HARVARD UNIVERSITY, the oldest in stitution of learning in the United States, was founded in Cambridge, Mass., in 1636. At a meeting of the General Court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, convened on 8 September, six years after its first settlement, it was voted to give £400 toward a "schoale or colledge,° for the purpose of educating the °English and Indian youth in knowledge and Godliness.° The ensuing year 12 of the eminent men of the colony, including John Winthrop and John Cotton, were authorized °to take order for a college at New Towne.° The name Cambridge was adopted soon afterward in recognition of the English university where many of the colonists had been educated. In 1638 John Harvard, a young Non-Conformist minister, died in Charlestown, leaving to the college £750 and his entire library of 300 volumes. The institution was opened soon after and was named Harvard in honor of its first benefactor.
In 1637 the first building was erected. The first president was Rev. Henry Dunster, who was elected in 1640. The first graduating class was in 1642, and consisted of nine members. This same year a change was made in the gov ernment of the college; a board of trustees was created, the members of which were the gov ernor, the deputy governor, the teaching elders of the (5 next adjoining towns°— Boston, Cam bridge, Charlestown, Dorchester and Roxbury — the magistrates and the president of the col lege. The college was established as a corpora tion in 1650, with power of control over the edu cational and financial concerns of the institution. The members of the corporation were the pres ident, the treasurer and five fellows. In 1657 the corporation charter was changed so that the overseers had practically no control over the internal management of the college, although a final appeal might be made to them if necessary. Now there were two governing bodies; the over seers and the corporation, at times working in harmony and again antagonistic to each other. In 1780 the board of overseers consisted of the governor, lieutenant-governor, senate and coun cil of the Commonwealth, the president of the college and the ministers of the Congregation alist churches of the ((six adjoining towns° al ready mentioned. In 1810 a further change was made in the board of overseers, and instead of the senate and the ministers of certain churches, there were substituted 15 Congregationalist min isters, 15 laymen, the president of the senate and the speaker of the house, all to be inhab itants of the State. The members constituting
the senate were restored as overseers in 1814. A still further broadening of the spirit of the board was shown by the act of 1834, but not ratified until 1843, when clergymen of all de nominations were made eligible for membership to the board, and in 1851 an act was passed in which no mention was made of clergymen, but the clause that made only inhabitants of the State eligible was retained. It was not until 1880 that Harvard was freed from all sectional lines, and non-residents of the State of Massachusetts became eligible for membership to the board of overseers.
During the 17th century Harvard had to con tend with serious obstacles, many of which had their origin in religious differences or shades of differences; but the desire to give the youth of Massachusetts an opportunity to learn the things taught to their fathers in the schools of Europe never faltered. It required heroic cour age then to persevere in such a work, which at present seems a comparatively easy task. The religious controversies continued even after do nations and endowments had come to the aid of the institution and had made its success seem almost certain. Under the presidency of Rev. Increase Mather, the college was placed under the control of the Calvinists (1692), but in 1707 the liberals gained the ascendency. An Eng lish merchant, Thomas Hollis, in 1721, founded a chair of divinity, and directed that no re ligious test should be given to the candidate for the professorship. The gift was refused by the overseers, but the corporation urged its acceptance, and the latter finally prevailed. However, the first candidate for a professorship was really subjected to a religious test, for a confession of faith on various disputed points was exacted of him. The religious contro versies were carried so far that at one time there was a strong effort made by the orthodox friends of learning to found another college in the colony; but Governor Bernard refused them a charter.