Heinrich Karl Georg von Rohr (1797-1874)

BiographyEdit

"Heinrich von Rohr was born into an aristocratic family on 15 May 1797 in Billerbeck, Germany. At age eight he entered the Prussian military academy and served as a page for Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm III. At 18 he was commissioned as second lieutenant and fought in the Franco-Prussian disputes. He married at age 32 (first wife's name unknown) and was converted to Christianity by his wedding sermon. His wife died in childbirth. On 30 March 1834 he was promoted to Captain in the Prussian Army and transferred to Magdeburg. Shortly before his transfer he married his second wife, Julia Mangold of Berlin. A controversy over the rite of the baptism (Lutheran or Reformed) of his son caused the formal discharge of v. Rohr's army commission. Through the death of his second wife and son he became very serious about religion. He helped Pastor Johann A. A. Grabau organize a large group of Lutherans opposed to the Prussian Union to emigrate to America in 1839. They became to be known as the "Old Lutherans". Von Rohr settled near Milwaukee and helped found Freistadt, Wisconsin, where he farmed for several years. Later he studied theology at Buffalo, New York, and became a pastor in Humberstone, Ontario. From 1846 to 1874 he served congregations in the state of New York: Berghold, Walmore and Martinsville. He helped Grabau found the Buffalo Synod in 1845 but sided against Grabau in the 1866 synodical that expelled Grabau from the Buffalo Synod. However, von Rohr did not follow the majority of Buffalo Synod pastors into union with Missouri after the colloquy of November of that year and served as Senior of the remaining Buffalo Synod ministerium until his death. He married his third wife, Margarethe, in the early 1840s, and they had five children: Philip, Julia, Mary, Elisabeth and John. He died in July 1874."^[1]

External linkEdit

• Heinrich Karl Georg von Rohr at Lutheran History

ReferencesEdit