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Show a subsequent meeting, Governor Young announced that he had picked out a site on the bench immediately east of Salt Lake City for the location of the University. His proposition was accepted, and it was decided to enclose the grounds with a rock wall and to plant trees and flowers. The city council followed this up by passing a law designating a part of the east bench, and grazing ground for the use of those who should work on the grounds of the University. A wall eighty rods in extent was built, which ran south to about where the east line of the campus runs today, and by 1853, 135 rods had been completed and "enough stone had been hauled to build three-fourths of a mile more." Considerable work must have been done that first season of 1850, for the report of the regents through their clerk, Robert Campbell, tells us that the Territorial treasury had given $4,589.14 for the University and primary schools, and from subscriptions and donations the amount had been increased by the winter of 1851 to $7,948.08. In his address to the first Legislative Assembly of the State of Deseret in 1849, Governor Young urged the members to incorporate a university "where our youth may receive training along all the lines of science, philosophy, and religion that will make them polished shafts and useful men in the future of our State." Among those who were appointed on the first Board of Regents, John M. Bernhisel, Orson Spencer, Albert Carrington, Daniel H. Wells, Hosea Stout, W. W. Phelps, Elias Smith and Zerubbabel Snow were college graduates. Mr. Spencer, the First Chancellor, received his training at the Lenox Academy in his native state, Massachusetts, and later received both his A. B. and A. M. degrees from Union College, New York. He arrived in Utah in 1849. While traveling in Europe in 1852, Mr. Spencer sent to the University an extensive library of German, French, Italian and English books. Dr. Bernhisel was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and the first representative to Congress from the Territory of Utah. In college, he was a class-mate of Simon Cameron, the leading senator for years from Pennsylvania, and other warm personal friends were Thaddeus Stevens and Dr. Kane, the Arctic explorer. Through his efforts, the first postal service was established in 1850 between Utah and the Eastern States, and it was he who was sent by Governor Young to purchase a library in New York City, which was shipped to Utah in 1851 across the plains by ox teams. This library cost $5,000 and contained both the ancient and modern classics. Orson Pratt was a noted scientist and mathematician, and his book "Biquadratic Equations" was published in London, and was used in some of the English and French universities. Much could be said of the high intellectual acquirements of all these men. The State never had a more splendid lot of scholars in the true sense of the term. At a meeting of the Chancellor and Board of Regents held at the house of Governor Young in April, 1850, it was decided to make an appeal to the world for books, maps, charts, and anything that would be of interest and help in the University, which was to be a "center of light and training for the youth in these the last days." As a result of the deliberations at this meeting, a circular letter was issued to all missionaries in the world proselyting for the Mormon Church, which undoubtedly is one of the most interesting documents in the History of Education in America. It reads as follows: CIRCULAR OF THE CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF DESERET. PATRONS OF LEARNING: The citizens of the State of Deseret have established a University at Great Salt Lake City; the Chancellor and Board of Regents appointed to superintendent the same, do hereby issue the following circular to you. We should despair of any assistance whatever, if we were not assured that our young institution has greater claims than any other. We know that you are constantly assailed with the pretended claims of new things appealing to your sympathies, your prejudices, your hopes, and your fears. It is only wise men who can discriminate the true from the false. Here is an institution which is like the fondling babe of the Hebrews. To them we appeal, whether they be few or many. It is the child of Providence, and is destined to live and flourish. However obscure its parentage, in the valley of the wild and lofty mountains; however many the perils it has to encounter, it will live and shine in nature's simplest and brightest livery, and teach all nations all useful arts and sciences. This institution is needed to meet the wants of thousands that annually emigrate to this great Page- Twenty-seven |