The University of Michigan | Page 3

under which the
University was to be organized, General Isaac E. Crary, and two
well-known Detroit physicians, Dr. Zina Pitcher, afterward to be
known as the founder of the Medical School, and Dr. Samuel Denton,
destined to be a professor in the same Department.
Their first action was the appointment of a committee to select the forty
acres offered as an inducement to bring the University to Ann Arbor.
Measures were then taken for the organization of the institution; the
Legislature was petitioned to give the Board the power to appoint a
Chancellor; four professorships were established until more were
needed; salaries were limited to not less than $1,200 or more than
$2,000; and a Librarian was appointed for a library not yet in existence.
Thus the University began its career. The men who were responsible
for it in its early years were, for the most part, lawyers and politicians,
lacking even the actual experience in educational matters which the
clergymen of that time were supposed to have; but there is evidence of
an idealism and confidence in the future on their part which must
explain the eventual success of the University,--a vision which enabled
it to become the model for all succeeding state institutions.
The task before this Board and its immediate successors was not an

easy one. They saw, in their mind's eye, a university with thousands of
students, forming the cap-stone of a great educational system which
was to rest on the little log schoolhouses which were so rapidly rising
in the wilderness about them. Their immediate resources, however,
proved almost ridiculously inadequate, while their best efforts were
often nullified by the selfishness and lack of foresight of many of their
contemporaries. Land set aside for the University by the Government
was sold for a song to satisfy speculators. An elaborate building
program had, perforce, to be abandoned and even the simple buildings
erected were criticized as extravagant. The Faculty was far from being
a harmonious little family, and dissensions arose between the students
and teachers over the establishment of fraternities; while the jealousy of
rival religious denominations and the lack of a strong executive
multiplied the difficulties which made the first years of the University
far from happy.
Nevertheless the University came through it all, not unscathed, but
sufficiently strong and vigorous, and with great possibilities for the
future in the rising fortunes of the Commonwealth, which gradually
came to take a great pride in this child of its first years. To the State, no
less than to the Regents and Faculty, belongs the credit of Michigan's
great achievement in American educational history,--the first proof that
a university, maintained by the people of a state as part of its
educational system, could be made a practical success.
The idea of a state university, or rather a state educational system, was
not in itself strikingly new; in fact two interesting experiments in
Detroit had preceded the University. But none of the original thirteen
colonies, or the new states so rapidly being carved out of the lands
brought in by the addition of the Northwest Territory, had been able to
make really practical that provision in the Ordinance of 1787 which,
from its place above the stage in University Hall, has sunk into the
consciousness of so many student generations of the University of
Michigan.
Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good
government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of

education shall forever be encouraged.
The actual success of the University was Michigan's first great
contribution to the Nation. The inauguration of practical laboratory
work in science, as well as the speedy organization of Medical and
Engineering Departments, was the second step. This led to a new
relationship between education and practical life; others besides
candidates for the ministry began to come in greater numbers to seek
degrees. Hardly less revolutionary in the third place was Dr. Tappan's
effort to make Michigan a real University,--the introduction of true
graduate study which, though not immediately successful, made
Michigan once more a pioneer among American schools. Again, the
establishment of the chemical laboratory, the introduction of
co-education, and the creation of a Department of Education, bringing
with it a correlation of the University with the high schools of the State,
are all matters now so generally taken for granted that it is somewhat
difficult nowadays to give the University proper credit for leading the
way.
In recent years other state universities have overtaken Michigan in their
development. Some states are supporting their universities even more
liberally than Michigan. Many have gone so far as to do away with
student fees, an item which has a large place in Michigan's annual
income. Whether this is entirely desirable is perhaps a question. One of
the University's greatest assets is the