BIO:  Rev. Samuel S. SCHMUCKER, 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, Page 371

REV. SAMUEL S. SCHMUCKER, D.D. (deceased), the first president of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary, at Gettysburg, was for many years one 
of the foremost men of his State.  He was the son of Rev. Dr. J. G. Schmucker, 
an eminent Lutheran divine, and was born at Hagerstown, Md., February 28, 1799, 
and died at Gettysburg July 25, 1873.  He graduated at the University of 
Pennsylvania in 1817, and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1820.  Endowed 
with rare natural ability and educated in the best schools of his day, he soon 
attracted public attention, and rapidly rose to a leading position in the 
Lutheran Church.  His first pastoral charge was at Newmarket, Shenandoah Co., 
Va., and such was his reputation for ability and scholarship that in a few years 
he gathered about him in that remote locality quite a class of theological 
students.  When the General Synod of the Lutheran Church established, in 1826, 
at Gettysburg, its first theological seminary, Dr. Schmucker was by common 
consent regarded as the most suitable person to be placed at its head, and was 
at once called to its presidency.  This position he filled with distinguished 
honor for nearly forty years, during the greater part of which time he was 
regarded as the leading man in the Lutheran Church in the United States.  His 
finished scholarship and evangelical piety made a deep impression upon the many 
students who studied under him, and were of lasting benefit to his denomination.  
He took an active part in the management of the interests of his denomination at 
large.  He was a great organizer, and evidence of his handiwork is found in most 
of the institutions and enterprises set on foot by the Lutheran Church during 
the active period of his lifetime.  His own denomination, dear as it was to him, 
did not monopolize his labors.  Every great moral and religious movement of his 
day found in him an able coadjutor.  The cause of Christian union, the Bible and 
tract societies, the Christian Sabbath, emancipation and African colonization, 
all profited by the labors of his brain and pen.  He was especially devoted to 
the subject of Christian union, publishing several valuable works in advocacy of 
the cause, and was repeatedly a delegate to the World’s Evangelical Alliance, 
attending its meetings both in Europe and America.  In addition to his works on 
Christian union, he was a prolific author in the fields of theology, church 
history and mental philosophy, some of his works passing through many editions.  
His publications number more than forty in all, the most important of which are 
his “Formula of Government and Discipline for Churches and Synods,” published in 
1823; “Popular Theology,” in 1834; “Mental Philosophy.” In 1842; “History of the 
Lutheran Church in America,” in 1851; and “Lutheran Manual,” in 1855.  
Pennsylvania College owes its existence in a large measure to the persistent and 
sagacious efforts put forth in its behalf by Dr. Schmucker.  He was largely 
instrumental in procuring for it a charter from the State Legislature, and an 
annual appropriation for some years from the State funds.  He regarded the 
college as a valuable feeder to the Theological Seminary, and for that reason as 
well as because of his interest in the cause of education in general, he always 
sought to promote the welfare of the college, and to the last remained one of it 
warmest and most efficient friends.  Dr. Schmucker was a man of genial and 
kindly disposition, and readily made friends.  As a citizen he took a warm 
interest in the affairs of his town and its vicinity, lending the aid of his 
counsel and his purse to all laudable local enterprises.  In 1865 he retired 
from the presidency of the theological seminary, of which he was then made 
professor emeritus, and devoted the remainder of his life to literary labors and 
recreations.