History

In January of 1842, the Iowa Territorial Legislature passed a bill “to incorporate a Literary Institute at Mount Pleasant.” Trustees were given authorization to begin the work of arranging finances, appointing professors and authoring rules of conduct. On March 11, 1843, four Mount Pleasant citizens donated twenty acres in four adjoining plots to enable the trustees to “erect a suitable building on some part of the donation, which should be used and forever appropriated as an institution of higher learning.”