Chancellor University was a private, for-profit university located in metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio. The school was founded in 1848 as Folsom's Mercantile College to teach basic bookkeeping and business skills. It underwent several changes of name and ownership during its history. The college closed on August 25, 2013 at the conclusion of the summer semester.HistoryThe university was opened by R.S. Bacon as a college of business in 1848 on West 3rd Street in Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly thereafter it merged with Folsom's Mercantile College, founded by Ezekiel G. Folsom. Two of Folsom College's earliest students created the Bryant & Stratton Colleges which later acquired Folsom's school in a possibly forced merger. After the merger with the Bryant and Stratton system, the Cleveland school used the Bryant and Stratton name until 1867, when it took the name Union Business School to celebrate the Union's Civil War victory. The university in Cleveland was later renamed Spencerian College for one of its most illustrious administrators, Platt R. Spencer, educator and originator of Spencerian penmanship. The earliest curriculum was limited to the development of practical skills, such as penmanship, bookkeeping, and telegraphy. The most notable alumni of Chancellor University are oil magnate, John D. Rockefeller, rubber and tire trailblazer, Harvey Firestone, and accounting and professional services pioneer, Theodore Ernst.
