The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 116

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I > Part 116

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naries, but they had no corporate existence. On March 18, 1830, a society was incorporated for the promotion of female education. The first meeting was held on March 24, and the following officers were elected : president, Lewis Cass; treasurer, C. C. Trowbridge ; secretary, John J. Deming; direc- tors, Jonathan Kearsley, Henry M. Campbell, De Garmo Jones, William Ward, Eurotas P. Hastings, James Abbott, Charles Larned, E. A. Brush.

On March 29 the Governor and Judges granted the society nearly all of the site now occupied by the City Hall, on condition that by the year 1835 a suitable building should be erected. Nearly four years passed before the building was completed, and then the following notice appeared :

FEMALE SEMINARY.

The stockholders of the Association for promoting female edu- cation in the city of Detroit are requested to meet at the building recently erected for the Seminary, on Thursday, December 4th inst., at two o'clock P. M., for the purpose of considering the constitution to be proposed for the government of the Associa- tion, and for the transaction of other important business to all concerned in this object. The importance of the subject to be submitted induces the undersigned to hope for a very general and punctual attendance of those whose munificence has enabled them to progress thus far, and of all who may be willing to con- tribute further aid to the undertaking.

JOHN BIDDLE, E. P. HASTINGS, B. F. H. WITHERELL, THOMAS PALMER, DE G. JONES, H. M. CAMPBELL, E. BROOKS, W. L. NEWBERRY, J. DEAN, C. C. TROW- BRIDGE.

DETROIT, December 2, 1834.

FEMALE SEMINARY BUILDING, AS IT APPEARED IN 1863.

The building cost $7,325 ; it was built of yellow brick, with a frontage of fifty-six feet and a depth of forty feet, each of its three stories contained eighteen rooms and a large hallway. It was occupied as a school in 1836, and in 1837 had sixty pupils and a valuable set of philosophical apparatus. Its first principal was William Kirkland. In November, 1836, he was succeeded by Mr. George Wilson,

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who remained till 1839. Mrs. Hester Scott and her daughters, Annie, Isabella, and Eleanor, who had conducted a young ladies' school for two years pre- vious, then took charge, and remained until 1842; the school was then discontinued. The ladies last named continued to teach in other localities for sev- eral years afterwards.

When the property ceased to be used as a school it was transferred to the State in trust for the Uni- versity, and was used as a State Armory, for sessions of the Supreme Court, and for other State offices. After it came into possession of the city, the offices of the Mayor, the Board of Sewer Commissioners, and the City Surveyor were located therein. It was eventually demolished to make room for the present City Hall.

Returning to the year 1830, we find that on July 26 Miss Williams opened an infant school in one of the old military buildings on Fort Street West, com- mencing with thirty pupils. At the same time the Misses Farrand were conducting a Young Ladies' Seminary, and Mr. George Wilson was teaching an English Classical School. He was succeeded in a year or two 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 Classical School in the old Council House, on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Randolph Street. In the fall of 1833 Messrs. Tappan and Nichols were advertised as teachers of the Detroit Female Seminary in the old University building, and on November 21 the fol- lowing announcement appeared :

MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOL.

This institution will be open on Monday, the 2d of December next, in the south basement room of the old Council House, for the reception of pupils.

J. N. BELLOWS.

On March 12, 1834, the lower part of the building was rented to Mr. D. B. Crane, and the upper part to Mr. Bellows. On or before April 7, 1834, Mr. Bellows had removed his school to its new quarters, and on October 24 he transferred his lease to Mr. Crane, who continued until 1835 or later.

A report contained in Niles' Register for April 19, 1834, shows that there were four hundred and forty-eight pupils then in attendance on various schools in Detroit.

On June 16, 1834, the Mechanics' Society resolved to establish a school in their building on Griswold Street, and the trustees were authorized to employ a teacher and maintain a school. As a result of this action, in October following, Mr. O. Marsh opened the Mechanics' Academy, under their aus- pices. In 1835 Mr. Fay was teaching in their building, and John S. Abbott was wielding the birch over a classical school in the Athenaeum.

In 1836 Washington A. Bacon, a native of Ver- mont, who had taught for three years at Sault Ste. Marie, came to Detroit, and in July of that year commenced teaching a select school for boys, in a cottage on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and St. Antoine Street. He subsequently removed to his residence on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Russell Street, and taught in a building on the rear of the lot. For nearly forty years he taught four terms a year, and though called "strict" by the boys, the length of time he continued in his profes- sion, the reputation of his school, and the acquire- ments of his pupils afford the best of evidences of rare qualifications as a teacher.

In 1836 Rev. R. Elms was at the head of the Detroit Classical Academy. In the same year three different persons, L. J. Himes, J. S. Weed, and Miss Clancy, conducted schools in Mechanics' Hall, and the next year, G. B. Eastman taught in the same place. This building, from the time of its erection, afforded favorite teaching ground, and its walls and halls became almost classic through the forensic eloquence displayed on declamation days.

In 1836 John T. Blois and Mr. Mitchell had schools, with about forty pupils each. In 1839 and 1840 E. J. Meany conducted a school 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 between Fort and Congress Streets. In the fall and also in the spring of 1842, Rev. C. W. Fitch was teaching a girls' seminary.

On February 23, 1842, the following notice ap- peared :

SELECT SCHOOL .- Miss A. S. Bagg will commence the second term of her school for the instruction of young ladies in the vari- ous branches of education usually taught in Female Academies.

In 1843 P. C. Millette, P. Higgins, and Dennis O'Brien taught in the old academy, and Miss San- ford had a young ladies' school on Jefferson Avenue opposite the Exchange. In the spring of 1844 Stephen Fowler, who is favorably remembered by many old pupils, and a Mr. Cochrane, commenced a classical school in the basement of the Baptist Church on the corner of Fort and Griswold Streets. In 1845 G. C. Curtis was associated with him, and the school was moved to the northeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street. 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. A school had been taught in the same building the two previous years by George Brewster.

Mr. Fowler's school was probably discontinued in 1852. About this time Mrs. Clements taught a select school which was largely patronized.

In 1844 Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bryant, a cousin of

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William Cullen Bryant, commenced a select school, which she continued in various locations for more than a third of a century.

In 1845 and 1846 Mechanics' Hall was occupied by the school of D. T. Grinold. In 1846 and 1847 Messrs. William Brannigan and N. West taught boys' schools. In 1847 we find allusions to the schools of Melville Moir, Abner Hurd, and Miss Hurlbut. In 1847 and 1848 Franz Zinger taught 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 Hastings and Croghan Streets. He continued it till 1852.

A successful ladies' seminary was opened by Miss Sarah Hunt, on September 23, 1851, on Fort Street West, in the Strong House; the school was re- moved, the year following, across the street between Griswold and Shelby Streets. In order to aid her in establishing her school, Messrs. John Owen, David French, E. B. Ward, J. J. Garrison, John Stephens, C. Van Husan, James Burns, J. D. Morton, H. De Graff, W. K. Coyl, George Kirby, M. F. Dickinson, and others, advanced three thousand dollars, which amount was repaid in tuition. Her school was moved to Madison Avenue in 1856, and was discon- tinued in 1860.

For part of the time between 1845 and 1850 John Funke kept a school on the south side of Macomb near St. Antoine Street, and A. Stutte on the southwest corner of Croghan and St. Antoine Streets.

From 1851 to 1854 W. D. Cochrane maintained an English and Classical School on Miami Avenue near Grand River Street.

In the fall of 1854 Miss C. E. Chapin opened a school in Room 10, Sheldon Block; and the same year S. L. Campbell was teaching a Classical and High School in the old Seminary Building on Gris- wold Street. After 1856, and up to 1860 or later, this last school was conducted by Dr. C. F. Soldan.

In April, 1856, Misses Hosmer and Emerson opened a school on the corner of State Street and Woodward Avenue. The school of Miss Ellinwood was in progress in 1857, and the same year Miss Maria Rockwell, who for many years had taught successfully in the old Capitol School, opened a Young Ladies' Institute, which was continued two or three years. In 1858 and 1859 Dr. and Mrs. Reighley were conducting an institute on the north- east corner of Jefferson Avenue and Rivard Street. The Detroit Female Seminary, formerly on the north- east corner of Fort and Wayne Streets, was founded in September. 1859. Originally a corporation, about 1874 Professor J. M. B. Sill became its sole propri- etor. The first principal was Professor J. V. Bean. He was succeeded in 1861 by Professor J. F. Pearl, followed by Professor J. M. B. Sill, whose successor "

was Mrs. S. Towle. In 1879, just twenty years after it was founded, Professor M. H. Martin became its manager. On September 14, 1885, the school was removed to 79 Lafayette Avenue.

P. M. Patterson's boys' school was organized at 109 Griswold Street on September 1, 1860. In 1873 it was moved to the corner of Gratiot and Farmer Streets and subsequently to the Chamber of Com- merce Building, where it was continued until Mr. Patterson's death in 1882.

In 1861 Professor Leo Romer was conducting a school called the Michigan Female Seminary at 215 Woodward Avenue; in 1862 it was moved to Park Place, corner of Grand River Avenue, where it continued several years.

The German American Seminary, although a pri- vate institution, was liberally endowed by the State. Its history is as follows: During the convention in Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, a number of the German delegates came together for consultation on the interests of their nationality, and one of them proposed that a Ger- man seminary be started for the training of teachers; this was agreed to, and it was also resolved to locate it in whatever State would make the largest dona- tion. Some of the prominent German residents of Detroit interested themselves in the project, and induced the Legislature, on May 15, 1861, to pass a law granting to them, under the name of the Ger- man American Seminary, twenty-five thousand acres of swamp land, to be selected in parcels of not less than three hundred and twenty acres, to aid them in erecting buildings on lands granted or leased by the city of Detroit; the lands to be selected within one year. By a subsequent Act, on May 10 of the same year, two years were allowed for selecting the lands. If there was ever any expectation that the city would lease or grant lands for a building, the expectation was unfulfilled, and on March 6, 1863, the Legislature amended the Act, and gave the lands for a seminary to be erected on land provided by the association. The trustees were required to give bonds in the sum of $25,000 that the net pro- ceeds of the sales of the lands should be faithfully and " forever " applied to the purpose named in the Act.

Some of those connected with the proposed sem- inary were interested also in a German and English school established on December 23, 1856, in a small frame building on Lafayette Street between Rivard and Russell Streets, with F. Krecke as principal. In 1858 a new building was erected. The union of the two institutions was suggested and consum- mated, and early in 1866 a large brick building was erected, and has since been occupied by the sem- inary. The original object was to establish a sort of normal school, but apparently this idea has been

PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND SEMINARIES.

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discarded, and for many years it has been simply a German school for children of various ages and of both sexes.

In 1862, and for several years after, a Ladies' Day School was conducted by Mrs. C. James at 267 Jefferson Avenue, and a Classical and High School by L. Leonard at 239 Wood- ward Avenue. In 1863 Professor H. G. Jones began his boys' school at 58 Grand River Avenue; removing from there, in 1868, first to Farmer Street near Monroe Avenue, then to Lafayette, near Brush Street, and on October 1, 1883, to No. 457 Second Avenue.

In addition to church and public schools there were in 1870 fifteen private schools and seminaries, with a total attendance of nearly sixteen hundred pupils ; in 1880 the number was nearly the same.

In 1876 N. Schantz established a German and English Academy, with a Kindergarten, on Farrar Street near Monroe Avenue, and continued it in the same location until 1882.

A Home and Day School was opened on Septem- ber 18, 1878, at 62 Miami Avenue, corner of Grand River by Rev. J. D. Liggett. In 1882 it had ten teachers, including those teaching special branches. In 1883 a building was erected on the southeast

corner of Cass Avenue and Stimson Place especially for the school. The lot and building cost $40,000. The school was opened on January 7, 1884. It can accommodate two hundred and fifty scholars.

THE GERMAN-AMERICAN SEMINARY.

In 1876 Rev. A. B. Brown opened a boys' school on the northeast corner of Monroe Avenue and Farmer Street, remaining there until 1882; he then removed to Farrar Street near Gratiot Avenue, and there the school was discontinued. During 1882 a boys' school was estab- lished in the basement of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church. It was taught by Rev. Paul Ziegler. In 1866 it was transferred to a build- ing of its own on Adams Avenue west near Park Street.

Holy Trinity Anglo- Catholic School was opened at 86 Fourteenth Avenue on September 5, 1881, with eighteen scholars. It was con- ducted by Rev. R. M. Edwards, the pastor of the church of same name. In 1883 it was discontinued.

CHURCH SCHOOLS.

In considering nearly every subject pertain- ing to Detroit we are reminded that this was originally a Catholic colony.

THE DETROIT HOME AND DAY SCHOOL. BUILT IN 1883.

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CHURCH SCHOOLS.

Cadillac, speaking of the several orders of mis- sionaries, and of his plans for Detroit, on October 18, 1700, said :

These are the cultivators of the vineyard, who ought to be received without distinction to work in the vineyard of the Lord, with special directions to teach the little Savages the French language, that being the only means of civilizing and humanizing them and infusing into their minds religious and monarchial principles. One takes wild beasts at their birth, birds in their nests to tame and free them.

On August 31, 1703, almost as soon as the colony was settled, he wrote to Count Pontchartrain :

Permit me to insist upon the great necessity there is for the establishment of a Seminary at this place for the instruction of the children of the savages with those of the French, instructing them in piety and, at the same time, teaching them our language.

Whether any school was established is unknown; we find no indications of schools or teachers until May 15, 1755, when, in connection with the mar- riage of Jean Baptiste Rocoux, it is stated in St. Anne's records that he was "Director of the Chris- tian Schools.'

Half a century later, in 1804, Father Richard established a Ladies' Academy, with Miss Elizabeth Lyons, Miss Angelique Campau, Miss Monique Labadie, and Miss Elizabeth Williams as teachers. In the fall of the same year he started a school for young men, teaching them Latin, History, Geog- raphy, Music, etc. It was broken up by the fire of 1805.

The condition of the Catholic schools in 1808 is fully set forth in the following memorial, presented to the Governor and Judges, through Judge Wood- ward, on October 22, 1808 :

Besides the English Schools in the Town of Detroit there are four primary schools for boys, and two for our young ladies, either in Town or at Spring Hill, at Grand Marais, even at River Hurons ; three of these schools are kept by the natives of the country who had received their first education by the Reverend Mr. Dilhet. At Spring Hill, under the direction of Angelique Campau and Elizabeth Lyons, as early as the 9th of September last, the number of the scholars has been augmented by four young Indians, headed by an old matron, their grandmother, of the Pottowatamie tribe. In Detroit, in the house lately the prop- erty of Captain Elliott, purchased by the subscriber for the very purpose of establishing an Academy for young ladies under the direction of Miss Elizabeth Williams, there are better than thirty young girls who are taught, as at Spring Hill, reading, writing, arithmetic, knitting, sewing, spinning, etc. In these two schools there are already three dozen of spinning wheels and one loom, on which four pieces of linen or woolen cloth have been made this last spring or summer. To encourage the young students by the allowment of pleasure and amusements the undersigned have these three months past sent orders to New York for a spinning machine of about one hundred spindles, an air pump, an electrical apparatus, etc. As they could not be found he is to receive them this fall, also an electrical machine, a number of cards, and few colors for dyeing the stuff already made, or to be made, in his Academy.

It would be very necessary to have in Detroit a public building for a similar Academy in which the high branches of mathemat- ics, most important languages, geography, history, natural and moral philosophy should be taught to young gentlemen of our country, and in which should be kept the machines the most necessary for the improvement of useful arts, for making the most necessary physical experiments, and framing a beginning of a Public Library.

The undersigned, acting as administrator for the said Acade- mies, further prays that one of the four Lotteries authorized by the Hon. Leg. on the 9th day of 7ber (Sept) 1806 may be left to the management of the subscriber.

DETROIT, 8ber (Oct.) 18. N. S. 1808. GABRIEL RICHARD.

Father Richard placed the date of the Lottery Act one year too late. It was passed on September 9, 1805. None of the lotteries went into operation. The plans Father Richard had inaugurated, and the further plans proposed, do great credit to his judg- ment, and show that he was fully alive to the advan- tages of an industrial education.

About 1811 he procured a teacher from France, named Le Sallière, who taught for two or three years. In 1820 Miss Elizabeth Williams was teach- ing a school which she designated as the " Com- munauté de Ste. Marie." Although full records are not found, a school was probably maintained in con- nection with St. Anne's during the entire period of Father Richard's stay in Detroit.

In February, 1836, we find that it was taught by William McDonnough. In 1838, under the same teacher, it is spoken of as a High School, and in November, 1841, a report to the Common Council showed that it embraced nearly all the Catholic children in the city.

One of the most successful schools of this period was located in Hamtramck on what was called the Church Farm. This farm was transferred April 5, 1808 (see Liber II, page 178, of Deeds) to Louis Beaufait, Joseph Cerre dit St. Jean, Benoit Chapo- ton, and Charles and Francis Rivard, "Agents of the inhabitants of the Northwest Coast," on condi- tion of their paying about two hundred dollars yearly as rent, and giving the sons of Hypolite St. Bernard two hundred and twenty-six dollars each on their attaining majority.

Apparently the inhabitants subscribed or paid the amounts named on condition that the farm be used for both church and educational purposes. They evidently had some rights of the kind in the prop- erty. The chapel erected on the farm is elsewhere described. A school was established in the old farmhouse within a year after the grant was made. The building was subsequently enlarged and fitted up as St. Philip's College. It fronted on the river and had a piazza one hundred and ten feet long. The price of tuition was three dollars per quarter. The following copy of an advertisement gives fur- ther particulars :

CHURCH SCHOOLS.

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St. Philip's College (Cote du Nordest), near Detroit, Michigan, under the auspices of the Right Reverend Dr. Rese, Bishop of Detroit.

Rev. Mr. Vanderpoel, Superior of the Institution. Reverend Mr. De Bruyn, President of studies, September 14, 1836.

In 1838 Rev. Father Cullen was one of the pro- fessors and Rev. John De Bruyn president. On April 16, 1839, the college was incorporated by special Act, and this year it had three professors and thirty pupils. Among its graduates were Chris- topher Moross, Alexander M. Campau, Columbus Godfroy, John and Daniel McDonald, John and George Schwartz, Alexander M. Thomas, Barnabas Campau, J. C. D. Williams, J. B. Cicotte, M. B. Kean, George Cooper, and David Stuart. A "good dinner " on Sundays was one of the special "insti- tutions " of the institution. The usual pranks of boys at school were not forgotten ; on one occasion, as one of the boys blew out the light and jumped into bed, he landed on a sheet of ice that had been carefully spread for him. He immediately named a place where ice is not supposed to exist, and the next morning extra prayers were offered. The building burned in October, 1846, and the school was not resumed.

In May or June, 1833, several Sisters of St. Claire, originally from Bruges, under the leadership of Superioress Sister Vindevogel, came here from Pitts- burgh, and established a seminary for girls. In 1837 they were conducting a German and English free school, with forty-five scholars. The same year it was succeeded by a French Female Charity School, which was supported by Mrs. Antoine Beau- bien, and taught by Miss Elizabeth Williams. It had an average attendance of forty children. Miss Williams died in 1843, and was succeeded by Miss Matilda Couchois, who taught about a year, and was succeeded by the Sisters of Charity. Four Sis- ters arrived on May 30, 1844, and under their charge a free school for boys and girls was opened on June 10, 1844, in an old yellow building on the southwest corner of Randolph and Larned Streets, and to aid in its support they also opened a "pay school." On May 1, 1845, the boys were transferred to the base- ment of St. Anne's Church, and the girls remained, the school taking the name of St. Vincent's Semi- nary. In 1846 it had one hundred pupils, only twenty or thirty of whom paid for tuition. The brick school building on Larned Street was erected in 1852 ; it was opened in October with one hun- dred and fifty scholars. In 1853 the school had two hundred scholars, and in 1870 two teachers and one hundred and twenty scholars, with an average at- tendance of one hundred. The Sisters ceased to conduct it in 1871, but it was continued by lay teachers for four years.

The boys' school, which had been transferred to

the basement of St. Anne's, was cared for by the Sisters until September, 1851, when the school, with two hundred and eighty pupils, was placed in the care of five brothers of the Christian Schools. The brick addition in the rear of St. Anne's was erected in 1851 to accommodate the school, and in 1852 there were four hundred scholars. In 1855 there were three hundred and fifty scholars, and in 1857, four hundred. In July, 1864, the school was dis- continued. In 1882 the scholars of this parish were taught by the Ladies of the Sacred Heart.

Trinity Schools.

A parish school was taught in the basement of Trinity Church by Daniel O'Connor, as early as 1850. In 1851 two separate schools for boys and girls were maintained in the same location. In 1852 the Brothers of the Christian School began to teach the boys, and this year they had two hundred and fifty scholars. In 1853 a brick school building was erected just east of the priest's house at a cost of $1,500. This property, in 1880, was valued at $8,000. A school for girls was continued in the basement of the church until 1858, when a large brick school building was erected on Porter Street, between Sixth and Seventh Streets, at a cost of $5,000. It was enlarged in 1844 at a cost of $3,500, and again enlarged in 1875. Including the lots, the

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The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 116

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902 Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096