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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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274 History University of Illinois friends of Turner. One of these, M. L. Dunlap of Champaign county, was articulate, alert. Whenever the new institution began a comfortable straying into the ruts of the old education, he was on hand to prod it out; sometimes not wisely, but usually very well. Besides the twenty-eight appointments to the board made by the governor, there were four members ex officio—the governor, the state superintendent of public instruction, the president of the state agricultural society, and the regent of the university, who was also to be president of the board. At the first meeting held in Springfield, March 12, 1867, in the hall of the house of representatives a temporary organization was effected by the election of Governor Oglesby as chairman and James Rea as recording secretary. Under the law the first business to be transacted by the new board was the election of a regent, which all who understood felt to be a position of great difficulty. Dr. John Milton Gregory, president of Kalamazoo college, Michigan, was chosen. Several of the board members who knew him personally spoke in unqualified terms, of his ability and energy.3 It is related that Thomas Quick, who had heard Dr. Gregory preach in Chicago and later investigated his work, was so impressed that he urged him for regent most earnestly. Dr. John Milton Gregory was a graduate of Union college, New York, studied law, and for a brief period served as minister for a Baptist church. The fact that he was a Baptist minister has been over-emphasized. It should be noted that he did not have a theological education. He was essentially an educator and was so considered by his family, friends, and contemporaries who knew him best. His early life was spent among farmers, as his father was a farmer and tanner by trade. In early boyhood he read widely owing to the fortunate fact that a circulating library was kept in his home. What he read he discoursed to the workmen about his father's place, thereby obtaining invaluable practice in imparting what he had learned, a practice all the more effective because it was spontaneous. His education he obtained by his own efforts, teaching and studying alternately. Following his brief ministry he was for •Ibid.
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