174 OHIO HISTORY
This conference settled differences
until 1891. When the board of con-
trol met that year, the members were
still dissatisfied because of the lim-
ited amount of land allotted to them.
They voted to request the General
Assembly to permit the removal of the
Agricultural Experiment Station
to Wayne County. Also they expected the
University to buy the buildings
they had used on the campus for $12,000.
The trustees could not see why
they should buy the buildings since they
were already located on the cam-
pus and the trustees lacked the money or
possibly even the power to buy
them. Hayes was again called to
arbitrate this dispute. Agreement was
made to appoint committees representing
each side to settle property is-
sues and to leave the problem of
disposition of the buildings to the legis-
lature.30
Hayes's first two years on the board
were ones of giving advice on and
mediating problems of concern to the
trustees. This period of activity came
to an abrupt end because of his state of
shock following the death of Mrs.
Hayes in June 1889. Mrs. Hayes had been
stricken while he was on his way
home from a board meeting.31 For some
months he curtailed his activity,
and attended none of the board meetings
until early in 1890.
The business of the board of trustees
included many small day-to-day
problems and dealings in addition to
questions of major importance. Hayes
spent much time on seemingly minor
difficulties which could be resolved
in a short time. Most of his
correspondence on board matters dealt with
such items as requests for appointment
to the faculty, faculty and student
problems, disputes with the townspeople,
and gifts to the University. Most
of it is uninteresting and routine, but
a few examples will show his atten-
tion to details, a side of his
personality not so well known as his handling
of major problems and issues. These
minor incidents, of course, happened
throughout Hayes's entire board career,
and the chronology in most cases
is not important.
As might be expected in a university
town, disagreements arose between
the college community and the citizenry
of Columbus. One such dispute
involved a city thoroughfare across the
campus. In 1890 Neil Avenue ended
at Eleventh Avenue and then started
again on the north side of the campus.
Pressure had been applied over a period
of several years to have Neil Ave-
nue extended through the University
property.32 It was reported to Hayes
that citizens were quite upset over the
matter and threatened to have the
board reorganized, the University moved
out in the country, and funds
withheld from the institution by the
General Assembly if Neil Avenue
were not extended.33 The Board
resisted for a time, but eventually Neil
Avenue was extended.34
In 1891, the city was putting a trunk
sewer through the campus. As had
been predicted by the University people,
the sewer drained the "lakes &
spring" until both became dry. The
city placed Professor Frederick W.
Sperr, a mining engineer from the
faculty, in charge of the sewer con-
struction after he said that he thought
he could fix the damage and restore
the spring. Hayes was very much
concerned about the loss of the spring
and wrote Cope: