On Sept. 17, 1838, Emory College classes began for fifteen students. The College was founded in 1836 by a group of Methodists in Newton County that dedicated themselves to founding a new town and college named after an American Methodist bishop who had inspired them by his broad vision for an American education that would mold character as well as mind.

In 1836, the Georgia legislature granted a charter to Emory College, named for the young Methodist bishop John Emory, from Maryland, who had died in a carriage accident the previous year.