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REVEREND JOHN HENRY WAIDELICH

REVEREND JOHN HENRY WAIDELICH, who for the past sixteen years has been the pastor of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church at Sellersville, and of St. John’s Church in Rockhill township, Bucks county, was born at Steinsville, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1860, and is of German parentage.

            Michael Frederick WAIDELICH, father of the subject of this sketch, was the youngest son of Jacob WAIDELICH by his first wife, nee HARTMAN, and was born in Bosenfeld, Wurtemberg, Germany, in the year 1831.  He came to this country in the year 1846, and learned the trade of a wheelwright with his eldest brother, Christian WAIDELICH, through whose influence he had come to America.  He married Sallie FOLLWEILER, of a German family whose ancestors had settled in the upper part of Lehigh county about the middle of the eighteenth century, her mother being a WANAMAKER.  They were the parents of six children, five of whom were boys, who were at the proper age obliged to learn useful trades, and it fell to the lot of the subject of this sketch to learn the trade of coach painting.  He attended the public schools of his native town and a private school for one session, after which he passed a successful examination in the fall of 1877, and receiving a teacher’s certificate, taught school in Berks and Lehigh counties for a period of five years.  He then prepared for college at the Keystone State Norman School at Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and entered Muhlenberg College at Allentown in September 1882, graduating with honors in June, 1886, receiving a prize in gold for scholarship in German.  During the summer of 1885 he filled position of principal of Prospect Institute at Steinsville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.  Entering the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, he graduated in June, 1889, and was ordained by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in Salem church, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1889.  He was installed as pastor of St. Michael’s and St. John’s churches June 23, 1889, and is still filling that charge.  During his pastorate both churches have prospered, the latter having erected in 1899 a handsome modern church building.  Mr. WAIDELICH, in addition to his regular parish, also served temporarily as pastor of Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church at Ridge Road, Rockhill Township, and in 1892 organized Trinity congregation at Perkasie.  In 1900 these last two churches were by his advice formed into a separate parish. 

             Mr. WAIDELICH served as secretary and later as president of the Norristown conference of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and adjacent states, and has served as representative of his synod at the meeting of the General Council of North America.  He was trustee of Muhlenberg College for six years.  He has also been secretary of the Lutheran Pastoral Association of Bucks and of a portion of Montgomery county since the fall of 1889.  In his home town of Sellersville Mr. WAIDELICH has exerted a wide influence for good among the young people.  He has served as a member of the local school board and taken a deep interest in the cause of education.

            On July 4, 1889, Mr. WAIDELICH married Alice S. KEELER, daughter of Nathan and Ellamina (SMITH) KELLER, of Albany, Berks county, Pennsylvania.  She had been a teacher in the public schools of that county for five years or more, and had charge of a kindergarten department in the schools of Reading, Pennsylvania, for one year.  Rev. and Mrs. WAIDELICH are the parents of one son, Luther Frederic, who was born at Sellersville, May 24, 1890, and is preparing for a college education.

Text taken from page 544 to 545 of: 

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed August 2006 by Joan Lollis as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published August 2006 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/

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