In 1887, under the venerable leadership of Bishop Samuel D. Ferguson, the Cape Palmas Missionary District of Liberia (of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America) founded the Hoffman Institute for the training of ‘men in skill and virtue’. To it was later added a divinity school, and it assumed the name, Cuttington Collegiate and Divinity School when on February 22, 1889, Bishop Ferguson laid the corner stone of the first building and named it Epiphany Hall on the Southern-most tip of Liberia. The School was named after Mr. Robert Fulton Cutting, of PECUSA, who in 1885 donated US$ 5,000 to purchase a land on which to build a school. The primary purpose of the money was for the establishment of a manual labor farm, which would afford opportunities for practical instruction of boys in the mission schools and at the same time serve as a pattern for others. Students came from all parts of Liberia and the West African region, and enrollment was limited to about 100 with high standards of admission and achievement.