# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S101
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

11th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1905. 101

"At the meeting on February 20, 1903, missionary Kretzmann reported that the government had granted us 10 acres of land at Zoar, of which two acres were 'cleared,' for the purpose of founding a mission school there.

"Now, in God's name, building began. The building soon stood there and cost, including an additional wing for a temporary stable that now serves as a woodshed, about $800.00. Hauling the building materials over nearly bottomless roads from Phlox, eight miles away, which considerably increased the freight costs, was one particular reason the building cost more than we had budgeted.

"Meanwhile the commission was busily searching for a teacher for the school at Zoar. God in His goodness finally let us find a man who, though not as fully trained as we would have wished, had a testimonial from his pastor as a faithful, zealous Christian especially devoted to missions, and who moreover understood everything needed precisely for Zoar, cut off as it was from all civilization — namely cooking, baking, washing, ironing, sewing, mending — in short, a true factotum.

"With good cheer he moved to Zoar and, under the guidance of our missionary, opened the school there with a few children. But now an enemy showed itself, one we had unfortunately not reckoned with. What we had believed to be an advantage — that the children could go home after school and come back the next morning — turned into an unbearable nuisance. Every morning the children also brought a fresh supply of vermin from their huts, which of course then launched furious attacks on our poor teacher as well. He faithfully fought back against them, literally waging bloody battles with them, but — everything has its limits. One fine day he packed up and left, and the minutes of November 29, 1903, read: 'Mr. B., who had started the school at Zoar, gave up the position again after a few weeks.' He simply was not equal to the admittedly very difficult conditions there. Nor is it really possible for an unmarried man to head the school, since it became clear that the school at Zoar, if it is to amount to anything, must be run as a boarding school, so that the children cannot always go home and drag in fresh vermin. Since we could not allow the school, once begun, to fold again, missionary Kretzmann was instructed, through a trained Indian woman available to him, who