Reverend John Herbst was born in 1793 in York, Pennsylvania, a son of John Heinrich Herbst (who went by Henry) and his wife Catherine. The Herbsts were part of the early Pennsylvania German community that helped build Adams County. Raised with strong traditions of faith, farming, and hard work, John was one of ten children and came of age in a young nation still finding its footing after the American Revolution.

Little is recorded about his youth, but John likely spoke German at home and attended a German Reformed congregation in his early years — setting the course for his life’s twin vocations: agriculture and ministry.

Family and Farm
In 1814, John married Juliana Kurtz (born 1795), also from a Pennsylvania German family in the York community. More than likely, John and Juliana relocated to Gettysburg because of an opening to head a congregation—John was a reverend in his faith and is mentioned prominently as one of the early pastors of the local church in Gettysburg.

John did not make his entire livelihood from the church—he was a landowner and farmer, operating a property of around 160 acres. His farm stretched through the area west of Gettysburg that would later become famous as Herbst Woods, the site of critical early fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Herbst farm was a working operation — likely producing grains like wheat and corn, and perhaps raising livestock. Farming provided both sustenance and economic security in an era when ministerial salaries alone could not support a family.

Ministry and Leadership
John Herbst’s influence extended beyond his fields. He answered a deeper calling and became an ordained minister in the German Reformed Church (an ancestor of today’s United Church of Christ).

In this role, Rev. John Herbst served local congregations around Gettysburg and Adams County. He would have led services in German, preached sermons rooted in Calvinist theology, performed baptisms, weddings (he appears regularly in Gettysburg newspapers for officiating at dozens of weddings), and funerals, and provided spiritual care to his community.

At a time when small towns and rural crossroads were strung together by faith networks, ministers like John Herbst were among the most important figures in civic life. His dual role as a religious leader and landowner placed him in a position of considerable local respect.

As was common for rural ministers, John likely “rode a circuit,” traveling among small congregations, bringing faith and guidance to isolated farm families in the rolling hills of Adams County.

The Battle of Gettysburg
By 1863, John Herbst was approaching 70 years old — an elder in the community when the Civil War brought devastation to his very doorstep.

During the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Herbst’s land — by then in the hands of his family — became a bloody battlefield.

On the first day of fighting, Union forces, including the famed Iron Brigade, clashed violently with Confederate troops in the woods bordering the Herbst farm. The thick timber and rocky ridges offered defensive advantages, but they also became killing grounds. General John Reynolds was killed at the edge of these woods.

Whether John Herbst and Juliana remained at home during the fighting or temporarily fled to safety is unclear. Many Gettysburg families sought shelter in basements or left town entirely during the battle.

What is certain is that when the guns fell silent, the Herbst property was deeply scarred: trees shattered by artillery, fields trampled, fences destroyed, and the wounded and dead scattered across the ground.

As a minister, John Herbst would likely have ministered to the wounded or the grieving in the aftermath, offering prayers and aid where he could amid overwhelming tragedy.

Later Years and Death
Despite the enormous toll the battle exacted on Gettysburg, John Herbst lived several years beyond it. He witnessed the slow reconstruction of the town and the growing national interest in the battlefield’s memory.

Rev. John Herbst died in 1871, aged about 78, and was buried in the Gettysburg area. His wife, Juliana, followed in 1878.

Legacy
Today, John Herbst’s name lives on most visibly through Herbst Woods, a key sector of the Gettysburg National Military Park. Yet his true legacy is deeper:

• As a farmer, he cultivated land that would become part of a national story.
• As a minister, he nurtured the faith of the German-speaking community of Adams County.
• As a father and community leader, he bridged the old agrarian Pennsylvania and the America that emerged from civil war.

In a town best known for Abraham Lincoln’s words and the armies’ clash, it is worth remembering men like Rev. John Herbst — those whose quiet devotion to land and faith formed the true foundations of Gettysburg before it became a symbol for the nation.