s of the University. So it would appear that on the
whole Ann Arbor was well provided with schools from its earliest days.

The discontinuance of elementary work in the University, however, and a
consolidation of the schools of the two districts finally led to the
establishment of the Union High School in 1853. The first building was
erected at a cost of $32,000 on the present site of the High School and
was opened to students in 1856, while most of the ward buildings were
built during the sixties. Close association with the University
undoubtedly strengthened the Ann Arbor schools, and the High School soon
became, in practice, a preparatory school for the University,
particularly after the organic connection between University and schools
through the diploma system became effective. This enabled the Ann Arbor
High School to become one of the best secondary schools of the State
with an attendance for many years far exceeding the normal enrolment in
other cities of the same population.

While the townspeople have always shown their pride in the University
and their interest in its welfare, Ann Arbor has not escaped entirely
the traditional rivalries between town and gown. The village had a
flourishing civic and commercial life before the first students came;
even after it was established, the University for years was
comparatively small and made no great place for itself in local affairs,
as one may easily surmise by the rare references to it in the early
newspapers. The members of the Faculty, however, were welcomed from the
first as leaders in the community, though perhaps less can be said for
the students, whose irrepressible spirits often led them to carry things
with a high hand. Nor was the younger element in the town blameless. The
result was an occasional crisis which was sometimes serious.

The indignation meeting of the citizens over the modification of the
building program, as well as the similarly expressed support given the
students in the fraternity struggle of 1850, were mentioned in the first
chapter, and evidence a more cordial entente than is suggested by a
serio-comic squabble in 1856 between the students and the Teutonic
element in the town, long known as the "Dutch War." The original
trouble appears to have started in this case with the students, though
it was probably the outgrowth of old animosities between them and the
rougher and foreign elements in the town. For, despite vigorous efforts
on th