Appel, Theodore

APPEL, THEODORE: German Reformed clergyman; b. at Easton, Pa., Apr. 30,1823. He was educated at Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pa. (B.A., 1842), and at the German Reformed Seminary in the same town (1845). He was tutor in Greek in Marshall College in 1842-45, and pastor of German Reformer churches at Cavetown, Md. (1845-51), and Mercersburg, Pa. (1851-53). He also held the professorship of mathematics at Marshall College from 1851 to 1853, and was professor of mathematics, physics, and astronomy at Franklin and Marshall College from 1853 to 1877, while from 1878 to 1886 he was superintendent of home missions in the Reformed Church. He is secretary of the Board of Visitors of the Reformed Theological Seminary and holds a similar office on the Board of Home and Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church. From 1878 to 1886 he edited the Reformed Missionary Herald and from 1889 to 1893 the Reformed Church Messenger. He retired from active life in 1897. In theology he adheres to the Mercersburg type of doctrine of the German Reformed Church. In addition to numerous contributions to periodicals, he has written College Recollections (Reading, Pa., 1886); The Beginnings of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church (Philadelphia, 1886); and The Life and Work of Rev. John W. Nevin (1889). He has likewise edited Nevin’s lectures on the history of the English language (Lancaster, Pa., 1895).