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As early as 1835, the Territorial Legislature at Belmont
created "The University of the Territory of Wisconsin," and petitioned
congress for an endowment of public lands. The request was granted, and in 1838
seventy-two sections were ordered to be set apart for its perpetual support.
The state was then a wilderness. Indians hunted along the hills and valleys where
now stands the city of Madison. |
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This territorial university lived only on paper. Regents were appointed,
but they had no funds, no buildings, no faculty. Yet they performed a great service,
for they conserved the idea of an institution of higher education, supported
by the peoples. A decade later, however, when Wisconsin came into the Union,
and the Territorial University became the State University, the institution began
to take visible form. In 1848 Dr. Jno. H. Lathrop was appointed chancellor. In a building
furnished rent free by the citizens of Madison, Professor John W. Sterling,
in 1850, opened a preparatory school, and began to make the material for college
classes, and one year later, in 1851, the first building
was erected on College Hill. A second building was erected in 1854, and University Hall, devoted to
recitation rooms and administration, was erected in 1859. This constituted the
visible university up to 1871. |
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