Rev. John Keep (April 20, 1781 – February 11, 1870) was a trustee of Oberlin College from 1834 to 1870. Keep and

William Dawes William Dawes Jr. (April 6, 1745 – February 25, 1799) was one of several men who in April 1775 alerted colonial minutemen in Massachusetts of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the outset ...

toured England in 1839 and 1840 gathering funds for Oberlin College in Ohio. They both attended the 1840 anti-slavery convention in London.The Anti-Slavery Society Convention
, 1840,

Benjamin Robert Haydon Benjamin Robert Haydon (; 26 January 178622 June 1846) was a British painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactles ...

, accessed April 2009

Early life and career

Keep was born, April 20, 1781, in

Longmeadow Longmeadow is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, in the United States. The population was 15,853 at the 2020 census. History Longmeadow was first settled in 1644, and officially incorporated October 17, 1783. The town was originally farm ...

, then a precinct of

Springfield, Mass Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

. Of a family of nine children he was the seventh. He graduated from Yale College in 1802. For a year after he was graduated he taught a school in Bethlehem, Conn., reading theology at the same time with the pastor, Rev. Dr. Azel Backus. He continued his theological course for another year with Rev. Asahel Hooker, of Goshen, Conn., and was licensed by Litchfield North Association, June 11, 1805. The next Sunday he preached in the Congregational Church in Blandford, Mass., and immediately received an invitation to settle, which he accepted. Here he remained for 16 years. In May 1821, he removed to the Congregational Church in Homer, N. Y., and was installed November 7. In 1833 he resigned in consequence of disaffection caused by his sympathy with the "new measures" of revivalists. For the following year he preached in the Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and then organized the First Congregational Church in Ohio City (now Cleveland, West Side), and became its pastor.

Oberlin College

In 1834, Keep was elected a Trustee of Oberlin College. Keep was renowned for championing the values that Oberlin College eventually became renowned for. He championed rights for women, black students and missionary zeal. Keep was the person who cast the deciding vote in 1835 that allowed black students to enter Oberlin College in Ohio. Keep and William Dawes both undertook a fund raising mission in England in 1839 and 1840 to raise funds from sympathetic abolitionists. Oberlin College was one of the few multi-racial and co-educational colleges in America at that time.Oberlin Digital Collections
accessed April 2009 The appeal was carefully written and supported by leading American abolitionist like

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...

Henry Grew Henry Grew (1781 – August 8, 1862) was a Christian teacher and writer whose studies of the Bible led him to conclusions which were at odds with doctrines accepted by many of the mainstream churches of his time. Among other things, he rejected th ...

Henry Brewster Stanton Henry Brewster Stanton (June 27, 1805 – January 14, 1887) was an American abolitionist, social reformer, attorney, journalist and politician. His writing was published in the '' New York Tribune,'' the ''New York Sun,'' and William Lloy ...

and

Wendell Phillips Wendell Phillips (November 29, 1811 – February 2, 1884) was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, orator, and attorney. According to George Lewis Ruffin, a Black attorney, Phillips was seen by many Blacks as "the one whi ...

. Both Keep and Dawes are credited with helping to start the collection of African Americana at Oberlin College which inspired other writers.Bibliophiles and Collectors of African Americana
Charles L. Bronson, accessed April 2009 Keep appears in the large painting by

which is on permanent display at London's National portrait gallery although he is obscured by other convention attendees. The people that Keep corresponded with, John Scoble,

Joseph Sturge Joseph Sturge (1793 – 14 May 1859) was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (now Anti-Slavery International). He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions suppo ...

and George Thompson, and who welcomed them in London are clearly in the picture. Keep Cottage, Oberlin, OH

When Keep returned to Oberlin they had raised $30,000. Keep became the "father" to the girls at the college who lived at his house. One of the women who stayed with him was the sculptor

Edmonia Lewis Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire" (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907), was an American sculptor, of mixed African-American and Native American ( Mississauga Ojibwe) heritage. Born free in Upstate New York, she worked for most of ...

who eventually left after being falsely accused of poisoning other students with a reported aphrodisiac and of facing other accusations and racial prejudice. Keep died there on February 11, 1870, and in 1889 the house was bought by the college. His house was used as a dormitory for female "indigent" students until it was rebuilt in 1912. The rebuilding was funded by Keep's granddaughter who commissioned Normand Patton to design Keep Cottage to sleep 80 women with room for 110 to dine. In 1966 the rules were changed to allow co-educational dormitories.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keep, John Oberlin College faculty American abolitionists People from Oberlin, Ohio 1781 births 1870 deaths Yale University alumni American Congregationalist ministers People from Longmeadow, Massachusetts Activists from Ohio Congregationalist abolitionists