Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/151

 achievements might be placed on record, and be preserved for use in permanent history; one asking a grant of public lands to aid in the construction of a rail road from McGregor to a point on the Missouri River, along or near the 43d parallel of north latitude; one authorizing the Governor to convey to S. H. Taft ten sections of land in Humboldt County upon which he had located a colony.

No act of this General Assembly proved to be of such far-reaching importance as that authorizing the lease of the lands of the Agricultural College grant. Under that grant, 224,169 acres of Government lands had been selected in our State by Peter Melendy, the commissioner appointed by Governor Kirkwood in the years 1862-1863. There were, at this time, and for many years afterward, hundred of thousands of acres of Government lands in Iowa subject to homestead entry at the cost of but fourteen dollars to the settler upon one hundred and sixty acres. Under such conditions there could be no hope of selling lands of the college grant for many years. The college could not be opened until revenue sufficient to meet current expenses could be derived from this land grant. The State would make appropriations for the erection of buildings, but not for the support of the school. There was a growing and earnest demand for the establishment of the institution. The friends and founders of the college were not willing that this munificent grant should be sacrificed for the insignificant sum that a sale of any portion would bring then, if, indeed, the lands could be sold at any price. In order to solve the difficult problem, if possible, Senators C. F. Clarkson, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, and B. F. Gue, one of the originators of the Agricultural College bill, held several consultations, calling Governor Kirkwood to confer with them. They finally devised the plan of having an appraised value placed on each tract of the land, at which price it would be sold at the end of five years to the person who should lease it, he paying interest at the rate of six per