The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Oberlin, Jean Frédéric

OBERLIN, Jean Frédéric, ō-bĕr-lăṅ, Alsatian clergyman and philanthropist: b. Strassburg, 31 Aug. 1740; d. Ban-de-la-Roche, 1 June 1826. He was educated at Strassburg and in 1767 became pastor at Ban-de-la-Roche. There he spent the rest of his long life in labor for the material and spiritual improvement of his degraded parishioners. He practised medicine among them, founded a loan and savings bank, introduced cotton manufacture, helped the people build better roads, and brought in modern agricultural methods. His orphan asylums were the beginning of the many &ldquo;Oberlinvereine&rdquo; for the protection of children. Beside all this he was a man of rare spirituality, being frequently styled &ldquo;a saint of the Protestant church,&rdquo; and an excellent pastor, who preached each month three sermons in French and one in German. ../Oberlin College/ (q.v.), Ohio, was named in his honor. Consult the biographies by Butler (English, 1882); Lutteroth (French, 1826; a German version, 1890); and Hackenschmidt (German, 1902); and the life and works of Oberlin as edited by Hilpert and Stoeber (German, 1843).