Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1571-1967 (Creation)
Extent
62 cubic feet
Name of creator
Biographical history
Philip William Otterbein (1726-1813) was born June 3, 1726 in Dillenburg, Germany. In 1748 he was approved a candidate for ministry and was ordained in 1749. He volunteered to go to American to fill vacant pulpits among the German Reformed in 1752. He was soon called to the congregation in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He married Susan LeRoy of Lancaster, in 1762. She died in 1768 and he remained a widower for the rest of his life. In 1767 he attended a meeting where he heard Martin Boehm, Mennonite bishop, preach. This occasion began a friendship which furnished roots for a religious movement that eventually was to culminate in the formation of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Perhaps at the urging of Francis Asbury, Otterbein assumed charge of an independent Reformed congregation in Baltimore, Maryland in 1774. A close friendship developed between Asbury and Otterbein. Never intending to begin a new church, Otterbein and a group of laymen and ministers began to meet regularly for greater spirituality and inward piety. This eventually resulted in a breakaway and the formation of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Otterbein and Boehm became its first bishops. Otterbein participated in Asbury's consecration and ordination as bishop December 27, 1784 in Baltimore, Maryland. Otterbein never fully recovered from a serious illness in 1805. He remained in Baltimore until his death on November 17, 1813.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Record types include: correspondence, photocopies, handwritten transcripts, publications, photographs, financial records and contracts. This is the only known extent collection of Bishop Otterbein' s papers in the Western Hemisphere. The collection contains autographs and his ministerial credentials.
System of arrangement
This collection is arranged by series.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
1985-002 Evangelical United Brethren Historical Society Dayton, Ohio
1992-083 Evangelical United Brethren Historical Society Hough, Mary R. Dayton, Ohio
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Grace Reformed Church, Tanyeytown, Maryland, And History Of Grace Reformed Church, Keysville, Maryland.
William Roland Phinney Papers.
Augustus Waldo Drury Collection.
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Philip William Otterbein Papers, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Added 3.25 ft of boxes to this collection on 4-23-2003. LB.
Archivist's note
Prepared by Aaron Smith and Daisy Wiggins King, Student Assistant, Matthew Van Horne, Student Intern and Mark C. Shenise, Associate Archivist