Newcomer, Christian (1749-1830)
Christian Newcomer (21 January 1749-12 March 1830): one of the founders of the United Brethren in Christ, was born of Mennonite parents in Lancaster County, Pa., the son of Wolfgang Newcomer and Elizabeth Weller Newcomer. He was the second of eight children. Christian Newcomer was married to Elizabeth Baer in 1770. Baptized a Mennonite at about the age of 17, he felt a call to the ministry and withdrew from the Mennonite Church when he was living in Washington County, MD, about 1777, to associate himself with Philip Otterbein, a Reformed minister, who was active as a revival preacher. Martin Boehm, a former Mennonite bishop in the Lancaster Mennonite Conference, was with Otterbein a co-founder of the United Brethren Church, which was fully organized and named in 1800. Otterbein and Boehm were the first two bishops elected, Newcomer the third, elected in 1813 and serving in that office until his death. His valuable diary, The Life and Journal of the Rev'd Christian Newcomer, published in 1834, gives information about his early years as a Mennonite.
Bibliography
Sangrey, Abram W. Christian Newcomer : his life and journal. Lancaster, Pa. : Philip William Otterbein District, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, The United Methodist Church, 1996. (Reprint of 1834 edition, plus addenda and index.)
Author(s) | Harold S Bender |
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Date Published | 1955 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Bender, Harold S. "Newcomer, Christian (1749-1830)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1955. Web. 15 Aug 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Newcomer,_Christian_(1749-1830)&oldid=76277.
APA style
Bender, Harold S. (1955). Newcomer, Christian (1749-1830). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 15 August 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Newcomer,_Christian_(1749-1830)&oldid=76277.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 866. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.