USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 75
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FREE SCHOOL SOCIETY
Although the schools established by this society were not free schools, in the sense that they were maintained at public expense, the history of the society
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is included in this chapter because of the influence it wielded in awakening an interest in the subject of popular education. The society was organized in the autumn of 1832 by a number of public-spirited women, who raised funds, built a schoolhouse, and in December, 1833, published the following:
"NOTICE-It cannot have escaped the observation of any citizen that in our midst are many children who are growing up not only in poverty, but in ignorance. The object of our society is to take these children and bring them under the culture and moral restraint of a school. We have employed for the year past a competent instructress and have collected together under her not far from a daily average of fifty scholars. There have been no less than one hundred and fifty names upon the roll of the school since its commencement. In addition to $232 which the society has paid to its instructress, expended for wood and other incidental expenses, we have erected a plain but substantial school house at a cost of $475, towards the discharge of which debt we have paid $350, leaving a balance of $125.
"Jane MI. Palmer, "Mary S. Wendell, "Directresses."
The pupils attending the school were all under ten years of age, were pro- vided with books and taught absolutely free of charge. Half-day sessions were held, some pupils attending in the forenoon and others in the afternoon. To raise funds for carrying on the work, the members made and sold various arti- cles of their own handiwork, made tomato catsup which was sold at the store of E. Bingham, and in the winter of 1834 they held a fair, or annual sale, "in the long room of Woodworth's Steamboat Hotel." In 1834 there were eighty- one contributors and two hundred pupils. In 1836 the society had two schools in operation and a third was opened in 1837.
In the Catholic Church the Rev. Frederick Rese was created bishop of the Detroit diocese in 1833. In June the sisters of Ste. Clare Seminary of Pitts- burg opened a school in Detroit, under the supervision of Bishop Rese.
Miss Nichols, a graduate from Mrs. Emma Willard, came to the city and opened a school for young ladies in 1833. She was assisted by Miss Tappan. D. B. Crane opened a high school August 1, 1833, in the old council house, in the rooms then lately occupied by Mr. Howe.
Mr. Olds opened a writing school in September, 1833.
An extract from the Courier of November 27, 1833, calls attention to educa- tional matters as follows: "The cause of education with us begins to look up. We have numerous city schools and a ladies' seminary. The Catholics also have a school. There is also an academy for young men under the charge of Mr. Crane, with upwards of thirty pupils. Another school, to be called the Michigan High School, is soon to be opened by Mr. Bellows."
The Michigan High School was opened in 1834 in the upper room of the acad- emy or university building.
The seminary building was on the site of the present city hall in 1834. It was a famous school, though not long-lived.
There were at this time, 1834, 777 children under fifteen years of age and 251 between fifteen and twenty years of age. In the city were twelve schools with an attendance of 448 scholars.
FREE SCHOOL
N PR
CROCES
FIRST FREE SCHOOL BUILDING, 1838-42
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
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SCHOOL LANDS AND CONSTITUTION OF 1835
Very few schools were established under the law of 1827, for the reason that the school lands granted by Congress had as yet yielded only a scanty income. The act of 1826 gave the control of the lands in section 16 to the township authorities, or in townships where the local officials were unwilling to assume the responsibility, to the state. This dual method of handling the income from the lands resulted in confusion. In 1832 the Michigan Legislative Council passed an act authorizing the school commissioners "to take charge of all school lands, lease them and apply the proceeds to the support of common schools".
This was a slight improvement over the previously existing conditions, but there was room for still greater improvement. An amendatory act, passed in 1833, directed that in school districts where there were no commissioners of common schools, the governor should appoint a superintendent, who should take charge of school lands and protect them. By the act of 1835 the school commissioners were directed to make an annual apportionment of the income, in proportion to the number of children of school age in the respective districts of the township. In case there were no school commissioners to make such apportionment, the superintendent was instructed to turn over the income to the territorial treasury.
Michigan adopted a constitution in 1835, but was not admitted, as a state, until January, 1837. Section 2, Article X, of the constitution stated that:
"The proceeds of all lands granted by the United States to this state for the support of schools, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, shall remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, together with the rents of all unsold lands, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of schools throughout the state."
Isaac E. Crary was chairman of the committee on education in the consti- tutional convention and to him can be attributed much of the wisdom shown by the convention in adopting the provisions relating to Michigan's educa- tional system. Mr. Crary was born at Preston, Connecticut, October 2, 1804, received his education in the Bacon Academy, at Colchester, and Washington College, at Hartford, where he graduated in 1829 with the highest honors. For about two years he was engaged in editorial work on the "New England Review", where he was associated with George D. Prentice, afterward the noted editor and proprietor of the "Louisville (Kentucky) Journal". In 1832 Mr. Crary came to Michigan, and at the time of his election as a delegate to the constitutional convention was not quite thirty-one years of age. He was the first representative in Congress from the State of Michigan, and was at one time speaker of the house of representatives in the Michigan Legislature. His death occurred on May 8, 1854.
Another man who was active in behalf of education at the time the state was admitted was Gov. Stevens T. Mason. In his message to the legislature of 1837, Governor Mason urged the employment of competent teachers, who should be paid well for their services, and added:
"Let free schools be established and maintained in perpetuity and there can be no such thing as a permanent aristocracy in our land; for the monoply of wealth is powerless when mind is freely allowed to come in contact with mind. It is by erecting a barrier between the rich and the poor, which can be done
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only by allowing a monopoly to the rich-a monopoly of learning, as well as of wealth-that such an aristocracy can be established. But the operation of a free school system has a powerful tendency to prevent the erection of this barrier."
When Michigan was admitted in 1837, the lands in the sections numbered 16 throughout the state aggregated over one million aeres. The school lands were first placed in the hands of the state superintendent of public instruction to be disposed of and the proceeds turned into the permanent school fund. This was an unwise proceeding. The superintendent was a good teacher, but he was not a business man, and some of the lands were lost to the state through his mistakes. Subsequently the state took the remainder and agreed to pay the department of schools interest in perpetuity on the value of the lands. The state also undertook the management of the schools, instead of leaving them under the control of the petty officials of the small distriets.
A selling price of $20 per aere was fixed for the common school lands, but the financial panie of 1837 caused a depreciation in real estate values and the sale of school lands was stopped until times improved. In 1839 an act was passed by the legislature providing that where a settler on section 16 of any township could prove cultivation of the land prior to its selection as state land, he should have the privilege of purchasing the land he occupied at $1.25 per aere. Here Governor Mason again showed his loyalty to the cause of the common schools. He promptly vetoed the aet, saying that he was "not going to permit the land speculator to masquerade as a poverty-stricken squatter". By his veto thousands of dollars were saved to the common school fund of the state.
DETROIT UNDER TIIE NEW LAW
On December 2, 1837, the common council requested the city attorney to investigate and report what steps were necessary to organize the public schools under the aets passed at the preceding session of the legislature. The city attorney made his report just a week later, and in April, 1838, Henry Chipman, John Farmer and James F. Joy were elected school inspectors. All of these men were deeply interested in school matters, and are all well known in con- neetion with the history of the city. Mr. Farmer was chosen chairman of the board and for the first time the provisions of the general state law were put into operation in Detroit.
The city was divided into five wardens, or wards, for fire protection, and a school census was taken in these wards, showing that there were 1,320 white and 36 colored children of school age, that is, between the ages of five and fifteen. In May the city was divided into seven school districts. The dis- triets were assessed separately and not uniformly, as the needs of the different distriets were not the same. To reduce the taxes for school purposes, each year there was a division of the primary school interest fund. This fund was quite large in 1836, but in consequence of the hard times and losses by cancelled sales and bad investments in the office of the state superintendent of public instruction, the amount of the interest fund decreased every year. In 1841 only $473.93 was given to the entire city.
Everything was working along the proper lines to put the schools on a sys- tematie basis in 1838. Each distriet was separate and there was no governing body or department that would look after everything, but there was a dispo-
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sition to have the state take charge of the general direction and the city authori- ties assume the particulars of governing each district.
The directors reported the state of affairs for each district each year. In the seventh district the Hon. Benjamin F. H. Witherell was the director in 1838. His report for that year showed the number of children between five and seventeen years of age to be 417, of whom there were but 43 attending school. School was maintained three months. No money was received from the board of inspectors. There was $590 received from taxes, of which $500 was used for a school building and $90 for a teacher. From other reports it seems that the usual salary paid a teacher was $30 per month. In 1838 the school for distriet No. 1 was in an old two-story building, 40 by 80 feet, built on piles, on the shore of the river, on West Woodbridge Street near Shelby. The lower part was used as a grocery and the upper part was fitted up for the school. The building was leased for $100 per year and was occupied until 1842. In 1838 W. K. Coyl was assessor and collector for the district and to his gratui- tous services this school is indebted for its maintenance. The school for dis- triet No. 4 was taught by Rev. George Field in the basement of the First Metho- dist Episcopal Church. The teacher for No. 6, Melvina A. Hurlbut, taught at her residence on the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Beaubien Street.
The books in use in this school were Webster's Spelling Book, English Reader, Testament, and Daboll's Arithmetic. There were many other text- books used in the various schools. Among them were Child's Guide, Juve- nile Reader, First Class Book, Parley's First Book of History, Hale's History of the United States, Gallandet's Nat. Thesbian, Olney's Geography, Peter Parley's Geography, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Colburn's Arithmetic, Smith's Grammar, Lake's Philosophy and others.
In 1838 the school inspectors in Detroit were John Farmer and Henry Chipman. The third inspector's name, James F. Joy, does not appear in their reports. They examined candidates for teachers and granted certificates. The names of some of the early teachers were: Augusta Hulburt, Charlotte S. Rang, Harriett M. Van Ingen, Alice Rayney (or Rumney), Marian Titus, Melvina N. Hurlbut, Allen Ranney, Charles Chambers, Charles Rood, Rowley Morris, Jeremiah E. Whitaker, James S. Baker, Rev. George Field, Hiram F. Joy, E. F. Locke, J. T. Blois, William Merrill, William Huntington, Lorenzo Wood, John M. Davis, John Winchell and William Phelps.
The poverty of some sections of the city prevented the establishment of schools in those sections. It was reported in 1841 that there were 135 children in district No. 1 and the district was not able to employ a teacher "and is dependent upon private schools". It was this uncertainty of means to con- duct schools that led to the changes in 1842. One of the leaders in this great change was Dr. Zina Pitcher, and he has sometimes been called the Father of the Public School System of Detroit. He was mayor of the city in 1840 and 1841 and president of the board of education in 1843. David W. Fiske, . alderman from the fifth ward, introduced a resolution in the council on Sep- tember 14, 1841, for the appointment of a committee to consider the school system and plan a more perfect one if possible. The committee appointed consisted of Mayor Pitcher, David W. Fiske and Charles Moran. Their report was submitted to the freemen of the city at a public meeting held January 12,
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1842, and resolutions were adopted, endorsing the report and giving consent to petition the legislature to enact the substance of the plan into a law.
BOARD OF EDUCATION
As stated before, the amount received from the state school fund in 1841 was only $473.93. This sum was entirely inadequate to maintain schools worthy of the name. The plan proposed by Mayor Piteher, Alderman Fiske and Mr. Moran, which was submitted to the meeting of January 12, 1842, was to petition the legislature for an amendment to the city charter which would give the common council authority to levy a tax for the benefit of the schools. At the meeting Samuel Barstow introduced a resolution asking the legislature for authority to levy a tax, not exceeding one-fourth of one per cent of the assessed valuation of the property for the support of free schools; also to elect two persons from each ward as a board of education, with power to appoint teachers and provide for the management of schools. Doctor Pitcher's report stated that there were 1,800 school children in the city, of whom only 714 were in school. The sums paid for private tuition aggregated $126 per year for a little more than one-third of the children.
After some discussion the resolution was adopted and Aldermen Joseph H. Bagg, Francis Cicotte and Matthew Gooding were appointed a committee to present the matter to the legislature. Then a remonstrance was started by those opposed to any increase in taxes, and it is worth remembering that the first name on that remonstrance was that of a man who signed by making "his (x) mark". This stirred the friends of education to action. Another meeting was held at the city hall on February 7, 1842, and it resulted in con- verting many of the doubtful citizens to the idea of free schools. The petition then went to the legislature and on the 17th of February the legislature passed a bill, which was approved by Governor Barry on the following day, "relative to free schools in the city of Detroit". Detroit was constituted one school district under the direction of the board of education, which was created by the aet, and the schools were to be "public and free to all children within the limits thereof, between the ages of four and seventeen years".
The board of education was to consist of twelve school inspectors, two from each ward, while the mayor and recorder were ex-officio school inspectors. The act further authorized an annual tax, not to exceed one dollar for every child between the ages of four and eighteen years, for the support of the common schools. The money received from the primary school interest fund was used for paying teachers' salaries.
While many changes have been made in the school laws of the city since 1842, that act is the foundation for all the laws upon which the present mag- nifieent school system has been constructed.
In October, 1851, D. Bethune Duffield, then secretary of the board of educa- tion, at the request of Franeis W. Shearman, superintendent of public instruc- tion, prepared an account of the movement in 1841 for the improvement of the schools. This account contains many interesting facts, and the Detroiter reading it now could hardly realize that the conditions portrayed by Mr. Duf- field ever existed in the city. He stated:
"Previous to the year 1841, no such thing as a free school was known in the City of Detroit, and the interests of general education languished to such a degree that the benevolent attention of a few gentlemen, interested in the
RUINS OF DETROIT HIGH SCHOOL, ON SITE OF CAPITOL PARK, WHICH BURNED JANUARY 27, 1893.
SHODGE. DEALE
WOOTON'S PATENT OFFICE DESKS.
174
OLD DETROIT HIGH SCHOOL AT HEAD OF GRISWOLD STREET, WHERE CAPITOL PARK IS NOW LOCATED Formerly the State Capitol Building but remodeled for school purposes
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CITY OF DETROIT
subject, was at length excited to reform and check the evils which were rapidly springing out of this unfortunate state of things. Foremost among them, and the first to take any steps in the matter, was Dr. Zina Pitcher, long known for his untiring efforts in behalf of every interest connected with this impor- tant subject, and widely esteemed throughout our state for his arduous labors in aiding to organize and perfect our State University.
"While acting as mayor of the city in 1841, Doctor Pitcher called the atten- tion of several members of the common council to the great need of common schools among us and succeeded in obtaining some statistics on the subject which exhibited the condition of the community at that time in its connection with education. From these statistics it appeared there were then twenty- seven English schools, one French and one German school, but all of them exceedingly limited in numbers and scarcely deserving the name of schools, except the one connected with Ste. Anne's (Catholic) Church, which embraced nearly all the children of Catholic families then resident in the city. The whole number of scholars in attendance upon these twenty-nine schools was 714, and this in a city with a population of between nine and ten thousand inhabitants!
"The average cost of tuition, as then estimated, was $17 per year for every scholar. It was likewise ascertained that there were more than two thousand children of school age within the then limits of the city, all of whom, excepting the 714 above referred to, were not in attendance upon any school whatever. * * Speedy measures were then adopted by the gentlemen above referred to, in connection with others who came forward as fellow laborers in this good work and, by hiring vacant rooms and securing teachers, upwards of seven schools were soon opened in different parts of the city and earnest efforts made to per- suade various families, whose children were then roaming the streets, to send them to the daily schools thus established. Yet so great was the apathy and indifference felt by many on the subject, that when schools were thrown open for the instruction of their children at no cost to themselves, it still required the continued personal and individual effort of those interested to bring this portion of the community to see the great advantages they were able to derive for their families from the common schools."
No time was lost by the city authorities in carrying into effect the provisions of the new law. The first board of education was organized March 15, 1842, with Dr. Douglas Houghton as president; John S. Abbott, secretary; Daniel J. Campau, treasurer; Samuel Barstow, Elijah J. Roberts, John Winchell, Wil- lard E. Stearns, Justus Ingersoll, John Watson, George Robb, Charles Peltier, Ebenezer A. Byram, and William Patterson. According to Mr. Wilkins, this board rented buildings in four of the six wards for $166 and opened primary schools in May. In November, 1842, what were known as the "middle schools" were opened, with about five hundred scholars in attendance. The teachers of the middle schools were: Joshua N. Alvord, John H. Anderson, Thomas Grant, Charles W. Hayes and Dennis O'Brien, each of whom received $30 per month. Six female teachers were employed in the primary schools and each received $18 per month. A committee of women, three in number, was appointed in each ward to visit the primary schools and offer suggestions for their improvement. Concerning the new school system, the Detroit Gazette, in December, 1842, said editorially :
"The Board of Education was established by a law of the last session of the
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Legislature, and, as usual with most features of legislation for the public good, met with opposition. The excellent choice made by our citizens, however, of in- speetors, and the bold and decisive measures adopted by them on their first organization, had the effect to make the opposition to the proposed system falter and hesitate in their movements. The primary schools were open for six months in the six several wards for the younger class of scholars and the immediate consequence was the clearing of our streets and lanes of ragged, filthy children, engaged in every species of mischief, and growing up pupils of deprav- ity and crime. The second view presented the same children cleanly clad, inmates of school rooms, and the third exhibited them in connection with chil- dren of what is termed the better class of society, contending for superiority, and finally the schools for the summer closed with universal satisfaction.
"The middle or winter schools are now in successful operation. There are six of these establishments-one in each ward-provided with excellent teach- ers, comfortable rooms and everything a parent can desire."
By the year 1881, in harmony with the city's growth in population and area, there were thirteen wards. This increased the board of education to twenty-six members, besides the ex-officio members. This body was thought to be too large and unwieldy. Accordingly, on March 11, 1881, a new law was enacted, reducing the number of members to twleve, to be elected from the city at large. The law provided that of the twelve members chosen at the spring election in 1881, six should serve for two years and six for four years, six members to be elected biennially thereafter. The first board under this law was composed of: Goerge R. Angell, Magnus Butzel, Thomas J. Craft, N. Gallagher, Levi T. Griffin, W. N. Hailman, James Johnston, Simon C. Karrer, James W. Romeyn, Luther S. Trowbridge, Charles I. Walker and Carlos E. Warner.
In the organization of the board, George R. Angell was elected president, and Henry M. Utley was employed as secretary. The new system soon showed an improvement over the old one, as each member felt that he was working in the interests of all the schools, instead of those in his own ward, and greater uniformity resulted.
The small board, elected at large, continued until, by the act of March 21, 1899, the membership was again changed to a single member from each ward. As thus constituted it consisted of seventeen members. The rapid growth of the city and the formation of new wards in the early years of the present cen- tury again made the board too large and unwieldy for efficiency. The legis- lature of 1913 therefore passed an aet providing that:
"The Board of Education of any city having a population of two hundred and fifty thousand or over, which comprises a single school district, shall con- sist of seven school inspectors who shall be elected at large by the electors of the whole city qualified to vote for school inspectors in such municipality at the next spring election when judges of the Supreme Court are required to be elected. Two inspectors shall be elected to serve for two years; two inspectors shall be elected to serve for four years; and three inspectors shall be elected to serve for six years; thereafter, at the next like election immediately preceding the expiration of their respective terms of office, their successors shall be elected to serve for six years. The terms of office of each inspector shall commence on the first day of July following his or her election," etc.
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