Allegheny was founded in April 1815 by the Reverend Timothy Alden, a graduate of Harvard's School of Divinity. The college was historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church after 1833, although it is currently non-sectarian. The first class, consisting of four male students, began their studies on July 4, 1816, without any formal academic buildings. Within six years, Alden accumulated sufficient funds to begin building a campus. Allegheny began admitting women in 1870, early for a US college; a woman was valedictorian of the Allegheny class of 1875. One source suggests that Ida Tarbell, the pioneering journalist who exposed the predatory practices of Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, was the first woman to attend Allegheny.