Summary The history of the University of Michigan traces back to the colonial era of New France, beginning as a system of Christian schools located at or near Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit. By the turn of the 19th century, following the Great Fire of 1805, parishioners, including students and teachers from these Christian schools whose schoolhouses were destroyed in the fire, formed a corporation known as the Église Catholique, Apostolique et Romaine de Sainte Anne du Detroit, under its rector, Gabriel Richard. After much agitation by Richard for the establishment of an "institution for higher learning," the territorial government created an entity in 1817 named the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania. This entity formed in 1817 is the direct legal antecedent of today's University of Michigan, as confirmed by a decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in January 1856, thereby making it the oldest institution of higher education in the State of Michigan.
The Catholic parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit was instrumental in the university's founding. A substantial portion of the initial endowment likely stemmed from an 1826 federal land grant for a Seminary of Learning of the Territory of Michigan. This grant was issued in accordance with a gift from Catholic members of indigenous tribes to the university's founder, Gabriel Richard, to support both the parish and the creation of a College at Detroit. At its foundation, the university oversaw all cultural establishments within the territory. The original University Building on Bates Street in Detroit initially served a tripartite role, housing the nascent university, the Christian schools undergoing reconstruction following the Great Fire of 1805, and the city's library. This changed with the Organic Act of March 18, 1837, when the institution narrowed its functions to focus solely on higher education.
The university was the second U.S. institution to issue the Bachelor of Science degree in 1855, following Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School. Its university hospital, which opened in 1869, is the oldest in the country. The university was the first in the country to offer courses in aeronautical engineering, nuclear science & engineering, material science, metallurgy, public policy, and forestry. The university was one of the early doctoral-granting U.S. institutions in the late 19th century, awarding its first Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1876.
Origins Cadillac's proposal
The proposal for establishing an institution of higher education in Michigan dates back to 1703, during the colonial period of New France. Just two years after founding Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit on the strait between Lakes Saint Clair and Erie in 1701, the French explorer and later colonial governor of Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, wrote to King Louis XIV's minister, Louis Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain, from the settlement under the date of August 31, 1703. He urged the establishment of a seminary in the newly formed parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit:
In contrast to the colonial colleges in British territories and the colonial universities in Hispanic America, the local demand for priests and ministers in French colonies was primarily met through a collection of séminaires, collèges and petites écoles, which provided both elementary schooling and classical studies. The operation of most educational institutions depended on various Catholic orders, especially the Jesuits and Sulpicians, but also the Recollects, Ursulines, and the Congregation of Notre Dame, among others.
The séminaires in the colonies were primarily institutional transplants from France. In terms of their spirit and mission to prepare individuals for the priesthood, these institutions closely resembled their counterparts in France, which were often advanced ecclesiastical establishments where séminariste were required to defend theses. However, the realities of a frontier society meant that they could not simply exist as carbon copies of those in France. In their early years, in an attempt by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, King Louis XIV's minister, to impose the French language and culture on the colonies, the séminaires in New France mainly served as preparatory schools for Indigenous people as well as for children of settlers with studious dispositions and a desire to enter the priesthood. They would only later evolve into true séminaires when circumstances allowed. At that time, several major séminaires were established in New France, notably the Séminaire de Québec, founded by Bishop François de Laval with the support of the Société des Missions Étrangères, to train priests in Quebec City. Additionally, the Sulpicians operated the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice in Montréal.
Cadillac pledged his future support for the seminary and suggested that this should be the duty of the superiors in Québec:
It remains uncertain whether a seminary was ever established; the surviving registres after the fire on October 5, 1703, make no mention of a seminary being created from the proposal. Jesuit superiors in Quebec likely opposed the idea of creating a seminary in the Pays d'en Haut, due to disputes with Cadillac and fears of rivalry with their own institutions. Cadillac complained in his letter that the Jesuits had no desire to assume the duties of missionaries in Detroit, and they even discouraged other missionaries from coming to the area. Parish records related to the marriage of Jean Baptiste Rocoux on May 15, 1755 indicate, nevertheless, that he was "Director of Christian Schools", suggesting the influence of the gentle St. John Baptist de La Salle and his famous Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Rocoux kept a school either at his residence on St. Jacques Street or in a building under the patronage of Ste. Anne's Church. There was a French subscription school that stood near the fort in 1775, and an old account book preserved from 1780 contains tuition charges dated as early as 1760. Mentions are made of a seminary at the fort that trained young men for the ministry, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1805. Fr. Gabriel Richard is said to have presided over the seminary since 1804, teaching Latin, geography, ecclesiastical history, church music, and the practice of mental prayer. In 1811, M. Salliere joined the faculty as a professor of literature, chemistry, and astronomy. The exact date of the seminary's opening is unknown, although it existed as early as 1802.
The colony was surrendered to the British monarchy in 1762 following the French and Indian War. However, the British viewed the colony merely as a trading post and did practically nothing for education, leading to stagnation during their rule from 1763 to 1796. After the 1783 peace treaty with the United States, the British abandoned their hopes of permanently holding Detroit, maintaining it only as a military outpost. Despite Alexander Grant, William Macomb, and David William Smith representing Greater Detroit in the first parliament of Upper Canada, the parliament hesitated to pass laws, enacting only a few inadequate acts, and did not establish any schools. As a result, English families in the area sent their children to French Christian schools, which became bilingual. In the account by Fr. François-Xavier Dufaux, who presided over a girls' school founded in 1782 by Fr. François-Xavier Hubert in the nearby parish of the Assumption, he noted:
When the Americans took control of the colony in 1796, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the judges of the territorial government were supposed to be called in to formally define the rights and legal status of the Christian schools under the new constitution. Thereafter, the interpretation of the American right to education in Michigan, grounded in Section 1, Article XI of the Northwest Ordinance, was laid out.
Gabriel Richard's petitions
The schools, now under the ministry of Fr. Gabriel Richard, were scattered throughout the colony. In 1804, Fr. Richard established a Ladies' Academy, with Elizazbeth Lyons, Angelique Campau, Monique Labadie, and Elizabeth Williams as teachers. He also established a library for the church and a printing press.
Following the Great Fire of 1805, Congress enacted a law on April 21, 1806, allowing the governor and judges to allocate village lots to those entitled and to dispose any remaining lots not distributed to fire victims. In October 1806 Richard presented the following petition to the governor and judges: The lot mentioned in this petition would have been too small for a college and the priest requested a larger tract of land, between Woodward Avenue and Griswold Street, from Campus Martius to Jefferson Avenue, including additional lots west of Griswold and south of Larned. However, the request was not granted.
On April 15, 1807, the parishioners formed a corporation known as the Église Catholique, Apostolique et Romain de Sainte Anne du Detroit. This organization was granted a block of land bounded by Larned, Bates, and Randolph Streets. The articles of incorporation for the church included a provision for the appointment of school teachers by the bishop of the diocese. On October 18, 1808, Richard addressed a memorial to the territorial governor and judges. In this memorial, he mentioned, in addition to the schools in the town of Detroit, “four schools for boys and two for our young ladies, either in town or at Spring Hill, at Grand Marais (modern-day Grosse Pointe), or even at River Hurons.” He further proposed the establishment of an "institution for higher learning", and suggested that a lottery might be used to support the academies he headed.
Subsequently, in 1817, during the postwar period following the War of 1812, the Territorial government, at the instigation of Gabriel Richard and Judge Augustus B. Woodward and with the support of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, passed "an Act to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania" within the Territory of Michigan. Enacted on August 26, 1817, the Act effectively consolidated the schools into one institution, with Rev. John Monteith, a Presbyterian minister who had arrived in Detroit a year earlier, serving as its president and Fr. Richard as vice president. Its didactors had authority not only over the university itself but also over education in the territory in general. The legislative act was signed into law by Acting Governor and Secretary William Woodbridge, Chief Judge Augustus B. Woodward, and Judge John Griffin.
The Catholepistemiad, 1817 to 1837
The term "Catholepistemiad," a neologism derived from a blend of Greek and Latin roots, can be loosely translated as "School of Universal Knowledge". The corporation was modeled after an institution established in France a decade earlier, known as the Université imperial, under Emperor Napoleon. Under the act, the Catholepistimiad, or University of Michigania, was to be established with professorships, or didaxiim in thirteen fields of knowledge: Anthropoglossica (Literature), Mathematica (Mathematics), Physiognostica (Natural History), Physiosophica (Natural Philosophy), Astronomia (Astronomy), Chymia (Chemistry), Iatrica (Medicine), Œconomica (Economical Sciences), Ethica (Ethics), Polemitactica (Military Science), Diëgetica (Historical Sciences), Ennœica (Intellectual Sciences), and Catholepistemia (Universal Science). Initially, Richard was granted six didaxiim, and John Monteith, was granted the other seven. In addition, Monteith was to serve as the university's president and Richard would be its vice president.