The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 36

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36

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Our First Colored Mission-Station.

When Rev. Doescher, on his tour of inspection
through the Southern States, arrived in Little Rock,
in November, 1877, he found there a population of

Rev. Obermeyer.

about 6,000 Negroes, two-fifths of whom were spiri-
tually uncared for in every way. He stayed at
Little Rock for almost two months and during this
time succeeded in gathering a Sunday-school of
forty pupils and a number of adults, anxious to be
instructed and received into our Church. Pastor
Obermeyer, of the white church, and Teacher
C. Markworth, as well as several members of our
white church in Little Rock, took upon themselves
the responsibility of continuing the work until a
permanent missionary for the colored Lutheran
mission could be found.

The First Permanent Missionary.

Soon after Easter, 1878, the first permanent
worker arrived in the person of Rey. F. Berg, who
had just graduated from our Seminary in St. Louis.
Rey. Berg is now the beloved and respected professor
of theology at our Greensboro college. A few
months after his arrival he was able to organize the
first Lutheran Negro congregation. A suitably
located lot was secured and a church built, which
was dedicated August 18, 1878. On the day of the
dedication of the church the congregation had a
communicant membership of fifteen.

The First Colored Lutheran Mission-School.

Missionary Berg soon opened a Christian day-
school; for, already at that early day it was plain
to all interested in the work that the mission-school
must play a very important part in the missionary
enterprise our Church had embarked upon among
the freedmen of the Southland. On September 16
a day-school was opened with forty-five pupils, and
in a few weeks the missionary had already seventy.
It goes without saying that the teaching of so many
restless children in a small room was no easy task.
The missionary complains in his reports of his wor-
ries, troubles, and sorrows in the schoolroom. ‘Tired,
hoarse, and all broken up, he daily lagged home-
ward, took a few minutes’ rest, and then went about
his other missionary duties, such as looking up new
prospects, visiting the sick and indolent, and prepar-
ing his sermons.

The Missionary Given Help.
The Mission Board soon realized that the young

missionary would in a short while work himself
to death if he were not given assistance, and so

Prof. F. Berg.

Mr. Koenig (the late Pastor and Professor Fr.
Koenig) of the St. Louis Seminary, with the con-
sent of his faculty, offered his services for a period
of three months. How successful the united labors
of the missionary and his able assistant were may
be seen from the fact that by the end of January,