041
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Title
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041
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Transcription
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ramifications contributed to the pioneer history of the state, involving finally the governor, who as president of the board of regents, had approved the expenditure of a sum in excess of the appropriation. Charges to this effect formed one of the items in a subsequent impeachment trial.
In his first report, made in June, 1872, Chancellor Benton said, "Some difficulty has been experienced in making the roof impervious to rain." It may be added in this connection that this difficulty in achieving imperviousness has persisted down to date, and was a matter of common knowledge and comment in the student body through all the earlier college generations. In his first report, the chancellor also called the attention of the regents to the furnaces which failed to heat the building and were costly to operate. In his second report in June, 1873, he stated class rooms had been heated by stoves in the chapel also. Early generations of students remember the ugly and insatiable stoves that made winter use of the old chapel possible, but never comfortable. The old chapel, in the north wing of what is now known as University Hall, occupied the second and third floors, the rostrum being at the north end, with a gallery across the south end. The seats were the traditional pews. With wealth of bleak walls, its stained and perilous ceiling, a more uninspiring room cannot well be imagined; but pioneer spirit was not so easily daunted.
Until the installation of a steam-heated plant in the east side of the north wing of the basement in 1885, the janitor service was performed by students who were remunerated very modestly, one, at least, being permitted to sleep in the building. The care of from twenty-five to thirty hard-coal base burners constituted the moat laborious part of the janitor work. Huge ash-heaps accumulated in the angle west of the north wing. Pioneer children mounted these ash heaps in order to view the skeletons in the museum on the first floor, underneath the chapel.
With the coming of the steam plant, John Green entered the service of the university as head janitor and engineer. Until the removal of the heating plant to the new boiler
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