In the spring of 1883, I visited Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Big Rapids, and Traverse City. I then had in mind the founding of a private school.
In the spring of 1884, I had under consideration Fargo, Dakota [sic North Dakota], Duluth, Minnesota, and Big Rapids, Michigan.
I decided in favor of Big Rapids because it was sufficiently far away from colleges, normal schools, business colleges and academies to eliminate to a very large extent competition. From a business standpoint this was a foolish notion. It didn't occur to me that a man who wanted to sell shoes would refuse to locate on a South Sea island and that a man who wanted to sell fans would refuse to locate in Greenland. I failed to ask the pertinent question, "Why isn't there a private school within a radius of fifty miles from Big Rapids?" It took me five years to answer this question.
On the sixteenth day of May, after a tedious journey from Pittsfield, Mrs. Ferris, our son Carleton, and I arrived in Big Rapids. So far as I could then learn, I was generally regarded as a lunatic. The public schools of Big Rapids were first-class under the superintendency of John Cromby [sic Crombie].
Who in Big Rapids would patronize the Ferris Industrial School? It did not occur to
the minds of the
inhabitants that I was establishing a school for "lumber jacks", miners, farmers'
sons and daughters, girls who worked in Michigan factories and not for the sons and
daughters of Big Rapids citizens.
In the summer of 1884, by visiting the villages of Mecosta County I tried to acquire useful information concerning educational needs. I did not canvass for students in the city of Big Rapids or in neighboring villages. I rented two rooms on the second floor of what was then called the Vandersluis Block on North [sic South] Michigan Avenue. In September I opened my school under the name of the Ferris [sic Big Rapids] Industrial School. I then hoped to emphasize the industrial feature. I labored under the impression that the new day was at hand when education should involve the training of the head, the heart and the hand. As I shall indicate later this ideal gradually vanished.
On the first day, I enrolled fifteen young people. Without advertising, the number increased rapidly. I now account for this growth from the view point of novelty. All the teaching was done by Mrs. Ferris and myself. At first we offered training in common English branches and bookkeeping.
Later in autumn I opened a night school which commanded the favorable attention of clerical workers. Because my accommodations were inadequate, I made arrangements for the third floor of the Northern National Bank Building, now Citizens State Bank Building, on Michigan Avenue. The Masons had occupied this floor for several years and were getting ready to occupy the second and third floors of the Harwood Block, just across the street. I had some difficulty in securing these rooms because the Masons did not believe that the Ferris Industrial School could long survive.
In February, 1885, I moved into my new quarters where I remained until January, 1894. I afterward added to my floor space, the third floor of the Roof Block and a considerable portion of the second floor and all of the third floor of the Wilcox Block.
In order to offer shorthand I was obliged to master the subject and become the teacher. I was not a practical stenographer, but I was master of the fine art of clear explanation and thorough drill. I selected Osgoodby's system, essentially Pitmanic, and for seven or eight years no other system was introduced. Among my first shorthanders were Lillian Rood, Lizzie Evarts, Lottie Morse, Dora Morton, Claude Curtiss, W. H. Varity, and E. C. Mowen.
My first commercial teacher was C. A. Wessel, who remained in my employ for fifteen years. He was a very successful instructor, always loyal to his employer, and painstaking with his students. Mrs. Anna Pease, formerly of Big Rapids, was a teacher of science in the Ferris Industrial School for several years.
Thomas Stackable was the first full-fledged Normal instructor I ever employed. While tremendous emphasis was put on the commercial and shorthand subjects the preparation of public school teachers was given marked attention.
In 1889 I examined my total five years' enrollment and discovered that the majority of my students were coming from the counties south of an east and west line drawn across the state on the southern boundary of Mecosta County. I had done ninety per cent of my work in teachers' institutes, ninety per cent of my advertising in the counties north of the line herein mentioned. In the southern counties educational sentiment existed through the work of the University, the one State Normal School and the denominational colleges. Lumbering and mining ent