Category: Seminary History

Short history lesson this afternoon, from one of our librarians, Rev. Bob Smith, who likes to research our forefathers in his spare-time. We talk a lot about Friedrich Wyneken here at CTSFW (and for good reason: he was instrumental not only in the formation of our seminary but in the LCMS itself; his is the voice that called out in distress to his homeland, pleading for them to send more Lutheran pastors and missionaries to the German pioneers), but there are still some unanswered questions. Like where did Wyneken himself come from? Why was he even here to see the great need for pastors?
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The answer can be traced to the death of another man: Pastor Jesse Hoover. On June 4, 1838, an elder at St. Paul’s congregation in the frontier town of Fort Wayne wrote to the Mission Committee of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, following the death of Pastor Hoover. From his letter:
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“Have pity, honored fathers and brothers and send us a Pastor… If you canvas the northern part of Indiana you will soon see how important it is that you send us a faithful Shepherd. The harvest is great but unfortunately there are no workers. If it is not possible to send us a Pastor, dear brothers, then send us a circuit rider. We hunger and thirst for the Word of God.”
Adam Wesel
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The committee had, in fact, planned to send a survey missionary in their direction come September, but this candidate had fallen through. However, a young pastor interested in serving on the American frontier had just arrived in Baltimore. By the end of August (180 years ago this summer), Wyneken was in Indiana.
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None of this can be found in published histories. When I asked how Rev. Smith discovered these facts, he explained:
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“Ancestry.com gave me ship passenger lists, newspapers.com the date of the ship’s arrival, a friend scanning through Lutherische Kirchenzeitung the Wesel letter. Reading the histories, he seems to just stumble into Adams County. So, we have Hoover’s death, end of May. Wyneken, moved by mission journals to serve on the American frontier, boards the ship of his family’s captain friend (likely how he afforded passage). Wesel writes the letter in early June, just as the designated survey missionary falls ill. The letter arrives in June to PA, just as Wyneken arrives, finds the Baltimore Lutheran pastor and is befriended. In August, Wyneken, with the recommendation of the Baltimore pastor shows up in PA. He then hops a train to Pittsburgh, buys a horse and for some reason (we now know why) picks an Indian trail that runs through Lima, Ohio and along the banks of the Maumee (or is it the St. Mary’s? I mix up my rivers!) to Adams Co. Has a divine hand all over it, doesn’t it?”
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Rev. Smith is currently writing a blog series on Wyneken. To read more, go to https://whatdoesthismean.blog.

Sixty years ago, on Friday, May 30, 1958, dedication festivities began for the new Concordia Senior college; what would someday become our CTSFW campus.

The dedication was big news back in the day. It made such publications as the Vidette-Messenger of Porter County, the Hartford Courant, The Minneapolis Star, The Terre Haute Star, The Indianapolis Star, The Times (Munster, Indiana), The Winona Daily News, and The Town Talk (Alexandria, Louisiana).

In the course of the search, we also unearthed this photo of a Concordia Senior College class back in October of 1967, taught by Dr. Ludwig. Below it is the exact same classroom, taken 49 years later in October of 2016, this time of Concordia Theological Seminary students. That’s Kantor Kevin Hildebrand teaching the class on the left with Dr. Grime on his right.

V. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost
R. Amen
V. Our Help is in the name of the Lord
R. Who made heaven and earth
V. I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles, that I may go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy, and praise Thee, O God, my God.
R. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
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The Officiant shall say:
Let us now dedicate this campus, with all of its buildings and facilities, to the honor and service of the Triune God. To Thee, O Lord, we dedicate the chapel, that it may be a house of prayer and praise for all who live and worship here, wherein Thy saving Word may be proclaimed and Thy Sacraments administered according to Thy command and promise.
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Congregation: 
May Thy people ever love the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth.
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Officiant:
To Thee, O Lord, we dedicate the buildings set aside for study, for instruction, for culture, for counsel, and for the administration of this school, that men may come to know Thee better through Thy Word and works, to foster those things that please Thee, and to serve Thee through the wisdom which Thou alone canst give.
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Congregation: 
Grant that those who teach and those who learn may grow in the knowledge of Thee and in love to their fellow-men.
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Officiant:
To Thee, O Lord, we dedicate the residential quarters on this campus, for students and for staff, that those who dwell there may find rest for their bodies, quiet for their work, and the spirit of love and fellowship through the indwelling of Thy Spirit.
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Congregation: 
May the coming in and going out of those who dwell there be ever in the name of the Lord, and may Christ be the ever-present Guest under every roof.
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Officiant:
To Thee, O Lord, we dedicate the service facilities and buildings, that there men may find refreshment for their daily tasks, health of body, and the opportunity to serve Thee, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift.
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Congregation: 
Bless unto those who serve and unto those who are served, the hours which they spend between these walls.
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Officiant:
To Thee, O Lord, we dedicate the recreational facilities, the fields and grounds of this campus, that in their beauty and their utility, they may glorify Thee and serve the welfare of Thy people.
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Congregation: 
May Thy people ever use Thy gifts and benefactions to the honor of Thy name and to the service of their fellow-men.

Here’s an underside view of both of our bell towers. In the background, the 1,320 pound bell that rings every day for chapel can’t quite be seen behind the chapel roof, while the bell in the foreground will see a lot more action come May. This bell (called the Springfield Bell) was originally cast in 1882, moved to Fort Wayne in 1976, was found in storage in 1984, and finally hung and dedicated in its newly constructed tower in 1994.

Graduating students ring this bell after finishing their final class, celebrating their release.

The silhouette from the cover of this booklet reprinted from “Progressive Architecture” (December 1958) is a familiar one. The assistant archivist from the Michigan District LCMS Archive at Concordia University in Ann Arbor emailed this to us yesterday, having discovered it while sorting through materials in their archives.

The 191 acres on which we’re built was originally a reservation deeded to Pe-chewa, a Miami Indian chief who later became a Christian. The Charles Kramer family purchased and homesteaded the land in the early 1900s, before it changed hands again, this time to the Synod. Construction from 1954 – 1957 transformed the Kramer farm into a preministerial college, which makes this booklet only slightly younger than the campus itself. It was published about fifteen years before the LCMS voted (in 1975) to combine the Senior College here with the Junior College in Ann Arbor, allowing our Seminary to move from the aging campus in Springfield, Illinois, to this much newer one in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

On January 2, 1872, one hundred and forty-seven years ago yesterday, Rev. Johannes Konrad Wilhelm Löhe died, still serving as pastor back home in Germany. He was instrumental in the formation of CTSFW (in fact gifting the practical seminary to the LCMS when the newly formed church body asked him to at their first convention), answering–and in many ways repeating and then more loudly broadcasting–Wyneken’s desperate plea for pastors to come serve the German settlers in America. One of our classroom buildings, Loehe Hall (the spelling of his name changes depending on who tried to Americanize it and when; it’s typically pronounced “lay-uh” here on campus), was named after him.