USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 34
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From 1870 to 1875 the extension of the school system was very rapid. not less than eight new school houses of brick and wood being built to accommodate the increasing demands of the growing city. The Potter School in the First Ward, and the Houghton School in the Third Ward, both wooden buildings of four rooms each, and containing sittings to the number of two hundred and thirty. were erected in 1870. Following these was the new Hoyt School built to replace the old "Academy," which was burned in 1871. The new school, a fine modern structure of brick, con- taining six rooms and sittings for three hundred and twenty-five scholars, was opened on November 11, 1872. About twenty years later this building was rebuilt and enlarged, requiring ten teachers to instruct the four hun- dred scholars it accommodates.
The Emerson School in the Sixth Ward, a brick building containing four rooms and accommodations for two hundred and ten pupils, was added in 1872: and the following year the Salina School, a wooden building with four rooms, was incorporated in the school system by the village of South Saginaw consolidating with East Saginaw. In 1874 the Jones School in the Fourth Ward, and the Sweet School in the Seventh Ward, were built. Both of these buildings were of brick and added nearly four hundred sittings to the former capacity of the schools. In recent years all the old wooden buildings have been replaced with large modern structures, perfectly fur- nished and equipped with the best appurtenances for the training of the youthful mind.
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OUR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professor Tarbell's Unique Action
In 1874 the Board of Education made a contract with Professor Tar- bell for three years service at three thousand dollars a year; and two years later, when the city passed through a period of financial depression, he sent the following communication to the board :
"In recognition of the importance of making the burdens of the tax- payers as light as possible, and in hope that a concession on my part may aid in maintaining the several departments of the schools unchanged, and the salaries of the teachers untouched. I hereby suggest and consent that the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars only for the superintendent be included in the estimates for the coming year."
This is the first, and probably the only, case upon the records of a man's salary being reduced at his own suggestion.
The Board of Education which, during this period of expansion, directed the improvements and additions to the school system of East Saginaw, was composed of some of the leading men of the city, and deserve honorable mention in this connection. In 1868 the members of the board were: Edwin Aiken, president : A. P. Brewer, John S. Estabrook, C. O. Garrison ; George W. Merrill, Leander Simoneau, inspectors; and George Maurer, secretary. The presidents of the board were: W. L. P. Little, 1859; W. J. Bartow, 1860; John J. Wheeler, 1861-62-64-65; John B. Dillingham, 1863; Edwin Burt, 1866-67; Edwin Aiken, 1868; George C. Warner. 1869-70; Charles E. Doughty, 1871: George W. Morley, 1872: Chester B. Jones, 1873 to 1875; llenry M. Youmans, 1876 to 1878; Alex. G. Anderson, 1879; Edwin Saunders, 1880 to 1882.
Mr. Tarbell's successor was Professor J. C. Jones, the principal events of whose superintendency were the establishing of the Training School for teachers: the crection of a new High School building in 1880; and the inauguration of the free text-book system in the Fall of 1885. While the necessary preparation for adopting the free text-book system was made under the supervision of Professor Jones, the details of its execution were carried out by Professor C. B. Thomas, he having been called to take charge of the schools on the resignation of Mr. Jones, in 1885. Probably no one measure ever adopted by the board has been productive of more beneficial results than this, and the example of Saginaw has since been followed by the principal cities of Michigan.
The new High School which stands at the corner of Warren Avenue and Millard Street, was originally an eleven room, two-story brick building. in which but three rooms were used for assembling pupils, the others being used as recitation rooms. It was heated by hot air coal furnaces, a marked advance over the old method of heating the schools by wood and coal stoves; and it had sittings for two hundred and eighty-two scholars. In 1893 this building was remodeled and enlarged at a cost of thirty-two thou- sand dollars, increasing the capacity to six hundred pupils, and providing a chemical laboratory, a physical laboratory, and an assembly hall with gallery.
Professor Thomas continued as head of the schools until late in 1890. being succeeded by Professor C. N. Kendall, and he by A. S. Whitney. From 1884 to 1890 the lloyt, the Emerson, the Potter, and the Jones schools were all replaced with modern school buildings, built of brick, and equipped with the most approved systems of heating and ventilating. One entirely new school. the Washington, was built at South Saginaw ; and modern methods of heating and ventilating applied to all the other schools. In more recent years the Longfellow School, and the new Salina School, both brick structures perfectly equipped, have been added to the school system.
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A GROUP OF EAST SIDE SCHOOLS
Potter Longfellow
Houghton High Hoyt
Salina Emerson
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OUR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Under Mr. Kendall's supervision the Kindergarten was made a part of our school system, being gradually extended to the various schools of the city. Besides maintaining the work of all departments at the high standard attained by able instructors, special attention was then being directed to physical and moral training. Thus, by reaching out to form and develop the three-fold nature of the child; the moral, the intellectual, and the physi- cal, it was believed that the schools would, in a wider sense than ever before. be the nurseries of good citizenship.
The Burt Manual Training School
Following advanced ideas, the course of study in our schools aims to be of such a practical character as to fit its students, so far as possible. for the actual work of life. Besides the time-honored subjects of instruction, there are modern enrichments of the course of study in drawing, music. nature study and manual training, with competent supervisors at the head of each department. The Saginaw High School with its splendid equipment. is particularly strong in its physical, chemical and biological laboratories. and its library is well supplied with needful reference books. Since 1879 this school has enjoyed the privilege of entering its graduate students in the University of Michigan without examination.
In its facilities for manual training - the teaching of trades and voca- tional occupations, the Saginaw High School is in a fortunate position. Through the noble generosity of Wellington R. Burt, the city schools possess a manual training department of unusual excellence. Imbued with the idea of affording a practical course of helpful studies to advanced pupils, Mr. Burt was the forerunner of manual training in the valley. As a result of his interest in the cause of practical education for the young, of all classes and creeds, and the contribution of a fund of about two hundred thousand dollars, there was opened in September, 1'05, the magnificent Manual Train- ing High School, which, with its complete equipment and swimming pool. represents an investment, including the city's share, of a quarter of a million dollars. Its equipment includes machinery and tools for wood and iron work for the boys, and sewing and cooking for the girls.
THE BURT MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
On the first floor of the spacious building, which is built of paving brick and stone, and directly opposite the High School, are two rooms for wood- working, one for carpentry and joinery, and the other for wood turning and pattern making. In these shops thorough instruction is given in joinery and cabinet making, as well as in the use of the wood lathe, planer, drills and light tools. On this floor is also the clay modeling room, where oppor- tunity is afforded for work in clay, a kiln for firing clay work being located in the foundry room. The foundry is thoroughly equipped for molding, also for casting in iron, lead and brass, having an iron cupola and brass furnace and a core oven. The forge shop has twenty Sturtevant down-draft forges. and the same number of one hundred and thirty pound anvils. In the machine shop are twelve lathes, including a Reed lathe with motor directly attached. There are also a Gray planer, shaper, Cincinnati milling machine, Stuart gas furnace, and Landis universal grinder.
On the second floor are the two drawing rooms, one for mechanical and one for free-hand drawing, the mechanical and technical library and reading room, and the offices of E. C. Warriner, the superintendent of schools. A unique feature of this floor is the suite of rooms illustrating all the typical rooms of a house, for the teaching of domestic economy. This suite of rooms comprises a kitchen, butler's pantry, dining room, reception room and bed room. These rooms are all plainly but appropriately fur- nished, the bed room affording opportunity for instruction in the elements of nursing. The three sewing rooms are on the third floor and are equipped with tables, drawers, showcases, sewing machines and other appurtenances. The stenography and typewriting room and the bookkeeping department are also located on this Hoor.
To afford physical training of boys and girls there is a splendidly equipped gymnasium, thirty-nine by seventy-four feet in size, with locker rooms for both sexes adjoining. Connected with this popular and valuable accessory to the school by a passageway, is the bath house and swimming pool. The pool is twenty-two by sixty feet in dimensions, with water three feet deep at one end and six feet at the other. In the bath house are tub and shower baths, with a hair dryer for drying women's hair. In the swimming pool instruction is given to High School pupils, as well as to those of the seventh and eighth grades, in the art of swimming. The pool is kept open during the summer months for the benefit of school children.
As a further adjunct to practical education, evening classes are main- tained in school each winter in machine shop practice, mechanical drawing, sewing, cooking, stenography, bookkeeping and woodworking. A complete course of this important branch of study is also given in grades below the High School. In the first four grades the work is done by the regular grade teachers, under the direction of a supervisor, and consists of paper folding, weaving with raffia and yarn, and basket making with raffia and reed. In the fifth and sixth grades the work is done by two special teachers who go from school to school, visiting each of these grades once a week. The work here consists of elementary sewing for the girls and knife work for the boys. In the seventh and eighth grades there are special teachers for cooking and bench work in wood. There are two woodworking centres for the seventh and eighth grades, one at the Manual Training School, and the other at the Salina School, and two cooking centres for the girls, one at the Central School, and the other at the Washington.
The Board of Education of Saginaw (East Side), in 1915, was com- posed of the following members: Dr. William F. English, president ; Gustav F. Oppermann, vice-president ; J. Will Grant, Dr. Charles P. Stone, Frank E. Bastian, George 11. Zuckermandel, Hamilton Watson, Ilenry
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FOUNDRY
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WWOOD TURNING SHOP
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MECHANICAL LIBRARY
DINING ROOM
INTERIOR OF BURT MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
Ben Dissinger Macht.
THE NEW GERMANIA SCHOOL, COMPLETED IN 1914
Witters, William J. Johnson, Charles W. Thompson, John Gerhart and Bertram A. Wright. The secretary of the Board, who has served in that capacity for thirteen years, is William C. Klumpp; and the office of super- intendent has been filled with marked ability by E. C. Warriner, for a period of twenty years.
During the school year of 1914-15 the total enrollment of the Saginaw, East Side, schools was five thousand and forty-four; the average number belonging was forty-two hundred and fifty-two, while the average daily attendance was forty-one hundred and thirteen. The number of teachers employed, including special teachers and supervisors, was one hundred and hfty-five. The total valuation of the fourteen school buildings, the complete equipment and appurtenances approaches a million dollars. In the school year of 1914-15 the cost of maintaining the schools was two hundred and eleven thousand five hundred dollars, including purchase of new school site, renewals, library and new books, payment of bonds, etc., which amounted in the aggregate to thirty-four thousand dollars.
Sectarian and Parochial Schools
Besides the public schools there are a number of sectarian and parochial schools maintained by various church societies of the city. On the East Side are the Roman Catholic schools of St. Joseph's, St. Mary's, Holy Family, Holy Rosary and Sacred Heart churches, and the schools of St. John's, St. Paul's and Trinity Evangelical of the Lutheran body. On the West Side are the schools of Holy Cross and SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Churches, St. Andrew's Academy, also of that body, and the Michigan Luth- eran Seminary. These schools, in addition to the usual English and German branches, mathematics, history and the sciences, instruct the pupils in the strict religious tenets peculiar to their faith.
The First Public Library
Coincident with the beginning of education in this county arose the need for books, with which to instruct the youth and to enlighten the minds of older persons. The more intelligent pioneers had brought with them to the
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OUR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
forest wilderness such of their books as they cared to preserve, and thus whiled away many of the dreary hours of winter. Although few in number, the books filled a niche in the life of the early settlers, and were made to do multiple service by being loaned about from house to house.
When the school under Horace S. Beach was thoroughly organized in 1836, someone conceived the idea of making a collection of such books as the owners would donate, for the purpose of founding a public library. Though their means were limited and their possessions small, their interest in educa- tion was strong, and they responded liberally. In a short space of time a carefully selected list of books was prepared, and the volumes collected and shelved in the school house, which stood near the site of the present court house.
From the dim and musty records of the past has come to light an inter- esting letter written the following year by Norman Little, in regard to books for the newly founded library of the Mechanics' Association. It was evi- dently the custom to request of new comers a donation of books to the library, and in this particular instance the letter addressed to Daniel HI. Fitzhugh, of Geneseo, Livingston County, New York, anticipated his taking up a resi- dence here. He afterward moved his family to this valley, locating on land south of the Tittabawassee opposite Riverside Park, where he lived for many years.
Written long before the days of steel pens, fading ink and rotting paper. this letter. manifesting the enterprising spirit of the writer, comes down to us well preserved and perfectly legible. Before the invention of the paper envelope a sheet of foolscap, upon which the message was written, was made to serve a double purpose. One-half of the back of the sheet was left blank, and the sheet was so fokdled that this was on the outside with the flaps within. It was then sealed with wax and addressed Postage stamps had not yet come into use, but the postage, which then was twenty-five cents, was indi- cated by figures placed in the upper right hand corner.
This letter of Mr. Little's has been framed with glass over both sides of the sheet, and hung in the new Butman-Fish Memorial Library on the West Side. It is a unique message of a by-gone age penned by the founder of our city and of such unusual interest that it is reproduced in facsimile.
The list of books comprising the Mechanics Library in 1837, which was included in the letter, embraced standard works of philosophy, history, biog- raphy, travel and religious subjects. There were "The Philosophy of Sleep." "Dick's Mental Illumination," "Pierre's Study of Nature." "Theory of Another Life," "Shaw's Architecture." "MeIntosh's England." "History of Italy." "Henderson's Brazil," "Plutarch's Lives," and works of Johnson, Burns, Goldsmith and Sterne. "Pilgrim's Progress," "Paul and Virginia," "Gil Blas." "Gregory's Letters to His Son," were also on the list with "Irving's Works." and the novels of Bulwer, Scott and Cooper.
Other titles sound strange to devotees of present-day literature, and the contents of some books, though of deep and serious nature, would no doubt cause some merriment today. "Guide to the Thoughtful." "Treasury of Knowledge," "Spiritual Despotism," and "Hervey's Meditation" hardly fit in with modern thought and ideas, while "Mother at Home." "Father's Book," "Poor but Happy," "Beauty of Female Holiness." "Fireside Piety." "Placid Man." "Thinks I to Myself," and "Man as He is Not" are quite without the realm of good reading in this age. In all there were three hundred and ninety-one volumes in the collection, some of which are still to be found on the shelves of the West Side School Library.
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FACSIMILE OF LETTER WRITTEN BY NORMAN LITTLE IN 1837 (The signature appears on the margin at the lower right hand corner.)
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300
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
The Public and Union School Library
From this small beginning made by Norman Little and others nearly eighty years ago, has been developed the useful and efficient library on the West Side. The collapse of the speculative boom in 1838 was followed by a period of extreme depression in this valley, and not until 1849 did the four or five hundred inhabitants of Saginaw City notice any indication of returning prosperity. The school and the church had struggled along miserably, and not until several years after were these institutions of our social fabric thor- oughly organized. In 1857 the early collection of books, augmented by per- sonal donations from time to time, was re-established as a public library, and eight years later when the Union School District was organized it was turned over to the first school board. Thereafter it was known as the "Public and Union School Library of Saginaw City."
When the Central School on Court Street was completed in 1868, the library was removed to a suitable room on the first floor of that building. In the fire of 1895, which nearly destroyed the imposing old school house, the books of the library were greatly damaged by water and smoke, but all those not rendered useless were carefully dried and cleaned, and removed tempor- arily to a room in the High School. During the reconstruction the library was conducted there, but upon the opening of the John Moore School, which replaced the old Central, it was removed to a basement room in the new building. Although a high and well ventilated basement, some damage re- sulted to the books from dampness, and the library was moved in September, 1900, to the Kindergarten building in the same block. It remained there until November, 1915, when upon completion of the new Butman-Fish Memorial Library building, it was installed therein. Since September, 1899, the library has been in charge of Miss Anna Benjamin, whose ability and fitness for the position are recognized by students and citizens generally.
The Butman-Fish Memorial Library
Several years ago, when the need arose for a suitable building to accom- modate the Public and Union School Library, the interest and co-operation of some prominent families of the West Side were solicited to provide it. The idea was for one family to erect a library buikling, specially designed for present and future needs, as a memorial to those who have passed to the beyond. Among the persons of generous and philanthropic nature who were thus approached were Mrs. Myron Butman and her daughter, Mrs. Mary P. Fish. Through a life-long friendship with the librarian they knew the needs of the library, and also the possibilities of greater usefulness. After much thought and consideration they decided to provide a handsome edifice, which would stand for ages as a fitting memorial to husband and father, the late Myron Butman.
Before definite plans could be formulated and put into execution both Mrs. Butman and Mrs. Fish were stricken by death. Fortunately for the library their ideas and often expressed wishes have been duly respected by the executors of the estate, for not long after their death the sum of twenty- five thousand dollars was made available to the trustees of the Union School District, for the purpose intended. Afterward, when it became evident that this amount was insufficient to complete the structure, the sum of five thon- sand dollars was added to the gift.
While the total amount thus given has provided a very suitable and con- venient library building, especially designed for the purpose, the needs of the future, owing to want of adequate funds, have been little considered. The sum regarded as necessary for the proper fulfillment of the project was fifty
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OUR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
EE EE
THE BUTMAN-FISH MEMORIAL LIBRARY
thousand dollars. This amount was often named by the librarian in confer- ence with Mrs. Butman and Mrs. Fish, on the subject, and it is believed that they fully intended to make a bequest to the library in this sum. Neverthe- Jess, the stately building which has risen by their misdirected munificence, stands as a noble monument alike to the memory of one of Saginaw's fore- most and upright citizens, and to his wife and daughter.
The new library building is conveniently and appropriately situated on the John Moore School grounds, at the corner of Harrison and Hancock Streets. Built of dark paving brick embellished by trimmings of Bedford stone, the structure presents a rather imposing appearance. Entering through the wide portico, flanked by lofty columns of the lonic order of archi- tecture, a vestibule and hall leads direct to the librarian's desk and book stacks. The stacks are arranged around three sides of the bay, and rise to and above a gallery which is reached by short steps conveniently placed. For both reference and circulation the library now contains about eighteen thou- sand volumes, including the best of current literature. On either side of the hall are spacious reading and study rooms, admirably lighted and made cheer- ful by huge fire places at the ends. One of these rooms is intended for the exclusive use of children and the other for adults.
From the vestibule double stairways lead to the floor above. Here was recently established a museum of prehistoric and Indian relies and antiquities of real value and interest. In the collection already assembled is the splen- didly arranged group of Indian relies and curios of Mr. Fred Dustin, mention of which was made and some illustration given in the first chapter of this work. This is well worth a careful examination and study. The walls of the three rooms on this floor were designed for the hanging of paintings and other works of art, and special attention has been given to correct lighting to insure the proper effects. It is believed that eventually this division of the library will contain many public and individual groups of valuable paintings. works of art, curios and relies of a bygone age, to be handed down in proper form to posterity.
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
The Public Library
Like other collections of books for public circulation in pioneer days, the Public Library of the East Side had a small and insignificant beginning. As early as May 5, 1859, a committee was appointed by the school board to con- sider the subject of a library, and to make a report on an ordinance for gov- ernment of same. This committee reported "that the whole library of the School District No. 1 of the Township of Buena Vista belongs to this board." The clerk of the board was thereupon instructed to ascertain and report to the board "the present condition of the library and the books now absent and in whose hands, and also to make a catalog of the books now belonging to the library." Morgan L. Gage was appointed librarian to take possession of the books. On September 13, 1859, the board requested the common council to raise by tax one hundred dollars for library purposes.
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