JEAN

See also:

• FREDERIC, HAROLD (1856-1898)

FREDERIC

See also:

• OBERLIN
• JEAN FREDERIC OBERLIN (1740-1826)
• OBERLIN, JEREMIE JACQUES (1735-1806)

OBERLIN (1740-1826)  , German Protestant pastor and philanthropist, the son of a teacher, was born on the 3Ist of August 1740 at Strassburg, where he studied theology . In 1766 he became Protestant pastor of Waldbach, a remote and barren region in the Steinthal (Ban-de-la-Roche), a valley in the Vosges on the borders of Alsace and Lorraine . He set himself to better the material equally with the spiritual condition of the inhabitants . He began by constructing roads through the valley and erecting bridges, inciting the peasantry to the enterprise by his personal example . He introduced an improved system of agriculture . Substantial cottages were erected, and various industrial arts were introduced . He founded an itinerant library, originated infant schools, and established an ordinary school at each of the five villages in the parish . In the work of education he received great assistance from his housekeeper, Louisa Scheppler (1763—1837) . He died on the 1st of June 1826, and was interred with great manifestations of honour and affection at the village of Urbach . Among the many accounts of the labours of Oberlin, mention may be made of Thomas Sims, Brief Memorials of Oberlin (London, 183o) ; Memoirs of Oberlin, with a short notice of Louisa Scheppler (London, 1838, 2nd ed . 1852) ; H . Ware, Biography of Oberlin (Boston, 1845) ; L .

Spach, Oberlin le

Pasteur (Strassburg, 18y5 2nd ed . 1868) ; F . W . Bodemann, J . F . Oberlin (3rd ed., 1879) ; K . F . Riff, Drei Bilder aus dem Leben von Papa Oberlin (Strassburg, 1880) ; Josephine Butler, Life of J . F . Oberlin (1882); G . H. von Schubert, Ziige aus dem Leben Oberlins (11th ed., 189o) ; Armin Stein, Johann Friedrich Oberlin, ein Lebensbild (1899) . See also the article in Herzog Hauck, Realencyklopadie .

The collected writings of Oberlin were published by Burkhardt at

Stuttgart in 1843 in 4 vols .