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HISTORY OF DETROIT COLLEGE.

By Prof. B. J. OTTING.

To those who know the importance attached by Catholics to the union of a strictly Catholic training with secular education, it may appear matter of wonder that no Catholic college for young men existed in so old a Catholic center as Detroit until very recent years, when the institution which is the subject of this brief sketch was established. There were various reasons for this delay. Men of means, who for a long period formed but a small minority of the Catho lic body, sent their boys to other Catholic centers of learning. Their brethren in the faith fully appreciated the advantages of a thorough education, but individually they were too poor to send their children abroad and collectively they were too few to support a college of their own. Compelled by conscientious motives to build and maintain their own common schools, their slender means forbade all thought of further outlay. But the rapid increase of their numbers and the improvement of their condition gradually removed this obstacle. The question which now remained to be solved was, "Whence shall we secure a competent body of educators?"

Not Detroit alone, but the whole great West as well as the older East, had seen Catholic communities spring up, grow, and flourish with a rapidity which taxed all the resources of the church to meet even the most pressing wants. Though the various religious orders whose special object is the education of the young developed with almost unprecedented rapidity, they found it difficult to keep pace with the rapid onward march of the church's organization throughout the land. Hence the serious question of Detroit's Catholic population, "Whence shall we secure our educators?" The late Bishop Borgess, with his usual energy, set to work to solve this question. In 1877 his efforts were crowned with success. In the spring of that year the Society of Jesus took charge of the then cathedral parish, as a preparatory step to the opening of a college. Preliminary measures were at once taken to begin classes in the following September. No small enterprise this, without a single cent of endowment. But courage and perseverance bridged over the difficulties, and God's blessing was upon the work.

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DETROIT COLLEGE, MICHIGAN-FIRST BUILDING, A. D. 1877.

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As the college was to be a day school for the Catholic population of Detroit, it was desirable to have its position as nearly central as possible. The parish church, recently assumed by the Jesuits, though not actually near the center of the city, was practically so by means of the street railways, which radiate thence in every direction. Here, then, on Jefferson avenue, was a favorable location. This avenue is one of the finest, if not the finest, in the city. On the south side of the avenue, opposite the residence of the Jesuits, a spacious mansion was very opportunely vacant at the time and in the market. It occupied a lot 100 x 200 feet in extent. This was purchased for $23,000. In the following year an additional story was needed to provide the necessary recitation rooms. This and other improvements called for a

further outlay of $6,000.

The beginning had been made and like most beginnings it was a modest one. The first year saw 84 pupils on the roll of the preparatory department. The collegiate course proper had not yet been opened. A new class was added each year, until the full seven-year course was complete. The number of students increased constantly. By the end of 1889-'90 it had run up to 279. When the attendance had passed 200 the old quarters began to be uncomfortably crowded and new accommodations became an imperative necessity. Fortune, or rather Providence, again favored the good work. Opposite the college, and hence on the same side of the avenue as the church and the residence of the Jesuit professors, but separated from them by three intervening mansions, a dwelling occupying a lot 53 feet wide by 200 deep was secured for $13,750. An expenditure of some $500 for improvements converted this new property into a quite respectable school building; and in May, 1885, the scientific collegiate department took possession of the new quarters. This was the first practical step towards the realization of a plan which had been entertained almost since the very opening of the college and which matured as the neces sity of greater class facilities became manifest and the inconvenience and discomfort of being separated from the college by an intervening and much frequented street forced itself more and more on the trustees and professors.

Between this property and the Jesuit residence there were still 150 feet fronting on the avenue. Three private dwellings occupied this ground. Happily the owners took no unfair advantage of the pressing needs of the college, but offered their property at a fair market price. In October, 1886, the first, and in February, 1887, the second of these was purchased for $15,000 and $18,000 respectively.

The outlook was constantly brightening, but the end appeared still far off. Already a heavy debt weighed on the college. There was no fixed income save what was derived from the tuition of the students. These were required to pay $40 per year, when able. Small as was the sum, it was too large for many. Under such circumstances it would

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have been ruinous to increase the financial obligations of the college. To an appeal from the president, Rev. J. P. Frieden, six friends at once responded with a subscription of $5,000 each. This was in January, 1889. Promises of pecuniary help from other quarters soon raised the subscriptions to $50,000.

The new college was now placed among the probabilities of the near future. In February, 1889, the last of the three houses mentioned above was bought for $18,000. Just at this juncture the Rev. J. P. Frieden was called to another sphere of action in the Society of Jesus. Rev. M. P. Dowling, who succeeded him as president, at once entered enthu siastically into the work. Under his direction plans were drawn up by a leading Detroit architect. By the beginning of August the buildings which occupied the site of the proposed college had been removed, and the first stone of the foundation was laid on the ninth of this month. The work progressed rapidly. In spite of some delay caused by the great strike of the carpenters, the building was ready for occupation on the 1st of September, 1890. It has a frontage of 185 feet and varies in depth from 75 to 120 feet. Besides the necessary private rooms for the professors, there are eighteen recitation rooms. The chapel, library, and college hall occupy respectively the first, second, and third floors of a wing measuring 40 by 50 feet. There is not a single dark room in the edifice and the heating and ventilating facilities are the very best. The greatest difficulties are overcome. Others will rise, but they too will be mastered if the sons of St. Ignatius be as true to their spirit in the future as they were in the past, for the spirit which bids a man forget self and look to no reward in this life but the consciousness of laboring for the common good and through that for the "greater glory of God" can accomplish all things. It may not be out of place to remark, for the information of those who are not familiar with the management of Catholic institutions such as this college, that neither the trustees nor the professors receive any remuneration whatever for their labor in the form of a salary. All they ask and all they accept for themselves is their daily sustenance. More they need not, since by their vow of poverty they have debarred themselves from the right of acquiring the goods of this world. Whatever they receive over and above their moderate wants is devoted to the improvement of the college. This will explain how Detroit College could prosper without an endowment and with but a small income. That it did prosper is apparent from the fact that the faculty of five in 1877-'78 has grown to one of sixteen in 1891.

In other respects, too, the college has been very successful. The rapid increase in the attendance was mentioned above. The average number of graduates has been ten a year. The class of '90, being the sixth to graduate, made the entire number fifty-nine. Most of these are meeting with marked success in their respective careers. Many are still engaged in their professional studies; others have already begun

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