# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1860_S64
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— Page 64 —

Accordingly, we propose to the Venerable Synod
that the congregations at St. Louis and Altenburg be
informed of the Synod's plan and prompted to give the
reasons for the relocation careful consideration, and to send
in writing their consent to carrying out the intended change
of location — that is, the local separation of the gymnasium
from the Synod's seminary.

The foregoing report was adopted by the Synod in all its parts, and
Pastor Lochner of Milwaukee, Wis., was appointed to draft the letters
to the congregations at Fort Wayne, St. Louis, and Altenburg.

Mission to the Heathen.

Mission report of the Mission Commission of the Evangelical Lutheran
Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

When the undersigned Mission Commission sets out to give the
Reverend Synod a report on our mission among the Chippewa Indians
over the past three years, it does so with a heavy heart. The
expectations and hopes that the Synod has held for the Indian mission
have so far remained unfulfilled; indeed, this mission may seem to
many to have taken steps backward rather than forward, despite the
great financial sacrifices the Synod has granted for it. Nevertheless
we will proceed with confidence, reporting according to the truth.

At the end of the previous synodical year we had two established
stations, one under missionary Miessler at Bethany, the other under
missionary Cloeter at Gabitawigama in Minnesota. Considering first
the station at Bethany: at that very time the government in
Washington had given instructions to the Indians of Michigan that
they should, one and all, move to a county 25 miles from Bethany
called Isabella County, unless they could show title to other land
they had lawfully acquired. In the new county they were to receive a
free grant from the government of 80 acres of land per family,
together with schoolhouses, mills, good roads, and so forth. Since
the county offers very good, if somewhat low-lying, land, and since a
fine stream, the Chippewa River, flows right through the middle of
it, most of the Bethany Indians were already very inclined at that
time to accept the government's offer; the Methodists among them
immediately set out for the new county and sold their lands at
Bethany. The congregation we had gathered at Bethany remained
undecided somewhat longer, since it had likewise been provided by us
with excellent land in and around Bethany. This land had, to be sure,
not yet been formally deeded to them as their own property, but each
family had been allotted a tract of 30 to 40 acres, which, according
to a written "agreement" handed down to them, was theirs...