IT was a solemn occasion for the distinguished group of lowans who met on that day in 1847, under the oak trees just beyond the muddy main street of the pioneer Iowa City. Less than a year had passed since the state of Iowa had been admitted to the Union, but by order of the First General Assembly, the distinguished group of citizens were already looking over a site for the state university. "On that day," reported one of them later, "we met out-of-doors in a clearing in the hazel brush . . ....
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