From THE STORRS FAMILY by Charles Storrs Charles Storrs remained with his father attending district school and teaching school himself for one or two winters. He sold sewing silk machines and then went into partnership in a commission house that failed in the panic of 1854 and he had to pay back 300,000 dollars after the firm failed. In December 1854 he and his brothers, Royal Otis and Augustus went into the commission business. Royal Otis left but the firm still was named Stevens Bros. Charles and Augustus remained in the business for 25 years until 1879 . He retired from his business his health being impaired by his many years of active work. In the spring of 1866 he and his family traveled abroad till November of 1867. In 1871 Charles Storrs went with Horace Greeley to Texas and when Mr. Greeley died , Mr. Storrs was one of his executors of the complicated estate.He gave a cemetery to his native town with a fund under trustees for keeping it in order. In this cemetery he has erected granite monuments for his father's family and his own and several to early ancestors in other burial grounds of the town, especially to Samuel Storrs the founder of the family in America. A few years since he gave to the State of Connecticut an endowment fund which his brother Augustus supplemented with land and buildings to establish and maintain the STORRS AGRICULTURE SCHOOL at Mansfield, Conn,a school which bids fair to be of permanent value and benefit. Mr and Mrs Storrs are members of the Church of the Pilgrims though Mr. Storrs's religious sympathies are not confined to any church or creed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From HISTORY of EASTERN CONNECTICUT By Pliny LeRoy Harwood After reading the detailed pages explaining the beginning of The University of Conneticut at Mansfield. the Granges wanted a school that the poorer children could go to college. The present schools in the area, Yale, Dartmouth and Brown were all private and expensive. there was no such a thing as a land grant school. The Storrs family gave 150 acres of land and building and 5,000 dollars in moneys to establish and agriculture school where poorer people might get an education in home economic and all the types of farming. Yale had been granted State funds for agriculture but knew nothing about agriculture so the local Granges fought for the funds to be transferred to Storrs and that the School be called the Storrs Agriculture College. The Yale - Storrs fight was won not for Storrs but against Yale and Storrs got the grant. The school prospered and the name was changed to Conneticut Agriculture College in 1899 and as this was written there was suggestions that the name be changed to Connecticut State College or the University of Connecticut. the college had a faculty of 90 and student body of 600. ( when we were there in 1996 we asked the population of the University and it was estimated there was a student body of 35,000. the Agriculture College is on the other side of the highway from the main campus. -----------------------------------------------------------------