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THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
BY WILFRED SHAW
General Secretary of the Alumni Association and Editor of The Michigan
Alumnus
_Illustrated by Photographs and Four Etchings by the Author_
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE
1920
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY, N.J.
To MY WIFE
PREFACE
It has not been the purpose of the author to write a history of the
University of Michigan. Several predecessors in this field have done
their work so well that another book entirely historical in character
might seem superfluous. Rather it is the aim of this volume to furnish a
survey--sketching broadly the development of the University, and
dwelling upon incidents and personalities that contribute movement to
the narrative.
Those familiar with the history of the University will recognize the
sources of much that appears in the following pages. The author must
acknowledge an especial debt to Professor Ten Brook's "History of State
Universities," and the two histories of the University, written by
Elizabeth Farrand, '87_m_, and Professor Burke E. Hinsdale. Much of the
material in the early chapters is based directly upon Professor
Hinsdale's painstaking and authoritative work. Other works which have
been consulted are Judge Cooley's "History of Michigan," Professor C.K.
Adams' "Historical Sketch," published by the University in 1876,
Professor A.C. McLaughlin's "History of Higher Education in Michigan"
(Contributions to American Educational History, Number II, Bureau of
Education, 1891), the reports of the Fiftieth and Seventy-fifth
Anniversaries and Dr. Angell's Quarter Centennial Celebration, and Dr.
Angell's "Reminiscences." The files of _The Michigan Alumnus_ and the
_Michiganensian_, the records of the Regents' meetings and the calendars
of the University have likewise proved extremely valuable. For the
material in certain chapters, "The Michigan Book," published in 1898, by
Edwin H. Humphrey, '97, an article entitled "The University of Michigan
and the Training of Her Students for the War," by Professor Arthur L.
Cross, in the _Michigan History Magazine_, for January, 1920, and Andrew
D. White's "Autobiography" have been freely consulted.
It is unfortunate that our information concerning the earliest days of
the University is comparatively meager. The collections of old
newspapers and other original sources in the University Library have
been utilized, but these are not as extensive as they should be.
Undoubtedly not a little material in the form of letters and diaries is
still to be found among the papers of the earliest officers of the
University and the graduates of the '40's and '50's. The writer would
appreciate any information regarding such documents.
Acknowledgment is also due to the many friends who have offered
suggestions and helpful criticism. Especially is grateful recognition
due to Professor F.N. Scott, Judge V.H. Lane, President Emeritus Harry
B. Hutchins, Dr. G. Carl Huber, Dean John R. Effinger, Professor Evans
Holbrook, Professor Arthur L. Cross and the late Professor Isaac N.
Demmon; their encouragement and counsel have been invaluable.
An apparent inconsistency in references to the major divisions of the
University may be noted by some readers. These are sometimes referred to
as "Departments" and sometimes as "Schools" or "Colleges," as the case
may be. This arises from the fact that the official nomenclature was
changed about ten years ago. In general the author has referred to these
divisions as "Departments" in discussing the period before 1910.
W.S.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I INTRODUCTION 1
II THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY 7
III THE UNIVERSITY'S EARLY DAYS 23
IV THE FIRST ADMINISTRATIONS 45
V PRESIDENT ANGELL AND PRESIDENT HUTCHINS 64
VI LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS 91
VII THE PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 121
VIII A STATE UNIVERSITY AS A CENTER OF LEARNING 145
IX STUDENT LIFE 172
X FRATERNITIES AND STUDENT ACTIVITIES 207
XI ATHLETICS 233
XII TOWN AND CAMPUS 268
XIII THE UNIVERSITY IN WAR TIMES 298
XIV THE ALUMNI OF THE UNIVERSITY 324
TABLES 351
INDEX 359
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
UNIVERSITY HALL. Etching _Frontispiece_
THE CATHOLEPISTEMIAD, OR UNIVERSITY, OF MICHIGANIA. 8
A photograph of the original outline in Judge Woodward's
Handwriting, now in the University Library
FOUR FOUNDERS OF THE UNIVERSITY. Stevens T. Mason (1812-1843),
John D. Pierce (1797-1882), Zina Pitcher (1797-1872),
Samuel Denton (1803-1860) 14
THE CAMPUS IN 1855 24
TWO OF THE UNIVERSITY'S OLDEST BUILDINGS:
The President's House. The only one of the original four
professors' houses still remaining 30
The Old Medical Building. Torn down in 1914 30
FOUR MEMBERS OF THE EARLY FACULTY. George Palmer Williams
(1802-1881), Andrew Ten Brook (1814-1899), Abram Sager
(1810-1877), Thomas McIntyre Cooley (1824-1898) 34
HENRY PHILIP TAPPAN, LL.D. (1805-1881). The first President
of the University, 1852-1863 56
ERASTUS OTIS HAVEN, LL.D. (1820-1881). President of the University,
1863-1869 57
HENRY SIMMONS FRIEZE (1817-1889). Professor of Latin, 1854-1889.
Acting President of the University, 1869-1871, 1880-1882 57
THE TWO MAIN BUILDINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY ABOUT 1860 60
ALUMNI MEMORIAL HALL. Etching 68
JAMES BURRILL ANGELL, LL.D. (1829-1916). President of the
University, 1871-1909 76
HARRY BURNS HUTCHINS, LL.D. President of the University,
1909-1920 86
MARION LEROY BURTON, LL.D. President of the University of
Michigan, 1920- 90
A GENERAL VIEW OF THE FRONT OF THE CAMPUS. Showing University
Hall, including the Old North Wing, with the Law
Building in the background 94
THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVATORY 110
HILL AUDITORIUM 110
THE CHEMISTRY BUILDING 111
THE NATURAL SCIENCE BUILDING 111
THE NEW LIBRARY 118
THE ENGINEERING BUILDING 124
THE MEDICAL BUILDING 124
PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE OLD HOSPITALS 130
THE NEW HOSPITAL BUILDING 130
THE LAW BUILDING 131
THE ENGINEERING QUADRANGLE. Etching 140
THE DENTAL BUILDING 144
THE HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL AND CHILDREN'S WARD 144
THE INTERIOR OF HILL AUDITORIUM 152
THE INTERIOR OF THE MAIN READING ROOM IN THE NEW LIBRARY 153
THE MICHIGAN UNION. Etching 186
THE DOORWAY OF THE MARTHA COOK BUILDING 192
LANE HALL. The University Y.M.C.A. Building 196
NEWBERRY HALL. The University Y.W.C.A. Building 196
NEWBERRY RESIDENCE FOR WOMEN 197
BARBOUR GYMNASIUM FOR WOMEN 197
THE TUG OF WAR ACROSS THE HURON. The Freshman losing in
the Annual Freshman-Sophomore contests 208
FOUR SOCIETY HOUSES. Psi Upsilon, Sigma Phi, Phi Delta Theta,
Collegiate Sorosis 209
WATERMAN GYMNASIUM FOR MEN 236
FERRY FIELD FROM THE NEW STAND, showing the gates and the
Club House 248
A VIEW OF ANN ARBOR. Across the Valley of the Huron. The
Hospital Buildings, with the University Beyond 272
ALONG THE HURON. A Glimpse of Ann Arbor's Park System 280
THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS IN THE SEVENTIES 286
THE CAMPUS ELMS 287
THE CAPTAINS OF THE THREE STUDENT COMPANIES IN 1861.
Charles Kendall Adams, '61, Captain of the University
Guards; Isaac H. Elliott, '61, Captain of the Chancellor
Greys; Albert Nye, '62, Captain of the Ellsworth Zouaves. 300
THE STUDENTS' ARMY TRAINING CORPS. Drawn up before the
Michigan Union (fall of 1918) 312
ONE OF THE FOURTEEN-INCH NAVAL GUNS IN FRANCE. Whose
crews were largely composed of the Michigan Naval Volunteers. 313
THE CONCOURSE OR GENERAL LOBBY IN THE MICHIGAN UNION 336
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
One early June day some fourscore years ago, it was 1837 to be precise,
a party of distinguished visitors arrived in what was then the little
backwoods community of Ann Arbor. The interest of the loiterers at the
country tavern and the corner grocery was no doubt aroused by their
coming, for Ann Arbor we may suppose was not different from other small
places; and this curiosity could hardly have been lessened by the fact
that the newcomers were all men who figured prominently in the affairs
of the State, which had been admitted to the Union only four months
before. Whatever the speculation aroused by the personnel of the party,
however, the business that called them to Ann Arbor caused little
comment, if we are to judge from contemporary reports. Yet this
unpretentious gathering of notables was charged with the inauguration of
what was to become one of the most significant developments in the
history of American education,--the establishment and successful
maintenance of a University by the people of a State.
Thus met for their first session the Regents of the future University of
Michigan. Unfortunately we do not know the particulars of this meeting;
not even in what country lawyer's office or public hall it was held;
still less are we able to profit from any of the illuminating details or
personal comments a modern observer would have given us. Our knowledge
of the character of the men, and the official report of what they did,
is all we have to reveal the spirit in which they set themselves to
their task.
Of the nineteen members of the Board at that time eleven were present at
this first session, which lasted three days. Included among the number,
as ex-officio members, were the boy Governor of the State, Stevens T.
Mason, then only twenty-five years old, the Lieutenant-Governor, Edward
Mundy, and the Chancellor of the State, Elon Farnsworth; while among the
members by appointment were Michigan's first Congressman and author of
the law 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 interest and support of her
former students. They have shown less of the spirit which is more or
less inevitable in all state institutions,--a feeling that once they
have received their educational bargain, their responsibility to the
institution ceases. The loyalty of Michigan's alumni body may arise in
some part from the very fact that the education given has not been
entirely free, as well as through a justifiable pride in the prestige
and academic traditions which the years have brought.
Other universities also have developed further means of maintaining
friendly relations with the people of their states, through affiliating
the state agricultural colleges with the university and offering
elaborate programs of extension courses. In this direction Michigan has
made haste slowly, for there is danger to true academic ideals in such a
course. The result has been that there is no instruction given in the
University that cannot be considered of proper academic character under
present-day standards.
Our university system has progressed so far and so fast, however, that
the educators of the first half of the nineteenth century would find
little they could recognize in the wide range of human knowledge
included in our modern university curricula. When the University was
founded, the schools of America were really closer to the great
universities of the Middle Ages than to those of the present day. The
comparatively brief period covered by the life of the University of
Michigan has seen a greater change in educational ideals and practices
than anything which took place during the preceding thousand years, for
we have added to their heritage all the great developments of the past
century in science and the arts.
Michigan has done her part in this transition from the old to the new;
and in carrying on her work she has acquired a life of her own, an
academic atmosphere, and a characteristic student life which have a
peculiar interest to all Michigan men and women. To chronicle in brief
the main events in Michigan's history; to suggest their significance; to
picture the life of the students and Faculties; and to set forth the
University's real measure of success, in order that all who are
interested in the University may know her and understand her ideals and
traditions, is the aim of the following chapters.
CHAPTER II
THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY
The history of the University of Michigan might properly be said to
begin in 1817. It is true that the University seal proclaims 1837 as the
year of its birth, but the present institution is only a successor of
two previous incarnations in Detroit, which were its direct
predecessors. The State Supreme Court, in fact, held in 1856 that the
corporate existence of the University began with the Act of the 26th of
August, 1817, and has been continuous throughout all the subsequent
changes of the organic law.
It would be difficult, however, to recognize the present University in
that curiosity of educational history established by the Act of 1817
under the sonorous title of the "Catholepistemiad, or University of
Michigania." This institution, in effect designed to be a university,
was to be composed of thirteen _didaxiim_, or professorships, of such
branches as _Catholepistemia_ or Universal Science, _Anthropoglossica_
or Literature, _Physiosophica_ or Natural Philosophy, _Polemitactica_ or
Military Science, and _Ennoeica_ or Intellectual Sciences, which
embraced all the _Epistimiim_ or "Sciences relative to the minds of
animals, to the human mind, to spiritual existences, to the Deity, and
to religion." It is worthy of note also that Chemistry, Medicine, and
Political Economy were provided for under the names of _Chymia_,
_Iatrica_, and _Oeconomica_. This scheme, which was prepared by
Augustus B. Woodward, Presiding Judge of the territorial Supreme Court,
went further than this provision for the University, however, for it
contemplated as well a complete state educational system, with
subordinate colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums, athenaeums,
botanical gardens, laboratories and "other useful literary and
scientific Institutions consonant with the laws of the United States and
of Michigan." These the President and the Didactors were to provide for,
as well as for Directors, Visitors, Curators, Librarians, Instructors
and "Instructrixes" throughout the various counties, cities, towns,
townships, or other geographical divisions of Michigan.
To support this grand scheme, the public taxes were to be increased
fifteen percent, and a provision, which seems strangely unacademic to
the college community of a century later, was made for four successive
lotteries from which the Catholepistemiad might retain fifteen percent
of the prizes for its own use. Two of these lotteries apparently were
drawn.
The institution which arose in the shade of this immense growth of
pseudo-classical verbiage was a very modest undertaking indeed and
developed little beyond the primary school and classical academy first
established. These were housed in a little building in Detroit,
twenty-four by fifty feet, on the west side of Bates Street near
Congress, afterward occupied by one of the branches of the University.
Scarcely more ambitious was the faculty of two men, the Rev. John
Monteith, a Presbyterian clergyman who was President and seven-fold
_didactor_, and Father Gabriel Richard, a Catholic priest who was
Vice-President and incumbent of the other six _didaxiim_.
[Illustration: THE CATHOLEPISTEMIAD, OR UNIVERSITY, OF MICHIGANIA
A photograph of the original outline in Judge Woodward's handwriting;
now in the University Library]
Absurd as was the terminology and ridiculous as were its vast
pretensions in view of the little French-Canadian community it served,
nevertheless, the educational scheme which the act outlined was of
great significance in the future development of education in the State.
It was one of the first plans in America for a complete educational
program to be supported by the people of a state.[1] Its sources were to
be found, undoubtedly, in the strong influence of French thought on
contemporary American life, for this scheme was but a copy of the highly
centralized organization of state instruction which Napoleon gave to
France in the Imperial University of 1806-08. As Professor Hinsdale
says, "the ponderous name belonged to organized public education." Four
years later, another act established in Detroit "an University for the
purpose of educating youth" as the successor of the Catholepistemiad,
with little change in the broad and liberal outline of the plan save in
two particulars,--a change from classical to English nomenclature and
the substitution of a Board of Trustees for the self-governing President
and Didactors of the earlier scheme.
[Footnote 1: No one of the old states had what we would now call a State
University, although two or three states had institutions that bore that
name, while several of the states had voted money or wild lands to
promote higher education; nor had any of the new states, aided by the
bounty of Congress, established such an institution that was worthy of
the name, University.--Hinsdale, _History of the University of
Michigan_, p. 16.]
Michigan at this time was on the far edge of civilization; it was not
even organized as a territory until the year 1805. In 1800 the total
population was only 3,757, while in 1817 it could not have been more
than 7,000. The inhabitants of Detroit only numbered 1,442 in 1820.
Aside from the Indians, who for many years were to be a not
inconsiderable portion of the population, the early inhabitants were all
French settlers whose main business was fur trading. With the first
years of the nineteenth century, however, there came a constantly
increasing stream of "Bostonians," as the men from the East were called.
They were not welcomed at first, although their enterprise and
education were to transform Michigan within a surprisingly short period
into one of the most progressive of the new states. Nevertheless this
growth was at first slow and it was not until Michigan became a state in
1837 that the rapid increase in settlers from New York and New England
changed so completely the character of the people that it became in a
few years a predominantly agricultural, instead of a primitive
fur-trading community. The rapidity of this movement towards the West,
once begun, was most fortunate, as the settlers from the older states in
the East were enabled to put into effect immediately their own training
in the schools of New York and New England for the benefit of their
children. This is one of the underlying causes of Michigan's success;
whereas other states, whose settlement began earlier, failed through the
lowering of the standards of education inevitable in the hard life of
the generation succeeding the first pioneers.
The initial public support of education in Michigan, as in all of the
new states west of the Alleghenies, came from the important provision
made by the Federal Government in 1785 for a system of surveys of the
public lands. These had eventually been deeded to the Government by the
different states as the only practicable settlement of conflicting
claims which at one time promised to disrupt the new confederation.
Their acquisition by the nation and their eventual division and
admission to the Union as states contributed not a little to the
strengthening of the central authority at a time when it was a vital
necessity. The first survey of these lands provided, as is well known,
for division into townships six miles square, to be again sub-divided
into thirty-six lots one mile square called sections. The provision of
this ordinance of particular interest in this connection is the
following: "There shall be reserved the lot Number 16 of every township
for the maintenance of public schools within the said township."
In the Ordinance of 1787, providing for the administration of the
Northwest Territory, we have only the familiar general declaration that:
"Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," but an
ordinance adopted ten days later provided that in addition to the school
lot in every township: "Not more than two complete townships are to be
given perpetually for the purposes of a University, to be laid off by
the purchaser or purchasers as near the center as may be, so that the
same shall be of good land to be applied to the intended object by the
Legislature of the State." This was the fundamental action which made
possible the foundation of the University of Michigan almost at the same
time that the State was admitted to the Union.
For the most part the story of the land grants under this provision is
an unfortunate one of speculation, misappropriations, and sale by venal
Legislatures, whose only excuse was probably their inexperience and lack
of vision; and the natural desire of the people to benefit at once from
the endowment these lands represented. Michigan had her troubles in
common with the other new states, but she did manage to acquire enough
from these lands eventually to give the University needed support in her
very lean early years. Their history, therefore, is not without
interest. When Indiana territory was divided by Congress in 1804 into
the three districts corresponding to the present states of Indiana,
Illinois, and Michigan, one township was reserved in each for a seminary
of learning. This, in Michigan, was increased in 1826 to two townships,
which might be located by sections in any of the districts surveyed.
Even more important was a measure approved by Congress in 1836 which
permitted the State to control the selection, administration, and even
eventual sale of these sections with no reference to the limits of the
Congressional townships, thus permitting their consolidation into one
state fund. This precedent has been followed by all the states entering
the Union since 1837.
The plan of making a state trust of the public lands was a good one--on
paper. But with the rapidly growing population, envious eyes were soon
cast on these tracts by immigrants, many of whom settled on these
sections as squatters, to make endless trouble in the future with their
conflicting claims. The first lands definitely set aside were selected
by the Trustees of the old University of Detroit in 1827 within the
limits of what is now the city of Toledo. The selection could not have
been better, consisting in all of some 960 acres, but most unfortunately
the best part was exchanged in 1830, on the representation of
land-sharks, for poorer land and the land thus received was sold four
years later for $5,000. The remainder was disposed of fifteen years
later for about $19 an acre, bringing to the University a total of some
$17,000 for land which eventually came to be worth, literally, millions.
Meanwhile other tracts were being located in all the counties of the
State then organized. Soon after Michigan became a state, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction made an inventory of these which
showed that at $15 an acre they would bring a fund of $691,200 and an
annual income to the University of $48,384. At $20, which he thought
might easily represent their value, they would bring an annual income of
$64,912. The first sale justified his optimism, as the price averaged
$22.85 an acre, though only one-fourth of the purchase money was paid
in cash. But the people of the State soon began to murmur; they were not
interested in continuing these big reservations of choice land for an
object so remote as a university. The Superintendent of Public
Instruction, moreover, found himself involved in all kinds of trouble
with the purchasers. The matter finally came up to the Legislature under
the guise of a bill for the relief of certain settlers on university and
other state lands, which would have thrown these sections on the market
at a nominal price and insured the squatters permanent tenure. The bill
was a short-sighted and vicious one and was promptly vetoed by the young
Governor, Stevens T. Mason, because he felt these lands were given to
the State as a sacred trust. In this courageous action he performed one
of the greatest of his many services to the University.
But the Legislature had a different idea as to the sacredness of the
trust. Various measures were passed, lengthening the time of deferred
payment, successively lowering the minimum price at which the lands were
to be sold and eventually in 1841 making the minimum price of $12
retroactive. Under this measure, $35,651 were actually returned or
credited to purchasers. When the lands were all sold the average price
realized was not quite $12 an acre, resulting in a fund of some $547,000
from which the University now derives an annual income of $38,433.44.
While this amount is by no means as large as was hoped for in those
early days, this income, if it had been available in the first years,
would have helped the struggling institution materially.
To most of us this dissipation of what might have been, with more
careful and conservative management, a magnificent endowment seems
almost a tragedy. But there is another side. Michigan was far more
fortunate in her disposal of these public lands than any of her
contemporaries and obtained more than twice the amount realized from any
other state lands in the Northwest. For example, Wisconsin only realized
$150,000 from her 72 sections, while others fared worse instead of
better. Michigan is regarded in this respect as a model, instead of a
horrible example. Then, too, the early sale of the land was imperative
if the University was to live. The income from this source was almost
its sole support except the exceedingly slender student fees. We must
conclude, therefore, that the Government grants performed their
function; thanks to them we still have a University and still receive a
respectable income from the fund which represents their sale.
The Constitution prepared for the prospective State by the Convention of
1835 provided for a University and authorized its immediate
establishment upon the adoption of the Constitution. This provision was
the result of the joint labors of two men whose memory will always be
held in honor by the University;--John D. Pierce, a graduate of Brown
University and a missionary in the service of the Presbyterian Church,
who was then about forty years old, and General Isaac Edwin Crary, a
graduate of Trinity College, Connecticut (1827), who, with his bride,
made his home with Pierce in the tiny backwoods settlement of Marshall.
They were both men of unusual caliber and were interested vitally in the
affairs of the territory, particularly educational questions. Many are
the discussions these two must have held, to which a stray copy of a
translation of M. Victor Cousin's report on "The State of Public
Instruction in Prussia," made to the French ministry of Public
Instruction, which fell into the hands of Pierce, certainly contributed
not a little. Here was the account of a state system of public
instruction which was under successful operation. These men were
familiar with the previous experiments in the Michigan of territorial
days and with the efforts in other states in this direction, but nowhere
could they find the practical help they needed. The few colleges in the
country were practically all privately endowed institutions, having no
organic connection with the secondary schools, to say nothing of the
rare public high schools. Thus the orderly and consistent development of
a state school system in Prussia had a peculiar appeal to these pioneers
who were already considering the outline of the educational system in
the State of Michigan to be.
[Illustration: FOUR FOUNDERS OF THE UNIVERSITY
(From paintings)
Stevens T. Mason (1812-1843)
John D. Pierce (1797-1882)
Zina Pitcher (1797-1872)
Samuel Denton (1803-1860)]
General Crary became the chairman of the Committee on Education in the
Constitutional Convention and upon him devolved the immediate task of
drafting the educational article. He had, no doubt, Cousin's report at
hand as well as the advantage of the advice of Pierce. The result was
the most progressive and far-seeing provision for public instruction in
any state constitution up to that time; yet a measure that appealed to
the good sense and practical wisdom of the people of the State. In brief
it provided that the Governor, with the Legislature, should "encourage,
by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientifical, and
agricultural improvement" and that, in particular, there should be
appointed a Superintendent of Public Instruction, an officer then
unknown to any of the states; that there should be created a perpetual
and inviolable public fund from the sale of lands for the support of
public schools; and that provision should be made for libraries as well,
one at least in each township, to be supported from money paid for
exemption from military service and from fines collected for any breach
of the penal law. The section concerning the University was as follows:
The Legislature shall take measures for the protection,
improvement, or other disposition of such lands as have been or may
hereafter be reserved or granted by the United States, to this
state, for the support of a University, and the funds accruing from
the rents or sale of such lands, or from any other source, for the
purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a permanent fund for the
support of said University, with such branches as the public
convenience may hereafter demand for the promotion of literature,
the arts and sciences, and as may be authorized by the terms of
such grant. And it shall be the duty of the Legislature, as soon as
may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and
permanent security of the funds of said University.
This constitution went into effect as soon as Michigan became a state on
the 26th of January, 1837, though Pierce, afterwards known
affectionately in University circles as "Father Pierce," had already
been serving as the Superintendent of Public Instruction since the
previous July. Upon him fell the important task of preparing a system
for the organization of common schools, together with a university and
its branches. The system he devised has become a landmark in educational
progress throughout the world, as is shown by the numerous foreign
delegations which have visited the University in recent years for the
purpose of studying our educational system. As for the plans outlined by
Pierce, which were quickly approved by the Legislature in March, 1837,
we can best quote President Angell when he said fifty years later: "Our
means have not yet enabled us to execute in all particulars the
comprehensive plan which was framed by Mr. Pierce."
There was no precedent in America for the task set him. Eight of the new
states, it is true, had accepted federal grants of land but had failed
in the trust thus imposed, and the feeble schools they supported offered
no more guidance than Michigan's two experiments in Detroit. The field
was practically virgin soil, actually as well as metaphorically; the
problem was the effective organization of a university on the basis of
the land given by the Government to the State for this purpose.
The answer was the Organic Act of the University of Michigan approved
March 18, 1837. In essentials it provided for a Board of Regents with a
Chancellor who should be ex-officio President. Of the Regents twelve
were to be nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, while
the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, the Judges of the Supreme Court, and
the Chancellor of the State were to be members ex-officio. The
University was to consist of a Department of Literature, Science, and
the Arts, a Department of Law, and a Department of Medicine. The
professorships were specified and it is significant that, in addition to
the usual branches taught in those days, such as Ancient and Modern
Languages, Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, and Natural Theology, provision
was also made for professorships in Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Fine
Arts, and Civil Engineering and Architecture. A limiting clause,
however, was incorporated in this ambitious scheme, which provided that
only so many professorships should be filled at first as the needs of
the institution warranted. While the immediate government of the
University was to be entrusted to the respective Faculties, the Regents
had final authority in the regulation of courses and the selection of
textbooks, and were empowered to remove any professor, tutor, or other
officer, when in their judgment the interests of the University required
it. The fees were to be $10 for residents of the State. A Board of
Visitors was also to be appointed by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to make a personal examination of the University and report
to him their observations and recommendations. It was also provided that
such branches of the University were to be established in different
parts of the State as might from time to time be authorized by the
Legislature. These branches, however, were not to confer degrees, though
they were to have Departments of Agriculture in connection and also an
"institution for the education of females in the higher branches of
knowledge, whenever suitable buildings should be provided for them." The
funds for these branches were to be appropriated from the University
Fund in sums proportionate to the number of scholars.
Shortly after the first meeting of the Board of Regents in 1837, the
Legislature, following some of their suggestions, modified the
University Act in certain particulars; abolishing the Chancellorship of
the Board of Regents and making the Governor the President of that body,
at the same time directing the Regents to elect a Chancellor of the
University who should not be a member of the Board. This act also gave
the Regents power to assign the duties of vacant professorships to any
professor already appointed and to establish branches in the different
counties without further legislative authority. The Board was also
authorized to purchase philosophical apparatus, a library, and a cabinet
of natural history.
These were the essential provisions for the University. With so novel a
scheme the Regents and the Legislature naturally had to proceed on a
more or less cut and try method, but those at all familiar with the
organization of the present institution will recognize familiar features
in this first plan. One of the practical problems which faced those who
held the fate of the University in their charge was the question as to
where students, sufficiently trained in the higher branches, were to be
found in a state which numbered, all told, not more than 100,000 souls,
scattered for the most part in little frontier settlements. This
explains the provisions for the branches, which were to be in effect the
high schools from which the University was to draw its students. For a
time this was the actual development; but after the branches were
discontinued, high schools, supported by the various towns of the State,
came into existence and were eventually bound to the University through
the admission of their students by certificate. Thus the same end was
accomplished and at less expense.
When one considers the actual situation in Michigan at that time, the
program outlined by this act seems extraordinarily ambitious if not
actually ridiculous. The hard and primitive life of those days is almost
inconceivable now, and yet the change has come well within the lifetime
of the oldest inhabitants of many thriving cities of the State. The
secret lay in the extraordinary increase of the population. Settlers
came in so rapidly that, where in 1834 there were but 87,278
inhabitants, there were over 212,267 in 1840, and it was precisely this
growth, evidences of which were on every hand, that encouraged those
educational pioneers to aim high. The result has justified their
optimism; though there were to be many years of small things and limited
means before the fulfillment of this early vision. As Professor Hinsdale
wisely says in his History: "A large scheme would do no harm provided no
attempt were made at once to realize it, and it might in time be well
filled out; while a small plan, in case of large growth, would require
reconstruction from the foundation." The result has amply proved the
worth of the venture.
As has been seen, the University was to be but a part of a complete
state system. As a corollary in the minds of its sponsors private
institutions were to be discouraged. Superintendent Pierce even queried
whether it would not be wise to forbid them altogether. That proving
entirely impracticable, the alternative was to make the University and
the branches so good that private schools could not meet their
competition. He first endeavored to prevent the chartering of private
colleges; later he sought to deny them the privilege of conferring
degrees. In this he asked the advice of Eastern educators, among them
President Wayland, of Brown, who wrote him, "By a great number of small
and badly appointed colleges you will increase the nominally educated
men, but you will decrease the power of education because it will be
little else but the name."
In spite of this support his efforts, however, were not effective and in
1839 the Legislature in the name of freedom and opposition to monopoly
passed an Act to incorporate the Trustees of Marshall College, in
Pierce's own home town. By 1850 several such charters were granted and
in 1855 the degree conferring power was given these institutions. It is
doubtless true that at least some of the opposition with which the
University had to contend during her early years may be traced to this
first policy, which aroused the sectarian spirit behind the smaller
colleges and it was important to that extent; but far more significant
was the alternative of concentrating all the energies of the State in
the one great institution. Events have proved this the wise course. We
have had the example of less wise counsel in neighboring commonwealths
where the state universities have suffered from a multiplication of
small schools and have only recently been able to acquire their full
stature as true universities.
The establishment of the branches, which preceded the opening of the
University by several years, and their quick discontinuance, is an
interesting episode connected with the University's early years. They
formed the necessary preparatory schools for the coming University, and
furnished the first instruction under its auspices in the new State. By
the end of 1838 five branches with 161 students had been established
with the "decided approbation and support of the inhabitants." For some
years these academies flourished in a modest way, though they never
enrolled more than 400 students in any one year. But this effort, which
originally aimed to cover every county in the State, soon arrived at the
place which might have been foreseen from the beginning. The branches
began not only to overshadow the parent institution but actually to eat
up all of the University's resources. The necessary action followed
quickly when the University began to demand all the available income; in
1842 the Regents gave notice that the appropriations for the branches
would be reduced and by 1846 all support was definitely withdrawn.
This was practically the end of these schools, though some of them
managed to maintain a precarious existence for a few years. They had,
however, served a useful purpose. Without the students they trained it
is difficult to imagine where the first classes to graduate would have
received the preparation which enabled the University to maintain
collegiate, instead of preparatory, courses,--the rock upon which so
many institutions stumbled. Then, too, they accustomed the people of the
State to the idea of schools affiliated with the University and prepared
the way for the local high schools which within a short time came to
serve the same purposes as had the branches. Finally they performed a
valuable service in the preparation of teachers for the common schools.
The $35,000 spent by the Regents on these branches was therefore far
from wasted. Rather it was one of the series of fortunate measures,
somewhat blindly entered upon, which served the University well; but it
is equally true that the abandonment of the policy came only in the nick
of time, for the Regents were already in serious financial difficulties.
With all of these favorable influences, the horoscope of the University
was at least propitious. The people of the State were familiar with the
idea of a state educational system; the immigrants from the East were
for the most part homogeneous and of a progressive spirit; it was
believed that an adequate income for the educational program was assured
from the sale of state lands; provision had been made for the proper
preparation of matriculates in the University; and above all, wise and
far-sighted men had devised a scheme of organization which showed
familiarity with the best there was in educational development at that
time. We can now take up the story of the University itself.
CHAPTER III
THE UNIVERSITY'S EARLY DAYS
There were several candidates among the towns of the State for the honor
of having the University. Detroit, Monroe, and Marshall were mentioned,
but an offer of forty acres of land by the Ann Arbor Land Company,
previously offered unsuccessfully as a site for the state capitol,
proved the most attractive bid, and the Legislature voted in favor of
Ann Arbor in an act signed by the Governor, March 20, 1837. The town was
then fourteen years old and boasted some 2,000 inhabitants, who
supported four churches, two newspapers, two banks, seventeen drygoods
stores, eleven lawyers, nine doctors, and eight mills and manufacturing
plants, including a good-sized plow factory. Nevertheless it was in
essentials a frontier community. There are those still living who
remember the Indians who came in to town to trade,--presumably at those
seventeen drygoods stores. Transportation was primitive, the first
railroad did not come until 1839; while great tracts of uninhabited land
lay on every side.
Of the twelve Regents by appointment who were members of the first
Board, six had been members of the Constitutional Convention, two were
physicians, and four were lawyers; seven had received collegiate
degrees, while one, Henry R. Schoolcraft, was the best authority of that
time on the American Indian. General Crary appears to have been the only
one who had previously concerned himself with educational matters, so
it is small wonder that some impracticable measures were taken.
To those of us who look back now with the advantage of "hind-sight," the
mistakes of the first Board are obvious. Two tracts of land were
considered as possible sites for the University. The choice fell upon
the wrong one, and we now have the present Campus, undistinguished by
any natural advantages, instead of the commanding location on the hills
overlooking the Huron, recommended by the committee appointed at the
first session. We do not know now why the change was made, though there
must have been some little discussion, as it was only made by a vote of
6 to 5. We can only imagine now how much more beautiful and impressive
the buildings of the future University might have been, lining the brows
of the hills overlooking the Huron Valley, rather than spreading over
the flat rough clearing of the Rumsey farm that by that time had lost
the attraction which the original forest trees must once have given it.
For many years the present Campus remained what it was originally, a bit
of farm land, where wheat was grown on the unoccupied portions and where
the families of the four professors who lived on the Campus gathered
peaches from the old farm orchard.
[Illustration: THE CAMPUS IN 1855 (From a painting by Cropsey)]
At their first meeting the Regents undertook the preliminary steps
towards the appointment of a Faculty, though a resolution asking for a
change in the University Act, giving them power to elect and prescribe
the duties of a Chancellor of the University, suggests that they were
uncertain of their powers in this matter. Four prospective
professorships were established and though the report of the committee
on the matter was not adopted as presented, the assignment of the
subjects is suggestive; they included a Professor of Mental
Philosophy, whose field was to comprise Moral Philosophy, Natural
Theology, Rhetoric, Oratory, Logic, and the History of All Religions; a
Professor of Mathematics, to have also in charge Civil Engineering and
Architecture; a Professor of Languages, to have in charge the Roman and
Greek languages; and a Professor of Law. This action came four years
before the actual appointment of Professors of Languages and Mathematics
and twenty-two years before a Professor of Law was needed. A librarian,
the Rev. Henry Colclazer, was also appointed, the first officer of the
University chosen, though he did not assume his duties or his munificent
salary of $100 a year until 1841. The question of the organization of
the branches, which became the perennial subject of discussion at all
the early meetings of the Board, also came up at this time through the
authorization of a Committee on Branches, and a request that the
Superintendent of Public Instruction furnish an "outline of a plan of
the University."
From this time on meetings of the Regents were held with fair
regularity, either in Ann Arbor or, more usually, in the capitol city,
which at that time was Detroit. Occasional difficulties in obtaining a
quorum are discernible, however, in the reports of the early meetings.
The trip on horseback or stage from Detroit to Ann Arbor during the
first two years was not always easy or convenient, while there was
little to arouse enthusiasm in the slow development of the Campus. The
question of a library and scientific apparatus interested the Board from
the first meeting and among their early purchases was a collection of
minerals made by one Baron Lederer which consisted of 2,600 specimens,
purchased in January, 1838, for $4,000. In July of the same year, Dr.
Asa Gray was made a Professor of Botany and Zooelogy, the first
professor to be appointed. He was contemplating a trip to Europe and was
entrusted by the Regents with $5,000 for the purchase of a library. This
charge he performed to the great satisfaction of the Regents, sending
back a collection of 3,700 volumes in all the branches ordinarily taught
at that time, including many books unobtainable in America. This task
ended Professor Gray's connection with Michigan. Practically all his
long and distinguished career was spent as a professor in Harvard
University. Another purchase of this period, probably the first
acquisition for the library, which seems curiously extravagant for the
officers of an "incipient" University, was Audubon's "Birds of America."
At the present time it is worth many times the $970 paid for it then,
but one wonders, in view of the extreme slenderness of the resources of
the University, just what was the idea which led to its purchase. It was
in any case an evidence of the interest of the Board in practical
scientific studies and their sympathy with what was then the progressive
movement in education.
Meanwhile the Regents were making haste slowly in erecting the
University buildings. In accordance with the "grand design" of the
University Act, a New Haven architect was commissioned to prepare what
proved to be, according to Superintendent Pierce, "a truly magnificent
design." The Governor and the Board of Regents approved this plan but
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with a better sense of
realities, refused his assent. He maintained that a university did not
consist of fine buildings, "but in the number and ability of its
Professors, and in its other appointments, as libraries, cabinets, and
works of art." So this scheme which would have cost five hundred
thousand dollars, or twice the amount of what had at that time been
realized from the University lands, was abandoned, apparently to the
great disappointment of the citizens of Ann Arbor, who showed their
disapproval by a public indignation meeting.
The plan finally adopted had at least the merit of modesty and some
degree of serviceability. It called for the erection of six buildings,
two to serve as dormitories and class rooms and four as professors'
houses, all on the Campus. The first of the dormitories was completed in
1841, at a cost of about $16,000; while the four professors' houses,
which were ready at the same time, cost $30,850. The dormitory, which
was the first University building, is now the north wing of University
Hall. It was a gaunt, bleak structure in those days, one hundred and ten
by forty feet, whose stark outlines were softened nowhere by trees and
shrubbery. The original plan called for sixty-four bedrooms and
thirty-two studies, but the necessity of including a chapel and a
recitation room on the first and second floors, the library on the
third, and a museum on the fourth, severely limited the space for the
students' rooms. In 1843 the building was named Mason Hall, in honor of
the late Governor who had just died, but the name was long forgotten
until revived in 1914, when a tablet was placed by the D.A.R. on the
building, which has since been called by that name. Contemporary opinion
is reflected in a description of this building in the _Michigan State
Journal_ of August 10, 1841, where we read: "More classical models or a
more beautiful finish cannot be imagined. They honor the architect,
while they beautify the village." From this one cannot but suspect that
journalistic exaggeration is not entirely a latter-day fault, although
the opinion of Governor Barry seems to have been somewhat the same when
he charged the Regents with "vast expenditures" for "large and
commodious buildings, which ... will doubtless at some future period be
wanted for occupation and use."
As a matter of fact the Governor's strictures were not entirely
unjustified, as the four professors' houses proved a continual source of
annoyance and expense, while the wisdom of erecting a building to be
used largely as a dormitory when students could easily have lived in the
town, as they do nowadays, was doubtful. Governor Barry is reported to
have said in 1842 that "as the State had the buildings and had no other
use for them, it was probably best to continue the school." That was in
the period of the lowest ebb of the University's fortunes which followed
soon after its doors were opened, and, as Professor Ten Brook remarked,
it showed that the balance of the scale between suspending and going
forward may have been turned in favor of the University by the bare fact
of having these architectural preparations. The second and corresponding
building was not erected until 1849 at the cost of about $13,000. A few
months later the Medical Building was completed.
The affairs of the University were in a critical state by 1843. The sale
of the state lands had resulted in no such sum as had been expected; the
branches had been eating up what little income there was; while an
unfortunate bit of financiering on the part of the Regents in 1838,
involving a loan of $100,000 from the State for the immediate completion
of the necessary buildings and the establishment of the branches, only
added to the difficulties. The history of this loan is a complicated one
which does not need to be detailed here. The expense incurred in
establishing the branches, the purchases for the library and mineral
collections, and the erection of the buildings practically exhausted
it. When it was made the Regents supposed that the income from the state
lands would more than cover the interest, but this proved a vain hope.
Practically every bit of the University's income was needed for this
purpose. The situation was only saved in 1844 by the Legislature
permitting the Regents to apply depreciated treasury notes and other
state scrip received for the sale of University lands at a fixed
valuation in the payment of this debt, as well as accepting some
property in Detroit. This relieved the situation so that soon after that
time the Regents were able to report that the disbursements were less
than the receipts. For several years the State exacted interest for this
loan and in 1850 deducted $100,000 from the University fund held by the
State. Three years later, however, the Legislature directed that the
interest upon the whole amount of the lands sold be paid to the
University. This was done by successive Legislatures until in 1877 the
$100,000 was finally returned to the University fund through an
adjustment of the accounting system of the State. Whether the return of
this $100,000 constitutes a gift to the University by the State is still
a matter of discussion. Professor Ten Brook, in his "History of American
State Universities," written, however, in 1875, before the final
adjustment was made, maintained that the University had already paid
this debt, while Professor Hinsdale, in his later "History of the
University," more properly insisted that actually the University never
repaid the debt, and that this $100,000 was eventually made a gift and
thus became the first direct state support of the University of
Michigan.
The whole history of the early finances of the University is one of
great expectations and of small resources not always judiciously used.
The sums expended upon the branches were not spent in vain, for they
provided the scholastic foundation of the University in its first years.
Nor is the erection of University buildings to be criticized, except as
to their impractical character. This defect the experience of a few
years was to show, for one of the first acts of Dr. Tappan, when he
became President in 1852, was to end the use of the two University
buildings as dormitories; while the professors' houses, with the
exception of the one reserved as the President's residence, were
eventually used for general University purposes and at one time were
even let as boarding houses.
In September, 1841, the University first opened its doors with a Faculty
of two. The first Professor appointed to assume active duties was the
Rev. George Palmer Williams, formerly the head of the Pontiac branch,
who was elected in July, 1841, as Professor of Languages. In August, the
Rev. Joseph Whiting was elected Professor of Languages, and Professor
Williams was transferred to the Professorship of Mathematics, and,
later, of Natural Philosophy. Strictly speaking these two were not the
first professors in the University, as Asa Gray had received his
appointment as Professor of Botany in July, 1838, and Dr. Douglass
Houghton had been elected Professor of Chemistry, Zooelogy, and
Mineralogy in October, 1839. Though both of these distinguished men
rendered services to the University, one in the selection of the
library, and the other in contributions to the scientific collections,
neither ever met any classes.
[Illustration: TWO OF THE UNIVERSITY'S OLDEST BUILDINGS
THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE
The only one of the original four professors' houses
THE OLD MEDICAL BUILDING
Torn down in 1914]
The grand total of the students who ventured to try the educational
facilities offered when the University at last got down to business was
exactly six: Judson D. Collins, Lyndon Township; Merchant H. Goodrich,
Ann Arbor; Lyman D. Norris, Ypsilanti; George E. Parmalee, Ann Arbor;
George W. Pray, Superior; and William B. Wesson, Detroit. By the time
this class was graduated in 1845, the number had increased to twelve.
The mental fare set before this little company consisted of the
traditional classical curriculum, which differed not at all from the
ordinary college course of those days in spite of the progressive spirit
of the founders. For the Freshmen, Livy, Xenophon, and algebra occupied
the first term. Horace, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Roman antiquities,
more algebra, geometry and botany, the second term; while Horace, Homer,
geometry, mensuration, and the application of algebra to geometry
completed the year. More Greek and Latin and higher mathematics were
scheduled for the second year, while science in the shape of lectures in
zooelogy and chemistry and two courses in intellectual and moral science,
represented by Abercrombie's "Intellectual Powers" and Paley's "Natural
Theology," were added to their classical and mathematical studies during
the third year. Geology and calculus were introduced the fourth year, as
well as courses in philosophy, moral science, psychology, logic,
economics, and political science. No modern languages, medieval or
modern history, or laboratory courses in science, save what practical
demonstrations could be made from the cabinet of minerals, were offered,
to say nothing of engineering, architecture, law, or medicine. The
traditions of centuries were still too strong and the institution too
weak.
Upon this modest foundation the curriculum slowly grew; new
professorships were added from time to time as they became imperatively
necessary, so that little by little opportunities developed for the
leaven of the new spirit in education to work. In 1843 the Rev. Edward
Thomson, afterwards President of Ohio Wesleyan University, was
appointed Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. He only stayed
one year; and was succeeded by the Rev. Andrew Ten Brook, in after years
Librarian and historian of the University. In 1842, Abram Sager, M.D.,
afterwards a member of the Medical Faculty, was made Professor of
Zooelogy and Botany, while Silas H. Douglas, M.D., who was later to
organize the Chemical Laboratory, came in 1844 as an assistant to the
absent Professor of Chemistry, Dr. Houghton. The chair of Logic,
Rhetoric, and History was filled the next year by the Rev. Daniel D.
Whedon; while the chair of Greek and Latin, left vacant by the death of
Dr. Whiting about this time, was filled by the Rev. John H. Agnew. In
1846, a Professor of Modern Languages, Louis Fasquelle, LL.D., was
appointed and became one of the most distinguished members of that early
group.
These were the men who cast their lot with the very precarious fortunes
of the new University. The first two resident members of the Faculty,
who came to the University from the branches, suffered a considerable
diminution of their salary, as the scale outlined at the first Regents'
Meeting was more than halved; they received annually but five hundred
dollars and the rent of their houses. In fact it was not for many years
that the $2,000 maximum salary first established was reached. Even these
salaries were not certain in the dark days of 1842 and 1843, when the
Regents felt it their duty to make known to the Faculty the University's
financial difficulties. The University owes not a little, surely, to
these men who signified their willingness to stick by the institution
and to endure privations and hardships as long as there was hope.
Life for the students in those days was also no bed of academic ease,
though it was perhaps no harder than the home life to which they were
accustomed. One study with the two adjoining bedrooms was assigned to
two students who were expected to care for their own rooms and sweep the
dirt into the halls for Pat Kelly, the "Professor of Dust and Ashes," as
well as to cut their own wood at the woodpile behind the building and
carry it in, sometimes up three flights of stairs. Chapel exercises were
held from 5:30 to 6:30 in the morning and at 4:30 or 5:00 in the
afternoon, according to the time of year, and were compulsory. Tradition
has it that the efforts of the official monitors were supplemented by
the janitor, whose duty it was to ring a bell, borrowed from the
Michigan Central Railroad, and who aroused more than one delinquent by
shouting, "Did yez hear the bell?", a commentary either on the bell or
on Pat Kelly's voice. To a student of modern days the greatest hardship
would appear in the first recitation of the day before breakfast
following chapel exercises. Three classes were held daily except on
Saturday, when there was only one recitation and an exercise in
elocution.
On Sunday the students were obliged to attend service in some one of the
churches, and monitors, sometimes not overzealous, were on hand to see
that they attended. The expenses are given as from $80 to $100 a year,
with an entrance fee of $10 and an annual tax of $7.50 for the use of
the room and janitor's services. Students were allowed to leave the
Campus for their meals but were expected to be on hand from morning
prayers to 7:30 A.M., from 9:00 A.M. to 12:00 noon, from 2:00 to 5:00
P.M. and from 7:00 or 8:00 to 9:00 P.M., after which no student was
permitted to leave the Campus. The question of illumination was a
serious one in those days, and these periods varied somewhat with the
length of daylight. The cost of candles for early recitations and chapel
exercises was borne by the students.
The number of students increased each year up to 1847-48, when there
were 89 enrolled. After that time, the withdrawal of University support
from the branches and their gradual abandonment began to show its effect
in the enrolment, which dropped to 57 in 1851-52. Twenty-three students
were graduated with the class of 1849, while there were only nine in
1852. The struggling little towns of the State found enough difficulty
for the time in supporting primary schools. The branches, however, had
proved their necessity, and it was not long before the rise of the Union
schools began to provide a stream of students which has flowed to the
University uninterruptedly since that time.
[Illustration: FOUR MEMBERS OF THE EARLY FACULTY
George Palmer Williams (1802-1881)
Andrew Ten Brook (1814-1899)
Abram Sager (1810-1877)
Thomas McIntyre Cooley (1824-1898)]
There was another and probably more immediate reason for the falling off
in attendance. This was the great struggle between the Faculty and the
students over the establishment of Greek-letter societies, a contest
which became so bitter that not only the town but the State Legislature
was involved. A large number of students were expelled, and eventually
the whole relationship between students and Faculty was placed upon a
different basis. The trouble began in the spring of 1846, when some
student depredations were traced to a small log house situated in the
depths of what was then known as the Black Forest, the deep wood which
extended far east of the Campus. This building, which probably stood
somewhere on the present site of the Forest Hill Cemetery, was
discovered to be the headquarters of the Chi Psi fraternity, the first
chapter house built by any American college fraternity. When the faculty
investigator sought entrance to this building, he found his way
barred by resolute fratres. This led to the ultimate disclosure of the
fact that two fraternities, Chi Psi and Beta Theta Pi, had been
established in the University for at least a year, in direct violation
of a regulation known as Rule 20, apparently in force for some time,
which provided that:
No student shall be or become a member of any society connected
with the University which has not first submitted its Constitution
to the Faculty and received their approval.
The students involved, however, were willing enough to give lists of
their members, relying upon their numbers and their affiliation with
similar organizations in other colleges to avoid any unpleasant
consequences. The Faculty thought otherwise; though as events proved
their authority was not too well defined. Meanwhile another society,
Alpha Delta Phi, had submitted a constitution to the Faculty for
approval; but owing to the press of other matters it was not considered
and the chapter was organized with no action by the authorities. The
greater number of the students in the University thus became members of
the three Greek-letter fraternities.
The Faculty was disturbed, but apparently did not take the matter too
seriously at first and decided to allow the societies to continue,
merely exacting pledges from all new students to join no society without
approval by the Faculty; thus providing as they thought, for an early
demise of the fraternities. It did not work out that way, however. The
chapter of Alpha Delta Phi held that their society existed at least by
sufferance of the Faculty, and proceeded to initiate members, a fact
that was not discovered until March, 1847. Then followed a series of
suspensions and re-admissions of students who had promised not to join
these societies. Not only were they obliged to resign their membership,
but the original members of Alpha Delta Phi were compelled formally to
submit to re-admission to the University, pledging themselves not to
consent to the initiation of any members of the University in the
society in opposition to Rule 20. The matter rested here until the
following November, when the society presented a second constitution,
which was received by the Faculty with the announcement that they had no
authority to legalize the society. This reply was answered by the
students with a plea that if the Faculty had no authority to legalize
their fraternity then they had no authority to forbid it. Later another
fraternity asked for re-admission with similar results.
Meanwhile these organizations were maintaining themselves. Letters to
the Presidents of six Eastern colleges brought replies most unfavorable
to the fraternities and seemed to indicate to the Faculty that elsewhere
the fraternities were under a strict ban. The students, however, knew
that the facts were otherwise and that fraternities were flourishing in
most of the institutions where they had been established. Finally in
December, 1849, a list of members of the Chi Psi fraternity, which
included the names of many new students, was found in a University
catalogue. The defense set up by the chapter was that they were not
members of a society "_in_ the University of Michigan" but "_in_ Ann
Arbor," that they did not meet on University grounds, and that they had
admitted three members who were not students. One of these members was,
in fact, a member of the Board of Regents. The society, therefore, was
not connected with the University and did not consist of students. This
defense was considered only an evasion and on the last day of the term
in 1849 the Faculty announced that the members of Chi Psi and Alpha
Delta Phi, whose names had in the meantime been made public, must cease
their connection with the University, unless they renounced their
connection with their fraternities. Of the members of these two
societies seven withdrew their membership; the others were expelled. The
members of Beta Theta Pi were not expelled until September, 1850,
apparently because the constitution had not yet been signed, to the
disgust of one member of the Faculty, who considered this excuse only a
legalistic quibble. Some of the students expelled went to other
institutions, some eventually returned to the University, while others
ended their college days.
This action naturally caused an uproar; neither the Faculty nor the
Regents were unanimous in approval of these measures; while the citizens
of Ann Arbor held an indignation meeting and appointed a committee to
ask the Legislature for a change in the administration of the
University. The Faculty prepared a report to the Regents stating their
case strongly and even bitterly, characterizing the whole history of
these three societies as "a detail of obliquities," and their "extended
affiliations as a great irresponsible authority, a monster power, which
lays its hand upon every College Faculty in our country"; they were also
fearful of the "debauchery, drunkenness, pugilism, and duelling, ... and
the despotic power of disorder and ravagism, rife among their German
prototypes." This report was signed by all the Faculty, though the
opinion was not unanimous, nor had all the actions of individual members
been consistent.
The Regents also made a report sustaining the Faculty, and both were
submitted to the Legislature, accompanied by a reply made by the seven
reinstated students, who denied the charges. They even maintained that
Rule 20 was a dead letter and that one of the Professors, when consulted
at the time one of the fraternities was founded, did not disapprove, or
quote this law. A memorial was also submitted by fifteen "neutral"
students sustaining the Faculty and suggesting that the threatened
legislation, which was advocated by the committee of Ann Arbor citizens,
was the greatest obstacle to harmony. Unfortunately this legislative
action was just what seemed inevitable for some time. The Ann Arbor
citizens represented that the University was failing, and that the only
way to save it was by an entire change in its organic law, the
appointment of a new Faculty, and the recognition of that natural right
of man--to form secret societies if he so elects.
Their case before the Legislature, however, had been weakened by the
action of two students who had circulated a week or so in advance a
garbled and caricatured form of the Faculty report, which had been
submitted honorably to the students to enable them to make a reply if
they so desired. This undoubtedly prejudiced the student case when the
truth became known, and the net result was no action by the Legislature
on any of the memorials. With the withdrawal of the bill, the Faculty
and the Regents were left to handle the question as seemed best to them.
In the meantime, however, the opposition to the suppression of the
societies had become so widespread and aggressive that one by one the
fraternities were "conditionally" reinstated in October, 1850.
While the upshot of all this hostility was, superficially, only a return
to the _status quo_, the students had won their point. The germ of the
trouble probably lay in the difference between the paternalistic
attitude of the Faculty, traditional in all colleges of the time, and
the beginning of a new and progressive spirit in University life. The
students had been brought up in an atmosphere which developed
individuality and self-reliance and they resented a meticulous
regulation of their lives and doubtless contrasted it unfavorably with
what they knew of European Universities. The whole fraternity struggle
of 1848-50 may then be regarded, in part at least, as a successful
effort on the students' part to ensure a different and more liberal
policy toward student life and affairs on the part of the authorities.
Not the least of the troubles this contest brought to the University was
the revelation of its weakness, not only the plainly evident lack of
harmony within the Faculty, but also the practical demonstration it
furnished of the Faculty's lack of real power. The reasons for this go
back once more to the act establishing the University, which allowed the
Regents to delegate to the Faculties only such authority as they saw
fit, in practice not any too much, for the Regents maintained apparently
a close and personal supervision over the University. This was shown by
the habit of some members of the Board, notably Major Kearsley of
Detroit, of conducting final oral examinations at the end of the term.
Major Kearsley, a veteran of the War of 1812, was something of a
martinet and prided himself upon his learning; so he usually gave the
students a very hard time. He was soon dubbed "Major Tormentum" from
_majora tormenta_, the name given big guns, or cannon, in a Latin "Life
of Washington" then used in the classes. His visits finally ceased after
the students found out how to deal with him and came loaded with "grape
and canister," as one member of the class of '48 put it, to return his
heavy fire.
From its earliest days the University insisted upon maintaining a
non-sectarian character, but this did not imply any lack of religious
training or supervision,--quite the contrary, as has been suggested. The
scarcity of representatives of the cloth on the first Board of Regents
did not pass unremarked, and it was but a short time before several
clergymen, one a Catholic priest, became members of the governing body,
to offset the preponderance of lawyers and politicians and to furnish
the Board the benefits of their presumably wider experience in
educational matters. Every effort was made, however, to keep a proper
balance among the different persuasions, and all the Protestant churches
came to feel that they had almost a vested right to representation, as
the long list of "Reverends" in the first Faculty list shows. Professor
Williams was an Episcopalian; Dr. Whedon, a Methodist; Professor Agnew,
a Presbyterian; and Professor Ten Brook, a Baptist. Whenever a vacancy
occurred, the question of religious affiliations was at least as
important in the ultimate selection of the candidates, as any
qualifications in the subject to be taught. This situation naturally led
to a certain degree of rivalry, partisanship, and lack of co-operation
in the Faculty.
To this the lack of a Chancellor during those earlier years only added
further confusion. From the first the Regents had proposed the
appointment of such an officer, but in the absence of any clear notion
of their authority and his precise duties the matter was allowed to
lapse, until the financial difficulties of the early years after the
University opened made it clearly obvious that such an officer would be
something of a luxury. The matter was settled by making each professor
in turn President, or Principal, for one year, a practice which
continued until the appointment of President, or Chancellor, Tappan in
1852. This alternation in office was approved as eminently democratic
and as following the practice of the German Universities, the ideal of
the time. In a report submitted by the Board of Visitors in 1850, the
plan was commended and it was even urged that the monarchical feature of
a Chancellor should be struck out of the Organic Law, and the system
then in force thereby fixed for all time.
Nevertheless the plan was none too successful in application. There was
too much opportunity for jealousy and too little central authority. This
is shown plainly in the contest which arose over the hours of teaching
as the numbers in the University grew. The emphasis in the curriculum
upon the classics has been noted. This threw the burden of almost the
whole course of study upon Professor Agnew after the services of a
single tutor were dispensed with in 1846. Professors Whedon and Ten
Brook were therefore called upon to assist him, which they did
unwillingly, Professor Whedon finally refusing to hear further classes
in Greek.
The trouble grew and finally resulted in the resignation of Professor
Ten Brook in 1851, because of the opposition of three other members of
the Faculty. In after years he came to consider this action a mistake;
particularly as he had the respect and friendship of the Board of
Regents, who brought about the downfall of his opponents within six
months. This began in an action against Professor Whedon, who had for
some time aroused opposition by his pronounced anti-slavery views. As a
result of this feeling, on December 31, 1851, at the last session of the
Board of Regents by appointment before a new Board elected under the new
State Constitution was to take its place, a resolution was introduced
requesting the removal of the Rev. D.D. Whedon for the reason that he
had--
not only publicly preached, but otherwise openly advocated the
doctrine called "the higher law," a doctrine which is unauthorized
by the Bible, at war with the principles, precepts and examples of
Christ and his Apostles, subversive alike of civil government,
civil society, and the legal rights of individual citizens, and in
effect constitutes, in the opinion of this Board, a species of
moral treason against the Government.
This resolution seems to have expressed the real sentiment of the
Regents; but the actual measure passed was a resolution declaring, that
in view of the fact that a new Board of Regents was to take charge and
appoint a President, it was expedient that the terms of Professors
Williams, Whedon, and Agnew terminate at the close of the year. This was
an out and out partisan matter, as there was no reason for such action
inherent in the change of the governing body, particularly as it did not
affect two members of the Faculty who had avoided participation in this
family jar. The new Board chose, however, to act upon it and the three
resignations were accepted. Professor Williams was later reappointed, as
he had apparently taken a minor part in the opposition to Professor Ten
Brook. This whole episode was most unfortunate and was brought about by
the lack of a strong guiding administrative policy. Professor Ten Brook
in his later review generously says of these men: "A stronger body of
men of the same number was probably never associated in such an opening
enterprise," and again, "We should find that their merits would be
magnified and their mistakes diminished by a consideration of the
complicated, and till then unknown difficulties with which they had to
contend."
With a Chancellor to guide and direct the Faculty and to exert, on
occasion, a restraining hand, a large part of these troubles might have
been avoided. The Regents had early discovered their dependence upon the
whims of the Legislature, particularly in financial matters, while the
Superintendent of Public Instruction was given too much authority. In
fact, a Committee of the Legislature appointed as early as 1840 stated
in its report: "A Board of experienced Regents could manage the funds
and machinery of the University better than any Legislature; and the
Faculty could manage the business of education--the interior of a
College--better than any Regents."
This was becoming recognized; the University's difficulties only
emphasized what had become a general opinion. Accordingly the sections
of the new Constitution of 1850 relating to the University were
thoroughly discussed in the Convention; with the result that certain new
provisions were incorporated which gave the University of Michigan a
unique standing among state universities. Particularly important were
the measures relating to the Board of Regents. In the first place, it
was provided that they should be elected by the people, one for each
judicial district, and at the same time the judges of each circuit were
elected. Ten years later the latter provision was changed so that the
number of Regents was definitely fixed at eight; two to be elected every
two years at the regular election of the justices of the Supreme Court.
In the second place, it was provided that while the Regents should have
only general supervision of the University, they should have the
direction and control of all expenditures from the University interest
fund. These provisions were far-reaching. They made the Board of Regents
a constituent part of the State Government, on an equality as regards
powers with the Governor, the Legislature, and the Supreme Court.
From the time this action went into effect we may date the larger growth
of the University. The selection of the Regents is as far removed from
political influence as it is possible to make it under our electoral
system, and they are given absolute control of the income of the
University and the appropriations of the Legislature, once they are
made; provided of course they are used for the purposes designated.
A further provision of the Constitution specified the immediate
appointment of a President. The old plan was not considered suitable for
an American college. This sentiment was so strong that the Convention
was unwilling to leave this matter to the discretion of the Regents and
therefore they made action imperative. All that was necessary now was
the adaptation of the organic Act of the University to the new
Constitution. This was accomplished on April 8, 1851, when a new Act was
adopted, in essentials far simpler and more general in its terms than
the old one, which left the University free to enter upon the remarkable
growth and expansion which began with the administration of President
Tappan.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATIONS
The new University Act had charged the Regents with the duty of electing
a President immediately. It was some time, however, before they found
the right man, Henry Philip Tappan, LL.D., who was inaugurated as the
first President of the University of Michigan on December 22, 1852. Dr.
Tappan's name was first suggested by George Bancroft, the historian, who
was also considered for the position, but there was some opposition,
which seems to have centered about the fact that Dr. Tappan had once
consulted a homeopathic physician, and he was not elected until August
12.
President, or as he was often called, Chancellor Tappan was a man of
wide culture, of established reputation as a scholar, and an author on
philosophical and educational subjects. His personality was magnetic and
commanding, but it was combined with a frank and fatherly attitude
toward his students which won their immediate and life-long friendship.
Born at Rhinebeck on the Hudson, of mixed Dutch and Huguenot ancestry,
on April 18, 1805, he came to Michigan in time to give his best years to
his new work. Many of his friends may well have been astonished at his
acceptance of a post in a tiny college far on the outskirts of a village
in the Western wilderness, which carried with it the munificent salary
of $1,500, together with a house and an additional $500 for traveling
expenses. Yet he came. The principles of the University agreed with the
ideals he had received in his long study of European methods and his
personal experiences in German schools. He determined to make a real
university in the West; he fixed his glance upon the opportunities for
future development rather than the bareness and inevitable crudity of
pioneer life. For the first time he found his cherished ideas embodied
in the provision for a state university; and though he realized they had
not been made effective, he believed that in the West, if anywhere, was
his opportunity to put them into actual practice, unhampered by the
traditions which had grown up everywhere in the East.
The new President, in the first catalogue issued under his
administration, let the world know in no uncertain terms what the
University was to become as long as his was the guiding hand. He traced
the succession of state schools up to and through the University, where,
he declared, it was his purpose "to make it possible for every student
to study what he pleases, and to any extent he pleases."
Some of his proposed measures must be regarded as prophecies for the
future; they could hardly have been taken seriously at the time. They
are not all realized even now; but they show the breadth of his
conception of a real university. He emphasized openly the correspondence
between the Michigan and the German systems of education, and declared
that;
It is the cardinal object to make this correspondence as complete
as possible. Hence, it is proposed to make the studies here pursued
not only introductory to professional studies, and to studies in
the higher branches of science and literature, but also to embrace
such studies as are more particularly adapted to agriculture, the
mechanic arts, and to the industrial arts generally. Accordingly, a
distinct scientific course has been added, running parallel to the
classical course, extending through the same term of four years,
and embracing the same number of classes with the same
designations.
These ideas he put into practice at once and Michigan became the first
university in the country to introduce practical scientific courses
within the regular arts curriculum, and, following Harvard by only a few
years, was the second university in the country to break away from the
accepted hard and fast course in which the humanities were the beginning
and the end of education, acknowledging the claims of science by
granting the degree of Bachelor of Science. He was likewise a pioneer in
other ways; for the University was the first to recognize the needs of
special students who, while not seeking a degree, were anxious to pursue
studies in special subjects.
President Tappan was wise enough not to seek the establishment of his
grand object at once, but he did announce in that first catalogue that
he proposed--
at as early a day as practicable, to open courses of lectures for
those who have graduated at this or other institutions, and for
those who in other ways have made such preparation as may enable
them to attend upon them with advantage.
Here was the germ of a Graduate School, though for many years the
lectures were more in evidence in the catalogue of the University than
in the class room. He was sufficiently practical to realize that the
collegiate course, "with its schoolmaster methods and discipline," of
his time must be retained for a period, though he aimed eventually to
transfer its work to the high school, gradually swinging the University
to "true university methods, free and manly habits of study and
investigation." He also aimed to gather about him a Faculty in which
every chair was filled by a man of exceptional ability and thorough
training, "not a picked up, but a picked out man," to quote Professor
Frieze in his Memorial Address on Dr. Tappan.
These are the cardinal principles which guided Michigan's first
President throughout his career in the University, and, as ideals, have
been a powerful factor in its growth since his time. More apparent to
his contemporaries were the immediate benefits of his strong
administration. He saw at once the urgent need of more funds for the
library and obtained a subscription from Ann Arbor citizens of some
$1,515, to which the Regents added $300, resulting in an increase of
1,200 volumes. From that time dates the steady and consistent growth of
the University Library. Even more pressing appeared to him the need for
an astronomical observatory. From the very day of his inauguration, he
made the raising of sufficient funds for this purpose one of his first
tasks and so effective were his efforts that the Observatory was opened
in 1855; the result of a gift of $15,000 by citizens of Detroit, to
which the University had added an appropriation of $7,000. This gave
Michigan one of the three well-equipped observatories in the country at
that time. The telescope, a thirteen-inch objective, was purchased in
this country, but other items of equipment were obtained in Berlin under
the advice of Professor Encke, the Director of the Royal Observatory,
whose assistant, Dr. Bruennow, came to America as Michigan's first
Professor of Astronomy.
It was during Dr. Tappan's administration also that the professional
departments, as they were long called, came into their own. The Medical
School had been organized since 1849, when the first building was
completed at a cost of about $9,000; but the work was only fairly under
way when he came. The new department was opened in October, 1850, with
ninety matriculates and grew with extraordinary rapidity, so that for
the first years the enrolment exceeded that of the Literary Department.
When Dr. Tappan left the University in 1863 there were 252 students in
the Medical Department and by 1866-67 their number increased to 525, the
largest enrolment in the history of the School. The creation of a Law
Department was considered at the same time the Medical Department was
organized, but lack of resources as well as any enthusiastic support
from the legal profession in the State postponed its opening for ten
years. The growing number of petitions for its establishment, however,
finally led to the opening of the School in 1859 with a Faculty of
three, and ninety-two students. Hardly less important was the
establishment in 1855 of a course in civil engineering. It was organized
in connection with the Department of Physics, however, and did not
attain to the dignity of a separate department with its own head for
many years. Even so modest a beginning as this for technical courses in
the University found precedent in those days only at Harvard. Lack of
funds and co-operation from the Legislature seems to have been the only
reason which led to the abandonment of plans for the creation of
departments of Agriculture and Military Science which were seriously
considered at that time.
The inauguration of these different schools was all a part of Dr.
Tappan's scheme for the development of a true university. Though he
deplored their necessarily lowered requirements, he saw the day when
they would be graduate departments, as in effect the Law and Medical
Schools are in the way of becoming now, at least insofar as they require
a minimum of two years' work in the Literary College before the student
is permitted to enter upon his professional studies. They formed, as it
was, with the various scientific courses established in the Literary
Department, a significant departure from the single "cast iron" course
of the Eastern colleges. By very reason of this innovation Michigan, in
President White's words, "stands at the beginning of the transition of
the old sectarian college to the modern university."
In all this President Tappan's influence was vital. He entered
whole-heartedly into the life of the University, displaying a remarkable
shrewdness and charity in his dealings with the students, and
sympathizing heartily with the work of every professor. One of his
students, Byron M. Cutcheon, '61, afterward a Regent of the University,
thus describes him:
As I remember him, he was fully six feet tall, with a grand head
set upon massive shoulders. A full suite of dark brown hair, worn
rather long and considerably disordered, crowned and adorned his
head. His face ... was pleasant and attractive though never
exhibiting levity, and rarely, humor. The nose was large and
somewhat Roman. The rather long side beard had not yet turned gray.
His carriage was upright and dignified. I never saw him in a hurry.
He was always approachable, but never familiar nor invited
familiarity.
The powerful frame and compelling presence of Chancellor Tappan are well
portrayed in the magnificent bas-relief by Karl Bitter, now in Alumni
Memorial Hall, a fitting tribute to his influence upon the University on
the part of his former students. Especially noteworthy is his
representation here with his favorite mastiff, "Leo," his inseparable
companion. No reminiscence of a student of that time is complete
without mention of "Leo" and his later companion "Buff," an only
slightly less huge animal acquired during the later years of Dr.
Tappan's administration. So when, in the popular air of the sixties, his
students asked:
"Where, O where, is Dr. Tappan?"
The answer was:
"He went up on Buff and Leo,
Safe now in the Promised Land."
President Tappan was not fortunate in his appearances before the State
Legislature to ask for appropriations. He was too good a speaker not to
command a hearing, but his repeated references to the German prototypes
of the University were resented; while the opposition of the smaller
church colleges, who represented the unsectarian character of the
University as "Godless," was very evident in the indifferent and even
discourteous attitude of the individual members of the Legislature.
Finally President Tappan became disgusted and as he left, never to
return, he made the memorable prophecy: "The day will come, gentlemen,
when my boys will take your places, and then something will be done for
the University." Within a decade this began to come true, but not in
time to save to the University the services of Dr. Tappan.
It was one of the University's greatest misfortunes that her first
President was not permitted to work out his plans. The story of his
removal is a sad one, though fortunately the issues were largely
personal and did not involve fundamental University policies. When Dr.
Tappan came to Michigan he found the Faculty and Regents entirely ready
to co-operate with him; glad, in fact, to have a strong hand at last at
the helm. The Board sympathized with his ideals and the Faculty seconded
him loyally in all his efforts. This happy state of affairs continued
from 1852 to 1858, when, in conformity with the constitutional provision
of 1850, a new Board of Regents succeeded the one which had chosen him
as President. This Board was not only entirely new, but it was composed
of men who lacked what would seem to be the elementary qualifications
for such a task; in fact, few if any of them had had any academic
training whatever. Nevertheless this did not in the least embarrass
them, and they proceeded at once to take a very active part in
University life. It soon became evident that there was a great
difference between their views as to the duties of the President, and
those of Dr. Tappan, who assumed that, as executive officer, his
authority in the internal affairs of the University and over the Faculty
was, under certain limitations, comprehensive and effective. He could
not see how the University could properly develop otherwise.
The new Regents, on the contrary, seemed to feel that not only the
administration of the University finances but a great share of the
legislative and administrative power rested with them; and they
proceeded to act upon that assumption. They prepared a set of rules for
the conduct of the University without consulting President Tappan, and
appointed a series of executive committees which seriously limited his
control. Certain of the Regents were particularly aggressive, especially
Levi Bishop, the Detroit member of the Board, who for a long period
wrote anonymous articles on the University in a Detroit paper, giving
his biased view of all that happened in the Regents' meetings. The Ann
Arbor Regent, Donald MacIntyre, whose banking office became the
unofficial center of University affairs, also proved himself unfriendly
to the President.
The Faculty, unfortunately, was divided in its sympathies. It may be
said that Dr. Tappan possessed the defects of his qualities. He showed a
certain lack of fellowship and understanding in dealing with some of his
associates and assumed, perhaps unconsciously, an air of authority and
an attitude of superiority which was resented. Where his pre-eminent
position was unquestioned, as in his relations with the students and
with the people of the State, the charm and graciousness of his manner
and his parental kindness won him universal friendship and respect.
Moreover Dr. Tappan was courageous, generous, and direct in all his
dealings, in spite of that touch of condescension. He insisted strongly,
however, on what he regarded as his prerogatives and exhibited a certain
lack of diplomacy and forbearance in dealing with the Regents and
Faculty, which under ordinary circumstances would have been regarded as
the personal idiosyncrasy of a great man. But with a majority of the
Regents definitely opposed to him from the first and with a growing
Faculty cabal in support, it weighed heavily against him. His every
action was criticized. Though he was a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed
Church, and was affiliated with the Presbyterian church in Ann Arbor, he
emphasized the University's non-sectarian character, and paid no
attention to the denominational affiliations of the candidates in making
appointments to the Faculty. He carried this policy so far that he took
no active part in the affairs of his own church in Ann Arbor, a course
which was resented by the Presbyterians, while it won him no friends in
the other churches which he attended impartially. His European habit of
serving wine at his table also was severely censured, particularly by
the local Regent, who was a Presbyterian and a strong prohibitionist.
Finally, his efforts to maintain a high standard in the Faculty by
holding in subordinate positions men who had not proved their ability
did not increase the number of friends among his colleagues.
A change was anticipated in 1864, when a new Board of Regents offered
promise of a different order. Dr. Tappan therefore, in spite of many
temptations to resign, continued to hold his position, largely because
of the appeals of his friends, particularly students and alumni, to
"stick it out." But certain members of the old Board, it was said, had
stated that they would bring about his removal before the end of their
term. The event proved their intention, for the retiring Board, on June
25, 1863, without warning, and only giving him a few hours to offer his
resignation, summarily removed him from the offices and duties of
President and Professor of Philosophy. At the same meeting Dr. Tappan's
son was also removed from the position of Librarian, which he had held
most successfully for some years, while Dr. Bruennow, who had married his
only daughter, was dismissed from the Professorship of Astronomy, where
he had contributed so much to the reputation of the University. The
Board then elected to the Presidency and the Professorship of Rhetoric
and English Literature Dr. Erastus O. Haven, who had served as Professor
of Latin, and later of History and English Literature, from 1852 to
1856, and who had afterward been engaged in the publication of a
religious paper of the Methodist Church in Boston. Dr. L.D. Chapin,
Amherst, '51, pastor of the Ann Arbor Presbyterian church, who was among
those considered for the Presidency, was elected to the Professorship
of Moral Philosophy.
Dr. Tappan never returned to Michigan. He spent the rest of his life in
Europe and died in Vevey, Switzerland, in 1881. He had come to Ann Arbor
with high hopes, the fulfilment of a desire to take part in the
"creation of an American University deserving the name," and his
disappointment and disillusionment was a crushing blow. His spirit still
lived, however, in the institution he loved and served, for we know now
that no man has had so large a share as he in shaping the course the
University was to take or insuring a proper direction of the first
steps. When he came he found a small struggling college of 222 students;
when he left there were 652 students in three flourishing departments
and the beginning of a real University. Were he alive today he would
realize that his great work was not in vain. The earnest invitation of
the Regents that he be the honored guest of the University at the 1875
Commencement, which was declined because of failing health, must have
softened bitter memories, particularly as the message of acknowledgment
included a statement renewing the invitation for the following year and
incorporated a resolution erasing all criticism from the Regents'
record.
The situation which faced his successor was a delicate one. The removal
of Dr. Tappan had created a storm which grew rather than decreased, and
President Haven found an unfriendly community and a hostile student body
awaiting him. Every effort, in fact, was being made to secure the
re-election of Dr. Tappan as soon as the new Board of Regents was in
authority. President Haven, however, who had known nothing of the
circumstances which led to the removal of Dr. Tappan when he accepted
the Presidency, showed great wisdom and tact in this emergency. He won
the respect of every one by an announcement that he did not intend to
stay unless re-elected by the new Board, and appealed for harmony and
good feeling in the face of what was to all a difficult situation. At
their first session the new Board of Regents considered the recalling of
Dr. Tappan. Floods of letters had been received from alumni, students,
and friends of the University, advocating such action, but the Regents
felt that this course would be unwise as it would have involved
practically a reorganization of the whole Faculty. The personal
character of the trouble which resulted in the removal of Dr. Tappan,
emphasized later by an injudicious statement issued at the suggestion of
some of his friends, would have rendered such a course almost
inevitable.
Dr. Haven was not a man of the powerful caliber of his predecessor but
he proved a most satisfactory administrator during a trying period. Of a
more conservative temper, he devoted himself to caring for the immediate
affairs of the University rather than the problems of future
development. He was born in Boston, November 1, 1820, and was graduated
from Wesleyan University in 1842. After a few years spent in teaching,
he entered the ministry of the Methodist Church, but resigned in 1852 to
accept the professorship of Latin in the University. Like his
predecessor, he had an extraordinary ability as a speaker, though he was
more given to epigrams and felicities of expression, with which his
speeches fairly sparkled. His characteristic humor, quoted by Professor
Winchell in his Memorial Address, is illustrated by the following
passage:
Might not a parasite on the back of an ox ... having found out by
actual measurement the circumference of the ox, and by
mathematical calculation, the diameter of the ox, and having
ascertained that as he inserted his proboscis into the hide of the
animal, say the sixteenth of an inch, it gradually and regularly
grew warmer, infer, in like manner (as the geologist) that the
center of the animal was red hot lava!
[Illustration: HENRY PHILIP TAPPAN, LL.D. (1805-1881)
The first President of the University, 1852-1863
(From a bas-relief by Karl Bitter in Alumni Memorial Hall)]
[Illustration: ERASTUS OTIS HAVEN, LL.D. (1820-1881)
President of the University, 1863-1869]
[Illustration: HENRY SIMMONS FRIEZE (1817-1889)
Professor of Latin, 1854-1889
Acting President of the University, 1869-1871, 1880-1882]
Dr. Haven, in spite of his active denominational ties, was a strong
supporter of the non-sectarianism of the University. "I maintain," he
said, "that a State University in this country should be religious. It
should be Christian without being sectarian," and again, "Those
questions upon which denominations differ--however vital they may
appear--should be left to their acknowledged teachers outside the
University."
In his general policy he faithfully followed the paths which had been
laid out for the University's development; and despite predicted
disaster he saw a great increase in her material welfare and her
standing in the academic world during the six years he was President.
Within four years the attendance practically doubled from 652 in 1862-63
to 1,255 in 1866-67. This was due to the great and somewhat
disproportionate growth of the two professional schools, which were now
well under way, and to the reaction following the falling off of
students during the Civil War. In 1864 a School of Mines was announced,
but it did not prove successful and was soon absorbed in a Department of
Mining Engineering which in turn failed to survive. In 1867-68 a Latin
and Scientific course was established, substituting modern languages for
Greek as cultural studies, an innovation which speedily proved popular
and widely imitated. A course in Pharmacy was first given in 1868,
though it did not become a Department for some years. The Library also
grew from 13,000 volumes in 1864 to 17,000 in 1869, including one gift
to the law library of 800 volumes. Other gifts increased the scientific
resources of the University.
This growth in students and in the scope of the curriculum made
additions to the buildings and equipment imperative. The Medical
Building was enlarged by a new section, erected at a cost of $20,000,
one-half of which was raised by the townspeople of Ann Arbor by general
taxation; while an addition to the Observatory and its general
renovation cost $6,000, an expense again defrayed by Ann Arbor and
Detroit citizens. A much needed addition to the Chemical Laboratory was
also made, and one of the dwelling houses on the Campus was made into a
Hospital.
The financial situation during most of this period, however, was
threatening. The great increase in the cost of living which followed the
Civil War was making existence difficult for the whole University. The
total income was but $60,000, while the average professor's salary was
only $1,500. Up to this time the State had contributed nothing to the
University for its support, aside from the loan made in 1838, though it
was glad enough to bask in the reputation which the great and growing
institution brought to the Commonwealth. The University, in fact, had
grown beyond its resources, and something had to be done. The Regents
accordingly took the University's case to the Legislature, which
granted, in 1867, a tax of one-twentieth of a mill on each dollar of the
taxable resources of the State, yielding a prospective income of about
$16,000 annually--provided, however, that a Professor of Homeopathy be
appointed in the Department of Medicine and Surgery.
This actually proved worse than nothing, for it increased tenfold the
difficulties of the University and precipitated a long and violent
discussion which nearly disrupted the Medical Department. The Regents
were not compelled to take the money; so they postponed action and
sought to evade the issue by proposing to establish a Department of
Homeopathy in some other place than Ann Arbor. But this was held illegal
by the Supreme Court and the matter was again postponed. At the end of
two years, partly at least as a result of President Haven's masterly
statement of the University's plight before the Legislature, a new law
was finally passed giving the University not only an annual subsidy of
$15,500 for the two ensuing years, but granting also the sum that had
accumulated for two years as a result of the first Act. Thus was the
University saved once more. The Board was not only enabled to bring the
University's facilities into correspondence with its rapid growth; but
more to the point, it could now increase the salaries of the Faculty so
that full Professors in the Literary Department at last received the
$2,000 originally provided in 1837. This relief was of the utmost
importance. Still more significant was the fact that a new policy was
inaugurated by which the necessity of state support for the University
was recognized; support which has never since been withheld, for the tax
was successively increased to one-sixth of a mill in 1893, to one-fourth
in 1899, and finally in 1907 to the present three-eighths of a mill. At
last Michigan, in the fullest sense of the term, became _the_ University
of the State of Michigan.
This was the culmination of President Haven's administration. A few
weeks later he resigned to accept the Presidency of Northwestern
University, a school maintained by his own denomination, where he
doubtless felt there were wider opportunities in his chosen field. His
resignation was accepted by the Regents with regret and the declaration
that the success of the University during the preceding six years "to a
large extent had been due to his learning, skill, assiduity, and eminent
virtues," a statement which was given added force by an unsuccessful
attempt to have him return during the interregnum of two years that
followed. He died in Salem, Oregon, August 2, 1881.
The Regents were not able at once to find a successor to President
Haven, so Professor Henry S. Frieze, who held the chair of Latin, was
appointed Acting President. This position he filled so successfully for
two years that he was asked informally whether he would accept the
Presidency. The choice, however, fell in turn upon Professor Julius H.
Seelye of Amherst College and President James B. Angell of the
University of Vermont, both of whom visited Ann Arbor but afterward
declined the appointment.
Meanwhile the good fortune which led to the selection of Dr. Frieze as
Acting President was shown by two important measures which were the
outstanding features of his administration. For many years there had
been a growing sentiment in favor of the admission of women to the
University, which had been steadily resisted by the students, Faculties,
and Regents. President Haven had come to see its inevitability,
particularly in a state institution, and perhaps its advisability, but
successive discussions had only postponed action from year to year. So
it was not until January 5, 1870, that the great step was taken in the
following innocuous resolution:
_Resolved_, That the Board of Regents recognize the right of every
resident of Michigan to the enjoyment of the privileges afforded by
the University, and that no rule exists in any of the University
statutes for the exclusion of any person from the University who
possesses the requisite literary and moral qualifications.
[Illustration: THE TWO MAIN BUILDINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY ABOUT 1860
(From an old photograph)]
Great was the opposition, particularly from students and Faculties. The
Medical Department was especially concerned and even organized an
elaborate duplication of courses with an increase of $500 in
professorial salaries, measures which later proved unnecessary. One
month later, on February 2, 1870, the first woman was enrolled in the
University; Miss Madelon L. Stockwell, now Mrs. Charles K. Turner of
Kalamazoo. She was the only woman student until the fall term, when
eleven others entered the Literary Department, three the Department of
Pharmacy, eighteen the Department of Medicine, and two the Department of
Law, with four graduating the following June. Tradition has it that they
had a hard time at first. They were treated with indifferent courtesy,
college journalism had its fling at them, many boarding places were not
open to them, and in fact life was made as unpleasant as possible. But
they had good friends in the President and in many members of the
Faculties; they asked no favors, and they gained the education on a
masculine plane they sought. The experiment proved successful, as the
roster of Michigan alumnae will show; and it was not long before
co-education became the rule in all American colleges save the older
institutions of the East.
Michigan now, as we have seen, was a state institution in reality as
well as in name; but the educational arch of which she was the keystone
was not yet completed. The earlier close connection between the
University and the schools of the State, contemplated when the branches
were established, had proved impossible of realization, and the union
high schools which soon succeeded them were tied to the University only
incidentally and indirectly through the influence of such teachers as
had been students at the University. Their graduates came in increasing
numbers, it is true, but they were admitted by examination upon the same
basis as the graduates of any school.
The Acting President saw the need of a closer relationship, which would
not only strengthen the high schools, but would relieve the University
of its elementary courses by eventually making the high schools the
equivalent of the German Gymnasia; in effect the present junior
colleges, the establishment of which we are now witnessing in all the
larger high schools. Professor Frieze therefore proposed that special
faculty committees be sent to examine the character of the work in the
high schools of the State. If this were approved, a certificate stating
that a proper preliminary course was satisfactorily completed, would
admit any student to the University without examination. This simple
plan was severely criticized by some educational authorities of the time
as revolutionary and as a lowering of standards. It soon justified
itself, however, and has come to be the general practice; in fact, it
has also been extended to cover a reciprocal arrangement on the part of
all the leading state universities as well as many of the privately
endowed institutions. Again Michigan led the way.
The growth of the University continued undiminished, and soon the need
of a large auditorium became increasingly apparent, to say nothing of
more offices and class rooms. The Legislature therefore voted in 1869
the sum of $75,000 for the erection of the present main section of
University Hall lying between the two original wings, the first
buildings of the University. This included a large auditorium, seating
nearly 3,000 persons, with a chapel and the necessary offices and
recitation rooms on the first floor. The tower, which was the striking
feature of this building, was replaced in 1898 by the lower and much
safer dome of the present time.
The ability and success with which Dr. Frieze had conducted the affairs
of the University was publicly recognized by the Board of Regents at the
end of his term, and it was on his advice that the invitation was once
more extended to his former pupil at Brown University, Dr. James B.
Angell; this time with successful results.
CHAPTER V
PRESIDENT ANGELL AND PRESIDENT HUTCHINS
Dr. Angell, fresh from his work in the East as Professor of Modern
Languages at Brown University, war-time editor of the _Providence
Journal_, and President of the University of Vermont, came to Michigan
eight years after the departure of President Tappan. The Faculty of
thirty-five which greeted him was a brilliant company, though small in
comparison with a roll over ten times as long when he resigned his
office. The catalogue of 1871 shows 1,110 students in the University at
that time; at the end of his term of office there were 5,223. The
thirty-eight years of his administration not only covered a significant
period in the history of American education but it was as well a
critical time in the life of the University. In the years between 1871
and 1909 the University showed, once for all, that the experiment
involved in its establishment, the popularization of education and the
maintenance of a school system and a university by the State, was not
only justified but even more, it was extraordinarily successful.
While the University might have developed much as it has without the
guidance of President Angell, it may be questioned whether it would have
been as effective as a leader in the new movement. The principles which
underlie the state university system were stated well by the founders,
who incorporated the fundamental idea of popular education in the first
constitution of the State, and Michigan's first great President,
Chancellor Tappan, tried his best to make them practical. But he was
ahead of his time, and it was not until President Angell took the helm
that there was progress towards a true University. When he came Michigan
was still in many respects little more than a collection of colleges. It
was the work of Dr. Angell to build, and to build well, upon foundations
already laid; to harmonize, with practical idealism and diplomacy, the
advanced ideals of the University with the slower progress of the
Commonwealth. While it has come to be no reproach upon the fame of Dr.
Tappan that he failed in just this particular, it is the great
achievement of Dr. Angell that he succeeded. He made Michigan the model
for all succeeding state universities.
The new President was born in Scituate, R.I., January 7, 1829, of good
New England stock. Throughout his youth he lived the simple life of a
country boy, attending the village school, the academy of one Isaac
Fiske, a Quaker pedagogue,--until he was ready for more advanced studies
at the academies of Seekonk, Mass., and North Scituate.
This early training, in his later estimation, furnished the best
possible instruction, because it involved personal attention from
special instructors, a good old-fashioned method which the rapid
development of this country has made almost impossible, yet a practice
for which he stood consistently as far as possible throughout his whole
career as an educator. In speaking of his early schooling he said that
"no plan had been marked out for me; being fond of study and almost
equally fond of all branches, I took nearly everything that was taught,
merely because it was taught."
His health as a boy, however, was delicate, giving small promise of his
hale and hearty fourscore years, and he spent perforce two years, from
fourteen to sixteen, on a farm. As to the value of this experience, far
from uncommon in the lives of many men eminent in the history of this
country, he said, "I prize very highly the education I received then. I
learned how much backache a dollar earned in the field represents." He
prepared for Brown University at a "grammar school" in Providence, where
he studied under Henry S. Frieze, destined to become his immediate
predecessor in the Presidency of Michigan. He was graduated from Brown,
with highest honors, in 1849.
This early New England training was particularly fortunate for one who
was to come into such close relationship with the pioneer settlers of
Michigan,--New Englanders to a very large extent. Equally fortunate was
his later training. His first residence abroad, where he acquired the
familiarity with modern languages which fitted him for his first
professorship, had been preceded by a year as assistant in the library
at Brown University; then he became tutor, and later a student of civil
engineering in the office of the city engineer of Boston. In fact, he
spent this period to such advantage that later, upon his return from
Europe, he was given the choice of a professorship either in civil
engineering or modern languages, an evidence of the wide range of his
interests. He finally chose modern languages as his subject, and entered
upon his career as a teacher, where he developed the highest
qualifications. He remained at Brown for seven years.
Many articles and reviews published in the _Providence Journal_
justified his selection in 1860 as the editor of that paper, a position
which he held throughout the Civil War with singular distinction.
In 1866, Dr. Angell was offered the Presidency of the University of
Vermont, and he accepted it. He took charge of the University when its
fortunes were at a low ebb, and the future was not bright. It was due
to the administrative ability of the new President as well as to his
ripe experience and culture that the day was saved and Vermont
prospered, intellectually and financially, during the five years of his
administration.
Of his decision to come to Michigan, Dr. Angell said twenty-five years
later: "While, with much embarrassment, I was debating the question in
my own mind whether I should come here, I fell in with a friend who had
very large business interests, and he made this very suggestive remark
to me: 'Given the long lever, it is no harder to lift a big load than it
is with a shorter one to lift a smaller load.' I decided to try the end
of the longer lever."
James Burrill Angell was inaugurated President of the University of
Michigan in June, 1871. From that time his life was the life of the
University except for interludes of diplomatic service in China, Turkey,
and upon various commissions. His diplomatic career, though only
incidental to his life work as an educator, showed that he possessed the
necessary qualifications for what might well have been a very
distinguished career in other fields. At the time of his appointment to
China as Minister Plenipotentiary, diplomatic relations in the East were
decidedly indirect and characteristically Oriental. It had just taken
Germany two years to conclude a rather unimportant commercial treaty,
and upon his arrival at Peking his colleagues in the diplomatic service
laughed at him for supposing that his one year's leave of absence would
suffice for his far more important mission. Yet the revision of the
Burlingame treaty, restricting the importation of cheap coolie labor
into this country, which he sought, was accomplished within two months.
Another important commercial treaty relative to the importation of
opium was likewise completed at the same time. He was also successful in
his mission to Turkey in 1898 and as a member of the Alaska Fisheries
and other international commissions.
But his heart was in his work at Ann Arbor, and thither he always
returned despite flattering temptations to enter diplomatic life. A
great opportunity lay before him when he took up his new duties and he
recognized it. It was his task to bring the State, exemplified in
particular by a not always sympathetic Legislature, and by a Board of
Regents of continually varying complexion, to a realization of the true
function of a university supported by the State. He must arouse the
enthusiasm for education and learning which he knew lay deep in the
hearts of the people of Michigan. As Professor Charles Kendall Adams,
later President of Cornell and Wisconsin, said: "What was called for
first of all was the creation and dissemination of an appreciative
public opinion that would produce, in some way or other, the means
necessary for the adequate support of the University." So well did Dr.
Angell accomplish this purpose that of late years he loved to dwell, in
his speeches before the alumni, upon what he chose to call the "passion
for education" on the part of the people of the State, forgetting
utterly the yeoman service he performed all his life toward bringing
about that same regard for popular education.
It is true that the foundation and declaration of the educational ideals
of the West cannot be ascribed to him. Nevertheless he must be regarded,
more than any other one man, as the successful pilot who avoided the
difficulties which the very novelty of the situation presented. The
comparative freedom from precedent offered an unrivaled opportunity to
try new theories in education, and was a continual temptation to try
policies which must have proved too advanced for the place and the time.
[Illustration: ALUMNI MEMORIAL HALL]
A survey of the educational system in the West at the time he came to
Michigan may be of interest. As regards the number of students, quality
of work, and the eminence of the men upon her Faculties, Michigan stood
far in advance of other state institutions. This very pre-eminence,
however, threw a greater responsibility upon the new President. Lacking
precedents, he had to make them for himself, so that the place of the
state university in the educational world today is in great degree the
measure of success he had in dealing with the practical problems which
confronted him throughout his extraordinarily long term of office. When
he came to Michigan there was only one other state university of any
size, Wisconsin, although several others had already been established.
According to the report of the United States Commissioner of Education
for 1871, none of them except Michigan, and possibly Wisconsin, were in
anything like a flourishing condition. While Michigan had, all told,
1,110 students, of whom 483 were in the Literary Department, Wisconsin
had only 355, omitting a preparatory department of 131 students.
Minnesota had but 167 students with 144 in the preparatory department,
while Kansas enrolled 313. No figures were given for Illinois, which was
then the Illinois Industrial University, and Nebraska, both of which had
been established for several years.
Yet Michigan, although she was well in the lead in point of numbers as
well as in the strength of her professional schools, was far from
realizing her possibilities. It would, of course, be a rash assertion to
say that she has realized them now. But it is safe to say that no state
has maintained more truly the type of the well-rounded university, a
large college of liberal arts, with traditions of culture and
scholarship which began with its very foundation, surrounded by a ring
of effective professional schools.
Two years after he came the present system of revenue from the State was
first made operative. This came in the form of an annual proportion of
the state taxes, fixed at first at one-twentieth of a mill on every
dollar of taxable property; a proportion which continued for twenty
years. Since then it has been increased several times until it is now
three-eighths of a mill on every dollar; it netted the University in
1909, the last year of his administration, $650,000 instead of the
$15,000 of 1873. The total income of the University for that year was
$1,290,000 as against $76,702.52 received during his first year.
It was perhaps on the more strictly academic side of the development of
the University that Dr. Angell's peculiar genius as an administrative
officer was most apparent. When he came, he was forty-two years of age,
and in Professor Hinsdale's words, "brought to his new and responsible
post extended scholarship, familiar acquaintance with society and the
world, administrative experience, a persuasive eloquence, and a
cultivated personality." This urbanity and extraordinary ability as a
speaker won for him from the first a place in the hearts and in the
imaginations of the people of the State. But the most vital
administrative task which faced him was to make Michigan a true
university as distinguished from a college. He had to correlate and
concentrate the various departments, and make them complete by making a
place for effective graduate work. Certain revolutionary measures, such
as the admission of women, the first tentative steps toward free
election of studies, the introduction of a scientific course, had been
instituted by his immediate predecessors; it became his duty to make
them a success.
Almost contemporaneous with Dr. Angell's inauguration as President was
the introduction of the seminar system of teaching, in effect a further
application of the foreign methods; not only should the teacher be an
investigator and searcher after truth, but the student as well; and more
important still, the student should be taught how to carry on original
investigation himself by means of seminar classes where student and
teacher worked together on original problems.
With all these innovations under way, Dr. Angell found many other
opportunities for the introduction of new ideas in education--some of
them as startling and as revolutionary as certain of the earlier
experiments. These included a modification of that traditional course of
classical studies, which can be traced back directly to the Middle Ages.
The establishment of the Latin and Scientific Course, which dropped the
requirement of Greek, was the first step; this was carried further in
1877 by the establishment of an English course in which no classics were
required. The scientific course also underwent further modifications
during this year (1877-78), which was characterized by many changes
regarded then as radical, though they do not strike one so nowadays. A
still more revolutionary step was taken by throwing open more than half
the courses to free election, permitting some students to shorten their
time in college, and enabling others to enrich their course with other
than the prescribed studies, heretofore compulsory and admitting of
almost no variation.
All these changes resulted in an immediate increase in attendance,
almost 20 percent the first year they went into force. As a direct
result of Dr. Angell's recommendation the first chair in the Science and
the Art of Teaching in any American university was established in 1880,
coming as a necessary corollary to the intimate relation maintained and
encouraged by the University between itself and the high schools of the
State. In 1891 this department was empowered to grant certificates
permitting any student possessing one to teach in any high school in the
State.
The Graduate School practically came into being during his
administration, as there was really nothing worthy of the name of
graduate work before, in spite of the heroic efforts of President
Tappan. It was established as part of the Literary Department. When he
first became President both the Law and Medical Schools consisted of two
courses of lectures of six months' duration, with no severe examination
required for admittance. At present they require three and four years of
nine months each, as well as two years of work in the Literary College.
President Angell's administration, however, was by no means all smooth
sailing. The question of finances, for one thing, was always with him,
particularly during his first years, when deficits were regularly
reported and as regularly taken care of by special appropriations of the
Legislature. The situation became particularly acute in 1879 and as a
result the scale of salaries for the President and the Faculty was
reduced materially, in the President's case from $4,500 to $3,750. The
increase in the value of money following the panic of 1873 was given as
an excuse for this action.
Questions of student discipline also disturbed these early years. The
eternal rivalry between the Freshmen and Sophomore classes, with its
attendant rushes and hazing episodes, was growing stronger every year,
until in the fall of 1873 the report that thirty freshmen had been
"pumped," a more or less self-explanatory term, stirred up enemies of
the University throughout the State. In April, 1874, three freshmen and
three sophomores were suspended for hazing. This aroused the student
body. The two classes concerned met at once and some eighty-four
students signed statements that they were equally guilty. The Faculty,
after giving these students a week of grace to withdraw their names,
finally suspended eighty-one of the signers.
Two problems which arose in connection with the Medical School also
proved most embarrassing. Throughout the history of the University there
has been a disposition on the part of some members of the medical
profession to advocate the removal of the school to Detroit. This
question first arose in 1858 and was definitely settled at that time in
favor of a united University. The matter came to the fore once more in
1888 when it was proposed to move only the clinical instruction to
Detroit. Dr. Angell took a vigorous stand in opposition and by a careful
and well-reasoned statement of the case convinced the Regents of the
inexpediency and impracticability of such a measure. Though echoes of
this project are even now heard occasionally, Dr. Angell's masterly and
diplomatic course at this time assured, apparently once for all, the
integrity of the University in Ann Arbor. Two members of the Medical
Faculty, however, were so committed to the program for removal that they
continued the agitation until their resignations were requested by the
Regents the following year.
A further difficulty arose over the establishment of a Department of
Homeopathy, which had long been the subject of agitation. The Regents
postponed action from year to year and refused to appoint two
Professors of Homeopathy in the Department of Medicine as directed by an
act of the Legislature. In this course they were sustained by the
Courts. But in 1875 the Legislature authorized the establishment of a
Homeopathic Medical College and made a permanent appropriation of $6,000
for its support. The Board then gave in and proceeded to organize the
College, to the great concern of the members of the regular Medical
Faculty, many of whom were threatened with professional ostracism, since
they were expected to give several preliminary courses to the students
in the new college. The venerable Dr. Sager, who was then Emeritus
Professor, even thought it necessary to resign all connection with the
University. Though for a few years the position of the medical men was
difficult, the situation eventually adjusted itself as the new
Department grew.
The most trying period of Dr. Angell's long administration, however,
were the years from 1875 to 1879, when a comparatively trifling
discrepancy in the books of the Chemical Laboratory developed into a
struggle which almost disrupted the University. The story of the
trouble, which is generally known as the Douglas-Rose controversy, is
too long to be told here. In its beginning it was a bit of carelessness
on the part of Dr. Douglas, the director of the Chemical Laboratory, in
checking over the accounts of his assistant Dr. Rose. The latter was
charged with petty defalcations over a long period of years, involving
eventually a total of $5,000. Dr. Douglas was an Episcopalian, Dr. Rose
a Methodist, and the friends and fellow churchmen of the two men rallied
to their support. The Board of Regents became sharply divided. Political
influence was used and the State Legislature became involved through an
investigating committee which, after a long session, reported in favor
of Dr. Rose, who had in the meantime been dismissed from the University.
Dr. Douglas was then likewise dismissed.
The University finally brought suit against the two men for the recovery
of the laboratory deficit, which resulted in fixing Dr. Rose's liability
at $4,624.40, eventually covered by a one-half interest in the
Beal-Steere Ethnological Collection, offered by Mr. Rice A. Beal and Mr.
Joseph B. Steere, '68, afterward Professor of Zooelogy. Dr. Douglas was
charged with the balance of about $1,000, which, however, was
practically covered by sums which had been advanced by him for
University and laboratory expenses. Eventually Dr. Rose was reinstated
as a result of continued agitation, though his connection with the
University was not for long; while Dr. Douglas, by a decision of the
Supreme Court, to which the case was carried, was completely exonerated;
a number of the initials on the disputed vouchers were pronounced
forgeries, and some $2,000 and heavy costs were returned to him by the
University. This was officially the end of perhaps the greatest period
of disturbance in the University's history, a struggle which was in
every way a loss, in prestige and internal unity even more than
financially. That the growth and development of the institution
continued almost unabated through these years proves the fundamental
strength and momentum attained by the University in less than forty
years.
But neither the successful handling of such administrative problems as
are suggested in the preceding paragraphs, or even the improvement in
the equipment and personnel of the University, represent rightly the
real work of President Angell. His greatest influence lay in his
dealings with the students, and through them, upon the educational
ideals of the West. And it is precisely this influence, quietly acquired
and characteristically wielded, that represents what is perhaps his
greatest claim upon the consideration of the future. No one who had the
privilege of hearing him speak failed to respond to the quiet
persuasiveness of his presence and the charm of his personality. There
are some persons in whom is inherent a certain magnetic mastery over
numbers. He had this to an extraordinary degree. Merely by rising he
could bring absolute stillness upon a cheering throng of students or
alumni, and with a few words, quiet but distinct, he could rouse to a
remarkable pitch that sentiment known as college spirit. His whole
figure was expressive of a benign goodness, illuminated most humanly by
the worldly wisdom of an old diplomat. His ability to deal with those
who came to him on various errands was remarkable. This is amusingly
illustrated by the experience of one man who went to him to present his
claims for an increase in salary. His memories of the interview were
most delightful but exceedingly hazy as to the matter in question. His
only distinct impression was that the interview ended with himself on
the door-mat earnestly discussing Ticknor's "History of Spanish
Literature" with his host, who had shown him to the door.
During the latter years of his life Dr. Angell published a book of
reminiscences which was most favorably received and widely noticed. One
well-known journal, however, remarked that it was rather "naive," a
criticism which greatly delighted the man who had met the diplomats of
China and Turkey on their own ground and defeated them.
[Illustration: JAMES BURRILL ANGELL, LL.D. (1829-1916)
President of the University, 1871-1909
(From a copyright photograph by A.G. Gowdy)]
Many honors came to Dr. Angell in the course of his long life, as was
inevitable. His scholarship was universally recognized. He received
the degree of LL.D. from Brown University in 1868, Columbia University
in 1887, Rutgers College in 1896, Princeton University in 1896, Yale
University in 1901, Johns Hopkins University in 1902, the University of
Wisconsin in 1904, Harvard University in 1905, and the University of
Michigan in 1912. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia, the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Boston, and the American
Historical Association, of which he was president in 1893. Dr. Angell
was a charter member of the American Academy at Rome. For many years he
was also Regent of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. He was
always a leader in the Congregational Church and presided at the
International Congregational Council which met in Boston in September,
1899. This body was composed of delegates from all parts of the world
and represented the scholastic and ecclesiastical organization of the
church in the persons of its most distinguished members.
All through his career, Dr. Angell gave evidence of certain
characteristics which had definite effects upon his policy as President.
Professor Charles H. Cooley, '87, has characterized the especial
qualities which made for his success as "his faith and his
adaptability." Dr. Angell always believed in the tendency of the right
to prevail, and was willing to wait with a "masterly inactivity,"
avoiding too much injudicious assistance. He was always able to maintain
a broad and comprehensive view, the attitude of the administrator, and
was faithful in his belief in the Higher Power which guides the destiny
of men--and universities. His diplomatic genius, the combination of
teacher and man of the world, enabled him to keep in close and
sympathetic touch, not only with the student life about him, but also
with the difficult problems of an ever-growing Faculty. He always showed
himself surprisingly shrewd, yet withal charitable, in his judgments of
men and their character, a qualification which enabled him to follow a
_laissez-faire_ policy until the proper time. Often his penetration and
insight, in analyses of current problems and questions, which might be
supposed not to interest so particularly a man of his years, surprised
his young associates and gave evidence of the wonderful vitality, the
spirit of youth, which lived within him.
Ann Arbor was long accustomed to his familiar figure on his invariable
morning constitutional, walking with an elastic, springy step and a
ruddy freshness in his complexion which almost belied his gray hairs and
his well-known age. He passed few blocks without a word to some one, for
a simple, kindly interest in those about him was one of his chief
characteristics. It was his essential democracy which kept him for so
many years in personal relations with his students, an interest which
never flagged until the last, and which was shown by the close track
which he always kept of the alumni of the University. For the alumni, he
always bore that simplest and most beloved of academic titles, "Prexy."
No gentler tribute has ever been paid than the words of his former
pupil, Professor Charles M. Gayley, '78, now of the University of
California, in the Commemoration Ode, read at the Quarter Centennial of
Dr. Angell's Presidency:
"For he recks of praises nothing, counts them fair nor fit:
He, who bears his honors lightly,
And whose age renews its zest--"
To James Burrill Angell must be given a pre-eminent place among those
who have made advanced learning for the young people of the land a
matter of course. More than any other one person he helped to give to
this country one of her proudest distinctions, the highest percentage in
the world of college men and women.
President Angell's long administration of thirty-eight years came to an
end October 1, 1909, when he resigned what had become a heavy burden to
become President-Emeritus. Even now we cannot properly estimate how
distinguished that service was. He was then eighty years old and had
given the University the best that was in him. The death of his wife,
Sarah Caswell Angell, in 1903, was a blow from which he never recovered.
She was the daughter of President Alexis Caswell of Brown University,
and her sympathetic co-operation and especial interest in the women of
the University was no small factor in his success.
For seven years after his resignation he lived in the home on the Campus
he had so long occupied, loved and honored alike by students, Faculty,
and alumni; and watched with interest and appreciation the development
of the University under the new leader. Here he died on April 4, 1916.
No tribute to a great leader was ever more fitting than the long double
file of students that lined the whole way to Forest Hill on the day he
was laid to rest under the simple monument which marks his grave.
No effort was made immediately to find a successor. Dean Harry Burns
Hutchins of the Law School, who had once before served as Acting
President during Dr. Angell's absence in Turkey, was asked to act again
in that capacity. This he did so successfully that on June 28, 1910, he
was unanimously elected to the Presidency. He accepted, but upon the
condition, expressed in his letter of acceptance, that he serve but five
years. The new President assumed his duties when the tide of the
University's progress was at the ebb. It is no disparagement of his
predecessor to say that for some years the affairs of the University had
been allowed to take their course with little aggressive action; his
period for vigorous measures had passed. There was much therefore that
needed to be set in order in the academic establishment and to this the
new executive set himself immediately.
President Hutchins is the first graduate of the University to become its
President, for he received his degree in 1871 at the same time Dr.
Angell delivered his inaugural address. He was born at Lisbon, New
Hampshire, April 8, 1847, and came to Michigan in 1867, the year he
entered the University. After his graduation he was for one year
Superintendent of the Schools of Owosso, Michigan, after which he
returned to the University as instructor in history and rhetoric,
becoming Assistant Professor in 1873, a position he held for three
years. In the meantime, however, he had been preparing himself for the
practice of the law and in 1876 resigned his academic duties to enter
active practice in Mt. Clemens. He was recalled to the University in
1884 as Jay Professor of Law, a position which he held so ably that when
the trustees of Cornell University were looking for a man to organize a
law department four years later their choice fell upon him. This work he
undertook and completed with great success, remaining Dean of the
Cornell Law School for seven years. In 1895 he was once more recalled to
his alma mater as Dean of the Department of Law, a position he resigned
to become the fourth President of the University.
For this task he was peculiarly fitted, not only through his previous
executive experience and his intimate knowledge of the University, but
also by those qualifications which had made him so long a leader in the
Faculties of the University. An unusually dignified presence and
somewhat judicial manner only conceal a rare simplicity, directness, and
kindliness revealed to every one with whom he comes into personal
contact. He has the rare qualification of a real and sincere interest in
the affairs of those with whom he is dealing, and the kindly sympathy,
invariably shown toward every one with whom the wide range of his duties
brings him into contact, inspires universal respect and affection, even
from those who have on occasion disagreed with his policies. Moreover,
he is always ready to listen with open mind on any subject, willing to
be convinced, and what is more to act quickly upon conviction. Emphatic
in stating and enforcing his conclusions once they are reached, he is
always careful of others' opinions.
It is not yet the time nor have we the perspective to view adequately
President Hutchins' administration. It has been a period in Michigan's
history as distinct in most respects as those of his predecessors. While
he followed the academic traditions established in former
administrations he devoted himself particularly to the unification and
co-ordination of the University as a whole, to the establishment of the
necessary financial support on a firmer and more adequate basis, and to
the cultivation of more intimate relations with the alumni. Though his
influence in the academic life of the University has perhaps never been
so personal and compelling as that of his predecessors, largely because
the rapidly increasing numbers of students and Faculties alike make the
close relationship of an earlier era impossible, the University has not
only marched in the ways long established, but has grown and expanded
under his sympathetic guidance and with the momentum of her past, until
she has come at last to fill in, in great part, the slender lines of the
sketch made by President Tappan and the early fathers. This is no small
achievement.
The policy first inaugurated in President Angell's time of requiring a
combined course in the Literary College and the Medical School for all
medical students was extended during President Hutchins' time to the Law
School and the Homeopathic Medical School, while the course in the
College of Pharmacy was increased to three years and in the College of
Dentistry to four years, with an ever-increasing emphasis on the
desirability of preliminary work in the Literary College. These
measures, though warmly advocated by the respective Faculties, did not
come without opposition. The tendency of the time was unmistakable,
however, and the University has been strengthened accordingly. Other
significant actions taken during President Hutchins' administration were
the establishment of many special courses leading to degrees such as
Public Health, Aeronautical Engineering, and Municipal Administration,
and special curricula in Sanitary, Automobile, and Highway Engineering,
Fine Arts, and Business Administration. The special summer courses in
Library Methods were introduced just before he took office, and have
become an important part of the summer curriculum. It is also not amiss
to note that the first three women to hold Professorships in the
University were appointed in 1918.
It was also during President Hutchins' administration that the present
effective University Health Service came into being. This resulted from
a series of recommendations made by a committee of students which were
presented to the Regents in November, 1912. These were immediately
approved and by October, 1913, three University physicians, including
one woman, undertook the systematic care of the health of the student
body. At present the staff includes four doctors, besides two nurses and
assistants, who give their whole time to this important work. The
Service is maintained in its own building, a remodeled dwelling house at
the rear of Hill Auditorium, where a free dispensary is open five hours
daily. Prescriptions are filled at the Health Service Pharmacy in the
Chemistry Building, while provision for the care of seriously sick
students is made at the University Hospitals ordinarily at no expense to
the student. The cost of the maintenance of this service is supported by
a small charge included in the annual fees.
Not the least of the many effective measures taken during President
Hutchins' administration was the establishment of the Graduate School as
a separate department of the University. For many years it had been
maintained as a part of the Literary College, or Department, as it was
then, and was administered by a committee appointed from the Literary
Faculty. This anomalous position of the graduate work in the University
eventually gave rise to suggestions for a change from many different
sources, particularly from the Research Club, an organization of many of
the leading men in all the Faculties, which came to the attention of the
President when he took up his new duties. He at once recognized the
desirability of enlarging the scope of advanced study and it was with
his active co-operation and hearty support that the new School was
created with Professor K.E. Guthe as its first Dean.
The growing cordiality between the University and the other educational
institutions of the State is a significant development of late years.
This is evidenced by the establishment with several of them of combined
courses, which enable their students to pursue a portion of their
preliminary work in the smaller school. This spirit of co-operation has
also been most effectively advanced through the creation by the
University of a series of State College Fellowships with a stipend of
$300 each, to be held each year by especially chosen graduates from each
of ten colleges in Michigan.
The establishment of extension courses, with the aim of bringing the
University into a closer relationship with the people of the State, has
also come as the result of the recognition by President Hutchins of the
real need of such co-operation. Starting at first from a desk in his own
office, from which members of the Faculty were sent to deliver lectures
before various bodies about the State, the work speedily grew into a
Department under the charge of Professor W. D. Henderson, '04, as
Director. At the present time several special courses in literature,
history, philosophy, and economics, corresponding exactly to similar
courses given in the University are offered in various cities of the
State, as well as three hundred lectures by different members of the
Faculty. In addition the University has undertaken the training of
teachers of industrial subjects under the Congressional provision known
as the Smith-Hughes Bill, which provides for the training of teachers in
agriculture, industrial subjects, and home economics. For its share in
this work the University receives annually, partly from the Government
and partly from the State, the sum of $24,000. This work is carried on,
not only at the University, where it is under the charge of Professor
George E. Meyers, Ottawa College, '96, but in Detroit and Grand Rapids
as well as other extension centers, under charge of special Professors
of Industrial Education.
Likewise the cordial relations between the University and the high
schools of the State have developed consistently as is sufficiently
shown by the appropriation of $300,000 made by the 1919 Legislature for
the establishment of a demonstration school for the training of students
who are preparing themselves as high school teachers.
The University under President Hutchins was thus particularly happy in
its relations with the people of the State. This is especially true of
their representatives in the Legislature. From time to time he laid
before them the needs of the University so effectively that we now have,
largely as the result of his efforts, the series of buildings erected
recently, including the Natural Science Laboratory, the heating plant,
and the new Library, probably the best arranged and most convenient in
its appointments in the country, as well as the projected University
Hospital, to cost eventually $2,000,000, and the Demonstration School.
In addition he secured from the Legislature in 1919 an appropriation of
$350,000 to cover the deficit due to the extraordinary war-time
expenditures, when the cost of everything was doubled and the income
from fees materially lessened, and even more important, an additional
$350,000 for two years to cover an increase in Faculty salaries. This
item was later superseded by an increase in the valuation of the
property in the State, made by the State Board of Equalization, which
added over $600,000 to the annual income of the University. Thus was the
University saved from what easily might have been a disastrous situation
arising from the threatened loss of many members of the Faculty. No
event of recent years is of more fundamental importance than this
material aid which came to the institution at so critical a period.
No less important and encouraging in their promise for the future have
been the gifts of the graduates which have resulted in no little measure
from President Hutchins' efforts to stimulate the interest and support
of the alumni. The former students of the University have been bound to
their alma mater as never before; they have been brought to see that it
is their responsibility and privilege to aid the University in many ways
impossible to the taxpayer. The Hill Auditorium, the Martha Cook
Building, the Newberry and Betsy Barbour Halls of Residence for women
and the Michigan Union, to which over 14,000 alumni have contributed
over a million dollars,--a record perhaps unparalleled in any
university,--to say nothing of scores of other benefactions, are
examples of this new spirit on the part of the alumni which President
Hutchins has done so much to foster. The continued increase in enrolment
from 5,343 in 1909 to 7,517 in 1916-17, with a total of 9,401 in
1919-20, is also an evidence of the effectiveness with which the
University has continued to perform its mission, though this continued
influx of students brings with it responsibilities and difficulties
which have taxed the physical resources, and the ability of the
Faculties. Happily the increase in income granted in 1919 is an augury
of a better era, if the growth for the next few years is not too
overwhelming.
[Illustration: HARRY BURNS HUTCHINS, LL.D.
President of the University, 1909-1920
(From a copyright photograph by J.F. Rentschler)]
President Hutchins desired to resign the Presidency in 1914, at the end
of the term fixed by him in his letter of acceptance, but the Regents
were unanimous in their desire to have him remain in office. He again
asked to be relieved of the duties of the office in 1916, but once more
action was postponed and it was not until March 12, 1919, that his
resignation was finally accepted with the regret of the Regents, who
expressed "their sincere appreciation of his wise, efficient, and
devoted services in behalf of the University." This was to take effect
June 30, 1919. The Board thereupon took immediate steps to secure a
successor to President Hutchins, but were at first unsuccessful, and
once more prevailed upon him to remain in office. This he consented to
do reluctantly and only because of his interest in the institution he
had served so long and faithfully, postponing yet another year his
well-earned rest.
Several noteworthy celebrations have served to emphasize the
University's progress. Two of them marked her semi-centennial and her
seventy-fifth anniversaries, comparatively brief periods, perhaps, when
contrasted with Harvard's celebration of her two hundred and fiftieth
year, shortly before Michigan signalized her fiftieth, but symbolizing
nevertheless an extraordinary and impressive transformation; the
progress of a little backwoods college into one of the greatest of
modern Universities. This was the inspiration that underlay these two
occasions, made peculiarly significant through the congratulations and
messages of good will borne by distinguished ambassadors from other
institutions, and through elaborate memorials sent by the Faculties of
European Universities, to whom the University's accomplishment was a
greater marvel than it was to those more familiar with the conditions
which had brought it into existence.
The fifth of June is the natal day of the University and therefore both
celebrations were most appropriately held during the Commencement Week
of the anniversary years, 1887 and 1912. A Commemoration Oration, in
which President Angell surveyed with wise sympathy and a just pride the
University's record was the special feature of the first celebration.
Somewhat more ambitious was the seventy-fifth anniversary which took
place twenty-five years later. Owing to the fact that Hill Auditorium
was still unfinished, and the old University Hall was by no means large
enough to shelter all who desired to attend, a special tent was erected
near the Gymnasium for the Commemoration Exercises. The Hon. Lawrence
Maxwell, '74, of Cincinnati delivered the principal address, a review of
the University's history. The special guests and numerous
representatives from other universities were tendered a reception and
dinner in the University Library, at which President Andrew D. White, of
Cornell, held the place of honor upon the program as a representative of
the University's earlier days. The whole celebration was in no small
part a tribute to the two elder statesmen, Dr. Angell and Dr. White, who
had played so great a part in the drama of American education which the
occasion symbolized.
Dr. Angell's own share in the history of the University was also marked
by the celebration on June 24, 1896, of his twenty-fifth year of service
as President. As was inevitable the exercises were a series of personal
tributes to Dr. Angell, in which the congratulations and felicitations
of Regents, Faculties, and teachers of the State were fittingly
expressed. A particularly graceful tribute was the "Commemoration Ode"
by Charles M. Gayley, '78, of the University of California.
Of an entirely different character was the great "National Dinner,"
designed to celebrate the University's services to the Nation, held in
the ballroom of the Hotel Astor in New York, February 4, 1911. This was
one of the greatest alumni dinners ever held by any university, as
there were nearly eight hundred alumni present, including a large
delegation from the University, and from Detroit and Chicago, Mr.
Justice William L. Day; '70, of the United States Supreme Court, and
some twenty-eight members of both houses of Congress. Earl D. Babst,
'93, the general chairman of the committee in charge, acted as
toastmaster of this gathering, the spectacular character of which was
emphasized, not only in the speeches, songs, and college yells, but also
by a huge painting of the University Campus filling a good part of the
wall above the speaker's table.
On December 29, 1919, it was announced that Marion LeRoy Burton,
President of the University of Minnesota, was to become the fifth
President of the University on July 1, 1920. This announcement was a
great surprise, as his name was only one of many which had been
discussed as a possibility by those interested, but the decision was
most favorably received by the University body and the alumni. The new
President is a young man, but his record of accomplishment has great
promise for the future. He was born in Brooklyn, Iowa, August 30, 1874,
and was therefore forty-five years old at the time of his election. His
earlier education was received in the schools of Minneapolis and at
Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, where he was graduated with the
degree of A.B. in 1900. After some years spent in teaching he eventually
entered the Yale Graduate School, where he received his doctorate in
1907.
Two years later he was elected President of Smith College, but spent a
year in travel abroad before taking up his duties at Northampton. He
remained at Smith until 1917, when he succeeded Dr. George E. Vincent as
President of the University of Minnesota, the position he resigned to
accept the Presidency of Michigan. He comes to his new task as did his
predecessors, Dr. Tappan and Dr. Angell, with a vision for the future of
the University. He believes, as they did, that in the State University
lies the future of education in this country, and Michigan, with her
strategic position between the East and the West, the prestige of her
years, the wide distribution of her students, and the proved loyalty of
her great body of alumni, offered him a field which he could not well
refuse. He has before him the prospect of many years of service, for he
is only three years older than was Dr. Angell when he first came to
Michigan.
Dr. Burton was officially inaugurated President of the University on
October 14, 1920. His formal acceptance of his office was made the
occasion of a significant and stimulating educational conference, which
lasted for three days. Some two hundred representatives of the leading
American Universities and educational bodies listened to the discussion
of vital academic and administrative problems of the modern state
university during the five sessions, which covered the general topics;
"Educational Readjustments," "Administrative Problems," and
"Constructive Measures." The inauguration banquet was held at the
Michigan Union on the evening of October 15, 1920. President A. Lawrence
Lowell of Harvard, President E.A. Birge of the University of Wisconsin,
President Harry A. Garfield of Williams College, and the Hon. Thomas E.
Johnson, Superintendent of Public Instruction, were the speakers on that
occasion.
[Illustration: MARION LEROY BURTON, LL.D.
President of the University of Michigan, 1920-]
CHAPTER VI
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS
As the University grew, the first Faculty of two members gradually
increased, though for years the roster was far from impressive. What
this first Faculty lacked in numbers, however, it made up in character
and ability. One has only to read the whole-hearted and loving tributes
of early graduates to discern the powerful personalities which inspired
them. It is true that for the most part they were scholars of an older
school, content to hand on the classical learning of the contemporary
college course, rather than original investigators. But how well they
performed this task! They inspired a real enthusiasm and love of
knowledge for its own sake in those they taught, and furnished them, as
well, an ideal for right living--all for five hundred dollars a year. We
of a later generation cannot honor them too much.
About these men, strongly individualized in the minds of their students,
have clustered stories which have become almost classic. Sharply
contrasted in particular characteristics, they have lived as vivid
personalities for future college generations in the memories of those
students, "who studied syllogisms under the noble Whedon, who polished
Greek roots for the elegant Agnew, who bungled metaphysics to the
despair of the learned Ten Brook, who murdered chemistry under the
careful Douglas whose experiments never failed, and who calculated
eclipses of the moon from the desk of Williams, the paternal." This
characterization by a member of the class of '49 is paralleled in a
more caustic estimate of a somewhat later Faculty by a member of the
class of '65 who speaks of "Boise the precise, Frieze the effusive,
Williams the plausible, and White the thinker."
Always first in any reminiscences of the early days was Professor George
Palmer Williams, the first real member of the Faculty, always known to
his students as "Punky," possibly, as Professor D'Ooge suggested,
because of the "dryness of his wit." Freshmen were even known to address
him as "Professor Punky," only to be pardoned with a never to be
forgotten kindliness when they discovered their awful mistake. Professor
Williams was a graduate of Vermont (1825) and came to the University
from the Pontiac branch to take the Professorship of Natural Philosophy.
He was especially loved, not only for his fatherly kindness and genuine
sympathy that won the confidence of his students, but also because "the
college student pays unstinted admiration to a witty teacher, for no
teacher ever had more ready wit and such genuine humor." The Rev.
Theodoric R. Palmer of the class of '47, who for ten years was
Michigan's oldest graduate, told how Professor Williams on discovering a
goose occupying his chair remarked: "I see you have a competent
teacher," and wished the class "Good Morning," leaving them to discover
the point of their joke.
Professor Williams' strong religious spirit did not prevent an apt
employment of examples from the Scriptures on occasion, as his rebuke to
an overgrown and too active freshman showed: "Sir, you remind me of
Jeshurun; the Bible says 'Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.'" But in the
class room he was traditionally lenient. One student who found himself
unable to fit his carefully prepared notes and the examination
questions together, finally handed them both in and was passed, but only
because it was the "wrong year"; "I condition one every other year and
if I conditioned you I would have to have you again next year."
Professor Williams served the University long and faithfully, and only
resigned his active work in 1875. In 1876 the alumni established a
Williams Professorship Fund which eventually amounted to nearly $30,000.
This eased his last years until his death in 1881 at the age of 79
years. Although the fund was subsequently greatly lessened by very
careless administration, it now amounts to something over the original
sum and is administered by the Regents in the form of a retiring
allowance, the holder being nominated by the Alumni Association.
The Rev. Joseph Whiting, Yale, '23, under whose charge was the classical
training of the six youngsters of that first class, was a man of
different type. A fine scholar, he made Greek and Latin "glow with life
and beauty," and by his distinguished bearing formed a happy complement
to the "jovial and rotund" Williams. His death while he was serving his
term as the annual President just before the first class was graduated,
was recognized as a great loss by the students, as well as by the
Regents, who acknowledged "his urbanity and gentleness of manners," and
"his knowledge of character and other properties which especially fitted
him to act the part of a governor and counselor of youth."
Professor Douglass Houghton died during the same year, 1845. The
services of these two men, as well as those of Charles Fox, Professor of
Agriculture, and Dr. Samuel Denton of the first Medical Faculty, are
commemorated by the little weather-beaten monument with the broken
shaft, which has doubtless aroused the idle curiosity of thousands of
students, who have never taken the trouble, however, to decipher the
Latin inscriptions which set forth the life records of these early
professors.
In 1842 Dr. Abram Sager, a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(1831), who later became the first Dean of the Medical Faculty, came to
the University as Professor of Zooelogy and Botany. He was then about
thirty-two years of age and had for some time been connected with the
State Geological Survey as botanist and zooelogist. His contributions to
the University while in that position formed the foundation of the
present zooelogical collection. One of his students speaks of him as "of
exceedingly sensitive mind and heart and of very high and pure
morality." A Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, the Rev.
Edward Thomson, Pennsylvania, '29, was appointed in 1843, but served
only one year. He was succeeded by the Rev. Andrew Ten Brook, Madison
University, '39, who took a vigorous part in the University's life until
his resignation in 1851, not to return until 1864 as Librarian--and
historian of the University's early days. Professor Ten Brook was of the
Baptist persuasion, exceedingly well read, particularly in the
literature of his chair. Ordinarily in his classes he was master of the
situation, "so long as he had Dugald Stewart's Metaphysics before him,"
but when discussion became free in his classes and "scholastics were let
loose" one of his thought students they "got a little the better of
him." That he was a shrewd and honest observer with remarkably little
personal prejudice--even in memories of trying times, is shown by his
book on "American State Universities" which offers much that is
fascinating to those interested in the first days of the University.
[Illustration: A GENERAL VIEW OF THE FRONT OF THE CAMPUS
Showing University Hall, including the old North Wing, with the Law
Building in the background]
In the same year Silas H. Douglas, M.D., who studied at the
University of Vermont, was appointed assistant to Dr. Douglass Houghton,
Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Zooelogy, who never took up the
active duties of his chair. Dr. Douglas speedily became one of the
"strong men" of the Faculty and created the Chemical Laboratory which
lent so much prestige to Michigan in its early years. He was of a
systematic and orderly temperament whose experiments before the class
always came out brilliantly. His careful business-like methods were
greatly appreciated by the Regents and he was entrusted with the
oversight of the construction of the South College when it was erected
in 1849. So successful was he that he saved some $4,000 over the cost of
the first building and had enough bricks left besides to build a large
part of the Medical Building which was completed in the same year. Those
who knew him best supported him loyally in the great dispute which arose
over his administration of the affairs of the Chemical Laboratory and
their confidence in his uprightness and sterling integrity was justified
by the final decision in that most unfortunate case.
These were the men who taught the first class that was graduated from
the University in 1845. The same year saw two additions to the Faculty,
the Rev. Daniel D. Whedon, Hamilton, '28, who was elected to the chair
of Logic, Rhetoric, and History, and Dr. John H. Agnew, Dickinson
College, '23, who assumed the Professorship in the classics left vacant
by the death of Dr. Whiting. Both had a prominent share in University
affairs for a few years. Professor Whedon was a Methodist clergyman,
lank and angular in form and feature with a "considerable sprinkling of
vinegar at times in his ways of expressing himself," but, according to
our oldest living graduate, "his commanding presence, imperative logic
and _sesquipedalia verba_, always used with mathematical precision,
hammered truth into us and clinched it." Professor Agnew has been
described as a Greek from head to foot, the exact opposite of Dr.
Whedon, extremely careful in his dress and appearance and
correspondingly neat and precise in the expression of his thoughts. He
represented the Presbyterian and Congregational element in the
University. The reasons for the resignation of these two Professors in
1852 have already been suggested in the lack of unity and the sectarian
rivalries of their time.
Perhaps the most picturesque figure of this early group was Louis
Fasquelle, the first Professor of Modern Languages, whose widely used
text-books contributed not a little to the prestige of the University.
When he came in 1846, his chair was almost a new field in an American
college. Only a single term in French was given at first and in fact
neither he nor Dr. Sager, charged with the scientific course, were
required to give their whole time to their university work for some
years. It is somewhat suggestive too, that both Spanish and Italian were
offered in the University before a course in German was announced in
1849. Professor Fasquelle was educated at the famous Ecole Polytechnique
in Paris, but was obliged to leave France on account of his
participation in the revolutionary movement of that period. As Professor
in the University he proved "peculiar, but very learned and efficient."
The stories of his difficulty with the English language are many, and
most of the classic stories told of various members of the French
Faculty by successive student generations were originally told of him.
He was the first "infiddle," though he was always punctilious in
attendance at chapel, which he adjourned on one occasion because the
"praying Professor" did not appear. His "vocabul'-ary" was good, but in
the words of the time-honored song, "He went up on his emphas'-is."
The new regime of Dr. Tappan witnessed the establishment of a different
tradition. The former deference to denominational precedent was
definitely abandoned and increasing stress was laid upon scholarly as
well as personal qualifications. The new President took the chair of
philosophy left vacant by the resignation of Professor Ten Brook, while
the old chair of ancient languages was speedily divided. James R. Boise,
Brown, '40, who already enjoyed a growing reputation as a scholar,
became Professor of Greek, while the Rev. Erastus O. Haven, Wesleyan,
'42, afterward the second President, became Professor of Latin.
Professor Boise though of a delicate physique possessed great force and
impressed the students with the absolute necessity of getting their
Greek lessons, _ruat coelum_. His insistence on discipline and high
standards in recitations had a profound influence on the mental habits
of those in his classes. Professor D'Ooge, '62, his successor, remarks
of him that "probably no teacher of those days got so much downright
hard work out of his pupils." Alvah Bradish was also appointed to the
chair of Fine Arts at this time, but without compensation, and, though
he apparently lectured occasionally, the course soon disappeared from
the catalogues, not to be revived for fifty years. The name of the Rev.
Charles Fox also appears momentarily as a Professor of Agriculture, a
department also destined to quick extinction with his death in less than
a year, in spite of the President's best efforts, for the Legislature
had already taken the preliminary steps toward the establishment of a
College of Agriculture at Lansing.
The strength of President Tappan's policy is shown in the group of men
he appointed to Professorships--leaders as well as scholars. Among the
first was Alexander Winchell, Wesleyan, '47, whose versatility was shown
by the range of his teaching as well as by his long list of published
works. He came to Michigan in 1853 as Professor of Physics and Civil
Engineering, but within two years was transferred to the chair of
Geology, Zooelogy, and Botany, which he held until his resignation in
1873 to accept the Chancellorship of Syracuse University. He returned to
Michigan in 1879 as Professor of Geology and Paleontology, and ended his
days in Ann Arbor in 1891. With a personality vigorous and powerful, if
somewhat unyielding, he was always a factor in faculty affairs, though
he was not so happy in his relations with the students as some of his
colleagues and therefore does not figure so prominently in their
reminiscences. He has been described as a sober, earnest, eloquent,
sometimes shrewd and witty but very absent-minded, scholar whose
"beautiful and even eloquent language led many to an admiration and love
for sciences." His work on the Michigan Geological Survey of which he
was twice director, and his life-long effort for the reconciliation of
science with religion, brought wide recognition to the University.
A totally different personality was Dr. Henry Simmons Frieze, Brown,
'41, who came to Michigan the next year as Professor of Latin Language
and Literature, in place of Dr. Haven, who assumed the Professorship of
History and English Literature. No name on Michigan's long Faculty roll
has been more honored than his. He brought to the University not only
well-grounded ideals of true scholarship, but also a broad culture, not
too common in those days, and an inspiring interest in literature and
art which left a deep impression. It was such spirits as Dr. Tappan, Dr.
Frieze, and Andrew D. White, who was also of that early company, that
set for the University standards in academic life and ideals which have
never been lost, and which enabled Michigan to take her place with such
extraordinarily little delay as one of the country's great educational
forces. Unhampered by the formalism and traditions of the Eastern
universities of that time, these men found here an opportunity for the
establishment of the progressive methods of the better European
universities. The services of Dr. Frieze as Acting President for the two
years preceding President Angell's election are mentioned elsewhere. He
was once more called upon to be Acting President during the year Dr.
Angell was in China in 1881 and again for a few months in 1887. But
these were only interludes, for his influence during his long
Professorship, where he easily stood _primus inter pares_, must be the
gauge of the high favor in which he was held by students and Faculty
alike. Among the many facets of his genius was a remarkable ability as a
musician, and the impetus he gave the musical life of Ann Arbor resulted
in the organization of the Musical Society and the naming of the Frieze
Memorial Organ in his honor. Andrew D. White tells us, in his
"Autobiography," that he found him one of the most charming men he had
ever met,--simple, modest, retiring to a fault, yet a delightful
companion and a most inspiring teacher. "So passionately was he devoted
to music that at times he sent his piano away from his house in order to
shun temptation to abridge his professorial work, and especially was
this the case when he was preparing his edition of Virgil. A more lovely
spirit never abode in mortal frame. No man was ever more generally
beloved in a community; none, more lamented at his death." Hardly less
important was the inspiration and support Dr. Frieze gave to the study
of art through his contributions to the University's art museum. This
dates particularly from a gift he made of books, engravings,
photographs, and copies of statues and paintings, purchased abroad in
1856 with the unexpended balance of his salary, amounting to $800. This
was the real beginning of the University's art collection.
The same day in June, 1854, that witnessed the appointment of Dr.
Frieze, saw the election of Dr. Franz F.E. Bruennow, a graduate of the
University of Berlin, as Professor of Astronomy and Director of the new
Observatory. He too was destined to have a profound influence upon the
future of the University though his years in Ann Arbor were
comparatively few. Dr. Bruennow had already gained a European reputation
as a scientist before he decided to come to America, which he did
largely upon Humboldt's advice, and because of his desire to use the
astronomical clock and meridian circle which were made in Berlin under
his direction for the new observatory in Ann Arbor. The long list of
distinguished astronomers who have been students at Michigan may be said
to trace their academic lineage back to his acceptance of this position.
His successor, James C. Watson, was his pupil and Professor C.K. Adams
in his memorial address on Professor Watson said: "During the senior
year the Professor of Astronomy lectured to Watson alone. And I remember
years afterwards hearing Professor White say to one of his historical
classes that the best audience any professor ever had in this University
was the audience of Dr. Bruennow when he was lecturing to this single
pupil." Dr. White dwells with particular appreciation on the little
musical circle formed by Dr. Frieze, Mrs. White, and Dr. Bruennow, which
may well have been the original impulse for the future development of
musical interests in the University and the community. Dr. Bruennow's
quiet simplicity, which led those "who knew him best to love him, most,"
sometimes led to humorous situations, as on the occasion when President
Tappan requested Dr. Bruennow to find some one to take his place at
morning prayer the next day. This commission was performed with Teutonic
literalness, for each of the professors interviewed was greeted abruptly
with the somewhat startling question, "Professor, can you _bray_?" He
returned to Europe at the same time Dr. Tappan left the University, but
his influence remained in the work of his students and the scholarly
traditions he established.
Andrew D. White, Yale, '53, came as Professor of History and English
Literature in 1857. His influence was only less vital than that of Dr.
Tappan and Dr. Frieze because his active service with the University was
to last but six years. He was a very young professor, indeed--only
twenty-four--but he had had the best of training in France and Germany
and was inspired by a vision of a chair of history alone, unencumbered
by any allied, or supposedly allied, subjects; something apparently
unknown elsewhere, certainly at Yale, his Alma Mater.
He tells with relish in his "Autobiography" of the attentions paid him
by the students. As soon as they caught sight of him at the station they
asked him if he were going to enter the University. Of course he was.
They immediately proceeded to "rush" him, not discovering that he was
the new Professor of History until he signed the hotel register. His
students were often older than he was and his experiences were many,
particularly when he had it out with one student whom he had sized up as
a ring-leader in class disturbances. This man was always elaborately
innocent when trouble was brewing, but the young professor was sure he
was right in his suspicions as to the seat of the trouble. Finally he
delivered an ultimatum: "I see either you or I must leave the
University." The student pleaded not guilty but Professor White
insisted, suggesting that the Regents might feel the same as he in the
matter. After some diplomatic passages, in which the student seemed not
unimpressed by the importance given him, he acknowledged that perhaps he
had been a little foolish and suggested that they try to live together a
little longer. He afterwards became a strong friend of the young teacher
and later fell at the head of his brigade at Gettysburg.
The success with which Professor White and his contemporaries labored
among their students is shown by his later statement that from among
them came senators, congressmen, judges, professors, lawyers, heads of
great business enterprises, and diplomats. One became his successor in
the Professorship of History and later in the Presidency of Cornell, and
a well-known American historian of his time. Another became his
predecessor in the Embassy to Germany. Professor White left Ann Arbor in
1863, partly because of business interests, partly because of his
election to the New York State Senate and the Presidency of Cornell
University.
With these men as leaders Michigan boldly embarked on a series of
departures from educational precedents. Though the time was not ripe for
graduate study, its desirability had been recognized emphatically in the
annual catalogues. In their class rooms several of the Faculty
endeavored to do more than follow the accepted textbooks, through
lectures, assigned readings, and exercises designed to develop the
individual powers of each student. Professor White was particularly
fertile in these expedients. The claims of comparatively new subjects,
foreign to the traditional curriculum, were recognized in chairs of
history, English literature, the modern languages, and above all the
sciences, where true laboratory work was gradually introduced until
Michigan had under Professor Douglas what was probably in its early
years the largest chemical laboratory in any American university. The
new scientific course, which was established within the Literary
Department and not as a separate school, was particularly significant of
the progressive spirit of this early Faculty. This came to be so well
recognized that Dr. Angell remarked in his inaugural address that the
drift of intelligent opinion had been for twenty years towards some of
the positions early adopted by the University, such as elective studies
and larger opportunities for the study of history, modern languages, and
the natural sciences. He also took occasion to suggest that the
University would always have to be in a measure dependent upon the
alumni, since the Legislature would never become so generous in its
appropriations as to make private gifts undesirable or unnecessary.
While the liberal policy which laid the foundation for this expansion of
the University's field may properly be said to have been formed during
President Tappan's administration, it was continued and wisely expanded
under his successors. President Haven's first years were difficult, but
he had the support of his colleagues and was fortunate in the
appointment of the new members of the Faculty necessitated by the
reorganization which ushered in his administration. One of the first of
his appointments was that of Dr. Bruennow's favorite pupil, James C.
Watson, '57, to succeed him as Professor of Astronomy and Director of
the Observatory. Professor Watson's brilliant work had already
attracted wide attention, he "was bagging asteroids as though he lured
them with a decoy" though he was at that time still a very young man,
and his methods as a teacher somewhat peculiar. He paid scant attention
to those not vitally interested in his subject, and, as one chronicler
observed, showed the folly of a set course of studies and contributed in
this way not a little to the eventual adoption of the elective system in
the University. His lectures were sometimes brilliant and always lucid,
though he was not exacting in recitations or in examinations. The story
is told of his passing one student in an examination who had died
earlier in the year; he had merely taken the name from the roll prepared
the first day of the semester. Whatever were Professor Watson's personal
qualifications, however, the long list of eminent astronomers who were
his pupils during the years from 1863 to 1879 are ample evidence of his
genius, for they include such names as those of his successor Professor
Harrington, '68, Otto J. Klotz, '72_e_, of the Observatory of the
Dominion of Canada, Monroe B. Snyder, '72, Director of the Philadelphia
Observatory, Robert Simpson Woodward, '72_e_, President of the Carnegie
Institution, John M. Schaeberle, '76_e_, Astronomer in the Lick
Observatory from 1888 to 1897, and George Cary Comstock, '77, Director
of the Observatory of the University of Wisconsin.
Edward Olney, whose spirit still lives in the memory of older graduates,
also came at this time. He was, unlike most other members of the
Faculty, for the most part a self-made scholar of whose ability as a
teacher one former student rather ruefully remarked that the "students
knew something about mathematics when they got through with him." He was
always a prominent figure in the shaping of University policies and to
him no small measure of credit is given for the diploma system of
admission from the high schools in '71 and the elective system of '78.
The year 1867 brought the appointment to professorships of two men,
already mentioned, whose reputation eventually became nationwide. The
first was Charles Kendall Adams, who afterward became President of
Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin. He was graduated
from the University with the class of '61, and after some years as
instructor and Assistant Professor followed Andrew D. White in the chair
of history. The other was Moses Coit Tyler, Yale, '57, Professor of
Rhetoric and English Literature, whose "History of American Literature,"
published before he left Michigan in 1881, to go to Cornell, as well as
many later works, gave him an established place as an authority in this
field.
Professor Boise resigned the chair of Greek in 1868 to accept a similar
place at the University of Chicago. It is said that his reason for the
change was, in part at least, his desire to give his daughter, Alice
Boise, an opportunity to matriculate in an institution where women were
enrolled. While living in Ann Arbor she had already attended
unofficially at least two classes, and was probably the first woman to
recite in the University. Professor Boise was succeeded by Professor
Martin L. D'Ooge, '62, whose fine enthusiasm for the best in classical
culture and his genius for friendship were long with the University. For
several years before his death in 1915, Professor D'Ooge was, with Dr.
Angell, one of the few links which tied the present Faculty to the era
of those earlier leaders.
But the names of all the hundreds of members of the Faculties, who came
in ever-increasing numbers after this period, cannot all be mentioned,
though many have played important roles in the growth and development of
the University. No record of the Faculty, however, can be left without
mention of the Rev. Benjamin F. Cocker, M.A., Wesleyan, '64, who
succeeded Dr. Haven in the chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy in 1869,
a strong and vital figure, of English birth but a citizen of the world,
who at one time nearly lost his life at the hands of cannibals in the
South Seas. He and his family arrived in America penniless, but his
ability as a thinker and preacher soon made him a place and eventually a
professorship in the University, where he was long remembered. He was
succeeded by Professor George S. Morris, Dartmouth, '61, who had come to
the University in 1870 as Professor of Modern Languages, a man of
totally different caliber, not so rugged and picturesque but more
sensitive and profound, the first real scholar in the modern sense in
the Department of Philosophy. Upon his death in 1889 he was succeeded by
the eminent philosopher John Dewey, Vermont, '79, who was followed in
turn in 1896 by Robert Mark Wenley, who came to Michigan bearing the
highest honors of the University of Glasgow. Within the Department of
Philosophy has also developed the special chair of Psychology, held by
Professor Walter B. Pillsbury, Nebraska, '92, who came to the University
in 1897 as instructor in the subject. Of these men it may be said that
they have all contributed their share to the singularly high place the
study of philosophy and metaphysics has continued to hold, even in this
utilitarian age, among the students of the University.
Elisha Jones, '59, who became Assistant Professor of Latin in 1875 and
Associate Professor in 1881, was also a teacher to whose memory long
generations of students pay tribute, not only for their introduction to
Latin through his textbooks, but for his fine simplicity and enthusiasm
for his work. At his death in 1888 his widow established a fellowship
which for many years aided many embryo classical scholars. Professor
Frieze, the head of the department, outlived him and was succeeded by
Francis W. Kelsey, Rochester, '80, whose labors in behalf of the
classics, and as president of the American School of Classical Studies
at Rome, and the Archeological Institute of America, have been widely
recognized. Associated for long years with Professor D'Ooge in the
Department of Greek was Albert H. Pattengill, '68, who died in 1906. He
was another extraordinary teacher, whose strong personality will long be
remembered, while his love of outdoor sports will be honored by
generations of athletes whose interests he served unselfishly throughout
his lifetime.
The resignation of Charles Kendall Adams brought another loved
personality to the University, Richard Hudson, '71, whose gentle
peculiarities only endeared him to his students. He succeeded Professor
D'Ooge as Dean of the Literary College in 1898. He was a most
conscientious teacher who believed in the meticulous presentation of
facts in his lectures, though one student at least found that after a
long series of lectures about the "low countries," "Flanders," and the
"Spanish cities," something else was needed, when confronted by an
examination on the _history of Belgium_. His method of teaching was his
own but effective, though many alumni will appreciate his remark to a
young instructor, as he poised his right forefinger in midair and
cleared his throat, "I wonder if you have any mannerisms that would make
you conspicuous before a class?" Professor Hudson not only gave his
library to the University but also left a legacy of $75,000 for the
establishment of a Professorship in History. Another popular figure of a
generation not too long ago was Andrew C. McLaughlin, '82, the
son-in-law of Dr. Angell, now Professor of History at the University of
Chicago. Upon the retirement of Professor Hudson in 1911, Claude H. Van
Tyne, '96, Professor of American History since 1906, became head of the
Department.
In the Department of English and Rhetoric Professor Tyler was succeeded
in 1881 by Isaac N. Demmon, '68, who had been Assistant Professor of
Rhetoric and History since 1876. Professor Demmon's service in the
University, which did not end until his retirement as Emeritus
Professor, and his death, in 1920, was long and self-sacrificing. He
left a monument to his interest in the Library in several special
collections, particularly in the Dramatic and Shakespearian libraries,
while his knowledge of the University's history and his remarkable
acquaintance among the alumni have been invaluable in the editing of
various editions of the Alumni Catalogue, and the revision and extension
of Professor Hinsdale's "History." In 1903 Fred N. Scott, '84, became
head of the newly created Department of Rhetoric. As occupant of this
chair Professor Scott, in addition to his scholarly work, evinced by
many books and articles, has been an inspiration, guide, and father
confessor to hundreds of students and alumni whose interest lay in
literature and authorship.
In modern languages, the task dropped by Professor Fasquelle at his
death in 1862 was continued by Edward Payson Evans, '54, until 1870 and
then by George S. Morris until his acceptance of the Professorship of
Philosophy in 1879. Edwin Lorraine Walter, '68, was then elected to the
chair. In 1887 the Department was divided and Calvin Thomas, '74, became
Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature, to be succeeded, after
his call to Columbia University in 1896, by George A. Hench, Lafayette,
'85, who lost his life three years later in an accident in the White
Mountains. Max Winkler, Harvard, '89, the present occupant of the chair,
eventually succeeded him. After Professor Walter lost his life on the
Bourgogne in 1898, the chair of French was filled by Arthur G. Canfield,
Williams, '78.
When the new chair in the Science and Art of Teaching was first
established in 1879, William H. Payne was appointed as the first
Professor. He was an experienced teacher in the secondary schools of the
State and contributed much to the eventual success of the new
department. After he resigned in 1887 to become Chancellor of the
University of Nashville, Burke Aaron Hinsdale, a graduate and for some
time President of Hiram College, Ohio, and an intimate associate of
President Garfield, was elected to succeed him. Under Professor
Hinsdale's strong and vigorous guidance, the department rapidly advanced
to a recognized place in the curriculum. Though his bearing was somewhat
austere and overwhelming, he could unbend, as was proved on one occasion
in the Library when his booming voice brought an admonition from an
official. Just then an influential member of the Library Committee
chanced to appear. He proved a greater disturber of the peace than
Professor Hinsdale, who, nudging his companion, slyly inquired, with the
suspicion of a grin, "Why don't you tell _him_ to keep quiet?" Professor
Hinsdale was distinguished by his prolific and scholarly writings and
left a monument in his "History of the University," which will long be
recognized as the standard for the period up to 1900. His death
occurred in that year, and the chair thus left vacant was occupied by
Allen S. Whitney, '85, whose title was changed in 1905 to Professor of
Education.
After the resignation of Professor Watson in 1879, the chair of
Astronomy was occupied by Mark Walrod Harrington, '68, until 1892; later
he became President of the University of Washington. He was succeeded by
William J. Hussey, '89. Since the death of Professor Olney in 1887, the
Department of Mathematics has been under the charge of Wooster W. Beman,
'70, a member of the Faculty since 1871, whose name now stands first as
to length of service on the academic roster.
Albert Benjamin Prescott, '64_m_, who eventually succeeded Dr. Silas H.
Douglas as Director of the Chemical Laboratory, became Assistant
Professor of Chemistry in 1865. He organized the course in Pharmacy
three years later, becoming Professor of Organic and Applied Chemistry
and of Pharmacy in 1870. In 1876 he became Dean of the new College of
Pharmacy and in 1884 Director of the Chemical Laboratory. Upon his death
in 1905 he was succeeded as Director of the Chemical Laboratory by
Edward DeMille Campbell, '86, who had been Professor of Chemical
Engineering and Analytical Chemistry since 1902. After the retirement of
Professor Williams in 1877, Charles K. Wead, Vermont, '71, became Acting
Professor of Physics, to be succeeded in 1885 by Henry Smith Carhart,
Wesleyan, '69, who held the chair of Physics and the Directorship of the
Physical Laboratory until his retirement in 1905. His successor was John
Oren Reed, '85, who became also Dean of the Literary Department in 1907.
Upon Dean Reed's death in 1916 the Professorship of Physics passed to
Harrison McAllister Randall, '93, who became Director of the Physical
Laboratory in 1918.
[Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVATORY
The original building at the right]
[Illustration: HILL AUDITORIUM]
[Illustration: THE CHEMISTRY BUILDING]
[Illustration: THE NATURAL SCIENCE BUILDING]
At the end of Professor Winchell's first period in the University in
'73, the several subjects which comprised his professorship were
divided. The chair of Botany passed to Eugene Woldemar Hilgard, Ph.D.,
Heidelberg, '53, who was succeeded two years later by Volney Morgan
Spalding, '73, as Instructor in Botany and Zooelogy, becoming Professor
of Botany in 1886. Upon his resignation in 1904 the chair was occupied
by Frederick Charles Newcombe, '90. The work in Zooelogy passed to Joseph
Beal Steere, '68, who became an Assistant Professor in 1876, after five
years of travel in the interests of the University in South America,
China, and the East Indies, where he collected some 20,000 specimens for
the Museum. He became Professor of Zooelogy in 1879, and retained the
chair until 1894, when he was succeeded by Jacob E. Reighard, '82.
William Henry Pettee, Harvard, '61, assumed the work in mineralogy in
1875 under the title of Professor of Mining Engineering. In addition to
his work in his own subject, he served from 1881 to 1904 as editor of
the University Calendar and advisory editor of other University
publications. Edward Henry Kraus, Syracuse, '96, who occupies the chair
of Mineralogy at present, first came to the University in 1904 and
succeeded to the chair in 1908. When Professor Winchell returned to the
University after his term as Chancellor of the University of Syracuse,
he became Professor of Geology and held that position until his death in
1891, when he was succeeded by Israel Cook Russell, New York University,
'69. Upon Professor Russell's death in 1906, William Herbert Hobbs,
Worcester Polytechnic, '83, was called to the chair from the University
of Wisconsin.
Though courses in economics were given in the University almost from the
first and; in fact, with International Law, formed the special field of
work assumed by Dr. Angell for some years, the Department of Political
Economy as such was not organized until after Henry C. Adams, Iowa
College, '74, who came to the University as a lecturer in 1881, accepted
the chair of Political Economy in 1887. The first step toward a chair in
Sociology came with the appointment in 1899 of Charles Horton Cooley,
'87, a son of Judge Thomas M. Cooley, of the first Law Faculty, as
Assistant Professor of Sociology, from which position he rose to a full
professorship in eight years. A separate chair of Political Science was
not created until 1910, when Jesse Siddall Reeves, Amherst, '91, came as
the head of the new department. The Department of Music had its first
beginning with the appointment of Calvin Brainerd Cady, Oberlin, '74, as
instructor in 1880. He became Acting Professor of Music in 1885, but
resigned three years later when Albert A. Stanley, Leipzig, '75, came as
the head of the Department and a few years later Director of the
University School of Music, now closely associated with the work of the
University though not in any way a part of it. After the disappearance
from the Faculty roll of the name of the Detroit portrait painter, Alvah
Bradish, who apparently gave a few lectures on Fine Arts during the
period from 1852 to 1863, no work in fine arts was given until the
appointment of Professor Herbert R. Cross, Brown, '00, in 1911. The work
in elocution and oratory was definitely established with the appointment
in 1889 of Thomas C. Trueblood, M.A., Earlham, '85, who had for some
years held a lectureship in the University, as Assistant Professor of
Elocution and in 1892 as full Professor of Oratory.
The chair of Semitics and Oriental Languages, held since 1914 by Leroy
Waterman, Hillsdale, '98, was first established in 1893 when James A.
Craig, McGill, '80, came as Professor of Oriental Languages, a title
which was changed to Semitic Languages and Literatures and Hellenistic
Greek the following year.
Following the example of Yale and Cornell, Michigan established a
Department of Forestry in 1903, and called Filibert Roth, '90, to fill
the chair thus created. For some time courses in forestry had been given
in connection with the work in botany, but the growing interest in the
preservation and conservation of America's timber resources made more
intensive and systematic training seem desirable. A few years later, in
1909, a course in landscape design was established, which shortly became
a department under the charge of Professor Aubrey Tealdi, a graduate of
the Royal Technical Institute of Livorno, Italy.
The history of the development of special courses and degrees in the
University, though interesting and suggestive, can only be given here in
a brief outline. As Dr. Angell remarked in one of his reports, the
governing board has been distinguished for the boldness and originality
of its policy, making frequent changes in traditional college usages,
some of which were freely criticized at the time by those who afterwards
approved and even adopted them. We have seen how the University departed
from the dead level of contemporary college practice in establishing
Scientific Courses, and the admitting of those who were not seeking a
degree as special students. A few years later, in 1855, came the first
indication of one of the principal differences between the old
University and that of the present time--the system of elective studies.
The concession was a very small one, it must be acknowledged, one-third
of the work in the senior year; but it was a break in the dike. This was
all that was allowed for fifteen years, or until 1871, when all the
studies of the senior year except philosophy became elective.
The establishment of an English course in 1877-78, leading to the degree
of Bachelor of Letters, which consisted largely in the study of modern
languages and history, and aimed to co-ordinate with similar high school
courses, formed another break, which was emphasized by a modification
and revision of the other courses and a change from the Latin and
Scientific to the Latin course. Almost half the work required for a
degree now became elective. This action was far-reaching in its effect;
not only was there an immediate increase of almost twenty percent in the
number of students, but due to it, curiously enough, can be traced the
subsequent rise of a true graduate school. The principle of general
election of studies was gradually extended until the required work was
decreased to certain introductory courses in Latin, Greek, modern
languages, rhetoric, history, mathematics, and sciences, according to
the special fields chosen by the student. The special degrees of B.S.,
Ph.B., and B.L. were abolished in 1900 and all graduates of the Literary
Department were granted a degree of A.B. after that time, though the
B.S. was later restored. Of late there has been a reaction toward more
formal programs of study, with an increased emphasis on certain
introductory work which must be observed in planning the course
necessary for a degree. But the great latitude left to the student in
the choice of his work still remains.
The growth of the Graduate School should also be noted, for upon this
the standing of the University as a center of learning must eventually
rest. In spite of Dr. Tappan's efforts to introduce "university"
courses, Michigan was long a college rather than a university, so much
so that President Haven discouraged the use of the word "undergraduate"
when "graduate" students were almost non-existent; while the
opportunities offered them, except possibly in astronomy and chemistry,
where the facilities were unusual for that period, were only those of a
high grade college curriculum. But the leaven was working, in two
particulars especially; the seminar method of teaching and the
development of the elective system. The first seminar was held by
Professor Charles Kendall Adams in 1871 in some of his courses in
history. He was followed a little later by Professor Moses Coit Tyler in
English Literature, and in time by most of the other departments. This,
with the corresponding laboratory methods in the teaching of the
sciences, had a profound influence on the growth of scholarly ideals in
the University. Michigan was in all probability the first American
institution to naturalize these products of Continental universities.
The broadening of the course in 1877-78, with its great increase in
electives, enabled the members of the Faculty to increase the scope of
their work and to expand their courses. As an immediate answer there
came an ever increasing demand for true graduate work, not only from
graduates of the University, but from those of other institutions as
well. This movement grew so rapidly that the number of advanced students
enrolled increased from four in 1870 to 56 in 1892, when a Graduate
School was formally organized in connection with the Literary
Department. This was expanded some twenty-five years later into an
entirely separate Department, or School, following the revised
nomenclature of 1910, of which Professor Karl Eugen Guthe, Marburg,
Ph.D., '89, of the Department of Physics, became the first Dean. Upon
his death in the summer of 1915 he was succeeded by Professor Alfred H.
Lloyd, Harvard, '86, of the Department of Philosophy.
Thus graduate work in the University came into its own. At last the
ideals of President Tappan, who admitted the first graduate student in
1856, were in some measure at least realized; though the real results of
his labors did not show for many years after he left.
Throughout all the early period the general attitude towards advanced
work was decidedly haphazard and casual; the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy was not given until 1876, when Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, the
present Dean of the Medical School, was one of the first recipients;
while the Ph.D. as well as the M.D. were sometimes given as honorary
degrees. This attitude toward graduate study, however, was by no means
confined to Michigan, for the systematic regulation of advanced courses
has been comparatively a recent development in all American
universities.
The first organization of the School under a Graduate Council within the
Literary Department, was therefore a great step in advance, however
anomalous its position,--a graduate school practically controlled by an
undergraduate faculty,--though there were, it is true, certain
representatives of the professional departments on the Council.
Nevertheless the work grew rapidly after this time. Not only was there a
steadily increasing enrolment, but there was a distinct increase in the
number of advanced courses, as well as in the time given by teachers to
graduate instruction and to research work, which greatly strengthened
the prestige of the University as a center of higher education.
The final establishment of the School as a separate division of the
University naturally gave a decided impetus to this development. A
suite of offices was set apart for the administrative force; special
encouragement was given to the publication of the results of their work
by members of the Faculty, particularly through such agencies as the
University Humanistic Series, and similar series in other fields, while
fifteen University fellowships were also established, as well as the
State College Fellowships mentioned above. In addition a number of
fellowships have been privately established by individuals and
corporations, ranging from the classics to paper-making. During the last
few years there have been in all between thirty-five and forty-five
fellowships ordinarily available. The enrolment in the School reached
570 in 1916. There was naturally a falling off during the war, though by
the year 1919-20 the enrolment had once more reached 509. Of this number
227 were registered in the summer session, 173 were women and 195 were
graduates of other institutions than Michigan.
The history of the University Library has been closely associated, as is
only natural, with the growth of the Literary College, and it is proper
to include a word about the Library in this place. The appointment of
the first Librarian in 1837 did not make a library, and for many years
the fine but small collection of books gathered in Europe by Professor
Gray was housed in different places about the Campus and was used only
as a circulating library--open for one hour each week for the use of the
professors and students. However a note in the library regulations to
the effect that: "The present instructors are of opinion that there are
very few of the books in the library which would be useful to students,"
seems to limit even this function of the little collection. All this was
changed in 1856 when the whole North Wing was set apart as a Museum and
Library. Here for the first time, the books were properly shelved and
arrangements made for their daily use in an adequate reading-room under
the charge of Dr. Tappan's son, John L. Tappan, who took charge as the
first real Librarian. He arranged the books scientifically and began the
first card catalogue.
Almost at once the Library sprang into a new place in University life.
Not only did President Tappan make the Library one of his first
interests, but the Regents came to realize the desirability of regular
support. This inaugurated a period of ever-increasing growth, which has
placed the Library well to the front among American college libraries.
Progress at first was rather slow, only about 800 volumes were added
each year up to 1877, when the Librarian reported that there were almost
24,000 volumes in the collection. Not very large even then; but the rate
increased from that time, rapidly, and at the present time the Library
numbers some 430,000 volumes including the departmental collections.
In 1877 the Legislature was brought to see the imperative need of an
adequate library and made a special appropriation of $5,000, which was
renewed every two years, and even gradually increased, until in 1891 the
amount appropriated was $15,000, with a grand total over a period of
fifteen years of $79,000. These biennial appropriations ended in 1893
with the increase of the mill-tax from one-twentieth to one-sixth of a
mill. This enabled the Regents to double the income of the Library,
making it $15,000 annually. The income increased gradually until the
library budget of 1920 was over $150,000, of which $50,000 represents
the approximate cost of books; the balance being spent for the salaries
of the large staff which is necessitated by a library of this size.
[Illustration: THE NEW LIBRARY]
Upon the completion of the first Law Building in 1863 the Library was
given new and better quarters where it remained until the old Library
was completed in 1883. This was at the time considered the last word in
a college library and was dedicated with special exercises at which an
address was given by Dr. Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University.
For thirty-five years this building, situated at the center of the
Campus, with its picturesque twin towers rising above the ivy-covered
apse, served the University well. Here was not only the center of
academic life, but from one of the towers the Campus clock chimed the
hours and quarters for the convenience of the students. In the end,
however, the old building proved inadequate and unsafe for the valuable
collections it housed, in spite of an increase in stack capacity in
1899. The building was therefore finally removed to make way for the new
Library, completed in 1919, which, through its perfect adaptation to the
purposes for which it is designed, is considered the most conveniently
appointed and successful college library in the country. The building
will accommodate over one million volumes and there are definite plans
for future extension which will house over three-quarters of a million
in addition. The stack wing of the old Library was incorporated in the
building, permitting the gradual erection of the new structure in such a
manner that the use of the books was not interfered with at any time.
The new Library was formally opened on January 7, 1920, with an address
by Mr. R.R. Bowker, the editor of _The Library Journal_, as the
principal feature of the programme. The building cost, completed and
furnished, $615,000, of which amount the sum of $550,000 was especially
appropriated by the State Legislature.
After the resignation of the first Librarian, the Rev. Henry Colclazer,
in 1845, the charge of the Library was passed around from one member of
the Faculty to another until the appointment of John L. Tappan in 1856,
nominally the eighth, though in reality the first Librarian. He was
followed by Datus Chase Brooks, who held the position one year, when the
Rev. Andrew Ten Brook, who had once before held the title during the
year 1850-51, returned to the University as Librarian in 1864. Not only
were the affairs of the Library well cared for during his
administration, but he also found time to write his "History of State
Universities," which gives the only adequate picture we have of the
beginnings of the University, by one who shared their trials and
triumphs. Upon his resignation in 1877 Raymond Cazallis Davis, '55-'57,
A.M. (hon.) '81, succeeded him, contributing greatly during the
twenty-eight years of his administration towards the establishment of
the Library on its present effective basis. In this effort he was
supported by the advice and co-operation of Professor Isaac N. Demmon,
who was for thirty-seven years a member of the Library Committee.
Theodore Wesley Koch, Harvard, '93, became Librarian in 1905, coming
from the Library of Congress in Washington. It was his main effort to
popularize the use of the Library among the students and Faculties,
through making the reading-rooms more attractive and the books more
accessible. The Library of Congress was again called upon for his
successor after he resigned in 1915, when the present Librarian, William
Warner Bishop, '92, came in time to give his experience and
administrative ability to the planning and construction of the new
Library Building. To him in no small measure is due its acknowledged
success as a working library which has won the praise of all practical
librarians throughout the country.
CHAPTER VII
THE PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
The first steps toward the establishment of a Faculty of Medicine and
Surgery were taken in 1847. The Medical Building was not completed,
however, until two years later, and the formal opening of the new
Department did not take place until October 1, 1850. On this occasion
Abram Sager, the first President, or Dean of the Faculty, as we should
now call him, delivered an address to ninety matriculates, at a time
when there were only sixty-four students all told in the Literary
Department. The period was propitious for the installation of a strong
school, for although there were a few struggling medical institutions in
the West, the vigorous growth of the new Department showed how
inadequately this part of the country was served in medical education.
The entrance requirements were simple; a fair high school education,
with Latin and Greek sufficient for the understanding of medical terms.
For graduation, at least three years' study with a reputable physician
was required; but this might include the two six-month courses of
lectures which comprised the work of the Department. Even this very
slender medical preparation was not required of college graduates, or of
students who had already practised medicine four years, for whom one
course was deemed sufficient. A thesis was also necessary for
graduation, and tradition has it that in a few cases during the earlier
days of the Department, they were actually written and delivered in
Latin. Special attention was given to laboratory work in chemistry and
anatomy, though for the most part the training was given through
lectures and quizzes. The conservatism of the Literary Department in
educational methods here also found its parallel, even in the
comparatively new sciences.
The introduction of clinical methods came slowly, though the growing
city of Ann Arbor furnished many opportunities for actual diagnosis and
treatment. The lack of practical facilities for study was early
recognized, however, and within a few years some of the members of the
Medical Faculty established a school for clinical instruction in
Detroit, which eventually led to the first effort for the removal of the
school mentioned in the last chapter. In spite of this difficulty the
Department grew so rapidly that within ten years it had an enrolment of
242 matriculates and 43 graduates; more students than were enrolled at
Yale, Harvard, or Virginia, the leading medical schools of that day. The
growth came so rapidly, in fact, that it proved embarrassing and the
Regents experienced great difficulty in finding accommodations for the
students. In 1864 an addition was made to the original Medical Building
which more than doubled its capacity and in 1868 one of the professors'
houses on the north side of the Campus was fitted up as the first
University Hospital. By 1874 Latin and Greek had been dropped from the
requirements for admission; a possible backward step which was more than
counterbalanced three years later by the extension of the annual course
of lectures to nine months. Finally in 1880 an extra year was added to
the course.
The long roster of the Medical Faculty has included many distinguished
names, of which but a few can be mentioned, and none with the detail
their services to their profession and to science deserve. The first
Faculty consisted of the two recruits from the Literary Department, Dr.
Sager, who became Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and
Children, and Dr. Douglas, who assumed the chair of Chemistry, Pharmacy,
and Medical Jurisprudence in the new school; as well as four other
members, Moses Gunn, who was a graduate of Geneva Medical College, 1846,
Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; Samuel Denton, Castleton Medical
College (Vermont), '25, a former Regent, who became Professor of the
Theory and Practice of Medicine and Pathology; J. Adams Allen,
Middlebury, '45, Professor of Therapeutics, Materia Medica, and
Physiology; and R.C. Kedzie, '51_m_, demonstrator of anatomy, who later
was for nearly forty years Professor of Chemistry at the Michigan
Agricultural College.
Dr. Sager, the first Dean of the Department, was one of its most learned
and versatile members; so thoroughly possessed of the scientific spirit
that his abilities were not always appreciated by his students, or, it
must be confessed, by his colleagues. Of his ability as a practitioner
"a few of the older residents of Ann Arbor speak reverently and
lovingly." Dr. Gunn, who had charge of the Anatomical Laboratory, the
first laboratory to be established in the University, deserves, in the
opinion of Dr. Vaughan, the present Dean of the School, to be called the
founder of the Department. This honor, however, might properly be
divided with Dr. Zina Pitcher of Detroit, who, as a member of the first
Board of Regents, was responsible for the early introduction of the
teaching of medicine in the University. But Dr. Gunn was on the ground
as early as 1849, and from the first he labored earnestly and
effectively in the organization of the new Department, which was beset
by many difficulties, particularly in his own field, where the problem
of finding adequate material for the study of anatomy was almost
insuperable for many years. Many are the hints given in the
reminiscences of the older men of the practical ways this difficulty was
met, but for the most part the matter is shrouded in a discreet silence.
Dr. Gunn was of a commanding character and presence and his "trained
hand dared to do many operations, the landmarks of which were not then
described in the works on surgery." He soon gave up his work in Anatomy
and was succeeded in 1854 by Dr. Corydon La Ford, Geneva, '42, a
sensitive and earnest teacher, who had a way of "making dry bones and
anatomical tissues of absorbing interest." It is said of him that in his
day he probably taught more students than any other teacher of anatomy.
Occupying hardly a lesser place than Dr. Ford in the memories of the
older medical graduates was his factotum, Gregor Nagele, better known as
"Doc" Nagele. As an immigrant just landed, he helped in the construction
of the old Medical Building and remained to become for years the
presiding genius of the Department, and, through his long association
with Dr. Ford, an unofficial demonstrator of anatomy to the "boys."
Dr. Denton, another member of that first Faculty, was long remembered by
his students because of his high hat and his buck-board wagon, as well
as by his belief in the medical efficiency of alcohol; in which he came
into violent conflict with one of his confreres and eventual successor
in the Professorship of Pathology and Theory and Practice. This was Dr.
A.B. Palmer, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in
1839, who in 1854 succeeded Dr. Allen, the first of the original Faculty
to go. Dr. Palmer was a conspicuous personage in Ann Arbor for many
years, energetic in public welfare and a lover not only of his
profession but of his professorship and its duties. One of his
students remarks: "He would have been willing to get up in the night and
lecture if asked, so enthusiastic was he in his efforts to help the
student." He was the first member of the Medical Faculty to apply for
leave of absence that he might study abroad. That was in 1858.
[Illustration: THE ENGINEERING BUILDING]
[Illustration: THE MEDICAL BUILDING]
Other appointments of particular importance in the earlier years of the
Medical Department were those of Samuel G. Armor, Missouri Medical
College, '44, who became Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and
Materia Medica in 1861, and of Albert Benjamin Prescott, '64_m_, who
entered the same year upon his long term of distinguished service in the
Chemical Laboratory and later the Department of Pharmacy, loved and
honored by many generations of students. Changes in the personnel of the
Faculty were frequent, however, and few men remained long enough to
identify their lives wholly with that of the University. When Dr. Sager
retired as Emeritus Professor and Dean in 1874, Dr. Edward S. Dunster,
New York College of Medicine and Surgery, '59, was appointed to his
chair, and held it until his death in 1888. Dr. Palmer succeeded Dr.
Sager as Dean, but in 1887, the position passed to Dr. Ford, and then,
in 1891, to Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, Mt. Pleasant (Mo.) College, '72; M.D.
(Michigan), '78, the first graduate of the School to become its Dean. He
has been a member of the Faculty since 1879, serving as Professor of
Physiology and Pathological Chemistry and Assistant Professor of
Therapeutics and Materia Medica.
As the growth of the School continued and as the field of medical
knowledge widened, new laboratories and professorships were continually
becoming necessary. The early history of the Anatomical Laboratory has
been touched upon. Dr. Ford remained in charge until 1894, when he was
succeeded by Dr. J. Playfair McMurrich, Toronto, '79, who did much for
the advancement of the scientific study of anatomy until his return to
Toronto in 1907, when George Linius Streeter, Union, '95, assumed the
chair. He resigned in 1914, and Dr. G. Carl Huber, '87_m_, Professor of
Histology then became Director of the Anatomical Laboratories. Mention
should also be made in this place of the services of Dr. George E.
Fothingham, '64_m_, Professor of Ophthalmology from 1870 to 1889, who
for some years was connected with the Department of Anatomy and drafted
the first good anatomical law.
Courses in histology were given as far back as 1856 but the emphasis on
scientific methods did not come for many years, and the courses in both
histology and physiology were long taught solely by lectures. In 1877,
however, the Legislature appropriated $3,500 for a laboratory in those
subjects and Dr. C.H. Stowell, '72_m_, was appointed instructor,
becoming Assistant Professor in 1880. About the same time a separate
chair in physiology was created with Dr. Henry Sewall, Wesleyan, '76, as
the first Professor. Under Dr. Sewall the Physiological Laboratory grew
rapidly; new apparatus was purchased and many valuable researches were
conducted, not the least of these being the proof, published in 1887,
that pigeons might be immunized against rattle-snake poison,--one of the
first cases of the production of an artificial immunity. The two
departments were again united in 1889 under Dr. William H. Howell, Johns
Hopkins, '81. He was succeeded in 1892 by Dr. Warren P. Lombard,
Harvard, '78, who held both Professorships until 1898, when Dr. Huber,
at that time Assistant Professor of Anatomy, was made Director of the
Histological Laboratory, becoming Junior Professor in 1899 and
Professor of Histology and Embryology four years later.
A Laboratory in Electro-Therapeutics was opened in 1878, the first of
its kind in America, largely through the efforts of Dr. John W. Langley,
Harvard, '61, M.D. Michigan, (hon.) '77, Professor of General Chemistry
at that time; but the subject did not become a compulsory part of the
course until the appointment in 1890 of Dr. William J. Herdman, '72, who
had been a member of the Medical Faculty since 1875, as Professor of
Nervous Diseases and Electro-Therapeutics. Practical instruction in
pathology was inaugurated in 1879 under Dr. Herdman and Dr. Victor C.
Vaughan, but the beginnings were modest and laboratory work only became
incorporated in the course in 1888 under Dr. Heneage Gibbes, Aberdeen,
'79, called from London as Professor of Pathology. Even then the
quarters were extremely limited and the laboratory was moved several
times before its final establishment in the present Medical Building in
1903. In 1895 Dr. George Dock, Pennsylvania, '84, Professor of the
Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine since 1891,
succeeded Dr. Gibbes in the chair of Pathology but resigned it in 1903
to Dr. Aldred Scott Warthin, '91_m_, (Indiana, '88), who became also
Director of the Pathological Laboratory.
A request from the State Board of Health led to the opening of a
Hygienic Laboratory in 1888, with the threefold object of instruction,
research, and the examination of suspected food and water, with Dr. V.C.
Vaughan, who had come to the University in 1875 as an assistant in the
Chemical Laboratory, as its first Director.
The first officially recognized Laboratory of Clinical Medicine was
established by Dr. Dock, when he came to the University in 1891, with
the purpose of carrying out the instrumental investigation of disease,
and teaching the technique of diagnosis. This was followed the next year
by demonstration courses in the different branches of medicine and
surgery. Dr. Dock was succeeded, upon his resignation in 1908, by Dr. A.
Walter Hewlett, California, '95, who returned to Leland Stanford, Jr.
University after six years' service.
A Surgical Laboratory, established soon after Dr. Charles de Nancrede,
Pennsylvania (M.D.), '69, came as Professor of Surgery, speedily proved
its educational value, and increasing facilities were offered students
for the demonstration of surgery on bodies and on animals, with the same
care taken as to antiseptics, asepsis, and dressings as in actual
operations. Dr. de Nancrede retired in 1917, and in 1919 Dr. Hugh Cabot,
Harvard, '94, succeeded to the chair. A Laboratory in Experimental
Pharmacology, still another instance of a brand new venture on the
University's part, was established in 1891 under Dr. John Jacob Abel,
'83. He only remained two years, however, and was succeeded by Dr.
Arthur R. Cushny, Aberdeen, '86, of London, under whom the new
laboratory assumed its present important place. Dr. Cushny returned to
the University College in London in 1905 and the Professorship of
Pharmacology eventually passed to Dr. Charles W. Edmunds, '01_m_, at
present Secretary of the Medical School. As the result of long effort on
the part of Dr. Herdman, who held the chair of Nervous Diseases, a State
Psychopathic Hospital, the first of its kind in the country, was
established at the University in 1903 under the joint supervision of the
Regents and a State Board, affording a practical laboratory and clinic
for students specializing in nervous diseases. It has been under the
direction of Dr. Albert M. Barrett, Iowa, '93, Professor of Psychiatry
since 1906.
The old make-shift hospital on the Campus was enlarged in 1876, but it
was never able to overtake the ever-increasing demand, and a new
building eventually became imperative. This came in 1891, when the
present Hospital, soon fated to go the way of the first, was erected
northeast of the Campus on the hills above the Huron River. Designed to
accommodate about eighty patients, it has been enlarged again and again,
until finally in 1919 the State appropriated over a million dollars for
an entirely new building, which will cost eventually three times that
sum, to be completed in 1922. Not only will this new Hospital
accommodate nearly six hundred patients under the far more exacting
requirements of modern hospital practice, but it will also be by far the
largest hospital controlled entirely by a medical school and maintained
for the sole benefit of the people of a state.
The medical course was finally increased in 1890 to four years of nine
months, while the entrance requirements were placed on the same basis as
the admission to the classical or scientific courses in the Literary
Department. At the same time a "combination" course enabled the student
to graduate from both the Literary Department and the Medical School in
six years. The final evolution of the curriculum up to the present time
came in 1914 when this combination was made compulsory. This meant that
at least two years' preliminary work in the Literary College was
required before the student was permitted to enter the Medical School.
In 1903 a new Medical Building was completed at a cost of about
$200,000, to provide the class rooms and laboratories for the work of
the first two years. It contains two amphitheaters, two lecture rooms,
and the laboratories of hygiene, bacteriology, physiological chemistry,
anatomy, histology and embryology and pathology, as well as the
pathological museum. To the great regret of many medical alumni, and in
fact all who loved the relics of the University's first days, the
picturesque old Medical Building with its simple Greek portico was razed
in 1914. It had been considered unsafe for some time, and stood
abandoned and unused at one side of the new building.
Although the original University Act called for a Law Department, and
even gave it first place in their scheme for organization after the
Literary College, the favorable time for its establishment did not
appear for nearly twenty years. There were already a number of law
schools in operation elsewhere, one of them at the University of
Pennsylvania dated as far back as 1790; but for the most part legal
education was haphazard and primitive. Candidates for the bar ordinarily
prepared for practice by reading in a lawyer's office, a good old method
that perhaps has some merits, but one which did not, save in the case of
a teacher of exceptional qualifications, give a uniform preparation or
an insight into the principles of legal philosophy. As the general level
of education advanced, however, the advantages of some systematic
instruction in law became more and more apparent, and it was not long
after the establishment of the University before demands for a Law
School began to be heard. This sentiment grew, in spite of the
conservatism, and even active opposition, of the lawyers of the old
school who believed the established office method of education the only
practical one.
[Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE OLD HOSPITALS]
[Illustration: THE NEW HOSPITAL BUILDING (From the architect's plans)]
[Illustration: THE LAW BUILDING]
Finally, in spite of the financial problem involved, the new Department
was formally opened in October, 1859, with an entering class of
ninety-two students. It had long been assumed that only one
Professorship would be required; but when the Board really faced the
problem it had a wider vision, and the first Faculty consisted of three
men. These have sometimes been called "the great triumvirate," Judge
James V. Campbell, St. Paul's College, '41, of the State Supreme Court,
who became Marshall Professor of Law, with Common and Statute Law as his
field; Charles I. Walker, a practising lawyer of Detroit, Kent Professor
of Pleading, Practice and Evidence; and Thomas McIntyre Cooley of
Adrian, who came as Jay Professor of Equity Jurisprudence, Pleading, and
Practice. These men had all been trained through the usual course of
"reading" in a lawyer's office--all the higher education they received,
with the exception of Judge Campbell.
Never has a law school started under more favorable auspices, certainly
never with such a Faculty. To the learning and personal character, as
well as to the ability as teachers, of these three men thousands of
graduates of the School ascribe their remarkable success in later life.
Judge Campbell, the first Dean, was characterized by his wide, accurate,
and scholarly knowledge; while the refinement of his literary style and
his stimulating personality made him one of the most delightful of
lecturers. Professor Walker was the type of man who was willing to
sacrifice one day a week out of a large and remunerative practice for
the education of young men in his profession. His interests extended
beyond his legal labors, for he was well known through his scholarly
investigations in the early history of the State. His courses, which
might so easily have been perfunctory, were on a par with those of his
distinguished confreres, stimulating and profound and sometimes
punctuated with a dry wit, well illustrated by his epigram that "some
men live by their practice and some by their practices."
Thomas M. Cooley, the youngest one of this group and the only one to
make his home in Ann Arbor, probably, in his later years, gave more
distinction to the University than any other teacher upon its long
rolls. He became known, not only nationally but internationally, for his
great work on "Constitutional Limitations" which will probably always be
the standard work on the American Constitution. This appeared in 1868.
He was also the author of many other books, including a "History of
Michigan." During his service of twenty-one years on the State Supreme
Bench, the Court acquired a national reputation. At the time of his
death he was a member of the first Interstate Commerce Commission. His
home, which stood on the site the Union now occupies, and which for nine
years was used as the Union Club House, was long a center of the
intellectual and social life of Ann Arbor. One of his pupils, William R.
Day, '70, now of the United States Supreme Court, says of him: "Here was
a man of world-wide fame as a jurist--the author of a book which is at
once the greatest authority upon the subject of constitutional
limitations upon our government, and a classic in legal
literature--whose recreations seemed to consist in change of occupation,
and whose energies seemed never to tire."
The enrolment in the new school grew with even greater rapidity than had
that of the Medical School during its first years. By 1911 the Law
School, as it came to be known after 1910, had given 9,041 degrees,
almost equaling the 9,225 granted up to that time by the Literary
College and more than double the 4,260 degrees granted by the Medical
School. The balance of attendance, however, has been with the Literary
College since 1897, when the requirement in the Law School was increased
to three years. It must be understood, too, that any comparison of this
character between the Law and the Literary Departments can only be on a
quantitative basis, for the traditional four years' work had always been
demanded in the Literary College; whereas in early days, the law course
consisted only of two terms of lectures of six months each, with only
one requisite for admission; that the candidates should be eighteen
years of age and of good moral character. Nevertheless these early
students stood well in respect to ability, some "were already practising
lawyers, and others were on the verge of being admitted to the bar"; men
who came to take advantage of the lectures before entering definitely
upon practice. Only seniors were quizzed, but they were quizzed on
junior as well as senior subjects, while at the end an oral examination
was given. If this ordeal was passed satisfactorily and an acceptable
thesis presented, the candidate received his LL.B.
Professor Hinsdale in his "History," in speaking of these earlier years,
said: "A feebler organization and a looser administration could hardly
have held the School together. Indeed, if the mark of a school is to be
found in organization and administration, then this was hardly a school
at all; but if such mark is to be found in the ability of teachers, the
value of the instruction given, and the enthusiasm of students, it was a
school of high order. In a word, it was the Professors and the
conditions, not organization, administration, and discipline, that made
the School what it was."
Since 1877, when it was announced that students henceforth were expected
to be well grounded in at least a good English education, the
requirements in the Law School have been gradually raised; in fact one
may almost trace the reflection of the increasing requirements in the
fluctuating attendance. Following a requirement that an examination in
ordinary high school branches must be passed by all students except
those who had completed a high school course, the standard of admission
was made in 1898 the same as for the admission to the old B.L. course in
the Literary Department. In 1884 the two annual terms which had
heretofore made up the course were lengthened from six to nine months;
and in 1886 a graduated course of instruction was introduced, resulting
in the separation of the two classes which, up to that time, had always
recited together. In 1895, after due notice, a third year was added.
The last and perhaps most far-reaching steps in the history of the Law
School were taken in 1912, when one year in the Literary College was
required, and in 1915, when another year was added, making the law
course one of five years. Other significant advances have also been made
of late years; the establishment of the special degree of J.D. (Juris
Doctor) for exceptional students, and particularly the addition of an
optional sixth year of special studies for those who wished to carry
their work further, leading to the degree of Master of Laws.
With these changes in the requirements has come also a revolution in
methods of teaching and even in the fundamental policies of the School.
There are three methods ordinarily applied in teaching law; the lecture,
the textbook, and the study of selected cases. The early courses were
almost entirely lectures, textbooks not appearing until 1879, while the
study of cases, used somewhat even at the very first, has now become the
principal method of establishing legal principles. The question is
largely one of the aim of a school, whether to make the student
familiar with the actual rules and practice in the different parts of
the country so that he will be able to take up his profession, if only
in a limited way, at once; or whether to emphasize fundamental
principles and the evolutionary character of the law, which can best be
discovered from the study of decisions and cases, in order to prepare
for the far more significant and useful career open to one who has the
background, as well as the ordinary rules of law, upon which to base his
actions. President Hutchins, when Dean of the Law School, emphasized
this when he said: "The Law School of today should teach and should
encourage the study of law in its larger sense." This policy has been
consistently developed by the present Dean, Henry M. Bates, '90, who not
only insists on the higher mission of the Law School in this regard but
also believes it "must not only train men to be effective lawyers
adhering steadfastly to high ethical standards, but it must also instil
into them a strong sense of responsibility to the community, and those
ideals of service which are among the oldest and finest but, perhaps,
sometimes forgotten traditions of the bar."
The Faculty of the Law School has always remained relatively small in
proportion to the numbers of students--largely because of the methods of
teaching, and the absence, inherent in the subject, of any laboratory
save the practice court. A fourth professorship was created in 1866 and
named after the Hon. Richard Fletcher of Boston, who had given his legal
library to the University. This was occupied in 1868 by Charles A. Kent,
Vermont, '52, who was Dean of the Department at the time of his
resignation in 1886. The Fletcher Professorship has been held since 1897
by Judge Victor H. Lane, '74_e_, '78_l_. A Tappan Professorship was
established in 1879, an honor acknowledged with great pleasure by the
first President, then living in Switzerland, and was held for four years
by the Hon. Alpheus Felch, Bowdoin, '27, one of the most distinguished
citizens of the State, who had served as United States Senator,
Governor, and Regent. The Professorship passed eventually to Henry Wade
Rogers, '74, afterward Dean of the Yale Law School, and in 1903 to Henry
M. Bates, '90. Mr. Walker resigned in 1876 and Judge Cooley in 1884,
though the latter continued to give lectures on special subjects and
remained on the Faculty as Professor of American History and
Constitutional Law. Judge Campbell became the first Dean of the
Department but resigned in 1871, when he was succeeded by Judge Cooley.
After the latter gave up his active duties Charles A. Kent became Dean,
to be followed by Henry Wade Rogers, '74, in 1885; Jerome C. Knowlton,
'75, in 1890; and Harry Burns Hutchins, '71, in 1895. The present Dean,
Henry M. Bates, '90, succeeded Dr. Hutchins when he was elected to the
Presidency of the University in 1910.
The Law Library, which contains over 40,000 volumes, is the largest of
the departmental collections. In addition to Judge Fletcher's early gift
of eight hundred volumes, two other considerable gifts have added to its
resources, the Buhl Collection, presented by Mr. C.H. Buhl of Detroit in
1885, with a fund of $10,000 for additions to it, and the library
presented by Judge S.T. Douglas of Detroit in 1898. The Library now
occupies a large room at the south end of the second floor of the
present Law Building.
The first courses of the Law School were given in the old chapel in the
North Wing, or Mason Hall, where the Law Library was installed with the
General Library above. This proved a most unsatisfactory arrangement
for the growing school and in 1863 a new Law Building was dedicated on
the northwest corner of the Campus. This building in turn quickly became
inadequate for the needs of the still rapidly expanding department. Some
relief was given in 1872 by using the Chapel in the new University Hall,
and again in 1882, when the University Library which had been housed up
to this time in the Law Building was moved to its new quarters. The Law
Building was remodeled and enlarged in 1893 and a second time in 1898,
when it was almost completely made over into its present form.
The College of Engineering, the fourth of the larger divisions of the
University, was in fact the last to be established, as it was not until
1895 that the Regents authorized its organization as an independent
department with Professor Charles E. Greene, Harvard, '62, as its first
Dean.
The history of the course in engineering, however, is almost as old as
the University, and really begins with the designation of a chair in
Civil Engineering and Drawing in the article authorizing the University.
That was as far as the matter went, however, for the first fifteen
years, or until the appointment of Alexander Winchell in 1853 as
Professor of Physics and Civil Engineering. Physics is the science upon
which the profession of the civil engineer rests and the two subjects
were closely associated in those days of small beginnings. There is
little to indicate that Professor Winchell or his successor to the chair
in 1855, William G. Peck, West Point, '44, did much to advance the
engineering half of their charge. But with the coming of DeVolson Wood
as Assistant Professor, immediately upon his graduation in 1857 from
Rensselaer Polytechnic, the cause of engineering was properly presented
to the students. Though the fourth institution in this country to offer
courses in engineering, the first two students were not graduated until
1860, so that actually Michigan became the sixth institution in America
to grant degrees in that branch of scientific training.
Professor Charles S. Denison, whose long service in the University began
as an instructor just before Professor Wood's resignation, pays a
tribute to his sturdy and at the same time genial character, his
powerful intellect, and singularly virile influence on his students. He
showed remarkable energy and administrative ability, in spite of many
difficulties and a general lack of understanding of his aims in
technical education, characteristic of those days. It is told of him
that he even recommended an adaptation of one of the professors' houses
on the Campus to the needs of the work in engineering, exactly thirty
years before it was actually done. While he was here a course in
military engineering was organized in 1862 and he delivered a course of
lectures on that subject, but after the war it was abandoned. A similar
fate overtook the School of Mines established in 1864-65, owing to the
desire of the residents of the Northern Peninsula to have a state
institution in that section, although a number of degrees in mining
engineering were granted. A course in mechanical engineering was also
authorized by the Regents in 1868, one of the very first to be organized
in this country, but the degree was abolished two years later and the
course was merged with civil engineering. One of the last acts of
Professor Wood, before his resignation to accept a similar chair at
Stevens Institute of Technology, was to present to the Regents a
detailed plan for a School of Engineering and Technology as a fourth
department of the University--foreshadowing the action taken
twenty-three years later when engineering was made a separate
department in the University.
The appointment of Charles Ezra Greene, Harvard, '62, Mass. Inst.
Technology, '68, in 1872 marks a definite period in the history of this
department. He found himself associated with two other men who had been
instructors for a short period under Professor Wood, J.B. Davis, '68_e_,
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, who became Professor of
Geodesy and Surveying in 1891, and Charles S. Denison, Vermont, '70, who
was to be in later years Professor of Stereotomy, Mechanism, and
Drawing. These men saw the Department grow almost to its present
proportions, and, as the first Faculty, formed a most harmonious
combination of unusually varied elements. Professor Greene was a scholar
and scientist who had a wide reputation as an engineer and an author;
Professor Davis, on the contrary, was a practical man, a genius, whose
love of the outdoors and fatherly care of his "boys" even extended to
their "rubbers" on wet days, while his homely and wise sayings endeared
him to every student. Professor Denison was a bachelor, small and very
particular in personal appearance, who was long known by the students as
"Little Lord Chesterfield," but an able teacher who was loved for his
big heart and his very mannerisms. A course in mechanical engineering
was again inaugurated in 1881 when Mortimer E. Cooley, Annapolis, '78,
Assistant Engineer, U.S.N., was detailed to the University by the Navy
Department and became the first Professor of Mechanical Engineering. In
1885 he resigned from the Navy and definitely cast his lot with the
University, becoming Dean of the College of Engineering in February,
1904, after the death of Professor Greene in October, 1903. At the same
time Professor Davis became Associate Dean and maintained an intimate
and paternal care over the students until his retirement in 1910.
The Department of Electrical Engineering was organized in 1889, under
the charge of Henry S. Carhart, Wesleyan, '69, Professor of Physics, and
one instructor, George W. Patterson, Yale, '84, who became the first
Professor of Electrical Engineering in May, 1905. In 1899 a course in
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering was created with Herbert C.
Sadler, Glasgow, '93, as the first Professor. The following year the
first degree was conferred in a new Department of Chemical Engineering,
and in 1902 Edward DeMille Campbell, '86, became head of the new
division as Professor of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Chemistry.
The first plan for the University called for a Professorship of
Engineering and Architecture, but no attention was paid to the latter
subject until the appointment of W.L.B. Jenney, to the Professorship of
Architecture in 1876. Appropriations failed, however, and the chair was
discontinued in 1880, not to be revived until 1906, when a Department of
Architecture was organized under the charge of Emil Lorch, A.M.,
Harvard, '03, with the two departments associated under the title of the
Department (later Colleges) of Engineering and Architecture. Within
recent years special courses have been organized leading to degrees in
Architectural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Aeronautical
Engineering, as well as special groups of courses in such branches as
sanitary, transportation, automobile, hydro-mechanical, industrial, and
gas engineering and paper manufacturing. A reorganization of the
numerous degrees given at one time in the Engineering College has now
reduced the degrees to two, B.S. in Engineering and B.S. in
Architecture.
[Illustration: THE ENGINEERING QUADRANGLE]
Originally the work in engineering was centered in what is now the old
south wing of University Hall. The first building on the Campus used
exclusively for the engineering courses was the first section of the
Engineering Laboratories built in 1881-82, as the result of the
insistence of Dr. Frieze, then Acting President, that an unexpended
appropriation of $2,500 be used immediately. At short intervals further
additions were made and in 1900 the building, now known as the
Engineering Shops, assumed its present form. In 1895 a further extension
of the work in engineering was required, and the adjacent campus
residence was remodeled for the purpose. This proved inadequate almost
before completion and in 1902 the construction of the present
Engineering Building was authorized. Standing across the southeast
corner of the Campus and with the diagonal walk carried through it under
a picturesque archway, this is one of the University's largest buildings
and forms, with its two wings, and the Engineering Shops and the old
Heating Plant, a square known as the Engineering Quadrangle. It was
completed in 1904, but a further addition was necessitated in 1909, so
that it now has a floor space of about 136,000 square feet, and cost
with equipment about $400,000. In the basement of the long wing which
extends down East University Avenue is the naval experimental tank, 300
feet long and 22 feet wide, in which models of various types of ships
are tested by the Department of Marine Engineering. The only other tank
of this character in the United States is at the Washington Navy Yard,
and the facilities of the University's tank, therefore, were used
extensively by the Government during the late war.
The development of the College of Pharmacy, actually the fourth separate
department in the University, is closely interwoven with that of the
Department of Chemistry. Its history has already been in part suggested
in the references to the growth of the Chemical Laboratory and the
appointment of Dr. Prescott as the first Dean of the Department, or
later, College, of Pharmacy. At first the study of chemistry was
presented only in lectures and a few simple demonstrations. Dr. Douglas,
however, was among the pioneers in this country in realizing that the
way to teach the subject was to help the students perform their own
experiments, and accordingly he established a small laboratory for
special students in the Medical Building. From this grew the idea of a
laboratory building which was finally completed in October, 1857, at a
cost of $3,450, the first building erected in America for this purpose,
with facilities which were, in President Tappan's words, "unsurpassed by
anything of the kind in the country." Even then it proved almost at once
too small, and a long series of enlargements came at intervals of about
five years, until finally the new Chemistry Building was completed in
1910.
All the work in chemistry in the different Departments was, from the
first, provided for in this building, with no distinction between
academic and professional students except such as the special courses
require. The work in pharmacy grew naturally with the Department of
Chemistry. Following its establishment in 1868, the course eventually
grew into a separate Department, which became independent in 1876. The
school prospered under the wise and scholarly administration of its
first Dean, Dr. Albert B. Prescott, and it was soon recognized as one of
the best in the country. The early entrance requirements were only a
good knowledge of the English language, but soon a high school course
became requisite. The curriculum, which at first consisted of two years'
work, was eventually lengthened to three years in 1917-18, leading to
the degree of Ph.C; while for a regular four years' course a B.S. in
Pharmacy is granted.
Upon the death of Dr. Prescott in 1905, Dr. Julius O. Schlotterbeck,
'91, succeeded him as Dean of the College. Dr. Schlotterbeck died in
1917, and Professor Alviso B. Stevens, '75_p_, became Dean until his
retirement in 1919.
The inauguration of a Department of Homeopathy in the University, which,
as has been noted, did not come without a struggle, was finally effected
in 1875; though only after long opposition from the Medical Faculty and
the regular medical profession throughout the State. The first Faculty,
which was appointed soon after the Legislature finally authorized the
establishment of the School, was composed of Dr. Samuel A. Jones,
Pennsylvania Homeopathic Medical College, '61, of Englewood, N.J., who
was Dean and Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and Dr. John
C. Morgan, Pennsylvania Medical College, '52, who took the chair of
Theory and Practice. Dr. Jones soon became one of the most interesting
and stimulating figures in the life of the University. Small and spare
in physique, he possessed an extraordinarily keen mind and an interest
in literature and learning far beyond the limits of his profession. His
library, which was particularly rich in material on Thoreau and Carlyle,
became upon his death in 1912 one of the valuable acquisitions of the
University Library.
The Faculty grew slowly as new students came, though the Department
never became as large as the older school, the record enrolment being 79
in 1892. The Department eventually found that the original quarters in
one of the two professorial residences on the north side of the Campus,
to which a long wing had been added at the rear, were inadequate, and in
1900 the present Homeopathic Hospital was erected opposite the northeast
corner of the Campus. To this a nurses' home was added later, and in
1918 an adequate children's ward. An effort made in 1893 by Dr. H.L.
Obetz, Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College, '74, at that time Dean,
to amalgamate the two schools proved unsuccessful, and eventually led to
his resignation and a reorganization that necessitated the resignation
of the remainder of the Faculty. A law passed in the same year by the
Legislature reversing its previous position and directing that the
School be removed to Detroit, was successfully resisted by the Regents
on the same ground that had already been urged in the case of the
regular school. Dr. E.C. Franklin, M.D., University of New York, '46,
followed Dr. Jones as Dean in 1878. Dr. T.P. Wilson, Western Homeopathic
College, '57, succeeded him in 1881 and Dr. H.L. Obetz in 1885. After
the reorganization in 1895 mentioned above, Dr. Wilbert B. Hinsdale,
Hiram College, '75, the present Dean, was appointed, and the later and
more untroubled history of the School may be said to date from that
time.
[Illustration: THE DENTAL BUILDING]
[Illustration: THE HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL AND CHILDREN'S WARD]
Though the incorporation of a Dental College in the University was
suggested as far back as 1865, the first steps were not taken until 1873
when the Michigan State Dental Association requested the establishment
of a dental course as soon as possible. This was supplemented two years
later by a similar petition to the Legislature on the part of a large
number of citizens of the State, which led to the appropriation of the
sum of $3,000 for each of the next two years for the establishment of a
Department of Dentistry in the University. The Regents thereupon took
action in 1875, establishing the College, and in addition to the
facilities offered by the Medical Department and Chemical Laboratory,
created two Professorships in Dentistry. A little later Dr. Jonathan
Taft, Ohio College of Dental Surgery, '50, of Cincinnati, was appointed
Professor of Principles and Practice of Operative Dentistry and Dr. John
A. Watling, Ohio College of Dental Surgery, '60, Professor of Clinical
and Mechanical Dentistry. The precedent of long standing in the other
professional departments was followed, both in the matter of entrance
requirements and the course, which consisted for many years of two terms
of six months. This was lengthened, however, in 1884 to nine months and
in 1899 a third year was added.
The Dental College first occupied a portion of the Homeopathic Building
on the north side of the Campus; later it was removed to one of the old
professors' houses on the south side which had been enlarged and fitted
up for its reception. Upon the removal of the University Hospital from
the Campus in 1891, the building it had occupied, which it may be
remembered was an adaptation and extension of one of the residences on
the north, became the home of the school. Never well adapted for this
purpose and becoming entirely too small with the rapid growth of the
College, a new building eventually became necessary. This led to the
construction of the present Dental Building, one of the most completely
equipped structures for the purpose in the United States. It was
dedicated in May, 1909, and cost, with equipment, over $150,000. The
department has grown consistently from the first year, when the
attendance was twenty students, the lowest in its history, to 353 in
1915-16. Dr. Taft was Dean of the College from 1875 to the time of his
death in 1903. Dr. Cyrenus Darling, '81_m_, of the Medical School then
became Acting Dean, resigning active work four years later to be
succeeded by Dr. Nelville S. Hoff, Ohio College of Dental Surgery, '76,
Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry since 1903, who received the full
title in 1911. Upon his resignation in 1918, Dr. Marcus L. Ward, '02_d_,
succeeded to the position.
The Summer Session was first established by the Regents in 1900 as a
separate division of the University. Courses in the summer had been
given since 1894 under the direction of a committee from the Faculty of
Literature, Science, and the Arts, but the Regents had assumed no real
responsibility for this work and the fact that the chairman and all the
members of the committee, save one, were of the rank of instructor
indicates the minor place it assumed in university affairs. With a
reorganization in 1900 under the chairmanship of Professor John O. Reed,
'85, of the Department of Physics, a new life was given to the School.
From that time it grew rapidly, until in the summer of 1919 it had an
enrolment of almost 2,000, including students in the Law School, Medical
School, Engineering College, and a summer library course, though the
majority, of course, were enrolled in the Literary College. When
Professor Reed became Dean of the Literary Department in 1907, Professor
John R. Effinger, '91, became Dean of the Summer Session. After the
death of his predecessor, he in turn became Dean of the Literary
College, and Edward H. Kraus, Syracuse, '96, Professor of Mineralogy,
who had been Secretary, took his place as administrative head of the
Summer Session.
CHAPTER VIII
A STATE UNIVERSITY AS A CENTER OF LEARNING
Michigan's position as a state university has been strongly reflected in
its ideals and policies. It could not be otherwise. But this
relationship, the source of its strength in many aspects, has also
carried with it certain dangers. The University has a two-fold function:
it must teach the youth of the State and the Nation; but to do this
effectively, it must also aim to do its share in enlarging the field of
knowledge by encouraging scholarship and research on the part of members
of the Faculties as well as by a certain proportion of the more advanced
students. It is this latter function that is too easily overlooked in
the demand for the ordinary and more "practical" courses which
necessarily form so large a part of the modern curriculum. Yet even the
most elementary college work cannot be given properly unless the
instructor is in touch with the latest developments and discoveries in
his own field, and this familiarity only comes through research, on his
own part or by his colleagues.
But more than this the University, if it be worthy of the name, owes it
to the State to be a leader and a guide in the development of the
highest cultural standards; it should be a reservoir upon which the
people of the State can draw for truth and guidance in the difficult
problems of modern life. This cannot come without a strong emphasis on
original and productive scholarship.
It has always been one of the sources of the University's strength that
this fact was understood, almost from the first, and that the claims of
true scholarship and research have been increasingly recognized. It has
been shown that in its first years Michigan was to all intents a replica
in the West of the older and conservative colleges of the East; though
there was a certain idealism and progressive spirit that tempered even
then this recognition of long-established precedent. The West was
liberal and disposed to create its own institutions upon a new basis, so
that when the new ideals in education began to make themselves felt,
about the middle of the nineteenth century, Michigan was ready for them.
With the coming of Dr. Tappan the movement, already foreshadowed by the
Legislature in the very terms under which the University was organized,
gained a new impetus and effective guidance, and it was not long before
a remarkable series of constructive measures in the interest of higher
education began. Most of them have been mentioned elsewhere, but it may
not be amiss to suggest some of them once more; such as the emphasis on
modern science, with the parallel classical and scientific courses
within the academic department; the wide range of elections eventually
introduced; the early inauguration of professional and graduate schools;
the introduction of seminary and laboratory methods; the admission of
women; the diploma system of admission from the high schools; and the
recognition of the claims of special students.
Until within recent years also, the University had no marking system.
The students were merely "passed," "not passed," or "conditioned." This
undoubtedly stimulated interest in study and scholarship for its own
sake in the case of many students, though, in the absence of any of the
usual college honors it encouraged a certain level of mediocrity in
others. The change in the system and the introduction of the Phi Beta
Kappa Society and similar organizations after 1907 resulted in a marked
alteration in the attitude toward study and has undoubtedly raised
appreciably the general level of scholarship.
Thus, though the University throughout its whole history necessarily has
had to recognize the first claims of the students for instruction, often
of a somewhat elementary character, there have always been influences
which have kept the ideals of higher scholarship constantly in view. In
the older days the idea of research in its modern sense was hardly
understood; but as the atmosphere of European learning began to pervade
American academic life the double function of a true university came to
be more clearly recognized. Not only were facilities for research
developed, but the scientific spirit, which refused to accept the
limitations long established, and sought new truths, or new
interpretations of old principles, became the order of the day.
This was the ideal of Michigan's first President. But in his time the
need for less advanced work was too pressing, the foundations had to be
laid; though his efforts bore fruit long after he left, the victim in
part of his high ideals of scholarship. Even in his time, however,
certain steps were taken, aside from his effort to inaugurate true
graduate study, which had a vital bearing on the development of research
work in the future. These came through the establishment of the
Astronomical Observatory and the Chemical Laboratory. Dr. Bruennow, the
first Professor of Astronomy, came to Michigan inspired by a prospect of
scholarly leadership and the results of his investigations and those of
his pupil and successor, Professor Watson, gave to the University a
world-wide reputation among scholars. The same was true, though perhaps
to a lesser degree, of the Department of Chemistry, whose little
Laboratory, the first separate building for that purpose in America,
attracted advanced students from all quarters--the enrolment of special
students sometimes reaching seventy, of whom at least some were doing
work corresponding to the graduate courses of the present time. The
students of this department as a whole have had a profound influence
upon the development of the industrial and commercial resources of the
State.
With the succession of Dr. Haven to the Presidency, the emphasis was
thrown almost entirely on the immediate and practical problems of
general instruction. He was not a scholar in the modern sense, as was
Dr. Tappan, and the University's first requirement was fairly obvious.
But the higher function of the University was not forgotten by the
leading men of the Faculty. President Hutchins tells how he was drawn to
Michigan in 1867 from his hillside farm home in Vermont by the
reputation of Michigan's Faculty. He had become greatly dissatisfied
with the educational facilities offered in the East, though he did not
know exactly what he wanted to do. Just at this time his father returned
from a business trip in the West and reported that he had found the
right place for him in the University of Michigan. The young man
replied, "Oh, I know about Ann Arbor." The father was somewhat surprised
and asked how that happened. "Well," said Michigan's future President,
"I have noticed that the editor of the Virgil I study is Professor
Frieze, at Ann Arbor, and in Greek there is a Professor Boise; my French
textbooks are by Professor Fasquelle; while in mathematics my books are
by Professor Olney. It seems to me that must be a pretty good
university." So despite dire warning, from his grandmother as to the
dangers from the desperadoes of the West, to say nothing of the Indians,
he came to Michigan; drawn by the scholarly work of the men of that
early Faculty, as were hundreds of other students.
It will of course be suggested that this work on the part of the Faculty
was not "research" in the modern sense, though it was just as truly
"productive scholarship." And it was what was so regarded in those days.
Besides it was evident that the University was amply fulfilling one of
its great functions in laying the foundations for the present system of
higher education. The teachers of the secondary schools as well as the
colleges looked to these strong men for guidance and they found the
support they needed. Their books were the necessary basis for the
training of future scholars.
The gradual broadening of the University curriculum and its effect upon
graduate study has already been mentioned. There was one development,
however, which deserves special mention here. This was the inauguration
of the so-called "University System." President Tappan had laid down the
principle that a student should be able to study "what he pleases, and
to any extent he pleases," and gradually the University had made such a
course possible through the introduction of electives and the admission
of special students, a privilege that was greatly appreciated by many
students of mature years, who, after entering as special students, often
remained to take a degree. In 1882 there came a third step in the
removal of any fixed requirement as to the last two years of work. Such
students as elected to follow the new plan known as the "University
System," were permitted to select, subject to approval, the general
lines of study to be pursued during this period with a prescribed
examination at the end. This work was to be in charge of a committee
composed of the Professors in the subjects chosen, and was designed to
give the students the advantages of such specialization as was suitable,
as soon as practicable. The plan, however, did not prove popular, most
of the students preferring the credit system; but the scheme
"constituted for a time the constitutional basis of the Graduate School,
in so far as that School had any real existence." Probably the same
general purpose, as far as preparation for the professions was
concerned, was served at a later period by the combining of the literary
and medical, and later, the law courses, enabling the student to begin
his professional studies after his second year. Elsewhere such
specialization as seemed desirable was attained after 1901, through the
regular elections, when practically the whole curriculum was thrown open
to general election, subject of course to a certain sequence of courses.
The professional departments have had a marked influence upon the
University's standing as a center of learning. This is particularly true
of the Medical School, which naturally emphasized the value of scholarly
training and investigation from the first. It is probably not an
exaggeration to say that it was the impetus given by the Medical Faculty
which was responsible for the high reputation the University enjoyed
from the first, particularly in the sciences. To this fortunate
development the two recruits from the Literary Faculty, Dr. Sager, who
had been Professor of Botany and Zooelogy, and Dr. Douglas, who served as
Professor of Chemistry in both departments, contributed especially,
though the influence of the other members of the Medical Faculty, more
interested perhaps in the strictly professional aspects of their
work, cannot be overlooked. These men were alive to the value of
original investigation, their field offered too many opportunities to be
neglected by scholars of their caliber, and it was therefore in the
Medical School that the first research laboratories were developed. As
the numbers in the Medical Department and its prestige increased, this
influence grew, so that it may be said that for many years the strongest
impulse toward research and the highest scholarship, particularly in the
new fields of science, came from the men of the Medical Faculty. Nor has
this influence ever weakened, though the eventual establishment of
advanced courses and the recognition of research in all departments has
tended to make it less conspicuous than in the early days.
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF HILL AUDITORIUM]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MAIN READING ROOM IN THE NEW LIBRARY]
With the Law Department it was somewhat different. The old-fashioned
conception of the law as a formal body of doctrine, fixed and
unchangeable, tended in itself to limit original effort, though Judge
Cooley's great work, with its high scholarship and profound learning,
added greatly to the reputation of the University. Of recent years,
however, there has been a change in the attitude towards the teaching of
law. It has come to be recognized that our law is a changing and
developing force, and that the adaptation of fundamental legal
principles to the advancing demands of modern society, both through
legislation and through judicial decision, furnishes a field for
research and investigation which demands the highest type of scholarship
and training. The modern law student seeks the principles of his science
through a careful study of the cases themselves, and no longer accepts a
dogmatic statement of the law as laid down in textbook and lecture. This
change in the legal curriculum, which is little less than revolutionary,
is really based upon scholarship and research on the part of every
student, and is reflected in the preoccupation of every law student in
his work. Gone are the days when the Law Department was the resort of
those who could not succeed in the other departments.
In more practical and especially industrial fields the College of
Engineering has also contributed its share, though it was considered a
part of the Literary Department throughout all its early years. While
its aim is to train men in technical branches, the field of
investigation has been by no means neglected, even if the questions
studied have largely borne specifically upon such problems as railway
and steel construction, the functioning of various types of engines,
marine design, the various forms of the utilization of electrical
energy, and the many applications of science to industry undertaken by
the Department of Chemical Engineering. That this work has been
appreciated is evidenced by the increasing number of fellowships for
original research maintained by many private corporations, and by the
suggestion and tentative establishment in 1920 of a general Department
of Industrial Research maintained through co-operation by the
manufacturers of the State with the Faculty of the Engineering College.
It is specially stipulated that the results of whatever investigations
are made under these auspices are to be made public for the benefit of
the people of the State, irrespective of the source of income.
This developing spirit led to the formation of a Research Club which has
had a profound though quiet influence in the growth of scholarship in
the University. The Club meets at stated periods in the Histological
Laboratory in the Medical Building, a fact in itself significant of the
strong support the organization has always had from the Medical Faculty,
and ordinarily listens to two papers, contributed by members. The aim
is to present the problem under consideration clearly and with as little
emphasis as possible on its technical aspects, a purpose often more
successfully realized, according to some of the members, by the men who
have been especially successful in their particular fields. The
distinguishing mark of this organization is its general and inclusive
character; similar clubs elsewhere are more apt to emphasize certain
particular and related subjects, and to that extent fail to represent
effectively the united scholarly effort of the institution. Many of the
papers first read in the Research Club have formed the basis of reports
published subsequently in the proceedings of scientific bodies which
have attracted wide attention. Particularly noteworthy have been the
celebrations of the anniversaries of distinguished scholars and authors,
the significance of whose life and works has been emphasized in the
papers presented before the members. Similar in aim is the Junior
Research Club, whose membership is composed of the younger men of the
Faculties of the University.
With the reorganization of the Graduate School in 1912, there came a new
emphasis on the publication of works of scholarship by the University.
Within a short time several series of "University of Michigan Studies"
were established; and to these new volumes are continually being added,
which have contributed greatly to the University's place in the world of
learning. Though certain other universities, notably Harvard, Cornell,
and Chicago, had previously established similar series, Michigan has
been well to the fore among American universities in thus systematically
giving to the world in adequate form the results of certain aspects of
the work carried on within her walls. Particularly in certain cases she
has been peculiarly fortunate in the extraordinary value and
significance of the original material thus published.
The first series established was known as the "Humanistic Series,"
issued under the general editorial supervision of Professor Francis W.
Kelsey of the Department of Latin, who has been indefatigable in
securing material and funds for this work. The publications in the
present list of sixteen volumes include three on Roman history and
philology made up for the most part of monographs by various members of
the Faculty, or graduates of the University, two edited by Professor
Henry A. Sanders, and one by Professor C.L. Meader. Another volume deals
with "Word Formation in Provencal" and is by Professor Edward L. Adams.
Somewhat different in scope are two volumes on Greek vases, or
"Lekythoi," by Arthur Fairbanks, at one time Professor of Greek in the
University, and now Director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Five volumes in this series have dealt with various manuscripts and
objects of ancient art in the collections of the late Charles L. Freer
of Detroit. The two by Professor Sanders, dealing with four very early
biblical manuscripts, which include Deuteronomy and Joshua, the Psalms,
the four Gospels, and fragments of the Epistle of Paul, aroused
worldwide interest among scholars when they appeared, particularly as
they were accompanied by sumptuous volumes of photogravure fac-similes
prepared by Mr. Freer and distributed by the University to the leading
libraries throughout the world. As these manuscripts, which were
discovered in Egypt and are among the very earliest known, were thus
made available for study in a way heretofore almost unknown, the
University gained incalculably.
Other volumes in the series include descriptions of certain Coptic
manuscripts, documents from the Cairo Genizah, some Eastern Christian
paintings in the Freer collection, and a gold treasure found in Egypt.
Translations of ancient scientific and mathematical treatises by
Professors John G. Winter and L.C. Karpinski are also to be found in two
other volumes of this series, while certain studies in Roman Law and
administration by Professors A.E. Boak and J.H. Drake and a discussion
of "Greek Themes in Modern Musical Settings," by Professor A.A. Stanley,
bring the volumes issued down to the present time. Accompanying this
series are a number of Humanistic Papers, including a discussion and
symposium on the value of classical training in American education, and
a biography of Professor George S. Morris by Professor R.M. Wenley. Two
volumes in a scientific series have also appeared: "The Circulation and
Sleep," by Professor J.A. Shepard of the Department of Psychology, and
"Studies in Divergent Series and Summability," by Professor W.B. Ford of
the Department of Mathematics. Two volumes of the Publications of the
Astronomical Observatory, dealing with the spectroscopic investigations
for which the Observatory is now particularly well equipped, have also
appeared. Also to be noted are four numbers of a series of Publications
by the Physical Laboratory and seventy-two "Occasional Papers from the
Museum of Zooelogy," as well as four volumes in a "University of Michigan
Historical Series," including "A History of the Presidents' Cabinets,"
"The English Rule in Gascony, 1199-1259," "The Color Line in Ohio," and
"The Senate and Treaties (1789-1817)," (the last by Professor J.R.
Hayden), and two volumes in a series of Economic Studies. A "History of
the Chemical Laboratory," by Professor E.D. Campbell, should also be
mentioned.
From time to time there have been issued compilations of the
publications of members of the University Faculties. These have shown an
ever-increasing body of books, articles, and reviews which may be taken
as another concrete evidence of the activity of the members of the
Faculty in their various fields. The first two of these lists were
issued through the medium of a little informative sheet issued for the
University for some years by the Alumni Association, known as the
_News-Letter_. The data were far from complete but the published total
was not unimpressive. Later the University Library took up the work,
while the last two lists of this character were made by Dean A.H. Lloyd,
of the Graduate School, as regular University Bulletins. These cover the
period from July 1, 1909 to June 30, 1919 and include over one hundred
volumes exclusive of ordinary handbooks and textbooks. These two lists
give some 1,700 titles.
While it is impossible to mention even a small portion of the
publications of more than usual interest during the last fifteen years,
there are a few that may be mentioned as evidence of the influence of
the University in the world of letters and scholarships. These, omitting
numerous textbooks and aside from the volumes issued in the University
Humanistic Series and others, include, "The Acropolis at Athens,"
(1908), by Professor M.L. D'Ooge; "The Will to Doubt, an Essay in
Philosophy for the General Thinker," (1907), by Professor A.H. Lloyd; a
series of works on psychology by Professor W.B. Pillsbury, including
"Attention," (1908); "The Psychology of Reasoning," (1910); "The
Fundamentals of Psychology," (1916), and "The Psychology of Nationality
and Internationalism," (1919). Professor R.M. Wenley, head of the
Department of Philosophy has also written a number of books which
include, "Modern Thought and the Crisis in Belief," (1909); "Kant,"
(1910); "The Anarchist Ideal," (1913); and the "Life of George S.
Morris," (1917). Professor R.W. Sellars of the same Department has
written, "Critical Realism," (1916); "The Essentials of Logic," (1917);
"The Essentials of Philosophy," (1917); and "The Next Step in Religion,"
(1918), while Professor D.H. Parker is the author of two volumes
entitled "The Self and Nature," (1917), and "The Principles of
AEsthetics," (1920).
The Department of History includes on its Faculty a number of men whose
books have attracted more than a passing attention. Professor C.H. Van
Tyne has written among other books, including several textbooks, "The
Loyalists in the American Revolution," (1902), and "The American
Revolution," (1905); while others to be mentioned are Professor A.L.
Cross, whose "History of England and Greater Britain" appeared in 1914;
Professor U.B. Phillips, "The Life of Robert Toombs," (1913), and
"American Negro Slavery," (1918); and Professor E.R. Turner, "The Negro
in Pennsylvania," (1911), and "Ireland and England, in the Past and at
Present," (1919).
Professor Henry C. Adams has written a number of books on economics and
accounting, particularly "American Railway Accounting," (1918). It is
worthy of note that he spent two years in China installing a system of
railway accounting for the Chinese government. Other volumes which
should be noted are: "Social Problems," (1918), by Professor Charles H.
Cooley; "Characteristics of Existing Glaciers," (1911), and "Earth
Features and their Meaning," (1912), by Professor William H. Hobbs;
"The Hindu-Arabic Numerals," (1911), by Professor L.C. Karpinski, and
the "Catalogue of the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments,"
(1919), prepared by Professor A.A. Stanley.
By far the greater portion of the publications of the Medical Faculty
take the form of monographs, articles, and reports in the various
monographic series and medical publications--Dr. Vaughan lists 73 such
items in the years between 1909 and 1918. In the Law School several
books on different subjects have been issued by members of the present
Faculty including Professors R.W. Aigler, Evans Holbrook, E.N. Durfee,
E.C. Goddard, and E.R. Sunderland. Particularly to be noted is "The
History of Contract in Early English Equity," (1914), by the late
Professor Willard T. Barbour.
Most of the books issued by the members of the Engineering Faculty have
been primarily textbooks, though many of them have been based upon
extended investigations in the subjects presented. Two volumes by
Professor Fiske Kimball, formerly of the Department of Architecture,
"Thomas Jefferson, Architect," (1916), and a "History of Architecture,"
(1917), are especially noteworthy, however.
Some of the results of the scientific investigations made by members of
the Faculties are published in the form of reports issued by the
Government or State, or by various scientific bodies. Thus we have
several volumes of reports issued by Professor E.C. Case on the results
of his work in the fossil beds of the Southwest, under the auspices of
the Carnegie Institution; several statistical reports, the work of
Professor James W. Glover, including "Highway Bonds," U.S. Department of
Agriculture, 1915, and "U.S. Life Tables," (1910) (1916), issued by the
Department of Agriculture; a "Biological Survey of the Sand Dune Region
of Saginaw Bay," by Professor Alexander Ruthven, (1910), issued by the
Michigan Geological and Biological Survey, and a number of extended
reports on the valuation of public service corporations, by Dean M.E.
Cooley and Professor H.E. Riggs, in the Transactions of the American
Societies of Civil Engineers, and various other bodies.
As has been suggested a great portion of the scientific investigations
of the members of the Faculty of the University is reported in the form
of monographs and briefer articles in various journals and special
publications, and for this reason the names of many men of national and
even international repute do not appear in the lists of those who have
published books. Many of their publications also have taken the form of
textbooks, some of them exceedingly important, but the list is so long
that it would be impossible to do justice to all in a short survey.
Of the men in the Literary College whose reports and articles are given
in the recent Bibliography a few may properly be mentioned. Thus the
work of Professor Moses Gomberg, whose researches in the chemistry of
triphenylmethyl won for him in 1914 the prize from the New York branch
of the American Chemical Society for the most distinguished work of the
year, has been given to the world since 1909 in the form of relatively
short papers, some eighteen in all. Professor E.D. Campbell, in addition
to the "History of the Chemical Laboratory of the University," has
reported his investigations, largely in the chemical composition of
steels, in eighteen papers. Professor William J. Hussey and Professor
Ralph H. Curtiss have published respectively fourteen and seventeen
papers, though many of them have been included in the 'publications' of
the Observatory. Professor Hussey has also made a number of reports in
Spanish of his work in the observatory at the South American University
of La Plata. Other members of the Literary Faculty whose total
publications might be mentioned are Professor E.C. Case, of the
Departments of Geology and Paleontology, seventeen; Professor A.F.
Shull, Zooelogy, twenty-two; Professor William H. Hobbs, Geology,
twenty-six; Professor A.H. Lloyd, Philosophy, twenty-one; Professor Fred
Newton Scott, Rhetoric, fifteen; and Professor H.H. Bartlett, Botany,
thirty-one.
Almost every member of the Medical Faculty has made many contributions
to various medical journals. The University Bibliography includes twelve
papers by Professor A.M. Barrett, eighteen by Professor C.D. Camp,
eighteen by Professor D.M. Cowie, fifteen by Professor G. Carl Huber,
eighteen by Professor F.G. Novy, twenty-two by Professor Reuben
Peterson, twenty-six by Professor U.J. Wile, and thirty-nine by
Professor A.S. Warthin.
In the Law School Dean Henry M. Bates is represented by eleven papers
and Professor Ralph W. Aigler by twenty-six.
The Dental College is represented by nineteen papers by Professor
Russell W. Bunting and eleven by Professor C.J. Lyons, while the
Homeopathic Medical School shows three books and eighteen articles by
Professor W.A. Dewey.
During the late war the abilities of such members of the Faculty as were
not in active service and the facilities of the University laboratories
for research were employed widely by the Government. The Faculty of the
Department of Chemical Engineering entered government service almost to
a man and an entirely new teaching force had to be secured. Many
technical questions, including those connected with poison gas warfare
and the development of the government nitrate plants, whose erection was
under the charge of Professor A.H. White, as Lieutenant-Colonel in the
Army, were investigated in the Chemical Laboratories. The Department of
Physics carried on extended researches in co-operation with the Bureau
of Standards in Washington. Many special problems were investigated in
the Medical Laboratories, as in the Department of Anatomy, where a study
of the repair of peripheral nerves after severance was instituted by Dr.
G. Carl Huber, first under the National Research Council, later under
the office of the Surgeon General, which sent several medical officers
to the University for purposes of instruction and to assist him. Dr.
Stacey R. Guild, instructor in Anatomy, also made some valuable
experiments in war deafness. Special investigations were carried on in
the Bacteriological Laboratories under Dr. Novy, in the Pathological
Laboratory under Dr. Warthin, and in the Psychopathic Hospital, where
Dr. Barrett, while training successive increments of medical officers
every six weeks, carried on special investigations in mental disorders
arising from the war.
As was to be expected the technical training of the professional staff
of the Engineering College and the resources of the laboratories were
employed extensively by the Government. This was particularly true of
the Department of Marine Engineering, where Professor H.C. Sadler
studied the important problem of standardized types of ships, until he
became Head of the Bureau of Design with the Shipping Board, when his
work in the Naval Tank was carried on by Professor E.M. Bragg.
It cannot be claimed of course that this record in scientific inquiry
and advanced scholarship will equal what has been done in certain other
universities, whose riper traditions and great endowments have enabled
them to carry on special investigations, establish research
professorships and support publications, which have thus far proved
impossible for a state institution, whose first obligation rests in its
relations with the people of the commonwealth. Nevertheless Michigan has
been happy in this, as in so many other respects. The liberality and
sympathetic understanding of the public opinion upon which the success
of the University rests fundamentally, have enabled it to develop
scholarly ideals and a recognition of true scholarship which have given
Michigan a high rank among American universities.
This fortunate and early recognition of the highest mission of the
University was made possible only through co-operation on the part of
the Regents, who, as the governing body, have been able on the one side
to encourage scholarly ideals in spite of the occasional lack of
appreciation of the University's aims on the part of some individual
members of the Board, and, on the other, to secure and preserve the
University's freedom, threatened by the efforts of the State Legislature
to interfere with its affairs. This relationship of the Regents to the
maintenance of the University, and to the State, has had a very
important effect upon the development of higher learning and research
and may therefore properly be outlined at some length in this place.
The University has been truly fortunate for the most part in the men who
have composed the governing body. There have been times, it is true,
when relations between the Regents and the Faculties have been far from
ideal, but it is no less true that the history of the past eighty years
will show a remarkable spirit of co-operation and harmony between the
two bodies. Otherwise the University could not have become what it is.
While the Regents for the most part have not been men primarily
interested, or trained, in educational matters, they have taken their
duties seriously and have been unselfish in their service for the
institution, with no reward for their labors save the honor inherent in
their office. They have sought earnestly to understand the problems
before them, and, in whatever measures they took, to keep always before
them the welfare of the University as a whole. With the ever increasing
numbers enrolling as students and the consequent well-nigh irresistible
pressure for elementary and the so-called "practical" courses, they have
been strong enough and wise enough, and sufficiently sympathetic with
the scholarly preoccupations of the leaders of the constantly growing
Faculties, to maintain and encourage the higher aims of the University
as a center of learning. It is true that the Board is sometimes
criticized for taking upon itself functions which might with propriety
rest with the Faculties and their administrative officers, but there is
at least a legal justification for this in the legislative provisions
upon which the powers of the Board of Regents rest. Thus in the Act of
March 18, 1837, the Regents are empowered to "enact laws for the
government of the University," and to appoint the professors and tutors
and fix their salaries. The number of professorships was specified and
fixed at thirteen; though it was provided in the first organization
that;
the Regents shall so arrange the professorships as to appoint such
a number only as the wants of the institution shall require; and to
increase them from time to time, as the income from the fund shall
warrant, and the public interests demand; _Provided, always_, That
no new professorship shall be established without the consent of
the Legislature.
The immediate government of the several departments was to rest with
their respective Faculties, but;
the Regents shall have power to regulate the course of instruction,
and prescribe, under the advice of the professorship, the books and
authorities to be used--and also to confer such degrees and grant
such diplomas as are usually conferred and granted in other
universities.
The Regents were also to have the power of removing "any professor or
tutor, or other officer connected with the institution, when in their
judgment the interests of the University shall require it." This
specification of the powers and duties of the Regents was repeated with
some modifications in the Act of April 8, 1851, which followed the
revision of the Constitution of 1850. The Constitution itself merely
stated that the Regents "shall have the general supervision of the
University and the direction and control of all expenditures from the
University interest fund."
These are the general provisions upon which the relations between the
Regents and the university body are based. In practice the Faculty has
come to have a greater degree of autonomy in certain directions than
might be suggested by a strict interpretation of these measures, while
in most cases the "advice of the professorship" is sought and followed
readily and sympathetically in so far as is warranted by the financial
situation, as it appears to the Board.
The University Faculties are organized first by Departments, with one
member as head; the Schools and Colleges are also organized under the
separate Deans to carry on their own work, while the general
organization of the whole Faculty rests in the University Senate,
composed of all members of professorial rank, including Assistant
Professors. In addition there is a smaller body, known as the Senate
Council, composed of the Deans and one other representative of the
different Schools and Colleges as well as the President, a secretary,
and the chairman of the Committee on Student affairs. To this body are
referred many questions of importance for immediate action or reference
to the Regents.
The independent position of the Board of Regents as the governing body
of the University has not gone unquestioned by the other divisions of
the state government, and a series of decisions and judicial
interpretations of the constitutional and legislative acts regarding the
University have been necessary to establish the powers of the Regents as
a separate branch of the state administration. Fortunately for the
University these are now well recognized.
The first decision arose through the efforts of the Legislature to
compel the Regents to establish a Professorship of Homeopathy in the
University, and a _mandamus_ action was brought in 1865 to compel the
University to carry out the provisions of a clause to that effect,
inserted in the Organic Act of the University in the years before. This
was unsuccessful, though not on the ground that the act was
unconstitutional but because one Elijah Drake, who brought the action,
was not connected with the University and was not, therefore, privileged
to sue for the writ. The question was brought up again in 1867, this
time by the Regents, who sought to secure the payment of the $15,000
granted to the University upon condition that they establish a
Professorship of Homeopathy, by authorizing a School of Homeopathy in
Detroit. Again the Court failed to grant the request. Two years later
the question came up once more in its first form, in an effort to compel
the Regents to establish the proposed Department. The Regents argued;
If the Legislature could require the appointment of one professor,
it could require the appointment of another, or any number of
others. If it could say what professorships should exist, it could
say what professorships should not exist, and who should fill
professors' chairs; moreover, if it could regulate the internal
affairs of the University in this regard, it could do so in others,
and thus the supervision, direction and control which the
Constitution vested in the Regents would be at an end.... Either
the Legislature had no power of the kind, or it had unlimited
power; either the Regents were the representatives of the people
who elected them, or they were servants of the Legislature.[2]
[Footnote 2: From Hinsdale, _History of the University of Michigan_, p.
143.]
Again, however, there was no decision; the constitutional status of the
University was undecided. But in 1892 a decision did establish that the
people of the State, in incorporating the University, had, by their
Constitution, conferred the entire control and management of its
property upon the Regents, and had thereby excluded all departments of
the state government from any interference with it. The property of the
University was state property it is true, but it could only be
administered by the Board of Regents as a separate division of the State
administration.
Finally in 1895 it was definitely decided that the Legislature had no
constitutional right to interfere in or dictate as to the management of
the University. The question was once more the Homeopathic issue, which
took the form of a legislative action to compel the Regents to remove
the School to Detroit. This time the Regents reversed their earlier
policy and the measure was stoutly resisted by the Board. Judge
Claudius B. Grant, '59, in delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court,
laid down the principles now accepted as governing the relations of the
University and the Legislature. The Board of Regents, he maintained, was
the only corporation whose powers were defined in the State
Constitution, whereas in the case of every other corporation established
by the Constitution it was provided that its powers should be defined by
law. "No other conclusion was, in his judgment, possible than that the
intention was to place the institution in the direct and exclusive
control of the people themselves, through a constitutional body elected
by them." Otherwise the Regents would become merely "ministerial
officers" with no other duties than to register the will of the
Legislature.
The independent status of the University has also been more firmly
established in late years by other legislative enactments and decisions.
As early as 1863 it was recognized that the Regents had power to hold
and convey real estate, though they had no authority over the land
granted by Congress for the support of the University, nor over the
principal of the fund established through the sale of that land. In 1890
such property was declared exempt from taxation, and in 1893 the Board
of Regents was declared to be alone responsible under contracts made by
it for the benefit of the University. In the new Constitution of 1908
the Regents were given the right of eminent domain, and on a number of
occasions since that time have been able to acquire "private property
for the use of the University in the manner prescribed by law." It is
difficult to see how the growth of the University during the past twelve
years with its constantly expanding building program could have taken
place without this salutary check upon the exorbitant demands of
property owners in the neighborhood of the Campus.
This financial autonomy of the Regents, once an appropriation is made by
the Legislature, has not gone unquestioned, however, particularly by the
Auditor-General. The University fund from early years has been borrowed
by the State which until 1896 paid the original interest rate of seven
percent. The Auditor-General then decided that the legal rate of six
percent should be enforced. The matter was laid before the Supreme
Court, however, and the old rate was restored. In 1900 it was definitely
ruled by the Attorney-General that "the Auditor-General has no authority
to refuse to audit and pay vouchers for real estate purchased by the
Board of Regents," and subsequently in 1911, the Supreme Court
maintained that the "judgment of the Regents as to the legality and
expediency of expenditures for the use and maintenance of the
institution" could not be considered "subordinate to that of the
Auditor-General."
The powers of the Regents have also been strengthened by other rulings
of the Attorney-Generals of the State. Thus in 1900 the power of the
Regents to determine student fees was declared not subject to
legislative control, while in 1911 the same freedom in the matter of the
determination of entrance requirements was conceded. The Board was also
declared in 1908 free from the application of an act of the previous
year providing for the approval and regulation of salaries in the
various state institutions.
The University has thus been as fortunate in the development of its
relations with the State as it has been in its internal growth. Though
there have been many critical times, the movement has always been
forward. The Regents have been careful and conservative in their
relations with the Legislature, but they have insisted upon the
independence of the University and have been sustained in this position
with increasing firmness by the Supreme Court. The Legislature has shown
an ever-increasing friendliness toward the University and has never
refused to come to the aid of the institution, whatever its views as to
the constitutional questions involved in the establishment of the
University. This was shown as never before by the 1919 Legislature,
which not only granted to the University appropriations amounting to
$2,200,000, but gave it by the unanimous vote of both houses, a thing
which had never happened before. The Legislature even included one item
for which the officers of the University had hardly dared hope to have
favorable action at that session.
With its constitutional status so well established; with the Legislature
so ready to co-operate in furthering the best interests of the
University, with its curriculum continually expanding, though wisely and
not too rapidly, and with an ever-increasing emphasis on the highest
ideals of scholarship and service, there is every promise for a future
of greater usefulness and effective service for the University. We, who
love the University of Michigan for what it has accomplished, for what
it is, and for what it may become, may well look for a development
through the coming years that shall be a fitting continuation of the
remarkable success of the great experiment involved in its
establishment.
CHAPTER IX
STUDENT LIFE
Although the life of the student in the earliest days of the University
had a bucolic simplicity almost unimaginable to the undergraduate of
these days, it was not without its sterner side. The Rev. Theodoric R.
Palmer of the class of '47, who entered the University in 1843, thus
emphasizes the contrast between those times and the present:
But twenty-five years had elapsed since the first steamship crossed
the Atlantic and the first ten miles of passenger railway in the
United States had been laid but fifteen years. The telegraph was a
recent invention ... electricity was a plaything, and electrical
engineering unknown.
Nothing will point this contrast better, perhaps, than the mere fact
that the Michigan Central, which had only reached Ann Arbor a year or so
before, was running one train a day between Detroit and _Dexter_. Most
of the students we may assume, therefore, rode into town on horseback,
as he did, with their gear behind them, or perhaps took advantage of the
several stage lines which centered in Ann Arbor.
They found a little town charmingly situated in forests and farm
clearings, lying for the most part in the valley of the Huron, though
gradually reaching out toward the University, from which a few houses
could be seen along the western side of the country road which now is
State Street. The Campus, which for years "looked like a small farm,"
was surrounded by a fence with a turn-stile on the northwest corner.
This was often broken and was finally replaced by a series of steps,
over which the students passed to their boarding houses in town after
their morning recitations and their afternoons of study. In time this
stile gave way to posts with room enough between for a man, "but not for
a cow." Early hours were imperative, for kerosene or "coal-oil" was
practically unknown in the forties, and candles and whale oil were the
sole source of illumination, while the wood yard, always mentioned with
deep feeling by every alumnus of that period, was the source of heat.
Time went according to a bell mounted on a post at the rear, which
seemed to have been a prolific source of student humor. It was turned
upside down in winter and filled with water, with a corresponding
vacation the following morning; the clapper was stolen; and finally in
Dr. Tappan's day it was even carried away, post and all. The President,
however, was a match for the jokers and simply announced that as the
bell was a convenience which the students did not seem to need, classes
would be held henceforth without the usual call. As the regulations were
very strict as to attendance and four unexcused absences a matter for
the higher powers, it was not long before a student rose in Chapel and
requested permission to reinstate the Campus time-piece,--which was
graciously granted.
There are stories innumerable of donkeys and geese appearing in unusual
places and of the Chapel on one occasion being filled with hay, while
once a whole load of wood, wagon and all, was laboriously set up on the
roof of the college hall. On another occasion a number of students,
waiting for their recitation period, corralled a herd of cows grazing on
the Campus, and so thoroughly frightened one calf that he rushed into
the open door of the building as the safest refuge. Some one shut the
door instantly, and when Professor Winchell's class-room door was
opened, in rushed the badly demoralized animal. The effect may be
imagined. Professor Winchell always thought it a "proposed and
deliberate insult," but, as the historian of the incident in the
"Class-Book" of '61 observes: "Any one will at once perceive that no one
was to blame but the calf, who lost his presence of mind." All this
humor, however, was rather elementary; for the most part life was
sufficiently sedate, and the pranks ordinarily far from atrocious.
In the earliest days the term fees of $7.50 covered the cost of rooms in
the dormitories, while the cost of board ranged from $1.50 to $2.00 a
week. H.B. Nichols, a student in 1850, gave his father the following,--
account of monies, by me expended. In it I put an estimate of the
term tax at $6.00. It is $6.62-1/2 and divided as follows, viz:
Room rent, $1.50. Janitor's fees, $1.50. Wood bill $2.87-1/2 and
Hall tax for damages to the Buildings, viz. Brokens doors and
windows, $.75, making in all the sum of $6.62-1/2. Last term $4.60.
So you see it is all a humbug for the catalogue to say the charges
will range from $5.00 to $7.50 per year, as it will not be less
than $15.00 to each student, or $30.00 to each room and if a
student rooms alone his charges will be $21.00 per year!
As for his boarding place:
I changed or rather left Mrs. Andrews and went ... to Professor Ten
Brook's. I like it so well at the Prof's that I have remained there
since. Lest you should be unwilling, or perhaps fearful for my
health, I would say that the Prof. has kindly offered me his horse
to use every morning or as much as I please. A ride on horseback is
exceeding good exercise. Especially when a horse is as hard to
ride as the Prof's is wont to be. Do you recollect a sorrel steed
you sold to Mr. Dan Stowell? Prof's horse's movements are just
about as _convenient_ as that one's were. My objection to boarding
at a public boarding house, is, that no regard is paid to the rules
of politeness and _good_ manners. Every one for himself, is the
motto. Not so in a private family. Mrs. Ten Brook is a very
accomplished lady and the Prof. is not much behind her in that
respect. They set a _good_ table, not a very _rich_ one, but rather
a plain one. In the morning, Buckwheat pancakes and maple molasses,
besides potatoes and sausage. At noon, 'steak,' sometimes fish. The
professor charges 12 shillings for board. I like _him_ of all the
Prof's, the best.
What would a student nowadays think of a menu like that for $1.50 a
week?
The first boarding club was established in 1860 in the house, not far
from the ancient "Cat-Hole," of one Mrs. O'Toole, "a pretty good
all-round cook, whose forte was apple dumplings" served daily. The
steward was Charles Kendall Adams, '61, while other members were Walter
W. Perry and Byron M. Cutcheon of the class of 1861 and Martin L. D'Ooge
of the class of 1862.
Recreation was not a part of the earlier curriculum and athletics were
unknown under that name, though feats of strength, jumping, lifting
dumb-bells, the heavier the better, and foot-races, were common. Perhaps
that woodyard and the favorite games of one-old-cat and wicket, a
modification of cricket, were sufficient substitutes, occasionally
varied by a fishing trip on the Huron or a walk to Ypsilanti, whenever
the necessary permission from the authorities to leave Ann Arbor was
forthcoming. Social opportunities came largely through the relations of
the students with the townspeople and their lovely daughters,
particularly at the popular church socials. Many of the brightest and
most beautiful local belles came from "lower town," or north Ann Arbor,
a most important section at that time,--some even lived nearly a mile
beyond the old long bridge at the foot of Broadway hill. To them the new
students were invariably introduced; the wise ones surrendering all
rights, so that when the social was over, it was only natural for the
new men to ask for the privilege of escorting them home; something of an
ordeal on a winter night. The old wooden viaduct over the tracks was
known in those days as the "Bridge of Sighs."
Of conviviality there was comparatively little in the earliest days,
though occasionally some students succumbed to the beer and wine of the
German townspeople. A certain drinking bout in 1858, however, had most
serious consequences; one student died as the result, and this, with the
resultant expulsions, seems to have had a very restraining influence for
some years. Societies or other groups often went down to a Mrs. Slack's
restaurant, where they were served by a pretty waitress named
"Rika"--whose only claim to fame lies in the reminiscence of those
undergraduates of '49 who were her patrons. But for the most part the
life of the University was lived in a sane and wholesome atmosphere. The
students were almost all from farm homes; they were used to the simple
life and were in earnest in their efforts for an education. They were
watched with a paternal eye by the Faculty and duly admonished at the
two daily chapel exercises, long a part of University life. Their hours
were carefully provided for; their courses were compulsory; and their
attendance at classes insured by numbers on the class-room benches which
had to be duly covered. For this, the shawls that the students wore in
the late fifties seem to have been popular--several students, plus
shawls, were able to conceal many gaps if the monitor were not too
observant.
Throughout the earlier years there was a great emphasis on public
speaking, for which ample opportunity was given in various "class
exhibitions." These were inaugurated by the sophomores in 1843 with a
programme of four orations, four dissertations, four essays, and one
poem. The same class continued the precedent the next year, followed by
succeeding junior classes, so that these exhibitions became an
institution, long supported not alone by the students but by Faculty and
interested citizens as well. The end did not come until 1871 when the
last junior exhibition was held. The first class-day was held by '62 in
the spring of their junior year, but it was celebrated informally and
not taken very seriously until 1865 when the first real exercises took
place in May at the beginning of the "Senior Vacation." The place was
the old Presbyterian church, which seems to have been the favorite
auditorium. The "presentation" of the class was made in Greek by
Professor Boise, while President Haven replied in Latin. In one at least
of these first class-day programmes the oration and poem only were
public, while the history and prophecy were submitted to the class at a
convivial session at the popular Hangsterfer's.
The place which these early platform efforts took in the life of those
days is shown by two incidents. The first is related by Gen. W.H.H.
Beadle, '61, later President of the University of South Dakota, who
tells how an address by "one student" in 1858, denouncing the iniquity
of the Mexican War as begun and waged for the extension of slavery,
called him to the attention of the abolitionists, one of whom asked him
if he would care to take a "long ride on a good horse." He would of
course, and did, carrying a message to a Quaker farmer in Lenawee
County, whose home was a station of the underground railway. Andrew D.
White also describes with reminiscent pleasure how he groomed one of his
students to defeat a local politician, known as "Old Statistics," who
was characterized by his senatorial aspirations and his carefully
appropriate garb, tall hat, blue swallow-tail and buff waistcoat with
brass buttons. The wrath of this worthy, as a disciple of Henry Clay,
had been aroused by the teachings of Professor White, who at that time
was opposed to a protective tariff, and a public debate was to clinch
the discussion. The result was a complete victory for the young David,
who had the audience with him from the first, to the immense chagrin of
his pompous opponent.
The annual Commencement exercises were usually held in one of the local
churches and sometimes, after 1856, in the hall of the Union School
building, though nowhere was there an auditorium large enough to hold
all who wished to attend,--a situation not changed, in fact, until the
erection of Hill Auditorium in 1913. Upon one occasion women were
admitted an hour earlier than men, a bit of partiality which drew a
protest against such injustice and a reference to the perfectly good
space wasted through the necessities of the prevailing crinolines. One
class, at least, that of '46, held its exercises in a great revival
tent, especially imported from Chicago and set up after a week's
strenuous exertion on the part of the students. The programme consisted
of short orations by the graduates, who were democratically placed on
the programme with no reference to standings. The increasing size of the
classes led eventually to a Faculty selection of certain speakers to
represent the students. In 1878 class participation was abolished and
the practice of inviting distinguished men to give the Commencement
address was inaugurated. The old practice of giving the seniors a
vacation period in which to prepare their speeches also came to an end
with this change.
The traditional rivalry between classes in the University existed from
the first and many were the lessons taught the upstanding freshmen, with
natural retaliations on the sophomores. To this was added a natural
inter-departmental rivalry which came with the establishment of the
professional schools. The "medics" and the "laws," however, soon grew
strong enough to take care of themselves and were in fact for many years
largely in the majority. And with this growth of class and departmental
spirit, which increasing numbers brought, the rushing and hazing
episodes in the seventies and eighties became more serious--not so much
because of their dangerous character in themselves, as for the
opportunity they gave to unfriendly critics of the institution. The
usual student, however, yields to no one in his love for his alma mater
and time and again it has only been necessary to point out the real
danger to the University arising from such practices to bring about
their abandonment,--until the next crop of hazers has to go through the
same process of education.
This inter-departmental rivalry, which was most intense about 1900,
naturally led to many escapades. One picturesque incident resulted when
1900 ran a flag bearing the class numerals to the top of the University
flag-pole, and left it to sweep the skies with the halyards cut. A
Western sharpshooter was enlisted from the ranks of the Law Department
and the offending emblem was brought down on the second shot, to the
great satisfaction of the "laws." Less excusable was the method the
class of 1902 took to immortalize its victory over the "laws" by
painting the class numerals prominently on the soft sand-stone of the
Law Building, of which traces remain to this day for those who know
where to look. The guilty class was made to feel mightily ashamed of
itself for a while, but in after years it has proudly borne the title of
"Human Skunks" conferred upon it at the time.
Mass action has always been a favorite method of student expression. Of
this the organized "bolting" of the years just after the war is an
example. This went on to such a degree that it became necessary for the
Faculty to pass a resolution stating that "in the absence of an
instructor, his class shall be expected to remain until at least five
minutes after the ringing of the bell." Apparently this did not stop the
practice, and suspension or dismissal were threatened in 1867. This rule
was drastically applied in 1871 when a large number of freshmen and
sophomores, who had found Van Amburgh's circus more attractive than
their classes, were actually suspended. It is not difficult to trace in
this affair the origin of the song popular to this day, though its
application has been long forgotten:
We are going to the Hamburg show
To see the elephant and the wild kangaroo;--
And we'll all stick together, through rain or stormy weather,
For we're going to see the whole show through.
This ended that epidemic and bolting henceforth became individual and
not collective.
The burning of "mechanics" was also a popular rite, which in its earlier
days celebrated the completion of the course in physics under Professor
Williams. This time-honored ceremony took the form of a procession of
solemn officials which escorted the "corpus," borne on an elaborate
bier, to a place of judgment, where it was condemned most impressively
and executed with elaborate rites. The "corpus" was well guarded,--on
one occasion at least by eight juniors armed with bayonets,--from the
sophomores, who were infuriated by the fact that the head of the
intended victim, a skull furnished from medical sources, was crowned by
a mortar-board, the sophomore class insignia. A formal trial followed,
presided over by a Pontifex Maximus, in which a Judex, an Advocatus Pro,
and an Advocatus Con participated, with the foregone result that the
culprit was sentenced to be hanged, shot, and burned; a decree carried
out on a gallows and bonfire previously prepared in spite of the
sophomores' best efforts.
This annual fracas assumed a particularly lurid character in 1860 and
the printed program was especially objectionable, a fault quite
characteristic of those days. The night had been a wild one and when it
became known that Dr. Tappan was to discuss the matter the next morning
in Chapel, there were many misgivings. To every one's surprise, however,
"there was no touch of reprimand in voice or word. In a sympathetic and
familiar way, he began to talk about college songs." He told how he had
once been greeted, upon opening his mail in Sweden, by a copy of the
song "Where, Oh Where, is Doctor Tappan?" an evidence of student
interest in his whereabouts which had cheered and inspired him mightily.
Then, as merely incidental, and by way of contrast, he referred in mild
tones to the obnoxious print of the night before,--"no moralizing but a
salutary and effective talk, which was greeted by hearty cheers."
Thus far we have been considering the student life of a University
which, judged by modern standards, was small and comparatively
homogeneous. The student of those days knew every one in college. The
professors were able to take a personal interest in all their pupils;
even the President made it a point to know every one by name. All this
has been changed within the last twenty-five years. Where in 1885 the
student enrolment was only about 1,300, it increased to 2,200 in 1890
and to 2,800 in 1895, and this rate of growth has continued almost
unbroken up to the present time. The result is that now there are nearly
9,000 students on the Campus during the college year, and with the
extraordinary increase which has followed the late war, there is every
prospect of this growth continuing.
In itself this is good evidence of the University's success as a center
of education; but these increasing throngs of students bring many
difficult problems, not the least of which is the necessity of finding
an adequate supply of teachers, class rooms, and laboratories. Equally,
life in the University becomes more complicated. The ideal simplicity of
academic life, the intimate contact between fellow-students and between
students and Faculties, is all too easily lost in the leveling
tendencies which numbers make inevitable. This is the great danger of
the large University--but a peril that has been recognized and has been
met with at least some degree of success.
The student organizations, fraternities, and clubs, which have
multiplied to so remarkable a degree, are perhaps the first and most
important student reaction. Many if not most of these organizations have
some connection with individual Faculty members, either through alumni
on the Faculty or through honorary members, and this forms a basis at
least for some extra class-room relationship. Sometimes, on occasion, a
certain restraint on the part of the Faculty becomes inevitable, and the
establishment of a Committee on Student Affairs, originally a committee
on "non-athletic" relations, created some fifteen years ago, has
resulted. This committee has accomplished much towards directing student
activities into proper and worthwhile channels, though the ghost of the
classic charge of unwelcome paternalism arises occasionally. The only
answer necessary is the evident improvement in the general standards of
all student organizations and the mere fact that they have, for the most
part, continued to exist through several student generations; no little
accomplishment in itself, when one remembers the almost automatic rise
and fall of these societies in the early days.
If the University and particularly the Faculty has been concerned with
these problems, incident upon the University's growth, so have the
students themselves. They have seen the necessity for constructive
effort and have established such agencies as the Student Council and the
Inter-fraternity Council among the men, and the corresponding Judiciary
Council and Pan-Hellenic Association among the women. Above all, the
University has profited by the two great organizations which have been
the most effective expression of student life and ideals,--the Michigan
Union and the Women's League.
While the fundamental control of the student body rests, as it always
has, with the Faculty, the students have almost always shown themselves
ready and able to deal with questions of a certain type more promptly
and effectively than the Faculty. This is evident by the good record of
the Student Council since its organization in 1905. The members of this
body are elected during the last half of their Junior or the beginning
of their Senior year, and are usually the strongest men in their
classes, though not necessarily the most popular or the best students.
Most of the Council's work has had to do with student customs, the
regulation of old, and the establishment of new, "traditions," a
paradoxical procedure perhaps, but a source of much that is picturesque.
Of these traditions, none has been more acceptable than the custom of
requiring freshmen to wear the little gray caps, or knitted toques in
the winter, with a button at the top, signifying by its color the
College or School of the wearer. No more inspiring or beautiful ceremony
occurs in university life than the annual "cap-night" celebration when
the student body meets in "Sleepy Hollow" near the Observatory, about a
great bonfire, to watch the burning of the caps, and the formal
initiation of the freshmen into the responsibilities of college life.
The dance of the freshmen about the fire and the showers of caps falling
into the flames (they have been sent to the Belgians the last few
years), combined with the vigor and idealism of the speeches which
follow, all conspire to produce one of the most stirring and impressive
events of the year.
Of more fundamental importance has been the Council's regulation of the
irrepressible freshmen-sophomore rivalry, which long took the course of
medieval hair-cutting forays, sometimes, as in 1904, carried on even
within the sacred precincts of the Library. The reform came through the
establishment in 1908 of a series of inter-class contests. Particularly
picturesque are those held in May, which include a tug-of-war across the
Huron River, a series of obstacle relay races, and a massed battle about
a six-foot push ball on Ferry Field as the finale. While not entirely
innocuous, these games form an apparently necessary and acceptable
safety valve for the exuberances of class spirit. The upper-classman is
most sensitive to the good name of the University; to him the dangers of
undue newspaper notoriety are quite apparent, and thus through the
Council the students themselves have been able on the whole to control
successfully what is always a difficult and delicate question for
university officers. Hardly less important among the Council's functions
is the management of various undergraduate occasions, mass-meetings,
campus elections, and inter-class athletics, demonstrations where
trouble might brew without the guidance of wiser heads. More than once
when a mass of under-classmen has seemed on the verge of a dangerous
explosion, the members of the Council have intervened quietly and
effectively. Ordinarily, this modesty has been characteristic of the
Council's work. A similar regulation of the affairs of the women is
exercised by a Judiciary Council organized at the suggestion of the
University Senate in 1913.
Of all student organizations, however, the Michigan Union has
accomplished the most toward promoting the best interests of the student
body since its establishment as a general organization in 1904. To those
who are only familiar with the Union of later years, the name will
almost inevitably suggest the building rather than the organization. The
new club house, practically completed in the first months of 1920, is
naturally the obvious embodiment of the Union which strikes the observer
upon first acquaintance. It cannot be emphasized too strongly, however,
that the building is, after all, but the home of an organization. This
is the essential fact which has never been forgotten by the officers of
the Union. Their efforts from the first have been to make it, both as an
organization and as a building, of practical service for Michigan's
immense student body, which without the resources of a large city, needs
peculiarly such headquarters for all its wide and varied interests.
Perhaps the most concise definition of the Union is contained in the
preamble of its present Constitution:
To establish a University social and recreational center; to
provide a meeting place for Faculty, alumni, former students and
resident students of the University; and to help in fitting
Michigan men for the performance of their duties as good citizens.
It is the Union as a _body of students_, using the building as a means
to promote the best things in college life, to bring about a closer
co-ordination of all university activities, and a more sympathetic
co-operation between the undergraduates, Faculty, and alumni, that must
justify the money and energy spent in this great departure in American
college life,--for there is nothing in any American university today
that approaches the Union in size or the scale upon which its activities
are planned.
[Illustration: THE MICHIGAN UNION]
The need of such a building had long been felt by the students before
the first discussion on the part of the members of the senior society,
Michigamua, led to a call which brought representatives of all the
leading organizations in the University together in the spring of 1904.
The idea proved popular at once, though it was again the organization,
and not the somewhat remote prospect of a building, that won support.
From the first the Union aimed to be an expression of student life as a
whole and almost immediately, side by side with an active campaign for a
building, it undertook to correlate and to unify the interests of the
students in the different departments, classes, and organizations. The
alumni, too, were knit into a body which aimed consistently to recognize
the claim of the University to the regard and loyal support of every
Michigan man. The Student Council was established at the inspiration of
the Union soon after its organization. Some years later a similar
movement inspired by the Union resulted in the establishment of the
University Health Service through a series of recommendations made by a
committee of Union members to the Board of Regents. Mass meetings and
smokers were held and a great annual dinner was initiated the first
year, at which the ideals of the University and the aims of the Union
were discussed. Funds were raised for the portrait of President Angell
by William M. Chase. Musical shows and carnivals were held, not merely
to raise money for the Union, but to bring the student body together in
one absorbing interest. In December, 1906, Judge Cooley's old home on
State Street was purchased, to be used temporarily as the Union Club
House and eventually to be replaced by the present building. The house
was altered extensively,--two dining-rooms were installed, together with
other features of a club, and for nine years it served the University
well, though its facilities became increasingly inadequate as the mass
of students grew.
Not for one minute, however, was the need for a greater building
forgotten, and through mass meetings, alumni dinners, and University
publications, the alumni were educated as to the aims and ideals of the
organization and the vital need of a building which should adequately
serve as the center of the life of the thousands of men in the
University. All this was not accomplished without opposition, which
centered largely in the rival claims of the committee charged with the
raising of funds for Alumni Memorial Hall. Fortunately this
misunderstanding faded away when the Memorial Building was completed in
1909 and the purpose of the Union became better understood.
This long effort among the alumni eventually began to have its effect
and for several years before the actual campaign for funds for the Union
was launched, alumni everywhere were asking: "When are you going to ask
us to contribute toward the new Union? I want to do something." Yet the
actual result of the campaign, when it was finally launched in 1915, was
in many ways a great surprise. Within a little over a year some $800,000
was subscribed and work on the new building was begun. The most
remarkable aspect of this response was the fact that no large
subscriptions were made,--$10,000 was the largest. In fact the majority
of the subscriptions came in the form of $50 life memberships which not
only made the graduates of the University participants in an institution
concerned with the fundamentals of University life, linking students,
teachers, and alumni in a common cause, but gave the graduates a home in
Ann Arbor to which they could return as of right, asking no favors. It
is doubtful if any large undertaking in any university has ever been
more widely supported by general alumni subscriptions.
The declaration of war in 1917, and the almost immediate increase in
building costs, made more difficult the completion of the building,
though a supplementary campaign in 1919 increased the funds to over the
million dollars originally asked for. Even this proved inadequate and
when the Union was finally opened in the fall of 1919, there was still
some $200,000 to be raised, secured by a mortgage on the building.
This, in effect, represented the increase in the cost of building during
the war. The completion of the Union was felt to be a vital matter and
while the wide-spread interest of the alumni in the building made it
practically certain that the necessary funds would be forthcoming within
a few years; to delay until the full amount was in hand would have been
disastrous. During the abnormal years of 1918-19, $60,000 alone was
added to the building fund through student life memberships, while the
following fall over $110,000 more was pledged this way, a practical
evidence of undergraduate interest and support.
The Union is peculiarly a Michigan product. It stands not only on the
site of Judge Cooley's old home but also on that of the boyhood home of
the architects, Irving K. Pond, '79, President of the American Institute
of Architects in 1910 and 1911, and his brother Allen B. Pond, '80.
Strong and masculine in all its lines, the building throughout is a
consistent interpretation of the artistic faith of the architects, who
have been bold enough to break with overworn conventions in the design
and have made it peculiarly an expression, in its whole conception as
well as in its finest details, of a distinctly American spirit. A
suggestion of the English collegiate Gothic style in its larger forms
was deliberately chosen as typifying the fundamental source of our
institutions; but in the general treatment, particularly in the simple,
modern, truly American masses and details, which are everywhere full of
a refined and delicate symbolism, the building is an interpretation of
the underlying spirit of American Democracy. That the architects have
been successful no one can deny who has seen the Union and has felt the
rugged beauty of its central tower, which became at once the striking
feature of Ann Arbor's skyline.
The building is necessarily large; it is 168 feet in all across the
front and 233 feet deep, with four stories, a basement, and
sub-basement. In addition to other usual facilities of a large club, it
contains a swimming pool (not completed in 1920), a bowling alley, an
immensely popular cafeteria for men, known as the Tap-Room, a woman's
dining-room with a separate entrance, a billiard room, with twenty-five
tables, a large banquet and assembly hall, 58 by 104 feet, for dinners,
dances, and large gatherings, besides innumerable smaller rooms which
can be used either for dinners or for class and society meetings. There
are in fact dining-room accommodations for over 1,200 guests at one
time. Offices and various headquarters for campus organizations are also
included as well as one feature particularly welcome to alumni, some 48
sleeping rooms accommodating 69 visitors.
Thus the Union has realized its ideals. While the success of the Union
is due to the continued and self-sacrificing efforts of hundreds of
Michigan men, students and alumni alike, special recognition will always
be due Dean Henry M. Bates, '90, of the Law School, whose strong support
and practical idealism as a member of the Board of Directors from the
very earliest days carried the project through many dark periods, as
well as to the energy and enthusiasm of Homer Heath, '07, manager of the
Union Building from the first, to whom is due in no small degree the
successful outcome of the campaign for the building, and its final
completion.
The control of the Union is vested in two organizations; a Board of
Directors composed of students, Faculty representatives, and alumni,
which has in general the supervision of the activities of the Union as
an organization, and a Board of Governors, created upon completion of
the building, composed of the student President of the Union, one member
of the Board of Regents, the Financial Secretary appointed by the
President of the University and four members appointed by the Board of
Directors of the Alumni Association, to have financial control of the
building and organization as a corporation.
With the opening of the University in 1919, when the enrolment exceeded
by 1,500 the previous record attendance in 1916, the Union entered upon
a new and more effective period of service, not entirely equipped and
ready, it is true, but sufficiently prepared to justify at once the
vision of those responsible for the result. Even without any endowment
it demonstrated from the first that it could be maintained as an
essentially self-supporting concern.[3]
[Footnote 3: A careful estimate, made in October, 1920, showed that an
average of 7,500 persons daily passed the doors of the Union. Some 2,200
persons were also served daily in the Tap-Room or cafeteria, in addition
to the regular dining-room service.]
As the Union served the life of the men in the University, other
agencies have come to do the same for the women. Long before the Union
was even thought of, the Women's League maintained headquarters in the
parlors of Barbour Gymnasium, which, with Sarah Caswell Angell Hall and
the adjoining gymnasium, served the women well. These, with the three
recently constructed halls of residence, including the Martha Cook
Building, perhaps the most beautiful and luxurious dormitory ever built
in an American university, will go far towards answering the social
needs of the women. They have at least made the general scale of living
conditions far more favorable for the girls of the University than for
the men, who for many years have been sadly in need of the facilities
offered by such a building as the Union. Fortunately there is every
prospect that some dormitories for men will be forthcoming in the near
future.
The religious life of the students has never been neglected, though the
careful non-sectarianism of the University led it at first to be
regarded with suspicion by the various religious bodies of the State,
and their opposition, sometimes veiled, and sometimes open, proved
embarrassing. It has been shown how this sentiment was met by a
prevailing clerical complexion in the Faculty and an emphasis on daily
chapel exercises which were maintained long after the practice of
considering religious affiliations as one of the prime professorial
requisites was abandoned. This emphasis on the proper observance of the
Sabbath is rather amusingly illustrated in the regular practice in those
days of having the Monday Greek lesson consist of a chapter of the Greek
Testament; it being no sin to study the scriptures on Sunday. From which
we might gather that in some essentials, such as Sunday study, the
student of 1850 was true grandfather of the undergraduate of today.
Every effort was made to make college regulations a substitute for home
influences, and the members of that first Faculty were all remembered
for their kindly and paternal relations with the students. It was
largely because of the personal qualities and wisdom of these men that
the institution was able to steer successfully between the dangers of
religious indifference and sectarianism.
[Illustration: THE DOORWAY OF THE MARTHA COOK BUILDING]
The changes from those stricter days have come gradually and as a
reflection of the spirit of the age; the scientific and not the
ecclesiastical spirit rules, with the result that the student is left
more to his own devices in ordering his life. The discipline of the old
days would not be tolerated now and any tendency towards firmer
regulation of undergraduate life is often resented. The break came
first, perhaps, in a new spirit of independence which followed the
fraternity crisis in 1850. This was emphasized by the fact that the
students in the professional schools were excused from compulsory church
and chapel attendance, a discrimination which did not fail to react upon
the literary undergraduates. The rule still held, however, until 1871;
though the Sunday monitor who checked church attendance had long
disappeared. Daily prayers were maintained until 1895 when they were
succeeded by semi-weekly vesper services, which, in turn, were
eventually discontinued. Current opinion upon this gradual change is
possibly reflected in the statement made in 1900 by President Angell:
Where, as at the University of Michigan, the average age of the
freshman on entering college is 19.5, it is at least open to
discussion whether the spiritual welfare of undergraduates will be
promoted by their being driven to religious services under fear of
the monitor's mark.
A religious census made in 1894 showed that of approximately 3,000
students, 2,500 were church members or church adherents, and that 301
students had become clergymen or missionaries. A similar census of the
men in 1919 showed that of a total of 5,804, 3,501 were church members,
while 943 others expressed some church preference. This included all
forms of belief. These statistics seem to indicate that there has been
very little change in this respect in the last twenty-five years, though
some decrease in church attendance would not be surprising in view of
the great increase in students and the less homogeneous character of the
student body. No one familiar with the student life today, however, will
question the vitality and effectiveness of the religious influences
which reach the students through the various churches and religious
organizations of Ann Arbor, particularly in view of extensive plans now
under way for further co-operation on the part of the churches.
The passing of the old Chapel in the religious life of the University
was marked by the growing strength of religious bodies among the
students. The strong religious spirit of the early Faculty was reflected
by their encouragement of an organization known as the Union Missionary
Society of Inquiry, which followed the great missionary movement of the
first part of the century, and served as a rallying point for
undergraduate religious life. This organization, however, according to
Professor Hinsdale, was "anything but an unmixed blessing, either to the
institution or to the students," though in what particular is not
disclosed. There also existed from earliest days, a Sunday morning
service which the students conducted in the Chapel. The old Missionary
Society came to an end in 1857, to be followed by the Students'
Christian Association, which soon became one of the most effective
factors in university religious life. It was the first association of
this character organized in any American college, and through what may
be regarded as a fortunate accident in its name the opportunity for
membership was left open to women students upon their admission twelve
years later. This brought to it a powerful reinforcement.
The Association professed no creed, the members merely pledging
themselves to religious character and work. The meetings were held at
first on the fourth floor of the old South College, but this proved
inadequate and with the coming of President Haven, the Association was
established in a room especially fitted up for it on the first floor.
Eventually these quarters in turn became too small, for, at the time of
the semi-centennial celebration of 1887, when the need for a new home
for the Association was discussed, the membership of 300 was far too
large for this room. A movement for a new building arose, therefore,
which led to a successful appeal to the alumni; though it was not until
June, 1891, that the Students' Christian Association Building which
stands on State Street almost directly across from University Hall was
formally dedicated. The total cost was about $40,000 and of this amount
Mrs. Helen H. Newberry of Detroit gave about $18,000; the building being
known as Newberry Hall in honor of her husband, John S. Newberry, of the
class of '47.
From this time the work of the Students' Christian Association, now
carried on under far more favorable circumstances, expanded rapidly. A
further extension of the religious life of the University came in 1895,
when a University Y.M.C.A. was established by some members of the
Students' Christian Association who had become dissatisfied with the
older organization and desired, moreover, to become associated with the
strong international Y.M.C.A. body. This new organization found a home
eventually in McMillan Hall on the corner of State and Huron streets,
where it grew in influence with the student body until the time seemed
to many propitious for a reorganization of religious work among the
students. This was effected in 1904 through the incorporation of the old
Students' Christian Association into the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. with
separate headquarters in McMillan and Newberry Halls respectively,
although the old title, Students' Christian Association, was nominally
retained.
McMillan Hall was eventually taken over by the Tappan Presbyterian
Association, the owners of the building, and the resulting need for new
quarters for the men led, in 1915, to the successful solicitation of
funds for a new Y.M.C.A. building. Two years later, on March 2, 1917,
the new building, known as Lane Hall in honor of Judge V.H. Lane of the
Law School, who has been President of the Association for many years,
was formally opened. It stands on the corner of State and Washington
streets, and represents an outlay of approximately $125,000, of which
amount $60,000 was contributed by the Rockefeller Foundation under the
provision that a like amount be raised within a certain period. It was
designed by William A. Otis, 78_e_, of Chicago. Dignified and simple in
its general architectural lines, it is a distinct addition to the public
buildings of Ann Arbor, and in many respects represents a new style of
building for a Y.M.C.A. This results from the fact that it is designed
primarily to serve only the religious interests of the students, and
does not aim to assume the broader social functions of the Union or the
physical training supplied in Waterman Gymnasium. Grouped around the
large hall or lobby in which the work is centered, are rooms for the
officers of the Association and offices for the pastors of the Ann Arbor
churches. A large library and adjoining study is also situated on the
first floor. A small but most attractive auditorium, seating some 450
persons, occupies the second floor, with a dining-room and four class
rooms at either end. The basement contains a social or club room and
additional class rooms.
[Illustration: LANE HALL
The University Y.M.C.A. Building]
[Illustration: NEWBERRY HALL
The University Y.W.C.A. Building]
[Illustration: NEWBERRY RESIDENCE FOR WOMEN]
[Illustration: BARBOUR GYMNASIUM FOR WOMEN]
A final modification of the religious activities in the University in
1919 resulted in an approximate return to the plan of organization of
the old S.C.A., under which the Association became a clearing house for
all the churches within the University community. Under this plan all
students who are church members become _de facto_ members of the
Association, and, as far as their church affiliations permit, of the
Y.M.C.A. and the Y.W.C.A.; while the two buildings, Lane Hall and
Newberry Hall, are considered exchange centers for all the churches and
religious organizations, including the Jewish Student Congregation.
No single factor in the life of the University has been more effective
than the close relationship of the Faculty and students with the town,
an entente which has been carefully fostered by the Ann Arbor churches.
A large proportion of the Faculty have always been church members, and
this has led to very active efforts to reach the students through the
employment of student pastors, and the establishment of several church
guild houses, which include Harris Hall, Protestant Episcopal; McMillan
and Sackett Halls, Presbyterian; and Tucker Memorial, Baptist; all on
Huron Street, while across from University Hall is the Catholic Chapel
which was remodeled from the old home of Professor Morris. There is also
every prospect that a number of new church buildings of this character
will be erected in the immediate neighborhood of the Campus within a few
years.
Michigan students have many songs which celebrate not only the delights
and care-free charm of college life but also their regard for their
University. Some of them are among the most inspiring and beautiful of
all the great body of melodies which our American colleges have
inspired. They have become an essential of undergraduate life and bear
most effective witness to the sentiment of love and loyalty which,
though often hidden, binds the student to his alma mater.
Always first among Michigan songs is "The Yellow and the Blue," written
by Charles M. Gayley, '78, now of the University of California, when an
Assistant Professor of English in the University. It first appeared in a
pamphlet entitled "Songs of the Yellow and the Blue," published in 1889.
This collection included a number of songs which have always been
favorites, by Professor Gayley and Professor Fred N. Scott, '84, for
which the music, in many cases, was written by Dr. A.A. Stanley. The
words of "The Yellow and the Blue," which are set to the air of Balfe's
"Pirate's Chorus," are as follows:
Sing to the colors that float in the light;
Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!
Yellow the stars as they ride thro' the night,
And reel in a rollicking crew;
Yellow the fields where ripens the grain,
And mellow the moon on the harvest wain;
Hail!
Hail to the colors that float in the light;
Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!
Blue are the billows that bow to the sun
When yellow-robed morning is due;
Blue are the curtains that evening has spun,
The slumbers of Phoebus to woo;
Blue are the blossoms to memory dear,
And blue is the sapphire, and gleams like a tear;--
Hail!
Hail to the ribbons that nature has spun;
Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!
Here's to the college whose colors we wear;
Here's to the hearts that are true!
Here's to the maid of the golden hair,
And eyes that are brimming with blue!
Garlands of blue-bells and maize intertwine;
And hearts that are true and voices combine;--
Hail!
Hail to the college whose colors we wear;
Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!
The popularity of the old song to Dr. Tappan and the other members of
the early Faculty, adapted from the old church tune: "Where, Oh Where,
are the Hebrew Children?" has been suggested. It is probably one of the
oldest of Michigan songs, and has survived through a succession of
student and faculty generations; though now it is one of the least of
many, and is only heard in the variation,--
Where, Oh where, are the verdant freshmen?
They've gone out from their prescribed English,
Safe now in the Sophomore class,
and so on.
Most of the songs of earlier days are now forgotten. In 1864-65 the
_Palladium_ offered a prize of $10 for the best original song, and of
the two which were considered of equal merit, one at least survived for
many years and was sung at all great University occasions. It was set to
the air of the Marseillaise, and the first stanza is as follows:
Come, jolly boys, and lift your voices,
Ring out, ring out, one hearty song;
Praise her in whom each son rejoices,
And let the notes be loud and long.
'Tis Alma Mater wakes the spirit,
And prompts the strain of harmony--
Oh, sing to her triumphantly!
The glorious theme--do ye not hear it?
Hurrah! Hurrah! ye sons
By Alma Mater blest!
All hail! All hail! her honored name,
The pride of all the West!
Professor Gayley wrote several other songs which have long been
deservedly popular. One of them, "Birds of a Feather," arranged by
Professor Stanley to the "Eton Boating Song," is as follows:
O whiles we tell of rushes,--
O whiles we sing and sup,--
And sip the wine that flushes,
In Hebe's amber cup,
And toast the maid that blushes
And smiles, and then looks up,
And toast the maid that blushes,
And smiles, and then looks up!
In sad or singing weather,
In hours of gloom or glee;
Birds of a feather
We haunt the same old tree,--
And sing, sing together,
O Michigan, of thee!
Another song by Professor Fred N. Scott which was popular for many
years, usually known as "Ann Arbor, 'tis of thee we sing," has fallen
from its former esteem, because it was sung to the tune of "The Watch on
the Rhine." The words of the first verse are as follows:
Ann Arbor, 'tis of thee we sing,
From thee our choicest blessings spring;
Accept the tribute of our song,
O Alma Mater, wise and strong.
We love thy classic shades and shrines,
We love thy murm'ring elms and pines;
Where'er our future homes shall be,
Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee.
Two of Michigan's most beautiful anthems, it must be confessed with
regret, have come of late upon somewhat evil days. The reason probably
lies in the smaller proportion of students of classical training. Yet
"Laudes Atque Carmina" cannot be surpassed in the sonorous beauty of
Professor Gayley's words and the majestic exaltation of the air, written
by Dr. Stanley.
Laudes atque carmina,
Nec hodie nes cras,
Sed omnia per tempora,--
Dum locum habeas,
Tibi sint dulcissima,
O Universitas;
At hostes, Pol, perniciter
Eant _eis korakas_.
Chorus:
O Gloria, Victoria,
O Decus omnium,
O salve Universitas,
Michiganensium, Michiganensium.
O clara Universitas,--
Nec merum Caecubum,
Nec flores nimium breves,
Nec nard' Assyrium,--
At gloriam, victoriam,
Vovemus merito;
Nos tui cives, juvenes,
Tui perpetuo!
Scarcely less beautiful though apparently somewhat too full of classical
allusions for the taste of the modern undergraduate is the "Goddess of
the Inland Seas," the words of which, by Professor Gayley, are set to an
old air by Joh. Peters.
Sing no more the fair Aegean,
Where the floating Cyclads shine,
Nor the honey'd slopes Hyblaean,
Nor the blue Sicilian brine,
Sing no storied realms of morning
Rob'd in twilight memories,--
Sing the land beyond adorning,
With her zone of inland seas.
Lo, the sacred fires of knowledge
In thy temple are enshrined,--
Through the cloisters of thy college
Choruses eternal wind!
And all other incense scorning,
Michigan, they bring thee these
Hearts of ours, and songs of morning,
Goddess of the inland seas.
The foregoing songs are all of a somewhat earlier generation. To these
one more should be added. "The Friar's Song," sung for many years by
"The Friars," a convivial student club which was eventually suppressed.
The organization has lived, however, in the memories of many graduates
and in the words and music of this song which was composed and written
by the members as they drank and sang around their long table. The words
are credited to Harold M. Bowman, '00.
Where no one asks the "who" or "why";
Where no one doth the sinner ply
With his embarrassments of guile;
Where's ne'er a frown but brings a smile,
And cares are crimes,--'tis sin to sigh,
'Tis wrong to let a jest go by,
And hope is truth, and life is nigh,
The bourns of the Enchanted Isle--
In College Days.
Then raise the rosy goblet high,--
The singer's chalice,--and belie
The tongues that trouble and defile;
For we have yet a little while
To linger,--You and Youth and I,
At Michigan.
Many beautiful songs have been added to the University treasury by the
various Michigan Union Operas, of which not a few have survived the
ephemeral popularity of the generations which witnessed the
performances. These include, "When Night Falls, Dear," from
"Michigenda," by Roy Dickinson Welch, '09, who also furnished the music
for "A Faithful Pipe to Smoke," from "Culture," the words for which were
written by Donal Hamilton Haines, '09. The opera "Koanzaland," by Donald
A. Kahn, '07-'10, with the music by Earl V. Moore, '12, furnished two
good songs, "In College Days" and "Michigan, Good-Bye" (with the
collaboration of J. Fred Lawton, '11), while "Contrarie Mary" furnished
a second "Friar's Song," by Robert G. Beck, 13_l_, and Willis A.
Diekema, '14. All these songs, and many others, are now collected in a
song-book.
Two ever-popular marches celebrate Michigan's prowess in athletics. "The
Victors," by Louis Elbel, '96-'99, never fails to thrill a Michigan man
when the band comes on the field, ushering in the team to its great
strain:
Hail! to the victors valiant,
Hail! to the conq'ring heroes, hail!
Hail! to Michigan,
The champions of the West.
Though these words are somewhat too grandiloquent for all occasions, the
same spirit which inspires the students to bare their heads and sing
"The Yellow and the Blue" at all the great football games, whether in
victory or defeat, prompts the band to head the students' march back
from the field to the stirring strains of this University march, whether
its sentiment is justified or not. Hardly less popular is the football
song, "Varsity," written by Professor Earl V. Moore, '12, for which the
words were furnished by J. Fred Lawton, '11.
Varsity,
Down the field, never yield,
Raise high your shield!
March on to victory
For Michigan,
And the Maize and Blue.
Oh, Varsity, we're for you,
Here for you, to cheer for you,--
We have no fear for you,
Oh, Varsity.
Nor should another exceedingly popular song of the present time be
overlooked:
I want to go back to Michigan,
To dear Ann Arbor town,
Back to Joe's and the Orient,
Back to some of the money I spent.
I want to go back to Michigan
To dear Ann Arbor town,--
I want to go back; I've got to go back,--
To Michigan.
This song has also been popular at Minnesota, it is said, where, during
the long period of Michigan victories in football which was at last
broken in 1919, it was sung with the same words but in a somewhat
different spirit.
The official colors of the University are maize and azure blue. Blue was
used officially by the University from early days; but it was not until
the class of 1867 chose the maize and azure blue as emblematic of the
University that the names of the colors were definitely fixed. As for
the colors themselves, they have varied widely, and it was not until
1912 that the exact shades were determined by a committee appointed by
the University Senate.
There is little doubt but that originally the colors were a deep blue
and the accepted color of Indian corn or maize, as is shown in the
ribbons on old diplomas and dance programmes. But gradually the colors
faded; the blue particularly, from almost a navy blue to a "baby blue,"
while the maize became an expressionless pale yellow. These colors were
entirely ineffective for decorations, and made it necessary for the
Athletic Association to employ shades entirely different from those
generally regarded as the true University colors. It is quite possible
that a misinterpretation of the words of the song "The Yellow and the
Blue" had something to do with the alteration from the original brighter
colors.
An inquiry into what "azure blue" really was, soon revealed the fact
that it was generally defined as the clear blue color of the sky or of
the sea reflecting it, and was further described as that of the
semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. Cobalt and prussian blue were also
given as synonyms. With this clear definition in mind, the committee was
able to fix the colors, and Michigan now has a clear deep blue and the
yellow of Indian corn, with the exact shades officially fixed by samples
preserved among the University's records.
CHAPTER X
FRATERNITIES AND STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Clubs and societies, organized for almost every conceivable purpose, lay
and academic, have always played an important role in undergraduate
affairs and have formed the most characteristic avenue for
self-expression outside the class room. Many, if not most, of these
organizations have had only a brief existence. Others, in one form or
another, have continued through long periods, and have often exercised a
strong, though not always an obvious, influence in the whole fabric of
university life. Within the last twenty-five years, too, athletics have
come to have a predominant interest, but this aspect of student life at
Michigan will be discussed in a separate chapter. Aside from the
organizations which have accompanied this overwhelming preoccupation of
the masculine student, probably the most conspicuous evidence of the
gregarious tendencies of the undergraduate have been the fraternities,
and following the introduction of co-education, the sororities, as they
soon came to be called. After the great struggle between the Faculty and
the fraternities which culminated in 1850, the fraternities came to have
an acknowledged place in undergraduate affairs. New chapters soon
followed after the first three had made their place secure and within
thirty years or so several of the older societies had grown sufficiently
in prestige, and particularly in alumni support, to begin the practice
of owning their own fraternity houses that has now become the rule. The
first thought, nowadays, of any newly established fraternity is to find
ways and means for building or buying a chapter house.
At first, nearly two-thirds of the students were fraternity members; but
the extraordinary growth of the University soon reduced the proportion
of fraternity men. This came partly as a result of the relative slowness
of the national bodies to establish new chapters in competition with the
societies already on the ground, and partly because of the reluctance of
the fraternities themselves to increase the size of their chapters or to
take in students from the purely professional schools. For these reasons
the percentage of fraternity men was reduced to about one-third the
total number of students, a proportion which remained fairly constant
for many years. The rise of fraternities in the professional schools and
the comparatively recent establishment of many new fraternities,
however, has brought the percentage up somewhat, though the growth in
general attendance during the same period has prevented any marked
increase in the relative numbers of fraternity members over the
"independents."
Following the establishment of the first three fraternities, Chi Psi and
Beta Theta Pi in 1845 and Alpha Delta Phi in 1846, whose early
adventures have been noted, some twenty-eight other general fraternities
have been established. Among the first of these were Delta Kappa
Epsilon, 1855; Sigma Phi, 1858; Zeta Psi, 1858; Psi Upsilon, 1865; Beta
Theta Pi, which had lapsed and was re-established in 1867; Delta Tau
Delta, 1874, re-established 1900; Phi Kappa Psi, 1875; Delta Upsilon,
1876; Sigma Chi, 1877; Phi Delta Theta, 1864, re-established in 1887;
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 1888, and Theta Delta Chi in 1889. Since 1890 this
list has been more than doubled and includes the re-establishment in
1902 of Phi Gamma Delta originally established in 1885, and Alpha Tau
Omega first established in 1888 and re-established in 1904.
[Illustration: THE TUG OF WAR ACROSS THE HURON
The Freshman losing in the annual Freshman-Sophomore Contests]
[Illustration: FOUR SOCIETY HOUSES
Psi Upsilon
Sigma Phi
Phi Delta Theta
Collegiate Sorosis]
There are now thirteen sororities in the University. The establishment
of the first one caused great amusement among the fraternities. This was
Kappa Alpha Theta, which came in 1879 but fell by the wayside six years
later and was not revived until 1893. The second arrival on the scene,
Gamma Phi Beta, came in 1882, followed by Delta Gamma in 1885, and
Collegiate Sorosis in 1886. The first professional fraternity to be
established was Phi Delta Phi, a law fraternity, which organized its
parent chapter in the University in 1869. It was not until 1882 that the
medical fraternity, Nu Sigma Nu, and the dental fraternity, Delta Sigma
Delta, established their Alpha chapters at Michigan. Since that time
fourteen more professional fraternities have appeared.
These fraternities, together with the three house clubs, Trigon,
Emerites and Monks, which in effect are maintained as fraternities,
bring the total number of these organizations in the University to
sixty-four, with an estimated active membership of something over 2,000
University men and women.
The first fraternity to establish a chapter house was Alpha Delta Phi,
which occupied in the college year 1875-76, the old "Octagon House,"
later the home of Professor Winchell, on the site of the present Hill
Auditorium. The present Psi Upsilon chapter house on the corner of South
University Avenue and State Street was, however, the first chapter house
built for that purpose. It was erected during the year 1879-80 and
preceded by four years the erection of the old Alpha Delta Phi house,
the second fraternity house to be built. Sigma Phi occupied, in 1882,
the old home of Professor Moses Coit Tyler, on the beautiful site of the
present chapter house. The Delta Kappa Epsilon house was built in 1889;
the old Governor Ashley property on Monroe Street was bought by Delta
Upsilon in 1887; Zeta Psi bought the property on which the present house
stands in 1890; while Phi Kappa Psi bought, in 1893, the picturesque
Millen property on the triangle between Washtenaw and Hill streets they
had occupied for ten years, one of Ann Arbor's landmarks which has only
recently been removed to make way for a new chapter house. At the
present time practically all of the fraternities either own or rent
chapter houses; ordinarily purchasing the property with alumni
assistance, and issuing mortgages, largely held by the alumni, or the
national organization, for any unpaid balance.
A comparison of this record of fraternity establishment with similar
figures from other universities will show that Michigan was one of the
first of the larger institutions in which the fraternity system took
deep root. Student life at Michigan has always been colored by it, and
the mass of students, from the first, has been divided into fraternity
and non-fraternity elements; an unofficially recognized distinction
which has had far-reaching effects in all student affairs, particularly
class-elections, student athletics, journalism, and general society
membership. The "independent" suffers no particular social disability,
save as he misses the pleasant club life of the fraternity. Often, if he
is a man of marked ability, he finds his independence a distinct
advantage in college affairs, for non-fraternity men have always been in
sufficient majority to see that the choice positions go to the
"independent" representatives. Within the fraternities, too, there has
always existed a division between the older and the more recent
organization which was, for a long time, almost as marked as the
division between fraternity and non-fraternity men. This came through
the rivalry that arose between two groups of fraternities. The first,
known as the "Palladium," took its name from an annual, first published
in 1859, which came to represent the interests of nine fraternities in
college up to 1876, while a second group was made up of the fraternities
established after that date. The break came through the establishment of
an "anti-secret" fraternity, Delta Upsilon, which the older fraternities
refused to recognize though it later assumed a passive role, and became
merely non-secret. This organization, however, with the addition of the
new fraternities as they were established, formed an opposition to the
older societies who stubbornly maintained their control of the
_Palladium_. This continued until 1891 when the _Palladium_ finally
absorbed the _Castalian_, the annual of the independents, and _Res
Gestae_, the law annual, and became at last a representative University
publication.
Although in 1897 the name was changed to the present _Michiganensian_,
the spirit of the old "Palladium," as an inner ring of fraternities,
still existed, particularly in the administration of the annual Junior
Hop, which had been a definitely organized student event at least as far
back as 1877, and had been preceded by a similar ball given by the
Seniors since 1868. The older fraternities long maintained an exclusive
control of the Junior Hop. But in 1896 the out-fraternities and the
independents protested to the Regents, who sustained their contention,
that the Hop, given in the University buildings, should include
representatives from the entire Junior class. The Palladium fraternities
refused to participate, and that year two "Hops" were given, one by
eight fraternities in Toledo, D.K.E. not being represented, and one in
the Gymnasium by the more recent fraternities and the independents. The
question arose again the next year but was eventually settled by a plan
of organization admitting representation upon the committee from all
fraternities and the independents in rotation.
The establishment in 1914 of an Inter-Fraternity Conference marked a
further step in the relations of these organizations to the University.
For some time "the fraternity situation," as it was usually spoken of,
had been increasingly unsatisfactory. Ideals of scholarship were low, or
non-existent, in practically all of the fraternities. The Junior Hop had
become so uncontrolled and extravagant that the Faculty had abolished
it,--while "rushing" methods, particularly the practice of pledging boys
long before they were ready for college, called for drastic action. This
was strongly recommended by the Committee on Student Affairs in its 1913
Report, and the fraternities were accordingly given notice to "clean
house." The result was the establishment of the Inter-Fraternity
Conference and the adoption of a constitution just in time to avoid
decisive action by the University authorities, but not without great
opposition from the Palladium group. The most striking provisions of
this constitution are: the abolition of premature pledging through a
provision that all pledging must be done in Ann Arbor and not before the
tenth day previous to the opening of classes; the prohibition of any
freshman living in a fraternity house, a rule since modified; and most
important of all, a provision that no initiate shall have less than
eleven hours of credits of at least C grade, and that no student on
probation or warning shall be initiated. The sororities took similar
action in a provision limiting the amount and character of the rushing
and establishing a fixed day for the extending of "bids" to be sent out
from one central office.
These efforts have all had a most favorable effect on fraternity
scholarship and general deportment, which has been further stimulated by
the publication of a scholarship chart showing the exact relative
standing of all the fraternities and house clubs in the University. This
has revealed a gradual rise in the average of fraternity scholarship,
though few fraternities, it must be acknowledged, have ever exceeded the
average for the whole student body, which is between C and B grades.
There is significant evidence of the success of co-education, too, in
the fact that few sororities have ever fallen below this average. The
publication of this chart has at least had the effect of establishing a
healthy rivalry among the fraternities as regards avoiding the last
place on the list, whatever their attitude may be as regards first
place; while the scholastic standings of the various fraternities proved
their value immediately as an argument with prospective initiates,
something almost inconceivable fifteen years ago. The unequivocal
evidence furnished by these charts has also led to numerous
investigations and subsequent action on the part of the alumni of many
of the fraternities.
Student journalism, though it reflects in the rise and fall of paper
after paper the changing complexion of successive student generations,
is, after all, one of the best mirrors of undergraduate life. It is no
surprising matter, therefore, even though it is to be regretted, that no
student journal has survived from the University's earlier period,
although the _Michiganensian_ has a gallery of ancestors which, at
least, establishes its lineage. In the very earliest period, whatever
literary efforts there were, were lost or preserved only in the
manuscript papers of the early literary societies, which provided the
only practical outlet for the student who wanted to write. Paper and
printing were too expensive for actual publication, so it was not until
June, 1857, that the first real student paper appeared, with the
impressive title of _Peninsular Phoenix and University Gazetteer_, a
semi-annual four page sheet whose first page was devoted to lists of
University officers and secret-society members, while its existence as a
gazetteer was justified by a very few "connubial" items.
The title of this publication was truly prophetic for its successor,
_The University Phoenix_, arose from its ashes the following
November,--in the form of an eight-page monthly, the first number of
which was largely devoted to a long editorial, an article on the
University Museum of Arts, and another on the Detroit Observatory. This
was published by Green and Company, an organization which consisted of
one S.B. Green, a student of the class of '60 who was a printer, and a
non-existent company, though it was supposed to have the support of the
three literary societies. Another publication which had appeared between
the two issues of the _Phoenix_ was the one issue of the University
_Register_.
Though a list of fraternity men was published in all of these sheets,
the fraternities were not satisfied and decided to establish a paper of
their own. Thus was born, in 1859, the _Palladium_, a four-page paper
which for some time appeared semi-annually. As the first issue was
apparently listed as number 2, it is probable that it was considered the
reincarnation of the _Phoenix_. In the issue for December, 1860, the
editor reveals the fact that 800 copies were printed at a cost of $85.
It was then a booklet of less than 50 pages, bound in glazed paper, with
almost no literary matter included, although the first number did
contain a "Freshman Song," the first bit of Michigan undergraduate
verse. Eventually, as we have seen, it became part of the
_Michiganensian_.
The _Palladium_ was not long without a rival, which came with the
establishment of the _Independent_, "a small quarterly of some forty
violently written pages," illustrating "not only the bitter feeling
between the societies and the independents, but also the hostile
attitude of students towards the Faculty." It lasted for just four
issues and was succeeded by the _University Magazine_, which quietly
died after one gasp, leaving the independents with no representation
until 1866 when the _Castalia_ appeared. This survived through five
issues, not to appear again until 1890 when the independents revived it
as the _Castalian_, also merged in 1893 in the _Michiganensian_.
A combination of two publications which followed the old _Castalia_ in
1867, the _University Chronicle_, an eight-page fortnightly of sometimes
"rather hot discussions," and the _University Magazine_, which had been
a most creditable student enterprise, produced one of the long-standing
student papers, the _Chronicle_, the first number of which appeared in
September, 1869. For the first few years of its existence, it was one of
the best college papers in the country, though it made great capital of
the hostile attitude of the students towards the Regents and Professors
and undertook to speak boldly of "the evils that have crept into the
University through the mismanagement of the Regents." It appeared at
first as a large 16-page pamphlet, three columns to the page. At the
same time the _Chronicle_ was established, a sophomore annual appeared,
_The Oracle_, which had a long and checkered career as a champion of
co-education.
This triumvirate of student journals held sway with only occasional
rivalry until a disputed election in 1882 resulted in the establishment
of a new fortnightly, the _Argonaut_, as a rival to the _Chronicle_.
This journal became a weekly in 1884. The two soon became the organs of
opposing fraternity factions, and assuming a political rather than a
literary character, lost ground rapidly. An eventual consolidation did
not save them and the last number of the combined journals appeared in
1891. They were succeeded by two new ventures, the _Daily_, which was
started in September, 1890, still with us as an institution in
undergraduate life, and the _Inlander_, whose long and honorable, if
somewhat spasmodic, career as a literary magazine only came to an end
finally in 1918. _Wrinkle_, Michigan's first humorous paper, appeared in
1893 and was immediately popular. It survived until 1905, when it also
died of inanition, to be succeeded after a few years by the present
_Gargoyle_ of varying merit. With the first discontinuance of the
_Inlander_, about the same time _Wrinkle_ died, the student body was
left with only the _Daily_ and the _Michiganensian_ as unsatisfactory
vehicles for purely literary efforts, save occasional fugitive sheets
which usually passed away almost before they appeared. In 1916 the
_Inlander_ was re-established but seemed unable to make a place for
itself and was succeeded in 1919 by the present _Chimes_. Of
departmental publications only the _Technic_, established by the
engineers in 1885, is still in existence and thus may honorably claim to
be the oldest student journal in the University.
Uncertain and varying as the careers of most of these publications have
been, they have filled their place in the student scheme of existence;
at least they have given valuable experience to their amateur editors
and publishers and have been a needed vehicle for the expression of
student opinion. The long list of editors includes the names of many
alumni who have made their mark, not only in the world of letters, but
in many other fields. The papers that survived longest usually lived by
virtue of their independence; those that died, did so because they
filled no recognized need or were too crude or too conscientiously
academic. Of the present-day publications, the _Daily_ and the
_Michiganensian_ are apparently fixtures. The _Daily_ sometimes tries
all too apparently to ape the defects and not the merits of the greater
journals and suffers from a constantly changing personnel and lack of
experienced editors, but it is improving and benefiting through a
certain degree of co-operation with the classes in journalism in the
University. The editor and business manager are given a salary and are
subject to close supervision by the Board in Control of Student
Publications, which has so wisely administered the affairs of the
various papers that a fund of some $30,000 has been saved towards the
establishment of a University Press. The same is true of the
_Michiganensian_, which has come to be of impressive bulk, and is
usually on the whole a well edited and printed annual reference book
with numerous illustrations and data concerning all of the student
organizations. A directory of students in the University is also
published under the supervision of the Board in Control as well as a
tri-weekly paper, the _Wolverine_, by the students of the Summer
Session. The alumni publication, the _Michigan Alumnus_, which first
appeared in 1894, will be mentioned in a later chapter.
Interest in public speaking and debating has existed almost from the
first days of the University, though it was only after the establishment
of the Department of Oratory that instruction began to be given
systematically and consecutively. Before that time, some elocutionary
training had been given by Professor Moses Coit Tyler in combination
with his work in English Literature, and later by President Hutchins,
then instructor in Rhetoric and History, who introduced what was then
known as the Junior Debates. These were continued by his successor,
Isaac N. Demmon, who was to become in a few years Professor of English
Literature. The great increase in the work in composition and public
speaking which came with the broadening of the course of study in 1878,
however, led to the abandonment of these debates and instruction in the
subject fell to a low ebb until Professor Trueblood came in 1884 to give
one-third of his time to this work. His success in this field eventually
led to his appointment as Professor of Oratory in 1890.
But if the powers that be were slow to recognize the desire of the
students for instruction in public speaking, there were many more or
less unofficial avenues for those who desired to give vent to their
oratorical impulses. Two escape valves existed almost from the first,
the old literary societies, and the class exhibitions and Commencement
programs which have been mentioned. The first literary society, Phi Phi
Alpha, was organized in 1842, to be followed, after an internal struggle
in the older society, by Alpha Nu, which has survived to the present
time and has long been the oldest of student organizations. Adelphi, the
other existing society, was not started until shortly before the demise
of Phi Phi Alpha in 1860. The traditional programmes of these societies
were largely orations, essays, and concluding debates in which such
momentous questions as,
_Resolved_: That the benefits of novel reading will compensate for
its injuries.
_Resolved_: That we have sufficient evidence for belief in ethereal
spirits.
_Resolved_: That brutes reason.
_Resolved_: That woman has as much influence in the nation as man.
_Resolved_: That students should not form matrimonial engagements
while in college.
These societies also maintained literary papers. Phi Phi Alpha had the
"Castalia," Alpha Nu, the "Sybil," and Adelphi, "The Hesperian." In 1868
they established a series of prize contests, debates for sophomores and
juniors, and orations for seniors. For these first and second prizes
were awarded at public exhibitions, which never failed to arouse great
interest. This traditional emphasis on public speaking has been
maintained consistently down to the present time, and many distinguished
alumni of the University have been numbered among the contestants.
For many years the two societies Alpha Nu and Adelphi have occupied two
rooms on the fourth floor of University Hall, the only student
organizations entirely independent of Faculty patronage thus recognized.
Why they have not come to occupy the prominent place that two similar
organizations hold at Princeton, the Clio and Whig societies, whose two
marble temples are one of the distinguishing marks of Princeton's
Campus, is a matter for speculation. Probably the fact that Princeton
long remained a college while Michigan early became a university with a
more inclusive curriculum, will best explain it. As it is, however,
these societies have in the past done a great service for the University
and deserve to survive. They are not, however, the only student
organizations which have had exercise in public speaking as their reason
for existence, for many such have come and gone, only to be remembered
by their own student generation and by the heavy weight of their
classical names. Such were a multitude of debating clubs which sprang up
in the "60's" under such impressive titles as "Homotrapezoi,"
"Philozetian," "Panarmonian," or, in the Law Department, the less
pretentious "Douglas," "Clay," and "Lincoln" Societies which were the
forerunners of the present Jeffersonian and Webster Societies. A
latter-day organization has been the long popular "Toastmaster's Club"
which aims to perpetuate the doubtful joys of after-dinner oratory.
Other means of self-expression for those oratorically bent, were those
formal exhibitions of which the long-popular annual Junior Exhibition
was the most prominent. Nowadays, the only vestige of student
participation in programs of this character remains in the annual Class
Day Exercises.
Another organization which stimulated interest in platform speaking was
the Students' Lecture Association, which was until recently one of the
most successful undergraduate enterprises. It was organized in
September, 1854, and continued for nearly sixty years to bring
distinguished and sometimes, judged by later-day standards,
undistinguished speakers before student audiences. It ceased to exist in
1912, but only after the broadening interests of the University began to
attract to Ann Arbor many prominent visitors whose addresses have been
usually given free of charge, while at the same time the multiplication
of other forms of entertainment lessened the attractions of the
traditional lecture course. But an association which, in its day,
brought to Ann Arbor such men as Emerson, Bayard Taylor, Horace Mann,
Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker, Henry Ward Beecher, Winston Spencer
Churchill, Henry M. Stanley, Wu Ting Fang, and Presidents Harrison,
McKinley, Cleveland, and Wilson, played no minor role in University
life. That the privilege of hearing some of these speakers was not
always properly appreciated is shown by the comments of the editor of
one of the local papers on a lecture by Emerson.
The subject of the lecture was "Human Beauty," rather a singular
subject, it strikes us, from so homely a man as Mr. Emerson. Mr.
Emerson is not a pleasing speaker--in fact, is an awkward speaker,
and yet he demands the utmost attention of every hearer.
With the gradual organization of the Department of Oratory, public
speaking soon came to have a recognized place among student interests,
and eventually inter-collegiate debates and contests were organized to
stimulate student interest. These were first inaugurated by the
Oratorical Association, which, soon after its establishment in 1889,
issued an invitation to neighboring universities to form an Oratorical
Union. This resulted in the Northern Oratorical League, which has long
maintained an annual series of inter-collegiate contests and debates.
The representatives of the University are selected only after several
contests and preliminary debates in the various societies, with an
average of at least fifty candidates participating. Michigan has always
maintained a leading position in this form of undergraduate activity and
of the twenty-nine inter-collegiate contests in which she has taken part
she has won nine first honors and four second honors. The University has
also participated in some sixty-four inter-collegiate debates, of which
she has won forty-two; her nearest rival being Northwestern, with nine
victories. Eleven of these debates were won in succession, and
twenty-four by the unanimous decision of the judges.
This form of inter-collegiate rivalry has been greatly stimulated by a
medal and testimonial of $85 given to the winner of the annual
University Contest by the Chicago alumni and by similar prizes to the
winners of the inter-collegiate contests and debates.
Interest in the drama on the part of the students was of comparatively
slow development, though in recent years it has come to be one of the
most conspicuous "student activities." While a "Shakespeare Club"
existed as early as 1860, the stage did not hold a particularly high
place in public regard in the University's earlier years, and good plays
were seldom seen in Ann Arbor. The celebrated actress, Mrs. Scott
Siddons, gave several recitals in the seventies, while a performance of
_Hamlet_, given in 1879 by Lawrence Barrett, was received with the
highest praise. His visit gave an impetus to dramatic affairs and led to
the organization of a Barrett Club which gave a performance of _Dollars
and Cents_ in 1880--the first recorded amateur dramatic performance in
the University. But it was not until two years later that the
University's dramatic history may be said to have begun with the two
Commencement plays, the _Adelphi_ of Terence, given in Latin under the
direction of Professor Charles M. Gayley, '74, and Racine's _Les
Plaideurs_, in French, under Assistant Professor Paul R. de Pont of the
Department of French.
From that time on interest in college dramatics steadily increased.
Professor de Pont, whose interest in student life never flagged, took a
leading part in the presentation of several plays, and one opera,
Gilbert and Sullivan's _Iolanthe_ (1883), by companies of students and
faculty members. Largely through his efforts a University Dramatic Club
was organized in 1885 and gave such plays as _A Scrap of Paper_ (1885)
and _The Memoirs of the Devil_ (1888), which "caused the student body to
sit up and take notice." Plays of this lighter character were all that
were attempted until 1890, when another Latin play, Plautus'
_Menaechmi_, was given so successfully under the direction of Professor
J.H. Drake, '85, that it was later presented in Chicago. This was the
last effort in classical drama until twenty-six years later, when the
_Menaechmi_ was repeated with great success in Hill Auditorium on March
30, 1916. This was followed in 1917 by Euripides' _Iphigenia Among the
Taurians_, given by the students in Greek, for which special music in
the ancient Greek modes was written by Dr. A.A. Stanley.
The old Dramatic Club was eventually disbanded in the early '90's, only
to be succeeded by another student organization, the still existing
Comedy Club, which has had a varying career. Soon after its organization
it became an exceedingly close corporation among certain fraternities
and confined its offerings to light comedies and farces of the type that
offered no great difficulties, such as _The Private Secretary_, _All the
Comforts of Home_, and _My Friend from India_. A reorganization of the
Club in 1908 made membership dependent upon real ability, and since that
time Farquahar's _Recruiting Officer_, (1908); Barrie's _Admirable
Crichton_, (1909); Gogol's _Inspector_, (1910); Percy McKaye's
_Scarecrow_, (1914), and Barrie's _Alice Sit by the Fire_, (1919), are
fairly representative of the plays given.
The reorganization of the Comedy Club came largely because of the
successful efforts of the Deutscher Verein and the Cercle Francais, to
give a series of the best plays in German and French literature. The
list of these productions has been a long and creditable one, those in
German including, after their first performance, _Der Hochzeitsreise_
by Benedix, in 1904; _Die Journalisten_, (1906 and 1912); _Minna von
Barnhelm_, (1908); _Egmont_, (1909); and _Der Dummkopf_, (1911). Since
the French Circle made its debut in 1907, with _Les Deux Timides_ by
Labiche, and Moliere's _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_, several other
comedies by Moliere have been most successfully given; as well as
Beaumarchais' _Barbier de Seville_, (1909); Rostand's _Les Romanesques_,
(1911); and Pailleron's modern comedy _Le Monde ou l'On s'Ennuie_,
(1912).
Somewhat different from these revivals of the best in dramatic
literature, have been the far more popular Michigan Union Operas,
written and produced almost entirely by students. Originally designed as
a means for raising funds for the Union, always needed, particularly in
the earliest days, they speedily became an institution in undergraduate
life. All the librettos, with one or two exceptions, have been the work
of students, and the same is true of the music, which has often
developed an extraordinary vein of undergraduate talent. In fact, more
than once it has been the music which has given these operas their chief
merit. Save for one war-time emergency, when University women
participated, the entire cast has always been recruited from the men of
the University and the burlesque of the "chorus girls" has always been
one of the perennial charms of the opera in undergraduate estimation.
The first opera, given in 1908, was entitled _Michigenda_ and became
instantly popular, not only because of its novelty and the excellence of
its music, but also because its plot was built about the local color of
undergraduate life, a precedent which, unfortunately, has not always
been followed in later operas. The 1920 opera, _George Did It_, was
artistically as well as financially the most successful of the Union's
productions. Five or six performances are usually given in Ann Arbor,
and of late years a trip during the spring vacation through the cities
of Michigan and occasionally to Chicago has drawn large audiences of
alumni and others, attracted by the real merit and novelty of this
student effort. Not to be outdone by the men of the University, the
junior class women have also, for some years, presented a similar
extravaganza which, though not open to the general public, is always
noted for its cleverness and real humor.
For some twelve years also a feature of the Commencement program has
been the annual play given by the senior girls, usually on Tuesday
evening of Commencement Week. The list of plays presented includes, _She
Stoops to Conquer_, (1905); _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_, (1906);
_Cranford_, (1908); Euripides' _Alcestis_, (1912), in which the
classical entrance to Alumni Memorial Hall was used most effectively;
_Prunella_, (1914); _The Piper_, (1916); and in 1919, Percy McKaye's _A
Thousand Years Ago_. Within recent years, "Masques," an organization of
University women, has given unusually artistic performances of Pinero's
_The Amazons_, (1918), and Barrie's _Quality Street_, (1919). The
Department of Oratory has also interested itself in the drama and is
responsible for several well-considered presentations of such plays as
Galsworthy's _Silver Box_; Kennedy's _The Servant in the House_, (1916);
Ibsen's _Pillars of Society_, (1917); and Masefield's _Tragedy of Nan_,
(1918).
Contemporary interest in pageantry has likewise not been without its
effect in the University, as was shown by a praiseworthy though perhaps
over-ambitious pageant, _Joan of Arc_, given under the auspices of the
Woman's League on Ferry Field in 1914, and a less elaborate but more
effective celebration of the Shakespeare Centenary two years later,
entitled _The Queen's Progress_, given in Hill Auditorium. The
Cosmopolitan Club, composed of the foreign students, has also taken
advantage of the same spacious stage to give two elaborate
entertainments in 1916 and 1917, an _All-Nation Review_, and _The Magic
Carpet_.
This brief outline of student dramatic efforts in recent years reveals a
multiplicity of interested organizations as well as a wide variety of
offerings. Necessarily this has given rise to rivalries and sometimes
inadequate preparation, though it has stimulated a vital and intelligent
interest in the drama as an actual form of artistic expression. One of
the greatest needs these student actors and their Faculty directors
experience, is a university theater which will, in effect, be an actual
dramatic workshop. These conditions have led to the recent organization
of a University Dramatic Society, composed largely of members of the
Faculty and a few students, whose aim is to correlate the work of the
various dramatic organizations of the University and to arouse interest
in the project for a Campus Theater. As a producing organization it made
its bow in December, 1919, when, with the co-operation of the Michigan
Union, it produced a most finished performance of Reginald DeKoven's
operetta, _Red Feather_.
The first mention of any musical organization in the University occurs
in some reminiscences of the class of 1846. Winfield Smith says that the
flute was very popular in those days, and that "several could be heard
in different rooms when the windows were open on a summer evening." A
quartette orchestra was organized by John S. Newberry, '47, while the
first vocal music was started by Fletcher Marsh, of the first class to
graduate, in 1844, which "rapidly developed into a good chorus." Dr.
Nathaniel West, '46, tells of the fine singing in the chapel exercises
of his time, with "excellent support from a University Band of nine
pieces." With evident pride he confesses: "This hand used to slide the
trombone and sometimes the cornet."
Interest in music apparently continued and was actively fostered by
Professor Frieze after he came to the University. An exceptionally fine
musician himself, he presided at the organ in one of the local churches
for many years, and took every occasion to encourage good music among
the students. The early numbers of the _Palladium_ and its rivals
mention many ephemeral musical organizations beginning in 1859 with a
nine-piece orchestral club, "Les Sans Souci." Evidently the name was too
much for this modest effort and the same or a similar organization
appears as the "Amateur Musical Club" the following year. The same issue
of the _Palladium_ also lists a University Choir of four persons. After
that time hardly a year passes without vocal and instrumental musical
organizations in some form; in 1863 we have the "Junior Glee Club," and
the "Sophomore AEolians," while in 1865 a "Cremona Club" appears. In
1867-68 the first "University Glee Club" of eight members was organized
and in 1870, the senior year of its members, it gave some twenty-six
most successful concerts throughout the State. They appeared in
University caps, apparently something entirely new, as some thought they
were members of a fire company, while others "mistook them for Arabs
from Forepaugh's circus." The example set by this successful club, to
which belongs the credit of elevating and popularizing college songs,
was not immediately followed, however, and there were several years when
the glee club was dormant. With its effectual revival in 1884, the
history of the University Glee Club has been continuous to the present
time. It was supplemented in 1889-90 by the Banjo Club and in 1895 and
1896 by the Mandolin Club--and after that time the triple organization
went by the name of the University Musical Clubs. The first extended
trip was taken in 1890 when the organization visited several Michigan
cities, and also Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. In 1896
the trip went as far afield as Salt Lake City, an extensive itinerary
which crippled more than one cash balance. Since that time, under more
careful management, several most successful trips have been made to the
Pacific Coast.
The various University orchestras and musical clubs supplied the
University's needs until, in 1895, the University Band was organized.
This suffered a precarious existence, though much appreciated by the
students, until in 1914 the Regents made an appropriation for its
support which enabled it to blossom out as one of the most creditable
college bands in any American University. Not only does it play at all
football and baseball games, but it has come to be indispensable during
such occasions as the annual Commencement.
Though not strictly a student organization, the University Musical
Society and the Choral Union, since their organization in 1879-80, have
had as their main object the musical welfare of the student body, and so
successful have they been in their effort, that Ann Arbor has become one
of the musical centers of the country. The modest concerts first given
by the Choral Union, composed largely of students, prepared the way for
the establishment in 1893 of the annual May Festival, which has become
an established event of the University year under the energetic and able
direction of Dr. A.A. Stanley, who has well accomplished the task he
set himself when he came to Ann Arbor in 1888, to create a true musical
atmosphere in the University of Michigan. The number of concerts given
under the auspices of the Choral Union, including the May Festival
Concerts, now totals 318.
The gregarious club-forming habit, as we have seen, began as far as the
University is concerned almost with the admission of the first class. A
list of such organizations might be compiled from old _Palladiums_ and
_Michiganensians_, but it would be to little purpose. In most cases
these societies have been ephemeral, and if they did survive their own
generations, they soon lapsed into pale shadows, or faded away, with no
one to mark their passing. There are certain societies, however, which
have been in existence some time, that serve to mark a definite trend in
undergraduate life, though most of them reflect not so much scholastic
attainment as personal popularity. The most conspicuous of these is
"Michigamua," a society which was organized in 1902 as an all-senior
organization. It has always stressed the Indian tradition in its
practices and names, and has made a picturesque ceremony of its annual
"rope-in" of new members, who are surrounded on a certain day in spring
with a howling band of painted braves. Similar societies in other
departments and classes soon followed, and we now have the "Griffins,"
another all-campus society; "Druids," senior literary; "Sphinx," junior
literary; "Vulcans," senior engineering; "Triangle," junior engineering;
"Archons," junior laws; "Galens," medical; "Alchemists," chemical
students; "Craftsmen," Masonic students; "Quarterdeck," marine
engineering; as well as several similar societies among the women,
notably the "Senior Society" and "Mortarboard."
As for the real "honor" societies, those whose membership is in itself
an academic honor, there are several whose members are selected with
Faculty co-operation. These are best illustrated by Phi Beta Kappa, the
oldest inter-collegiate organization, which was established at Michigan
only after long opposition centering about the introduction of a marking
system, the absence of which was long a special characteristic of the
University. In spite of this, many alumni were elected at the time of
its establishment in 1907, upon the special recommendation of older
members of the Faculty whose co-operation had been requested. Five years
before the time when Phi Beta Kappa was established, Sigma Xi, a similar
organization, was inaugurated as a recognition of excellence in science.
Tau Beta Pi in engineering likewise came in the field in 1906. There
followed quickly, after this auspicious start, the following societies,
most of them of national scope; Alpha Omega Alpha, in the Medical
School; Tau Sigma Delta, in Architecture; Phi Lambda Upsilon, in
Chemistry; the Order of the Coif, and also the Woolsack, in the Law
School; Phi Sigma, in Science; Pi Delta Epsilon, in Journalism; Iota
Sigma Pi for women specializing in chemistry; and Phi Alpha Tau for
students in oratory. Analogous to these distinctions are the annual
appointments to the editorial board of the _Law Review_, open to the
best senior students in the Law School.
A society organized by upper classmen in 1900, "Quadrangle," for many
years maintained outstanding scholastic ability as well as a certain
degree of popularity as qualifications for membership. Its traditions
have perhaps changed somewhat through a too great, though perhaps
inevitable instructorial complexion and the abandonment of its original
emphasis on literature and the arts. Among the women a similar
association is found in "Stylus," a society established in 1908. Similar
societies, which emphasize the literary and scientific interests of
their members, are the University Branches of the American Institutes of
Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, the "Prescott Club" of students in
Pharmacy, the "Architectural Society," the "Commerce Club," and another
women's society, "Athena."
For some years there was a marked tendency in the University to form
sectional clubs, such as the "Rocky Mountain," "New York,"
"Pennsylvania," and "New England" clubs, usually with their own house
and dining-room, organized somewhat on the example of the fraternities.
The impulse, however, has lapsed somewhat, though the foreign students
in the University still maintain the "Cosmopolitan Club," a very active
organization with national affiliations, as well as a "Chinese Students
Club," a "South African Union," and a "Nippon Club."
In the earlier years the students came almost entirely from nearby towns
in Michigan, many registering from little hamlets now almost forgotten.
By 1850, however, almost one-third of the total of 64 students in the
academic department were from outside the State, some even hailing from
as far as New England. Ten years later almost half the 526 enrolled were
from other states than Michigan, with a sprinkling from Canada. The same
was true of the 1,112 students in 1870, though by this time practically
all sections of the country were represented--even California. Less than
half the students in 1880 were from Michigan, 642 out of a total
enrolment of 1,427, a condition that also held true in 1890, when the
proportion was 1,019 out of 2,153. But by 1900 Michigan was again
sending more than half the students in the University, 2,009 out of
3,440; and the same was true in 1910 with 2,832 out of 5,383 and again
in 1920 with 5,793 out of 9,401.
Professor Hinsdale in his "History" publishes a significant little table
showing that in 1870 the ratio of Michigan students to the population of
the State was one to 2,300. This ratio was increased slightly ten years
later and then dropped to one in 1,802 in 1890, one in 1,206 in 1900,
and to one in 992 in 1910. The 1920 census shows one in 636.
The enrolment of foreign students in the University is also significant.
Aside from students registering from Canada, who came almost from the
first, the first appreciable showing of foreign students came in the
eighties, with nine enrolled in 1880. In 1890 there were forty-three
including twenty-one from Japan, but ten years later the number had
dropped to nineteen. This was due partly to the fact that there were
only seven Japanese students, while the seven from Porto Rico and two
from Hawaii were no longer "foreign." The total, excluding fourteen from
the United States dependencies and twenty-five from Canada, was
sixty-eight in 1910. Of this number eleven students were from China; a
little band which grew to thirty-six in 1919, when they formed no
inconsiderable proportion of the 140 foreign students enrolled, strongly
organized for social and educational purposes and affiliated with
similar organizations in other universities. Japan sent eighteen and
South Africa twenty-eight the same year. Aside from these, seventy-four
were registered from Canada and fourteen from Porto Rico, the
Philippines, and Hawaii. Of late years there has also been a marked
increase of students from Central and South America.
CHAPTER XI
ATHLETICS
Michigan differs in no respect from other American universities in the
general and, some would have it, the extravagant interest in outdoor
sports which have come to be defined under the general term "athletics."
This emphasis on contests and games of strength and skill is universal
and is woven into the very fabric of student life in all our
universities and colleges. We cannot therefore avoid the conclusion that
it is an inevitable and characteristic expression of the American
spirit. It is only natural for the sons and grandsons of the men who
settled this country to take an interest in wholesome and vigorous
sports; in fact it would be a sad commentary on the degeneracy of the
modern generation if such an expression of their inheritance were not
evident. But a distinctively American attitude towards sport is also
manifested in the intense personal and university rivalries developed,
the very rock upon which the modern system of inter-collegiate athletics
rests, no less than in the genius for organization and systemization
which has, within the last twenty-five years, made organized athletics
such a tremendous factor in the life of all American universities.
Whatever changes the future is to bring in the development and control
of inter-collegiate athletics, our universities cannot very well escape
the fundamental fact that they have become an integral part of our
university system, and that, rather than attempting a change by radical
measures, they can best correct any present abuses by wise regulation,
by a constant effort toward a modification of the present overwhelming
emphasis on the one game, football, and above all, by a consistent
encouragement of universal participation on the part of the students in
some form of college sport. This, in fact, is the latest development. It
is not so much a reform as a return to older traditions, from which we
have departed only in comparatively recent years, as the following
review of Michigan's athletic history will show. This survey is offered,
however, not so much because of its relation to the general development
of the present-day attitude toward sports in American universities as
because it may have particular interest for every Michigan graduate,
whether he counts himself a radical or a conservative in matters
athletic.
It goes without saying that there was almost no thought of organized
sport in the early days. Nathaniel West, '46, once told the Washington
alumni, that "among our athletics were various forms of activity--the
foot race from a quarter to a half mile,--baseball, a few rods from the
stile,"--and what will seem certainly a novel event to a modern
athlete,--"sawing our own wood and carrying it upstairs." Edmund
Andrews, the President of '49, has also left a record of his time.
Athletics were not regularly organized, nor had we any gymnasium.
We played base-ball, wicket ball, two-old-cat, etc., but there was
no foot-ball nor any trained "teams." There was mere ex tempore
volunteering. We had jumping wickets in the same way. Fencing and
boxing were totally neglected. The Huron River furnished little
opportunity for boating.
This we may take as a fair picture of athletic activities for many
years. Cricket was undoubtedly the first sport to be organized in the
University, as the _Palladium_ for 1860-61 gives the names of the eight
officers and twenty-five members of the "Pioneer Cricket Club," while
the Regents' Report for June, 1865, shows an appropriation of $50 for a
cricket ground on the Campus,--the first official recognition of
athletics in the University. The game of wicket, which was a
modification of cricket, was played with a soft ball five to seven
inches in diameter, and with two wickets (mere laths or light boards)
laid upon posts about four inches high and some forty feet apart. The
"outs" tried to bowl these down, and the "ins" to defend them with
curved broad-ended bats. It was necessary to run between the wickets at
each strike.
The need for a gymnasium was speedily recognized, but the agitation for
it among the students continued for thirty years before the present
building was finally completed in 1894. The first gymnasium was an old
military barracks which was transformed into a gymnasium of a sort about
the year 1858. It stood near the site of the old heating plant at the
side of the present Engineering Building, and as it was very open to the
weather, resting only on poles sunken in the ground and with a tan bark
floor, it was used only in warm weather. The apparatus consisted of a
few bare poles, ropes, and rings. Even this make-shift was short-lived,
for in 1868 the class of '70 erected a "gymnasium in embryo" described
by a graduate of '75 as "two uprights with a cross-beam and ropes
dangling from eye-bolts--the remains of some prehistoric effort towards
muscular development," which was to be found "back of the
Museum";--otherwise the old North Wing. Mark Norris, '79, thus pictures
the comparatively primitive state of athletics in the University of his
day:
The athletic side of the University was almost wholly undeveloped
in 1875. There was no organization and no chance for systematic
work. The absence of a gymnasium and practice ground will account
for this. Football was a contest between classes, and a mob of 100
to 150 men on a side chasing the pig-skin over the Campus was a
sight to make the football expert of today go into convulsions. We
had a little base-ball of the "butter fingers" type. At one time we
had a boat-club, which navigated the raging Huron above the dam in
a six-oared barge.
But with the opening of the year 1885 the old rink, later to become the
armory, was fitted up as a gymnasium and a great impetus was given to
all athletic interests, which by this time were beginning to be
organized. As a natural result the student demand for a real gymnasium
was becoming more and more vociferous. As far back as 1868 the
_University Chronicle_ had voiced the sentiment in a two-column
editorial, in which the writer thus describes the awful state of the
University, when the only form of exercise was the opportunity to,--
walk around two or three squares, down to the post office and back
to our rooms again. This already has become a melancholy task; but
we must choose it, or its sadder alternative,--the old buck-saw.
True there are students among us who _will_ have exercise if
cramming professors are ever so vexed. They will not study on
Sunday; they escape to the woods, admire nature--desecrate the
Sabbath. They find relaxation at the billiard table, make effigies
in the night to be burned in the morning, remove side-walks,
dislocate gates, or arm-in-arm parade the side-walk singing: "Happy
is the maid who shall meet us."
By 1865 the efforts of the students resulted in a fund of something over
$4,000. The Legislature that year almost gave the necessary
appropriation for a gymnasium provided the students contributed what
they had raised. But the project finally fell through and it was not
until 1891, when Joshua W. Waterman, of Detroit, long a patron of sports
in the University, offered to give $20,000, provided a like amount be
raised from other sources, that the building became assured. Three years
later Waterman Gymnasium was at last completed at a cost of $61,876.49
toward which sum private donors had contributed $49,524.34. The $6,000
which the students eventually raised through so many years of effort
were used for equipment. The new "gym" was 150 feet long by 90 feet
wide, with a running track in the balcony of 14 laps to the mile. These
accommodations proved ample for many years; but the recent growth of the
student body finally made an increase in space imperative, and in 1916
an extension of 48 feet was added at each end, making the main floor 248
feet long with a ten-lap running track.
[Illustration: WATERMAN GYMNASIUM FOR MEN]
The interest in all forms of outdoor athletics, which was developing
rapidly by 1890, made an athletic field no less necessary than a
gymnasium. The corner of the Campus where the Gymnasium now stands,
which, from the earliest days of baseball had been devoted to athletics,
was crowded and inconvenient, even for practice games; while the old
fair grounds in the southeastern part of the city were not under
University control, besides being ill-adapted to college games. The
streets and Campus were popular for impromptu games, although the arm of
the law was unduly active in the spring, and "the batting of balls" was
conspicuously forbidden on a sign which long decorated the south wall of
the Museum. The Regents recognized this need of a great playground,
however, and purchased what is now the south ten acres of Ferry Field in
1891, though it was not opened to the students until 1893. This went by
the name of "Regents' Field" until 1902, when the Hon. D.M. Ferry of
Detroit gave an additional twenty-one acres lying between the old field
and the University, and furnished funds for the present impressive
entrance gates and ticket offices, since which time it has been known by
the name of the donor. Subsequent purchases of neighboring property have
increased the total to nearly eighty acres. Though this is by no means
all in use at present, thirty-eight acres are graded, drained, and
enclosed on three sides by a high brick wall. Two great stands, one of
concrete, accommodate nearly 25,000 spectators at the "big games," while
an attractive club house at one end furnishes accommodations for the
players and members of visiting teams.
An effective student athletic organization was only less tardy in making
its appearance than the long-awaited gymnasium and athletic field. In
contrast to the modern student journals, the earliest files of the
_Chronicle_ are distinguished by their exceedingly rare references to
athletic events, and then only in a very occasional modest item giving
the immodest score of some class contest, such as the baseball game
between '71 and '72 on May 29, 1869, when the score ran 50 to 36.
Shortly after this time came the first student athletic organization,
informally known as the "Baseball Clubs" which became the Baseball
Association in 1876. A similar Football Association was organized in
1873 and continued until 1878 when both clubs were merged in the first
Athletic Association of the University. This was the organization
responsible for the student fund for the Gymnasium. But successful as
the new organization proved in financial matters, it soon fell into the
almost inevitable desuetude of so many student undertakings and
finally, in 1884, fell "victim of the football and baseball teams which
it sought to control."
Its successor was the present Athletic Association, organized in 1890
through a consolidation of all the athletic interests in the University.
This Association was long maintained almost exclusively by the students
whose voluntary membership was marked by a little "athletic button" of
varying design, without which no student in good standing with his
fellows would be seen. With the establishment of a general athletic fee,
or "blanket tax," by the University in 1912, which admitted the student
to all athletic events and was paid with the other University fees, and
with the growing influence of the Board in Control of Athletics, the
character of the Athletic Association gradually changed. However, the
organization still continues to elect its officers and Board of
Directors, who elect the three student representatives on the Board in
Control from a list of six nominated by the Board. The student managers
of the athletic teams are now appointed by the coach, the captain of the
team and the retiring manager. Since 1899 the general direction of the
affairs of the Athletic Association has been in the hands of two men,
Charles Baird, '95, who was appointed Graduate Director of Athletics in
that year, and Phillip G. Bartelme, a former member of the class of '99,
who succeeded him in 1909, and now holds the title of Director of
Outdoor Athletics.
The first attempt at organized collegiate sport in the University dates
from the time of the Civil War, for it was in 1863 that baseball was
first introduced among the students. Two men are given the credit, John
M. Hinchman, '62-'65, who had been a member of the Detroit Club, and
E.L. Grant, '66, who as a freshman became interested in accounts of the
game as it was being played by a few clubs in and around New York. With
some of his friends he wrote for information in the spring of 1863, and
later ordered bases, balls and clubs, and proceeded to lay out a diamond
on the northeast corner of the Campus which was afterward maintained by
the University.
Baseball in those days differed considerably from the present game; the
pitcher was restricted to an underhand delivery; the catch of a foul
bound meant an "out"; strikes were not called; and bases on balls were
unknown; while owing to the straight-arm pitching, the batting was much
heavier and the scores larger. There was not much of a team in 1863, but
the effort resulted in the organization of the first University Baseball
Club in the spring of 1864, with Hinchman, who was the catcher, as
president and captain. The members of the team had no uniforms and paid
their own expenses, as no admission was charged for the games. While the
opposing teams and the scores are not on record, the nine was judged
highly successful and was very popular. In the fall of 1865 the team
defeated Jackson, Ypsilanti, and Dexter and was in turn defeated by a
team from Lodi Township near Ann Arbor. General interest in the game was
evidently spreading rapidly.
In 1867 the Club was groomed for the championship of the State; student
subscriptions were solicited; class nines were formed to give them
sufficient practice, and the dignity of white uniforms was at last
attained. Finally the team, accompanied by seventy supporters,--it was
long before the day of "rooters,"--traveled to Detroit and met the
Detroit Champions. The game lasted three hours and a half, included six
home runs, and was won by the University with the wholly satisfactory
score of 70 to 18, Detroit being unable to hit Blackburn the University
pitcher sufficiently, though, judged by modern standards, his record was
not exactly a "shut-out." A return game, however, played in the fall
resulted in the defeat of the University 36 to 20, while the final game
of the series, a year later, ran to eleven innings with the University
finally winning 26 to 24. Soon after this the Detroit team disbanded and
for some years baseball languished in the University; partly because of
the lack of opponents for so redoubtable a nine, and partly because the
first enthusiasm for the game had waned. Interest revived somewhat in
1873, but aside from inter-class games the only available opponents were
mostly professional clubs from the neighboring towns, who were
ordinarily outclassed by the college men. With the abolition of the old
straight-arm pitching in 1875 and the calling of strikes established,
the extravagant scores began to be materially reduced.
Michigan's first inter-collegiate baseball game was with Wisconsin on
May 20, 1882. It was played at Ann Arbor and resulted in a victory 20 to
8. This game came as a result of the formation of an Inter-collegiate
Baseball League, composed of Michigan, Wisconsin, Northwestern and
Racine, in which the Varsity easily won the championship. Unsatisfactory
arrangements for the traveling expenses of the team, however, caused
Michigan to withdraw from the League the next year and the nine was
forced once more to fall back upon the professional and
semi-professional teams in neighboring cities. Oberlin appeared upon the
schedule in 1886 and Michigan Agricultural College twice defeated the
Varsity the following year. But if these years saw no remarkable
schedules, the team was, nevertheless, steadily improving. The fielding
average of the '88 team was .908; and though less can be said of the
batting, two members, McDonnell, '88, and McMillan, '86-'89, had
averages of .448 and .406 respectively. The _Chronicle_ also was
jubilant over the financial success of the '88 season which left a
surplus of $50 in the treasury, after "elegant new suits" had been
purchased.
Confidence in the ability of the team led to the first Eastern trip in
1890, which resulted in a close and exciting 2 to 1 victory over Cornell
at Ithaca, May 16. From this time on Cornell and other Eastern colleges
appeared with fair regularity in the schedule. Games with Harvard and
Yale were arranged in 1891, and every candidate was pledged to strict
training after February first under Peter Conway, a famous National
League pitcher. The trip resulted in a creditable record; and although
the game with Yale was lost 2 to 0, only three hits were scored off the
pitcher, Codd, '91, a record for the Varsity almost as welcome as a
victory. The game with Harvard, won 4 to 3, was peculiarly satisfying to
the tired team, which had already played six games, and had had, in the
words of Captain Codd, "as hard a course of training as any University
team had, up to that time, ever undergone.... We had given our Eastern
antagonists a pretty good 'practice game,'" (the Harvard manager's
term). Conditions were reversed the following year when Yale was
defeated 3 to 2, but Harvard won 4 to 2. Michigan returned to her
Western rivals in 1893 and was almost uniformly successful for several
years.
An Eastern trip in 1894 was less fortunate, for it resulted in an
unbroken series of defeats from Vermont, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton,
and Cornell. The spell with Cornell was broken, however, in 1895, when
Michigan won a decided victory 11 to 0, at Detroit, and had some
revenge for previous defeats. E.C. Shields, '94, '96_l_, center field
and captain of the team that year, has described the winning of this
game as the "most satisfactory moment" of his athletic career; the team
was the best Michigan had ever had, and the game after the first few
innings became a successful struggle on the part of the pitcher, Sexton,
'98_m_, and his team-mates to make it a "shut-out." Since that day
Michigan has more than broken even in her games with Cornell.
Baseball at this time was genuinely popular; all of the classes in the
Literary Department as well as many in the professional schools had
their own teams, which not only gave the Varsity good practice but
played in a league among themselves, while the fraternities also had a
league of some years' standing. This popularity of the national game was
soon to pass, however, with the increasing vogue of football, and it has
never regained the pre-eminent place it held in student favor during the
period which ended in 1900, though, it has always had many enthusiastic
followers.
The year '99 saw an especially strong team, which not only was
successful in the West but at least divided honors on the first Eastern
trip of some years. Particularly spectacular was the final game with
Illinois which won the championship. Michigan had already won two out of
three games, but with a victory in the last of the series Illinois saw a
chance to claim the Western honors. In the sixth inning Illinois had men
on second and third and no one out. Guy Miller, '98, '00_l_, otherwise
known as "Sox," was put in as pitcher, and though he had won a hard game
the day before, he struck out the next two batters. The last man was put
out easily, and Miller held the rest of the game safely, with a final
score of 4 to 2.
Two fairly successful years followed, marked, however, by a uniformly
disastrous Eastern trip in 1901. Then followed in 1902 "the most
unsuccessful baseball season in years," though the end came with a
victory over Cornell, 7 to 4, largely through the efforts of Michigan's
greatest all-round athlete, Neil Snow, '02, in the last contest of his
athletic career. He was responsible for six of the seven runs, bringing
in three men with one three-base hit, while he himself managed to score
on a poor throw.
A final defeat from Illinois the following year just missed the
championship of the West for Michigan. It is worthy of mention that it
was at this game, on which many undergraduate hopes were centered, that
the custom of singing "The Yellow and the Blue" in defeat as well as in
victory was inaugurated. The Western championship rested with Michigan
in 1905 and again in 1906, but this was destined to be the last time for
many years. Much of the success of these two teams was due to Frank
Sanger, '07_l_, who was considered the best college pitcher in the West.
With 1907 begins another story. Michigan was now out of the Conference
and there began a progressive decline in interest in baseball. Many
small colleges soon appeared on the schedules, and in 1908 the South
began to figure prominently in the earlier season games. A few games
with Eastern colleges relieved the monotony, but the results were far
from being always satisfactory. Two interesting games with the Japanese
students of Keio University ended the season of 1911. While the
University won both games with scores of 20 to 5 and 3 to 1, they
demonstrated how apt the Oriental has been in picking up the fine points
of the great American game. Some amends for an unsuccessful season were
made on June 26, 1912 by a thrilling 2 to 1 victory over Pennsylvania
before the thousands of guests and alumni who had gathered to celebrate
the University's Seventy-Fifth Anniversary.
The painstaking efforts of Branch Rickey, who had been coach of the team
since 1910, and later became manager of the St. Louis American League
team, began to show results in 1913. The following year Michigan, in
spite of no significant Western games, had some justification for
claiming the national championship through victories in two series of
games with Cornell and Pennsylvania, the acknowledged leaders of the
East. This record was due in no small part to the prowess of one player,
George Sisler, '15_e_, who, from his first season in 1913, showed the
extraordinary ability that made him not only Michigan's greatest
baseball player but one of the best all-round players in the history of
the game. While in the University he alternated as pitcher and left
fielder and was captain of the team in 1914. This was the year Carl
Lundgren began his successful career as baseball coach. An unexpected
weakness in critical games and an unfortunate discussion over
professionalism were probably the reasons for the poor success in 1915
of what was essentially an unusually competent team, while a nine
composed almost entirely of inexperienced players counted heavily
against the 1916 record.
With the declaration of war in the spring of 1917 all forms of athletics
were suspended. The value of outdoor sports, as a means of developing
the physique of the future soldier, as well as the powers of leadership
and co-operation so necessary in military service, was not at first
recognized, and only after the baseball and track seasons of 1917 were
long past was a more reasonable attitude toward collegiate athletics
inaugurated as a result of an earnest plea on the part of the
Government that, as far as practicable, they be re-established.
Michigan's return to the Western Conference early in 1918 was marked by
her first undisputed baseball championship since 1905, the team winning
nine out of ten Conference games played. This record was practically
repeated in 1919, the Varsity winning all but one out of a schedule of
thirteen games, and that one not with a Conference college. The 1920
season was equally satisfactory.
Football was introduced in the University a few years after the
establishment of baseball. The first record of a game appears to be the
following notice in the _Chronicle_ of a game played on April 23, 1870.
The first foot-ball match in the University of late came off on
Saturday last, between the fresh and sophs. Seven goals, or byes,
or tallies, or scores, or something--we are not _au fait_ on
foot-ball phraseology--constituted the game, which was won by the
freshmen, the sophs coming out second best each time. Foot-ball is
a new institution on the Campus, but bids fair to be popular, at
least on cool days.
This was not strictly the first appearance of the game, as the sophomore
class in 1866 had secured a football, and the resulting impromptu
contests had aroused some patronizing comment in the college paper. But
this first effort was short-lived, and the sport went "to a grave too
cold by far." That this death was "greatly exaggerated" is suggested by
the paragraph quoted. As a matter of fact football steadily grew in
favor from that time, although in its earliest years it was by no means
the game we know now. There seemed to be no hard and fast rules, at
least not according to the Michigan practice of the early '70's. It was
largely, or more properly, entirely, a kicking game, with any number up
to thirty on a side. This made it particularly popular as a vehicle for
class rivalries, and we have record of one game in 1876 in which
forty-two sophomores were defeated by _eighty-two_ freshmen, though the
result was different when the two sides were equalized in a later
contest. The number of participants in class games was not always
limited to eleven players as late as 1889-90. The number of goals
requisite to win a game also varied, depending upon a previous agreement
of the two sides. The popular attitude toward football, and the status
of athletics in general is amusingly suggested in the following
paragraph which appeared in the _Chronicle_, October 19, 1872:
The base-ball ground is well filled on these pleasant afternoons.
The games of foot-ball, base-ball and cricket are played at the
same time. It is quite laughable for an outsider to witness the
consternation of the players of the two more scientific games when
the mob engaged in the other sport comes towards them.
By 1872 all four classes had their teams and the four captains formed a
loose football organization, which became a Football Association the
following year. Modern football, the Rugby game, was introduced in 1876
by Charles M. Gayley, '78, better known to generations of Michigan
students as the author of "The Yellow and the Blue," and now Professor
of English in the University of California. No inter-collegiate games
were played, however, until May 30, 1879, when Michigan defeated Racine
at White Stocking Park, Chicago, 7 to 2, in what was probably the first
inter-collegiate contest in the West; certainly no game had ever
attracted such attention or drew such crowds as this one. I.K. Pond,
'79, in after years to be the architect of the Michigan Union, made a
touchdown in the first half, and a goal from the field by De Tar; '78,
'80_m_, accounted for the balance of the Varsity's score, while a safety
was all that was permitted to Racine. In the autumn of the same year
Michigan played a tie game with Toronto at Detroit. Four cars filled
with students accompanied the team and demonstrated the growing
popularity of the Rugby game. The team fully deserved this support, for
the Canadian eleven was more experienced and even the _Chronicle_
acknowledged that they excelled in almost every part of the game. The
following fall Michigan won a second game at Toronto, 13 to 0, much to
the disgust of the Canadians.
For some time there had been a growing demand for a series of games with
Eastern colleges. As a result Michigan's first invasion of the East came
in the fall of 1881. The outcome was far from discouraging, in view of
the inexperience of the Michigan eleven and the greater interest in the
game in the East; for though the Varsity was uniformly defeated, the
scores were by no means overwhelming. The game with Harvard was lost 4
to 0, and those with Yale and Princeton, 11 to 0 and 13 to 4.
[Illustration: FERRY FIELD
From the New Stand, showing the gates and the Club House]
Inter-collegiate football was dormant the following year, but in
November, 1883, a second Eastern trip resulted in another clear
demonstration of the greater advantages the game enjoyed in the seaboard
colleges. The game with Yale was a decided defeat 46 to 0; but Harvard
barely avoided a tie with a 3 to 0 score; Wesleyan won 14 to 6, while
the one victory for the West was over Stevens Institute 5 to 1. The
Harvard game was the greatest disappointment as Michigan, with a much
better team than in the previous game, had hoped for victory. All the
circumstances, however, were unfavorable. The only possible schedule
called for a game with Yale the preceding day, and a series of new
rules were flashed upon the team as the only ones under which the
Easterners would play. The game, which was played November 22, was an
exceedingly close one, however, and the first half ended with neither
side scoring, and most of the play in Harvard's territory. A failure to
kick goal following a score by Harvard in the second half still left
hope, though Harvard repeatedly saved her goal by kicking. Finally a
Harvard man ran out of bounds on Michigan's twenty-five yard line and
the ball was thrown out from that point according to the rules then in
force. Michigan secured it and by using the one trick play in her
repertoire, the time-honored fake run, Prettyman, '85, the manager of
the team, started off with Killilea, '85_l_, as his interference _behind
him_, as the rules then demanded. The opposing full-back was ready for
them, but just before the tackle the ball was passed to Killilea, who
went on for the touch-down while Prettyman went head-on into the Harvard
full-back, calling "down" in accordance with the plan. The Harvard
umpire insisted that the ball was "down" where Prettyman had been
tackled, and the referee ordered it back to the middle of the field and
then called the game on account of darkness. The Michigan team arranged
immediately to stay and play another game the next day. But instead of
playing, Harvard pleaded faculty interference and paid a $100 forfeit.
An eleven that could play Yale one day, Harvard the next, and then be
ready for a third game, made a profound impression, however, and created
great respect for Western grit and sportsmanship.
After this venture into the lime-light there came several years of
comparatively minor games, due largely to the fact that few teams were
available as competitors. For many years Albion had a regular place on
the schedule and was regularly defeated, save in 1891, when it won for
the first and last time. The Chicago University Club, the Windsor Club,
the Peninsular Club of Detroit, and Notre Dame were the principal
opponents until the first game with Cornell in 1889. The result of this
contest, 56 to 0 in favor of Cornell, was discouraging, but in a second
game the following year the Varsity managed to score five points against
Cornell's twenty. This score came as the result of a long field goal by
James Duffy, '92_l_, who three years previously had won the first
Varsity medal for breaking an inter-collegiate record, with a drop-kick
of 168 feet 7-1/2 inches, surpassing Yale's previous record of 157 feet,
five times before he was satisfied.
A new era in the history of football at Michigan began in 1891, when
with a fair schedule and an experienced coach, Frank Crawford (Yale,
'91), '93_l_, the systematic development of a team began; though it was
not until several years later that football assumed the undisputed
supremacy it now holds as a college sport. Cornell won twice that year
and gave Michigan her first experience with "real interference and fast
play." Michigan took her first Western trip the following year. The team
was coached by Frank Barbour, a classmate of Crawford's at Yale, and for
the first time played a complete schedule with the leading universities
of the West, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Chicago, with
varying success. The Varsity lost most of her principal games in 1893,
Minnesota winning for the last time in twenty-seven years, though a
final victory over Chicago, 18 to 10, was some compensation for the
earlier defeats.
The autumn of 1894 saw the beginning of a long series of remarkably
successful seasons, which lasted with one or two partial relapses until
1906. These twelve years were not only Michigan's "golden age" of
football, as far as the game itself is concerned, but also one of the
longest series of almost uniformly successful seasons in the history of
any of the larger American Universities. It is true that a decisive
defeat from Cornell, 22 to 0, marred the early season in 1894, but a
second game, 12 to 4, redeemed the record. This was Michigan's first
victory over a rival of long standing. The team was a formidable one,
equally strong on offense and defense, and included such well-known
names in Michigan's football annals as H.M. ("Mort") Senter, '90-'95,
_m_'95-97, end; Gustave H. ("Dutch") Ferbert, '97, end in '94 and later
half-back; G.R.F. ("Count") Villa, 96_l_, tackle; F.W. ("Pa") Henninger,
'97, guard; and "Jimmy" Baird, '96, quarter-back. W.L. McCauley,
Princeton, '94, who had entered the Medical School, proved his ability
as a coach during this and the two succeeding seasons.
Previous to this time there had been little supervision of athletics on
the part of the Faculty, and no attention was paid to the composition of
the teams or the academic standing of the players. When the general
Athletic Association was organized in 1891, an Advisory Board of three
non-resident alumni and four Faculty members was established, though at
first it had slight influence. The Faculty members were becoming
impressed, however, with the significance of the growing interest in
athletics all over the country and realized the necessity of some form
of effective supervision.
Up to this time there had been no real distinction in the West between
professional and amateur. The question came home to Michigan as the
result of a disclosure that two men on the 1893 track team were
sub-freshmen, not yet in college, although they entered the following
fall. The Athletic Board promptly requested the resignation of the
captain of the team and published the facts. The Faculty was also
aroused. The result was the organization in 1894 of the Board in Control
of Athletics, which ordinarily has had the final word in the
administration of athletic affairs since that time. It is at present
composed of four Faculty representatives, elected by the University
Senate, three alumni, appointed by the Regents, three students appointed
by the Directors of the Athletic Association, and the Director of
Outdoor Athletics.
The year 1894, therefore, aside from the beginnings of a real football
team, was important also because it saw the awakening of the Faculty to
its responsibility in athletic affairs, and a corresponding growth in
the whole University body of higher ideals of inter-collegiate sport,
with the University "started fairly and squarely on the road to athletic
cleanliness." The movement thus inaugurated resulted in the
establishment of the Western Inter-collegiate Conference on February 8,
1896. This is a body composed of representatives from the athletic
boards of seven (later ten) leading mid-western Universities, which has
aimed from the first, not only to regulate and standardize the
conditions of all forms of inter-collegiate athletic competition but
also to maintain a high ideal of amateurism in college sports. The
formation of this body, which soon came to be the most powerful
influence in the West for clean athletics, was due in no small part to
President Angell, who was instrumental in calling the first meeting, as
well as to Dr. C.B.G. de Nancrede and Professor Albert H. Pattengill,
the Michigan representatives at that first meeting. Professor
Pattengill's interest in outdoor sports was lifelong. His was the
moving spirit in the Conference through many years; and to him, more
than to any other, Michigan owes, not only the present effective
organization of athletics, but the securing of Ferry Field and its
equipment.
The records of the football teams of 1895 and 1896 were quite
overwhelming for those days, 266 points to their opponents' 14 in 1895
and 262 points to 11 the next season. The only disappointments were a 4
to 0 defeat from Harvard in 1895 and a 7 to 6 victory for Chicago in
1896. A season of uninterrupted victories in 1897 was again cut short by
a defeat from Chicago 21 to 12 in the last game. Chicago had now come to
occupy the chief place on the schedule and the seeds of that rivalry
which was later to prove so unfortunate in Western inter-collegiate
affairs were already being sown.
An unbroken series of victories marked the 1898 season, with the
Championship of the West decided by a thrilling 12 to 11 victory over
Chicago. At the end of the first half in this game the score stood 6 to
5,--a touchdown for Michigan and a goal from the field by Chicago's
great punter, Herschberger. One of the most spectacular runs in
Michigan's football history came in the early part of the second half
when C.H. Widman, a freshman, broke through between left end and tackle,
ran down the field sixty yards, broke away from the Chicago full-back,
and squirmed across the remaining five yards for a touchdown. Chicago's
subsequent touchdown made the score a close one but left the
championship, the first in three years, with Michigan. The center on
this team, W.R. Cunningham, '99_m_, was Michigan's first player on an
All-American Team.
This team had been coached by a number of the older players, a system
that was followed again in 1899, but with no brilliant success. A
change came in 1900 when Langdon Lea, of Princeton, took charge. He
instituted some revolutionary changes and insisted on the fundamentals
of the game,--always the weak point of Western football. The season,
however, was not a great success, and in the final game with Chicago,
Coach Stagg, with his famous "whoa-back" formation, was able to take
advantage of Michigan's weakness in backing up the tackles, and won with
a score of 15 to 16.
The record for the following year was very different. Fielding H. Yost,
who received his football training at the University of West Virginia
and Lafayette, was called to Michigan from Stanford and entered upon his
long and successful career as Michigan's football coach. Not only has he
proved himself time and again a master of football strategy, but his
insistence on the highest ideals of sportsmanship has been one of the
strongest factors in the development of clean athletics at Michigan.
The new coach undeniably had good material to work with in his first
team. Most of the men comprising it had been well trained in the finer
points of the game by his predecessor and included such exceptional
players as Captain Hugh White, '02_l_, tackle; Curtis Redden, '03_l_,
end; Neil Snow, '02, full-back; Harrison S. ("Boss") Weeks, '02_l_,
quarter; and Everett Sweeley, '03, half-back; while to this list were
added that year Martin Heston, '04_l_, one of the greatest backs in the
history of the game; the center, George Gregory, '04_l_; and the old
reliable guard Dan McGugin, '04_l_. This team under Yost's astute and
resourceful direction proved invincible, and became one of the greatest
elevens in the history of football. Whether it could have dealt
successfully with the Eastern champions will always be a question, but
it certainly found little effective opposition in the West; for the
final record showed an uninterrupted succession of victories with not a
point scored against the team. The total tells the story, 550 points to
0; with the University of Buffalo beaten by the extraordinary score of
128 to 0. The final game of the season was played with Stanford at
Pasadena, California, on New Year's Day, 1902. The quality of the team
was shown by the fact that they won by a score of 49 to 0 in spite of
the fact that they had been in training for four months, and left
Michigan in zero weather to play in what was to them a summer heat. Snow
was given a place that year on Caspar Whitney's All-American Team, while
Walter Camp selected Snow, Weeks, Heston, and Bruce Shorts, '01_l_
(tackle), for the All-Western team.
Except for the fact that the eleven was scored upon twice, once by Case
and once by Minnesota, the record in 1902 was much the same as in 1901,
644 points to their opponents' 12.
Although there were many changes in the team the following year, there
was a consistent development of team-work, which, combined with Heston's
extraordinary ability in carrying the ball, enabled Michigan to go
through the season with only one score against the team, in a tie game
with Minnesota. The 1904 team, though it was scored upon three times,
was also uniformly victorious under the leadership of Heston, who was
twice given a place on Camp's All-American, as well as his All-Time
All-American team chosen in 1910. The 1905 Championship passed to
Chicago, however, though the team was scored upon only by the two points
which lost Michigan the final game with Chicago. This defeat came as a
result of an error in judgment which cost Michigan a safety instead of
the touch-back that might easily have changed defeat into at least a
tie. The following men composing this team were very generally selected
for All-Western honors; Thomas S. Hammond, '06_l_, half-back; Joseph S.
Curtis, '07_e_, tackle; and Henry F. Schulte, '07, guard, who were
members of the 1903 and 1904 elevens, and Adolph ("Germany") Schulz,
_e_'04-09, center. Not a little credit for the record of this team must
also be given to the captain, Fred S. Norcross, '06_e_, while John C.
Garrels, '07_e_, end, destined to hold a record only second to Niel
Snow, as an all-round athlete, and Walter ("Octy") Graham, '08_e_, who
proved extraordinarily active at end and later at guard, in spite of his
215 pounds, first won their "M's" as players on the 1905 eleven.
Meanwhile a change had come in Michigan's r |
