USA > Michigan > St Clair County > St. Clair County, Michigan, its history and its people; a narrative account of its historical progress and its principal interests, Vol. I > Part 33
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MEMPHIS
In 1834 Anthony Wells bought 120 acres in the south half of section 35 of Riley township and James Wells the following year took up land in section 2 of Richmond township in Macomb county. A small settle- ment grew up, a dam was built across Belle river and a saw mill and grist mill erected. the former by Oel Rix, who became an important citizen in the western part of the county. For some years this was known as Wells' settlement.
In 1848 it was felt that a postoffice was needed and it was necessary to select a name. Considerable discussion arose, various names were suggested. among others. Belleview. because of Belle river, Riley, be- cause of John Riley. the Indian half breed, after whom the township was named. Birney, in honor of James G. Birney, the anti-slavery propa- gandist, and candidate for the presidency of the liberty party in 1844.
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Finally the name of Memphis, from the Egyptian city, was suggested and adopted and in December, 1848, the postoffice was established with that name, and Henry Rix as postmaster.
A fine farming country surrounded the settlement and it gradually grew in size, but it was not until 1865 that need was felt for incorpora- tion under the state laws. The larger part of the settlement lay in Macomb county, and the act of the legislature approved March 9, 1865, authorized the legal voters of the village of Memphis to organize under the general law relating to villages. This left the boundaries uncertain, but by another act approved March 14, 1879, the village of Memphis was incorporated to include within its limits the south half of section 35 in Riley township, together with land in section 2 of Richmond town- ship.
Presidents : 1865-6, Sherman S. Eaton; 1867, W. P. Russell; 1868, R. B. King; 1869, Lewis Granger; 1870-1, Augustus M. Hodges; 1872, Hiram Burk; 1873-4, Sherman S. Eaton; 1875-6, George L. Perkins; 1877, Francis E. Spencer; 1878-9, Sherman S. Eaton ; 1880-1, Joseph H. Dutton ; 1884, David C. Coburn ; 1886, Charles Conat ; 1887-9, Constant Simmons ; 1890, Eugene A. Bartlett ; 1891-2, S. G. Taylor: 1893, David C. Coburn: 1894, Merritt Sperry ; 1895. Joseph Stevenson; 1896-9, Nathan Jarvis; 1900, Frank W. Hause; 1901-2, Peter Cantine; 1903, M. H. Sperry ; 1904, Frank Church ; 1905, Peter Cantine: 1906-8, George Waters; 1909, Frank J. Lee ; 1910-11, Henry Maurer.
NEW BALTIMORE
In 1845 Alfred Ashley and Euphemia A. Ashley, his wife, bought land in the southeastern part of Chesterfield township, Macomb county, extending over the county line so as to include a small corner in the southwestern part of Ira township, St. Clair county, and in 1851 laid out the village of Ashley, which subsequently became New Baltimore, and a postoffice was established under the latter term and when, in 1867. a village was incorporated, the postoffice name was adopted as the name of the village.
On March 17, 1869, an act was approved continuing in effect the act of March 23, 1867. chartering the village of New Baltimore. and pro- viding that all that tract of country, including the docks, wharves. storehouses, and waters within the following boundaries: Commencing at the east end of the east and west quarter line of section 12, in township 3 north, of range 14 east. in the county of Macomb ; thence west on said quarter line, and in the line of the so-called Lake School district. to the northeast corner of the eighty acre piece or lot of land recently owned by Dennis Furton, situate in said section 12; thence southerly to the southeast corner of the said lot of land; thence west on the south line of said Furton lot of land to the so-called ridge road; thence sontherly by said ridge road to the so-called Salt river road; thenee southwesterly by said Salt river road to the north corner of private claim 343; thence southwesterly and southeasterly on the line of said private elaim, to where it intersects the section line between fractional sections 13 and 14, in aforesaid township : thence south on line between said seetions 13
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and 14, and between sections 23 and 24, to the so-called Anchor bay, part of Lake St. Clair ; thence southeast to the deepest water or channel of said Anchor bay; thence northeasterly, thence northerly, thenee west- erly, by the deepest water of said bay, to the north border of said Anchor bay, where a line extending southeasterly through the center of private claim 627 interseets said border; thence northwesterly, pass- ing through the center of said private claim 627, to the line of the afore- said township; thence by said township line to the place of commence- ment, be and the same is hereby constituted a village corporate, to be known by the name of "The Village of New Baltimore."
Presidents : 1883, Joseph M. Wilson; 1884, William Randall ; 1885, John Carlson : 1886, William Randall ; 1887-92, D. Milo Heath ; 1893-4. Joseph M. Wilson : 1895. D. Milo Heath; 1896. Joseph M. Wilson ; 1897-8, Robert A. Heath ; 1899-04. August F. Reineche; 1905-10, Floyd C. Andrews; 1911, Edison Oatman.
CHAPTER XVII
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
PIONEERS' PASSION FOR EDUCATION-GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF COUNTY SYSTEM-EARLY TEACHERS AND SCHOOL HOUSES-PORT HURON SCHOOLS-SCHOOLS CONSOLIDATED-PUBLIC EDUCATION AT ST. CLAIR -THE THOMPSON ACADEMY-SOMERVILLE SCHOOL-LIBRARIES-PORT HURON PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Prior to 1827 no provision had been made in the territory of Miehi- gan for publie schools. On the 12th of April of that year an act was passed by the legislative council providing that every township con- taining fifty families or householders should be provided with a good schoolmaster of good morals, to teach children to read and write and instruet them in the English or French language, as well as in arith- metie, orthography and decent behavior for six months in each year. A township containing 200 families was to be provided with a grammar schoolmaster, who would instruet in the Latin as well as other lan- guages. Provision was also made in the act for dividing the townships into districts, election of school inspectors and the raising of money for the support of the schools. The same aet, however, provided that it should not be obligatory if two-thirds of the eleetors should so decide.
Prior to this time all of the educational facilities had been through private schools, taught by teachers more or less competent, and at the charge of the parents whose children attended. No publie records, therefore, exist of these sehools, and it is only from recollection and tradition that anything remains.
PIONEERS' PASSION FOR EDUCATION
When the large immigration into the county began about 1830, it was very largely from the state of New York, and as soon as conditions were at all settled publie schools began to be organized in all parts of the county. Bryce, in his "American Commonwealth," says that the Americans have a passion for education, and the truth of this statement has been repeatedly demonstrated. The pioneers, although obtaining but little above bare sustenance for themselves and families, would deprive themselves in many ways in order to furnish the means of education to their children, and while the instruction furnished in the early schools was crude and untrained, yet it was, however, productive
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of real education of the pupils. They were taught self-reliance, and the number of subjects being few, they acquired complete familiarity with them. It seems now to be conceded that the present methods of educa- tion aim to furnish instruction in too many subjeets. and probably fall short in the real training of the children. Neither of these criticisms would properly attach to the early means of education.
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF COUNTY SYSTEM
In 1833 a new act was adopted for the regulation of the common schools, and it provided for the payment of the greater part of the cost of maintaining schools by the parents of the children in proportion to the number in each family, by rate bill, as it was termed, and the use of the rate bill was not entirely abandoned for several years, but finally the support of schools was put upon its present basis, part derived from taxation and part from the primary school fund. In 1846 provision was made for graded schools, and in 1859 for graded and high schools.
In general, townships were divided into districts and authority given to build and maintain schools and unite districts. but there was no central or general authority over them until in March, 1867, an act was passed by the legislature providing for a county superintendent of sehools, and this act remained in effect eight years, to the great benefit of the schools. In St. Clair county this office was filled during the first two terms, of two years each, by John C. Clarke, of St. Clair, followed by William II. Little for one term, and by Miles H. Carleton for a term, at which time the law was repealed and the common schools placed under the charge of township inspectors.
In 1881 this was replaced by county boards of examiners consisting of three members, and finally, by Act No. 147 of 1891, the county system of supervision was re-established. and provision made for the election of a county commissioner of schools, at first for a term of two years, and since 1901 for a term of four years. Since this act went into effect the following commissioners have been elected: 1891, Charles J. McCor- miek : 1893-97, Robert Bruce Fairman; 1897-03, Reuben S. Campbell ; 1903-11, Elmer T. Blackney.
Until the public school system became firmly established, private or select schools were quite common.
EARLY TEACHERS AND SCHOOL HOUSES
The first hired teacher in the county was Jacob G. Streit, who was of German descent, the son of a Lutheran clergyman, and was born in Winchester, Virginia, in April, 1788. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and was discharged at Detroit in 1816. He was induced the same year to come to St. Clair county to teach school, at first on Har- sen's Island, and then in various schools in Clay and Cottrellville town- ships. In 1822 William Brown built a log school house on his farm in Cottrellville and hired Streit to teach.
During the winter of 1827-8, D. B. Harrington was a pupil in his
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school, which was probably regarded as the best in the county at that time.
In 1818 Mr. John K. Smith taught school on Harsen's Island.
In 1824 Mr. Peter F. Brakeman taught on Harsen's Island and in the winter of 1827-8 he opened the first school at what is now Algonac, then known as Point Du Chene. Other early teachers there were John Brakeman and David Ward.
One of the early teachers at Marine City was Mr. Samuel Roberts.
PORT HURON SCHOOLS
In Port Huron the first teaching was that of the missionaries, John S. Hudson and John Hart, who came to Fort Gratiot in 1821, while it was unoccupied by the soldiers, and opened a school for the Indians. Owing to some prejudice which had been created against missionaries, the school was poorly attended, although young Edward Petit, and perhaps a few other French children, were pupils for a time. After about three years of discouraging struggle, the teachers left for a more hopeful location.
The first school house built within the city limits of Port Huron was in 1833 and was located at the southwest corner of Broad and Superior streets, and must have been built chiefly, if not entirely, at the cost of Francis P. Browning, owner of the Black River Steam Mill Company, which started its mill, located just west of Seventh Street bridge, that year. The company at the same time built a few houses in the vicinity of the mill for its operatives. This school house was not painted, and in course of time took on a weatherbeaten or brownish appearance and came to be called the "Old Brown School House." This building was not occupied as a school until the Fall of 1834, when Miss Gamble. the daughter of a Baptist clergyman. was engaged to teach. This was the only school house on the north side of Black River until the North Union School Building was built in 1849 on the site of the present jail.
Upon the south side of Black river the first public school building was erected in 1842 upon the west side of Court square. This building burned in 1859 and the Second ward or Washington school was built soon after.
In 1870 the city completed a high school building upon the same loca- tion now occupied by the new high school. This building cost $41,000, and was thought to be a model of architecture and suitability. When the county seat was removed to Port Huron from St. Clair in 1871, some of the rooms in this building were set aside for county offices, and were so occupied until February 24, 1873, when the building burned.
It was rebuilt in 1874, and on May 30, 1906. it again caught fire and was entirely destroyed. Although the fire occurred in the daytime, with the building full of pupils, there were no lives lost.
The city decided to erect upon the same site a modern building com- bining all the advantages which experience could suggest, and in 1908 the high school entered its new home in the present handsome, con- venient and up-to-date building erected at a cost of $120.000.
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In 1836 Rev. Norman Nash came to Port Huron as teacher to the Indians, but in the same year the Indian reservation was ceded to the government, and within three years the Indians had withdrawn to other reservations. His school was located north of Butler street, near Fort street.
In the same year a Miss Abigail Thompson taught school, and being besought in marriage by John L. Beebe, who had been divorced, she had some scruples as to the propriety of accepting him. She solved the doubt by going to Mrs. Levi Carlisle and obtaining from her a Vermont Bible, with the expressed intention of examining it to see if it contained
PORT HURON HIGH SCHOOL
any reason why she shouldn't marry Mr. Beebc. Her careful search evidently found no reason for objection as she accepted him. She taught school again about 1845 in her residence on Military street.
Mr. and Mrs. Alex Hulin taught a private school from 1839 to 1842 near the southwest corner of Military and Court streets, he teaching the boys and she the girls. In the summer of 1841, and during the follow- ing winter, Horatio James, who had moved up from St. Clair after his term as postmaster had expired, taught select school in the east wing of the building on south side of Court square. General Duthan Northrop, who subsequently became county treasurer, also kept a private school about 1840. The following winter a private school was kept near the corner of Fort and Quay streets by Rev. Sabin Hough, the Episcopal minister, assisted by Miss Foster, and the next winter Prof. Elijah W. Merrill, assisted by Miss Mary Whicher, kept school in the same place.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
In the summer of 1846 John and Anderson Quay opened a private school at the southeast corner of Sixth and Pine streets.
The first district school in Port Huron was opened about 1841 and Dr. John S. Heath, who had come from St. Clair in 1836 and practiced his profession for a few years, found that there was a better demand for teachers than doctors, and taught this school during the winter of 1841-2.
He was followed by Rev. Mr. Wright. a Baptist minister, and in the same school Miss Persis Carleton, who later became Mrs. Timothy Bar- ron, and Miss Waterhouse also taught. About this same time Mr. Chambers, assisted by Miss Harriet Hulin, taught in the public school building on the north side of Black river.
David Ward, who subsequently became one of the great "timber barons" of the state, attended Rev. O. C. Thompson's academy at St. Clair in the summer and fall of 1843. and on November 30th of that year received his license to teach from the school inspectors at Port Huron, and during that winter taught at Port Huron. In 1847 James H. Smith taught in the school at Court square, which stood about where Washington school now stands.
In 1844 Alex Crawford, born in Ayrshire, Scotland, coming to the state in 1831, when nine years of age, and who as a teacher left a per- manent and distinctive mark upon the community, entered as principal the Old Brown school house, and for fourteen years continued to control school destinies upon the north side of Black river. A stern disciplin- arian, but possessed of the faculty of instilling a desire to learn, he attracted pupils to his school, and impressed them strongly. In the school history of Port IIuron, no name stands out so prominently as that of Alexander Crawford.
Up to 1867 the schools on the two sides of Black river were for the most part treated as independent of each other, the principal of one having no authority over the other. Other principals before 1860 were John H. Mulford, who later practiced law for a time in Port Huron; C. F. Bellows, Robert S. Straight, Manley Tripp and William Roach. In 1857 William Hartsuff came to Port Huron and began teaching, remaining in that capacity until the fall of 1861, when he resigned to enter the army.
H. T. Bush, who married Emily Stevens, a daughter of IIarmon L. Stevens, was principal of the North Union school, as it was ealled, from 1861 to 1863. and was followed by Miles II. Carleton and he by Richard Montgomery.
At the South Union school, Henry M. Bacon was principal in 1860-1, followed by F. E. Manley, and in 1865 he was succeeded by Dr. W. C. Catlin, and in the spring term of 1867 the latter was replaced by Mr. Winchell for a few months.
SCHOOLS CONSOLIDATED
In 1867 all the schools were consolidated under the superintendency of Mr. Carroll S. Fraser, and since then they have been under the following superintendency : 1867-70. C. S. Fraser: 1870-71. HI. C. Bag- gerly : 1871-4, John C. Magill ; 1874-76, Bernard Bigsby ; 1876-88. H. J. Vol. I-18
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Robeson ; 1888-93, John A. Stewart; 1893-99, James H. Beazell ; 1899-, W. F. Lewis.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AT ST. CLAIR
The first school held at St. Clair was by Rev. Mr. Donahoe, a Method- ist minister, who taught school in a small building owned by Charles Phillips on the south side of Pine river. This was in 1827.
Horatio James, who came to St. Clair in 1828, in addition to his numerous other vocations, taught school.
The first school organized under the territorial laws was held in the upper story of the court house and conducted by Sarah Barron about 1831.
The first publie school house is said to have been built upon the Loomis properly above Brown street. If that is correct, the second was the "Old Red School House, " which was moved over on block 64 in 1849, in which year School District No. 2 purchased that property. Bela W. Jenks taught here one year, as did his brother, R. H. Jenks.
Fractional Union School District No. 1 of the city of St. Clair was organized from the city of St. Clair and a small part of the adjacent townships. and the first meeting was held May 21, 1858, and John E. Kitton, Bela W. Jenks and Chester Carleton were elected the officers.
When the Union district was formed it possessed two two-story school houses within the city limits. one familiarly called the "Old Red School House," located on Third street. and the other called the "White School house." on the northeast corner of the Academy block, corner of Fourth and Trumbull streets, and one small building at Yankee street.
The Red School house originally was built about 1837. for a factory and stood upon the bank of St. Clair river, and the factory scheme proving a failure, the building was utilized as a school house, and later, about 1849, moved over on block 64.
In October. 1850. the board of supervisors relinquished to the village of St. Clair for the erection of school houses and churches the east half of the Academy block and upon the north third of the donation the White school house was built. and upon the south two-thirds. the Bap- tist church.
One of the first acts of the new district was to provide for a new, large and modern building, which was completed in 1862, and the old buildings were sold. Since that date other buildings have been erected, and the schools have been managed with efficiency and economy. and the school board has been at all times composed of leading men of the community. One of the early members was Henry Whiting, and an- other Charles F. Moore, and it is an interesting fact that upon the board as at present constituted. there is a son of Mr. Whiting, a son of Mr. Moore, and a son of B. W. Jenks, who have themselves given some years of valued service.
Since the organization of the Union school it has had the following superintendents : 1858-60. William Campbell; 1860-61. Osgood E. Fuller ; 1861-63, Edwin D. Fiske : 1863-65, Newton H. Winchell : 1865-67,
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Albert J. Chapman ; 1867-68. Dr. W. C. Catlin; 1868-70, (March) Horton H. Drury; 1870. (April-June) John Joss: 1870-74, James T. Aulls; 1874-77. Horace Phillips; 1877-79. James T. Aulls: 1879-82, E. V. W. Brokaw; 1882-86, William Galpin; 1886-87, William A. Mc- Andrew; 1887-90, J. C. Shattuck; 1890-93, Charles W. Robbins; 1893, Martha A. Sturgess: 1893-99. B. E. Richardson ; 1899-1900, Samuel J. Gier; 1900-01. R. J. Halloway ; 1901-04, Charles S. Weaver; 1904-10, Joseph B. Estabrook; 1910-, Philip Keen.
Graded or high schools have been established in every city and village in the county, and a high standard of efficiency maintained. so that the county now holds a high rank.
THE THOMPSON ACADEMY
In the summer of 1842 Rev. O. C. Thompson, who came to St. Clair in 1834 as the first Presbyterian minister-subsequently changed to Congregational-and who had passed the intervening years in preaching at St. Clair and Port Huron, erected near the house which he had built upon the hill in the northern part of the village of Palmer a building which was called the St. Clair academy.
This building could accommodate fifty pupils, and during the largest part of its career its capacity was filled Mr. Thompson had taught two year in an academy at Ann Arbor before taking up preaching and had there introduced manual training as a valuable adjumet to the ordinary instruction. At the opening of his academy at St. Clair he was 37 years of age, had been in Michigan eleven years and had traveled the Lower Peninsula thoroughly and was very familiar with all the condi- tions of life then to be found in the new state.
A large man, six feet in height, well filled out, with impressive but pleasant manner, of wide interests, tolerant but firmly fixed in his ideas of morals, religion and condnet, he had the ability to interest young people in their own education and to impress his ideas upon them.
He believed that his best asset in the conducting of such a school was good teachers, and he spared no pains to obtain them. His experience at Ann Arbor had established his own reputation and he brought capable and trained teachers from the east to assist him.
During the five years the school was in operation, he had as assistants a Miss Abigail Alexander, from Princeton, New Jersey, who subsequently married Selden A. Jones, of Port Huron; a Miss Alice Jenks, an accom- plished musician from Connecticut, whose piano was one of the earliest to be brought into the county and which, upon her resigning in 1845 to be married to Dr. Knox, of New York, she sold to Dr. Justin Rice. of St. Clair; Miss Ann Jane Foster, of New York; Miss Delia Grosvenor, Miss Martha Nutting. The male assistants were Mr. John M. Sanborn. a relation of Cummings Sanborn, who afterwards became a minister; Mr. Josiah Nutting, a nephew of Prof. Rufus Nutting, principal of the academy at Romeo, who was quite a distinguished educator, and Mr. Lavallette Blodgett. a relative of Eugene Smith, of St. Clair.
The excellence of the school was recognized at once and every family
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in the vicinity which could possibly do so sent its children, and a good number came from ontside.
Thomas Palmer, of Detroit, who was so largely interested in the village, sent his son, Thomas W., then a boy of twelve, who attended the school three years, and as he subsequently became United States senator, and a man of prominence in political. business and social circles, we may be justified in treating his career as a consequence of his education. David II. Jerome, who also became distinguished as governor of the state, was a pupil, as was David Ward, the pine millionaire, and a number of others less distinguished, but perhaps not less worthy.
In 1847 Mr. Thompson's health had failed, as he had worked in- cessantly, not only caring for the academy. but preaching every Sunday, and spending himself freely on all worthy subjects, and he was com- pelled to relinquish the school, greatly to the regret of all his patrons. and the building was afterwards moved to a back street and put into a dwelling, and Thompson's Academy became only a memory. It is entitled to a high place in the educational history of the county.
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