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MARSHALL COLLEGE
Class of 1845 Obituaries
John Silvis ERMENTROUT, A. M., eldest son of
William and Justina (Silvis) Ermentrout, was born at Womelsdorf, Berks county, Pa., September 27, 1827. When he was
two years of age his parents removed to Reading, Pa., where he was reared, attending schools taught by Mr.
Middlemass, Rev. Mr. Goodman, and Mr. John Kelly. He developed great aptitude for study, and in the fall of 1842 entered the
Sophomore class of Marshall College, from which he was graduated with honor in 1845, though not yet eighteen years
of age. Mr. Ermentrout was a Goethean.
In the fall of the same year he entered the Theological
Seminary at Mercersburg. In 1848 he was licensed by Maryland Classis to preach the Gospel, and the same year
received the degree of A. M. from Marshall College. During the last year of his Seminary course he was also tutor
in the Preparatory Department. In the fall of 1848 he was appointed tutor of languages and of history in his
Alma Mater, which position he acceptably filled for three years. During the earlier part of 1852 he served as pastor
to the Grindstone Hill charge of Franklin county, Pa., at the end of the same year becoming pastor of the Church of
the Ascension of Norristown, Pa., serving it acceptably for six years, after which he retired from the ministry. During
these years he made translations for Dr. Philip Schaff, and assisted Dr. J. H. A. Bomberger in translating parts of" Hertzog's Encyclopedia," in addition to writing many
articles for the Messenger.
Mr. Ermentrout opened a select school in Reading, Pa.,
in the beginning of 1859. A year afterwards he was elected superintendent of the public schools of his native county,
and twice re-elected, serving from 186o to 1869. In 1865 he founded the Keystone State Normal School at
Kutztown, Pa., serving as principal from 1866 until 1871, when he resigned, and soon afterwards, upon profession of faith,
entered the Roman Catholic Church, thus ending a mental conflict that lasted more than twenty years. He at once
removed to Baltimore and there edited a Roman Catholic journal. From 1872 to 1874 he taught the Greek
language in St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, at Overbrook, Pa. In 1874 he was recalled to the Normal School at
Kutztown, which he had founded, taking the chair of Mental Science and English Literature, and continued to fill the
same until his death, which occurred at the home of his widowed mother in Reading, July 21, 1881. He was buried
in the Charles Evans cemetery. He never married. In his will Prof. Ermentrout anticipated Arbor Day in
Pennsylvania, by providing a fund for the annual planting of three trees on the grounds of the Keystone State Normal School.
Mr. Ermentrout was a man of strong mental powers, a
profound thinker, an able theologian, and a fine logician and scholar. As a speaker he was polished and forcible,
and as a writer of pure, terse English, a model. He was the author of an able pamphlet against compulsory
education, and of a Centennial Memorial of Kutztown and Maxatawny township. As an educator he stood in the
foremost rank in Pennsylvania. Modest, quiet and unassuming, and possessed of such great tact, that notwithstanding
his strong convictions and his fearlessness in expressing and following them, he seldom, if ever, made an enemy.
He had greatly endeared himself to the people of his native county, and his death, at the age of 54, was universally
regretted.
[Hon Daniel Ermentrout.)
Rev. Samuel Hensel GIESY, A. M., D. D., the third son
of John Ulric and Mary Magdalene (Hensel) Giesy, was born at Lancaster, Ohio, August 26, 1826. He prepared for
college at Howe's Academy, Lancaster, Ohio. In March, 1841, he entered the Preparatory Department at
Mercersburg, Pa., and the Freshman class of Marshall College the following October. While in college he was a member of
the Goethean Literary Society.
After his graduation, September 10, 1845, he entered the
Theological Seminary at the same place, while Rev. John W. Nevin, D. D., was the head of the faculty. His diary
contains this reference to Dr. Nevin, " to whose instruction he is glad to make this acknowledgment of indebtedness
for whatever in the way of historical and positive Christological theology that has marked and ruled his ministry."
In the spring of 1848 he graduated from the Theological
Seminary, and was examined and licensed to preach by the Lancaster (Ohio) Classis of the German Reformed Church.
In the same year he received the degree of A. M. from Alma Mater. In the fall of 1848 he accepted a call to St.
James' congregation, Westmoreland county, Pa., and was ordained a minister of the Gospel according to the rite of
the Reformed Church, February 7, 1849. He remained seven years in this first field of labor, and while there
organized three new congregations and built three new churches, namely: the Second Reformed church, Greensburg, Pa.,
organized September 30, 1849; Trinity Reformed church, Salem, Pa., organized November 25, 1850; and the Irwin
Reformed church, Irwin, Pa., organized January 1, 1853. On August 12, 1855, he became pastor of the Salem
Reformed church, Hagerstown, Md. In November, 1860, he accepted a call to Christ Reformed church, Philadelphia,
Pa. He labored here for ten years, completed a costly church building and gathered a large congregation. In
1869 the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Franklin and Marshall College.
In October, 1870, he resigned the pastorate of Christ
Reformed church and went to Baltimore, Md., for rest and recuperation of health. On December 13, 1871,
he applied for holy orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. The reason for this change was, as expressed in
his own words in his diary: " Free from all responsible charge, the opportunity was at hand of acting upon a
change of church views which had been growing and deepening for several years." He was made a deacon in the.
Protestant Episcopal Church, June 16, 1872, and advanced to the priesthood, March 9, 1873.
From the time he entered the ministry of the Protestant
Episcopal Church until June 7, 1874, he was assistant minister at Grace Church, Baltimore. On the latter date he
entered upon the rectorship of Christ Church, Norwich, Conn. At the time he was called to Christ Church he
also received calls to Grace Church, Watertown, N. Y., Trinity Church, Easton, Pa., and The Church of the
Incarnation, Washington, D. C. In the autumn of 1877, he was solicited by the bishop of Louisiana to become rector of
Christ Church, New Orleans. On the fourth of April, 1881, he received a call to Christ Church, Detroit, Mich. This
was declined because of his desire to see completed St. Andrew's chapel, Greenville, Conn., which had been a
mission of Christ Church for twenty-five years. This chapel was completed and consecrated in July, 1882. From July,
1879, to July, 1883, he was archdeacon of the Eastern Archdeaconry of the Diocese of Connecticut. While
archdeacon he brought about the building of the Episcopal church at Willimantic, Conn. He was a delegate to the
General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church held in Philadelphia in 1883. On May 14, 1884, he received
a call to St. Peter's parish, Easton, Md. On March 18, 1885, he was called to the Church of the Epiphany,
Washington, D. C., with the exception of Trinity Church, New York, the largest Protestant Episcopal parish in the United
States, and took charge on the feast of Saint Philip and Saint James, May 1, 1885.
Dr. Giesy's published works are the following: " The
Crowning Event the Fall of Richmond," 1865; " The Satanic Background of Redemption," Mercersburg
Review, 1867; " Normal Humanity, or Man in the Light of the Divine Idea ": an address before the Alumni
Association of Franklin and Marshall College, 1867; " An Inquiry into the Validity of Lay Baptism," Mercersburg Review,
1868; " Organic Redemption," three articles, Mercersburg Review, 1870-71; " Claim of the Colored Population of the
South upon the Church's Care," 1874; " Divine Human Elements in Church and Ministry," ordination sermon
Berkeley Divinity School, 1875; " Christ in the World's Life," 1875; " The Blessed Hope," 1882; " The Personal
Sense of the Allegory of the Vine," 1883; "The I Ams of Christ: A Contribution to Christological Thought." New
York, 1884; " Life in Harness," the baccalaureate sermon before the University of Pennsylvania, 1887.
Dr. Giesy married, July 3, 1851, Anna Bella Smith, at
Carlisle, Pa. Two daughters were born of this union, Mary Emma and Anna Lizzie, both now deceased. His first wife
died January 29, 1855. On November 29, 1859, he married Sarah Lydia Spear, of Baltimore, and of this
marriage two sons were born, Otis Spear, now deceased, and Samuel Herbert (Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., 1885,
and Columbian University Law School, Washington, D. C., 1887).
Dr. Giesy died, while rector of the Church of the
Epiphany, on Trinity Sunday, May 27, 1888, in Washington, D. C., and is buried in Oak Hill cemetery, near that city.
[Parish Guide, Church of the Epiphany, July, 1888, 12: 147-160
(Memorial number); Samuel Herbert Giesy, Esq.]
Luther Emmitt WINTER, A. M., M. D., entered the
Junior class of Marshall College in 1843, and graduated two years later. His father, Rev. John Winter, was a
clergyman in the Lutheran Church; his mother was Miss Emmitt, a daughter of William Emmitt, the founder of
Emmitsburg, Md. L. E. Winter was a member of the Diagnothian Society. At the time of his graduation he resided at
Clearspring, Md., where his father died in 1854. He died soon after completing a course in medicine, and is buried, it is
said, at Williamsport, Md.
[Prof. Jacob B. Kershner.]
Source: Franklin and Marshall College
Obituary Record, Edited for the Alumni Association, Vol. 1, No.1, Lancaster,
Pa. Published by the Alumni Association of Franklin and Marshall
College, June 1897.
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