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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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University Organizes 273 were of the Baptist faith, and at least three were clergymen of that denomination.2 Observers were not lacking who made this the subject of comment and it is told that Dr. Fred Wines, a Presbyterian clergyman of Springfield, having heard of this, sought out the governor and asked: "When did you become a Baptist?" "Who said I was a Baptist?" "Well, I see you have appointed a majority of Baptists as trustees of the new Industrial University, and I supposed you had become a Baptist yourself." A little inquiry satisfied Governor Oglesby that the new board was, indeed, largely Baptist. He remembered then that certain estimable gentlemen had slipped lists of names into his hand, quietly suggesting that, if they met the governor's approbation, these men were exceedingly well qualified to serve upon the new board. The executive mind had been open to conviction; the appointments had been made, and, the reverend informer avers, when the governor realized he had been made the victim of a conspiracy in the interest of a particular denomination, he swore a blue streak. The chief harm was in the fact that this thing had been done. The bias looked for by some did not appear, unless, perhaps, the first election of a regent is excepted. As for Dr. Gregory, if he was chosen with any expectation of giving a denominational bias to the university, those who voted for him must have felt disappointment, for it would be difficult, in his long administration, to point out anything in his action tending in that direction. The new board, despite the method of appointment, was an average one. Better material could have been chosen; worse was equally available. Dissension of various sorts was ready made, for several of the members had opposed the location of the new university at Urbana, and came to the first meeting prepared to oppose the proposition that the location was final until they were convinced beyond chance of cavil that there were no latent defects in the titles of the lands granted. Most of the members of the board, doubtless, were innocent of sound ideas or convictions upon the subject of agricultural education; they merely had a vague notion accented by a strong feeling that something of the sort was wanted. A few had been associates and warm KJanningham manuscript at University of Illinois.
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