Luther Alexander Gotwald - Gotwald Children Who Survived To Adulthood

Gotwald Children Who Survived To Adulthood

All of the Gotwald children who survived to adulthood became respected and prominent citizens.

Their son Dr. David King Gotwald (who went by "King Gotwald") became a prominent physician in Springfield, who was known for his modest billing for his services. Dr. King Gotwald kept no financial records on his patients. Instead, once a year he sent them all the same bill of five dollars with a promise of caring for them during that year. He received his early education at the York County Academy and the York Collegiate Institute. He began his medical career by studying pharmacy in a drug stores in York and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He next read medicine with a Dr. Jacob Hay of York. Ultimately, he entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1878 and took a complete four years’ course in medicine, from which he graduated with honors in 1882. He shared the Henry C. Lea Prize of two hundred dollars for the best graduating thesis, with Mr. Horace F. Jayne, there being 117 in the class. He was then honored by the appointment of resident physician in Blockeley Hospital in Philadelphia. In the fall of 1883, he married Julia B. Kurtz of York, Pennsylvania. He moved his practice to Springfield, Ohio on April 1, 1895. He built his own stately home two houses north of the King Homestead, at 505 North Fountain Avenue, Springfield, Ohio and even closer to Wittenberg College than the King Homestead. This home was recently restored and looks very much as it did when Dr. Gotwald had it built. In 1898, as Assistant Surgeon of the Ohio National Guard, he served with his regiment, the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the Spanish–American War in Cuba. He served as a Director of Wittenberg College. His son, Rev. Dr. William King Gotwald, followed the family calling into the Lutheran ministry and university teaching. He attended Wittenburg College and Hamma Divinity School. He earned his PhD. from Johns Hopkins University. He had Lutheran pastorates in churches in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Wapakoneta, Ohio. He taught history at West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, West Virginia. He was a Professor at Newberry College, South Carolina. In his last nine years he was a Professor of Ancient and Medieval History at Wittenberg College.

Their son Rev. George Daniel Gotwald followed in his father's footsteps by graduating from Gettysburg Seminary and serving as a Lutheran clergyman in Kansas. From the time of his birth his parents consecrated him to the Lutheran ministry. They baptized him in infancy and confirmed him in Easter of 1876 in St. Paul’s Church in York, Pennsylvania. He attended York County Academy and graduated with honors from Pennsylvania College and was graduated in 1882.

He attended the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg for three years. Afterward, he was ordained by the West Pennsylvania Synod in St. Paul’s Church at York, Pennsylvania, at the same altar at which he had been confirmed. He married Mary B. Baugher in the summer of 1885. His first ministry was the Mission Church at Salina, Kansas, where he was "held in remarkably high esteem by both the congregation and the community." He was chairman of the Music Committee from Pennsylvania College which published The American College Song Book in 1882. In 1888, he became the pastor of the Children’s Memorial Lutheran Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Unfortunately, he came down with pneumonia, contracted through a cold, which he caught at a funeral on Christmas Day of 1889. He died on January 12, 1890 after a ministry at Kansas City of only a year and two months. George's grandson, Prof. Robert Gotwald Remsberg, became a highly respected philosophy professor at Wittenberg University. He was also an ordained Lutheran minister and served as University Pastor. Wittenberg University still honors him with a scholarship it awards in his name.

Their son, Robert Caldwell Gotwald, became a well-known architect, who designed many buildings in Springfield and elsewhere. His early education was received at the York County Academy and Pennsylvania College. In 1881 he entered the civil engineering department of Lehigh University at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1885. The Missouri Pacific Railroad hired him right out of school, where for several years he worked laying extensions to its system in southeastern Nebraska. He then became Assistant to the City Engineer of Omaha for several years. For "family reasons" he moved to Springfield, Ohio, in 1893, where he not only practiced engineering but also acquired a knowledge of architecture and soon built up a large business in that profession. He designed many of the most prominent buildings in Springfield of that time. He designed the Gotwald Building (sometimes also called the "King Gotwald Building" and later renamed the "M & M Building" after the bank that occupied it), which he designed for his brother, Dr. David King Gotwald, and in which both he and Dr. Gotwald kept their offices. He designed several of the Lutheran churches in Springfield as well as the King Building, Arcue Building and the old Zimmerman Library Building at Wittenberg. He designed the old Springfield City Hospital and was on the Springfield Board of Building Commissioners, at the time of his death, which was constructing the new Springfield City Hospital, which still stands and operates.

Their son, Rev. Frederick Gebhart Gotwald, went to the public schools from 1875 until 1877 in York, Pennsylvania. He enrolled in the York County Academy until 1884. He attended the York Collegiate Institute for one year. In the fall of 1885 he entered the sophomore class of Pennsylvania College, but only completed one term, because on November third of that year, his father moved to Springfield, Ohio, and placed his two sons in Wittenberg College. He married Julia Agnes Small of York, Pennsylvania on June 10, 1897. He built a house next to his father’s in 1897. He graduated from Wittenberg in 1888. After college, he studied law in the office of attorney John L. Zimmerman (who presided at his father's heresy trial) from September 1, 1888 until February 1, 1889. Probably to the overwhelming joy of his father, he entered Wittenberg Theological Seminary, where his father had become professor two months earlier and began his preparation for the Lutheran ministry. He graduated on May 29, 1891, and was ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Miami in October 1891 at Dayton, Ohio. He became an instructor at Hamma Divinity School at Wittenberg College. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of Wittenberg College from 1894 until 1898. He became the editor of The Lutheran World in 1885, where he served for fifteen years. He founded the Fifth Lutheran Church in Springfield in 1891 and served for many years as its pastor. In 1900, he organized the Calvary Lutheran Church in Springfield, Ohio. He was transferred to York, Pennsylvania in 1904, to become General Secretary of the Lutheran Board of Education in which position he served up until the time of his death on February 4, 1926. Before his death, he founded the Advent Lutheran Church in York, Pennsylvania in 1924.

Rev. Frederick Gebhart Gotwald was the father of Rev. Luther Alexander Gotwald, Sr., who graduated from York Academy, Gettysburg College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary. Rev. Luther Alexander Gotwald, Sr. served in the Mission Field of the United Lutheran Church in Madras Presidency, India. He held the position of Executive Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the United Lutheran Church. He was also the Executive Secretary of the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of the Churches of Christ. His son and the great-grandson of the original Rev. Luther Gotwald. Rev. Luther Alexander Gotwald, Jr. is a Lutheran cleric and the author of the Gotwald heresy trial book. He was born to his missionary parents in India. He graduated from Gettysburg College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary. The Central Pennsylvania Synod ordained him as a minister of the United Lutheran church. He had three pastorates in Pennsylvania and acted as an assistant to the Bishop of the Allegheny Synod. He retired in 1992.

The daughter of Luther and Mary Gotwald, Almena Gotwald, was beyond doubt the "apple of her father's eye". He said of her, "She was a beautiful child, with large, dark eyes, and rich brown curls, resembling her father more than any of the children." She attended the Girls Seminary in York, Pennsylvania in 1884 and 1885. When the family moved to Springfield, she attended the "Northern Building" of the Springfield Public Schools until 1889. In 1889 she entered the first year of the Preparatory Department of Wittenberg College. After taking a full seven years course, she graduated in 1896. She then took charge of the King Homestead until her marriage in 1899. During this time she traveled extensively in Colorado, New York, Boston, and Chicago. In 1897 she was the bridesmaid at her brother Fred’s wedding in York, Pennsylvania. On October 12, 1899, she married Glenn M. Cummings, a young attorney from Mansfield, Ohio. The ceremony took in the same place (the west bay window) in the old King Homestead where her parents were married forty years earlier. Her brother Fred performed the ceremony. She first resided in Mansfield, Ohio, but later moved to Cleveland, where her husband Glenn became Chief Counsel of the Cleveland Trust Company.

Their daughter, Mary Susan Gotwald, like her sister, went to school at the Northern building, Springfield. She enrolled in the Preparatory Department at Wittenberg College in 1892, from which she also graduated in 1899 after a full seven years’ course. In 1898 she spent the summer in Colorado. She also visited Chicago, Chautauqua and several other destinations. Luther wrote proudly, "In college she was a good student and stood well in her class. Since her graduation, she has taken charge of the house and makes a splendid housekeeper." After Luther's death, she married attorney and jurist Hubert Clay Pontius, of Canton, Ohio, who served as Prosecuting Attorney and Judge in Stark County, Ohio.