Minnesota, the North Star State

by William Watts Folwell

CHAPTER XV
REVIVAL

It was to be expected that, upon the anticipated retirement of Governor Miller, General William R. Marshall, the most prominent among the founders of the Republican party in Minnesota, who had added a highly honorable military career to his civil record, would be called to succeed. And he was; but not without opposition from other gentlemen who had also distinguished themselves in both civil and military duties. It took twenty-two ballotings in the Republican convention to secure his nomination. At the polls he met that veteran of Democracy, the Hon. Henry M. Rice, whose popularity, especially among “old Territorians,” was so great as to reduce his majority to less than 3600 in a total of 31,000 votes. He took office in January, 1866, and so commended himself by a judicious practical administration that his reëlection in the fall of the following year was but formally contested. Mr. Rice closed his political career with the campaign of 1865, which he survived for a quarter of a century.

Marshall’s double term was a period of recovery and repair after the exhaustion of the wars; and it was something more. Neither the people severally nor the state were heavily burdened with debt, and there was work for all and good prices for produce. Railroad building was continued on a scale of a few more than one hundred miles a year. In 1867 the line now known as the Iowa and Minnesota Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, begun at both ends, was completed, and trains were put on from the Falls of St. Anthony to Prairie du Chien, whence rail connection eastward already existed. Minnesota was now in the great world all the year round. No important terminals were reached by additions to other lines, although seven hundred and sixty-six miles had been constructed by the close of the decade.

The development of the common schools of Minnesota was tardy. The act of 1851, providing for a state system, created the office of superintendent of public instruction, but attached only a nominal salary to it. Four persons were appointed in as many years, whose duties seem to have been confined to making formal annual reports. From 1856 to 1860 the office was virtually, if not technically, vacant. The legislature of 1860 devolved the duties upon the titular chancellor of the university, the Rev. Edward Duffield Neill, who held it till April 29, 1861, when he resigned to take the chaplaincy of the First Minnesota Infantry, leaving the office to a competitor for that position. In the legislative session of 1862 the school laws were revised and the secretary of state was made ex-officio state superintendent. This absurd arrangement continued for five years, against the advice of the two gentlemen who held the double office.

Governor Marshall informed the legislature of 1867 that the children of school age in the state were over a hundred thousand, and that the school fund had grown to nearly a million and a half. Upon his earnest recommendation the office of state superintendent was reëstablished, with a salary more than nominal, but inadequate. He appointed Mark H. Dunnell of Owatonna, a young lawyer who had been successful as a teacher in his native state of Maine.

Mr. Dunnell threw himself into his duties with great enthusiasm and industry. He gathered the teachers into “institutes” for pedagogical instruction and raised the standard of qualification for certificates. A state teachers’ association was organized to stimulate pride in the teaching profession and provide for interchange of ideas and experiences. It is notable that Mr. Dunnell as late as 1869 thought it necessary to argue in behalf of a public school system free from religious dogma or discipline. The organization of high schools in the leading towns had already discouraged the proprietors of numerous denominational academies and seminaries desirous of holding the secondary field.

In 1858 a bill had been worked through the first state legislature to establish three normal schools, one at Winona as soon as practicable after passage, the others at times to be later determined. This bill was fathered by Dr. John W. Ford of Winona, an enthusiast in the cause of professional education for teachers. So little was known in the longitude of Minnesota of what a “normal school” might be, that it is not strange that the friends of the bill got more credit in the newspapers and among the people for securing a state institution for each of three towns than for zeal in the cause of education. Six years passed before a beginning was made in the first state normal school at Winona, under the charge of William F. Phelps, an Oswego graduate. No man less confident of the righteousness of his cause, nor less willing to fight a bitter opposition, could have built up a school for teachers which has served as model for many others in Minnesota and other states. The second state normal school was opened in Mankato in 1868; the third in St. Cloud in the next year.

The “wing and extension” of the great building planned for the territorial regents of the university in 1856, and built in that year and the next, stood empty for ten years, except that at different times private teachers were allowed to hold their classes in some of the rooms. The legislature of 1858 authorized the regents to borrow $40,000 and issue ten per cent. bonds in evidence of debt. These securities were negotiated in New York after great effort and at a ruinous discount. The claim was later made that they could not have been disposed of at all had they not been improperly represented to be virtually bonds of the state. The proceeds released the regents from obligations which they had personally assumed and satisfied a portion of the creditors.

The Republican legislature of 1860 thought it time to oust the “old Democratic board” and install a new administration. The new “state board,” consisting of three members ex-officiis and five appointed, had nothing to report to the next session but a debt of $93,500, including $8000 of overdue interest. Their recommendation was that the land grant be turned over to the creditors, the campus and building being retained. An act of Congress of March 2, 1861, donating to the state the university lands “reserved” for the territorial university, rendered such action feasible.

Governor Ramsey could make no other suggestion to the legislature of 1862, and that body conferred the desired authority. In 1862 wild lands were a drug in the market. “Pine” would not go at four dollars an acre. The regents reported to the legislature of 1863 that the creditors were not disposed to accept “equitable terms.” That legislature did not formally dissolve the corporation, but ordered the regents to turn over to the state auditor, as state land commissioner, all the lands, buildings, and appurtenances. This was accordingly done, and the University of Minnesota existed only in supposition.