Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Jacoby, Ludwig Sigismund

JACOBY, Ludwig Sigismund, clergyman, b. in Altstrelitz, Mecklenburg, 21 Oct., 1813; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 21 June, 1874. He was of Jewish extraction, was converted to Christianity when about twenty-one years of age, and united with the Lutheran church. He had studied medicine, and on his arrival in the United States in 1839 he settled as a physician in Cincinnati. In 1841 he entered the Methodist Episcopal church, and in August of that year was sent by Bishop Morris to establish the first German mission in St. Louis. In 1849, at his own request, he was sent to Bremen, Germany, to introduce Methodism there, and met with good success. There, for twenty-two years, he labored as presiding elder, editor, publishing agent, and superintendent. In 1872 he returned to the United States, was stationed at St. Louis, Mo., and in 1873 was made presiding elder of the St. Louis district. He published many sermons, etc., in both English and German, his chief works being: “Geschichte des Methodismus, seiner Entstehung und Ausbreitung in den verschiedenen Theilen der Erde” (Cincinnati, 1855); “Letzte Stunden, oder die Kraft der Religion Jesu Christi im Tode” (1874); “Kurzer Inbegriff der christlichen Glaubenslehre”; and “Biblische Hand-Concordanz.”