Carleton College (Northfield, Minn.)

Carleton was founded on October 12, 1866, by the General Conference of the Congregational Churches of Minnesota, which—after considering locations in Zumbrota, Mantorville, Cottage Grove, and Lake City—chose Northfield for the home of its new college. Carleton’s founder was Northfield businessman and Congregationalist Charles M. Goodsell, for whom the College’s observatory is named. It was he who encouraged the church to open a Minnesota college and he who donated part of its original 20 acres. The first instructor hired was Horace Goodhue, Jr., for whom a campus dormitory was later named.