Pioneer School / Pioneer School

The city of Marshall was platted in 1830 by Sidney Ketchum, a land speculator from Clinton County, New York. In 1832 townsfolk erected their first public building, a modest frame schoolhouse, on land donated by Isaac E. Crary, who became one of the fathers of the Michigan public school system. During its early years, the schoolhouse also served as a church for three denominations, the circuit court of Calhoun County, and, during the cholera epidemic, a hospital. In 1833 Marshall’s first village officials were elected at a meeting held in the pioneer schoolhouse. The building served the community as a school until 1843. William Venn built a house on this property in the early 1860s and moved the old schoolhouse to the rear of the lot. There it was used as a barn. The schoolhouse was demolished in 1871 when the First Presbyterian Church purchased the property for a manse. The church sold the property in 1880 and repurchased it in 1914.