Silliman University was founded on August 28, 1901 as Silliman Institute. It was an elementary school for boys founded by Protestant missionaries Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard and Laura Crooks Hibbard under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Operations started through a gift donation from a businessman and a Christian philanthropist of Cohoes, New York, Dr. Horace Brinsmade Silliman (where Silliman University got its name) - Dumaguete City.