# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S40
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

40 Proceedings of the twenty-ninth convention

who have been lost to the station through death, special mention must be made of Marn Wright. She died on 22 November 1923 at the age of about a hundred years. She had belonged to the Mount Zion congregation since October 1882, had a fine knowledge of Lutheran doctrine, loved her church, came diligently to the services, and gave gladly and generously for church purposes. She presented the congregation with the beautiful altar with the painting of the Risen One, also the church bell, and the year before last she gave $200 for repairs to the church. She also presented a bell to the Concordia congregation. She was esteemed by all and was an ornament to her beloved Lutheran Church. — Missionary Beck was installed on 10 September 1922 and works with success. The congregation contributes $50 a month toward his salary. Major repairs were made to the church this year. This summer electric lighting is to be installed in the church and school. It hopes, with God's help, to be self-supporting by its golden jubilee in the year 1928. The school enjoys a heavy attendance; indeed, it was overcrowded. In that region especially, Negro children are badly in need of school facilities. According to the latest school census the city of New Orleans has 27,895 Negro children of school age, but room in its schools for only 12,812. So many of the children for whom there is no room in the public schools also come to our school. Our school actually has room for only 185 children; although over a hundred children were turned away, the number nevertheless rose to 216. A good number were referred to our Bethlehem school. The teacher of the lower grades had 126 children in her room last year; after she had reduced the number, as we had instructed her, the enrollment in the last school year came to 92. The teacher is indeed strong and healthy, but nobody can keep that up in the long run. Teacher Theodor Schröder, the only white teacher in our whole Negro Mission, has charge of the upper grades, Teacher Andrew Seraile has the middle grades, and Teacher Ethel Johnson the lower grades. — Teacher Dietrich Meibohm had to resign his office on account of illness in February 1923, after serving the congregation as teacher for nearly twenty-nine years. On 15 June of this year the LORD released him from all evil by a blessed death. Through his faithful service hundreds of Negro children have come to know their Savior. — Mount Zion has the largest Sunday school in the whole mission. As a result of the rush to the weekday school, the congregation was able to introduce the Sunday-school rule formally adopted at the Synodical Conference in Toledo in 1916. The rule reads: "Where children must be turned away because of overcrowding, those children who place themselves entirely under our pastoral care, that is, who also attend Sunday school and church, shall always have preference." In two years the number of Sunday-school pupils has thus risen from 80 to 220 and the average attendance from 60 to 140. — Missionary Beck explored a section of the city with a view to opening a new station.

3. St. Paul's, New Orleans. (Founded 1879. Missionary: E. H. Wildgrube,* since March 1922.) This is our largest congregation in the whole Negro Mission. It now numbers 398 souls. Increase in two years: 41 souls. Missionary Wildgrube says in his report: "During the last two years the gracious God has remained with this congregation. His Word, which was preached pure and clear on average no fewer than twice every week, and his