MOMENTS IN TIME

The University of Michigan–Flint continues to make an everlasting impact on its home community. When looking back at the university’s history, there are many distinctive milestones, but there is one that is especially significant

The Legend of Sarah C. Miles Case

Sarah Cushman Miles was born July 26, 1815 in Homer, New York, daughter of Manly and Mary (Cushman) Miles, and died December 13, 1900 in Flint. The Miles family was prominent in Flint. Her sister M. Elizabeth had a volume of poetry published. Her brother Manly was the first professor of agriculture at what would become Michigan State University. A scrapbook, donated by a descendant of her sister, the late Ted Brownell, is housed in the Frances Willson Thompson Library. The scrapbook shows Sarah to be active in the Ladies’ Library Association, and references her interest in art, music, theater, and travel. Sarah became the wife of Milton Case, and they had a son, George. Sarah and Milton are buried in Flint’s Glenwood Cemetery.

One might describe Sarah C. Miles Case as a bit of a legend on the Flint campus.

In a letter dated November 28, 1837, addressed to “Uncle,” meaning the brother of Manly Miles, Sr., Sarah wrote, “A branch of the Michigan University at Ann Arbor is to be established in Flint at some future day.” This letter was published in a pamphlet by Harriet C. Davison, entitled Memoirs. That day turned out to be September 23, 1956, nearly 120 years after Sarah penned the first recorded mention of a University of Michigan-Flint campus.

And now, for the rest of Sarah’s story . . .

In 2016, we reached out to Paul Gifford, former archivist in the Frances Willson Thompson Library, to inquire about Sarah’s letter to her “Uncle.” Paul’s research revealed the following:

According to Wilfred Shaw’s The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey (1942), legislation passed in 1837 to establish U-M in Ann Arbor also called for branches, which he says were more popular politically than the university itself. It was to be part of the plan for public secondary education. Each branch would have three courses of instruction: 1) classical or college preparatory; 2) English course for those not preparing for college; and 3) three-year course for those teaching in primary schools. Although several branches were started, money ran out and the plan ended in 1846. A branch was never established in Flint.

Today, the University of Michigan–Flint continues to thrive in and invest in the heart of downtown Flint. It is a place of academic excellence that fuses vision with action that produces results. Our faculty, staff, students and alumni are working every day to make our community – and our world – a better place.