First Foray Resulted in the University of Michigan
The Ordinance of 1787 (known to posterity as
the Northwest Ordinance) served as a blueprint for how this vast, new land
area--won from the British as a result of the Revolutionary War--would be
surveyed, sold to settlers, administered as territories, and then brought into
the nation as states.
Ultimately five states would be carved out
of the territory—Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
The document, approved by Congress, had
other intents as well, not least of which was an encouragement of education. The
lead sentence of the provision dealing with this topic states: "Religion, morality, and knowledge,
being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and
the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
To that end, grants of land from the federal
government were given to the new states to support the establishment of
schools. More specifically, the state
rather than the federal government was to receive the proceeds from the sale of
section sixteen of each township.
In Michigan, the total grant of land (these “section
sixteens”) amounted to over a million acres.
In his book Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State (published in 1965), Willis
Frederick Dunbar said that the state’s early leaders embraced the concept.
“…In Michigan there was better stewardship
of these (land) grants than in other states,” said Dunbar. “Elsewhere the funds
derived from the lands often were squandered and dissipated, the tracts being
sold at low prices to attract settlers. Michigan made mistakes in the
management of its land grants for education, but far larger amounts were
realized from them here, and they were applied more faithfully to the purpose
for which they were intended.”
Perhaps
that “better stewardship” occurred, in large part, because (noted Dunbar)
Congress agreed to a request that “instead of turning over section sixteen in
each township to the township for schools—as had been done in Ohio, Indiana,
and Illinois when these states were admitted to the Union—these sections would
instead be granted to the state of Michigan, with the proceeds from the sales
to be placed in a state school fund.”
These early leaders, beginning in the early
1800’s when Michigan was first established as a territory, were the torch
bearers for the state becoming a guiding light in the field of public education
during the nineteenth century.
Interesting, while Michigan would be
noteworthy in how it established an education system for the primary and
secondary levels, writing landmark language into the first constitution of 1835,
the state was even more of a pioneer in higher education.
Michigan State Normal School (later to
become Eastern Michigan University) was the first one in the West, while Michigan
Agricultural College (later to become Michigan State University) was the first
state agricultural college in the nation.
However, both of those “firsts” came later
on. The college for training teachers, located in Ypsilanti, was established in
1849, and the agricultural college was founded in 1855. And in addition to
being the initial agricultural college, Michigan State also became the nation's
first land-grant institution under the Morrill Act of 1862, serving as a model
for future land-grant universities.
THE
STATE’S FIRST FORAY INTO HIGER EDUCATION actually came much earlier and resulted in the eventual
creation of the University of Michigan.
Success, as they say, has many fathers, but four men have been credited with this honor. First was Father Gabriel Richard
who was interested in education, along with his other duties as a priest and
missionary.
He was already running several schools
around Detroit, when he requested land for a college from the territorial
government. One of those officials,
Chief Justice Augustus Woodward “harbored a dream of classifying all human
knowledge” and, historical accounts noted that he shared his ideas with his
friend, Thomas Jefferson during visit to the latter’s Virginian home in 1814.
Three years afterwards, in 1817, Woodward
drafted an act establishing a Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania.
The college was to include 13 different professorships (or didaxiim). These
were based on the classifications he had outlined in a book he’d published the
year before, A System of Universal
Science.
Woodward created new names for these fields
of study, using a mix of Greek and Latin. Even so, they covered such
familiar fields of study as Literature, Natural History, Chemistry, and Philosophy
as well as Military Science, Economic Sciences, Intellectual Sciences, and
Universal Science (which he called Catholepistemia).
The Act was signed into law by Woodward,
Judge John Griffin, and acting governor William Woodbridge. Rev. John Monteith,
who had arrived in Detroit the year before after graduating from Princeton
Theological Seminary, was named president and given seven of the
professorships, while Father Richard was granted six professorships and the
vice presidency.
Historical accounts indicate that Woodbridge
and Monteith were acquainted with Father Richard and supported his efforts in
advancing public education in the territory. They, in turn, were backers of
Woodward’s plan.
Under the provisions of the new act, the
officers would not only run this fledgling university, but have control over
the education in the entire territory “with the authority to establish
colleges, academies, schools, libraries, museums, athenaeums, botanical
gardens, laboratories and other useful literary and scientific institutions
consonant to the laws of the United States and of Michigan, and provide for
and appoint Directors, Visitors, Curators, Librarians, Instructors and
Instructrixes among and throughout the various counties, cities, towns,
townships, or other geographical divisions of Michigan."
That was certainly a grand and overarching
vision. In actuality, a building was erected a few months later and within a
year a primary school and classical academy were in operation. But no
university.
Eventually, Gov. Lewis Cass and two new
judges—finding the name Catholepistemiad a bit pretentious—passed a new act in
1821 that changed the name to the University of Michigan. The new law also
abolished the presidency and vice presidency and put control in the hands of a
Board of Trustees that included 20 appointees and the governor. Both Rev.
Monteith and Father Richard were among those named to the new board.
However, despite the new set-up, the primary
school and classical academy, now operating in both Detroit and Grand Blanc,
were the group’s only administrative responsibility. And by 1827, neither
school was in operation.
Except for the legal entity that had been
created and the name, the University had ceased to exist. But the idea
remained.
With Michigan about to become a state and
having already written a constitution, the university (with yet another new administrative
format) was created in March of 1837. Two days later, having decided to accept
an offer of property from a group of Ann Arbor businessmen, the legislature
passed another act stipulating that the university be located in that city.
The first classes were held in 1841, with
six freshmen and a sophomore being taught by two professors. The first
commencement ceremony in 1845 saw eleven men receive their diplomas.
“By 1860,” wrote Dunbar in his history book,
“the University of Michigan had become the most successful state (i.e. public)
university in the nation.”
Further research indicated that the information I used from Wikipedia came mainly from two sources--"The History of the University of Michigan" by Burke Hinsdale (1906) and "The University of Michigan" by Wilfred Shaw (1920). I also came across information about the Catholepistemaid at the website:www.detroit1701.org that showed a picture of the historical marker at the site in Detroit where the building (long since tore down) was located that had housed the primary school and the classical academy along with providing background information.
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