Johann Georg Joseph Anton Rieger

Background

Johann Georg Joseph Anton Rieger was born in Aurach, Bavaria, Germany. He was left an orphan before he reached the age of eleven, and for a time lived with an aunt in Épinal, France.

Career

From earliest childhood he had been destined for priesthood in the Catholic Church, but absorbed some Lutheran doctrine as a boy while helping a classmate with his catechism lessons. An open avowal of his Protestant leaning brought such strenuous opposition on the part of his aunt that he fled in 1832 to Basel, Switzerland, where he found refuge in the home of a Reformed minister and was brought in contact with the mission house of that place.

Four years later when a group of American Christians applied to the Basel headquarters for German missionaries for the West, Rieger was chosen to go.

His first mission field was at Alton, Illinois, where he arrived on November 28, 1836.

During his ministry at this place, he lived at the home of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, and assisted in the latter's abolitionist activities, but his most strenuous efforts in the direction of a spiritual revival were so meagerly rewarded that he left in August of the following year for Beardstown, Illinois, where he stayed until the spring of 1839.

In 1840, when the Deutsche Evangelische Kirchen-Verein des Westen, later called the Evangelische Synode von Nord-Amerika, was formed, Rieger was recognized as one of the dominating figures in the movement. He made a second trip to Germany in 1844.

For two years after his return to the United States he sold literature for the Bible and Tract Society of New York and then moved to Holstein, Missouri, where his two small daughters fell ill of cholera and died. His principal work during these years was done in connection with the establishing of the Evangelical Seminary, at Marthasville, Missouri, in 1850, after it had been housed in his own home for two years. His ministry of thirteen years at Holstein ended when he moved to Jefferson City in 1860.

He became one of the trustees of the Lincoln Institute, a college for negroes, and did admirable work among the prisoners at the state penitentiary.

When he died the whole city went into mourning. His widow and seven children survived him.

Achievements

• He was among the first of the German missionaries who had the vision to introduce the use of English into the evangelical service. He was universally beloved: Southerners left their valuables in the safe-keeping of this abolitionist preacher when Federal soldiers approached; rich and poor, black and white, Catholic and Protestant sought out the humble clergyman for advice.

Connections

In this year he returned to Germany where he made the acquaintance of Minette Schemel, who returned to the United States with him in 1840 as his bride. They settled first at Highland, Illinois, where their two children were born and died. In October 1843, two months after he had moved from Highland to Burlington, Iowa, his wife died.

He married Henrietta Wilkins at Bremen on April 15, 1845.

Spouse:

Henrietta Wilkins

Spouse:

Minette Schemel