The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 59

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Our Early Lutheran Indian Mission
in Michigan.

(Continuced.)

Disappointments and Crosses.

The more Gratiot County, Mich., began to be
settled, the more the Indians withdrew into the
wilderness, where they could still live as their
fathers had lived. Their hatred of the palefaces,
who had disturbed their peace, began to grow.
Church and school attendance became irregular, and
indifference to the preaching of the Gospel was more
pronounced than ever.

Not that there was any personal feeling against
Missionary Miessler and his wife. Not at all. They
were respected and loved as much as ever, and
although the missionary could not but complain of
a growing indifference and tardiness in spiritual
things, nevertheless, when according to God’s wis-
‘dom a heavy cross was laid upon him, his Indian
friends showed in unmistakable fashion their deep
love and affection. In the month of July, 1857, his
beloved wife, who had so faithfully helped him in
his work and had been such a comfort to him in his
hours of distress, was taken from him. , From his
letter to the mission board we have copied the fol-
lowing paragraph: “With a heart bowed down with
grief I am compelled to notify you that it has

pleased Almighty God, according to His wise provi-

dence, to call unto Himself the soul of my beloved
wife, together with that of our little son who was
born after her death. After two days of intense
suffering she left this vale of tears and reached her
heavenly home on the 22d of July. She was faith-
ful to her Lord and Savior unto the last, repeatedly
beseeching Him to grant her forgiveness of her sins.
She partook of Holy Communion shortly before her
end. Her age was twenty-six years. Trusting in
her Savior, who for her sake, too, overcame death
and thus removed the sting and fear of death, she
peacefully passed into her eternal rest. What joy
and happiness is hers! She is resting securely in
Jesus’ wounds, free from all the labor and anxiety
of this present life. But her gain is my loss. And
a great loss it is. Much, very much, has been taken
from me. She was a faithful wife and a tireless
worker for the mission. Her cheerful disposition
and her comforting words often encouraged me
when I was downhearted and distressed, when all
the joy from my work had vanished. She was a
loving mother to her orphaned child. Much, too,
has been taken from the Indians. I had never seen

59

them so moved as they were at the death-bed of their
‘beloved mother’ (that is the name they had given
her). One after the other, men and women, stepped
up to her bedside and with a deep sigh pressed her
hand in sad farewell. Yesterday afternoon we laid
her lifeless body into the quiet grave. Peace unto
her ashes!” Pastor F. Sievers, the chairman of the
mission board, comments on this: “Deeply moved,
the undersigned wishes to remember the love and
faithfulness and good judgment which our departed
sister exhibited in all her actions and dealings.
Her memory will be a blessing to us all.” In that
little Indian cemetery of Bethany lie her remains
together with those of her infant son. A simple
gravestone marks the place.

A New Field is Opened in Minnesota.

In 1856 Synod, in its convention at Detroit,
commissioned Pastors Miessler and Sievers to make
a journey of exploration into the State of Minne-
sota. Synod knew that a large number of Chip-
pewas lived in this State and that among the large
number of immigrants who were rapidly coming
into Minnesota, there were also many Lutherans
without any church connection.

The first stop-over of the missionaries was at
St. Paul and Minneapolis. In the Twin Cities
Pastor Sievers founded a congregation of eight
persons. He also started a preaching-place at a
Lutheran settlement sixteen miles out. Pastor
Miessler continued on his way and presently came
upon an Indian settlement at Rabbit Lake. The
Indians here gladly welcomed the missionary and
even insisted on his giving them a written promise
that he would do what he could to supply-them with
a Christian teacher as soon as possible. Cloeter,
pastor of the Saginaw congregation, accepted the
call to the Minnesota Chippewas in the following
year, and Henry Craemer, a youth of seventeen
years, who in Frankenmuth had learned the Chip-
pewa language, accompanied him as interpreter.
The Indian revolt in the early sixties killed this.
mission. Friendly Indians brought Pastor Cloeter
and family to a place of safety, but the mission-
property was destroyed by the Sioux. Pastor Cloe-
ter then accepted a call to a white congregation.

Two Stations are Discontinued.

It was about this time, too, that the Indian
congregation in Shebayonk fell away from the true
Gospel. ‘The Sebewaing mission had closed its
doors some time. before this because the Indians had
been forced out by the incoming settlers. But in