Born: May 5, 1813, Ha­gers­town, Ma­ry­land.

Died: March 15, 1896, Ger­man­town, Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Schaeffer’s fa­ther died when he was one year old, and his mo­ther re­mar­ried to Re­ver­end Ben­ja­min Kell­er in Car­lisle, Penn­syl­van­ia. The fam­i­ly moved to Ger­man­town, Penn­syl­van­ia, in 1829, where Charles at­tend­ed the lo­cal acad­e­my. He went on to grad­u­ate from the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­van­ia in 1832, and at­tend­ed the Get­tys­burg The­o­lo­gi­cal Sem­in­a­ry. In 1835, Schaef­fer be­came pas­tor of two con­gre­ga­tions: St. Pe­ter’s, Bar­ren Hill, Penn­syl­van­ia, and Un­ion Church in White Marsh. He lat­er served at the Lu­ther­an church in Har­ris­burg, Penn­syl­van­ia (1840-9), and at St. Mi­chael’s Church, Ger­man­town, for a quar­ter cen­tu­ry. He re­ceived his Do­ctor of Di­vin­i­ty deg­ree from the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­van­ia, and be­came a pro­fesso­r at the Phil­a­del­phia Sem­in­ary in 1864, re­tir­ing as pro­fess­or emer­i­tus in 1894. He al­so served as a un­i­ver­si­ty trust­ee (1859-96), treasur­er and pre­si­dent of the Penn­syl­van­ia Sy­nod, and pre­si­dent of the Lu­ther­an Gen­er­al Coun­cil and Gen­er­al Sy­nod. His works in­clude:

• History of the Lu­ther­an Church in Har­ris­burg
• Early His­to­ry of the Lu­ther­an Church in Amer­i­ca

Sources

Translations

1. Come, O Come, Thou Quick­en­ing Spirit
2. Father, Son, and Ho­ly Spir­it, I’m Bap­tized in Thy Dear Name