History
In 1849, Rev. Leo Meyer purchased the land for the future university from John Stuart with a medal of St. Joseph, and a promise of US$12,000 during a cholera epidemic. As a condition of purchase, Rev. Meyer promised to maintain the grave site of Stuart's daughter. The land, known then as Dewberry Farm, was 125 acres (0.5 km2) and was primarily vineyards and orchards.
In 1850 the university was founded as a day school and boarding school for boys called St. Mary's School for Boys, later St. Mary's Institute. In 1913, the city of Dayton suffered a massive flooding when the Great Miami River overflowed. The university responded by sending faculty, Marianist brothers, and students out in rowboats to rescue Dayton citizens. In 1920, to reflect UD's commitment to its community, it took its current name. In 1935, the University of Dayton began admitting women, making it the first coeducational Roman Catholic university in the United States. As of 2011, UD is the largest private university in Ohio.
Read more about this topic: University Of Dayton
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“They are a sort of post-house,where the Fates
Change horses, making history change its tune,
Then spur away o’er empires and o’er states,
Leaving at last not much besides chronology,
Excepting the post-obits of theology.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)