The school was named after its founder, Charles Tufts, who donated the land for the campus. He also served as president of the college from 1851 to 1852 and again from 1861 to 1870.
Tufts was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1810. He attended local schools and then went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1832. He graduated with honors and was one of seven students selected to deliver a commencement speech that year.
After graduation, Tufts returned home and worked as an editor at his father’s newspaper until 1840 when he moved to Detroit where he established his own paper called The Sentinel. He sold the paper after three years and moved back home to Massachusetts where he began farming on his family’s estate in Northborough.
In 1852, Tufts donated 80 acres of land in Medford for use as a college campus but did not specify what type of institution should be built there or who should administer it. In 1853, eight members of the Congregational Church formed a committee to organize an institution for higher education called Tufts College and appointed Henry Prentiss Cummings as its first president. Cummings served as president until 1860 when he became ill and died shortly thereafter.
