Washington University Saint Louis - Hatchet Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

Page 28 text:

O L D W ASHINGTON UNI VERSITY Edited by Arthur O’Neill In 1883 under circumstances which were rather unusual, Wayman Crow, Saint Louis merchant and state senator from his district, secured a charter for a “seminary of learning” to be called “Eliot Seminary.” Senator Crow seems to have been the sole author of the idea, charter, and name, and his sixteen corporators, who later proved themselves in entire accord with it, did not know that they had the responsibility until Mr. Crow came home from Jefferson City with the papers in his pocket. Saint Louis had long needed an institute of higher learning to complete its educational system. The action he took was very timely and fruitful. A full meeting of the corporation took place on February 22. 1854, exactly one year after the signing of the charter I he holdings of all seventeen of the men would hardly have totaled a half¬ million dollars, and yet with true pioneer spirit they assumed even greater responsibilities than the eager Senator Crow had cut out for them. At the suggestion of Doctor William G. Eliot, pastor of the church to which most of the corporators belonged, they removed the name “Eliot” and substituted the name“W ashington instead, because of the coincidence of the dateof the charter and corporators’ meeting have fallen on Washington’s birthday. The corporators elected Dr. Eliot president of their board of directors. Dr. Eliot had founded the public school system of Saint Louis and was curator of the State university. He realized that the men were taking a large assignment. But upon reading the account of the meeting more closely one sees that they humbly admitted that all they could do was to found a great institution. Its expansion must be left to a later gener¬ ation. Their current purpose was to establish an institution for the public benefit with stress on the idea of usefulness in its curriculum. With this purpose in view they opened the O’Fallon Poly¬ technic Institute, an evening school for artisans employed during the day. During the following years, as the full significance of the thing they were doing was impressed on them, they began to hope for a University. I hey had a growing school with a limitless charter in the largest and most influential city in the Mississippi alley. They held a very high opinion of both the city and the valley if one judges from the fervent after-dinner talks that were made. W as it not the verv thing to do to establish in this central place a University which should nourish A View of the old buildings at Seventeenth and St. Charles Page Eighteen