Rev. F. J. F. Schantz, D.D., son of Jacob (2), was born Jan. 8, 1836, studied for the ministry and was graduated from the Gettysburg Seminary in 1857; served as pastor of Lutheran congregations at Reading (1857-61), Catasauqua (186-66), and Myerstown (1867, until his death, Jan. 19, 1907. He was president of the Lutheran Ministerium from 1901 to 1903, and of the Pennsylvania German Society in 1900. He took interest in historical research and prepared many valuable papers. In 1858, he married Cordelia S., daughter of Charles and Eliza (Eckert) Saeger, of Allentown and left three children. Dr. Henry F. of Reading; Mrs. John P. Spangler, of Philadelphia; and Mrs. W. Stanton Haak of Lebanon.

Rev. Franklin J. F. Schantz, D. D., was born January 8, 1836, at Schantz's Mill, at the head of Cedar Creek, Upper Macungie township, Lehigh county, and was baptized in his infancy by. Rev. Daniel Zeller. He was the son of Jacob Schantz, (born Nov. 28, 1791; died June, 1843) a miller, who, like his father, owned and operated the mill at the head of Cedar Creek, and his wife Sarah Fogel (born July 25, 1799; died April 25, 1871), the daughter of Hon. John and Catharine (Stettler) Vogel, of Fogelsville; the grandson of Jacob Schantz, born in 1761, who came to Pennsylvania as a Redemptioner, making his home with Peter Kohler, at Egypt, where he learned the milling business, and whose name appears as a private in Captain Zerfass' company of Colonel Stephen Balliet's battalion in the Revolutionary War, and his wife Maria Bortz; and the great-grandson of John Schantz, who arrived in Pennsylvania on October 1, 1770, accompanied by his four sons.

Dr. Schantz was instructed in his youth in St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, at Allentown, where he was confirmed October 26, 1851, by Rev. Joshua Yeagcr. His early education was in the public and private schools of the neighborhood, followed by an attendance at the Allentown Academy from April, 1848 to 1850, and then at the Allentown Seminary until the fall of 1853, when he entered the junior class of Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, graduating from the same in 1855, and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg on September 15, 1857. He was licensed as a Lutheran minister by the West Pennsylvania Synod on September 28, 1857, and ordained at the meeting of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania at Easton on June3, 1858.

On April 29, 1858, he was united in marriage to Miss Cordelia S. Saeger, daughter of Charles and Eliza (Eckert) Saeger, of Allentown, who preceded him in death by seventeen years. Three of their children survive; Henry F., a practicing physician in Reading, Mrs. John P. Spangler, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. W. Stanton Haak, of Lebanon.

From October, 1857, to January, 1861, Dr. Schantz had charge of Trinity Church, Reading; of the Catasauqua parish from 1861 to 1866; assistant agent of the Theological Seminars', Philadelphia, Nov. 1865, to September 30, 1866, then general agent until June 30, 1867. In July 1867, he became pastor of the Myerstown Church, and retained this charge until his decease. He also served the Mount Aetna congregation, Zion's Church at Jonestown from July 1867, to December 1881, and Emanuel Church at Brickerville, Lancaster County from 1876 to 1879.

In 1867, he was elected a trustee at the meeting of the stockholders of the association formed to purchase the property of the Allentown Seminary and which became Muhlenberg College. He continued on the Board of Trustees uninterruptedly for almost forty years. He was secretary of the Third Conference in 1861; president of the same 1869-'71; and president of the Fourth Conference, 1872-'76. He became a member of the executive committee of the Ministerium in 1869, and was secretary since 1879. He was a trustee of the Orphans' Home at Germantown, 1872-'75; a delegate to the General Council since 1874; and a member of the English Home Mission Board since 1882. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Augustana College and Theological Seminary, at Rock Island, Ill., in 1894. At a meeting of the Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, in Allentown, in May 1901, he was made president of that great body, and re-elected to the same office, May 1902, and June 1903.

He was president of the Lebanon County Historical Society, and in 1899 was elected president of the Pennsylvania German Society. Dr. Schantz took great interest in historical research. He made scores of addresses on his favorite subject and wrote a number of most interesting and valuable articles, among which are the following: "Historical Address at Quarto-Centennial of Allentown Seminary," 1873; "The SesquiCentennial Discourse, Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church near Stouchsburg, Pa.," 1893; "The Sesqui-Centennial Sermon, Jordan Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lehigh County, Pa.," '894; "Historical Discourse, 155th Anniversary of Jerusalem Church, Salisbury township, Lehigh Co., Pa.," 1896; "Historical Address Centennial of Third Church Building of Christ German Lutheran Congregation, Rockland Township, Berks County, Pa.," 1898; "Semi-Centennial of Muhlenberg College," 1898; "Domestic Life and Characteristics of the Pennsylvania German Pioneer," in Vol. 10 of the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania German Society.

Dr. Schantz took a great interest in the Lehigh County Historical Society and became a member on August 17, 1906. His last appearance before an Allentown audience and one which he stated afforded him the greatest pleasure was before this society on October 12, 1906, when he read an exceedingly interesting paper entitled, "Allentown and its Vicinity about Sixty Years Ago."

His death occured suddenly, at 10.45 P. M., on Saturday, January 19, 1907, from failure of the heart, in his home at Myerstown. The funeral services were held on January 23, in Frieden's Lutheran Church, Myerstown and St. John's Lutheran Church, Allentown, and interment was made in Union Cemetery, Allentown. He loved his birthplace, he loved this county, and the least we can do is to keep his memory green.