University of Wisconsin Madison - Badger Yearbook (Madison, WI)

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STORY OF A CENTURY The hill was there in 1849, towering over Madison, just as it does today, hut there were cows and horses instead of mighty Bascoin Hall. The University commenced complete operations with its freshman class in the autumn of 1850. Actually its be- ginnings go back to a preparatory class on February 5, 1849, which is the official Founders ' Day. In 1848, when Wisconsin became a slate, the constitution provided for the establishment of a state university. The government of the University w ' as vested in a board of regents to be elected by the legislature. This board decided to establish a preparatory school which would open in 1849, and appointed John W. Sterling to take charge of it. The first classes were held in a room of the Madi- son Female .Academy. The first Chancellor of the University was John H. Lathrop, who came to Madison trom the presidency of the University of Missouri. His inauguration on January 16, 1850, was attended by much pomp and ceremony. TTie original plans of the University included a main edi- fice where Bascom Hall now stands, and four dormitories on the side of the hill, two on each side. Of these five contemplated buildings, only three were built. North Hall was the first to be anil the school opened at the Madison Female .4cade[iiy. In 1854 the first college class, Levi Booth and Charles Wakely, were graduated. completed, in 1851, South Hall in 1855, and Main Hall (now Bascom) in 1860. Under Lathrop the University was a small classical academy and college of the old-fashioned New England type. When the first college class, consisting of Levi Booth and Charles T. Wakely, graduated in 1854, there were 41 students in attend- ance and 15 in the preparatory course. Student life in those days was not comparable to the com- fortable existence of today. Imagine yourself in 1851 getting up from a straw mattress in North Hall (the only building on campus) and going ofT to classes in the same building. Between 50 and 56 students were accommodated, and they paid a meager $5.00 a term for their room, with a tuition of $10.00 for a sch ool year. When a student arrived, his first step was to seek out Pro- fessor Sterling and make arrangements for his classes and his room. It took but a few minutes to secure a room and register, as compared to hours under the present conditions of 1949. Of course, a student had to buy his own furniture, but the University ' s second hand store helped in this. Eight dollars would buy a bed, a plain pine table, a bookstand, a few chairs, and two lamps, one for reading and one for cooking. No car- pets were furnished or needed. The plain wooden beds were not too comfortable, so the boys would go to near-by farms to get straw or corn husks to fill their mattresses. Maid service would hardly have been prof)er, so the boys cleaned their own rooms, or they did not get cleaned at all. Water was drawn from the University well, and getting it was hardly an enjoyable task in mid- winter. These rooms were inadequately heated by a hot air furnace until 1865 when stoves were put into each room. Then the boys had to get their own fuel. At the time of I nthrop ' s administration, hostility was felt toward the preparatory department; and it was also contended that the University was not rendering the pragmatic service to education which the state expected. A reorganization in 1858 led to Lathrop ' s resignation, and the election of Henry Barnard in his place. Chancellor Barnard, a graduate of Yale, was an educator, but because of illness, he spent little time in Wisconsin, and thus did not have as conspicuous a place in the history of the University as he had. in the history of . merican education. However, he did present to the Board of Regents a number of recommendations which they chose to ignore. With the resignation and departure of Chancellor Barnard in 1860, the immediate government of the University lapsed John Hiram Lathrop, the first chancellor. Sute Street in the latter half of the Nineteenth century. 17

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1 ' I -c . 5. Aa, tfy-e t-t u t j d-e-txt. i, t Lt.. j t- ■ t.i . i t CtUJ Vt tv. tcW ' tf- J r -O-A tW - Cli-C-cy - ' a - C-t- -J - ' iA c l.f-( ?L r - c-J -- A ' . --)«. tjji -1- -IjcSAjt-t. (Hk . The University Charter Page 1 of the original draft, first introduced June 14, 1848 (Settion I was omitted in the first draft.)

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into the hands of the faculty with Professor Sterling as execu- tive officer. As dean of the faculty and afterwards as vice chancellor. Professor Sterling continued to direct the affairs of the institution until 1867. In 1866 a complete reorganization of the University was effected. Consequently, Dr. Paul A. Chadbourne of Williams College was asked to be president the next year. Due to his capable executive and teaching powers, the University pro- gressed substantially during the following few years. Many important achievements were accomplished during his administration. The legislature made its first direct gift, an appropriation of $50,000 for the building of Ladies ' Hall, now known as Chad- bourne Hall. In 1868 the College of Law was found- ed. In the same year a pro- fessor of agriculture, W. W. Daniells, was added to the faculty, thus placing the agricultural department in operation. This was neces- sary in order to take ad- vantage of the Morrill Act which granted to the state 240,000 acres of public land for the encouragement of agriculture and the me- chanic arts. John W. Sterling, Hrst instrucifir. Chadbourne never advo- cated co-education. In fact, he almost did not accept the presi- dency because of the status of women on the Wisconsin campus. In those days women never had an easy job of being fully accepted on any campus. The University of Iowa was the first state university to admit them. . t Wisconsin a few came to classes as visitors before the Civil War, but not as regular students. When they were finally admitted in 1863, it was only to the normal department, although they were permitted to attend the regular University classes as auditors. They con- tinued to be listed in the official reports as irregular students and in the annual University Catalogue as irregular ladies. Their admission even to the normal department was looked upon with suspicion by some of the males. One student 17 years later declared: They came like an army with banners, conquering and to conquer; they came with bewitching curls. ijoodbvc. Twtjniblv. Main Hall during the 1860 ' s. and dimpled cheeks, and flowing robes, and all the panoply of feminine adornment; and worst of all they came to stay. In 1866 the legislature provided that the University was to be open to both sexes. That should have ended the matter, but it did not. The Board of Regents was then seeking Paul A. Chadbourne for president. As mentioned before, he refused to come to an institution that admitted men and women to the same classes. He was willing that women l- e educated but he wanted them to be taught in separate classes. The re- gents were so anxious to have him accept the presi- dency that they asked the legislature to change the law so as to provide that the University would give equal education to both sexes under such regula- tion and restrictions as the Board of Regents may deem proper. The legislature obliged and the Board then appointed Chadbourne and supported his proposal to establish a separate Female College in the University. The new president went to the legislature and procured funds for the construction of a separate building — ironically enough, later named Chadbourne Hall — which was to house the women students. The building was placed at a safe distance from the other University build- ings, and it was Chadbourne ' s intention to have his female charges supervised and instructed there. Yet the plan of having the women instructed by the regular University staff in separate classes in a separate building could not be carried out fully. It doubled the work of an already overworked faculty. Thus even before Chadbourne left in 1870 some of the women were getting into classes with the men. The peaceful penetration of the woman continued during the next years and in 1874 the Board of Regents adopted a reso- lution admitting them to all classes without discrimination. While the administration was having trouble with women, William F. Allen, who taught both classics and history, was making Wisconsin known to all classicists and historians of America. He was one of the first of the many Wisconsin lib- erals. Allen helped build an educational program for the freed men of the South in the post-war period. However, he is best known for his historical contributions. He conceived of history in terms far broader than those prevailing in his time, as he recognized the role of land in all the cultures he examined. With the regretted resig- nation of Chadbourne in 1870, Dr. John H. Twom- bly, a Methodist minister from New England, be- came president. His ora- torical abilities were con- siderable, but he was no scholar. It is most interest- ing to note that he was an outspoken champion of co- education, for which at first he was loved and hailed by all. In fact, the most signifi- cant event of his short and unhappy administration was the dedication of La- , , „ u u ■ ■ dies ' Hall. In 1872 Twom- John Bascom, the beginning i i tt • of an era of progress. bly prepared the University 18