Founded in 1840 by the Methodist Episcopal Church (now the United Methodist Church), it is the oldest institution of
higher learning in Texas, continuing the charters granted by the Legislature (Texas Congress 1836-1845) to Rutersville College in 1840, Wesleyan College of Saint Augustine, Texas in 1844, McKenzie College of Clarksville, Texas in 1848, and Soule University of Chappell Hill, Texas in 1856. None of these four institutions lasted very
long, but in 1873, the union of these four institutions opened in Georgetown as Texas
University. Wanting the name for a state school of nearly the same name, the University of Texas, in Austin, the
state granted the new university a charter in 1875 under the name of Southwestern
University continuing in the tradition of the original charter for Rutersville.Southwestern was a charter member of the Southwest Conference in 1915 and for decades the main sports rival was Southern Methodist University as remembrance over
the near-removal of Southwestern to Dallas, leading to the founding of Methodism's second institution of higher learning in
Texas. SMU, however, grew to the point of no longer being near Southwestern in size. In the 1970's and 1980's, Southwestern
transformed itself into a small rigorous liberal arts institution, getting rid of its post-graduate degrees and completely
rebuilding the campus with a massive capital campaign. The endowment also rose substantially, as did academic standards.