KALAMAZOO  COUNTY, MI

GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY

KALAMAZOO COUNTY HISTORICAL MARKERS PAGE 4
HISTORICAL MARKERS IN THE CITY OF KALAMAZOO

Edward Israel artic PIONEER
 The historical stands near West Main Ave. in Jewish Mountain Cemetery

Near here is the grave of Edward Israel , who went on the nation's first polar expedition, led by Lt. Adolphus W. Greeley. The team set out in 1881 for Ellesmere Island in the Arctic Ocean. Expedition scientist was Israel of Kalamazoo, age 22, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan. He collected valuable astronomical information and assisted Greeley in many administrative chores. Disaster struck in 1883 when the relief ship was sunk en route. After a severe winter, 18 of the 25 expedition members died. Israel died on May 27, 1884. The entire city of Kalamazoo, with mixed sorrow and pride, honored Israel when the body was returned in August of that year.

Kalamazoo College

Original site of Kalamazoo College:  this marker stands on the corner of Walnut St. and Westnedge Ave.   The first classroom for the Michigan and Huron Institute, now Kalamazoo College, was erected on this site between June and September 1836. The charter bill for the school had been introduced into the Michigan Territorial Legislative Council on January 18, 1833 and signed into law by Governor George B. Porter on April 22, 1833.Village pledges supplied funds for the two-story frame classroom structure, which was the start of Michigan's first church-related college

This marker stands in front of Hoben Hall on the quadrangle of Kalamazoo College This school, Baptist in origin, was chartered in 1833 by the Territory of Michigan as the Michigan and Huron Institute and held its first classes in 1836. Instruction of college level has been given here longer than at any other Michigan school. In 1845 the present campus was purchased. The right to confer degrees was granted in 1855. This pioneer school has won national renown as a liberal arts college with special honor in teaching of the sciences

Kalamazoo School Case Located on the northwest corner of Westnedge Avenue and Vine Street	Kalamazoo State Hospital This Marker is on Oakland Drive
Near here, in 1858, Kalamazoo's first high school was opened. Fifteen years later the right of the school board to levy taxes to support a high school was challenged. A unanimous decision of the Michigan Supreme Court, rendered by Justice Thomas M. Cooley, in 1874, affirmed an opinion of Kalamazoo Circuit judge Charles R. Brown that upheld this right. As a result the way was opened for free high schools in Michigan and also in other states.	Until the 1840's the mentally ill received little therapy and often were neglected. Upon recommendation of Governor Epaphroditus Ransom, the legislature, in 1848 established Michigan's first state institution for the treatment of mental patients. Kalamazoo was chosen as the site in 1850. Construction of the first building began in 1854, but it was not completed for five years. The first patient was admitted on April 23, 1859. The superintendent, Dr. Edward H. Van Deusen, anticipated many methods of treatment that later won general acceptance. Linda Richards, America's first trained nurse, was the superintendent of nurses here, 1906-1909. This hospital was the first in Michigan to open an out-patient psychiatric clinic and to begin a home-boarding program. Adoption in 1910 of the name Kalamazoo State Hospital, replacing the original name, Michigan Asylum for the Insane, symbolized a new concept of mental illness.

Orcott Post Civil War Monument
Located in Riverside cemetery, Sec H.

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