Benjamin Shroder Schneck, clergyman, b. in Upper Bern, Berks co., Pa., 14 March, 1806; d. in Chambersburg, Pa., 19 April, 1874. He was educated by his father, a German school-master of Reading, studied theology, and was ordained to the ministry of the German Reformed church on 5 Sept., 1826. He was pastor of congregations in Centre county, Pa., till 1834, preaching in both English and German, and then in Gettysburg for one year. He took charge in 1835 of the "Weekly Messenger" at Chambersburg, and in 1840 of the "Reformirte Kirchenzeitung," the German organ of his church. He still continued editor of the "Weekly Messenger," with an assistant, till 1844, when he resigned, resuming charge again in 1847, and giving it up finally in 1852. He retired from the editorship of the German paper in 1864, when it was removed to Philadelphia. From 1855 till his death he officiated as pastor of a congregation in Chambersburg. The degree of D.D. was given him in 1845 by Marshall college. He published "Die deutsche Kanzel," a collection of German sermons (Chambersburg, 1845); "The Burning of Chambersburg" (Philadelphia, 1865); and "Mercersburg Theology " (1874).
Source: Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. V, ed. by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888, pp. 422-23.
Contributed by: Nancy.