Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 27

superintendent of the Worcester Gas Light Co. Mr. Lincoln was chosen to succeed Mr. Ball as clerk. No other changes took place in the personnel of the board during the three years prior to the opening of the Institute.

Three days after the organization meeting there was an enthusiastic meeting at the common council chamber of City Hall, attended by the trustees and about thirty of the contributors to the building fund. Salisbury and Hoar presented reports of steps that had been taken to organize the Corporation, and of the financial status of the project. Abram Firth reported for the subscription committee that 145 individuals had made cash subscriptions amounting to $32,000. This was encouraging news, but the goal had been set at $50,000, and Dr. Sweetser warned that there was possible danger that the gift of the original donor might be withdrawn if the building fund were not speedily completed. Action was taken to give more publicity to the project through the press, and everyone left the meeting with the firm determination that Worcester should have its industrial school.

To raise money for any project in that day was no easy task, however. The country was still torn by four years of warfare. General Lee had surrendered but two months before, and the process of reconstruction had not begun. Currency was inflated and the value of gold fluctuated from day to day. To add to the confusion, an assassin had killed President Lincoln, whose strong hand had been counted on to lead the nation through the trackless waste ahead.

Worcester had given generously in men and money to the cause of preserving the Union, but this gift was not unrequited . Conventional history fails to record among the glories of war the fortunes that accrue to industrialists who provide material. Worcester manufacturers had their share in these bounties in the Civil War, as they were to have it in larger measure in a later conflict. But, even though there were many

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999