Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Eigenbrodt, Lewis Ernest Andrew
EIGENBRODT, Lewis Ernest Andrew, educator, b. in Lauterbach, Hesse Darmstadt, 22 Sept., 1773; d. 30 Aug., 1828. He was graduated at the University of Giesen in 1793, was master of seven languages, skilled in mathematics, astronomy, and engineering, and had taken a full course in divinity. He came to the United States in 1793; and, after spending four years in private tuition and further studies, he was made in 1797 principal of Union Hall academy at Jamaica, N. Y., which his genius, energy, and ability soon made celebrated. Pupils flocked to it from all parts of the United States and from the West India islands, and many men received their early training there who have since been distinguished. Mr. Eigenbrodt received the degree of LL. D. from Union in 1825. He delivered an oration in honor of George Washington on the day of the latter's funeral, 18 Dec., 1799. — His son, David Lamberson, physician, b. in Jamaica, N. Y., 5 Sept., 1810; d. in New York, 3 Jan., 1880, was graduated at Washington (now Trinity) college in 1831, and at the College of physicians and surgeons, New York, in 1835. After useful services in the New York hospital and at Bellevue, where he was in charge of the cholera hospital, he removed to St. Jago de Cuba, where he practised medicine for fifteen years. On his return to New York, he organized in 1858, at the request of Dr. Muhlenberg, both the surgical and medical departments of St. Luke's hospital, then just established, and took charge of that institution as its first resident physician, giving his services gratuitously for a year, at the end of which time he retired to private life. — Another son, William Ernest, clergyman, b. in Jamaica, N. Y., 10 June, 1813, was educated at Union Hall academy, and at Columbia, where he was graduated in 1831. He then studied in the General Protestant Episcopal theological seminary, New York, and entered the ministry of that church. He was engaged in professional duties in Bainbridge and Rochester from 1838 till 1846, in which year he was chosen rector of All Saints' church, New York city. He became associate minister of Calvary church, New York, in 1858, and in 1862 was made professor of pastoral theology in the General theological seminary, where he has since remained. He was secretary of the convention of the diocese of New York from 1854 till 1883. Columbia gave him the degree of D. D. in 1855. — Another son, Charles S., soldier, b. in Jamaica, N. Y., 20 March, 1825; d. in Virginia, 25 Aug., 1864, was one of the pioneers who went to California in 1849. He settled at Alameda, and remained there till 1863, when he raised in California a battalion of cavalry, afterward enrolled in the second Massachusetts cavalry. Capt. Eigenbrodt continued at the head of his troops for more than a year, and fell, at their head, in a charge in the Shenandoah valley. An address on the Eigenbrodt family was delivered by the Rev. Beverley R. Betts before the New York genealogical and biographical society, 11 March, 1887.