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MARSHALL COLLEGE
Class of 1837 Obituaries
Rev. John Henry Augustus BOMBERGER, A. M., D. D., LL D., son of George Bomberger, Scrivener, was born in the city of Lancaster, Pa., January 13, 1817. His mother, Mary, was the daughter of Rev. John H. Hoffmeier, pastor of the Reformed church in Lancaster from 1806 to 1831. His ancestors on both sides were of German origin, and in their ecclesiastical
relations, as far back as known, were connected with the Reformed Church.
After receiving the elementary instruction customary to the time, he was entered, at the age of ten, as a pupil in the Lancaster Academy. January 2, 1832, he was sent to the High School of the Reformed Church at York, Pa., at the
head of which was the Rev. Frederick A. Rauch, D. D., afterwards the first president of Marshall College, the first real teacher, he always maintained, whose tuition he enjoyed. Here he studied Latin, Greek and mathematics, substantially covering the first two years of a college course.
As he was destined for the ministry and as the Reformed Church had no school that could give him any higher classical preparation, he entered, in 1834, the Theological Seminary of the Church, then also located at York, with Dr.
Lewis Mayer as professor of theology. When, in the fall of 1835, the Reformed Church established a college at Mercersburg he repaired thither to complete his collegiate education, graduating in 1837 as the only member of the first
class sent out by Marshall College. While at York he became one of the charter members of the Diagnothian Literary Society. After graduation from college he spent another year in the study of theology under the direction of Dr. Rauch, serving as a tutor in the College during the last two years of his stay at Mercersburg.
At the meeting of the Synod held in Lancaster, October, 1838, he was licensed, and a month later he took charge of a number of scattered and depleted churches in the neighborhood of Lewistown, Pa., at a salary of $225 a year. He
was ordained at Lewistown, December 27, 1838. In this charge he preached three and four times a Sunday, in the English and German languages, and in addition conducted a classical academy, in which he taught five and a half days a
week, to increase his meager stipend by $200 a year. After remaining at Lewistown twenty months he accepted a call to Waynesboro, Pa., July, 1840, serving the congregation in town, as well as Salem's church, four miles distant,
and Cavetown and Leitersburg in Maryland. In April, 1845, he was called to Easton, Pa., as the English pastor of the First Reformed church, to succeed the Rev. Bernard C.
Wolff, D. D. Here he was associated with the Rev. Thomas Pomp, German pastor. In August, 1852, he received a call from the First Reformed church of Philadelphia, which
he declined, but which was renewed two years later and then accepted. When he went to Philadelphia in 1854, he found the old First Church, then located on Race St., below Fourth, reduced to about one hundred communicants, and much
discouraged. A second flock (Church of the Apostles) had been organized out of the First Church shortly before his settlement, but maintained its existence only three or four
years. During his pastorate of the Race Street Church the following Reformed churches were organized in Philadelphia: In 186o, Christ Church, Green St., near Sixteenth; in
1863, Trinity Church, now located on 7th St., near Oxford; and St. John's Church, West Philadelphia. After removing from Philadelphia, in April,
1870, he served as pastor of St. Luke's Reformed church, Trappe, Pa., in connection with his work as president of Ursinus College, until October 1, 1883.
During his career as pastor Dr. Bomberger also served his church and the cause of Christianity in other capacities. For a number of years he was president of the Board of Home Missions of the Reformed Church. He served on many important committees, having been chairman of the first committee on the preparation of a liturgy, appointed in 1848. He was president of the Eastern Synod of his church in 1858, and again in 1878. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Alliance of the Reformed Churches, holding
its triennial sessions that year in Belfast, Ireland. In connection with the trip he made a tour of Great Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland, visiting especially the places and regions famous in the early history of the Reformed Church. He was a member of the American Tract Society and of the American Sabbath Association. In May,
1890, he was elected president of the General Synod of the Reformed Church, which office he held at the time of his death.
In the great liturgical controversy which agitated the Reformed Church for a quarter of a century, Dr. Bomberger took a most prominent part, and for many years he was the recognized leader of the so-called anti-liturgical party of the Church.
The great work of his life was accomplished in connection with Ursinus College, of which he was the first president, serving from the date of the organization of the college in
1869 until his death, which occurred at his home in Collegeville, Pa., August 19, 189o. During fifteen years of this period he did the work of three men, serving as pastor of a
church and editor of a paper, as well as president of the college.
In connection with his abundant pastoral, pulpit and educational labors, Dr. Bomberger accomplished an enormous amount of work with his pen. His published works include the following: Alumni Oration at Marshall College, Mercersburg, 1846, 28 pages; Contributions to the Mercersburg Review, 1849-53, about 200 pages; Sermon on the Death of Rev. Thomas Pomp, 1852; The Atlantic Telegraph in its Religious Aspects: A sermon preached August 22, 1858; Five Years in Race Street Reformed Church, 1857; Infant Salvation and Baptism, 1859; Child's Catachism, based on the Heidelberg Catechism, 186o; Trembling for the Ark: A sermon preached at the Burial of Rev. S. Helfenstein, 1866; Revised Liturgy, 1867; Reformed, not Ritualistic, 1867; Baccalaureate Discourses; Prayer and Hymns for Sunday Schools, 1867; Translated from the German, Kurtz's HandBook of Church History, 2 v., 1860; also Herzog's Encyclopaedia, first two volumes, 1861-66.
In January, 1868, Dr. Bomberger founded the Reformed Church Monthly and continued it for nine years, making nine
volumes of from 600 to 700 pages each, for which he furnished nearly half the matter. January 1, 1877, the Reformed Church Monthly was transferred to the Christian World, Dayton, Ohio, and for six years Dr. Bomberger conducted the " Reformed Church Monthly Department," giving much time and energy to the work. He was also a considerable contributor to other publications. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio, in 1886. The degrees of
A. M. and D. D. he received from Alma Mater, in 1840 and 1853, respectively.
Dr. Bomberger was twice married. April 10, 1839, he was married by Rev. Dr. Rauch to Marion Elizabeth Huston, only daughter of William Huston, of Mercersburg. The children that survive him by this marriage are Mary A., wife of B. N. Bethel, M. D., Philadelphia; Clara R., wife of J. E. Brecht, M. D., Myers, Fla.; Marion E., wife of Rev. Henry T. Spangler, D. D., president of Ursinus College;
Martha Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Francis C. Yost, York, Pa.; and Rev. John Huston Bomberger (Ursinus, 1877), Columbiana, Ohio. October 14, 1863, Dr. Bomberger was married to Julia Aymar Wight, daughter of Andrew Wight, of Philadelphia. His children by this marriage are Augustus
W. (Ursinus, 1882), attorney-at-law, Norristown, Pa.; Rev. Henry A. (Ursinus, 1884), Philadelphia; and Walter Bomberger (Ursinus, 1887), Pittsburg, Pa. (College Student, II: 14, 20; History of Montgomery County, Pa., 1884; Ursinus College Bulletin, 7: 1-34, Memorial Number (Portrait); Privets sources) l.
Source: Franklin and Marshall College
Obituary Record, Edited for the Alumni Association, Vol. 1, No.1, Lancaster,
Pa. Published by the Alumni Association of Franklin and Marshall
College, June 1897.
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