By action of the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, meeting in Talladega from December 13-18, 1854, Auburn University and Birmingham-Southern College began with a resolution to have a college within the bounds of the conference. Although the intention was to establish a single college by and for the Methodist Church, rivalry between the eastern and western sections of Alabama over its location produced two institutions: the East Alabama Male College in Auburn and Southern University in Greensboro. Both were chartered by the state legislature in 1856 and both struggled to survive during the Civil War. The college at Auburn was transferred from the church to the state in 1872 and became the land-grant Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. In 1899 its name changed to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and in 1960 to Auburn University. Southern University at Greensboro merged with Birmingham College in 1918 to form Birmingham-Southern College, which maintained a church-related status from its beginning to the present.