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

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and language methodsg Mary Armstrong, rhetoric and lit- erature, These teachers stand out clearly in my memory after a lapse of nearly forty years. Dr. Edward A. Sheldon ex- ercised an extraordinary influence over my daily life. I-Iis abundant sympathy and kindness held me in line. Again and again I would have abandoned school disheartened and discouraged had it not been for his words of cheer. Dr. Edward A. Sheldon and Prof, Edwin A. Strong approx- imate to my ideal of what constitutes an American gentle- man, NVhile attending the Oswego Normal I felt the need of training along the line of public speaking. I had always been fascinated by the preacher, orator and actor. I had no reason to suppose that I possessed even ordinary ability in speech. XVithin a comparatively short time after entering upon my regular course, I joined a dozen or more boys like myself and we succeeded in organizing what was then called the Adelphi Society. I distinctly remember my first effort at debate. I was confident that I could talk easily and fiuently for fifteen minutes. I lasted just a minute and a half. The others realized a like measure of success. XVe persisted in our efforts, however. NVe finally admitted young ladies to the society. In 1873 this society had become the leading one in the school. Its vitality was due to the good sense exercised in its organization, not that this good sense was premeditated. It grew out of the necessities of the hour. The society was recruited almost entirely from Freshmen, consequently the society had an element of per- manency, though without any marked degree of brilliancy. If I were to put a value upon my training in this debating society, as compared with my training in rhetoric and essay writing in the school, I should place the higher value upon the extemporaneous work. My present belief in extem- poraneous work is the sequence of my practice at the Os- wego Normal and Training School. During the past twen- ty-five years there has been connected with the Ferris In- stitute from one to three debating classes and to the bene- fits of this work many Ferris Institute students owe a large measure of their public success. On Saturday afternoons I frequented the Gerrit Smith Library. I read the books that interested me. I pursued no definite plan except that now and then I read some book that related to the school work I was doing in Ameri- can and English literature. I also recall getting books reg- ularly from the library. It was during my stay in Oswego that I first ran across a copy of the Popular Science Month- ly. The nrst number was issued Nay, 1872. I did not have sufficient money to buy the first nmnber without economiz- ing for some weeks. This mazagine awakened in me a de- sire to know more of science. This is the one magazine that stands on my library shelves, every volume complete to date. At the Normal School I shared little in the games. Oc- casionally I played baseball, occasionally I went boat riding on Lake Ontario, occasionally I found time for the theatre. My limited means, however, kept me from making unneces- sary expenditures. It was at the Oswego Normal and Training School that I first met Helen Frances Gillespie, now Mrs, Ferris. VVe were classmates during my entire attendance at the Nor- mal. Our first meeting occurred in 1872. In June, 1873,

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During the summer I worked at home on the farm, as I had been accus- tomed to do in all the pre- ceding summers. One day I chanced to read a notice in a little paper, How to ir Make a Bad Memory Good y Q and a Good Memory Bet- h ter , price ten cents. For some reason, I labored un- der the impression that I had a poor memory. The booklet was a disappoint- ment. It was a compact outline of a mnemonic sys- WOODBRIDGE N. FERRIS at the age of eighteen tem. In a footnote on one of the pages was a refer- ence to O. S. Fowler's book on Memory , On a Saturday I picked blackberries and in the evening I delivered these berries to the village postmaster four miles away for 31.25. I purchased a money order and sent the same to Fowler 8: XVells Company, of New York, in payment for the book. just a week from that day I had the pleasure of receiving the book. On Sunday I hid away for hours at a time and read what to me was a revelation. Up to this time I was not aware that there were other .worlds than the little one I had journeyed in. This book called my attention to the fact that some men had brains and that, so far as the author could discover, brains were made to he used. This book was the beginning of my present library. In autumn I attended a teachers' institute at Owego and there I heard Prof. Hoose, then President of the Cortland Normal School, give a forty minutes' illustrative talk on science teaching. Then and there I decided to attend a Normal School as soon as my means would permit. I have often referred to this event in my life. This event has in- duced me to advise men and women to read, to attend teachers' institutes, educational associations, religious as- sociations, and farmers' meetings with the hope that a forty minutes' talk or even a twenty minutes' talk might awaken in the attendant new visions, In November I returned to Fairfield and taught my sec- ond term of school at 3530 a month, boarding a week in a place instead of a single night. During the winter I read the two companion volumes of Fowler's book on Memory . These books gave me an introduction to the study of phren- ology. I am aware that the word phrenology is likely to alarm the reader, but it was through these books that I was awakened to an appreciation of the value of the study of human nature. No small part of my success in life is due to this awakening. After finishing this term of school I concluded to enter the Oswego Normal and Training School. Without any advice, without any clear notion of what I wished to accom- plish I drifted into the classical course. My actual at- tendance at the Oswego Normal and Training School ag- gregated in all three years. Dr. Edward Sheldon was President: Herman Krusi taught geometry, without a text- book: Edwin A. Strong, now professor in the State Normal College at Ypsilanti, taught physics and chemistry, I. B. Poucher, arithmetic and algebrag Sarah Cooper, English 444

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Miss Gillespie graduated from the English Department and in autumn began a yearls work of teaching in the public schools of Franklin, Indiana. I left the Oswego Normal and Training School lacking one-half year of graduation. I felt that it would not be a wise use of time and money to remain the last half year for the 'fpractice training . My academic work had been completed. During the following summer I assisted my father on the farm in haying and harvesting. In October, 1873, I entered the Medical Department of Michigan University. At that time the requirements were, indeed, meager. A six months' course of lectures without any quizzes for the freshmen, the course of lectures repeat- ed the second year with quizzes for the seniors constituted the entire requirements for graduation. Students not infre- quently matriculated for the first year, left the University and engaged in other work and returned the next year and, by the aid of notebooks containing the senior course of lec- tures, graduated with an aggregate training of only six months. Since that time there has been a revolution in med- ical education. VVhile at the Ifniversity I had the good for- tune to hear Richard Proctor, the great astronomer, lecture on The Sun , also J. G. Holland, then editor of Scribner's Monthly , author of Gold Foil , Timothy Titcomb's Let- ters and numerous novels, lecture on The Elements of Per- sonal Power . Proctor's lecture induced me to read his de- lightful books on astronomy. I. G. Holland's lecture led me to appreciate the wholesome influence that a forceful speaker exercises over a body of young people. During the winter, Prof. Edward Morse, of Harvard University, gave two lec- tures on 'Evolution'l. At this time the University was stirred by what was then termed Darwinism . One Sunday afternoon I strayed into the Unitarian Church, of which Charles Henry Brigham was pastor. He presented to every student, free, a copy of Channing's works, a volume of james Freeman Clark, and a copy of Letter and Spirit by Richard Metcalf. From boyhood I was what most people would term a skeptic. In the teach- ing and preaching of Mr. Brigham I found a response to my innermost demands. Wliile I have refrained from join- ing any particular church, my views have been in harmony with those of the radical New England Unitarians. I pursued a course in medicine, not with a view of prac- ticing, but with a view of gaining a knowledge that would aid me very materially in my work as teacher. The last of March, 1874, I left Ann Arbor for my home in Spencer, N. Y. On arriving at Spencer I found that the Free Acad- emy was without a Principal. I at once made application and in the course of a week I found myself Principal of the school that I had attended seven years previously. I com- pleted the term and was employed for the succeeding year. During the summer I aided my father in his haying and harvesting. On XYednesday, December 23, 1874. I was mar- ried to Helen Frances Gillespie, of Fulton, N. Y. On the Monday following we began teaching together in the Acad- emy. At the end of the school year we concluded to try a new field. In autumn we organized the Freeport Business College and Academy at Freeport, Stephenson county, Illi- nois. Mr. E. Ii, Sherman, a former classmate at Oswego, joined us in this enterprise. NVe succeeded in building up a school that gave promise of substantial success. Dr. Mc- Kendrie Tooke, of Dixon, Illinois, then President of what was called the Rock River University, induced me to dis- continue my school at Freeport and enter the University as