The Life of Rev. Michael Schlatter : With a Full Account of His Travels and Labors among the Germans in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia

First published in 1857 by the notable Pennsylvania German writer Henry Harbaugh, this volume presents the biography of Michael Schlatter, the organizer of the German Reformed Church in Pennsylvania. Schlatter arrived in Philadelphia in 1746 on an appointment from the German Reformed Church to set up churches among the growing German population in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic. In addition to detailed biographical information, this book includes an English translation of his 1751 journal and a report on his time in America entitled “True History of the Real Conditions of the Destitute Congregations in Pennsylvania,” which remains an important source in the study of the early German church in America and early German settlements in Philadelphia. Documenting Schlatter’s extensive travels and his work in establishing churches across Pennsylvania, Harbaugh provides an intriguing account of the formation of the early German church and the American nation during critical moments of war and political turmoil.