Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger (1734–1803) was a clergyman who served German Lutheran congregations in Colonial

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, and New York, and became

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's first

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Minister.

Early life and career

Schwerdtfeger was born in Burgbernheim,

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

in 1734 to Gunther Johann and Juliana Maria (Koch) Schwerdtfeger. The elder Schwerdtfeger was a pharmacist who catered to travelers visiting the popular Wildbad spa. Schwerdtfeger attended the Latin School at Neustadt an der Aisch before entering the Erlangen University to study theology. Around 1752, he traveled to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and then to

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as a

redemptioner Redemptioners were European immigrants, generally in the 18th or early 19th century, who gained passage to American Colonies (most often Pennsylvania) by selling themselves into indentured servitude to pay back the shipping company which had ...

where his bond was paid by the Lutheran Church of

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...

in exchange for his service as pastor. At York, he was informally ordained by local clergy but faced controversy when he criticized

pietist Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life, including a social concern for ...

factions within the congregation. In 1758, he accepted a position as pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of New Holland where he supervised construction of a new church and parsonage. In 1762, Schwerdtfeger joined the

Pennsylvania Ministerium The Pennsylvania Ministerium was the first Lutheran church body in North America. With the encouragement of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787), the Ministerium was founded at a Church Conference of Lutheran clergy on August 26, 1748. Th ...

, where he was formally ordained by Rev.

Henry Muhlenberg Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (an anglicanization of Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg) (September 6, 1711 – October 7, 1787), was a German Lutheran pastor sent to North America as a missionary, requested by Pennsylvania colonists. Integral to the ...

. It was during his time in Pennsylvania that Schwerdtfeger met his future wife Anna Dorothea Schwab with whom he would have five children. From 1763-1768, Schwerdtfeger served the Lutheran congregation of

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

after which time he served as an itinerant pastor for congregations in southeastern Pennsylvania and central New York before settling in Brunswick in about 1770. Schwerdtfeger remained in New York for the duration of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

but his loyalist sympathies led him to accept a position in 1791 with the community of

United Empire Loyalists United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America dur ...

in Williamsburg, Ontario where he would spend the remainder of his life. As the first Lutheran minister in

, Schwerdtfeger served two churches: the German Evaangelical Church in Williamsburg, Ontario, and a church in nearby Matilda. The site of Williamsburg's German Church was inundated by the St. Lawrence Seaway but Schwerdtfeger is commemorated by a nearby historical plaque in the Township of South Dundas.

References

External links

Ontario Heritage Trust plaque1972 program for unveiling of commemorative plaque
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwerdtfeger, Johann Samuel Religion in Ontario 18th-century Lutherans 1734 births 1803 deaths