History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

CITY OF EAST SAGINAW.

517

read of an action of the board allowing him his salary (at the rate
of $336 a year) during the time of his protracted illness. He was
elected principal for the rest of the year at a salary of' $700, Mr.
Lusk teaching as assistant. There seems to have been changeful,
if not stormy, times after the long calm and quiet of the preceding
four years, for Mr. Heisrodt also stayed only one term, leaving his
place to be filled by his assistant.
The fall term of 1860 began with Mr. Sturgis as principal, Mrs.
Ferris as assistant, Misses Weller, Wood and Penny filling the
other places. Mr. Sturgis tried the experiment of " moral suasion "
with the usual success; i. e., he left at the end of the year. The
Board of Education (organized Feb. 14, 1859) discouraged by the
illsuccess of so many principals, and perhaps influenced by want
of means, discontinued the schools for the remainder of the year,
allowing the use of the school-house to Misses Woodruff and Gillett, for the purpose of keeping private schools.
The fall term of 1861 began with Mr. Meyers, principal, Miss
Rice as assistant; Miss Gillett, teacher of the intermediate department. After several changes, Mrs. Meyers, wife of the principal,
took charge of the primary department at the academy. Mr.
Meyers is still remembered by many of our citizens as a gentleman of high culture and pleasing manners, who taught the school
with success until the end of the spring term in 1865. Miss Rice
was simply " coming home;" she remained here, a highly popular
teacher, until the beginning of the spring term of 1864, when she
left to take a position at the Normal school, Mrs. Obenauer finishing her year. Under Mr. Meyers the German was first taught as
a branch of study in the public schools. The teacher of the intermediate department, Miss M. Gillett (Mrs. Nelson, of Manistee),
had by this time achieved a most enviable reputation as a teacher.
Her usefulness and influence were greater than that of most teachers.
Her efficient labors will long be remembered by her pupils and
their parents. She resigned her position near the close of the year
1865, almost exhausted with her constant toil.
The Board of Education had by this time purchased the site where
the Central school now stands. The school-house on this place
was a large, barn-like, unpainted house, containing two large,
poorly furnished rooms. It was known as the " Old Tin-shop"
school-house, having in its better days been a tin-shop. Miss L.
Johnson and Miss Sarah McKnighton have taughtthere since 1862.
The scholars of the German Lutheran school, which was kept in a
small building opposite, assumed a belligerent attitude, and many
were the battles fought between the scholars of both schools. Besides the German Lutheran school, there was another German
school taught by several teachers; private schools in general began to multiply, owing to the insufficient accommodations in the
public schools, and perhaps to the fact that, on this account, private teaching offered greater inducements to teachers than the
then very small salaries paid to female teachers in the public
schools. By degrees these things changed. Large, spacious