Brobst, Samuel K

Brobst, Samuel K.

a Lutheran minister, was born November 16, 1822. He went to Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1837, to learn a trade, which he soon after abandoned to devote himself to study. In the fall of 1841 he attended the Allentown Academy, and taught school during the winter. Subsequently he was a student in Marshall College, Lancaster, and in Washington College, in western Pennsylvania. In Washington he preached in German, and taught that language, and was also an agent of the American Sunday-school Union to labor among the Germans. He was offered a German editorship by the Sunday-school Union, which he declined. On June 4, 1847, he was licensed in Philadelphia as a minister; but it was only during the last nine years of his life that he served as a pastor For thirty years he. was engaged principally as editor of German periodicals. His first venture was a Sunday- school paper, the Jugendfreund, which attained a wide circulation. In 1859 he founded the Lutherische Zeitschrift, which became a weekly quarto. In 1868 he began the publication of a monthly theological journal, called Theologische Monatshefte, which after six years was suspended for want of adequate support. Mr. Brobst was likewise the publisher of the Lutherischer Kalender. A Pennsylvania German by birth, he took a prominent part in the organization of the German Press Association of Pennsylvania, of which he was president from the beginning until his death, a period of fifteen years. He was also active in the founding and success of Muhlenberg College. Especially was he distinguished as a Sabbath-school worker and organizer. In furtherance of his publishing interests he established a printingoffice and bookstore. In the discussion of the ecclesiastical matters that disturbed the Lutheran Church he took a prominent part, and became a zealous advocate of union. He died December 23, 1876. See Fifty Years in the Lutheran Ministry, 1878, page 226.