New Athens, Ohio, was conceived as a cultural and educational center. Here in 1818, Rev. John Walker founded classical Alma Academy. The academy became a college in 1825 and was renamed Franklin the following year. Old Franklin was early a center of intense Abolitionism, and its moral force sent forth some 400 Servants of Christianity. Its notable alumni include Wilson Shannon, first native-born Governor of Ohio; Joseph Ray, whose Arithmetics were long companionate to McGuffey's Readers; and John A. Bingham, statesman, prosecutor of Lincoln's assassins, and the minister to Japan. In 1921 Franklin College merged with Muskingum of New Concord. New Athens also joined the classical and practical, as native inventor Oliver H. Burdette developed here the removable-link chain and the famous steam traction engine.