The historic founding of Iowa Wesleyan College is rooted in the
religious, educational and cultural aspirations of early
settlers in the frontier settlement of Mt. Pleasant. Their
aspirations were shaped by an impelling vision and a bold
determination to build an institute of learning in the rapidly
developing southeast corner of the Iowa Territory. On February
17, 1842, the Territorial Legislature granted a charter for the
Mt. Pleasant Literary Institute, later named the Mt. Pleasant
Collegiate Institute. On March 8, 1843, Aristides Joel Priest
Huestis, a New Englander by birth, signed a contract, the first
dated document of the Institute, to act as Agent for raising
money and supervising construction of the Institute Building.
Three days later, four Mt. Pleasant residents donated twenty
acres of land in four adjoining plots so that trustees could
“within three years from this date erect a substantial building
on some part of said donation, which building shall be used and
forever appropriated as an institut