“In 1906, Dr. Henry Eyster Jacobs, then in his sixty-second year, wrote these notes on his experiences in the leadership of the Lutheran Church. As he states in his opening sentence, these notes are set down for the use of others. He had in mind particularly his own son, Dr. Charles Michael Jacobs, then pastor of Christ Church, Allentown - later to succeed him as President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. The notes were handwritten in his miniscule script, and filled twenty-five of his familiar end-open note books. He reviewed the notes at least twice later and made corrections, additions and deletions. These changes are quite apparent in the manuscript by the shaky hand-writing and the occasionally added date of entry ( 1922, 1927, etc.).

“It was not his wish that the notes be published in their original form since much of the material deals with personalities. While he felt that the remarks were perfectly fair, he had been brought up in a time when the fragility of human relationships was only too evident. Thus he did not propose to reveal his inner thinking to an unknowing world.” - From the Introduction

Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed.

Book Contents

• Volume 1
  • Introduction
  • Henry Eyster Jacobs - An Appreciation
  • 1 Whence?
  • 2 Something About My Father’s Family
  • 3 Something About My Mother’s Family
  • 4 Other Glimpses of the Outside World
  • 5 College Life
  • 6 Politics and War
  • 7 The Battle of Gettysburg
  • 8 After the Battle
  • 9 In the Theological Seminary
  • 10 Church Events and Hospital Work
  • 11 College Tutorship
  • 12 An Embarrassing Position
  • 13 In Pittsburgh
  • 14 Thiel Hall
  • 15 The General Council at Pittsburgh
  • 16 The Sunday Question
  • 17 Thiel Hall Becomes a College
  • 18 The Ministerium of Pennsylvania and the Franklin Professorship at Gettysburg
  • 19 Ten Days in Philadelphia
  • 20 Elected at Gettysburg
  • Volume 1 Notes and Studies
  • A - Biographical Sources
  • B - Abbreviations
• Volume 2
  • Transcribers’ Note (1974)
  • 21 First Year as Gettysburg Professor
  • 22 Calls To Leave Gettysburg
  • 23 The Chicago Seminary
  • 24 The Ministerium of Pennsylvania
  • 25 The General Council at Jamestown, N.Y.
  • 26 Gettysburg Incidents
  • 27 Conflicts at Gettysburg
  • 28 The New York Ministerium
  • 29 The Galesburg Commotion
  • 30 The Lutheran Diet of 1877
  • 31 At Home and On Trips
  • 32 Departure from Gettysburg Impending
  • 33 Called To Philadelphia
  • 34 What I Found In Philadelphia
  • 35 The Philadelphia Seminary
  • 36 Visiting Other Protestant Leaders
  • 37 Some New Ventures
  • 38 The Church Book Committee
  • 39 The Common Service
  • 40 The Predestination Controversy
  • 41 The Kropp Question
  • 42 On the Board of Home Missions
  • Studies and Notes on Chapters 21 to 42 of Volume 2
• Volume 3
  • 43 Editorial Work
  • 44 The Lutheran Movement in England
  • 45 At Home
  • 46 Reorganization in the Synod
  • 47 History of the Lutheran Church in America
  • 48 End to Editorial Work
  • 49 A Trip to the South
  • 50 At the Seminary and Elsewhere
  • 51 More Studies in Worship
  • 52 With the Board of Foreign Missions
  • 53 Back South Again
  • 54 More On Foreign Missions
  • 55 And Out West
  • Studies and Notes on Chapters 43 to 55

Publication Information

• Lutheran Library edition first published: 2023
• Copyright: CC BY 4.0