Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/339

 HISTOEY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 279 in the fall of 1893 and has grown to be a very prosperous institu- tion with a large enrollment. Various business colleges have from time to time been conducted in Red Wing and have enjoyed considerable prosperity. The only state institution located in the county is the State Training School, situated two miles from Red Wing. — Julius Boraas. Hamline University. — The pioneers in a new country are as a rule men not only of brawn, but also of supreme faith and courage. It is faith that gives them the stamina to battle against, the difficulties and privations of frontier life. By faith, they see great cities where the eye sees nothing but the wigwams of the .savage ; great industries where no sound is heard save that of the waterfall ; great schools and churches where only the mis- sionary is found seeking to reveal the truth to Nature's children. The early Methodist preachers were no exception to this rule. They believed that the fertile soil of Minnesota would one day furnish sustenance for millions ; that mighty cities would be built, and that an empire of boundless resources would develop upon that vast expanse of forest and plain. Accordingly, one of their representatives, the Rev. David Brooks, made his appear- ance at the Territorial Council of Minnesota with a remarkable proposition. It chanced that he went to William Pitt Murray, a man who served the people of his state well for many years. In a speech delivered at Hamline University, at St. Paul, May 10, 1897, on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Leonidas L. Hamline, Mr. Murray related the incident as follows : "Early in January, 1854, a clergyman of the Methodist Epis- copal Church from Wisconsin came to me, I being then a mem- ber of the Territorial Council, and handed me a draft of a bill which he desired introduced in the Territorial Legislature, to incorporate the Minnesota Academy, an institution to be under the control of the Wisconsin conference. I said to him that a special charter would be unnecessary, as the winter previous an act had been passed to authorize three or more persons whom might be desirous of forming a corporation for seminary pur- poses, to become a body corporate by complying with certain conditions named in said act. The gentleman seemed quite anxious to have a special act, under the impression that a legis- lative act would give it more character, of which I did not approve. Perhaps as an inspiration, I suggested that it would afford me pleasure to aid in the passage of a university charter,