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| 1855 · Michigan Agricultural College established,
the first agricultural college in N. America. 1857 · MAC opened with 4 faculty and 70 students. 1859 · Five departments: Botany & Vegetable Physiology, Agricultural Chemistry, Zoology & Animal Physiology, Civil and Rural Engineering, Theory & Practice of Agriculture. 1862 · Morrill Act conferred grants of public lands to the states, the proceeds from the sale of which were to be used for the establishment of agricultural colleges. MAC and its president, Joseph R. Williams, were influential in the formulation and passage of the Act. 1863 · Seven faculty including President Theophilus C. Abbot, plus a treasurer. Albert N. Prentiss was Instructor of Botany and Horticulture. 51 students enrolled. 1870 · Williams James Beal appointed first Professor of Botany. He remained as chairman until 1910. Annual income for the College was $40,000; 59 students had graduated since the College's inception; there were 7 faculty. Lansing's population was 5,241. 1888 · Hatch Act granted federal funds for the establishment and annual support of agricultural experiment stations. 1889 · Seven, or one-sixth, of the 42 agricultural experiment stations in the U.S. were presided over by men from MAC. 1907 · From a speech by Charles E. Bessey at the 50th anniversary of the opening of MAC: "Forty years ago this was the only college in the west in which one could study all of the great sciences...And it is greatly to her credit that, with the possible exception of Harvard University, this college then gave the most extended and thorough course in botany in this country." 1908-10 · Eleven of the 57 directors of experiments stations had their origin at MAC. |
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| Henry Goadby, M.D.
First to teach Botany. Author
of A Textbook of Vegetable and Animal Physiology. 1857-59. Theophilus C. Abbot. Taught Botany 1859-60, until Thurber arrived. Became President in 1862. George Thurber, M.D. Editor of American Agriculturist. Considered "the most accomplished horticultural writer of his time." 1860-63. Albert N. Prentiss. Graduated with the first class of MAC, 1861. Taught Charles E. Bessey. Became Chair of Botany and Horticulture at Cornell University. 1863-69. William J. Beal. Distinguished botanist of long tenure at MAC. 1870-1910. Charles F. Wheeler. A former druggist in Hubbardston, Mich., and also an accomplished amateur botanist. He co-authored The Flora of Michigan, with Erwin F. Smith in 1881, one year after Smith graduated from high school at age 26! 1889-1902. Wheeler joined the USDA in Washington, D.C. in 1902. Smith became one of the greatest plant pathologists of the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Burton O. Longyear. While an undergraduate student (1890-1904), became Instructor in Botany. He produced large beautifully rendered, original water-color drawings of life histories of various fungal pathogens of plants (see photographs), which apparently have become lost. Moved to Colorado Agricultural College in 1904; became Head of Botany & Forestry in 1909. |
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| Albert N. Prentiss.
B.S. 1861. MAC faculty 1863-69. Became Chair of Botany &
Horticulture, Cornell University, 1869. Eugene Davenport. B.S. 1878. Farmed at Woodland, Mich. 1878-88. Professor of Agriculture, MAC, 1888-90. President, Agricultural College of the State of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba, Brazil (the first agricultural college in S. America), 1890-92. Dean, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, 1895-1922. Charles E. Bessey. B.S. 1869. Became Chair of Botany, Dean, and Acting Chancellor, University of Iowa. A prominent botanist, he was father of Ernst A. Bessey. Liberty Hyde Bailey. B.S. 1882. Professor of Horticulture, MAC, 1885-88. Became Chair of Horticulture, Cornell University, 1888; Dean, College of Agriculture, 1903-13. World-famous horticulturist. |