Sidney Brownsberger

Sidney Brownsberger
1st President of Pacific Union College
In office 1882–1886
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	William C. Grainger
Personal details
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Profession	College administrator Educator

Sidney Brownsberger (born September 20, 1845, Perrysburg, Ohio; died August 13, 1930, Fletcher, North Carolina) was an American Seventh-day Adventist educator and administrator. He helped to develop Battle Creek College (now Andrews University) and later Healdsburg College (now Pacific Union College).

Sidney Brownsberger was the youngest of eight children born to the family of John and Barbara Brownsberger. Twelve years before Sidney was born, the family moved from southern Pennsylvania to Perrysburg, Ohio.

In 1865, he completed preparatory studies at Baldwin University. In 1869, he enrolled in the University of Michigan to pursue a classical degree. graduating with an A.B. At the University of Michigan, Brownsberger served on the academic senate.

While a student at Ann Arbor, he first heard of Seventh-day Adventists. He sent for all the literature printed by the church at the time. As a student he spent much of his spare time studying the Bible and the Adventist books he had acquired. Agreeing with what he read, without ever having seen a Seventh-day Adventist, he began keeping the Sabbath alone during his junior year in college in 1868.

Brownsberger's early commitment to his newfound faith faltered. Looking back at those early years of struggling faith, he described the Holy Spirit striving with him telling him to stop trifling and be a man. After his graduation he became superintendent of schools in Maumee, Ohio, and then superintendent of schools in Delta, Ohio. It was here that he resumed his observance of the Sabbath. The following year (1873), Adventist church leaders invited him to head the fledgling school that had been established in Battle Creek, Michigan.

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