<p>All of this should give you a real appreciation for the incredible wave of university creation and/or expansion in the second half of the 19th Century, really from the Civil War to the beginning of the last century. Cornell, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Chicago, Carnegie-Mellon (both halves of it), Emory, Duke (actually, the purchase, expansion, and re-branding of a pre-existing small college), and practically every public flagship university in the country were created during that period. It boggles the mind.</p>