# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1899_S47
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Ninth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1899. 47

"When the Reverend Synod, at its last meeting, declined to grant the
board's request for more space, it did so on the grounds that it wanted to
wait first and see how the institution developed. At that time the
institution had 27 students. Now the number of students has risen to 40.
The space available three years ago was sufficient at the time. But
already by the end of the 1896-1897 school year the board found itself
faced with the necessity of creating more space, if unregistered students
were not to be turned away at the start of the new school year. It is true
that students who had completed the preparatory classes were advised, with
the seminary society's consent, to continue their studies at Addison. That,
however, did not yet relieve the need, since the number of newly entering
students was greater than the number of those who left. Then the
congregations of the Nebraska District offered to supply the money for an
auxiliary building. Such a building was then in fact erected, 20 by 32
feet, two stories. This building contains one classroom, two dormitory
rooms, and the institution's only sickroom. Beneath the building there is
a cellar for storing potatoes, etc. On the ground floor of the main
building two music practice rooms were set up. Now the initially necessary
facilities were on hand for the increased number of students, even if in
some respects calculated on a rather small scale.

"Now, however, there was still another shortage to be remedied. It was
obvious that two professors could not teach the students, divided as they
were among three classes, in a way that did justice to the students. For
this reason the teacher and pastor of the congregation at Seward took on
several hours a week. In August of last year the Nebraska District, at its
meeting in Norfolk, Nebr., encouraged the board to hire an assistant
teacher, and promised to raise the salary necessary for him until the
Reverend Delegate Synod, at its meeting in St. Louis, should make further
arrangements. Pastor Paul Lohr was proposed as a suitable man and hired by
the board at a salary of $40.00 a month.

"Thus has the good God, on two occasions when the board, in its
straitened circumstances, knew not which way to turn, provided the
necessary help in a quite striking manner.

"We are certainly acting in the spirit of the Reverend Delegate Synod
when we hereby express the Reverend Synod's heartfelt thanks to the
congregations of the Nebraska District for the relief they provided. For
the board this relief was doubly gratifying: first, because it was thereby
rescued from the most painful embarrassment; and second, because the
congregations showed thereby that they are not only ready to supply the
institution with students, but also to make sacrifices for the
institution. The interest in the spread of the kingdom of God, also...