USA > Michigan > Ingham County > Lansing > Past and present of the city of Lansing and Ingham county, Michigan > Part 13
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107
INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
NORTH
R R.
16
14
ELECTRIC
15
2
3
5
12
MAIN
FACULTY
DRIVE
13
7
DRIVE
MICHIGAN
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
19
18
20
26
24
27
56
40
42
39
21
23
0
313.
45
98
38
3
30
31
31
29 :
1
40
33
50
51
52
53 55
MARQUETTE
R. R.
54
32
PERE
LANE
A
A
Nos.
porarily ocenpied for teaching and experiments by the Professor of Bacteriology.
36. Corpenter Shop. This building was the first barn. 37. Horse Barn. 38. Cattle Barn.
39. Agricultural Laboratory. Containing rooms for of- fices, lectures, etc., for the Professor of Agriculture and his assistants.
40. The Dairy. Containing rooms for teaching students to make butter and cheese. Here, also, on the sec- ond floor are class rooms and also the offices of the experiment station.
41. Barn. For the use of the Horticultural depart- ment.
42. Fruit Housc.
43. Born. For the storing of experimental field crops.
44. Poultry House. 45. Grain Barn. 46. Farm House. Resideuce of the foreman of the farm. 47. Baru, for experimental feeding. 48. Sheep Burn. 49. Barn for Tools. 50. Bath House. 51. Ilorse Sheds, for the use of public. 52. Piggery.
53. Dairy Barn.
55. The New Doiry Barn and Silos.
The gardens and orchards are to the right and east of these buildings. The experiment station plats are east of the farm lane.
The fields for farm crops are situated south of the river.
The parks for elk, decr and goats are back of No. 4.
Note .- The new engineering building will stand betweeu numbers 31 and 34. The new bath house will stand north of number 20.
Nos.
1-12, 14. Residences of a portion of the Faculty and
13. Building for Women. Living rooms for 120 young women, parlors, reception rooms, gymnasium, soci- ety rooms, kitchen, dining rooms, laboratories for cooking. sewing, bath rooms. Cost, $95,000.
15. Astronomicol Observatory.
16. College Hospital.
17. Woiting Room. Electric cars leave for Lansing every twenty minutes from 6:20 a. m. to 10:20 p. m.
18. Abbot ITall. Living rooms and dining room for male students.
20. Armory. This contains also the offices of the Pro- fessor of Military Science, and is used temporarily as a gymnasium and assembly room for large audi- ences.
21. Chemical Loborotory. Containing offices. lecture rooms, and cases in which to place apparatus. The north portion of the building is temporarily oc- cupied by the department of Physics.
22. College Hall. Built in 1857, the first College building erected on the Campus. It contains rooms for the chapel, classes in Mathematics, English, Political Economy, Drawing and office for the Professor of Mathematics.
23. Willioms IToll. Containing three dining rooms, three literary societies, room for Y. M. C. A., living rooms for 80 students.
24. Librory ond Muscum, Offices of the President and Secretary. The second floor contains the office of the Professor of Zoology, a lecture room, labora- tory, and general museum.
25. Horticultural Laboratory. Offices, rooms for lectures, work of students in designing greenhouses, grafting. room for tools, and other equipments.
26. New Bacteriological Laboratory.
27. Botanicol Laboratory. Containing rooms for offices, class work, apparatus, specimens, herbarium.
28. Greenhouse. Containing five rooms for plants.
29. Forcing Houses. Low houses on the hillside.
30. Building of the Union Literory Society.
31. Wells Holl. Containing two dining rooms, two lit- erary societies, rooms for 125 students.
32. Iec House.
33. Boiler House. For heating College buildings and pumping water.
34. Mechonicol Laboratory. Containing offices, class rooms, machine shops, foundry, wood shops, black- smith shops, apparatus, etc.
35. Veterinory Loboratory. Containing collections and offices. lecture-room, and room for clinics on the first floor. The second and third floors are tem-
ATHLETIC FIELO
FIE
CAMPUS'
LO
Scale of Feet
400
100
RIVER
DRIVE
FIRENMOL
35
17
48
46
RED
FARM
8
9
101
115
25
KEY TO THE ABOVE MAP.
Cement walks shown by lighter parallel lines.
Instructors.
108
PAST AND PRESENT
are installing the new heating and electric light plant. Four thousand, one hundred feet of cement tunnel was constructed, most of which is six feet in diameter and from three to eighteen feet below ground, passing from the engine house near the main build- ings.
Owing to the beauty and ample size of the gently undulating campus, the museum, the large number of laboratories, as well as the orchards, gardens, fields, cattle, sheep, swine, the experimental plats, the botanic garden, and on account of the short distance from the city by street cars, in summer great numbers of visitors inspect some portions of the college once or more each year. From mild weather in May to October, on any pleasant day may be seen from one to three small or large companies taking their lunches or visiting something of interest.
SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.
Prior to 1880 the blind were cared for and taught by the State at the Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind at Flint. By Act 250 of the Public Acts of 1879, the Legis- lature provided for a separate school for the blind and appropriated $30,000 for the con- struction and erection of buildings. The act also provided for temporarily renting suit- able buildings or rooms for the school, until permanent buildings should be erected and ready for pupils, and a commission of three gentlemen, Townsend North of Vassar, Tom S. Applegate of Adrian, and John J. Bagley of Detroit, was appointed by the Governor, he also, being a member, ex-officio, em- powered to rent temporary quarters and to select a site and erect the permanent build- ings. Propositions for the location of the school were received from various places in the State, and the commissioners inspected many, if not all, of the sites tendered, and on March 9, 1880, met in Detroit, carefully ex-
amined the proposals received and voted upon the question of selection, but no de- cision was reached. A proposition was sub- sequently made by the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows of the State of Michigan, tendering their buildings and property at Lansing to the State for the school, for the sum of $10,- 000. On May 18th the commission met in Lansing, inspected the buildings and grounds and began negotiations looking to securing the property, on lease, for a temporary loca- tion, with the result that June 30, 1880, they rented the property from that date until Sep- tember 1, 1881, at a rental sum of $1,000 per annum, with the privilege of purchasing at any time during the term of the lease, for the sum of $10,000. The grounds comprised 45 acres. The principal building was erected about 1856, for, and was occupied by, the Misses Abby and Delia Rogers, with the Michigan Female College, which was a very popular educational institution for many years and educated and graduated many young ladies.
The grounds and buildings were sold No- vember 8, 1871, to the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows for an "Odd Fellows Institute," and the State purchased them and had them deeded August 5, 1881, and the commission immediately set about making necessary im- provements, erecting a building for an en- gine house and laundry and one for shops and additional dormitory accommodations, besides fitting up the building purchased, placing a good system of steam and water supply throughout all the buildings, con- structing a sewer to the river, thoroughly underdraining and grading the grounds and laying out and graveling driveways and walks ; any of which improvements the com- mission did not feel justified in making while the property was held under the lease.
The school was opened in the leased build- ing, September 29, 1880, with 35 pupils,
109
INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
which number was rapidly increased until 55 were enrolled, of which 36 had been pupils at Flint and the other 19 attended for the first time and the enrollment was six in excess of the largest number of blind ever en- rolled at Flint. On June 30, 1902, the bien- nial report of the Board of Control shows the enrollment to have been 130 for the two years, with an average actual attendance of
members of which board shall hold their offices for the respective terms of two, four, and six years, said respective terms of office to be designated in their several appoint- ments," and that every two years thereafter, one shall be appointed for a term of six years.
The Governor seems to have been very well satisfied with the board of commission-
BUILDINGS OF THE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.
III. The enrollment for 1903-4 was 121, with an average attendance of 118.
The act of the Legislature establishing the school enacts that, "The supervision and government of said institution shall be vested in a board of control to consist of three mem- bers who shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, the
ers, for he refused to appoint a board of con- trol until in 1886, preferring to leave the management in the hands of the commission, claiming they had not completed their duties as commissioners (to locate and establish). The first report of the "Board of Control" was for the two years ending June 30, 1888. and was made by Townsend North, Tom S.
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PAST AND PRESENT
Applegate and Daniel L. Case; two of them commissioners from the start.
The act of the Legislature establishing the school also provided that all blind persons in the poor houses throughout the State, that were qualified to be admitted under the re- quirements of the act as to age (at first 10 to 21, now 7 to 17 years), and morally and mentally, should be transferred to this school.
In this connection, the writer will take time and space to copy from the biennial re- port of the commissioners for 1881 and 1882, hoping it may be as much appreciated by the reader as it is by him.
"In many instances the children have come to the institution from poor houses, and the custom was, until the establishment of this school, to send the scholars home for the annual vacation, even if their only home was a county poor house. This has not been done since the opening of this school. Once rescued from the poor house, the child has never been allowed to return to it. We have endeavored to obtain all possible information in regard to the antecedents of the child. and in cases where its natural home did not seem to be a fit place, we have taken the re- sponsibility of providing suitable accommo- dations elsewhere during the recess of school."
In the same report they say: "It has been the aim of the management of the school to endeavor to fit its pupils to become useful and self-supporting members of society. We have endeavored to eliminate from their minds the idea that the institution is an asylum, but have rather endeavored to con- stantly impress on them that it is a place for study and work ; to be practical rather than to be theoretical has always been our aim. * The children frequently come to us with deformed and diseased bodies, showing a lack of intelligent care. and with minds in which fixed habits of
thought or application have never existed. Our system has aimed to educate and strengthen both body and mind."
We here insert suggestions of the manage- ment that should be read and followed by all parents and guardians of blind children.
"I. Blind children, unless under the most favorable circumstances at home, should be in the Institution at eight years of age, or before.
2. Teach them to take plenty of exercise in the open air, to run on little errands, to be as active and helpful as possible.
3. Do not permit the fact of blindness to make you less strict in securing obedience, cleanliness and respectfulness on the part of the child, otherwise you do him a gross wrong, by permitting him to form unseemly habits and manners which require years of teaching to efface. Especially should their physical growth be guarded so that they may possess healthy, symmetrical bodies and be free from any peculiarity of movement, such as the nervous twitching of arms and fingers, and turning of head.
4. Permit the blind child to enjoy all the privileges granted other children. Let him attend the public school, the Sunday-school and church, and places of amusement.
5. Teach him the names, forms and uses of the common objects around him. Teach him to count, to add, to subtract, multiply, divide, etc.
6. When pupils enter the school, health permitting, they should attend punctually and regularly until the course is completed.
7. Forbid the use of tobacco in any form, or of strong drink.
8. Do not dwell upon the blind child's misfortune in his presence nor permit others to do so. Encourage him to be cheerful, hopeful and industrious."
Blind persons and those whose defective sight prevents them from receiving instruc- tion in the public schools are received as
111
INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
pupils but no person of imbecile or unsound mind or confirmed immoral character will be knowingly received; nor will those who prove incapable of being taught be retained, nor those who are persistently disobedient and incorrigible.
Residents of this State are admitted with- out charge for tuition, board, lodging, wash- ing, medicines or medical attendance, and all expected of the friends of the pupils is to pay their traveling expenses and furnish approved and suitable clothing. If they are unable to do so, the State will furnish the clothing.
Applicants from other States may be ad- mitted but are required to pay a sum in ex- cess of actual expenses. The school year be- gins the first Monday in September and con- tinues forty weeks, during which there is a short holiday vacation. Nearly all the branches that are taught in the common schools are taught in this school and vocal and instrumental music, as well as several trades and occupations, including cooking, sewing, knitting and fancy work for the girls.
Especial pains are taken that the pupils have that exercise and physical development conducive to good health, and to correct the unnatural pastimes and habits peculiar to the blind. A trained nurse is constantly em- ployed and in case of any illness, the patient is immediately removed to the hospital, a separate building, away from the noise, and to avoid the possibility of contagion.
The trades taught are broom and brush- making, piano tuning, hammock making. carpet weaving, fly net making, rug making, and book making with the Braille raised point system of stereotype plates, which are also made in the institution.
The broom shop is equipped with six broom and one brush tying machines, five sewing presses for brooms and one for brushes. Young men leave the shop able
to take broom corn from the bale, prepare it and make it into brooms of all kinds, also brushes, both plain and fancy.
The girls are proficient in sewing and many are expert operators on the sewing machine. It is truly wonderful how many things blind children can be taught by patient and painstaking teachers whose hearts are in the work.
The pupils have organized an orchestra and choirs that furnish good music, not only for the school but often for entertainments down town.
In 1883 the Board of Control, having se- cured appropriations from the Legislature, erected a north and a south wing to the main building, a superintendent's residence and barn; in 1884 established an electric lighting plant ; in 1902 erected a hospital building ; in 1904 a kitchen, dining room and chapel, in a west addition to the main build- ing.
The gravel walks have been replaced by artificial stone and the grounds laid out and beautified with trees, shrubbery and flowers, so that they compare favorably with those of similar institutions in other states.
Lansing is fortunate in that its three State institutions are, all of them, educational.
THE PIONEER PRESS IN LANSING.
The first newspaper published in Lansing was the Free Press, by Bagg & Harmon. Its first issue was on January 11, 1848. It con- tinued only a short time when it was changed to the Michigan State Journal, edited and published by John Harmon of Detroit. the office, which the writer well remembers, was a two-story frame building standing back of where the Hudson House now stands. There was a book bindery in the second story under the management of a Mr. Gumbert, who afterwards removed to Detroit and there en- gaged in the same business. J. P. Thomp- son edited the paper from 1855 to 1858. In
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PAST AND PRESENT
that year J. M. Griswold became the editor.
It is recorded in the records of the State Pioneer Society and in Durant's History of Ingham County that the Journal suspended in 1862 and so remained until 1866. That is not true, to the writer's personal knowl- edge. From 1858 to the fore part of 1862 it was edited by Joseph W. Griswold ; in the last part of 1862 and all of 1863, by Samuel L. Kilbourne; in 1864, 1865, and to June 6, 1866, by George W. Peck and Wm. H. Chapman; at least, Mr. Chapman had an interest in the paper, though Mr. Peck was generally supposed to be the sole editor.
June 6, 1866, John W. Higgs became pro- prietor, editor and publisher, changing the name to "Lansing State Democrat." On July 12, 1872, Mr. Higgs disposed of the paper to Wm. H. Haze and George P. San- ford. January 1, 1873, Mr. Sanford pur- chased Dr. Haze's interest, becoming sole proprietor, editor and publisher, and changed the name to "Lansing Journal," which it still remains. In 1881, Mr. Sanford sold to Mr. L. E. Rowley who, January 1, 1887, started the daily and published both weekly and daily, and in February, 1893, incorporated the Lansing Journal Company. In Septem- ber, 1900, Mr. Rowley sold his stock in the company to Ira H. Clark who is the owner of most of the stock, and the paper is pub- lished by the Lansing Journal Company and edited by Mr. O. T. Allen.
James B. TenEyck was the editor for a short time. I think, between Thompson and Griswold.
THE PRIMITIVE EXPOUNDER.
This was the first newspaper that the writer remembers. It was printed in a small one-story building on the east side of Wash- ington avenue, a few rods north of Kalama- zoo street, about where 327 Washington avenue south now is. Rev. John H. San- ford, a Universalist minister was the editor,
proprietor and publisher. It was a Uni- versalist weekly paper, printed, of course, on an old fashioned hand press, the power of which was worked by Mr. Sanford's son,. Elijah. The paper went out of existence in 1852.
THE STATE REPUBLICAN.
The Lansing Republican was first launched as a weekly, April 28, 1855, by Henry Barnes of Detroit, who issued two numbers when it was taken by Rufus Hos- mer as editor, and Geo. A. Fitch as proprie- tor, and in the fifth number the name of Herman E. Hascall appears as publisher, which position he held until August 4, 1857. Mr. Fitch retired August II, 1857, and was succeeded by Hosmer & Kerr, John A. Kerr & Co., Bingham, George & Co., and W. S. George & Co. Mr. Hosmer died April 20, 1861, and was succeeded by George Jerome of Detroit, as a silent partner. Mr. Kerr died July 30, 1868, and was succeeded by Wm. S. George. Stephen D. Bingham, who had been editor of the Republican for several years, was a partner for one year, from May I, 1868. On June 19, 1855, the name of Dewitt C. Leach appeared as editor, with Mr. Hosmer. He retired August 26, 1856. to canvass the district as Republican candi- date for congress, to which office he was elected. He returned to the editorial work November 11, 1856, and finally retired July 27, 1857. Mr. C. B. Stebbins succeeded him and occupied the chair for about a year and was succeeded by Mr. Hosmer. May 1, 1861, Isaac M. Cravath became editor but enlisted in the Union army, as captain in the 12th Michigan Infantry Volunteers, in October, and Mr. Bingham again became editor and continued until early in 1862, when he was succeeded by Geo. I. Parsons, who was the editor for about a year and was succeeded by Theodore Foster, who con- tinued to be the editor until his death, De-
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
cember 27, 1865. He was followed by the ever ready and capable S. D. Bingham, who, for the third time, became editor, and so re- mained until September 1, 1873, assisted by Nelson B. Jones and George P. Sanford, as local editors, until 1868. On the retiring of Mr. Bingham, W. S. George became the chief editor with James W. King as city editor. Mr. King eventually became editor- in-chief and so continued until January I, 1886, when Thorp & Godfrey became the owners and changed the name to the State Republican, and Mr. Frank Godfrey was the managing editor until the close of 1888, when he retired from the copartnership, and Mr. Wm. M. Clark became editor and re- mained until July 1, 1896. Then the owner- ship passed into the hands of the Robert Smith Printing Company, where it still re- mains. Mr. H. S. Hilton was editor from July 1, 1896, to September, 1901, when he was succeeded by W. I. Bartholomew, who held until May 13, 1902, when Mr. Roy G. Jones took the chair and still retains it.
On January 5, 1875, a semi-weekly edition was commenced and continued until January, 1880, when it was changed to a tri-weekly; the weekly also being kept up, with the exception of an interim from Janu- ary to November, 1875, during which the publication of the weekly edition was sus- pended. The tri-weekly was discontinued and the daily started January 1, 1886, and the weekly and daily have been continued to the present time.
BIDDLE CITY.
A paper city, in a part of what is now Lansing, was platted in 1836 by Jerrie and William Ford. The plat was recorded April 19, 1836, and besides the streets, contained sixty-three blocks, divided into 4×8 rod lots, a church square, a public square and an academy square. It took in all of the S. E. 14 and the south part of the S. W. 14 of
Section 21. It was a fine appearing propo- sition, on paper, calculated to deceive pros- pective purchasers of the lots who lived so far away that they could not inspect the property and could be induced to rely upon appearances and the statements of the plat- ters and plotters. In this connection, hav- ing obtained permission, we will append a statement of the Hon. D. W. Buck, pub- lished in the Lansing Journal of November 24, 1904 :
Everyone in this city, it is likely, is more or less familiar with stories that have been current from time to time of frauds prac- ticed in connection with the opening up and settlement of the lands of the great west. Not many, however, who have listened to or read such stories are aware that there is in their own city's history as pretty a tale of deception as adorns the annals of any town or county. The pioneers of Lansing were familiar with the story, and from one of them, Hon. D. W. Buck, whose relatives were actors in the little comedy to be set down, the facts in the brief history of Biddle City were obtained.
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In the winter of 1836 two young men traveled through the town of Lansing, Tompkins county, New York, selling to the farmers lots in Biddle City, which they rep- resented as already well started in the new state, and which was located, they said, at the junction of the Grand and Cedar rivers in Central Michigan. They told of the great forests surrounding the village that needed only to be removed to uncover the richest farming country in the world, and they as- sured the men of New York who had sons old enough to start for themselves that they need but to send the young men to Biddle City where fortunes in timber and fortunes in land would be found for all.
The Tompkins county farmers became greatly interested ; meetings were held- many of them at the home of Daniel Buck.
8
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PAST AND PRESENT
father of D. W. Buck-and finally a stock company was formed out of which sixteen men were chosen to go west and make se- cure the purchases of the rest.
The long trip was made in the usual way, down the canal, across Lake Huron and so to Detroit, but when the party reached Detroit, however, and inquired the way to Biddle City, no one was found who had ever heard of such a place. The rivers were known, of course, but all the country through which they flowed it was said was a wilderness. Biddle City didn't exist.
Failing of any information at Detroit the party traveled to Pontiac. There was the same ignorance of Biddle City and the same story of the wilderness told. The men be- came discouraged; three or four abandoned their comrades and the search ; they bought land at Pontiac and their descendants are there to this day.
The remainder of the travelers determined to push on, however, until the rivers on which their town was said to be built were found, so they hired guides and slowly made their way north and west into Clinton coun- ty, and finally when near where De Witt now stands they found one settler named Scott, who gave them the first news they had ob- tained of the place they sought. He had heard of Biddle City vaguely, but he told them that west of him there was the home of a settler named William Gilkey who lived near the place where the Cedar empties into the Grand river and he could tell them all there was to tell about Biddle City. Start- ing once more they traveled to the log cabin of William Gilkey, who was the only set- tler in all the country round: he lived on what is now known as the Stambaugh place, north of Lansing. He told them what they wished to know.
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