Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

416 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
lature, from which the legal conception of the University of Georgia
may be said to date.
The measure in question provided for the creation of two counties
amid the virgin solitudes of the state to foe called, respectively, Washing
ton and Franklin, both of which at the time of organization embraced
extensive areas. It was furthermore provided that in each of these
counties 20,000 acres of land should be set aside for the purpose of
endowing a college, the land to be of the very best quality, and to foe
subdivided into separate tracts or parcels, containing 5,000 acres each.
The titles to the property were to be vested in the following well-
known Georgians, who were authorized to take whatever steps were
necessary to put the resolution into effect, to-wit: John Houstoun,
James Habersham, William Few, Joseph Clay, Abraham Baldwin, and
Nathan Brownson. In pursuance of the authority given to them by
the Legislature these gentlemen proceeded to survey the lands.
There were originally eight tracts. But one of these was eventually
lost to the state when the boundary line dispute between South Caro
lina and Georgia was adjusted. It was known as the Keowee tract
and was for years a bone of contention. As soon as the surveys were
completed, the Legislature passed a bill, approved January 27, 1785,
providing in formal terms for the establishment of a public seat of
learning; and this act—drawn by Abraham Baldwin—constitutes the
charter of the University of Georgia. The first meeting of the trustees
under this act was held in Augusta, on February 13, 1786, at which
time the board consisted of the following members, to-wit: Abraham
Baldwin, William Few, William Glascock, John Habersham, Nathan
Brownson, Hugh Lawson, and Benjamin Taliaferro. Until the insti
tution was formally launched, Abraham Baldwin was chosen to act as
president. This position he held until 1801, due to the exigencies of
the times. During this interval of fourteen years between the grant
ing of the charter and the opening of the college, there was little for
the trustees to do except to dispose of the lands in such a way as to
accumulate a fund for the erection of the buildings.
Unfortunately, at this early period, lands were cheap and rents
uncertain. To show what lands were really worth at this time, Gov
ernor Wilson Lumpkin informs us that his father, John Lumpkin, who
received handsome grants of land from the state, in requital of his
services in the Revolution, sold 400 acres at one time for a shot gun
and an equal amount later for a saddle horse. Says Mr. Hull: "If
this foe taken as a criterion, the munificent gift of the state was worth
at the time it was made only fifty rifles and as many saddle horses,
from which, however, twelve horses should be deducted for the 5,000
acres lost." But impoverished by the Revolution there was nothing
for. Georgia to give except lands, in which she possessed an imperial
domain.
On one of the tracts of land the trustees in 1798 laid off the
town of Greensboro, at which time 1,000 acres were offered for sale or
lease in the immediate neighborhood.
Some of the trustees desired to locate the college at Greensboro,
but there was difficulty in getting a quorum together; so the matter
drifted.