Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/112

 86 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO of willingness and desire to assist. No men were ever better treated than the solicitors. Such indeed was the public interest that early in 1890 two independent, auxiliary movements were launched that contributed greatly to the final success. The first of these was undertaken by the alumni of the Old University. From the first they had been profoundly interested in the efforts to reconstruct the educational fabric which had been wrecked, or to construct a new one. On June 28, 1889, less than a month after the campaign for the four hundred thousand dollar fund began, the class of '86, the last class to graduate from the Old University, held a meeting and inaugurated the movement for raising an alumni fund for the new institution, everyone present making a subscription. The day following the meeting the members of the class found the officers of the Alumni Association and arranged for the calling of a general meeting of the alumni. This meeting was held on the evening of July 6 at the Grand Pacific Hotel. There were forty or more present, including Dr. J. C. Burroughs, the first President of the Old University. Addresses were made by Mr. Gates, Judge F. A. Smith '66, afterward a trustee of the new institution, Jacob Newman '73, Professor A. J. Howe, who had been for over twenty years head of the Department of Mathematics, E. F. Stearns '69, and Dr. Burroughs, all voicing the heartiest enthusiasm for the new University. Ferd. W. Peck '68, F. A. Smith '66, O. B. Clark '72, George C. Ingham '73, and Jacob Newman '73 were made a committee to co-operate with the secretaries in raising funds among the alumni for the new University. Early in 1890, the movement took the form of endowing a chair in the University as a memorial of their fellow-alumnus, Edward Olson of the class of 1873, late president of the University of Dakota, who lost his life in the burn- ing of the Tribune Building in Minneapolis, November 30, 1889. A very considerable sum was subscribed for this purpose and one of the chairs in the Department of Greek in the University of Chicago commemorates this subscription, its occupant's name being followed by the words, "on the Edward Olson Foundation." Not all the alumni subscriptions, however, were made for the memorial pro- fessorship. Some had been made before this movement began. Some came from pastors and laymen in church subscriptions and