Fordham University School of Law

John Hughes, coadjutor Bishop (later archbishop of New York), established Fordham as St. John's College on June 24, 1841. He considered it a "dangerous and dangerous undertaking", not least because he initially did not have the funds to buy the land on which he saw a great university growing. He persevered. He knew instinctively that education was the key to citizenship for immigrants and success for everyone. He was determined to create the first Catholic college of higher education in the Northeastern United States. A small college located in a rural village became the Jesuit University of New York. Fordham University's roots can be traced back to 1839, when John Hughes, Bishop of New York, purchased 100 acres at Rose Hill, in the Fordham Section of Westchester County, for $29,750. He said that he had not paid even a penny for the college's purchase when he bought it. After a nine-month campaign, the maximum amount he could raise locally was $10,000. He, therefore,theynt on a begging tour to Europe to raise the money that he couldn't raise at home. John Hughes' financial struggles in starting St. John's Collegetheyre indicative of the poverty in the New York Catholic community of 1841. Although it was a courageous man to open a college in such difficult circumstances, Hughes, an Irish immigrant, believed education was the only way for his immigrant family to escape poverty and improve their lives. John Hassard, a St. John's College graduate, and Hughes's first biographer said that education was the subject that he loved most of all.