Chronology

Abolitionist Baptists withdraw from any fellowship that tolerates slavery and form the American Baptist Free Mission Society — the body that will found the college.

Trustees acquire a hilltop site in Cortland County, New York, and begin construction of a single large college building.

Classes begin under President Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor. The charter admits students irrespective of sex or complexion — the first such founding in the United States.

Reason joins the faculty as professor of belles-lettres and mathematics — the first African American professor at a predominantly white American college.

Allen takes the chair of Greek and German, having been recruited from the Liberty Party press in Troy.

Oberlin's first Black graduate joins the faculty as professor of ancient languages.

January: a mob of some five hundred lays siege to the King farmhouse at Phillipsville. March: William G. Allen and Mary King marry in New York City and sail for England. Allen will publish The American Prejudice Against Color before year's end.

The future sculptor passes through McGrawville before continuing to Oberlin and, eventually, Rome.

The nationwide Panic of 1857 dries up Free Mission donations. Mortgages on the college fall into arrears.

Reason returns to New York City to lead the Institute for Colored Youth circle; Vashon departs for Pittsburgh and, later, Howard University.

Unable to meet its obligations, the college closes its doors. The main building stands empty through the war years.

Former students serve in the Union Army, several in the United States Colored Troops; Benjamin Boseman serves as a surgeon.

The McGrawville property is reorganized as a preparatory academy of more conventional aims. The college, as such, is gone — but its alumni are everywhere.