|
Brookside was established as a post office on April 11, 1890 and named after Brooks
Creek, which ran from Fremont Lake to William Creek in this vicinity. John Pikaart had
a general store in the northeast corner of Section of Sheridan Township. The post office
was located here and he was the first Postmaster. William F. Raiccuard became
Postmaster on March 28, 1901. The office was discontinued on Oct. 31, 1901 with the
establishment of Rural Free Delivery and the mail going to Fremont. Across the road from the store to the north was the second Brookside School, a nice large brick one. The first Brookside School stood across the road to the east of the second school. When they tore the first school down they built a Town Hall, which became the "Sheridan Township Hall" on that site, now that's even gone. The new Township Hall is about two miles away on 64th. Street. The old store has been replaced with a house and the second school has been remodeled into a house. The man to whom credit is due for starting a system in 1883 to bring order out of chaos in the rural schools was William E. Gould. He taught the Brookside school for eight years. When he became a teacher he applied himself diligently to the task of studying out a classification system without which no school can make much progress. He sent to Des Moines, Iowa, for a plan of grading and using this as a basis, began the classification of Brookside School. Other school had tried different things in trying to grade their pupils, but Brookside was the first school in Michigan to reach the full grading of eight grades and used it continuously since the plan was first inaugurated by Mr. Gould. |