Frederick Augustus Rauch
Frederick Augustus Rauch [1]
Ph.D., D.D., first president of Marshall College, Mercersburg, lPa., was born at Kirchbracht, in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, July 27, 1806. At the age of eighteen he entered the University of Marburg, and took his diploma in 1827. He then became a teacher in Frankfirt, and afterwards spent a year at the University of Heidelberg. In his twenty-fourth year he became extraordinary professor in the University of Giessein. After one year he was called as ordinary professor to Heidelberg, but this appointment he never realized. Having uttered his mind too freely on the subject of government in some public exercises at Giessen, he arrayed the civil powers against himself, and was compelled to provide for his safety in voluntary self-expatriation. He arrived in this country in the fall of 1831. He spent one year at Easton, as professor of German, in Lafayette College, and in the study of the English language. In June, 1832, he was appointed to take charge of the classical school connected with the seminary of the German Rleformed Church at York, Pa. The same year he was ordained to the holy ministry. In 1835 he removed to Mercersburg, and became the first president of Marshall College, which position he ably filled till his death, March 2,1841. Shortly before his death he published his Psychology, which has passed through a number of editions, and is used as a text-book in its department of philosophy in several of our colleges. The Inner Life is a posthumous work, being a see tion of sermons by Dr. Rauch, edited by the Rev. Dr. Gerhart. Thoroughly learned, deeply pious, ardent, generous, and noble, Dr. Rauch's brief life has left behind it a lasting influence. In March, 1859, his remains were removed to Lancaster, Pa., under the auspices of the alumni of Marshall College and the board of trustees of Franklin and Marshall College, on which occasion a eulogy on his life and character was delivered by his distinguished colleague, Prof. J. W. Nevin, D.D.
