FRANKLIN WELLS. 325 



fices in the State, but he steadfastly declined any proposals for nomi- 

 nation for such offices. 



In 187.3 he was appointed by Gov. Bagley, member of the State Board 

 of Agriculture, and it was on this board that his most important public 

 work was given. For thirty years he devoted his best efforts to the 

 advancement of the interests of the Michigan State Agricultural College. 



His appointment on the board came at a time when the college was 

 making its hardest struggle for existence. It had just escaped amalga- 

 mation with the university. There had been for a year or two previous 

 considerable friction in internal management. The resources of the 

 college were small and there was no great prospect of improvement. 

 Gov. Bagley fortunately had a full appreciation of the value of the State 

 educational institutions. In his first message he advocated liberal ap- 

 propriations to the university and the college. The total State appro- 

 priation for 1873 was $27,316, and the interest from the land grant 

 fund was |11,038.48. The total college expenditures for the year in- 

 cluding boarding hall was |50,535.39. 



Mr. Wells accepted the office in the same spirit which characterized 

 all his work. He' made the college business his business. In those days 

 it was customary for the board to be met by the college team on arrival 

 at the station, whence they were taken to the home of the president or 

 a member of the faculty, to be entertained during their meeting. Hotel 

 bills were almost unknown in the board members accounts of those days. 



Gov. Bagley's recommendation of liberality to the educational institu- 

 tions bore fruit, and the legislative appropriations were larger and more 

 freely given than for some years previous. From this time on the col- 

 lege continued slowly to gain the support of the farmers of the State, 

 a support which should have been expected from the start, but which 

 was not always given. 



Mr. Wells' committee work on the board during his first term was on 

 the finance and farm committees. On the former his business training 

 made his services exceedingly valuable. He always strove to maintain 

 the college along the original ideas which its founders had proclaimed 

 at the beginning. While neglecting no other valuable feature he always 

 sustained every niovement to improve its agricultural department. 



In 1883 on the death of Hezekiah G. Wells, who had been president 

 of the board for many years, Mr. Franklin Wells was elected president 

 and was re-elected at each biennial reorganization till 1899. He was 

 again elected in January, 1903. He thus served on the board a few 

 months over thirty years, and as its president sixteen years. 



A material monument to his memory, which will last for many years 

 is the double row of elm trees growing along the north side of the 

 campus and orchard, planted at the suggestion of Mr. Wells. 



The details of Mr. Well's valuable work for the college are not con- 

 tained in the records 'of the Board of Agriculture. They cannot be 

 written. They are etched upon the map of the campus in living char- 

 acters, and stand out in relief in its architectural monuments. More 

 permanent even than this, is the impress he made upon his fellow mem- 

 bers of the board, the faculty of the college, the alumni and students, 

 all who were his contemporaries during those thirty years, and from 

 them to be transmitted to successors and to successive^ generations. 



