When classes began Monday, it had been exactly 125 years since Marquette was dedicated. But the university probably would not exist if it weren't for the efforts of two dedicated Jesuits.

By all accounts, Marquette University got off to a rocky start. Everything was working against the possibility of forming a college in the frontier town of Milwaukee when the city's first archbishop, John Martin Henni, came up with the idea in 1848. Henni had no funding, no professors and no location. It took Henni 33 years to realize his dream of a college dedicated to PAre Jacques Marquette, who spent a total of three days camping on the future site of Milwaukee.

"(Henni) was noted for being at least far-thinking enough that he was going to establish basically the first Catholic institution of higher education in this whole part of the country," said Steve Daily, curator of the research collections at the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

A religious mission

Swiss-born Henni first thought of creating a college when Switzerland exiled all its Jesuits, creating an influx of Jesuit educators in St. Louis. But Henni experienced the first of several setbacks when none of these educators agreed to his offer to come to Milwaukee.

Henni was looking for Catholic educators because he wanted to increase the presence of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin, said the Rev. Steve Avella, professor of history.

"Henni came here and really had to create a visible Catholic presence in Milwaukee," Avella said. "Part of the job description of a founding bishop, which is what he was … is to raise what I call the Catholic infrastructures."

Throughout his work Henni continued to push for a college. Although he had yet to find any suitable professors, the next year Henni at least secured the promise of funding from Belgian philanthropist Guillaume Joseph DeBoey. The starting capital of Marquette was to be $16,000.

Humble beginnings

This minor victory, however, was followed by years of disappointment. Henni found two professors who agreed to set up a school in Milwaukee. Soon after their arrival, one died. The other spoke no English. Henni purchased land for the school site — it was deemed unsuitable.

It wasn't until the Rev. Stanislaus Lalumiere came to Milwaukee in 1857 that Henni's dream of Marquette began to become a reality. Lalumiere (after whom the campus language hall is named) took over managing the recently-created St. Aloysius Academy, a school created to educate area children before there could be a college.

"Marquette University doesn't consider itself the heir of Marquette High School," said the Rev. Michael Zeps, associate professor of history. "Marquette was the second thing to be founded."

But Lalumiere was not impressed after the first year, calling the academy a "humbug." Laymen took over teaching at the school, which was moved to a larger brick building and given the name St. Gall's Academy.

After it was discontinued in 1872, Lalumiere asked Henni if he was disappointed in the Society of Jesus with regard to education. The archbishop's response was: "Altogether." After 24 years of effort, he still did not have Marquette College.

Soon after that, Henni talked with another Jesuit about his hope for a college. "How much I have labored for a college of the Fathers in Milwaukee. I prayed for it every day and have prayed for it for 20 years," he said.

"Henni wanted a lot of things going and he got a lot of things going," Avella said. "But it took some time to get Marquette College off the ground."

Momentum builds

He had, however, taken some important steps toward the fulfillment of his dream. In 1855 he had used most of DeBoey's money to buy land on "The Hill," bluffs running from Fourth and Fifth streets to what is now Wisconsin Avenue, then westward to the 900 block and north to 10th and 11th streets on State. The bluffs were later leveled off and are the origin of the Marquette nickname "The Hilltoppers," according to Daily.

Another important step forward was the charter granted by the Wisconsin legislature in 1864 that gave Marquette College the ability to confer degrees on students. During the next 17 years until Marquette opened, there was another important development: the development of Milwaukee.

"By the 1880s, it was starting to get more of the things that would make it a city," Daily said.

The western city limit was now around 27th Street, so the site for the college was well inside the city by this time. A municipal water system was built in 1870, and by the 1880s there were streetcars, public entertainment, gaslights, a public school system and several small academies, Daily said. Also by this time, according to Daily, Catholics were the largest single religious group in Milwaukee.

The dream fulfilled

So in 1880, it was at last decided that the time had come to build Marquette. All the Catholic societies of Milwaukee paraded to the site on Aug. 15, 1880, when the cornerstone of Marquette College was laid on the site at 10th and State streets. The cornerstone contained photographs of the founders and a parchment about the dedication, as well as newspapers from Aug. 14, 1880. This time capsule was recovered when the building was demolished in the 1970s.

Henni, by now 75 years old, was too ill to attend the ceremony. Lalumiere was there as the director of the new program.

A little over a year later, Marquette was prepared to open its doors. The college was a combination of an academy and a college, so it was not until 1887 that the first five students were awarded bachelor's degrees, as the program of study included some high school.

"Those early founders were advancing the earliest Jesuit traditions which had come over from Europe," Avella said.

Marquette College was dedicated on Aug. 28, 1881, and it opened its doors to students Sept. 5. Thirty-five students registered that day, but by the end of the year 77 students were enrolled.

Henni had lived to see his long-held dream fulfilled. Two days after Marquette admitted its first students, Henni passed away. Lalumiere went on to become one of Marquette's first presidents.A