Cyriacus Spangenberg (Sometimes called Cyriacus Spangenberg Reidemeister) Reformed. Born about 1725-1730. Came to America about 1780; called on Henry Melchior Muhlenberg on April 5 of that year. Appeared before the coetus in 1783, identified himself as a cousin of Samuel Dubendorff, and asked to be examined and ordained. Coetus refused his request on the grounds that he had already baptized without authority; that he had appealed for ordination to William Boos, who had no authority to confer it (and had indeed refused his request); and that his conduct had been "altogether more like that of a soldier and lawyer than a minister." Returned the next year with the same request. Coetus now told him the matter was in the hands of the Holland fathers. In 1785 the coetus reported to the fathers that Dubendorff had persuaded Philip Jacob Michael to ordain Spangenberg and that the latter had been about to marry an American wife when a letter from his European wife was discovered. That ended the relationship between Spangenberg and the coetus. He remained an independent minister.

From as early as 1783 to 1786 served congregations in Snyder and Northumberland counties, north of the parish served by Dubendorff. His name (followed by the initials V.D.M.) appears on a 1783 petition from residents of Northumberland county addressed to the legislature. The petition concerned a disputed election in October of that year. From 1786 to 1788 he was in Cumberland and Franklin counties, serving Shippensburg, Besore's, and Grindstone Hill. Between 1788 and the end of his ministry in 1794 was in Bedford and Somerset counties. Was the first resident Reformed minister to the congregations there. Served Bedford (1788-1794), Berlin (1788-1794), and Salisbury (1789-1794).

During a meeting in the parsonage in Berlin on March 19, 1794, after the question of whether the paster should be retained was raised, Spangenberg assaulted an elder, Jacob Glessner, with a knife and killed him. Was arrested and charged with murder. Writing on his behalf before the trial, Frederick Muhlenberg stated that he had known Spangenberg ever since he came to America. "I found him to be a Man of Letters, a true friend to this Country," he noted, "and as far as came within my Knowledge of good moral Character." Although he had not been in contact with him for some years and did not know his state of mind at the time of the murder, Muhlenberg was "not inclined to believe that he committed the same willfully and with Malice aforethought." (Frederick Muhlenberg to whom it may concern, Philadelphia, March 27, 1795, ERHS, Lancaster)

At his trial in April 1795, Spangenberg was found guilty and sentenced to death. Routinely, Governor Thomas Mifflin submitted papers in the case to Chief Justice Thomas McKean for his opinion "upon the circumstances that are alleged in the extenuation of the Convict's offience." In his response to the governor, the chief justice stated his finding that Spangenberg had been given "a fair and impartial trial," but argued that "there is something astonishing in the whole transaction, he must either have been influenced by a most furious and diabolical mind, or been in some degree deranged." McKean concluded as follows: "upon the whole, as this unhappy man has been convicted some months ago, has been close confined in gaol for sixteen months past, is upwards of sixty five years of age and by the course of nature must soon answer to his God for the deeds done in the body, as he is of a holy profession and for many years has been deemed to have led a religious life, if the Governor entertains the least doubt of his sanity at the time he killed Glessner, that doubt under the foregoing circumstances should in my humble opinion operate rather on the side of mercy than on the side of justice." (Thomas McKean to Alexander J. Dallas, Philadelphia, July 28, 1795, ERHS, Lancaster)

Acting finally upon the advice of the judges who conducted the trial and who recommended no mercy, Governor Mifflin issued the warrant for execution on September 11, 1795. Spangenberg was hanged on October 10, 1795 in Bedford.

Glenn W. Glessner - Quincy, Illinois

Web Page Updated on February 14, 2004