John Clough Holmes (September 25, 1809 – December 16, 1887) was an American agriculturalist, educator, and co-founder of the Michigan State Agricultural Society. Holmes is also known as the founder of Michigan State University, established in 1855 as an agriculture college, the first of its kind in the United States. Holmes Hall, the home of the Lyman Briggs College, is named in his honor.
Born in Massachusetts, Holmes moved to Michigan at age 26. He married into a merchant family and later got involved in both the Detroit Horticultural Society and the Board of Education. In 1849, his background in horticulture and education led him to co-found the Michigan State Agricultural Society, a group dedicated to establishing a state-funded agricultural college in Michigan. Holmes spent the next six years drafting legislation and gaining support for his cause, and in 1855, the Michigan state governor signed a bill establishing the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan.
Holmes was keenly involved with the details of the Agricultural College, influencing everything from the purchase of land for the campus, layout of the buildings, and even the placement of the chairs and tables. Once the college opened, he assumed the role of treasurer and later Professor of Horticulture. By 1861, Holmes had fallen out of favor with the other College administrators, and retired to his home in Detroit. Nevertheless, he continued to support and visit the college until his death in 1887.
Biography
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Holmes moved to Michigan in 1835, and gained employment in a Detroit merchant store. Within five years he had married his boss's daughter, and soon became a partner in the family business. Holmes served as president of the Detroit Horticultural Society in 1847. The following two years he was a member of the Board of Education of Detroit. Then in 1849 he co-founded the Michigan State Agricultural Society.
The Michigan State Agricultural Society immediately assumed a lofty goal to foster the establishment of an agricultural college in Michigan. Holmes, who served as secretary of the Agricultural Society from 1849 to 1857, was also the college's most tenacious proponent. In conference with his fellow society members, he drafted a bill that would create the college. Significantly, Holmes vehemently admonished that this college be independent of the University of Michigan for he "feared that agricultural studies would not receive the attention needed to survive and thrive" at those schools.
Holmes spent the next five years gathering supporters for his movement, traveling at his own expense to gather petition signatures from across the state. On January 14, 1855, Holmes went to the state capital of Lansing to lobby the legislature for an agricultural college. He spent the next four weeks championing the bill he wrote and cementing support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Though many legislators supported the basic concept of a state-funded agricultural college, there was strong opposition from University of Michigan president Henry Tappan, who wanted the agriculture program to be part of his school. Nevertheless, Holmes prevailed. On February 12, 1855, Michigan Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed Act 130, establishing the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the school that would become Michigan State University. The final draft of the bill held only two significant differences from the one that Holmes presented: that the purchase price not exceed US $15 per acre, rather than the $25 Holmes desired; and that the site must be within of Lansing, a provision added to silence the various factions that wanted the new college built in their own backyards.
Holmes' work had only begun: Act 130 put the Agricultural Society wholly in charge of selecting the site for the Agricultural College. In June 1855, Holmes and the society's executive committee visited nine sites of offered land, including some near the present towns of Holt, Millett, DeWitt, and Haslett. As a result of the low stipulated price of $15 per acre, all of the sites were uncleared land, and many were quite untenable for a campus. Eventually, Holmes wrote the proposal to purchase the Burr farm, located three miles due east of the capitol. He also included a second proposal, outlining both the college's organization and "specific appointments for a staff."