Delaware

Delaware, a city and the county-seat of Delaware county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Olentangy (or Whetstone) river, near the centre of the state. Pop. (1890) 8224; (1900) 7940 (572 being foreign-born and 432 negroes); (1910) 9076. Delaware is served by the Pennsylvania, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis (New York Central system), and the Hocking Valley railways, and by two interurban lines. The city is built on rolling ground about 900 ft. above sea-level. There are many sulphur and iron springs in the vicinity. Delaware is the seat of the Ohio Wesleyan University (co-educational), founded by the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1841, and opened as a college in 1844; it includes a college of liberal arts (1844), an academic department (1841), a school of music (1877), a school of fine arts (1877), a school of oratory (1894), a business school (1895), and a college of medicine (the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Cleveland, Ohio; founded as the Charity Hospital Medical College in 1863, and the medical department of the university of Wooster until 1896, when, under its present name, it became a part of Ohio Wesleyan University). In 1877 the Ohio Wesleyan female college, established at Delaware in 1853, was incorporated in the university. In 1907-1908 the university had 122 instructors, 1178 students and a library of 55,395 volumes. At Delaware, also, are the state industrial school for girls, a Carnegie library, the Edwards Young Men’s Christian Association building and a city hospital. The city has railway shops and foundries, and manufactures furniture, carriages, tile, cigars and gas engines. Delaware was laid out in 1808 and was first incorporated in 1815. It was the birthplace of Rutherford B. Hayes, president of the United States from 1877 to 1881.

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