Chapter II: Part 2

Kunze had long been desirous of providing facilities for theological education in this country. Under the bequest of John Christopher Hartwig, he organized in 1797 a Theological Seminary. The theological department was conducted in New York by himself, the collegiate department in Albany and the preparatory department in Otsego County.

One of his students was Strebeck. Another, Van Buskirk, a promising young man, died before he could enter the work. The Mayer brothers, natives of New York, became eminent pastors of English Lutheran churches, Philip in Albany and Frederick in Philadelphia. It was a trying time in which Kunze lived, but he planted seed which still bears fruit.

One event of the eighteenth century seems worthy of spcial [sic] mention, even when seen through the vista of a hundred and fifty years, although at the time it may have attracted little attention. Because of the side light which it throws upon history we permit it to interrupt for a moment the course of our story.

It harks back to the refugees from the Palatinate who emigrated to the west coast of Ireland at the same time that their fellow countrymen under Kocherthal came to New York. Their principal settlements were at Court-Matrix, Ballingran and other places in County Limerick near the banks of the river Shannon. As they had no minister and understood little or no English, in the course of forty years they lost whatever religion they had brought with them from Germany. It came to pass that John Wesley visited these villages. He found the people "eminent for drunkenness, cursing, swearing, and an utter neglect of religion." (Wesley's Journal, II, p. 429.)

Wesley's sermons reminded them of the sermons they used to hear in their far-off German home, and a remarkable revival occurred among them. Subsequently numbers of them followed their countrymen of the preceding generation to New York and some of them joined the Lutheran Church. Among the names to be found on the records of our church are those of Barbara Heck and Philip Embury.

Now some of our ministers, as far back as Falckner in the beginning of the century, belonged to the Halle or Francke school of Lutheranism, and the spirit of our church life at this time, as may be seen from the letters of Muehlenberg in the "Hallesche Nachrichten," was not alien to that which the Palatines had imbibed from John Wesley, himself a product of the Pietistic movement of which Halle was the fountain head. One would suppose that these Palatine immigrants from the west of Ireland might have found a congenial home in the Lutheran Church and contributed to the spiritual life of the congregation. But for some reason they did not. They withdrew from us and helped to organize in 1766 the first Methodist Society in America.

The Methodists of America number seven million communicants. Barbara Heck, Philip Embury and other Palatine immigrants were our contribution to their incipient church life in America.

In the Nineteenth Century 1801-1838

The history of our churches in the nineteenth century may be divided into three periods. The first extends from 1801 to 1838.

At the beginning of the century there were two congregations, the German-English Church on Frankfort Street and the English (Zion) on Pearl Street.

In 1802 two hundred members of the German church who had not united with Zion in 1797 asked for a separate English church. The request was declined, but regular services in English were held in the afternoon with promises of a new church as soon as possible.

In 1804 Strebeck, the pastor of Zion, joined the Episcopalians and subsequently became rector of St. Stephen's Church. Here he was followed in the course of years by a constant procession of his former parishioners. It will be recalled that Zion had not been received into connection with the Ministerium.

In 1805 Ralph Williston was chosen pastor. In 1810 he also became an Episcopalian. Not long after, the entire congregation followed him into the Episcopal fold. The resolution effecting the change read as follows:

"Whereas, many difficulties attend the upholding of the Lutheran religion among us, and whereas, that inasmuch as the doctrine and government of the Episcopal Church is so nearly allied to the Lutheran, and also on account of the present embarrassment of the finances of this church, therefore

"RESOLVED, That the English Lutheran Church with its present form of worship and government be dissolved after Tuesday, the 13th day of March next, and that this Church do from that day forward become a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the present board of officers of this church take every measure to carry this resolve into effect."* *On West Fifty-seventh Street, a few steps from Carnegie Hall, the visitor interested fn Lutheran antiquities may find the stately Episcopal Church of Zion and St. Timothy. It has a membership of 1,300. Its communion vessels still bear the inscription: ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH.

Kunze died in 1807. His successor, Frederick William Geissenhainer of New Hanover, Pa., took charge in 1808 and remained till 1814 when the state of his health compelled him to return to Pennsylvania.

He was succeeded by Frederick Christian Schaeffer of Harrisburg, a gifted man who preached equally well in German and in English. On the tercentenary of the Reformation in 1817 he preached a Reformation sermon in St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Broadway, which attracted widespread attention. A copy is preserved in the New York Public Library.

After twenty years the promise of a separate English church was fulfilled, when in 1822 a large and beautiful structure was erected in Walker Street, just east of Broadway, and placed at the disposal of the English portion of the congregation. It was called St. Matthew's Church. Schaeffer was assigned to the pastorate and Geissenhainer was recalled from Pennsylvania to take charge of the German part of the congregation. New trouble soon developed. The English congregation demanded representation in the Church Council. This the mother church declined to concede, although it is claimed they had agreed to do so when the English congregation was formed. The new congregation was unable to maintain itself, and in 1826 the church was sold for a debt of $14,000, and Pastor Schaeffer resigned. The Walker Street building was bought by Daniel Birdsall who resold it to the mother church. The legal questions at issue in the transaction were taken into court and decided in favor of the mother church.

A son of the pastor, Frederick William Geissenhainer, Jr., was called from Pennsylvania to minister in St. Matthew's Church in English, so long as this could be done without detriment to the German congregation. This continued for three years, by which time a deficit of $5,000 had accumulated.

In the meantime the congregation of Frankfort Street had grown to such an extent that it decided to sell the Old Swamp Church, and move into the spacious building on Walker Street, where it also acquired the name of the English congregation and was thereafter known as St. Matthew's Church. The younger Geissenhainer continued to hold English services in the afternoon until 1840. The senior Geissenhainer served the German part of the congregation until his death in 1838.

After Pastor Schaeffer resigned in 1826 he collected the salvage of the English enterprises and organized a new English church, St. James, which he served until his death in 1831.

Among the major happenings in this period were the Burr-Hamilton duel, the launching of Fulton's steamboat, the introduction of Croton water, the opening of the Erie Canal, the writings of Washington Irving, and the organization of the American Bible Society and the American Tract Society.

Such things as social service, church extension or confessional questions had not yet begun to disturb the churches. Our people had all the time they wanted therefore for controversy on the undying question of the relative importance of the English and German languages. This, as we have seen, led to a lawsuit, the sale of a church and the permanent rupture of a historic congregation. We lost one English congregation, Zion, disbanded another, St. Matthew's, and sent away enough English members besides to constitute St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Chrystie Street.

Such, in brief, is the story of the Lutherans of New York during the first third of the nineteenth century. In the Fatherland great events were taking place and history was making rapid strides. The war of liberation was decided by the battle of Leipzig and the defeat of Napoleon. But the hopes for social and political improvement were disappointed by reactionary movements and economic distress. A new emigration to "the land of unbounded possibilities" began. In 1821-22 it amounted to 531, in 1834-35 it was 25,997. Among the immigrants were many who in various capacities became empire builders in America. But in all that related to the Lutheran church New York at this time took a subordinate place. Philadelphia was the first city of the land. The construction of railroads and the opening of the Erie Canal carried the active and ambitious men far into the interior. The church life of New York still flowed in sluggish currents. After 190 years, from 1648, when the first appeal for a minister was sent to Amsterdam, to 1838, our enrollment consisted of two congregations, the German-English church of St. Matthew, and the English church of St. James.

In the Nineteenth Century 1839-1865

Immigration began to assume large proportions. It did not reach its climax until the following period, but it was sufficiently large to awaken attention. In 1839 21,028 immigrants arrived here from Germany; in 1865, at the close of the Civil War, 83,424. Most of these were bound for the interior, but many who had only stopped to rest a while in New York decided to make this their home.

The East Side became a little Germany and even on the West Side Germans began to appear in increasing numbers.

At the beginning of this period an event occurred, unnoticed at the time, which proved to be the beginning of a great movement, "a cloud out of the sea, as small as a man's hand." In 1839 a thousand exiles arrived from Germany under the leadership of Pastor Grabau. Most of them went to the interior, some to Buffalo, others, the wealthier members, to the neighborhood of Milwaukee. Ten or a dozen families remained in New York with a pastor named Maximilian Oertel. Their services were held in a hall at the corner of Houston Street and Avenue A. Doubtless none of their contemporaries ever dreamed that this insignificant congregation was related to one of the larger movements of church history.

Connecting links were two men whose names I have never seen associated with the story of the Lutherans of New York. One of them was Dr. Benjamin Kurtz of Hagerstown, the other was Frederick William III, King of Prussia. The king had imposed the Union upon the churches of Prussia and imprisoned the pastors who refused to conform. This was the king's part in the movement. Dr. Kurtz had visited Berlin in 1826 in the interest of his educational schemes and in one of his addresses he implanted the microbe of America in the mind of a man who subsequently became a leader of one band of these pilgrims to the promised land. This was Dr. Kurtz's share in the work. Both Kurtz and the king were unconscious instruments in the hands of Providence.

Dr. Kurtz was for a large part of the nineteenth century a distinguished leader in the General Synod. He contributed to the establishment of the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and he was the founder of the Missionary Institute, now the Susquehanna University, at Selinsgrove. He died in 1865. His grave is in the campus of the University of which he was the founder.

But who were these immigrants and how did they come to be exiles? This is another story; but it has to be told, because in the providence of God it is connected with the history of the Lutherans in New York.

In the early years of the nineteenth century there occurred a remarkable religious awakening in Germany. This awakening had much to do with a revival of Lutheranism. It had been greatly strengthened at least by the publication of the Ninety-five Theses of Claus Harms in 1817, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Reformation, and it in turn stimulated the Lutheran consciousness of multitudes who had been carried away by the rationalistic movement of the eighteenth century. The publication of the royal Liturgy in 1822 and the forcible measures of the king in ordering a union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches of the kingdom called forth the staunch opposition of the Lutherans. This ended in a widespread agitation which sent multitudes of families to a land where one of the chief fruits of the Lutheran Reformation, that of religious liberty, could be enjoyed.

The notable thing about the entrance of a few of these people into our New York life was that it injected new ideas into the stagnant mentality of the period. That the men who brought them were brusque and exclusive, was of small account. When Stohlmann, who had recently been called to St. Matthew's Church, visited Pastor Oertel in his attic room, his Lutheranism, with a sly allusion perhaps to the stairs, was promptly challenged by the remark: "You climbed up some other way."

Nor did it matter that on some points the new comers themselves were not agreed? The Prussians, later known as "Buffalonians," led by Grabau, had a hierarchical theory of the ministerial office. The Saxons, later known as "Missourians," led by Walther, had the congregational theory of church government. For a score of years a titanic conflict was waged between these two parties. It ended in a decisive victory for "Missouri." Today "Buffalo" numbers 49 congregations, "Missouri" 3,689.

The Houston Street party in 1839 held hierarchical views. Subsequently they adopted the congregational theory of the church and established in 1843 the first "Missouri" congregation in New York under Pastor Brohm. After several removals the congregation settled at Ninth Street and Avenue B, where it still maintains its place of worship.

The chief field of the "Missourians," as their name indicates, is in the West. And yet in Greater New York they number 51 churches and many more in the suburbs. They maintain numerous missions among special classes. At Bronxville they have a college. They alone of all Lutherans make a serious effort to conduct parochial schools. More than any other variety of Lutherans do they educate their promising young men for the ministry.

But, as has already been intimated, the chief significance of their entrance into New York history is that thenceforth Lutherans had to give an account of their Lutheranism. Whether you agreed with them or not, you had to take sides and give a reason for the hope that was in you. They brought about that "contiguity of conflicting opinions" which is a condition of all progress.

Ten years later a different class of German immigrants came to our city. The Revolution of 1848 had resulted unsuccessfully for the friends of political freedom, and many were compelled to take refuge in America. Some were professional men of ability and high standing, whose contribution to the intellectual life of our city was considerable. Others were only half educated, young men who had not completed their studies in the University, but, intoxicated with the new ideas, had thrown themselves with the enthusiasm of youth into the conflict for freedom. Here they were like men without a country, aliens from the Fatherland, and in America incapable of comprehending a state without a church and a church without a state.

Few of these found their way into the Lutheran churches of New York. They were the intellectuals of the German community and had outgrown the religion of their countrymen who still adhered to the old faith.

Our churches received but little support from this large and influential class. Many of them had long since renounced allegiance to Jesus, and in the free air of America looked upon churches as anachronisms and hearthstones of superstition. Their influence upon the common people and upon the social life of the German community was hostile to that of Christianity. The churches had to get along without them, or rather, in spite of them. There were notable exceptions. But as a rule the "Achtundvierziger" did not go to church.

Still, in spite of their unchurchly views, most of them were unable to shake off wholly the forms of their ancestral religion. There were too many remnants (_superstites_) of the old faith binding them to ancient customs. Independent ministers with no synodical relations, with or without certificate of ordination, or the endorsement of organized congregations, unmindful of the _nisi vocatus_ clause in the Augsburg Confession, helped to maintain the forms of an inherited Christianity by performing such ministerial acts as were required by the people. At one time these free lances were quite numerous. At present no representatives survive in New York.

But there was another class of immigrants that came to us from the Fatherland. They, too, sought to escape from political and economical conditions that had rested like an incubus upon a divided country for centuries. But they brought with them a spirit of Christian aspiration and the ripe fruit of a traditional Christian culture which became a priceless contribution to our own church life. They were men and women from all corners of Germany, who had come under the inspiration of the religious awakening to which reference has already been made. They became leading workers in our congregations and Christian enterprises. We, whose privilege it was to minister to them, knew well that we were only reaping where others far away and long ago had sown.

The inability of the Lutheran Church to supply an adequate ministry for this vast immigrant population left the way open also for other Protestant churches to do mission work among the lapsed members of our communion.

A number of churches were established where services in the beginning were held in the German or Scandinavian languages. Through Sunday Schools and other agencies many Lutheran children were gathered into their congregations where they and their children are now useful and honored members of the church. A goodly number of eminent ministers in various non-Lutheran Protestant churches of this city are the children or grandchildren of Lutheran parents.

With this general outlook over the period, let us take up the thread of our story.

On the death of the elder Geissenhainer in 1838, Karl Stohlmann, a native of Schaumburg Lippe, was called from Erie, Pennsylvania, to be his successor. For thirty years the pastor of the Walker Street Church was an important figure among the Lutherans of this city. The scope of this book will not permit an adequate account of his labors. He died on Sunday morning, May 3d, 1868, just as his congregation was entering a larger house of worship at the corner of Broome and Elizabeth Streets.

Dr. Geissenhainer, Jr., retired from the English work of St. Matthew's Church in 1840 and organized a German congregation, St. Paul's, on the west side, which he served as pastor until his death in 1879 in the 82d year of his age.

On the East Side, Trinity was organized in 1843, St. Mark's in 1847, St. Peter's in 1862, Immanuel, in Yorkville, in 1863, and St. John's in Harlem in 1864. On the West Side St. Luke's was established in 1850, St. John's in 1855 and St. Paul's in Harlem in 1864. The first Swedish congregation, Gustavus Adolphus, was organized in 1865.

Within the present limits of Brooklyn six German and one English churches were established during this period. On the territory of each of the other boroughs, Bronx, Queens and Richmond, two German churches came into being.

After the Revolution of 1848 in Germany, immigration to America increased by leaps and bounds, and within the time under review New York was referred to as the fourth German city in the world. But the Germans, as we have seen, did not all go to church. The existing churches, it is true, were well filled, but a large proportion of the population, torn from the stable environment of their homeland life, and transplanted into the new conditions of a crowded city, failed to respond to the claims of their ancestral religion.

In our church polity there was no adequate provision for the needs of such an immense and ever expanding population. Now and then a broadminded pastor would encourage the planting of a church in some needy field, but too often the establishment of a new mission was looked upon as an encroachment on the parochial rights of the older congregation. At this point in the congregational polity of our church the absence of a directing mind and a unifying force was sorely felt.

The condition of immigrants at the port of New York was for many years a public scandal. In 1847 the State of New York appointed Commissioners of Immigration. Under the Act of March 3, 1891, the Commissioner was appointed by the Federal Government.

Before this was done, the helpless immigrants were the prey of countless vampires, chiefly in the form of "runners," agents of boarding houses and transportation companies. These pirates of the land exacted a heavy toll from all foreigners who ventured to enter our city by way of the steerage.

In 1864 Robert Neumann, who had been a co-laborer with Gutzlaff, a pioneer missionary in China, established an Immigrant Mission at Castle Garden and succeeded in awakening an interest in this cause.

A few years later, in the subsequent period, the churches took up the question of providing for the needs of the immigrants.

The Deutsches Emigrantenhaus was incorporated in 1871. Pastor Wilhelm Heinrich Berkemeier became the first housefather. His unflagging zeal gave strong support to a much-needed work of love. His venerable personality was a benediction to his contemporaries.

In the course of the years eight Lutheran Immigrant Houses and Seamen's Missions have been established at this port and are doing effective Christian work.

Toward the close of this period, in 1864, a seed was planted on the Wartburg near Mount Vernon which has grown to be a great tree.

Peter Moller, a wealthy layman, had met with a great sorrow in the death of his son. He was planning to expend a large sum for a monument in memory of this son, when Dr. Passavant, an eminent worker in behalf of invalids and orphans, called upon him, perhaps with the hope of obtaining a contribution for some of his numerous charities. To him Mr. Moller confided his purpose. It did not take long to outline the plan of a nobler memorial than the proposed shaft in Greenwood. With $30,000 a hundred acres of land were bought and a house of mercy was established which for fifty years has been a blessing not only to the orphans who have been sheltered and trained there, but also to the churches of New York that have been privileged to contribute to its support.

Its first housefather was George Carl Holls, one of the brethren of Wichern's Rauhe Haus near Hamburg. In 1886 he was succeeded by Pastor Gottlieb Conrad Berkemeier, who with the help of his wife, Susette Kraeling, has brought the institution to a position of great prosperity and usefulness.

In the Nineteenth Century 1866-1900

Three factors combined to make this period eventful in our history: confessionalism, immigration and the transportation facilities that led to a Greater New York.

At the close of the Civil War we had 24 Lutheran churches on the territory now included in Greater New York. Two of these were English and the rest were German. At the close of the century the record stood: Yiddish, 1; English, 17; Scandinavian, 19; German and German-English, 60.

The tide of confessionalism which had been rising in Europe for half a century touched America in the forties and reached a high water mark during the period under review. The question of subscription to the symbols of the Book of Concord became the chief subject of discussion among our theologians.

In 1866 a number of pastors and churches, under the leadership of Pastor Steimle, severed their connection with the Ministerium for confessional reasons. They formed a new synod which adopted all the Confessions and took a firm stand in opposition to membership in secret societies.

The "Steimle" Synod, as it was usually called, disbanded in 1872, its members going, some to the Missouri Synod, others to the Ministerium. Their organ, the Lutherisches Kirchenblatt, was merged with the Lutherischer Herold.

Pastor Steimle died in 1880. He was a devout man, a rugged personality, beloved by his people and esteemed by his colleagues. His congregation in Brooklyn, now served by the pastors Kraeling, father and son, is one of the strong churches of the city.

One of the early members of the congregation, whose support meant much for his pastor, was Jacob Goedel. He subsequently returned to Germany and spent his latter years in the city of Koeln on the Rhine.

In 1888 I spent a memorable week in Koeln. The history of the city antedates the Christian era. Its cathedral is a fane of wonderful beauty. In the Reformation Koeln joined the Lutheran forces and for eighty years two of its archbishops were Lutheran pastors. The "Consultation" of Archbishop Hermann is one of the liturgies of the Lutheran Church. It played a prominent part in the construction of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Owing to political jealousies among the Protestants, the fortunes of war restored the city and the cathedral to the Catholics. Until recent times Protestantism was an almost negligible force in Koeln. At the time of my visit the Protestant Churches were very efficient in all kinds of religious and social work and had an influence in the City Council out of all proportion to their numbers. Inquiring into the reason of this change I was told that it was largely owing to the labors of a man by the name of Jacob Goedel who had come to them from America and had introduced American methods of church work into Koeln.

In 1867 another synodical split took place. The New York Ministerium separated from the General Synod on confessional grounds and took part in the organization of the General Council. Thereupon most of the English-speaking members, occupying a milder confessional basis, left the Ministerium, formed the Synod of New York and united with the General Synod.* *The author's connection with the work in New York began about this time. After graduation at Yale College in 1865, he found employment in a New York library, and soon after matriculated as a student in Union Theological Seminary. The needs of Protestant Germans on the East Side attracted him into mission work which resulted in the formation of a congregation of which he took pastoral charge upon his ordination by the Synod of New York, October 19th, 1868.

The lines of three synodical bodies, General Council. [sic] General Synod and Synodical Conference, that is "Missouri," were now distinctly drawn and for the rest of the century the relations of Lutheran ministers and churches were sharply defined. Ministers were kept busy in explaining the differences, but it is to be feared that some of the laymen did not always understand.

In 1868 members of St. James Church, who sympathized with the attitude of the General Council in favor of a stricter confessional basis, organized a new English congregation, Holy Trinity, of which Dr. Krotel became the first pastor. Dr. Wedekind was called to St. James. Both men, pastors of English congregations, had come from Germany in their early youth, were educated in American schools and were thoroughly acquainted with American institutions. For a generation these two men, each in his own sphere, on opposite sides of a high synodical fence, contributed much to the growth and progress of the churches in this city.

Immigration from Lutheran lands continued to increase and reached its high water mark in this period.

Prior to 1867 there were few Swedes in New York. In 1870 they numbered less than 3,000. The immigrants were chiefly farmers who settled in the West. In 1883 large numbers began to come from the cities of Sweden and these settled in the cities of the East. In 1900 the census credited New York with 29,000 Swedes. In 1910, including the children, there were 57,464, of which 56,766 were Protestants.

The first Swedish Lutheran church was organized in 1865 by Pastor Andreen who had been sent here for this purpose by the Augustana Synod. Among the first trustees was Captain John Ericsson, the inventor of the Monitor. Its first pastor was Axel Waetter, a cultured minister of the Swedish National Church.

At present there are fourteen Swedish Lutheran churches in New York reporting a membership of 8,626 souls.

An Immigrant House in Manhattan, a Home for the Aged and an Orphans' Home in Brooklyn, and Upsala College in Kenilworth, N. J., represent the institutional work of the Swedish Lutherans.

To Pastor Lauritz Larsen I am indebted for the following sketch of our Norwegian churches:

"The Norwegians have always been a sea-faring people and a people looking for fields of labor all over the World. The real immigration begins about 1849, but there were Scandinavians on Manhattan Island in the Sixteenth Century. The Bronx is named after a Danish farmer, Jonas Bronck.

"I believe that the first Norwegian Lutheran Church in New York was organized by Lauritz Larsen, then Norwegian Professor in Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, who stopped here for a while on his way to and from Norway in the early sixties. The first resident pastor was Ole Juul, who came to New York in 1866 and labored here until 1876, when he was succeeded by Pastor Everson, who was actively engaged as pastor in New York and Brooklyn from 1873, until 1917, when failing health compelled him to retire.

"At present, the Norwegian Lutheran churches of Greater New York are carrying on an active and aggressive work. Their total membership is not as large as it might be. Partly because the Norwegians coming here from the State Church do not at once realize the importance or necessity of becoming members of local congregations, but have the idea that as long as they attend services, have their children baptized and confirmed, and so forth, they are members of the church. The report of the membership of the churches is therefore, hardly a correct indication of the number of people reached or even the strength of the Norwegian Lutherans in the Metropolis.

"The language question is one of great difficulty. Many of our people live, as it were, with one foot in Norway and one in America; and are thinking of returning to the old country at some time or other. There is also a constant influx of new people from Norway which makes it imperative to have Norwegian services constantly. On the other hand, the young people are rapidly Americanized and prefer to use the language of the country, which necessitates English work, and where this demand is made, the young people are, generally speaking, quite loyal to their church, but it is no easy matter to satisfy both elements and to keep the old and the young together in the same church.

"The Norwegians have been very active in Inner Mission and Social Service work. As witness: the organization of the Norwegian Lutheran Deaconesses' Home and Hospital about thirty years ago. This institution has now grown to be the largest Norwegian charitable institution in the country and has a splendidly equipped modern hospital and an excellent Sisters' Home, which together represent a value of $500,000. It is not owned by a church, but is owned and controlled by a corporation of Norwegian Lutherans.

"The churches have directly been engaged in Inner Mission work for a number of years, and now have three city missionaries constantly at work. The institutions conducted by this branch of the service are the Bethesda Rescue Mission at Woodhull St., Brooklyn, the Day Nursery at 46th St., Brooklyn, and an extensive industrial plant also in Brooklyn. Besides the Inner Mission has purchased land on Staten Island and erected a cottage there for a summer colony for poor children. The Norwegians of New York have also built a modern Children's Home at Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Although this is not owned by the church, but by a corporation of Norwegians, its constitution provides that the religious instruction should be based upon Luther's Small Catechism. The Home is now taking care of sixty children, and is in charge of a Deaconess from the local mother house mentioned above. A new Inner Mission Agency was started two years ago when the late C. M. Eger bequeathed a large sum of money for the establishment of the Old People's Home in connection with Our Saviour's Lutheran Church. At present it is located in his former home, 112 Pulaski Street, and will, no doubt, be of great importance for our church work in the future."

The statistics of the Scandinavian churches are presented in part in the following table. The figures of the first and second lines are taken from the United States Census of 1910. They include the children where one or both parents are of foreign descent. Those of the third line are obtained by deducting 10 per cent. from the number of Protestants, in the second line. The number of "souls," fourth line, is the aggregate number of baptized persons, old or young, connected with or related to the respective congregations.

Swedes Norwegians Danes Finns Total
1. Population 53,464 34,733 13,197 10,304 116,698
2. Protestants 56,766 33,344 11,996 10,304 112,410
3. Lutherans 51,090 30,010 10,797 9,274 101,171
4. Souls 8,365 10,433 950 2,540 22,288
5. Communicants 3,829 2,152 422 840 7,643
6. No. of Churches 13 12 3 3 31

Prior to 1871 Germans were a negligible quantity in the political history of Europe. Divided into a multitude of tribes, with divergent interests, for centuries they had no political standing and were the football of the nations around them. From Louis XIV to the Corsican invader, except during the reign of Frederick the Great, their history was one of political incohesion and economic poverty.

Even in New York they were looked upon as aliens in the city which they had helped to found and where in three centuries their sons had stood in the forefront of the battle for freedom. The names of Jacob Leisler, of the seventeenth century, Peter Zenger of the eighteenth century, Franz Lieber and Karl Schurz of the nineteenth century are indelibly inscribed among the champions of freedom in America. Yet fifty years ago "Dutch" in New York had almost the same evaluation that "Sheeny" and "Dago" have today.

In 1871 the divergent fragments of the German people, after many futile experiments in their history, at last attained national unity. The Germans of New York celebrated the event with a procession which made a deep impression upon the city. From that day forward they were no longer held below par in popular estimation. This became manifest in the success of their efforts in the field of social and religious work. Thirty German churches were added to the roll before the close of the century.

The completion of the Elevated Lines in 1879 and the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 changed the course of history for our Lutheran congregations. For decades the ever-increasing hosts of immigrants had been interned in unwholesome tenements on a narrow island. Now ways of escape were found. Wide thoroughfares led in every direction. The churches in Brooklyn and Bronx grew rapidly in numbers and in strength.

It was hard for those of us who still held the fort on Manhattan Island to see the congregations we had gathered with painstaking effort scattering in every direction, especially to lose the children and the grandchildren of our faithful families. But when we saw them in the comfortable homes and open spaces of the suburbs, who could wish them to return to the hopeless atmosphere of the tenements? From this time forward the churches of the surrounding boroughs grew rapidly, largely at the expense, however, of the churches of Manhattan.

From 1881 to the close of the century Bronx added nine churches, Richmond five, Brooklyn and Queens thirty-two to the roll. Manhattan, it is true, also added eleven churches, but they were all above Forty-second Street, most of them far uptown.

The tenth of November, 1883, was a red letter day in our calendar. It was the quadricentennial of Luther's birthday. The preparations for the celebration met with a hearty response in the city. The large dailies gave much space to the occasion. Dr. Seiss delivered a memorable address in Steinway Hall. Under the auspices of the Evangelical Alliance a distinguished company gathered in the Academy of Music and heard William Taylor and Phillips Brooks deliver orations of majestic eloquence.

The celebration gave a marked impulse to our church work. Our congregations increased in numbers and in influence. Its chief value was in its efeet [sic] upon the young people. Hitherto they hardly comprehended the significance of their church. Its services were conducted in a language which they understood with difficulty. As they grew up and established new homes in the suburbs where there were few churches of their faith, they easily drifted out of their communion. A great change came over them at this time. They began to take an active interest in church questions and in church extension. As they followed the inevitable trend to the suburbs they connected themselves with churches of their faith or organized new ones and became active workers in them. The remarkable increase of congregations in the entire Metropolitan District was to a large extent owing to the impulse derived from the quadricentennial of 1883.

When Lutherans of various churches and synods were thus brought together there was one thing that puzzled them. They could not understand why there should be so many kinds of Lutherans and why they should have so little to do with one another. This feeling soon found expression in the organization of societies of men interested in the larger mission of the Church.

In 1883 the Martin Luther Society was organized by such laymen as Arnold J. D. Wedemeyer, Jacob F. Miller, John H. Tietjen, Jacob A. Geissenhainer, George P. Ockerhausen, Charles A. Schieren, John H. Boschen and others, originally for the purpose of preparing a suitable celebration of the Luther Quadricentennial. In this effort they were successful. In addition to their local work in the interest of the celebration they secured the erection of a bronze statue of Luther in Washington.

But the chief reason for the organization of the Society was indicated in a letter sent to the pastors and church councils of the Lutheran churches of New York and vicinity which read in part as follows:

"In view of the efforts made all around us to bring about a closer and more harmonious relation between the various Protestant denominations, the Martin Luther Society of the City of New York respectfully begs you to consider whether the time has not come to make an effort to bring about, if not a union, at least a better understanding and more fraternal intercourse between the Lutherans themselves. We all deplore the divisions that separate us; we believe that the reasons for these divisions are more imaginary than real, and we are persuaded that a free and frank interchange of opinions will materially help to remove whatever obstacles may be in the way.

"We surely recognize the fact that our Lutheran Church does not command that influence or maintain that position in this city and vicinity which its history, purity of doctrine and conservative policy entitles it to; and we may be sure that just so long as our divisions continue, loss of membership and prestige, increasing weakness, and final disaster, will be our lot.

"Brethren, in unity is strength. Earnestly desiring to do what we can to bring it about, we ask the pastors of our Church and their church officers to take this important matter into consideration, and to take steps to participate in a meeting in this behalf which the Martin Luther Society proposes to hold on Tuesday evening, January 22d, 1889, in the hall of the Academy of Medicine, No. 12 West 31st Street, in this city."

The annual banquet of the Martin Luther Society was an important function. Distinguished speakers lifted high the banner of Lutheranism, and good fellowship began to be cultivated among the representatives of churches and synods hitherto unacquainted with each other. Nearly all of its members have passed on and the Society is only a memory among a few survivors of those who shared its genial hospitality and recall the kindly fellowship of its meetings. The Martin Luther Society blazed the trail for the wider path on which we are walking today, and it deserves to be held in honored remembrance.

A few years later, in 1888, the younger men caught the inspiration and established The Luther League. The organization soon extended to other parts of the State and subsequently to the entire country. It has splendidly attained its objective, that of rallying and training the young people in the support and service of the church. Its official organ, The Luther League Review, is published in this city under the editorship of the Hon. Edward F. Eilert. Eleven hundred members are enrolled in the local Leagues of New York City.

The first practical attempt of the ministers to get together was in the organization of "Koinonia." This took place in the home of the writer in 1896. The society meets once a month for the purpose of discussing the papers which each member in his turn is required to read. Representing as it does Lutherans of all kinds, species and varieties, it serves as a clearing house for the theological output of the members. It has been helpful in removing some of the misunderstandings that are liable to arise among men of positive convictions.

On the third Sunday in Advent, 1898, Sister Emma Steen, of Richmond, Indiana, the first Lutheran deaconess to engage in parish work in New York, was installed in Christ Church. She had received her preparation for this ministry in the motherhouse at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, and was one of the first six sisters to enter the motherhouse of the General Synod in Baltimore. After four years of faithful service she was succeeded by Sister Regena Bowe who has now for fifteen years by her devoted work illustrated the value of the female diaconate in the work of our churches in New York. Deaconeses are now laboring in seven of our churches. They are needed in a hundred congregations.

The revival of this office is due to the genius and zeal of Pastor Fliedner who established the first motherhouse at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine in 1833. In America there are eight motherhouses with an enrollment of 378 sisters.* *In 1885 the author was appointed chairman of a committee of the General Synod to report on the practicability of establishing the office of deaconess in the parish work of our American churches. In pursuit of information he visited the principal Deaconess Houses of Europe. His reports were published in the Minutes of the Synod from 1887 to 1897 and contributed to the introduction of the office into the Synod's scheme of church work.

The years under review, the closing period of the nineteenth century, were years of stress and storm in our synodical relations. But the questions that divided us did not stop the practical work of the synods. Under the stimulus of a generous rivalry some things were accomplished and foundations were laid for still larger work in the new century.

In the Twentieth Century 1900-1918

Our churches entered the twentieth century with hope and cheer. With an enrollment of 94 congregations in the greater city and an advance patrol of many more in the Metropolitan District, it had become an army of respectable size among the forces striving for the Christian uplift of our city.

What a contrast between this picture and that of our church at the beginning of the nineteenth century! Then two moribund congregations were feebly holding the fort. One of these soon surrendered, "on account of the present embarrassment of finances." Now a compact army had already been assembled, while new races and languages were beginning to reinforce our ranks. Even the English contingent, which had so long maintained an unequal fight, was securely entrenched in four boroughs with seventeen congregations on its roll.

At this writing, in May, 1918, we number in Greater New York 160 churches with an enrollment of sixty thousand communicant members. At the close of the nineteenth century, in 1898, we had 90 churches with 43,691 communicants. The rate of increase in twenty years was 35 per cent., not very large but sufficiently so to awaken favorable comment from Dr. Laidlaw, an expert observer of church conditions in this city. In 1904, in an article in "Federation," on "Oldest New York," he wrote as follows:

"There are now over fifty Christian bodies in this city, and "Oldest New York's" history shows the fatuity of expecting that the heterogeneous population of the present city will all worship in the same way within the lifetime of its youngest religious worker. Man's thoughts have not been God's thoughts, nor man's ways God's ways, in the mingling of races and religions on this island. The Lutheranism that so sorely struggled for a foothold in the early days is now the second Protestant communion in numbers, and its recent increment throughout Greater New York, contributed to by German, Scandinavian, Finnish and many English Lutheran churches, has exceeded that of any other Protestant body."

The causes which contributed to our progress in the latter part of the nineteenth century were still effective. The consolidation of Greater New York, bringing together into one metropolis the scattered boroughs, marked the advent of a Greater Lutheran Church in New York. The bridges and the subways, the telephone and the Catskill Aqueduct, public works of unprecedented magnitude, were among the material foundations of the new growth of our churches.

We were beginning to reap in the second and third generations the fruits of the vast immigration of the nineteenth century.

A new era began for the use of the English language. There had been a demand for English services as early as 1750, but in the eighteenth and the greater part of the nineteenth centuries it had not been met. Fifty years ago, with its two churches, and even twenty-five years ago with four churches, English was a forlorn hope. The advance began in the last decade of the 19th century when twelve English churches were organized. In 1900 there were seventeeen English churches on the roll. Since then 32 have been added, five in Bronx, fifteen in Brooklyn, eleven in Queens, one in Richmond. Besides these forty-nine churches in which the English language is used exclusively, almost all of the so-called foreign churches use English to a greater or less extent as the needs of the people may require.

But there was a deeper reason for the growth of our church. Ever since the Luther Centennial of 1883 the young people of our churches had begun to understand not only the denominational significance of their church but also something of its inner characteristics and life. In various groups, in Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn, they got together and organized English congregations in which an intelligent Lutheran consciousness prevailed.

The Home Mission and Church Exension Boards of the General Synod recognized the importance of the moment in the metropolis of America and gave their effective aid. In Brooklyn and Queens the work received large support from Charles A. Schieren and the Missionary Society with which he co-operated. Sixteen churches were established through the aid of this Society. Schieren was a native of Germany but he early saw the importance of reaching the people in the language which they could best understand. As a citizen he was public spirited and progressive. From 1894 to 1895 he was mayor of Brooklyn.

The pastors of these incipient congregations were men of vision who had been attracted to the work in New York by its difficulty and its opportunity. They came from different seminaries and synodical associations and they had to minister to congregations in which all varieties of the older churches were represented. But they soon learned to cooperate with one another in measures looking to the larger interests of the entire field. Team work became possible. A stimulus was given to the work such as had never before been felt in the Lutheran churches of New York.

A Ministers' Association, to which all Lutheran pastors of the Metropolitan District, are eligible, was organized in 1904. Its monthly meetings brought about a mutual understanding and fostered a fraternal spirit that have been of great value in the promotion of the general work of the church.

The synod of New York and New England, composed of the English churches of the New York Ministerium was organized in 1902. It found its special mission in planting and rearing English missions in the new sections of the greater city. It has added nine English churches to the roll.

The Synod of New York, a merger of the New York and New Jersey, the Hartwick and the Franckean synods also devoted itself to the special task of caring for the English speaking young people. Under its auspices thirteen new churches have been organized. To the indefatigable labors of its Superintendent of Missions, Dr. Carl Zinssmeister, much credit is due for the success of the work.

The Synod of Missouri, although largely a German body, rivals the other synods in its fostering care of the English work. At least thirteen English congregations in this city have been organized by "Missouri" since the beginning of this century.

The relation of the various boroughs to the growth of the church may be seen from the following figures in which the number of communicants in 1918 is compared with that of 1898.

Boroughs 1898 1918 Increase
Manhattan 21,611 15,928 5,683*
Bronx 2,048 5,932 3,884
Brooklyn 17,405 28,270 10,865
Queens 1,671 7,139 5,468
Richmond 956 1,948 992
43,691 59,217 15,526
*Decrease

The starred figures for Manhattan call attention to the change of population that has taken place in New York, particularly as it affects Manhattan. While the total increase of population in New York from 1910 to 1915 was 667,928 there was a decrease in Manhattan of 193,795.

This decrease in numbers, and still more the substitution of Catholic and Jewish peoples to an unprecedented extent for those of Protestant antecedents, produced a marked change in the membership of Protestant churches. The decline in Protestant membership in Manhattan from 1900 to 1910, according to Dr. Laidlaw, amounted to 74,012.

It is not surprising therefore that the Lutheran churches were called upon to bear their share of the loss. As we have seen, it amounted in two decades to 5,623 [sic]. Most of this deficit, 4,042, is chargeable to the churches south of Fourteenth Street, where Protestants of all denominations fail to hold their own. The balance, 1,837, came from other churches south of Forty-second Street.

Three churches were added during the past twenty years, Our Saviour (English) in 1898, Holy Trinity (Slovak) in 1904 and a mission of the Missouri Synod in 1916 in the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood, the most northern point thus far occupied by us on Manhattan.

For three churches gained there is an offset of four churches lost: Bethlehem in East Sixty-fifth Street, Christ Church in West Fiftieth Street, Immanuel in East Eighty-third Street and the Danish church in Yorkville. The Danish church removed to Bronx while the others effected mergers with sister congregations.

The present indications are that we have come to a standstill on Manhattan Island and that it is no longer a question of how many churches we shall build, but how many we shall lose.

Our assets at present may be described as follows: We have thirty congregations, twenty-six of them owning their houses of worship. The net value of their property, deducting debts, is $3,160,000. The average value of each church is $100,000. Besides the thirty organized congregations there are seven missions in which services are maintained in the following languages: Finnish, Lettish, Esthonian, Polish, Italian and Yiddish.

The number of communicants is 15,978. The number of pupils in the Sunday Schools is 7,245. The number of children in eight parochial schools is 669. The number attending instruction in religion on weekdays, including catechumens, is 1,580.

But although our churches in Manhattan are declining in numbers while those of the other boroughs are growing, Manhattan still holds the key to the city. For generations it will be the community in which the most serious problems of church and society will have to be studied and solved. Manhattan has strategical value not merely for Greater New York but for every city in the land where similar problems must be solved. If our churches run away from such a field, we shall never gain a victory else where. If we win here, we shall be entitled to a place in the legion of honor.

Four higher schools connected with the churches of New York have endeared themselves to the hearts of their friends and are giving promise of growing usefulness.