EncyclopediaOberlin, Jean Frédéric
Oberlin, Jean Frédéric (zhäN frādārēk' ôberlăN') [key], 1740–1826, Alsatian Lutheran clergyman. He was appointed in 1767 to a pastorate in Ban-de-la-Roche, Bas-Rhin dept., France. Oberlin improved the district by introducing cotton manufacture, new agricultural methods, and good roads and by founding a savings bank, a model orphanage, and five schools. Oberlin College, Ohio, was named for him.
See biography by M. Dawson (1934).
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