|
. | Saint Paul History In 1838, Franz Julius Biltz, a 13-year old orphan, joined a group of Saxon immigrants sailing from Germany to the United States. His guardian in Germany had refused to let him go and even sent authorities to the ship to retrieve him, but Biltz had hidden himself in the ship’s hold until the ship was underway. In America, Biltz became one of the original five boys who started schooling in a log cabin college in Altenburg, Mo, in 1839. The school he attended would eventually become Concordia College (Concordia Seminary), the founding school of the largest Protestant school system in the world. Biltz would become pastor of the congregation in Missouri that would help start Saint Paul’s Pro-Gymnasium in the town that he would name Concordia. Two sister congregations in nearby Emma and Alma also would help in this endeavor. From the start, Saint Paul’s College, as it was called, was founded for the purpose of training young men for professional church work, primarily as pastors. The school followed the old German gymnasium educational system that consisted of six years of classical education in preparation for seminary studies. From its founding in 1883 until 1952, every instructor and professor at the school was an ordained pastor. Concordia, in west central Missouri, was on the frontier of our nation’s westward expansion. There were many calls for Biltz, pastor of St. Paul’s Congregation in Concordia, to help congregations that were sprouting up west of Missouri, all the way to the Pacific Coast. As a solution, Saint Paul’s College would be a place where young men could begin the process of filling the many pastoral vacancies that the church would need to fill. At the 1883 convention of the Western District of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (Missouri was included in the Western District), the district gave its blessing for founding this new school. Rev. Andrew Baepler was called to be the school’s first professor. He began formal class instruction in a rented house on Jan. 3, 1884, with three students. A fourth student arrived a few days later. By Easter there were seven students and at the end of the first academic year there were 16 students. By the beginning of the 1884-85 school year, a new two-story brick building had been built and became the established school for the then-enrollment of 25 students. In October 1885, the Western District was given ownership of the new school and a board of control was elected. In 1887, the young school called its second professor, the Rev. August Schoede, who would teach at St. Paul’s for 54 years before retiring in 1941. In 1888, Baepler left St. Paul’s and was installed as president of Concordia College at Fort Wayne, Ind. He returned to St. Paul’s in 1899 and served as a professor until his retirement in 1925 The Rev. J.H.C. Kaeppel was 34 years old when, in 1888, he was called to be the second “Direktor” of St. Paul’s. The Kaeppel years were marked by growth and expansion. Four college buildings were erected along with seven residences for professors, a clinic and a power plant. Kaeppel’s tenure lasted until his death in 1925. In 1896, St. Paul’s Progymnasium was transferred from the Western and Kansas districts (the Kansas District had joined with the Western District in supporting the school) to the Synod, which met in convention that year. The school remained a synodical institution for 100 years (until 1997). By 1905, the school had grown large enough to be granted permission to become a Vollgymnasium, or full college. Until this time there had been only four classes in the pro-gymnasium, which would later coincide with the American high school system. A Vollgymnasium would allow students to continue for two more years on the same campus. Instead of finishing their pre-seminary work at Fort Wayne or another of the synodical colleges, students could take their whole course of work at the St. Paul’s gymnasium. Most graduates would then attend the four-year seminary program in St. Louis to become pastors, while a few would go to one of the normal schools in Seward, Neb., and River Forest, Ill., to become teachers. The first class graduated from the college in 1907. In 1908, 25 years after St. Paul’s Gymnasium was founded, Biltz passed away at the age of 82 years. Before his death, he had seen many of the fruits of his labor as young men who had been sent out from St. Paul’s College began to fill pulpits and congregations in the great westward expansion. In the years that followed, there were a number of obstacles for the school to overcome, but they were always met by the Lord’s providence. A typhoid epidemic hit the campus in October 1919. A total of 35 young boys were hospitalized and three of them died. The school was closed down until after the Christmas holiday in January 1920. By February, Spanish influenza was sweeping the country and a number of St. Paul’s boys began to fall ill again. For the second time in the academic year, the student body was sent home. The students returned March 30 to finish the year. The St. Paul alumni in St. Louis sent funds to Direktor Kaeppel to help with expenses during these difficult times. Kaeppel wrote back to them, “It fills me with great pride that my old boys are among the first to prove themselves true blue! God bless you forever. Your old man, JHC Kaeppel.” To this day, the school colors are true blue and white. It was during this time that the transition was made from German-speaking instruction to English in most of the Synod’s schools and congregations. This happened primarily because of the anti-German sentiment brought on by our nation’s experience in World War I. Military training was introduced briefly in the school during this time and classes marched to and from meals and events. Following the war, interest in the “Cadet Corps” dwindled and was eventually abandoned. To keep busy, most of the students became involved in a variety of activities that included chorus and orchestra, debate teams, speech clubs and, of course, sports. There were no school-sponsored athletic teams in the early years, but there was nothing to stop the boys from forming baseball and basketball teams which traveled to neighboring towns for weekend games. The baseball team often would jog to the town of Alma seven miles away for a game and then jog back. By 1924, the Synod saw fit to build the first athletic auditorium on the campus of St. Paul’s, along with a dormitory that would hold over 100 young men. Both of these buildings were dedicated in the fall of 1925. The auditorium was appropriately named “Kaeppel Memorial,” in honor of the direktor, who had passed away just before the building was completed. The dormitory was dedicated to the memory of Biltz and is known today as Biltz Hall. These two buildings are now the oldest buildings on campus. Professor Ottomar Krueger, who had substituted for Kaeppel during his illness, was elected the second president of the college (third direktor, though the term was no longer in use) and installed in May 1925 at the age of 33. By the 1930s, there were already ten institutions like St. Paul’s scattered throughout The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Because our nation was in a depression, the cost of keeping all these schools open was becoming difficult. Some in the church body were calling for several of the schools to be closed. Through the efforts of the school leadership and with the help of the local pastors in Concordia, St. Paul’s survived the attempts to close. Rev. Louis F. Brust served the local St. Paul’s Lutheran Church from 1901 to his retirement in 1933 (d. 1937) and Rev. Oscar E. Heilman served from 1933 until his retirement in 1962. At the end of the 1936-37 school year, President Krueger left St. Paul’s to become head of his alma mater, Concordia College at Fort Wayne. He had been president of St. Paul’s for 12 years. Rev. Albert J. C. Moeller of Grand Island, Neb., was called to become the next president in January 1938. At age 47, Pastor Moeller was the first alumnus to become head of St. Paul’s (class of 1911). By the mid 40s, the St. Paul’s had matriculated over 800 students with over 500 of them becoming pastors, missionaries or teachers in the Lutheran church. During the WW II years, the government required students to be “full-time” winter and summer, or be drafted. So the entire synodical school system put its college departments on summer terms. During this time, the American educational terminology of “high school” and “junior college” replaced the more arcane “gymnasium” system. Formerly the classes were listed with Latin designations: Sextaner (high school freshman) Quintaner sophomore), Quartaner (junior), Tertianer (senior), Secunda (college freshman), and Prima (college sophomore). The thirteen years spent by Moeller as president of St. Paul’s College were not easy. Many problems were due to shortage of funds as the aftermath of the Depression lingered on. The town-college relationships were not as cordial as they might have been as people criticized the cost of building Baepler Hall, the “new” administration building (1949). Local free public education along with sports programs and competition between schools turned former supporters into adversaries. Twice during Moeller’s tenure, the Synod had proposed closing the school and twice he had fought to keep it open. At a synodical board for higher education meeting in Racine, Wisc., Moeller died as a result of a heart attack on November 21, 1950. Upon his death, the electoral college of the Synod extended a call for the presidency of St. Paul’s College to Dr. Walter F. “Patty” Wolbrecht of Concordia Teachers College, Seward. He was installed at the start of the 1951-52 academic year. Wolbrecht was the first head of the school to have a background in educational administration. He came with several proposals to improve the school and campus, including expanding its acreage by purchasing an adjoining farm (the Stuenkel farm), provide direct access to the campus from the town’s main street, organize the faculty into committees, improve local relationships and have a master plan for the campus and its buildings. After two years as head of the school, Wolbrecht accepted a call to serve as assistant executive secretary for the Synod’s board for higher education. Because a new, men’s dormitory (Brust Hall) was being built at this time, he did not leave the school until the dormitory was dedicated in January 1954. For the first time in its history, St. Paul’s saw women students enroll in the college department in September 1954. Because there was a high demand in Synod for more women teachers, the Synod’s board of directors approved a college level two-year course of teacher training for women. Soon afterward, this was expanded to four-year teaching training. The junior college students, upon graduation, would then transfer to one of the four-year teacher colleges. The second alumnus of St. Paul’s to become president was Rev. Lambert J. Mehl (class of 1926). He was installed in October 1954. The seventeen years of his presidency was a ministry of expansion. During his tenure, five college buildings and seven professor residences were erected. An adjacent farm was purchased and the campus with its “quad” driveway was created. In 1964, the two oldest buildings on campus (Founder’s Hall included the 1884 and 1901 buildings) burned down and four Main Street houses were moved to open the campus to the town’s main street. A collegiate-sized gymnasium (Weis Memorial) and a women’s dormitory (Moeller Hall) were built after the 75th anniversary of the school in 1959. Krueger Hall (dining hall) was finished in 1963 and the Fine Arts building and Heilman Hall (dormitory) were completed by 1965. The curriculum was extended to include teacher training, courses in business and a music department. Enrollment reached its highest point during this time with over 380 students by the late 60s. The orientation of the school changed from an exclusively pre-ministerial school to include a general liberal arts program founded on Christian principles. Enrollment in the high school department opened to girls in 1968. Because the Synod required college presidents to retire at age 65, Mehl left office at the end of the 1970-71 academic year. The high school department was accredited with the University of Missouri in the 1930s and with the North Central Association in 1954. The college was accredited by NCA in 1968. The sixth president of St. Paul’s College was the Rev. Dr. Walter R. Rosin, an instructor at Concordia Teachers College at Seward. He was installed in September 1971. In the 1972-73 academic year, the high school department introduced the “acceleration program.” According to this program, qualified high school students were able to register for college-level classes on campus. Many students were thus able to have enough credits when they graduated from high school to be classified as college sophomores. An indoor Junior Olympic-sized swimming pool was built next to Weis Gymnasium in 1975. The pool was used for about 20 years before problems caused it to be closed and later filled in. The pool area was capped with concrete and is presently being used as an overflow room known as “The Annex.” Because the other synodical schools dropped their high school programs, St. Paul’s College High (as the school was called for a number of years) received students from across the United States who no longer had a Lutheran high school near them. A steady stream of students came throughout the 70s. However, many of them, after their high school graduation, chose not to continue in St. Paul’s college department. In June 1980, Rosin left St. Paul’s to become the executive secretary for Synod’s board for higher education. In January 1981, Dr. William Keel was elected as the seventh president of St. Paul’s College. Due to declining enrollments, the college department was closed in 1986. Feeling that he had been called to the college that was no longer a part of the picture, Keel submitted his resignation in 1985. In 1987, the Rev. Albert Wingfield became the first headmaster of what was now called Saint Paul Lutheran High School. During this difficult time, with the college department gone, the faculty of the school was pared down. Yet there was a strong desire to maintain the high school and make it the best possible. In the three-year tenure of Wingfield, an international program was set in motion that would bring in students from around the world. A program to encourage more local students to attend Saint Paul was introduced in several of the area congregations and a viable student body was not only maintained, but grew. Following the departure of Wingfield, the Rev. Dr. Erich Helge (another instructor from Seward) was called to be the school’s headmaster. The international program was expanded and more local students began to call Saint Paul their alma mater. The alumni association became more active and a triennial all-school reunion was introduced to bring former students back to campus. After Helge’s retirement in 1993, the school’s board of trustees called Mr. Richard Gove as the third headmaster of the school. Gove was not only an alumnus of the high school (class of 60) and college (class of 62), but had been on the staff of the school since 1964 as an instructor and, eventually, as principal for many years. In 1997, the Synod entered into an agreement with Saint Paul Lutheran High School to deed the school to its board of trustees. This meant that the school was no longer owned and operated by the Synod, but by the trustees. The school is now an independent RSO (Recognized Service Organization) of the Synod. By the turn of the 21st century, it had become obvious that ministry needs were changing in many rural congregations, especially in the Midwest. To address some of these changes, Saint Paul Institute for Education was established on campus to expand educational ministries beyond secondary education. To house the institute, Biltz Hall was renovated to create an education and conference center. The renovated building, newly-named The Schroeder Memorial Training Center, was dedicated in 2005 with hotel-style rooms, offices and conference areas to facilitate continuing education opportunities. Gove retired as headmaster in 2004 but served one more year as principal, giving him more than 40 years of service to the school, ten of them as its leader. At the opening of the 2004-2005 school year, the Rev. Paul M. Mehl (HS 78, C 80) was installed as executive director of Saint Paul Lutheran High School and Ministries. Today, Saint Paul Lutheran High School is the second oldest Lutheran high school in North America and the only boarding high school of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. Most of the information of the above article by Paul M. Mehl was condensed from the centennial history of St. Paul’s College, “Praise for the Past… Faith for the Future” 1883-1983, written by Rev. Frederick A. Baepler, Ph.D., 1983
|
© 2005 Saint Paul Lutheran High School. All Rights Reserved. |