# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1914_S41
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1914. 41

would be on hand by the end of this triennium, since, by resolution
of the Synod, all money flowing into the building fund was to be
used first for the seminary building at River Forest. The General
Board of Control therefore recommended at that meeting that the
College Farm be sold, provided we could get an acceptable price for
it. This recommendation was adopted as a resolution. The College
Farm was, after obtaining the consent of all the district
presidents, sold to the highest bidder, namely for $50,000, and the
proceeds of the farm were taken as the building sum for the new
dining hall. $30,000 was lent to the General Treasurer.

After the attorney for the firm that had bought the College Farm had
seen the "charter" of our institution and the "deed" to the farm, he
demanded, in the first instance, a deed from the local board of
control, and only then from the officers of the General Synod.
Indeed, he said afterward that, had he had the Fourth Synodical
Report, page 41, and the 18th Synodical Report (3rd Delegate Synod),
page 63, he would not have demanded any "deed" from the officers of
the General Synod at all, since these passages and the wording in
the "charter" as well as in the "deed" showed him clearly that the
right of sale rested solely in the hands of the local board of
control. This led us to read through carefully the "charter" of the
college, the deed of purchase for the College Farm, and the relevant
synodical reports. We have thereby become convinced that the farm
belongs to the institution at Fort Wayne, and that we, as trustees,
are therefore legally obligated to claim the $50,000 for this
institution and to use it for its benefit. May the Reverend Synod
permit us to substantiate this our conviction. We find:

I. a) that years ago an institution was founded here in Fort Wayne,
which on January 21, 1850, was incorporated in the State of Indiana
as "a Seminary in the County of Allen" (Synodical Handbook 1888, p.
66; 1899, p. 84);

b) that the Synod resolved that "the deeds of purchase of the
seminary be transferred to the members of the board of control" (4th
Synodical Report, p. 41);

c) that, in consequence of this resolution, the Synod also
transferred the so-called College Farm to the Fort Wayne
institution, respectively its board of control ("Granted to and set
out for the sole use and benefit and the maintenance" of this
institution, "being established in the County of Allen and State of
Indiana." Recorded in Deed Book K., pp. 682 ff., Records of Allen
County, May 27, 1851);

d) that the original name of this institution "in the County of
Allen" was as follows: "Deutſches Theologiſches Seminar der deutſchen
Evangeliſch-Lutheriſchen Synode von Miſſouri, Ohio und anderen
Staaten" (18th Synodical Report, 3rd Delegate Synod, p. 63. German
Theological Seminary of the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri,
Ohio, and other States. (Synodical Handbook 1888, pp. 68, 69; 1899,
pp. 86, 87);