Johannes Walter

Walter, Johannes. (Berks Co., Pennsylvania, August 21, 1781--December 3, 1818). Evangelical. Was early assistant to Albright, founder of denomination, first as tile-make, later as companion on preaching trips. Editor of the first Evanglical hymnbook, Eine kleine Sammlung Alter und Neuer Geistricher Lider (1810), containing 56 hymns of which he wrote several. The most famous of his hymns, "Kommt brüder, kommt, wir eilen fort" was recited to a companion while traveling a winter circuit, hurriedly written out on arrival, and published as a broadside. It and another of his hymns, "Wer will mit uns nach Zion gehn?" were the two most popular German hymns written in America. They are found in the most popular of the Evangelical hymnbooks, the "Viole," and were sung by German Methodists in the Midwest and in Germany and Switzerland. An English version of the former, "Come, brothers, come, why longer wait?" was also widely sung.

--Ellen Jane Lorenz, DNAH Archives