The Rev. Adam Poe, founder of Ohio Wesleyan University, will speak Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Barn at Stratford.
Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1036515745497?aff=oddtdtcreator
The Rev. Jon Powers, OWU chaplain emeritus, will portray the Rev. Poe when he presents “Be Careful What You Let Upset You! How I Got from Circuit Rider to Founder of a University.”
The free program begins at 7 p.m. at 2690 Stratford Road, Delaware. Donations will be accepted.
Poe, an elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Ohio Area, was pastor of the William Street Church when he asked citizens to raise money to establish a “university of the highest order” in Delaware. Poe and a group of 172 citizens raised $10,000 to purchase the former Mansion House Hotel, now OWU’s Elliott Hall.
The Ohio Legislature granted the university’s official charter, “forever to be conducted on the most liberal of principles and accessible to all religious denominations,” on March 7, 1842.
By 1844, 29 male students had enrolled and were taught by a faculty of three professors.
In 1853, the independent Ohio Wesleyan Female College was established. Four years later, the women’s school moved into Monnett Hall. The two schools merged in 1854.
Powers will tell the story of the university’s beginnings and share some of Poe’s fund-raising tips. In this telling, we know the good Reverend Poe will be an amusing and genial speaker.
The free program begins at 7 p.m. at 2690 Stratford Road, Delaware. Donations will be accepted.