2  ’
i {  
l
; 16 THE KENTUCKY ALUMNUS  
V February 22, 1865, to be paid over to the Curators of the University, so long 2
, as the Agricultural and Mechanical College should continue to be one of the  ,
  Colleges of the Kentucky University. Approved February 28, 1865.  
  An act approved February 10, 1866, authorized the "Auditor of Public K
{ Accounts to draw his warrant upon the treasury in favor of the Treasurer
. of the Board of Curators of Kentucky University for the sum of twenty
j thousand dollars—to aid in putting the Agricultural and Mechanical College
1 into immediate operation. Upon the payment of the foregoing sum the State
shall be entitled to send to the said College, free of charge, three pupils for
· each representative district. The State reserves the right to reimburse itself 1
i for the amount herein appropriated out of the interest arising from the
sale of the land scrip donated by Congress."
- The Curators of Kentucky University had then from these three sources,
provided they continued unimpaired, a united income of $25,500, with which
to carry on the operations of the institution, an income not large as measured 1
, by University incomes of today, but equal to the united incomes of all the  
other colleges in Kentucky at that time put together. Its management was in _`
the hands of the youngest and most aggressive denomination in Kentucky,
flushed with success and eagerly expectant of great educational achievements in
. the future. The collapse of nearly all educational enterprises in the South during
the war gave the Kentucky University practically all the Southwest and a _
large section of the `West as a recruiting ground.
All these advantages Mr. Bowman saw and estimated rightly. He deter-
` mined upon a policy in the management, of the University which should con- _
ciliate ecclesiastical antagonism. He wished particularly while stimulating the 1
_ pride of his own people to bring them into more cordial relations with the V
Q other religious bodies of the Commonwealth. His enlightened policy, if it had S
i been pursued consistently, might have made Kentucky University one of the f
greatest seats of learning in the Mississippi Valley. 1
Mr. Bowman, having accomplished so much, set to work with charac- Y
teristic energy to fuliill the requirement of the Legislature in regard to the
purchase of an experimental farm for the use of the Agricultural College. _  
; He appealed to members of his own church, and to enterprising and patriotic Y
~ citizens of Fayette and adjacent counties irrespective of church relation- ‘
i ship. To the former, the prospect of the ownership of land worth $100,000
appealed as bringing prestige and dignity to them and the Kentucky Univer- \
sity; to the latter, the prospect of the eclat attaching to the probable purchase
and ownership of the Ashland estate and the dedication of the Home of I
= Henry Clay to education appealed with peculiar force. The requisite amount
· was raised by Mr. Bowman within three months and the Ashland estate, J
_ containing 320 acres, was purchased for $90,000. ¥Vithin a few weeks, ad-
ditional subscriptions enabled Mr. Bowman to add to the previous purchase, ~
\Voodlands, containing 120 acres lying between Ashland and the city limits, L
at a cost of $40,000, making in all 450 acres, costing $130,000. I