America's first farming college nearly died before Lincoln's land-grant law rescued it
Michigan State began in 1855 as the country's first agricultural college, opening with five teachers and 63 students. Within a few years a fight over whether farmers needed chemistry and political economy almost killed it, until federal money from the 1862 Morrill Act made it the first land-grant college in the United States.
The driving force was John Clough Holmes, secretary of the state agricultural society, who persuaded Michigan's legislature to create a state agricultural school within ten miles of Lansing. Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed the bill on February 12, 1855, and William J. Beal later called Holmes the college's most important agent. Classes started on May 13, 1857, in three buildings.
The first president, Joseph R. Williams, wanted far more than practical farming. His curriculum ranged across chemistry, botany, geology, meteorology, entomology, veterinary science and political economy. The State Board of Education, which governed the college, judged this inefficient and a betrayal of the agricultural mission, and some farmers demanded the place be shut. Williams resigned in 1859. The board cut teaching back to a two-year vocational farming course, and enrolment collapsed almost immediately.
Williams fought back from politics. As acting lieutenant governor he helped pass the Reorganization Act of 1861, which restored the four-year course, allowed master's degrees and handed control to a new State Board of Agriculture. The following year Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, the first federal funding for education, and on March 18, 1863 Michigan named its college the recipient. That money saved it. Women were admitted from 1870, though with no residence halls they boarded with faculty or travelled by stagecoach from Lansing, taking the same demanding science courses as men.
Today the East Lansing university counts more than 550,500 alumni and belongs to the Association of American Universities. It opened the world's first state-funded osteopathic college, pioneered academic study of music therapy, packaging and supply chain management, and hosts the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. Its Spartans compete in the Big Ten and have won national titles in sports from football to ice hockey.
Source: Michigan State University
