In 1898, J.G. Francis of Oaks, Pennsylvania, then in his late twenties, a free minister of the Green Tree Church of the Brethren, traveled on bicycle throughout eastern Pennsylvania and the eastern shore of Maryland photographing Brethren meetinghouses while promoting sentiment for a Brethren school of higher education.

Following his bicycle tour, he spent postal notices on November 17, 1898, inviting elders of the churches in eastern Pennsylvania to attend a meeting in Reading to discuss the establishment of a Brethren school that eventually culminated in the founding of Elizabethtown College.

Jay Francis strongly believed in higher education. He graduated from Ursinus College in 1891 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, attaining a level of education that most Brethren shunned. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Divinity Degree at the Ursinus School of Theology in 1898. He also studied at Mount Morris College and Union Theological Seminary.

AS J.G. Francis acted on his idea and Elizabethtown College was founded, you may act on your idea and make a contribution in your time as well.

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The Brethren
Mary Zug Francis (1870-1958)
Elizabeth Area Veterans Memorial, a War Memorial
In Memoriam
Millstone Plaza History
Grist Mill Process
The Shoe Industry in Elizabethtown
Industry in Elizabethtown
Changes in Elizabethtown
Barnabas and Elizabeth Hughes

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