Greenville University

Greenville University is a liberal arts four-year school that is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, a church with an evangelical foundation. The college is located in Greenville, Illinois, United States, located 45 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri on Interstate 70. In the mid-nineteenth century, Stephen Morse moved from New Hampshire to Greenville, where he met and married Almira Blanchard. In 1855, he established a college for women. Almira College was affiliated with the Baptist church and educated young women under the leadership of John B. White, a classmate of Morse at Brown University. After 23 years, ownership passed to James Park Slade, who maintained the affiliation but changed the College to a co-educational institution. In 1892, ministerial and lay leaders of the Central Illinois Conference of the Free Methodist Church purchased the property of Almira College, consisting of "Old Main" and several acres of land, to provide higher education for both men and women under distinctive Christian influences. The institution was reincorporated as an independent institution under the name of Greenville College Corporation and was authorized to confer the usual degrees.