Edison Institute High School - Yearbook (Dearborn, MI)

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HERALD Page Nine A Brief History of Our Schools LOCAL AND DISTRICT SCHOOLS In the month of May, 1932, the Edison Institute began an experiment among more than 200 children attending rural schools near Ford-owned farms in southern Michigan. Plots of ground near the schoolhouses were tilled and planted and turned over to the children to care for during the summer vacation and bring to harvest. Each tract was to be an experiment table whereon the child would watch the plants spring up in tiny shoots of green, unfold into blossom, and finally come to fruit. The value of destroying the weeds and cul- tivating the plants was one thing quickly learned. The need of keeping steadily on the job was another. Families of the children were given whatever produce was grown on their plots, so that each pupil was able to provide a supply of vegetables to supple- ment the home table. The schools are located in southern Michigan within a radius of 100 miles of Dearborn. Three are in Dearbornethe Greenfield Village Scotch Settlement, Town Hall and Clinton Inn schools. Three are in or near Macon-ePenning- ton, Town and Mills schools. The Brownville, Academy, Comfort and Centennial schools are near Tecumseh, and the Willow Run and Rawsonville schools are not far from Ypsilanti. WILLOW RUN In 1849 a school was erected on the banks of Willow Run Creek which became known as the Willow Run School. It was a small frame structure designed to accommodate twenty-eight pupils. The teacher was selected from among the better educated persons of the district. The books were furnished by the parents. Pencils and ink were homemade, and the pens were made from goose quills by the teacher. When after ten years the enrollment had grown from twenty-eight to forty- four, and the pupils were jammed in every corner and round the teachers desk, Charles Cady called a meeting of the board at which it was decided to build a larger school. At the end of the summer term of 1859, as the last child left, the building was hoisted upon skids and dragged by twenty-one yoke of oxen to the extreme bank of the creek. Work was ims mediately started on the present school; which was copied from the W. W. Har- wood School of Ypsilanti, built in 1830 and said to be the first itLittle Red School in the district and perhaps in the state. In 1888 there came to this school Frank Cody tnow superintendent of Detroit schoolsy for his first assign- ment as a teacher. In June, 1926, upon the completion of a near-by consolidated school, the key was turned on the faithful old door lock and the Willow Run School was closed. In the fall of 1931, Mr. Ford caused building and grounds to be re- stored and on September 9, the old hand bell announced the resumption of classes. There was present a little band of old- timers and the old lot rang again with echoes of laughter and shouts of joy from the sun-bonnet girl and the bare- footed boy,n whose ffgrandpappyti got his tischoolin, at Willow Run. Frank Cody was present for the day and once more taught the school. NM RAWSONVI LLE About the year 1825, Amariah Raw- son came to the Huron River Valley and settled on a large tract of land, building a log house for himself and family on the south bank overlooking the stream. In time he constructed a frame house across the road and opened a store. As more settlers came into the valley, a thriving town sprang up which was called Michigan City. The town spread along both sides of the river and boasted of three blacksmith shops and two general stores. The old log school was replaced with a new brick building erected about 1860 by the same man, it is thought, who built the school at Willow Run. By that time the name of the town had been changed to Rawsonville. School has been kept continuously in this district except for two or three years When the number of children was so small that it was decided to let them all attend Willow Run. mm OLD STONE PENNINGTON The first pioneer settler between Tecumseh and Saline in the Raisin River Valley was John Pennirgton, a Quaker, who came in 1828 and built a log cabin along the banks of the Macon Creek. In time the spot became known as Penningtonis Corners and later as Macon. A log school provided a means of education in the early days, with winter and summer terms. In the old minute book of School District No. 1, Township of Macon, is a record of meetings as far back as 1841, and the name of John Pennington appears as director. In 1851 it was decided to build a new school, and Michael Hendershot was given the contract for a stone building to cost $450. The old school was sold for $31.50. One of those who attended and learned the three Ris here was Jerome Travis, the present teacher. The in- terior arrangement of the new school was unique, the pupils' desks facing the stove and the teacher's platform from three directions. The stone school was being used as a storage warehouse when Mr. Ford came upon it while putting in his acreage near Macon. He restored it to its original purpose. School was reopened on Sep- tember 28, 1931, at a reunion attended by nineteen of the thirty-one living mem- bers of the first classes, who sat in their old places and answered roll call. Four surviving children of the twelve born to John Pennington and his wife were there, as were nine grandchildren. Classes resumed work on October 12, with Jerome Travis behind the desk as teacher. After the assassination of Abra- ham Lincoln, Alfred Graham, a 16-year- old pupil, wrote a poem, The Death of Abraham Lincoln, for one of the boys, Jerome Travis, a 12-year-old, to recite. The poem now hangs framed on the wall of the restored school. At one time the Baptist minister, J ohn Maynard, taught the village school and while so doing preached his regular Sunday sermon. It was he who gave the bell now in use in the old schoolhouse, to Miss Susan Langhan, who in turn gave it to Mr. Ford when he recon- structed the building. TOWN SCHOOL, MACON The Town School, Macon, was built because of the need for increased capac- ity and also because the old stone school was cold in winter? Isaac Hen- dershot was the builder, and the grounds were landscaped with ever- greens from Israel Penningtonis nursery. Joseph Morgan was director of the school at the time of its construction in 1866. Silvanus Travis as moderator hired his son, Jerome Travis, to dig the holes for planting the trees which still stand on the grounds. Young Travis was also paid 62V; cents a cord for saw- ing wood for the school and in 1872 served as its teacher. The building was remodeled in 1931 through the co-operation of Mr. Ford. mm BROWNVI LLE The old Brownville schoolhouse, abandoned many years ago only to be restored by Henry Ford, was reopened on Monday, January 23, 1933. The school is operated as a tfone room schoolhouse,u with classes from the first to the twelfth. Mrs. Charles Snedecor, who has in her possession the old hell that once called the children of the Brownville school together, was present on the first day of school and had the honor of ring- ing the first bell. Pupils of the Ford school at Macon also attended and pre- sented a program at the morning session. The Brownville School was completely rehabilitated and to the observer today, presents the same appearance it did 40 years ago, with its oil lights, box stove and whitewood seats and desks. The building is of brick. mm CENTENNIAL A difference of opinion arose in the year 1871 over the proposed division of the original school district which was composed of pupils attending in the old brick building which then stood on the site on which the Centennial schoolhouse now stands. After the argument over location and districting, those living east of the old brick school pulled it down in 1876 and erected a new buildings on the site, which is named in honor of the year of its erection the Centennial School. Through the co- operation of Mr. Ford, the school was reopened for instruction in September, 1932. Mrs. Jennie Nyland Tallman, who taught the classes thirty-five years Concluded on page 10

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Page Eight HERALD The Wayside Inn Schools. MARYiS LITTLE LAMB The school system of the Wayside Inn group in South Sudbury, Massa- chusetts, consists of three schools. The one which undoubtedly has an especially strong attraction for visitors is the Redstone, or Mary Lamb School, which is widely known because of the famous poem concerning one of its pupils of iong ago, the first stanza of which fol- ows: Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow, And everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go. The Mary of this world-famous poem was an actual personage, and the inci- dent of her pet lamb following her to school really happened. r Mary Elizabeth Sawyer was born March 22, 1806, and died December 11, 1889. When a little girl she attended the Redstone School of District No. 2, at Sterling, Massachusetts, and on the day When her pet lamb followed her to school, John Roulstone, a student pre- paring for the ministry, visited the school and so witnessed the scene which he later put in verse. The poem as it appears today, however, had three stanzas added to it and was iirst printed by Sarah J. Hale in her book of verse. It was the first stanza of this poem that Thomas Edison spoke into the first phonograph. The schoolhouse where the incident took place was purchased in 1926 by Mr. Ford and removed to the estate near the Wayside Inn at South Sudbury. The Redstone Schoolhouse has had a varied history. Built in 1798, it con- tinued in use as a school until 1856. Although known throughout the country- side as the old Redstone Schoolhousefy it was really an ordinary wooden build- ing of the familiar country school type, painted red. Its name was taken from the fact that it stood on a rising called Redstone Hill. When its educational career ended in 1856, the building saw various uses until eventually it became part of the Baptist Church society,s barn and garage at Sterling. Here in 1926, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford discovered it, brought it to Sudbury, and restored it to its original use. NM WAYSIDE INN BOYSi SCHOOL In the month of March, 1928, two Boston buses opened their doors and thirty boys looked for the first time on a school in which they were to be the first students. The main purpose of the school was the development of character and the preparation of boys for their future careers. When school opened in the fall of 1929 the Solomon Dutton House was secured as a dormitory and the number of boys increased to between forty and. fifty. The first graduating class, that of 1929, consisted of Bernard Mallory, Michael Gonet, William Pereen, Ru- dolph Saracusa and Joseph Kuriger. In June, 1930, Leon Gooch, David Sobel, Frank Calbert, William Graham and Hyman Selingman were graduated, and in the following year J oseph Oche- dowski, Louis Seligman, Michael Bolesky, Thomas Margellar, William Bridges, Charles Barkhouse, George Hill and Earl Stoddard. During the summer of 1933 there was developed a complete agricultural four-year course. The present staif consists of Mr. Young, headmaster; Mr. Rorstrum and Mr. Curtis teaching agriculture, with Mr. Thompson and Mr. Sefton carrying the academic subjects. NW SOUTHWEST SCHOOL About the year 1800 the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, constructed a school just off the Boston Post Road west of the town to accommodate the children living in that vicinity. For one hundred years the original structure stood until finally it was moved three- quarters of a mile east and converted into a residence which sometime later was accidentally destroyed by fire. This school had existed under several names, Peakham School, Wayside Inn School, and Southwest School, any of which might easily have identified it. After the purchase of the property containing the school site, the old foun- dation was located by the position of four poplar trees and upon it was erected the present structure designed as nearly as possible the same as the original. The fall of 1930 saw the first pupils, comprising the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades in the new building. The twenty-three children who attended all came from the town of Sudbury, and two of them walked a mile and a half to school the first day, the others being carried in the station wagons. The first enrollment was as follows: Ivan Stone, Robert Spiller, Barbara Morton, J osephine Torrey, Lucretia Richardson, Jane Way, Doris Seymour, Barbara King, Eleanor Goulding, Vir- ginia Bowry, Yvette Harrington, Made line Torrey, Esther Miller, Thomas Winship, John Merrill, J ohn Bunker, Ralph Stone, Parker Bartlett, Donald Bowry, Virginia Ellms, Ruth Stone, Eleanor Stone. Of this number John Merrill and J ohn Bunker were from the Wayside Inn Boys, School, and later four more joined them, namely, Francis J ohnson, William Roby, Albert Niedbala and Francis Quirk. The first graduates were Esther Miller and Madeline Torrey. When the school reopened in Septem- ber, 1931, after the summer vacation, Mrs. Jane Bennett became teacher, and still holds that position. The 1932 graduates were Ruth Stone, Virginia Ellms, Virginia Bowry, Yvette Harrington, Robert Spiller, J ohn Winshjp and Ralph Stone. June, 1933, brought diplomas to J ane Way, Elizabeth Kirkland and Earnest Little, all three of whom passed the Sudbury school examinations with high honors. mm . By means of head-phones and special mlcrophone, a scientist claims to have heard the sound made by worms gnaw- ing in apples. MN Dogsy teeth are used as money in many parts of New Guinea and through- out the South Sea Islands. mm In England they sell eggs by weight as well as by count. SOUTHWEST SCHOOL Lombardy poplars form a stately setting. MARY LAMB SCHOOL where a universally known classic was inspired. 2 WAYSIDE INN BOYSl SCHOOLS where character is built and practical training is given in good citizenship.

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Page Ten HERALD HISTORY OF SCHOOLS tConcluded from page 91 before, called the pupils to school on the reopening day, and at the ceremonies on the same occasion Charles Edward Pritchard, 7 years old, manipulated the halyards which raised the hag. MN GREEN LANE ACADEMY The small brick school which was erected by Elwood Comfort at the end of a lane bordered with evergreens, was given the appropriate name of Green Lane Academy, although the father of Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, would likely have had some- thing to say about this had he lived at the time. It will be recollected by students of the great lexicographer and master of English prose that Boswellls father, the laird of Auchenleck, exclaimed contemptuously: HHe lDr. J ohnsonl keepit a school and caled it an academy. However, Green Lane Academy has a history all its own. In its earlier days it provided accommodation for meetings of the Quakers, or more properly The Society of Friends. It became for a time a dwelling, and births, weddings, deaths and funerals have marked its progress through the years. It continued as a dwelling house until the spring of 1932, when it was sold by Albert Comfort to Mr. Ford. mm MILLS SCHOOL The Mills School was erected in 1860 close to the site of an earlier school built about 1836, and thought to have been the first frame school in Lenawee County. Gabriel Mills was one of the earliest settlers in the county, an able, farsighted pioneer who bought a site along Macon Creek for a saw mill about 1832, erected a dam from bank to bank, and cut logs into building material. The Mills home stood on a hill from which the mill and its pond could be seen, and it still stands today complete in almost every detail. Here the school teacher was boarded without charge. It is occupied today by Cassius Mills, a son, who is eighty-live years old and has seen with deep interest the restora- tion of the dam within walls of native stone, and the reconstruction of the mill by Mr. Ford. Gabriel Mills furnished the lumber and the hardware for the first school, the hardware being hand-forged. Among the interesting events that have taken place near the old school was a visit by the Mormons about 1836'on their way west from New York State. Their elders held services in the old Mills School. MN COMFORT SCHOOL During the days when country roads knew only the slow plodding of an ox team or the more sprightly pace of horses, when a ten-mile journey and re- turn was a two-day trip, Samuel Satterth- waite and Aaron Comfort came from the East and took up five hundred acres on the Raisin River near the present town of Tecumseh in Lenewee County. Elwood Comfort, son of Aaron, took up 180 acres of land for farming in 1854, and built a brick house on the top of a commanding hill. There on November 6, 1859, Albert A. Comfort, its present occupant, was born. By 1868 there were nine families in the vicinity. The necessity for increased school facilities was obvious. According, in 1869, a small brick school was erected by Elwood Comfort at the end of a lane bordered with evergreens, from which it took the name of HGreen Lane Acad- emy? The building was located on a bank; the upper iioor was divided into two rooms, one a bedroom for the hired man of the Comfort farm, whose living quarters were in the basement, and the other a schoolroom. The teacher boarded at the Comfort home and when not teach- ing assisted with the housework. In 1871 a discussion arose over the division of the original school district made up of the children attending an old brick schoolhouse on the present site of the Centennial School building. The dispute was settled the next year by the building of a new school on the Comfort farm out of the brick furnished by El- wood Comfort. It was later known as the Comfort School. Albert Comfort was made director till 1900 and served until 1932. Our Contributors The response of the pupils of the Edi- son Institute, Greenfield Village and dis- trict schools to our appeal for news has been most gratifying. Following is a list of the names of contributors, although the names of the editorial staff and the dis- trict school reporters will be found separately in the flag at the top of the editorial column, on page 2: Scotch Settlementelsabelle Gassett, Jean Mills, Jack McCloud, Billy Ford, John Perry, Helene Walker, Bobby Shackletonleeacher, Miss Webster. Town HalleBetty Hutchinson, Sue san Alderdyce.iTeacher, Miss Mason. Willow Run-Gene Barnes, Jack Suggitt, Lillian Poet, Helen Hoag, Grant Dicks, Phyllis La Fortte, Jack Hewitt, Ruth Reinhackel.eTeacher, Miss Mackinnon. Old Stone PenningtonaDavid A. Higgins, Ruth Randall.eTeacher, Jer- ome Travis. BrownvilleiMerrill Gray, Doris Har- rington, Neil J ones, Eva Johnson, Roma Driscoll, Kathryn Dermyer.-Teacher, Glenn Driscoll. CentennialeGertrude D r u i l 1 a r d, Agnes MontgomeryeTeacher, Elmer J . Chapman. Green Lane AcademyeMargaret Papp, Ceciele Netcher.eTeacher, Miss Dobie. Comfort-Ellen Holdridge, Lois An- derson.--Teacher, Miss Boltz. Mills Schoole-Lilah Creger, Jennie Cibrowski.eTeacher, Miss Higgins. NW CO-OPERATION Co-operation is one of the greatest things on earth; it means helping one another. Co-operation is the way to accomplishment; the lack of it leads to failure. Whether at work or at play, co-operation is an excellent thing, and it appears at its best when the strong assist the weak and guide them over the rough places of life. I have been much gratified to see how upper grade boys and girls help the smaller ones with their school work, their dancing lessons and especially while en- gaged in out-door recreation, and similar sports and pastimes. The uniform courtesy of the seniors to their younger companions has been very edifying not only to me but to other observers. While our teachers in general en- deavor to impart adequate instruction to their pupils, their efforts would be useless-but for the co-operation of the pupils. in studying their lessons and in recelvmg and retaining such instruction. Pupils undoubtedly lighten their teach- er's task by giving such assistance, and I have to acknowledge that I have learned many things from them in this way. Another thing of which I am pleased and. proud. I have always found our pupils straightforward and truthful, and no dlfliculty has arisen at any time but what Icould be talked over and satis- factorily straightened out. This is co- operation. er. Lovett. MN HOME LIFE tBy Edgar A. Guesti The roof is stout against the rain, The walls shut out the cold, And through each little window pane The great world we behold. Outside the wintry snow comes down And bitter is the storm, But safely I come back from town To cosy rooms and warm. But there are other storms to fear And other frosts to dread. A bitterer cold may enter here If angry words be said. And though the walls be staunch and strong And though the doors be stout, Were hatred eler to come along They could not shut it out. The walls can keep away the snow, The roof shut out the rain, But love must keep the rooms aglow Or bolted doors are vain. For home is not of brick and stone, But happy hearts and minds And soon that place is overthrown Where hate a lodging finds. The strength of home is in the heart And not within its walls. When those who keep it draw apart The stoutest structure falls. So let the wind blow cold outside Against the window panes, We'll happily at home abide So long as love remains. ePrinted through the courtesy of the author. MN Resolutions From Willow Run The summers come and winters go, First the Howers, then the snow, Each season brings its gifts so good, We wouldn't change them if we could. First the task and then the joy Bringing gifts to girl and boy, So the days go liying by, Let's make them worth while you and I. -Grant Dicks I make new resolutions, but every single year They get a little cracked and badly bent I fear. But even if theylre broken, I have to make them as , Thatis better than to make none, is my experience in the past. ?Helen Hoag