The French pastor J. F. Oberlin dedicated his life to helping the poor and needy in the border regions between France and Germany. That simple ethic – to help others and do good deeds – was the inspiration for John Jay Shipherd, an American clergyman, who founded the small Oberlin college to train others in that spirit. Shipherd and his friend Philo Stewart went in search of the perfect spot for their utopian religion community, with divine guidance leading them to a spot to the southwest of Cleveland.

On this day, November 3, in 1833, Oberlin College held its first classes, bringing together men and women as equals. Shipherd secured a small land donation from Titus Street and enough donations to build a cozy rustic schoolhouse.

From the start, Philo Stewart wrote, Oberlin’s mission was “the elevation of the female character, bringing within the reach of the misjudged and neglected sex, all the instructive privileges which hitherto have unreasonably distinguished the leading sex from theirs.” Several of its early female graduates, notably Lucy Stone and Belle Sherwin, became leaders of the suffragette movement gaining steam late that century.