Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Reichel, Charles Gotthold

REICHEL, Charles Gotthold, Moravian bishop, b. in Hermsdorf, Silesia, 14 July, 1751; d. at Niesky, Prussia, 18 April, 1825. He was educated in the Moravian college and theological seminary of Germany. In 1784 he came to this country in order to open a boarding-school for boys at Nazareth, which is still in existence, and over which he presided, as its first principal, for sixteen years. Having been appointed presiding bishop of the southern district of the Moravian church, he was consecrated to the episcopacy in 1801. During his residence at Salem, N. C., the University of North Carolina conferred on him the degree of D. D. In 1811 he was appointed presiding bishop of the northern district of the church, and removed to Bethlehem. In 1818 he attended the general synod at Herrnhut, Saxony, after which he remained in Europe and retired from active service. — His son, Levin Theodore, Moravian bishop, b. in Bethlehem, Pa., 4 March, 1812; d. in Berthelsdorf, near Herrnhut, Saxony, 23 May, 1878, accompanied his parents to Germany in 1818, and was educated at the Moravian college and theological seminary, but returned to the United States in 1834. He had charge of the churches at Schoeneck, Emmaus, Nazareth, and Lititz, Pa., and subsequently labored at Salem, N. C. In 1857 he attended the general synod at Herrnhut, which body elected him to the mission board. This office he filled until his death. On 7 July, 1869, he was consecrated to the episcopacy at Herrnhut. He paid official visits to the Danish West Indies and to Labrador. He was the author of “ History of Nazareth Hall, at Nazareth, Pa.” (Philadelphia, 1855); “The Moravians in North Carolina” (1857); and “Missions-Atlas der Brüder-Kirche” (Herrnhut, 1860). An important history from his pen of the American branch of the Moravian church remains in manuscript. — Charles Gotthold's grandson, William Cornelius, author, b. in Salem, N. C., 9 May, 1824; d. in Bethlehem, Pa., 15 Oct., 1876, was the son of Rev. Benjamin Reichel, of Salem female academy. He entered Nazareth Hall in 1834, and in 1839 the Moravian theological seminary, where he was graduated in 1844. After serving as tutor for four years at Nazareth Hall, he became a professor in the theological seminary. In 1862 he was appointed to the charge of Linden Hall seminary, Lititz, Pa., which he resigned in 1868. From 1868 till 1876 he filled the duties of professor of Latin and natural sciences in the seminary for young ladies at Bethlehem. He was ordained a deacon in June, 1862,and a presbyter in May, 1864. Prof. Reichel did more than any one else to elucidate the early history of the Moravian church in this country. In addition to articles in “The Moravian” and the local press, and a sketch of Northampton county, prepared for Dr. William H. Egle's “History of Pennsylvania,” he wrote “History of Nazareth Hall” (Philadelphia, 1855; enlarged ed., 1869); “History of the Bethlehem Female Seminary, 1785-1858” (1858); “Moravianism in New York and Connecticut” (1860); “Memorials of the Moravian Church” (1870); “Wyalusing, and the Moravian Mission at Friedenshuetten” (Bethlehem, 1871); “Names which the Lenni Lennapé or Delaware Indians gave to Rivers, Streams, and Localities within the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, with their Significations,” from the manuscript of John Heckewelder (1872); “A Red Rose from the Olden Time, or a Ramble through the Annals of the Rose Inn on the Barony of Nazareth in the Days of the Province” (Philadelphia, 1872); “The Crown Inn, near Bethlehem, Pa., 1745” (1872); “The Old Sun Inn at Bethlehem, Pa., 1758” (Doylestown, Pa., 1873); “A Register of Members of the Moravian Church, 1727 to 1754” (Bethlehem, 1873); and a revised edition of John Heckewelder's “History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States” (Philadelphia, 1876). He left unfinished “History of Bethlehem” and “ History of Northampton County.”