[1] His uncle, Dr. John Daniel Kurtz, was one of the founders of the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States of America, and had studied under Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, founder of Muhlenberg College, and served as a minister in York, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland.

Kurtz began his studies in Harrisburg Academy, where he, by the age of fifteen, would become an assistant teacher.

At the age of eighteen, Kurtz began studying theology at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and two years later was licensed to preach.

In 1833, Kurtz retired from active ministry duties and took charge of the Lutheran Observer, a post which he held for nearly thirty years.

For this, Wilhelm Sihler of the Missouri Synod criticized Kurtz, terming him "apostate" and asserting that Kurtz and other like-minded leaders of the General Synod were "open counterfeiters, Calvinists, Methodists, and Unionists...traitors and destroyers of the Lutheran Church".