12. The First College in America

The people in the thirteen English Colonies soon began to call themselves Americans, one and all. Those in New England especially valued education. It was considered ridiculous to educate a girl, but there were soon nine colleges for boys. There was a printing-press in Cambridge, a public library in New York, a little manufacturing in Massachusetts, and quite a little commerce all along the coast. Most of the traveling was done on horseback, though there were some stage routes. Steam-cars and automobiles were unheard of. Next to their churches the people of New England loved their schools. The city of Boston had been settled only six years when one day the governor of Massachusetts received a letter from his sister in England, who refused to come to America because there was no college where her son could be educated. In her letter she said: “If only there were some place of learning for youths, it would make me go far nimbler to New England, if God should call me to it, than I otherwise should; and I believe a college would put no small life into the plantation.” This letter set the governor thinking and planning, and very soon he convinced those in control that a college should be established. The money was raised, and Harvard College was built. This little red, square building, that has stood in Cambridge for over two hundred years, was the first college in America.