Franklin and Marshall College

Franklin and Marshall College is a four-year private co-educational liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is the 25th oldest college or university in the United States.

History of Franklin College (18th Century)

Franklin College was chartered on June 6, 1787 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on the site of a former brewery. It was named for Benjamin Franklin, who donated £200 to the new institution. Founded by four prominent ministers from the German Reformed Church and the Lutheran Church, in conjunction with numerous Philadelphians, the school was established as a German college whose goal was to help assimilate the German population into American culture. Its first trustees included four signers of the Declaration of Independence, three members of the Constitutional Convention and seven officers of the Revolutionary War.

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June 6 - 1787 - Lancaster, Pennsylvania - Benjamin Franklin - Reformed Church - Lutheran - German - Declaration of Independence - Constitutional Convention - Revolutionary War

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The school's first courses were taught on July 16, 1787, with instruction taking place in both English and German making it the first bilingual college in the United States.

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July 16 - 1787 - English - German - Bilingual - United States

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Franklin College was also America's first coeducational institution, with its first class of students composed of 78 men and 36 women. Among the latter was Rebecca Gratz, the first Jewish female college student in the United States. However, the policy was soon changed and It would take 182 years before women were again permitted to enroll in the school.

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Coeducational - Rebecca Gratz - Jewish

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In July of 1789, Franklin College ran into financial difficulty as its annual tuition of four pounds was not enough to cover operating costs. Enrollment began to dwindle to just a few students and eventually the college existed as nothing more than an annual meeting of the Board of Trustees. In an effort to help the ailing school, an academy was established in 1807. For the next three decades, Franklin College and Franklin Academy managed to limp along financially, with instructors supplementing their income with private tutoring.

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July - 1789 - 1807

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In 1835, the school's Debating Society was renamed Diagnothian Literary Society at the suggestion of seminary student Samuel Reed Fisher. In June of that year, Diagnothian was divided into two friendly rivals to encourage debate. Diagnothian retained its original name, while the new society was named Goethean, in honor of German philosopher and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The two organizations sponsored orations and debated politics, philosophy and literature. They merged together in 1955, but became separate entities again in 1989. The Diagnothian Society is the oldest student organization on campus.

Related Topics:
1835 - June - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Orations - Politics - Philosophy - Literature - 1955 - 1989

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