3. Shays University, founded in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1874 under the Arthur Program, was named for Daniel Shays (1747-1832). Shays was a Patriot soldier until Saratoga/Albany, a farmer in Amherst's neighbor Pelham, representative in General Court 1784, Speaker 1788, and the first appointed Governor of Massachusetts to have popular support, in 1792. (He led "Shays' Rebellion" against the requirement that taxes be paid in hard currency.) He was the first popularly elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1804, and retired to Pelham in 1808 after an unprecedented eight terms as Governor. A supporter of reconciliation with his former Patriot comrades, he championed farm interests but was mostly seen as a uniter of a disparate state. Shays College of Agriculture became Shays University in 1952 and has expanded to 5,000 undergraduates in a wide variety of academic programs. It also has an excellent university press. Paula earned an Honors biology degree there.
(Return to Sunday Morning Coffee.)