# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1924_S47
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1924. 47

members have worked without pay. The old chapel is used as a school. The school was attended this year by 45 children, who are almost all Lutheran. When I visited this school on 13 May of this year and asked the teacher to examine the children on the Small Catechism, I experienced something that probably happens in no other Lutheran school in the whole world. What was that? Two girls recited everything that stands in the fifth chief part under the heading: "How the Simple Are to Be Taught to Confess" [that is, the Short Form of Confession]. The question and answer, "Dear sir, give me a short way to confess," more than two pages, were recited! Every child except [Printed in English.] "Graeber's Baby" gave the correct answer to the question: "What must I do to be saved?" On the children, humanly speaking, the hope of the congregation rests in this case especially. The outsiders in the surrounding district have almost all been brought into the Lutheran church. The Sunday school has 83 persons on the list, but is sometimes attended by 111. The members let their light shine before the people, so that these see their good works and praise their Father in heaven. The owner of a grocery store in the town of Kannapolis made the following statement before his customers: [Printed in English.] “I tell you, men, I haven't got much to say about these colored churches around here; half of them are doing no good. But there is one colored church I would place ahead of all colored churches and equal with a whole lot of these white churches, and that is that little Lutheran church over there in Texas.” (The place where our church stands used to be called Sandy Ridge, now Texas.)

20. St. John's, Salisbury. (Founded in August 1895. Missionary: Carrington R. March, since June 1923.) This was always a hard post and still is. The number of souls has risen slightly: from 32 to 37. The fact that 39 persons on average attend the service justifies some hope of better times.

21. Bethel, Conover. (Founded 1895. Missionary: C. R. March, since January 1294 [sic].) This station is reviving. About five years ago only one member was left. The chapel was therefore sold (for $424). Last fall the congregation again numbered 6 souls, and the Sunday school is attended by 20 persons. Consequently last fall we bought the chapel back, at the same price.

22. Mount Olive, Catawba. (Founded 1902. Missionary: C. R. March, since January 1924.) This congregation too was always small. But what it lacks in quantity is made up in quality. There is, for example, old Sophronia Hull. She is a widow and lives on her little farm. When I visited her last fall in her neatly kept house, my eye fell on a book that one otherwise finds only very rarely even among white Lutheran people. It was a copy of our Book of Concord. I was joyfully surprised. To my question, "Do you actually read in this book?" I received the modest, almost shy answer: [Printed in English.] “Yes, sir; I read in it right smart” ("Yes indeed, I read in it a great deal"). That she spoke the truth could be plainly seen from the book. Sophronia is already seventy-nine years old. So she was once a slave. Her grandfather, Thomas Smyer or also Thomas Fry, was born a slave of George Washington at Mount Vernon, Va. With