Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State or OSU, is a large, primarily residential, public research university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and the ninth university in Ohio with the Morrill Act of 1862, the university was originally known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (Mech). The college began with a focus on training students in various agricultural and mechanical disciplines but it developed into a comprehensive university under the direction of then-Governor (later, President) Rutherford B. Hayes, and in 1878 the Ohio General Assembly passed a law changing the name to "The Ohio State University". It has since grown into the third-largest university campus in the United States. Along with its main campus in Columbus, Ohio State also operates regional campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster.
Ohio Wesleyan University
In 1841, Ohio residents Adam Poe and Charles Elliott decided to establish a university "of the highest order" in central Ohio. To that end, they purchased the Mansion House Hotel, a former health resort with its Sulphur Spring, using funds raised from local residents. Poe and Elliott wrote a charter emphasizing "the democratic spirit of teaching", which was approved by the Ohio State Legislature. Early in the following year they opened the college preparatory Academy and formed a Board of Trustees. Ohio Wesleyan University, named (like several other U.S. colleges and universities) after John Wesley, founder of Methodism, opened on November 13, 1844 as a Methodist-related but nonsectarian institution, with a College of Liberal Arts for male students.