William S. Clark - Massachusetts Agricultural College

Massachusetts Agricultural College

The movement for an agricultural college in Massachusetts had begun as early as the 1830s, long before Clark became involved. The leaders of the movement included men such as Marshall Wilder, a prosperous Boston merchant and president of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, and Judge Henry Flagg French, who would become the first president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Their efforts met with little progress until the passage of the Morrill Land Grant Act in 1862. Sponsored by U.S. Representative Justin Smith Morrill, the act allotted federal land in the West to each state. The proceeds from the sale of this land were to support the establishment of colleges "related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." Massachusetts voted to take advantage of this federal program and established the Massachusetts Agricultural College in April 1863.

Proponents of agricultural education, including Clark, felt that scientific advances were bypassing farmers as a class. Clark lamented that farmers in Massachusetts had little access to higher education and that, consequently, the profession was degenerating economically and intellectually. As Clark wrote,

In the good time coming, the refining, elevating, and strengthening influences of high intellectual and aesthetic culture will be considered as desirable in the agricultural profession as they are in medicine, law or theology... If practical farmers are to remain ignorant of all the higher branches of learning, and to have only the mental discipline and culture of the country public schools, they can never occupy their proper position in society.

The farmer's "proper position in society" was in particular jeopardy in New England, according to leaders of the agricultural education movement. Increasing industrialization caused the population of mill towns to grow exponentially in the mid-19th century at the expense of rural towns, many of which were left all but abandoned, especially in western Massachusetts. Adding to the crisis was the phenomenon of westward movement and the lure of cheap land in the Midwest. The agricultural education movement in Massachusetts, in reaction to this crisis, had highly moralistic tones. Clark criticized those who left New England, writing, "Will a wise man exchange the beautiful and diversified scenery of New England... Will he forsake the school and churches and the social privileges of prosperous communities for the semi-barbarous condition of newly and sparsely settled districts?" Further, Clark warned that if the decay of rural Massachusetts continued, farming would soon be considered, "degrading in its nature, and designed ... only for those poor, stupid, ignorant, or unfortunate persons."

Clark resigned his commission in the army one month after the MAC was voted into existence by the Massachusetts Legislature. When he returned to Amherst, he quickly sought involvement in the new institution and worked energetically to convince state authorities to locate the college in Amherst. Rival sites under consideration included Springfield, Lexington, and property owned by Harvard University in Roxbury. Elected to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1864, Clark secured a bond for the Town of Amherst enabling it to contribute $50,000 to the construction of the college buildings. This ultimately swayed the trustees to choose Amherst.

MAC went through two presidents in its first four years and by 1867 still did not have a faculty, nor students, nor finished buildings. Clark became president of the college in 1867 and immediately appointed a faculty and completed a plan for building construction. Clark's decisive management enabled the college to admit its first class of 49 students. In addition to being president, he was professor of botany and horticulture.

Although initially regarded as a great success, the college saw poor enrollment over the course of the 1870s. Clark was particularly disappointed with the lack of support from the farming community, writing, "To one who understands fully the greatness of the work which has been done in Amherst … the utter indifference in regard to the college manifested by most of the 75,000 farmers of Massachusetts is truly astounding."

By the end of his presidency of MAC, Clark was falling under increasing criticism from the press and politicians in Boston. MAC, mounting an increasing debt, was declared a failure by some. Infuriated by what he called, "time-serving politicians and unprincipled newspapers seeking only to float on the tide of public opinion," Clark resigned in 1879.

Clark was one of the commission of three, appointed by Massachusetts governor John Albion Andrew in 1863, to consider the expediency of establishing a state military academy. He was a presidential elector in 1864, and a representative to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1864–1865 and 1867. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of other scientific societies.