Bruno Spangenberg

Bruno Richard Spangenberg 1851–1937. Born in Bromberg, Germany. Bruno was a music teacher, organist, and later, business owner who spent most of his adult life in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

At the age of 13, Bruno, with his minster father and 3 brothers, immigrated to Missouri. His pastor father came to serve the growing German population there. The family later moved to Reading, Ohio where his father founded St John’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church, now St. John’s United Church of Christ.

Bruno attended Eastern Lutheran Teachers’ Seminary (now Concordia University) in Addison, Illinois, where he pursued a teaching certificate.
Mr. Spangenberg taught in a Harrisburg public school for eleven years. He also led the choir and played the organ at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church. He helped establish the German Maennerchoir in Harrisburg and was their vocal teacher and organist.

In the early 1890s Bruno moved to Rochester, NY to teach in a Lutheran school and serve as organist for a congregation there. He married Sara Blankenhorn whom he had met in Harrisburg. After a short tenure the Spangenbergs moved to Rondout (Kingston), NY to serve a school and larger congregation – the Trinity German Evangelical Lutheran Church. Bruno served there from 1893–98. Following the death of their first child Bruno and Sara moved back to Harrisburg, nearer family and friends.

About 1900, Bruno and Sara became the proprietors of Spangenbergs’ Ice Cream, a new and increasing popular product. Their market was heart of Harrisburg and its capitol region. Church music became a secondary pursuit, but still an active one.
The Spangenbergs eventually bought a home with acreage in Camp Hill, across the Susquehanna River, where they retired and lived their remaining years.

Richard Spangenberg (grandson)