December 15
37
Nero, the
Roman emperor who was the scourge of early Christians, was
born (d. 9 June 68).
1620
Adam
Drese, pietistic composer, was born in Thuringia (d. 15
February 1701).
1634
Thomas Kingo, Denmark’s first great hymnist, was born in
Slangerup, Denmark, perhaps of Scottish descent (d. 14
October 1703).
1754
Paul
Henkel, home missionary of the eighteenth-century
Lutheran Church, was born near Salisbury, North Carolina (d.
27 November 1825).
1791 The
Bill of Rights
of the U.S. Constitution came into effect upon ratification
by three-fourths of the states.
1808
Henry F. Chorley, English music journalist, was born in
Blackley, England (d. 16 February 1872, London, England).
1811
Johannes Theodorus Vanderkemp, missionary to South
Africa, died in South Africa (b. 1747 in Rotterdam,
Holland).
1830
Lewis Henry Redner, American Episcopal organist and
composer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 29
August 1908).
1837
Ethelbert William Bullinger, Anglican clergyman and hymn
tune composer, was born in Canterbury, England (d. 6 June
1913, Hendon, London, England).
1843
A. B. (Albert Benjamin) Simpson, Anglican clergyman and
founder of the Christian Alliance and the International
Missionary Alliance, was born on Prince Edward Island,
Canada (d. 29 October 1919).
1880
Oswald W. Kreinheder was born in Buffalo, New York (d. 31
July 1942). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint
Louis) in 1904 and served as pastor at Saint Mark Lutheran
Church, West Henrietta, New York (1904-1910); Mount Calvary
Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1910-1916); and
Concordia Lutheran Church, Conover, North Carolina
(1916-1918). He became president of Concordia College
(Conover, North Carolina) in 1918 and served until December
1927, when he became pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church,
Irvington, Baltimore, Maryland. He was secretary of the
Mission Board of the Southeastern District, Missouri Synod,
and chair of the Baltimore Pastoral Conference.
1896
Thomas B. Pollock, hymnist, died at Birmingham, England
(b. 28 May 1836, Strathallan, Isle of Man).
1900 Count
Leo
Tolstoy (1828–1910)
wrote to the tsar asking him to end religious persecution in
Russia.
1907
Concordia College at Portland, Oregon, was dedicated.
1930
Gerhard Friedrich Bente died at Redwood City, California
(b. 22 January 1858).
1982 Walter H. Ellwanger died in Austin, Texas (b.
22 April 1897, New Middleton, Indiana). He was a 1921
graduate of Indiana University and a 1928 graduate of
Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis). He received a masters
degree from the University of Chicago in 1930. Ellwanger
served parishes in Missouri and Indiana from 1928 to 1945,
including thirteen years as a city missionary in Saint
Louis. In 1945 he accepted the call of the Lutheran
Synodical Conference Missionary Board to be superintendent
of the Alabama field of the African American mission. In
1952 Ellwanger became president of Alabama Lutheran Academy
and College, now known as Concordia College, in Selma. He
retired in 1967, served vacant congregations in Alabama,
Florida and Texas and moved to Austin in 1974. Concordia
College (Seward, Nebraska) awarded him an honorary doctorate
in 1964.
2009
Oral
Roberts, American evangelist, died in Newport Beach,
California (b. 24 January 1918, Ada, Oklahoma).
