John Brown University

===John E. Brown: background===
[[John E. Brown (evangelist)|John E. Brown]] (1879–1957) was not afforded the opportunity to pursue much education, as his family's financial difficulties forced him to begin working at the age of 11.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100114163107/https://www.jbu.edu/library/archives/historical_resources/founding_family/jb1.asp John Brown University Archives, "JBU's Founding Family: John Brown Sr"]</ref> As a teenaged laborer in [[Arkansas]], Brown encountered the [[Salvation Army]] and underwent a conversion experience. After his conversion, he became an itinerant [[Methodist]] evangelist, with his travels taking him across [[Arkansas]], [[Missouri]], [[Kansas]] and the [[Indian Territory]].

Subsequent to becoming an evangelist, Brown accepted a position as president of [[Scarritt Collegiate Institute|Scarritt College]] in [[Neosho, Missouri|Neosho]]. His two years as president were instrumental in developing his plan to establish his own college. However, Brown felt that the strong emphasis of that school on education without the benefit of life training was harmful to the students. As he said in 1903, "It might be my privilege to have a part in the building of school that would turn the minds of youth back from this exaggerated concept of the value of book knowledge, to the realization that all this is valuable only as it becomes a background for, or the foundation under, the real things of life."<ref name=KENNEDY>{{cite book |first1=Ralph |last1=Kennedy |first2=Thomas |last2=Rothrock |title=John Brown of Arkansas |publisher= John Brown University Press |date=January 1, 1966 |asin=B000OKBCS0}}</ref>{{rp|25}}