# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S38
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 38 —

...Norwegian Synod counts its largest and most prosperous congregations in and around Chicago.

Here a letter addressed to our synod by several landowners in Chicago was also presented, in which the gift of 120 acres in Blue Island, 12 miles from the courthouse in Chicago, was held out as a prospect.

Resolved, that a committee, consisting of the pastors and deputies of Chicago and Messrs. C. Eissfeldt of Milwaukee and J. Fasse of Schaumburg, Ill., be appointed and charged with inspecting the land and rendering a strictly factual report to the committee still to be chosen for the purpose of negotiating with the other synods of the Synodical Conference regarding the joint seminary.

Resolved, that a committee, consisting of Messrs. C. F. W. Walther, professor and Doctor of Theology; H. C. Schwan, president [*Präſes*] of the General Synod; and J. P. Beyer, president of the Eastern District Synod, together with Messrs. C. Römer of St. Louis, L. Brauns of Chicago, and C. Eissfeldt of Milwaukee, be appointed and charged with conferring with the committees of the other synods belonging to the Synodical Conference on the matter of establishing a joint seminary.

Resolved, that the above-named committee enter into negotiations on the basis of the following instructions:

1. It shall be able to reach a valid agreement only once its authority has been confirmed by the congregations to whom the matter is to be submitted.

2. It shall call upon the other synods belonging to the Synodical Conference, respectively their officers, to appoint committees that will confer with it, if possible even before the meeting of the reverend Ohio Synod, concerning the establishment of a joint seminary.

3. In the conference to be arranged, it shall discharge itself of the following charges:

a. It shall vote for a healthy, elevated, easily accessible point in the United States. It shall, however, be permitted, if necessary, to agree, should it be required, that the place to be chosen lie not south and not east of Chicago.

b. It shall see to it that the costs of purchasing the land to be acquired — about 40 to 80 acres — as well as for erecting the necessary buildings, are divided pro rata among the synods concerned, insofar as these are not covered by any gifts of land and endowments.

c. It shall move that a Board of Trustees be appointed.

d. It shall move that three departments be established in the joint seminary — one German, one English, and one Norwegian — and that for each department a...