Thirty Years in the Itinerancy

by W. G. Miller

Brother Sampson had now returned, and it was decided to hold a meeting in Milwaukee for consultation. The meeting was convened December 2 8th, 1846, and was composed of the following members of the Conference: Wm. H. Sampson, Henry R. Colman, Washington Wilcox, and Wm. M.D. Ryan. To these were added Reeder Smith, Geo. E.H. Day, and doubtless several others whose names I have not been able to learn. At this meeting a Charter was drafted for the Lawrence Institute, and Rev. Reeder Smith was sent to Madison to lay it before the Legislature. The Charter received the signature of Gov. Dodge, Jan. 17, 1847, and the following gentlemen were constituted the first Board of Trustees: Henry Dodge, Loyal H. Jones, Jacob L. Bean, Wm. H. Sampson, N.P. Talmadge, Henry R. Colman, H.S. Baird, Wm. Dutcher, M. C. Darling, M.L. Martin, Geo. E.H. Day, D.C. Vosburg, and Reeder Smith.

The first meeting of the Board was to have been held in Fond du Lac, June 30, 1847, but as there was not a quorum present, the meeting was adjourned to Sept. 3d. At this meeting the Board was duly organized by the election of the following officers: Hon. M.C. Darling, President; Hon. N.P. Talmadge, First Vice President; H.S. Baird, Esq., Second Vice President; Rev. Wm. H. Sampson, Secretary, and Hon. Morgan L. Martin, Treasurer. Rev. Reeder Smith was appointed Agent.

Geo. W. Law, Esq., and Hon. John F. Mead now offered a donation of thirty-one acres of land each, on condition that the Institute should be located at Grand Chute. The offer was accepted, and the location was made, the name of the place being soon after changed to Appleton. In due time the Law Tract was conveyed to the Trustees, but, by some strange mismanagement, to say the least, on the part of the Agent, the Mead land was conveyed to another party, and it was lost to the Institute.

At the Conference of 1848, Brother Sampson was appointed Principal, and was expected to serve as Agent until the building to be erected was ready for occupancy. In pursuance of this arrangement he left Fond du Lac, Sept. 7th, to enter upon his new field of operations. He took the steamer to Neenah, and then obtained an Indian "Dug-out" for the balance of the journey. As the craft carried no sail, he was compelled to put her before the "white ash breeze" across Lake Butte des Morts, and down the river to the point of destination, his craft being nearly swamped by a gale on the Lake.

On the 8th of September he began to cut a road to the grounds and clear the brush from the campus, thereby making the beginning of both the Institute and the city of Appleton. The lumber for the building of the Preparatory Department was purchased of Hon. M.L. Martin, and was delivered at Duck Creek. The timber was furnished by Col. H.L. Blood. Through the indomitable energy of Col. Blood and the co-operation of the agents, the building, seventy by thirty feet in size, and three stories high, was ready to receive students on the 12th day of November, 1849.

The Faculty with which the school opened were Rev. Wm. H. Sampson, Principal, Rev. R.O. Kellogg, Professor of Ancient Languages, Mr. James M. Phinney, Professor of Mathematics, and Miss Emeline M. Crooker, Preceptress. The first catalogue, published in the fall of 1850, showed a list of one hundred and five students, which was certainly a very creditable beginning. The name of the Institute was now changed to Lawrence University.

A record of the early years of struggle and sacrifice necessary to found the University would fill a volume, and cannot be given at length in these pages. Having been a member of the Board for nearly a quarter of a century, I could say much of the noble men who performed double service on half pay, but such a recital cannot here be given.

Rev. Dr. Edward Cooke was installed President of the University June 29, 1853. At the same time the corner stone of the College building was laid by Hon. M.C. Darling, Rev. Alfred Bronson, D.D., delivering the address. The edifice, a substantial stone structure, one hundred and twenty by sixty feet, and five stories high, was pushed forward to an early completion by the untiring energy of the agents, Rev. J.S. Prescott and Col. H.L. Blood. For college purposes the building ranked among the first in the West.

In both Students and Faculty Lawrence University has been fortunate from the beginning. As to the former, she has sent out not a few representative men to the several occupations of life, several of whom will find mention in these pages. As to the latter, she has enjoyed the labors of a class of instructors whose names have found an honorable place in both the clerical and literary circles of the Commonwealth.

Of Rev. Wm. H. Sampson, the first head of the Faculty, a record has been made in a former chapter, and it would afford me pleasure to refer at length to the several members of the first Faculty, as also to all the Professors who have followed, but I find it will be impossible to do so in these brief pages.