Ohio History Journal

184                                                OHIO HISTORY

Little is known of Dr. Loy's early years or his forebears except those

details that can be found in his autobiography, Story of My Life.⁶ His

earliest American ancestor was his father, Matthias, a German immigrant

of limited means and learning, who arrived in the United States, presumably

at Philadelphia in 1817 from the Grand Duchy of Baden.⁷ As an indentured

servant, he worked three years to pay off his passage before he moved to

the newly-founded capital of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg to obtain employ-

ment as a cabinetmaker.⁸ There he met Christina Reaver, an immigrant from

the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, to whom he was married on October 18, 1821.9

Miss Reaver had received an elementary education in a parochial school in

Germany and was a woman of a "deep Lutheran piety," characteristic of

her Swabian homeland. By 1827 the Loys had settled as tenant farmers

on a lovely but lonely homestead in the Blue Mountains of Cumberland

County, about fourteen miles from Harrisburg. It was there that Matthias

Loy was born on March 17, 1828, the fourth of seven children of the family

of Matthias and Christina Loy in a period of fifteen years.10

Loy's childhood was filled with poverty, loneliness, and religious piety.11

Though his father was a conscientious craftsman, he was frequently unable

to supply the needs of his family because he was too timid and too un-

skilled in the use of English to demand payment from his debtors for his

labors. Living in an unfrequented region, one of the family's few con-

tacts with the outside community was through the elder Loy, who, once

or twice annually, made a trip to Harrisburg. One time, upon his return

from town, Loy said his father "brought a toy that even astonished my

mother for its beauty and ingenuity, and which had cost the sum of ten

cents. I remember how I sought a hiding place when my father pulled the

string and a cock leaped from the box. It was amazing."¹²

Loy's playmates were his brothers and sisters, and they relied upon their

imaginations to transform the drab forest home into a fairyland of ad-

venture, building houses of sticks and stones, erecting castles of snow,

and hunting whortleberries and chestnuts on the slippery hillside slopes.

Of the world beyond the woods, Loy knew little, and he later reminisced

that he had not seen a church until he was six years of age. His mother,

however, taught her children the rudiments of the Christian religion and

required all of them, with the exception of an older brother, to be bap-

tized into the Lutheran Church as infants. The elder brother's baptism

was delayed because an itinerant Lutheran minister, when requested to

perform the ceremony, declined to do so because the young man "had be-

come an Anabaptist and was planning to establish a Baptist sect."13

In 1834, when Matthias was six, the family moved to Hogestown, a post

village nine miles west of Harrisburg on the turnpike between Philadelphia

and Pittsburgh. As late as 1876 it numbered only forty houses, and Loy

described it as "a desolate hamlet" where "my father thought that he could

make a living . . . . The stagecoach . . . passed through it with its passengers,

and large six-horse teams hauling merchandise passed through every day."14

With one hundred dollars earned on the farm, father Loy bought a

dilapidated log house, the only home that he ever owned. The Loy children

MATTHIAS LOY                                                     185

now had the advantage of receiving some formal education in a one-room

school, and Matthias proved to be a bright pupil, excelling in mensuration,

a branch of mathematics. In the village the Presbyterians sponsored an

interdenominational Sunday School where Loy was introduced to the

Christian tradition and the study of Scripture. He was such a serious church

school scholar that his classmates nicknamed him "the preacher."

Difficulties soon befell the family. Three of the seven Loy children died,

and in 1835, when he was seven years old, he lost his mother. Medical and

burial expenses were impoverishing, and an elder brother, age eleven, left

home to make his own way in the world. A fifteen year old sister remained

to keep house until her father remarried. Matthias became an assistant

to his father in the operation of a butcher shop in Harrisburg. He was

also hired out to haul bricks from a local kiln, but, as Loy reported,

As driving a cart was not part of my education at the time, it was

no wonder that, with a horse incapable of doing the work as I was

myself, an accident on a steep approach to the canal to be crossed to

reach the city from the brickyard, crippled the horse by a fall down

the embankment and drove me home to bed in despair, without look-

ing after the animal that had tumbled down.15

Matthias Loy senior married as his second wife Johanna Morsch, a Ger-

man Lutheran woman of Harrisburg, in April 1840, and within a year a

son was born to the union.¹⁶ Added domestic responsibilities prompted the

elder Loy to seek to increase his income by managing a German hotel

and tavern on the south side of the city. He entrusted its operation to his

wife and children while he worked elsewhere during the day. Living in

such an environment, Matthias found himself exposed at the age of twelve

to "gatherings and performances which even then seemed to me of question-

able propriety."

Plagued with debts and bad fortune, Loy's father left Harrisburg and

returned to Hogestown where he formed a partnership in a butchershop

with a German wanderer, who had some money but no home. Concerning

his father's colleague, the son recalled that he "was sent to the store nearly

every day to get a quart of rum, and that his face had a purple hue which

seemed to me unnatural." Because of such unwholesome circumstances, an

incident occurred in Loy's fourteenth year that caused him to be sent

away from home. One evening, in his father's absence, visitors came to

the household. Since their conduct did not meet with the boy's approval,

Matthias uttered a protest. In response, his stepmother struck him for his

"impudent interference." When father Loy returned and learned of his

son's behavior, he was convinced that the "peace of the family" required

his removal. The boy was then apprenticed to the printing establishment of

Baab and Hummel in Harrisburg, and he was never to return to his boyhood

home again.¹⁷

During the next six years, Loy mastered the printer's art and made his

first formal affiliation with the Lutheran Church. At the age of sixteen

he became obsessed with religious questions, believing that he "had wan-

dered away so far that God did not seem near and help did not appear

186                                                OHIO HISTORY

within my reach."¹⁸ In this period -- 1843 to 1844 -- the Millerite revival

was sweeping the country. William Miller, a New England farmer of Bap-

tist background, on the basis of certain passages from the books of Daniel

and The Revelation, had predicted the end of the world for March 21, 1843.

As the announced date for the Second Advent of the Messiah approached,

"great meetings were held in churches, tents, public buildings, and in the

fields and groves, and finally when the year 1843 dawned the emotions

of the believers were of white heat."19

The enthusiasm also affected the Lutherans of Harrisburg, and the

Reverend C. W. Schaeffer of Zion Church introduced a "New Measure

Revival."²⁰ As a disciple of the liberal Lutheran divine Samuel Simon

Schmucker, Schaeffer was "a forcible and impressive preacher, [and] he

brought into especial prominence the consolations of the gospel from a

heart filled with joy over its promises.^"21 As the "protracted meetings"

commenced, Loy presented himself at the "anxious bench." He remembered

that,

The revival "workers" whispered into my ears, as I knelt in silence

before the altar, some things which were meant for my encourage-

ment, but which only left me unmoved because of their failure to

reach my conscience.

Finally, after participating with Schaeffer in a class for instruction in re-

vealed truth, Loy found himself in a state of grace, and resolved to study

for the Lutheran ministry at Gettysburg Theological Seminary.²²

The young convert diligently prepared himself for college by attend-

ing classes in the classical languages at the Harrisburg Academy. By the

fall of 1847 he was ready for Gettysburg.23 Then, however, he became

seriously ill with an attack of "inflammatory rheumatism.^"24 Loy was ad-

vised to abandon work in the printer's shop, to stop attending the academy,

and to seek a better climate. At this juncture a position became available

as a printer for a semi-monthly German paper published by the United

Brethren Publishing House in Circleville, Ohio. The responsibilities would

be light, the pay six dollars a week, and in addition it was hoped that a

move to Ohio would improve his health.25 With the intention of recuperat-

ing and of earning money for the seminary, Loy left Pennsylvania, hardly

realizing it was his final farewell to his native state.

For a boy who had never travelled more than thirty miles from his

place of birth, the trip West by railway, river boat, and stage coach was

packed with excitement. Loy took the newly completed Cumberland Valley

Railroad from Harrisburg to Chambersburg, the "gateway to the West."26

Because of crowded facilities, he had to wait a day, and then be satisfied

with outside passage on the stage to Pittsburgh. Riding in the rain and

sleet through the mountains did little to improve his physical condition.

Relieved to find himself at last in Pittsburgh, the youth fell in love with

the city, which he would later describe as "one of our favorite burgs" be-

cause " the people have business and mind their business, and are not busy-

bodies about other men's matters.^"27 A relatively peaceful cruise by steam-

MATTHIAS LOY                                                   187

boat down the Ohio and up the Muskingum River to Zanesville followed.

The only disturbing aspect of this part of the journey occurred when the

traveller asked the pilot of the ship how he managed to cross the sandbars

in the river, and the latter replied that "the only rational way was to put

on more steam and shut his eyes." Once in the Buckeye State, Loy felt

it was "still in a primitive condition," though it had been in the Union for

forty-four years. Because of the almost impassable condition of the sec-

ondary roads, the overland ride from Zanesville to Circleville by stage

meant "paying the price and walking all the way, with special good for-

tune if one was not required to carry rail to help the coach in swampy

emergencies."²⁸

Loy remained only a fortnight in Circleville. Almost immediately he be-

came acquainted with the Reverend J. A. Roof, the minister of the local

Lutheran congregation. Pastor Roof was impressed with the young man's

longing to enter the ministry and encouraged him to enroll as a "beneficiary

student" at the theological seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod

of Ohio located in Columbus. Loy stated, "I had never heard of such a Sem-

inary and of such a Synod, but that presented no difficulty to my mind."²⁹

It was arranged that he would print two numbers of the United Brethren

periodical, receive $24.00 for a month's labor, and then be released from

his contract. After promptly completing the work in two weeks, he departed

for Columbus.

The theological school, then located on South High Street, was the oldest

Lutheran and second oldest Christian seminary of any denomination west

of the Appalachian Mountains.³⁰ Founded by the Evangelical Lutheran Joint

Synod of Ohio in 1830, the year of the three hundredth anniversary of the

Augsburg Confession, the seminary's first professor was a twenty-seven year

old pastor, Wilhelm Schmidt of Canton.31 He was given this assignment

because he had suited the synod's requirements for the position as one

who "must have extraordinary ability and must neither need nor want any

remuneration for his services."³² For a year classes had been held in Schmidt's

home in Canton; but when he followed a call to Columbus, the school ac-

companied him. By the autumn of 1847, when Loy enrolled, the seminary

was housed in a two-story brick building near the old canal,³³ just outside

the corporation limits of Columbus, which was in 1850 a town of 17,882

inhabitants. There were eight to ten students in the seminary, who were

of American, German, and Swiss nationalities.³⁴ The curriculum included

the classical languages, Hebrew, Bible, Livy, Homer, and the Lutheran

Confessions.³⁵ The faculty, since June 1847, consisted only of the Reverend

W. F. Lehmann, a twenty-six year old minister from Somerset, Ohio, who

was nicknamed the "Walking Encyclopedia."36 Lehmann taught the sem-

inary courses, conducted a preparatory academy, and served a Columbus

parish. He was assisted in his "herculean task" by the Reverend Christian

Spielmann, a native of Baden, who was in charge of the boarding house

for the seminary. For two years Loy studied theology, worked for the

Ohio State Journal, and aided in the printing of the Lutheran Standard,

188                                                  OHIO HISTORY

the official publication of the Ohio Synod. During this time Spielmann in-

troduced Loy to the publication, Der Lutheraner, which was produced by

C. F. W. Walther as the voice of "Old Lutheranism" in America.³⁷ Under

the influence of this journal, the young student came to sympathize with

the strict confessionalism of the recently-formed Missouri Synod.38

In 1849, after finishing two years of seminary study, Loy was felt to be

qualified to receive a call. Since there was a shortage of Lutheran pastors

in Ohio, his name was placed upon the synod's list of men to be examined

for the ministry, and he was soon asked to serve a Lutheran-Reformed

"union church," the Zion's congregation of Delaware.39

"On a rather rough day" in March 1849, Loy, "an emaciated, pale faced

youth," who had just turned twenty-one, boarded the stage in Columbus

for the twenty-four mile journey to Delaware.40 In the middle of the nine-

teenth century, Delaware was a town of 2,075 residents. An exuberant local

editor reported what he believed to be strangers' reactions to the village:

People from a distance upon arriving here are struck dumb with as-

tonishment at the sights they behold.... They imagine themselves in

London rather than in Delaware. Marion, Kenton, Mt. Gilead, Upper

Sandusky and the city of Tiffin sink into utter insignificance by the

side of Delaware.⁴1

A more temperate appraisal by a member of the staff of the Cincinnati

Commercial described the community as follows:

The town of Delaware, the county seat of the county bearing the

same name, though it has been settled for nearly fifty-years, has none

of that seedy appearance which some of our old Ohio towns exhibit.

It has quite a fresh and lively appearance, both in the business quarters

and those devoted to private residences.

The buildings of the citizens present numerous evidences of the

prevalence of good taste. A large majority of them are new.

Returning to the American House after an hour's varied ramble,

the unique impression we gather of the town is one of agreeable surprise

that so much elegance of improvement combined with such natural

beauty, exists in a village which has made so little noise in the world

as Delaware.42

Religiously, the hamlet was dominated by Methodism, and "people talked

about changing its name to Wesleyville.^"43 The pride of the community

was the Ohio Wesleyan University, established in 1842. Nine years later

an editor commented that "this Institution is in a flourishing condition

and bids fair to outstrip even old Yale."⁴⁴ In this university town, Loy

began his career.

The people to whom he was to minister were descended from "Pennsyl-

vania German" pioneers who, beginning in 1810 and 1811, had emigrated

to Ohio from Northumberland, Berks, and other counties of the Keystone

State.⁴⁵ Within a decade they had established a Lutheran congregation, but

ties of language, blood, and marriage drew them close to the German Re-

formed Christians of the county. Becoming convinced that there was little

real difference between Lutheranism and Calvinism, German-speaking Prot-

estants of Delaware secured incorporation from the Ohio General Assembly

MATTHIAS LOY                                                      189

on January 23, 1837, as the "Zion Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed

Church."⁴⁶ One of the leaders in this endeavor was Frederick Weiser, who

could claim the famed frontier scout, Conrad Weiser, as a forefather. The

Lutherans and the Reformed shared common worship facilities and fre-

quently the same minister. The constitution stated that the parish was

"to elect one Teacher [pastor] by a majority vote, he being in respect

to faith either Lutheran or Reformed."⁴⁷ The Lutheran liturgy and the Re-

formed rite were followed on alternate Sundays. Each "side" had the use

of the church building for one week, on a rotating basis, beginning on

Thursday, except

We declare that cases of death shall have preference over the services

of worship, namely, that if a Reformed corpse should come on a Sunday

when the Lutherans hold service, then the Lutheran service shall be

postponed to a later time because of the corpse, and in a similar fashion

the other way around.

Since the union proved satisfactory to both groups, it was declared in 1847

to be "eternal."⁴⁸

Loy felt "it would even have been impossible for me to accept the call

pledging me to treat the Reformed as if they were Lutherans and no such

obligation was imposed upon me."⁴⁹ He was called only to minister to the

Lutheran members of the Zion's Church. His conscience, thus, was not com-

promised, because he had been elected by the male communicants among

the eighty Lutherans of the Zion congregation as their pastor after hearing

him preach a trial sermon in the winter of 1849.⁵⁰ Loy was convinced that

"unionism," or spiritual fellowship with the Reformed without prior doc-

trinal concord, was an evil, and he wrote that "we must rather stand alone

than be partakers of other men's sins.^"51 Accordingly, he strove to sever

all ties with the Reformed. Within three years this was accomplished, and

the Lutheran constituents of the Zion's church organized themselves in Au-

gust 1852 as an independent body under the name of the "St. Mark Evan-

gelical Lutheran Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession."⁵²

Dislike of the Zion church building, which Loy described as "a reproduc-

tion on a small scale of the barnlike structures called churches in Pennsyl-

vania," and rising denominational consciousness prompted the Lutherans

to construct their own house of worship.⁵³ On December 25, 1853, their

new structure was consecrated, Christmas celebrated, a baptism performed,

Holy Communion observed, and Pastor Loy was married to Miss Mary

Willey, a native of Delaware County, to which union were born seven chil-

dren.⁵4

Life in a conservative German-American Lutheran parish in the mid-

nineteenth century was full of problems. Money was one of these. It had

been a common practice in the community for churches to raise funds

through the sale of goods and services.⁵⁵ Loy condemned such customs be-

cause he was persuaded that cash secured in any fashion other than by

donations was "the money of the devil and the world and the flesh." He

saw that there was no selling at St. Mark's of "fancy articles" or "ice-cream

190                                               OHIO HISTORY

and strawberries and oysters" or "pretzels, and cheese and beer," and tickets

for "chances and prizes," or "theatrical shows and ladies' kisses."⁵⁶ The

stubborn Pennsylvania Germans were informed that they were to pledge

to support the church and that the deacons of the congregation would visit

the membership quarterly to collect the gifts.⁵⁷

Sermons were delivered in both English and German each Sunday at St.

Mark's and for two country congregations which Loy also served. From

1853 to 1857, therefore, he was preaching between four and six times a

Sunday.58 While a formulary of the Ohio Synod suggested that sermons

should last no longer than an hour, Pastor Loy usually confined his re-

marks to twenty or thirty minutes.⁵⁹ Communion, a means of grace in the

Lutheran Church, was observed four to six times annually with the apparent

use of grape juice instead of wine to counteract the "tippling" or drunken-

ness problem among the membership.60

A traditional parish practice was the pastoral visit. A call by Dr. Loy

was not a social occasion. When the parson appeared, the family was sum-

moned together -- the father from his toils in the field, the mother from

her housework, the children from their play and chores.61 Assembling in

the parlor, the family fell into a hushed silence. The minister, dressed in a

black suit and clerical collar and vest, began the meeting with prayer and

selected readings from the Bible. He led in the singing of a hymn. A dis-

cussion of the sermon of the previous Sunday followed. In a manner similar

to that of the Lutheran patriarch, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Loy cate-

chized his parishioners on its content.⁶² They were to identify the text, name

the principal parts of the address, and to explain its application to their

lives. He would then ask if they had any questions concerning the homily,

either as to its subject matter or vocabulary. If they had not understood

the sermon, he took pains to explain it to them. Loy then inquired as to

the spiritual condition of the household. The "Our Father" was prayed, a

benediction was pronounced, refreshments were served, and the pastor de-

parted for his next appointment.

The influence of Pietism upon the morality of Ohio's Lutherans was evi-

dent in Loy's concern to "institute a better discipline in the congregation."

Believing that "sin must be put away from us, that we may be a holy people,"

he joined with the church council to enforce what he considered to be ap-

propriate ethical standards.63 The council and the minister heard and initi-

ated charges against parishioners suspected of ungodly living.⁶⁴ The accused

was invited to appear before the council to give answer. If he did not come,

he received a visit from the preacher. If the offending brother remained

impenitent, his name was announced to the congregation and he was allowed

fourteen days in which to make amends. If repentance failed to occur within

a fortnight, his excommunication was pronounced from the pulpit.⁶5 Dis-

cipline was enforced against "heretical teachings," and a pastoral warning

was administered for such "improper behavior" as patronizing theatrical

shows, circuses, card parties, club frolics, saloons, and horse races.⁶⁶ Drunken-

ness was a serious offense and the treatment of the inebriate was rather

MATTHIAS LOY                                                       191

severe for a German Lutheran church. Tavern owners and those who sold

beer and ale were not permitted to hold membership in the parish.⁶⁷ Adultery

was harshly condemned, though the church laws against it seem to have

been enforced more frequently against female offenders than male delin-

quents. A woman found guilty of unchastity was to confess her sin to the

church council, receive pastoral absolution, and then to rise before the

congregation on the following Sunday to make confession and seek for-

giveness.68

Delaware's Lutherans responded to Loy's leadership, and by 1864 the

average Sunday attendance was 330.69 The parish had paid its debts, es-

tablished a parochial school, and had attained a prominent place in the ranks

of the Ohio Synod. The achievements of Loy were recognized by the synod.

In 1860 he was elected its president and four years later he was appointed

editor of its publication, the Lutheran Standard. Earlier, in 1853, Capital

University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts, and

he was invited to teach several days each week at that institution.70 He was

called to a professorship at Capital in the spring of 1865.

Capital University was established in 1850. The immediate reason for

its formation had been the Joint Synod's conviction that ministerial can-

didates "must have a better academic preparation," and, as one historian

suggested, the university was "the child of the 'German Evangelical Lu-

theran Theological Seminary.'"⁷¹ The synod was also impressed with the

rapid increase of educational institutions in Ohio, a total of forty-five col-

leges having been founded by 1850.72 A charter granted on March 2, 1850

incorporated Capital University for the "promotion of religion, morality,

and learning.^"73 The original board of trustees was interdenominational and

included such Columbus citizens of "good repute for morality, intelligence

and honesty" as Samuel Galloway, then Ohio Secretary of State; Henry

Stanbery, Ohio Attorney General; Dr. Lincoln Goodale; Dr. Samuel M.

Smith, Dean of the Starling Medical School; and George M. Parsons.74

Great expectations were entertained and the university was to include fac-

ulties of Letters, Law, Medicine, and Theology.⁷⁵ A theological seminary

already existed and it was joined to "a fashionable girls' school"- the Es-

ther Institute.⁷⁶ Both of these were united with the Starling Medical Col-

lege as the "university was mapped out on a broad scale" that went "beyond

anything undertaken until that time in the great West."⁷⁷ Encouraged by

these developments, the synod expressed its aspirations for the school as

follows:

The universities in connection with our church in Germany possess

a world renown reputation, may we not hope that our new institution

will gradually arise under the fostering care of the church, and the

smiles of its great head, until it shall ultimately compare in some re-

mote degree at least, with those venerable institutions?78

The first classes met on September 12, 1850, in a temporary location

on East Town Street with fifty students in attendance.⁷⁹ Three years later

a new facility built in the "Italian style" was dedicated. W. H. Seward,

then United States Senator from New York and later to be Lincoln's Sec-

MATTHIAS LOY                                                      193

to realize the ambitions of the founders to make Capital an imitation of

a German university. Fourth, doctrinal disagreements developed, dividing

the confessional, German speaking members of the synod from the more

ecumenical, English language communicants. Because of his inability to

solve these conflicts, Dr. William M. Reynolds, the university's first presi-

dent, resigned in 1854.84

The following decade was a critical one for the school. Though the uni-

versity was organized with a preparatory academy, a college, and a seminary,

enrollment figures declined and the institution's survival was in doubt. On

the eve of the Civil War there were only ten pupils in the college and but

twenty in the academy.85 The coming of war in 1861 further curtailed

growth, and in 1866 the college graduated only three men, the seminary

eight.⁸⁶ At this juncture, Loy began his half-century career at Capital, re-

marking that in the 1860's "we had neither a great University, nor great

men."⁸⁷

Loy labored prodigiously at Capital, occupying, at various times, the

positions of Professor of Mental and Moral Science, President of the Sem-

inary, Dean of the Faculty, housefather to the students, and, from 1881

until 1890, President of the University. He taught nineteen hours a week,

offering such courses as Poimenics, Dogmatics, Psychology, Logic, Dis-

course, Homiletical Exercises, and Isagogics.⁸⁸ As an educator, he was a

significant figure, influencing the attitudes of hundreds of future Lutheran

ministers. In the opinion of historian C. V. Sheatsley, "a new period in the

history of the institution began when Loy entered upon his professional

duties," because:

M. Loy was a power in any position. He ... brought with him the

editorship of the Lutheran Standard .... Since 1860 he had also been

President of the Joint Synod of Ohio. And this office he also brought

with him to the school. We see ... how in the Joint Synod the doc-

trinal and administrative leadership was centered in the Seminary.⁸⁹

Recognition of his role in uniting synod and university was given by a

sister institution, Muhlenberg College, when, in 1885, it conferred upon

him the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.⁹⁰

One of the major events during Loy's tenure at Capital was the reloca-

tion of the university from its North High Street address, which it had oc-

cupied for more than twenty years, to a ten acre campus on East Main

Street in Bexley. At the time of its founding the campus had been outside

the city limits, but by 1876 Columbus had encompassed the institution.

The move was felt desirable because the north Columbus area was being

settled by "an uncouth folk... and the increasing noise, dust, etc., and the

wear and tear which had rendered the buildings quite unserviceable, again

impressed upon Synod the necessity of looking for a new location."⁹¹ The

students, furthermore, were "getting into fights with the 'Flytown' crowd,

a small settlement located just west of the school. The settlement boys

did not approve wholeheartedly of the 'dudes' who were attending the

only university in Columbus at that time."⁹²

194                                                  OHIO HISTORY

A site having been selected on the National Pike just east of Alum

Creek, the students and faculty made the "trek" of four and one-half miles

to Bexley on May 3, 1876, and on the following June 20 the new campus

facilities were dedicated. In its Bexley home the university, according to

one of its Catalogues, formed "a pleasant little suburb of the city, present-

ing, however, all the advantages of a quiet rural life."⁹³

As an educator, Dr. Loy began his daily schedule early in the morning.

After working several hours in his study editing the Standard, he would

leave his home on East Rich Street for school. For many years he walked

out East Main Street to the college, and a former student recalled that,

Unless the weather was too stormy, he made those several miles in

a measured tread, body erect, never swaying from left to right. He might

have been a retired army officer. When we met him coming or going --

no one told us young chaps to raise our hats or caps. We saluted...

[and] he always accepted our gesture with a smile and greeting.⁹⁴

He arrived on campus promptly at 1:00 P.M., and the pupils remarked that

they could set their watches by his appearance.⁹⁵ When Loy first came to

"Old Cap," he found that "the order and discipline of the school was far

from satisfactory" because "there had been a lack of punctuality all around."

Professor Lehmann, the president, whose duty it was to see that the classes

were properly scheduled, was often so preoccupied with extra-curricular

activities, that he sometimes began his lectures an hour or so late, and

"his hours were when he rang his bell; that is about all that was certain."96

Loy's classes, in contrast, met on time, and he insisted on prompt attendance.

Once in the classroom, he sat behind his desk and lectured in a slow;

deliberate manner. He was "not sprightly or active, but instead, quiet and

still," and he "did not pace the floor, raise his voice, or use the blackboard,"

and while one student remarked that "he never seemed to get excited," he

kept the pupils "on their toes" by his habit of "oral quizzing."⁹⁷ A peculiarity

of the school was the necessity for the professor to lecture on alternate days

in German and English, a procedure which presented some difficulties for

scholars not familiar with the German language. Dr. Loy helpfully employed

a simple vocabulary, spoke distinctly, and made certain that each sentence

was understood. His excellence as an instructor was described in 1901 by

a Columbus historian: "Dr. Loy is a model teacher, respected and beloved

alike by his colleagues and his pupils; a man of extensive learning, a profound

and clear thinker, and a good disciplinarian."98

Because of Loy's preeminence in the university, he was chosen as its

president on January 13, 1881, after the death of W. F. Lehmann. Since

"the president's job had come to include just about everything except

stoking the furnaces," this respected teacher was not delighted with his

election. While he declined to accept the office at this time, he recalled

that "manifestly the duties of the Presidency must be performed, and I

continued to perform them as well as I could." Dr. Loy finally did accept

the name as well as the responsibilities of the position "for the sake of

order and appearance."⁹⁹ During his presidency the curriculum was centered

MATTHIAS LOY                                                     195

around classical languages and religion, and the "chief purpose" of the

institution was "to serve as a feeder for the theological seminary." Enroll-

ment remained static throughout the Loy decade; in the 1889-1890 school

year there were fifty-two boys in the academy, seventy-one in the college,

and thirty-one in the seminary, for a total of one hundred and fifty-four

pupils in the university.100

The social life of the campus was representative of the pastimes of the

Gilded Age. At Christmas and on other holidays the students got "cakes,

pies, and other things" from the ladies' auxiliaries of various Columbus

Lutheran churches.101 Opportunities for physical education were limited,

but "it was the Housefather's responsibility to see that some exercise was

indulged in by all students."¹⁰² Chapel was an important aspect of college

activities, and worship was conducted daily at 7:00 A.M. and 7:30 P.M. in

the winter months and at 6:30 A.M. and 8:00 P.M. in the summer season.¹⁰³

College expenses were modest at Capital. When Loy arrived in 1865, for

example, tuition was twenty dollars a year for the grammar school, thirty

dollars for the college, and no charges for the seminary. Board was $1.75

per week, paid in advance each month. Advertisements stated that,

Room rent will be $6.00 a year, students being requested to furnish

beds and bedding, tables, chairs, etc. for their own rooms... [and]

coal can be had at about 15 cents per bushel. Washing $1.00 per

month.104

While at Capital, along with his other duties, Loy edited the Ohio Synod

journal, the Lutheran Standard. Founded on May 25, 1842, by action of

the synod to "explain and defend the doctrines of our Church" and to

"promote virtue and piety," the Standard had a perilous existence during

its first two decades and by April 1864 was faced with the threat of ex-

tinction.105 The paper had been published wherever its editor resided, and

one historian commented that "the Standard should have had a press

mounted on wheels."¹⁰⁶ When Loy assumed its editorship on April 15, 1864,

the periodical acquired a scholarly and prolific columnist, a conscientious

publisher, and a permanent home.

He improved the format of the journal, and by 1866 it appeared in quarto

form, containing eight pages, each with four columns of print. The fre-

quency of publication was increased from twice a month to weekly. Its con-

tent was enriched with vivid editorial comment, religious news, doctrinal

essays, translations of German and Latin theological works, and reprints

from other magazines, such as Godey's Lady's Book. The production of

the paper, however, was a heavy task for the editor, who received no salary.

After the copies of the Standard had been printed, they were delivered to

Loy's residence for mailing. This meant that his family had to "prepare

the wrappers, fold the papers, write the addresses, get the paste ready,

put it on only where it belongs, and whatsoever pertains to the mystery

of mailing without machinery."107 The children, who took a fancy to the

task, brought their playmates in to assist them, and the boys from Capital

lent a helping hand. "Packing night" became a party occasion, with pro-

MATTHIAS LOY                                                    197

Gradually the paper's debts were paid, and by the dawn of the twentieth

century its circulation was 3,322, more than a four-fold improvement over

the 700 subscribers in 1844.109

Related to his role as an editor was Loy's contribution as a translator

and author. He rendered into English numerous hymns and such works

as Hermann Fick's Life and Deeds of Dr. Martin Luther, Johann Conrad

Diedrich's edition of Luther's Small Catechism, and Luther's House Postil.

Loy wrote several original theological studies, including The Doctrine of

Justification, The Essay on the Ministerial Office, The Christian Church in

its Foundation, Essence, Appearance, and Work, sermons on the gospels

and epistles of the traditional church year, a commentary on the Sermon

on the Mount, an exposition of the Augsburg Confession, and a treatment

of Christian prayer. As a poet, he composed twenty hymns, two of which

are still used in the Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church.¹¹⁰

Matthias Loy merits attention also as a theologian. Along with Samuel

Simon Schmucker, Charles Porterfield Krauth, and C. F. W. Walther, he

was one of the four most influential Lutheran thinkers in the United States

in the nineteenth century. During Loy's lifetime, the Lutherans of the

nation were divided doctrinally between two antithetical positions -- "Ameri-

can Lutheranism" and "Old Lutheranism." The first approach, identified

with Samuel Schmucker of Gettysburg Seminary, advocated a recension

or revision of the Lutheran Confessions so that they could be more readily

adjusted to both the American environment and the temper of the Vic-

torian Era. Once this was done, it was believed that the essential elements

of the Lutheran symbols would be seen to be those convictions shared in

common by all Protestant Christians. The Lutheran faith, furthermore,

would be vitally transformed by the major forces found in American Chris-

tianity -- Puritanism, Pietism, Rationalism, and Revivalism. This process,

it was felt, would make Lutheranism both more evangelical and ecumen-

ical.111 The second approach, "Old Lutheranism," was represented by C. F. W.

Walther of the Missouri Synod and Charles Porterfield Krauth of the

General Council. They were persuaded that the continued existence and

prosperity of the Lutheran Church in North America depended upon a full

and faithful rediscovery of the confessional statements of the sixteenth

century. The church, therefore, should not conform to the intellectual

climate of the time, but should transform the times by a return to the

"faith of the fathers." In the confrontation between these two groups, Loy

early allied himself with the Confessionalists. This was a result of the

impact of the personality of C. F. W. Walther and his paper, Der Lutheraner.

As his theological system matured, Loy became a Protestant or Biblical

Scholastic. His thought exhibited the three formative elements found by

Theodore G. Tappert in seventeenth century German Lutheran Ortho-

doxy -- an emphasis on biblical authority, a concern for rigid methodology,

and an adherence to churchly tradition.112 First, there was a passion for

the canonical Scriptures as a verbally inspired revelation from God. Loy

was convinced that the Bible was composed by men who served as secre-

198                                                OHIO HISTORY

taries for the Holy Spirit, and he therefore rejected all forms of Higher

and Lower Criticism and admonished Christians to:

Jealously guard their sacred treasures . . . and concede nothing to

the criticism and the science that arrogantly assert the supposed rights

of fallible human opinion against the infallible divine authority.¹¹³

A second motif of his thought was his effort to construct a comprehensive

theological system by the application of Aristotelian logic to the study

of biblical passages. He hoped to arrive at a grand synthesis of all of the

revealed truth in Scripture, and his endeavors imitated "the solidity and

symmetry of the theological edifice erected by our fathers in an age less

hurried and more thorough than the present."¹¹⁴ A third feature was Loy's

traditionalism and his reliance upon the accumulated experience of the Lu-

theran Church since the Reformation. He accordingly attached great im-

portance to the writings of the seventeenth century German Lutheran Scho-

lastics, Martin Chemnitz, Nicholas Selnecker, John Gerhard, Abraham

Calovius, John Andrew Quenstedt, David Hollaz and others. His familiarity

with the works of these orthodox theologians served him well in his struggles

with the American Lutheran movement and assisted him in his triumph

over it in the Ohio Synod.

Loy's theological contributions served to preserve a distinctive Lutheran

Church in America and prevent its absorption into a general American

Protestantism. He paved the way also for the church's recovery of the doc-

trinal and devotional resources of the Reformation. By focusing the atten-

tion of Lutheran immigrants on their spiritual heritage, he helped them

to identify themselves in relationship to the new nation.

The climax of Loy's career came in his years as president of the Evan-

gelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio from 1860 until 1878, and from 1880

until 1894. In 1860, when Loy assumed its leadership, the Ohio Synod was

only ten years older than its youthful president. The synod had been

formed in 1818 by seventeen pastors who served approximately seventy-

five congregations located between the Appalachian Mountains of western

Pennsylvania and the plains of central Ohio. Experiencing moderate and

steady growth, by 1854 it had included ninety-three ministers who were

responsible for the care of two hundred and thirty-four charges.115 It was

composed of four districts -- the Western, Eastern, Northwestern, and a

non-geographical English District. The membership was heavily German

and was concentrated in the upper Ohio Valley.

Loy had three main problems as president. First, from 1861 until 1865

he had to guide the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio through

the perplexities of the Civil War. Second, from 1866 until 1878 he worked

to further the cause of Lutheran unity in North America. Third, when the

merger schemes failed, from 1880 until 1894 he devoted his energies to the

expansion of the Ohio Synod into a nationwide denomination.

Six months after Loy's election, hostilities began between the North

and South at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.116 The Lutherans were

as divided in their response to the ensuing conflict as were their fellow

MATTHIAS LOY                                                    199

Americans. The General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United

States, the oldest and largest association of Lutherans in the country, had

many southern communicants and was split over the questions of secession

and slavery.¹¹⁷ The Scandinavian synods of the upper Midwest were largely

Free Soil and Republican in sympathies. In the lower Midwest there were

four predominantly German synods: Iowa, Buffalo, Missouri, and Ohio.

On the whole, "the vast majority of immigrant Germans of all classes op-

posed slavery and supported the Union." The only exception of note was

Loy's close friend, C. F. W. Walther, leader of the Missouri Synod, who

endorsed the Confederacy.118

Loy and his colleagues felt obliged to offer a theological explanation of

the significance of the Civil War. The prevailing sentiment among Ohio

Synod spokesmen was that the war was spawned by iniquity and was sent

as a scourge of God to lead men to repentance. Though the ordeal might

drive Christians to contrition for their sins, it could just as readily cause

even greater demoralization. The duty of the church, therefore, was to

preach the Gospel, comfort the afflicted, conduct works of charity, and

pray for the return of peace. Ohio Lutherans were urged to support the

federal government, not because it was waging a "holy war," but because

of the injunctions in Matthew 21 and Romans 13 for Christians to be

obedient to the state.119

The twelve years following the Civil War were a period of reunion and

reconstruction for the nation. Like the country, the Lutherans of America

found themselves still severely divided by 1865. The land's largest Lu-

theran body, the General Synod, was rent asunder by the secession of its

Scandinavian members in 1860, the withdrawal of its southern communi-

cants in 1861-1863, and the exodus of its conservative adherents in 1866.

The most pressing postwar problem for the Lutherans was to plan some

kind of inter-synodical organization. In this process the strong and undivided

Ohio Synod, under the guidance of Dr. Loy, was to play a prominent part.

A first effort at Lutheran reunion began on Tuesday, December 11, 1866,

when clergymen from thirteen synods assembled at Trinity Church, Reading,

Pennsylvania. Loy was representing the Ohio Synod and gave the opening

sermon of the convention.¹²⁰ The General Council of the Evangelical Lu-

theran Church of North America began to take shape. It was hoped that

this agency would incorporate the confessional Lutherans of the continent,

including the hitherto independent Ohio Synod. Doctrinal disagreements

developed, however, which made it impossible for Loy to sanction Ohio

participation in this plan of union. This conviction, shared by his synod,

was that "Paramount to Love is Faith, and more precious than Union is

the Truth."121

Unable to unite with the General Council, the Ohio Synod was led by

Loy to look for more cooperation with the powerful Missouri Synod of

C.F.W. Walther. Beginning in 1855 and continuing until 1872, the Ohio

and Missouri Synods drew together. Several factors favored this rapproche-

ment. Both bodies were predominantly German with memberships con-

MATTHIAS LOY                                                    201

the Union. When he died in 1915, the Ohio body had become international

with the addition of Canadian and Australian districts. During the years

of Loy's leadership and later life, the synod increased its membership seven-

fold, from 20,000 to 140,000 communicants, worshipping in more than 600

congregations. By 1918 it had a system of parochial schools that employed

184 teachers and enrolled 9,827 pupils. Its institutions of higher learning

included Capital University; a Normal School in Woodville, Ohio; Luther

Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota; Hebron Academy in Nebraska; Pacific

Seminary in Olympia, Washington; and Luther Academy in Melville, Sas-

katchewan. Five hundred and two students attended these schools. The

church expanded its ministry to those in need, and in 1918 its homes for

orphans and the elderly numbered 174 residents.¹25 In the decades between

the Civil War and World War I, the Ohio Synod took a gigantic step for-

ward and became a prosperous and powerful member of the American family

of Protestant denominations.

The leader of Ohio's Lutherans, however, started the new century with

severely impaired health. In May 1902 Dr. Loy suffered a critical attack

of angina pectoris and was compelled to curtail his labors and to retire from

public life. His remaining thirteen years were spent comfortably with his

immediate family in Columbus. On Tuesday evening, January 26, 1915, he

passed away at the age of eighty-six years, ten months, and nine days.126

Shortly before his expiration at 9:15 P.M. he had been working, in his cus-

tomary manner, on a manuscript, and when he had written two pages, his

pencil, "with peculiar appropriateness, stopped in the middle of an unfin-

ished sentence: 'When the Lord makes a demand....'"¹²⁷ A Columbus

newspaper reported that "his death was as peaceful as the peace he had

enjoyed during ... years of retirement in the quietude of his own home,

with all his family in close connection.^"128

Matthias Loy was the most prominent pastor, educator, editor, author,

church president, preacher, and theologian produced by the Evangelical Lu-

theran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States in its 112 year history. Nearly

every aspect of the synod's life was affected and enriched by his labors;

and when he failed to establish a confessional union of all of America's

Lutherans, he turned his attention to increasing the size and effectiveness

of the Ohio Synod. A penetrating theologian, Loy devoted his career to a

recovery of the Lutheran Confessions of the sixteenth century and to the

creation of a doctrinally-conservative Lutheranism in the United States.

Perhaps Loy's place in the Ohio story was best summarized by the Rev-

erend Robert E. Golladay in a funeral eulogy. He predicted that "when

men get the right historical perspective, Dr. Loy will receive credit ... as

one of the greatest conservative leaders of the Lutheran Church."¹²⁹

THE AUTHOR: C. George Fry is As-

sistant Professor of History at Capital

University.