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Caption: Dedication - Ag Building
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ADDRESS S. NOBLE KING, Blooming-ton. Chairman of Legislative Committee of Illinois Farmers' Institute, 1899, officially representing the farmers of the State in the third campaign for an Agricultural Building. Just fifty years ago, at the first farmers* convention held in Illinois, the seed was planted whose fruitage we behold in the beautiful building1 which we are now assembled to dedicate. This convention was held at Grativille, Putnam county, and was called, " T o take into consideration such measures as might be deemed most expedient to further the interests of the agricultural community, and particularly to take steps toward the establishment of an Agricultural University. * Among the resolutions introduced by Professor Jonathan B. Turner, of Jacksonville, and passed by the convention were the following : Resolved, That we greatly rejoice in the degree of perfection to which our various institutions, for the education of our brethren engaged in professional, scientific, and literary pursuits, have already attained, and in the mental and moral elevation which those institutions have given them, and their consequent preparation and capacity for the great duties in the spheres of life in which they are engaged; and that we will aid, in all ways consistent, for the still greater perfection of such institutions. Resolved, That as the representatives of the industrial classes, including all cultivators of the soil, artisans, mechanics, and merchants, we desire the same privileges and advantages for ourselves and our posterity in each of our several pursuits and callings as our professional brethren enjoy in theirs, and we admit that it is our own fault that we do not also enjoy them. Resolved, That, in our opinion, the institutions originally and primarily designed to meet the wants of the professional classes as such, can not, in the nature of things, meet ours, no more than the institutes we desire to establish for ourselves meet theirs; therefore, Resolved, That we take immediate measures for the establishment of a University in the State of Illinois, expressly to meet those felt wants of each and all the industrial classes of our state. At the request of the convention Professor Turner submitted a carefully thought out plan for an Industrial University for the State of Illinois.
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