NC State's Land Grant
1860s
The Morrill Act became law and provided national funding to establish a land-grant college in each state. In North Carolina, this funding first went to the University of North Carolina. In 1887, the state legislature established the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now NC State) as the state's land-grant institution.
1870s
Leonidas Polk called for the establishment of an agricultural school during a speech made at the NC State Fair.
An original land scrip endowment to the University of North Carolina as part of the Morrill Act, lost during the Reconstruction period, was restored. This document created a College of Agriculture and a College of Engineering and Mechanic Arts at the University of North Carolina.
1880s
The Watauga Club met for the first time. The club was formed by young men who were investigating way to strengthen all aspects of North Carolina, including creation of an industrial school.
Colleges to provide agricultural education were still not created at the University of North Carolina, which was an obligation upon receiving land-grant funding. These colleges existed only in theory in the university's course catalogs.
The Watauga Club successfully lobbied the North Carolina State Legislature, with the sponsorship of Leazar Dixon, to pass a bill for an industrial school separate from the University of North Carolina's land scrip. The legislation didn't mandate the school, however, and didn't provide sufficient funding.
Leonidas Polk continued to call for an agricultural school in the first published issue of the Progressive Farmer.
The North Carolina Board of Agriculture accepted a bid to locate an industrial school in Raleigh.
Farmers' organizations in the state, along with the Watauga Club and Colonel Leonidas Polk, successfully lobbied the North Carolina State Legislature to add an agriculture school to the proposed industrial school in Raleigh. This new school would not be affiliated with the University of North Carolina and would be able to acquire and use the land scrip funds being received (but not used by) the University of North Carolina.
The land scrip funds were transferred to the new Raleigh college, which became NC State. University of North Carolina President Battle unsuccessfully opposed the transfer of the land scrip funds from UNC to the proposed agricultural school in Raleigh. A bill was passed on this date to transfer the funds.
Under the Hatch Act, the federal government provided $15,000 to each state for agricultural experiment stations.
The North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was established using a combination of scrip funds reallocated from the University of North Carolina and funds from the Hatch Act of 1886, which established the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station.
Charles Dabney penned the legislation to create the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. March 7 was celebrated annually as Founders Day.
President Alexander Q. Holladay and the first faculty of North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic ArtsRichard Stanhope Pullen gifted the original 62 acres of land to the state government “for the establishment and conduct of a College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts."
1887 Deed of Property, Gift of R. S. Pullen to the State of North Carolina, March 22, 1887The first classes were held at the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Fifty-two students, at the minimum age of 14, attended. Tuition was $20 a session. Students could select from two basic curricula: agriculture and mechanics.
First freshman class at North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 1889The Agricultural Experiment Station was transferred from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture to the North Carolina College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts.