On March 22, 1870, the Ohio General Assembly chartered the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, which later became Ohio State University.

The new college was made possible through the Land Grant Act, signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. The act was created to make higher education available "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes." The school was to be financed by the sale of public lands.

The first class - 24 students - met at the Neil Farm, two miles north of Columbus, in September 1873. Seven areas of study were offered: agriculture, ancient languages, chemistry, geology, mathematics, modern languages and physics.

The name was changed in 1878 - the same year that the first class of six men graduated. The university graduated its first woman the following year.

Rebecca Goodman

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8361.