The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-31


The University of Michigan,
which has within the last few years become,
In point of numbers, the first institution of |
learning in the New World, owes its origin to
several acts of Congress donating portions of |
the public lands for it's establishment. AS |
early as 1904 one township of land in the
present limits of Michigan was set apart for
the support of University, and in 1917 pre-
hmlnary steps were ia ken by the Territorial
Government for its organization. In 1921
Trustees were appointed and in 1924 Congress
devoted to its support another township, thus
making the entire grant over forty-six thou
sand acres, which, by the terms of the act
were to be devoted to ''the use and support
OF University, and for no other use or pur-
pose whatever" On the subsequent ad-
mission of Michigan into the Union as a
State one of the first objects to which the
attention of the Legislature was turned was
the full organization of the projected Univer-
sity. This course was recommended in the
report of the Rev. J. d. Pierce, the first State
Superintendent of Public instruction, and on
the 18th of March, 1887, an act was passed by
the Legislature creating the "University of
Michigan" By this act it was provided that
the management of the institution should be
intrusted to a Board Of Regents, to be ap-
pointed by the Governor; the latter, together
with the Lieutenant Governor, Chancellor
and judges of the Supreme Court, being er-
O6fcio member of the Board. The outlines of
the three departments of the University-those
of Law of Medicine, and of Literature Science
and the Arts-were also framed, with provi-
sions for three professorships in the first six
in the second, and fifteen in the third. The
permanent location of the Institution was fixed
at Ann Arbor, charming inland city, about
forty miles west of Detroit, the Regents re-
ceiving, as an inducement, grant of forty
acres of land as the site of the University
So remarkable was the educational scheme
then proposed that Chancellor Kent, in his
famous "Commentaries, - indorses the opinion
of Lanman, writing in 1889, in the following
wOrds:-"The University of Michigan is said
by the learned and elegant historian of that
State to be founded on a wider SCALE and with
more liberal endowment, than any other on
this side of the Atlantic"
Before any of the departments of the Uni
versity were ready for operation a system OF
branch schools was adopted, and several insti-
tutions of this character were established in
different parts of the State But these were
soon after abandoned, and all the resources
springing from the sale of the lands donated
bv Congress were devoted to the building NJ
of the great central college. In 1888 DIR. Asi
GRAY. now of Harvard University, was elected
the first Professor, and assigned to the Chai
of Botany and Zoology. He retained this posi-
tiOn until 1912, in the meantime visiting Eu
rope and there purchasing about fourthousanC
volumes. as a foundation for the library, b.
order of the Board of Regents, who had PLACED
$4,000 at his disposal for the purpose. In 1873
DIR. Douglass Houghton was also appointet
Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy, whicl
position he held until l845, when he wa
drowned in Lake Superior, while prosecuting
the State geological survey. About the tim
of the appointment of these two Professors tn
foundations of one of the largest and most com
nlete cabinets of natural history in the oountr,
we're laid. by adding to the various collection
made by the State geologist and his assist
ants the large mineralogical collection whicl
was purchased from Baron Lederer, of Austria
The income of the University, however, par
took Of the embaTrassments Of the times, an