In taking leave of Mr. Freese it is due to him that I should thus formally and earnestly record my high appreciation of his services. Furthermore, it may not be inappropriate for me testify to the fact, that much of the hearty earnestness of the corps of teachers with which I am now laboring, is due to the influence of this gentleman when he held the office which I now hold. Andrew J. Rickoff, Superintendent of Instruction. The Board of Education having received and accepted the resignation of Andrew Freese, Esq., principal of the Central High School, Mr. Perkins offered the following resolutions, which were adopted: _Resolved_, That the thanks of the Board are hereby tendered to Mr. Freese, for the valuable services he has rendered in the various relations he has sustained to the public schools of this city during the last quarter of a century. In every position he has been called to fill, he has proved himself faithful to the trust committed to his keeping. To him more than any other are we indebted for the deservedly elevated character of our System of graded schools. _Resolved_, That the president and secretary of the Board be requested to communicate to Mr. Freese the feeling of regret occasioned by his withdrawal from our service, together with a certified copy of its action this evening. Mr. Freese was the originator of the celebrated outline maps. Many years before any were published by Mitchell, they were in use here, and may still be found on some of the walls and floors of our old school houses, where they were placed by Mr. Freese. What Horace Mann and William Colburn did for the schools of New England, Andrew Freese has done for the schools of the West. Almost immediately after commencing his labors he began to protest to the Board of School Managers against our school laws; under them he could do no justice to himself or his scholars. His efforts were aided by the Board of School Managers, and after a hard contest with city and State authorities, the laws were altered so as to give us one of the best school systems in the world. The first free high school in the State was started by Mr. Freese, in the basement of an old church, at a rent of fifty dollars per annum, and this was regarded by some of our largest tax payers as so great an outrage that they threatened to resist the payment of their taxes. The school now enjoys the use of a palatial building, and our grammar schools have the use of the most elegant and convenient structures for educational purposes in the State. Many of our citizens devoted their time and money to bring about this great change, which has done and is doing so much for the welfare of our city. But perhaps no one man has done so much as Mr. Freese.