USA > Indiana > Steuben County > History of Steuben County, Indiana, together withbiographies of representative citizens > Part 20
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4. "Bank tax " fund. The Legislature of 1834 chartered a State Bank, of which a part of the stock was owned by the State and a part by individuals. Section 15 of the charter required an annual deduction from the dividends, equal to 12} cents on each share not held by the State, to be set apart for common-school education. This tax finally amounted to $80,000, which now bears interest in favor of education.
5. "Sinking" fund. In order to set the State bank under good headway, the State at first borrowed $1,300,000, and out of the unapplied balances a fund was created, increased by unapplied balances also of the principal, interest and dividends of the amount lent to the individual holders of stock, for the purpose of sinking the debt of the bank; hence the name sinking fund. The 114th section of the charter provided that after the full payment of the bank's indebtedness, principal, interest and incidental expenses, the residue of said fund should be a permanent fund, appropriated to the cause of education. As the charter extended through a period of 25 years, this fund ultimately reached the handsome amount of $5,000,000.
The foregoing are all interest-bearing funds; the following are additional school funds, but not productive:
6. "Seminary " fund. By order of the Legislature in 1852, all county seminaries were sold, and the net proceeds placed in the common-school fund.
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7. All fines for the violation of the penal laws of the State are placed to the credit of the common-school fund
8. All recognizances of witnesses and parties indicted for crime, when forfeited, are collectible by law and made a part of the school fund. These are reported to the office of the State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction annually. For the five years ending with 1872, they averaged about $34,000 a year.
9. Escheats. These amount to $17,865.55, which was still in the State treasury in 1872 and unapplied.
10. The "swamp-land " fund arises from the sale of certain Congressional land grants, not devoted to any particular purpose by the terms of the grant. In 1872 there was $42,418.40 of this money, subject to call by the school interests.
11. Taxes on corporations are to some extent devoted by the Constitution to school purposes, but the clause on this subject is somewhat obscure, and no funds as yet have been realized from this source. It is supposed that several large sums of money are due the common-school fund from the corporations.
Constitutionally, any of the above funds may be increased, but never diminished.
INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY.
So early as 1802 the U. S. Congress granted lands and a charter to the people of that portion of the Northwestern Territory resid- ing at Vincennes, for the erection and maintenance of a seminary of learning in that early settled district; and five years afterward an act incorporating the Vincennes University asked the Legisla- ture to appoint a Board of Trustees for the institution and order the sale of a single township in Gibson county, granted by Congress in 1802, so that the proceeds might be at once devoted to the objects of education. On this Board the following gentlemen were ap- pointed to act in the interests of the institution: William H. Har- rison, John Gibson, Thomas H. Davis, Henry Vanderburgh, Wal- ler Taylor, Benjamin Parke, Peter Jones, James Johnson, John Rice Jones, George Wallace, William Bullitt, Elias McNamee, John Badolett, Henry Hurst, Gen. W. Johnston, Francis Vigo, Jacob Kuykendall, Samuel McKee, Nathaniel Ewing, George Leech, Luke Decker, Samuel Gwathmey and John Johnson.
The sale of this land was slow and the proceeds small. The members of the Board, too, were apathetic, and failing to meet, the institution fell ont of existence and out of memory.
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In 1816 Congress granted another township in Monroe county, located within its present limits, and the foundation of a university was laid. Four years later, and after Indiana was erected into a State, an act of the local Legislature appointing another Board of Trustees and authorizing them to select a location for a university and to enter into contracts for its construction, was passed. The new Board met at Bloomington and selected a site at that place for the location of the present building, entered into a contract for the erection of the same in 1822, and in 1825 had the satisfaction of being present at the inauguration of the university. The first session was commenced under the Rev. Baynard R. Hall, with 20 students, and when the learned professor could only boast of a salary of $150 a year; yet, on this very limited sum the gentleman worked with energy and soon brought the enterprise through all its elementary stages to the position of an academic institution. Dividing the year into two sessions of five months each, the Board acting under his advice, changed the name to the "Indiana Academy," under which title it was duly chartered. In 1827 Prof. John H. Harney was raised to the chairs of mathematics, natural philosophy and astronomy, at a salary of $300 a year; and the salary of Mr. Hall raised to $400 a year. In 1828 the name was again changed by the Legislature to the " Indiana College," and the following professors appointed over the different departments: Rev. Andrew Wylie, D. D., Prof. of mental and moral philosophy and belles lettres; John H. Harney, Prof. of mathematics and natural philosophy; and Rev. Bayard R. Hall, Prof. of ancient languages. This year, also, dispositions were made for the sale of Gibson county lands and for the erection of a new college building. This action was opposed by some legal difficulties, which after a time were overcome, and the new college building was put under construction, and continued to prosper until 1854, when it was destroyed by fire, and 9,000 volumes, with all the apparatus, were consumed The curriculum was then carried out in a temporary building, while a new struct- ure was going up.
In 1873 the new college, with its additions, was completed, and the routine of studies continued. A museum of natural history, a laboratory and the Owen cabinet added, and the standard of the studies and morale generally increased in excellence and in strict- ness.
Bloomington is a fine, healthful locality, on the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago railway. The University buildings are in the
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collegiate Gothic style, simply and truly carried out. The building, fronting College avenue is 145 feet in front. It consists of a central building 60 feet by 53, with wings each 38 feet by 26, and the whole, three stories high. The new building, fronting the west, is 130 feet by 50. Buildings lighted by gas.
The faculty numbers thirteen. Number of students in the col- legiate department in 1879-'80, 183; in preparatory, 169; total, 349, allowing for three counted twice.
The university may now be considered on a fixed foundation, car- rying out the intention of the President, who aimed at scholarship rather than numbers, and demands the attention of eleven pro- fessors, together with the State Geologist, who is ex-officio member of the faculty, and required to lecture at intervals and look after the geological and mineralogical interests of the institution. The faculty of medicine is represented by eleven leading physicians of the neighborhood. The faculty of law requires two resident professors, and the other chairs remarkably well represented.
The university received from the State annually about $15,000, and promises with the aid of other public grants and private dona- tions to vie with any other State university within the Republic.
PURDUE UNIVERSITY.
This is a " college for the benefit of agricultural and the mechanic arts," as provided for by act of Congress, July 2, 1862, donating lands for this purpose to the extent of 30,000 acres of the public domain to each Senator and Representative in the Federal assem- bly. Indiana having in Congress at that time thirteen members, became entitled to 390,000 acres; but as there was no Congress land in the State at this time, scrip had to be taken, and it was upon the following condition (we quote the act):
"SECTION 4. That all moneys derived from the sale of land scrip shall be invested in the stocks of the United States, or of some other safe stocks, yielding no less than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks; and that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain undi. minished, except so far as may be provided in section 5 of this act, and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated by each State, which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and
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classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such a manner as the Legislatures of the States may re- spectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and pro- fessions of life.
"SEC. 5. That the grant of land and land scrip hereby anthor- ized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well as the provision hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several States shall be signified by Legislative act:
"First. If any portion of the funds invested as provided by the foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall by any action or contingency be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished, and the annual interest shall be regularly applied, without diminution, to the purposes mentioned in the fourth section of this act, except that a sum not exceeding ten per centum upon the amount received by any State under the pro- visions of this act may be expended for the purchase of lands for sites or experimental farms, whenever authorized by the respective Legislatures of said States.
"Second. No portion of said fund, nor interest thereon, shall be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretence whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation or repair of any building or buildings.
"Third. Any State which may take and claim the benefit of the provisions of this act, shall provide, within five years at least, not less than one college, as provided in the fourth section of this act, or the grant to such State shall cease and said State be bound to pay the United States the amount received of any lands pre- viously sold, and that the title to purchase under the States shall be valid.
"Fourth. An annual report shall be made regarding the prog- ress of each college, recording any improvements and experiments made. with their cost and result, and such other matter, including State industrial and economical statistics, as may be supposed use- ful, one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, to all other colleges which may be endowed under the provisions of this act, and also one copy to the Secretary of the Interior.
"Fifth. When lands shall be selected from those which have been raised to double the minimum price in consequence of railroad
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grants, that they shall be computed to the States at the maximum price, and the number of acres proportionately diminished.
"Sixth. No State, while in a condition of rebellion or insur- rection against the Government of the United States, shall be entitled to the benefits of this act.
"Seventh. No State shall be entitled to the benefits of this act unless it shall express its acceptance thereof by its Legislature within two years from the date of its approval by the President."
The foregoing act was approved by the President, July 2, 1862. It seemed that this law, amid the din of arms with the great Rebel- lion, was about to pass altogether unnoticed by the next General Assembly, January, 1863, had not Gov. Morton's attention been called to it by a delegation of citizens from Tippecanoe county, who visited him in the interest of Battle Ground. He thereupon sent a special message to the Legislature, upon the subject, and then public attention was excited to it everywhere, and several localities competed for the institution; indeed, the rivalry was so great that this session failed to act in the matter at all, and would have failed to accept of the grant within the two years prescribed in the last clause quoted above, had not Congress, by a supplementary act, extended the time two years longer.
March 6, 1865, the Legislature accepted the conditions of the national gift, and organized the Board of " Trustees of the Indiana Agricultural College." This Board, by authority, sold the scrip April 9, 1867, for $212,238.50, which sum, by compounding, has increased to nearly $400,000, and is invested in U. S. bonds. Not until the special session of May, 1869, was the locality for this col- lege selected, when John Purdue, of Lafayette, offered $150,000 and Tippecanoe county $50,000 more, and the title of the institution changed to " Purdue University." Donations were also made by the Battle Ground Institute and the Battle Ground Institute of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The building was located on a 100-acre tract near Chauncey, which Purdue gave in addition to his magnificent donation, and to which 863 acres more have since been added on the north. The boarding-house, dormitory, the laboratory, boiler and gas house, a frame armory and gymnasium, stable with shed and work-shop are all to the north of the gravel road, and form a group of build- ings within a circle of 600 feet. The boiler and gas house occupy a rather central position, and supply steam and gas to the boarding- house, dormitory and laboratory. A description of these buildings
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may be apropos. The boarding-house is a brick structure, in the modern Italian style, planked by a turret at each of the front angles and measuring 120 feet front by 68 feet deep. The dormitory is a quadrangular edifice, in the plain Elizabethan style, four stories high, arranged to accommodate 125 students. Like the other build- ings, it is heated by steam and lighted by gas. Bathing accommo- dations are in each end of all the stories. The laboratory is almost a duplicate of a similar department in Brown University, R. I. It is a much smaller building than the boarding-house, but yet suffi- ciently large to meet the requirements. A collection of minerals, fossils and antiquities, purchased from Mr. Richard Owen, former President of the institution, occupies the temporary cabinet or museum, pending the construction of a new building. The military hall and gymnasium is 100 feet frontage by 50 feet deep, and only one story high. The uses to which this hall is devoted are exer- cises in physical and military drill. The boiler and gas house is an establishment replete in itself, possessing every facility for supply- ing the buildings of the university with adequate heat and light. It is further provided with pumping works. Convenient to this department is the retort and great meters of the gas house, capable of holding 9,000 cubic feet of gas, and arranged upon the principles of modern science. The barn and shed form a single building, both useful, convenient and ornamental.
In connection with the agricultural department of the university, a brick residence and barn were erected and placed at the disposal of the farm superintendent, Maj. L. A. Burke.
The buildings enumerated above have been erected at a cost approximating the following: boarding-house, $37,807.07; labora- tory, $15,000; dormitory, $32,000; military hall and gymnasium, $6,410.47; boiler and gas house, $4,814; barn and shed, $1,500; work-shop, $1,000; dwelling and barn, $2,500.
Besides the original donations, Legislative appropriations, vary- ing in amount, have been made from time to time, and Mr. Pierce, the treasurer, has donated his official salary, $600 a year, for the time he served, for decorating the grounds,-if necessary.
The opening of the university was, owing to varied circumstan- ces, postponed from time to time, and not until March, 1874, was a class formed, and tlris only to comply with the act of Congress in that connection in its relation to the university. However, in September following a curriculum was adopted, and the first regu- lar term of the Purdue University entered upon. This curriculum.
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comprises the varied subjects generally pertaining to a first-class university course, namely: in the school of natural science- physics and industrial mechanics, chemistry and natural history; in the school of engineering-civil and mining, together with the principles of architecture; in the school of agriculture-theoret- ical and practical agriculture, horticulture and veterinary science; in the military school-the mathematical sciences, German and French literature, free-hand and mechanical drawing, with all the studies pertaining to the natural and military sciences. Modern languages and natural history embrace their respective courses to the fullest extent.
There are this year (1880) eleven members of the faculty, 86 students in the regular courses, and 117 other students. In respect to attendance there has been a constant increase from the first. The first year, 1874-'5, there were but 64 students.
INDIANA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.
This institution was founded at Terre Haute in 1870, in accord- ance with the act of the Legislature of that year. The building is a large brick edifice situated upon a commanding location and possessing some architectural beauties. From its inauguration many obstacles opposed its advance toward efficiency and success; but the Board of Trustees, composed of men experienced in edu- cational matters, exercised their strength of mind and body to overcome every difficulty, and secure for the State Normal School every distinction and emolument that lay within their power. their efforts to this end being very successful; and it is a fact that the institution has arrived at, if not eclipsed, the standard of their expectations. Not alone does the course of study embrace the legal subjects known as reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, United States history, English grammar, physiology, manners and ethics, but it includes also universal history, the mathematical sciences and many other subjects foreign to older institutions. The first studies are prescribed by law and must be inculcated; the second are optional with the professors, and in the case of Indiana generally hold place in the curriculum of the nor- mal school.
The model, or training school, specially designed for the training of teachers, forms a most important factor in State educational matters, and prepares teachers of both sexes for one of the most important positions in life; viz., that of educating the youth of the
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State. The advanced course of studies, together with the higher studies of the normal school, embraces Latin and German, and pre- pares young men and women for entrance to the State University.
The efficiency of this school may be elicited from the following facts, taken from the official reports: out of 41 persons who had graduated from the elementary course, nine, after teaching success- fully in the public schools of this State from two terms to two years, returned to the institution and sought admission to the advanced classes. They were admitted; three of them were gentle- men and six ladies. After spending two years and two terms in the elementary course, and then teaching in the schools during the time already mentioned they returned to spend two and a half or three years more, and for the avowed purpose of qualifying them- selves for teaching in the most responsible positions of the public school service. In fact, no student is admitted to the school who does not in good faith declare his intention to qualify himself for teaching in the schools of the State. This the law requires, and the rule is adhered to literally.
The report further says, in speaking of the government of the school, that the fundamental idea is rational freedom, or that free- dom which gives exemption from the power of control of one over another, or, in other words, the self-limiting of themselves, in their acts, by a recognition of the rights of others who are equally free. The idea and origin of the school being laid down, and also the means by which scholarship can be realized in the individual, the student is left to form his own conduct, both during session hours and while away from school. The teacher merely stands between this scholastic idea and the student's own partial conception of it, as expositor or interpreter. The teacher is not legislator, executor or police officer; he is expounder of the true idea of school law, so that the only test of the student's conduct is obedience to, or nonconformity with, that law as interpreted by the teacher. This idea once inculcated in the minds of the students, insures industry, punctuality and order.
NORTHERN INDIANA NORMAL SCHOOL AND BUSINESS INSTITUTE, VALPARAISO.
This institution was organized Sept. 16, 1873, with 35 students in attendance. The school occupied the building known as the Valparaiso Male and Female College building. Four teachers
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were employed. The attendance, so small at first, increased rap- idly and steadily, until at the present writing, the seventh ycar in the history of the school, the yearly enrollment is more than three thousand. The number of instructors now employed is 23.
From time to time, additions have been made to the school buildings, and numerous boarding halls have been erected, so that now the value of the buildings and grounds owned by the school is one hundred thousand dollars.
A large library has been collected, and a complete equipment of philosophical and chemical apparatus has been purchased. The department of physiology is supplied with skeletons, manikins, and everything necessary to the demonstration of eachı branch of the subject. A large cabinet is provided for the study of geology. In fact, each department of the school is completely furnished with the apparatus needed for the most approved presentation of every subject.
There are 15 chartered departments in the institution. These are in charge of thorough, energetic, and scholarly instructors, and send forth each year as graduates, a large number of finely cultured young ladies and gentlemen, living testimonials of the efficiency of the course of study and the methods used.
The Commercial College in connection with the school is in itself a great institution. It is finely fitted up and furnished, and ranks foremost among the business colleges of the United States.
The expenses for tuition, room and board, have been made so low that an opportunity for obtaining a thorough education is presented to the poor and the rich alike.
All of this work has been accomplished in the short space of seven years. The school now holds a high place among educational institutions, and is the largest normal school in the United States.
This wonderful growth and devolopment is wholly due to the energy and faithfulness of its teachers, and the unparalleled exec- utive ability of its proprietor and principal. The school is not endowed.
DENOMINATIONAL AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS.
Nor is Indiana behind in literary institutions under denomina- tional auspices. It is not to be understood, however, at the present day, that sectarian doctrines are insisted upon at the so-called " denominational" colleges, universities and seminaries; the youth at these places are influenced only by Christian example.
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Notre Dame University, near South Bend, is a Catholic institu- tion, and is one of the most noted in the United States. It was founded in 1842 by Father Sorin. The first building was erected in 1843, and the university has continued to grow and prosper until the present time, now having 35 professors, 26 instructors, 9 tutors, 213 students and 12,000 volumes in library. At present the main building has a frontage of 224 feet and a depth of 155. Thousands of young people have received their education here, and a large number have been graduated for the priesthood. A chapter was held here in 1872, attended by delegates from all parts of the world. It is worthy of mention that this institution has a bell weighing 13,000 pounds, the largest in the United States and one of the finest in the world.
The Indiana Asbury University, at Greencastle, is an old and well-established institution under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, named after its first bishop, Asbury. It was founded in 1835, and in 1872 it had nine professors and 172 students.
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