University of Missouri - Savitar Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

Page 14 text:

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

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.

Page 15 text:

ceased entirely, large debts had accumu- lated, past salaries were due to teachers, most of the students were at war or at home, and Federal militia held all build- ings. During their four-year occupation the soldiers burned the president's man- sion, practically levelled the natural park which comprised the campus, and com- mitted various other vandalisms. From the spring to November of 1862 the in- stitution was officially closed and even after being reopened could scarcely subsist for the next three years. The post war period from 1865 to 1892 furnishes the next logical division of Uni- versity history. Much before the end of the war, however, in 1862, the federal gov- ernment granted Missouri, under the au- thorization of the Morrill Act, 33o,ooo, acres of land for the endowment of a col- lege of agriculture and mechanic arts. It was, in fact, the hope of the Curators in I862 of securing this grant which had impelled them to reopen the University. Page 15 The Curators in desperation called upon ex-President Lathrop to return, and he willingly and bravely led the University through its second crisis as chairman of the faculty from 1862 to 1865. It is of inci- dental interest that another old friend of the University, Major J. S. Rollins, was very instrumental in securing the Morrill grant for the University at Columbia. In 1865 the University was reorganized and formally reopened with Lathrop as president for the second time. All seemed in readiness for a time of genuine pros- perity and unhalting advancement, but Lathrop, living but one more year, was I For many years a University rule prohibited the bearing of Jirearms in classrooms, later, students were expressly barred from carrying firearms at all times. - . - 1. - . 1. 'ii i ..-.. 1 1.