Ohio Wesleyan Female College was a women's college, operating for two-and-a-half decades, until it merged into

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (abbrevriated OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Centra ...

in 1877. After starting as a

Delaware, Ohio Delaware is a city in Delaware County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located near the center of Ohio, about north of Columbus as part of the Columbus metropolitan area. The population was 41,302 at the 2020 census. Delaware ...

, academy for women in 1850, equivalent to a high school, it expanded its program in 1853 to begin service as a college. In 1877, the Ohio Wesleyan Female College merged with

. It had been a

Coordinate College Women's colleges in the United States are private single-sex U.S. institutions of higher education that only admit female students. They are often liberal arts colleges. There are approximately 26 active women's colleges in the United States in ...

in relationship with that nearby men's school since 1853.

History

It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, which provided general educational opportunities to women in an era when

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

institutions of higher learning were only sporadically open to students of both sexes. In 1855, funds for the school's first and only institutional building were obtained from Mary Monnett, a student who attended the school. The trustees named the main building Monnett Hall in her honor. The main Wesleyan Female College Hall in Delaware, Ohio, was razed in the late 1970s and the site is now occupied by Monnett Gardens. Wesleyan's annual celebration of spring, Monnett Weekend, is held each April.

Alumnae

* Melissa Elizabeth Riddle Banta, poet * Sara Jane Crafts, educator, author, social reformer *

Cornelia Cole Fairbanks Cornelia "Nellie" Cole Fairbanks (January 14, 1852 – October 24, 1913) was the wife of Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. During her husband's tenure she was the second lady of the United States from 1905 to 1909. She was a leader in the wom ...

, class 1872, Second Lady of the United States during the vice-presidency of her husband

Charles W. Fairbanks Charles Warren Fairbanks (May 11, 1852 – June 4, 1918) was the 26th vice president of the United States under President Theodore Roosevelt serving from 1905 to 1909. A member of the Republican Party, Fairbanks was previously a senator from In ...

Lucy Webb Hayes Lucy Ware Hayes (née Webb; August 28, 1831 – June 25, 1889) was the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes and served as first lady of the United States from 1877 to 1881. Hayes was the first First Lady to have a college degree. She was als ...

, First Lady of the United States from 1877–1881 *

Flora Wambaugh Patterson Flora Wambaugh Patterson (September 15, 1847–February 5, 1928) was an American mycologist, and the first female plant pathologist hired by the United States Department of Agriculture. She ran the US National Fungus Collections for almost thi ...

, 1847–1928, mycologist at the USDA who worked on numerous important fungal diseases

History

Alumnae

References

See also