USA > California > Alameda County > History of Alameda County, California. Volume I > Part 30
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body of the University, or settlers living there, came to Oakland if they desired to attend places of worship. The first religious services of the Congregational Church were held in the old Berkeley Hotel, Rev. E. S. Lacy and Rev. Warren assisting, in the summer of 1874. In Novem- ber Rev. J. B. Seabury arrived, and in December the church was or- ganized, with twenty-three charter members. During the short pastor- ate of Rev. Seabury a chapel was built on Choate Street, near Dwight Way. From July, 1875, to May, 1880, the church was under the direc- tion of Rev. E. B. Payne; and on September 30, 1884, a new church building was dedicated at the corner of Durant Avenue and Dana Street. The Episcopal Church was the next to build a small edifice on Dana Street, near Bancroft Way, and it was dedicated June 8, 1878. The first Presbyterian Church was organized March 31, 1878, and on March 30, 1879, a church building was dedicated at the corner of Allston Way and Ellsworth Street. The St. Joseph's Catholic Church was dedicated September 16, 1883. The Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church on the corner of Allston Way and Fulton Street, was dedicated in September, 1887, but church services had been held for several years prior to that event. The First Baptist Church was organized June 16, 1889; but it was not until some months later that a church was erected on Dwight Way upon ground donated by F. K. Shattuck.
The First Unitarian Church of Berkeley was organized in the sum- mer of 1891, and in 1894 the Pacific Coast Unitarian Conference voted to establish a divinity school in Berkeley, a site being secured at the corner of Dana and Bancroft Way. The Christian Church was organ- ized September 21, 1893, but existed for several years without its own church building.
The First Unitarian Church of Berkeley was organized in the sum- Agricultural building, later known as South Hall. It was a grand struc- ture for its day, covering an area of 50 by 152 feet, built of stone and brick, and costing $198,000. Then came North Hall, of wood, costing $92,468, and covering a ground area of 60 by 166 feet. Next in order were the Bacon Art and Library building, the College of Mining and Mechanical Arts, the Harmon Gymnasium, the Observatory, and then the College of Engineering.
EARLY REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY
The first Board of Regents was a distinguished group of California pioneers. Governor Haight named a representative body of men in
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the selection of Samuel Merritt, John T. Doyle, Richard P. Hammond, John W. Dwinelle, Horatio Stebbins, Lawrence Archer, William Watt and Samuel Bell McKee. The ex-officio members were Governor H. H. Haight, Lieutenant-Governor William Holden, Speaker C. T. Ryland, Superintendent of Public Instruction O. P. Fitzgerald, Charles F. Reed, president of the State. Agricultural Society, and Andrew S. Hallidie, president of the Mechanics' Institute. The "Honorary Regents," selec- ted by the above mentioned members, were Isaac Friedlander, Edward Tompkins, J. Mora Moss, S. F. Butterworth, A. J. Moulder, A. J. Bowie, F. F. Low, and John B. Felton.
J. West Martin, another Oakland man, became a regent in 1871, and became chairman of the committee on buildings and grounds. He served his term of sixteen years and was reappointed. Other early regents were W. C. Ralston, John S. Hager, John F. Swift, Joseph W. Winans, William Meek, J. M. Hamilton, D. O. Mills, Frank M. Pixley, William T. Wallace, John L. Beard, Eugene Casserly, George Davidson, A. L. Rhodes, B. B. Redding, William Ashburner, John Bidwell, G. T. Phelps, I. W. Hellman, George T. Marye, Jr., Arthur Rodgers, George J. Ainsworth, D. M. Delmas, Albert Miller, Columbus Bartlett, Charles F. Crocker, James F. Houghton, Chester A. Rowell, James A. Waymire, Henry S. Foote, and Charles W. Slack.
UNIVERSITY EXPANDED UNDER PRESIDENT GILMAN
The University expanded under the direction of President Gilman. New men were added to the faculty, including Eugene W. Hilgard, in the department of agriculture; Frederick G. Hesse, mechanical engineering; William Ashburner, mining; Dr. George F. Becker, min- ing; Willard Bradley Rising, chemistry; Frank Soule, Jr., civil engi- neering; Edward Rowland Sill, English; Albin Putzker, modern lan- guages ; George C. Edwards, mathematics; Leander L. Hawkins, civil engineering ; Samuel B. Christy, mining ; John M. Stillman, chemistry; A. Wendell Jacobson, mining; Frederick Slate, chemistry; and Joseph C. Rowell, as librarian. New departments were started and organized, and plans made for the future that helped develop the University long after President Gilman resigned to become head of Johns Hopkins College. This occurred March 2, 1875; and Professor John Le Conte was appointed for the second time as acting president. In 1876 he was placed in charge as president by the regents. His administration was marked by the establishment of the College of Pharmacy, and the
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MINING AND CIVIL ENGINEERING BUILDING, 1895
SOUTH HALL, 1895
NORTH HALL, 1895
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Hastings College of Law ; by the acceptance of the generous gifts from Lick, Bacon, Reese and Harmon; and by the adoption of the new state constitution which placed the University in a much more secure position. Le Conte's administration continued until 1881. It was during his term of office that Professor Bernard Moses came to the University to head the department of history.
Many gifts were made to the University during the administrations of Presidents Gilman and Le Conte. In 1873 the Medical Department was founded with an endowment from Dr. H. H. Toland, of $75,000. The first professorship was established in 1872, when Edward Tomp- kins, active in the organization of the University, gave property out on Broadway then valued at $50,000. Modesty impelled him to ask that the chair of Oriental Languages and Literature be named in honor of Professor Agassiz, then visiting in California. This fund had been more than doubled by 1918. Tompkins was a regent. The Museum re- ceived many donations of value from many sources. A. K. P. Harmon, of Oakland, on January 20, 1879, presented the Harmon Gymnasium, fully equipped, to the University. This was the first building given to the University. An art collection was started through the early gifts of F. L. A. Pioche ; and the Library was also assisted in its growth in this manner. Michael Reese, who had purchased the famous Dr. Francis Lieber library, left a bequest at his death in 1879 of $50,000 for "founding and maintaining a library." James Lick, who had ac- cumulated a fortune of three million dollars, and who died in San Francisco October 1, 1876, left his entire estate to public uses; and included in the list was a bequest of $700,000 for the famous Lick Ob- servatory. Between 1888 to 1893 the thirty-six-inch refractor of the observatory was the largest in the world. The original site on the summit of Mount Hamilton (4,209 feet above sea-level) contained 1,350 acres of land granted by Congress; but through gifts, acts of the legislature and of congress this had been increased to 2,581 acres by the time Martin Kellogg became President of the University.
WILLIAM T. REID BECOMES PRESIDENT
President Le Conte resigned during the summer of 1881; and William T. Reid was inaugurated August 23, 1881. His administra- tration of four years was marked by the establishment of the College of Dentistry, and of the Course in Letters and Political Science ; by the expansion of several departments and the addition of new professors,
THE HARMON GYMNASIUM
STEPHENS UNION BUILDING
LIBRARY
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including Stringham, Howison and Cook; and the adoption of the high school accredited system. D. O. Mills made a gift of $75,000 to found the Mills Professorship of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity. George Holmes Howison was selected as the first Mills Professor of Philosophy on December 19, 1883.
In the spring of 1885 the regents received the resignation of Presi- dent Reid. On October 20 a new president was chosen-Edward Single- ton Holden-who was also given the additional title of Director of the Lick Observatory. Pending his arrival in California in the following January, Professor Kellogg was chosen as chairman of the Academic Faculties, and he executed the duties of president until Holden's ar- rival. Upon the completion of Lick Observatory, President Holden was made its director, and for a short time John Le Conte was again acting president. On February 27, 1888, Horace Davis was elected president by the regents, and was installed on the following Charter Day, March 23, 1889. He submitted his resignation April 4, 1890, which became effective September 15. Two weeks later the Academic Senate again chose Professor Martin Kellogg as acting president, thus indicating that the choice of the faculty for a president was within their own body. The regents finally recognized this preference when, on January 24, 1893, they named Kellogg as president.
The growth of the University was given an impulse on February 14, 1887, by the passage of the Vrooman Act, which provided for the annual tax levy of one cent upon each hundred dollars of value of taxable property in the state for university purposes. This legislation extricated the institution from serious financial straits that were then descending upon it. This statute was an important factor in the making of a new and larger university.
Former President John Le Conte died April 29, 1891. During the administrations of Holden, Davis and Kellogg there were a large num- ber of additions to the faculty and promotions within its membership. Charles Mills Gayley was called from the University of Michigan to fill the chair of English Language and Literature. Professor Frederick Slate was promoted to succeed Professor John Le Conte; and Professor Edward Lee Greene raised to the chair of Botany. Among other addi- tions can be named that of Elmer E. Brown, professor of Pedagogy; Edward Bull Clapp, professor of Greek Language and Literature; Wil- liam Carey Jones, professor of Jurisprudence; C. B. Bradley, Rhetoric ; F. V. Padgett, French and Spanish Languages; Rabbi Jacob Voor- sanger, Semitic Languages; William A. Merrill, Latin; Dr. Frank
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AGRICULTURE HALL
MINING BUILDING
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Howard Payne, Physical Culture ; and Lieutenants George F. E. Har- rison, Benjamin H. Randolph and Frank L. Winn, in turn, Military Science. There were a number of changes, promotions and additions among the associate professors, assistant professors and instructors.
THE PHOEBE A. HEARST SCHOLARSHIPS
On September 28, 1891, the regents received a letter from Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst in which she stated that she desired to contribute annually to the University funds sufficient to support eight three-hun- dred-dollar scholarships for worthy young women. In it she stated that she had bound herself to that end during her life-time, and that she had provided for a perpetual fund after her death. This noble bounty was accepted by the board, and Regent George T. Marye, Jr., expressed the appreciation of the University to Mrs. Hearst in the following words: "Such gifts are not alone a monument to the generosity and public spirit of the donors, but it must also be a source of the deepest satisfac- tion to them to reflect upon the number of young lives which will in the course of time be made brighter and easier by their liberality; and it seems peculiarly fit and pleasing in this instance, that, as the Univer- sity of California was one of the first to throw open its doors to women, a woman is the first to give to the University a benefaction for the en- couragement of undergraduates.
"The State of California has labored nobly in the field of higher education in creating and endowing the State University, but it is only through the cooperation of private persons of generous impulses and lofty ideas that that great seat of learning can reach the full measure of its expansion and perform the full measure of its usefulness. The University belongs to the people, and, as its achievements are marked and noted, it will become more and more an object of pride and affec- tion to all, and its needs will be recognized by those who are willing and able to meet them, and I feel the confident hope that your example will kindle a generous emulation in a long line of others."
Orrin Peck, the California artist, at the request of the Regents painted a portrait of Mrs. Hearst. It was hung on the library walls on Commencement Day, 1894, and its receipt was acknowledged by Miss Ariana Moore of the graduating class in a short speech which con- tained the following remarks: "In making welcome the face of Mrs. Hearst to the goodly fellowship of the University portraits, we have the double pleasure of giving and receiving; and it is with equal glad-
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ness on the part of the University that the gift is acknowledged and the honor conferred. * Mrs. Hearst is well known to the people of San Francisco as one of that class of persons, never too numerous at any time or place, who give a considerable portion of their time and thought to the occupation of making two blades of grass grow where one grew before. * * It would be pleasant to know if, with the same clear-sightedness that led her to found the scholarships she has given to the University, she understands how thoroughly she has suc- ceeded in being both wise and kind, and if, besides the general good to the University, she knows the full measure of the gift to those who receive it. When Mrs. Hearst puts a college education with- in reach of a girl, she has a right to expect that the recipient will prove herself worthy; and yet, if I know the spirit of the gift, she would not have any feeling of gratitude or of responsibility to her form any part of a student's motive. The only motive that serves for scholarship in the highest sense is fidelity to one's own best nature."
FIRST HIGH SCHOOLS ACCREDITED
On March 4, 1884, the Board of Regents indorsed the accrediting plans formulated by the faculty, and in that year three high schools of the state were admitted to the accredited list. These were the San Francisco Boys', the Oakland high, and the Berkeley high schools. The next year witnessed the recognition of the Stockton High School; and in 1886 the list was increased to six by the additions of the Alameda and Sacramento High schools. The first extension lectures and courses were given in the spring of 1891, in San Francisco. It may be of in- terest to give the number of students enrolled at the University dur- ing its early existence. In 1873-4, the first year at Berkeley, there were 191; in 1878-79, 332; 1882-83, 215; 1889-90, 401; 1894-95, 1,101. Women were admitted for the first time in 1870-71, when eight en- rolled. By 1894 their number had increased to 387 of the total reg- istration.
DONATES NEW DORMITORY FOR WOMEN
During the early part of September, 1927, Pres. W. W. Campbell of the University of California announced the gift of a new dormitory to cost between two hundred and fifty thousand and three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This building, to be known as Bowles Hall, is
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the gift of Mrs. Phillip Ernest Bowles, and is a memorial to the late Phillip Ernest Bowles, university regent and pioneer financier of Cali- fornia, who died January 20, 1926. Mr. Bowles graduated from the University of California with the class of 1882, and in May, 1911, be- came a member of the Board of Regents, serving as chairman of the grounds and building committee. He was also liberal in contributing funds for research work at the university and at Lick Observatory. In addition to the gift of the new dormitory for girls, which will house some one hundred and twenty-five students, Mrs. Bowles also en- dowed two fellowships, one in memory of her husband and the other in honor of her daughter, the late Mrs. Hiram Johnson, Jr. In an- nouncing the gift of the new building, President Campbell stated that Bowles Hall would be the first of a proposed series of dormitory units to be erected on the southeast corner of the campus.
FIFTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY
The fifty-ninth birthday of the University was celebrated on March 23, 1927. Hubert D. Works, secretary of the interior, was the prin- cipal speaker of the day. During the Charter Day program it was an- nounced that $405,000 in cash had been received in the nature of gifts by the University during the year, and property and equipment valued at several millions. Included in the list was a gift of $400,000 from Mrs. Phillip E. Bowles for a dormitory and $106,000 from Mrs. Clara Hellman to support the E. S. Hellman professorship of law. Mr. Bowles was an Oakland banker and former member of the Board of Regents, who died January 20, 1926, at his home, "The Pines," in Oak- land. Mrs. Hellman is a resident of San Francisco.
DEATH OF PRESIDENT WHEELER
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president emeritus of the University of California, and for twenty years previous to that head of the great educational institution, died at a hotel in Vienna, May 3, 1927, after a long illness. He had left Berkeley June 8, 1926, for an extended tour of Europe, and had been at Vienna since October of that year. Dr. Wheeler, who held an enviable place among the world's educators dur- ing the time he was at Berkeley, was born in Randolph, Mass., July 15, 1854, and was nearing his seventy-third birthday when he died. He came to the University of California as its president in 1899, and acted
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND THE BLIND, 1895
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CALIFORNIA SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
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as such until July 15, 1919, retiring as president emeritus on his sixty- fifth birthday. He received his college education at Brown University and at the University of Heidelberg. He was married to Miss Amey Webb of Providence, Rhode Island, June 27, 1881, and one son was born of the union, Benjamin Webb Wheeler, a professor at the Uni- versity of Michigan ; both of whom were in Vienna when Dr. Wheeler's death occurred.
The growth of the University of California under the leadership of Dr. Wheeler was one of the marvels in the history of education throughout the world. There were many departments and courses of instruction added while he was in charge. Among the additions se- cured were the citrus experiment station at Riverside; the southern branch of the University at Los Angeles; the University farm at Davis; the Hooper Foundation for Medical Research at San Francisco; and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at La Jolla. He started the summer sessions in 1899, with 161 enrolled. When he gave up his duties as active president in 1919 the summer session attracted 4,300 students. University extension work received its real impetus at his hands. There were only twelve buildings on the campus of the young institution when he became president. Seven of those were wooden affairs. Only four of those seven survived Dr. Wheeler, and many changes had been brought about under his administration. New build- ings secured included California Hall, the Agricultural Hall, the Boalt Hall of Law, the Campanile, Gilman Hall, the Greek Theatre, the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Hilgard Hall, the President's Man- sion,. the Charles Franklin Doe Library, and Wheeler Hall. Endow- ments running into the millions were given by generous donors who realized that California was building a most noteworthy university under an equally famous president. Dr. Wheeler secured many famous teachers of high rank for the university, and among them were Jacques Loeb, Henry Morse Stephens, Wesley C. Mitchell, William Scott Fer- guson, Gaillard T. Lapsley, Joseph Marshall Flint, Alonzo E. Taylor, George H. Whipple, Frederick G. Cottrell, Herbert M. Evans, Herbert E. Bolton, Florian Cajori, Frederick P. Gay, Charles A. Kofoid, Gil- bert N. Lewis, George R. Noyes, Rudolph Schevill and many others.
When Dr. Wheeler retired he moved from the President's Mansion to a home he had acquired on Ridge road. In 1921 he served as chair- man of the executive committee of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. He was also honored by being chosen president of the library board in the college city; and was named to the board of visitors of the U. S.
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Naval Academy. In 1920 he went to Japan as head of the foreign relations committee of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. The family suffered an irreparable loss in 1923 when their home on Ridge road was destroyed by fire and most of Dr. Wheeler's valuable library was destroyed. He had spent a lifetime in building up his library, and he now decided that it was too late in life to replace it.
Not including gifts under $50,000, the total endowments and be- . quests to the university during the twenty-year regime of Dr. Wheeler reached the sum of twenty millions of dollars. Included in hundreds of gifts to the institution were the large ones of Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst, Jane K. Sather, Elizabeth J. Boalt, Hannah N. Haviland, Mrs. George W. Hooper, Charles F. Doe, Rudolph Spreckels, Ernest V. Cowell, W. R. Hearst, Ellen B. and E. W. Scripps, Annie M. Alex- ander and M. Theo. Kearney.
A. P. GIANNINI MAKES LARGE GIFT
Announcement of a gift of $1,500,000 to the University of Califor- nia by A. P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy, was made Janu- ary 22, 1928. The endowment represented a large portion of the for- tune of the banker who founded what has become the fourth largest bank in America. Formal acceptance of the gift was made known the following day by Pres. W. W. Campbell in a statement in which he outlined the uses to which the large endowment would be put. Presi- dent Campbell's comment on the gift was as follows: "As a result of Mr. Giannini's feeling, expressed to me some months ago, that he wanted to do something for the agriculturists of the state, that it is the very opposite of his philosophy of life that a man be rich at the time of his death and that he wanted to do something through the University of California for the farmers of California, conferences have been held since that time getting these ideas clarified, and Mr. Giannini has de- cided to extend to the regents of the University of California a gift of $1,500,000 to establish and support a foundation of agricultural eco- nomics. Of course I shall recommend that it be designated as the Gian- nini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, although neither Mr. Giannini nor any of his friends have made any such suggestion.
"My recommendation that we complete the agricultural college group of buildings now consisting of Agriculture Hall and Hilgard Hall by the construction of a counterpart of Hilgard Hall, the three buildings to enclose the agricultural quadrangle on as many sides, part
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of the building to accommodate the activity in agricultural economics, met his approval. This will call for approximately $500,000." This new structure will be named Giannini Hall. The million dollars remain- ing will be used for the foundation itself.
It would require a large volume to write a detailed history of this great educational institution of the nation. Thousands of gifts have been made to it by friends ; many famous educators have taught there; many have been graduated who have won fame for themselves, for the university and for the state; and many incidents have transpired to make the story of this seat of learning a most interesting one. How- ever, these things must be left to an exclusive history of the university. The earlier history of the institution has been given more prominence here for the reason that most citizens of the county who will read this are familiar with the more recent developments. In other portions of the book, however, will be found other references to the university.
CHAPTER XIII ALAMEDA COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
THE FOLKS AT HOME
PREPAREDNESS-DRIVES FOR FUNDS-HOSPITALITY FOR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS-PATRIOTIC RALLIES-WORK OF WOMEN-THE AMERICAN RED CROSS-FOOD CONSERVATION-WAR WORK AND ALLIED ORGAN- IZATIONS-SHIPBUILDING-OTHER INDUSTRIES-TRANSPORTATION -THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-WELCOME TO THE PACIFIC FLEET-VISIT OF PRESIDENT WILSON
PREPAREDNESS
From the moment that the wires flashed the text from Washing- ton of President Wilson's war message to Congress delivered on April 2, 1917, the people of Alameda County began preparations for the struggle that many for months had believed inevitable because of the ruthless submarine warfare waged by Germany. Thus when the Oak- land Tribune and other East Bay dailies carried the thrilling story on April 6th of the passage of the war resolutions by Congress and their signature by the president, the war came as no surprise to Alameda County. Already county and city officials were taking steps to put the community in a state of defense and civilian organizations were pre- paring for the emergency. The location within the county of the third in size of the state's urban centers, the long expanse of shore-line on San Francisco Bay with busy wharves, shipyards, and other indus- trial plants, and the arterial nature of the county's largest city, which boasts the terminus of several transcontinental lines, as well as the location within the county of one of the largest universities in the world, all promised an important war-time rôle for Alameda County and its citizens.
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