Adonijah Strong Welch was a United States Senator from Florida and the first president of Iowa State Agricultural College. Welch also served as Michigan State Normal School's first principal.

Iowa State University of Science and Technology is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the nation's first designated land-grant institutions when the Iowa Legislature accepted the provisions of the 1862 Morrill Act on September 11, 1862, making Iowa the first state in the nation to do so. On July 4, 1959, the college was officially renamed Iowa State University of Science and Technology.