The University of Notre Dame was founded on November 26, 1842, by Father Edward Sorin, CSC, who was also its first president, as an all-male institution on land donated by the Bishop of Vincennes. Today, many Holy Cross priests continue to work for the university, including as its president. Notre Dame rose to national prominence in the early 1900s for its Fighting Irish football team, especially under the guidance of the legendary coach Knute Rockne. Major improvements to the university occurred during the administration of Rev. Theodore Hesburgh between 1952 and 1987 as Hesburgh's administration greatly increased the university's resources, academic programs, and reputation and first enrolled women undergraduates in 1972.
Foundation
In 1839, the bishop of Vincennes, Right Rev. Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière, had contacted Rev. Basil Moreau, C.S.C., founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and expressed to him his concern over the lack of Catholic education in his diocese and pleaded for Moreau to send him a priest and four brothers to set up a school. When enough funds were raised, Moreau chose a young and energetic priest Rev. Edward Sorin to lead the effort. Accompanied by six brothers, Fr. Sorin left Le Havre, France on August 8, 1841, on the ship the Iowa, and arrived in New York on September 13, 1841, where they were met by Samuel Byerley, a merchant of New York, on the request of Bishop de la Hailandiere; the party was also hosted by Bishop John Dubois. On the third day, they set out for Indiana. They passed through Albany and in Buffalo they took a ferry though Lake Erie and reached Toledo, Ohio, and reached Bishop Hailandière in Vincennes on October 8. Bishop De la Hailandiere gave Sorin and his brothers possession of the church of St Peter and its annexed farm in Montgomery, Indiana. The lack of funds and the harsh winter made life in the farm difficult, especially since the men were all French and not experts in American farming; the situation was made worse by the tense relationship between Fr. Sorin and Bishop Hailandière, who often disagreed on financial issues.
In the early months of 1842, Fr. Sorin started to conceive the idea of founding a college, although one was already present in Vincennes (the College of St. Gabriel, which failed soon after). Initially, Fr. Sorin thought of founding the college there in St Peters, but he met the opposition of the bishop who lamented that this was not in the original plans and it conflicted with the existence of St. Gabriel's college. However, the bishops also stated that he was not against a founding of a college elsewhere, provided that this effort would not prevent him his Brothers from accomplishing their education duties. Near the end of October the bishop offered Sorin certain lands at the furthermost limits of the diocese, in the virtually unsettled area of northern Indiana, just a few miles from the southern boundary of the state of Michigan.
These 524 acres of land had been bought between 1830 and 1832 by Rev. Stephen Badin, the first priest ordained on the United States. He had come to the area in 1830 invited by chief Leopold Pokagon to administer the mission of St. Maries des Lacs to the Potawatomi tribe.McKee, "The Trail of Death, Letters of Benjamin Marie Petit," p. 11–14. Pokagon had been baptized with his son in 1830 by Father Frederick Reze with his son. Badin, who bought the land from the government and two private landowners, was joined in 1833 by Father Louis Deseille, and the two ministered the Potawatomi community.Edmunds, p. 264. Father Deseille baptized Chief Menominee on August 24, 1834, and expanded the mission to the Yellow River village at Twin Lakes in 1834.McKee, "The Trail of Death, Letters of Benjamin Marie Petit," p. 15. These two communities were at the heart of the regional resistance to removal in the 1830s.Edmunds, p. 233. In 1836 Badin sold the land to Simon Bruté and left the mission to Deseille, but the latter soon died and was replaced by Benjamin Petit. Petit was also opposed to removal and joined the Potawatomi in the Trail of Death in 1838, a forced march through Illinois and Missouri, into Kansas. Father Petit died soon after, severely ill from the march. With the departure of the Potawatomi and the death of Petit, the land reverted to the bishop, who then in 1840 offered it to the Father of Mercy Ferdinand Bach, with the hope he could fulfill Badin's stipulation that a college be built. Bach acquired another 375 acres of land, but then decided he could not undertake the project and returned everything to the bishop. Hence, in 1842 the bishop offered the 524 acres to Sorin (later he would give them the rest).
After some deliberation with the brothers, Father Sorin accepted the land and the challenge, on the bishop's condition that he would found a college in two years.
Arrival at Notre Dame
On November 16, Rev. Edward Sorin traveled to the chosen site with seven Holy Cross brothers. The rest of the community stayed in St Peters to continue the educational effort under the guide of Brother Vincent and a local priest, Fr. Chartier, as promised to the bishop. Of these seven brothers, only two had originally come from France with Sorin, Brothers Marie (Francis Xavier) and Gratian (Urban Mosimer). The other five had joined the community since its arrival at St. Peter's; these were Brothers Patrick (Michael Connelly), William, Basil (John O'Sullivan), Peter (James Tully) and the French Brother Francis (Michael Disser). On the afternoon of November 26, 1842, Sorin arrived South Bend (at the time just a small village) where he reached the home of Alexis Coquillard, a French-American trapper who had been the first permanent white settler in the area and who was known to Bishop de la Hailandiere. That very afternoon Rev. Sorin and the Brothers went to investigate the lands they were given, and found them mantled with snow, softening and mellowing the harshness of the bare winter-frozen forest. The only buildings on campus was Rev. Stephen Badin's old Log Chapel, which had until then used as an Indian mission and a church for local Catholics, the house of the Indian interpreter Charron and his wife, and a shed.
Rev. Sorin described his arrival on campus in a letter filled with joy and hope to the Superior General Rev. Basil Moreau, C.S.C.
The next day, November 27, they took formal possession of the site; this led to the confusion on the exact day of the founding of Notre Dame, whether November 26 or the 27th. Both dates were referenced as the official foundation date in later documents, and the confusion remains.
Early history The task that Rev. Sorin and his Brothers had in front of them was not easy: with little money (about $370) they had to administer both to the local Indian tribes (since they inherited the mission with the land) and to the local white Catholics (who were an underrepresented minority in a largely Protestant area), and at the same time found a college in two years. At the time, St. Joseph County was small (around 6,500 to 7,500 persons) and largely unsettled, with South Bend barely reaching 1000 inhabitants; although in the following years it would experience substantial growth. There were about twenty Catholic families, but no Catholic churches in the area, and anti-Catholic sentiment was spread among the populace.
Sorin and his seven brothers (three French and four Irish) traveled 250 miles north in one of Indiana's harshest winters. They followed the Wabash river, passing by Terre Haute. They split, and Sorin with the first group arrived in South Bend on the afternoon of November 26, 1842. Here they were welcomed by Alexis Coquillard (who bishop Hailandière had put them in contact with) and then undertook the two-mile trip to visit the property before spending the night guests of Coquillard. The next day they visited the site with day-light, and took formal possession of the property.
At the time, the property only had three buildings: a log chapel built by Stephen Badin (the original burned down in 1856 but a replica was built in 1906), a small two-story clapboard building that was the home of the Potawatomi interpreter Charon, and a small shed. Of the 524 acres, only 10 was cleared and ready for cultivation, but Sorin stated that the soil was suitable for raising wheat and corn. While the land had two small lakes, the snow and marshy area might have given to Sorin the appearance of a single larger lake, hence why named the fledgling mission “Notre Dame du Lac” (Our Lady of the Lake). The most immediate concern were suitable and warm lodgings for the Sorin and the seven brothers present and for those in St. Peter's who were yet to come north. To build a second log cabin, and lacking the funds, they appealed to the people of South Bend to donate funds or their time. Thanks to the help from the locals, they were able to assemble the timber and erect the walls, and the Sorin and the brothers erected the roof and completed the cabin on March 19, 1843.
Sorin dedicated himself to building a college proper, since the foundation of such within two years was the condition on which he had been given the land by bishop Hailandière. While in Vincennes, Sorin had made plans with a local architect, Mr. Marsile, to have him come in the summer and start construction of a main building, but the architect did not show up. Hence, Sorin and the brothers constructed Old College, a two-story brick building that served as dormitory, bakery, and classrooms. This building was instrumental in accommodating the growing community. Indeed, in February 1843, Brother Vincent, Lawrence, Koachim, and eight novices arrived from St. Peter's to Notre Dame. In the summer of 1843, more members of the Congregation arrived from France: Fathers Francis Cointet and Theophile Maurivalt, Brother Eloi (Jean-Marie Leray), seminarian François Gouesse, and Sisters Mary of the Heart of Jesus (Marie Savary), Mary of Bethlehem (Marie Desneux), Mary of Calvary (Marie Robineau), and Mary of Nazareth (Marie Chauvin). Badin's log chapel was hence converted into a carpenter's shed and residence for the Brothers, while the 1843 cabin served as chapel and sister's residence. Sorin also constructed a makeshift wooden novitiate for the Brothers on "The Island" (the stretch of land between the two lakes, now site of Columba Hall), but the novitiate was soon moved to Indianapolis on the insistence of the bishop.
With Old College ready, the college officially opened to its first five students in the fall of 1843, with seven more arriving in the next months. Sorin based the school around the French collège model, which combined two years of high school and four years of college. The early curriculum focused mostly on reading, writing, arithmetic, history and geography, but more sophisticated topics like Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, oratory, botany, drawing, music, and zoology were also taught. Tuition was $100 per year for full-time students, $20 a year for day students, with additional fees for the more advanced topics. Among the first residents to receive an education at Notre Dame were orphans, who came from a home established by the Brothers of Saint Joseph to educate children beyond the ages of 12 and 13, and who dedicated themselves mostly to learning manual trades such as carpentering and farming from the Brothers."Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C.", De Nicola Center for Ethics and culture By the 1844–1845 academic year, forty students were in attendance, although it is likely that a number did not attend for long, and only about 25 were consistently registered.