Perhaps no man changed the trajectory of the German Baptist Brethren more than Henry Kurtz, at least until Henry Holsinger came on the scene.  Holsinger would credit Kurtz with inaugurating the progressive era in Brethren history.

Henry Kurtz (1796-1874) was born in Germany and immigrated to America in 1817.  He had received a classical education in Germany and became a schoolteacher in Northampton County, PA.  In 1819 he decided to prepare for the Lutheran ministry by reading theology with a Lutheran pastor (this form of apprenticeship was common for both aspiring ministers and lawyers at the time).  This same year he was placed in charge of a congregation in Plainfield, Northampton County.  Shortly thereafter he was ordained as a Lutheran minister.  In 1821 he married Anna Catherine Loehr; of their seven children, four sons lived into adulthood.

In 1823 he became pastor of a church in Pittsburgh, PA, containing both Lutherans and Reformed. Kurtz took his ministry quite seriously, too seriously for some of his people.  When he sought to implement a policy on church discipline, desiring to call the people to live a more devout Christian life, open conflict in the church resulted.  To his credit, he resigned before a division occurred.

He and others dabbled with the idea of forming a communitarian society, and Kurtz moved his family to Stark County, Ohio, to launch the proposed community, but the plans fell through.  Meanwhile, he had come into contact with the Brethren in Stark County and found in them the kind of disciplined Christian lifestyle that he had sought.  He was baptized in 1828 by George Hoke and by 1830 had been placed in charge of the Mill Creek congregation in Mahoning County, Ohio, the same church that Hoke had pastored.  To be placed in charge of this congregation was most unusual because he was not ordained as an elder until 1844.

Kurtz’s greatest contribution to the Brethren was in printing.  He had moved in 1842 to a farm near Poland, Ohio, in Mahoning County.  Here he turned the springhouse on the property into a print shop, having bought a press in the early 1830s.  Kurtz printed a variety of publications: a hymnbook, Die Kleine Lieder-Sammlung; a German New Testament; a medical guide; some of the writings of Menno Simons; and two periodicals in German, neither of which met with success.

In 1837 he was chosen as clerk of Annual Meeting, and he began printing the minutes of Annual Meeting in both German and English.  Following his ordination, he also began serving on the Standing Committee of Annual Meeting, which prepared the business agenda for the gathering.  In these roles he earned the respect of the general brotherhood.  Perhaps his greatest impact on the church came with the appearance of a monthly periodical, The Gospel Visitor, in April 1851 (see the photo of the first page from an issue).  Through the paper he hoped to unify the Brethren, who were now spread across the continent, to provide wholesome spiritual content in contrast to what might be available in other publications, and to offer a venue for answering questions and sharing advice.  Though such a paper could have been seen as an unwelcome innovation, Annual Meeting in 1853 ruled that the paper was a “private venture” with which the meeting could not interfere.

Henry Holsinger, who briefly joined Kurtz as an apprentice in 1856 and 1857, later wrote that the appearance of this paper “ushered in the progressive era of the Tunker Church.”  Indeed, the paper diplomatically introduced such innovations as higher education, Sunday Schools, and evangelism, and it served as a catalyst for the appearance of a host of other periodicals in the 1860s and 70s.  The contrast between the progressive spirit of Kurtz and that of Holsinger, however, could not be sharper.  While Holsinger aggressively pushed forward his progressive agenda, leading to growing opposition and ultimately division, Kurtz’s humble, patient, and forbearing spirit led to a welcoming reception of many of his ideas with all but the most conservative members of the brotherhood.  (More will be said about Holsinger in future posts.)