Lydia Street

NEGAUNEE — Another school year is approaching and it seems like a good time to look at some school history from Negaunee Public Schools.

It was the year 1875, Varnum B. Cochran was the first administrator to bear the title of superintendent. That year the high school faculty consisted of two teachers in addition to the principal.

Two courses of study were offered, English and Latin. Physics and chemistry were taught without any laboratory equipment. Cochran placed the Negaunee schools on a sound educational basis. During his tenure the first high school class graduated in 1979.

There were nine graduates who received their diplomas at ceremonies at the McDonald Opera House. Superintendent Cochran had reason to be proud of the 1881 class who were the last class to graduate under his tenure.

The seven members of that class had an average of ninety three and four sevenths per cent. One member, Lydia Steele, averaged a ninety eight per cent.

Lydia was born in Ferry, Oceana County in Lower Michigan in 1864 and moved to Negaunee with her family in 1868, three years after a village form of government was established.

She was a member of the second class to graduate from Negaunee High School. Following graduation she taught eight months at Deer Lake near Ishpeming, at the time when a high school education was all that was needed to teach.

She then went to Chicago and attended Cook County Normal College for two years and then spent a year in Milwaukee. She also completed reading courses at Bay View and attended summer courses at Marquette Normal.

Steele’s first position in the Negaunee schools was as a primary teacher in the old town hall for the 1885-86 school year. Successive promotions followed and in 1906 she was offered the job of principal in the high school.

This high school was on Case Street. She held this position for three years, from 1906-1909.

In 1909, when the new high school on the corner of Teal Lake Avenue and Peck Street opened, the Case Street school would become the largest and most important grade school in the city and it was important that an experienced principal be in that building.

The board of education solved the problem by offering the position to Lydia Steele, and she accepted. For sentimental reasons she would have liked to have had one year in the new school, but her characteristic loyalty to the school system from where she graduated Miss Steele was willing to take any department where she could be of the most service.

There was no doubt in the minds of the superintendent or the board as to the service that Miss Steele would render in her new position. Her usefulness will be greatly increased as she will have supervision of three times more students, and she has shown exceptional ability in gaining the respect from pupils who will fall under her direction.

She has absolute disciplinary control of a room in a quiet but effective manner without resorting to corporal punishment. One of her noticeable characteristics was that when she found a student wasting time or acting up, she remedied the matter by a friendly talk out of class so as not to humiliate the student.

Lydia Steele was, and has been the only high school principal at Negaunee Public Schools. Miss Steele was on the Negaunee faculty for 37 years and continued as principal of the Case Street school until her death in December 1922.