Wolff, Bernard C, Dd

Wolff, Bernard C., D.D.

a German Reformed minister, was born at Martinsburg, W. Va., Dec. 11, 1794. When a mere child he received the impression that he ought to be a minister, and this conviction deepened with his subsequent development. He was sent to the best schools afforded by his native place, where he made rapid progress, especially in mathematics; and subsequently received instruction under private tutors in the family of B. M. Coulston, Esq., who lived near Martinsburg. He also pursued the study of the Latin and Greek languages for some time under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Denny, a Presbyterian clergyman of Chambersburg, Pa., with whom he made attainments which would. have admitted him to the junior class in college. He was then called home by his father to engage with him in the saddle and harness making business, where he labored four or five years, until, at the age of twenty one, he became the sole owner of the shop. In his thirty- seventh year he entered the Theological Seminary at York, Pa., completed his course in 1832, and was licensed at Frederick, Md., in September of the same year. He became associate pastor of the Church at Easton, Pa., in 1832; pastor of the Third Church in Baltimore, Md., in 1844; entered upon the duties of the office of professor of didactic and practical theology in the Theological Seminary at Mercersburg, Pa., Nov. 29, 1854; resigned his professorship some years previous to his death, and devoted the remainder of his days to the interests of the educational institutions of his Church. He died at Lancaster, Pa., Nov. 1, 1870. See Harbaugh, Fathers of the Germ. Ref. Church. 4:246.