ing December 31, 1915) it is seen that the department comprises a chief, his assistant, a secretary, five captains and seventeen firemen, and that it costs about $22,000 to maintain the department.

W. H. Riblet, superintendent of police, reports under him, two sergeants, a humane officer, two turnkeys, a matron, and fifteen patrolmen, and it costs nearly $20,000 to maintain the department.

PROF. D. W. THOMAS AND THE SCHOOLS

But the public school system of Elkhart is her greatest pride, in the full sense of the adjective, and that it has reached its high standard is largely due to the ability and faithfulness of the late Prof. D. W. Thomas. He served as superintendent of the city schools for twenty years and holds the record both in length and value of service. Before assuming his post at Elkhart, Professor Thomas had been for more than a dozen years superintendent of the Wabash (Indiana) schools. He had long been a member of the State Teachers' Association, and in 1882, with J. K. Waltz, a former superintendent of the Elkhart city schools, he organized the Northern Indiana Teachers' Association, and was a charter member of the Northern Indiana Superintendents' Club. In fact, he was a leader in his profession, especially in the northern part of the state, and was also a prominent figure in the National Educational Association. His death in 1915, after he was selected an associate editor of this history, was a great loss to the schools, and was a personal bereavement to thousands who had been touched by his earnest and inspiring personality.

MRS. A. E. BABB

The writer is therefore pleased to republish one of Professor Thomas' historical and narrative papers, so welcomed by the local press, which was originally brought out in the Elkhart Daily Truth. Reverting to a period commencing three years before the incorporation of the town, he says: "In 1855 the Bodley brothers, who then had charge of the schools, having found a lady in the person of Mrs. A. E. Babb, who could teach algebra, literature and French, threw the town into a state of agitation by offering her a position as a teacher at a salary of $30 per month. The idea of giving a woman any kind of a position by which she could make $1.50 a day

was a piece of extravagance scarcely to be tolerated-but then it is the unexpected that happens, and the world moves nevertheless.

"Thus popularized, Mrs. Babb taught with success for a time in the public schools, and afterward for several years conducted a private school of her own. Since then, though not engaged in the school work, she has lost none of her zeal for the cause, and has always been the leading spirit in the organization of libraries and the formation of literary and other societies for disseminating and popularizing pure and wholesome literature, her home now being a center for the work of the Ladies' Literary clubs of the city.

MRS. MARGARET STEVENS

"Mrs. Margaret Stevens, one of the four who composed the corps of teachers in 1861, taught in the first primary department of the public schools from that date until 1884, except the four years from 1876 to 1880. Although for the most part she was required to make 'brick without straw,' and although her room was always crowded, sometimes numbering 125 pupils she filled this important and arduous position faithfully and well. Perhaps no one has ever taught in Elkhart who is remembered more kindly than she. Many of her pupils, now grown to manhood and womanhood, and who yet bear the impress of her kind heart and gentle manners, say 'Well done, good and faithful teacher.'

BRICK CENTRAL SCHOOL BUILT

"After the destruction of the old school house in 1866, it was determined to erect a building worthy of the name and commensurate with the needs of the enterprising little town. Accordingly in 1868 was completed a four-story brick building at a cost of $45,000. School opened in this building September 5th, with the following corps of instructors: Valois Butler, Miss Nellie Smith, Mrs. A. M. Clark, Miss M. A. Bonnell, Miss Rainy, Miss Ostrander and Miss Mary Hawley. Of these, Miss Bonnell began teaching under Mr. Conn in 1866 and taught consecutively for 16 years. Miss Hawley commenced teaching in 1868 and is now completing her thirty-second year of continuous service in the school room. Commendation of these estimable ladies and successful teachers is unnecessary. The number of re-appointments they have received from successive

boards of education attest the appreciation in which they are held and best bespeak their merits.

WARD SCHOOLS ERECTED IN 1873-83

"The people were justly proud of their new building, but some bewailed such extravagance and claimed with much assurance that the time would never come when there would be children enough in Elkhart to fill the rooms thus provided. However, in 1873, only five years later, it was found necessary to provide more room, and a four-room, two-story brick building was erected in the Fourth Ward at a cost of $10,000. In 1875 a similar structure was erected in the Fifth Ward. In 1877 John Weston deeded to the school eight city lots in northwest Elkhart, with the proviso that a certain described school house should be erected thereon within a year. In compliance with his agreement a two-story brick (known as the Weston building), containing two school rooms and a recitation room, was erected in 1878 at a cost of $5,000. In the following year (1879) a similar building (the Beardsley) was constructed in northeast Elkhart. In 1875 lots were purchased and a one-story frame was put up in East Elkhart, but the accommodations were soon found to be inadequate and in 1883 a two-story brick building was erected at a cost of $5,500, the two lower rooms only being completed. In the same year, the Christian church on Middlebury street, was bought for $1,400 and a school opened.

HIGH SCHOOL BUILDINGS

"With all these additions there was a demand for more room and better accommodations, especially for the High School. To meet this need, in 1884, the school board erected an eight-room High School building on High street, adjoining the Central building, on the west; and then the fourth story, in the now old building which included the High School room, was abandoned. In the then new building, the High School and recitation rooms were on the first floor, the upper grammar grades on the second, and the library, museum and superintendent's office in the room connecting the old and the new building. The entire cost of this structure including the furniture and the steam-heating apparatus, for both buildings amounted to about $25,000.

ADDITIONS AND SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS (1886-90)

"In the years 1886 and 1887 two rooms were added to the Fourth Ward building and two to the Fifth Ward. Two rooms in East Elkhart were finished and furnished and the Middlebury street school house remodeled and one room added, the aggregate cost of these improvements being about $12,000. From a sanitary point of view the improvements in 1887 and 1888 are of the greatest importance.

"It having come to the knowledge of the school authorities that there was an abundance of pure, fresh air and sunshine going to waste in Elkhart, it was determined to utilize a portion of it for the benefit of the school children. Accordingly arrangements were made and carried into effect for the proper heating, lighting and ventilation of the ward buildings. In the accomplishment of this object, the rooms were reseated, new heaters purchased, direct radiation from stoves cut off, and fresh and foul air flues provided; the black boards were repaired and new ones made where needed, the schools were furnished with number-tables, form-models and beads, reading charts, maps and globes, supplementary readers, dictionaries and other books for teachers' desks; some chemical and physical apparatus, quite a number of specimens for the museum, about $500 worth of books for the library, and a very fine telescope purchased from Prof. H. L. Smith, of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., were added. The cost of these much needed improvements and supplies for the time indicated, aggregates about $3,000.

"In 1890, two rooms were added to the Beardsley building, at a cost of $3,500, and in 1891 a two-room building was erected at the corner of Cleveland avenue and South Seventh street, at a cost of $5,000.

HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING OF 1893

"The dark and poorly ventilated rooms in the Central school building, the crowded condition of all the rooms and especially that of the High School, rendered it imperative that more and better facilities be supplied. To meet this demand, in January, 1893, the new High School building was completed, at a cost of $36,000. This is a two-story stone structure, located at the corner of Pigeon and Vistula streets. The High School Assembly room, with a seating