Cincinnati College

City: Cincinnati

County: Hamilton

State: Ohio

Cincinnati College was the highest level of free, public education in Cincinnati prior to the Civil War. It originated with the Lancaster Seminary of Cincinnati, which the Ohio General Assembly incorporated in February 1815. On January 22, 1819, the General Assembly incorporated Cincinnati College, transferring all the powers and funds of the Lancaster Seminary to the new institution. The incorporation allowed the Board of Trustees to confer any and all degrees usually conferred by colleges and universities in the United States. In 1835, Cincinnati College absorbed Cincinnati Law School, which came to be known as the Law School of the Cincinnati College. In 1858, the city of Cincinnati received a bequest from Charles McMicken to build a university, and in April 1870, the General Assembly enacted legislation allowing the city to accept the bequest. The city proceeded to establish the University of Cincinnati, which absorbed Cincinnati College.

“An Act to Incorporate the Cincinnati College,” 22 January 1819, Laws of Ohio (1819), 46-50; University of Cincinnati Record, Series 1 21 (April 1925), No. 2, Part 3:10; History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati: S. B. Nelson, 1894), 119-20.