Friedrich Arnold Herring

Friedrich Arnold Herring (born October 30, 1812 in Lennep , † October 1, 1908 in Goshen Elkhart County Indiana USA ), also known as Frederick A. Herring, was a German textile manufacturer, evangelist and dissident and founder of local free-church brotherhoods. After emigrating to the USA , however, he was only known as a doctor and botanist .

Live and act

Childhood and early life

Friedrich Arnold Herring was the son of Friedrich Konrad Herring and Magdalena, née Hendricks in Lennep . The family on his father's side lived in Lemgo . Little is known about his childhood, youth and schooling. A degree at a university or other higher education has not yet been proven. What is certain is that he had a very good command of Latin , Greek and Hebrew . He also had extensive knowledge of botany and naturopathy .

On June 24, 1842, he married Johanna Amalia Wolff (1815–1873) in the Reformed Church in Elberfeld . The Wolff family belonged to the Elberfeld families of dignitaries. The marriage had seven children. Only four children were baptized as infants , since he had left the Evangelical Church in 1852 . The youngest child was born in the United States.

The family lived in Elberfelder Louisenstrasse D 968 (today Luisenstrasse 34), where Herring ran a small silk weaving mill. In historical sources he is always referred to as "silk appreteur" or "cloth appreteur". Through his wife's family, they frequented the higher circles of the city of Elberfeld. Ecclesiastically, they adhered to the Reformed Church in Elberfeld, in which Hermann Heinrich Grafe also worked at this time . It is reported that both families went to church together on Sundays.

Free church planter and evangelist

Since Heinrich Christian Werth (1807–1855) was present (from 1844) it has been known that Herring held so-called conventicles in Remscheid , Hückeswagen , Radevormwald , Dabringhausen , Dhünn and Lennep . In 1846 he participated in an immediate petition to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia for the (free church) parish in Haarzopf . In autumn 1847 he founded the "Evangelical Brethren Congregation" castle . The communities in Gräfrath and Wald followed in 1850 . Despite his so-called "separatist activities" he was appointed to the Evangelical Brotherhood in 1851 . Hermann Heinrich Grafe probably took care of that.

Time of the "Bergische Baptism Movement"

During the 4th Evangelical Church Congress in Elberfeld in 1851, Herring was baptized by the Baptist preacher Johann Gerhard Oncken under the influence of August Rauschenbusch . In connection with his turn to Baptism , he resigned from the Evangelical Brothers' Association before he would have been expelled anyway. At the turn of the year 1851/1852 there was a mass baptism in the Ehrener Mühle ( Solingen-Wald ). As a result, there were collective resignations from the church in the region. Since some of these resignations from the church had to be carried out by a notary at the time, Herring took care of the organizational and financial arrangements. The " Bergische Baptism Movement " also spread to Niederberg and Oberbergische . In cooperation with the new Johann Heinrich Lindermann , the following is said to have been over 500 people.

At Easter 1852 Herring published the first German Baptist inscription: Baptism according to Scripture .

Due to uncertainties about the type of baptism rite, Herring in the Wupper was baptized again (second re-baptism). When these circumstances became known, his followers from the “ Baptized Christian Congregation ” increasingly turned to Johann Heinrich Lindermann , the emerging brother movement of Carl Brockhaus and Julius Anton von Poseck, and the Barmer Baptists around Julius Köbner .

Emigration and Later Life

In 1855 he emigrated to the United States with his entire family. He settled in Milwaukee , Wisconsin . Here he founded the German Botanic Eclectic School . After a few years, he settled permanently in Goshen , Elkhart County , Indiana . The proximity to the communities of Mennonites and the Amish settlement areas may have been decisive for this. In October 1908 he died as a respected doctor and botanist in Goshen. His grave is still in Oakridge Cemetery in Goshen. Herring had bequeathed his library and his estate to the Goshen College Library .

Publications

Baptism according to the Scriptures. With a printed letter from August Rauschenbusch (1816–1899), Elberfeld 1852

literature

Wolfgang E. Heinrichs : Free churches - a religious form of organization of the modern age. Shown on the basis of the origin and first development of five free churches in the early industrialized Wuppertal. A contribution to the mentality and organizational history of the Wuppertal . Phil. Diss. Wuppertal 1987; published under the title: Free Churches - a modern church form. Formation and development of five free churches in Wuppertal . Cologne, Gießen and Wuppertal 1989; 2nd edition Gießen and Wuppertal 1990.
August Jung: When the fathers were still friends. From the history of the free church movement . Volume 5 in the series Church History Monographs . R. Brockhaus Verlag Wuppertal / Oncken Verlag Wuppertal and Kassel as well as Bundes-Verlag: Witten 1999. ISBN 3-417-29435-5 (Brockhaus Verlag) ISBN 3-933660-09-2 (Bundes-Verlag)
Gerhart Werner: The quiet in the city. A reflection on the sects, free churches and religious communities in Wuppertal . Volume 3 in the series Contributions to the history and local history of the Wuppertal . Abendland-Verlag, 1956

Web links

Max Goebel: The Brotherhood and Baptism on the Lower Rhine. (Excerpts; PDF).
Johann Gottlieb Heinrich: The sectarian movements in mountain and mark . (PDF).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k August Jung: When the fathers were still friends: from the history of the free church movement . In: Church history monographs (KGM) . tape 5 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1999, ISBN 3-417-29435-5 , p. 29 ff .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties INDIANA . Goodspeed Brothers, Publishers, Chicago 1893, pp. 763 ff .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k August Jung: When the fathers were still friends: from the history of the free church movement . In: Church history monographs (KGM) . tape 5 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1999, ISBN 3-417-29435-5 , p. 70 ff .

personal data
SURNAME	Herring, Friedrich Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German textile manufacturer, evangelist and dissident
DATE OF BIRTH	October 30, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lennep
DATE OF DEATH	October 1, 1908
Place of death	Goshen Elkhart County Indiana USA

[:0-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k August Jung: When the fathers were still friends: from the history of the free church movement . In: Church history monographs (KGM) . tape 5 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1999, ISBN 3-417-29435-5 , p. 29 ff .

[:1-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Pictorial and Biographical Memoirs Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties INDIANA . Goodspeed Brothers, Publishers, Chicago 1893, pp. 763 ff .

[:2-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k August Jung: When the fathers were still friends: from the history of the free church movement . In: Church history monographs (KGM) . tape 5 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1999, ISBN 3-417-29435-5 , p. 70 ff .