1797 / 1835

—Birth of Higher Education in Ohio —

Muskingum Academy, 1797, Birth of Higher Education in Ohio.
In April 1797, a committee of Marietta citizens, led by General Rufus Putnam, met to establish an academy suitable for preparatory instruction for their youth. Muskingdum Academy, completed late that year, became the first institution of its kind in the Northwest Territory, providing "classical instruction . . . in the higher branches of an English education." Its first instructor was David Putnam, a 1793 Yale graduate. The building also served as the home of the Congregationalist Church until 1808. Growing and expanding with Ohio's first city, the academy served Marietta's educational needs for more than 30 years as the forerunner of Marietta College.

Marietta College, 1835.
Founded as a non-denominational Christian college, Marietta College has its roots in several predecessor institutions, in Marietta, beginning in 1797 with Muskingum Academy. In 1832, a committee of Marietta citizens led by Dr. S.P. Hildreth chartered the Marietta Collegiate
Institute and Western Teachers' Seminary as an outgrowth of Reverend Luther G. Bingham's 1830 Institute of
Education. When it opened in 1835, Marietta College boasted a faculty of five professors and offered a full collegiate course of instruction in moral and intellectual philosophy, Greek, Latin, mathematics, physics, rhetoric, and political economy. Professor Israel W. Andrews led the college as its president from 1855 to 1885; the geological work of his brother,
Professor Ebenezer B. Andrews, laid the foundation for the
college's lasting impact on the field of petroleum engineering.
Erwin Hall, built in 1845-1850, is the oldest building on campus.

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Show me all markers in:  Marietta, OH  |  Washington County  |  45750  |  Ohio  |  United States of America

The President's Home of Marietta College
Betsey Mills Club
First Baptist Church
Mound Square
House of Seven Porches
Memorial to the Revolutionary Soldiers Buried in Marietta, a War Memorial
St. Paul's Church
American Union Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M.
First Congregational Church
Northwest Ordinance Sesquicentennial Columns

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