University, the delegates and some of the citizens of Chicago were photographed as we here see them. From the opening of the university women had been allowed to attend the classes, though without formal recognition or degree. In 1875 they were admitted to the institution on an equality with men, with the same privileges and rewards. In the same year Rush Medical College, the oldest medical school in the West, was made a part of the university. The management of the affairs of the University was in the hands of a board of trustees, a board of regents and an executive board, while the law department had its own board of counsellors. The law department became in 1873 the Union College of Law, the Northwestern University sharing control over it. This is the present law school of Northwestern University. Ever since 1865 the university had struggled with financial difficulties, being loaded with a debt incurred in building Douglas Hall; to pay for this the whole property had been heavily mortgaged. Finally in 1886 an insurance company which had taken the property under a mortgage seized it for foreclosure, tore down the buildings, and had a street cut through and residences erected on the lots formed. The telescope was taken out to be used by Northwestern University at Evanston. In the building of the new University of Chicago, the early benefactors of the former institution have been remembered. On the walls of Scammon Court and of the cloister leading to Mandel Hall are placed bronze tablets. The Douglas tablet bears a bas relief portrait of Senator Douglas and these words: IN HONOR OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS The First University Established ERECTED IN JUNE, 1901, BY THE DECENNIAL CLASS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The memory of Mr. Scammon and his wife is perpetuated at the University not only in Scammon Court, the large quadrangle of the School of Education, on the walls of which there is a bronze memorial tablet, but in Scammon Garden, where the home of Mr. and Mrs. Scammon used to stand. In this garden on summer nights, among the trees and shrubbery in the midst of which the old house stood, plays are given by the students with no scenery but the setting of greenwood and lawn which they find there. The Ogden Graduate School of Science, made possible by the terms of Mr. Ogden's will, is a magnificent memorial to one who did much for the early university and, unknowing, provided a great foundation for the later one. By a resolution adopted by the trustees of the University of Chicago the alumni of the old institution are recognized as alumni of the present one, thus carrying on in a vital way the traditions of the Old University of Chicago. REMINISCENCES OF THE OLD UNIVERSITY A former student of the old University of Chicago, of the class of 1868, supplies some interesting details of life at that institution in the war period, which are inserted here, in his own words: "The University of Chicago of 1910, with its fine buildings, extensive grounds and wealth, largely overshadows its predecessor, and being located in another part of the city seems almost to be wholly disconnected with it save in name. One writer says of it, "The first University of Chicago ceased to exist in 1886; it had never been a very vital force educationally.' "The old university was situated on a ten-acre tract given by Stephen A. Douglas on the west side of Cottage Grove avenue, between Thirty-fourth and Thirtysixth streets, and in its day was an institution of which Chicago was very proud. Among its students were the sons of many prominent men and members of wealthy families of the state and city, and it bade fair to become one of the leading universities of the country. But bad judgment on the part of its financial agents loaded it down with a large debt by building extravagantly, which embarrassed its friends and was the source of some irritations and difficulties among its managers. This resulted in the property being sold under a mortgage, its great telescope passing to the Northwestern University at Evanston, and its beautiful and substantial buildings taken down, the grounds platted and sold for private residences, so that not a vestige remained of the old university, nor a remnant to mark the spot where it had been. For a mo “During the Civil War the grounds of the University were hedged in on its north and west sides by Camp Douglas with its high board fence, in which was confined an army of Confederate prisoners, a constant reminder to the students of the grim war then going on. That this undoubtedly had some influence upon the patriotic spirit of the boys one little event will show. It was in the fall of 1863, political feeling ran high, and one morning after the election of Brough as governor of Ohio by a very large majority, the students were gathering in the chapel for prayers. Whenever a student came in who was known to have decided views on political questions a round of applause would greet him. So enthusiastic became the crowd that even due propriety during the prayer seemed for the time to be forgotten. Dr. Burroughs was not present on the occasion, Professor A. J. Sawyer presiding in his place. After the prayer had been concluded Professor Sawyer directed that all the students who took part in the unseemly disturbance should rise. ment all was hushed, no one moved. Then James H. Shankland, a member of the sophomore class from Nashville, Tennessee, a hot bed of secession, though he himself was loyal to the Union, stood up to his full height, as sober and repentant apparently as George Washington was when he cut down the cherry tree, and looked the professor full in the face with an expression that Shankland could so well assume. He seemed by his manner to beg pardon for his offense, but said not a word. Upon this there broke out another outburst of applause that must have aroused the occupants of Camp Douglas. Thereupon the professor announced that he had seen some of the men join in this disturbance, and should give them two demerit marks and one demerit mark to those who acknowledged their offense. This announcement was followed by general applause. There was a spirit of patriotism and loyalty in the university that no number of demerit marks nor fear could suppress. "The faculty at this time was composed of Rev. J. C. Burroughs, D. D., President, William Matthews, LL. D., Professor Mixer, Professor Joseph Breck, Professor A. J. Sawyer, Professor Edward C. Johnson, Alonzo J. Howe, and tutor George W. Thomas. Notwithstanding that the institution was open to both sexes, there were no young women in attendance until a time subsequent to the war. Women in college and women employes in those days were almost unknown. There was but one woman employed in the Treasury department of the United States during the war. The equality of women in the institutions of learning and in business offices was not a mooted question to any great extent. The question in those days that was uppermost in men's minds was the war and its issues. “There was a military company, wholly voluntary, connected with the University. Arms were provided for this company and it was fully organized and regularly drilled. Charles Parker of the junior class, who had been an officer in the United States service, was its captain, and he was an excellent drillmaster. Parker returned to the army as a lieutenant, and James H. Roe of the sophomore class succeeded him as captain of this company, in the spring of 1864. In response to a call for "one hundred day men," the 134th regiment of Illinois Volunteers was organized, largely composed of Chicago men. Company G of this regiment practically absorbed this company previously formed at the university. Joshua Pike of the junior class was its captain, James H. Roe its second lieutenant. The sergeantmajor of the regiment was Charles D. Hancock of the Academic department. Among others from the university who enlisted in this regiment were C. S. Hostetter, S. E. Massey, Philip Dinkle, John A. Miller, Frederick A. Smith, and Edward P. Savage. The little that was left of the university was at the depot of the Illinois Central to witness the departure of the boys, and the college was lonely and 'stale,' after they had gone. The literary societies, the Atheneum and the Tri Kappa, seemed lifeless affairs. The class room was not what it had been, the cream of the university seemed merged in the departed regiment. "It could hardly be expected that a University no older than this was would become a very vital force educationally.' Every large as well as every small educational institution has its small beginnings, the greater the struggle to get a start and to keep it upon its feet the greater the credit to those who organize and stand by it until it can stand alone. Few institutions of this kind can show a better beginning than this one. It ceased its existence not for lack of students or from any deficiency of its faculty, but because of bad management financially. Too much money was spent in its buildings, and too much wrangling among those engaged in the management of its affairs were the prime causes of its final dissolution. "Among its students of the war times were the following whom we shall refer to by their later titles and the stations in life filled by them: Rev. Henry C. Mabie, D. D., Rev. William W. Everts, D. D., Rev. Joseph P. Phillips, Rev. E. O. Taylor, a well known temperance lecturer, George R. Wendling, a widely known lecturer on religious questions, Rev. Edward P. Savage, now for over twenty years the head of the Minnesota Children's Aid Society, Joseph F. Bonfield, Dorrance De Bell, a judge in Will County, Henry A. Gardner, a lawyer of Chicago, Ferd W. Peck, Philo A. Otis, well known in Chicago, Frederick A. Smith, judge of the Circuit court of Cook County, C. C. Kohlsaat, judge of the United States Circuit Court, and James H. Shankland, a prominent lawyer of Los Angeles, California. Vol. II-2 |