The Struggle to Establish Lutheranism in 1 ippecanoe County, Indiana, 1826-1850 Henry G. Waltmann”

Tippecanoe was only one of the many counties in early Indiana where the would-be founders of Lutheran churches encountered serious difficulties. There, as in all but a few east- ern and southern parts of the state, several other Christian denominations organized congregations and started to erect church buildings well before the “House of Luther” arrived on the scene.’ Indeed, during its first decade-from 1826 to 1836-Tippecanoe County seemed a particularly unpromising field for a resident ministry representing the oldest of Protes- tant faiths. Nevertheless, by the end of 1850-nominally the close of the pioneer period in Indiana-four pastors were tend- ing six Lutheran or semi-Lutheran congregations and at least one mission in the Lafayette area.2 This striking, hard-won progress evolved from an interplay of personalities, challenges, and events within the Upper Wabash Valley. Because early Lutheran experiences in Tippecanoe County contribute to an explanation of the rise of Indiana’s fifth largest religious group3

* The late Henry G. Waltmann was assistant professor of history, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. The following article was edited for publi- cation after Waltmann’s death on November 9, 1978. Martin L. Wagner, The Chicago Synod and Its Antecedents (Waverly, Iowa, 1909), 3-9; C. Robert Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads of America (Indianapolis, 1948), 14-15; Henry G. Waltmann, ed., History of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod of the Lutheran Church in America: Its Development, Congregations, and Institutions (Indianapolis, 19711, 1-4; Rudolph F. Rehmer, ed., “Sheep without Shepherds: Letters of Two Lutheran Traveling Mission- aries, 1835-1837,” Indiana Magazine of History, LXXI (March, 1975), 21-22. * Richard P. DeHart, Past and Present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana (2 vols., Indianapolis, 1909), I, 151, 174-261; Michael Diehl, Biography of Reu. Ezra Keller, D.D., Founder and First President of Wittenberg College (Springfield, Ohio, 1935). 72-73; see also notes 6, 10, 12, 18, 20 below. Lutherans of all bodies comprise the world’s largest Protestant denomi- nation and are outnumbered by only Roman Catholics, Baptists, and United Methodists in the United States. They have never been as prominent in Indi- ana, however, as in some neighboring states. Superficial statistics for 1850 indicate that the combined seating capacity of Lutheran churches in Indiana Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 29

and also appear to approximate developments throughout the Midwest, they deserve a more systematic examination than heretofore accorded them by denominational historians. A combination of factors slowed the formation of Lutheran parishes in Tippecanoe County, one of the most basic of which was the relatively late and sparse influx of German settlers. Although persons of German ancestry were not of one mind on religious matters, the overwhelming majority of the Hoosier pioneers who joined Lutheran churches were linked to that nationality by birth or marriage. Hence the dramatic increase in Tippecanoe County’s total population, which rose from 7,187 in 1830 to 19,377 in 1850, was not in itself indicative of an improving environment for Lutheran endeavors. The surnames listed by the census takers in 1840 and 1850 suggest that only a small fraction-perhaps no more than a tenth-of the coun- ty’s inhabitants in the 1840s were of German descent. Moreover, just 282 German-born citizens and immigrants were living in the county in 1850, after a decade of massive emigra- tion from the German provinces to the United state^.^ By comparison, the proportion of German-born residents in the Lutheran stronghold of Allen County was then ten times as great.5 Yet the demographic obstacle to Lutheran missions in Tip- pecanoe County was neither as evident nor as persistent in some townships as in others. The bulk of the county’s pioneers were relocated Indianians or Ohioans; a sizeable element hailed from southern states such as Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and Kentucky; and a smaller segment came from eastern states, led by Pennsylvania. Americanized Germans from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and elsewhere homesteaded in the

then trailed, in order, that of the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Chris- tians (Disciples of Christ), Friends, and Catholics. In recent years Hoosier Lutherans have ranked in church membership behind the Catholic, Methodist, Baotist. and Church of Christ -~noups. U.S., Seventh Census. 2850 (Washington,- 18k3), 799-807, 1021-22. 4 US..I. Fifth Census. 2830 (Washineton. 1832). 44-45: ibid.. Seventh Census. 1850, p. 756; ibid., Sixth Census, 1840, population schedules for Tippecanoe County, Indiana (National Archives Microfilm Publication No. M-704, roll 95); ibid., Seventh Census, 1850, population schedules for Tippecanoe County, Indi- ana (National Archives Microfilm Publication No. M-432, roll 175). Elfrieda Lang notes that there were 573,225 German-born people in the United States in 1850 and that 28,584 of them resided in Indiana. Elfrieda Lang, “German Immigration to Dubois County, Indiana, during the Nineteenth Century,” Indi- ana Magazine of History, XLI (March, 1945), 143-44. 5For information concerning the German population in Allen and other counties, see Elfrieda Lang, “An Analysis of Northern Indiana’s Population in 1850,” Indiana Muguzine of History, XLIX (March, 1953), 17-60. 30 Indiana Magazine of History eastern half of the county, principally in Fairfield, Sheffield, Perry, Washington, Wea, and Tippecanoe townships. Lafayette, the centrally located county seat that was platted in western Fairfield Township in 1825, drew many of these emigrants as well as two thirds of the native Germans present in 1850.” Understandably, therefore, certain neighborhoods showed an interest in Lutheranism long before the area west of Lafayette. Another temporary disincentive for the beginning of Lutheran congregations in Tippecanoe County was the prior activity of other Christian bodies. Prominent among these de- nominations were some of the groups most identified with the variety of evangelistic preaching, elemental beliefs, and demo- cratized polities popularized by successive outpourings of the Second Awakening movement of about 1795-1850.7 The Methodists, who dominated Indiana religiously by midcentury, were busy in the county before it was established. Inclined to regard Lutherans as unregenerated subjects for conversion, they rapidly organized congregations in every township and completed the first church edifice in Lafayette in 1830.8 Simi- larly, both the New School Presbyterians, who broke away from a general fellowship inaugurated in Lafayette in 1828, and the Baptists, who organized there in 1832, soon conducted worship services at a number of town and country sites. In addition, the 1830s witnessed the formation of a pair of rural United Breth- ren congregations, the introduction of one or two Quaker meet- ing houses in Union Township, and the founding of three more Lafayette parishes: St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church (1837), St. Mary and St. Martha’s Roman Catholic Church (1837), and First Church of Christ (1839). Meanwhile, little more than occasional preaching by itinerant pastors was avail- able to Lutheran and German Reformed settlers who shared makeshift quarters in and around Perry Township.s A further impediment to the cultivation of Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County was a long-standing shortage of clergymen. In 1816, when Indiana entered the Union, there were only about 150 Lutheran pastors in the United States, and just one of themJohn L. Markert-then lived in the Hoosier state.lo

US., Seventh Census, 1850, population schedules for Tippecanoe County. ’ Clifton E. Olmstead, Religion in America: Past and Present (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1961), 31-88f; William W. Sweet, Revivalism in America: Its Origin, Growth and Decline (New York, 1944). passim; Donald G. Mathews, “The Second Great Awakening as an Organizing Process, 1780-1830: A Hypothesis,” American Quarterly, XXI (Spring, 1969), 23-43. ” DeHart, Past and Present of Tippecanoe County, I, 231-32. Ylbid., 241-61; “Checklist of Disbanded Churches” (Archives, Indiana- Kentucky Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, Indianapolis). 10 Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads, 15-17. Lutheran is rn in Tippecanoe County 31

Twenty years later, despite the extensive use of synodical ap- prenticeships and the gradual addition of seminaries, the sup- ply of ordained ministers still fell far short of demand. At that point not over a dozen active pastors resided in Indiana and attempted, with some outside assistance, to meet the needs of approximately thirty-five scattered congregations. Over the next fourteen years there was more than a fivefold increase in the number of Lutheran pastors in the state,” but a similar multiplication of congregations meant that many parishioners were fortunate if they obtained the part-time services of circuit-riding preachers whose visits were vulnerable to bad weather, poor roads, and disease. Furthermore, a majority of the first ministers depended mainly on secular occupations such as farming, teaching, and the practice of medicine or on sundry trades for the support of their families.12 They could not, there- fore, devote as much time to the administration of their churches as most modern men of the cloth. Even with more German pioneers, less competition, and plenty of full-time pastors, however, it is doubtful that the Lutheran church would have quickly achieved a strong and united ministry in Tippecanoe County. Neither the German- American Lutherans who had been exposed to the religious and cultural influences of their adopted country nor those who came directly from the fatherland to the frontier were theologically homogeneous. The former varied in their opinions on the pri- mary teachings of Martin Luther, on “new measures” such as protracted meetings and “Methodistic” preaching, on the use of English or German in worship, and on inter-Lutheran or Lutheran-Reformed cooperation. The latter, coming from re- gions with “many shadings” of religious thought, included pietists who stressed faith over doctrine, confessional purists who clung to the letter of Luther’s writings, rationalists who considered the church a superstitious social agency, and unionists who favored close ties with members of the German Reformed church. In These diverse positions produced a confus-

II The statistics on pastors and Congregations are based on an extensive review of synodical minutes, county and congregational sources, clerical rolls, and other materials. Approximately 190 Lutheran or part-Lutheran congrega- tions were formed in Indiana before the end of 1850. On the methods used by early synods to train pastors and on the founding of a much-needed seminary in Columbus, Ohio, in 1833, see Willard D. Allbeck, A Century of Lutherans in Ohio (Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1966), 34-36, 70-75. l2 Allbeck, Lutherans in Ohio, 34; Wagner, Chmzgo Svnod, 31, 45-47f. I3 Carl E. Schneider, The German Church on the American Frontier tSt. Louis, 1939). 6-30; Wagner, Chicago Synod. 9-15; Allbeck, Lutherans in Ohio, 15-16. An excellent statement on the heterogeneity of early Lutherans is pre- sented in Alexander J. Imhoff, History of the Euarigrlicczl Lutheran Synod of Miami (Philadelphia, 1893), 15. 32 Indiana Magazine of History ing array of synodical organizations, the missionary efforts of which were often hampered by institutional ~0ncerns.l~ The cause of Lutheranism in west central Indiana was also hurt by a poor public image. Non-Lutherans commonly per- ceived the supporters of this brand of Protestantism as stub- bornly clannish proponents of a “foreign” church. The Luther- ans’ propensity for traditional liturgies, sacramental rites, catechetical instruction, and educated pastors struck some Protestant critics as objectionable “Catholic” traits. In the 1830s and 1840s, when ardent nativists raised vitriolic outcries against new immigrant groups and unleashed special attacks upon incoming Catholics, such accusations were not taken lightly. Moreover, the perpetuation of the German tongue and customs in Lutheran families tended to reinforce the notion that they did not mix well in the social melting pot. Conse- quently, American-born Lutherans who settled in places where they were vastly outnumbered and deprived of regular pastoral guidance were often tempted to change their religious affilia- tion.15 Much of the difficulty of bringing another Christian faith into Tippecanoe County, however, may have been unrelated to creeds or national feelings. Historians and ministers have fre- quently credited the pervasive secularism and materialism of the frontier with jeopardizing all religious operations during the speculative era when virgin forests were giving way to cultivated farms, burgeoning villages, and economic exploita- tion. Early Hoosiers have sometimes been described as “openly defiant unbelievers” and “ungodly cynics,” and undoubtedly a proportionate number of such individuals settled in or near the booming “Star City” of Lafayette.16 According to local histories, enterprises such as the Wabash and Erie Canal (open from Fort Wayne to Lafayette in 1837 and to Terre Haute in 1843)

l4 By midcentury Hoosier Lutherans had been served by pastors from the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium and Synod of Pennsylvania, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the West, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and Adjacent States, the English Evangel- ical Lutheran Synod of Ohio, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Miami, the Evangelical Lutheran Olive Branch Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States-all mentioned below-plus the Illinois, Southwest, and Wittenberg synods and the Evangelical Kirchenverein des Westens. 15Lutheran Observer, May 8, 1835; Allbeck, Lutherans of Ohio, 84-90; Rehmer, “Sheep without Shepherds,” 22; Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads, 15; Ray Allen Billington, The Protestant Crusade (Chicago, 1964), 32-261. l6 Wagner, Chicago Synod, 9; see also Rehmer, “Sheep without Shepherds,” 65-68. Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 33

attracted more than people and money; they also brought vio- lence, disorder, drunkenness, gambling, sabbath breaking, and other vices.17 The extent to which these negative influences limited religious involvement in the county cannot be deter- mined with any exactness, partly because the accounts of im- morality may be exaggerated and partly because there are no reliable statistics on the collective memberships of local churches for the period through 1850. Presumably, however, the level of religious participation was appreciably lower in that era than the 43 percent figure reported in 1967.lS Whatever the odds, there were eventually enough devout, steadfast Lutherans within the county’s mushrooming popula- tion to stimulate a demand for their own spiritual institutions. Initially, those who felt this natural impulse, chiefly farmers and artisans from older states, were too scattered and disor- ganized to have much effect. Perhaps this was one reason why the stay of Andrew Simon, the first Lutheran pastor known to have officiated in Tippecanoe County, was so brief. Simon, who had farmed and served several congregations west of Dayton, Ohio, from 1809 to 1826, performed a wedding in Lafayette in July of 1828. But tradition has it that he turned increasingly to the practice of medicine, while the census reports for 1830 and 1840 show that he lived in Vermillion County in those years.lg Between 1828 and the mid-1830s a growing influx of German-Americans, mostly from Pennsylvania and Ohio, broadened the base for Lutheran development in Tippecanoe County. Some of these newcomers, bearing family names such as Isley, Buck, and Miller, may have worshipped informally in private homes before petitioning the doctrinally conservative Joint Synod of Ohio for pastoral aid. In 1832 John Jacob Gruber of Lewisburg, Ohio, a traveling gravestone cutter and licensed preacher for that body, reported that “five Congrega- tions at the Wabash” were seeking a missionary.20 Since

I’ DeHart, Past and Present of Tippecanoe County, I, 370-71, 414; Jane C. Harvey, comp., History of St. John’s [Protestant Episcopal] Church (Lafayette, 1887), 4. Indiana, State Planning Services Agency, The Indiana Fact Book (Indi- anapolis, 1976), 247. l9 Wagner, Chicugo Synod, 30-31; Lorin L. Spenny et al., Fruits of Faith Alone: The Story of Lutheranism in the Ohio Valley, 1803-1976 (Lima, Ohio, 1977), 6-21; Allbeck, Lutherans in Ohio, 27-30; Marriage Records, vol. I, p. 27 (Tippecanoe County Historical Society, Lafayette, Indiana); U.S., Fifth Census, 1830, population schedules for Vermillion County, Indiana (National Archives Microfilm Publication No. M-19, roll 26); ibid., 1840 (National Archives Micro- film Publication No. M-704, roll 96). 2n U.S., Sixth Census, 1840, population schedules for Tippecanoe County; Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and Adjacent States, Minutes, 1832, p. 15. 34 Indiana Magazine of History

Gruber’s vast circuit reached far into Indiana, where he had founded Zion Lutheran Church in East Germantown (Pershing) in Wayne County in 1822, it is quite possible that he had just completed the first of a number of visits to Clinton and Tip- pecanoe counties. His appearance may have led Stephen Slipher in 1832 to deed an acre of land in northwestern Clinton County to a group of Lutherans and Presbyterians who were seeking a church site. There, four years later, Gruber organized Slipher’s Evangelical Lutheran English and German Reformed Church.” Previously, at about the time of the aforementioned deeding, Gruber supposedly established another Lutheran- Reformed group a short distance down a fork of Wildcat Creek in southeastern Perry Township of Tippecanoe County. Some of t,hat congregation’s infrequent worship services were held in the log Oxford Church, which was erected in 1830 by the Presbyterians.“ But a few sermons now and then by itinerant preachers did not satisfy the spiritual thirst of fervent Lutherans in the Upper Wabash Valley area. When the youthful, newly ordained Ezra Keller toured Indiana for the Missionary Society of the Pennsylvania Ministerium of the Lutheran Church in 1836, he noted the frustrations of his coreligionists in Tippecanoe County. His diary tells of a fall meeting in the “flourishing” town of Lafayette with seven brethren “who despair of getting a minister, and speak of uniting with other Ch~rches.”‘~This, he concluded in a report to the Pennsylvania Ministerium, was one of many places where a missionary would be sorely tested, not only by rival denominations but by a preponderance of unchurched “Nothingarians” who drank, frolicked, danced, feasted, ignored the Lord’s Day, and carried on as “perfect worldlings.” Although he favored religious work in such unin- viting fields, Keller warned that a Lutheran minister who ac- cepted such a call must be prepared “to preach in both lan- guages, to endure privations, to suffer hardships and to labor with patience and hope amidst many discouragement^."^^ If Keller had mixed feelings about the near-term prospects for his church’s efforts in this region, so did local Lutherans

21 C. R. Doty, History of the Fair Haven Lutheran Church in Madison Township, Clinton County, Indiana (Mulberry, Ind., 1936), 1; Wagner, Chicago Synod, 21, 46-47; Allbeck, Lutherans of Ohio, 131; Spenny, Fruits of Faith, 14-38, 295. 22 “Checklist of Disbanded Churches” (Archives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod); Thomas B. Helm, Combination Atlas Map of Tippecanoe County (Chicago, 18781, 24. 2:J Diehl, Biography of Rev. Ezra Keller, 72-73. 24 Lutheran Obseruer, December 14, 1836. Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 35

who observed the events of the next couple of‘ years. On the positive side they were gratified by the growing attention that they received from circuit-riding pastors. Gruber sought them out and preached in various settlements when he came through on his tombstone delivery wagon.2” Occasionally they may also have heard sermons from the patriarchal Pastor John Markert after he moved to Fountain County in about 1836. While f‘arm- ing and serving as the first president of the Indiana Synod, which originated in 1835 as a very orthodox body, Markert did supply preaching for Slipher’s Church and other congrega- tions.2G Under similar circumstances some of the Lutherans who lived near Lafayette became acquainted with the energe- tic, young Indiana Synod pastor, Eusebius S. Henkel of Leba- 11011.~~ A fourth clergyman who sometimes preached in Tippecanoe County after moving to Greencastle in the fall of 1837 was John P. Dagey.2HA former Virginian, Dagey was a member of‘ the Synod of the West (1835-1846), which disagreed with the Indiana Synod on a number of issues. Whereas the Indiana Synod was constitutionally bound to the Augsburg Confession and Luther’s Small Catechism, the Synod of‘ the West simply characterized them as “substantially correct” guidelines. It not only drew criticism from the Indiana Synod for this “indif- ferentism” but also f‘or its affiliation with the federative Gen- eral Synod (founded in 1820), its openness to “new measure’’ ministries, its willingness to commune non-Lutherans, and its support of ecumenical tract, temperance, missionary, and Bible societies.29Still, men like Dagey were convinced that dogmatic adherence to the “Old Lutheranism” of Europe was inapprop- riate to the time and in the region in which they were working. For example, in May of 1838 Dagey exultantly wrote of the

25 U’agner, Chictigo Synod, 46-47. 26 Ihiti., 70-72; Doty, Histwy of Fuir Hotvn Church, 1; Report of the Trans- actions vf the Ei~ungclicci/I,utheran S-vnod of Indiunn. 1835, microfilm t Ar- chives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod). 27 Wagner, Chicago Svnotl. 69-70; Luthernn Ot)sertvr, November 24, 1837; Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, Minutes, 1839, Appendix, p. 11. Henkel was a son of Pastor Philip Henkel. a Tennessee Synod missionary who founded five Lutheran congregations in western and central Indiana in 1830- 1831. 2R Lutheran Ohsert-er, January 1, November 30, 1833, February 8, Novem- ber 7, 1834, May 11, September 28, 1833; Evangclical Lutheran Synod of the West, Proceedings. 1838-1840. Dagey’s last name is spelled “Daggy” in some sources. 29 Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Croxsrouds. 20-21, 30-32; John B. Gard- ner, “The Synod of the West,” Concwdicr Historical Instrtutc, Quarter/,y, I (Janu- ary, 19291, 84-91. 36 Indiana Magazine of History progress of his recently organized Emanuel Church near Craw- fordsville, where many of his baptized and confirmed members were also becoming “converted . . . praying people.” He explained: Our mode of procedure is as follows. 1st. We preach the plain and practical truth contained in the sacred scriptures. 2d. We hold social meetings for prayer; during the intervals of preaching, we have thought it not wrong or disorderly to introduce the “anxious seat” or “mourner’s bench &c. These meetings are characterized by great solemnity and Christian decorum, although sobbing and sighing are audibly uttered by some. . . . We had a communion season last Sabbath: the meeting commenced on the Thursday evening preceding, and ended on Sabbath at 10 o’clock, P.M., and we can say of a truth, the Lord was with us.30 Yet, regardless of their approaches, the preachers who passed through every now and then only made many Lutheran settlers more conscious of what they were missing. Their un- abated desire for regular pastoral leadership was underscored in an informative report which the Reverend Friedrick Wyne- ken submitted to the Executive Committee of the Missionary Society of Pennsylvania in 1839. Wyneken, later a member and critic of the Synod of the West before joining the Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, described the situation in Tippecanoe County in the fall of 1838.31He observed that the residents of settlements near Lafayette were grateful for the preaching of Pastor Daniel Kohler, a fellow mission surveyor who had traveled through the area a few months earlier. He also cited the problems some of these people had recently had with “a certain Schlabach, a cooper by trade,” who posed as a minister. He likewise mentioned the embarrassment and disap- pointment that “a missionary of another synod” (Gruber) had caused by buying an Americus town lot from “Mr. Eisele” (Conrod Isley) at a fraction of current value, then failing to “come back or send another,” as agreed.32 In addition, Wyneken made some personal observations on the feasibility of a six-church, Lafayette-centered charge. Pos- sibly because he had just come from Germany and was more attuned to those who retained his native tongue than Keller had been, Wyneken did not think that the county seat itself

Lutheran Observer, May 11, 1838. 31 Jens Christian Roseland, American Lutheran Biographies; or Historical Notices of Over Three Hundred and Fifty Leading Men of the American Luthe- ran Church, from its Establishment to the Year 1890. . . (Milwaukee, 18901, 867-68; Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the West, Proceedings, 1839-1846. 32 Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, Minutes, 1839, Appendix, pp. 5, 8, 10-11; Deed Book H, p. 535, Deed Book I, p. 338-39, County %corder’s Ofice, Tippecanoe County Courthouse, Lafayette, Indiana. Lutheranism in Tippecanse County 37

was ready for a Lutheran church. But the warm reception he got in other places induced him to envision a circuit which might include rural congregations east and south of Lafayette as well as Slipher’s in Clinton County, Phanuel (founded in 1832) in Fountain County, and Emanuel (1837) and North Union (1834) in Montgomery County.:’:3 During the early 1840s the Lutheran movement in Tip- pecanoe County gathered momentum through a further ac- cumulation of prospective members, the arrival of a first resi- dent pastor, and the formation of two congregations. The quickening pace of settlement and work on the Wabash and Erie Canal prompted Dagey to urge the Synod of the West in 1840 to sponsor missions both in Lafayette and at Hickory Grove, about six miles southwest of the county seat. The second location, also known as Taylor Station, had been made attrac- tive by a donation of land for the construction of a Lutheran house of wor~hip.:’~However, before the Synod of the West found a minister to respond to this opportunity, the Indiana Synod sent John Markert’s newly ordained, twenty-one-year-old son, Elias, into the county. After finding a home near Dayton in Sheffield Township in 1842, young Markert began an event- ful six-year ministry. While overseeing the Slipher’s and Ox- ford congregations, he founded St. Jacob’s Church near Rossville (Clinton County) in 1842, started to preach in 1843 to the future members of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church at Camden (Carroll County), and organized a pair of congregations-Zion and St. Paul’s-in eastern Tippecanoe County.35 Zion of Col- burn began a 116-year ministry on January 5, 1843, and mem- bers soon erected a church on the south edge of that village.36 St. Paul’s, a small group of rural families who gathered at least once a month in homes or schoolrooms near Isley Cemetery in Fairfield Township, was established by the fall of 1843 and remained active for about a decade.37

33 Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, Minutes, 1839, Appendix, p. 10; “Checklist of Disbanded Churches” (Archives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod). 34 Lafayette Free Press, May 10, 1840; Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the West, Proceedings, 1840, p. 18. It is possible that Dagey or his successor, Pastor George Surface, had tentatively organized the Hickory Grove congregation by 1843. 35 Doty, History of Fair Haven Church, 1; Lutheran Observer, January 4, 1850; “Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Colburn,” Disbanded Church Files (Archives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod); Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, Reports, 1842-1843. 36 “Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Colburn,” Disbanded Church Files (Archives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod). 37 St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church folder, Church Files (Tippecanoe County Historical Society); Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, Reports, 1843-1853. 38 Indiana Magazine of History

Before long, though, many of Elias Markert’s parishioners were distressed to learn that their pastor was picking up some decidedly un-Lutheran views. By about 1845 Markert and an- other new pastor, Samuel Good of Boone County, were pliably helping Indiana Synod President Ephraim Rudisill to expound his novel concept of “Destructionism.” Rudisill was a domineer- ing, disputatious leader who had won the admiration of many of his constituents by forcefully defending orthodox Lutheran positions on infant baptism and communion in public debates and published tracts.38 But his theological rebuttal to the entic- ing Universalist doctrine of salvation for all men departed from his own denomination’s stand on eternal damnation for unre- deemed sinners by prophesying the immediate annihilation of lost souls on judgment day.39 When Markert pushed Rudisill’s idea and began questioning related aspects of Luther’s teach- ings, more than a few of his charges perceived him as an heretical “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Signs of this disenchant- ment can be seen in the fact that pastors with opposing views were welcomed to the pulpits of churches such as Zion of Col- burn well before Markert moved to southern Indiana in the fall of 1848.40 In the meantime the understaffed Synod of the West kept a hopeful eye on Tippecanoe County. A new member of that synod, Pastor William G. Hunderdosse, made a strong appeal for further missionary efforts in the north central Indiana county in a letter sent to the editor of the Lutheran Observer on March 31, 1845. Hunderdosse was completing a survey of mis- sion fields that took him to Lafayette twice before he accepted a call to Dubois County.41 Published under the heading “BRETHREN COME OVER AND HELP US!” his petition claims that no area in the United States is more deserving of

38 Wagner, Chicago Synod, 97-100, 127-32; Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads, 35. In 1842 Rudisill also coauthored a spirited “Expose of the General Synod.” See Evangelical Synod of Indiana, Report, 1842, pp. 9-25. 39Lutheran Obseruer, May 27, 1836, December 9, 1838; Wagner, Chicago Synod, 131, 135-36, 143. 4nLutheran Observer, April 2, 1847, January 4, 1850; Doty, History of Fair Haven Church, 1-2; Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads, 35-36; Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, Report, 1848, p. 14. Eventually return- ing to more orthodox views, Markert moved back to Dayton around 1852 and resumed his ministry at the Oxford Church and nearby churches in Clinton County. 4* Lutheran Observer, November 24, 1843, April 12, June 28, 1844, Novem- ber 21, 1845, February 5, 1847. In 1845 Hunderdosse was a recent graduate of Gettysburg Seminary. He had received further training from the Reverend Abraham Reck of Cincinnati, often considered the “Father of Lutheranism” around Indianapolis. Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 39 the attention of the Lutheran church than the stretch along the Wabash and Erie Canal from the state of Ohio to Lafayette, Indiana. Hunderdosse’s letter incorporates the enthusiasm of local boosters in stressing these arguments: Lafayette is a flourishing place, surrounded by a country both rich and well cultivated, and better supplied with water power than any other part of the US. which I have seen. This place has increased very fast, but still the surrounding country is ahead of the town. The market is very good, so that farmers and merchants have to come from a great distance to sell and buy; some come from 80 to 90 miles. When I came here last fall, 1 was quite surprised to see the town so well filled with market wagons &c., so much so, that I can say without hesitation, I have never seen a town of its size in which there was so much business done.-Lafayette must grow. In and around the town are a number of Lutherans and Lutheran descen- dants, so that I believe this place ought by all means to be provided with a good pastor; and such an one would build up a respectable congregation in a very short time. Ministers of other denominations who are better acquainted in town than I am, are of the same opinion. A Protestant Methodist minister told me that from 30 to 40 members would join us right off, provided we could procure a suitable man, a man of piety and respectable qualifications, who can preach in the English language. There is a small flock gathered about six miles from town [at Hickory Grove] who are anxious to have a minister, and there is much room for increase. These could do much for the support of a minister. But we must act soon, or our golden time will be over here, as it has been the case in many other places.42 It may well have been Hunderdosse’s plea which attracted the first pastor-in-residence to Lafayette in the fall of 1845. This pioneer, Darias M. Hoyt, was licensed to preach by the English Evangelical Synod of Ohio on October 7, 1845, and, in spite of the loss of some personal possessions en route to the West, he and his bride of a year were located at their new home by the end of that month. After arranging to rent space in the district school at the foot of Illinois-now Fourth- Street, the twenty-five-year-old Hoyt began preaching there on the afternoon of November 2.43 Later, on November 13, the editor of the Lafayette Tippecanoe Journal and Free Press com- mented on the planned formation of the city’s first Evangelical Lutheran congregation. This body, he informed his readers, was “not known very extensively in this section of country” but was the oldest of Protestant groups and was noted for a “pious and

42 Lutheran Observer. April 18, 1845. 43 English Evangelical Synod of Ohio, Minutes, 1845, p. 18; Lafayette Tip- pecanoe Journal and Free Press, October 30, 1845; Lutheran Observer, Septem- ber 29, November 10, 1848. Hoyt was initially licensed as a Congregationalist preacher in about 1843 but quickly changed denominations. He was ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Miami after joining that body in 1847. 40 Indiana Magazine of History learned ministry.” Pastor Hoyt, the editor added, was a Yale graduate who would “be found an intelligent and fearless advo- cate of the great principles of the ref or ma ti or^."^^ The ensuing months were busy ones for Hoyt as he built up a self-sustaining plural parish. His appointment in March of 1845 as an agent of the fledgling Home Missionary Society of the General Synod brought him a twelve-month stipend of fifty dollars. He soon announced, however, that he needed no further aid since he expected to make ends meet on whatever support his regular parishioners could add to his earnings as a part- time tutor of classical studies and supply preacher.45 The chief source of his optimism was the improving status of the congre- gations in Lafayette and at Hickory Grove. “First Lutheran,” the city church, continued to meet in a 20- by 40-foot school- room or in borrowed churches. It did not get off to the quick start that Hunderdosse had predicted such a congregation might. But the communicant membership rose from seven to twenty-seven within six months; the “discouragingly small” at- tendance at worship services gave way to “overflowing” audi- ences; and a “number of individuals of character and influence” participated in the church’s programs.46 Meanwhile, the Hic- kory Grove congregation, which was “reorganized” with twenty members in 1845, proceeded to construct a 36- by 44-foot church in 1846 for its “increasing and interesting” fellowship. Furthermore, Hoyt revived the “distracted” Emanuel Church near Crawfordsville, preaching there and in other places when- ever his schedule allowed.47 The type of ministry Hoyt pursued generally reflected his ties to Americanized synods. He remained with the English Evangelical Synod of Ohio until about 1847, then joined the Wabash Conference of the Miami Synod, and helped to plan that group’s realignment as the Olive Branch Synod in 1848. Minor distinctions notwithstanding, all three bodies were as- sociated with the General Synod and therefore differentiated between fundamental and “nonessential” doctrines, adopted “new measure” practices, cooperated with theologically compat- ible Protestant groups, and backed social reform movement^.^^

“This article also suggests that the new church’s services were to be bilingual. 45 Lafayette Tippecanoe Journal and Free Press, April 29, 1846, September 18, December 11, 1846, September 29, 1848. 46Lutheran Observer, June 12, September 18, December 11, 1846. 47 Zbid., September 18, 1846. 48 Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Miami, Minutes, 1847-1848; Lutheran Obseruer, February 25, 1848, February 2, 1849; Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads, 47-48; Allbeck, Lutherans in Ohio, 111-19; Imhoff, History of the Synod of Miami, 9, 16-19. Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 41

Accordingly, in 1846 Hoyt engaged in an interdenominational drive to get Lafayette authorities to close barber shops, reading rooms, and places of business and amusement on the sabbath. The following year he served as a committeeman for the local Sons of Temperance Society. For a time he also preached at the vacant Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Furthermore, in February of 1848, when his Wabash Conference assembled in Lafayette, he reported on a protracted meeting for “backslider” Lutherans which he had just concluded at a local Methodist Episcopal Church. So many had renewed their faith, he said, that his charge might soon require an assistant.49 Just when Hoyt’s work seemed to be bearing fruit, how- ever, complications set in. Sometime in the winter of 1847-1848 a migrating “Pastor Chambour” and, later, an unidentified Swiss-born preacher temporarily conducted German services in a carpenter shop not far from the school Hoyt was using. Next, in the late summer or early fall, Albert H. Lucken of Terre Haute, an immigrant teacher and licentiate of the nascent German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indianapolis, visited Lafayette. After ministering to some of the “Old Lutherans” who had responded to his predecessors, Lucken encouraged them to form their own c~ngregation.~~Since a portion of those who entertained this proposal had worshipped at Hoyt’s church, “First Lutheran’s” attendance began to decline. Perhaps this erosion was hastened by Hoyt’s prolonged absence in the East during the latter part of the summer of 1848 when he attended the General Synod convention in New Y~rk.~l Then tragedy struck. Shortly after his return to Lafayette, Hoyt contracted the typhoid fever that was ravaging his com- munity. He suffered from this disease for about a week, finally passed away on October 16, and was laid to rest in what is now Greenbush Cemetery. Obviously his sudden death, mourned by many laymen and fellow ministers as well as by his widow and

4n Lafayette Tippecanoe Journal and Free Press, March 19, 1846, April 1, 1847; Sandford C. Cox, Old Settlers along the Wabash (Lafayette, 1860), 107; Lutheran Observer, February 25, 1848. Hoyt also assisted fellow pastors such as Samuel McReynolds when they held protracted meetings in other counties. Lutheran Observer, April 14, 1848. soGeorge Schumm et al., “History of Saint James Congregation, 1850- 1950,” manuscript, updated in 1950 from 1900 version, pp. 1-3 (Archives, St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lafayette); miscellaneous entries, “Cen- tennial Scrapbook,” ibid.; St. Louis Der Lutheraner, November 16, 1847; Hiram W. Beckwith, History of Vigo and Parke Counties, together with Historic Notes on the Wabash Valley (Chicago, 1880), 131. 51Lutheran Observer, October 27, 1848; Imhoff, History of the Synod of Miami, 57-59. 42 Indiana Magazine of History two infant children, was a serious blow to the religious out- reach he had ~ndertaken.~~ Indeed, intradenominational disharmony had a pivotal im- pact on Lutheran development in the county in the aftermath of Hoyt’s death. Ministers representing four separate “schools” of Lutheranism soon lived or labored in the Lafayette vicinity. Emerging congregations were therefore no longer handicapped by a deficiency of pastoral leadership, but personal and doctri- nal disagreements between those who administered the word and sacrament gave rise to troublesome-sometimes bitter- disputes, both within and between parishes. The vacancies at “First Church” and Hickory Grove were partially filled until mid-1849 by Hoyt’s coworker and neigh- bor, the Reverend Samuel McReynolds of Delphi. McReynolds, another appointee of the General Synod’s Home Missionary Society, had been a cofounder of the Olive Branch Synod, which had adopted the motto “In Essentials, Unity; in Non-Essentials, Liberty; In All Things, Charity.”53 While fighting “every species of infidelity and skepticism” in Clinton, Carroll, Cass, and Miami counties, McReynolds made monthly trips to Tip- pecanoe County to keep the shepherdless flocks there “together and supplied.”54 His repeated requests led his synod to assign Obadiah Brown of Indianapolis to the Lafayette parish several weeks before the latter’s ordination in October of 1849.55 Sources differ as to when Brown moved to Tippecanoe County, but it is clear that he served that district for many years. He seems to have had greater success in ministering to his farming constituents than in meeting the needs of those who lived in town. Under his guidance the Hickory Grove Church improved its facilities and became the site of the Olive Branch Synod convention of 1860. By 1852 Brown also man- aged to organize Wyandotte Church, a new mission southeast of Dayton, in Shefield Township.56 But the Lafayette congrega- tion evidently languished. Unsuccessful in its attempts to raise funds for a house of worship and weakened by losses to the

52 Lutheran Obseruer, November 10. 1848. 53 Ibid., April 13, 1849; Evangelical Lutheran Olive Branch Synod, Min- ute~,1848, pp. 4-5, 15-27, 1849, p. 1. 541bid.,April 2, 1847, April 13, 1849. 55 Ibid., December 7, 1849; Evangelical Lutheran Olive Branch Synod, Minutes, 1849, pp. 3, 22. 56 Evangelical Lutheran Olive Branch Synod, Minutes, 1849, p. 3, 1850, p. 3, 1852, p. 13; Lutheran Obseruer, September 7, 1849; Clerical Roll, The Lutheran Almanac (Philadelphia, 1851); Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads, 48. Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 43

German (St. James) Lutheran Church and other congregations, this parish was not included in the list of religious organiza- tions that appeared in the 1858 Lafayette city dire~tory.~~ As Lafayette’s first Lutheran parish waned, the missionary initiative in the city shifted to the formative group that Lucken had promoted. In the spring of 1849 these people asked Lucken to become their regular pastor but yielded to his suggestion that they call, instead, his younger brother-in-law, Edo Leemhuis. A music and academic teacher who had come from East Friesland to Terre Haute in 1842, Leemhuis, too, had been licensed to preach by the Indianapolis Synod. He took charge of the Lafayette mission sometime after midyear and probably collected signatures for a roll of charter members within a matter of weeks. In 1850, while renting quarters at a church on the corner of Fifth and Columbia streets, his congregation con- structed a frame, 20- by 42-foot church on Ferry Street. That same year they opened a school, and, on September 29, forty members signed a constitution which named their parish St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church.58 St. James was destined to achieve a strong and lasting relationship with the Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (now the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod). Before joining that body in 1856, though, the congregation had some trying and unsettled times. Its contacts with neighboring Lutheran churches were strained by differences of opinion over confes- sional standards, ministerial practices, and linguistic policies. Simultaneously, the inclusion of persons with Evangelical or Reformed backgrounds on the church’s roll caused much “strife and dissention,” repeated “clashes between the ‘sincere’ and the ‘indifferent,’ ” and a considerable turnover in member~hip.~~ A third, highly unorthodox variety of “Lutheranism” was being disseminated in these years in eastern Tippecanoe and surrounding counties. The leader of this ministry was Elias Markert’s successor, Samuel Good-the “chief lieutenant” of

57 Lafayette city directory, pp. 118-27. The parochial reports in the 1853- 1859 minutes of the Olive Branch Synod credit Brown with a three-church parish. The 1860 listing reduces the figure to two churches, probably reflecting the deletion of the Lafayette congregation. Evangelical Lutheran Olive Branch Synod, Minutes, 1860, p. 15. sR Anon. [H. H. Decker], “One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Saint James Evangelical Lutheran Church,” (anniversary booklet, Lafayette, 19751, 2; John P. Leemhuis, “A Short History of the Leemhuis’ Family,” 1970 (Archives, St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church). Leemhuis was ordained on October 1, 1849. In 1851, at age thirty-five, he resigned his call but did not leave Lafayette to assume a teaching position in Pittsburgh until 1853. 59 “One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Saint James,” 2-3. The congregation officially adopted a Missouri Synod constitution in 1861. 44 Indiana Magazine of History

Indiana Synod President Rudisill. If his opponents can be be- lieved, Good once got so far off the beaten path in his mis- guided attempts to justify Rudisill’s alien doctrine on Destruc- tionism that he rejected his denomination’s teachings on the resurrection, original sin, and the Holy Ghost; deprecated por- tions of the Bible; and ordered church councils to burn Luther’s catechism.6o In March of 1848, several months before he took up resi- dence near Dayton, Indiana, Good reorganized the pro-Rudisill “outs” at Slipher’s Church into what was later named Fair Haven Lutheran Church.61 During the time when he was over- seeing this and other stations in Clinton and Boone counties, Good may also have done some preaching for the St. Paul’s and Oxford congregations in Tippecanoe County. In addition, he tried, with little success, to bring the dissident Zion of Colburn church back into the Rudisill camp. His controversial efforts kept his charge in turmoil, but, to the everlasting satisfaction of his critics, he ultimately changed his ways. Just before his death in 1851 Good apologized for the heresies he had furthered and reembraced the faith of his forebears.62 Leading the resistance to the Good-Rudisill influences in the Lafayette region was still another young pastor who with- stood ecclesiastical pressures with a firmness reminiscent of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms. This resolute individual was John F. Lautenschlager, central figure in an 1848-1851 split in the Indiana Synod. Born in Germany in 1822, Lautenschlager came to the United States with his widowed father at the age of nine, grew up on a Pennsylvania farm, and migrated to southern Indiana prior to 1841.63 In the Hoosier state he was recognized as a talented prospect for the Gospel ministry and did extensive reading in Lutheran theology from 1844 to 1846 as one of the Indiana Synod’s clerical candidates. Most of Lautenschlager’s basic instruction was directed by Eusebius S. Henkel, who had been a “powerful” opponent of innovations in doctrine. Although in 1846 Henkel was on the verge of a brief infatuation with Universalism, his student- licensed to preach in that year-was a strong advocate of Luther’s original teaching^.^^

6o Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, Report, 1848, p. 14; Wagner, Chicago Synod, 132-34. 61 Slipher’s Church Book, pp. 1-4 (Archives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod); Doty, History of Fair Haven Church, 1-2. 62 Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, Reports, 1848-1851,passim; Wagner, Chicago Synod, 138-48. Charles Blanchard, ed., Counties of Clay and Owen (Chicago, 18841, 911. Wagner, Chicago Synod, 99-100,120, 131-34. Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 45

It was after Rudisill put Lautenschlager under the tutelage of Good that the fireworks began. The licentiate promptly complained that he could not conscientiously assist a man who propagated such false notions as Destructionism. Shocked to discover that Rudisill held the same views, Lautenschlager began speaking out against these errors. His campaign won the support of several congregations and of fellow preachers such as Abraham Miller, David Miller, Henry Fairchild, and Elias Goodwin. But the indomitable Rudisill manipulated his synod’s 1847 convention so as to obtain “emergency” powers that en- abled him to postpone action on petitions for Lautenschlager’s ordination. Subsequently, Pastors Abraham and David Miller invoked a constitutional provision on interconvention pro- ceedings by examining and ordaining their friend. This in- furiated Rudisill, who called a special synodical session in early 1848 to squelch this insubordination. Acting as “prosecutor, judge and jury,” he excommunicated Lautenschlager, suspended Abraham Miller, and forced a half-hearted apology from David Miller. Later the three dissidents headed the so-called Miller faction, an organization which at least three synods and a Johnson County judge declared to be the “true” Indiana Synod. By 1851, however, the Miller group had folded because of ex- pensive litigation, clerical transfers to other fields or synods, and a shift to more temperate, theologically sound administra- tion in the Indiana Synod.65 What these tumultuous events did to the spiritual life of Lautenschlager’s parishioners in and near Tippecanoe County is largely a matter of conjecture. The only congregational re- cords available for his charge are those of Slipher’s Church. Along with local historical sources, these materials paint an incomplete picture of an agitated and deeply divided laity. The holdover members of Slipher’s Church, early advocates of Lautenschlager’s ordination, did not, for example, consent to a joint pastorate with Fair Haven until 1871-four years after their reorganization as Zion Lutheran and Reformed Church in Mulberry.66 Ostensibly, Zion of Colburn, another church which sided with Lautenschlager in 1847 and retained his services for several years, avoided this kind of rift. Yet there may have been a good deal of soul searching in that parish, in the St.

65 Zbid., 134-48; Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, Report, 1849, pp. 7-10. 66 Slipher’s Church Book, passim; “The Mulberry Lutheran Parish,” History of United Lutheran Churches of the Indiana Synod collection, microfilm (Ar- chives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod); Doty, History of Fair Haven Church, 2. 46 Indiana Magazine of History

Jacob’s Church that Lautenschlager restructured near Rossville, and in other congregations that he directed from 1848 to 1851, when both he and Good lived near Dayton.67 Thus, in spite of discord and adverse conditions, various strains of Lutheranism were taking root in Tippecanoe County by the close of 1850. The generation of pioneers who had helped to bring about this growth must have felt that the struggle to break new ground for their “American Zion” was practically over. No longer isolated from the religious ministrations of their chosen denomination, they could now worship, commune, and otherwise enjoy the spiritual benefits of membership in established, locally administered congregations. To be sure, they were still a small and coolly regarded minority in the midst of a rapidly growing society that was preoccupied with alternative interests and values. But the stage was set for the nurture of stronger, more influential expressions of the Chris- tian traditions they espoused. Nothing more clearly demonstrated the success of Lutheran missionary efforts in Tippecanoe County than the parishes that had appeared by midcentury; yet, the state of these congrega- tions indicated that they could not approach the future pas- sively. Their small memberships and limited resources, their minimal facilities, the theological and synodical tensions that attended their emergence, and the continuing need for effective leadership were among the challenges that lay ahead. The largest of the churches in 1850-Hickory Grove, Zion, St. James, and “First”-probably had no more than thirty to fifty communicants, whereas Oxford, St. Paul’s, and the Wyandotte mission may have served just a few families.6HOnly Hickory Grove, Zion, and St. James had their own houses of worship, and these new, modestly built facilities had few refinements.69

67 Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indiana, Reports, 1848, p. 14; ibid., 1849-1851, passim; “Checklist of Disbanded Churches” and Disbanded Church Files (Archives, Indiana-Kentucky Synod); Defenderfer, Lutheranism at the Crossroads, 36-37. Lautenschlager moved to Owen County in the early 1850s and continued a “distinguished” ministry as an ordained member of the Joint Synod of Ohio in that region. Blanchard, Counties of Clay and Owen, 750, 911. -The smallness of the two city congregations is quite evident given the fact that Lafayette, with a population of 6,129, was Indiana’s fourth largest city in 1850. U.S., Seventh Census, 1850, p. 776. More than a dozen families were initially connected with St. Paul’s, but some of these parishioners later joined Zion or St. James. Similarly, the little Oxford congregation lost members to other area churches, notably to Bethel Lutheran Church of Pettit, which was founded in Perry Township in 1862. Waltmann, History of the Indiana- Kentucky Synod, 95. 69 The 1850 census, which offers a very incomplete and misleading tabula- tion of Lutheran churches in Indiana, credits Tippecanoe County with only one such building. U.S., Seventh Census, 1850, pp. 799-807, 1021-22. Apparently St. James was the only parish with a separate religious school. Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 47

Numerical and physical advancements depended upon the achievement of congregational consensuses on fundamental be- liefs, on religious practices and programs, and on relationships with synod authorities. Too, as the decline of “First Church” illustrated, these parishes had to retain qualified and capable pastors if they were to survive and broaden their ministries.70 On October 27, just two weeks before it ran a brief obitu- ary notice on Darius Hoyt, founder of the “First Church,” the Lutheran Observer featured a letter which he had written to the directors of the Home Missionary Society. Lengthy and articulate, although not entirely dispassionate, this communi- cation is introduced by the title “LUTHERANISM IN THE WEST.” Not only is it a powerful description of the author’s goals, attitudes, and concerns, but it also provides a relevant summary of the development of Lutheran missions in Tip- pecanoe County, Indiana, and the Midwest as a whole during the pioneer period.

LUTHERANISM IN THE WEST.71

Much has been said about the West and its wants. They have been set forth by the ablest pens and the most eloquent tongues. Its peculiarities have all been exhibited. Its dense forests and spreading prairies-its creeks and navigable rivers-its exuberant fertility-its mines of lead, copper and coal-its rapid increase of population-its rising greatness and political importance; and withal, its spiritual destitution, have long been urged upon the attention of the statesmen, the speculator, and the Christian philanthropist. The interest thus

Low pay was a persistent deterrent to ministerial retention. Even when they had large families, early Lutheran pastors seldom received more than $200 a year from their parishioners. See, for example, Lutheran Obseruer, April 13, 1849; and Walter Huchthausen, “The History of Lutheranism in Southern Indiana,” Concordin Historical Institute Quarterly, XV (July, 19421, 46-58. At first the St. Paul’s congregation paid only $2.42 per sermon. St. Paul’s Lu- theran Church Folder, Church Files (Tippecanoe County Historical Society). 71 Lutheran Obseruer, October 27, 1848. In the following transcription the editor used a photocopy of a microfilm edition of the Lutheran Observer in which Hoyt’s original report appeared. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been reproduced as they were found in the newspaper version of the report; no attempt has been made to determine whether the errors were due to Hoyt, the editor of the Observer, or the typesetter. 48 Indiana Magazine of History awakened is by no means on the decline. Every year, and indeed every month, is adding to its intensity. None can be indifferent to its temporal prosperity, but as Christians we are mostly concerned in making its vast resources and teeming population subservient to the Gospel of Christ. It is ours to second and carry out the spirited resolution of Prof. Stowe, offered two or three years since in the N.Y. Tabernacle at the anniversary of the American Home Missionary Society. It was worded thus: Resolved, That the Great West belongs to Jesus Christ, and HE SHALL HAVE IT! The churches from whose contributions and influence this noble society derives its life and efficiency are exerting their mightiest energies to carry into execution this high resolve. They have been and are still sending literal armies of men into this field-not to wield the sword and the spear and the in- struments of death, but to extend the mild dominion of the Prince of Peace. And it gives me pleasure in this connection to bear testimony to the high character of the missionaries under the patronage of this Society. They are not among the number our brethren so frequently complain of, who compass sea and land to make one proselyte. That species of ecclesiastical piracy by which our scattered and destitute members are pressed into communions uncongenial with their primitive faith, is carried forward under other auspices. These brethren, to the extent of my observation and knowledge are men of disciplined mind, and qualified for their mission by nature and by grace. They have uniformly treated our feeble congregations with Christian courtesy and respect, and cordially welcome the missionaries of our General Synod as fellow laborers among the destitute. And although they have in some localities received into their fold many of the lost sheep of the house of Luther, it is but to give them protection from the wolves in sheep’s clothing that go about seeking to devour them. To complain of this, so long as we fail to supply our people with pastors of their own, is to manifest a kind of bias which I cannot easily reconcile with Christian gratitude and charity. The Home Missionary Society of our General Synod is doing something, and will do more to give the Gospel to the West. It is approximating the spirit of the resolution above quoted. Its Executive Committee, and not a few of its members, seem to have laid hold of the idea with all its intensity and grandeur. Let our people at large respond, and that response will be followed by a degree of church extension and influence, Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 49

the like of which our American Zion has never seen or even dared to hope for. It cannot, however, be concealed, that while the Lutheran church has every thing to contend with, common to the Home Missionary enterprize in general, it has some difficulties that are peculiar. It may be painful and humiliating to contemplate them, but it is well that at least in part they should be laid before the churches.-During my recent tour in the East, I not unfrequently met with brethren having considerable zeal for the H.M. enterprize, but not according to knowledge. They expect too much. A species of religious romance seems to have come over them.-They think every thing in the West is done by magic. They have heard of cities springing up by enchant- ment and expect churches will be built up in the same way. When we tell them of our scattered and feeble congregations, neglected by the world, spoken against by other sects, and struggling for existence, their ardor cools, and they seem half inclined to suspect their contributions have been wasted, and perhaps impute inefficiency or indolence to their hard-working missionaries. It would be well for such to remember that human nature is always and everywhere the same. The tokens of depravity are sufficiently visible in the East. In the West, the will is not a whit less perverse, nor is the heart less obdurate. However high the hopes and ardent the zeal of the youthful missionary, when he first enters the field, he will soon find that “old Adam is stronger than young Melancthon.” This difficulty all meet in common-but the Lutheran missionary has more to contend with. His church is unknown. Not one in ten has heard its name. Not one in a hundred knows anything of its doctrines and usages. This ignorance, in some cases at least, is culpable. Sundry persons now connected with the church in the West, but whose parents, I have incidentally learned, were Pennsylvania Lutherans, do “remember that there were some such people about where they came from, but really they never did know what they held to!” There are some others, however, who posi- tively affirm that “the Lutherans are a set of Dutch that have no religion but to christen their children and take the sacra- ment.” And in case any one should approbate the labors of the missionary, and, as is now and then the case, propose falling in with his enterprize, it is a hundred chances to one if he does not receive a caveat after this wise: “True, this appears to be a fine young man, and he preaches very good doctrine, but there is no telling who will come after him, or with what sort of people you will have to fellowship, for there is a settlement of 50 Indiana Magazine of History

Lutherans out in county, who differ very widely from this man!” These misrepresentations, so blighting in their influence, are in part sustained by the unchristian life of many, mostly Europeans, scattered over every part of the West, as- suming the name of the great Reformer, but like to those spoken of in the Apocalypse, who say they are apostles and are not, but do lie, their works bearing witness against them. The pre-occupancy of the ground by other denominations is likewise against us. Most, perhaps nearly all, not already con- nected with some church, have relatives who are, and it is an impulse of nature to go with one’s kindred. Thus other sects have not merely the numerical advantage, but each individual member is connected by blood or friendship with others, who, if they join church at all, will be likely to go with him. There are in this place and vicinity, several valuable members of other churches who gratefully acknowledge the unworthy labors of the writer as the instrument of their conversion, who have been led “out of regard to the feelings” of a wife, a sister, or a father, to connect themselves elsewhere. The isolated condition of our ministers is another serious difficulty. It precludes the possibility of exchange. Where there is a score of ministers of the same communion in a single county it is a matter of ministerial courtesy and convenience frequently to supply each other’s pulpit. In the West this can- not be done. So few and far between are our ministers, we but seldom see each other’s faces. To attend Synod, we must needs ride from one to two hundred miles, and a journey of sixty or seventy miles, over roads which, half the year, are well nigh impassable, is the sine qua non of a Conference meeting. The community is thus unable to learn the character of our church and ministry by induction. They can only base their estimate on the knowledge they may have of the individual missionary, and the limited circulation he is able to give to our church publications, and many are slow to adopt the adage ab uno disce omnes [from one learn all]. The want of churches is another incubus bearing heavily upon the hearts of nearly all our Missionary brethren. Other denominations have them. Many, especially in our larger towns and villages, are spacious and elegant. Their lofty steeples attract the eye of the stranger and their far sounding bells call the people to worship. Could you, reader, be in this or in some other large Western town on Sabbath morning you would see scores and hundreds darkening the doors of the big churches, while in some out-of-the-way hall or school house, which no- body would mistrust was a place of worship, you might see a Lutheranism in Tippecanoe County 51

little group slowly collecting and infer from their bearing and deportment it was for religious service. These are Lutherans and the few friends who sympathize with them. No one has straggled in by mistake. None have been borne along by the rush of the multitude. All who are there have come on purpose. They have remembered the time and the place, and passed by churches where they might have worshipped God on cushioned seats, to get there.-Sometimes, the pastor, by extraordinary efforts to improve the heads and the hearts of his hearers, may induce a larger number to turn aside into his “hired House.” But it matters little with how much favor individuals in a promiscuous audience may regard the speaker, or how many good wishes they may lavish upon his congregation, while they know that one of its first calls will be for money to build a church, they will not make application for membership “until they sit down first and count the cost.” But few have faith and love equal to the estimate. Thus, month after month is progress retarded and “hope deferred.” When depressed and discouraged by these circumstances, I must confess, it is not peculiarly grateful to my feelings to look upon the new Catholic church recently erected in this place. It is perhaps the largest and best finished in town.72 A noble structure! But who built it? Where were the funds collected? Our resident Catholics are nearly all poor, living in wretched shanties, some of them literally burrowing in the hill-sides along our canal. And yet they worship in a better church than our most wealthy Protestant congregations. The way this is done is no longer a mystery. The money comes from far-much of it from Europe-some from wealthy Catholics in our country. But how is this? Is “the mother of Protestantism” less mindful of her destitute children than “the mother of harlots?” Shall the minions of Rome chant their mummeries in temples lined with cedar and plated with silver, while the followers of Luther- every word of whose tongue was a thunderbolt against papal usurpation-are compelled to pay rent for an incommodious shelter, or worship amid the pitiless peltings of the storm and the scoffs and jeers of the ungodly? What greater triumph could be craved by the Man of Sin and his grand ally the devil? But we must not say any thing about aid to build churches in the West! No-it is asking too much! The Lutheran church, numbering near two hundred thousand, and as wealthy in pro-

’* Hoyt is here referring to the attractive, ten-thousand-dollar, 40- by 80- foot brick St. Mary and St. Martha’s Church at the corner of Brown and Mississippi streets. Cox, Old Settlers, 109. 52 Indiana Magazine of History portion to its numbers as any church in our land, has, during the last year, aided seventeen missionaries! It has given to some twenty-five and to some fifty dollars, for a year of toil-for which they are all grateful. Some may have received a hun- dred. But we must ask nothing for church building. It is pre- posterous! Such incessant begging cannot be tolerated. Besides, it is bad policy to be building fine churches way off in the West. What need of them? The people there are proud and would make a vain show! If we send them missionaries they ought to be content with such churches as they can build for themselves! Purse-proud persons, who talk in this way, are among the first and the loudest to complain of the slow progress of our missionaries. They may dislike to be called hard-hearted, but they irresistibly remind us of Pharaoh who required the “full tale of bricks without straw.” If I have spoken too sharply on this point I am sorry. I am certain, however, that all who know that what it is to labor to build up an infant society having scarcely “a name” and without “a local habitation” will feel the force of these remarks and put on them a favorable construc- tion. I am aware that it is not the custom of the Am. H. M. Society, as such, to undertake the work of church building in the West; but may not the exigencies of the Lutheran church demand a different policy? What course shall be pursued is for others more experienced to determine.-Something should be done, and done quickly. The expediency of aiding missionaries in the West is no longer doubted-that of aiding feeble congre- gations in large towns to build churches, is, if possible more evident. Other things being equal, one of our brethren will accomplish more in one year with a respectable, well finished church to preach in than he can in five years, when compelled to gather his little flock into a rented hall. This remark will bear investigation. Permit me to say, in conclusion, that these difficulties have not been spread out as a ground of discouragement, but as a stimulus to action. I have myself experienced them all, and more also, but am not yet tired of my field, nor do I wish to leave it. Although the removal to other parts of some of my most valuable members, and the recent formation of a German church in this place has materially reduced our numbers, and compelled me to ask a renewed appropriation from the Commit- tee, still I have much reason to hope that “a better day is coming.” Our congregations in the country are flourishing, and an effort will soon be made to build a church in town. . . . Let our people arouse to execute the high resolve that “Jesus shall have the West”. . . .