Wabash College, a small, private, liberal arts college for men, is founded in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on November 21, 1832, by several Dartmouth College graduates and Midwestern leaders, many of whom are  Presbyterian ministers yet nevertheless believe that Wabash should be independent and non-sectarian.

Initially "The Wabash Teachers Seminary and Manual Labor College " (until 1851), it is patterned it after the liberal arts colleges of New England, and is at first a classical and English high school.