Contributed by rkohler3 on 8/30/10 - Image Year: 1890
Chambers Luther McConnell was born at Port Royal on May 4, 1854, the son of Daniel and Anna Christina Saylor McConnell and the great grandson of John and Elizabeth Hench Rice.
He grew to manhood on his father's farm. During his youth he attended Mount Hope and Church Hill public schools and one term at Airy View Academy. In October, 1872, he entered preparatory school and two years later the Lutheran College at Gettyeburg from which he graduated in June, 1878, with a bachelor of arts degree. He then entered the Theological Seminary of the General Synod of the Lutheran Church at Gettysburg and graduated June,1881, with a master of arts degree.
In 1880 he was licensed to preach the gospel by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Central Pennsylvania and ordained at Newport in August, 1881. He began active ministry July 10, 1881, at Yeagertown, Mifflin County, remaining there for five years. He then went to Belleville, Mifflin County, for ten years and to Mifflinburg for ten years. During the latter part of his last charge, he received the Doctor of Divinity degree conferred by Susquehanna University at Selinsgrove, Pa. After the erection of a fine church building, he resigned to undertake missionary work at Church's Ferry, North Dakota, and became in 1896 the first minister of the General Synod Lutheran Church to locate in that state. He organized the first General Synod congregation and preached the sermon at the laying of the cornerstone of the first General Synod Church building at Grand Forks, N.D. After retirement because of ill health, he engaged in some farm work and eventually became an insurance adjustor.
