Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Swartz, Joel

SWARTZ, Joel, clergyman, b. in Shenandoah county, Va.. 18 Aug., 1827. He received his classical and theological education in Capitol university, Columbus, Ohio, being graduated in the theological department in 1854. In 1855 he was ordained to the ministry, and in 1868 he received the degree of D. D. from Wittenberg college, Springfield, Ohio. He has held various pastorates in Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, was professor of church history, pastoral theology, and homiletics in the theological department of Wittenberg college, Springfield, Ohio, in 1865-'8, and has been pastor at Gettysburg, Pa., since 1881. Dr. Swartz as been a regular correspondent for the “Lutheran Observer” for sixteen years, and has published two volumes of poetry, “Dreamings of the Waking Heart” (Philadelphia, 1877) and “Lyra Lutherana” (1883). He was chairman of the committee that edited the “Book of Worship” with tunes.