USA > Michigan > Eaton County > The county of Eaton, Michigan : topography, history, art folio and directory of freeholders > Part 9
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Somewhere about 1830 the academy was finished; by what means I never learned. Several professors were at different times inveigled in there to teach, but found it up hill work in col- leeting their tuition. Professor Wal- lace stood it as long as he could and then went to railroading it out West and got killed. Professor Loring and his wife taught a few pupils, and boarded themselves frugally in a small room upstairs in the academy, until they starved out and went to farming over in Eaton, where the Professor soon died. Professor Ingham, who seemed expressly constituted for such usage, browsed in this field of thorns and thistles until the organization of the Union school gave him a salary. He subsequently became a newspaper edi- tor in Nebraska.
What dividends the stockholders re- ceived upon their subscriptions I have never learned. The stock was cheaply bought up by the few. The old acad- emy has been sold and moved upon a front lot, and is now turned into the Peninsular Hotel. The entire ground has been cut up into city lots, . and the academy is probably finished.
The Vermontville Academy was just opening when a company of thirty- eight persons, with goods in wagons drawn by ox teams, driving their flocks and herds before them, left Oberlin, Ohio, for Olivet, Michigan. The town existed only in name.
A few months previous, Rev. John Shipard, the founder of Oberlin College, visited the Grand River valley, Michi- gan, to look after some land belonging to the Oberlin College. He had already determined to found a Christian college in Michigan, but had not decided upon a location. He chanced to visit the present site of Olivet, and becoming lost in the dense oak under brush which then covered the spot, stopped at a set- tler's home and was entertained over night. Receiving directions, he re- sumed his journey in the morning, but, to his surprise, soon foand himself at the same spot where he became lost the night before. Again he started, and again after endeavoring to pick his way through the heavy underwood, he came upon the same emminence. He decided that this spot should be the site of his proposed college. The hill he called Olivet and the little brook which flowed
at its base he named Kedron, but the new name has never supplanted the former one of Indian Creek. The Olivet Colony, after a ten days' journey, arrived at their future home Saturday, February 24 1844. Dwelling houses were built, and land cleared, and soon buildings for the college were com- pleted. Father Shipard fell a victim to deadly malaria at the beginning of the enterprise, but the colony did not despair. The first distinctively college building was burned before fully com- pleted, but faith was not exhausted. In 1845 the legislature chartered Olivet Institute which continued until 1859, when a college charter was obtained. In 1894 Olivet College celebrated her fiftieth anniversary. During the half century, the value of her equipment had grown fron nothing to $175,00). 10,000 young men and women hava re- ceived instruction, and 380 had been graduated. Olivet College ranks among the best educational institutions of the west, and is a source of pride to the citizens of Eston county.
For a quarter of a century the schools : of Eaton County increased more in number than in efficiency. The wages paid offered no inducement for young men and women to educate themselves for the profession of teaching. School aparatus was limited to an ill-assorted lot of books in the hands of pupils, a square yard of blackboard, made of matched lumber, cubes of chalk an inch square, purchased in many instances by the children who used them, and erasers made by covering one side of a block of wood with sheepskin with the wool on. Occasionally charts illustrat- ing penmanship adorned the walls, but were never used. The branches taught were, reading, writing, spelling, arith- metic and geography, and commonly grammar; occasionally a class in alge- bra would be found. History, physiol- ogy and civil government were practi- cally unknown. Grammar was largely a girl's study, for they could attend school during the summer, while the boys, who, after the age of twelve, were kept at home to work, devoted the three or four months of the winter term to the three R's.
Until 1867 the licensing of teachers was done by a township board, consist- ing of the township board and two school inspectors. The board elected one of its members "visitor," whose duty it was to visit each school in the township at least once a term, to exam-" ine into the work of the teacher, and to test results by examining the pupils. If capable men should chance to be chosen, such a system would have yielded fair results, Lut too frequently such was not the case. Loose examin- ations were supervisioned, and un- progressive schools were the net product. Nor does this statement im- peach the general intelligence and faithfulness of the officers of that day. It simply implies that a man who. oc- casionally interests himself in educa- tional affairs, and whose whole thought is given to other lines, cannot in the very nature of the case do efficient work in school supervision, which re- quires technical knowledge.
In 1867 the law creating the office of County Superintendent of Schools went into force and F. A. Hooker, a young lawyer, now a member of the Supreme bench of Michigan, was elected Super- intendent. In reply to a question con- . cerning the condition of the schools at the passage of the law and the work accomplished by him, Mr. Hooker writes:
"The law of 1867 providing for county superintendents of schools was a radi- cal departure from existing conditions. Three school inspectors had previously granted certificates and established and altered the boundaries of districts. So far as I discovered they seldom did more, though occasionally a man would be found among them who visited schools. This, if I am not mistaken, was without compensation. The qual- ifications necessary to obtain a certifi- cate differed in the various localities. In the villages and more advanced townships they were more than in others. In the townships, especially the newer ones, when log school houses abounded, the granting of certificates . was largely a matter of expediency, and depended on the character of the
school to be taught. _ They were usual- ly secured after the school was secured and often, the wishes of the school board went farther than the attain- ments of the teacher.
"Methods of teaching were individual, of necessity, each teacher having his own. As a rule they were very prim- itive. One or two schools had maps, none had globes or other apparatus. My first attempt was to raise the stand- ard of examinations, Manifestly a uniform standard was the result of a single examiner, but the result was consternation upon the part of the pat- rons and teachers. The first examina- tion did not produce teachers enough to teach half of the schools, but by holding private examinations, and granting descretionary and short term certificates all were provided for the first sammer, and the community set" tled down to peace and quiet. It had been badly disturbed and the office was very unpopular.
"By fall the examination showed the result of work on the part of the teach - ers, and each succeeding examination gave better results, though two years was too short a time to accomplish a very great improvement. I worked persistently to introduce maps, globes and a few other things but I was not able to accomplish much in this direc- tion. During the two years I held it, I developed my energies to raising the standard of teachers, and felt that a marked improvement was discernable. That seemed to me' the first step, and was a necessary foundation for other improvements in methods of instruction which would inevitably follow."
The work so well inaugurated by Mr. Hooker, was carried on by his success- ors, Superintendents, Townsen 1, Evans and Shoop; but the office was unpop- ular throughout the state, and. after eight years of trial it was abolished. . In place of a County Superintendent, there was elected a superintendent for each township. Unity of plan at once disappeared and the work accomplished by county supervision was gradually undone. The ntter failure of township supervision may be judged from the fact that in 1880 only fifteen schools in the county had prescribed courses of study, but nineteen were classifled, and there were only ten that did not change teachers during the year.
A demand for better schools led, in 1881, to the creation of a County Board Board of School Examiners, to be com- posed of three members, whose duty it was to examine and license candidates; the secretary of the board should visit schools when occasion demanded. Prof. J. Estabrook, J. L. Wagner, and K. Kittridge were members of the first board. From that day to this the schools have gradually improved. By the law of 1889, the secretary of the board was to give his whole time to supervision with the title of County Secretary of Schools. It was the good fortune of Eaton County to have for secretary Mr. Orr Schurtz, whose ef- ficiency and zeal made her schools sec- ond to none in the state. In 1891 Mr. Schurtz resigned to accept an impor- tant position in the schools of Grand Rapids, and was succeeded by J. L. Wagner, the present commissioner, who had been a member of the Exam- ining Board since its creation. Under the supervision of Mr. Wagner the schools have been efficient and pro- gressive. In 1891 the name of the of- ficer was changed from County Secre- tary to Commissioner of Schools.
When Mr. Hooker became County Superintendent in 1867 he found the village and city schools in good condi- tion, and steady improvement has marked their history to the present day. Gradually, the larger places lead- ing, graded courses were adopted and to-day every village and city school is following a definite course of study. From an accompanying table it will be learned in what year the various schools began to graduate classes and the number graduated from each. For fifteen years the schools of Charlotte have ranked among the finest in the state, and the diplomas from the high school are accepted by the State Uni- versity for all courses. The Eaton Rapids schools are also upon the university diploma list, though not for all courses. The youth of no county
in Michigan have better educational opportunities than the youth of Eaton County. Her district schools are as good as any. From them it is but a step to excellent high schools, and when the high school is completed a college stands prepared to give the higher ed- ucation.
It is safe to say that no exanty in Michigan of the population anil age of Eaton has had such large influence in the educational affairs of the state. Her teachers have achieved distinction. Miss King, Superintendent of Charlotte schools from 1877 to 1881, is Professor of history in the Michigan Normal schools; Miss Jones, Superintendent 1881 to 1838, is Professor of English Literature in the State Normal schools of Kansas; Mr. Hammond, Superin- tendent from 1888 to 1893, is a member of the State Board of Education.
Eaton Rapids has been hardly less honored than Charlotte. Mr. Briggs, Mr. Schurtz, and Mr. Evans have all been called higher, and today hold re- sponsible positions, as Superintendent of Coldwater schools, Principal of the West Side High school, Grand Rapids, and Superintendent of Jackson schools, respectively.
For twelve of the last thirty years Olivet College has furnished the state the Superintendent of Publie Instruc- tion, Prof. Hosford holding the posi- tion for eight years, from '61 to '72 and Prof. Estabrook four years, from '86 to 90. Mr. Schurtz, while Secretary of School in Eaton, was nominated by the republicans for the office of Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, but a political reverse lost the state to that party.
With honest pride the citizens of this county can look back over a third of a century and contemplate the material progress that has been made, and with even greater pride may they view the social, religious and educational ad -... vancement that have come with the years.
TABLE I, DATE OF THE FIRST TERM OF SCHOOL IN THE VARIOUS TOWNSHIPS. Bellevue . 1836
Hamlin ..
1837
Eaton Rapids. 1837
Vermontville
1838
Eaton ..
.. 1839
Walton,
1839
Chester. 1839
Oneida. 1889
Kalamo ... 1840
Delta .. 1841
Charlotte 1841
Roxand .
1841
Brook field.
.1841
Carmel
.1841
Sufineld.
1842
Benton. 1843
Windsor. .1823
NOTE: The dates for Oneida, Windsor and Walton are not certain.
TABLE IL. SCHOOL POPULATION BY DE-
CADES.
1844.
*459
1855.
.4.670
186
0,314
1874.
8,780
188 .9,351
1894 .. 9,207
SCHOOL School age in 1844 between five and seven- teen. Other dates between five and twenty. TABLE III. MISCELLANEOUS
STATISTICS FOR 1893.
Children between 5 and 20 .... .... 9,142
Value of School Property ......... $201,043 Male Teachers ... ... 78
Female Teachers .. .280
Total Number of Teachers ...
.358
Wages Paid Male Teachers. ... $16,460.66 Wages Paid Female Teachers $40,878.81 Total Wages Paid ... .957,339.47
Primary School Fund ............ 813,973.22 Total Expenditures .... ............. 81,783.34
No. School Districts .... ... 148
No. Children Attending.
... 7,452
Teachers required for Graded Schools 66 Ungraded .. .188
Average Price per Month (male) .. $43.09 Female ... ... $29.93
School House Material (brick) .. ...... 45
Frame
.... 113
NOTE: The last log school house ceased to be used in 1886.
Schools.
Grad'n first
No. Graduates
class
Male Females.
Bellevue ..
1858
11
19
Charlotte .
1874
136
Dimondale,
1893
4
10
Eaton Rapids ....
1876
50
81
Grand Ledge No 11
1886
14
Grand Ledge No. 9
1893
Olivet ..
1893
5
5
Potterville.
189 1899
17
6
Vermontville ..
72
PHYSICIANS OF EATON COUNTY.
By WM. PARMENTER, A. M., M. D.
The practice of medicine in this state was regulated by no laws requiring study or preparation. The result has been that in the earlier history of this county the number of qualified physi- cians was few. In the early 60's it would have been possible to count all the doctors of this county on the fin- gers of two hands, Now there are more than fifty such physicians. More- over, the requirements for graduation in these later days are three or four times as extensive as then. Medical schools were few, and the professional equi pment of the young doctor was obtained in a course of reading in a doctor's office, attending at the same time to cleaning of spittoons and grooming of his preceptor's horse. In some cases he concluded his studies by a single or double course of lectures of four months' duration in a one-horse medical school; yet the majority went directly from their preceptor's office to assume the responsible duties of phy- sician. The result was that a very few persons, endowed by nature with pe- culiar aptitude for the profession of medicine, rose superior to their sur- roundings and became noted physi- cians; noted more because of the con- trast with the average physician of the time than because of actual attain- ments in knowledge and skill, com- pared with that of large numbers of our physicians of to-day; the great mass of doctors were contented, or compelled by their environments to be, and re- mained mediocres.
It must be said, however, that with the great advance of science in the last half century, medicine has not lagged behind. This is particularly true of preventive medicine and surgery. The causes of many diseases, especially con- tagious diseases, having been discov- ered, the means of their prevention was worked out and applied. The exist- ence of disease producing germs in the atmosphere, and attached to all mater- ial objects, has called for and obtained the means for their destruction; and as a result, surgical operations are per- formed with impunity, which, before, were almost uniformly fatal. In the early 60's there were not a dozen sur- geons in the United States who dared to open the abdominal cavity; now, in our own county, there are at least four who have successfully removed abdom- inal tumors, and did not think it "in form" to "sound a trumpet before them",on account of it. Thirty years ago the diseases in the autumn and early winter were almost exclusively malarial. Large quantities of quinine, at $2.50 to 84.50 an ounce, were pre- scribed, often amounting to an ounce of the drug in one round of the physi- cian. The diseases during the re- mainder of the year were largely the results of the malarial poisoning of the internal organs and nerve centers. This has changed. Ague is a nerve disease and yet it lingers in the vicinity of sluggish streams and ponds. The prac- tice of medicine then was attended with many inconveniences and hardships, among which were the sparcity and scatteredįcondition of the population, requiring long rides on horseback over corduroy roads, and along bridle paths through the woods, to find in a log cabin whole families shivering with the ague, or pale and cadaverous, awaiting with dread the hour of the return of the swamp fiend; and he was sure to come. The scarcity of surgical sup- plies at that time is well illustrated in
a very common incident occurring in the year 1863. It became necessary to amputate a torn or broken limb in the town of Vermontville, but no instru- ments could be found nearer than Eaton Rapids, 24 miles away. The physician in charge set the hour of op- erating at ten o'clock the next day, as it was then near evening; then mounted his horse and rode all night-forty- eight miles-and was home in time to remove the limb without delay. It was his first amputation.
While the present physicians of this county compare favorably in ability and success with any others in the state, there are none who have attained special prominence, or who have been called to professional chairs in medical schools. One, who thirty years ago laid down the scalpel and medicine case, after ten years of service, has found in other fields a prominent place. Dr. R. C. Kedzie, a graduate of the first medical class in our State University, was called in 1863 to the chair of Chem- istry in the State Agricultural College; and has since become prominent in sanitary and scientific circles. A very brief history of medical practice in the various localities in this county will be given in the alphabetical order of the localities. Under each local heading will be found the names and qualifica- tions of each physician now in prac- tice, as reported by himself. It will be noted that four ladies are now in the field. Twenty-two years ago there were none.
It has been attempted to give in these pages the name and address, at least, of every physician in the county. If anyone has been overlooked it has not been for want of careful and per- sistent inquiry.
BELLEVUE.
This is the earliest settled town in the county. A Dr. Carpenter was probably the first doctor who settled here, but of his history nothing can be obtained. Later came Drs. S. H. Gage, Fero, Taylor, Marshall and sixteen others, who remained but a short time. The present practitioners are A. W. Adams, Erastus Berry. A. S. Wilson and Horace D. Hull.
Dr. Albert W. Adams received his di- ploma from the Medical Department of Michigan University in 1873. He also took an ad eundem from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York, the following year. He began his pro- fessional career in Kalamo, in 1872, but removed to Bellevue in 1882, and is in active practice there at the present time. He has never had time for office. He acquired the title of Ph. D. from the Michigan University and has since been satisfied with his titular honors. He is now in the prime of manhood.
Dr. Erastus Berry, now seventy-two years of age, commenced business as a physician at about forty-two. He graduated at the Detroit Medical Col- lege in the year 1871, six years after commencing his practice. Of late years, and at present, he has combined the business of druggist with. the practice of medicine. The first year as druggist he took out a United States revenue permit to sell liquors, paying the usual fee of $25. Determined to sell accord- ing to law, and strictly for useful pur- poses only, he found at the end of the year his sales, all told, amounted to but 820, and said good bye to the liquor business. He is married, but without children.
Dr. H. D. Hull graduated at Hahn- emann Medical College of Chicago, in 1870, at the age of forty-one. He is married, has a fine farm just outside of the corporation and has not aspired to political honors. He has been continu- ously the health officer for fifteen years, the entire time of his practice in Belle- vue.
Dr. A. S. Wilson is a young physician of twenty-seven, a graduate of the State University in 1894, and has prac- tised only. since graduation. Somme future historian may be able to write a brilliant history of his future career. He is married and glad of it.
BROOKFIELD.
This town has been supplied with a physician most of the time since 1860. The order of their practice is: Dr. Thomas, 1860-1865; Dr. D. T. Williams, 1870-1887; Dr. W. E. Van Ande, 1883- 1888; Dr. W. E. Newark, 1889-1894, and Dr. C. S. Sackett, the present incum- bent, who came in 1894, a young mar- ried man from the Eclectic Medical In- stitute of Cincinnati, which gave him a diploma in June, 1894. He has a prom- ising future.
CHARLOTTE.
The first doctor to attempt the task of visiting the sick in this city, then a little hamlet, and surrounding woods and marshes, came in 1842 but soon re- moved to Eaton Rapids, where he died. His name was Rolph. He was followed by Dr. J. P. Hall '49, who also died twenty years later. Contemporary with him was Dr. H. M. Munson who finished his work on earth ten years before the death of Hall. Dr. A. B. Sampson came in '58 and died in '68. Dr. Chas. A. Merritt came in 1858 and in 1857 Dr. G. T. Rand, a homoeop- athist, located here but died in 1890. The present physicians in active prac- tice are G. B. Allen, P. D. Patterson, A. R. Stealy, E. C. Palmer, F. A. Weaver, C. A. Merritt, W. E. Newark, Warren Rand, Sara J. Allen, H. J. Emery, and Mary E. Green.
Philo D. Patterson claims the State University as his Alma Mater, in 1869, and has used his knowledge and skill as a physician ever since that date; one year at Marshal, two at Carlisle in Kal- amo township, and thirteen years in Charlotte. He is now fifty-one years of age, married. He filled the office of County Clerk for six years, from 172 to 78, has been First Vice President of the State Medical society, and has also held several other honorable positions in that body. Besides his degree, M. D., he holds that of B. S. conferred by Hillsdale College.
Dr. G. B. Allen has spent 35 years in Charlotte in the healing art, and now (1895) finds himself a member of the lower house of the State Legislature, his "first political offense." He re- ceived his degree of M. D. from the State University in 1867, and has prac- ticed medicine twenty-eight years. He is genial, able, reliable.
Dr. Mary E. Green graduated in Phil- adelphia in 1868, and began practice in New York City. She became a mem- ber of the New York Medical Society, and, later, of the Medico Legal Society; the medical journals, both British and American, referred to her as being the first woman ever admitted to any med- ical society. She was elected Judge of Food Products at the Columbian Ex- position. Makes a specialty of the study of foods, as to their scientific and nutritive value. Has practiced in Char- lotte 21 years.
Dr. Horatio J. Emery took his medi- cal degree from Queen's University, Ontario, in 1884, at the age of 25, and has spent ten of the eleven subsequent. years in attempts to heal the sick. He combines the cognato of druggist with that of physician.
Dr. Allison R. Stealy found himself dubbed doctor of medicine by the Rush Medical College of Chicago, February 16th, 1886, at the age of 29. "Sensible to the last," he married and settled at Carlisle, in this county, remaining but one year, when he took up his abode in Charlotte. His early life was a strug- gle for existence; but by dint of farm- ing, teaching school and studying at in- tervals he finally succeeded in obtain- ing his title of M. D. at Chicago, in 1886. In 1894 he took a post graduate course in Chicago.
Dr. Charles A. Merritt, at the ripe age of 70, remembers that his diploma, signed by Henry P. Tappan, D. D., L. L. D., University of Michigan, bears date of 1855. He combines agriculture with medicine, the former for pelf, the latter pro bono publico. He has been Mayor of Charlotte one term, and for 20 years Superintendent of the Poor. He is now the oldest physician in Char- lotte, having lived and practiced there since 1855-forty years.
Dr. Emory C. Palmer has practiced medicine in this county for twenty-five years, and two years elsewhere. He first located in Potterville, where he re- mained twenty-two years and more since that time he has resided in Char- lotte. He claims for his Alma Mater the State University in 1876, and took a post graduate course in 1882 at Rush Medical College, Chicago, with private course in gynecology. He has also combined, a part of the time, and at present, the drug business with the duties of physician.
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