# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S123
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

13th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1911. 123

...offer them what they could obtain in the closest possible vicinity. Such a boarding school, in which we would board and house the children, could not be established by us without a suitable farm building for it.

4. Only by erecting a farm building and maintaining a boarding school could we hope to achieve cleanliness, punctuality, and regular school attendance among the children.

5. Only in this way did it seem possible to work successfully against the Presbyterians, who had again begun a mission in opposition to ours among the Stockbridge Indians.

This was at the time made known in detail to our Christians in the *Lutheraner* [The Lutheran] and in the *Kinder- und Jugendblatt* [Children's and Youth Paper]. The success we have seen in our mission since that time indeed justifies this step we took. Formerly the enrollment in our school had never risen above 40. We too began our school in the fall of 1909 with only 24 pupils. Then, when at New Year 1909 the farm building had been completed and put into use, enrollment rose within a few weeks to 79. The school year 1909–1910 showed an enrollment of 63, and that of 1910–1911 a number of 59. Our missionary's wife presides over the school with faithfulness and skill. Pastor J. D. Larsen, our missionary, teaches religious instruction to all classes and helps out in the school as much as his time allows. In other respects too, our faithful God has visibly blessed our missionary's work and owned it as His own. The adults diligently attend the worship services, commune often, and, given the prevailing circumstances, lead a truly Christian life. As early as July 1909 the Presbyterian missionary found himself compelled, for lack of resources, to abandon the field. Since the fall of 1910, however, another man of that same denomination has again been active in trying to turn the Indians away from us. But the Lord has not yet let him succeed in doing us any serious harm, and judging by all present indications, his agitation against us will likely remain fruitless in the future as well.

During the past three years we had only one missionary, Pastor J. D. Larsen, in our mission field. His work was confined chiefly to the stations of Red Springs and Morgan. Our missionary lacked the time to work at the two other places: Zoar (there is a frame house, a log schoolhouse, and a frame stable there on a piece of land that the government has turned over to us for educational purposes under a lease) and Keshena (a government school). That we have carried on no mission work in Zoar, where Pastor Larsen was formerly stationed, during the past three years happened for the following reasons: