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

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10 The Trustees advertised a theological course in 1860, announced its postponement for a year in 1861, and finally abandoned the idea. The public had received the impres- sion that the real property of the institution was amply sufficient to meet all expenses, con- sequently no endowments could be secured beyond a 550,000 guarantee fund for a prospec- tive President's salary, and the current expenses of the Academy, after encroacliing on this fund, were met by sales of Universitylands. Thus the magnificent endowment of six hundred and fifty acres dwindled away, yet up to the fall of 1868 the Academy was the only school on the foundation. I i By an act of the Legislature, approved February 16, 1865, certain alterations were made in the original charter. The name was changed to Lake Forest University, the number of Trustees was fixed above fifteen and below twenty-six, all restriction as to occu- pation of members of the Board was removed, and it was provided that theological, medical or law-schools might be located at or near Chicago, byatwo-thirds vote. Prof. Milford C. Butler took charge of the Academy in the beginning of 1862. In 1864 Prof. Lewis M. Johnson succeeded him, and in 1867 Prof. Edmund A. Jones took charge for two years. In the summer of 1865 the Academy building was reconstructed at a cost of S20,000. Its area was doubled, an additional story was added, and a substantial base- ment was put in. At the same time a gymnasium was built, and special attention was given to physical training, military drill was introduced and a military uniform was adopted. A Prospectus of December 20, 1868, called attention to a recent legacy to the Insti- tution of SB,-55,000 from the estate of the Rev. William W. Ferry, of Grand Haven, Mich., designed for the establishment of a Seminary for young ladies. In the winter of 1868-69 the Trustees erected, at a cost of S45,o00, a handsome building of Milwaukee brick, of four stories and basement, which was thoroughly equipped for school purposes. In September of 1869, this H Ferry Hall Seminary opened, under a lease to Principal Edward P. Weston, with eleven teachers and sixty-six students. In 1872 Mr. Weston purchased of Dr. Dickinson, the present Mitchell Hall, and opened a preparatory school for girls as an adjunct to Ferry Hall. In 1869 the Academy came into the hands of Prof. Ira W. Allen, under a lease for tive years. Charges were raised, and the school began, for the iirst time, to pay its way. In 1874 Prof. A. R. Sabin succeeded Prof. Allen, under a similar tive years' lease. During all these early years the Academy maintained a high standard of work to such an extent that the zeal for a College languished. Even members of the Board of Trustees felt that

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9 A Medical Department was organized in 1859 and began work in September in the Lind Block in Chicago fstill standing by Randolph Street Bridgej, with thirty-three students and a Faculty of fourteen. From 1859 to 1864 this College had three hundred and fifteen students and seventy-six graduates. In 1864 the Medical College seceded, because not satisfied with the financial support given by the Lake Forest Trustees, and is to day the Chicago Medical College and a branch of the University at Evanston. In 1861 a College Freshman Class of four students was started, under the instruction of Prof. W. C. Dickinson. The Academy building accommodated this small class for two years. Fred Chapman is dead. Velasco Chandler is a successful banker at Macomb. Dr. Ralph E. Starkweather, of Chicago, is a member of our State Board of Health. john C. Patterson is a brilliant lawyer in Chicago. The class broke up at the end of the Sophomore year. Chandler went to iight rebels, Patterson and Starkweather went to Yale, Mr. Dickinson took the pastorate of the Lake Forest Church. Mr. Lucien G. Yoe, who entered the Academy in March, 1860, writes: The only residences at the time I entered, as I now remember, were those of Dr. C. H. Quinlan ta predecessor of Mr. Rumsey'sj, with grand Corinthian columns and a Greek portico in front, Mr. Sylvester Lind's5 Mr. Miller's Qnow Mr. Davies'j, the Rev. Mr. Dickinson's fnow Mr. Learned'sj5 Mr. James Anderson's3 the house afterwards occupied by Rev. Brainerd Kent fnow Mr. Falesljg Mr. Rossiter's, anda little cottage just west fthe original of Mr. Watson'sj. These, with the Academy, hotel, the Dickinson Young Ladies' School, Mr. Hulbert's store fnow Mr. Scudder'sj, and the depot were the only buildings. Church services were held in the school-room of the Academy for the first year and a half or two years. Twice during the three years I was a pupil, there was a season of revival following the day of prayer for schools and colleges, the last one in the winter and spring of 1863 being especially marked. Mr. Yoe is an elder in Dr. Stryker's church in Chicago, and a successful merchant. In September, 1859, the Rev. Baxter Dickinson, D. D., formerly ofAuburn and Lane Theological Seminaries, with the assistance of his four daughters, opened a Seminary for young ladies in a building known to-day as Mitchell Hall, which he erected for that purpose, For eight years the school was one of the most widely known in the W'est. It was a home school, taking twenty boarders and adding about thirty others as day pupils. While the Dickinson school was not a branch of the University, it was decided to locate it here because of the plans of University promoters, and it was the beginning which grew into Ferry Hall ten years later.

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11 Lake Forest had done her share for education in the West, and were inclined to let other communities provide the collegiate institutions. In November of IS7O, the Lake Forest Hotel and Manufacturing Company bought, for S80,00o, nearly all the remaining endowment lands that were alienable, and built on the lake shore, just south of Ferry Hall, a grand hotel six stories high. After conducting this hotel at a continual loss for five years, with 340,000 of purchase money still unpaid, the company agreed to turn over tl1e whole property to the College for their indebtedness. This gave to the University a building of sixty rooms for students and many spacious halls for recitation purposes. The long deferred College was at length organized, and the Rev. Robert W. Patterson, D. D., was elected President, August 10, 1875. The collegiate department was opened September 7, 1876, with a Freshman class ot twelve, eight young men and four young women, and in September of the following year a second Freshman class of twelve was entered. In 1876 Principal Weston was succeeded at Ferry Hall by Miss Martha H. Sprague. In the night of December 19, 1877, the College building was destroyed by tire, and the hopeful prospects of the young Institution seemed thoroughly blighted. But although President Patterson was called elsewhere, the pluck shown by the little band of students in standing by the homeless College aroused the energy of friends, and under the wise direction of Prof, john H. Hewitt as acting President, the endowment was brought up to SIO0,000. In June, 1878, the Rev. Daniel S. Gregory, D. D., came to the presidency, In the two months of the summer vacation the present College building was erected at a cost of il530,o00. The term opened in September with thirty- seven students in four classes, and a Faculty of seven. The Academy building was burned March 1, 1879. But this misfortune only stimu- lated to more vigorous efforts, and in the ensuing sumn1er three new buildings were erected- the present Academy, Hall at a cost of S320,000, tl1e President's house, at a cost of SI0,000, and the boarding-hall, known as Academia In 1881 the old Dickinson school was pur- chased and ope11ed as a home for the young women in attendance in College. It was named Mitchell Hall, in honor of Miss Maria Mitchell. The administration of Dr. Gregory con- tinued until the summer of 1886, when he withdrew, in failing health, after a service of eight years filled with the most indefatigable and dauntless efforts for the institution. Fourteen thousand dollars in scholarship funds and eighty thousand in buildings were the material results of these eight years. But the immaterial were far greater. A high standard of work, the Value of ideas in the face of a material world, careful and systematic thinking, and a close