University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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ANNIVERSARY PARADE ANNIVERSARY PARADE 10

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HISTORY C) give the history of the University of Pittsburgh in a brief sketch like this is an impossible undertaking. Volumes could be written but it is our endeavor here to mention the principal facts, as they were. It is necessary that we carry ourselves back in imagination to the time when our nation was in its infancy. One hundred and twenty-five years ago there were but thirteen stars upon the flag of the United States. The thirteen states composed a loose confederacy confronted at every moment with danger of disruption. In 1786 the publication of the Pittsburgh Gazette, a weekly newspaper, had been begun and Hugh Henry Brackenridge began to contribute a series of spirited articles to its columns advocating, among other things, the establishment of a school. He was a man of power; was a graduate of Princeton in 1771. in the same class with James Madison, who became later the President-of the United States; and Philip Freneau, “the poet of the Revolution, with whom, before coming to Pittsburgh, lie had collaborated in literary efforts, l.ater he became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1786 Brackenridge went to Philadelphia to take his seat as a member of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth, and while there secured the enactment of a law incorporating the Pittsburgh Academy as a seat of learning. He also obtained a grant from the heirs of W illiam Penn of a piece of land at the corner of Third Avenue and Cherry Alley, as a site for the school, and a grant of five thousand acres of land in the northwestern part of the state to be used as an endowment. The fathers of the institution, whose names are written as the incorporators. were as follows: Rev. Samuel Barr; Rev. James Finley, a younger brother of President Finley, of Princeton; the Rev. James Powers; the Rev. Joseph Smith, all graduates of Princeton and pioneers in the cause of education, through whose labors subsequently the Academy at W ashington and the Academy at Canonsburg came into being. lx th perpetuated to-day in Washington and Jefferson College. James Bradford was a man of influence and ability, who assisted the Academy. His granddaughter was the wife of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America.

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The first meeting of the Trustees was held on March the 18th, 1788. at which time an organization was affected. The first Secretary of the Board was Robert Galbraith. The first principal chosen was George Welch. From then until 1819 there were a number of principals whose names are too numerous to mention, but for whom it may be said that they were men elected to the position for their noble Christian characters. Among the first class were Morgan Neville, William Robinson, William O'Hara and Charles Wilkins. Wilson McCandless, a student of the Academy, speaking in the University in 1856 said, “The nucleus of this institution was the old Pittsburgh Academy, whence emanated many men who have illustrated the genius of our government and people. Such was the prosperity of the Academy at the close of the second decade of the last century. The manifest necessity for the establishment in this community of an institution of higher learning gave rise to a movement to re-incorporate the Academy as “The W estern University of Pennsylvania. ’ This was approved on February 18th, 1819. The formal inauguration of the University by the beginning of college classes did not take place till 1822. The interim was a transition period utilized in preparation. The installation of the faculty occurred in the audience room of the First Church. An eyewitness says of it, “There was a procession with music, banners, and badges, in which the city fathers, the judiciary, gentlemen of different learned professions, the Trustees, and students, marched to the old First Presbyterian Church, where the venerable and accomplished Dr. George Stevenson, the President of the Board, delivered the inaugural address to the faculty, which was happily responded to in the massive eloquence of Rev. Dr. Bruce.” The Academy was continued as a preparatory school to the University. Subscriptions were sent in to the trustees, and the finest building in the city was erected at the corner of Third Avenue and Cherry Alley. The institution prospered for 27 years, and among the alumni of that period were one U. S. senator, four congressmen, three chief justices, two governors, one ambassador, ten judges of United States and Commonwealth courts, eighteen as trustees of colleges, five college presidents, thirteen professors, three moderators of general assemblies, five editors and two authors of wide reputation, and of everyone who lived long enough to test the worth of the training he received it can be said, that he was an eminently useful member of society. 11