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:
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)