Washtenaw Boy In Cuba

WASHTENAW BOY IN CUBA

Established Leading English School in Havana

THAD LELAND'S SUCCESS

Won After a Discouraging Beginning - Opened Several Times Without a Pupil - NOW HAS 228

Thad E. Leland, son of Emory Leland, of Northfield, is at the head of the most flourishing English school in Havana, Cuba. It is located at 9 Vertudes street, near the leading hotels in Havana, and has at present 228 pupils. Hon. W. W. Wedemeyer, on his recent visit at Havana, looked over the school and was very much pleased with the work being done. The school or college is a Methodist institution, Mr. Leland's work being under the direction of Bishop Crandler, a Methodist missionary bishop. 

Mr. Leland is a graduate of the Ann Arbor high school in the class of 1890, and afterwards of the University. He went to Cuba about four years ago and had a very hard time of it in establishing an English school. He made several attempts to open one and the opening day saw him without a single pupil. Nothing daunted, he persevered, and his reward is a flourishing school. During the first year he had the yellow fever, a scourge which has never been wiped out in Havana.

As stated above, it took a long time to awaken an interest in the study of English. Many different church denominations tried it with utter failure. But Mr. Leland's school is by all odds the most successful English school in Havana. It has a large corps of teachers. Among them is his sister, Miss L. Gertrude Leland, who taught in the schools of this country and also his wife, who was formerly Miss Agnes W. Pfeifle, of Northfield, and who was also a teacher in the schools of the county for some years. Miss Anna Leland taught there last year.

Among the teachers is a Cuban girl, who was educated abroad. Among the scholars are the sons and daughters  of many prominent Cuban people. Mr. Leland this summer intends to prepare a new course of study and a new catalogue, and to broaden the scope of the work that the school is doing. This is made necessary by the increased attendance and by the high position that the school has taken among the educational institutions of Havana. 

Mr. Wedemeyer says that the pupils were very bright and seemed to learn quickly. It looked odd in that Spanish city to see the little Cubans writing essays on the blackboards about Roger Williams, William Penn and Benjamin Franklin.