Biography: Matthias Sheeleigh, 1821-1900

Matthias Sheeleigh, 1821-1900

Source: Proceedings of Pennsylvania-German Society, Volume X, 1899.

Rev. Matthias Sheeleigh, D.D., was born at Charlestown, Chester Co.,
Pa. on December 29, 1821. He was the son of Jesse Sheeleigh, b.
November 9, 1793, d. August 16, 1830 (married Mary Orner, b. May
3, 1796, d. April 3, 1876, daughter of Elizabeth Orner, nee’
Schmidt, b. 1774, d. 1849, granddaughter of Elizabeth Orner, nee’
Ludwig, b. 1748, d. 1808), son of John Sheeleigh, d. 1800, son of
Valentine Sheeleigh, son of Philip Sheeleigh, who emigrated from
Germany in 1732 and settled on one hundred and fifty acres of land
located within a mile of the present town of Schwenksville,
Montgomery County, Pa.

Dr. Sheeleigh was a graduate of Pennsylvania College and the
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. He entered the ministry of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1852, his first charge being at
Valatie, N.Y., with succeeding charges at Minersville, Pa.,
Philadelphia, Pa., and Stewartsville, N.J. In 1869 he became pastor
of Zion Lutheran Church Whitemarsh, near Fort Washington, Pa., which
he served faithfully until 1895, and during twenty-three years of
this time also ministered to the Upper Dublin congregation nearby.
After relinquishing active church work he still continued his
editorial duties on the “Lutheran Sunday- school Herald” and
“Lutheran Almanac,” with which he had been connected thirty years. He
was President and Secretary of the General Synod for several years
and filled a chair with the Lutheran Publishing Society.
He was the author of numerous poems, local historical papers and
hymns, all of value; was a member of the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, the Montgomery County Historical Society, and was
considered an authority on all matters of local history.
He was called to his eternal reward on Sunday night, July 15, 1900,
and is survived by his widow and four children, Luther, of Jersey
City, NJ., Elizabeth and Grace M., of Fort Washington, Pa., and Mrs.
V.S.G. Rupp, of Baltimore, Md.

Dr. Sheeleigh assisted in the organization of the
Pennsylvania-German Society on April 15, 1891, and continued an
active and valued member of it to the time of his decease. H.M.M.R.

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