Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Melsheimer, Frederick Valentine

MELSHEIMER, Frederick Valentine, clergyman, b. in Regenborn, Brunswick, Germany, 29 Sept., 1749; d. in Hanover, Pa., 4 July, 1814. He was educated at Helmstaedt, came to this country as chaplain of German troops, landing at Quebec on 1 June, 1776. In May, 1779, he accepted a call as pastor of five Lutheran congregations in Dauphin county, Pa., and served them until 1784 as a licensed preacher. He removed to Manheim, Lancaster county, in 1784, was ordained to the ministry by the Lutheran ministerium of Pennsylvania in 1785, and was pastor at New Holland in 1786-'89. In 1787 he became an instructor in Franklin college, Lancaster, and he was pastor at Hanover, York county, in 1790-1814. He was the earliest local investigating entomologist in this country, and his services in this deparment are frequently referred to by Thomas Say and other scientists. He published “Wahrheit der christlichen Religion, mit Beantwortung deistischer Einwürfe”; “Gespraeche zwischen einem Protestanten und römischen Priester” (Hanover, 1797); and “Catalogue of the Insects of Pennsylvania” (1806).