John Albert Conrad Helffenstein was a German-born American Reformed clergyman.
Background
John Helffenstein was born on February 16, 1748, at Mosbach, Palatinate, Germany. He was the son of Peter Helffenstein, Reformed pastor at Mosbach and Obrigheim and later at Heidelsheim and Sinsheim, by his wife, Anna Margaretha Dietz, widow of Johann Peter Helffrich.
Education
John Helffenstein matriculated May 7, 1764 at the University of Heidelberg and, after passing his theological examinations, was vicar to his father and other clergymen for several years.
Career
In 1771 John Helffenstein and his half-brother, John Henry Helffrich, were ordained by the synods of Holland for the Coetus of Pennsylvania and embarked September 6 from Amsterdam. With them sailed John Gabriel Gebhard, who was the Reformed pastor from 1776 to 1826 at Claverack, New York. The voyage was a succession of head winds and violent storms, but on January 14, 1772, with their provisions and water exhausted, the three missionaries landed safely at New York and were hospitably received by John Henry Livingston. On their proceeding to Philadelphia, Helffrich was assigned to the Maxatawny charge in Berks and Lehigh counties, which he served until his death in 1810, and Helffenstein to Germantown and Frankford. His father, who would gladly have gone with him, wrote from time to time, sending him books, underwear, and matrimonial advice.
Despite the strenuous opposition of his parishioners, Helffenstein left Germantown late in 1775 and accepted a call to the Reformed congregation at Lancaster. The best remembered events of his two and one-half years in that town were the mordant sermons that he preached to the interned Hessian prisoners. He returned as pastor to Germantown in the summer of 1779 and remained there until his death from consumption eleven years later.
On February 11, 1773, Helffenstein married Catharine Kircher. Helffenstein’s eldest son, Samuel, was pastor for thirty years of the Reformed Church in Philadelphia.