Grunert, Rev. Francis Eugene

GRUNERT, PFOHL, SMYTH, SUPPLEE

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 3/30/2021 at 15:54:28

Rev. Francis Eugene Grunert, pastor of the Moravian Congregation, at Grace Hill, was born at Salem, N. C., Jan. 31, 1859. His father, the Rev. Maxamilian Eugene Grunert, was born at Nisky, Germany, Feb. 26, 1823. He was educated in the Paedagogium and Theological Seminary of the German Province, and served as teacher in its schools, and after he came to America, at Salem, N. C. On April 21, 1851, he was ordained a Deacon of the United Brethren (Moravian) Church, by the late Bishop Herman, and took charge of the congregation at Bethany, N. C. There he labored for six years, and was then, in 1857, appointed Assistant Principal of the Salem Female Academy, a boarding-school for young ladies. In 1866 he was constituted its Principal, and in 1874, a member of the Southern Provincial Board, and his connection with the Academy continued for twenty years. In 1877 he resigned, and was called to the pastorate of the Church at Emaus, Pa. There he labored for only two years, having, in 1879, been appointed resident Professor in the Theological Seminary at Bethlehem, Pa. This responsible position he filled until 1886, when he resigned and retired to Nazareth, Pa., where he died very suddenly, of apoplexy, on the evening of June 4, 1887. On the 13th of May, 1856 he was ordained a Presbyter by the late Bishop Jacobson. His active service as a minister of the Church embraced thirty-five years, and was joyfully and zealously rendered to the glory of God and the good of his fellowmen. He was a genial companion, a ripe scholar, and excellent preacher, and an humble child of God. His sermons, whether in English or German, always commanded attention. They were full of Christ and of Christian experience. There are, in the South and the North, many ready to testify that he helped them forward on the way to life, that he cheered their hearts with sweet promises eloquently set forth, that when listening to him they were borne, as on a gently rippling current, nearer and nearer to the Savior. “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Our subject’s mother, Emma F. Pfohl, daughter of the Rev. L. T. Pfohl, of Salem, N. C., was born May 23, 1830, and died Oct. 24, 1862. She was a consistent Christian, and brought up her children in the fear of the Lord, two of them are in the service of the Church, Mrs. L. A. G. Smyth, wife of the Rev. C. S. Smyth, a Moravian missionary on the Island of Jamaica, West Indies, and the subject of this sketch. The other two children are serving the Lord in the sphere of life to which He has called them, the older son in Salem, N. C., and the younger daughter in Nazareth, Pa.

In early infancy, the subject of this sketch was dedicated to the Lord in holy baptism, and in his fifteenth year made a profession of his faith in Christ, solemnly receiving his baptismal covenant in the rite of confirmation, and sealing it in the Lord’s Supper on Thursday of the Passion Week in 1873. In August, 1875 he entered the Moravian College and Theological Seminary at Bethlehem, Pa., having received in his early education in the parochial school at Salem, N. C. June 1, 1880, he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and in September, the same year, entered as a teacher in Nazareth Hall, a boarding-school for boys, at Nazareth, Pa., and continued in the same institution until 1884, when he was appointed to the pastorate of the Moravian Church at Grace Hill, Iowa. On Aug. 24, 1884, , he was ordained a Deacon of the Church by the late Bishop H. A. Shultz, and on the 31st of the same month, preached his introductory sermon at his new charge, where he has labored faithfully till the present time. Having received an appointment to the English Congregation at West Salem, Ill., he expects to remove there. On Aug. 26, 1884, he was married to Miss Gertrude C. Smyth, daughter of William c. and Addie M (Supplee) Smyth, of Philadelphia, Pa. They have one son, James Ernest Grunert, born Oct. 4, 1886, a bright little boy, the joy of his parents.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of Elias Griffith, pages 398-399.