Rev. Oscar E. Pflueger, pastor of Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Elizabethville [also Simeon Lutheran, Gratz; St. John’s Lutheran, Berrysburg; St. Jacob’s Lutheran, Jackson Township; and Zion Lutheran, Rife], was born in Shanesville, Pennsylvania, 11 March 1861, the son of James S. Pflueger and Elizabeth Pflueger.
The grandfather was a native of Gemany and came to America with his wife and eldest child about 1847. They were not rich and moved about to different places. He did not live long, and his wife married again and had children by her second husband.
The father, James S. Pflueger, was born in Lititz, Pennsylvania. His father died when he was young and he was reared in Lehigh County by a brother. He grew to manhood and learned the tailor trade. He married in Allentown and located near Shanesville, Pennsylvania, where he was most of the time engaged in farming, and removed to Berks County in 1866 or 1867, where he gave his whole attention to farming, and died while residing with his son Oliver J. Pflueger, at Allentown. His wife survived him fourteen years, dying at Allentown, 11 March 1885. Their children are:
Oliver J. Pflueger, machinist, at Allentown, Pennsylvania;
Rev. Asher P. Pflueger, Lutheran minister; and
Rev. Oscar E. Pflueger.
In his political views, James S. Pflueger was a Democrat.
Rev. Oscar E. Pflueger, when five years old, removed with his parents to Quakerstown, Berks County, Pennsylvania, where he attended school until his father died when the family moved to Allentown, where he continued in school until he was seventeen years of age, after which he was engaged in teaching for two years. He was graduated from Muhlenberg College, at Allentown, in 1881, and at once entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary, at Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1887. On 7 June 1887, he was ordained to the ministry by the Evangelical ministers of Philadelphia and at once took charge of the congregation at Beaverton, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1 July 1889, when he accepted a call to the Lykens Valley charge at Elizabethville, which consisted of five congregations, two of which have since become independent charges and self-sustaining.
He was married at Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, 14 June 1887, to Miss Ella C. Leopold, daughter of Rev. O. Leopold and Maria [Daniel] Leopold. They have no children.
Rev. Pflueger votes the Democratic ticket, but is not in any sense a politician.
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Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.
The above information was modified/edited from Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, published in 1896 by J. M. Runk and Company of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. A free download is available from the Internet Archive.
For the church records of the Lykens Valley charge while Rev. Plueger was the minister, 1889-1902, see:
See also:
Findagrave Memorial #15154915. Rev. Oscar E. Pflueger died on 22 July 1913. He is buried at Fairview Cemetery, Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.