Delaware is the seat of the Ohio Wesleyan University (co-educational), founded by the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1841, and opened as a college in 1844; it includes a college of liberal arts (1844), an academic department (1841), a school of music (1877), a school of fine arts (1877), a school of oratory (1894), a business school (1895), and a college of medicine (the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Cleveland, Ohio; founded as the Charity Hospital Medical College in 1863, and the medical department of the university of Wooster until 1896, when, under its present name, it became a part of Ohio Wesleyan University).
In 1877 the Ohio Wesleyan female college,established at Delaware in 1853, was incorporated in the university.
A "methodist" is one who follows a "method," the term being applied not only to the Wesleyan body, but earlier to the Amyraldists, and in the 17th century to certain Roman Catholic apologists.
Among institutions are the Battersea Polytechnic, the Royal Masonic Institution for girls, founded in 1788, and Church of England and Wesleyan Training Colleges.
A triennial parliament, a cabinet, a privy council, and an elaborate judicial system were established, and the cumbrous machinery was placed in the hands of a " prime minister," a retired Wesleyan missionary, Mr Shirley Baker.