Overview
Tennessee Wesleyan University (TWU) is a private Methodist university in Athens, Tennessee. It was founded in 1857 and is affiliated with the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. It maintains a branch campus in Knoxville, where it offers evening programs in business administration. It also conducts its nursing classes in Knoxville.
History
Tennessee Wesleyan was founded in 1857 as Athens Female College. It consisted solely of one building (now Old College). In 1866 the name was altered to , and in 1867 it became . At that time, the college was one of only a handful of coeducational colleges in the Southern United States.
In 1886, college president John F. Spence changed the name to in an attempt to receive financial support from Northern benefactors.
In 1889, it merged with Chattanooga University to form (U.S. Grant University; being Grant's given names), becoming the consolidated university's Athens branch campus.
Seventeen years later (1906), it was renamed the Athens School of the University of Chattanooga.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).