My Genealogy Hound

REV. HENRY NEIDIG FEGLEY, pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, and Professor of Mental and Moral Science, German and Literature at Irving College, Mechanicsburg, Pa., is one of the distinguished citizens of his community. He was born Nov. 18, 1848, in Boyertown, Berks county, a son of Stephen and Lavina (Neidig) Fegley, the former of whom was born in Berks county and the latter in Montgomery county, near the Berks line. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Fegley located in Berks, where the father carried on farming for some time, and then moved to Montgomery county, when their son Henry had reached school age.

Completing the common school course, Henry N. Fegley, a bright student, attended Frederick Institute and Boyertown Academy, and later entered the Sophomore class at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he remained from 1866 to 1869, graduating in the latter year. After his graduation he entered the Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, where he was graduated in 1872, and soon afterward was ordained. Shortly after the young clergyman came to Cumberland county and located at Mechanicsburg, where he became pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, a congregation which has increased under his pastorate to 215 members. Since 1892 he has also filled the position of Professor of Mental and Moral Science at Irving College, and since 1895, has occupied, in addition, the chair of German and Literature. He is one of the able and scholarly men of his church.

In 1875 Dr. Fegley married Miss Belinda C. Reichard, of Allentown, a daughter of Jonathan and Rebecca Reichard, and the two children of this union are: Charles, a graduate of Muhlenberg College, at Allentown; and Edith Elizabeth, a graduate of Irving College, at Mechanicsburg, and a teacher in the city schools.

Rev. Dr. Fegley has been honored on more than one occasion by the various educational institutions with which he has been more or less connected. For a long period he has held the degree of A. M., and in 1903 the Roanoke College, of Virginia, conferred that of D. D. His reputation as an educator extends beyond the State and he is no less noted as a pastor. Few citizens of Mechanicsburg are better known, and few are more closely identified with its religious and educational life.