Jeremiah Marion Mickley

Born in Pennsylvania in 1834, Jeremiah Marion Mickley became a minister in the German Reformed tradition and studied at Franklin & Marshall College and the theological seminary at Mercersburg. Early in his career he served a pastorate in Perry County, Pennsylvania.

During the American Civil War, he served as a chaplain with the 177th Pennsylvania Infantry and later with the 43rd United States Colored Troops. After the war, he continued in ministry, including service at Grace Reformed Church in Akron, Ohio, though later accounts suggest his health forced him to give up at least one pastorate.

Mickley died in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 1909, and was buried in Lancaster Cemetery. Available records point to a life remembered more for ministry and service than for broad literary fame, but his work as a hymn writer and clergyman places him among the many 19th-century religious figures whose words lived on in print and worship.