USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. II > Part 44
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The University of Chicago.
perhaps six different lectures are given by as many individuals, the University Extension course comprises six lectures upon a particular topic or division of study given by one lecturer. About 25,000 persons avail themselves of this opportunity for contact with the University of Chicago each year, the "local centers " or groups of students of this kind being found in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ken- tucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri.
The correspondence study department carries the University into any part of the world. The lecture study plan is useful only where there is a sufficient constituency to warrant, the outlay required for one or more courses. Usually there must be a hundred earnest members of a circle or center, to make both ends meet. The correspondence study method is dis- tinctly individual, and there are students enrolled for such work in almost every part of the globe. No other institution has made such provision for students out- side its walls, the annual amount appropriated for this object alone being $50,000.
A third form of University Extension was that of the class study department, through which it was planned to give instruction to small groups of students in Chicago, or its immediate vicinity, who are unable to attend classes on the University grounds, and who were obliged to find time for class work in the after- noon and evening or on Saturdays. This part of the general plan was carried out for several years under greater or less difficulties, many teachers finding in it opportunity for needed study. It was then merged with the work of the college for teachers, later known as the University College, which, upon an endowment given by Mrs. Emmons Blaine and in rooms in the heart of the city, has met with encouraging success.
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The extension of the University is to some extent advanced, likewise, by what is known as affiliation. In accordance with this idea various institutions have been brought into close relationship with the University, this relationship carrying with it recognition by the University of the work of the affiliated school, and under certain conditions recognition by University credits. The terms of affiliation of necessity differ with the different schools, but the attempt has been made to secure advantageous results for both sides, and so far apparently there has been little dissatisfac- tion with the plan. At the present time the following institutions sustain this relationship: Kalamazoo Col- lege, Kalamazoo, Mich .; Des Moines College, Des Moines, Iowa; the John B. Stetson University, De Land, Fla .; Butler College, Irvington, Ind .; the Brad- ley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Ill .; the Chicago Manual Training School; Rush Medical College, Chicago; the South Side Academy, the Harvard School, the Dearborn Seminary, the University School for Girls and the Kenwood Institute, the last six being in Chicago; the Rugby School, at Kenilworth, Ill .; the Elgin Academy, at Elgin, Ill .; the Culver Military Academy, at Culver, Ind. ; the Frances Shiner Academy, at Mt. Carroll, Ill., and Wayland Academy, at Beaver Dam, Wis.
Somewhat different from the affiliated institutions are the co-operating schools. In these the University requirements are closely followed, the examination papers are sent to the University for reading and cor- rection, and there is a certain degree of oversight secured by regular visitation by detailed officers of the University, whose judgment is supplemented by that of some other member of the faculty, who is assigned to a particular school as a sort of counselor. About 100 schools are under this relation of co-opera- tion with the University.
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The attendance of the students has steadily in- creased from the start, until in the year 1901-1902, 4,550 have been enrolled. The figures are the more impres- sive when it is remembered, that with the exception of the Divinity School, up to 1901 there were no professional schools attached to the University. A School of Law has been established, and, in conjunction with Rush Medical College, two years of medical instruc- tion are offered. When Dental School and School of Pharmacy and Technical School are added a much larger annual enrollment may be expected.
The usual student organizations are found, literary societies, religious societies and Greek letter fraterni- ties, the last class being represented by chapters of Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Kappa Psi, Beta Theta Pi, Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Sigma Chi, Phi Delta Theta, Delta Tau Delta, Chi Psi, Delta Upsilon, Phi Gamma Delta. There are various local organizations of a more or less ephemeral nature. There is a credit- able daily student paper, a literary monthly published by students, and an annual publication largely given up to student life.
The story of the material development of the University is one of extraordinary growth, namely: From 702 students in 1892-3 to 4,550 in 1901-2; from $1,539,561.76 of invested funds in 1892-3 to $9,165, 126.14 in 1901-2; from $1,618,778.66 in buildings, grounds and equipment in 1892-3 to $6,000,000 in 1902, with a total property of $15,128,375.95; from 135 officers of instruc- tion in 1892-3 to 323 in 1901-2; from a budget of $109,496.68 for current expenses in 1892-3 to one of $944,348.26 in 1901-2.
This material development has been made possible by generous gifts, many of them made by citizens of Chicago. The principal benefactor has been Mr. John D. Rockefeller, of New York city, who has contributed to the University over $10,000,000. Of the many other large givers, special mention should be made of Miss
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Helen Culver, who contributed $1,000,000 to the increase and spread of knowledge of the biological sciences ; Mrs. Emmons Blaine, who has given over $1,000,000 to establishing the School of Education, designed to increase the opportunity for the improved education of teachers ; Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, who built the Ryerson Physical Laboratory in memory of his father, and gave other large sums to the equipment ; Mr. Sydney A. Kent, who built the Kent Chemical Laboratory ; Mr. Charles T. Yerkes, who provided for the University the largest telescope in the world, and gave generously to the equipment of the observatory belonging to the University, situated at Lake Geneva, Wis., and which bears the name of its principal bene- factor ; Mr. Marshall Field, who gave largely to the general funds of the University ; Mr. Silas B. Cobb, who erected the building which bears his name ; Mr. George C. Walker, the donor of the Walker Museum and otherwise a generous giver to the University ; Mrs. Charles Hitchcock, who erected a dormitory for boys in memory of her husband, the late Charles N. Hitchcock ; Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell, who erected a building and endowed a lectureship in memory of her husband, the late Mr. Frederick Haskell ; Mrs. Eliza- beth G. Kelly, who built Kelly and Green halls for women ; Mrs. Mary Beecher, Mrs. Henrietta Snell and Mrs. Nancy S. Foster, who contributed the funds for the buildings which bear their names ; Mr. Adolphus C. Bartlett, who furnished the Bartlett Gymnasium in memory of his son, Frank Dickinson Bartlett ; Mr. Leon Mandel, who erected an assembly hall ; Mr. John J. Mitchell and Mr. Chas. L. Hutchinson. An especially notable gift was that of the executors and trustees of the estate of Mr. William B. Ogden, the first mayor of the city of Chicago, which has so far realized over $325,000, in recognition of which gift the trustees established the Ogden Graduate School of (6)
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Science. In addition to these large gifts, the Univer- sity has received evidence of the friendship of very many citizens of Chicago and vicinity, who have given smaller amounts to the advancement of its work. There has not been a day since the opening of the doors of the institution in October, 1892, when there has not been, to the observer, positive evidence of growth. Many features of the University are still in the process of organization ; changes are taking place rapidly and there is every reason to believe that the unexampled development of the ten years of the life of the institution will be continued in even more remark- able ways in the decade to come.
The total gifts to the University during the years 1892-1902 have aggregated more than $18,000,000.
FRANCIS W. SHEPARDSON.
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY.
It is not an easy task to write the story of an edu- cational corporation that has grown for over fifty years as an oak grows. Much of the detail of its his- tory must necessarily seem trivial to those who have not shared the opportunities of education which it afforded, or to those who do not appreciate how the intellectual, moral and physical standards of men are raised, how learning is fostered, philanthropy is incul- cated, and civic virtue is stimulated by the association of men and women in university life, to which the university corporation ministers, with its trustees, its endowments, its teachers, its buildings, its books, its museums, its illustrative appliances, and, best of all, by its products of educated men and women.
It was on May 31, 1850, that the dingy law office of Grant Goodrich, over the hardware store of J. K. Botsford on Lake street near La Salle street, Chicago, was the scene of the gathering of a devoted company of men "for the purpose of establishing a University in Chicago under the patronage and government of the Methodist Episcopal church." There were present on that occasion Rev. Richard Haney, Rev. R. H. Blanch- ard, Rev. Zadok Hall, Grant Goodrich, Andrew J. Brown, John Evans, Orrington Lunt, Jabez K. Bots- ford and Henry W. Clark-three ministers of the Gos- pel, three attorneys, two merchants and one physician. There was, at that time, no institution of collegiate rank nearer than Galesburg, Ill., the seat of Knox
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College. The only other college in the state was Illinois College at Jacksonville. It would be inter- esting to know the discussions that took place in the law office on Lake street; but whatever they may have been, they took the form of preamble and reso- lutions, "WHEREAS, The interests of sanctified learning require the immediate establishment of a university, in the northwest, under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal church; Resolved, 1. That a committee be appointed to secure a charter. 2. That a committee be appointed to secure the co-operation of contiguous conferences of the Methodist Episcopal church. 3. That a committee be appointed to see what amount of funds can be secured for the erection of buildings and endowment of said institution." After the lapse of three weeks of activity the draft of a charter was reported for submission to the state assem- bly. The corporation was styled, "The Trustees of Northwestern University," and the charter, as drafted and submitted, received the endorsement of the state legislature, and was duly signed and sealed by the officers of the state, January 28, 1851. It appointed A. S. Sherman, Grant Goodrich, Orrington Lunt, John Evans, J. K. Botsford, Joseph Kettlestring, George F. Foster, Eri Reynolds, John M. Arnold, Absalom Funk and E. B. Kingsley its first board of trustees, together with sundry members of Rock River, Wisconsin, North- ern Indiana, Iowa and Michigan annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal church. The region repre- sented by the bounds of these conferences was the then northwest, and to it they proposed to minister in higher education.
The first meeting of the corporation, for purposes of organization, took place on June 14, 1851, and their first formal action was the election of Dr. N. S. Davis as trustee to succeed Eri Reynolds, one of the charter members who had died. They accepted the act of the legislature, divided their members into classes, and
EDMUND JANES JAMES
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adopted a plan of operations looking to the establish- ment of the college of liberal arts, with a president, who should be professor of moral and intellectual philosophy, a professor of mathematics, one of natural sciences and one of ancient and modern languages. A preparatory school was likewise contemplated in the city of Chicago, and steps were taken to raise the money for this purpose and to secure a site, $25,000 being the amount in mind for this latter purpose. It was firmly resolved, "That no debts should be con- tracted or money expended without the means be first provided," and congress was to be memorialized for a grant of lands to Northwestern University. Nothing ever resulted from this memorial. But the new trust- ees were not idle in other directions. They organized by the election of John Evans, M. D., as president, A. S. Sherman as vice-president, Andrew J. Brown as secretary, and J. K. Botsford as treasurer. These, with Grant Goodrich, Dr. N. S. Davis and George F. Foster, constituted the executive committee of the board. The committee on site for the preparatory school reported August 1, 1851, recommending the purchase of the property of the Universalist church in Chicago with a frontage of eighty feet immediately east of the Clark Street M. E. church on Washington street, at a price of $4,000, one-half cash and the bal- ance in three years at 6 per cent interest. On August 28 they raised their bid on this property to $4,800, and started a subscription for the purpose of securing the funds. Evidently there was a hitch in the negotia- tions, for they appointed Dr. Evans and Orrington Lunt to view other lots for the same purpose. That committee turned aside from the Universalist church property, and recommended the purchase of a lot about 200 feet square at the corner of La Salle and Jackson streets from P. F. W. Peck. This situation was a little remote; but being larger, it was deemed more desirable, and the purchase was consummated at a cost
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of $9,000. On September 22, 1852, the erection of a building upon the property was authorized, to accom- modate 300 students; and on the same date a committee was appointed, consisting of S. P. Keyes, N. S. Davis and Orrington Lunt, to recommend a site for a colle-
ROBERT D. SHEPPARD
giate department of the University. The ambition and scope of these early founders is seen in a series of resolutions adopted at this meeting, appealing to the Methodist people of the northwest not to multiply higher institutions of learning, but to concentrate .
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their effort upon a single institution, viz., the North- western University, and to make it a university of the highest order of excellence, complete in all its parts; and further, they asked from the legislature power to establish preparatory schools in different sections of the northwest, and to affiliate preparatory institutions already in existence. In October Rev. Philo Judson was employed to solicit subscriptions, and plans were directed to be drawn for the site on La Salle street.
Evidently the committee on site for the collegiate department had been stirring, for, as an outcome of the report of that committee, it was decided to be in- expedient to erect a preparatory department in the city of Chicago at the present time; the site, however, was good enough to keep, and in the years to come, as the site of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, would furnish valuable endowment for the fledgling college.
They likewise decided to elect a president of the institution at once, whose first duty should be to procure subscriptions and a plan for the establishment of an endowment for the University. At the meeting of June 23, 1853, Dr. Clark T. Hinman was unanimously elected the first president of the University, a man of zeal and tact, who was well nigh irresistible in his appeals to men to help. The scheme of raising money by the sale of scholarships was now devised. Perpetual schol- arships, which were to entitle the purchaser, his son or grandson, to tuition, were sold for $100 each. Trans- ferable scholarships were sold for $100, entitling the holder to $500 in tuition; and for $50, entitling the holder to $200 in tuition. One-half of the funds from these sales was to be used for purposes of instruction, and the other half for the purchase of lands, not to exceed 1,200 acres, as a site for the University, and the erection of buildings. They had great faith in the marketable quality of these scholarships, and that faith was justified when Dr. Hinman loaded his traveling
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bag with them and worked them off in the most aston- ishing manner upon all sorts of men in the city of Chi- cago and the country round about. In the short period of his service he disposed of $64,600 worth of them, while others, under the stimulus of his activity, sold
HENRY WADE ROGERS
$37,000 worth. Meanwhile the committee on site re- ported, recommending the purchase of 380 acres of land from John H. Foster, eleven miles north of the Chicago court house, on the lake shore, for $25,000, $1,000 to be paid down and the balance in ten years, at
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6 per cent per annum interest. The proposition was accepted and the sale consummated. This was in August, 1853. In October they offered thirteen acres of their purchase for sale at $200 per acre, an advance of 300 per cent. February 3, 1854, they named the site of the University "Evanston," in honor of their presi- dent, Dr. John Evans, and proceeded to plat the town and offer lots for sale.
Garrett Biblical Institute had been founded by the munificence of Eliza Garrett, for ministerial education, and to this institution they offered a site at a nominal rent. This was in February, 1854. The offer was accepted and an institution established on the campus of the University that was destined to make splendid history in theological education. Streets were graded; right of way was given to the Lake Shore Railroad Co., and an acre of land, on condition that no intoxicating liquor should be sold thereon. The Billings farm, con- tiguous to their first purchase, consisting of twenty- eight acres, was bought for $3,000. Things were look- ing very hopeful, and in November, 1854, Abel Stevens, W. D. Godman and Henry S. Noyes were elected pro- fessors. The treasurer made his report June 21,. 1854. The assets of the University, in land and notes and subscriptions, were estimated at $281,915, with liabil- ities of $32,255.04. The Foster purchase had increased in value from $25,000 to $102,000, the Billings farm from $3,000 to $4,200, and the Peck purchase from $9,000 to $43, 400.
The hopeful feeling and aggressive spirit of the founders of the institution was evidenced in a report made to the trustees June 21, 1854, wherein they offered devout praise to God and their sincere thanks to the founders of education for the present financial success and the future prospects of the University. They de- scribed the location at Evanston in glowing terms as "situated on the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad, on the shore of Lake Michigan, eleven miles north of the
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city of Chicago, extending nearly two miles on the shore, more than one-half of it covered with a young and thrifty forest in its natural state, affording the lovers of good taste every facility desirable for the most lovely residence in the country, a town has been laid out and named 'Evanston.' The University build- ings will occupy the latitudinal center of the town and the highest point, covered with a beautiful grove and inclining at an angle of some thirty degrees toward the
DEARBORN OBSERVATORY
lake shore." They state that "the motives in select- ing the University site and in establishing the institu- tion have not been characterized by local prejudice nor a spirit of opposition to kindred institutions, but a de- sire to meet adequately the growing want in the north- west for a university of the highest grade, adapted to the country, to its increasing prosperity and the ad- vanced state of learning in the present age. Its loca- tion makes it central for the entire northwest, and the
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magnitude of the enterprise, by developing the educa- tional resources of the country on a large scale, and by stimulating a spirit of honorable and generous rivalry, will benefit institutions of every grade and promote the cause of education generally to an incalculable degree. We very frankly, yet we hope not ostenta- tiously, aver our design of making an institution second to none and worthy of the country in which it is located, and its name 'Northwestern University.' "'
They then outlined their plan of college work. They stated boldly that they proposed to care for grad- uate instruction. While Rush Medical College was adequately doing the work of medical instruction, they declined, for the present, to enter that field. They pro- posed, however, at no distant day, to organize a de- partment of law, but immediate attention was proposed to a classical course of instruction in the college of liberal arts, a scientific course and an elective course. Fourteen departments, with a professor at the head of each, were promised, four of which were immedi- ately filled, with the hope of filling the remainder at the next annual meeting in March, 1855.
When the board met in March, 1855, Dr. Hinman was no longer with them. That eager spirit had suc- cumbed to the burden of his labors. He had undertaken to increase the endowment from scholarships to $25,000, and to secure $100,000 for the erection of buildings, including an astronomical observatory, a library, cabi- net, apparatus and other university fixtures. There is every probability that, with his rare faculty for reach- ing men, with his enthusiasm and tireless labor, he would have accomplished even more than he had under- taken; but his work ended all too soon, and, conscious of a great loss, the trustees met on March 15, 1855, to attempt to fill his place. At this session of the board the liberal policy of the institution was signalized by the grant of a large lot for the Evanston public schools. They had previously, in platting the town, set
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aside a number of parks for public use, together with the lake shore front from Davis street to University place, and, from time to time, without regard to sec- tarian lines, granted building sites for various churches.
In June, 1855, it was decided that the formal open- ing of the University should take place at Evanston on November 1 of the same year, a building having been erected on Davis street near Chicago avenue, of suffi- cient capacity to contain rooms for six professors, a chapel, a small museum and halls for two literary socie-
FAYERWEATHER HALL OF SCIENCE
ties, with two rooms in the attic where, on a little oat- meal, a few aspiring students might board themselves, and compensate the University for their rent by ring- ing the college bell.
The liberal spirit of the institution was further evidenced at this meeting by the adoption of the report from the committee on professorships, declaring that in the election of professors in Northwestern Univer- sity the board of trustees would have reference to
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character and qualifications alone; that is to say, that a professor need not necessarily be a Methodist. It was at this meeting that an amendment to their charter made by the last session of the legislature was ac- cepted, two items of which are of especial interest. One section of the amendment provided that no spirit- uous, vinous or fermented liquors should be sold under license or otherwise within four miles of the location of said University, except for medicinal, mechanical or sacramental purposes, under a penalty of $25 for each offense, to be recovered before any justice of the peace in the county of Cook. Section 4 of the amendment conceded the value of such an institution as North- western University to the commonwealth, and ordained that, "All property, of whatever kind or description, belonging to or owned by said corporation shall be for- ever free from taxation for any and all purposes."
On June 15, 1855, Dr. J. V. Z. Blaney was elected to the chair of chemistry.
It was now apparent that it would be difficult to hold the entire territory of the northwest to the policy of a single institution, for the trustees were requested to permit canceling of notes taken in Iowa for the sale of scholarships, or to allow the notes and subscriptions to be transferred to the Iowa Wesleyan University. The request was not granted, but the tendency was noted for regions within their chosen district to localize in the matter of education.
In July, 1855, a movement was started by Dr. Evans, seeking to fasten upon the University the policy of withholding its property from sale, and exclusively re- serving it for purposes of lease. That far-sighted man saw clearly the value of the property for purposes of endowment, but overlooked the practical difficulty of prosperously maintaining a large body of land within a municipal corporation on such a basis. That resolu- tion, with the usual sagacity of the trustees, was laid upon the table.
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