Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1902 [PAGE 62]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1901]

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

43

MEETING OF JANUARY 23, 1901.

T h e following call for a special m e e t i n g of t h e B o a r d of T r u s t e e s of t h e U n i v e r s i t y of Illinois was issued J a n . 16, 1 9 0 1 : "Upon the call of the President, Mr. Alexander McLean, a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois will be held at 9:00 o'clock a. m., Wednesday, Jan. 23, 1901, in the Trustees' Room, Library building, Urbana, 111., to consider the question of fees to be charged students of the University, and such other business as may be duly presented." T h e r e were p r e s e n t at t h e m e e t i n g Messrs. Bayliss, B u l l a r d , H a t c h , M c K a y , M c L e a n , N i g h t i n g a l e a n d S m i t h , a n d M r s . Oarriel a n d M r s . A b b o t t ; absent, Governor Yates, Mr. Conrad a n d M r s Flower. P r e s i d e n t D r a p e r was p r e s e n t .

COMMUNICATION FROM PRESIDENT DRAPER. THE LINCOLN OX-YOKE.

To the Board of Irustees: For many years there has been in the possession of the University an oxyoke, with black walnut cross-bar and hickory bows, said, and believed, to have been made by Abraham Lincoln. The University, however, had no definite information to authenticate the fact that the relic was really the handiwork of Mr. Lincoln, and all efforts to secure such information were for many years unavailing. At last the matter has been cleared up, and the fact has been established beyond a doubt. Some weeks ago, Mr. Watson Pickrell, a graduate of the University in the class of 1875, now living at the City of Tempe, in the Territory of Arizona, saw mention of the matter in a newspaper, and at once wrote to Dean Burrill, stating that he procured the ox-yoke from Mr. Clark M. Smith, a resident of the City of Springfield, 111., and a brother-in-law of Mr. Lincoln, in the year 1873, and brought the same to the University; that Mr. Smith stated to him that he purchased the same at a public sale held in New Salem, 111., on the occasion of a visit to New Salem by Mr. Lincoln and himself just after Mr. Lincoln's term in Congress; that Mr. Lincoln was present at such sale, at the time of said purchase, and that said ox-yoke was announced as having been made by Mr. Lincoln, and the announcement was by him acknowledged to be true; that Mr. Smith purchased the same as a souvenir because made by his brother-in-law and a member of Congress, and had kept the same in his store until delivered to Mr. Pickrell to be given to the University of Illinois in 1873. These facts stated by Mr. Pickrell and fully corroborated, and some additional facts added thereto, by Mr. John S. Condell, Sr., now nearly 90 years of age, yet living at Springfield, 111., and who in 1873, and for several years prior thereto, was a partner in business with Mr. Smith, under the firm name of C. M. Smith & Co.; and also by Mr. Albert M. Smith, a son of Mr. Clark M. Smith, now living in Springfield.