Johnson Bible College

 

SCHOOL OF THE EVANGELISTS

Kimberlin Heights

Ashley S Johnson LL D President. The purpose of this school is to prepare young men for the ministry. Those applying for admission must be at least seventeen years of age and furnish testimonials of character. They must be fully decided and determined to preach and be prepared to live plainly and sparingly, if need be and must pledge themselves in writing to stay at the school through vacations until it is considered that they can spend them profitably in preaching. This is demanded of the young man who wishes to be assisted in earning his way. He must pay a matriculation fee of $10. The student who can pay for benefits received, has his vacations to himself, but must pay $66 besides the $10 fee and can enter for one year only. Seriousness of purpose and a spirit of self sacrifice are essential for the work. (Source: Where to Educate, 1898-1899: A Guide to the Best Private Schools, Higher Institutions of Learning, ETC, edited by Grace Powers Thomas, Brown, 1898 p.340)

The school was renamed Johnson Bible College in 1909 after Ashley Johnson agreed to have the school named after him.

Johnson Bible College, formerly the School of Evangelists, Kimberlin Heights, Tennessee, was founded by Ashley S Johnson its first and only president in 1893. He began with $100 ten acres of land, two mules, three cows, and one lonely student, Albert T Fitts, of South Carolina, plus faith, plus obedience, plus prayer, plus energy. To day the plant is worth $200,000 and the student body more than two hundred strong, representing a half hundred States and countries, is one of the most promising factors in the Church of the future. Not one of these young men uses tobacco. President Johnson says we must do one of two things: train more preachers, or become a disappearing brotherhood, and he prefers the former, and is doing his part in preacher training. (Source: How the Disciples Began and Grew: A Short History of the Christian Church, By Morrison Meade Davis, Standard Publishing Company, 1915, p. 171)

It was Johnson Bible College for 102 years until the college became Johnson University on July 1, 2011.