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Michigan State Agricultural College BY PRESIDENT ABBOT In 1859 board was $2. 30.
Students of the present day will find it difficult in imagination to realize those early days of the institution. It was a wearisome task to reach Lansing. Three and a half miles over a wretched road, through the forest, took them to the clearing in which the few college halls were situated. It. was not a road to travel often. Prayers were frequently held much earlier than now. On Sundays, for the first year, the clergymen of Lansing preached at the college in turn. At the close of this year, on account of some difficulties which I know of only by hearsay, the board directed the faculty to take charge of these exercises, and invite no one. There was always a Bible class on Sundays.
Students were usually crowded four in a room.
The students, however, had the excitement of study, of work, of complaining of their food, and early organized societies for mutual improvement. These, at that time, had no Greek letter names, and were open to any who wished to participate in their benefits. An early society was called the Excelsior Lyceum; the Cincinnatus followed, and the Sons of Demeter. Party politics frequently ran high at the election of society officers. A reading room was started, and amongst others, the Lansing Republican at once sent its paper to the college, and has continued to do so ever since. I am not sure but the same is true of the Journal. The Flint Citizen came from the beginning of 1859, if not from the first, and Mr. E. B. Pond, of Ann Arbor, sent the Argus from May, 1858, until he sold it in 1878. Horace Greeley, who manifested a lively interest in the college, sent the students a box of books, and the students themselves subscribed for five English magazines. So they helped the library and reading room to grow in interest. Besides debates, they had lectures not very infrequently.
Michigan State
Page 33
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