Abingdon College was a college in Abingdon, Illinois

Abingdon, Illinois

Abingdon is a city in Knox County, Illinois, 50 miles west of Peoria. It is part of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city was first settled in 1828 and was incorporated in 1857. In 1894, the patent for the common spring-loaded mousetrap was given to William Hooker of Abingdon,...

. It opened in 1853 and was consolidated with Eureka College

Eureka College

Eureka College is a liberal arts college in Eureka, Illinois related by covenant to the Christian Church and founded in 1855. It has a strong focus on the mutual development of intellect and character. Stated core values are learning, service and leadership...

 in the 1880s.

Abdingdon College was founded by P. H. Murphy and J. C. Reynolds, and opened on the first Monday of April in 1853. It received a charter from the state of Illinois in February 1855. Between 1875 and 1877, however, a quarrel between groups involved in the college effectively closed it. F. M. Bruner bought the college in 1880, but in 1885, it merged with Eureka College, and the Abingdon campus closed in 1888.

After consolidating with Eureka College and closing, the remnants of Abingdon College were bought by a professor named Summers, who named the facility Abingdon College Normal, but this college quickly failed as well. After this, another college in Abingdon, Hedding College

Hedding College

Hedding College was a college in Abingdon, Illinois from 1855-1927.The school was named after Methodist Bishop Elizah Hedding. Merged with Illinois Wesleyan University in 1930. The campus was used by the Roosevelt Military Academy for a while....

, which had been founded about 2 years after Abingdon College, bought the property in 1895 and used the buildings as their music and normal school

Normal school

A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...

campus.