Ferris State University - Ferriscope Yearbook (Big Rapids, MI)

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Dedication DPIDICATED TO MR. AND MRS. FERRIS FEW results, a few events, Are all these pages hold, QLQYQLVA! Yet this we ask you to peruse, fi 612 , Wi Their message to unfold. C Of all the blossoms Nature sends, Of all the flowers she breathes But few are gathered in men's books And pressed between the leaves. We cannot know of all the good That other lives have wrought, Unless we note them as we should And mark the goal they sought. But as we scan the living page That your life work reveals, We know that each succeeding age Must answer its appeals. Vtfe hope with joy you will accept This message we relate. We therefore with our grateful hearts, This token dedicate. DOUGLAS DAIXFON. 3 i

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Cv Editor in Chief, CLAY NOR'l'H Associate Editors: ANNA HETMANS1'ERGER, Shorthand Department ROY R. BANNEN, College Preparatory Department QSeniorJ ROBERT E MERVAU, Pharmacy Department ALEX HAYES, College Preparatory Department ljuniorj JENNIE DUMoN, Kindergarten Department BRUCE EASTMAN, Commercial Department GERTRUDE XVAN ANTXVERP, Music and Drawing Department LEON E. BITELY, Commercial Department MATT. j. LIDDY, Telegraphy Department Business Manager, Rox' R. B.-XNNEN Q' T

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I I I I l I RVN f K- gp Y father, John f ' I Ferris,j'r., 3 was born in the Township of Spencer, Tioga Coun- ty, N. Y., january 15, 1824. He was one of a family of eight, five boys and three girls. His home on the little farm offered few opportunities fo r growth. Poverty hung like a pall over the children. just as soon as they could earn a pit- tance at manual labor they were not only made to take care of them- selves, but to give a por- tion of their earnings to their father and mother. They were denied the privileges of school, consequently, my father did not acquire even the rudiinents of an edu- cation. WOODBRIDGE N. FERRIS At the age of twenty-eight he married Stella Reed, an orphan, one of seven children. My mother was nearly eighteen years of age at the time of her marriage. She was then living in the home of Russell Gridley on a farm four or five miles from Candor, Tioga County, N. Y. She acquired a good common school education. Father and mother began housekeeping in a little log house four miles southeast of the village of Spencer. Fath- er had purchased a hemlock forest of seventy or eighty acres. In this log house I was born, 'Ianuary 6, 1853. Four of my sisters, Sarah, Anna, Mariette and Olive were also born here. It is impossible for me to give an adequate description of father and mother's struggle on this prospective farm. The great hemlocks were cut into logs, rolled into heaps and burned. Gradually the forest disappeared and fields of wheat, patches of corn and buckwheat were planted. A few cows and sheep were cared for in order to help the family eke out a meager existence. In those days sewing machines and kerosene lamps were unheard of luxuries. In 1863, ten years after my birth and during the Civil VVar, father built the new house . In the new home two more children, Stella and Seymour, were born. All of the children were sent to the district school with a degree of regularity that defied storms and ordinary ailments. I be- gan school when I was four years of age. During the eight succeeding years, school was the horror of my life. During my first three years at school my entire outfit consisted of a reader. I was not allowed to have a slate for fear I might indulge in making pictures. Life in the school-room was a burden. My unsatisfied craving for something to do forced me into mischief and mischief brought me into con- iiict with the teacher with the old-time result, frequent flog- gings, The winter I was twelve years of age marks the turning point in my school life. Williaiii Holdridge, a teacher who lived in the district, invited the arithmetic class, of which I was a member, to visit his home evenings. His -personal