morrill

American Agriculture History Minute: First Land-Grant College Founded Under the Morrill Act

Dan Agri-Business, American Agriculture History Minute, Education, Legislative, This Land of Ours

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

American Agriculture History Minute: First Land-Grant College Founded Under the Morrill Act
morrill
Drawing of Blue Mont Central College
By The Hall & O’Donald Litho Co. – College Symposium of the Kansas State Agricultural College
Public Domain/Wikimedia image<

Kansas State University, originally named Kansas State Agricultural College, was founded in Manhattan February 16, 1863, during the American Civil War. It was a land-grant institution under the Morrill Act. In fact, the school was the first land-grant college under the Morrill Act.

The effort to establish the school actually began in 1861, the year Kansas was admitted to the Union, and the new state legislatures taught priority was establishing a state university. And that year, a delegation from Manhattan went to the legislature and introduced a bill to convert the private Bluemont Central College to Kansas State.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.