A Little History of the University of Georgia
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
A Little
History of the University of Georgia
If those people from Union County, Georgia
who have attended the University
of Georgia
throughout the
years were lined up, they would make a long stretch probably from
county line
to county line. Add those who are fans and support the Georgia Dawgs
and you
get another expansive line.
It is good to call to memory
that the University
of Georgia was
the first state-chartered
university in America.
Its charter was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly on January 27, 1785.
This was
an act in the making for two years, for the first mention of it came in
1783,
and in 1784 action was taken by setting aside 40,000 acres of land in
the
northeastern expanse of Georgia
to endow a university. The land-grant college, however, did not begin
in 1785
to open doors to students. The journey to getting it established took
several
years by the appointed Board of Trustees and the Academicus Senatus,
the two
Boards entrusted with its business.
The first meeting of the Board
of Trustees
held in Augusta
February 13, 1786
elected Abraham Baldwin as president of the university. He kept this
position
for several years, although the proposed school had not been officially
opened.
A native of Connecticut,
he had been a professor at Yale, and was active in national politics.
He moved
to Georgia
in 1784. He did, however, draft the charter and set the parameters for
the new
school.
In the early years, money for
the
university was "earned" by renting and/or selling portions of the
40,000 acres that had been designated as an endowment for the school.
The
Trustees had difficulty getting a quorum together for a meeting.
Several
factors contributed to this fact. One no doubt was poor communication.
Another
was distance and the difficulty of getting to Augusta, Louisville or some other designated
place of
meeting. One year, a great smallpox epidemic prevented the meeting of
the Board
of Trustees.
Several academies existed
throughout the
state. The Trustees sent out questionnaires asking for information
about cost
of maintaining the schools, the curriculum offered, and what the
instructors
were paid. They intended to use this information to help them establish
the
university.
The University, although
chartered in 1785,
did not begin until 1801. A committee of the Board of Trustees selected
a land
site. John Milledge, who later became governor of Georgia,
purchased 633 acres of
land on the Oconee
River in northeast
Georgia
and
gave the land to the Trustees.
Josiah Meigs was elected
president of the
university. Work began on building the first unit of the university,
called at
first Franklin
College in honor
of the venerable
Benjamin Franklin. Abraham Baldwin had observed Josiah Meigs as a
professor at
Yale and thought him worthy to become the first president and
professor. At
first, Meigs was the only employee of the University until student
population
built up and more staff was needed.
The first class graduated from
the University
of Georgia in
1804. Gradually the
curricular offerings and the staff grew until, at present there are
fifteen
colleges and schools offering degrees from bachelors to doctorates in
various
fields. These branches and their starting dates are as follows:
Franklin
College of Arts and Sciences, 1801; College of Agricultural and
Environmental
Sciences, 1859; School of Law, 1859; College of Pharmacy, 1903; Warnell
School
of Forestry and Natural Resources, 1906; College of Education, 1908;
Graduate
School, 1910; Terry College of Business, 1912; Henry W. Grady School of
Journalism and Mass Communication, 1915; College of Family and Consumer
Sciences, 1933; College of Veterinary Medicine, 1946; School of Social
Work,
1964; College of Environment and Design, 1969; School of Public and
International Affairs, 2001; and the College of Public Health, 2005.
In Union County,
we are fortunate to have what we have called through the years "The
Experiment Station," an entity of the University of Georgia's
School of
Agriculture, with
similar branches at
strategic locations about the state. These provide valuable controlled
growth
and experimentation in agricultural practices.
Now all the various locations of
Georgia
colleges and universities are under the jurisdiction of a single board,
the
University System of Georgia, governed by regents. Each school within
the
system has its own local governing board, faculty and staff.
The early years of the
University met
challenges and hardships. But Georgians should be proud that we have
the first
state-chartered university in the United States.
c2008 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Jan. 31, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]
Updated August 11,
2009
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