Schools and Churches of Watrousville, Tuscola County, Michigan

Copyright © 1998 by Bonnie Petee. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  

 

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SCHOOLS

A graded school was established in District No. 4., which includes the village of 
Watrousville, about 1875.  It has two departments and an attendance of about 
seventy-five pupils, the number of children of school age in the district being, by 
the last census, one hundred and four.  The teachers engaged for the year, commencing 
in September, 1883, are Thomas Allen and sister.  The trustees are:   A. M. Lewis, 
Director;  R. S. Weaver, assessor; J. M. Cole, moderator; Dr. Richard Morris and R. D. 
Black.

WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION

This society was organized in Watrousville in 1882.  It has from the first been deeply 
interested and attentive to the work for which it was established.  Meetings are held 
every alternate Thursday evening at the Methodist Episcopal Church.  The membership is 
now fifteen.  The officers are: President, Mrs. A. Stafford; corresponding secretary, 
Mrs. R. S. Weaver; recording secretary, Mrs. D. R. Lewis; treasurer, T. Rathbun.

THE CHOSEN FRIENDS

Tuscola Council, No. 47, of this order, the primary object of which is mutual life 
insurance, was organized January 5, 1883, with sixteen members.  Ten have since been 
added.  The officers are: Russell D. Black, C. C.; Mrs. Annie E. Fish, V. C. C.; D. R. 
Lewis, secretary, Mrs. E. M. Black, treasurer; Mrs. D. R. Lewis, prelate; Jas. H. 
Simpson, marshal; Mrs. M. A. Arnold, warden; Edwin Hardy, guard; Chas. Thursby, sentry.

SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

A church of this denomination was organized in the fall of 1865 by Elders I.D. Van Horn 
and D. M. Canright with thirty-seven members.  It was formally organized for 
incorporation February 27, 1866, when at a meeting of persons who had signed articles 
of association for the purpose of forming a religious society to be known as the 
Society of Seventh Day Adventists of Watrousville, the following persons were elected 
trustees, viz: Zephaniah Wilber, Andrew J. Rogers and John Walton.  Services were held 
in school-houses until 1869, when a neat, plain church edifice was erected in the 
village of Watrousville, with a seating capacity of about one hundred.  Services are 
held every Saturday, with occasional preaching by Elder Wm. Ostrander and others.  The 
present membership is thirty-two.   The Sabbath-school has about twenty-seven members. 
The trustees of the church are J. A. Hatch, C. W. Hartson and Calvin Jewett.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

About the year 1856 a class of the M. E. Church was organized at Watrousville.  
Services were held regularly at the school-house until the building of their house of 
worship.

At the quarterly conference held at Vassar, February 18, 1865, the following persons 
were elected trustees of the church at Watrousville, viz: William King, James Simonds, 
Elisha Kenyon, Harris Stillson and Philip Davis; the corporation to be "described and 
known as the Trustees of the First Methodist Society in Watrousville."

In 1871 a church building was erected under the pastorate of Rev. J. B. Russell;  It is 
a convenient and commodious structure and built with excellent taste.  Its dimensions 
on the ground are 36x60 feet, and its seating capacity about 400.  The present 
membership of the church is thirty-eight. The pastor at the present time is Rev. W. J. 
Bailey.  The trustees of the society are E. Higgins, G. Kile, E. B. Rose, R. S. Weaver, 
Wm. Eckley, A. Stafford and W. Walton.  A prosperous Sunday-school numbering eighty 
members is connected with the church.

A class also meets at the Belknap school-house in the southwest part of the town, 
supplied by Rev. Mr. White, of Vassar, services being held every Sunday.







  





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