buildings be draped in mourning. Mr. Hoyne on this occasion declared that the University was Senator Douglas' noblest and most lasting monument. The private history of the establishment of the institution will shed more honor upon the motives, intellect and heart of Judge Douglas than any success achieved in his public career, however brilliant. "His ashes are to repose beneath the shadow of the towers of the University." Mr. Hoyne's speech was published in full in the Chicago Tribune of the following day, where it may still be read. The catalogue of 1865-6 is the first to announce the facilities of the Dearborn Observatory with what was then the largest refractor telescope in the world, as forming part of its equipment. This observatory was built adjoining Douglas Hall, through the liberality of the Hon. J. Y. Scammon, from the first one of the regents of the University and always closely identified with its work. The observatory was named in honor of Mr. Scammon's first wife, who was a member of that historic family from which Fort Dearborn and Dearborn street took their names. This stately group of buildings-Jones Hall, the Dearborn Observatory and Douglas Hall, with its monumental tower-had only recently been fully completed and occupied, when in May, 1867, the national missionary and publication societies of the Baptist Churches of the north held their annual meeting in Chicago. In a body they visited the University on May 30, and a photograph was taken of the delegates and guests of the occasion, gathered in front of the University buildings. Leading citizens of Chicago and prominent Baptists from all over the north gathered on the wooden sidewalk on Cottage Grove avenue and are shown in the photograph in the characteristic costumes of nearly fifty years ago. The picture here reproduced was given to my father, Thomas W. Goodspeed, then of Quincy, Ill., by Kiler K. Jones of Quincy, a brother of Fernando Jones, in 1867. Mr. Goodspeed had been a member of the first freshman class of the University; and as orderly of the Student Military Company, led that body when, in June, 1861, it acted as guard of honor at the funeral of Senator Douglas. I am indebted principally to my father, who was present when the photograph was taken, for the following identifications of leading clergymen and citizens who appear in the picture. It will be seen that the group of men seated most prominently in the foreground are trustees of the University, while a few leading professors are standing just behind them. 1. Rev. S. Dryden Phelps, the hymn writer. 2. Rev. G. S. Bailey, D. D. 3. Rev. I. Fargo, Galesburg. 4. Rev. Edgar J. Goodspeed, D. D., pastor of the Second Baptist Church, Chicago; a trustee. (Died 1881.) 5. Dr. Levi D. Boone, once mayor of Chicago; a trustee. 6. Hon. J. Y. Scammon; a trustee. 7. Samuel Hoard, once postmaster of Chicago; a trustee. 8. Hon. Thomas Hoyne, LL.D.; a trustee. 9. Rev. N. W. Miner, D. D., Springfield; a trustee. 10. James E. Tyler, Chicago; a trustee. 11. Rev. William Hague, D. D., Boston, appears standing just behind Dr. Boone. 12. Rev. Reuben Jeffery, D. D., Cincinnati; afterwards a trustee. He is seen standing at Dr. Burroughs' right. 13. Rev. J. C. Burroughs, D. D., first president of the old University. Appears standing just behind Mr. Scammon. 14. Rev. Nathaniel Colver, D. D., first professor of theology, may be seen standing just behind Dr. William Hague. 15. The man seated between (2) and (3) (Dr. Bailey and Mr. Fargo), and leaning forward, is believed to be United States Senator Lyman Trumbull, a trustee. 16. The lady at Dr. Phelps' left is thought to be Mrs. Phelps. The men on either side of Dr. Boone are probably trustees, like the others with whom they are seated, but I have not been able to identify them. It would be interesting if William Jones (who died not long after) or William B. Ogden could be recognized in the picture. In 1875 Rush Medical College, the oldest medical school in the west, became the medical department of the University. In the same year women, who, from the first had been allowed to attend classes in the University informally, with no recognized status and without receiving degrees, were admitted to the institution on the same terms with men. Senator Douglas was succeeded as president of the trustees by William B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago, and upon his death, in 1877-8, N. K. Fairbank was elected. The management of the University's affairs was in the hands of a board of trustees, a board of regents and an executive board, while the law department had its board of counsellors. The law department was from the first in the charge of Henry Booth. In 1873 it became the Union College of Law, its control being shared with Northwestern University, of which it still forms the law school. In 1886 the old University closed its doors, overwhelmed with debt, primarily incurred through the erection of the costly building shown in the picture, to pay for which the whole property had been heavily mortgaged. The present writer was one of the last students to attend classes in the spacious old building, where men like Edward Olson (afterwards president of the University of South Dakota), Lewis Stuart, Alonzo J. Howe, Nathaniel Butler (afterwards president of Colby University), J. D. S. Riggs (now president of Shurtleff College) and Galusha Anderson (afterwards president of Denison University) were heroically at work. Soon after, the insurance company, which had taken the property under a mortgage, had the old building torn down, a street cut through from east to west where the tower had stood, and residences erected, so that no trace of the buildings now remains. The Dearborn Observatory was also torn down, the large telescope which it contained being removed to the campus of the Northwestern University at Evanston. The connection of Senator Douglas and of Mr. Scammon with the Old University has recently been recognized by the University of Chicago through the erection of bronze tablets on the walls of Scammon Court and of the cloister leading to Mandel Hall. The Douglas tablet bears a portrait of Senator Douglas in low relief and this inscription: IN HONOR OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS TO THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST UNIVERSITY ESTABLISHED IN CHICAGO THIS TABLET IS ERECTED IN JUNE 1901 by THE DECENNIAL CLASS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Mr. Ogden's name, too, is perpetuated at the University of Chicago. The Ogden Graduate School of Science bears it, in recognition of a grant of more than half a million dollars made to the University, under the terms of his will, by his heirs and executors. The School of Education of the University of Chicago occupies the block at the north end of which stood the large rambling old house in which Mr. and Mrs. Scammon spent their last years. Their names are beautifully perpetuated at the University in Scammon Court, the large quadrangle of the School of Education, enclosed between Emmons Blaine Hall and Belfield Hall. Two tablets set in the north walls of the Blaine Hall bear this inscription: SCAMMON COURT THIS ENCLOSURE IS NAMED IN MEMORY OF A PUBLIC SPIRITED CITIZEN OF CHICAGO AND A LIBERAL FRIEND OF EDUCATION JONATHAN YOUNG SCAMMON AND IN RECOGNITION OF THE GENEROSITY OF HIS WIDOW MARIA SHELDON SCAMMON To the north of Belfield Hall lies Scammon Garden, with the trees and shrubbery with which Mr. Scammon had surrounded his house, and here on summer nights Shakespere's plays are given, with no scenery but the maple trees and lilac hedges which this generous friend of the Old University had indirectly bequeathed to the EDGAR J. GOODSPEED. new. The University of Chicago. |