Tehuacana stands at one of the highest points between Dallas and Houston, at an altitude of 661 feet. It was first noted in recorded history by Philip Nolan's trading expedition in 1797. In its early days it was home to the Tehuacana Indians, a Wichita tribe devoted to farming and peaceful pursuits, until they were destroyed in the early 1830s by Cherokees. The town is on a Mexican land grant obtained in 1835 by John Boyd, a member of the First Congress of the Republic of Texas. Boyd became the first postmaster in 1847, and in 1849 he nominated Tehuacana for the capital of the State of Texas, but Austin won the election held in 1850. Tehuacana Academy, a locally organized and supported Presbyterian school, operated for ten years, and although it closed during the Civil War, it helped inspire the founding of Trinity University in 1869 with Boyd's assistance. Boyd's gift of 1,520 acres for college use included the present campus, where Trinity University, now in San Antonio, operated until 1902. The school plant was then deeded to the Methodist Protestant Church, which relocated Westminster College here in 1916 as one of the first junior colleges in Texas. In 1953 the Congregational Methodist Church bought the property and operated Westminster College and Bible Institute on the historic campus.