Red Wing. It offered classes for grade-school children; collegiate courses were not offered until nearly a decade later, but the college uses the earlier date as the year it was founded.
Originally named Minnesota Elementarskola (elementary school in Swedish), it moved the following year to East Union, an unincorporated town in Dahlgren Township. In 1865, on the 1,000th anniversary of the death of St. Ansgar, known as the "Apostle of the North", the institution was renamed and incorporated as St. Ansgar's Academy.
=== Renaming ===
In April 1873, the college was to be renamed Gustavus Adolphus Literary & Theological Institute in honor of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden once the final location and buildings were secured. A delegation of residents from St. Peter won favor from the founders to relocate there as a result of an economic crisis and the town's offer of $10,000 and donation of acreage for a larger campus.
Courses were initially to start in 1875, but slow progress on constructing the first campus building, …
