Among the first 24 members of the tri-racial board of trustees in 1855 were Bishop Daniel A. Payne, Lewis Woodson, Ishmael Keith, and Alfred Anderson, all of the AME Church.

It was named Tawawa House after the springs in the area, a word derived from a Shawnee term for "clear or golden water".

Some people in this area of abolitionist sentiment were shocked when wealthy white Southern planters patronized the resort with their entourages of enslaved African-American mistresses and mixed-race "natural" children.

[4] Given migration patterns, this was also an area where numerous free people of color settled, many having moved across the Ohio River from the South to find better work and living conditions.

Xenia had quite a large free black population, as did other towns in southern Ohio, such as Chillicothe, Yellow Springs and Zanesville.

Free blacks and anti-slavery white supporters used houses in Xenia as stations on the Underground Railroad in the years before the Civil War.

[7] It is notable that most were from the South, the "natural" mixed-race sons and daughters of wealthy white planters and their enslaved African-American mistresses.

[4] Led by Bishop Daniel A. Payne, in 1863 the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) decided to buy the college to ensure its survival; they paid the cost of its debt.

Shorter, pastor of the AME Church in Zanesville, Ohio and a future bishop; and John G. Mitchell, principal of the Eastern District Public School of Cincinnati.

Salmon P. Chase, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Charles Avery from Pittsburgh each contributed $10,000 to rebuild the college.

[8] In 1888 the AME Church came to an agreement with the Republican Party-dominated state legislature that brought considerable financial support and political patronage to the college.

As an act of political patronage, the state legislature established a commercial, normal and industrial (CNI) department at Wilberforce College.

While this created complications for administration and questions about the mission of the college, in the near term it brought tens of thousands of dollars annually in state aid to the campus.

Each state legislator could award an annual scholarship to the CNI department at Wilberforce, enabling hundreds of African-American students to attend classes.

[4] Generations of leaders: teachers, ministers, doctors, politicians and college administrators, and later men and women of all occupations, have been educated at the university.

In 1894 Lieutenant Charles Young, the third black graduate of West Point and at the time the only African-American commissioned officer in the US Army, led the newly established military science department.

[4] Additional leading scholars taught at the college in the early 20th century, such as Theophilus Gould Steward, a politician, theologian and missionary; and the sociologist Richard R. Wright, Jr., the first African American to earn a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

The former residence of Charles Young near Wilberforce was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the US Department of Interior, in recognition of his significant and groundbreaking career in the US Army.

The cooperative program places students in internships that provide practical work experience in addition to academic training.

It was attended by Bernice G. Alston, deputy assistant administrator of NASA's office of Education, and Dave Hobson, U.S. Representative from Ohio's 7th congressional district.