Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Wrangel, Charles Magnus von

WRANGEL, Charles Magnus von, clergyman, b. in Sweden about 1730; d. in Sala, Sweden, in 1786. He was a descendant of an illustrious Swedish general, and was educated at Vestrås and the University of Upsala, in 1757 received the degree of D. D. from Göttingen university, and was then immediately nominated as court preacher to the king of Sweden. In 1759 he was called to the provostship of the Swedish churches in this country, and arrived at Philadelphia in the same year. He at once took charge of the Wicaco parish and the oversight of all the Swedish Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was one of the most zealous and successful laborers in the Swedish churches. According to the instruction of the archbishop of Sweden, he cordially and actively co-operated with the German ministers in the defence of their common faith and the extension of the Lutheran church in America, and under this salutary influence both parties were perfectly united and frequently met in conference for consultation and in synod for the transaction of business pertaining to the welfare of the German and Swedish churches. He was an indefatigable worker and an eloquent preacher. When the weather permitted, he was usually obliged, in consequence of the crowds, to preach in the open air. Besides attending to the duties of his own parish, he built two new churches for the Swedes — one at Kingsessing, under the name of St. James church, the other at Upper Merion, under the name of Christ church — and in 1765 obtained a charter from Richard Thomas Penn for the “United Swedish Lutheran churches of Wicaco, Kingsessing, and Upper Merion.” He also visited the Germans at Lancaster and York. He often preached in English, since he found that the young could understand that language better than either Swedish or German. He also prepared an improved English translation of Luther's small catechism for the use of his young people. The church in which Dr. Wrangel labored is “Gloria Dei Church,” or the “Old Swedes Church,” on Swanson and Christian streets, Philadelphia. The building in which he preached is still in good preservation, and is one of the oldest buildings in Philadelphia. The first house of worship was a block-house, erected in 1669, and was used by Swedish Lutherans both as a defence against the Indians and as a place of worship. On 2 July, 1700, the new Gloria Dei church was dedicated and was used by Lutherans for nearly a hundred years, but in the latter part of the eighteenth century it passed into the hands of Episcopalians. The church is sixty feet long and thirty feet wide, built of brick, every alternate brick being glazed. (See illustration.) After nine years' faithful service, Dr. Wrangel returned to Sweden in 1768, and received from the government the pastorate of Sala, where he died, after a useful and eminently successful career.