Ohio Wesleyan University

1841, Ohio residents Adam Poe and Charles Elliott decided to establish a university "of the highest order" in central Ohio. To that end, they purchased the Mansion House Hotel, a former health resort featuring the Sulphur Spring, using funds raised from local residents. Poe and Elliott wrote a charter emphasizing "the democratic spirit of teaching", which was approved by the Ohio State Legislature. Early in the following year they opened the college preparatory academy and formed a board of trustees. Ohio Wesleyan University, named (like several other U.S. colleges and universities) after John Wesley, founder of Methodism, opened on November 13, 1844, as a Methodist-related but nonsectarian institution, with a College of Liberal Arts for male students.
Ohio Wesleyan's first president, Edward Thomson, stated in his inaugural address on August 5, 1846, that the school was "a product of the liberality of the local people." This liberal philosophy contributed to Ohio Wesleyan's vocal opposition to slavery in the …