Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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At the time Indiana University was legislated into being, the annual income of the institution from all sources was less than 5,000, and this was thought by most persons of the State to be an adequate income for the support of either college or university. Shortly after the creation of the University, the Law School was added to the course of instruction, and David McDonald, in December, 1842, read the first law lecture to the students enrolled in that course. The change from college to university was not followed by the revival of for- tunes that was at first expected. The number of students dropped from eighty- nine to fifty-two in the four college classes and twenty-seven in the preparatory classes, and in the year following, 1840, the total number was as low as sixty- four. After this lowest point of depression, growth came slow, but steady. The faculty chairs were filled, the Law School was added, and (by 1846) 198 names of students appeared on the catalog. From this time until Dr. WVlie ' s death in 1 85 1, the enrollment never fell below 163. Following the death of Dr. Vlie, the first president of the L niversity, came the burning of the main L niversit}- building in April, 1854, the loss in number of students at the outbreak of the Civil War, the admission of the first woman, Aliss Sarah Parke Alorrison, as a student in Indiana University at a time when no other state university had adopted a system of co-education, the termination Eighteen

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The College prospered, its reputation spread abroad, and its classrooms were filled with students from almost every state in the West and the South. At the opening of the fall term in 1830, it became necessary to establish a preparatory department which continued down to the close of 1890, a period of sixty years. During the period of the College, Beaumont Parks and Ebenezer N.Elliot were elected to the chairs of languages and mathematics and natural philosphy, re- spectively. Professor Parks is remembered as mu ch for his eccentricities as his learning. In the middle of a recitation, without a word of warning, he would spring to his feet with the announcement that he must go home and kill a chicken for dinner; and off he would go, not to return till the next day. In the legislative year 1837-38, the corporate life of Indiana College ends and that of Indiana University begins. In December, 1837, Governor Noble, in his annual message, after paying a high tribute of praise to the thoroughness and effectiveness of the academic work which the College had already done, declared this to be a propitious time for carrying into effect the constitution of Indiana with regard to the establishing of a State University , and concluded by recom- mending that the College have bestowed on it that distinction together with the necessary endowment. On February 13, 1838, by a vote of the General Assemblj , the Indiana College was thus transformed into Indiana University. The Sun Dial

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Gymnasium Entrance of the Indiana Medical College, 1876, and the discontinuing of the Law School in 1877, after an honorable existence of thirty-five years. For the third time, in 1833, the University again suffered a loss from fire. Science Hall, with practically all its contents — the library of 13,000 volumes, the apparatus of the various departments and the private collections of Dr. David Starr Jordan, was destroyed. With 20,000 insurance money and the liberal donation of 50,000, given by Monroe county, the University was moved from the old site to the south of Bloomington to its present site, then called Dunn ' s Meadow, a beautiful tract of land lying on the east edge of the town . The erection of buildings was begun in 1884 and the corner stone was lain on June 10 of the same year. The following year the buildings on the new campus were ready for occupation — Owen Hall, Wylie Hall, and a frame chapel, called Mitchell Hall. In 1890 was erected the present Maxwell Hall, then used for. the library and the administration offices. The University moved into its new home under the presidenc - of Dr. David Starr Jordan. During his administration the Law School was re-established.