USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan > Part 88
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On January 2, 1905, the question of fire pres- sure was forcibly brought to the attention of the public by the high school fire. The fact that the high school was entirely destroyed was laid by many to inadequate fire pressure. Reservoir pres- sure was all that was furnished at this fire. As
a matter of fact the direct pressure called for in the contract had never been used by the company except on two occasions when the reservoir was being cleaned ; and the water company denied that the city had any right to direct pressure under the contract except on such occasions. Counsel for the city maintained that the city has a right to direct pressure in case of fire under the contract which provides that the works shall at all times be capable of furnishing by direct pressure streams of a certain height at certain places in the city. . \ committee was appointed February 20, 1905. by the council, consisting of Colonel Henry S. Dean, Professor Joseph B. Davis, Dr. Royal S. Copeland. Dr. Cyrenus G. Darling, Professor Horace L. Wilgus, B. Frank Ohlinger, Professor Israel C. Russell, Gottlob Luick, John Markey, Richard Kearns. I. L. Sherk, Christian Schlenker, George H. Fischer, Henry W. Douglas and Em- mett Coon, to investigate the water supply and the Ann Arbor Water Company thoroughly. This committee was made up of eight citizens and seven councilmen, the councilmen being Messrs. Sherk, Fischer, Markey, Kearns, Coon, Douglas and Schlenker. Nearly a year was spent by the committee in investigating the water problem and the relations existing between the City of Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor Water Company, and the rights of each. This committee made their final report to the council on February 5, 1906, recommending the forcing of the water company to give the city the protection of direct pressure by mandamus proceedings. They also recom- mended the passing of an ordinance lowering the existing water rates ten per cent, and put up a strong plea for municipal ownership providing the works could be purchased at what they are worth to the city.
The water works problem in Ann Arbor, it will be seen, is yet unsettled and bids fair to be one of the main problems before the city for some years to come. The works are several times as large in capacity as they were when first built and the de- mand for more water is increasing year by year at a rapid rate. Instead of five hundred thousand gallons a day, as first estimated, in the neighbor- hood of 2,000,000 gallons a day are now used. Instead of fourteen miles of mains, there are now
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forty-two miles of water pipes. Instead of one pumping station, located on the Huron river about a mile above the city, there are now two stations, a second station being erected in the valley be- tween Washington and Liberty streets west of Allen creek in 1896, which is now the main source of supply. It is fed by a large number of artesian wells in its vicinity. There are many conflicting views among the people of the city as to the proper solution of the water works prob- lem and these conflicting views are really what prevents anything being done towards its settle- ment.
SEWERS.
Ann Arbor has a fine system of sanitary sewers laid on plans drawn by Professor C. E. Greene. The main sewer was built in 1893 at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. The cost of building this sewer was distributed over a number of years and at present but six thousand dollars of main sewer bonds are outstanding. That is the only debt on the city of Ann Arbor at present that belongs to the city as a whole. The city issued bonds for the building of lateral sewers and for paving, but these are assessed upon the property benefited. Sanitary lateral sewers have been built in all directions and there are at present sixteen lateral sewers in the city and more about to be constructed.
PAVING.
Ann Arbor is located for the most part upon a natural gravel bed a number of feet deep so that for many years the necessity of paving was not felt. Good gravel streets can be maintained at comparitively little expense with proper attention. With the large increase in the number of miles of streets consequent upon the growth of the city much of the attention of the city was put upon the streets at the outskirts of the town, so that Main street with its heavy travel was somewhat neglected. To be in line with other cities, Main street was paved with brick in 1898, from Wil- liams to Catherine street, at a cost of $31.375. The following year Washington street was paved from Ashley street to Fifth avenue at a cost of $11,645, and in 1900 Huron street was paved with
asphalt block from State street to Ashley street at a cost of $27.845. In 1902 State street was paved with asphalt block from Huron to Monroe streets at a cost of $31.778 and Ann street with brick at a cost of $2,860; and in 1903 Liberty street was paved with the same material from State street to Ashley street at a cost of $24,486. Fourth avenue was paved at the same time with asphalt front Liberty street to Huron street at a cost of $6.490. In 1905 the city returned to the use of brick for paving purposes and North University avenue was paved at a cost of $10,000. The city is now planning to pave Williams street with brick in the spring of 1900 at an estimated cost of $20,000.
STORM SEWERS.
With the putting in of pavements on Main street it was deemed necessary to plan some method of caring for the surface water of the city drawn by the open gutters which had previously been in vogue, and storm sewers were constructed by the city emptying into Allen creek, which carry off a great deal of the surface water of the city. The cost of the storm sewers originally put in was in the neighborhood of $30,000, and they were constructed without any provision being made for their expense by a tax levy by the city. This caused the city to be in debt for current expenses on the first of February of each year, in violation of the charter, and it was not until 1904 that the money was finally raised to pay for the construction of the storm sewer system, and the overdrawn fund for which no money had been appropriated, but which paid for the construction of the storm sewer system, was finally wiped out. Since the original storm sewers were put in about $5,000 or $6,000 has been expended in the build- ing of additional storm sewers.
RAILROAD DEPOTS.
The handsome stone depot of the Michigan Central built in 1886 was not obtained without an expenditure of money on the part of the city, but the appropriation of $5.000 to the Michigan Cen- tral was not given for the purpose of building a depot. The depot was, however, a part of the
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
consideration of the city appropriating $5,000 to- wards building the approaches to the bridge which the Michigan Central erected on Beakes street, thuis securing separation of grades at this point. The old depot of the Michigan Central was turned into a freight house.
The present Ann Arbor Railroad depot was erected in 1888 and the city appropriated $2.500 for the purpose of opening Ashley street from Williams to West Jefferson so that a depot might be built at this point.
GRADE SEPARATION.
For many years the two railroads in Ann Arbor were crossed by the streets of the city at grade. The first partial separation of grades, it has been seen, occurred in 1886 on the occasion of the building of the Michigan Central depot. State street which had formerly crossed the track was closed at this point and a grade was started by the building of an overhead bridge on Beakes street. The Michigan Central in 1902, without expense to the city, separated the grade on Fuller street by building an overhead bridge. At the same time they lowered their track through the city and slightly changed the course of the Huron river. There is now no place in the city where the Central is crossed at grade.
The problem of separating the grades of the Ann Arbor Railroad was a much more difficult one. This road runs through the city and was built after the streets were laid out so that a great number of streets cross the track. While the Michigan Central was constructed along the Huron river where it was camparatively easy to end the streets with crossing the track. A separation of the grade of the Ann Arbor Railroad was made in 1903-4 by the railroad itself at many of the streets crossed by the track in the city. With the permis- sion of the city the railroad lifted its track at some expense and caused a separation of grade at Miller, Felch, Huron and Washington streets. There now remain grade crossings on this road at Liberty, Williams, Ashley, West Jefferson, South Main, West Madison, Hill and South State streets.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
The files of the early papers in Ann Arbor con- tain little reference to local fires. They were sup- posed to be something that the subscribers knew all about because it was the custom in the early days for every one to go to all fires. On June 18, 1845. we find, however, a public meeting was called on account of "the recent destruction of a large amount of property by fire and the alarming danger to which the whole of lower town is ex- posed calls for some efficient measures of protec- tion." This was not the first time that a public meeting had been called in Ann Arbor for the purpose of securing more efficient fire protection. In 1841 the stove in St. Andrew's Episcopal church burst and a fire started which was extin- guished before it consumed the church but not until it had destroyed the organ. Something seems to have been wrong with the workings of the amateur firemen for frequent public meetings were held during the next few weeks to devise some system of more adequate fire protection. The final outcome of these public meetings was the recommendation to the village board of trus- tees that a puchase be made of 100 feet of hose, a small ladder and several dozen fire helmets. A code of fire rules was also adopted, the principal one of which was that it was the duty of every citizen. under pain of punishment, to, immedi- ately upon hearing the cry of fire, call "Fire!" at the top of his lungs and repair to the scene with a bucket or pail. That these rules did not act as an absolute preventative of fire is shown by the calling of another public meeting in 1845.
Volunteer fire companies were early organized in Ann Arbor and did much effective work. Most of the able-bodied citizens of the town belonged to one or another of these fire companies in their younger days. The records of most of these early companies have been lost. On Jan. 28, 1850, Eagle Fire Company, No. 2, was organized, and on March 2, 1864, Eagle Fire Company No. I was reorganized with Charles Tripp chief en- gineer. The distinction drawn between what was formerly called Upper and Lower Town contin- ually crops out in the records of the meetings of
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these volunteer fire companies. For instance the organization of a company in 1850 begins with the words : "At a meeting of the inhabitants of the L'pper Village of Ann Arbor on January 28, 1850, at seven o'clock, with thirty-four present." This meeting was held at the American Hotel on the corner of Huron and Ashley streets which was torn down when E. M. Gregory built the Monitor Hotel at that place which is now doing duty as a livery stable. The uniform of this fire company was a "red flannel jacket pleated on the breast and back with collar six inches wide of black alpaca, to turn over on the shoulder, trimmed with two rows of white bobbin, with two black buttons at the neck and two at the waistband. Cuffs black and a leather belt three inches wide with the num- ber of the company on it. A tarpaulin hat with an elevated front face, with an eagle and the number of the company." This company started with sixty-two charter members. This is the com- pany that turned out to escort the Hon. John Sedgwick from the depot when he returned from Lansing with the charter that made Ann Arbor a city on April 4, 1851. For many years hand engines did effective work in Ann Arbor and vol- unteer companies continued to do good work at fires ; but as the city grew larger, and fire alarms more numerous. the fun of being a fireman was somewhat extinguished by the consequent labor, and it became more and more difficult to keep up the companies.
Students at the university who had come from larger towns soon began guying the primitive fire department of Ann Arbor, which made it all the more difficult to keep up the volunteer com- panies which had actually been doing excellent work. The present Fireman's Hall was erected in 188- at a cost of $12,000 and was used for stor- ing the volunteer apparatus and the steamer which had been bought in the early eighties, the second story being used as a public hall. About 1888 it became evident that the volunteer compa- nies would have to go and a paid man was em- ployed to be at the engine house at all times. The Ann Arbor Fire Department thus consisted of one paid man and a few volunteers. The first paid fireman in Ann Arbor was Christopher Matthews. The following year a board of fire commissioners
was created and Fred Sipley was made chief of the fire department. Moses Seabolt was the first president of this commission and has remained a member of it ever since, having been previously connected with the volunteers for a great many years ; and Fred Sipley still holds the position of fire chief. He was given a small company of paid men, and a larger number of men who were paid a small sum monthly to sleep at the engine house and to respond for night calls to fires. After a short time the "minute men" were dropped, and only men employed who devoted their entire time to the work of the department.
The fire company at Firemen's Hall, on the cor- ner of Huron and Fifth avenue, continued to re- spond to fire calls from all parts of the city until 1905 when a second company was placed in the sixth ward on East University avenue in a fire house which had been erected by the city for the use of a volunteer company. This fire company was placed there in response to a demand for bet- ter protection from fire in the sixth and seventh wards, which followed the high school fire of January 2, 1905.
CEMETERIES.
The first cemetery in Ann Arbor was at the head of East Huron street, and contained five acres which were donated to Ann Arbor town by Andrew Nowland in 1832. For a great many years all of the early settlers were buried in this cemetery. After the building of the Forest Hill cemetery, the old cemetery went into disuse, the grounds were uncared for and grown up with weeds and the monuments were in a state of decay. The remains of those whose families remained in the city, with their monuments, have been trans- ferred to the Forest Hill cemetery. The city made a number of efforts to vacate the cemetery. but it was found that the title was in Ann Arbor town which caused the aldermen to abandon the project. Finally Charles R. Whitman purchased the title from Ann Arbor town for the purpose of vacating the cemetery, for $500. The city brought suit to determine its rights in the matter and the suit was finally settled by Mr. Whitman selling the cemetery to the city. The cemetery was then vacated, a lot purchased by the city in Forest Hill
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
cemetery and to this lot were conveyed the re- mains and monuments which had been left in the old cemetery. The cemetery thus vacated was turned into a park called Felch park, in honor of ex-Governor Felch. The total cost to the city of buying and removing the remains was under $2.500.
Anson Brown gave a plot of ground on the hill southwest of the Washtenaw House for a ceme- tery, and Elizabeth Thompson, the mother of William R. Thompson was buried in it. This plot has been added to from time to time and is now called Fairview cemetery. It belongs to the city and has been greatly improved in recent years, considerable care being taken of the lots. A soldiers' monument was erected in this cemetery in 1874.
Forest Hill cemetery was dedicated in 1859. It comprised forty acres and has been well managed by the Forest Hill Cemetery Association which is composed of the lot owners in the cemetery. The cemetery association now has on hand over $30,000 invested in interest bearing securities, for the care and maintenance of the cemetery.
TITE ANN ARBOR SCHOOLS.
The following article on the schools of Ann Arbor was written by Professor W. S. Perry in 1880:
"The first settlers of Ann Arbor, Messrs. Allen and Rumsey, arrived in 1824. The first school was opened in 1825 by Miss Monroe, in a log house on the present site of Duffy's store. The furniture of the room consisted of a very few rude benches and a chair. All the light enjoyed was received through windows composed of sin- gle panes of glass eight by nine inches. The fol- lowing year Miss Harriet G. Parsons, afterwards Mrs. Leoine Mills, taught in the same place. In 1829 Miss Parsons removed her school to a frame house on the site of the present Zion Lutheran church, on Washington street. The same year a one-story brick building was erected by subscrip- tion for religious meetings and school purposes, on what is known as the 'Jail square,' on the southwest corner. The land was owned by the county, and about a year thereafter. the board of
supervisors added a story to the building, which was used for some years thereafter as a 'jury- room' (court-room). Who taught the first school in this building cannot probably be ascertained. Down to this point there had been no public schools in this place; indeed, nearly all the edu- cational work of Ann Arbor was done by private enterprise.
"The public schools began their career in 1830. In that year the township of Ann Arbor, which then included all of Pittsfield and a part of North- field, was divided into eleven districts. District No. I included the village of Ann Arbor, and was similar to the present district in size, but different somewhat in shape. The first public school seems to have been taught in 1831, by whom, neither record nor tradition informs us. In 1832 the first school report by the school commissioners was made. The document is unique as it is brief. It contains simply these three items: 'No. of chil- dren between 5 and 15 years of age in the district, 161. Average number in school, 35. No public moneys received.' For nearly a whole decade the records of the schools are missing, and memory faileth. In 1842 the township was re-districted, No. I becoming No. 11, with boundaries slightly differing from those of the parent district. A few existing school reports of this period furnish us with the following interesting facts :
1839 1840 1842 1844 No. of children between 5 and 15
I4I
1.43 426 608
No. enrolled in school ... 1IO
139 253 365
Money raised for school purposes $500 $174 $299 $300
"About this time union schools began to spring up in various parts of the state, and the agitation of the subject struck our little village and soon rose to fever heat. In 1845 a formidable petition, which secured the names of nearly all the solid men of the town north of Huron street, the aris- tocratic part of the village, was presented to the school inspectors, praying them to divide the dis- tricts 'before any expense is incurred in prepar- ing to build a mammoth schoolhouse, as we prefer the system which experience has proved, to the
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
visionary and costly experiments.' Counter peti- tions of those living in the south and west portions of the town were made, but nevertheless the divis- ion was made, and for eight years the town sup- ported two schools and two sets of officers throughout. The experiment, however, was unsatisfactory.
"It is now proper to return to the private schools by which the educational field was princi- pally occupied. In 1829 a 'seleet school' was opened by T. W. and Moses Merrill, in the Good- rich block, for teaching 'higher English and Latin and Greek.' It was soon removed to a brick house standing where Eberbach's drug store now is, and there it was continued during 1830 and 1831, by J. W. Merrill, assisted by Miss Charlotte Mosely. Some of our most prominent citizens were pupils in this school. In the fall of 1832 several leading citizens of the town requested Rev. O. C. Thompson, now of Detroit ( 1881), at that time acting as agent of the Sunday-school union in the territory of Michigan, to open an academy. He acceded, and during the following winter taught a large and popular school in the Presbyterian church on the site of the present church ( 1881). It was a school of high grade, well sustained in the de- partment of classics, seience and higher mathe- matics, and was patronized by students from all parts of the territory. There are good grounds for believing that at that time there was not an- other school of equally high character west of the lakes. Infant schools were maintained, at this period, in various parts of the village, by Mrs. O. C. Thompson, Mrs. Merrill and others. In 1835 a high school, with courses of study in the elas- sies and English, was kept by Luke H. Parsons on the corner of Huron and Fourth streets, now occupied by the Cook House. In the same year there was established the Manual Labor School on what is known as the 'Eberbach Place' about two miles east of the courthouse, on the south Ypsilanti road. The academie department aimed to furnish all the literary facilities for a school of high grade. It was in charge of Rev. Samuel Hair. The pupils were expected to pay for their board, in whole or in part. by labor on the farm. Three and a half hours of daily labor, or two
hours of work daily and fifty cents at the end of each week, paid for three meals per day The experiment was not successful, and after a fitful existence of three years, the school was closed.
"About the same time a female seminary, con- (lucted by the Misses Page, was started in the back part of the present Leonard House, contin- uing there and in other parts of the village two or three years. This school was deservedly popular. The Misses Page were scholarly women and skill- ful teachers. It was also in 1835 that the famous 'Old Academy' was erected on the corner of Fourth and Williams streets, where now stands the residence of Mrs. Behr ( 1881). The school was opened by Mr. and Mrs. Griffin, who had previously organized a school on Duffy's corner. The academy at once offered a wide range of studies in English, Latin, Greek and the sciences, with apparatus for chemistry, philosophy, astron- omy and surveying. It speedily established itself with the confidence of the people, and for a num- ber of years was the accepted and only prominent school in the place. Mr. O'Neil, and after him Mr. Mealetta, followed the Griffins in the man- agement of the school. About the year 1845 & ladies' seminary of considerable repute was es- tablished and conducted for two or more years by Mrs Wood, in the eastern part of the village, on the Lawrence addition. In 1844 an academical school, which had some connection with the uni- versity as a preparatory department, was insti- tuted by A. S. Welch, now president of Iowa Agricultural College ( 1881). It continued for three years, doing execllent work, especially in preparing students for the university.
"The schools in Lower Town, fifth ward, until their consolidation with the city schools in 1861, had an interesting history, and deserve some spe- cial mention. Like those in the Upper Town, the first schools were private. One of the most emi- nent of the teachers there was Dr. Thomas Holmes. who taught in the M. E. church, then Baptist, in 1838. He also taught a district school in the same place in the following year. The same year, 1839. the first schoolhouse was built of briek on Traver street, and the following winter Dr. Holmes dedicated it by teaching an excellent school. This building served its purpose, and the people in that
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.
locality, until 1857, when the present ( 1881) two- story brick building was erected on Wall street. Number of children be-
For several years the school there was quite large and flourishing. The first teachers in it were Mr. Holden, his sister and Mrs. Mudge, now Mrs. C. K. Adams.
"The most famous and the most permanent of the private schools of Ann Arbor was the Misses Clark's Seminary for Young Ladies. It was opened in the old Argus Block in 1839, but soon was removed to the corner of Fourth and Liberty streets, where it remained for three years ; it then migrated to the corner of Second and Huron streets, where it was burned out. The school then took quarters in the brick building on Division street, where it continued for ten years, until the death of its worthy principal, Mary Clark, making an aggregate period for this school of thirty-seven years. The Misses Clark, both in school proper and in their society relations, have occupied a large place in the educational history of Ann Arbor. Many prominent women, here and elsewhere, owe their high culture to the facil- ities enjoyed in this seminary. History, litera- ture and the lighter sciences were taught with marked success. In botany, Mary Clark was an authority, and several plants bearing her name attest her patience and ability as an original in- vestigator. In history, especially ecclesiastical history. Miss Clark had no peer in the city, prob- ably not in the state.
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