In the life of this young brother we have an example of how courage wins, as well as one on whom God has bestowed abundant grace. In Czernowitz, Austria, 1869, was born John A. Held, whose parents were devout Catholics. When but one year old his father died. Leaving home at an early age, his young life was spent as a shepherd’s boy among the European hills. It was during this time that a lady who had escaped from Catholicism led our young brother to the Messiah. He came to America, surmounted difficulties higher than his native hills, and has obtained a first-class education, having graduated from Baylor University in 1896. He is a true Baptist, and a minister of the gospel. He is now financial agent of Howard Payne College.
Source: J. L. Walker and C. P. Lumpkin, History of the Waco Baptist Association of Texas (Waco: Byrne-Hill Printing House, 1897), pp. 316-317.