Ohio University

At a glance

Overview

Ohio University in Athens was chartered by the Ohio General Assembly on February 18, 1804, the first university in the former Northwest Territory. It grew out of the Ohio Company's 1787 land contract, which Manasseh Cutler made to include two townships for the support of a university; the company chose Athens and Alexander townships in 1795, and settlers from Marietta founded Athens on the site in 1797. Its academy opened under the Rev. Jacob Lindley in 1808, and its first two bachelor's degrees went to Thomas Ewing and John Hunter in 1815. Cutler Hall, the College Edifice designed with Rufus Putnam and built 1816 to 1819, is the oldest college building in the Old Northwest and a National Historic Landmark, and it anchors the College Green with Wilson Hall (1837) and McGuffey Hall (1839). The school survived a closure from 1843 to 1848 and 19th-century attempts to demote it, and grew after World War II into a large public research university.

The name

Cutler's draft charter of 1800 proposed the name 'American University', reasoning that Congress had made the grant; the territorial act of 1802 created the 'American Western University', which never opened. The state's act of February 18, 1804 named it 'Ohio University'. (source)

Native American history

Athens County was thickly marked by earlier peoples: a 1916 county history counted no fewer than 77 mounds, fortifications and village sites, the largest group on the level terrace called the Plains near Beaumont in Athens and Dover townships, where skeletons, stone hatchets and weapons were found in opened mounds and an embankment enclosing more than an acre survived plowing into the 1860s. No mound is recorded on the College Green itself. In the 18th century the Hocking valley was hunting ground: the Shawnee of the Scioto held it, Delawares (Lenape) from the Muskingum and Wyandots from the Lancaster area also used it, and the salt springs at Beaumont drew people to boil salt. Two towns are recorded in the county, Wanduchale's Town, named for a Delaware leader, in northern Troy Township, and a Shawnee Town at Beaumont. The university's history article states that the land passed to the United States under the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, after which the Ohio Company located the college townships.

• The Plains mound group: mound, the Plains, Athens and Dover townships, near Beaumont, prehistoric
• Earthwork on the Plains: earthwork, Athens Township, prehistoric
• Wanduchale's Town: village, northern Troy Township, Athens County, 18th century
• Shawnee Town: village, Beaumont, Athens County, 18th century
• Treaty of Greenville cession: treaty, the college townships, 1795

Stories

Two townships in a land deal

Ohio University exists because of a clause in a real-estate contract. When Manasseh Cutler went to New York by sulky in 1787 to buy land for the Ohio Company, he got Congress to throw in two townships, 72 square miles, for a college, besides sections for schools and churches. Indian war kept the settlers in the Marietta blockhouses and delayed locating the college townships, and only in 1795-96 were Athens and Alexander townships, at the center of the purchase, selected and surveyed. Rufus Putnam, anxious to get rent flowing, encouraged settlers from Marietta to take up the college lands, and in spring 1797 a party under Alvan Bingham came up the Hocking by canoe and founded Athens. (source)

The American University that never opened

In June 1800 Cutler, back in Massachusetts, sent Putnam a rough draft of a charter. He wanted the school called the American University, since Congress had made the grant, and noted there was already a Columbian college and a Washington college but no American one. The territorial legislature passed a version as the American Western University, approved by Governor St. Clair in January 1802. No effective action was taken under it: the trustees lived far apart, the few roads were extremely bad, and the contest over statehood absorbed every other interest. After Ohio became a state, the legislature passed a new act establishing 'Ohio University' on February 18, 1804. (source)

Rent forever

The university was meant to live on rent from its two townships, but no one wanted to lease. Land nearby sold outright for a dollar an acre or less, while the 1804 charter offered 90-year leases at six percent of appraised value, subject to reappraisal. In February 1805 the state changed the terms to 99-year leases renewable forever, at six percent of the appraisal. In 1826 the university was allowed to sell the land, but on parcels still leased the rent set in 1805 still applies. (source)

The College Edifice

In March 1812 the trustees asked Rufus Putnam to draw a plan for a college building near the center of campus, and hired Benjamin Corp of Marietta to help design it and oversee the work. The three-story brick Federal building, nine bays wide with a two-stage tower and cupola, was nearly done when lightning struck it on August 24, 1818. Corp wrote that the building must have been very wet, and that providence probably saved it from burning. It opened in 1819 at a cost of $17,806 and held dormitory rooms, laboratories and the president's office. Renamed for Manasseh Cutler, it is the oldest college building in the Old Northwest. (source)

The first graduates

In May 1815 a trustees' committee examined two candidates, Thomas Ewing and John Hunter, in grammar, rhetoric, languages, natural and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy, geography and mathematics. It reported that it had watched their progress 'with much gratification' and recommended each for the degree of bachelor of arts and sciences. Ewing later called himself 'a pretty good, though an irregular scholar.' He became a U.S. senator and served in the cabinet or as an adviser to four presidents. A century later the Class of 1915 marked the anniversary with the Alumni Gateway on the College Green. (source)

Templeton and Boyd

In 1828 Ohio University gave an A.B. degree to John Newton Templeton, its first Black graduate, who had a speaking role at that year's commencement. Women were admitted in 1868, and Margaret Boyd, who entered the preparatory program that spring, graduated in 1873. She told President Scott she did not want a diploma with masculine Latin endings, and the endings were changed. The first Black woman to graduate, Martha Jane Hunley, finished summa cum laude in 1916. In 1999 the university put Templeton's and Hunley's names on the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. (source)

Timeline

• 1786: Manasseh Cutler, Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper and Samuel Holden Parsons meet at the Bunch-of-Grapes tavern in Boston on March 1 to form the Ohio Company of Associates. (source)
• 1787: Congress's contract with the Ohio Company, negotiated by Cutler, reserves not more than two complete townships near the center of the purchase for a university. (source)
• 1795: On December 16 the Ohio Company directors select townships 8 and 9 of Range 14, today's Athens and Alexander townships, as the college lands. (source)
• 1797: In early spring settlers led by Alvan Bingham come down the Ohio from Marietta by canoe and up the Hocking to settle on the college lands. (source)
• 1800: Cutler sends Putnam a draft charter proposing the name 'American University', since Congress had made the grant; he writes that he had given up the Cambridge-style government he had long contemplated. (source)
• 1800: The town site of Athens is surveyed and platted. (source)
• 1802: The Northwest Territory legislature passes an act establishing the American Western University at Athens, approved by Governor St. Clair on January 9 (one account gives January 8); it never opens. (source)
• 1804: On February 18 the Ohio General Assembly passes an act establishing 'Ohio University' in the town of Athens. (source)
• 1804: The first trustees, including Putnam and Governor Edward Tiffin, meet on December 6 to raise funds by leasing university lands. (source)
• 1805: The state directs that college-land leases run 99 years, renewable forever, at six percent of appraised value, a rent that still applies to leased parcels. (source)
• 1807: A brick academy building, begun after a December 1806 contract, is nearly completed east of the later college buildings. (source)
• 1808: In March the trustees choose the Rev. Jacob Lindley as preceptor of the academy, and he takes up his duties that spring. (source)
• 1812: In March the building committee asks Rufus Putnam to draft a plan for a college edifice; Benjamin Corp of Marietta assists and supervises construction. (source)
• 1815: Thomas Ewing and John Hunter are examined and receive the first bachelor's degrees in May. (source)
• 1818: Lightning strikes the unfinished College Edifice in a storm on August 24, delaying its completion. (source)
• 1819: The College Edifice, later Cutler Hall, opens at a final cost of $17,806, and its cupola bell first rings. (source)
• 1826: The university is permitted to sell land within the college townships. (source)
• 1828: John Newton Templeton becomes the university's first Black graduate, only the third Black man to graduate from a U.S. college. (source)
• 1837-1839: Wilson Hall (1837) and McGuffey Hall (1839) are built flanking Cutler Hall on the College Green. (source)
• 1839-1843: The Rev. William H. McGuffey serves as president. (source)
• 1843-1848: The university is closed for five years. (source)
• 1873: Margaret Boyd, who entered the preparatory program in 1868, becomes the first woman to graduate. (source)
• 1896: The Sleeper Bill, introduced by Athens's David L. Sleeper, gives the university annual state support after proposals to demote or merge it. (source)
• 1915: The Class of 1915 gives the Alumni Gateway to mark 100 years since the first graduating class. (source)
• 1937: Cutler Hall's interior is modernized with metal staircases and an elevator; its raised roof is restored to the original line in 1949. (source)
• 1964: On May 7 President Lyndon Johnson first publicly speaks of the Great Society in an address on the College Green. (source)
• 1965: Cutler Hall is designated a National Historic Landmark on December 21. (source)
• 1970: After the Kent State shootings, protests in Athens end with 23 injured and 54 arrested, and the campus is closed on May 15. (source)
• 1979: The College Green is listed on the National Register as the center of a historic district. (source)

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org: Ohio University
• en.wikipedia.org: History of Ohio University
• en.wikipedia.org: Manasseh Cutler Hall
• en.wikipedia.org: College Green of Ohio University
• en.wikipedia.org: College Lands
• en.wikipedia.org: Athens, Ohio
• ohio.edu: history traditions
• tps.cr.nps.gov: detail.cfm
• archive.org: historyofathensc00walk djvu.txt
• archive.org: oh athens 1916 martzolff djvu.txt