Illinois Liberal Institute is issued a charter in January by the Illinois General Assembly.
1852 Illinois Liberal Institute opens with 60 students.
1855 Illinois Liberal Institute burns to the ground on April 17 -- classes continue in the Lutheran Church.
1856 Institute graduates first class of four men and two women. A new building is started with a gift from Benjamin Lombard of Henry, Illinois. The Institute charter changes the name to Lombard University.
1865 Lombard charter is revised to obtain tax-exempt status. Lombard dissolves board of stockholders and establishes a board of trustees elected by the Universalist Churches. Lombard becomes a church supported university.
1871 First student boarding house is completed. It is privately owned.
1875 First Honorary Ph.D. is awarded at Commencement.
1877 Enrollment drops to 18 students.
1881 Dr. W.H. Ryder establishes a school of divinity with an endowment of $20,000. Tuition is free.
Boarding hall for women is built by the University.
1884 Records show only three college grade students enrolled at Lombard.
1890 With additional gifts from Dr. Ryder and others, the theology department is named Ryder Divinity School.
1891 First LL.D. honorary degree is awarded at Commencement.
1893 Alpha Xi Delta women's fraternity is originated at Lombard.
1894 Street cars from downtown Galesburg begin running to the edge of campus.
1896 Lombard Hall ladies dormitory is completed.
1897 A gymnasium is constructed for both gym and oratorical facilities.
1899 The first record of organized sports appears in university publications.
1900 The name of the Lombard University is changed to Lombard College.
1907 A small group of Lombard faculty discussed the possibility of uniting with Knox.
1912 A meeting in Chicago, attended by trustees from both Lombard and Knox, voted unanimously to unite the two colleges. The union was never accomplished.
Pi Beta Phi and Alpha Xi Delta bungalows are completed on campus.
A new gym was built; the old one was remodeled into Alumni Hall.
Ryder Divinity School transferred to Chicago and was affiliated with the University of Chicago divinity schools.
1922 Tompkins Science Hall is completed.
1924 Enrollment grows to more than 500 in all the Lombard branches.
1928 Ryder House is sold to University of Chicago, and the charter was transferred to Meadville Theological School in Chicago.
1930 Serious financial concerns due to loss of endowment income, deficit financing over the years, failure of the Universalist and Unitarian churches, and the stock market crash force the college to cease operation.
Lombard College graduates its last class in the spring of 1930, after 79 years of operation.
Students who did not have enough credits to graduate were invited to transfer to Knox ,without loss of academic standing, to finish their education. Knox honored the cost of Lombard's tuition.
All academic records were housed at Knox, and all Lombard alumni were invited to become part of the Knox College Alumni Association. Lombard traditions and the Lombard bell are preserved at Knox.
The Lombard College charter is still legally held by the Meadville Theological Seminary in Chicago. The College is now called the Meadville Lombard Theological School.
2014 The last living alumnus of record of Lombard College, Ray Truedson, died at the age of 104 on Monday, November 10, bringing to a close an important chapter in the Knox and Lombard College histories.