Ohio County, West Virginia Biography: Rev. William Gottlob ULFERT ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 27-28 REV. WILLIAM GOTTLOB ULFERT. As head of one of the large congregations in Wheeling and the examplar of exalted ideas of Christianity, perhaps no one has done more in a con- structive way in organizing and promoting the essential in- fluences of the Christian Church in that city than Rev. Mr. Ulfert, pastor of St. John's Evangelical Protestant Church. Rev. Mr. Ulfert was born at Landsberg, Brandenburg, Germany, May 18, 1854, son of William G. and Ida (Wilski) Ulfert. His father died in Germany in 1888, and his mother at the age of eighty-two. William Gottlob Ulfert had a broad and liberal training, attending college at Landsberg, and at the age of twenty-four graduated from the University of Berlin, where he studied theology, philology and oriental languages. For one year he was a private preceptor on the island of Rugen, and he also taught a year in his home college at Landsberg. In 1880 Rev. Mr. Ulfert came to the United States and on May 22, 1880, was ordained as an Evangelical minister. In August of that year he took his first pastorate at Aetna, Pennsylvania, and on November 1, 1884, was installed as pastor of St. John's Evangelical Protestant Church at Wheeling. His ministry here is now approaching its fortieth anniversary, and these four decades have represented a re- markable progress and material prosperity in the church and constant and unremitting duties on the part of the pastor, whose life has been to a singular degree a great consecration to the ministry of service. St. John's Church is an historic institution of Wheeling. Some of the old German settlers of that city organized it in 1835, the first services being held in North Wheeling. In 1836 the building on Eighteenth, near Jacob Street was erected and was in use until 1869. This old building is still standing, now being used as a mission house for the First Presbyterian Church. In 1871 their church on the site of the present Baltimore & Ohio passenger station was finished, and was the home of the congregation just forty years. When they gave up this place of worship at the request of the railroad com- pany, ground was secured at the northwest corner of Chapline and Twenty-second streets, where the beautiful new church and parsonage were erected at a cost of $120,000.00. The church auditorium has a seating capacity of six hundred, and there are also suitable office, choir, Sunday School and lecture rooms, and ample kitchen and dining room facilities in the basement. The auditorium is handsomely and richly furnished, containing beautiful memorial windows. The services of the church alternate in the English and German languages. Many of the elders of the congregation still prefer to listen to God's word associated with the recollec- tions of their youth. The greater part of the active members today are descendants of the original congregation. In 1884, when Rev. Mr. Ulfert became pastor, the congregation was comparatively weak in numbers, but for a number of years past it has been one of the strongest congregations in the city. Its communicants now represent 550 families, besides about 200 single persons not included in the family enumeration. The loyalty of the membership is a source of constant inspiration to the pastor. One of the prominent ministers of Pittsburgh, Rev. William K. Geese, received his early religious training as a boy in St. John's Church. Rev. Mr. Ulfert is an honored member of the Evangelical Protestant Church of North America, affiliating with the branch having headquarters at Pittsburgh. He is a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason and is chaplain of Wheeling Lodge No. 5, P. & A. M. January 18, 1883, he married Miss Marie Heinrici, who came to Wheeling as a child with her parents, Rev Charles and Emma Heinrici. Her father for some years was pastor of St. Paul's Church in Wheeling. Mr. and Mrs. Ulfert have two children: William Karl Ulfert, a Wheeling physician and surgeon, and Martha, wife of Dr. William Elmer Hodgson, of McKeesport, Pennsylvania.