 William Alfred Passavant
(1821-1894) began his ministry in Baltimore in 1842. This son of Huguenot parents, born in
Butler County, Penna., became a publisher (the first Lutheran Almanac and in 1845 The
Missionary, which in 1861 was merged into The Lutheran of Philadelphia, where he remained
for many years as co-editor) but his life was devoted principally to the founding and
administration of benevolent institutions. Passavant established the first Protestant
hospital in America in Pittsburgh. He established additional hospitals in Milwaukee (1863)
and Chicago (1865), along with orphanages and other "inner missions." Passavant
is perhaps best known for cooperating with Theodor Fliedner to establish the order of
Protestant deaconesses, bringing the first deaconesses to America. See some of what made
deaconesses stand out in the Deaconess Community display case. Passavant founded hospitals
in Milwaukee, Chicago and Jacksonville, Ill., and orphanages at Mount Vernon, N.Y.,
Germantown, Pa., and Boston. He founded Conoquenesing Academy at Zelienople, Pa., and
Thiel Hall at Water Cure, later to become Thiel College at Greenville, Pa. The ground for
the seminary at Chicago was presented by him in 1868, though the seminary did not open
until 1891. Passavant started the Pittsburgh Synod, helped found the General Council and
organized the home missionary work of both bodies. He was also known as a good preacher. So
great was Passavant's influence on American Lutheranism that some church historians refer
to 1849-1893 as "The Passavant Era". He touched much of the church's life from
East to mid-west, and his name is synonymous with Lutheran health care |