Amos Herr › Hymnals

Born: February 13, 1816, Lime Valley, Pennsylvania.
Died: June 19, 1897, Strasburg Township, Pennsylvania.
Buried: Willow Street Mennonite Church Cemetery, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Amos Herr (13 February 1816-19 June 1897), a Mennonite preacher in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, wrote the beloved hymn, "I Owe the Lord a Morning Song," one Sunday morning when the snowdrifts would not permit even horseback riding to church. He was a son of Christian Herr of Pequea, a Mennonite bishop, who, as did Amos, always lived on part of the original Herr acres (of 1710), along the Beaver Valley Pike, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Ordained a preacher in 1850, he was an ardent advocate of English preaching and of Sunday school. He was the first always to preach in English in the Lancaster Conference, and with his aid the conference in 1871 adopted the Sunday school movement. Thereupon his school in the Brick congregation was the first to be started with Conference approval. In 1880-1881 his home and his pen aided the committee very materially in the production of the first Mennonite (Mennonite Church) Sunday school materials, The Question and Answer Books. Married 17 November 1840 to Betsey Rohrer, his family consisted of three daughters and a son. His work was a blessing to the church of his district and beyond.

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