The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 31

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

31

A Retrospect.

Il.

But to return to the beginning of our Colored
Mission. The missionary arrived here in the winter
of 1877—78. After prospecting some days he lo-
cated one station near Claibourne St., in the lower
portion of our city, and a second station at the
corner of South Peters and Erato streets up town.
It is the writer’s purpose to touch on the commence-
ment of the mission at the latter station.

Here, at the corner of the streets last named,
stood an old dilapidated brick building, called ‘‘Sail-
ors’ Home,’’ which, many years prior to the Civil
War, served as boarding house, hospital, and refuge
for indigent sailors, as well as a rendezvous for sail-
ors, generally, from all parts of the globe. The
building was a ruin; the doors and windows were
broken out; from the lower floor the boards had
disappeared, evidently carried off for firewood; the
wide staircase had lost its banisters, and several of
the steps were missing, making it necessary for vis-
itors now and then to take two steps in one when
ascending to the second story. The lower floor at
night was a habitation for goats and dogs, and ‘the
upper third story for owls and night-hawks. The
great Mississippi flowed by two blocks from the
front. A half block in the rear was St. Thomas St.,
with by far the filthiest dwellings in the city. Here
vice and filth reigned supreme.

Many rooms in these buildings, rather large
rooms, contained as many as three to five colored
families, or, so to speak, a conglomeration of fami-
lies. Many a colored mother lived here with her
several children supported indifferently by a hus-
band or father who often spent weeks away from
them in Natchez, Vicksburg, or some other river
city where he had another so-called wife with a
family, while these, here, might look to provide for
themselves as best they could. The men were
mostly employed as laborers, called roustabouts,
on steamers plying up and down the river for load-
ing and unloading cargo at each landing place.
Scarcely a day passed in which St. Thomas St. did
not furnish its quota of the city’s criminal cases.
In this unpromising neighborhood the missionary
launched this enterprise.

When asked why he selected so degraded a sec-
tion of the city while other localities contained a
much better class of colored people, he replied, ‘‘I
feel convinced that this neighborhood will furnish
the lame, the crippled, and the blind for God’s
feast.’? Thus the mission was begun in this section
and in the old ‘‘Sailors’ Home.” Regular Sunday

service and Sunday school were held in the second
story, which had been put in order as good as a
new broom could accomplish this. Benches were
furnished by the Zion’s Congregation. They were
long, plain board benches that would accommodate
6 to 8 persons each; with these and a borrowed
organ the church outfit was complete.

The regular church service was fairly well at-
tended, and the Sunday school recorded about 25
or 30 little colored children of all shades. The
writer assisted in the early days of this Sunday
school. Inconvenient and rickety as the surround-
ings were, the work went bravely on, and we soon
became accustomed to these poor conditions. One
Sunday a heavy rain poured down during Sunday
school, and the water ran in little streams through
the very defective roof over the children. We moved
the benches to places in the large room which af-
forded the best protection, and continued our work,
while the water gathered in little pools here and
there on the uneven floor.

Here a little incident occurred which induced
me to write this, and which it is my intention to
relate to you in my next article. It is an incident
so touching and, at the same time, so characteristic
of the mission and its element that it left a lasting
impression on my mind. F. J. 0.
ot

NOTES AND ITEMS.

Our CotorEp Missions.—The Statistical Year
Book of the Missouri Synod brings also the statistics
of our missions among the colored people for the
year 1904. Mission work was carried on at 28 sta-
tions, 19 of these being in North Carolina, 4 in
Louisiana, 3 in Virginia, one in Illinois, and onein .
Missouri. These stations were served by 15 pastors
and 12 teachers. At the close of the year the mis-
sion numbered 1615 souls, 762 communicants, 196
voting members, and 1231 pupils in the day schools.
Our colored congregations contributed $1419.16 to
the mission treasury.

Our Great NEED.— We recently had the pleas-
ure of meeting the Rey. N. J. Bakke, professor in
Immanuel College at Concord, N.C. We were glad
to hear that the College is well attended and that
the work is prospering in spite of many difficulties.
Our great need at present is a new college building.
This is simply a necessity if the work is to be carried
on successfully. May God move the hearts of our
mission friends to enable our Mission Board to carry
out the resolutions of the Synodical Conference in
regard to the erection of a suitable building on the
site secured in Greensboro, N. C. ;