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Oberlin History Timeline
1800-1839

• 1803: Ohio attains statehood.
• 1805: The land west of the Cuyahoga is ceded by Native Americans to the government, opening that land for settlement.
• 1824: Lorain County is incorporated.
• 1833: Oberlin is founded by settlers led by Revs. John Jay Shipherd and Philo Penfield Stewart. The first structure in town is the Peter Pindar Pease cabin, built under the Historic Elm (pictured at right). Oberlin College, then known as Oberlin Collegiate Institute, is founded at the same time. In a move unusual for the time, it commits itself to co-education from its very beginning. Also unusual is the Oberlin Covenant, which all settlers are required to sign before being granted residence in the new town.
• 1830s-1841: The Graham diet, named for its developer Sylvester Graham, becomes spectacularly popular--at least among the more "puritanical" segments of society. The "diet" proscribed to its practitioners a strict regimen of what to each, when, where, and how, in order to purify the mind and body, or, some would argue, to "mortify the flesh." The Graham diet was widely followed in Oberlin, and for a while dictated what food might be served in the College dining halls. The "Graham-only" policy of Oberlin College was rescinded in 1841 because of mass student outcry (and after a professor was dismissed for daring to bring his own pepper shaker to the dining hall--spices of any kind being in violation of Graham's principles.)
• 1834: The first Oberlin Inn--in the form of a public house operated by Brewster Pelton--is constructed.
• 1834: The Oberlin School District is organized for public education.
• 1834-35: The Lane Rebels come to Oberlin from the Lane Seminary in Cincinnati. These Rebels push the College to adopt a policy of non-discrimination based on race, which it does in 1835, making Oberlin the first institution of higher learning in the nation to practice "color-blind" admissions.
• 1835: The term of Oberlin College's first president, Asa Mahan from Lane Seminary, begins. Rev. Charles Finney also arrives in Oberlin, where he directs Oberlin's First Church and serves as president of the Oberlin College's School of Theology and, later, as College President.
• 1836: The first public school in Oberlin is opened. This building, the Little Red Schoolhouse, still stands and is part of the Oberlin Heritage Center's tour.
• 1837: Oberlin establishes two volunteer fire companies.
• 1839: The Amistad incident takes place: A group of newly-arrived slaves in Cuba revolt and attempt to sail back to Africa but are tricked into sailing north, where they eventually are taken ashore in Connecticut.
• 1839: The last signer of the Oberlin Covenant commits himself to Oberlin’s founding ideals. The town continues to grow, but interest in the Covenant is on the wane.