Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/321

 THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS BENEFACTORS 281 nent and efficient administration would be assured if the property were entrusted to the University of Chicago," Miss Culver turned over to the Trustees properties which she valued at a million dollars. They did not eventually produce that full amount and from time to time she added other contributions. The whole gift was "devoted to the increase and spread of knowledge within the field of the Biological Sciences." In the early part of the year following these subscriptions and contributions the Chicago Commercial Club turned over to the University the Chicago Manual Training School, its property and endowments, the whole aggregating in value a quarter of a million dollars. Year by year the four-million-dollar fund grew, but not fast enough to reach the total sum of two million dollars on the date fixed, January i, 1900. The time was therefore extended to April i. During these three months some notable gifts were received, carrying the total to almost two million dollars. Among the great contributions to the fund, in addition to those already mentioned, were the following: two hundred and six thousand dollars by Mrs. Charles Hitchcock, one hundred and thirty-five thousand by Marshall Field, seventy-two thousand by Elizabeth G. Kelly, sixty thousand by Charles L. Hutchinson, fifty thousand by W. F. E. Gurley, fifty thousand by John J. Mitchell, forty thousand by Martin A. Ryerson, thirty-four thousand by Catherine W. Bruce, thirty thousand by Mrs. B. E. Gallup, twenty-seven thousand by Mrs. Emmons Elaine, and twenty thousand by Nancy S. Foster. There was a contribution of fifty thousand from Leon Mandel for Mandel Assembly Hall, which, a little later, but not soon enough to be counted in this fund, was increased by thirty-five thousand dollars more. The very last days of the extension to April i came and a few thousand dollars were still lacking to make up the full two million the University must raise to secure the full two million Mr. Rockefeller had subscribed. On the last day but one President Harper received the following telegram: Wire me Saturday noon [March 31] how much you lack in fulfilling con- ditions. F. T. GATES