University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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T i:ije 0xim of iH. . c. HE honor of conceiving the idea of a college for the scientific investigation of agricul- tural problems belongs to M.l ' Abbe Rosier, who broached it to the ministry of Louis XVI in 1775. But his plan, like many another great idea, was coldly received by the government and the world at large. More than sixty years later (1837) far sighted Americans began to see the need of such an institution and in 1849, thru the eflforts of Marshal P. Wilder, a bill for the founding of an agricultural school passed the Massa- chusetts Senate. It was defeated in the House of Representatives by men who could see no need for book farmers. The agitation, however aroused national interest, and in 1858, Senator Morrill of Vermont, then a representative, presented a bill for the founding of state agricultural colleges. President Buchanan vetoed the bill, and the honor of approval was reserved for Abraham Lincoln in 1862. The total grant under the Morrill Act amounted to over nine million acres of land — the share of Massachusetts being some 360,000 acres, which when sold, brought about $236,000. In the acceptance of this grant in 1863, Massachusetts became the proprietor and patron of the college, and bound herself to provide for, and maintain it forever. Once the money was available for the college, a great controversy started as to its location. Most of the existing colleges wanted to take the funds and add agricultural courses to their curricula. Harvard in particular expected to get it. Amherst and WiUiams also had hopes. As the national endowment required a department of mechani- cal arts, three tenths of the income was given to the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology. A board of Trustees was appointed, and, after studying the existing colleges, decided that, in as much as collegiate instruction in agriculture was a new field in Ameri- can Education, Massachusetts should have an independent Agricultural College which should work out its own destiny. Four towns competed for the location of this college: Northampton, Springfield, Lexington and Amherst. Each raised the $75,000 required by the State, and the trustees chose Amherst because of the surpassing beauty of its natural scenery, and because the Connecticut valley was the foremost section in rural pursuits. The Hon. Henry Flagg French was elected the first president in 1864, but resigned soon after when he felt that his wishes had not been consulted in the controversy over the building of North and South Colleges. He was succeeded in 1866 by Professor Paul Ansel Chadbourne, whose health forced him to resign in 1867. William S. Clark then became president, and M. A. C. had the unusual distinction of having had three presidents before it had any students.

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The College GeiTr ,

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Commumcatioit Jfrom tfje Clasisi of 1881 THE College was at its nadir in 1881. No less than five men — Clark, Flint, Stoekbridge, Chadbourne and Greenough — served as presidents during five years 1879-1883. The faculty could be numbered on the fingers of one ' s hands, the student body, on the fingers of eight pairs of hands. The State gave it a mere $10,000 a year, the Federal Government nothing. Governor Thomas Talbot tried to close its doors or, as an alternative, to turn it over to Amherst College — anything to get rid of it. Its constituency, the farmers, scoffed at book farming and there were none so poor as to do it reverence. The stork was just about to bring the newly born Experiment Station. The very word extension, as applied to agriculture, had not been coined. The physical plant included two dormitories; a barn-like wooden structure in which was a bleak room used for miscellaneous purposes, including compulsory chapel exercises, as well as mathe- matics and chemistry classrooms and laboratores, gymnasium, drill-hall and armory — a veritable blunderbus of a building; an uninviting hash house; barns; a botanic museum; and greenhouses. The farmlands were still in part untamed. The writer grabbed many alder roots with his classmates, doing unpaid student labor of an educational character. However, the instructional staff was a good one and, with limited resources, it wrought out of somewhat unpromising material a product of which Alma Mater need not be ashamed. At least one great captain of industry, three or more uni- versity and college presidents, four or more experiment station directors and deans of agriculture and kindred subjects are numbered among the graduates of that day. Eighty-one salutes thirty-one and bids it Godspeed! J. L. Hills, Sec, Class ' 81