East Ward School, Part 2
by Maralyn Fink
This week we will see the beginnings of East Ward School and remember some of the people who were so much a part of the place.
1876-1906
The East side school was built in 1876 at a cost of $3,000. The school’s attendance was 52 students in the primary grades. The teachers in 1880 were Crissie Hill and Ellen Moore. The two-room East Ward
school was a pale gray-whlte brick. The yard around the school was low and usually wet–virtually a frog pond.
Inside the school were two potbelly stoves used for heating each room respective1y. One room held the kindergarten and first grades. The other held the second and third. The enrol1Inent was very small, about 8-15 students per grade. After the third grade , students went to the Union School (Central).
Many young people started their education at the East Ward school. Unfortunately most of the names of the students have been lost. We do know, however, that Addie Holmer Dutton was one of our first students. She attended East Ward in 1876. She was 12 years old at the time she first came to the school. In her memories she recalled walking through the woods each day in order to get to East Ward. Another young lady on record at that time was Marguarite Travis Norefleete. She began her kindergarten career at East Ward in 1894.
At the turn of the century the children of Addie Holmer Dutton became students of East Ward. Ivah Dutton Tolles, Ross A. Dutton and Dora Dutton Goodwin were students during the years of 1892-1906. At that time, also, the Frank family was sending their oldest girl to East Ward. Cerelda Frank Hicks attended for seven years (1903-1910). She showed great promise and went home with excellent grades and good reports.
1906-1916
The world was changing rapidly around St, Johns. Taft then Wilson were Presidents. World War I was launched.
East Ward kindergartners were sent to school as always, unaware of the turmoil, just as are our kindergartners today. Around 1907-1909 the class roster showed several names still common to St. Johns today:
Leo Pouch, Maxwell Smith, Theodore Mach, Walter Gohn. Ann Wycoff, Margaret Frace, Russell Frank, Auraleah Prank, John Zebelka aad Thelma Smith. A couple of years later Frances Ike Luther joined the class. At that time Bessie Smith was a teacher at East Ward. She also happened to be the great-aunt of Maxwell Smith and his first teacher.
Expansion
About 1910 East Ward planned an expansion. Ananias Pouch was contracted for the addition. The basement was dug by hand and stone was cut by Ananias Pouch and Englebert Smith. The stone came from the Pouch farm which lay about one and a half miles southeast of East Ward school.
In 1911 construction of two new rooms began on the east side of the old building. (This new wing can be noted by looking for the difference in roof height.) Because there was no more clay in his brick yard, Mr. Pouch ordered the brick from Lansing. The brick for East Ward came via Inter-Urban Electric Line which ran at that time between Lansing and St. Johns.
Mr. Pouch gave his son, Leo, the job of preparing the ground surrounding East Ward. Leo, who was a 7th grader at the Union school at that time, used. teams of horses to drag and level the area. Trees were set out then. Each tree was tied and had a fence around it to protect its growth. A wooden flag pole was set up in the southwest corner of the school lot.
It took years to get the East Ward lot firm. There was no baseball or recreational field during that time. One game that boys did enjoy, however, was Newpom. This was a beginning form of basketball. Once a week a teacher from the high school came out to assist the boys with this game. On the lot for a few summers East Ward hosted the tent of Chautauqua. This intellectual group, which originated in New York, gave a type of adult education program in science, humanities and religion.
Up to 1911 the heating system at East Ward had been on a room basis. In 1911 a central heating system was installed. This system was put in by Fowler and Ball, the hardware dealer in St. Johns at that time. The entire heating system, was engineered and maintained by Eli Adams. He tended the heating maintenance job for many years after installation.
Teachers in East Ward during this time were First grade, Betsy Pulfrey, Second and third, unknovn, fourth and fifth Cloliah Brink, sixth, Ethel Preston and seventh Zelpha Steel. The substitute teachers during those years were Florence Dexter and Helen Holten.
The 1911 kindergarten class showed Wilma Green, Henry Jury, Gwenavere Roat, Margaret Fowler, Myrtle Irving and Helen McAuslan. Other students at East Ward during these days were: John Baumgartner, Fred Travis, Rolland Steel, Muriel Calkins and Beatrice Rowe.
Next week: The story continues.