Elizabethtown College

On November 17, 1898, Jay G. Francis, a minister in the Green Tree, PA congregation wrote a card inviting the elders of the German Baptist Brethren churches in Eastern Pennsylvania to attend a meeting to consider the practicality of establishing a Brethren school in Eastern Pennsylvania. The favorable sentiment of this meeting resulted in the appointment of a location committee which recommended that a school be organized in Elizabethtown.

The college officially opened on November 13, 1900. Formal opening exercises were attended by about one hundred people, including the six students. In 1917 by action of the district meeting of Eastern Pennsylvania the ownership and control of the college was transferred to the district. In 1920, the charter was amended and ownership and control of the college was given to Brethren congregations of the Eastern and Southern Districts of Pennsylvania.

In the early years of the college the instruction offered was on the high school level. It aided teachers in advancing their certificates and offered to students an opportunity to complete high school work. The academy was discontinued in 1926.

Today the college is located on an 110-acre campus with fifteen major buildings and 1600 fulltime students.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

see also www.etown.edu