiar with the barren and disastrous results of that policy in the other states previously organized out of the Northwest Territory.20 He conceived, formulated and secured the adoption of a poliey which avoided the weakness and dangers of the old system and secured the inestimable benefits of the new. Time and experience have demonstrated the wisdom of the Crary or the Michigan policy-it has been aecepted and followed by the federal government, and by all the states receiving primary school lands, which have since been admitted to the Union.21
Congress adopted this system of land tenure in its magnificent grant for agricultural colleges, July 2. 1862, vested the title in such lands in the several states as trustees, and required that the proceeds thereof be perpetually reserved as an endowment fund and that the interest thereof should forever be used for the "endowment, support and maintenance" of such schools.22
16 Laws of Michigan for 1836, pp. 39, 49.
17 2 U. S. Statutes at Large, 173, and 3 U. S. Statutes at Large, 389.
18 3 U. S. Statutes at Large, 428.
19 U. S. Laws, 1789-1818, p. 598.
20 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1880, p. 51:
21 Mich. Semi-Centennial Address, Sill. pp. 199, 200.
22 12 U. S. Statutes at Large, 503; 2 Brightly's Digest of U. S. Laws, 1857-1865, p. 289.
Vol. 1-3
34
HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Thus Isaac E. Crary though dead, rendered invaluable services in securing the endowment for the Michigan Agricultural College. Mr. Crary's great measure, for the first time set down in Section 1 of Article X of the Constitution of 1835, providing for an independent department of public instruction with a constitutional officer in the State govern- ment, has been copied by nearly all the states, and the Federal Bureau of Education is an outgrowth of this measure. Mr. Crary's wise states- manship not only secured and provided for our magnificent school funds, but being followed by other states, it has been the approximate cause of securing the magnificent school funds in those states adopting his system. The seminary or university lands in Ohio were conveyed directly to the universities or companies, receiving such lands for the purposes of the universities and the title was never vested in the State. Such lands in Indiana and Illinois were respectively "vested in the legislature of said State to be appropriated solely to the use of such seminary by said legislature."23 One township of our university land was excepted from sale by said act of March 26, 1804, as a township "for the use of a semi- nary of learning."
It will be observed that in these states, the seminary and university lands and the proceeds thereof were placed in a general fund, available for any seminary or university purpose whatever in the discretion of the legislature. Mr. Crary secured a radical change in the nature of these funds. Section 3 of Article X of the constitution of 1835 provided that the proceeds from such lands "shall be and remain a permanent fund for the purpose of said university." The ordinance of the constitutional convention setting forth the conditions upon which the Territory was willing to be admitted into the Union provided that the university lands should be conveyed to the State and "shall be appropriated solely for the use and support of such university in the manner as the legislature may prescribe," and the congressional ordinance of June 23rd, 1826, in the counter proposition to Michigan used the language above quoted. These words were written by Isaac E. Crary and were crystallized into constitutional enactment and congressional compact by the magie of his genius. These words converted the general funds under the Indiana and Illinois policy into a specific and perpetual endowment fund for the Michigan university.
This endowment fund sustained the university for thirty years of its most critical history, and enabled it to make a name, and to acquire a fame as a great educational institution, which attracted to it and over- whelmed it with students and compelled the legislature to. come to its relief and provide means to accommodate the ever increasing hosts of students from all over the world, knocking at its doors for admission. Michigan university thus founded and endowed, to-day not only stands in the first rank of such institutions, but is the acknowledged model of all the flourishing state universities in the west.
It must not be forgotten that Mr. Crary completed his great work for education in the constitutional convention and Congress prior to June
23 U. S. Statutes at Large 220, 428; 1 Brightly's Digest of Laws of 1815-1819, pp. 69, 294.
35
1184659 IHISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY
26th, 1836. Where was Jolin D. Pierce, the alleged founder of the public school system, during the time that Mr. Crary was doing this work? He was an obscure missionary in the wilds of Michigan, unknown out- side the little hamlet where he resided and by a few scattering pioneers in the vieinity, who were fortunate enough to receive his ministrations.
Mr. Crary gave to Michigan three measures which have produced our magnificent school system, viz:
First-Ile created a centralized department of public instruction with a constitutional officer at its head in the state government.
Second-Ile vested the entire primary school funds in the State to be held by the State as trustee and required the income thereof to be appor- tioned for "the support of schools throughout the State" forever.
Third-He converted a general fund, available for any university pur- pose into a specific endowment fund for Michigan university, and vested the title of such funds in the State as sole trustee and required the in- come thereof to be perpetually used for the maintenance of said univer- sity. Mr. Crary grasped the principle that centralization was essential for prompt and effectual power, and he incorporated that principle into his measures for educational supervision, tenure of educational lands and administration of educational funds. While the department of edu- cation was borrowed from the centralized Prussian system, Mr. Crary adapted it to a republican form of local self-government. In the tenure of educational lands, he rejected the assumption that the township was the unit of all government, and that the township meeting was the source of all political power, which up to his time, had molded the federal poliey ; and he made the State sovereign over the public schools and of educational funds. Truly Mr. Crary possessed the understanding to conceive, the wisdom to direct and the hand to execute the essential elements of successful statesmanship.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.