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On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act. The act provided each state or territory, upon application, with 30,000 acres of scrip land for each senator or representative in Congress "for the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college whose leading subject shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanical arts -- in order to promote the liberal and classical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." The term scrip referred to government lands in undeveloped locations, usually in the wide open spaces of the west; these lands carried a nominal book value of $1.25 per acre. The land, as determined by each state or territory, could be retained indefinitely or it could be sold; in either case, the money derived from the land was to be used to develop and operate the prescribed educational institution. The Land Grant Act, originally sponsored by Justin S. Morrill, a senator from Vermont, laid the foundation for the nationwide development of higher education supported jointly by federal and state or territorial governments. With two senators and 14 representatives in Congress, the state of Illinois became eligible for a grant of 480,000 acres of public scrip land with a book value of $600,000. The General Assembly of the state of Illinois took steps immediately to secure the advantages of the Morrill Land Grant Act, and on February 14, 1863, legislation was approved to accept the donation of public lands from Congress for the purpose of establishing a state university. Although the State Legislature took only a few months to decide to accept the benefits and obligations of the Morrill Land Grant Act, it required the next four years to determine the location of the university. Several communities in the state competed for the university site by offering sizable sums of money to help establish the campus. Prominent citizens from Chicago made determined efforts to have the mechanical arts division located in Cook County; large sums of money and other inducements were pledged in an effort to gain the favor of the Legislature. To supplement the 480,000 acres of scrip land provided in the Morrill Act, Champaign County offered to provide a site of 1,000 additional acres, a donation of $400,000, and a "splendid building costing $175,000 and ready for use." This building had been constructed in 1861-62 to establish the Urbana and Champaign Institute, a coeducational boarding school. The building stood at the north end of the former Illinois Field, now the site of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. The five-story brick structure, which faced University Avenue, was 125 ft east and west and 40 ft wide, with a four-story, 44 x 70-ft wing on the back. It contained recitation rooms, kitchen, dining room, chapel, and 60 dormitory rooms for 130 students. In addition to these inducements, M. L. Dunlap, a private citizen, agreed to provide $2,000 worth of shade and ornamental trees, and the Illinois Central Railroad pledged the sum of $50,000 in freight charges over its lines. From Chuck Flynn, editor emeritus of the News-Gazette, we learned that Clark Griggs, a wealthy Urbana farmer, was determined that the site of the university would be in Champaign County. Griggs had served as mayor of Urbana and, in 1867, was member of the State Legislature. After a lengthy period of political maneuvering and often times intense debate, the Griggs Bill was passed by the Illinois General Assembly on February 25, 1867, and signed by Governor Oglesby on February 28, 1867. This bill provided specifically for the establishment in Urbana of an educational institution furnishing instruction in agriculture and mechanical arts. Thus the debate over the location of the school ended abruptly but without unanimous agreement. A major factor that gave Urbana precedence over other proposed locations was the offer of an existing building with facilities for 130 students. The university could start immediately without waiting for a building to be constructed. With location of the university determined, a Board of Trustees was established; it consisted of the governor of the state, the superintendent of public instruction, and the president of the State Board of Agriculture, all members ex-officio, together with 28 citizens to be appointed by the governor. The first meeting of the board was held in Springfield on March 12, 1867, just 12 days after signing the Griggs Bill; their first action was to appoint John Milton Gregory as regent of the university beginning April 1, 1867. At the second meeting of the board on May 7, 1867, which was held in the chapel of the Urbana and Champaign Institute, the following outline for departments and courses of study was adopted:
The Urbana and Champaign Institute, later called Old University hall, served as the only building from 1868 to 1872. From Illini Years, we learn that
In 1872, the Drill Hall and Machine Shop Building was constructed near the intersection of Springfield Avenue and Burrill Avenue. In 1873, the Main Building, later called University Hall, was completed south of Green Street on land now occupied by the south half of the Illini Union Building. The institution was first named the Illinois Industrial University, and its objective was to provide advanced education for the mass of working people in Illinois rather than for the privileged few. The students, originally all male, were required to wear uniforms, grey in color and tailored after those worn by cadets at West Point. Tuition was free initially but soon became $15 per year for Illinois residents and $20 per year for out-of-state residents. Students were required to drill three hours weekly and to march to and from daily chapel under the direction of a military officer. In addition, all students were required to perform two hours of manual labor each day for which they were not paid; this manual labor usually pertained to beautifying the grounds surround the one building, old University Hall, by constructing boardwalks, erecting wooden fences to keep the cattle out, and landscaping with trees and shrubbery. In 1880, Selim Hobart Peabody, a professor of mechanical engineering, was appointed regent; he served until 1891. The final years of the nineteenth century were lean years, and university funds were extremely limited. The state contribution to the university at that time was $22,000 per year. Faculty salaries, averaging about $2,000 annually, had to be cut by 10%; student fees rose from $15.00 to $22.50 per year, and enrollment declined. Even with these difficult times, Peabody can be remembered for a significant step forward in the history of the university. In 1885, with the backing of the alumni body, Peabody changed the name from the Illinois Industrial University to the University of Illinois. Not everyone was happy with the change; many protesters proclaimed that the people were being robbed of a labor school. The majority, however, greeted the change with enthusiasm.
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