John Silvis Ermentrout, second County Superintendent of Public Schools of Berks county ( eldest son of William and Justina Silvis Ermentrout ), was born at Womelsdorf, Berks county, Sept. 27, 1827. When he was two years old his parents removed to Reading, and there he was reared. Developing a great aptitude for study, he was sent to Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pa., from which he was graduated in 1845, the first honor man of his class, though not yet eighteen years of age. He remained in the college as a tutor, teaching the languages and lecturing on history. At the same time he was a student of the Theological Seminary connected with the institution, and from this seminary, he was graduated in 1848, and then ordained as a minister of the Reformed Church. For a time he was editor of the Reformed Messenger. In 1852 he was installed pastor of the Reformed Church at Norristown, Pa. , where he served for six years. He returned to Reading in 1859, and opened a select school. One year afterward he was elected superintendent of the common schools, and he was twice re-elected, serving from 1860 to 1869. In 1865 he was active in founding the Keystone State Normal School at Kutztown, became its first principal, and continued as such until 1871, when he resigned, preparatory to making a public profession of his faith in the Roman Catholic Church, and removed to Baltimore, where he edited a Catholic journal. Subsequently he taught in the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary at Overbrook, near Philadelphia. In 1873, by the unanimous action of the board of trustees of Keystone State Normal School, he was recalled to that institution, and he filled the chair of Mental and Moral Science and English Literature, until his death in 1881. The vast influence he exerted in educational matters can hardly be overestimated, and the institution which he promoted at Kutztown will always constitute an enduring monument to his memory.

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