The current hot topic in Brookfield is the changing of the name of the S.E. Gross Middle School at 3524 Maple Ave. It is the name that the school has had on its south side wall for 114 years.
Some people contend that the “Gross” name is too negative, according to current slang, so the name must go. Also, they point to the failings of Mr. Gross who, however, gave so much time and energy to arranging the school’s location and construction. Other people are proud of having attended a school with that name.
If not for the finding of one historic document in 1987, knowledge of Samuel Eberly Gross’ role in the school’s history would be a much smaller one. The story of the building of that first school would still be in error.
A history of the first Gross School was reported on Nov. 2, 1933, in the Suburban Magnet newspaper. This was the special celebratory issue of the Magnet that was dedicated to telling the history of Brookfield, during its last 40 years, since its incorporation date on Nov. 7, 1893.
One sentence of this article on Gross School stated that “Gross himself donated a large sum of money for the purpose [of erecting a school building]. In addition, he sent a letter to the owner of every lot asking for a donation of $2 to cover the cost of erecting a school building.” The specific sum he donated remained unmentioned, but the school building’s cost was reported at being $1,300.
The next known history of Gross’ involvement with the school occurred in 1968, during Brookfield’s Diamond Jubilee year. Information was being accumulated from all of Brookfield’s schools to be included in the Diamond Jubilee Book, a soft cover history of the village.
“Gross … donated $500 as his share and suggested that every lot owner donate $2.” According to the Grossdale village board minutes for 1894 (first closely examined in the early 1990s), it wasn’t Gross, but the village board who suggested that every lot owner give $2. The minutes also say that an additional $3,800 in bonds were issued for the school, and nothing further exists to suggest that this wasn’t done.
Also, there’s no evidence showing that the $2 was collected from each lot owner, either. The Diamond Jubilee Book also reported that a grand total of $1,800 was raised, and that the entire school, made of brick, with four rooms, a dirt basement, and a bell tower was built for this seemingly small sum.
To be fair, this erroneous information, furnished to the book committee, came from a six-page document titled “History of Gross School,” written by none other than Gross School Principal Gordon G. Teichmann in 1967.
The July 31, 1968 Diamond Jubilee issue of the Brookfield Enterprise simply echoed the above “facts.” How could they know any better? That was the history submitted to the book committee, and who should know it better than Gross School’s own principal?
The story about Gross and his $500 donation was repeated until it was believed, even into the 1980s. What other known source could dispute it? Well, there was one source, and, yes, it was completely unknown, but resting in quiet, unsuspected existence since the year 1951.
In March 1950, the Brookfield Magnet reported on the future Gross School remodeling project. The original 1894-95 built school and the 1905 addition were to be torn down and replaced.
This was a cold March, and Lillian Ryzenga was always feeding the coal and wood-burning stove in her kitchen at 3610 Arthur Ave. She had three children attending Gross School: Judy, Janice and Phillip.
By the summer of 1950, little work had been done on the school. There was a shortage of building materials. Then, on July 5, 1951, the Magnet reported that the demolition had begun, and it would be about 60 days before the south wing was completely razed.
Mrs. Ryzenga told her children to gather up wood pieces from the old school buildings, remembering the coal shortages from the previous winters. Also, it was an economical way to get heating fuel.
Complaining, her children took their red wagon, and pulled it the less than half a block to the school. Some wood already lay on the ground, and more was being tossed out of the old attic section (possibly from the 1905 addition).
The children made several trips back and forth, from the school to their house, bringing back not only wood, but also a mass of old paper items. Maybe the papers had been stuffed behind a wall, or hidden under floorboards in the attic since the early 1900s, and unseen by anyone.
Mrs. Ryzenga burned the wood, but saved the papers relating to the early years of Gross School. She put them away securely in an 11-by-14-inch envelope, and they were, it seems, hardly ever looked at. The envelope ended up in the attic of her home on Arthur Avenue.
She rediscovered this envelope in January 1987. As a member of the Brookfield Historical Society, she revealed, at their January 1987 meeting, that she had these old school papers her kids picked up when the old sections of the Gross School were being torn down to make room for a new addition.
She didn’t know if they had any historical value, and wanted somebody to come over to her house and look at them, otherwise she’d just toss them out.
I volunteered to go over and take a look at what she had, and stopped by her house on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1987. She led me up into her attic, where the envelope still sat, a little dusty, and we brought it down into her kitchen.
I opened the envelope at her kitchen table, and carefully removed the mass of papers. They were mildly interesting, being mostly old school supply bills for various items, and I looked over the papers, wondering what I’d find next. Mrs. Ryzenga took notice of my absorbed interest, and asked me, “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“Anything with the name of S.E. Gross on it would be great,” I answered.
I shifted a few more bills, and there lay before me a thick, folded mass of attached papers. Slowly I unfolded it. A thrill went up my spine.
“Hey! That’s his name right there!” I said, pointing to the top line on a list of names. Then I thoroughly examined the entire four-page document.
It was the original subscription list for the building of the first schoolhouse in the village.
“This is the historical find of the year!” I burst out to Mrs. Ryzenga, who was very surprised to hear it. She appeared both pleased and befuddled, as if unbelieving that she’d had something so historically valuable for all these years.
I took the list home, examined it and made many notes. There were 66 names on the list, with Gross’s name appearing twice. Many of the subscribers’ names were historically impressive.
Among them were Walter Simpson, who was said to have built the first five houses in Grossdale; William Buhs, the first village president of Grossdale; H.A. Cranwell, the second village president; E.T. Behrens, the early photographer in the village; Joseph Nicholas Vasey, the owner of the first lots in the village; S.W. Burson, the first village doctor; C.L. Curtis, the Grossdale Station agent; and members of the 1894 village board and school committee.
Some donors had a check mark or the word “paid” next to their names, indicating they had “paid on or before July 1st, 1894.” The paid total came to $1,641.50. Twelve signers had no mark or “paid” written after their name, representing a possibly uncollected $61 more.
Gross had no indication next to his names that he had paid, but it is highly probable that he did pay his $1,000 plus the extra $300 “subject to conditions in letter,” or else the school would never have been named for him at all.
The finding of this subscription list, totaling $1,702.50, literally changed history. Since 1933, it had been believed and duly reported that Gross only gave $500. Now the true total was known: $1,300, that curiously echoes the reported exact total cost of the building as reported in the Nov. 2, 1933 Magnet. In 1968, Principal Teichmann’s statement of the building’s total cost was raised to the sum of $1,800, not too far from the subscription list’s $1,702.50.
But did Gross actually pay the $1,300 towards the school building? How could that be ascertained? The answer was to be found in Gross’s own death notice, in the Nov. 1, 1913 issue of the Suburban Magnet, where the paper reports that “He also assisted to the amount of $1,300 on the building of the Brookfield school building.”
And what were the “conditions in letter,” that Gross penned next to his name on the subscription list? The letter has never turned up, and possibly was carted off with the old debris from the Gross School sections back in 1951. It was too late to do anything about that in 1987. If the letter had survived, it would, most probably, have said that Gross wanted the school to bear his name. If even only a single printed mention of that condition still existed, somewhere.
Well, it does. When I first heard about this name change idea, I could’ve sworn that I remembered reading about that condition somewhere. And then I found it. It’s printed on page 4 of the McDonough and Company address directory for 1924-25, covering Brookfield.
“He gave the land upon which the school was built, conditional upon it being called S.E. Gross School.”
Sure, it mentions the land, and not the money, but the land was donated through his efforts. And there’s that condition. This statement was written by the highly honored Judge Willis Melville, the village attorney for many years, who came to Brookfield in 1892.
He was also the second person to sign the subscription list (he donated $10). Would Brookfield’s most esteemed judge lie? And in print?
Regrettably, the late Mrs. Lillian Ryzenga is no longer with us, since she probably would have been quite amazed by the attention now being given her special historical document. So, what’s in your attic?