After ten years spent in teaching and preaching at Miami University, Dr.
McGuffey resigned, August 26, 1836, and accepted the presidency of
Cincinnati College.

This institution was chartered in the winter of 1818-1819 by the
legislature of Ohio, largely at the solicitation of Dr. Daniel Drake. It
was partially endowed by the gifts of the public-spirited citizens of
Cincinnati. But its collegiate functions had been allowed to drop,
although a school on the Lancastrian system was maintained.

The election of Dr. McGuffey as president of this college was a result
of renewed activity on the part of the leading men in the city to found
a genuine college of high character in that city. They believed that if
well conducted such an institution would bring to its doors students
enough to support the college by their fees.

A medical department was organized in June, 1835, with eight competent
professors, a law department with three professors, and a faculty of
arts with seven teachers. In this faculty, William H. McGuffey was
president and professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, O.M.
Mitchell was professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, and Edward D.
Mansfield was professor of Constitutional Law and History. Dr. McGuffey
accepted the presidency with a full knowledge that the work was
experimental. A trial of three years demonstrated that a college could
not be sustained without an invested endowment. Cincinnati College "was
endowed with genius, and nothing else."

[Ohio University]