Fort Worth University was a college in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

operated from 1881 until 1911. Founded as Texas Wesleyan College in 1881, and later renamed Fort Worth University in 1889, the university was affiliated with the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

and was a member of the University Senate of the church. The university was dissolved into the Methodist University of Oklahoma (now

Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's degrees and doctor ...

) in 1911. As described in the latter university's 1915 "Historical Statement":

The Methodist University of Oklahoma is the result of the amalgamation of the Fort Worth University and
Epworth University Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's deg ...
which was brought about in 1911.
Fort Worth University, located at Fort Worth, Texas, was originally Texas Wesleyan College, chartered by the State of Texas June 6, 1881. It was in 1889 that the charter was amended and the name changed to Fort Worth University. This institution under the leadership of wise and faithful men did good service for a number of years. Its graduates are scattered all over the Southwest and are giving a good account of themselves. Only the necessity for combining the educational forces of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the interests of larger endowment and equipment caused old Fort Worth to lose its identity.

The first president was William H. Cannon; later presidents included Oscar L. Fisher and William Fielder. Over the years the university offered A.B., B.S., B.Litt., and Ph.D. degrees. It also offered graduate professional degrees in medicine and law. In 1897, Fort Worth University's first graduates from its new medical school included Frances Daisy Emery Allen; she was the first female physician to graduate from a Texas medical school. A second prominent graduate was

William Duncan MacMillan William Duncan MacMillan (July 24, 1871 – November 14, 1948) was an American mathematician and astronomer on the faculty of the University of Chicago. He published research on the applications of classical mechanics to astronomy, and is noted fo ...

, class of 1898, who became a faculty member at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and is noted for research on

physical cosmology Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of f ...

and for advanced textbooks on

classical mechanics Classical mechanics is a physical theory describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, and astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. For objects governed by classical ...

. MacMillan was the secretary of the class of 1898 - and simultaneously an adjunct professor of astronomy.

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