USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 25
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A survey of the University of Illinois seems at first sight to be an undertaking almost appalling in the multitude of the details which arise for consideration. Before getting deep into the work, it may be well to note briefly how the great educational institution of the state and the nation stands with reference to other noble monuments of a similar character. Two years ago, it passed permanently beyond the attendance mark of 6,000 students, and in that regard it is exceeded by the universities of Columbia, California and Michigan. When the strength of its faculty is taken into consideration, in connection with the attendance, the records show that it ranks with the University of California in all that goes to make up a complete machine for the instruction of men and women in the practical, professional and scien- tific matters of life, and as a wonderful force of inspiration in the high realms of investigation and reflection.
Fortunately the story of how the University of Illinois has developed from a small school devoted to a modest teaching of the fundamentals of literature, agriculture and the industrial arts, to an institution which
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is a veritable city of intellectual, moral, artistic, spiritual and life activi- ties, has been often told in detail, but never so well as by the official publication of the University itself. The Historical Sketch, as edited by Dr. Vergil V. Phelps, executive secretary of the University, and endorsed by President Edmund J. James, was published in the 1916 Directory. As finally revised by Dr. Phelps it follows :1
GERMS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM
The germ from which the University of Illinois has developed may be found in the clause of the famous Ordinance of 1787, "Religion, mor- ality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happi- ness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
This provision, a half century before the appearance of our public school system and seventy-five years before the Land Grant Act of 1862 providing for state universities, was merely the ideal from which ideas might continually arise until suddenly a complete state educational sys- tem emerged in our national life. It was well into the fifties before public schools began to spread in Illinois, and even in the eighties high schools were regarded as questionable necessities. President James relates that when he was principal of the high school at Evanston, Illi- nois, in 1878, that the question was presented annually to the voters of this period, not whether the principal or superintendent of schools should leave, but whether the people of a given locality desired to continue their high school.
However, higher education was provided for as early as 1804, when Congress made three districts in Indiana Territory and directed the Sec- retary of the Treasury to locate one township of land in each district for the use of a seminary of learning. At this time Illinois belonged to Indiana Territory. Later, in 1818, when Illinois became a state, a second township was given for the endowment of a seminary, and also one-sixth of three per cent of the net proceeds of government lands sold after January 1, 1819.2 This latter donation to the state was to be "exclusively bestowed upon a college or university."
1 In June 1917, appeared the History of the University of Illinois by Allen Nevins in the Oxford University Series. It is the first comprehensive history of the University of Illinois in one volume.
2 See Papers of the Amer. Hist. Soc. Vol. 1, No. 3, W. L. Pillsbury, p. 36; Ill. School Report, 1887-88, p. CXVII.
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EARLY ATTEMPTS TO FOUND STATE UNIVERSITIES
The people of Illinois, however, made no attempt to establish an institution of learning with these funds as a foundation until 1833. In that year a bill was introduced to incorporate an institution to be called "Illinois University." The bill met with strong opposition, as Spring- field was named for the location. Through jealousy, Vandalia stirred up the opposition of other neighboring cities. Friends of the infant colleges of MeKendree, Shurtleff, and Illinois looked with alarm upon the establishment of such a state-endowed university; and, in addition, the men in control of state affairs, in order to avoid taxation, had already used all moneys received for the college fund and from the sale of the seminary lands for the current expenses of the government. And any proposition to cut off the use, in a similar way, of further receipts from the same source was decidedly unpopular. Furthermore, they would have had to resort to taxation in order to restore the trust funds already misappropriated. Fortunately perhaps for them, the bill met with defeat, and for several years after this the efforts made to establish a state insti- tution of higher learning were wholly unorganized. The people took little interest in the matter and attempts were even made from time to time to divide up the college and seminary funds among the colleges of the state.1
Again, in 1851, the Senate passed "An Act to Establish a State University," but upon reconsideration the bill was laid upon the table. An examination of this bill shows that the proposed university was to be a board of men to distribute the income of the college and seminary funds to the several colleges of the state, upon conditions named, for the purpose of educating teachers for the common schools.
PROPOSED AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY
After this failure, however, a movement arose to establish au insti- tution of a rather different character. The Buel Institute, an agricul- tural society of Putnam County, at its fair in September, determined to hold a farmers' convention at Granville in November "to take into con- sideration such measures as might be deemed expedient to further the interests of the agricultural community, and particularly to take steps toward the establishment of an agricultural university." Prof. Jonathan Baldwin Turner of Jacksonville was invited to be present and address
1 See Ill School Rep., 1887-88, p. CXIX.
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the convention. The attitude of the leaders of this convention toward higher education and what they sought to obtain through their proposed university may be shown by quoting the resolutions presented by a com- mittee, of which Professor Turner was chairman.
"Resolved, That we greatly rejoice in the degree of perfection to which our various institutions for the education of our brethren engaged in professional, scientific, and literary pursuits, have already attained, and in the mental and moral elevation which those institutions have given them, and in their consequent preparation and capacity for the great duties in the spheres of life in which they are engaged; and that we will aid, in all ways consistent, for the still greater perfection of such institutions.
"Resolved, That, as the representatives of the industrial classes, including all cultivators of the soil, artisans, mechanics and merchants, we desire the same privileges and advantages for ourselves, our fellows and our posterity in each of the several callings, as our professional brethren enjoy in theirs; and we admit that it is our own fault that we do not also enjoy them.
"Resolved, That, in our opinion, the institutions originally and pri- marily designed to meet the wants of the professional classes, as such, cannot, in the nature of things, meet ours, no more than the institu- tions we desire to establish for ourselves could meet theirs. Therefore,
"Resolved, That we take immediate measures for the establishment of a university in the State of Illinois expressly to meet those felt wants of each and all the industrial classes of our state; that we recommend the foundation of high schools, lyceums, institutes, etc., in each of our counties, on similar principles, so soon as they may find it practicable so to do.
"Resolved, That, in our opinion, such institutions can never impede, but must greatly promote, the best interests of all those existing insti- tutions."
PROFESSOR TURNER'S LEADERSHIP
The prominence which this convention holds may be attributed largely to the bold and vigorous way in which Professor Turner dis- cussed the questions, "What do the industrial classes want?" and "How can that want be supplied ?" His answer to the first question was, "They want, and they ought to have, the same facilities for understanding the true philosophy-the science and the art of their several pursuits, their life business-and of efficiently applying existing knowledge thereto and widening its domain, which the professional classes have long enjoyed
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in their pursuits." Replying to the second question, his belief was that the want neither could, nor should, be supplied by existing institutions which were designed to educate the professional classes, and whose spirit was literary and intellectual as distinguished from industrial and prac- tical. He said the need was for a "university for the industrial classes in each of the states" and presented his "plan for the state university."
This plan was quite elaborate. It was insisted upon that such a university would, of right, receive the college or university fund which the state held from the general government, and it was doubtless intended to claim also the seminary fund, though this is not stated distinctly.
The address greatly aroused the convention, a report of which, includ- ing the address in full, was published and widely circulated. The report of the Illinois State Board of Agriculture and the United States Patent Office report of 1851 reproduced it; the New York Tribune and the New York Horticulturist noticed it with approval; the attention of the National Agricultural Association was called to it; the Philadelphia North American gave it editorial approval, etc., etc.1 Acceding to the request of the convention, the governor, in summoning an extra session of the Legislature to meet June 7, 1852, laid before that body the sub- ject of industrial education as presented at the Granville meeting.
At a second convention, held at Springfield, June 8, 1852, represen- tatives and friends of some of the colleges attended and claimed that their institutions, rather than the proposed new university, legitimately should receive the college fund. They made a bid for the seminary fund, agreeing to establish teachers' departments if it were bestowed upon them. A discussion, sharp and angry, took place and the quarrel was transferred to the Legislature. The convention presented its land grant memorial and enlarged the plan for a university by adding 'a nor- mal school, to be co-ordinate with the industrial department,2 in order to meet the demand that the seminary fund be used in training teachers for the common schools. The convention also urged in its memorial that a beginning be made at once to carry into effect either the original plan or some modification of it which the General Assembly might think preferable, "and if possible, on a sufficiently extensive scale honorably to justify a successful appeal to Congress in conjunction with eminent citi- zens and statesmen in other states, who have expressed their readiness to co-operate with us for an appropriation of public lands in each state
1 Univ. Studies, Vol. IV, No. 1, November, 1910, The Origin of the Land Grant Act of 1862, by Edmund J. James, p. 21.
2 Ill. School Rep. 1887-88, p. CXXI.
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in the Union for the appropriate endowment of universities for the lib- eral education of the industrial classes in their several pursuits in each state in the Union."
In the Legislature, the House referred the whole subject to its com- mittee on education, and the college men won at first by securing from it a bill to divide both funds among the existing colleges. But the result was a drawn battle; for the bill was laid upon the table, and as if to be rid of a troublesome contest, both Houses joined in a resolution asking authority from Congress to add both the college and seminary funds to the common school fund, so that the income from them might be forever given to the support of the public schools.
ILLINOIS INDUSTRIAL LEAGUE ORGANIZED
A third convention was held in Chicago in November, 1852, at which the Industrial Leagne of the State of Illinois, with Professor Turner for chief director, was organized-the purpose being to promote the interests of the industrial classes. This convention published an address to the people of the state, prepared a memorial to the Legislature, and arranged for petitions both to the Legislature and to Congress.
At a fourth convention held in Springfield, January 4, 1853, again the request for an industrial university was set forth, and the Legisla- ture was urged to memorialize Congress, asking for each state an appro- priation of public lands, of a value not less than $500,000 for the liberal endowment of an industrial university.
In 1854, Governor Matteson proposed the subject of industrial edu- cation to the Legislature for consideration at its special session. In the following January, 1855, the Industrial League held a fifth convention in Springfield and a bill was introduced in the Legislature for "An Act to Incorporate the Trustees of the Illinois University." The trustees were to locate the university and to receive from the state the college and seminary funds for its endowment, on condition that they raised a like amount from other sources. They were also to receive any grants which Congress might make for industrial education. The plan of the proposed institution was broad and liberal as it appears in the bill, which did not, however, obtain any definite action from either House.
There was little apparent sympathy in Congress with this subject, which was arousing such widespread interest, perhaps dne to the fact that in 1854 President Pierce had vetoed a bill proposing land grants to the states for establishing asylums for the indigent insane, and in this veto had used language which showed clearly that his action would
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be the same toward a bill providing land grants to the states for col- leges of agriculture and science.
With the coming of a new President in 1857, friends of industrial education again bestirred themselves, and their measure was House Bill No. 2, introduced by Justin S. Morrill of Vermont, a man from one of the older states that had not thus far benefited by the land grant of the federal government. It met with strong opposition, and the bill was finally defeated at the hands of President Buchanan who interposed his veto, largely upon constitutional grounds,1 and it was considered useless to seek for further action by Congress while Buchanan was President. The bill provided for a grant to the several states of 20,000 acres for each member of Congress from the state, according to the apportion- ment to be made after the census of 1860. The states were to establish within five years not less than one college, where the leading object should be to teach agriculture and the mechanic arts, without the exclu- sion of other scientific and classical studies.
MORRILL BILL PASSED
Again, early in December, 1861, Mr. Morrill renewed the agitation in favor of a national grant of land to each state in the Union for the promotion of education in agriculture and the mechanic arts, and secured the passage of the so-called Morrill bill by both houses. It was approved by President Lincoln, July 2, 1862. The act was substantially the same as the previous bill. The chief differences were a grant of 30,000 acres of land for each member of Congress instead of 20,000; the exclusion of states in rebellion ; and the requirements of acceptance by the states within two years instead of five, and that instruction be given in military science. The grant was to constitute a perpetual fund, the income of which was to be "inviolably appropriated" by the state "to the endow- ment, support, and maintenance of at least one college, where the lead- ing object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislatures of the states may respectively prescribe in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the sev- eral pursuits and professions of life."?
1 Cong. Gl., First Session, Thirty-fifth Cong. 1412.
2 Text in Laws of the U. S. and the State of Illinois Concerning the Univ. of Ill.
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THE HONOR DUE PROFESSOR TURNER
The results of this movement may reasonably be looked upon with satisfaction and pride, and great honor is surely due to Professor Tur- ner. In a study by President James entitled, "The Origin of the Land Grant Act of 1862," may be found conclusive evidence that to "Jonathan B. Turner, the Illinois professor and farmer, belongs the credit of having first formulated clearly the plan of a national grant of land to each state in the Union for the promotion of education in agriculture and mechanic arts, and of having inaugurated the agitation that made pos- sible the passage of the so-called Morrill Act. To his memory should be raised a monument in each of the sixty-eight institutions which have grown out of his effort or whose power and usefulness have been increased by these appropriations."
It is well within the rules of propriety that Illinoisans congratulate themselves that the movement so full of good to the nation, to labor, and to youth everywhere, had its inception here in Illinois; that from Illinois came the demand upon the federal government; that to an Illi- nois senator is due the first movement in its favor in Congress; and that an Illinois President gave it life by affixing his signature.
On February 14, 1863, the Legislature formally accepted the pro- visions made by Congress, and in due time the land scrip for the 480,000 acres, to which Illinois was entitled, was sent to the governor.
But even after the passage of the bill, there was much controversy over the funds thus made available for educational purposes. Some wished to divide the fund among several agricultural colleges; while others preferred one college and favored having it made a part of an already existing institution. Questions of this nature caused much bit- ter strife. Those who had struggled for the passage of this bill had sought to establish one institution and to make it unlike the existing colleges of the state, and entirely separate from them. Naturally, they deprecated any attempt to divide the fund or to use it in establishing departments in existing colleges. The views of this party were embodied in a bill drafted by a committee of which Jonathan B. Turner was chair- man and substantially similar to the charter finally granted in 1867. Resolutions were adopted by the State Agricultural and the State IIor- ticultural Societies insisting upon one institution, and opposing an effort to divide the fund, or to use it in establishing departments in existing colleges. They proposed that the location should be made, after the consideration of bids, at that place which seemed to offer the greatest facilities.
UNIVERSITY ILALL
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The General Assembly of 1867 passed a bill giving any county, city, township, or incorporated town power to vote bonds and to make pro- posals for securing the location of the University. The people of Cham- paign were early alert to the idea of securing the institution, and put forth every effort to obtain the prize. Nor were the opposing counties by any means idle. In their efforts to defeat this county, the latter sent out warnings and appeals through circulars and newspaper articles to the people of the state, in which ridicule and derision of the claims of Champaign County formed the burden. The seminary property-a large brick building which formed a part of the offer of Champaign County, received the label "The Champaign Elephant,"1 and this epithet was well kept before the people of the state; certain Chicago papers lending ready and nimble hands in the propagation of this and other like derog- atory attacks. Champaign County, on the other hand, lost no oppor- tunity to gain influence and to make friends for its cause. After a not altogether creditable contest among the several competing counties- Champaign, Logan, McLean and Morgan-the Legislature accepted the offer of Champaign County, and, subject to certain conditions, located the University at Urbana.
ILLINOIS INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY FULLY INCORPORATED
Governor Oglesby approved the act incorporating the Illinois Indus- trial University, February 28, 1867. This act provided that five trus- tees were to be appointed from each of the three grand judicial districts of the state, and one trustee from each of the thirteen congressional districts who, with the governor, superintendent of public instruction, president of the State Agricultural Society, and the regent, when elected, as ex-officio members, should constitute the board of trustees. In pursuance of the law, the board met for the first time in the Repre- sentatives Hall in Springfield on March 12, 1867. Governor Oglesby, the temporary president of the board, prescribed the oath to each mem- ber, according to the constitution of 1848, then in force. This oath,
1 Jonathan Stoughton had promoted the erection of this building which was financed by the sale of adjoining lots. The building was to be used for a higher institution of learning. The Civil War interfered with the scheme, but there is little doubt that if the building had not been already in existence that the Legis- lature would never have voted to locate the institution in Urbana-Champaign. Clark R. Griggs was largely instrumental in securing the University, since he traveled over the entire State before the Legislature met and sacrificed the speak- ership of the House for the chairmanship of the committee on the location of the university. He skillfully manoeuvered the vote for the rival communities first and then when all were voted down there was nothing left but to locate the institution in Urbana.
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among other things, solemnly pledged each man not to engage in dueling during his term of office, and declared that each had not been guilty of dueling since the adoption of that constitution.
DR. JOHN M. GREGORY CHOSEN REGENT
Under the law, the first business to be transacted was the election of the regent, or president of the University. The board chose Rev. John Milton Gregory, LL. D., a man of broad and enlightened views, who at the time was president of Kalamazoo College, Michigan.
Therefore, as the act provided that one-third should serve for a term of two years, one-third for a term of four years, and one-third for a terms of six years,1 the trustees drew for their terms of office. At the first meeting, the board also passed the following resolution :
"Resolred, That, sensible of our dependence on the Divine blessing in the great work in which we are engaged, it should be a standing order of this board to commence each day's proceedings by the Word of God and Prayer." The motion carried unanimously.2
The new board of trustees, including Regent Gregory, was largely chosen from the laity and clergy of the Baptist Church, and for some time fear was entertained that the new university would become largely a denominational school; or, on the other hand, an irreligious institu- tion. However, the first fear was groundless, as the bias in the actions of the board, which many looked for, did not appear, and in Dr. Greg- ory's long administration it would be difficult to point out anything in his action tending in that direction, and the second fear was refuted by the daily compulsory chapel service and Sunday afternoon vesper serv- ices at which Dr. Gregory preached.
His acceptance of the position as regent of the University did not occur until after he had made a trip to Chicago and Champaign. He said that in both these places only one opinion was expressed to him, and that was, that this new institution was to be "the grandest university on the American continent." He accepted the election and became the first regent of what was then the Illinois Industrial University, serving as its executive head from April 1, 1867, a year before the institution was formally opened, until 1880.
1 Rep. of Univ. of Ill., 1868, pp. 16, 19.
2 The popular accusations brought against the university in these early days were paradoxical charges that it was (1) a Baptist nursery, and (2) a school for infidelity.
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BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN MILTON GREGORY
John Milton Gregory was born at Sand Lake, New York, July 6, 1822. He was a graduate of Union College, and a pupil of Eliphalet Nott, one of the greatest educators of his day. He studied law from 1836 to 1848, and later, after some time spent in the study of theology, he entered the Baptist ministry. For a time he taught in a secondary school in Michigan, and in 1858 was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction of that state. He held this position until 1863, when he was elected to the presidency of Kalamazoo College. He received his degree of LL. D. from the University of Michigan in 1866. After serv- ing this college for four years, he entered upon the duties of regent of the University.
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