Lake Forest College - Forester Yearbook (Lake Forest, IL)

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History of the University.. JOHN J. HALSEY. The plan for an institution of higher education in or near Chicago under the control of the New School Presbyterians originated about 1854. The Presbyterians and Congre- gationalists were then working in union under a plan by which the two denominations had a single congregation and pastor in many places, and supported a common educational sys- tem. But the Congregationalists got the better of the bargain, captured the Presbyterian Colleges at Jacksonville and Galesburg, and started their own College at Beloit. Dr. R. W. Patterson was then pastor at the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago, and Dr. Harvey Curtis was in the First Church. Determining to have a College of their own, these men applied to the business men of Chicago. Chas. H. Quinlan, M. D., now of Evanston, at the time practicing his profession in Chicago, interested the merchants of South Water Street- then the business center of the city-in the scheme, and in 1856 a land company was formed to buy grounds for the site and for an endowment. Drs. Patterson and Curtis went prospecting on all the roads leading out from Chicago. One day they came out on the North-Western Railway, and persuaded the con- ductor to stop and let them off opposite where the McCormick farm now lies. They struck through to the lake, were surprised and delighted, first at the deep ravines, and even more at the high bluffs on the lake front, and so located the site. The land company bought 1,300 acres, now covered by Lake Forest, and set off, forever, the present College, Seminary and Institute parks. The remaining acres were divided half and half, between the University and the land company. The town was platted and laid out by a landscape gardener that sum- mer, and in October the Synod of the New School Presbyterian Church came out to Lake Forest, and sitting L' under the shade of a wide-spreading oak, adopted the infant yet unborn. In '57 the Old Hotel was built. In February, '57, the Legislature chartered

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8 the Institution as Lind University, for Mr. Sylvester Lind had promised a land endowment to the value of SIO0,000, in Chicago lots. Of the original twenty Trustees, four still survive: Dr. Chas. H. Quinlan, D. R. Holt, Amzi Benedict, and Rev. R. W. Patterson, D. D. The panic of 1857 for a time blocked all progress. Mr. Lind could not make good his endowment, and the friends who had expected to raise a money endowment of SIO0,000 were penniless. But in 1858 Dr. Quinlan started a subscription paper and raised S4,000. With this, in the winter of '58 and 759, an Academy building was erected where the Art Insti- tute building now stands, and the school openedijanuary 3, with one teacher, Samuel F. Miller, and three students. These were the foundations, and all honor to the small begin- nings. The three students were William Atteridge, still of Lake Forest, John Johnson, and John C. Patterson, now of the Chicago bar. The two last named lived in the Old Hotel. Prof. Miller began teaching before the Academy was finished, and the iirst professorial chair was a board across a nail keg. In the fall of ,SQ about a dozen more boys came. They roomed in the Academy, boarding at Mrs. Kent's. Her house stood in the front of Mr. Hinckley's place. Une of the old boys of ,59-'60 writes: The Academy was then surrounded by the forest primeval, and hunting and fishing were good, and I cannot recall that any pupil over-taxed himself in intellectual gymnastics. Another says: I could write a poem about those happy days. i' A third remarks: The Fares! Gem, a weekly paper written by the members of the school, would have given you interesting information. It was in my possession at the time of the Chicago fire, but was burned up. The Academy began its third year in the fall of 1860, with forty-nine students, and three teachers, Rev. XV. C. Dickinson having come the previous year to teach the classics, and Mr. C. E. Dickinson in December, 1360, to teach the sciences. This was a year full of interest. Colonel Ellsworth, the famous Zouave commander, came up during the winter and drilled the boys on the present Institute grounds. Patriotism was at a red heat, and the 'LE1lsworth Guards were formed in the school. The little band of students gave its quota of patriotic soldiers to the war for the Union, and Captain William D. Price, of Ottawa, fell at the head of his men while leading on to the assault. Others returned with life and fame, and are to-day honored citizens of Illinois. Even the Faculty became polemic, and when an Irishman, who ran a groggery not far from the Catholic Church by the slough was caught selling liquor to the boys, he was informed that if he was caught again in such business the teachers would come over and tear down his shanty. The warning was efficient.