1.5 : History of Greenville University

For more than a century, students on the Greenville campus have received an education based on academic excellence and Christian principles. Challenged to provide higher education for women, Stephen Morse moved to Greenville, Illinois in 1855 from New Hampshire and founded Almira College, named in honor of his wife, Almira Blanchard Morse. Two years later, the university was incorporated. For the next twenty-three years the school educated young women under the leadership of John B. White, a classmate of Morse at Brown University. Financial reverses necessitated selling the property to James P. Slade who conducted a coeducational school.

In 1892, ministerial and lay leaders of the Central Illinois Conference of the Free Methodist Church purchased Almira University which was at the time housed in a single building. They proposed to provide higher education for young men and women under distinctive Christian influences. The institution was reincorporated under the name of Greenville College and authorized to confer collegiate degrees.

In 2017, on its 125th anniversary, Greenville College changed its name to Greenville University.