BIO:  Rev. Charles A. HAY, D.D., Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 355-356

REV. CHARLES A. HAY, D.D., (elected 1865), professor of Hebrew and Old Testament 
Exegesis, German language and literature and pastoral theology, in the 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, is a native of York County, Penn., born at 
York, February 11, 1821, a son of John and Eliza (Ebert) Hay, the former of whom 
was a merchant and died at the age of twenty-eight years, having served in the 
war of 1812.  John Hay, the great-grandfather of the Doctor, emigrated from 
Germany and located in York county, Penn., in pioneer times of the State.  He 
was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.  Dr. Hay was the younger of his sons, 
and was but a babe at the time of his father’s death.  The brother died young, 
and the mother lived to be sixty-three years old, but never married again.  
Charles A. was prepared for college in the German Reformed High School, at York, 
and by Dr. Morris, at Baltimore, and at the age of fifteen he entered the 
sophomore class in Pennsylvania College, graduating from that institution in 
1839.  After his graduation he pursued his theological studies at Gettysburg, 
Penn., and in the universities of Berlin and Halle, Germany, and after receiving 
a license to preach he became pastor of a church at Middletown, Md., in 1844.  
From 1844 to 1848 he was a professor of German in his alma mater and of Hebrew 
in the theological seminary.  The following year, 1849, he was pastor of 
churches at Hanover and Littlestown, Penn., and from 1849 to 1865 sustained a 
similar relation with the First Church, at Harrisburg, Penn.  In connection with 
his present position in the faculty, he has, since 1866, been pastor of Christ 
Church at Gettysburg.  He has been a trustee of Pennsylvania College since 1852; 
was president of the General Synod in 1881.  He received the degree of D.D. from 
his alma mater in 1859, and from 1867 to 1880 served as secretary of that 
institution.  He married, May 5, 1845, Miss Rebecca Barnitz, daughter of Hon. 
Charles A. Barnitz, at one time a member of Congress from York County District.  
Mrs. Hay’s grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution.  Dr. Hay’s children are 
Frances E., wife of Rev. M. L. Heisler; John W., a physician of Harrisburg; 
Charles E., a Lutheran minister; Mary J., wife of Prof. H--es, of Pennsylvania 
College; and Edward G., a Lutheran minister at Pottsville, Penn.