Matthias Loy was the fourth of seven children of Matthias and Christina Loy, immigrants from Germany who lived as tenant farmers in the Blue Mountain area of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. In 1834, when Matthias was six years old, the family moved to Hogestown, a village nine miles (14 km) west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. When he was 14, he was sent as an apprentice to Baab and Hummel, printers of Harrisburg. Here he worked for six years, while attending school. He received a classical education at Harrisburg Academy and graduated from the German Theological Seminary of the Ohio Synod, a predecessor body of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, in Columbus, Ohio in 1849.
In 1849, he entered the Lutheran ministry and became pastor at Delaware, Ohio. In 1865 he resigned his pastorate to become professor in the Theological Seminary of Capital University in Columbus. In 1881 he was elected president of Capital University. Following a critical attack of angina pectoris, he retired as professor emeritus in 1902[2]
Loy edited the Lutheran Standard, official periodical of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio, from 1864 until 1890. In 1881, he founded the Columbus Theological Magazine and managed it for ten years. He was President of the Ohio Synod from 1860 to 1878 and again from 1880 to 1894. In 1887, Muhlenberg College gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He wrote 21 hymns and also translated a number of German hymns into the English language. He also edited a translation of Dr. Martin Luther's House Postil in three volumes (1874–1884).[3]
Nichol, Todd W.; Marc Kolden (2004) Called and Ordained: Lutheran Perspectives on the Office of the Ministry (Wipf and Stock Publishers) ISBN9781592445813
Fry, C. George; Joel R. Kurz (2005) The Americanization process in the second generation; the German Lutheran Matthias Loy (1828-1915) caught between adaptation and repristinization (Studies in religious leadership; v.2) ISBN0-7734-6156-6
