Board of Regents Minutes
About the Ledgers
In accordance with a Session Law of 1883 that established an institution of higher education in Dakota Territory, E.A. Healey, C.E. Teel, James Twamley, H.M. Evans and W.T. Collins, among others, gathered the money, land, and labor necessary to create what is now known as the University of North Dakota. This collection is the record of their decisions as recorded in the first three volumes of the Board of Regents ledgers dated from April 21, 1883 to April 4, 1893. These documents detail the meetings, votes, expenses, and by-laws concerning the founding of UND. They also contain valuable information regarding urban planning, educational policy, labor relations, as well as the history of the Dakota Territory and Grand Forks.
Although frequently focused on the logistics of founding and running a land grant institution, the ledgers also reveal interesting stories about university life in the nineteenth century. For example, many of those associated with UND are now familiar with the articulate "Lady Instructor," Miss E.B. Mott, who resigned from UND after sharing her opinions with the Board. However, most are likely unaware of Miss Allen, whose experience with the Board of Regents was vastly different. Likewise, many probably do not know that the dumping of raw sewage into the Cooley and the lack of an artesian well to flush the water led to a diptheria outbreak, which caused the death of a female student who did not heed warnings to stop swimming in the river. Disease was not the only concern for safety. The fact that the boiler was located in the same space that classes were held and where students slept at night led one regent to remark: "An explosion of the boilers would most certainly be fraught with consequences not pleasant to contemplate."
While there may have been some dangers, UND was also well-protected. As then President Roach reminds Governor Church, "I would respectfully call your attention to Section Eleven Chapter Forty, Session laws of 1883, the act establishing the University of North Dakota, wherein the furnishing arms to the Students is expressly provided for and made the duty of the Territory." Duly corrected, Governor Church simply asks "How many arms do you want?"
That said, in spite of the difficulties and financial issues that the institution faced during its first decade, UND recognized the importance of having a well-supplied library and purchased books. It invested time and money in obtaining specimens for its museum, and dedicated itself to offering courses that would not only be useful to the area's students, but also prepare them to be leaders inside the Dakota Territory and beyond.
Note on Transcription Methods
The ledgers were transcribed and verified by members of the Fall 2007 Introduction to Writing and Editing course. One person was responsible for transcribing the information from the digital image and two people verified the transcriptions. When words were difficult to transcribe or illegible, they have been transcribed as [illegible] or placed in brackets to note that they are unclear. Should errors be discovered, please feel free to email with the corrections. In addition, there are pages of the Board of Regents ledgers that contain graphs, maps, and other images. In such cases, transcriptions were not possible and a link to the image has been provided.
Finally, please note, the HTML transcriptions are not meant to be facsimile copies. Superscript and other formatting has occasionally been omitted for display purposes.
Board of Regents Project Team Members
Sally Cook, Holly Edwards, Ericka Erickson, John Fitzgerald, Abby Gratz, Andrea Mackay, Kari Mitchell, Christopher Nanoff, Abbey Numedahl, Erin Sagen, Jessica Santini, Angela Solarski, Sarah Strasburg, Katy Thiel, Crystal Alberts, and David Marshall.
