History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, 1884
A. L. Benze Biography
Rev. A. L. Benze, pastor of St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church of Erie City, was born in Germany, Sept. 18, 1833, son of Frederick and Eva Mary (DePomalianski) Benze, the latter of whom was a daughter of a Polish nobleman. Having received a good education, and after two years traveling in Europe, on the death of his father, who was a Prussian officer, and who held a position in the courts of Prussia similar to Sheriff in America, he left Germany, at the age of twenty-one, and attended for three years the university at Gettysburg. Penn., and for two years the theological seminary of that place, from which he graduated in 1864. In that year he was ordained by the Ev. Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, at Pottstown, Penn., and took charge of the Lutheran Church in Warren, Penn.; here he remained eight years, and, in 1872, received a call to St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Church.
Rev. Mr. Benze was married, Sept. 8, 1864, to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Kiehl, and a native of Germany. To this union were born Theodore, a German teacher in two of the public schools in Erie; Gustav, who graduated in June, 1884; Otto, who belongs to the class of 1881; Mary, Albert, Frederick and Emma, all members of their father's' church. All the children of our subject prepare for the ministry or professional teaching.
Source: History of Erie County, Pennsylvania; City of Erie; Chicago; Warner, Beers & Co.; 1884
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