REV. FRANCIS EDWARD REICHARD, a Lutheran minister located at Packerton, was born on the old homestead near Cetronia, which now belongs to Muhlenherg College, on Oct. 17, 1872. At the age of 20 years he left the farm and entered the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Philadelphia with the intention of learning the trade of machinist. But not liking this work and owing to the panic of '93, he returned to the farm for the summer; and in the fall of that year he entered the K S. N. S. to prepare himself for teaching. The following year he was appointed to teach "Hensingersville School," near Alburtus. The following spring he entered the normal school again becoming a member of the senior class; graduated from that institute in 1897. Afterward he taught school for two years but finally resolved to obtain a still higher education. He entered a machine shop in Allentown, where he worked for more than one year, saving sufficient of his earnings to pay his way through the first year in Muhlenberg College. While a student at college he felt the call to work in the Lord's vineyard, and by dint of hard financial struggles and advanced years he succeeded in passing through the college and seminary and was ordained a Lutheran minister in the St. James church at Reading, Pa., at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium in 1907. Soon after his ordination he was called to Zion's church at Packerton, Pa., where he has been laboring ever since. This congregation he raised from a dying and discouraged condition to a state of influence and prosperity. He is also serving in connection with the Packerton church, a congregation of Long Run and since May 1912, Zion church, at Nesquehoning Pa.