University of Kentucky - Kentuckian Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY The State College of Kentucky., now the State University, owes its existence to the land grant of Congress, approved July 2, 1862. By this Act, allotment of 30,000 acres was made to each state in the Union for each representative. Kentucky had at that time nine Representatives and two Senators, and, therefore, received under this apportionment 330,000 acres of public lands. Congress required that the proceeds of the sale of these lands or the rental, if located upon lands hitherto unoccupied and held by the respective institutions, should be applied to the endownieni and maintenance of colleges in which should be taught those branches of learning related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, without excluding classics and including military tactics. Most of the states which availed themselves of this bounty established institutions in compliance with the requirements of Congress, which became the nuclei of still larger intitutions of university proportions. The State of Kentucky committed the cardinal mistake, when it established its Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1.865, of attaching it to a denominational institution instead of placing it upon an independent footing. Thirteen years of valuable time were thus practically lost, namely, from 1865 to 1878. The Legislature of 1878 intervened and dissolved the connection which, had been established in 1865 with the denominational institution referred to. The question of its permanent location was determined hv a commission appointed by the Legislature for this purpose. President Patterson, who had become President of the institution in 1869, appealed to the citizens of Lexington and the County of Fayette to make an effort to retail', it in the City of Lexington. The City Council, upon bis appeal, voted $30,000 in city bonds, and the Fiscal Court of Fayette County, 820,000 in Fayette County bonds, to be applied in the erection of buildings for the use of the re-established institution, or for the purchase of land for its agricultural operations. The city had previously agreed to give the city park, consisting of fiftv-two acres of ground, for the erection of buildings and for carrying on its operations. With this offer, he went before the commission and succeeded in inducing them to name Lexington as the permanent site of the College. In 1880, President Patterson applied to the Legislature for additional endowment and obtained the passage of an act giving the proceeds of one-half of one cent on every hundred dollars f taxable property owned by white persons for its maintenance. This brought in a large addition of revenue to that previously obtained from the interest upon the proceeds of the sale of the public lands. Here it may be worth wnile to note that the magnificent donation of lands by Congress was virtually sacrificed through the culpable negligence of the Commonwealth. Three hundred and thirty thousand acres were sold for $165.()it(), namely, 50 cents per acre. Had this allotment of land been judiciously and economically managed, 0 1879