Ohio Wesleyan Female College was founded in 1853 in

Delaware, Ohio Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County, Ohio, United States. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio m ...

. In 1877, the Ohio Wesleyan Female College merged with

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium ...

History

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

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, 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 t ...

institutions of higher learning were not yet fully 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 Sara Jane Crafts (, Timanus; pen name, Mrs. Wilbur F. Crafts; August 15, 1845 – May 2, 1930) was an American social reformer, author, lecturer, and teacher. She lectured and taught at Chautauquas, as well as a lecturer at State and International ...

, educator, author, social reformer * Cornelia Cole Fairbanks, 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 an American politician who served as a senator from Indiana from 1897 to 1905 and the 26th vice president of the United States from 1905 to 1909. He was also the Republican vice presid ...

Flora Wambaugh Patterson Flora Wambaugh Patterson (1847–1928) was an American mycologist, and the first female plant pathologist hired by the United States Department of Agriculture.Amy Y. Rossman"Flora W. Patterson: The First Woman Mycologist at the USDA" (Reviewe ...

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

History

Alumnae

See also