The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 42

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42 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

has endeared himself to his coworkers and to the
pupils of Luther College.
May God crown his efforts with success! Let
us in our prayers remember him, the faculty as a
whole, and the souls entrusted to our institution.
For His cause! W. B. Serperny, Jr.

The Oldest Lutheran in the World.

In Concord, N. C., we buried an old member
to-day who was probably the oldest Lutheran of our
time — “Uncle” Jimmie Spencer.

If you could have taken a little walk with the
missionary through the colored settlement of Con-
cord on a fine warm day, you would have noticed
an aged colored man, his tall frame bent and
stooped, sitting on the porch of one of our mem-
bers’ homes. Recognizing the pastor, he calls out,
“Come and talk to the old man. He won’t be with
you long any more.” It is old “Uncle” Jimmie.
Gladly we step up to the porch, for a talk with

Uncle Jimmie Spencer.

“Uncle” Jimmie is always interesting. Looking
into his wrinkled face and upon his bent frame,

_ which once must have been powerful, we realize

that we are in the presence of a very old person

“indeed. We ask, “How old are you, ‘Uncle’.

Jimmie?” And the answer comes: “One hundred
and twenty-two years.”

It is true, no records of “Uncle” Jimmie’s age
are at hand, for he was born “away back in slave

Rev. David Koontz.

_ time” yet many stray bits of information indicate

that he is not far out of the way in his judgment.
He tells us that as a lad he held the stirrups for
his “massa” when he rode away to fight the British
at New Orleans. To do this, he must have been at
least eight years old in 1812. Then he tells us how
as a grown man he hauled cotton from Alabama to
Memphis in exchange for wheat and other provi-
sions; for there were no railroads in those days.
He tells us that he was married and had five or
six children before the Emancipation Proclamation
was made. All of which indicates that “Uncle”
Jimmie’s claim of being one hundred and twenty-
two years old is about right.

Then he goes on to tell us how, having come
back to Concord with his family “after the Sur-
render,” he made the acquaintance of Rey. Koontz
and joined the new Lutheran chureh for the colored.
(He remained a member of Grace Church to his
dying day.) :

And now “Uncle” Jimmie’s eyes grow moist,
and his voice trembles, as he gives an account of the
faith that is in him. He tells us the Bible stories
from both the Old and the New Testament. He
recites his favorite hymns, such as: “When I Can
Read My Title Clear to Mansions in the Skies” and
“Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed,” stanza after
stanza, without a mistake. Concluding his witness,
he says: “And God sent His Son into this world,