History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

139

the number of volumes had been increased to 1030 at the
end of October, 1878. The membership of the association
is about 70, each paying an annual fee of $2. The libraryrooms, which are located in the Gardner Block, are open
on Saturday afternoon of each week. The directors of the
association are 15 in number, and the officers as follows, viz.:
President, Mrs. G. W. Warren; Vice-President, Miss Anna
Curtis; Treasurer, Miss J. S. Sinclair; Recording Secretary,
Miss Carrie Champlin; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. H.
M. Stites. The librarian is appointed quarterly from among
the board of directors.
TIHE SCHOOLS OF JONESVILLE.
An interesting article was prepared by Hon. Witter J.
Baxter, treating upon the history of the union school of
the village, and read as a centennial document in 1876.
It has been recently substantially bound, and is now before
us. We give it, nearly as written, for the benefit of the
seekers after the secrets of history:
" This school was established as a district school in the
fall of 1832,* though the district was not fully organized
until 1833 or 1834, at which time it included the entire
township of Vance (as it was then called), and said township comprised the entire county of Hillsdale, which was
then attached to and forned a part of Lenawee County. The
loss of early records, and the loose manner in which those
which have been preserved were kept, renders it impossible
to give with accuracy the names of officers of the district
or teachers of the school for a number of years after it was
organized. It would seem that Benaiah Jones, one of the
first settlers in the county, who laid out and gave name to
the village, and his brother-in-law, James Olds, were the
first officers, hired the first teachers, furnished the schoolroom, and boarded the teachers. The school was opened in
the fall of 1832 by Dr. William Mottram, in a bedroom in
a block tavern kept by Benaiah Jones, and which stood on
the northwest corner of what are now known as Chicago
and Watert Streets, on lot 24, Jones' Plat of Jonesville.
Dr. Mottram kept the school but a few weeks, and was
succeeded by Dr. Chase, who taught during the remainder
of the winter and the next spring. The entire village at
that time consisted of one log tavern,t four log dwellings,
one small frame dwelling, and two log barns.
"In the fall of 1833 a log house, known as the 'Bell
House,' which stood on what is now Maumee Street, and
a little north of the present Methodist church, was fitted
up for a school-house, by boring holes into logs and laying
boards upon wooden pins driven into.them for desks, and
school was taught for five months by Benjamin L. Baxter,
then a lad of eighteen. Among those who attended his
school were some who have since become leading men in
Hillsdale County. A band of Pottawattamie Indians then
had their headquarters near this village, and among his
scholars was a son of Baw Beese, their chief, from whom a
lake near Hillsdale takes its name.

"During the summer of 1834 a small log school-house,
12 by 14 feet, with shed roof, was erected, on what is now
Chicago Street, near the present Presbyterian church, and
from that time school was kept for five months by a male
teacher each year, and by a female teacher during the summer months. This building was used about one year,
when a small frame school-house was built a little south
and east of the log school-house, and in 1842 was removed
to the lot now used and occupied by Benjamin R. Credit,
just north of the present school lot, and used as a schoolhouse until 1844, when steps were taken for the erection of
a more commodious house. This school-house still forms
part of the dwelling of B. R. Credit.
"The new school-house was not completed until the
summer of 1847, and in the mean time the Presbyterian
session-house, now Steve Gregory's marble-shop,- and
standing where it now does,-the Baptist church, and the
Methodist church were alternately rented and used as
school-rooms.
"The district appears to have been first organized as a
union school district in 1843, when the township of Scipio,
comprising a part of the territory of the district, appears to
have been organized.~ Among the earliest preserved records
of the district we find a vote, April 19, 1838, to raise by
tax on the property of the district $62, to be used, so far
as necessary, for the instruction of indigent pupils; and
from that time forward, so long as the school was in part
supported by rate bills, we find each year liberal amounts
voted to be raised by tax for instruction of indigent pupils;
and we find abundant evidence from the records, aside from
the traditions of the school, that no child has ever been
debarred from any of its benefits by reason of poverty.
From the directors' report, made Oct. 7, 1840, we find
there were then in the district, of school age: between 5
and 17, 86; attending school under 5 or over 17, 9; total
in district, 95; attending district school, 84. There was at
the same time a private school kept in the village, where
the rest were no doubt taught.
"In the fall of 1847 the first two-story union brick
school-house, erected under the general school laws of the
State, was completed on the west half of the present schoolhouse lot, at a cost of about $3000, being 30 by 60 feet,
two stories high, with cupola and bell; and the school was
opened in the new building by A. S Welch, a graduate of
Michigan University, and under his able management.became, and has since continued, one of the best union or
graded schools in the State. At the annual meeting, Sept.
24, 1849, the district was reorganized under the law passed
the previous winter, authorizing districts containing more
than 100 scholars to enlarge the board by the election, in
addition to the three officers previously allowed, of four
trustees, making the school board consist of seven members.
The two-story school-house was found insufficient for the
wants of the district, and in 1859 additional ground.was
purchased 'east of the school-house, making grounds 16
rods on Chicago Street by 12 rods on East Street, and steps
were taken for the erection of a new school building. At

*In the summer of 1830, before the district was organized, Miss
Harriet Wight taught a school in a room in Benaiah Jones' house,
this being the first school in the township and probably in the county.
She was followed by Mr. Jones' niece, Orra Nicholson.
t West. t The old "Fayetto House," part log and part frame.

j Scipio township was formed by act of the Legislature, March
23, 1836.