University of Delaware - Blue Hen Yearbook (Newark, DE)

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FECITATION HALL.

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history of Delaware College. HE statesmen of Delaware, during the early part of this century, were usually men of scholarly instinets. Many of them were graduates of Yale, Princeton, and other leading colleges and uni- versities. These men at the head of a state which had been the first to adopt the Constitution and among the first to learn the art of self-government, were not con- tented that their state should lack those educational facilities which, as they knew, are the chief ornaments of safeguard of a nation. Many families whose financial re- sources permitted them, engaged tutors, whose education had been secured at the best colleges in the country, to prepare their boys for Northern colleges. This contrib- uted somewhat in bringing before the public the necessity of having a college within their own state. Numerous appeals were made to the General Assembly from time to time to establish a college, but nothing definite was done until January 15, 1818, when an act was passed to enable the Trustees of Newark Academy to raise $50,000 by a lottery for the purpose of erecting and establishing a col- lege in Newark. This effort was supplemented from time to time by acts of the General Assembly. Finally, Newark College was established under a charter granted February 5, 1833, and buildings were at once erected. The members of the Board of Trustees were named in the charter, and the Board, at its first meeting, April 1, 1833, elected E, W. Gilbert as president. Before the end of this year, the main portion of the structure of what is now the dormitory was completed, and arrangements were made for the reception of students. On December 23, 1833, the trustees elected Albert Smith and Nathan Monroe to professorships in the new institution. Upon the refusal of Albert Smith to accept the professorship, John Holmes Agnew, a relative of D. Hayes Agnew, the famous surgeon, was elected to fill the vacancy. By the influence of Andrew Gray a third profeszor was appointed, N. Z. Graves. Two courses of instruction were offered: the Aca- demic Course and the Collegiate Course. The Academic Course was equivalent to the courses offered by Newark Academy, which institution was absorbed by the college the following year. The doors of the college were thrown open to stu- dents May 8, 1834, and during the first term 64 students were enrolled, 42 of whom boarded in the college. During the first term the relation of the Faculty and Board of Trustees seems not to have been clearly compre- hended by either party and from the fact that almost