Act of 1837. — Under the act of March 18, 1837, the government of the University was vested in the Board of Regents. This body was to consist of several state officials as ex officio members, twelve appointed members, and a chancellor of the University, who should be ex officio president of the Board. (Actually, however, no president or chancellor of the University was appointed before 1852, and the short-termed, elected presidents of the faculty between 1841 and 1852 did not serve in this capacity.) The Board of Regents was nominated by the governor and was appointed by and with advice and consent of the Senate. The governor, the lieutenant governor, the judges of the Supreme Court, and the chancellor of the state were the ex officio members of the Board. The number of Supreme Court justices was increased from three to four in 1838, and in 1846 the office of chancellor of the state was abolished. Under the organic act of 1837 the list of Regents was as follows:
The Regents of the University of Michigan, 1837-1852
Ex Officio
Stevens T. Mason, Governor1837-1840
Edward Mundy
Lieutenant Governor1837-1840
Acting Governor1838
Justice of the Supreme Court1848-1851
Elon Farnsworth1837-1842
Chancellor of Michigan & 1846
William A. Fletcher1837-1842
Justice of the Supreme Court
George Morell1837-1842
Justice of the Supreme Court
Apaphroditus Ransom
Justice of the Supreme Court1837-1842
&1843-1848
Governor1848-1850
Charles W. Whipple1838-1851
Justice of the Supreme Court
William Woodbridge1840-1841
Governor
James Wright Gordon
Lieutenant Governor1840-1841
Acting Governor1841-1842
Thomas J Drake1841-1842
Acting Lieutenant Governor
John S. Barry1842-1856
Governor&1850-1851
Origen D. Richardson1842-1846
Lieutenant Governor
Alpheus Felch
Justice of the Supreme Court1842-1845
Governor1846-1847
Daniel Goodwin
Justice of the Supreme Court1843-1846
Warner Wind
Justice of the Supreme Court1845-1852
William L. Greenly
Lieutenant Governor1846-1847
Acting Governor1847-1848
George Miles
Justice of the Supreme Court1846-1850
Charles P. Bush
Acting Lieutenant Governor1847-1848
William M. Fenton
Lieutenant Governor1848-1852
Sanford M. Green
Justice of the Supreme Court1848-1852
Abner Pratt
Justice of the Supreme Court1850-1852
George Martin
Justice of the Supreme Court1851-1852
Appointed
Thomas Fitzgerald1837
Robert McClelland1837, 1850-1852
John Frederich Porter1837-1850
Michael Hoffman1837-1838
Lucius Lyon1837-1839
John Norvell1837-1840
John Johnstone Adam1837-1840
Samuel Denton1837-1840
Gideon Olin Whittemore1837-1840
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft1837-1841
Ross T. Wilkins1837-1842
Isaac Edwin Crary1837-1844
Zina Pitcher1837-1850
Seba Murphy1838-1839
Gurdon C. Leech1838-1840
Jonathan Kearsley1838-1852
Joseph W. Brown1839-1840
Charles Christopher Trowbridge1839-1842
George Duffield1839-1848
Michael A. Paterson1840-1841
William Draper1840-1944
Daniel Hudson1840-1841
Francis John Higginson1840-1841
Samuel William Dexter1840-1841
Oliver Cromwell Comsock1841-1843
Martin Kundig1841-1845
John Owen1841-1848
George Goodman1841-1843
Andrew M. Fitch1842-1846
Elisha Crane1842-1846
William Asas Fletcher1842-1846
DeWitt Clinton Walker1843-1844
Marvin Allen1843-1852
Lewis Cass1843-1844
Robert Ransom Kellogg1844-1845
Edward Mundy1844-1848
Alexander Heman Redfield1844-1852
Minot Thayer Lane1845-1859
Austin Enoch Wing1845-1850
Charles Coffin Taylor1846-1850
Elijah Holmes Pilcher1846-1852
Elon Farnsworth1846-1852
John Guest Atterbury1848-1852
Benjamin F. Hawkins Witherell1848-1852
Justin Goodwin1848-1852
Edwin M. Cust1849
Epaphroditus Ransom1850-1952
Gustavus Lemuel Foster1850-1852
Secretaries
Charles W Whipple1837-1839
Anthony Ten Eyck1839-1845
James Valentine Campbell1846-1852
Treasurers
John Norton1837-1839
Henry K. Sanger1839-1841
Alexander H. Sibley1841-1844
John Johnstone Adam1844-1846
&1848-1851
Digby V. Bell1846-1848
John Manly Chase1851-1852
For several years (1845-50), both Warner Wing and Austin E. Wing were members of this Board, of which no members save Elon Farnsworth continued as Regents in 1852. None of the officers was Regent during his term of office, but John J. Adam was a former Regent, and Secretary Charles W. Whipple was later a justice of the Supreme Court and hence Regent ex officio. Secretary James V. Campbell was afterwards Professor of Law in the University, and still later, a justice of the Supreme Court; before he became a justice, however, the new state constitution had gone into effect, and no longer were the justices and other state officers Regents of the University ex officio. Alpheus Felch held the Tappan professorship of law from 1879 to 1883. Under the Constitution of 1835, Fletcher, Mundy, Farnsworth, and Ransom served separate terms as Regents by appointment and Regents by virtue of public office. Oliver Comstock became superintendent of public instruction in 1843, immediately after he had been on the Board two years as a Regent by appointment. At that time the superintendents of public instruction were not ex officio members of the Board of Regents.
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