The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 90

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90

On Wednesday morning, 10 a. a1., the final exer-
cises will be held. Dr. H. Nau, president of our
sister school at Greensboro, N. C., has been invited
to deliver the commencement address.

The Sunday Afternoon Club rendered a sacred
program in the college chapel on Sunday evening,
April 13. The feature of the program was a panto-
mime “Rock of Ages.”

The Preparatory School gave an Easter program
on Easter Sunday morning. It was very well pre-
sented and very well received by the audience. The
school will have its closing exercises on May 29
and 30.

The baseball team made a fairly good showing
this season. Considering the material we had to use
and the opposing teams, the season’s record is almost

Prof. P. D. Lehman.

marvelous. Coach Lehman is to be commended for
his fine work.

The Normal Course at Luther College has been
extended to two years. This puts the school in the

junior-college group in the State of Alabama. Presi-_

dent Lynn also reports that a big building program
is planned for Luther College this summer. This is
indeed good news for all of us. O. B. G.

Brief Story of the Polish Congregation
in Colgate, Md.

_It was about 1900, when the tide of immigration
to America started to flow from Poland and the
eastern borders of Central Europe, that group after
group of Polish Lutherans arrived in the United
States and settled in different States. Some went
to Canada. Most of the Polish Lutherans belong to
the branch of Poles called Masurians, who inhabit

living-quarters for the missionary.

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

the country north of Warsaw, extending into Eastern
ond Western Prussia. They embraced the Lutheran
faith in the early days of the Reformation, when
Albert, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order in
Prussia, exchanged the habit and cowl of his order
for princely robes and accepted the Lutheran faith.
From Prussia the teachings of Luther spread deeply
into Poland, along the borders of Brandenburg and
Prussia. The Counter-Reformation swept many of
them into the Roman Catholic fold again, but some
remained true to the Lutheran faith. Those coming
from Prussia joined our German congregations,
being familiar with the German language. But those
coming from the borderlands of Poland, being not
able to speak German, must be taken care of by our
Foreign-tongue Missions, gathered into preaching-
stations and congregations and provided with Polish-
speaking missionaries and pastors.

A number of these Polish Lutherans who came
to this country landed at the immigration station in
Baltimore. Those possessing. some means to pay
their railroad fares went farther to Pennsylvania,
Michigan, Chicago, and Minnesota; but those with-
out such means stranded in Baltimore and found
employment as laborers on the truck-farms near
Baltimore. They were visited by our missionaries
and organized into a congregation. ‘Thus the
Polish mission-congregation in Colgate, Md., was
started. For a number of years the progress of this
congregation was very slow; they were very poor
and most of the time had no resident missionary.
Nevertheless the people were faithful and stuck to-
gether. - By the help of Baltimore congregations one
acre of ground was purchased, and a combination
building was erected, with a hall for worship and
During the war,
attracted by the building activity in the near-by
shipyards and steel mills, many other Polish Lu-
therans arrived and settled in the vicinity.

The congregation, now stronger in numbers,
decided to build a new church. In 1919 a modest
brick building was erected, with a seating capacity
of 200 people and quarters for Sunday-school. This
was financed by the General Church Extension
Board. After the termination of war, on account of
stagnation in shipbuilding’ and other industries,
many left Baltimore, and the congregation decreased
in numbers. But in past years new industries are
coming to Baltimore, and big factories are being
erected in the vicinity. The neighborhood of the
congregation, formerly settled by farmers, is making
room for the workers’ settlements. Therefore the
congregation has good prospects for the future.