The first meeting of the Board was to have been held in Fond du Lac, June 30, 1847, but as there was not a quorum present, the meeting was adjourned to Sept. 3d.  At this meeting the Board was duly organized by the election of the following officers:  Hon. M.C.  Darling, President; Hon. N.P.  Talmadge, First Vice President; H.S.  Baird, Esq., Second Vice President; Rev. Wm. H. Sampson, Secretary, and Hon. Morgan L. Martin, Treasurer.  Rev. Reeder Smith was appointed Agent.

Geo. W. Law, Esq., and Hon. John F. Mead now offered a donation of thirty-one acres of land each, on condition that the Institute should be located at Grand Chute.  The offer was accepted, and the location was made, the name of the place being soon after changed to Appleton.  In due time the Law Tract was conveyed to the Trustees, but, by some strange mismanagement, to say the least, on the part of the Agent, the Mead land was conveyed to another party, and it was lost to the Institute.

At the Conference of 1848, Brother Sampson was appointed Principal, and was expected to serve as Agent until the building to be erected was ready for occupancy.  In pursuance of this arrangement he left Fond du Lac, Sept. 7th, to enter upon his new field of operations.  He took the steamer to Neenah, and then obtained an Indian “Dug-out” for the balance of the journey.  As the craft carried no sail, he was compelled to put her before the “white ash breeze” across Lake Butte des Morts, and down the river to the point of destination, his craft being nearly swamped by a gale on the Lake.

On the 8th of September he began to cut a road to the grounds and clear the brush from the campus, thereby making the beginning of both the Institute and the city of Appleton.  The lumber for the building of the Preparatory Department was purchased of Hon. M.L.  Martin, and was delivered at Duck Creek.  The timber was furnished by Col.  H.L.  Blood.  Through the indomitable energy of Col.  Blood and the co-operation of the agents, the building, seventy by thirty feet in size, and three stories high, was ready to receive students on the 12th day of November, 1849.

The Faculty with which the school opened were Rev. Wm. H. Sampson, Principal, Rev. R.O.  Kellogg, Professor of Ancient Languages, Mr. James M. Phinney, Professor of Mathematics, and Miss Emeline M. Crooker, Preceptress.  The first catalogue, published in the fall of 1850, showed a list of one hundred and five students, which was certainly a very creditable beginning.  The name of the Institute was now changed to Lawrence University.

A record of the early years of struggle and sacrifice necessary to found the University would fill a volume, and cannot be given at length in these pages.  Having been a member of the Board for nearly a quarter of a century, I could say much of the noble men who performed double service on half pay, but such a recital cannot here be given.