USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan > Part 79
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In 1899-1900 the attendance was 3.441, of whom 2,006 were from Michigan and the bal- ance from forty-seven states and territories and
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from foreign countries. A new hospital was erected for the homeopathie medical college on a site purchased by the city of Ann Arbor at an expense to the city of $17.000. This site joins the university campus on the northeast. A unique collection of musical instruments was presented to the university by Frederick Stearns, and Mrs. Elizabeth H. Bates bequeathed to the university as an endowment for certain purposes in the medical department land valued at $130,000. In 1901 the attendance reached 3.710. The gradu- ate school had grown so that there were now 108 graduate students in attendance. Mrs. Love M. Palmer, widow of Dr. Alonzo B. Palmer, for thirty-five years a professor in the medical de- partment, bequeathed $20,000 for the erection of a ward to the university hospital, and $15,000 as an endowment for the maintenance of this ward. The legislature also in this year appropriated $50,000 for a psychopathic ward.
A new general catalogue was completed in 1902, from which it was seen that, down to 1901, 17,887 persons had been graduated from the Uni- versity of Michigan. Of this number, 6,657 were graduates in law, 4,553 were graduates of the literary department. 3.523 were graduates of med- icine, 1,005 were graduates in dental surgery, 840 of pharmacy, 786 in engineering, 372 from the homeopathie college, and 151 honorary de- grees had been given. Of this number 2,186 were known to have died. The catalogue con- tained the names of 29.728 persons who had been for a longer or shorter period enrolled in the university, and it was estimated that of this num- ber 25,000 were then living. The university library now had 165,000 volumes. A new medical building had been constructed and a new engi- neering building, the most costly of all the build- ings on the campus, had been started. Hon. D. M. Ferry donated seventeen acres of land adja- cent to the athletic field, which now comprises about forty acres and was hereafter to be known as Ferry Field. A school of forestry was started in 1903 which bid fair to become an important adjunct to the university. A Pasteur Institute was organized and has already relieved a large number of patients. By 1904 the attendance in the university had reached 3.957 and the students
came from every state and territory, except Dela- ware and South Carolina. The university library now contained 182,680 volumes, 4,000 pamphlets and 2,250 maps. The university hospital had re- ceived during the year 2.382 and the homeopathic hospital 1.727 patients. The Pasteur Institute had treated during the year about thirty cases of persons bitten by dogs supposed to be mad. The attendance at the summer school had grown to 647. In 1905 the attendance passed the 4,000 mark and totaled 4,136, and already for the year 1906 the enrollment reaches 4,521. The attend- ance at the last summer session was 690.
CHAPTER XIII.
TIIE STATE NORMAL COLLEGE.
The State Normal College is located at Ypsi- lanti. Until recent years it was known as the Ypsilanti Normal school. When it was first opened there were but five normal schools in the United States, the oldest of which was fourteen years of age. There was no school west of Al- bany, New York. "Father" Pierce, who did so much toward founding the Michigan school sys- tem, with the university as its cap sheaf, as early as 1837 in his first report to the new state of Michigan referred to normal schools in outlining a school system for the state, but did not recom- mend the immediate establishment of one. Suc- ceeding superintendents referred to normal col- leges without recommendations, but in 1847 Mr. Pierce, in the report of the board of visitors to the university which he wrote, urged the estab- lishment of a normal school and the appropria- tion of Salt Spring lands for this purpose. Va- rious bills were introduced in the legislature look- ing toward this end, but it was not until March 28, 1849, that the governor was enabled to sign an act organizing a normal school. This act created a state board of education of three mem- bers, appointed by the governor, together with the lieutenant-governor, state superintendent of public instruction and state treasurer. The first board consisted of Samuel Barstow. Randolph
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Manning, Samuel Newberry, Francis W. Sher- man and William M. Fenton, which was soon changed by the substitution of Isaac E. Crary and Elias M. Skinner for Randolph Manning and Samuel Newberry, and the addition of State Treasurer George P. Cooper. The legislature appropriated twenty-five acres of Salt Springs lands for the support of the new institution. Propositions were received for the location of the new school in the form of bids, and in September, 1849. Ypsilanti, Jackson, Marshall, Gull Prairie and Niles applied for the location of the school.
Ypsilanti offered $13,500, and, upon certain conditions, the salary of the principal teacher of the model school for not exceeding five years at no more than $700 a year. Jackson offered land for a site and $10,335. Marshall offered five acres of land. Niles offered land for a site and $5.000. Gull Prairie, in Kalamazoo county, of- fered land and $7.364 in cash. Gull Prairie today has not even attained the dignity of having ob- tained a postoffice, but they put up a strong argu- ment as being retired just enough to be free from dissipating and immoral influences, with low liv- ing expenses, and as the point "that Nature or the God of Nature had arranged for the special accommodation of the State Normal School of Michigan." The board, after examining the propositions, selected Ypsilanti, as offering the most liberal proposition and a site convenient of access to all parts of the state in a village large enough to furnish every facility for boarding students. Several sites in Ypsilanti were placed at the disposal of the board. Finally the site where the main building of the normal school now stands was selected and four acres were donated by the citizens of Ypsilanti. Subse- quently the board purchased adjoining property, causing the original site to contain six acres. A three story brick building, 102 x 56 feet in size, was erected and dedicated on October 5. 1852, costing $15,200. Of this amount $12,000 was paid by the citizens of Ypsilanti. The remain- der of the cost of furnishing was paid out of the sale of Salt Spring lands. The total cost of build- ing and furnishing was $20.296.64. This build- ing was burned on Friday night, October 28,
1859, together with the furniture and a library of 1,500 volumes. It was insured for $8,000. Tem- porary quarters were secured for the school and within a week a contract was made with Benja- min Follett to repair the burned building. Con- siderable alterations were made in the plan of the building and a practically new building was ready for occupancy in April, 1860.
Early in the history of the school attempts were made to provide for physical culture but the legislature failed to make the desired appropria- tions. About 1861 a small building costing about $1,200 saved out of the ordinary appropriation made for the school, was constructed and fur- nished with some inexpensive apparatus, but there were no funds for the employment of a special teacher, and instruction was consequently irregu- lar and intermittent. The "old gymnasium" was burned with its contents on the night of August I, 1873.
At one time the proposed establishment of an agricultural college was placed in charge of the board of education which had charge of the Ypsi- lanti Normal School, and in March, 1864, it was proposed by Benjamin Follett, of Ypsilanti, that the board of education establish an agricultural library and cabinet on the normal school grounds, the board to appropriate $2,000 for the erection of such a building on condition that the citizens of Ypsilanti raise $3.000. The citizens also pro- posed to raise $250 a year to make collections for the library and museum on condition that the board appropriate an equal amount. The propo- sition was accepted by the board and a building 70 x 40 feet, two stories high, was erected for this purpose. Its completion, however, was de- layed so long that it was not finished until the fall of 1865. By this time the interest in the project had been lost on the part of agricultur- ists, and the agricultural society which had ex- pended $3.250 on the building assigned all its rights to the board of education. In 1869 the legislature appropriated $7.500 to complete this building and to grade the normal school grounds, and in January. 1870, the name of the building was changed from Normal Museum to the New Normal School Building. From its completion
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until 1882 it was used for the training school. Since 1882 it has been largely occupied by the conservatory of music, which, from 1886 to March, 1897, occupied the upper story.
In 1872 the legislature appropriated $30,000 for an addition to the main building of the Nor- mal. This addition was 88x93 feet, and in build- ing it the old part of the building was remodeled and raised so that the total cost exceeded the ap- propriation by about $13.000. Of this excess the citizens of Ypsilanti contributed $2,000 for the building of the tower at the north corner and the balance was paid out of the current expense fund of the institution. In 1881 another appropriation of $25,000 was made for the building of a second addition to the main building, 112x53 feet in size, to be devoted to the training school and for in- creasing the facilities of the Normal department. The new addition was ready for occupancy in September. 1882.
In 1887 the legislature appropriated $60,000 with which two wings were erected on the north and south side of the central building, each about 100 feet in length and about 50 feet wide. At the same time a separate boiler house was erected. The rapid increase in attendance at the Normal had made imperative the erection of larger quar- ters. In 1892 two more additions were made for laboratories, each 24x30 feet in size and costing $8,000.
The University of Michigan had time and again tried to get an appropriation from the legis- lature for a university gymnasium, but without success. In fact the legislature never appropriated a dollar for the university gymnasium. The rural legislators always maintained that sawbucks were all the gymnastic apparatus necessary for the maintenance of good health. The Ypsilanti Normal. however, was more fortunate, or rather their application for a gymnasium was more dip- lomatically put. In all the talk before the legis- lature, the word "gymnasium" was tabooed, and in 1893 an appropriation of $20,000 was secured for the erection of a building for "physical cul- ture." The procuring of a site for this building proved difficult, and in this emergency the citi- zens of Ypsilanti, by voluntary subscription, raised enough money to buy an acre on the south
side of Cross street, opposite the Normal campus, and on this the new building was located. The new building, 100x100 feet in size and devoted in equal parts to the use of the young women and young men, was dedicated on May 18, 1894.
The increase in attendance upon the Normal began to crowd the quarters of the training school, and in 1895 $25,000 was appropriated for the erection of a training school building. The site question again became troublesome, but the citizens of Ypsilanti again came to the rescue and agreed to purchase and donate a site, which was done at a cost to the city of $8.500. This new site upon which the training school is located con- sists of three acres just west of the old campus. The new training school building was first oc- cupied in April, 1897.
In November. 1895, Mrs. Mary Starkweather, of Ypsilanti, gave the Students' Christian Associa- tion $10,000 towards the erection of Starkweather Hall, the beautiful home of the Students' Christian Association. The association had been endeavor- ing to raise money for some time and had secured over $1,000 when Mrs. Starkweather's gift en- abled them to proceed with the erection of the building. The new building was completed and dedicated on March 26, 1897, at a cost of $11.000. It is 62x56 feet in size, constructed of field stone, and is admirably arranged for the purpose for which it is intended.
After the burning of the library of 1.500 volumes in 1859 an attempt was made to secure an appropriation for a new library, but the excit- ing events of the Civil war occupied the center of the stage and no appropriation could be se- cured. An appeal was made to the Normal stu- dents themselves, and the students agreed they each would pay $2 over and above the regular en- trance fee to be applied for the purpose of books. Shortly after this the board appropriated $2 of the entrance fee of each student for library pur- poses, but soon this was discontinued and each student was required to pay an annual library fee of 50 cents. In 1872 the library contained only 1,200 volumes. A small appropriation was se- cured from the legislature and the number was in- creased in 1876 to 1.600 volumes. In 1881 the li- brary had 2,100 volumes, and from this date its
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growth began. In 1884 there were 6,000 volumes, and by 1899 the number had reached 20,000. In five years 7,000 volumes were added, making a total of 27,000 in 1004. The first salaried librarian was appointed in 1884 and was Miss Florence Goodison, who served until 1800. William S. Burns was librarian in 1801, and in 1892 Miss Genevieve M. Walton was appointed librarian, and she is still acting in that capacity.
The first principal of the Normal was Professor A. S. Welch, who was born in Easthampton, Conn., in April, 1821, and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1846. He was princi- pal of the Union school at Jonesville. the first school of the kind in the state. His success here led to his appointment as principal of the Nor- mal in 1852. The first term of the Normal opened March 20, 1853. In 1859 Professor Welch spent a year in Europe, and during his ab- sence Professor J. M. B. Sill, who had been teaching in the school from the beginning. acted as principal. On Professor Welch's return from Europe he continued as principal until Septem- ber. 1865, when he resigned on account of ill- health, going to Florida where, in 1867, he was elected to fill out a short term in the United States senate. In 1868 he was made president of the Agricultural College of Iowa, which position he filled for 15 years, finally resigning on account of ill-health, but remaining with the institution as professor emeritus until his death in March. 1880.
Professor David Porter Mayhew succeeded Professor Welch as principal in 1865. He was a graduate of Union college in the class of 1837. and had been principal of the Lowville (New York) Academy for 15 years ; had taught a year in Cleveland and a year in Columbus, and from 1856 was a teacher of sciences in the Normal, until his appointment as principal in 1865. He resigned the principalship in 1871. He resided in Detroit until his death.
For a short time Professor C. F. R. Bellows acted as principal. He was born in New Hamp- shire in October. 1832; graduated from the Nor- mal School in 1855, and took an engineering de- gree in the university in 1864. In 1864 he was appointed to the chair of mathematics in the Nor- mal School, which he occupied for 24 years. When
the Central Michigan Normal School was organ- ized at Mount Pleasant, Professor Bellows was appointed its principal, a position which he subse- quently resigned and he returned to Ypsilanti.
Joseph Estabrook was appointed principal of the Normal in 1871. Professor Estabrook was born in Bath, N. H., July 3, 1820. He gradu- ated from Berlin in 1847. and afterwards re- ceived the degrees of A. M. and D. D. from this college. From 1853 to 1866 he was principal of the schools at Ypsilanti, and seems to have left a great impress npon the community. He was then made superintendent of the East Saginaw schools until 1871. On leaving the Normal, in 1880, he went to Olivet college, where he remained until his death. He had served as state superinten- dent of instruction for four years, and as regent of the itniversity for six years.
In 1880 Malcom McVicar, a Scotchman by birth, was appointed principal, which position he held but one year, resigning to become a mem- ber of the faculty of a Baptist college in Toronto, Can. He was a Baptist minister and had re- ceived the degree of B. A. from Rochester Uni- versity, Ph. D. from the University of New York, and L.L. D. from the University of Rochester. In 1888 he was appointed chancellor of MacMaster University.
After Professor Mclicar left the institution, Professor Daniel Putnam acted as principal until 1883. He was born in New Hampshire, January 28. 1824, graduated from Dartmouth in 1851, came to Michigan in 1854, and was professor of the Latin language and literature in Kalamazoo College for seven years, and for one year acted as president of the college. In 1868 he accepted a professorship in the Normal school, and has re- mained with the institution since that date. He has served Ypsilanti both as mayor and alderman. He holds the degree of LL. D. from the Univer- sity of Michigan, conferred in 1897.
Edwin Willetts was the next principal and was appointed in 1883, remaining until 1885, when he became president of the Agricultural College at Lansing. Mr. Willetts was born in New York April 24. 1830, came to Michigan in 1837, gradu- ated from the University of Michigan in 1855, was an editor and then a lawyer, prosecuting at- torney, member of the state board of education,
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postmaster, member of the constitutional conven- tion of 1873, and from 1876 to 1880 a member of congress. In 1889 he was made assistant secre- tary of agriculture at Washington, and in 1894 opened a law office in Washington, where he died October 23. 1806.
Professor J. M. B. Sill, who was principal of the Normal school from 1886 to 1893, was born near Buffalo, N. Y., October 23. 1831. graduated from the Normal school in 1854. and was made an instructor in the school before graduation, re- maining until 1863. when he was elected superin- tendent of the Detroit schools. For 10 years, from 1865, he was principal of the Detroit Female Seminary, and in 1875 was again made superin- tendent of the Detroit schools, which he held until his appointment as principal of the Normal. In 1893 he retired from the principalship and was soon afterwards appointed United States minister to Korea, which position he held for four years. He returned broken down in health and soon afterwards died in Detroit.
Richard G. Boone succeeded Professor Sill first as principal and later, with the reorganiza- tion of the educational system, as president of all the normal colleges with a special charge over the Ypsilanti Normal. President Boone was born in Indiana in 1849, and his entire life has been spent in teaching, his special subject being peda- gogy. He remained with the college until Sep- tember 1, 1899, when he was made superintendent of the Cincinnati public schools.
In August, 1809, on the adoption of the new normal system, Professor Elmer A. Lyon was made principal of the Michigan State Normal College, as the Ypsilanti Normal came to be called. He was born in Manchester, Vt., July 27, 1861, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1886, and from 1890 to 1898 was an instructor in mathematics in the university. In 1898 he was made professor of mathematics in the Normal.
Dr. Albert Leonard was the second Normal president, succeeding President Boone. He was born in Ohio in 1857. graduated from Ohio University, and was made a professor in Syracuse University in 1897. For many years he has been editor of the Journal of Pedagogy. He resigned his position in 1901.
Professor Lewis H. Jones then became presi- dent of the normal college, which position he still holds.
The various preceptresses of the Normal since its organization have been Miss Abigail C. Rog- ers. 1853-1855; Miss Sarah Allen, 1855-1859 ( afterwards married James L. Patton) ; Mrs. Aldrich Ripley, 1859-1867: Miss Ruth Hoppin, 1867-1881 : Miss Julia Anne King, 1881, to the present date.
In 1854 the attendance upon the Normal de- partment was 1,836, and in the training school there were twenty-seven pupils. and at the commencement of this year there were three graduates. By 1860 the Normal at- tendance had grown to 427 and the train- ing school to 84. although in the previous year there had been as high as 237 pupils enrolled in the training school. The Civil war had its effect upon the Normal attendance, and by 1866 the at- tendance on the Normal proper had dropped to 265. From this time on a gradual increase is shown. The attendance in 1885 in the Normal department was 520, in 1800 was 808, in 1895 was 954, in 1899 was 1,029, and in 1904. includ- ing the six weeks summer session, was 1.770. Up to 1904. 5,005 students had graduated from the Normal. The training school attendance by 1875 liad reached 200, and by 1890 was 284.
The teaching of music in the Normal began in 1884, under Professor Albert Miller. Profes- sor E. M. Foote succeeded him in 1858, and Pro- fessor F. H. Pease has held the position of head of the department of music since 1863. In 1868 vocal music was made a part of the regular course. The Normal Conservatory of Music was organized in 1881 and has since had from 150 to 200 pupils a year. It has been exceedingly prosperous and Professor Pease holds a high po- sition in the musical world.
The war fever ran high at the Normal College in 1861, and several Normal boys went out with the First regiment, which reached Washington May 16, 1861. and took part in the battle of Bull Run. Many more, however, were refused permis- sion to go on the ground that this regiment was filled. A Normal company was formed in 1862, under the captaincy of Gabriel Campbell, who had graduated in 1861. It was mustered into the
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Seventeenth Infantry as Company E and served at South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Vicksburg. It had traveled 2,100 miles in its first year of service, and was called "Burnside's Class in Geography." It was also at Knoxville, the battle of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and Petersburg. It lost 13 killed out of 89 members during the war. During the war of the Rebellion 30 Normal school pupils died at the front. In all, 159 Normal students were known to have enlisted in the war.
The State Normal college now consists of seven buildings, with a campus of 15 acres. It has the following departments: Pedagogy, his- tory, ancient classics, modern classics, mathe- matics, physical sciences, natural sciences, draw- ing, geography, physical training, music-to- gether with the training school. The number of instructors in 1904 was 57 and the number of graduates in the years 1903 and 1904 was 613. The value of the grounds, buildings, library and apparatus is estimated at $444,637.59, and the legislative appropriation for the year ending June 30, 1904, was $110,805, and for the year ending June 30, 1905. $103.210.
CHAPTER XIV.
FIRST GERMAN SETTLEMENT.
This article was written by Professor Andrew Ten Brook in 1894: The honor can scarcely be denied to Conrad Bissinger of being the first German to arrive in this place and one of the first to take up land in this vicinity. Mr. Bissin- ger arrived on the ground September 1, 1825. He remembers well that in the month after his ar- rival on the site of the future city, Dewitt Clin- ton, governor of New York, made his triumphal trip from Albany to Buffalo and back, taking with him on his return a keg of Lake Erie's water, which he poured into the Bay of New York, symbolically setting forth the union of the salt water of the ocean with the fresh water of the great lakes. He remembers well the un- precedented excitement cansed in 1826 by the
abduction of William Morgan in western New York, and his subsequent murder. Mr. Bissin- ger was born in Mannheim, the largest city of the Grand Duchy of Baden, where he learned the baker's trade. On his arrival in Ann Arbor there was nothing in the place for a baker to do. A few log houses, with the stumpy clearings made by the settlers' axes marked the site of the city, and, keeping the place in mind as that of his probable future settlement, he sat out for parts where he might earn money by his trade. He went to Charleston, S. C., there remained three years and earned enough to buy government lands. Without coming on himself he bought land in the neighboring town of Scio. The pur- chase was made in 1828. The patent bears the name of Andrew Jackson.
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