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FOR CONSCIENCE’S SAKE: THE 1839 EMIGRATION OF THE SAXON LUTHERANS A DISSERTATION IN History and Religious Studies Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by LANI MARIE KIRSCH B.S., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1972 M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1999 Kansas City, Missouri FOR CONSCIENCE’S SAKE: THE 1839 EMIGRATION OF THE SAXON LUTHERANS Lani Marie Kirsch, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2013 ABSTRACT This study traces the assimilation process of more than six hundred Saxon Lutherans who migrated to Perry County, Missouri, in 1839. As one of the few groups in the nineteenth century who chose to move to the United States because of religious persecution, their history is a unique part of American religious and immigration history. Arriving during the antebellum period, the immigrants faced the unique challenges of the young American republic, which would include the trauma of the nativist movement, frontier-type conditions on the land they purchased in Perry County, the institution of slavery, and the growing tension between North and South while living in a volatile border state. Their situation was further complicated by the distinctive nature of the German- American community, which was deeply divided along religious lines, due to the anti-faith stance of German liberals. Because the latter controlled the German-American newspapers, their opposition to the Saxons was widely known. In essence, the conflict over religion that they experienced in Saxony followed them to the United States, although it came from iii within their own immigrant community and not from Americans. This situation was aggravated by the discovery of the deceitfulness of their once-respected leader, Pastor Martin Stephan. This proved to be a watershed moment for the laity, who emerged with a stronger voice in their churches. The study focuses on their lives as they maintained their language in school and church and parts of their culture and also embraced the responsibilities of citizenship in the United States. iv APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies have examined a dissertation titled “The 1839 Emigration of the Saxon Lutherans,” presented by Lani M. Kirsch, candidate for the Interdisciplinary Ph.D., and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee Diane Mutti Burke, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of History Gary Ebersole, Ph.D. Department of Religious Studies Andrew Bergerson, Ph.D. Department of History Matthew Osborn, Ph.D. Department of History Craig Prentiss, Ph.D. Department of Religious Studies v CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 2. A TIME OF CHANGE: FROM THE REFORMATION TO RATIONALISM AND UNIONISM ............................................................ 19 3. THE JOURNEY ...................................................................................................... 55 4. THE POWER AND TRAGEDY OF DECEPTION ............................................... 97 5. TRIALS, TEARS, AND PERSEVERANCE ........................................................ 136 6. AMERICAN POLITICS AND THE COMPLEXITIES OF THE GERMAN IMMIGRANT RESPONSE ........................................... 186 7. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................... 230 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................ 239 VITA ................................................................................................................................ 258 vi ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Martin Stephan ............................................................................................................... 3 2. Tower Rock ............................................................................................................... 137 3. 1990 Federal Census Map of Perry County ............................................................... 138 4. Concordia Seminary Teachers and Wives ................................................................. 142 5. Saxon Landing Place Plaque ..................................................................................... 151 6. Site of Communal Shelters ........................................................................................ 156 7. Christiane Loeber’s Log Cabin & College, 2013 ...................................................... 160 8. Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther .............................................................................. 187 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful to the special people who helped make this study possible; first of all, my family and friends, who did not give up on me. Many thanks are due to the chair of my committee, Dr. Diane Mutti Burke, who patiently tutored me through this long journey, and to the other members of my committee. Thank you also to Laura Marrs, head of the research department at Concordia Historical Institute, who has given me invaluable help with my research questions. I also want to thank Carla Jordan, director of the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum in Altenburg, Missouri, and all the staff and volunteers there who became second family to me as I did my research. viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Having left their native land for conscience’s sake—being persecuted by the Government, on account of their religious opinions—they have come among us; and it is well that they should be allowed the privilege of worshipping God agreeably to the dictates of their own consciences.1 St. Louis Daily Evening Gazette March 5, 1839 “Whoever heard him once,” recounts historian Walter A. Baepler, “if he was not filled with the spirit of scoffing, felt himself moved to the inmost depth of his being, without really knowing how this had come to pass.”2 Pastor Martin Stephan had an innate knowledge of men, challenged the conscience rather than the emotions, gave advice from the Word of God, and frequently comforted those who needed reassurance and encouragement. Saxons who were weary of rationalism and unionism and pontifical sermons attended Stephan’s church, St. John’s Lutheran, in Dresden, Saxony. There they listened as he “set forth the doctrines of sin and grace” with the “ability to comfort and strengthen those who came to him with stricken consciences…”3 On the other end of the spectrum, one of his opponents actually accused Stephan of driving people mad with his teachings. But, to conservative Lutherans, or “Old Lutherans,” he was an answer to their 1 St. Louis Daily Evening Gazette, March 5, 1839. 2 Walter A. Baepler, A Century of Grace: A History of the Missouri Synod, 1847-1947 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1947), 18. 3 Th. Graebner, Lutheran Pioneers I: Our Pilgrim Fathers; The Story of the Saxon Emigration of 1838, Retold Mainly in the Words of the Emigrants, and Illustrated from Original Documents Related to the Emigration (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1919), 4-5. 1 prayers. In the fall of 1838, he gathered over six hundred followers, prepared them to emigrate to the United States, and traveled with them to St. Louis, Missouri. This dissertation covers the factors in early nineteenth century Saxony that prompted conservative Lutherans to emigrate to the United States in an effort to return to the roots of the Reformation church: the rise of rationalism and unionism, non-acceptance of their conservative beliefs by the state-controlled Lutheran church, and their increasing inability to freely oversee their churches and their schools. It also explicates the circumstances of their new lives in St. Louis and the surrounding area—the hardships they faced, the conflict of ideology within the German-American community, and the physical suffering while they adapted to the American environment. The remainder of the dissertation covers the unique process by which the Saxons engaged with American society, including their response to the events leading up to the Civil War. The emigration was instigated primarily by Martin Stephan, a charismatic pastor from Dresden, who promoted the belief that the Old Lutherans (conservative Lutherans) could not remain a true church if they continued to live in Saxony. The true church, in this sense, consists of all who believe, no matter which visible, or physical church building they attend. Believing Stephan was a sincere man of God, more than six hundred believers followed him to the United States. Within three months, Stephan had been exposed as a charlatan, and he was stripped of his power and position by angry and disillusioned congregants. 2 Figure 1. Martin Stephan (1777-1846). Religious freedom was not the prevailing reason most immigrants came to the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century, which is why the Saxon emigration is unique to the study of American religious, immigration, and cultural history. The story