Yale University - Banner / Pot Pourri Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

Page 17 text:

YALE 1701-1951 Ten Ministers and Forty Books T WAS late in 1701 when ten of the principal ministers of Connecticut, from as many different towns, met for the purpose of sponsoring a new college. As a group they presented a number of books, popularly accepted as being forty, and under these humble conditions was a university born. I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony, each minister said, in effect, as he laid his books on the table. On October 9, 1701, an act for liberty to erect a collegiate school was ratified by the Colonial Assembly, who voted sixty poinids sterling in support of the collegiate school. Yale ' s First President NE MONTH LATER, the appointment of Reverend Abraham Pierson of Killingworth (now Clinton) as first rec- tor was announced. He had graduated from Harvard in 1688. After considerable controversy about the most suitable location for the col- lege, it was decided that Saybrook should be the site. But the Reverend Mr. Pierson ' s congregation temporarily resolved the dispute by insisting that he remain in Killingworth. The college, consisting only of his private home, was situated there until the death of Rector Pierson in 1707. Yale ' s First Student (j URiNG THOSE five ycars at Killing- worth, only thirteen students made use of their limited opportunities for educating themselves, and the future of the college was still quite questionable. Jacob Heminway, of East Haven, was the first student, studying alone with the rector until late in 1702, when seven more students joined him. The first commencement, however, was held in that same year, at Saybrook, when four men who had graduated from Harvard and a fifth who had been privately tutored received degrees of either Mas- ter or Bachelor of Arts.

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iiMinniMtftl • -■- il -m. ' . iiil - •: ' ' ■ ■.fr- ' ; i.v.:m ' i «-.ii,tf.i-a .t A lonrVILW ot VAI.K-COLLM.E, and ihe COLLEGE CH PEL, New-Haven. This primitive sketch of the entire camfnts aplHared in 1786

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Residence of the ReiK Samuel Russell, in Branford, Conn., where Yale was founded The Move to New Haven (jT ' HY. Reverend Samuel Andrew be- came rector pro tempore after Rec- tor Pierson ' s death, and, in the years immediately following, the college ' s location and future were more indefi- nite than ever. The Rev. Andrew had been one of the principal foimders of Yale six years before. Finally, late in 1716, the trustees were induced by a large subscription from the citizens of New Haven to move to that location, and construction of the first college building was soon completed. It vas an architectural monstrosity of three stories, with dimensions of 170 feet in length and only 22 feet in depth. The building stood on College Street, about where Bingham Hall now stands. Yale College (in background) about 1800. The State House is at the left