# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1853_S267
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 267 —

...in which the classrooms are also located, sufficient space. The
professors now take the first-built wing of the building for their
residence.

Pastor Schieferdecker also presented the certificate of incorporation of
Concordia College, which was placed in the archive.

According to the accounts of the College Building Fund, the
Income amounted to . . . . . . . . . . . . $3557.81½
And the Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . 3548.90

Leaving a cash balance of . . . . . . . . . $8.91½

On the motion of Professor Biewend, the following further resolutions
concerning the seminary were passed: a. Both wings of the College
building in St. Louis shall be fitted with lightning rods; b. if
possible, a fixed sum shall be set aside for the purchase of a
natural-history cabinet and physical and chemical apparatus; if that is
not possible, an attempt shall be made in the congregations to obtain
several larger contributions from friends of this science.

Establishment of an English College in Fort Wayne, Ind.

At the last convention, Pastor F. W. Husmann and Mr. Piepenbrink were
charged with conferring with the residents of Fort Wayne — particularly
the influential English-speaking part of them — about establishing an
English school, and they now report that they consulted Professor
Biewend as well as the Fort Wayne Ministerial Conference, and became
convinced that, instead of an actual full college, a good academy would
better answer the present need and the funds likely to be obtained; that
they drafted a plan for such an academy and presented it to Mr. Rudisill
with the request that, on the basis of it, he discuss the matter with
the English-speaking citizens of Fort Wayne concerned. Mr. Rudisill,
however, brought back the answer that the Presbyterians had already
taken up such an institution themselves, that they would probably be
willing to join with us in the matter, but would give us little support
if the institution stood under the direction of our synod alone. They
[Husmann and Piepenbrink] did not agree to these terms, and ask the
Synod not to let the plan drop, since a lively interest had shown itself
not only among the German-Lutheran but also among the English-Lutheran
residents of Fort Wayne; that a few more men might be given to them, the
reporters, as assistance; and that they wished to leave the "whether"
and "how" of establishing this institution to the judgment of the
Synod.

"Whether" an English school is necessary, and will be of use to the
Lutheran Church in general and to our synod in particular, hardly needs
proof. Experience teaches that, despite every effort to keep German the
dominant language, the children nevertheless prefer English, so that it
is almost certain that the second or third generation will become
estranged from the German language — and, for lack of suitable
institutions, from the pure confession along with it. But that, given a
pure confession in the English language, the following generations too
can still be kept within the Lutheran Church, is proven by the present
standing of the Tennessee Synod. It ought therefore to be our duty...