Rev. Bernhard Michael Houseal and Rev. William O. Houseal Papers

Rev. Bernhard Michael Houseal (Hausihl) was born in Heibronn, Germany in 1727. He was a German Lutheran minister in North America, and the first resident minister of Frederick, Maryland. He preached at the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Frederick, Maryland, 1752). He was a Loyalist refugee who escaped New York with his family and slaves, and later became the first German minister of Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He died there in 1799.

Dr. William Preston Houseal was born July 30, 1856 in Newberry, South Carolina, the son of William Walter Houseal and Eliza Caroline Houseal. He worked as a printer in Newberry. He was connected with Rev. Jacob Hawkins of Grace Lutheran Church in the editing and printing of "The Visitor", a publication of the Lutheran Church in the South. Dr. Houseal was a descendant of Rev. Bernard Hauseal. He died Setember 5, 1946 at age 90.