 In 1887, Robert Fulton Cutting, treasurer of the ECUSA, donated $5000 to an Episcopalian bishop in Liberia for the establishment of a school for teaching Liberian children — both Americo-Liberian and native — about industry and agriculture.The university was finally established in 1889 by Samuel David Ferguson in Cape Palmas where it remained until 1929.Named Cuttington College when it opened, M. P. Keda Valentine served as the first principal followed by Samuel Taylor.