Texas Wesleyan University was originally founded as Polytechnic College by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1890. A committee under the direction of Bishop Joseph S. Key explored locations for a campus and settled on a site east of Fort Worth donated by area pioneers A. S. Hall, W. D. Hall, and George Tandy. The school held its first classes in September 1891 with a handful of faculty members and 111 students. In 1902, H. A. Boaz assumed the presidency and managed a period of moderate growth. He hoped to develop Polytechnic College into a new university for Southern Methodism.