Named after the famed orator and politician William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), Bryan College began as a vision of the Bryan Memorial University Association after Bryan ’s death in 1925, which occurred soon after the nationally polarizing Scopes Trial in which Bryan had served as visiting prosecutor. The association launched a national campaign aimed at raising five million dollars with which to establish a university that would memorialize Bryan by teaching “truth from a Biblical perspective.” The university was chartered in 1930, and classes began in the fall of that year in the old Rhea County High School . The university struggled through the Great Depression, and the association’s fund-raising efforts all but collapsed. However, the school now boasts a 110-acre campus overlooking the town of Dayton , Tennessee . In 1958 the school changed its name to William Jennings Bryan College . The name was again changed in 1993 to Bryan College .

Directions: From I-75 take Exit 25, Hwy 60 west to Dayton , turn north on Hwy 27. College will be on the right. Bryan is located on US Hwy 27 in Dayton just north of the Hwy 30 intersection.