Office of the President (Daniel Haskel) Records

Minister of the First Congregational Church in Burlington, VT, and a member of the university corporation, Haskel was appointed as president after the resignation of Samuel Austin. Born in Preston, CT, Haskel graduated from Yale University and studied theology at Princeton. He came to Burlington to become pastor of the First Calvinist Congregational Society in 1810, and had been appointed to the corporation in 1816. During his tenure, the university came close to collapse and closure, saved only by the actions of Arthur L. Porter, professor of chemistry, and a committee that planned its reorganization. In 1824, matters were made much worse by the destruction of the College Edifice (on the site of the present Old Mill) by fire. At the time the only college building, the fire destroyed the library and the scientific apparatus housed therein. The citizens of Burlington, prosperous from the lumber and ship building trades, came to the rescue of the college by pledging more than $8,000 to rebuild the college building. But Haskel suffered a breakdown and resigned as president, moving to Brooklyn, New York, where he lived until his death in 1848.

Sources consulted in the preparation of these notes include:

Daniels, Robert V. editor. The University of Vermont : The First Two Hundred Years Hanover, NH : University of Vermont : Distributed by University Press of New England, 1991.

Lindsay, Julian Ira. Tradition Looks Forward; the University of Vermont: a history, 1791-1904. Burlington [University of Vermont and State Agricultural College] 1954.

Marshall, Jeffrey. Universitas Viridis Montis, 1791-1991: An Exhibition of documents and artifacts telling the story of the University of Vermont. Burlington, Vt.: University of Vermont, 1991.

Smallwood, Frank. The University of Vermont Presidents: Two Centuries of Leadership. Burlington, Vt.: University of Vermont, 1997.