Union College - Garnet Yearbook (Schenectady, NY)

Page 28 text:

20 THE GARNET. 4p:nion -ifjollcge.- - ORGANIZATION AND EARLY HISTORY. TIE only college within the colony ot JSlew York before the Revolution was King’s College, of New York City, which was re-organized soon after the peace as Columbia College The rapid growth of settlements toward the north and west had suggested to thoughtful minds the pressing need of some insti¬ tution for superior instruction at a convenient point in the in¬ terior, and this idea of central accommodation for all interests, not many years later, led to the removal of the State capital to Albany. Even in the midst of the Revolution we find the project ' of a college at Schenectady seriously entertained, but it did not gain sufficient strength to secure actual existence until some years af¬ ter the peace. A project like this is seldom discussed without exciting local interests, and before the choice fell upon the quiet old Dutch town on the Mohawk, the claims of Poughkeepsie, Albany and Waterford were strongly urged as suitable joints for the establishment of a college in the interior, but not to the extent of dividing the effort w’ ch was for the common benefit of all. A beginning in literary life at Schenectady was made in the formation of an association for mental improvement and debate in 1793, and on the 29th of January, 1793, a classical and scien¬ tific school was incorporated by the regents of the university under the name of “The Trustees of the Academy in the Town