St Louis University - Archive Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

Page 12 text:

The Waterfront as it was during the early days of the city. A History of the University In 1 81 8, the Rt. Rev. William Louis Dubourg was consecrated Bishop of Upper and Lower Louisiana, which included the present state of Missouri, and in January, 1818, he began a temporary residence in St. Louis, then a strug- gling frontier town. In November, of that year, Fr. Dubourg opened a Latin Academy connected with his humble Cathedral Church, which be- came St. Louis College in 1820. It was conducted by the secular clergy. Their clerical duties, however, absorbed so much of their time, that the College was finally discontinued in 1827. In 1823, Bishop Dubourg had visited Wash- ington and the secretary of war, John C. Cal- houn, in a project for educating the children of Indian tribes roaming through his vast diocese. Mr. Calhoun suggested that the Jesuit Fathers of Georgetown College, District of Columbia, be invited to furnish some of their faculty to settle in Missouri and found missions and schools among the Indians. As a result, a band of 12 Jesuits, 2 priests, 7 scholastics, and 3 lay broth- ers set out from Whitemarsh in Maryland. A day or two later they established themselves in three log cabins situated on a farm donated by Bishop Dubourg near the present town of Florissant. After four years of teaching the children of the Indians, even the white families began send- ing their children to the Indian Seminary, for want of better school accommodations. The courtyard entrance to Clemens Hall, the new Dormitory te2 ' fa ? ' i

Page 11 text:

Page 5

Page 13 text:

About the same time a desire was generally- expressed among the people of St. Louis, and throughout the state that the Jesuit fathers should not confine their efforts to the Indians, among whom little permanent good was likely to be effected, but should open a college in St. Louis. Bishop Rosati, who had succeeded Bishop Dubourg, concurring in this view, trans- ferred to the Jesuits a lot on Ninth street and Christy (now Lucas) Avenue, which had been donated by a Catholic gentleman. The new building was not quite completed when its doors were opened and classes begun in it on November 2, 1829. The general assembly of Missouri, in 1832, granted the new institution a rather unliberal charter, and its name was changed to the St. Louis University, to replace the former title of the Indian Seminary. The first president, and actual founder of the University, was the Rev. P. J. Verhaegen, S.J., who had a principal part in planning the institu- tion and arranging its system of studies. As he continued in office until 1836, the division of classes and studies made by him, as also his theory of collegiate education, were firmly estab- lished before the close of his term. When he was elevated to a higher position in 1836, being appointed superior of the Jesuit Mission in Mis- souri, he still continued to exercise a directive and controlling influence over the University, and it thus happened that he left his impression upon the University, which was discernible long after he ceased to exercise any positive duties. Sa SAatv s a.us NowUate. , wear Tlorissant , -v K7 Saint Stanislaus Nm itiau as it was in 1S47.