| |
| |
Caption: Book - History of the University (Nevins)
This is a reduced-resolution page image for fast online browsing.
EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:
THE UNIVERSITY'S HOME 53 acres, so marshy that for years later the faculty and students wore rubber boots in crossing it in winter or spring. Burrill Avenue was a cowpath, the Boneyard a creek in a pasture, the site of Green Street decorated with old-fashioned rail fence and stiles. The quartersection later to be known as the "experimental farm" lay a little over a half mile to the south, with a fortyacre tract, half a mile long and not owned by the University, between. The Busey farm, University property, lay over a mile in the same direction, and the Griggs farm, also University land, to the southeast two and a half miles. The rounding out of the University's domain was a plain need. The attitude of the towns towards the University was well indicated in the favorable issue of the struggle for ratification of the contract which had been made by the County committee for a University endowment. This contract was informal, and had to be approved by popular vote; an adverse vote would again leave the institution to be contended for by other cities. A spirited campaign during March and April was enlivened by a bitter quarrel between some citizens and Dr. Scroggs, a member of the Board; while it was thought that Jacksonville and Bloomington were lending assistance to those who wished to defeat ratification. A series of meetings in the various towns and the country schoolhouses, however, brought out a large majority in favor of the required bond issue, and showed that the citizens were willing to make sacrifices for the institution and hoped much for its developments Final confirmation of the location was delayed to the end of the May session by the Trustees, some of whom complained that the exact letter of the county's contract was not fulfilled. Thus it had offered ten acres of ground around
| |
