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| Lycoming College History | |
| The
history of Lycoming College has been one of continual evolution. The
institution has been, at one time or another, an elementary and
secondary school, a seminary, a junior college and at present a
four-year liberal arts college—going through three name changes in
the process. Sold by the Presbyterians to the Methodists (who bought
it as a source of revenue), it is today an independent non-profit,
private college, affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Its beginning dates back to 1812—making Lycoming one of the 50 oldest colleges in America—when it was founded as the Williamsport Academy, that city’s first elementary and secondary school. The school was administered by a Board of Trustees made up primarily of staunch Presbyterians. By 1848, Williamsport had its own public school system well in place, and the private school was becoming a financial burden. A visionary circuit preacher, Rev. Benjamin H. Crever, persuaded the Methodists to buy the school. They named the institution Dickinson Seminary and offered college preparatory courses. Rev. Crever is considered the school’s true founder. The seminary operated as a private boarding school until 1929 when a college curriculum was added and it became the Williamsport Dickinson Junior College, the first junior college in Pennsylvania. In 1947, the junior college became a
four-year degree-granting college of liberal arts and sciences. It
adopted the name Lycoming, derived from the Indian word "lacomic,"
meaning "Great Stream," a name that enjoys local
popularity as the name of the county, a township and a creek. |
