Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/340

 280 EISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY which I had to name. The idea to him was a novelty. A denomi- national university in a frontier territory, with a population of less than eight thousand people — they generally without means —and the Methodist Episcopal Church without a membership sufficient to maintain a conference, "was a pleasantry the old veteran of the cross could not appreciate He being an English- man, born and bred, may have thought of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with their numerous colleges and halls, and with their large libraries and wealth. A feeder for some college down east, where there was more money and a higher civilization, was Ids ambition and hope. We did not agree and the bill was returned to him. A day or two after, my associate in the Territorial Council, the Hon. Isaac Van Etten, introduced the bill to incorporate the Minnesota Academy. Having made up my mind that my Methodist brethren either had to have n univer- sity charter or none. I had the bill referred to a special com- mittee, of which I was a member. The other members of the committee were indifferent what became of the bill, whether it was reported back to the council with the recommendation that it pass, or report a substitute authorizing the establishment of ferries, or the laying out of country roads, or the erection of sign boards at cross-roads to indicate the right road for country preachers across the prairies to their various appointments. After having consulted with the Rev. -John Kearns, the pastor ©f the old Market Street Church in the city of St. Paul, the parent and first Methodist Episcopal church in the territory of which the Central Park Methodist Church of St. Paul is the successor, and the Rev. B. F. Hoyt, a pioneer clergyman who resided in St. Paul, both of whom were of the opinion that a university charter would be a good thing and might perhaps be got under way before the end of the century. At all events, it would be a good thing to talk about as indicative of the growth of Methodism in the West, although for a long time it might be found nowhere except on the statutes. I then prepared to draft my bill — substitute for the seminary bill. The name for the uni- versity, I had already determined upon. There were two reasons. I may say, which led to this : "'On a summer evening in 1852 I attended a reception at the Wesleyan Female College, at Cincinnati. Ohio, during commence- ment week, and among the guests was Bishop Leonidas L. Ham- line, to whom I had an introduction, and who soon after asked me to have a seat by his side. AYe spent nearly the entire even- ing together. He appeared to be interested in the Northwest, especially in the young and frontier territory of Minnesota. He wanted to know all about her settlers, what kind of people were making their homes in her villages and on her prairies: whether