Constitution of 1850 and Constitution of 1908. — By the Constitution of 1850 it was provided (sec. 6, Art. XIII) that "there shall be elected in each judicial circuit (eight in number), at the time of the election of the judge of such circuit, a regent of the University, whose term of office shall be the same as that of such judge" (six years).
When the first Regents by election took office in 1852 there was an almost complete change in the personnel of the Board. In 1858 the change was complete as to the Board itself, its secretary, and its treasurer; and of the Regents who took office in 1858, only J. E. Johnson remained after 1864. The defect in organization, which made possible these recurring shocks to University government was corrected by a constitutional amendment and special laws in 1862 and 1863 (Bylaws, 1883, p. 6), which afforded essential continuity in the personnel, and thus indirectly in the policy, of the Board of Regents. Specifically, section 6, Article XIII, of the constitution was changed so as to provide that eight Regents should be elected in 1863, at the time of the election of a justice of the Supreme Court; that of these, two should hold office for two years, two for four years, two for six years, and two for eight years; and that thereafter, two Regents should be elected every two years, for eight-year terms, at each regular election of a justice of the Supreme Court. The former provision that there must be a Regent from each judicial district of the state was discontinued; thereafter, although the law contained no explicit statement to this effect, Regents were to be drawn from any part of the state and to be elected by the people at large. Vacancies were to be filled, as they still are, by appointment of the governor. By the Constitution of 1908 the number of Regents was again fixed at eight, independently of the judicial circuits, the term of office remained eight years, and it was provided that there should be elected "at each regular biennial spring election two members of such board" (sec. 3, Art. XI).
Under the provisions of the Constitution of 1850, the amendment of 1862, and the Constitution of 1908, the list of Regents was as follows:
Ex Officio
Presidents
Henry Philip Tappan1852-1863
Erastus Otis Haven1863-1869
Henry Simmons Frieze,1869-1871
President pro tem&1880-1882
James Burrill Angell1871-1909
Harry Burns Hutchins1910-1920
Marion Leroy Burton1920-1925
Alfred Henry Lloyd
Acting President (Feb-Sept)1925
Clarence Cook Little1925-1929
Alexander Grant Ruthven1929-
Superintendents of Public Instruction
Luther Lampheare Wright1908-1913
Fred Lockwood Keeler1913-1919
Thomas E. Johnson1919-1926
Wilford L. Coffey1926-1927
Webster H. Pearce1927-1933
Paul F. Voelker1933-1935
Eugene B. Elliott1935-1950
Elected Regents and Those Appointed to Fill Vacancies
Michael A. Patterson1852-1858
Edward Shaw Moore1852-1858
Elon Farnsworth1852-1858
James Kingsley1852-1858
Elisha Ely1852-1854
Charles Henry Palmer1852-1858
Andrew Parsons1852-1854
William Upjohn1852-1858
Henry Horatio Northrop1854-1858
Benjamin Levi Baxter1858-1864
James Eastman Johnson1858-1870
Levi Bishop1858-1864
Donald McIntyre1858-1864
Ebenezer Lakin Brown1858-1864
Luke H. Parsons1858-1862
John Van Vleck1858
Henry Whiting1858-1864
Oliver Lyman Spaulding1858-1864
William Montague Ferry1858-1864
George Bradley1858-1864
Edward Carey Walker1864-1882
George Willard1864-1874
Thomas Dwight Gilbert1864-1876
Thomas Jefferson Joslin1864-1868
Henry C. Knight1864-1867
Alvah Sweetzer1864
James Albert Sweezey1864-1872
Cyrus Moses Stockwell1865-1872
John Mahelm Berry Sill1867-1870
Hiram Austin Burt1868-1876
Joseph Estabrook1870-1878
Jonas Hartzel McGowan1870-1877
Claudius Buchanan Grant1872-1880
Charles Rynd1872-1880
Andrew Climie1874-1881
Byron MacCutcheon1876-1883
Samuel Snow Walker1876-1884
Victory Phelps Collier1877
George Duffield1877-1886
George Lewis Maltz1878-1880
James Shearer1880-1888
Ebenezer Oliver Grosvenor1880-1888
Jacob J. VanRiper1880-1886
Austin Blair1881-1890
James Frederick Joy1882-1887
Lyman Decatur Norris1883-1884
Arthur Merrill Clark1884-1892
Charles Joseph Willett1884-1892
Moses Wheelock Field1886-1894
Charles Rudolphus Whitman1886-1894
Charles Stuart Draper1887-1892
Roger Williams Butterfield1888-1904
Charles Hebard1888-1896
Hermann Kiefer1889-1902
William Johnson Cocker1890-1901
Peter Napoleon Cook1892-1900
Henry Howard1892-1894
Levi Lewis Barbour 1892-1898 &1902-1908
Frank Ward Fletcher1894-1910
Henry Stewart Dean1894-1908
George Alexander Farr1896-1904
Charles DeWitt Lawton1898-1906
Eli Ransom Sutton1900-1902
Arthur Hill1901-1909
Henry Westonrae Carey1902-1910
Loyal Edwin Knappen1904-1911
Peter White1904-1908
Walter Hulme Sawyer1906-1931
Junius Emery Beal1908-1940
Frank Bruce Leland1908-1924
Chase Salmon Osborn1908-1911
John Henry Grant1909-1914
William Lawrence Clements1910-1934
George Pierre Codd1910-1911
Lucius Lee Hubbard1911-1933
Benjamin Sawtell Hanchett1911-1933
Harry Conant Bulkley1911-1918
William Alfred Comstock1913-1914
Victor Michael Gore1914-1930
James Orin Murfin1918-1934 &1834-1938
Ralph Stone1924-1940
Esther Marsh Cram1929-
R. Perry Shorts1930-1934
Richard R. Smith1931-1938
Edmund C. Shields1933-1936 &1938-
Charles F. Hemans1934-
Franklin M. Cook1934-
David H. Cowley1936-
John D. Lynch1938-
Harry G. Kipke1940-
J. Joseph Herbert1940-
Officers of the Board
Secretaries and Stewards
Charles Henry Palmer, Secretary1852
Oliver Warner Moore, Secretary1852-1853
Edward Raymond Chase, Secretary1853-1854
Alexander Winchell, Secretary1854-1856
Joseph Hardcastle Vance, Steward1855-1859
John Livingston Tappan, Secretary1856-1858
Daniel Leonard Wood, Secretary1858-1864
John Hiram Burleson, Steward1859-1864
Secretary and Steward1864-1869
Henry DeWitt Bennett
Secretary and Steward1869-1883
James Henry Wade
Secretary and Steward1883-1908
Shirley Wheeler Smith, Secretary1908-
Treasurers
John Manly Chase1852-1858
Henry Woolsey Welles1858-1860
Volney Chapin1860-1864
Donald McIntyre1864-1872
John Marshall Wheeler1872-1878
William Addison Tolchard1878-1883
Harrison Soule1883-1908
George Sumner Baker1908-1911
Robert Alexander Campbell1911-1931
The lack of a settled personnel policy as to officers of the Board during the Tappan and Haven administrations is obvious. Of all the secretaries and treasurers of the Board of Regents, Charles Henry Palmer, Secretary in 1852, was the only one to hold the office while he was serving as a regular member of the Board. Donald McIntyre, on the other hand, was following the example of John J. Adam in serving the Board as treasurer after his term as Regent had expired. The secretary from 1854 to 1856 was Professor Alexander Winchell, the only person who ever served simultaneously as a full-time member of the teaching staff and as an officer of the Board.
Secretary John L. Tappan and Steward Joseph Vance, however, were librarians of the University while they were officers of the Board.
To prevent confusion it should perhaps be pointed out that Secretary D. L. Wood was Daniel Wood, not the University's well-known engineering professor of that period, DeVolson Wood; and also that the Regent George Duffield of 1877-86 was not the Regent George Duffield of 1839-48, but his son.
E. Blythe Stason
Helen Travis
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