Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1902 [PAGE 64]

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1901.]

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

45

name of C. M. Smith & Co.; that during said years there was in their store an ox-yoke which Was frequently the subject of conversation, and that Mr. Smith frequently stated that it was made by Mr. Lincoln when a young man living at New Salem, 111.; that he (Smith) bought the same as a souvenir at an auction at New Salem soon after Mr. Lincoln's return from Congress, and upon the occasion of a visit to New Salem by Mr. Lincoln and himself; that the voke was bought in Mr. Lincoln r s presence after the public statement that it was made by him and he acknowledged that the statement was true; that said yoke was in the attic of the store for a long time, but that it became an object of interest and value, and was cleaned up and kept in the counting-room for several years; that Mr. Smith took great pleasure in showing it to his friends, especially to farmer customers, and giving them its history and telling them how it came into his possession at New Salem; that Mr. Smith frequently had conversations with Mr. Watson Pickrell, a student at the State University, about giving the yoke to said University, and finally yielded to Mr. Pickrell's request that he should do so, and allowed Mr. Pickrell to take the yoke and present it to the University as coming from Mr. Smith, and Mr. Pickrell took it away for that purpose.

JOHN S. CONDELL, S R .

Sworn to before me this 19th day of November, 1900.

[SEAL.] FRANK L. HATCH,

Notary Public. Having been able to establish the facts so, clearly, it has seemed well to place the ox-yoke in a favorable and prominent position in the University. Some weeks ago, Hon. James S. MeCuliough, a resident of the City of Urbana, and now State Auditor of Public Accounts, was good enough to procure some oak boards, which had formed a part of the original flooring in the Lincoln home at Springfield, and send them to the University. These boards have been used to make the frame of a case for the ox-yoke. The whole has been prepared by the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds of the University and mounted in the rotunda of the Library Building. This communication is presented because of the manifest desirability of having a statement in complete form preserved in the records of the Board of Trustees of the University. January 23, 1901.

i ,i , A. S. DRAPER, President,

T h i s c o m m u n i c a t i o n was accepted for record. T h e following resolution was adopted, on suggestion of P r e s i d e n t Draper;

BOND FOR ARMS.

Besolved, That the University execute, as principal, and deliver to the Government of the United States, a bond in the penal sum of three thousand six hundred and twenty-two dollars for additional ordnance and stores, consisting of one hundred Springfield cadet rifles and sets of equipment, about to be issued to the University for the use of the military department by the Secretary of War, and that Mr. Alexander McLean, President of the Board of Trustees, be and is hereby authorized to sign said bond on behalf of the University, and attach thereto the seal of the University. P r e s i d e n t D r a p e r p r e s e n t e d a c o m m u n i c a t i o n from t h e I l l i n o i s P h a r m a c u e t i c a l Association, s u g g e s t i n g t h r e e g e n t l e m e n , Messrs. H . G. P o r t e r of Rockford, G. M. B e n n e t t of U r b a n a and H e n r y B i r o t h of Chicago, from whom t h e B o a r d of T r u s t e e s s h o u l d select a member of t h e Advisory B o a r d of t h e School of P h a r m a c y . U p o n recommendation of the C o m m i t t e e of t h e School of P h a r m a c y , made at the September m e e t i n g of t h e Board, Mr. Gr. M. B e n n e t t of U r b a n a w a s selected for t h e t e r m e x p i r i n g in 1905.