In the early 1820s, wealthy landowners in the Leighton, Alabama, area established a village on the crest of the mountain southwest of this site, and the community, eventually known as LaGrange, grew to about 400 inhabitants. In the 1820s, the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church sought proposals and contributions for a college in the Southeast, and citizens around LaGrange offered a site and a subscription of $10,000. The Methodist Church accepted the LaGrange proposition on December 4, 1828, and later that month the Mississippi Conference joined the effort. Representatives of the two conferences met at LaGrange on January 10, 1829, selected a site, and on January 11, 1830, La Grange College opened with 70 students. Eight days later it became the first state chartered college in Alabama. Rev. Robert Paine served as president from 1830 to 1846, Rev. Turner Saunders was the first president of the LaGrange Board of Trustees, and enrollment peaked at 139 in 1845 while averaging about 106. After Paine became a bishop in 1846, Dr. Richard H. Rivers became president in 1854 as the college faced serious financial problems. Responding to an offer of better support, Rivers moved the college to Florence, Alabama, in January 1855. During its 25-year history, more than 150 graduates received A. B. degrees, and the college's establishment in 1830 marked the beginning of collegiate education in Alabama. The move was controversial, some students and faculty remained on the old campus, and the Florence institution was denied permission to use the LaGrange College name. It was chartered as Florence Wesleyan University on February 14, 1856, and is known today as the University of North Alabama.