History of Washburn

Washburn University has a rich history dating back nearly 150 years. Our university was founded in 1865 by members of the Congregational Church on the principle that all people – regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or family income – have the right to earn an education.

Programs of study have been added through the years and today Washburn's legacy of providing opportunity to all who seek an education continues for more than 7,000 students in more than 200 academic programs. Washburn offers programs that lead to certification, associate, bachelor, master's, doctor of nursing practice and juris doctor degrees.

Learn much more about the history of Washburn University through this 11-page chapter provided to incoming students in the First Year Experience.

Our namesake: Ichabod Washburn

Ichabod Washburn worked his way from indentured apprentice to captain of industry. The businessman was also a fervent Congregationalist, abolitionist and philanthropist who believed in the rights of all people to an education.

Washburn was sent at age 9 to learn leather harness-making because his widowed mother could not provide for him. He later became an apprentice blacksmith and learned machinery. By the time he was 33, in 1831, Washburn had developed a machine and technique that made wire stronger and easier to produce, which ultimately lead to his fortune.

His innovations in wire led some to call him a father of the industry. His company, Washburn and Moen Wire Works, named for Ichabod and his son-in-law and partner Philip Moen, was the largest wire producer in the world for a time. It was the primary domestic producer of piano wire and crinoline wire, which became an affordable alternative to whale bone in the popular hoop skirts of the 1850s and ’60s. Washburn and Moen produced tons of telegraph wire and after Washburn’s death the company secured a patent for and mass produced barbed wire, which fenced the homesteads of the American West.

When Horatio Q. Butterfield, a professor and lead fundraiser at financially struggling Lincoln College in Kansas, visited Washburn’s home in Worcester, Mass. in October 1868, the businessman apparently liked what he heard. Founded by the Congregational Church in 1865, the school enrolled women and men, including an African-American, in its first class. The college also offered scholarships to honorably discharged Union soldiers among others. Washburn, a church deacon, pledged $25,000 to the college. The following month, the one-building institution was renamed Washburn College, at Butterfield’s recommendation, in recognition of the pledge. Washburn died Dec. 30, 1868 after complications of a stroke. He never set foot on his namesake campus.

Non Nobis Solum

Washburn’s motto, “non nobis solum,” speaks directly to the university’s founding principles. It means “Not for ourselves alone.” Charlotte Leavitt, professor of English, suggested the motto in the early 1900s.

This month in Washburn History

• 1868: Addison P. Davis graduates, receiving the first and only diploma issued by Lincoln College.
• 1870: The northeast corner of 160 acres donated by John Ritchie is deemed suitable for the permanent site of the college. It was criticized as being too far out of town.
• 1872: Construction begins on the first building erected on that new campus. It cost $65,000.
• Summer 1880: The College Hill neighborhood is born when Washburn purchases land north of campus and encourages faculty members to build homes there.
• June 6, 1885: Alumni Association is organized.
• June 15, 1887: Teacher education instituted.
• 1903: Flooding cancels commencement ceremonies.
• June 3, 1909: Thomas Gymnasium is dedicated.
• June 15, 1910: A quartet of Westminster chimes are installed in the tower of Thomas Gymnasium. Kuehne Bell Tower holds the same bells today.
• June 6, 1912: Jessie Nye becomes the first woman to graduate from Washburn School of Law.
• June 5, 1913: The last class graduates from the Washburn College of Medicine. The college merged with the University of Kansas.
• 1915: A lavish pageant and parade of Kansas and Washburn history are among the events marking the university’s 50th anniversary.
• 1918: Washburn Academy, a private preparatory school, becomes Washburn Rural High School. It is housed on campus until 1940.
• 1922: The Larrick Memorial Foundation and Exedra is dedicated as a memorial to World War I veterans by the parents of an alumnus who died in 1918 while in military training.
• 1923: Washburn becomes the first college in the Midwest to sport a nine-hole golf course on campus.
• 1936: T. Rosendo Alonzo is the first student of Mexican heritage to receive a degree from Washburn.
• 1947: Benefits of the G.I. Bill of Rights are realized by 976 veterans enrolled at Washburn.
• 1949: Alumnae Georgia Neese Clark Gray is named the first female Treasurer of the United States.
• June 1, 1952: Washburn Municipal University becomes Washburn University of Topeka.