In June 1886, the townsite of Bartley was platted on land owned by the Reverend Allen Bartley, a minister of the Methodist Church. The previous year, Methodist Bishop Mallalieu had proposed this site as the location for a church-affiliated institution of higher education, and in April 1886, the Reverend Bartley was authorized to establish a university there. By July, some 27 buildings had been erected in the new town. The university, named for Bishop Mallalieu, opened in September 1886 with an enrollment of sixty students. Courses were taught in the liberal arts, music, and business. The first class graduated in the spring of 1888, and that summer construction began on Haddock Hall, the first of the permanent university buildings, located a short distance north of this point. Haddock Hall was never completed, however, because drought and adverse economic conditions soon forced the university to close, and it never reopened. Bricks from Haddock Hall were later used in the construction of the Methodist Church of Bartley, the only reminder of this early attempt to bring higher education to southwest Nebraska.