Bridge School Marker Dedicated
1960

The dedication of the memorial marker at Bridge School was held Friday afternoon under sunny skies. It is one of a series of historical markers by the Monroe County Historical Society throughout the county.

The Bridge School marker dedication coincided with Our Heritage Day of the 1960 Michigan Week. Speaker for the occasion was Dr. Kenneth Bordine, a Dundee High School graduate of the Class of 1921 and, at present, Dean of Education at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant. Dr. Bordine was also a student and teacher at the Bridge School.

Included on the program were two selections by the Dundee High School band; invocation by the Rev. Harry Coleman, who was president of the Board of Education of the Dundee Community School at the time the property was transferred to the Monroe County Historical Society in 1957; address of welcome by Edward Rath; the unveiling of the marker by Dale Townsend, 8, a student at the Seventh Day Adventist School now using the Bridge School; and William Cominess, 87, of North Custer Road, who started school there in 1879; a response by Harry Nelson, superintendent of the Dundee Community School; a brief history of Bridge School by Donald Doty; two solos by Judy Perry of the Monroe High School; group singing by the Old Girls of Raisinville and the benediction by Rev. George B. Clavert, Seventh Day Adventist pastor. Mrs. W.L.Toburen, Sr., president of the Monroe County Historical Society, was mistress of ceremonies.

The dedicatory marker reads:

Bridge School --- First public school in Michigan. Pioneer settlers of Raisinville Township were the first citizens of Michigan to fully organize a school district which provided a building and financial support for basic education.

During 1828, the district built a log school house on land deeded to them by George Sorter. They named it after nearby Brucker Bridge, newly completed across the River Raisin. A larger structure was built entirely of walnut replaced the log house in 1832. The present brick school building was erected in 1868 and was added to in 1910. It served as a school continuously until 1950 when it was consolidated into the Dundee Community Schools. In 1957, the Dundee School Board deeded the property to the Monroe County Historical Society.

The river was named "Riviere aux Raisin" by the French-Canadian people that first settled in Monroe County. They called it the River Raisin because of the wild grapes growing along its banks. This led to the naming of Raisinville Township and the community of Grape. Also many of the farms along the river are long and narrow so that each farm has access to the banks of the river in the French tradition.