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Caption: Book - History of the University (Nevins)
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54 BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY the Institute, and there proved to be a little less. The quarter-section it had described as "adjacent" was a half mile distant. But the Legislature had seen and understood the location of the lands, and the objections of the reluctant members—notable among whom was President Burroughs of Chicago University—were overruled; Burroughs himself finally offering resolutions in praise of the "noble liberality" and the "promptness and good faith" of the county. During the summer the grounds were enlarged, and alterations and improvements undertaken in the building. It was given a new front entrance on the second floor, with changes to make that floor the principal one, and the lower one, later the chemistry laboratory, the basement. A flight of stone steps was constructed, and surmounted by attractive white-painted pillars of wood, while Dr. Gregory threw a number of rooms together above this entrance to form an office and anteroom. A sewer was constructed to the Boneyard, outbuildings were erected, the grounds fenced against stock, and preparations made for sowing grass on the mud. For these and other purposes money was obtained by an ingenious arrangement. Though a part of the land scrip for 480,000 acres had been sold, the Morrill Act forbade the use of the proceeds except for endowment. It was therefore ordered that these proceeds be invested in Champaign County bonds, and that, as the University already held $100,000 worth of these bonds, the scrip be used to buy them from the institution itself. During the summer of 1867 Dr. Gregory, by instruction of the Trustees, traveled in Minnesota to aid in surveying the University lands, locating there about 16,000 acres; while a companion went on to Nebraska. In the autumn the treasurer was
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