On
Tuesday, Sept. 9, Ferris State and the Big Rapids community honored
the 150th anniversary of the birth of Helen Gillespie Ferris.
Ferris President David Eisler and Michelle Johnston, dean of the
College of Education and Human Services, spoke at a wreath-laying
ceremony at Helen Ferris Hall. Following the ceremony, the wreath
was transported to the Ferris Mausoleum in Highland View Cemetery,
where both Helen and husband Woodbridge Ferris are interred.
Born Helen Francis Gillespie in New Haven, N.Y.,
on Sept. 7, 1853, the future co-founder of the Big Rapids Industrial
School (later Ferris State University) was a gifted student and
mathematician. At the age of 15, she was awarded the mathematical
prize at the Falley Seminary. She began her teaching career at
the age of 16.
Helen Gillespie met Woodbridge N. Ferris in
the autumn of 1872 in Oswego, N.Y. They dated occasionally, sometimes
boating on Lake Ontario, sometimes driving in a horse-drawn carriage
into the country. After several months, the two were engaged.
They married at the Gillespie home in Fulton, N.Y., on Dec. 23,
1874. They would move and enter new employment several times before
arriving in Big Rapids with their young son Carleton on May 16,
1884.
The Big Rapids Industrial School started as
a joint effort between Helen and Woodbridge on Sept. 1, 1884.
The two did all the teaching at the Industrial School collaboratively.
Woodbridge would often cite Helen’s expertise and her degree
as one of the great strengths of the school and credited her with
much of the institute’s success, noting that her students
“exerted themselves to the utmost simply because they could
not summon courage to disappoint her.”
Helen taught at the institute until 1901, when
she retired for health reasons, although she continued to be actively
involved in the institute until her passing on March 23, 1917,
after the conclusion of Mr. Ferris’ second term as governor
of Michigan.
Woodbridge would join her in death 11 years
later to the day. According to Ferris State History Commemoration
Task Force Chairman Harry Dempsey, “It would be difficult
to imagine that Ferris State University would be the place it
is today had it not been for the role played by Helen Ferris.”
