He was the twelfth of fourteen children, eight of which were from his father's previous marriages to Maria Catharina Blankenhorn and Elisabetha Dorothea Ohnmaiss.

Schmidt and Eipper were admitted as members of Lang's Presbyterian Synod of New South Wales on 15 March 1838, and were delegated to form a presbytery of Moreton Bay.

Eipper and fourteen others of the party sailed to Moreton Bay in the government schooner Isabella in March 1838 and, on the recommendation of the commandant, Major (Sir) Sydney Cotton, selected a site about seven miles (11 km) from Eagle Farm which they named Zion Hill.

In March 1843 Eipper joined Dr Stephen Simpson, acting administrator, in an expedition into this district, which Schmidt had already penetrated.

Eipper approached the Church Missionary Society in London saying that he believed he had been wrong in refusing episcopal ordination and offering to serve in New Zealand or in India.

However, after remaining for a while with the lay missionaries, who proposed to support themselves by manual labour, Eipper was received by the Synod of Australia in connection with the Established Church of Scotland on 5 October 1843.

He was Presbyterian minister at Braidwood, New South Wales 1844-46, at Strath Allan and district 1846 without state stipend, and at Paterson late 1847-February 1850.