James M. Hamilton

James M. Hamilton was born on a farm on October 1, 1861, in Crawford County, Illinois, to James and Mary (Burner) Hamilton. He was the ninth of 10 children. His Presbyterian paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States from Belfast, Ireland, shortly after the American Revolutionary War. His Lutheran maternal grandparents came from what is now Germany at about the same time. Although his paternal grandparents settled in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and his maternal grandparents in northern Virginia, they both settled in Licking County, Ohio, in the 1820s. James' parents met there, and married in 1838. About 1850, a large migration of Licking County residents began into the Wabash Valley of Illinois, and his parents were among them. James grew up near Licking Township and attended local public school. His father died when he was 14 years old, and James began working during the spring, summer, and fall in order to support his family. He attended school only in the winter, which prevented him from graduating from school until he was 18 years old. or a Master of Science degree in 1890. While in the graduate program, he married Emma Shideler of Merom on June 6, 1888. Role in Montana's educational system Hamilton obtained a position as superintendent of the public school system in Sumner, Illinois, in 1887. He worked there until 1889, when he moved to take a similar position in Missoula, Montana. After eight years of service, Hamilton resigned from the State Board of education and took an appointment as a professor of history and economics at Montana State University (Missoula) (now known as the University of Montana). He was promoted to vice-president of the school a short time later. In 1901, the same year that he began teaching at the University of Montana, he began a five-year term as a member of the Montana State Textbook Commission, which chose textbooks for public schools in the state. ==Montana State University==

The Montana State Board of Education appointed Hamilton to be President of what was then known as the Agricultural College of the State of Montana (now Montana State University). The first president, Augustus M. Ryon, had only served for a year before coming into significant conflict with faculty and local businesspeople who disagreed with his intent to build a technology-oriented engineering school. His successor, the Rev. Dr. James R. Reid, was a Presbyterian minister and educator who rapidly expanded enrollment, obtained a campus, and oversaw the construction of the college's first two buildings—the Agricultural Experiment Station (now known as Taylor Hall) and the Main Building (now known as Montana Hall). Reid was determined, however, to stop students from dancing, drinking, gambling, playing cards, and soliciting prostitutes (common distractions in a frontier town like Bozeman), and his constant anti-vice campaign took a significant toll on his health. He resigned in 1904. Hamilton's governance style was unlike the authoritarian Reid. He was friendly and outgoing, which made him popular among state legislators, local Bozemanites, and students, but he was also a decisive leader who rarely deviated from a course of action (once decided upon). When World War I ended in 1919, Hamilton resigned as president of the college. He argued that a younger man (he was 58 years old by now) should take over. Hamilton accepted the position of Dean of Men in addition to resuming his teaching duties in the Department of Economics. and remains the only person to hold both the Montana and Inland Empire presidencies concurrently. ==Legacy, other roles, and honors==

Hamilton was a member of the Unitarian Church. He was a founding member of the Bozeman Rotary Club. Montana State University Archives and Special Collections holds two collections related to Hamilton: Collection 0172 and Collection 0918. ==References==