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1846 – 1893 (in Fort Wayne)
Founded: 1846, by the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. (The year 1851 sometimes attached to the college is the date of its surviving catalogue.) The cornerstone was laid in June 1847 on ground donated by William Rockhill at the west end of West Wayne Street, and students were examined that December in the Methodist church.
Course: Cyrus Nutt was president from 1849. Men were admitted from 1850 as the Collegiate Institute for Men, and the school advertised in October 1855 as the Fort Wayne Female College & Collegiate Institute under R. D. Robinson; the two halves merged in 1855 as Fort Wayne College. A storm tore the roof off a wing on November 21, 1856. The college carried about 100 women its first year at $22.50 a year; the 1851–52 register lists 123 female and 83 male students, tuition running $3.50 to $7.50 a term by department. An 1858 sheriff's sale for debt — the Dunbar suit — was postponed to July 24, 1858, with the outcome unreported in the Sentinel. Robinson resigned in 1878 and W. F. Yocum was inaugurated in his place.
Fate: In 1890 the grounds were deeded to Taylor University, and in 1893 the college moved to Upland, Indiana, where Taylor remains. The Fort Wayne building was torn down about 1899.
Sources:
- Taylor University — the Fort Wayne College years, 1846–1893.
- Indiana Historical Society — catalogue and register of the college, introduction by Banning & McCune (the 1851 catalogue; the 1851–52 register).
- Fort Wayne Standard, school-history account; ACGSI places pages (the 1856 storm; the 1858 sheriff's sale).