# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1926_S21
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1926. 21

dear Saviour on the altar of the Negro Mission. The new
building (church and school under one roof) could be dedicated on Sunday,
13 June 1926, to the service of the triune God.
Since a small teacher's residence is urgently needed, one is to be erected for
$550. Regarding the needed teacher's residence
Superintendent Schmidt writes: "The building in which we held church and school for over five
years is a long-stretched board shack with three rooms, which was not even good enough for an
Alabama Negro. We found it vacant; so we moved in. Teacher
Dumas with wife and two children uses one room as
living room, kitchen, bedroom and as classroom for 50 school
children. In the second room the woman teacher lived, and in the third
the upper classes were taught. Teacher Dumas complained that the
health of his family was in great danger, and moved away last
February. A flood had made it impossible for a long time to
leave the 'chapel' except by boat. Provisions had to be fetched
by boat." The congregation at Ingomar numbers 26 souls,
among them 21 communicant members and 11 voting members.

47. Bethany, Nyland, Wilcox Co. (Country congregation. Founded
1918. Missionary: James Montgomery, since September 1921.)
Missionary Montgomery, a native of Alabama, serves, besides the
congregation at Nyland, three other stations: Pine Hill, Lamison and
Flatwood. Souls at Nyland: 64. Communicant members: 38.
Montgomery also keeps school at Nyland. His second station is:

48. St. Peter's, Pine Hill, Wilcox Co. (Country congregation.
Founded 1 November 1922. Missionary: J. Montgomery.) The
$1,000 needed for the building of the chapel was given by a magnanimous friend of the
mission in California. In addition, the children in the California
and Nevada District, and especially other friends of the mission,
have given a further $1,437.38. The chapel and school are both under
one roof.

49. The station at Lamison, Wilcox Co. (Country station.) Here
the work was begun in November 1925. On average
25 persons attend the service, which Missionary Montgomery holds in
a vacant, dilapidated log house — without question the most
wretched place of worship I have ever seen in my life.
The dear Saviour, to be sure, was not born in a palace either,
but in a stable; but that stable was probably not as bad as this log hut
at Lamison. May these few words help to bring about that building soon
can be done at Lamison!
— Missionary Montgomery's fourth station is:

50. The station at Flatwood, on the eastern boundary of Marengo
County. At this country station Superintendent Schmidt began the work
in the spring of 1926. Missionary Montgomery has on average
38 hearers at the service. The place will probably again be
a vacant hut. Our Superintendent says the place lies
fifty miles from Selma and "far removed from what the dear
readers would call civilization." He adds: "If our
Lutheran church should leave the Black Belt with the pure preaching of the
Gospel and its schools, it would be as if
one slammed the door of heaven in the face of thousands
of Negroes."

51. St. Andrew's, Vredenburgh, Monroe Co. (Country congregation. Founded 1916. Missionary: E. B. Cozart, since the autumn