Born: July 12, 1832, Aldingen, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Died: June 9, 1899, Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Buried: Alter Friedhof, Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg, Germany.
Ernst was the son of Gotthilf Ernst Gebhardt and Christiane Katharine Buhl, and husband of Christiane Friederike Beate Paulus (married 1860).
After high school, he studied chemistry, pharmacy, agriculture and forestry. In 1851, he emigrated to Chile, where he lived with relatives and worked on a farm. He returned to Germany in 1856.
In 1859, he entered the Methodist seminary in Bremen, and afterward worked as an itinerant preacher in Germany and Switzerland.
In 1879 he helped found the Christlichen Sängerbund (Christian Singers’ Association), which he chaired from 1892. For 12 years he edited the Association’s Sängergruß (Singer’s Greeting). Starting in 1895, he also edited the Methodist newspapers Der Evangelist and Der Kinderfreund (The Children’s Friend).
If you know where to get a better photo of Gebhardt,