remained what it was originally, a bit
of farm land, where wheat was grown on the unoccupied portions and where
the families of the four professors who lived on the Campus gathered
peaches from the old farm orchard.

[Illustration: THE CAMPUS IN 1855 (From a painting by Cropsey)]

At their first meeting the Regents undertook the preliminary steps
towards the appointment of a Faculty, though a resolution asking for a
change in the University Act, giving them power to elect and prescribe
the duties of a Chancellor of the University, suggests that they were
uncertain of their powers in this matter. Four prospective
professorships were established and though the report of the committee
on the matter was not adopted as presented, the assignment of the
subjects is suggestive; they included a Professor of Mental
Philosophy, whose field was to comprise Moral Philosophy, Natural
Theology, Rhetoric, Oratory, Logic, and the History of All Religions; a
Professor of Mathematics, to have also in charge Civil Engineering and
Architecture; a Professor of Languages, to have in charge the Roman and
Greek languages; and a Professor of Law. This action came four years
before the actual appointment of Professors of Languages and Mathematics
and twenty-two years before a Professor of Law was needed. A librarian,
the Rev. Henry Colclazer, was also appointed, the first officer of the
University chosen, though he did not assume his duties or his munificent
salary of $100 a year until 1841. The question of the organization of
the branches, which became the perennial subject of discussion at all
the early meetings of the Board, also came up at this time through the
authorization of a Committee on Branches, and a request that the
Superintendent of Public Instruction furnish an "outline of a plan of
the University."

From this time on meetings of the Regents were held with fair
regularity, either in Ann Arbor or, more usually, in the capitol city,
which at that time was Detroit. Occasional difficulties in obtaining a
quorum are discernible, however, in the reports of the early meetings.
The trip on horseback or stage from Detroit to Ann Arbor during the
first two years was not always easy or convenient, while there was
little to arouse enthusiasm in the slow development of the Campus. The
question of a library and scientific apparatus interested the Board from
the first meeting and among their early purchases was a collection of
minerals made b