Children go to school but find house is burned

This story was published by The Ypsilanti Daily Press on Thursday, February 1, 1912.

The children of the Fowler school in Superior Township are having a vacation. This morning at five o’clock it was discovered with amazement that the old schoolhouse had totally burned down. Some people who passed by at one o’clock this morning testify that then the building was standing, which seems to preclude the theory that the fire was caused by wood being left in the stove, else it must naturally have burned up sooner. The idea is advanced that tramps may have entered and slept there and carelessly or otherwise have set fire to the structure.

A meeting of the board of the district will be held this evening at George Gill jr.’s and some sort of arrangement decided upon for taking care of the pupils until the school shall be rebuilt. Miss Belle Freeman, the teacher, will have to be paid of course: else the plan might be adopted of carrying the pupils into Ypsilanti each day, the expense of so doing being borne by the district. There are only between twenty and thirty pupils belonging now.

The membership has declined since 1860 when the Fowler school was built, and the late J. N. Wallace installed as its first teacher. It was after finishing his term here that Captain Wallace enlisted in the war. During his first term there were forty-five pupils in the school.