Detroit is the birthplace of the University of Michigan where it was founded 1817 as the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania. At that time, Detroit was the capital of the Michigan Territory. In 1837, the Michigan Territory became the State of Michigan, and the University of Michigan moved to Ann Arbor in the original 40-acre parcel that is our current Diag. U-M has maintained connections to the City of Detroit and its residents ever since.
U-M Detroit Timeline
Dr. Zina Pitcher, army surgeon, botanist, teacher, and politician, serves three terms as mayor of Detroit. He is the driving force behind the city’s first public school system and an active member of U-M’s Board of Regents from 1837-52.
John R. Williams is elected Detroit’s first mayor and serves as one of the original trustees of U-M.
After four years in Detroit, Lemuel Shattuck returns to New England, where he becomes a leader in public health. According to a testimonial letter from the time, Detroit citizens praise him for growing the young U-M “from its infancy to that state of maturity and usefulness.”
The “University of Michigania’s” first building is completed, paid for by citizens and standing two stories tall. It is home to teachers Lemuel Shattuck at the primary level, and Hugh M. Dickie at the more-advanced classical academy — in effect, a high school.
Sources of information used to compile this timeline include The University of Michigan, An Encyclopedic Survey; The Making of the University of Michigan, 1817-1992, by Howard H. Peckham; Board of Regents proceedings; contemporary newspaper accounts; and the Lemuel Shattuck papers in the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library.
