CHAPTER I.
Location and Opening of the School.
The act for establishing the normal school created also the State Board of Education. The first duties imposed upon this Board were to select a location for the normal school, provide for the erection of suitable buildings, and take general control and direction of the organization and management of the institution. By the original act, the Board was to consist of three members appointed by the Governor, with the approval of the Senate, and the Lieutenant Governor and State Superintendent as ex officio members. ‘The consolidated act increased the Board by the addition of the State Treasurer who was to be the treasurer of the Board. The first Board, under the original act, consisted of Randolph Manning, Samuel Barstow, Samuel Newbury, Superintendent Francis W. Shearman, and the Lieutenant Governor. The first Board, under the consolidated act, consisted of Isaac E. Crary, Samuel Barstow, Elias M. Skinner, Superintendent Shearman, and the Lieutenant Governor and State Treasurer. By the revised constitution of 1850 the Board was reduced to three members to be elected by the people, with the Superintendent of Public Instruction as a member and secretary, ex officio.
The Board organized in May 1849 by electing Samuel Newbury President with other necessary officers. At this meeting arrangements were make for locating the lands appropriated for the normal school, and for receiving propositions for the location of the institution. At the second meeting of the Board, held in September, propositions were received from Ypsilanti, Jackson, Marshall, Gull Prairie, and Niles. These various propositions, which were printed in the first report of the Board, made to the Legislature in 1850, offer matter of entertainment and interest. The most elaborate paper was from a committee of the citizens of Gull Prairie, a pleasant little village in the township
