Justus Henry Christian Helmuth

Justus Christian Henry Helmuth (16 May 1745 in Helmstedt, Brunswick, Germany – 5 February 1825 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) was a German-American Lutheran clergyman.

His father died when the son was a mere boy, but a nobleman, Gotthilf August Francke, sent him to the orphan house in Halle, and afterward to the University of Halle, where he received a thorough education in the classics and theology. He was ordained to the ministry at Wernigerode in 1769, and in the same year went to the United States in response to an urgent call from Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania.

On his arrival in the U.S. in 1769, he was at once elected pastor of the congregation at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for 10 years. In 1779 he moved to Philadelphia in answer to a unanimous call from St. Michael's, the first Lutheran congregation in the city. Here he spent the remainder of his life, serving as pastor until 1820. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society. The University of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. in 1780, and that of D.D. in 1785. In the same institution, he was professor of German and Oriental languages for 18 years, and was regarded as one of the best linguistic scholars of his time.

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