USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 78
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The departments of the institution are: the High School, or preparatory department; the College of Arts and Sciences, which confers the degrees of A. B. and B. S .; the Engineering School, established by Reverend Dooley in the first year of his regime, in which are taught chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering; the Law School, opened by Reverend Dooley in the fall of 1912, which prepares students for the Michigan bar examination and practice in the courts of the state, and confers the degree of LL. B .; the School of Commerce and Finance, for the training of students along commercial and industrial lines; and at the opening of the school in the fall of 1920 a course in Federal Taxation was added. The library, which was established in 1879, now contains about thirty thousand volumes.
During the school year of 1919-20 the enrollment was 1,635 in all depart- ments. While most of these students came from Michigan, there were several from other places, particularly New England, Canada, Mexico, Korea; the Philippine Islands were also represented.
Rev. John T. McNichols is president of the university, having succeeded Rev. William T. Doran, who was transferred to Marquette University at Mil- waukee in October, 1921.
On January 1, 1922, the faculty of the University of Detroit announced that a site for a new campus, university buildings and mammoth athletic stadium had been purchased. The tract, forty-two and a half acres in extent, is bounded on the west by Livernois Avenue, on the north by Palmer Boulevard (formerly Six-Mile Road), on the east by Fairfield Avenue, and on the south by Florence Avenue. The inadequacy of the present accommodations led to the purchase. The university has grown rapidly, the enrollment in 1921-22 being 1,700, and with new and larger quarters the number of students from the state of Michigan and elsewhere promises to be close to the 3,000 mark. Upon the new campus will be an administration building, a school of letters building, a general science building, a school of commerce and finance building, a dormitory, a union building, a monastery for the fathers of the Society of Jesus, and a gymnasium. The buildings will be of modified mission style and will be constructed of gray or white granite. The present buildings of the university on Jefferson Avenue will be maintained for night schools and extension courses.
One of the distinctive features of this new university home will be the im-
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mense concrete and steel athletic stadium, which, when completed, will accom- modate 70,000 people, one of the largest in the world. The gymnasium will be constructed on larger lines than is customary and will have sufficient space for any sort of athletic meet. It is the intention of the school authoritie's to place this large athletic plant at the disposal of city, state or nation, which policy is compatible with the purpose of the university itself-to make the insti- tution a great, cosmopolitan, non-sectarian, but not irreligious university of higher learning. The Society of Jesus owns and manages the University of Detroit, but neither in the selection of professional school faculties nor in the reception of students is this fact to be a restrictive matter. Catholic in char- acter, the institution is equally desirous of obtaining students of other denom- inations.
BUSINESS COLLEGES
The first school in Detroit for giving a commercial training to students was opened in 1848 by Uriah Gregory. It was located in the old Odd Fellows' Building on the west side of Woodward Avenue, between Congress and Larned streets. Mr. Gregory continued to teach for about ten years.
In 1850 the institution now known as the Detroit Business University was established by W. D. Cochrane, who had been engaged in teaching for several years. The school first occupied rooms over the banking house of David Preston & Company, on the southeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Larned Street. In 1857 Mr. Cochrane sold out to the firm of Bryant & Stratton and the school was removed to the fourth story of the Merrill Block, where it was under the management of Prof. J. H. Goldsmith, known as an experienced accountant and eminent educator. In 1865 William F. Jewell became associated with Professor Goldsmith. Mr. Jewell's experience in teaching and in business made him a distinet power in the school during the forty-seven years of his service here. He was president of the university when he met his untimely death by accident in October, 1911. When the new Mechanics' HIall Building was completed in 1874 on the southwest corner of Griswold Street and Lafayette Avenue, the school was removed there.
The Spencerian Business College, which was consolidated with the Detroit Business University in 1885, had been established by Ira Mayhew in 1860 at Albion, Michigan. In 1866 he removed it to Detroit and located on the north- east corner of Congress and Randolph streets, the site of the present county building. Upon the completion of the Board of Trade Building, southeast corner Jefferson and Griswold, in 1879, the school was removed to rooms in the fourth story. Mr. Mayhew sold out in 1883 to P. R. Spencer, E. R. Felton and II. T. Loomis. The school was soon afterward consolidated with the Detroit Business University under the presidency of William F. Jewell.
The Detroit Business University was incorporated in 1905, soon after which Mr. Spencer retired. About this time the Gutchess Business College of Detroit was merged with the Detroit Business University. Upon the death of Mr. Jewell in 1911, E. R. Shaw became the president of the institution. Commodi- ous quarters are occupied at No. 411 West Grand River Avenue.
The Detroit Commercial College was opened on September 1, 1903. It was established by E. B. Winter, afterward mayor of Windsor, Ontario, who served as the first president of the institution. He was succeeded by Charles F. Zulaux, of Ubly, Michigan, who held the office until March 1, 1914, when he was in turn
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succeeded by R. J. MaeLean, the present incumbent. This school has always been located in the building at 1248 Griswold Street, which has been remodeled to suit the needs of the modern business college.
The Business Institute of Detroit was founded by A. F. Tull and L. C. Rauch in June, 1906, and is one of the few business colleges in the United States oceu- pying an entire building constructed especially for business school purposes. When first opened the Institute occupied the eighth floor of the Breitmeyer building upon Broadway and Gratiot. The following year the school had spread to portions of the seventh floor also, and in 1909 the needs of the increased attendance had become so imperative that the building at 1333 Cass Avenue was erected for the school. Removal was made to the new building August 1, 1909. The Pontiac Business College was purchased by the Business Institute in August, 1915, and the following June a building was purchased in Mount Clemens, where a second branch was established. The character of the instruc- tion in the Pontiae and Mount Clemens branches is the same as in the parent school at Detroit. A. F. Tull is the president of the Business Institute.
Vol. 1-49
CHAPTER XXX PRIVATE AND DENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS
PRIVATE SCHOOLS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY- THE FEMALE SEMINARY-SCHOOLS IN MECHANICS' HALL-BACON SELECT SCHOOL-OTHER PRIVATE SCHOOLS-THE LIGGETT SCHOOLS-DETROIT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL- CHURCH SCHOOLS-LIST OF CATHOLIC PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS-LIST OF PROTES- TANT PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS-MICHIGAN STATE AUTO SCHOOL-VARIETY OF SCHOOLS IN DETROIT.
The first schools in Detroit were conducted either as private institutions or under the auspices of the church. These early schools have already been de- scribed in a preceding chapter upon "Early Schooling in Detroit and Primitive Methods of Education," consequently it is the purpose of this chapter to give some account of the private and church schools of later date, those which were established soon after the opening of the Nineteenth Century, those begun contemporaneously with the free public schools and those of more recent date.
On October 24, 1806, John Goff petitioned the governor and judges for a lot upon which to conduct a school. His first school was located on the bank of the river, near the mouth of the Savoyard, but he afterwards taught upon what is now Woodbridge Street, between Bates and Randolph. Goff's wife, who as- sisted him, was an able woman, but Goff himself was a dissolute fellow, constantly in trouble. Until 1816, however, a school was maintained under his name.
From 1810 until the summer of 1812 Daniel Curtis was a teacher in Detroit and from 1812 until about 1818 a pedagogue named Payne, or Peyn, of very good reputation and ability, conducted a school. There are obscure records that in 1813 Mr. Rowe taught a school in an old wooden building on Griswold Street, near the corner of Jefferson Avenue. On June 10, 1816 Mr. Danforth, a belliger- ent sort of person, opened a "common" school and soon had an enrollment of close to forty pupils. His temperament manifested itself at times when he bombarded the class with books, rulers and even an open knife, which eventually caused him to seek refuge from the irate parents. His departure across the river ended his school. Levi Cook opened a school soon afterward in a building owned by Mr. Campau on the northwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Gris- wold Street, but continued only a twelve-month. The movement for public schools had not yet taken place, but the idea had taken root and was growing. An editorial in the "Gazette" of August S, 1817 had stated:
"Frenchmen of the territory of Michigan! You ought to begin immediately to give an education to your children. In a little time there will be in this terri- tory as many Yankees as French, and if you do not have your children educated the situations will all be given to the Yankees. No man is capable of serving as a Civil or Military officer unless he can, at least, read and write. There are many young people, of from eighteen to twenty years, who have not yet learned to
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DETROIT FEMALE SEMI- NARY, BUILT IN 1834 ON THE SITE OF THE PRESENT CITY HALL.
GERMAN-AMERICAN SEMINARY, CHAMPLAIN STREET, BETWEEN RIVARD AND RUSSELL, IN 1882
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read, but they are not yet too old to learn. I have known those who have learned to read at the age of forty years."
Such a condition as set forth in this editorial is almost incomprehensible to us of a hundred years later. Without education, there could have been little cul- ture or civic pride in the town of Detroit and it must have been a source of shame to the better minds of the community to witness the slothful surroundings. The men and women who had the courage and high ideals to begin small private schools were deserving of high praise, as their efforts were in few cases well rewarded or appreciated. In fact, it is probable that they were subjected to certain indignities which often fell to the lot of the "schoolmaster."
At the council house Mr. Banvard opened a class on November 3, 1817, and during the same year William Brookfield and his wife conducted a school on the southeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge Street. In 1818, John J. Deming taught for a few months in the old council house. In May, 1821, E. W. Goodwin taught a private school, and T. Young opened an English school "at Mr. J. B. Ladouceur's large house" near May's Creek. In November, 1821, and for several years after, Mr. and Mrs. Brookfield taught a school known as the "seminary" in the same place. In 1822, Eliza S. Trowbridge was teaching in Detroit. For a short time in 1821 and 1822, Orestes A. Brownson held classes in Springwells. From 1823 to 1825, rather a large school was taught by Mr. and Mrs. John M. Kinney, but the school survived only until Mr. Kinney's dissipa- tion incapacitated him. In 1826, however, his wife was keeping a school in the rear of the Newberry store on the corner of Griswold and Larned Streets.
On October 27, 1823 the university trustees voted to permit Mr. Carpenter to occupy a room in the university building for a school. One year later Mr. Shepard held a primary school in a small building on the university grounds, and in May, 1825, his wife had a "female school" at the same place. On November 14, 1828 leave was granted to P. W. Healy to keep a school in the university building. In 1829 he was teaching elsewhere and Delos Kinnicutt was keeping school in the university. During the greater part of the period from 1828 to 1832 private schools were conducted by Anson E. Hathon and Edwin Jerome. In 1829 a public meeting was held for the "establishment of an English common school," and the result was the opening of a school by Joel Tucker: the common council, on May 12, 1830, gave him permission to occupy a building on the mili- tary grounds adjoining the Cass Farm.
THE FEMALE SEMINARY
One of the notable schools of early Detroit was the Female Seminary, which stood upon the site of the present city hall. The land here was set aside for a female seminary in response to a resolution of a citizens' meeting held September 15, 1829, at which Jonathan Kearsley presided and John J. Deming was secretary. On March 18, 1830 a society was incorporated for the promotion of female educa- tion and the first meeting was held March 24th, at which time the following officers were elected: Lewis Cass, president; Charles C. Trowbridge, treasurer; John J. Deming, secretary; Jonathan Kearsley, Henry M. Campbell, DeGarmo Jones, William Ward, Eurotas P. Hastings, James Abbott, Charles Larned and Edmund A. Brush, directors. The governor and judges stipulated when convey- ing the site now occupied by the city hall, that by the year 1835 a suitable build- ing should be erected. Nearly four years passed before it was finally completed, and then the following notice appeared in the press:
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"The stockholders of the Association for promoting female education in the city of Detroit are requested to meet at the building recently erected for the Seminary, on Thurdsay, December 4th inst., at two o'clock P. M., for the purpose of considering the constitution to be proposed for the government of the Association, and for the transaction of other important business to all concerned in this object. The importance of the subject to be submitted induces the under- signed to hope for a very general and punctual attendance of those whose muni- ficence has enabled them to progress thus far, and of all who may be willing to contribute further aid to the undertaking.
"John Biddle, E. P. Hastings, B. F. H. Witherell, Thomas Palmer, DeG. Jones, H. M. Campbell,
E. Brooks, W. L. Newberry, J. Dean, C. C. Trowbridge.
"Detroit, December 2, 1834."
The building itself cost $7,325 to construct. It was of yellow brick, with a frontage of fifty-six feet and a depth of forty feet; each of the three stories con- tained eighteen rooms and a large hallway.
The Seminary was opened June 4, 1835 under the supervision of Mr. and Mrs. William C. Kirkland of Geneva, New York. Mrs. Kirkland was a woman of splendid education and was known as an author, some of her works having been : "Autumn Hours and Fireside Reading," "Memoirs of Our Country, " and "Our New Home in the West, or Glimpses of Life Among the Early Settlers." The latter work was written under the pen name of Mary Clavers and excited much comment.
The Kirklands remained in charge of the Seminary until 1836, when they were succeeded by George Wilson, who was there until 1839. Mrs. Hester Scott and her daughters, Annie, Isabella, and Eleanor, who had conducted a young ladies' school for two years previous, then assumed charge of the Seminary and stayed until 1842.
In 1837 the trustees of the Seminary asked the common couneil to grant them permission to sell the grounds. A resolution was adopted on March Sth, grant- ing the permission asked for upon condition that the trustees execute a bond for $50,000 to the city conditioned that the trustees should, within two years, purchase another site and ereet another building thereon. It was further provided
"That the real estate so to be purchased shall never be disposed of or ap- propriated to any other use and purpose than as aforesaid, without the consent of the said common eouneil, and this stipulation shall be embraced in the con- veyance to the said trustees. "
It is difficult now to determine why the trustees should have wanted to sell the Seminary. It was located in a good quarter of the town. Fine residences were springing up along Fort Street, and across the street from it were the Baptist Church and Mechanies' Hall. However, the Seminary was not disposed of at this time, nor for many years.
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In 1842 another petition was presented to the council and on March 4th of that year the trustees were granted permission to sell the property to the regents of the University of Michigan. The only condition attached to this permission was that the board of regents should continue in Detroit a school for the promo- tion of female education. This sale was not carried out and in the following May another resolution was passed by the council, granting permission to the trustees to lease the premises. Classes were discontinued in the Seminary in this year.
A short history of the transactions connected with the Seminary had been drawn up in the form of resolutions to the common council at the meeting of May 2, 1842, and from this report it appears that the buildings and fixtures on the Seminary lot were valued at $5,000 and that their cost was $7,325, of which $4,290 was borrowed from the Bank of Michigan and $3,035 was subscribed and paid by various citizens. In case of sale of the property for $5,000 the sum was to be split between the citizens and the bank. The bank was indebted to the board of regents of the university in the sum exceeding $7,300 "and they have agreed that a lease of the Seminary lot shall be executed to them for nine hundred and ninety-nine years in full satisfaction of the claim of the bank which now, with interest, amounts to $6,016, and the regents will pay the subscribers the amount due each of them."
It was thereupon resolved by the trustees at their meeting of March 24, 1843 that they should execute to the regents of the university a lease for 999 years upon the Seminary lot and the premises "granted by deeds dated the 29th of March, 1830, and the 1st of April, 1837, being the Female Seminary Grounds on Campus Martius and Griswold Street." Thus the title became vested in the University of Michigan.
The Seminary building was afterward used as a state armory, for sessions of the supreme court, and for other state offices. After it came into the possession of the city, the offices of the mayor, the board of sewer commissioners, and the city surveyor were located there. It was eventually torn down to make room for the present city hall.
OTHER PRIVATE SCHOOLS
In 1830, a so-called "infant" school was opened by Miss Elizabeth Williams in one of the old military buildings on Fort Street West; her pupils were thirty in number. The Misses Farrand conducted a young ladies' seminary about the same time and George Wilson taught an English classical school. He was succeeded after a few years by Rev. D. S. Coe. In May, 1832, J. B. Howe was teaching a classical academy. During 1833 D. B. Crane was in charge of a clas- sical school in the old council house on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Ran- dolph Street. In 1833, gentlemen named Nichols and Tappan were teaching a female seminary in the old university building.
What was known as the Michigan High School was opened December 2, 1833 in the south basement room of the council house under charge of J. N. Bellows. On March 12, 1834 the lower portion of the building was rented to D. B. Crane and the upper part to Mr. Bellows. According to Nile's Register for April 19, 1834 there were then 448 scholars on attendance at the various schools in Detroit.
From the time the Detroit Mechanic's Society erected its first small building at 111 Griswold, on the corner of the alley just below the corner of Griswold and Lafayette, in 1834 until the building was torn down in 1873, it was used as a
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schoolroom at various times and by different teachers. Soon after the hall was finished the society decided to establish a school and the trustees were directed to employ a teacher. They secured the services of Owen Marsh and in October, 1834, the Mechanics' Academy was opened. In the Free Press of September 28, 1835 the announcement was made that Mr. Foy had opened a school for mathe- matics, French and English. He taught only until May of the following year, when the school was continued by Joseph F. Weed. Mr. L. J. Ames was also a teacher in the Mechanics' building in 1836. "Miss Clancy from Rochester" conducted a school for young ladies in the upper room in May, 1836. Henry P. Philbrick conducted a singing school in the same building in the fall of 1836. The Free Press of February 17, 1843 stated that Percival C. Millette and Patrick Higgins intended to open a classical and English school at the Mechanics' Hall on Monday, February 20th, for young gentlemen-"Mr. Millette has until recently been the principal of the Ann Arbor Classical Institute and taught there two years." L. J. Himes and G. B. Eastman were other early teachers here.
John S. Abbott had a school in 1835 in the Athenaeum on Griswold Street and Jefferson Avenue.
BACON SELECT SCHOOL
In July, 1836, Washington A. Bacon opened a "select school for boys" in a frame dwelling on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and St. Antoine Street. Mr. Bacon was a native of Sault Ste. Marie and had taught there for three years before coming to Detroit. He was a well educated man and a very successful teacher, even though his scholars found him somewhat inflexible at times in the enforcement of discipline. After a term or two, Mr. Bacon removed his school to the same lot as his residence, corner of Jefferson Avenue and Russell Street, a building having been erected on the rear of the lot for the accommodation of his class. Here Mr. Bacon taught four terms every year until about 1871 or 1872, and quite a number of young men who afterward made their mark in the com- mercial or professional life of Detroit were students at one time or another in Bacon's "select" school.
In 1836, Rev. R. Elms was at the head of the Detroit Classical Academy. In 1836, John T. Blois and Mr. Mitchell had schools with about forty scholars each. In 1839 and 1840, E. J. Meany conducted a class for boys over the Bank of St. Clair on Jefferson Avenue. On May 25, 1841, Miss E. J. Vail opened a school for young ladies on Wayne Street between Fort and Congress. In the autumn and spring of 1842, Rev. C. W. Fitch taught a girls' seminary. Also, in the early part of this year, Miss A. S. Bagg began a school for the instruction of young ladies.
In 1843, Dennis O'Brien taught in the old academy and Miss Sanford had a young ladies' school on Jefferson Avenue opposite the Exchange. In the spring of 1844, Stephen Fowler and Mr. Cochrane opened a school, classical in character, in the basement of the Baptist Church at the corner of Fort and Griswold Streets. About 1849, his school was located on the north side of Jefferson Avenue near St. Antoine Street, in a large wooden building called the Detroit Institute. George Brewster had been a teacher in this building for two years previous. Fowler's school ended about 1852. Mrs. Clements also taught a well patronized select school near this time.
In 1844, Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bryant, cousin of William Cullen Bryant, began a select school, which she continued for over thirty years.
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In 1845 and 1846, Mechanics' Hall was used as a school by D. T. Grinold. In 1846 and 1847, William Brannigan and N. West taught boys' schools and in 1847 there were also the schools of Melville Moir, Abner Hurd, and Miss Melvina Hurlbut. In 1847 and 1848, Franz Zinger conducted a select German school on Croghan Street between Hastings and Rivard and on July 22, 1849 Joseph Kuhn began a school on the corner of Croghan and Hastings, which he operated for three years.
On September 23, 1851, a popular ladies' seminary was opened in the Strong house on Fort Street West by Miss Sarah Hunt. In the following year, removal was made across the street between Griswold and Shelby Streets. The estab- lishment of this school, which, after one other removal in 1856 to Madison Avenue and there continued until 1860, was helped materially by several Detroit business men, among them John Owen, David French, Eber B. Ward, John J. Garrison, John Stephens, Caleb Van Husan, James Burns, J. D. Morton, Herman De Graff, William K. Coyl, George Kirby, Moses F. Dickinson. These men advanced $3,000 for the school, which sum was repaid by the tuitions of the scholars.
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