The man who kept the Lutherans in Missouri: C.F.W. Walther
Synthetic Blog Post
After the exile of Martin Stephan, the Lutheran minister who brought the Saxons to Missouri, the group was struggling to find a reason to stay. They had all followed a fraud from Germany to America and many were thinking about going back. But, in their moment of need, CFW Walther stood up and reminded the group that faith resides in a people and not in a place, convincing the Saxons to stay in Missouri.
Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther was a German-American Lutheran minister in Missouri. In Germany, C.F.W. Walther became a Lutheran minister and through his divinity studies he met Martin Stephan. Stephan played a pivotal role in the Saxon immigration to Missouri.
In the 1830’s, a group of Saxon Lutherans fled Germany to immigrate to America, where they would be able to practice their religious freedom. Led by Martin Stephan, this group also included C.F.W. Walther and his brother Otto.
After Duden’s Report on a Journey, so many German immigrants saw America and specifically Missouri as this wonderful place full of promise and freedom. The Saxons moved to Missouri with the hope of fulfilling that American dream.
The Lutheran’s settled in both St. Louis and Perry County, with many traveling and moving between the two communities. Walther was one such person who was part of both communities. He was a pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis for 46 years, but was very active in the community in Perry.
After the exile of Martin Stephan, the German-Lutheran community in Missouri were doubting their ability to stay in Missouri and the legitimacy of their church, that Stephan’s messing up was proof that they didn’t belong there and that they should go back to Germany.
Both Walther and his brother took the allegations against Stephan very hard. They had put their blind faith in this man and felt betrayed. They were reeling just as much as the rest of their community. Otto Walther died, many attribute his death to how harshly he blamed himself for putting his faith in Stephan. Carl was unable to attend his brother’s funeral because of an illness often attributed to those same feelings.
Walther, however, was convinced that the group didn’t need Stephan to continue their faith practices in Missouri. Walther faced off against Adolph Marbach in the two day Altenburg Debates where Walther sufficiently convinced most of the community that the faith they held wasn’t in Martin Stephan, but in the Lutheran Church and that the community could continue to grow and prosper in Missouri.
In W. Arther Mehrhoff’s book, Explore Missouri’s German Heritage, he discusses the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that was founded by German immigrants. CFW Walther was one such immigrant.
In 1847, a group of 12 Lutheran pastors decided to form a larger body dedicated to religious freedom for Evangelical Lutherans. And so the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States, (later changed to The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) was formed.
Walther was named as the first President of the church body, and according to the Synod website, has been known as the “Father of the Missouri Synod.”
Walther was also a firm believer in education. Like many of the German Lutherans, education was invaluable to him. He was a writer, and worked on both the Der Lutheraner and Lehre und Wehre, two German-Lutheran publications, from their inceptions until his death in 1887.
Walther was a teacher and President at the Concordia Theological Seminary, training new ministers and religious figureheads. He also helped found multiple other schools in Perry County.
While Walther’s contributions go largely unrecognized by the larger population, his impact on the communities in Perry County, Lutherans, and German Lutherans doesn’t go unnoticed by those within the communities.
