# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 11 12_S45
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45

drawn in, than if it were removed from the scene of their future labor and activity in Germany. Accordingly it came to pass that in September 1846 11 young brethren, accompanied by Pastor Röbbelen (now at work in Liverpool, Medina Co., O.), together with funds for the first outfitting, arrived here safely, whose names are as follows:

1. J. G. Wolf from Würtemberg, now schoolteacher of the congregation at Fort Wayne in the city.
2. P. Kalb from Franconia, now pastor in and near Jefferson City, Mo.
3. C. Straßen from Mecklenburg, pastor in Collinsville, Madison Co. Ills.
4. J. Birkmann from Franconia, pastor near Collinsville, Madison Co. Ills.
5. M. Johannes from Franconia, pastor near Sulphurspring, Jefferson Co. Mo.
6. J. Seidel from Franconia, pastor near Marysville, Union Co. O.
7. A. Claus from Silesia, pastor in Neumelle, St. Charles Co. Mo.
8. R. Lange from Silesia, pastor in St. Charles Mo.
9. H. Wunder from Franconia, pastor in Centreville, St. Clair Co. Ill.
10. A. Zagel from Franconia, schoolteacher of the congregation of Fort Wayne in the country.
11. J. Seitz from Franconia, without a position.

In November 1846 there arrived the blessed Pastor Wolter, unforgettable to us all, a native of the Kingdom of Hanover, who, at the wish of Pastor Löhe, took over the position of principal teacher, which he filled until his blessed falling asleep on the 31st of August 1849.

His equally great fidelity and ability for this his calling was, in the hand of God, the chief means by which, under the grace and blessing of the LORD, the newly founded nursery-school soon made a prosperous progress, and the fruit of his labor became more or less visible to all. For the blessed man had not merely an excellent gift of teaching, to set forth the essential parts of the material at hand in good connection, and also to make it his own in a lively and yet comprehensible manner for those of lesser gifts, but also a no less distinguished gift of training, to discern the peculiar spiritual need of each one of the young brethren, and now as an elder brother in Christ, now as a spiritual father to relieve it. It was altogether given him of God, more or less everywhere to be a teaching father, or at least a fatherly teacher, and accordingly not merely to enrich the understanding of his pupils with the needful knowledge, but also to exert a thoroughgoing and blessed influence upon the establishing of their Christian disposition, upon the strengthening and churchly formation of their character.

Yet it is indeed not to be denied that most of those first-fruits showed a rare earnestness and zeal, and an uncommon diligence and independent impulse to learning, and thus offered to the formative influence of their teacher a special docility and receptiveness.

To both of these it is chiefly to be ascribed that already in November 1847 we were able to send to St. Louis the young friends, Kalb, Straßen and Birkmann, who moreover had received some preparatory training*) in Germany, whither several vacant congregations from Missouri and Illinois had turned to the president of our Synod for a supply of pastors.

*) This applies, moreover, also to the present Pastors Seidel and Claus, mentioned later, as well as to the schoolteachers Wolff and Zagel.

The summer before, J. Seidel had already gone out, at first as assistant preacher to Pastor Ernst, then near Marysville, Union Co., Ohio, and already in January 1847 J. Wolff had taken over the school of the Fort Wayne congregation in the city. In July 1847 we sent R. Lange to the seminary, then at Altenburg, Mo., to complete there the learned theological preparation, since he already brought good knowledge of the ancient languages.

In January 1848 A. Claus left the seminary to accept the call of his Lutheran congregation in Noble Co., Ia.

Meanwhile the dear God had provided that others presented themselves here in the place of those who had already gone out; for there entered here in the course of the year 1847: Mich. Eirich from Franconia, yet already for 12 years in the country, and master of the English language, Joh. Rennicke from Courland in the Russian Empire, Paulus Heid from Franconia, Dan. Stecher from Westphalia, Nic. Volkert and Wolfgang Stubnatzi, both likewise from Franconia, Andreas Fritze from Würtemberg, Casp. Ulrich, and Joh. Pinkepank, both from Hanover, so that at the end of the year 1847 there were again 13 students in the seminary.

In the course of the year 1847 it also happened that the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, which had assembled at Chicago at the end of April, approached the founders of the seminary, Pastors Löhe and Wucherer in Bavaria, as brethren, to leave the seminary and its direction to it, and also to continue to support it kindly in future, since the Synod did not yet have sufficient strength to maintain the seminary entirely from its own means.

Thereupon a deed of gift dated 8 Sept. 1847 arrived from the two aforesaid pastors, in which the seminary was transferred in the best form to the above-mentioned Synod as its sole property under the following conditions:

1. that it shall serve the Lutheran Church forever, and train preachers and shepherds for her alone;
2. that the German language be adopted as the sole medium of instruction in the seminary and remain so inviolably;
3. that the seminary remain what it is, namely an institution which has for its purpose to make possible a preparation of preachers and pastors that is indeed as thorough as possible, but also as speedy as possible, for the countless forsaken German fellow-believers and for newly immigrating congregations of our stock and confession.

It is to be no theological institution in the usual German sense, but a nursery-school of preachers and pastors, whose study is a strict preparation for the holy office itself.

4. that, should the occasion arise, the seminary also serve for the training of missionaries among the heathen natives of North America.

Among the statutes of the seminary drawn up by the Synod on this occasion stands § 8.

"Only godly young men, who not only have the natural gifts required for the preacher's calling, but who are also equipped with the most necessary elementary knowledge, and in whom a good foundation has been laid in the saving knowledge, are admitted into the institution as pupils."

In the year 1848 there left the seminary: Paulus Heid, called by the Lutheran congregation near Wappaconetto, Auglaize Co. O. — Andr. Zagel, called as schoolteacher in the country by the congregation at Fort Wayne. Joh. Pinkepank as schoolteacher in Frankenmuth, Saginaw Co. Mich. Casp. Ulrich, called as schoolteacher to the Lutheran congregation at St. Louis, Mich. Johannes, to take over as preacher and pastor the Lutheran congregation near Sulphurspring, Jefferson Co. Mo., Heinrich Wunder, in order, since he was still very young and equipped with good abilities, to enter the seminary, then at Altenburg, Andr. Fritze, at first as assistant preacher to Pastor Husmann for his two congregations in Adams Co. Ia.

On the other hand there came in the year 1848 from Germany into the seminary Georg Küchle, Gottfried Eigner, Georg Volk, Erhardt Riedel from Bavaria, and Jul. Koch from the Prussian province of Saxony, so that at the end of 1848 the seminary consisted of 12 students.

In the year 1849 there entered the service of the Church: Dan. Stecher, called by the Lutheran congregation near Columbia, Whitley Co. Ia., and at Huntington Co. Ia., Mich. Eirich, to take over the Lutheran congregation at Chester, Randolph Co. Ill., Nic. Volkert to the service of the Lutheran congregation in Calumet on Lake Winnebago, Wisc., Wolfgang Stubnatzi, called by the Lutheran congregation at Coopers-Grove, Cook Co. Ill., Joh. Rennicke, as pastor of a Lutheran congregation near Belleville, Ill., not far from St. Louis, Joh. Seitz as schoolteacher of the Lutheran congregation at Chicago, Ill., Julius Koch, as schoolteacher in the parish of Pastor Richmann, Fairfield Co. O.

On the other hand there entered the seminary in the same year:

Rudolph Klinkenberg from Pomerania
Ferdinand Steinbach from Saxe-Weimar
Jacob Rauschert from Franconia
Fried. Eppling from Alsace
Martin Quast from Franconia
Otto Eisfeld from Hanover
Gotthelf Reichhardt from Prussian Saxony
Aug. Siemon from the Mark Brandenburg
Wilh. Holls from Hesse-Darmstadt
Johannes Küppel from Franconia
Georg Link from Franconia
Joh. Johannes from Franconia
Conr. Bonnet likewise
Paul. Beyer ditto
Wilh. Bergt from the Kingdom of Saxony
Edmund Röder from the Prussian Lusatia.

In that same year 1849 there also fell two events, of which the one was joyful, but the other heartily grievous for our seminary.

The former was the purchase of the property, hitherto belonging to the widow