BIO:  Rev. Joel SWARTZ, 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 373

REV. JOEL SWARTZ, D.D., Gettysburg, son of Philip and Regina (Funkhauser), was 
born in Virginia, August 18, 1827.  His ancestors on both sides were among the 
early German settlers of Virginia.  His father was the father of three sons and 
three daughters, five of whom reached adult age.  Our subject was reared on a 
farm; attended the schools of his neighborhood; about the age of eighteen was 
prepared for college in Monongalia Academy, under Rev. Silas Billings, and in 
1851 entered upon a regular classical course at Capital University, Columbus, 
Ohio, from which he graduated in 1854 with honors of his class, delivering the 
valedictory.  The following year he was ordained as a minister of the Lutheran 
Church, and from that time until 1871 he was actively engaged in ministerial 
work or in teaching.  In 1865 he became a professor in the Lutheran Theological 
Seminary at Springfield, Ohio, whose board conferred upon him the title of D.D. 
in 1868.  He has been pastor of large and influential charges in Carlisle, 
Williamsport, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, where he and his wife were also 
actively engaged in local missionary work for friendless children, and succeeded 
in founding several flourishing “homes.”  In 1854 Mr. Swartz was married, at 
Columbus, Ohio, to Miss Adelia Rosecrans, of the same place (cousin to the 
General), of Dutch extraction.  To them have been born the following named 
children:  Sarah R., wife of H. O. Hildebrand, of Camden, N.J.; W. P., now a 
missionary in Guntoor, India; Charles K., student at Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md.; Frank and George.  Dr. Swartz has delivered many lectures, among 
which are the following:  “Luther and Cromwell,” “Milton and Napoleon,” “He who 
Can Not Paint Must Grind the Colors,” “No Man Owns Deeper Than he Plows,” 
“Echoes or How we Make the World we Live In,” “Aims and Aids in Life.”  As 
lecturer, Hon. George Sharswood, presiding judge of the supreme court of 
Pennsylvania, says:  “It give me great pleasure to express the opinion which I 
very decidedly entertain of the superior qualifications of the Rev. Joel Swartz, 
D.D., as a public lecturer.  I have attended on his ministry in Harrisburg very 
frequently, and can say that in my judgment very few men equal him as pulpit 
orator.  His language is chaste, his elocution without fault, and his style and 
delivery very attractive.  I have no doubt of his ability to handle any subject 
which he undertakes in such a manner as to make it interesting to a general 
audience.  I have no hesitation in warmly recommending him.”  The York Record 
thus speaks of Dr. Swartz:  “It was one of the finest and most entertaining 
lectures of the season.  Dr. Swartz was poetical, humorous, sharp, terse, 
vigorous and yet eminently practical.  His imagery is very beautiful, he has a 
perfect flow of language.”  Dr. S. Sprecher, D.D., LL. D., president of 
Wittenberg College, Ohio, thus refers to the Doctor: “—regard Prof. Swartz as 
one of the best lecturers in the country.  In refinement of sentiment, eloquence 
of language and beauty of elocution, he is surpassed by few.  He has been very 
successful wherever he has lectured in this State.”  Dr. Swartz has also written 
considerable poetry, and his new volume of poems, “Dreaming of the Waking 
Heart,” has been referred to by Dr. Sprecher in this wise:   “The sweet, gentle, 
loving spirit of the author pervades the entire book.  The one has the true 
poetical temperament, the other a true vein of genuine poetry; and, though there 
is not any remarkable strength or sublimity, there is a great deal of beauty of 
thought and language, lofty conceptions and graceful expressions.  I think the 
attentive reader will hardly fail to say ‘this is poetry’-poetry in spirit and 
in form.”  The author has been so much encouraged by the warm and hearty words 
of encouragement thus far given that he contemplates other and larger work in 
the same line in the near future.  He has also received much applause for 
translations of Latin and German hymns, notably the “Dies Ir-e” and Luther’s 
“Feste Burg.”