Editing Hanover, Indiana (section)

===Founding of Hanover College===
[[Image:John Finley Crowe.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Portrait of John Finley Crowe.|right|John Finley Crowe, founder of Hanover College]]

[[John Finley Crowe]] was born in [[Greene County, Tennessee]], growing up there and in Missouri, where his family migrated. He grew up in a Presbyterian household. After meeting some Presbyterian elders who had moved from North Carolina to his area in Missouri, Crowe became interested in pursuing a religious education. He attended [[Transylvania College]] in [[Lexington, Kentucky]], and continued his education at [[Princeton Theological Seminary]] in [[Princeton, New Jersey]]. After completing his [[Masters of Divinity]] in 1815, Crowe accepted his first ministerial calling in [[Shelbyville, Kentucky]]. It was a slave state, but Crowe became actively involved in the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist movement]]. He established a Sunday school for African-American children, but could not find a place where they were allowed to meet. On May 7, 1822, he began publication of the ''Abolition Intelligence and Missionary Magazine''.  Crowe's abolitionist sympathies alienated him from his slave-holding neighbors, and he soon lost access to the printing press.<ref>Baker, 23-24.</ref>

[[Image:Crowe-Garritt House.jpg|thumb|alt=Residence of John Finley Crowe in Hanover.|left|Residence of John Finley Crowe in Hanover, now listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]]]
On April 2, 1823, John M. Dickey, moderator of a church session attended by Williamson Dunn and George Logan as elders, sent a letter to Crowe inviting him to serve at the Hanover Presbyterian Church. Disheartened by the hostility of neighbors in Kentucky, Crowe accepted the position, relieved to move to a free state.<ref>Poor, Michael J, transc. ''The Call of the Hanover Church to John Finley Crowe''. http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/hhr5-3.html.</ref> Soon after arriving in Hanover, Crowe began construction of his house. It still exists and is known today as the [[Crowe-Garritt House]]. Located just north of the present-day Hanover Presbyterian Church, the Crowe-Garritt House was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1980.<ref>Baker, 25-26.</ref>

Soon after joining the Hanover Presbyterian Church, Crowe began encouraging members to sponsor the founding of a seminary. The religious academy opened in Hanover on January 1, 1827. Initially, classes met in the Presbyterian Church's stone church building, which was located in the present-day area of the Hanover Firehouse. Within a year, however, the school had outgrown this location. Williamson Dunn donated land for the site of a new college building. In 1829, the state of Indiana granted a charter for Hanover Academy, essentially with a classical high school curriculum.

The Presbyterian Synod of Indiana recognized the theological segment of the school as the Indiana Seminary. Hanover Academy grew quickly over the ensuing years, adding to its programs. In 1833 it received a charter from the state of Indiana to form a four-year college under the name of Hanover College.<ref name="baker">Baker, 25-29.</ref> But the seminary stagnated, and the two entities split in 1836. In 1841 the religious seminary moved to [[New Albany, Indiana]]. Faced with money problems and with students divided on the issue of slavery, in 1859 the seminary moved and reopened in [[Chicago, Illinois]], as [[McCormick Theological Seminary]]. It was sponsored by a major business donor.<ref name="baker"/>