Happy Birthday, Ohio University!
This school is a landmark for one big reason
After the creation of the country, it didn’t take long for the new citizens of the United States to start pushing westward.
In historical terms, it took about one minute.
Ohio and the Northwest Territories were the first major recipients. Colonists and settlers were already in the area prior to the Revolution, but after the war was over it was only a matter of time before the region teamed with new cities, towns, and industry.
And one year after Ohio became a state, something else was obvious.
Ohio needed a university.
After all, it was positively impractical to ask people of this new state to make the journey from Cincinnati or Cleveland or any other far-flung outpost to the East Coast in order to obtain an education. The costs alone would put people off the idea.
Luckily, a few of Ohio’s early leaders already had the foresight to begin plans for a university located in the Ohio River valley. One, Manasseh Cutler, was a Connecticut clergyman who had served as George Washington’s chaplain. Another, Rufus Putnam, fought in the Revolution as a brigadier general. Together, they envisioned the American West University, and in 1797 a location for the school was established on a tract of land in what is now Athens.
But Ohio University never operated under that name.
Instead, Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803.
In 1804, Ohio University was chartered, making it the first land-grant college in the country. The first students enrolled in 1809.
Don’t forget…
We’re reading Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune this month in the Land of the Free Book Club. Written by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe, this nonfiction work chronicles the Astors, a family that was one the wealthiest in America.
You have about ten days left to read! I hope you’ll join in!