Immigrant Boy to St. Paul's Rector

 Dr. Minnegerode Rose to Church Fame After Turbulent Youth

By Vera Palmer

Although not a Virginian by birth; not even an American, probably no resident of Rchmond has been held in higher esteem than was the late Rev. Charles F. E. Minnegerode, D. D., the scholarly and well-beloved wartime rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church--that cathedral of Confederacy where General Lee and President Davis worshipped in those ghastly days of 1861-65.

It was he who preached to the Prince of Wales, and buried General Stuart; and he who performed the same sad rites over President Monroe when the body of that great Virginian was brought from New York to be placed in restful Hollywood.

What manner of man was this venerated parson who proved in truth a shepherd to his flock of rich and poor alike, for St. Paul's has ever run the gamut of the economic scale? Was he born and nurtured in a simple Christian home? Did he attend church placidly and so enter the ministry to receive ordination as the climax of a well-ordered bringing up, or did this servant of God take holy orders only after a long period of mental strife and physical anguish?

A mere glimpse into his early years is enough to convince one of the roughness of the way over which young Minnegerode passed before coming to the comparative quiet for mind and body that Virginia afforded him. Born in Arensburg, Westphalia, August 6, 1814, the lad was destined to grow to manhood in an environment from which an undercurrent of revolution was never absent. His family moved to Darmstadt when he was an infant, and there he thrived as a child of the city to whom open skies, green fields and mysterious woods were strangers, until as a youth, he launched out on walking tours into the Black Forest, the Odenwald and so down the Rhine to Cologne.

With customary Teutonic thoroughness, the young Minnegerode received not only a sound education in the classics, but his bodily well-being was carefully considered, for was he not a potential soldier of the Fatherland? Then, when he was fifteen it was thought time to foster his spiritual life, and after passing an entire year in dry moral and rationalistic instruction, according to the requirements of the Lutheran Church at that time, he was confirmed in the old Stadt-Kirche in Darmstadt. In later years the veteran clergyman often referred to that day and declared that he could trace some of his deeper views on religion to the impressions he gained when, with 200 other boys, he received his first communion.

One is not to suppose that this valiant soldier of the church militant straightway became a kind of saint. In his student days at the University of Geissen, where he went to study law in 1832, he entered into the political upheaval of the time. It was then that the fascinating Heine and others were influencing the youth of the country; when the teachings of French Republicans were filling the German universities, which already had gathered to themselves revolutionists from Poland who were fleeing from Russian despotism. The cry of liberty was everywhere in the air.

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Although only 19 years old, the student who was destined to make so great an impress on what was then a small community 3,000 miles or more to the west, was thrust into prison, suspected of revolutionary interests. A young cousin tried to aid him to escape by throwing her arms around his neck in seeming distress at parting, and slipping a piece of dough into his hand, whispered: "Take the impression of the key." The plot failed. So from July, 1834, to December, 1838, Minnegerode was transferred form one prison to another and many times found himself in dugeons.

Finally, he became ill, and because the authorities feared he might die, he was taken from jail to be incarcerated for more than two years in his brother's home, and then for another period in his father's house. In both instances he was under heavy guard. Even when eventually liberated, he believed the least suspicion would cause him to be returned to jail, and sometimes suspicians are easily manufactured.

So in September, 1839, broken in health and spirit, in years a man, but in experience a youth, he sailed from Bremen for America, never to return to the country of his birth. The fact that the refugee was compelled to take passage on a small vessel proved a blessing. He was on the water 10 weeks and landed strong, well and free for the first time in more than four years.

Several of the oldest residents of Richmond have a faint recollection of hearing that Charles Minnegerode was once involved in a duel in the old country, and that his departure for America was hastened for that reason. If so, it was not to be wondered in a land of so much distress and upheavel, for even in Richmond in that day the challenge of a gentleman was not unknown.

Those years of his confinement had a potent influence on the plastic mind and elevated spirit of the young student and devotee of the classics. For a long time no book except the Bible was allowed in his dreary cell, and that was permitted because the authorities regarded it as the dryest of reading. He studied it thoroughly, we are told, reading it through eight times and committing much of it to memory.

"He would reflect on it, write essays on it in his mind," comments one biographer, who further states that "he had taken it up as a remarkable book, but as any other book of human production; he laid it down and put it in his heart as God's book, as divine."

It was at the City of Brotherly Love that the refugee Minnegerode appropriately arrived. There he became a teacher of languages, having learned in three months to speak English fluently. It was not long before this cultivated stranger became the friend of Longfellow and of Washington Irving, and after living in Philadelphia a little more than two years he came to Virginia, going to the College of William and Mary as professor of humanities.

Conditions under which Charles Minnegerode joined the faculty of the old college were strange, and showed the force of his personality and general worth. A Southern man was desired, and if he could not be found then a Northerner or an Englishman was to be substituted, but there was strong opposition to an Irishman or a German. So compelling, however, were the testimonials of the yough Teuton and so scholarly were the articles in Latin and English contributed by him that he was elected on the first ballot.

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He might have continued at the Virginia College for the remainder of his life, although he was somewhat disappointed at having to teach Latin and Green instead of delivering lectures on Greek and Roman archealogy, history and literature, which he had prepared. But in 1844 he became a communicant of teh Episcopal Church, and in the following year a candidate for the ministry. He said at the time: "I would have connected myself with the church sooner had I not felt that I could not stop there; but once in the church, I would also enter the ministry. That made me hesitate."

It was two years later that the Rt. Rev. John Johns, D. D., bishop of Virginia, ordained Mr. Minnegerode a deacon and the following year, 1847, he was advanced to the priesthood by the same prelate, both services taking place in Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg. It was in that edifice, too, that the young professor a few years earlier had married Miss Mary Carter, who is supposed to have had great influence on his religious decision, and with whom he was destined to celebrate the golden anniversary of their wedding.

After serving a number of small parishes, the young minister became rector of Christ Church, Norfolk, but in 1856 he came to Richmond to assume charge of St. Paul's, where he labored for 33 years. Great events transpired at St. Paul's during the tenure of this brilliant and beloved leader--incidents of brightness and splendor, and others calamitous and charged with agony.

Outstanding among the former was the visit of the former Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, when as Baron Renfrew, he attended the old church at Ninth and Grace Streets and listened, or so we hope he did, to the helpful words of the rector. That was October 7, 1860. Dr. Minnegerode chose for his text those words from St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, first chapter adn eighth verse, which many may regard as being not inappropriate: "That ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Papers of the following day record that the royal party retired after the service, the organist played "God Save the Queen" in a decorous and seemly style. That organist who played so decorously was not the venerated Jacob Reinhardt, who had charge of the musich at St. Paul's for 36 years, and to whom Dr. Minnegerode used to say: "You get the crowd, Jake, and I'll preach to it." They must have proved an excellent combination, for we are told that policemen had to regulate the throngs that weekly sought admission, even when there was no heir to the throne to lure the public.

It was the custom of this much-loved minister to hold an early service in his church every day in Lent. This was attended not only by the "pillars," but also by the belles and beaux of Richmond society, who on coming out of the edifice freely gave and accepted invitations to breakfast. As one of the "girls" of that day now declares, "it was not a season of fasting at all, but these services were more impressive than any others." Was it the realization of the service or anticipation of the breakfast guests that was "so impressive?" It was customary for those ardent suitors to call for their ladies to escot them to church. Please imagine a modern girl and her "date" starting on such a pilgrimage at 7 o'clock in the morning.

True, there were a few complaints from the sleepy-headed members of the congregation, and these came to the ears of the rector, as complaints have been known to do, even in a later century. One morning he was standing in his pulpit just as the sun rose over the tops of the buildings and shone through the east windows. Dr. Minnegerode noted it and exclaimed: "See that sun? If he can rise, so can you." The following day the congregation was larger than ever.

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Known as a brilliant preacher as well as a charming man, people of high mentality and great in the work of the world were attracted to his church. During the War Between the States soldiers from the entire South heard him preach, while the leaders of the Confederacy always counted themselves fortunate to sit under him.

Dr. Minnegerode was extremely fond of music, as is true of most Germans, and at the informal services when the choir was not present, it was his custom to "raise" the hymns. Although he spoke with a marked accent, his choice of words showed a masterly knowledge of English in all its richness. One who remembers him said recently, "there was a strange musical quality about his voice, for he spoke as if he were singing and sang as if he were speaking. I assure you that the result was beautiful."

President Jefferson Davis received the Holy Communion for the first time from this magnetic clergyman, who had also presented him to the bishop for confirmation. Mr. Davis always went to St. Pau's while he lived in Richmond and his pew, as well as that of General Lee, is marked. Then, too, there was another unforgettable occasion--it was the first Sunday in the month, when the sacrament is administered--that the message was brought to him telling that the Confederate lines at Petersburg had been broken and that General Lee said Richmond must be evacuated. He was occupying his pew about midway of the center aisle when the momentous news was conveyed by the sexton, that spring morning in 1865. The bearer is described as having been a large man wearing blue clothes, brass buttons and a ruffled shirt, and the rector was speaking of a supper in the upper room before Gethsemane.

When President Davis was held a prisoner at Fortress Monroe, Dr. Minnegerode visited him once in two weeks, and after passing the day in conversation and prayer, he would administer the Holy Communion. It is recorded that those around seem to have been impressed and that an unnatural silence reigned. On many occasions the commanding-general at the prison--the Confederate President's jailer--stood at the mantel in an adjoining room, his face in his hands, while the soldiers, who had been commanded to remain still, stood like statues. To the day of his death, the rector of St. Paul's used to say "those were the most solemn communions of which I ever partook." When Mr. Davis was finally released, Dr. Minnegerode accompanied him to the Spotswood Hotel.

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It was seldom that the funeral of a distinguished person took place in Richmond that the services were not conducted by this remarkable man. He not only read the office for the dead over President Monroe and buried the dashing young Jeb Stuart, but also John Y. Mason, minister of France, and several others of note. One one occasion, so goes a very familiar old tale, Dr. Minnegerode and the Rev. John Brokenbrough Newton, D. D., rector of the Monumental Church and later Bishop Newton, were conducting a funeral together. As the cortege entered St. Paul's Dr. Newton recited the opening sentence according to the Episcopal ritual, which is: "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord." When Dr. Minnegerode, remembering only that it had been planned for him to begin the service, interrupted, saying: "No, no, I am the the resurrection and the life!"

When it became apparent that owing to the infirmities of age, the rector needed relief from his arduous duties, he said to his vestry, "take my advice, and do not choose a foreigner; it would be a mistake." So completely had he become identified with his adopted country that, for the moment, the fact of his European birth was overlooked. In May, 1889, failing health made it necessary for the venerable priest to resign, and he was retired as rector emeritus.

Dr. Minnegerode then moved to Alexandria where he passed the five years remaining to him in study and intercourse with congenial minds, acting as chaplain at the Virginia Theological Seminary. When he and Mrs. Minnegerode celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, May 13, 1893, many Richmond people went to Alexandria purposely to congratulate the couple whom all love so well. Dr. McCaw represented St. Paul's and Major Robert Stiles bore greetings from the City of Richmond, while the Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D. D., sent a letter such as few men could write and which was read at the celebration.

His grave is in Hollywood, where so often he had said the last words over those who had preceded him to the larger life. It is marked by a simple cross of granite erected by his children, and besides the name and dates, bear the following inscription: "He has fought a good fight. He has finished his course. He has kept the faith."