Henry Durant and Dr. Samuel H. Willey founded the Contra Costa Academy[1] to provide boys with a liberal arts education with a strong emphasis on the classics (i.e., Greek and Latin).

To this end, they formed the "College Homestead Association" and purchased 160 acres (65 hectares) of land north of Oakland on a site that is part of the City of Berkeley today.

[2] Meanwhile, the State of California had established an Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in 1866, but it existed only on paper as a placeholder to secure federal land-grant funds.

[2] They were aware the new state institution would have to be entirely secular but recognized it was more important to find some way to preserve the College of California's liberal arts educational mission as part of the new university.

[2] The College of California had been founded and run by Protestants, who were dismayed to discover that the university's Board of Regents included several men regarded as "indifferents and skeptics", along with a Jew and a Catholic.

[7] Their failure to promptly comply with the agreement forced the regents to suspend the development of the university's planned campus on the college's land in Berkeley.

[7] To get the trustees to proceed as promised, regent John B. Felton helped them bring a "friendly suit" against the university to test that agreement's legality.

[7] Although another year of negotiations lay ahead, the court victory strengthened the regents' bargaining position and cleared the way for them to eventually receive the college's assets as expected.