John George Schmucker


John George Schmucker was a German-American Lutheran clergyman.

Biography

John George Schmucker was born at Michaelstadt in Hesse, Germany. His parents emigrated to the United States in 1785. After a residence of two years in Pennsylvania, the family settled near Woodstock, Virginia. In 1789 he began to study for the ministry. A year later he went to Philadelphia to continue his studies with Justus Henry Christian Helmuth and John Frederick Schmidt. He was licensed in 1793, and ordained in 1800. Beginning in 1794, he held several pastorates in and around Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1809, he was called to York, Pennsylvania, where he remained until failing health compelled him to retire in 1852. He then moved to Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, where several of his children resided, and there he remained during the rest of his life. In 1825 he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Schmucker was a founder of the 1821 General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States and was on the 3-person Pennsylvania Ministerium committee that planned the 1826 Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He was also active in the establishment of Pennsylvania College, and for more than twenty-one years was one of its trustees. For more than thirty years, he was one of the leaders of a Lutheran Church body in the United States, and actively engaged in all its important operations.

Writings

Schmucker was a frequent contributor to periodicals, and a poet of merit. Among his works are:
He married Elizabeth Gross. They had 12 children. After her death, he married Anna Hoffman in 1821. They had seven children.