When Jim Curwood at last returned from his wanderings on the open roads and along the trails of adventure, he decided that he must have more schooling if he would attain the heights in literature that he so desired.

Jim was determined and he set to the task that he had outlined for himself. The first to suggest that he should go to college and study was Mrs. Janette. But similar advice came from his parents, Fred Janette and most of his friends. Realizing that this would take a great sum of money Jim began to seriously consider the possibilities.

Where would he ever get the necessary funds for even a year at Ann Arbor’s University of Michigan? Where, indeed, would he get the money for the remaining three years which were required for a degree?

For many weeks Jim thought about his problem. At last he reached the decision that he would earn just enough to take care of himself for the first year and let the other three years take care of themselves. He had not as yet completed his high school course at Central School, and the job of doing so was also of prime consideration, since a diploma was an essential requirement to entering a university.

Even as the century neared its end, Central School remained a combined grade and high school where students from six and seven mingled with boys and girls of seventeen and eighteen years of age. It was a beautiful school surrounded by trees and sat in the center of a large common wherein lay a wonderful playground. Despite the fact that it was a combined school of all grades it had everything to offer the children of that day. It remains very much the same today as it was almost fifty years ago.

Without choice Jim set to work doing anything in the line of odd-jobs. He beat carpets, mowed lawns and yards and raked leaves in the fall months. He also shoveled snow from neighbors’ walks and porches during the long, cold wintry months. He even scraped mortar from bricks at an old building that was being destroyed. Also, during the winter, he ran innumerable traplines and from these he managed to save quite a few dollars. He realized to the utmost that all of this was work, but since it was for “the cause” he did not mind. For Jim thoroughly enjoyed his trapping in the blustery winds of the cold, northern winters, and his shoveling of snow from sidewalks and porches. He enjoyed the scraping of mortar from bricks, the mowing of yards and the beating of carpets, for through this work he was coming nearer and nearer to his goal.

With the arrival of early fall, the time came when cord wood would have to be put up, and here again Jim proved himself efficient. Cord after cord of wood he cut up for neighbors and friends. For each cord he received ample payment. Then, when he learned that there was a shortage of firemen, Jim promptly signed up as a volunteer. All these jobs Jim picked up over a period of one year.

In early September of the fall of 1897 Jim went back to Central School, and it was not long before the faculty as well as his fellow students learned of his desire and determination to enter college, a desire which they regarded as being absurd and futile.

All this, however, only made Jim dig in all the harder and made him fight more gallantly against the odds that were pitting themselves against him. For the young man was absolutely determined to show them all up now. He felt that by actually attaining that for which he was striving, he would be showing them all just how small and insignificant they really were.

Adding injury to insult there came a blow to Jim’s dignity and pride that hurt and touched him deeply. For Professor Austin of Central School once asked him:

“How are you going to get into college, James, without a diploma—break in with a set of burglar’s tools?”

Throughout all those hectic schooldays Jim was constantly being urged by a great many people to give up his childish passion for writing, and turn to something that would prove itself more profitable and worthwhile in years to come. Since Jim was rapidly becoming quite an expert with a rifle, he was told that there was an excellent field in rifle matches which would bring him good money. Likewise the prospect of bagging big game was proposed as a means of earning considerable money. Fortunately for Jim none of these ideas appealed to him.

There was but one teacher in all of Central School who firmly was convinced of Jim Curwood’s future. Her name was Miss Boyce and her loveliness always made Jim’s heart beat faster. At that time she was a lovely young woman, not many years his senior and she possessed one of the most lovable characters that Jim had ever known. She was constantly urging him onward as only very few others in all of Owosso were doing. She even went so far as to arrange a schedule whereby she could have Jim alone and thereby instruct him privately. The private teaching took place in her own home and Jim was sincerely moved by her earnest interest in his career.

Throughout James Oliver Curwood’s short though illustrious and glorious life he often thought of the beautiful and kind Miss Boyce, and more than once he wrote her into his stories. It was through her that Jim learned that he might enter the university by taking special entrance examinations instead of the usual ones that other students would be required to take. From that moment on there was nothing on earth that could stop James Oliver Curwood. There was not an obstacle which he could not overcome in his climb to success. He was young and he realized fully that only God could keep him from realizing his ambitions.

“I was fully embarked on the project of becoming an author. Nothing but death could stop me.”

Summer arrived none too soon for Jim, and with its coming Central School was to see the last of its most ridiculed student. At last he was free. As soon as classes were out Jim sought out work and quickly found it. He clerked in a grocery store for several weeks, with the remainder of his summer being spent in the nearby forests that all but surround Owosso. He planned, he saved and he studied for those glorious days ahead of him. Actually he had been able to save the magnificent sum of One Hundred and Twenty Dollars, which also included the $5.00 received from the Gray Goose Magazine. He had never cashed the check.

At last came the fall of 1898, and Jim Curwood was ready for his trip to Ann Arbor and the University. There were no crowds at the station to bid him good bye and good luck. There were just his family, Fred Janette and his mother, Miss Boyce and a few others. Seemingly the friends of the family and even his own chums had very little confidence in his ability to succeed at the great institution of learning. In fact they all believed that within a very short time Jim Curwood would be back at home. But Jim’s family and his close friends had confidence in him and were firmly convinced that he would successfully pass his special entrance examinations. They were certain, however, that should he fail he would not return to Owosso for they knew of the confidence James Oliver Curwood had in himself at that youthful and momentous age of twenty. To fail would mean disgrace not only to Jim, but to his parents and friends, and they were sure that he would never come home until he had made something of himself.

With Jim when the train pulled out of Owosso were his lone suitcase carrying only absolute necessities, and of course his ever present typewriter.

It was a long, rough ride to Ann Arbor and throughout it all Jim wished that he were already there and had all of his connections made. Two weeks were still to elapse before taking his entrance examinations, but Jim had carefully planned his trip this way to enable him to have more time for study and to brush up on the necessary subjects.

It was at a Mrs. Gray’s that Jim decided to have his meals after he had arrived in Ann Arbor and had made inquiries. The prices were very reasonable and she served an excellent quality of food. In all there were fifteen college men who ate at Mrs. Gray’s, and each one took his turn at serving as cashier, waiter or dishwasher, thus receiving meals at far less than the usual prices.

Mrs. Gray treated Jim exceptionally well and almost instantly he felt as if he were at home. The food she served was plain, everyday food, but he paid little and still had all he wanted to eat. Jim Curwood soon learned that Mrs. Gray was respected and highly recommended.

It was here that Jim met Walter Parker, who later became the chief of staff of the Owosso Memorial Hospital, and Jim Greene, who became an Assistant Attorney General of the State of Michigan. Greene’s official capacity at Mrs. Gray’s was that of cash master.

After securing a place in which to eat his meals Jim went in search of a room, after spending the first night at Mrs. Gray’s house. The twenty year old did not have long to look for a place in which to lodge, for just a few blocks down the street he came across a room for just one dollar a week, which suited him well.

The first night in his new location he labored long into the dawning hours. He studied as he had never studied and crammed before. The passing of the examinations now meant more than anything had meant to him in all his life. It meant that in the event that he should pass he would be well on his way toward a successful literary career.

At last came the fateful morning on which he was to take his examinations. Jim left his little room on State Street and headed for the university. He wound his way through the heavily foliaged campus, past the library and onto the Central Stand itself. Then up long, winding stairs Jim made his way to the room where Professor Scott was awaiting his prospective students. At least a dozen other young men and women were taking the tests with Jim that morning and they were given two hours to complete them.

The room was silent and still as pencils moved over the papers. As Jim pondered over them he began to feel a strange paralysis come over him. Even at that time he firmly believed with all his heart that none of the teachers at seemingly far off Owosso and Central School could have answered a single one of those almost terrifying questions. It was with a feeling that his scholastic grave was already dug that Jim ploughed into the series of questions. He tackled them with all the fury of a wild, untamed lion. But at the same time the long, silent wilderness trails beckoning toward Alaska and the great North came in a vision to him. Was this vision to prove to be one of those unexplainable destinies in his life? He wondered.

Young James Oliver Curwood, just slightly past twenty, sat many long minutes trying to answer the questions. Evidently Professor Scott must have noticed the sick look upon his face, for he came over to Jim and told him he need not hurry. He explained to the young man that he had plenty of time, that he would accomplish more if he proceeded slowly.

For the entire two hours and up until Professor Scott called the examination to a halt, Jim sat there writing as fast and accurately as his arm and brain would permit. He had been a little slow at first, but as time went on his memory seemed to return and he remembered more. When the allotted time was up he handed in a sheaf of papers that would lead one to believe that Jim Curwood had written a full length novel.

A few anxious and worried days went by before the big news came telling of the results of the examinations. Jim Curwood had passed the difficult examinations with “flying colors,” while over one-fourth of the others had failed. He was jubilant and overjoyed at his great success. Immediately he rushed off to the telegraph office to send back the news to all of Owosso.

James Oliver Curwood plunged deep into college life. Now, besides being a part of the university he was also a resident of Ann Arbor. It later became known that it was not only the studies that interested him but, strange as it may seem, being a resident of Ann Arbor gave him a soul-satisfying thrill, a thrill so great and real that for many years afterward Jim could never quite fully describe it.

The weeks that followed were filled with the usual pranks and escapades that come to all college students, and Jim was by no means an exception. Being a freshman was not an altogether happy affair, what with the periods of “hazing” and “paddling” and peeling of onions that became parts of his daily existence. But through all this Jim’s sense of humour never left him and, while he did not particularly enjoy these “persecutions,” his understanding of them made them easier to bear.

At last came the time for Jim to take notice of his financial standing. He had paid his tuition fees, purchased his books and all minor colleges fees had been taken care of. Even his room and board were paid up for the entire first semester. Still, Jim was running short of cash. So he set out in search of work. Any job that paid any wages at all was what Jim Curwood wanted and would take. Luckily there was a university employment agency on the campus and Jim lost no time in contacting it. For several days he practically haunted the agency and at last after a week of waiting he secured employment at a house that needed someone to tend the furnace and take out ashes after school hours. Though the compensation was little it helped Jim immensely to carry on his college work.

It was not long before a similar position presented itself, and this together with the first one, netted him the then magnificent sum of $6.00 weekly. Jim’s education, at least for the present, looked a little more secure.

As the first year at Ann Arbor was rapidly drawing to a close, the final examinations came up. Jim soon began the ever tiresome task of studying. The light in his room burned from early dusk until early in the morning. This was one time when he realized that he must burn the proverbial “midnight oil.”

After many long, hard hours of intense study, Jim managed to pass the examinations. His first year at the University of Michigan had been a success and he was quite proud.