Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/343

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 283 music and ornamental work. Rev. Jabez Brooks was librarian. The students were chiefly from Minnesota ; but Michigan, Iowa and AVisconsin were represented among them. The total number enrolled the first year was seventy-three, thirty ladies and forty- three gentlemen. During the first year of Hamline's history the trustees proceeded to erect a college building. A block of ground in the heart of the town was donated by the proprietors of the town site. Plans were adopted and in August the active work of construction was started. That same fall the building was completed. It was formally opened January 10, 1855. It has been stated that Bishop Hamline gave $25,000 to the institution in real estate, part of which was in Chicago and part in New York City. The property in New York was set aside for building purposes. Though it was worth $12,000 when given by Bishop Hamline. yet when it came to be sold it had so fallen in value that the university realized from it only a little more than $7,000, and so there fell upon the institution, immediately upon its erection, an incumbrance which constituted the bulk of its indebtedness and finally became one of the causes of its suspension. In the spring of 1857 President Brooks, whose health was failing on account of overwork, resigned. Thus far, only the preparatory department had been organized, and as a number were ready for college it was decided to establish a full and complete college course. Rev. B. F. Crary, D. D.. was elected president. Up to this time Minnesota had been prosperous. Trus- tees of the institution had been able to secure the funds neces- sary for maintaining the institution as easily as could be expected in a new country, sparsely settled, when all the money that could be secured was expended for improvements. But in the same month when it was decided to throw open the doors of Hamline for a full and complete college education to the youth of the Northwest, when with an increased faculty the running expenses of the institution were largely augmented, a financial panic struck the entire country. It was especially severe in Minnesota, because there had been no opportunity for the settlers to store away wealth against the time of adversity. Values ceased to exist; the wealthy became poor; it was a question of daily bread rather than riches, or the rearing of magninYenl buildings for educational purposes. In 1859 the first college class was graduated. There were but two members, Elizabeth and Mary Sorin, daughters of one of the trustees. In the spring of 1861 came the War of the Rebellion. One of the faculty, IT. B. Wilson, professor «»!' mathe- matics, and many of the students enlisted. There were few. if any, young men left who were physically able to hear arms. At