University of Missouri - Savitar Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

Page 13 text:

.1-. .11- .--... 1--. it ! :hi in 1.- 1... .i. L.. . i Y ?-1 - ...- f 1 qt 1-.-' Nun -I lx 1 Xl Q' iz Nl .h ::'... X- - f --.- l 1' 3 .-1- , -.- , .1 - Q . 1.1 - .6 ', ... Nl s - - tl 2 'i ' Q i ll' 5 1. Ml 2 3, . .. -4' -- . - ir- ..-:J 1--sl I -- 2T?r-qu 2..- l ..-:. - - 9 ., .121- M s+ 'NYM V 3- ll -? ini 1-L 4 O The jirst meeting of the Board of Curators was held in the fall of 1839 under a large sugar maple tree which stood approximately where the Journalism school now stands. internal strife, struggles against outside opinion, and financial uncertainty. john H. Lathrop came from New York in 1841 to take the president's chair and as first in- cumbent Was beset with a .host of plaguing problems. Yet he plodded on, determined and undaunted, and saw the University safely through the critical foundation years. The original seminary fund of E78,ooo, in- vested in the Old Bank of the State of Missouri remained the sole source of in- ! come and payed dividends uncertain to say the least. President Lathrop proved his Page 13 calibre when he notified the curators that they had best reduce his salary from 52500 to 31250. In spite of the fact that the state legislature never aided but frequently interfered, that local prejudice and sectarian jealousy were rife,i President Lathrop and his four faculty members had managed to build a firm base of scholarly ideals and standards by 1849 when Lathrop resigned to become the first chancellor of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin. The six year administration of Presi- dent James Shannon, successor to Lathrop, was even more stormy and discordant. O Before the Civil War Columbia was most accessi- ble by water. Students disembarked at McBaiue and traveled the few miles to Columbia by horse or in a buggy. 'L- Z1 flai- S. A y E 2 l- , ' l 1 -S, I tra. ,,-?' . Zh' g lui -I W x -f E' 'Z2 .. Tar' ' 11- f 1l.llQi W , ., I , .1 ii. 3 EE-lm A , It ii 37 Q- J .s - 5 It Qi E I 1 tc, 0 41 4 gp 1 2 U Ml .- m l , Al- is 'E-. ' 1 llll 1.1 55 'Eg' XL ...F 2- +4 ' Jia, may ' X F l 'illi v 2 1:. fill y T- . fi 05615 is -.Z , Raitt- - i 4. -L-. n . --T' -3 ii E lm: 5 -IJ.. l , -1-. All Q L.

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sum which exceeded his total resources at any other one time. It was long the boast of such friends to the University as Major Rollins that every dollar of that sub- scription was paid and promptly paid. The first Board of Curators of the Uni- versity met in October, 1839, under a large sugar maple tree on the north edge of the present campus and decided that the first building should be erected immediately to the south, a site which then was practically surrounded by dense woods. Plans were drawn and accepted for a structure of un- usual proportions and stateliness, consid- O Old Columbia College 'was situated ou Sixth Street opposite the :ite of Parker Hospital. University classes were held in it until 1842 and again after the fire in 1892. ering the time and the sparseness of the population. At any rate, the cornerstone to the original Academic Hall was laid July 4, 1840, and classes opened the follow- ing year. This cornerstone, interestingly enough, survived the fire of 1892 and now rests in the gateway on the north extremity of Francis Quadrangle. On November 28, 1843, the University proudly announced the graduation of two young men and could take titleto being more than a pre- paratory school. The forties and fifties might well be lumped together in the history of the Uni- versity as years marked by slow expansion, l l l m..v.w1.'1- munvnf,Nff. .-.-. wt -mm.wr-mm-:ummm

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O Switzler Hall is the only building standing on the oarnpus which dates from before the Jire in 1892. It originally housed the College of Agriculture and was the Jirst journalism building. It was named for Colonel Wm. F. Switzler, editor of the COLUMBIA STATESMAN. Shannon, although a man of great magnet- ism, fomented a great deal of strife through his outspoken opinions as a former Chris- tian minister and his absolute advocacy of slavery and the South. Under him the University was sucked into the vortices of controversial partisanship and sectarian- isrng and in 1855 the state legislature de- clared all faculty chairs vacant and de- posed Shannon in favor of W. W. Hudson, whose three-year, conciliatory administra- tion quieted the troubled waters. External opposition and internal disquietude almost completely died out in the administration of Benjamin B. Minor fI860-625, but it proved to be only contrast atmosphere for the sturrn und drang of the Civil War. The period of Civil War distress is a division of University history per se. The plight of the University at this time seemed hopeless. Income from the bank stock had Page 14