125th Anniversary of the Mount Pleasant Improvement Company

by Bryan Whitledge

Exactly 125 years ago, a small group of individuals came together with the goal of creating something that would benefit Mount Pleasant and Isabella County. Throughout Michigan, communities such as Muskegon and Saginaw had been purchasing land, selling off the lots, and using the proceeds to establish hubs of industry in an effort to increase the population and bring in more revenue. In Mount Pleasant, this group of individuals, who called their enterprise the Mount Pleasant Improvement Company (MPIC), decided that doing the same would benefit their town, but rather than industry, the best route was to make this small Midwestern town of 2,700 inhabitants, “the educational point for Central Michigan.”

First page of the Mount Pleasant
Improvement Company record book
showing the first entry on May 24, 1892.
click on image to enlarge

Sixteen citizens of Mount Pleasant made up the initial membership of the MPIC, and they convened their first meeting at 9:00 am on Tuesday, May 24, 1892, at the “private offices of the Exchange Bank on Main Street in the City of Mount Pleasant.” Of these sixteen members, nine were named directors: Douglas H. Nelson (President), Michael Devereaux (Vice President), Frank D. Patterson (Treasurer), Samuel W. Hopkins (Secretary), Charles M. Brooks (Manager of the Association), Isaac A. Fancher, Wilkinson Doughty, George A. Dusenbury, and John W. Hance. By the end of that first day, the group had determined that they would create an institution of higher education called “Normal University.”**

To create the “Normal University,” which they later decided to call the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute, the MPIC needed to inject capital into the community, as one would say in the twenty-first century. The MPIC put $500 down and secured a loan for $7,500 to purchase 52 acres of the Hursh farm (land now occupied by Central Michigan University). Of the 52 acres, 10 were set aside for the Normal School and the rest was separated into 224 lots. Those lots were then put on the market to raise funds for the operations of the Normal School and the new building. Initially, 174 lots were sold for $110 each. Later 49 more sold at a price of $150 each. With this revenue, the MPIC was well positioned to give the newly-appointed principal, Charles F. Bellows, the resources he needed to start a higher education institution in Mount Pleasant.

Advertisement from the Isabella County Enterprise (July 22, 1892)
offering lots for sale to support the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute.

So Central started on ten acres with a community investment of about $25,000 and served twenty students in the first graduating class. Now, in 2017, CMU has evolved to include a 480-acre main campus (not to mention the numerous satellite sites and research facilities across the country) with a $130 million endowment that saw 3,100 students receive degrees earlier this month. It is safe to say that, 125 years later, the Mount Pleasant Improvement Company has achieved its goal of creating something that would benefit Mount Pleasant and Isabella County, let alone the state, country, and entire world.

Groundbreaking of the new Normal Building, September 19, 1892,
located on the site where Warriner Hall stands today.

**Normal was a common term for teacher training colleges and universities. The term comes from the French, where the accepted standards for teaching that were taught to aspiring instructors were referred to as "norms."

This is the first of many items of information detailing the history of Central Michigan University in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the institution. Be sure to check out the official 125th Anniversary website – http://anniversary.cmich.edu – and the Clarke’s upcoming exhibit, opening this fall, for more great stories.

Mount Pleasant Indian School In National Archives Newsletter

The National Archives at Chicago distributed their August newsletter recently with a feature article about Native American boarding schools. Among the more prominently mentioned boarding schools is the Mount Pleasant Indian School, which was in operation in Mount Pleasant from 1893-1933.

The Clarke maintains a great deal of information about the boarding school in Mount Pleasant including photographs, reprints of annual reports from the National Archives, and remembrances of those who attended the school. But the series of materials at the Clarke is by no means complete and the information highlighted by the National Archives at Chicago shows that any serious researcher of the history of the Mount Pleasant Indian School, the students who attended, or the people who worked there certainly must consult more records than those available at the Clarke.

You can read the most recent newsletter via this link. If you would like to view past issues of the National Archives at Chicago newsletter or sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox, head over to the National Archives page for more information.

Remembering Clarence Tuma: His First Visit to Mount Pleasant

by Frank Boles (adapted from Clarence Tuma's memoir, The One Pound Pork Chop)

Central Michigan University lost an alumnus and a good friend yesterday, when Clarence Tuma, long-time owner of Mt. Pleasant’s fondly remembered Embers Restaurant, died. CT (as he was often called) was not your traditional student. A veteran of World War II, he returned home from the War uncertain what to do with his life.

Clarence Tuma
CMCE Senior Portrait

To help find a direction, he visited his old high school football coach, Robert “Pop” Lewis. “Why don’t you go to Central Michigan College of Education?” Pop asked. “Pop, I’m not college material” replied CT quickly. “Hell, how do you know if you don’t try?” was the equally quick reply.

Clarence decided to try but he went back to Coach Lewis with another question, “Just where is this Central Michigan College of Education?” “Go to Lansing and turn right. It’s in Mt. Pleasant.”

With these detailed instructions, Tuma rounded up two old high school buddies, borrowed his brother’s car, and headed north to take a look at the place. He got as far as Alma when he heard “a bad noise” in the motor. He managed to reach a garage where the mechanic asked if he had put oil in the engine. After learning that he hadn’t, the mechanic explained that engines needed oil, the crank shaft was burned out, and CT was stuck in Alma for the next three days or so while they got parts and made repairs.

Luck didn’t seem to be smiling on CT that day, but Tuma and his buddies decided to hitch hike the rest of the way to Mt. Pleasant. They were lucky enough to be picked up by a man not only going to Mt. Pleasant but familiar with the campus, who promised to drop them off just where they needed to go. He left the young men in the office of head football coach Ron Finch. Finch knew Pop Lewis and his recommendation that CT visit Central to play football carried considerable weight with him. Finch called his line coach, Doc Sweeney, to come over and take a look at the fellows. Sweeney liked what he saw. Finch then called the Dean of Men, and said he had a couple of fellows he wanted to introduce. Again the talk went well, and the Dean said, “Let’s call President Anspach.”

1948 Central Michigan College of Education Football Team
Clarence Tuma in third row, near center, Number 32

Despite the day’s problems in Alma, things now were going pretty good. In 45 minutes the young men had met the head football coach, the line coach, the Dean of Students, and were on the way to meet the school’s president. Oh, and the helpful man who picked them up when they were hitchhiking turned out to be CMU Athletic Director Dan Rose! As Tuma wrote later, “not bad for a bunch of city boys on their first day in the country.” Anspach, instead of visiting with them in his office, invited them “Ma Grimley’s soda bar” in Keeler Union, his treat.

After a day like that, Clarence later reminisced “Hell, it was a no brainer.” Seventy years later he felt the same way. He wrote, “It was a great choice!”

It was a choice everyone who met Clarence Tuma also felt was great. He left his mark on the town and the campus. We will miss him.

Clarence Tuma, CMU Alum and Former Owner of the Embers, Speaking at the Clarke November 12

Click on the image for a larger version

John Cumming Award Presented

by Frank Boles

Beginning with the celebration of Isabella County’s sesquicentennial in 2009, the Clarke Historical Library has participated in honoring individuals involved in local history with the John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award. Earlier this year, the 2014 Cumming Award was given to Tammy Prout.

Tammy Prout is a lifelong resident of Isabella County who has devoted much of her adult time and considerable organizational talents to preserving memories of our area's rich heritage by organizing a historical village at the Isabella County Fairgrounds, maintaining and scheduling rotating historical exhibits in the lobby of the Isabella County Building, working with Jack Anson to co-produce a video named "Isabella County: 150 years in the making" during the County's Sesquicentennial, organizing a vintage Fashion Show during that 150th celebration. Further, she was active in establishing the County's First Family Award program and helped reproduce Isaac A. Fancher's 1876 U.S. Centennial speech about the history of Isabella County in booklet form. She has been active in the Genealogical Society of Isabella County, the Friends of the Faith Johnson Library at Rosebush, and the Mt. Pleasant Area Historical Society.

The award was named in honor of John Cumming, who served as director of Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library from 1961 until 1982, and was the author of This Place Mount Pleasant, a community history published in 1989, and The First Hundred Years, the centennial history of CMU, which was published in 1992.

To read more about this year’s winner (and to see a really ridiculous picture of myself presenting it!) take a look at an article from Mt. Pleasant’s local newspaper, the Morning Sun. For a complete list of all those who have won the Cumming Award, visit the webpage for the award on the Clarke website.