Milligan College is a selective Christian liberal arts college founded in 1866 and located in the mountains of Upper East Tennessee and the Tri-Cities region of the state. The school has a student population of just over 1,200 students as well as a 195-acre (0.79 km2) campus that is located several miles from downtown Johnson City. The school began as an endeavor of the Rev. Wilson G. Barker, a Disciples of Christ minister, and the Buffalo Creek Christian Church, a congregation of the Disciples of Christ located on Buffalo Creek in Carter County, Tennessee. While it began as a private secondary school known as the Buffalo Male and Female Institute, the institution was elevated to the collegiate level in 1881 with the arrival of the Rev. Dr. Josephus Hopwood and his wife Sarah LaRue Hopwood.