Schoolcraft, Michigan
Encyclopedia
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the village has a total area of 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²), all land. Schoolcraft is located on a prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
, and much of the land outside of the village is used as farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
land, with the primary crops being corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
and soybeans.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 1,587 people, 615 households, and 418 families residing in the village. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,703.2 per square mile (658.9/km²). There were 645 housing units at an average density of 692.2 per square mile (267.8/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 96.09% White, 0.38% African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.44% Asian, 0.38% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 2.52% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.07% of the population.
There were 615 households out of which 38.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.9% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.9% were non-families. 27.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.19.
In the village the population was spread out with 29.6% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 92.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.4 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $45,380, and the median income for a family was $54,205. Males had a median income of $37,500 versus $27,639 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the village was $20,223. About 3.7% of families and 6.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.
History
White settlement in the Schoolcraft area dates to 1828 (nine years before Michigan's admission to the Union), when Bazel Harrison moved his family from Ohio to present-day Prairie Ronde TownshipPrairie Ronde Township, Michigan
Prairie Ronde Township is a civil township located in the extreme southwestern corner of Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,086 at the 2000 census.Prairie Ronde is the birthplace of the women's suffragist Olympia Brown....
, becoming the first settler in the future Kalamazoo County. The village itself was established in 1831 by surveyor (and future statesman) Lucius Lyon
Lucius Lyon
Lucius Lyon was a U.S. statesman from the state of Michigan. He was born in Shelburne, Vermont, where he received a common school education and studied engineering and surveying...
, who had first visited the area as a surveyor under government contract in 1823. Recorded on October 5, 1831, Schoolcraft was the first town in Kalamazoo County. Lyon named the village for his friend Henry Schoolcraft
Henry Schoolcraft
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 discovery of the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston, whose parents were Ojibwe and Scots-Irish...
. Schoolcraft was a key member of the 1820 Cass Expedition
Lewis Cass expedition
The Lewis Cass expedition of 1820 was a survey of the western part of Michigan Territory led by Lewis Cass, governor of the territory. On January 14, 1820, United States Secretary of War John C...
, organized by territorial governor Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, a U.S. Senator representing Michigan, and co-founder as well as first Masonic Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan...
to explore the Michigan Territory
Michigan Territory
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan...
; the expedition played an important role in encouraging settlement of the territory.
Schoolcraft was incorporated as a General Law Village on January 4, 1866. It was reincorporated March 12, 1869 and received its new charter in 1875.
Local Historic Sites
The Schoolcraft home of Dr. Nathan Thomas served as a "station" on the Underground RailroadUnderground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. Dr. Thomas, the first doctor in Kalamazoo County and a Quaker who avidly supported and led abolitionist efforts in Michigan, first built the house in 1835 on the corner of Cass St. and Centre St. Between 1840 and 1860, it is estimated that Dr. Thomas and his wife Pamela Brown Thomas sheltered between 1,000 and 1,500 fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. Dr. Thomas built a new house in 1868 and the original house was moved to its present site on Cass St. east of U.S. Route 131. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
and is a registered Michigan Historical Site.
The Schoolcraft United Methodist Church has stood on the corner of Grand Street and Clay Street in Schoolcraft since the early 1850s. The congregation was organized in Prairie Ronde Township in 1832. Its first chapel, called the Ebenezer Episcopal Church of Prairie Ronde, built in 1836, was the first church building of any denomination constructed north of the St. Joseph River
St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan)
The St. Joseph River is a river, approximately long, in southern Michigan and northern Indiana in the United States. It drains a primarily rural farming area in the watershed of Lake Michigan...
.
Cooper's Island is an approximately 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) woodland located about 1/4 mile west of U.S. Route 131 on West Eliza St. Containing a rich and rare assortment of mesic forest plants and trees, the woods are the remnant of the Big Island on Prairie Ronde, an island of forest in the midst of prairie at the time of settlement. Famous as the setting for James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
's 1848 frontier novel The Oak Openings, Cooper's Island is a listed Michigan Historical Site.
The Schoolcraft Ladies Library (at 163 Hayward St.), built in 1896, is also a state listed site. The Ladies Library Association had been founded in 1879 to provide educational opportunities to women in the community (there were no state educational institutions in the area until Western Normal College, now Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....
, was established in Kalamazoo in 1903).
Local News Media
Schoolcraft village and Schoolcraft TownshipSchoolcraft Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan
Schoolcraft Township is a civil township of Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 7,260 at the 2000 census. The township is named for Henry Schoolcraft, noted for conducting many early land surveys throughout Michigan....
are served by a local newspaper called the Commercial Express, which is officially called the South County Commercial-Express.
Schools
There are four schools in the Schoolcraft Community Schools school district.Schoolcraft Early Elementary
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
- Schoolcraft Early Elementary serves approximately 260 students in the Young Fives, Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade. The Kindergarten and Young Fives programs are offered half day, every day in the morning or afternoon. The Elementary school is the oldest occupied school in the district, with the original portion of the school having been built in the 1930s. Until completion of the old high school (which is currently the middle school) in the 1950s, this building housed all students in K-12.
Schoolcraft Upper Elementary
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
- The Upper Elementary in Schoolcraft consists of grades 3, 4, and 5, and currently has 342 students enrolled. Grade levels 3, 4, and 5 are the traditional self-contained classrooms. Students in those grade levels do leave their classrooms for specials (physical education, art, computers, library skills, and music).
Schoolcraft Middle School
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
- The Schoolcraft Middle School aims to prepare productive, respectful problem solvers for their next educational endeavor through delivering a challenging, integrated curriculum in a positive environment by a skilled staff. Grades 6th through 8th.
Schoolcraft High School
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
- Grades 9-12. The current high school, which is the newest building in the district's school system, has been occupied since the 1999-2000 school year, with construction being completed in 2000. Due to cooperation with other schools in Kalamazoo County, students also have the opportunity to attend classes at off-campus locations through programs such as the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center, Education for Employment and Education for the Arts.
- School Mascot: EagleEagleEagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
, or the Schoolcraft Eagles - School Colors: Purple and Gold
Schoolcraft High School Michigan High School Athletic Association
Michigan High School Athletic Association
-About:The Michigan High School Athletic Association is a service organization for high school sports in Michigan and is headquartered in East Lansing...
State Team Champions
- Boy's Track: 1959
- Girl's Cross-countryCross country runningCross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
: 1992 (Class D) - Boy's GolfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
: 1996, 1998, 2002 (Division 4) - FootballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
: 1988 (Class D), 1989 (Class C), 2001 (Division 6) - Girl's VolleyballVolleyballVolleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
: 2008 (Class C) - Boy's BasketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
: 2011 (Class C)