Peniel College

Texas Holiness University was founded by B. A. Cordell[1] and E. C. DeJernett in 1898.[2] It was then established on a 37-acre campus[3] in 1899 by A. M. Hills and a small holiness community at Holiness, later called Peniel and now part of Greenville, Texas.[4] It was sponsored by the Holiness Association of Texas, but the association disbanded in 1910 after many of its members united with the Church of the Nazarene.[5] The school then became one of the first three "official" Nazarene educational institutions in 1908,[4] supported by the Dallas District Church of the Nazarene, and the name was changed to Peniel College.[6] In 1920, the college merged with Oklahoma Nazarene College in Bethany, Oklahoma, which was then renamed "Bethany-Peniel College".[5]

Peniel's presidents included A. M. Hills, Edgar Ellyson[7] (1907-1911), Roy T. Williams[3] (1911-1913), J. B. Chapman (1913-1918),[8] and A. K. Bracken, who took the presidency at Bethany-Peniel College in 1920.[9][10][11]

Founded in 1909, Oklahoma Holiness College, called Oklahoma Nazarene College when it absorbed Peniel College, took on the founding date of Texas Holiness University (1899).