Notwithstanding its primary grounds, the foundation keeps up a territorial place for Graduate and Professional Studies in Knoxville, and extra satellite grounds crosswise over East Tennessee.
In 1794, two years before Tennessee turned into a state, Presbyterian priests Hezekiah Balch and Samuel Doak, both taught at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), were tending to the pioneers of East Tennessee, which was then the southwestern boondocks of the United States. They likewise endeavored to meet the instructive needs of these Scots-Irish pilgrims. Doak and Balch were both visionaries who eventually looked for the same objectives through their opponent universities. They needed to instruct pilgrims of the American wilderness with the goal that they would turn out to be better Presbyterians, and in this manner, in their vision, better residents.