The original Illinois State University was typical of colleges in the American antebellum period. Springfield's community boosters welcomed the new college as a civic adornment. Determined men of the cloth envisioned a prestigious institution like the one at which they learned the "artes liberals" and the Lutheran catechism. But turbulent times undermined their heroic efforts to sustain the school. The saga of ISU is a short arc from eager anticipation to bitter realization.