Samuel Simon Schmucker
Samuel Simon Schmucker [1]
an eminent Lutheran minister, son of John George, was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, February 28, 1799. His preparatory studies were pursued at York (Pennsylvania) Academy. In 1814 he entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained until the close of the sophomore year, when he returned to York, and in August 1816, took charge of the classical department of the York Academy, and held this position until November 1817. Having studied theology for a time with his father, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1820. That year he was licensed to preach; for several months assisted his father; then went to Virginia to take charge of congregations in Shenandoah County, which had been under the care of his uncle, Reverend Nicholas Schmucker. He was ordained September 5, 1821, at Frederick, Maryland. The Shenandoah congregations which he served were, New Market, Solomon's, Reder's, and Armentrout's, and he remained in this charge until 1836. While here he set himself to work to translate, rearrange, and enlarge Storr and Flatt's Biblical Theology. In 1822 he began to prepare students for the ministry. In March of the same year he submitted to a committee, appointed for the purpose, a plan which he had drawn up, entitled The Formula for the Government and Discipline of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maryland and Virginia. It was adopted- by the synod in 1822, and approved by the General Synod in 1823. Subsequently it was revised and enlarged in 1827, under his direction, by the Synod of West Pennsylvania; was printed in the English Hymn-book in 1829; became the ground-plan of the organization of the congregations within the General Synod, and it has endured until the present time. In 1827 he was directed to prepare the constitution for synods, which was adopted in 1829. When, in 1823, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania withdrew, and the existence of the General Synod was imperilled, he was very active in the measures taken to prolong its life. He edited the English Catechism, and, in company with Reverend C.P. Krauth, prepared the English Hymn-book. The work to which he believed himself to be called was the preparation of candidates for the ministry. When the General Synod decided, in 1825, to establish a theological seminary, he was at once elected the first professor. The institution was opened September 5, 1826, at Gettysburg, to which place he removed. For four years he was the sole professor. During his connection with the seminary over foiur hundred ministers went out from it. After nearly forty years of labor in, this office he resigned it in 1864. He was largely instrumental in the establishment of Pennsylvania College, and was one of its trustees from its incorporation until the close of his life, July 26, 1873. In 1838 he published an appeal to the American churches, with a plan for Christian union, and was present, in 1846, when the Evangelical Alliance was organized. His Popular Theology passed through eight editions; his Psychology reached a third edition.. He published forty-four works, most of which were synodical and occasional discourses. It. is said that his attempts to produce liturgies were the most unsuccessful of his literary endeavors. As a preacher he was very careful in his preparation, and was always gladly heard. See Penn. College Year- book, 1882, page 154, Fifty Years in the Lutheran Ministry (1878), page 121; (Gettysburg) Evangelical Review, January 1874.
