John F. Oberlin was a missionary to poor, remote villagers in the Alsace-Lorraine valley region of France (pictured). Oberlin made it his mission to teach the villagers the Gospel in addition to practical trade skills so that the village could pull itself out of poverty. Oberlin died on June 1, 1826. A few years later, a Presbyterian minister and missionary in Northern Ohio (which was, at the time, the very edge of the American frontier) became concerned with the education of people on the frontier. Because of this, he founded Oberlin College near Cleveland, Ohio, to imbue frontiersmen with practical skills and teach them about the Gospel as Oberlin had done.
