Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/341

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 281 the church from which he had just resigned the high office of bishop was holding its own among the churches of the territory in its missionary and pioneer work. He seemed pleased at what I told him. During the evening his conversation and advice were fatherly; his aim and thought, apparently, to mark out to me the better way, with now and then incidents of his own early life. To me it was interesting and never forgotten, and as we parted I remember so distinctly his cheery words: 'Good night, good night. God bless you.' The memories of that evening, together with a correspondence with him afterwards, led me to have a very great regard for the Bishop. This, coupled with the fact that Bishop Hamline had been one of the most distinguished prelates in the United States — the peer of any in ability and piety — is what gave the institution its name. 'The next question was, where shall the institution of the future be located? The early legislators believed that the suc- cess of an educational institution depended largely upon its prox- imity to navigable streams, for the reason that a large majority of the earlier settlers made their homes near the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers and Lake St. Croix — and for a further reason that students, like freight', are more cheaply transported by water than by land. Therefore the bill provided 'that said uni- versity be located on the Mississippi River, between St. Paul and Lake Pepin,' it being understood that if there was no town worthy of the honor, one could be made. The bill, as reported, or at least substantially so, passed both houses and became a law, March 3, 1854. 'The Bishop was advised of the action of the legislature, and a copy of the act was forwarded to him. This was the first inti- mation that he had that such a scheme was thought of; he fell complimented and intimated in reply that he would do something for his namesake. 'Within a few weeks after the passage of the act. Hoyt, Brooks and Bidwell issued a call for a meeting of the incorpora- tion to be held on May 19, in the city of St. Paul. In response to the call, a meeting was held, and the charter accepted, when an adjournment was had until June 12, 185*4. When the trustees held their second meeting, more than one village contested for the prize; even St. Paul thought it was a plum worth looking after. The late Major Nathaniel McLean offered twenty acres of land on Dayton's Bluff, now known as Suburban Hills, ami among the most elevated and beautiful building sites on the Mis- sissippi River, then just outside the corporate limits of the town of St. Paul. Lyman Dayton. Ira Bidwell. William II. Randall and Louis Robert also made Liberal offers of broad acres and town lots for its location. William Freeborn, one of the trustees,