The history of Doane University dates from 1857, when the General Association of Congregational Churches, in its first annual meeting in Fremont, Nebraska, resolved to lay the foundations of a literary institution of a high order in the state. Fourteen years later, and after several unsuccessful attempts to establish Congregational schools across the state, an academy was founded in Crete on May 22, 1871. The efforts of Frederick Francis Alley, the local Congregational pastor, and Thomas Doane, chief civil engineer for the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, were instrumental in advancing the idea of the Academy.