WER History of the University of Wisconsin-Chapter 2
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Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

WER: History of the University of Wisconsin-Chapter 2

History of the University of Wisconsin

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CHAPTER II. Preliminary Organization—1848-1849.

State University incorporated—The problem of appraisement—Sacrifice of the lands to secure immigrants—First meeting of regents—Chancellor Lathrop chosen—Site chosen—Work of organization—Attractions of “College Hill.”—The cabinet—Plan for normal instruction.

Wisconsin was admitted to the Union under the act of Congress approved May

29, 1848. Section B of article x of the State constitution provided for
the University, as follows:

Section 6. Provision shall be made by law for the establishment of a
state university, at or near the seat of state government, and for
connecting with the same from time to time such colleges in different
parts of the state as the interests of education may require. The
proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted by the

United States to the state for the support of the university, shall be
and remain a perpetual fund to be called the “university fund,” the
interest of which shall be appropriated to the support of the state
university, and no sectarian instruction shall be allowed in such
university.

State University incorporated.By an act of legislature approved July 26,
the State University was incorporated, the government of the institution
being vested in a board of thirteen regents—twelve of them to be chosen
by the legislature, and they to elect a chancellor, who should be ex
officio president of the board.1 The University was, by this law, divided
into four departments: “(1) The department of Science, Literature and the

Arts. (2) The department of Law. (3) The department of Medicine. (4) The
department of the Theory and Practice of Elementary Instruction.”

The problem of appraisement.Another act (approved August 12) provided for
the appointment, by joint resolution of the legislature, of three persons
in each county as appraisers of school and University lands; and these
were so appointed, four days later.2 At once the question arose, what
should be the policy of the State, in the matter of this endowment of
higher education by the national government? Should the undoubted purpose
of the nation in making the gift be respected, the lands kept for the
inevitable rise,—for immigrants were fast pouring into the State,—and
the University of the future thus be assured a worthy income? Or, should
these birthright acres be sold at once, on terms so low that immigration
would be encouraged and the University be left to the consideration of the
next generation, which, fully established in comfortable homes, would
doubtless be able to support it sufficiently by taxation? The same problem
had arisen in each of the other States carved out of the Old Northwest

Territory. Of all five, Michigan alone kept faith with the national
government; in the true spirit of the grant, she maintained possession of
her lands (up to 1837) until the price averaged $22.50 per acre; and the
fund accruing from their sale produces to-day an annual income to the
university of about $38,000. We shall see that Wisconsin chose to use the
national gift as a bait for immigrants, with consequences permanently
injurious to the interests of the University.3

Sacrifice of the lands to secure immigrants.In accordance with this
policy, which took no account of the future welfare of the University, and
sought only the immediate interests of the State in advertising cheap
lands to attract settlers, the appraisers at once valued sixty-three of
the seventy-two sections at prices ranging from $1.13 per acre in Grant
county to $7.06 in Washington county—the average being $2.78. The figures
were, for the most part, much below ruling market rates. This fact greatly
disturbed the regents of the University, whose especial charge it was to
protect the interests of that institution in embryo. In 1850 they reported
to the legislature that “while the school lands, which are of course lands
of ordinary quality, are appraised at an average value of $3.44 per acre,
the selected university lands are appraised at the average value of $2.78,
being sixty-six cents less per acre than the appraised value of the school
lands.”

In 1849, numerous sales had been made at the low minimum price fixed by
the appraisers but in 1850 the regents succeeded in improving the
situation by having the minimum fixed at $10, and over a thousand acres
were sold at that price. In 1851, however, the legislature was induced by
interested persons to reduce the price to $7, and the preemptors of 1850
were “given credit for the excess over the new minimum price.” In 1852,
there were new appraisals, at a minimum of $3 per acre, and the greater
part of the remaining lands were disposed of at that price. Thus, from the
seventy-two University sections granted by the government in 1838, only

$150,000 was realized—whereas in Michigan, a similar grant realized its

University over $500,000. It will be shown, however, that in later years

Wisconsin’s management of the University lands presented features even
more disheartening.

First meeting of regents.Meanwhile, the regents, although sadly hampered
for funds, were doing their best toward organizing the University. They
held their initial meeting in Madison, October 7, 1848, in the library
room of the capitol. The first business in hand was the passage of a
series of resolutions: (1) Establishing a preparatory department, to be
opened on the first Monday in February following, with John W. Sterling,
of Waukesha, in charge, he being awarded the title of professor of
mathematics, and a salary of $500 per annum; (2) making the conditions of
admission to the preparatory department “a knowledge of the elements of
arithmetic, grammar, and geography,” and outlining a grade of admission to
the freshman class (when organized);4 (3) appointing Regent Eleazer Root

“an agent to procure information in regard to the manner in which the

University should be organized, and to report drafts of practical plans
for University buildings; and that for this purpose he be authorized, if
he shall deem it necessary, to visit the University of Michigan at the
expense of the Board;” and (4) appointing “a committee to negotiate for
the purchase of ‘College Hill,’ including the ‘Vanderpool
quarter-section,’ and such other lots adjoining as may be sufficient for
the site of the University building grounds.’ At this meeting, John H.

Lathrop, president of the University of Missouri, was requested to accept
the position of chancellor of the Wisconsin University, at a salary of

$2,000, to commence when he entered upon the duties of the position.

Horace A. Tenney, a prominent Madison newspaper editor, was requested “to
make collections of geological and mineralogical specimens, and natural
and artificial curiosities,” for the cabinet of the University. Regent

Clark was chosen the first librarian. Adjournment was then taken until the
sixteenth of January following.

Chancellor Lathrop chosen.

Site chosen.At the meeting of the board in January, a proposition was
received from Catlin & Williamson, agents of Vanderpool, offering for sale

“the N. W. 1/4 of sec. No. 23, T. 7 N. of R. 9 E. (excepting block 9 of
the village of Madison),” at $15 per acre, “the taxes of the present year
to be paid by the purchasers, with a commission of 2 1/2 per cent to said
agents.” The offer was accepted, and a committee appointed to purchase the
property, “together with such other parcels as were necessary for the
convenience of said buildings.” Committees were also appointed to draft a
report to the legislature, and to furnish rooms for the preparatory
school, in the Madison academy.

The report which was the outcome of this meeting informed the legislature
that the regents “were influenced by a desire to place at the head of the

University a man who should not only be qualified, by his experience,
scholarship, and character, to preside with dignity and efficiency over
the institution, and promote all its interests by wise counsels, but able,
also, to impress the popular mind of Wisconsin with the paramount
importance of the great subject of education.” Accordingly, they

“unanimously made choice of John H. Lathrop,5 the present accomplished
president of the University of Missouri.” He was engaged to enter upon his
duties in September, 1849, at a maximum salary of $2,000 —“about the
medium of the rate of salaries paid to the presidents of our most
respectable American colleges.“6

Work of organization.Having chosen a chancellor, the board set to work to
organize their “institution of learning.” They announce that “the first
department in the University being a department of science, literature,
and the arts, * in accordance with the usage of similar institutions,
the regents deemed it expedient to organize a preparatory school in this
department, * from the consideration that there are very few
academical institutions in the State, where the proper instruction can be
obtained, to qualify students to enter the regular classes of the

University;” and because “it is also a wise policy, in regard to the

University, to extend the advantages of education which it may afford, as
far as may be practicable and expedient, so as to benefit the greatest
number.” The tuition fee in this preparatory school was placed “at the
rate of twenty dollars per scholar, per annum” which, “it is believed,
will be amply sufficient to defray the expense of instruction.“7 In view
of the fact that the citizens of Madison had “tendered the University the
use of a building8 free of rent,” it was decided to “advertise the school
to commence on the first Monday of February next, under the charge of John

W. Sterling, professor elect in the University.“9

JOHN W. STERLING

THE UNIVERSITY’S FIRST HOME

Attractions of “College Hill.“Coming to the matter of site, the regents
report that they examined several locations offered, but selected “the one
known as College Hill,” as the most suitable. It is situated one mile west
of the Capitol, and sufficiently elevated to overlook the village of

Madison, the four lakes, and a wide extent of the surrounding country.” It
appears that, under the Territorial regime; the present campus had early
received the name of “College Hill,” from a general conviction that,
whenever the University came to be established, this was, of all places
about Madison, its proper site. The regents unanimously recommended its
purchase to the legislature, with the comment: “The owner of said tract is
unwilling to sell the same in parcels. Such portions of it as may not be
needed for purposes of the University can be readily disposed of without
sacrifice.” To Vanderpool’s desire to sell his property en bloc, is
chiefly due the fact that the University now owns so spacious a tract of
beautiful land.10

A VIEW FROM COLLEGE HILL

THE TOWN, FROM COLLEGE HILL

The cabinet.Progress is reported upon Mr. Tenney’s efforts to establish a
cabinet of natural history. He had generously given much of his time to
the task, had sent circulars broadcast among the citizens of the State,
and secured liberal notices in the newspapers, the result being that “a
large and somewhat miscellaneous collection” was soon made. He exhibited
much enterprise in this matter, and during his several years of service
amassed not only specimens for the cabinet, but books for the library. His
name deserves to be remembered among the early benefactors of the

University.11

In their report, the regents state that thus far they have formulated no
plans for buildings, owing to the fact that the probable income of the
university fund is as yet unknown; but they recommend that one building,
to cost about $3,500, be erected “on a site intermediate between the
capitol and college hill * until the erection of other buildings may
be found necessary.”

Plan for normal instruction.It will be noticed that the regents formally
organized the first department of the University specified in the organic
act,—that of science, literature, and the arts; but, there being no
scholars then fitted for entering it, provided for a preparatory school as
a stepping-stone thereto. It was intended that this school should occupy
the building here recommended; “but the ultimate use of the proposed
building is designed for the fourth department, whenever the organization
of that department shall be deemed expedient.” This fourth department, of
normal instruction, was the one in which popular interest chiefly
centered; the governor’s inaugural address, and the regents’ report
itself, laid special stress upon its importance. The common school system
of the State was being organized, and there was a demand in Wisconsin, as
well as elsewhere in the West, for teachers who had some normal training.

Section 2 of article x of the constitution provides that the position of
the school fund remaining after the maintenance of common schools “shall
be appropriated to the support and maintenance of academies and normal
schools, and suitable libraries and apparatus therefor.” As the University
is specifically provided for by section 6 of the same article, it is
evident that the framers of the instrument had in view separate schools
for the professional training of teachers; but the regents endeavored at
that time, during later years—although without success to secure this aid
for the normal department of the university, contending that that
institution was, at least for the time being, the most available medium
for the work, also for the conduct of teachers’ institutes. The desire for
increased attendance at the University, as well as for the material aid
which the normal school fund would bestow, was of course the motive of the
regents in preferring this claim.

A WOODLAND PATH

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1 This act repealed the Territorial act of January 19, 1838. The regents and their terms of office were as follows: Two years—Alexander L. Collins, Edward V. Whiten, John H. Rountree, and J. T. Clark; four years—Eleazer Root, Simeon Mills, Henry Bryan, and Rufus King; six years—Thomas W. Sutherland, Cyrus Woodman, Hiram Barber, and John Bannister. All were men of ability, and leaders of thought and action in the new commonwealth. 2 The joint resolution adopted August 16, named the following appraisers:

Milwaukee Co.—William Shew, Charles E. Brown, and John B. Doan.

Racine Co.—Charles F. Morgan, Anson Pease, and William Moore.

Walworth Co.—John P. Snell, Palmer Gardner, and William Bowman.

Waukesha Co.—Leonard Martin, Harrison Phillips, and Frederick B. Otis.

Rock Co.—George W. Bunce, Archibald Woodward, and Elmiran Sprague.

Greene Co.—John Moore, A. F. Stedman, and William Rittenhouse.

Washington Co.—James Fagan, Herman J. Shulter, and Isaac Carman.

Dodge Co.—James A. Williams, Dearborn Clark, and Thomas B. Hull.

Jefferson Co.—John D. Gifford, Alonzo H. Waldo, and John Chambers.

Sheboygan Co.—H. N. Smith, Shadrack Roberts, and James Hanford.

Fond du Lac Co.— Edwin H. Smith, Edward Pier, and Daniel B. Whiting.

La Fayette Co.— Eli Robinson, John Ray, and Moses Whiteside.

Grant Co.—E. B. Coville, Horace Craige, and Clovis A. La Grave.

Iowa Co.—Isaac B. Darnall, Henry B. Welsh, and John Lumley.

Dane Co.—Eddy Sherman, A. A. Huntington, and Nelson S. Emmons.

Crawford Co.—E. P. Lockhart, Isaac Spencer, and Andrew Grover.

Sauk Co.—Lyman Crossman, James J. Waterbury, and Alexander Crawford.

Richland Co.—Jackson R. Darnall, Amzi W. Comfort, and – Whitcomb.

Portage Co.—Enoch G. Bean, E. S. Minor, and Hiram Calkins.

Manitowoc Co.—Ezekiel Ricker, George W. Durgin, and R. Klingholtz.

Calumet Co.—John P. Drake, James Kindness, and Alonzo Dick.

Marquette Co.—Nathan H. Strong, Lewis Wooster, and Samuel W. Mather.

Brown Co.—William Dickinson, Thomas Bennett, and John V. Suydam.

Winnebago Co.—Luther R. Parsons, Burr S. Craft, and R. L. Howard.

Columbia Co.—Joseph Manning, Alfred Topliff, and Nathan Hazen.

St. Croix Co.—Hilton Doe, Harman Crandle, and Edward Worth.

Chippewa Co.—Ira B. Brunson.

La Pointe Co.—John W. Bell. These persons were to appraise not only the University lands, but also the common school lands (the sixteenth section in each township), and the unsold sections of the land grant made by Congress to aid the proposed Milwaukee and Rock River canal. 3 The case is thus stated in Allen and Spencer’s “Higher Education in Wisconsin,” Bureau of Education, Circ. No. 1 (Washington, 1889), p. 14: “The Congressional grant was bestowed, not for the foundation, but for the support of the University; not as an original basis, but as an endowment. These lands were not the property of the State to be disposed of at will and pleasure; they were held in trust to be sacredly guarded. A faithful administration of this trust would have required that the lands should be sold at the highest possible price; and, if necessary for this purpose, they should have been withheld from sale for a considerable time. But the State was recreant to the trust reposed in her. Reasonable care and judgment had been bestowed upon the selection of the lands, and the appraisers had opportunity to insure to the University the basis of a magnificent endowment; but it was preferred that even the best lands should be sold at the low government price, in order to enhance the attraction to settlers to the highest possible extent.” 4 The future freshman was required on entering to have a knowledge of: Latin reader, Caesar’s Commentaries, First six books of the Aeneid of Virgil; Caesar’s select orations; Sallust; Greek reader; Xenophon’s Anabasis; Arithmetic, and elements of algebra; Antiquities of Rome and Greece; English grammar; and ancient and modern geography. 5 John H. Lathrop, LL. D., first chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, was born in Sherburne, Chenango county, N. Y., January 22, 1790. After spending his first two undergraduate years at Hamilton College, he graduated at Yale. He spent two years, succeeding graduation, as preceptor of a grammar school at Farmington, Conn.; from 1822 to 1828, he was a tutor at Yale; then for three years, at academies in Norwich, Vt., and Gardiner, Me.; in 1829, he became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Hamilton, and six years later professor of law, civil polity, and political economy. In 1840, he became president of the University of Missouri, where he remained until called to Wisconsin. In 1858 he left here, and (1859) took the presidency of the University of Indiana; but in 1860 returned to Missouri as professor of law, being in 1862 chosen chairman of its faculty, and in 1865 again elected president of the University; he died in office August 2 of that year. 6 The act of incorporation required the regents to “submit the amount of salaries of University officers to the legislature, for their approval or disapproval.” 7 The course of study was established as follows: “English Grammar; Arithmetic; Ancient and modern geography; Elements of history; Algebra; Caesar’s Commentaries; Aeneid of Virgil (six books), Sallust; Select orations of Cicero; Greek lessons; Anabasis of Xenophon; Antiquities of Greece and Rome; Exercises in penmanship, reading, composition and declamation. Instruction will also be given, to all who desire it, in Book-Keeping, Elements of Geometry, and Surveying.” 8 The brick building of the Madison Female Academy, on the site of the present High School. See Thwaites’s Public Schools of Madison (Madison, 1886), pp. 31,

32.

9 John W. Sterling was born in Wyoming county, Pa., July 17, 1816. After fitting for college, he studied law, but finally entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), graduating therefrom in 1840. He was a tutor in the theological seminary at Princeton, and for a time a missionary in Pennsylvania, coming to Wisconsin in July, 1846. At first professor of mathematics at Carroll College, Waukesha, he soon resigned, and taught school in Waukesha until he was called to the University of Wisconsin. (October 7, 1848). Under Chancellor Barnard, who devoted little time to the institution, Professor Sterling was acting chancellor; he was elected vice chancellor in 1865, and vice-president in 1869, which latter office he occupied at the time of his death (March 9, 1885). His chair was mathematics, but he also gave instruction (until 1874) in natural philosophy and astronomy. He received the degree of Ph. D. from Princeton; and, the same year, that of LL.D. from Lawrence University (Appleton). 10 The tract had originally been selected for Vanderpool in 1836, by his agent, James Duane Doty; the price paid to the government being $1.25 per acre. A large Indian mound, crowning the hill, was levelled to make room for the central building. 11 Chief among the many who cooperated with Mr. Tenney were Increase A. Lapham, of Milwaukee; Horace Jacobs, of Stillwater, Minn.; and R. M. Briggs, of Beetown. See the list of agents, in the appendix to the First Report of the board of regents.