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The Reverend Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger 1734-1803
Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted June, 2005
Photo by Richard Turcotte - Posted August, 2015
Plaque Location
The United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry
The Township of South Dundas
On the north side of Riverside Drive,
which runs parallel to Road 2 east of Road 8
street number 13105
Coordinates: N 44 55.971 W 75 07.744 |
 |
Plaque Text
The first Lutheran minister to settle in this province, Schwerdtfeger was born in Burgbernheim, Bavaria, and studied theology at the University of Erlangen. Emigrating to America in 1753, he served as pastor of congregations in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. Much persecuted for his allegiance to the Crown during the American Revolution, Schwerdtfeger moved to Canada in 1791. He settled here in Williamsburg Township and became pastor of a congregation of German Loyalists, which had been established in 1784, and by 1790 had constructed the first Lutheran church in what is now Ontario. Its site now lies beneath Lake St. Lawrence. Within a few years he had organized Lutheran congregations in neighbouring townships. He died in 1803 and was buried in the old church cemetery.
Another plaque near this location
Sir James Pliny Whitney 1843-1914
Related Ontario plaque
Lost Villages of the St. Lawrence
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Religion
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