Dr. Eli Huber was born Jan. 14, 1884, in Pinegrove, Schuylkill Co., Pa., and belonged to that class of people known as Pennsylvania Germans, who are the descendants of the emigrants who came to this country at an early period from the southern part of Germany. Jacob and Sarah Huber are the names of his parents. His father’s ancestors are reported to have come from Switzerland. Both parents possessed good natural abilities though deprived by force of circumstances and the times of a good education.
Rev. Charles Philip Krauth, Sr., D.D. The older Dr. Krauth was born in Montgomery county, Pa., May 7, 1797. His father was a native of Germany, and came to this country as a young man, in the capacity of a school teacher and a church organist. His mother was a Pennsylvanian. They lived in New York, Pennsylvania, and in Baltimore, Md., also for many years in Virginia, highly respected and enjoying the confideLce of their neighbors.
Rev. George Henry Gerberding. The subject of this sketch was born in Pittsburg, Pa., Aug. 21, 1847. His father, J. G. H. Gerberding, was born in Germany, but came to this country in his sixteenth year. His mother was a native of the United States. Her maiden name was Josephine Lustenberger. Her parents came from Switzerland.
Rev Gerberding grew up on his father’s little farm between Allegehany City and Perryville.
Rev. Prof. A. Spaeth, D.D. The land of Brentz and Jacob Andreae has been represented in our seminary from its very inception in the person of the eminent professor of Hebrew. The incumbent of the chair of New Testament Exegesis, the Rev. Dr. Adolph Spaeth, is also a native of the kingdom of Wuertemberg, having been born in the town of Esslingen, on the 29th of October, 1839. A very thorough course of classical training prepared him for the study of theology at the University of Tuebingen, where he was graduated in 1861.
Rev. Prof. Frederick William Stellhorn was born October 2, 1841, at Bruening-horstedt, a small village of the former Kingdom of Hanover, Germany. His parents were poor, but universally respected peasants, well acquainted with the doctrines of the Lutheran Church and deeply attached to them. At the age of about six years the boy was sent to the parochial school of his native village, where, besides religion in the form of Catechism, Bible history, and the inestimable hymns of the German Lutheran Church, reading, writing, and a beginning in arithmetic formed the only subjects of instruction; but in his thirst for knowledge he devoured all the books he could get hold of.
Charles Frederick Schaeffer was born in Germantown, Pa., September 3rd, 1807. His father, Frederick David Schaeffer, born November 16th, 1760, died January 27th, 1836, was then Pastor of St. Michael’s Church, and remained there until 1812, when, at the close of a pastorate of 22 years, he removed to St. Michael’s and Zion’s, Philadelphia. It was within this venerable mother Church that the youth of the departed was spent. His first training for his life work was received in the Christian family of the devoted pastor, a school which has ever trained many noble men and women for blessed work in life and reward in heaven.
Rev. Prof. John Sander, A. M., is the son of J. M. Sander, and Sophia Sander, nee Aderhold. He is the oldest of twelve children, five of whom departed this life in childhood. His father Jacob Michael Sander, is a native of Ulmet, Rhine Bavaria, Germany, and came to this country as a poor young man in 1846. During the winter of 1846-47, he walked from New York city to Williamsport.
Solomon Erb Ochsenford, son of Jesse and Mary Ochsenford, was born in Douglass Township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on November 8, 1855. His earlier educational advantages were limited, owing to the straitened circumstances of his parents; hence the years of childhood and youth were spent in the country, near Falkner Swamp, one of the earliest German settlements in the state of Pennsylvania. The public schools afforded the advantage of acquiring the rudiments of an education.
Rev. Charles Armond Miller, pastor of College church, Salem, Va., was born March 7, 1864. His primary education was conducted under the personal care of his father. Rev. Dr. J. I. Miller, the founder and for many years Principal of Staunton Female Seminary, now President of Von Bora College, Lura, Va.
Armond, as he is generally called by older friends, graduated at Roanoke College in 1887, with the first honors of his class, and graduated at the Philadelphia Seminary, 1889.
Rev. Professor Matthias Loy, D.D. The subject of this sketch was born of German parents in Cumberland Co., Pa., in 1828. He was educated at Harrisburg, Pa., and Columbus, Ohio. In 1849 he received and accepted a call as pastor of the German-English Lutheran congregation at Columbus, Ohio.
In 1860 he was elected President of the Joint Synod of Ohio, etc., which position he occupied consecutively until 1878, when he declined re-election on account of failing health, but in 1880 he was again elected President, and has occupied the position since.
Rev. Samuel Laird, D.D. The Rev. Samuel Laird, D. D., was born on the 7th of February, 1835, in New Castle Co., Del. When about six years of age his parents removed to Philadelphia, where he continued to live until after entering the ministry. He was baptized and subsequently confirmed by the Rev. Philip F. Mayer, D. D., pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran church, of Philadelphia. He was educated in the public schools of the city, graduating from the high school in 1852, having completed the full classical course of study.
Rev. Emanuel Greenwald, D. D. Emanuel Greenwald, D. D. was “a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” He was a good boy, this carpenter’s son, born January 13, 1811, who grew to man’s estate in quiet Frederick, Md. His father’s habit of reading Arndt’s True Christianity and Jay’s Morning and Evening Exercises, and his mother’s serious conversations with him about God and Christ and his soul’s salvation made a lasting impression on Emanuel.
Rev. Charles William Schaeffer, D.D., LL.D., the son of the Rev. Solomon Frederick Schaeffer, was born in Hagerstown, Md., May 5, 1813. His father was at the time the pastor of St. John’s Church of that city, but when only twenty-four years of age, and the son was about one year old, he fell victim to a fever that was contracted by visiting a camp of soldiers near Hagerstown. His mother was Catharine Eliza Crever.
Rev. James Allen Brown, D.D. James Allen, the son of James and Ann Brown, was born in Drumore township, Lancaster county, Pa., February 19, 1821. Both parents were Quakers, and the early years of their five sons and two daughters were passed amid the duties and toils incident to the farmer’s life. James Allen early evinced an unusual desire for study. His days were given to work, and his evenings to reading.
Rev. Theophilus Stork, D.D. As to its external facts and changes, Dr. Stork’s life may be easily told. Eternity alone can unfold the full extent of the work he did. The most useful and influential life is not always marked by the greatest changes or crowded with the most exciting incidents. He was born in North Carolina, where his father preached the gospel with marked and blessed results. He was early brought to Christ, and became at once an open and pronounced Christian.
About Rev. Beale M. Schmucker, D.D. Rev. Dr. Schmucker came of a ministerial family. Both his father and grandfather were clergymen, and the connections of the family with the Schaeffers, the Sprechers, the Geissenhainers and Sadtlers represented some of the best known ministerial names of our church in this country. Nicolaus Schmucker, his great-grandfather, was a native of Michelstadt, Hessia, and emigrated to this country in the year 1785.
About Rev. Benjamin Kurtz, D.D., LL.D. Dr. Benjamin Kurtz came to Baltimore in August, 1833, to assume the editorial charge of the Lutheran Observer. He was at this time a widower and not in vigorous health. He had little experience in writing, and he had some difficulty in pruning his superfluous verbiage; but he acquired a vigorous, if not ornate style, and rendered invaluable service to the church in this position.
About John Gottlieb Morris Rev. John Gottlieb Morris, D.D., LL. D., was born in York, Pa., Nov. 14, 1803. He was graduated at Dickinson College in 1823, studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1823-26, and at Gettysburg Seminary in 1827, being a member of the first class in the latter institution, and was licensed to preach in 1827. He received the degree of D. D. in 1839, and that of LL.
Rev. Charles Porterfield Krauth, Jr., D.D., LL.D. The ancestors of Dr. Charles Porterfield Krauth, on his father’s side, were of German descent. His grandfather, Charles J. Krauth, came to this country as a young man before the close of the last century, and became teacher and organist in the service of the German Reformed church. He was married to Catharine Doll, a Lutheran. When residing in Montgomery Co., Pa.
Rev. William A. Passavant, Sr., D.D. Rev. William Alfred Passavant, D. D., was born at Zelienople, Butler Co., Pa., Oct. 9, 1821. He was graduated at Jefferson College, Pa., in 1840, and at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Pittsburg, Pa., in 1842. In the latter year he was ordained to the ministry, and he held pastorates in Baltimore, Md., in 1842-4, and Pittsburg, Pa., in 1844-55. Since then his time has been occupied with editorial duties, but chiefly with work of philanthropy.