John was born on December 2, 1841 near Applebachsville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of John and Sarah (Summers or Sommer) Stahr. The family name had been originally Stoehr, his ancestors having come from the Palatinate in 1739 to settle in Bucks County.
He received his early education in the public schools and became a teacher when he was but sixteen years of age.
He prepared for college during the summer months at the Bucks County Normal and Classical School and finally entered the junior class of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1865, graduating summa cum laude in 1867.
He had then intended to enter the theological seminary of the Reformed Church at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, but he was urged to accept a position as tutor in German and history at his alma mater, and, at the same time, to study theology under the direction of John Williamson Nevin.
In 1868 he was made adjunct professor of the natural sciences and German, and in three years rose to a full professorship in the natural sciences and chemistry, with additional work in German and political economy. He held this position until 1887 when he became temporary financial agent for the college. In 1889 he was the acting president and professor of philosophy, and president from 1890 until he retired in 1909. He retained the professorship of philosophy, however, until he died.
In 1872 he was ordained to the holy ministry and served as assistant pastor of the First Reformed Church at Reading, Pennsylvania, but declined a call to the pastorate. He was a member of the Eighth Council of the Alliance of Reformed Churches which met at Liverpool in 1904, and at the Tenth Council at Aberdeen in 1913.
Stahr spoke and wrote a pure English, and, with the same ease, a faultless German. He showed in his opening address of the college year of 1870 on "Pennsylvania German, " Mercersburg Review, October 1890, its proper place in the realm of the Germanic languages.
His position became even more definite in his eloquent and profoundly scholarly refutation of A. Wilford Hall's The Problem of Human Life Here and Hereafter (1880), for the Reformed Church Quarterly, July 1883. His chief interest, however, was in the study of philosophy. He was the last of the master exponents of the Mercersburg Philosophy (see his article, "Philosophy as a Factor in the Educational System of the Reformed Church, " Reformed Church Review, January 1898).
A recital of his experiences as administrator of college funds, "The Financial Development of Franklin and Marshall College" (Reformed Church Review, April 1903), reveals an infinite capacity for work and a zealous and practical interest in business matters.
He died on the 21st of December, 1915 at Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania at the age of 74.
John Summers Stahr was popular as president of the General Synod of the Reformed Church. From 1890 to 1908 he served as a member of the International Sunday School Lesson Committee, representing it at a convention in Rome. His linguistic accomplishments led to an appointment to the editorial staff of the Funk & Wagnall Standard Dictionary, and for forty-five years he was a frequent contributor to the Mercersburg Review and its successors, the Reformed Church Quarterly and the Reformed Church Review, on which he served as a managing editor for many years.
He wrote on education, science, philosophy, ethics, and theology, and when Darwin's Origin of Species was still vehemently opposed by the leading churchmen, he discussed in another opening address "Evolution Theories and Theology, " in which he stoutly maintained that the theory of evolution and the tenets of genuine Christianity did not conflict.
On July 23, 1872, he was married to Francina Elmira Andrews, the daughter of Hugh Andrews of Lancaster County. She, with three of their five children, survived him. His son, Dr. C. P. Stahr, is secretary of the City Board of Health. A daughter is the wife of Prof. E. M. Hartman, of Franklin and Marshall Academy.
