Excerpt from The Purple and Gold, Vol. 22I love the place more every day I can't tell. Perhaps it's the men and the life, perhaps the work. Oh, I tell you, fellows, - and as the three freshmen eagerly lis tened to this grave old senior speaking of their alma mater, through his words they felt that the change which a few short weeks had wrought in them was one which would last forever.In the summer of 1755, Ephraim Williams, a colonel in the provincial army of Massachusetts made his will, leaving the greater part of his property for the sup port and maintenance of a free school in a township to be called by his name. On September 8 of that year he was killed in an engagement near Lake George. In founding the school which later became Williams 001 lege, Colonel Williams was not in¿uenced by theological motives. His purpose was to lessen the hardships of the early pioneers among the Berkshires. For thirty years no action was taken and in 1788, after nine trustees had been appointed, permission was granted by the legislature for a lottery to secure more money. About $3, 500 was added to the original fund which had in creased to 7, and in 1790 West college was built. Ebenezer Fitch, a Yale graduate, was appointed master and with sixty students in the upper classes the school opened the following autumn. So successful was this first educational effort that the legislature passed an act changing the Free School into Williams college in June, 1793. Such were the beginnings of the college. Its early history records many interesting and signifi cant facts which, however, must be here passed over brie¿y.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.