History of Ohio Wesleyan University

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Prospective view of the campus, looking south east in 1841.

The history of Ohio Wesleyan University began with discussions of a college in Ohio in 1821 when the Ohio Methodist Conference in connection with the Kentucky Conference had established Augusta, the first Methodist institution of higher learning in the United States. But Augusta was an obscure village, quite inaccessible and especially because it was on the “wrong” side of the Ohio River to suit the growing anti-slavery sentiments of the people of Ohio.

The desire to establish an institution of higher learning was discussed for several years but did not assume a practical form until The White Sulphur Spring Property, a sanatorium in Delaware, Ohio, and also the geographic center of Ohio was offered for sale and Adam Poe in the summer of 1841 that it be purchased for the purpose of founding a new institution of higher learning. The property, which covered ten acres of land with the former Mansion House and a few other buildings was bought on November 17th, 1841 by the committee of Ohio citizens for $10,000.00 and the payment was concluded in 1849.

[edit] Founders

This petition from September 1, 1841 lists the citizens of Delaware, Ohio who supported the purchase of the former Mansion House Hotel

James Cobb, an ex-army officer and a graduate of West Point was the first informal principal of the preparatory school for both girls and boys. At the end of 1841, he retired from teaching due to his poor health conditions.

The following year, The State Legislature of Ohio under an old Ohio state constitution granted a special charter to the new school in on March 7th, 1842.

Following the formal recognition by the state, the school appointed its first Principal, Solomon Howard and the formally recognized school opened its doors on November 1st, 1842 six months later after the school obtained its official charter. The enrollement on November 1st comprised four boys. However, it increased to 130 students by the end of 1842, a number comprising students of both genders.

[edit] Conception

The school started functioning as an institution of higher learning on November 13th, 1844 when the College of Liberal Arts opened its doors. Edward Thompson headed the college. In addition to the college president, the school hired four more instructors. The first salaries of the school administrators were fixed at: $800 for the college president, $600 for college professors, and $400 for other instructors. November 13th was a rainy day and the surroundings were not pleasant. Apart from the senior class and the students in the preparatory school, the starting class was composed of male students only. The first-year class consisted of twenty-nine students. Of the twenty-nine students, at the end of 1844, two were juniors, two were sophomores, fourteen freshmen and ninety-two in the prep school.

The first graduating exercises occurred in 1846 when the school graduated one student with the degree A.B.. The following year, the school graduated two students. The graduating class increased subsequently with the only interruption occurring with a two-year interruption during the War of the Rebellion when Wesleyan students participated in the Civil War on behalf of the Union Army.

[edit] Degrees

The school continued to grant A.B.s for the students interested in the Classics course until 1868, when Ohio Wesleyan University began granting S.B. degrees for students interested in the study of sciences.

[edit] Early Leadership

This poster depicts the first four presidents of The Ohio Wesleyan University since the school's inception in 1841.

Since the college was exclusively geared towards the needs of men from the very start, the Ohio Wesleyan Female College was chartered on April 1st, 1853, also located in Delaware, Ohio. It graduated 411 graduated by its formal union with Ohio Wesleyan University on August 11th, 1877. Since that date, the institution has been continuously and exclusively co-educational.

Early in its inception, the corporate powers of the college were vested in a board of twenty-one board members, the vast majority, seventy percent, at that time being laymen. In 1849, the number of the trustees, was increased to thirty-one.

The first president of the college after its formal charter, was Edward Thomson. He served the college until 1860 when moved to a position of a publication editor for a journal in New York city. He was succeeded by Frederick Merrick, elected in 1860 and serving until 1873 when he resigned on account of poor health. Between 1873 and 1876, Lorenzo McCabe, a senior professor at the college, administered the interim presidency until a new appointment

The third president was Charles Payne, who was elected in 1876. Under his presidency, the number of students doubled and the university assets increased to $500,000. He had a reputation for being a strict disciplinarian. Payne resigned in 1888 when he accepted the position of corresponding secretary of the Methodist Church in Ohio to which he was elected.

[edit] Campus Development

Charles Elihu Slocum Hall was the center of the Main Campus of twenty-five acres and when it was built became the third administrative building on the new campus.

In the early years, the main central building for teaching purposes encompassed the former Mansion House. It was a Colonial style building, a former sanatorium, which was utilizing the fact that sulphur water was springing naturally from the grounds near the building. The Mansion House also served as a library, which contained several hundred books for about twelve to fifteen years since the college's conception. In 1856, a new temporary three-story brick building was built housing the expanding library collection. The brick building was eventually replaced when the Elihu Slocum Library was built in 1898. Another addition to the campus was University Hall built in 1893. By the turn of the century the campus comprised a total of thirteen buildings serving the various departments.

The female college, until its merge with the University, of ten acres consisted of a women's dormitory and a Music department, an adjoining tract containing the Arts Department, a President's House, an Observatory, the latter three buildings situated on land of about fifty acres. The university had no dormitories for men only.

The aggregate number of volumes in the library in the 1880s was 12,000. Most of the library and the museum collections focus on books in botany, zoology, mineralogy and geology.

[edit] Academic Degrees

Wesleyan was granting bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees until the turn of the century. For example, in 1897, the university conferred one-hundred and six bachelor's degrees, eleven master's, thirty-three doctor of medicine and two doctor of sacred theology.

[edit] 20th Century

[edit] Recent Developments

• 1991

• The Hamilton-Williams Campus Center opens.

• 1993

• Co-ops, called SLUs, are acquired by the university.

• 1994

• A major initiative for international students is endowed.
• Thomas Courtice is inaugurated as Ohio Wesleyan's 14th president.

• 1995

• The respective college presidents sign papers of incorporation on June 30, 1995, establishing The Five Colleges of Ohio, Inc. as a legal entity.
• Alumnus F. Sherwood Rowland shares the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work in atmospheric chemistry.
• The student body expands by 20%.

• 1998

• The men's soccer team wins the NCAA Division III national championship.
• The Campaign for Wesleyan goes into its public phase with a goal of $100 million.

• 2001

• The women's soccer team wins the NCAA Division III national championship.

• 2003

• The Campaign for Wesleyan surpasses its $100-million goal by $10 million.
• The $33 million Science Center is built.

• 2004

• Mark Huddleston becomes Ohio Wesleyan's fifteenth president.
• The Strand Theatre in downtown Delaware is purchased by the University.
• The Richard M. Ross Art Museum opens.

• 2005

• A $22 million initiative is directed at addressing the needs of the University's athletic and recreation programs.

[edit] References

Coordinates: 40.2967° N 83.0667° W