Ohio Central College

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Ohio Central College was a college located in Iberia, Ohio (located fifty miles north of Columbus, Ohio) in northwestern Morrow County, Ohio during the second half of the 19th Century. The college was at one time led by the Rev. George Gordon and counts among its alumni Warren G. Harding, a native of Morrow County and the 29th President of the United States.

In 1854, the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of the United States took control of about five acres of land in Iberia on which had been a ladies' seminary and obtained from the state legislature a charter to found a college. In that same year, Iberia College was founded with the Rev. George Gordon serving as its first president. From its beginning, the college was open to all, regardless of race or gender.

After the American Civil War, control of the college was transferred to the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Mansfield, and the name of the institution was changed to Ohio Central College. Eventually, the Mansfield Presbytery transferred to a group organized as an independent stock company, and the college continued as a Christian, though not sectarian, institution.

Towards the end of the Nineteenth Century, the records and alumni of Ohio Central College were assumed by Muskingum College.

The campus buildings were used as a school for the blind until they burned in a fire. The only remaining structure of Ohio Central College is the Iberia Presbyterian Church, which served as the college chapel in the 1800s.

The old 19th Century college is not to be confused with a 20th Century diploma mill of the same name.

[edit] Notable Personalities

The Rev. George Gordon, a local Presbyterian minister and abolitionist, served as the first president of the college.

In 1882, Warren G. Harding graduated from the college. While a student, Harding served on the school newspaper and learned about journalism while working for the Union Register in Mount Gilead, Ohio. Harding went on to own a newspaper, The Marion Star, in nearby Marion, Ohio; this publication served as the launching pad for his political career, which culminated in the Presidency.


[edit] Sources

  • History of Morrow County and Ohio, O.L. Baskin & Co., 1880.
  • The Shadow of Blooming Grove, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1968.
  • History of Morrow County, Ohio, 1989, Walsworth Press, Inc., 1989.