Reminiscenes Of Early Ann Arbor

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY ANN ARBOR

   Among the few persons now living who knew the founders and first settlers of Ann Arbor, are Mr. and Mrs. Lewis S. Anderson. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, born in New York in 1821 and 1822, repectively, came to Michigan when about ten years of age and their fathers each owned a farm not far from the old stone school house on the Ypsllanti electric line. They were married in 1842. More than sixty this fine old coupIe have traveled the journey of life together. They have seen more changes in their time than Methuselah could have seen in his 969 years.  They have witnessed the entire growth of Ann Arbor. They knew personally its founders, Henry Rumsey and John Allen, and the rwo Ann's, their wives, who gave its name to the city. Rumsey was a common place man both in ability and appearance, but Allen was tall, stately Virginian- had a fine prescence and considerable ability.  He was a lawyer- a great favorite of the ladies- and if all stories told of him were true, he would be a great success as a Mormon elder. Allen gave the court house square to the city.  When Mr. and Mrs. Anderson first knew Ann Arbor most of its present territory was farm land and open commons.  The campus was a wheat field, Michigan was a territory and the university unthought of.  Deer and wild turkeys were plenty in the woods around town and wild Indians were often seen upon the streets. The Indians of Michigan aided with Great Britian during the war of 1812 and for many years after the war they used to go annually to Malden across the Detroit river to receive the donations given them by the British government for assisstance rendered during the war. During these visits Mr. and Mrs. Anderson often saw them encamped in large numbers on the premises now owned by Mr. Morton, on the left hand side of the Ypsilanti road between Ann Arbor and the old stone school house in Pittsfield.  Mr. and Mrs. Anderson remember well the old brick school house which stood on the corner of Fourth and Packard streets, with its steep outside stairs leading to the second story, a building in which the Methodists held their services before building a church.

  An academy stood on Fourth street in front of the residence of the state Christian Mack. The building was eventually removed to Detroit street and still stands there being used as a storage carriage house.  A school house was subsequently built on the corner of Huron and Division streets, where the Presbyterian church now stands.  The church stood in the center of the block below, where Heusel's bakery is.  The building was subsequently removed to the south side of the block facing Washington street, where it is now used for a saloon and stores. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson remember the log hotel which stood on the Ann Arbor Savings bank block corner and the fine residence of Dr. Denton- painted house in the town which was located with a fine yard and fence where the opera house now stands.  Mr. Anderson often drank cider in the famous "log cabin" during the "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" campaign of 1840, which stood on the site of the Y.M.C.A. building.  The supporters of Harrison were called Coons by the demcrats and coon skin was nailed on the outside of the log cabin and a barrel of hard cider kept on the inside which was free to all. During that famous campaign, Mr. Anderson with a great crowd of "coons" went to Detroit to hear Henry Clay speak.  The Coons were so numerous in Detroit on the day of the meeting that they could not get accommodations at the hotels and Mr. Anderson and many others took possession of the Free Press office and slept on the floor. Mrs. Anderson is a native of Batavia, New York and remembers well the circumstances of the abduction of Morgan from that town, who had made an exposure of Masonry. A stage driver of Batavia by the name of W. R. Thompson was suspected of having had a hand in the abduction, at any rate he left the town and afterwards came to Ann Arbor and built the house where Judge Kinne now resides. Thompson and John Allen went to California on the discovery of gold in 1849 and both died there. Mrs. Anderson knew personally the wife of Morgan, who was a woman of fine presence and cultivated manners. She subsequently married and died in Batavia.

   The Misses Clark's ladies school was quite famous in its day. It was the first female school in this country west of Detroit.  It was located in the Hawkins house now standing on the corner of Liberty and Fourth streets, then moved to the lot where Michael J. Martin now resides, and afterwards to the large brick building on North Divison street, now used as a tenement house. One of the studies pursued in this school, upon which the Misses Clark specially prided themselves, was "Hearldry", a subject which must have been a very interesting and profitable one for the young ladies of Ann Arbor seventy years ago.  These old people also remember well the private school located on Mr. Erberbach's place on the electric line where the pupils paid their tuition, room rent and board by working on the farm belonging to the school. This experiment was the first of the kind started in this country and after being carried on a few years was a failure. Mr. Anderson was school inspector 16 years and was himself a very popular teacher and taught 17 successive winters in his younger days. Seven of them in the old stone school house district in Pittsfield. Although recognized as one of the best teachers in Washtenaw or Wayne counties, he taught several terms for thirteen dollars per month and borded himself. The best female teachers of the time did not receive to exceed one dollar and a quarter per week. Girls for domestic service received from 75 cents to $1 a week; but they were treated as members of the family. In the schools taught by Mr. Anderson the scholars occupied rude plank benches without desks. There was usually a shelf against the wall around three sides of the room, and when pupils practiced writing, they turned around with their faces to the wall and used their shelf.  There were no steel pens in those days, and the pens were made of goose quills by the teacher. In the early days the ountry shool in the winter was not only a point of learning but a souce of much fun and happiness for the young people. The spelling bees between different districts, and "Singing schools" in the evening were occasions of much social enjoyment and love making. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are probably the only persons left who knew the first settlers of Ann Arbor and along the south Ypsilanti road. But three families remain on that road who occupy the premises owned by their ancestors, being the Anderson, Ticknors and Hnery C. Platt.  Mr. and Mrs. Anderson remember well when the First Methodist church was built on the corner of Ann and Fourth streets, now the Unity block. For two years, services were held in the basement before church was completed and dedicated 66 years ago. Most of those who worshipped in that old basement, pastors and people, have gone to their rest. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson both enjoy good health and have retained their memories and other faculties in a remarkable degree, and it is a delight to visit them in their pleasant home in the Sixth Ward and hear them recount the experiences of their youth and incidents in the early history of Ann Arbor.

BOSWELL.