John Conrad Albertus Helfenstein

1773 MARRIAGE: Albertus Helffenstein married Catherine Karcher on 2/11/1773 at German Reformed Church. ("Early Marriage Records of Pennsylvania Churches") 1780 MENTION: "The Reverend Albert Helphenstein, or Helphenstone, as he translated it in his signature, was also a Lutheran clergyman, we believe, though we know little about him. The Reverend John Conrad Albert Helfenstein was an eminent clergyman of the German Reformed, and not the Lutheran church. He was born at Moszbach, in the Palatinate, 16 Feb 1748. Graduating from the University of Heidelberg, he was ordained and sent to America in 1772. His first charge was the congregation in Germantown, where he labored until 1775, when he became pastor at Lancaster. In 1779 he was recalled to the Germantown congregation and died there 17 May 1790." (PMHB, vol. 10, p.417, "The Lancaster Assembly of 1780") 1790 WILL: Albert's will was signed on 4/29/1790. He lists his wife, Anna Catherine, as well as sons, Samuel, Johann Phillip, Jonathan, and Charles Albertus. Also mentioned is his "brother and guardian, John Henry Helfrig, Minister of the Gospel at Weisenberg, Northhampton County." Executors were Anna Catherine, Jacob Engle, and Sebastian Unruh. Witnesses were William Holby, Isaac Wampole, Christopher Baker, and Bernard Matthias. (Philadelphia Wills, 1777 - 1790, p.2579.) **It should be noted that this is only an abstract of the actual will, which can be found in Book U, #198, p.503. 1790 DEATH: Albert died on 5/17/1790 at the age of 42 years 3 months 11 days. (German Reformed Church records; p.579)

! Source Notes: NAME: German Reformed Church records BIRTHDATE: Estimation; based on age listed in death records DEATHDATE: German Reformed Church records; p.579 DEATH PLACE: German Reformed Church records; p.579 MARRIAGE: "Early Marriage Records of Pennsylvania Churches"

! HELFFENSTEIN, JOHN ALBERT CONRAD (Feb. 16, 1748 - May 17, 1790), German Reformed clergyman, was born in Mosbach in the Palatinate, the son of Peter Helffenstein, Reformed pastor at Mosbach and Obrigheim and later at Heidelsheim and Sinsheim, by his wife, Anna Margaretha Dietz, widow of Johann Peter Helffrich. He matriculated May 7, 1764, at the University of Heidelberg and, after passing his theological examinations, was vicar to his father and other clergymen for several years. In 1771, he and his half-brother, John Henry Helffrich, were ordained by the synods of Holland for the Coetus of Pennsylvania and embarked Sept. 6 from Amsterdam. With them sailed John Gabriel Gebbard, who was the Reformed pastor from 1776 to 1826 at Claverack, N.Y. The voyage was a succession of head winds and violent storms, but on Jan. 14, 1772, with their provisions and water exhaused, the three missionaries landed safely at New York and were hospitably received by John Henry Livingston (q.v.). On their proceeding to Philadelphia, Helffrich was assigned to the Maxatawny charge in Berks and Lehigh counties, which he served until his death in 1810, and Helffenstein to Germantown and Frankford. His father, who would gladly have gone with him, wrote from time to time, sending him books, underwear, and matrimonial advice. On Feb. 11, 1773, Helffenstein married Catharine Kircher, who with four children survive him. Despite the strenous opposition of his parishioners, he left Germantown late in 1775 and accepted a call to the Reformed congregation at Lancaster. The best remembered events of his two and one-half years in that town were the mordant sermons that he preached to the interned Hessian prisoners on such texts as Isaiah lii,3, and John viii, 36. He returned as pastor to Germantown in the summer of 1779 and remained there until his death from consumption eleven years later. He was a zealous member of the Coetus, of which he was clerk in 1779 and 1787 and president in 1781 and 1788. He was famous throughout German Pennsylvania for the eloquence and pungency of his sermons. His methods of preparation and manner of delivery were carefully observed by his contemporaries, and so lasting was his reputation that twenty years after his death nineteen of his sermons were published as "Eine Sammlung Auserlesener Predigten" (Carlisle, 1810, and later editions). This was translated by Israel Daniel Rupp (q.v.) as a "A Collection of Choice Sermons" (1832), and in 1835 another "Sammlung Aurserlesener Predigten" was issued at Chambersburg. Helffenstein's eldest son, Samuel, was pastor for thirty years of the Reformed Church in Philadelphia. (Henry Harbaugh, "The Fathers of the German Reformed Church in Europe and America," Vol. II (Lancaster, 1858); J.H. Dubbs, "Some Helffenstein Letters," Lancaster County Hist. Soc. Papers, I (1896-97), 218-225; J.I. Good, "Hist. of the Reformed Church in the U.S., 1725-92" (Reading, 1899); "Minutes and Letters of the Coetus of the German Reformed Congregations in Pa. 1747-92" (1903); Gustav Toepke, "Die Matrikel der Universitat Heidelberg", vol IV (1903); Wm. J. Hinke, "Diary of the Rev. J.H. Helffrich Sept. 6, 1771-Jan. 14, 1772," Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biog. Jan. 1914; additional notes by Prof. Hinke.) G.H.G.