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ALLEGHENY COLLEGE FOUNDED AT MEADVILLE.

1815.

opened the way for thousands of hardy pioneers,'and the formation of settlements.

The rich and delightful lands along the waters of the Wabash, the Kaskaskia, the Sangamon, and the Illinois rivers, had filled their hearts with enthusiasm, and the very men, who iu hostile array had traversed the country, began to advance with their families in the peaceful character of husbandmen, and to plant new settlements in all this region.

The first steamboat that made a trip from New Orleans to Louisville, Ky., was the Enterprise. This boat left New Orleans on the Gtu of May, 1815, and arrived at Louisville on the 31st of the same month, making the passage in twenty-five days. This was then regarded as quite an achievement iu the navigation of the Mississippi and Ohio with steam.

On the 20th of June, in this year, the citizens of Meadville, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, held a public meeting, at wdiich they resolved upon the establishment of an educational institution in their vicinity, to which was given the name of Allegheny College. The work was at once pushed on with a vigor and an enterprise that does honor to the public spirit of the citizens, and on the 4th of July, 181G, the new college was opened, with tbe Rev. Timothy Alden, an able and distinguished divine, as its president, and the Rev. Robert Johnson, as vice president. On the 24th of March, 1817, it was duly incorporated, and has since then continued in its course of usefulness, having in the meanwhile received some very rich and valuable endowments. Among these was the contribution by the Rev. Dr. Bentley, of Salem, Mass., of a very rare collection of theological works, said to be the best in the country. One of the buildings of the college has, in gratitude to the donor, been named Bentley Hall.

For some years after its establishment, it was not in a very flourishing condition. Not only was the surrounding country as yet too thinly settled for an institution of this kind to thrive, hut the establishment of several rival colleges, that entered into competition with it, served to its injury.

These difficulties have been long since overcome, and Allegheny College is now one of the first and most flourishing institutions in the West. The growth of its prosperity may best be judged, when it is known, that in 1842 there were one hundred and fifty pupils in the institution, and in 1855, there were three hundred and twenty-eight, including males and females.