erection of a building and $80 for a lot. Two months later an additional appropriation of $200 was made.

To swell the university fund further it was proposed that the public tax be increased 15 per cent. The faculty was also authorized to conduct four successive lotteries for raising a fund, but neither of these provisions carried. A lot was purchased on the west side of Bates Street, between Congress and Larned, a

foundation 24 by 50 feet was built and the corner stone was laid September 24, 1817. But the funds came in so slowly that the building languished for a long time. In the interval Mr. Monteith taught a school in the old Meldrum house on Woodbridge Street east of Shelby. There is no specific record that either member of the faculty acted as a professor beyond the record of an appropriation of $181.25 for their salaries in 1817, and in 1821 a delayed appropriation of $215 was back salary of the president for the years 1818-19-20.

În 1818 H. M. Dickey was commissioned by the university to open a classical school, but a bill of $30 for the rent of rooms

for this school would indicate that it was held in rented quarters. In 1818 the University Building was completed and Benjamin Stead, James Connor and Oliver Williams were made directors of a Lancastrian school which was conducted by Lemuel Shattuck. In 1819 the school had 183 students, who paid $2.60 each term for their tuition. In 1821 the original university act was repealed and all rights were conveyed to the Governor and a board of 20 trustees. This new board was authorized to found schools and colleges at their discretion. The classical school did not afford Mr. Shattuck a living and Rev. A. W. Welton succeeded him in 1822, with tuition raised to $5. After several years of meager support the board of trustees decided in 1827

to let the teacher continue his services at his own risk. The building was offered rent free and the school staggered along with varying fortunes until May 18, 1837, when the regents of the new state university, established at Ann Arbor by the Act of 1836, were asked to establish a branch in the old University Building in Detroit. The regents appropriated $8,000 for branches, each branch to receive $500 toward the support of a teacher and an additional gratuity in proportion to the number of pupils attending each branch.

In 1838 the University Building was repaired and a school for boys was opened with a principal and one assistant. Rev. C. W. Fitch was the first principal, receiving $1,500 a year and his assistant $800. The school was continued until 1842 when the regents cut their appropriation to $500. From 1844 until 1858 the school was conducted by the local board of education.

A

CHAPTER XLIV

FIRST NEWSPAPERS AND SECOND BANK

T THE same time that the first University of Michigan was founded, a society of citizens was organized for the establishment of a city library on August 26, 1817. On the following day a subscription list was circulated and 90 shares of stock were sold at $5 a share. It also was the understanding that in case the scheme for conducting four lotteries for raising $20,000 should be carried into effect, a part of that fund should go toward the library. But the lotteries were not conducted, and so for a time the city library, like the university, existed on paper and was of the stuff that dreams are made of. Both were beginnings of a scheme of public enlightenment and evidences of the developing consciousness of the public needs. It was not until the summer of 1831 that a library of any size and a public reading room were really established in Detroit.

Another manifestation of mental awakening in Detroit was the founding of the second newspaper, the Detroit Gazette, which issued its first number July 25, 1817. The first newspaper published in Detroit was printed August 31, 1809, under the title "The Michigan Essay and Impartial Observer." Fr. Gabriel Richard, pastor of Ste. Anne's Church, brought the first printing press to be operated in Detroit and Michigan, with the idea of printing a few primary school books, religious pamphlets and a small newspaper if the people would support such an undertaking. He employed James M. Miller, a printer who came from Utica, N. Y., to assemble and operate the press, set the type and do all the work of a small printing office. It was a small hand press of the hand-lever type, and the Michigan Essay pages, 91⁄4 by 16 inches, probably represented the limit of its printing capacity.

The Michigan Essay was printed four columns to the page and consisted of four pages. One and a half columns were printed

in the French language and the rest in English. There was no telegraph service in those days. Travelers from the East brought occasional copies of New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania newspapers with them which were eagerly sought and literally read to rags by the news-hungry residents of this remote western town. Those papers contained news of the eastern cities and reprints from English newspapers which had been brought by passengers on sailing vessels. In those days any news was good news. Even when it happened to be three months old it was still news. Today a newspaper a few days old is regarded with contempt by the general reading public, and even standard works of literature which have stood the test of time are regarded by many readers as a desperate last resort. There were no annual lists of "best sellers" in the book stores of 1817.

The Michigan Essay evidently met with a cool reception. The probability is that only a few copies were sold, and that these were passed from hand to hand for reasons of private economy. It is probable that not more than four issues were published, at the most. Thus far only a few copies, all of one issue, have been discovered. A number of small booklets of a religious nature and some educational leaflets were printed, and presently Printer Miller returned east. He died in Ithaca, N. Y., in 1838.

This first printing plant was purchased by Fr. Richard in Baltimore. Its earliest known job was the printing of a 12-page leaflet termed "The Child's Spelling Book.'

After Miller left Detroit the press was operated under lease by A. Coxshawe. During the War of 1812 Gov. Hull had his proclamations printed on it to be posted about the town. Theophilus Mettez succeeded Coxshawe as printer. Before the arrival of the press Mr. Mettez had been a sort of animated newspaper for the district. After Sunday morning mass in Ste. Anne's Church he would take his stand at the front of the church on what is now the Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street corner and proclaim the news of the town and give notice of future dances, weddings, horse races, the condition of the sick

of the town, and the incidents and accidents that had occurred along the river shore.

The Detroit Gazette was founded in 1817 at the suggestion of Gen. Cass by John P. Sheldon and Ebenezer Reed. The resources of the firm were evidently meager, for the type was badly battered and poorly assorted, even in the first issue, showing that it was second-hand and probably discarded stock from some older printing house. The paper as started was a fourpage affair, 91⁄2 by 161⁄2 inches to the page. The first three pages were printed in English and most of the fourth page in the French language. Its first office was in the old home of Conrad Seek on Atwater Street near Wayne.

In the interval of eight years between the death of the Michigan Essay and the birth of the Gazette the Territory had increased in population, but people still preferred to borrow their newspaper rather than subscribe and the actual subscribers were very reluctant about paying their subscriptions. After three years of struggling existence the Gazette had but 82 subscribers in Detroit and only 118 in all Michigan Territory. Two copies circulated among the people across the river in Canada and 32 others were scattered over several eastern states and Ohio. Only 90 of these subscriptions were paid for and few of the advertisers paid their bills. The subscription rate was reduced from $4 to $3 in the hope of winning larger support, but the expectation was not realized and in 1828 the property was leased to H. L. Ball. Mr. Sheldon remained as editor.

Mr. Sheldon was a man of more courage than discretion and thus brought himself into trouble for an article which criticised the action of the territorial Supreme Court in 1829. That story will appear in its chronological order.

In those early days the supply of silver currency was very small and the business was conducted largely by barter or exchange of farm products and labor for manufactured goods. But as the town grew and its trade increased there was an urgent need for more money and also for a place of safe deposit for the small savings of the community. There was no system of national banks nor was there in circulation a Government