Luther Alexander Gotwald - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Luther Alexander Gotwald was the fifth child of his parents. He was baptized by the famous Samuel Simon Schmucker, himself, who was a great friend of his father and who had come to Petersburg to assist his father at a Communion Season. He lived most of his younger days in Petersburg, now Littlestown, Pennsylvania. Rev. Gotwald said this of his native town of Petersburg in his autobiography:

I was born into this world on the 31st day of January in the year 1833 in Petersburg or York Springs in Adams County, Pennsylvania. The town was a small bit of a place then, and is still small, but it is a capital place for all that. It is healthy, it has good society, and it especially has always been distinguished for its excellent morals. An almost Puritanic moral and religious serenity characterized it in my childhood days, and whilst in this respect it has, no doubt, somewhat relaxed and learned to know that religion does not consist in inflexible adherence or obedience to an iron code of rules, it has not, as is today the case so generally throughout almost the whole of Puritan New England, swung off into the opposite extremes or excess of irreligion and of every species of immorality. I have been back to the dear little town repeatedly since I am a man and must say that I like the type and ring of its social and religious life as much as that of any place I know. —

Rev. Gotwald undertook his early studies at an "academy" near his home of which, as an adult, he admitted to remembering little. At the age of ten, he had to go to work as a clerk and errand boy in various stores to help support his family. He also worked as a carpenter and a carriage maker. However, Luther later wrote, "my desires for further education prevented me from so concentrating my mind at these trades as to make a success of them. I remember keeping books in the drawer of my work bench and at every spare moment, I would take occasion to read from them. In fact, my employer said that my mind was so set on the books that I managed to spoil more lumber than I was worth and I was discharged." His sister, Eliza lived "out west", so he decided to follow her. Of this move, he reports.

In the year 1849 I decided to go West for work and as my sister lived in Illinois. I was naturally inclined in that direction. On this journey I was nearly drowned in a heavy storm on Lake Erie. After arriving at my destination, I worked at various forms of manual work in field and garden. I also worked at the printer’s trade in both Chicago and in Freeport, Illinois. At the latter place, I was cheated out of all the hard earned wages which I had saved from my labors in the cornfield, leaving me with only $3.50. From Freeport, I worked my way to Galena, Illinois, where I took boat for St. Louis. In this city I worked for various news papers. From St. Louis I went to Shelbyville, Illinois, where my sister Eliza, Mrs. Rev. Jacob Scherer, lived. There I obtained employment in the cornfields. I was present at the time of the death of my sister’s husband, Rev. Jacob Scherer, at the age of 35, in the Fall of 1851. —

In the spring of 1851 and at the age of 19, Luther Gotwald entered Wittenberg College, a Lutheran college in Springfield, Ohio in the Preparatory Department. He only had fourteen dollars when he arrived and he had to work to pay his way. He remained at Wittenberg until his sophomore year. There is a book written by his Lutheran cleric, great-grandson, Rev. Luther A. Gotwald, Jr., called The Gotwald Trial Revisited (the "Gotwald heresy trial book" for short). The book states that Luther took up with college sweetheart, Mary Elizabeth King, who was only fifteen years old at the time. Luther met Mary Elizabeth King through her brothers. She had three brothers, David King, Jr., Robert Quigley King and Samuel Noble King, who were his classmates at Wittenberg. The Gotwald heresy book notes that the King family was sufficiently wealthy to send all three of them to college at the same time. Not only that, the King family lived close enough to the Wittenberg campus that they were able to walk to class. However, Luther became so infatuated with her that his family feared it would adversely affect his studies. So, they pulled him out of Wittenberg and sent him to Pennsylvania where he continued his studies in Lutheran theology. In 1855 he entered Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, from which he graduated with honors in 1857. Next he entered the Theological Seminary of Gettysburg and after taking a two year’s course graduated from that institution in 1859. The Lutheran Synod of West Pennsylvania ordained Luther Alexander Gotwald at Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. A year later the same synod licensed him to preach.