St. Mark's Pastors

• Henry Ziegler
• Joseph Welker
• Joseph Frederick Fahs
• Ferdinand C.H. Lampe
• Abraham Reeser Horne
• William Rickert
• Adolphus Leroy Yount
• George G. Kunkle
• William F. Rick
• Edwin Lunn Miller
• Stephen M. Paulson
• Henry Douglas Spaeth
• Paul L. Yount
• J. Ray Houser
• Robert Neumeyer
• Franklyn S. Lambert
• Frederick G. Hasskarl
• Paul F. Bosch
• William E. Hershey
• Robert Ardell Miller
• Jesse Houck
• Dale E. Johnson
• Stephen F. Yelovich
• Walter L. Brandau
• Kenneth R. Elkin
• James E. West
• Brian D. Vasey

Rev. Ferdinand C.H. Lampe of Pottsville, Pennsylvania accepted the call to St. Mark’s in May, 1863 and served until September, 1864.  Apparently, Rev. Lampe declined a call from St. Matthew's English Lutheran Church of Brooklyn, N.Y. extended in January 1863, in order to move to Williamsport.

The Williamsport German Lutheran congregation, having ceased to worship with the German Reformed church on Third Street now petitioned the English Lutherans for the privilege of worshipping with her. The two groups satisfactorily arranged for the division of the pastor’s salary between them and the Germans were granted the use of the sanctuary every alternate Sunday morning and evening.

Rev. Lampe who became pastor of both congregations was a man of great oratorical power and an elocutionist of note.  Tradition still lingers, telling marvelous tales of the oratorical power of Rev. Lampe. As all elocutionist many remember the laughter and the tears he caused when he recited “The Shule-House on the Crick;” while his rendition of Mark Antony’s speech over the dead body of Caesar made the cold drops gather on their foreheads.

Williamsport was no longer the country town of the beginning of the church’s existence.  The river’s bank was crowded with saw mills; Fourth Street had begun to don its aristocratic dress. Railroad communication had taken the place of the old stage coach. The little congregation, no longer now a mission, numbered 120 members in good and regular standing, besides the 130 Germans who worship with them, when Rev. Lampe left the church.

It appears that Rev. Lampe played a role in the formation of the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia, as the historical records of that institution state:

President C. W. Schaeffer, D.D., in his annual report to the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, meeting in Pottstown, Pa., called attention to "the duty of making more ample provision for the education of pastors . . . . The necessity of definite and liberal action is now upon us. . . ."

May 25th, [1864] the Ministerium resolved, "That in the Name of the Lord we now determine to undertake the establishment of a Theological Seminary."

Historical records note that Rev. F.C.H. Lampe became pastor of The First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Warren on the 19th of September, 1875, and continued to serve this people until the beginning of 1879.

A Committee consisting of the Revs. C. F. Welden, W. J. Mann, F. C. H. Lampe, and Messrs. C. F. Norton and Charles A. Heinitsh presented a plan the following day. Consideration was postponed to a special meeting, held July 26th in Allentown. The first three items, viz., that the Seminary should be unreservedly based on all the Lutheran Confessions, that it should be located in Philadelphia, and that instruction should be in English and in German, were adopted.

Rev. Lampe was born December 1829 and died May 1884 in Warren, Pa., where he is buried. He was married to Emily Lampe and had one son, Emil.