Syracuse, Cornell had been twice robbed of his wages, and thereafter considered Syracuse a Sodom and Gomorrah, insisting the university be in Ithaca on his large farm on East Hill, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake. Meanwhile, there were several years of dispute between the Methodist ministers, Lima, and contending cities across the state, over proposals to move Genesee College to Syracuse. At the time, the ministers wanted a share of the funds from the Morrill Land Grant Act for Genesee College. They agreed to a quid pro quo donation of $25,000 from Senator Cornell in exchange for their (Methodist) support for his bill. Cornell insisted the bargain be written into the bill and Cornell became New York State's Land Grant University in 1865. In 1869, Genesee College obtained New York State approval to move to Syracuse, but Lima got a court injunction to block the move, and Genesee stayed in Lima until it was dissolved in 1875. By that time, however, the court injunction had been made moot by the founding of a new university on March 24, 1870. On that date the State of New York granted the new Syracuse University its own charter, independent of Genesee College. An endowment of $400,000 was subscribed by the Methodist church and the City of Syracuse offered $100,000 to establish the school. Bishop Jesse Truesdell Peck had donated $25,000 to the proposed school and was elected the first president of the Board of Trustees. Rev. Daniel Steele, a former Genesee College president, served as the first administrative leader of Syracuse until its Chancellor was appointed. The university opened in September 1871 in rented space downtown. Judge George F. Comstock, a member of the new university's board of trustees, had offered the school of farmland on a hillside to the southeast of the city center. Comstock intended Syracuse University and the hill to develop as an integrated whole; a contemporary account described the latter as "a beautiful town ... springing up on the hillside and a community of refined and cultivated membership ... established near the spot which will soon be the center of a great and beneficent educational institution." The university was founded as coeducational - "open to men and women, white and black". President Peck stated at the opening ceremonies, "The conditions of admission shall be equal to all persons... there shall be no invidious discrimination here against woman.... brains