Johann Eusebius Schmidt

SCHMIDT, Johann Eusebius. b. Hohenfelden, near Erfurt, 12 January 1670; d. Siebleben, near Gotha, 25 December 1745. The son of a pastor, he was educated at the Universities of Jena and Erfurt (1688- ). In 1693 he was appointed as a private tutor to a family in Gotha, and in 1697 he became a pastor at Siebleben, first as a ‘locum tenens’ and then as pastor. He remained there until his death almost fifty years later, earning a reputation as an exemplary pastor (JJ, p.1010). In JJ five hymns are noted as having had translations into English. The most popular, and the only one that seems to have survived into 20th-century books, is ‘Fahre fort, fahre fort/ Zion, fahre fort im Licht’, found in...