Charles Minnigerode

Minnigerode was born on August 6, 1814, in Arnsberg, Westphalia (in present-day Germany), and grew up in the nearby city of Darmstadt, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. He was confirmed in the Lutheran Church and received his first communion at the age of fifteen. He received a classical education and at fourteen entered the Gymnasium in Darmstadt, where he became acquainted with the future playwright Georg Büchner.^[1]

In 1832, Minnigerode entered the University of Giessen, where he studied law. There he renewed his friendship with Büchner, who was by then deeply involved in radical politics. Both became members of a secret society that Büchner helped found. In 1834, Büchner and the Butzbach pastor Friedrich Ludwig Weidig wrote the inflammatory political pamphlet Der Hessische Landbote (The Hessian Courier), which called for revolution against the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt. On August 1, 1834, a police informant exposed the society. Minnigerode was found in possession of copies of the pamphlet and arrested.

He spent the next several years in various prisons, denied all reading material except the Bible, which he later recalled having read eight times during his incarceration.^[3][4] Büchner, who had escaped to Switzerland, wrote in 1839 that he had heard Minnigerode was "being tortured to death." In fact, Minnigerode had been released after approximately eighteen months, first to house arrest at his brother's home, then at his father's, owing to deteriorating health.^[4] Once free of house arrest, Minnigerode concluded he would always be under suspicion in Germany and emigrated to the United States, landing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He mastered English within approximately three months and initially found work teaching Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and German.^[5]

In July 1842, the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary selected Minnigerode for its professorship of classical humanities—defeating approximately thirty other candidates—on the basis of his extraordinary credentials. William and Mary President Thomas R. Dew wrote that Minnigerode "seems to be a very amiable little gentleman, & is deeply embrued with all the German literature."^[4] He would be tasked with teaching Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

Minnigerode quickly became a popular figure in Williamsburg society. He formed a close friendship with Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, professor of law at William & Mary, and boarded with Tucker's family on Nicholson Street in the house now known as the St. George Tucker House, a property of Colonial Williamsburg.^[4] In 1842, during his first Christmas season with the Tucker family, Minnigerode introduced the children to the German custom of the Weihnachtsbaum. He led the Tucker children into the woods to cut a small evergreen, which was brought inside and placed on a parlor table. Since there were no ready-made ornaments, Minnigerode helped the children create their own decorations, including strings of popcorn, gilded nuts, cut paper, and small candles fastened to the branches.^[6][4]

While teaching at William & Mary, he began a transition to the Episcopal priesthood: in 1844 he was confirmed at Bruton Parish Church and by 1847 he was ordained to the priesthood.^[7]

Meanwhile, in the summer of 1846, William & Mary president Thomas R. Dew unexpectedly died. The Board of Visitors attempted to reorganize the college, causing widespread faculty discontent. Most of the faculty, including the newly appointed president, resigned. The board then asked for resignations of the remaining faculty—including Minnigerode—in 1848.^[8]

After resigning from William & Mary in 1848, Minnigerode accepted the pastorate of Merchants Hope Episcopal Church and Martin's Brandon Episcopal Church in Prince George County, Virginia, where he remained until 1853. He then moved to Freemason Episcopal Church in Norfolk, Virginia, then the largest congregation in the Diocese of Virginia, where he served until 1856.^[7] During this period, Minnigerode also preached occasionally in Williamsburg.

In 1856, Minnigerode was appointed rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia.^[7] Though he retained a German accent throughout his life, Minnigerode was widely admired as a preacher and drew large congregations. Many of the first families of Richmond were regular attendees, as were prominent figures from across Virginia. In 1858, Minnigerode presided over the reinterment ceremony for the remains of President James Monroe, whose body was moved from New York to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.^[7] In 1860, Minnigerode preached to the Prince of Wales—the future King Edward VII—when the prince attended St. Paul's during his tour of the United States.^[7]

After retiring from St. Paul's, Minnigerode moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he served as chaplain to the Virginia Theological Seminary in semi-retirement.^[7] Minnigerode died on October 13, 1894, in Alexandria, Virginia.^[10] He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.^[7]

Minnigerode is remembered for two contributions to American history. First, by introducing the Christmas tree to Williamsburg in 1842, he helped popularize a custom now common in the United States. The story of Minnigerode's first Christmas in Williamsburg is documented by family accounts passed down through Tucker's descendants, including a 1945 letter by Mary Haldane Tucker (wife of George Preston Coleman, grandson of Judge Tucker) and a 1948 monograph by Janet Coleman Kimbrough, Tucker's great-granddaughter.^[11] Beverley Randolph Tucker, another descendant, included an account in his 1942 book Tales of the Tuckers. Colonial Williamsburg continues to commemorate his introduction of the tradition each holiday season at the St. George Tucker House.

Second, as rector of St. Paul's for more than three decades—spanning the lead-up to the Civil War, the war itself, and the Reconstruction era—Minnigerode occupied a singular position at the center of Confederate religious and political life. A 2015 article in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography examined his photographic portrait history and described him as "the Virginia capital's most notable nineteenth-century preacher."^[12]

In Addio, piccola mia, a 1979 East German film about playwright and revolutionary Georg Büchner, a young Minnigerode is played by German actor Lars Jung.

In May 1843, less than a year after his arrival in Williamsburg, Minnigerode married Mary Carter, daughter of Commander William Carter of North Carolina, at Bruton Parish Church.^[4] They had nine children. Their oldest son entered the Confederate army and served on the staff of General Fitzhugh Lee.^[4] Minnigerode had several notable grandchildren: Lucy Minnegerode, nurse and founder United States Public Health Service Nursing Corps; Marietta Minnegerode Andrews, painter and Monticello preservationist; and Meade Minnigerode, novelist and co-writer of the lyrics of Yale University's "Whiffenpoof Song."^[13]