Institute Opens Walther Exhibit

A new exhibit, “To God Alone the Glory: The Life of C. F. W. Walther,ˮ is now open. The exhibit uses documents, artifacts and publications from the Instituteʼs collections to tell the story of Waltherʼs life and work from his childhood and education in Saxony, his role in the Saxon Immigration to Missouri, and his multi-faceted career as pastor, seminary president and first president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. It includes information on his family life, musical interests and the effects of the Civil War on his ministry.

The Institute staff has also prepared a PowerPoint presentation using much of the material from the exhibit for personal and educational use in congregations and schools. The special DVD includes manual and automatic versions of the presentation and may be ordered from the Institute for $20.00 plus $2.50 for shipping and handling.

Pastor Biltz Meets the Secessionists

In August 1861 Pastor Franz Julius Biltz and his congregation at Cook’s Store (Concordia), Lafayette County, Missouri, had their first encounter with General Sterling Price (right) and his Confederate forces. Price had served as a brigadier general of volunteer forces in the Mexican War and as governor of Missouri from 1853 to 1857. In May 1861 had was assigned by pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson to command the newly reformed Missouri State Guard in a campaign to secure Missouri for the Confederacy. Fresh from participation in the Confederate victory in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, Price’s Missouri Guard began an invasion of northern Missouri that culminated in the First Battle of Lexington on September 20.

Before moving north, General Price sent his son, Colonel Edwin Price to the Lafayette County area to gather new recruits who might have been heartened by the secessionist victory at Wilson’s Creek. Edwin Price and his men passed through Freedom Township, and Colonel Price had Biltz brought to him for interrogation. Biltz recorded the encounter in his diary this way:

[August] 22. Secession troups [sic] about 1000 men here - camp burned - houses searched - Br[ockhoff’s]. store nearly emptied - Commander Price told me, to tell make known the object of their coming - to interrupt, to hurt nobody - not even touch any man’s person or property - only no man should take up arms against the state - or lay them down.

A Union flag was found in the church, which was taken. -

23. Wahrenbrock - H. & Fr. Bruns - Franks are searched after. - I was taken prisoner yesterday, but soon released - - Blume, Tiemann, Kirksick - hanged on trees several times [without killing them] -

23-26. Taking of horses and mules from the prairie & stables - exspecially [sic] from those, who belonged to the Home Guard. -

In September General Sterling Price moved his Missouri State Guard north to capture the town of Lexington in order to block the Missouri River to Federal traffic.

From the Biltz Civil War Diary, July 14, 1861

From the Civil War diary of Pastor Franz Julius Biltz, Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Cook’s Store (Concordia), Lafayette County, Missouri, July 1861:

14. Our Home Guard order to Georgetown, returned
next day-- Meth[odist] church demol[ished].

Georgetown is an unincorporated community just north of Sedalia in Pettis County, Missouri, and southeast of Lafayette County, where Biltz’s congregation was located. Identification of the Methodist church to which Biltz referred has not been determined.

From the Biltz Civil War Diary, July 8, 1861

From the diary of Franz Julius Biltz, July 1861:






8. Lexington besetzt mit Uniontroops
Afterwards in care of the Homeguards
10-13. Camp for our troops near the church –

This is an example of Biltz’s mixture of German and English throughout the diaries. The first line says, “Lexington occupied by Union troops.”

Lexington is the county seat of Lafayette County. Located on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River, it was the largest city west of St. Louis in the 1830s and 1840s, and the third largest city in Missouri at the time of the Civil War. Except for Freedom Township, where Biltz’s congregation of German Lutherans had settled, the county was among the most strongly pro-secessionist areas of the state, often referred to as “Little Dixie.” It was the center for Quantrill’s raiders, and two of the largest battles of the war in the west occurred there.

In early July 1861 Union forces, having driven Governor Claiborne Jackson out of Jefferson City, moved to occupy Lexington. The pro-Union Home Guards in the area, including members of Biltz’s congregation, received arms and support from this force. For a detailed account of the arrival of the Union troops, see the letter of James E. Love to his finance Molly covering the July 6-10 period, posted on the Missouri History Museum’s “History Happens Here” web site.

Rosa Jinsey Young (1890-1971)

Rosa J. Young, “the mother of Black Lutheranism in central Alabama,” died on 30 June 1971. Born 14 May 1890 in rural Rosebud, Wilcox County, the daughter of an African Methodist Episcopal minister, she graduated from Payne University and opened a private school in her home Rosebud community. Advised by Booker T. Washington, she approached the Mission Board of the Lutheran Synodical Conference in 1915 for support. After surveying the situation, the board sent veteran missionary Nils J. Bakke to oversee the development of the school, at which Young continued to serve as teacher and adviser. She later served as a professor at the Alabama Lutheran Academy (today Concordia College) in Selma. In 1961 she was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Illinois. For more information, see the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

150 Years Ago ... From the Diary of F. J. Biltz

Franz Julius Biltz, pastor of Saint Paul Lutheran Church, Cook's Store (Concordia), Liberty Township, Lafayette County, Missouri, recorded events related to the Civil War that took place in western Missouri and around the state and nation. The following entries (in English in the original) are from the end of June 1861:

[June] 26. No mail for more than two weeks.--

28. Mail again / sad affray in Benton County! Un[ion] Home Guard attacked by Secess[ionists].-- lost killed wounded

[This refers to a skirmish on June 19 between a hastily organized unit of German Lutheran farmers near Cole Camp, Benton County, Missouri, that was tasked with stopping the flight of deposed Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson, a Confederate sympathizer. See previous blog post.]

29. Part (60 men) of our Home Guard [Liberty Township] going to Boonville for arms.-- Conduct on the road.-- returned July 7th accompan[ied]. by 250 St. Louis Home Guards.-- 175 muskets, etc., 7000 Patronen [bullets], 1 keg powder.-- next day 28 more were sworn in and armed.

Three companies of Home Guards had been organized on June 15 by the German Lutherans living in Liberty Township. These people had settled there in the 1840s, placing themselves in the middle of “Little Dixie,” the most predominant slave-owning area of Missouri.

150 Years Ago ... Battle of Cole Camp, Missouri

On 19 June 1861 a hastily assembled Union Home Guard made up almost entirely of recent German Lutheran immigrant farmers was attacked and overcome near Cole Camp, Missouri, by a Missouri State Militia force, allowing the deposed Confederate-supporting Governor Claiborne Jackson to escape pursuing Union forces. The rag-tag Home Guard had no regular officers or forces to lead or support them. About 900 men had assembled on 13 June on a nearby farm, but half of the men had been sent home for lack of weapons or ammunition. Confused by Confederates carrying a Union flag, the Home Guard force held its fire until too late. Some 35 Home Guard men were killed, several of them members of Lutheran congregations in the area.

For more information on this early Civil War engagement in Missouri, click here and here.