Founding and History
The Disciples of Christ founded the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute as a nonsectarian, coeducational preparatory school in 1849. Hiram was chosen as the site of the institution because this area of the Western Reserve seemed to be "healthful and free of distractions."
The Institute's original charter was authorized by the state legislature on March 1, 1850, and the school opened on November 27, 1850 despite the fact that the building was not yet completed. Many of the students came from the surrounding farms and villages of the Western Reserve, but Hiram soon gained a national reputation and students began arriving from other states. The school attained collegiate rank in 1867 and changed its name to Hiram College.
The first principal of the Institute (equivalent to today's president of the College) was Amos Sutton Hayden (1813–1880), who served from 1850 until 1857. Almeda A. Booth (1823–1875) served as principal of the Ladies' department and as a faculty member of English, Classics, and Mathematics from 1851 until 1866. She was one of Garfield's more influential teachers and remained close friends with him until her death. Garfield was also mentored by Platt Rogers Spencer, a prominent writing scholar. Garfield, himself, after completing his degree at Williams, returned to Hiram to join the faculty in 1856, as a classical scholar teaching Greek and Latin, along with such subjects as mathematics and geology. In 1857, he became principal of the Institute. Although he left Hiram in 1861 to take up the Civil War command of Company A of the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment recruited from Hiram, Garfield's name appeared in the Institute's catalogs until 1863.
Three years after the Institute attained collegiate rank and became known as Hiram College, Burke A. Hinsdale, who had been a student of Garfield's, was appointed president. Because of the fairly brief terms of the two presidents who preceded him, Hinsdale is known as the first permanent president of Hiram College. During his administration (1870–1882), the College achieved higher academic standing and established an ideal model for intellectual honesty and sound scholarship that gained national recognition. Hinsdale gathered around him the nucleus of a strong faculty who continued to serve the College for the next half century.
In September 2004, Thomas V. Chema was appointed as the 21st president of Hiram College.
Read more about this topic: Hiram College
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