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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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204 History University of Illinois dollars.40 The Gazette in commenting on this said it was all right for the builders to endeavor to secure the payment of this to reimburse themselves for their outlay, but to insist upon the payment of this before any conveyance could be made, was arbitrary and contrary to the interests of the community and to the interests of the promoters as well.50 A week before this, on December 6, 1864, Dr. Scroggs had been sent to Springfield to meet with the Decatur committee of the farmers' convention and had offered them " a magnificent building" for the agricultural college.61 As the legislature was soon to meet and something had to be done, the county supervisors came to the rescue in their meeting of December 19,1864: they proposed to accept the offer of Stoughton and Babcock to transfer the Urbana-Champaign institute for $24,000 if Illinois would locate the industrial university in it; appropriated $15,000 to buy a farm, or to use in securing the location of the university; appointed a committee of five to confer with Illinois central railroad company to secure cooperation for location of university; appointed a committee of twelve to visit Springfield the next session to secure an act to enable the county to borrow money and issue bonds; and made arrangements whereby $5,000 of the $15,000 above mentioned might be secured from the treasury and one-twelfth given to each member of the committee to be used in securing the university.52 The supervisors were careful for they specified that no payment should be made until the state had by law located the university in Champaign county. They had received some encouragement for their hope that the state might so locate the "Supposedly this stock had all been subscribed in 186*0 but, according to the statement of Stoughton and Babcock, the citizens had failed to pay or to sign notes. Central Illinois Gazette, December 16,1864. "Turner said later that Scroggs had been in apparent agreement with the aims and proposals of the Decatur committee, and that for this reason he had been freely admitted to their meetings; they were surprised and somewhat shocked when later he appeared as an ardent Champaign partisan. "Record of the board of supervisors, I I I : 332, December 19, 1864. The committee of twelve consisted of W. D. Somers, J. W. Scroggs, C. B, Griggs, W. C. Coles, T. R. Webber, A. B. Condit, W. Nebeker, John S. Busey, J. C. Stoughton, A. H. Bailey, M. L. Dunlap, and William A. Conkey.
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