Braddock College

Braddock College is a public research university in Autumn Grove, Ohio. Chartered in 1763 and opened in 1765, it is the oldest university west of the Alleghenies. It is famous for its nationally-renowned Winthrop College of Journalism, as well as its place near the top of Nation magazine's Most Beautiful Colleges in America for the past thirty years. As of Fall 2003, the university's total enrollment at Autumn Grove was 18,000. Braddock College was chartered as the first university west of the Alleghenies. The idea of building a college - instead of a fort - was intended to "bring light into the darkness of the frontier" in a much more optimistic way than a military encampment or fort. It was hoped that Braddock College would be a meeting place of cultures and ideas between white settlers and indigenous people.

A somewhat different story is told in arcane circles. There, it is believed that Braddock College was intended as a kind of bastion; not one used to project traditional military power over the territory's inhabitants, but a forward outpost against dark forces in the Blackstead Forest.