C.F.W. Walther/Joe Scholl Commemoration Day



C.F. W.Walther and my grandfather Joe Scholl both died on May 7th (not in the same year).

Pop's grandfather, Joseph Hoehne (Höhne), was Chairman of the Board of Elders at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wittenberg, Missouri in 1939. I am Chairman of the Board of Elders at Zion Lutheran Church in Poplar Bluff, Missouri in 2009.



 

Gerald Joseph Scholl was born in Wittenberg, Missouri, on January 19, 1931, to Rudolph Edwin and Martha Flora (Hoehne) Scholl.

Received as an infant into the Kingdom of Grace by Holy Baptism at the Trinity Lutheran Church at Altenburg on February 2, by the Rev. Vogel, he was transferred at the Lord's request to the Kingdom of Glory by death on Monday, May 7, 2007 at the age of 76 years and 4 months.

Mr. Scholl was confirmed in 1949 at the Trinity Lutheran Church at Cape Girardeau by the Rev. Melzer.

On February 28, 1948, he was united in Holy Matrimony with Jewel Marie Brinkley at Osceola, Arkansas.

Mr. Scholl is survived by his wife and two children, Martha Marie (Scholl) Richmond and Joseph Alan Scholl, both of Poplar Bluff; three grandsons, Timothy Christian Schenks, Terry Michael Schenks, and Joseph Edgar Richmond, all of Poplar Bluff; one brother, James Lee Scholl of Jackson, Missouri; one aunt, Frieda (Hoehne) Newberry of St. Louis, Missouri; and three great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Jason Wayne Scholl; and two brothers, William Dean Scholl and Howard Eugene Scholl, both of Cape Girardeau.

His body will be laid to rest in the City Cemetery at Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther (1811-87), the father of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, served as its first president from 1847 to 1850 and then again from 1864 to 1878. In 1839 he emigrated from Saxony, Germany, with other Lutherans, who settled in Missouri. He served as pastor of several congregations in St. Louis, founded Concordia Seminary, and in 1847 was instrumental in the formation of the LCMS (then called the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States). Walther worked tirelessly to promote confessional Lutheran teaching and doctrinal agreement among all Lutherans in the United States. He was a prolific writer and speaker. Among his most influential works are Church and Ministry and The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel.

Blessings And Thanksgivings

The origin of the Common Table Prayer Come Lord Jesus can be found here on the LCMS website. It states that the earliest known printing of Come Lord Jesus was in a Moravian hymnal. What I can't figure out is how come we all use it instead of the prayer listed in the Small Catechism.

My family always used these:

(Before) Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let Thy gifts to us be blessed. Amen.
(After) We thank Thee Lord for all our food, for life and health and every good. Amen.

The second prayer apparently comes from a 1741 hymn Be Present at Our Table, Lord written by an Anglican-turned-Methodist-turned Moravian Brethren named John Cennick. What is the connection between the Saxon Lutherans and the Moravians? I guess Martin Stephan used to hang out with them.

Be present at our table, Lord;
Be here and everywhere adored;
Thy creatures bless, and grant that we
May feast in paradise with Thee.

We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,
For life and health and every good;
By Thine own hand may we be fed;
Give us each day our daily bread.

We thank Thee, Lord, for this our good,
But more because of Jesus’ blood;
Let manna to our souls be giv’n,
The Bread of Life sent down from Heav’n.

Old CPH Logos

I really like the old CPH logo on the left. It can be found in a lot of LCMS (or I should say Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States) books from the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The Old Home Place

My family used to have a farm south of Altenburg, MO. It doesn't exist anymore -- it's now a tree harvesting farm owned by the local lumber company -- but I can remember going hunting there as a kid with my Grandpa and his brothers.

My Aunt Emilie (my Grandpa's aunt, actually) wrote a poem about the farm during the Depression era (hers was the musical branch of the family).

She married Charles Moeslein ("Uncle Charlie") who was a printer at Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis. They retired to Altenburg, MO when they got old and Uncle Charlie took us fishing every time we visited my Great Grandma Scholl up there (Emilie's sister). We went all over the place: Apple Creek, Brazeau Creek, the Mississippi River at Wittenberg, Kasten's Pond, Gerler's Lake, Stueve's Lake. It was a lot of fun.

The farm itself had been long sold off and planted with rows of trees before I was born. Every year we'd go squirrel hunting there and see how much more the farm house had collapsed upon itself. The house has vanished by now.

This poem was written in the early-Thirties in St. Louis. Our Brother Curt [Hoehne] came home from the War and settled down there in 1946 and lived there quite a few years. Then his wife died, and he sold the place to the East Perry Lumber Company. They have planted the whole place in Trees.

The Old Home Place

by Emilie Hoehne-Moeslein

I love the old Homeplace.
Away back in the River Hills
Among the rocks and rills.

I spent a happy childhood there'
Twas not so long ago
With Mom and Dad, and all the kids
And how we all did grow.

We had an old spring box there
Where the coolest water flows
How many a pail I carried
Goodness only knows.

I loved the smell of the Pine Trees
When they were covered with dew.
And the sound of the whispering breeze
Such secrets the Pine Trees knew.

The old Homeplace is still the same
It's just that we have gone
We roam the wide world over
Until our work is done.

It's peaceful here and quiet
No noise can follow there
The peaceful sounds of nature
Hush every worldly care.

We would sit on the porch in the Twilight
And hear the Whipporwill call
The fireflies dancing about in the night
Wove a magic spell over all.

It's waiting there for someone
With a strong and patient will
To carry on the work and chores
Its promise to fullfill.

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wittenberg, Missouri

Here's a picture of the second St. Paul's as of 1939 (100th Year Anniversary of the Saxon Immigration). Both churches are gone, as is the rest of Wittenberg, MO because of excessive flooding. I've been told that it was because of the damming up of the Mississippi for river locks by the Corps of Engineers.

My Great-Great Grandpa Joseph Hoehne was listed as the elder's representative on the church council picture at the time. Eventually he moved back to Trinity Lutheran, Altenburg some time before St. Paul was shut down. I'm not exactly sure when that happened. My Grandparents and Mom can remember attending worship services there.

 

 

 

My pastor in Poplar Bluff told me he attended some kind of ceremony there in the '90s and has a couple of bricks from the decommissioning (or whatever it's called).

You can see the original white wooden church to the left side of the small picture below. I think that one was used for the Sunday School when the newer brick one was built.

I Was A Confessional Pre-Schooler

Mom kept this from my old Sunday School stuff.

Trinity Lutheran Church, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

I was baptized at the old Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape, which was the one my Mom, Grandparents and Great-Grandparents attended before I was born. Due to structure defects they had to tear it down and rebuild.

This is the congregation my Mom would have known as a small child (age 2) at the original church. My Grandma said they are probably sitting somewhere near the back.

Zion Lutheran Church, Poplar Bluff, Missouri

Zion was begun under the direction of the then "Western District Mission Board" in September 1896 when Candidate H.C. Frese began regular services. He also started a school, which, at that time, was a requirement for synodical membership. Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church U.A.C. was formally organized February 18, 1897, with 30 baptized members and 18 communicants. Worship services were held in various church buildings in the community, until the first white framed chapel was build at Ninth and Cedar around 1899. This building served the congregation for the next 46 years. The school, however, was discontinued in 1899 due to the pastor's poor health.

Over the next 40 years the congregation had her ups and downs. At times Zion was served by her own pastor and at times being by vacancy pastors. Between 1920 and 1963 Zion was part of a dual parish arrangement with St. Matthews Lutheran Church of Corning, Arkansas.

In 1943, Zion purchased property at the current location on Main and Relief. The present structure was completed and dedicated in 1947, when Zion had 130 communicants.

Zion Lutheran School was started in the basement fellowship hall in 1952, and the school building was completed in 1954. Classes, however, were discontinued in 2004.

Zion currently has 364 baptized souls, of which 306 are communicant members. Weekly attendance averages approximately 100 people (sharing two Sunday morning services).

Pastoral Relative

From: Fr. Anthony Cook franthonyc@
Subject: Distant relative
To: tcschenks@yahoo.com
Date: Monday, March 24, 2008, 2:19 PM

Mr. Schenks,

I found your web blog a few months ago when I was searching for the name of my
great-great grandfather Walter Cook--not as a research project, but just out of
curiousity. I was surprised to find your website pop up at the time, and
intrigued to find that we are, if I am not mistaken, distantly related, as the
text you were quoting from your great-great-great-grandfather's brother G.E.
Ahner was translated by my great-great grandfather, who married G.E. Ahner's
daughter Emma, who passed away in the early 1980's. I thought I would take
the opportunity to introduce myself to you, simply for the pleasure of doing so.
It is not often that one encounters a distant relative.

As I said, Walter Cook was my great-great-grandfather. His son Martin was my
great-grandfather (also a minister)--he was killed in 1948 in a plane crash in
southeast Asia. My grandfather is his son Richard, who had three sons, the
oldest of which, Dan, is my father.

I know that at least some of Walter Cooks descendants still live in Missouri
and perhaps some of the nearby states. I remember visiting several of them
(Paula Cook in particular) in 2002, though as I understand she has passed away
since then. I wonder if you know any of them.

I was curious in particular to know whether you had a copy of the text which
you quoted on your website, translated by Walter Cook from the memoirs of his
father-in-law. I would be very interested to read the entirety of that if you
knew where (or whether) it was published, and wondered as well if you knew of
anything else written by either G.E. Ahner or Walter Cook (or any other mutual
ancestors or relatives). I am myself recently ordained to the priesthood in the
Greek Orthodox Church in the Detroit area, and, while it is of course a
different church than that in which my great, great-great, and great-great-great
grandfathers served, I am nonetheless very interested to know more about them,
their ministry, struggles, families, etc. Any information you could give me
would be greatly appreciated, of course.

In Christ,

Fr. Anthony Cook

Pastoral Relative



Ordination Certificate of Rev. G.E. Ahner














































Well, there are pastors in my family, but you have to go back a long ways to find them. My Great-Great-Great Grandfather Friedrich August Ahner's brother G.E. Ahner was a Missouri Synod pastor. Their parents were the 1839 Saxon Lutheran immigrants August Friedrich Ahner and Maria Rosine Grobe.

So, let's do a memorial for Rev. Gottlob Ehregott Ahner.

I think that he has some descendents who became pastors too.

b. 5/12/1845 Frohna, MO
d. 12/8/1924 Kirkwood, MO

The Personal and Family History of The Reverend Pastor G.E. Ahner

Translated from the original German by Reverend Walter Cook in 1940.

Reverend Ahner wrote this account when he lived in retirement 1904-1924.

He was born in Frohna, Perry County, Missouri, a son of August Frederick (or Friedrich) Ahner and his spouse, Maria Rosine, nee Grobe, on May 12, 1845, and was baptized Mar 15, 1845. His given name in full was Gottlob Ehregott. It was customary among the very religious-minded Saxon Lutheran immigrants to choose names appropriate to their faith in God. The literal meaning of the name Gottlob is "Praise God" and Ehregott is "Honor God". He wrote this account of his life during his retirement at Kirkwood, MO."

My Christian parents brought me up in the fear, nurture, and admonition of the Lord. At the age of five years they sent me to the Christian Day School conducted by Pastor Loeber. Besides reading, writing, and arithmetic, my chief studies were devoted to our Christian religion. Of course, it was all in German. The Bible, Luther's Catechism, and the Hymn Book were the chief text books. Pastor Loeber insisted on a lot of memory work. Dr. Dietrich's comprehensive explanations with numerous proof texts had to be memorized.

At the age of 13, I was confirmed in the church at Frohna, by Pastor Loeber. [This would have been Rev. Christian (or Christoph?) H. Loeber, son of Altenburg's first pastor G.H. Loeber. -Tim]

1863

The hearts' desire of my dear parents was that I would become a pastor, and for that reason I decided to study for the holy ministry. At the age of 18 I became a student of theology at the Concordia Practical (short-course) Seminary, then located in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to Springfield, Illinois after my time. The professors at that time were Dr. Walther, Prof. Craemer, and Prof. Brauer. I was graduated in 1868.

1868

My first field of labor in the Lord was at Blue Earth, Faribault County, Minnesota. This was at that time the base for mission operations in that region. A number of preaching stations were started, first at Hinnesota Lake - two places - and then at Mapleton, Willow Creek, Fairmont, Skunk Lake, Town Rost, Brewster, Tomfort, Luverne (Iowa), and Blue Earth City. In this extensive field I labored five years as a circuit rider.

1873

After that I accepted a call of the church at Nicollet, in Nicollet County, Minnesota. There I also served a congregation in the Winnebago Agency, Blue Earth County, and a small preaching station nearby, besides occasionally taking care of some of the above-named stations. That was a large field of labor, some of the places over 100 miles away from home.

1879

In 1879 I accepted a call to Green Isle, Sibley County, MINN. where I continued my labors in the Lord for about 10 years. There was one great advantage, namely, I did not have to be away from home and the growing family so much any more. And it was indeed necessary, because we were troubled more and more with sickness, especially in the wintertime. I was glad to get a call to Dayton, Iowa, and accepted it. But as for the cold winters and the effect on our health, the difference was slight. Here I also had a small preaching place at Gowrie, Iowa.

1891

Two years later I received a call from New Haven, Missouri, and accepted it. This congregation proved to be strong enough to support a pastor with a considerable family, but not a teacher of the parish school. I did the best I could to perform the duties at this, my last field of labor in the Lord. I was getting old, and the infirmities were increasing until I suffered a nervous breakdown. It was high time to retire.

In 1904 I moved to Kirkwood, Missouri at the age of 59 years.

Looking backwards over the 36 years of strenuous service in the Lord's harvest fields, I at times wonder what I accomplished in those years. With the exception of Nicollet, I taught the parish school in all other charges. This was my heaviest burden, my joy, my hope. I put my trust and hope in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us a precious promise in I Cor. 15:38: 'Your labors are not in vain in the Lord'. 'All depends on our possessing God's abundant grace and blessing.'What I have preached and taught, the saving Gospel of Christ, assures me that my labors have not been in vain in the Lord. In this blessed confidence I pray like Simeon: 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.' What I have preached to others all these years, that is my hope and comfort. In this blessed faith I hope to depart in peace. Keep me in this saving faith by thy grace for Jesus' sake. Amen."

Family Data Translated 7-25-1971 AJC

On May 13, 1869 I married Johanna Elizabeth John, born May 13, 1851 in the state of Indiana, her parents being F.W. John and his wife, Martha Louise, nee Barth. We were married by our dear honored Papa: Pastor F. W. John, at Eisleben, Scott County, Missouri. (Note: the name of Eisleben was changed to Illmo during World War I) My brother Friederich August Ahner and Gustav Polack served as Witnesses at the wedding. To this marriage 13 children were born.

Notes For Convention Workbook Meeting

1. We are in fellowship with heretics. Why haven't they been thrown out of the synod?
There are some curious overtures in the convention workbook. Resurrection, Coronado, CA submitted several (and has at previous conventions):

1. To provide for cooperative and joint campus ministry with the ELCA.
2. To restore reciprocal Word and Sacrament ministry with chaplains of other Lutheran denominations.
3. To change the definitions of unionism and syncretism.
4. To focus on what the LCMS and ELCA have in common.
5. To institute open Communion.
6. To provide for the ordination of women.
7. To rescind the LCMS description that the ELCA is not an orthodox Lutheran body.
8. To declare altar and pulpit fellowship with the ELCA.

I am speechless.

2. Bits and pieces.

Report of the President, Part I -- The Purpose of a Synod Convention

Pg. 3 - "Accordingly, it would behoove you as a delegate to investigate fully any matters about which you receive questionable information in order that you may be assured of knowing the truth. You may do so, for example, by researching the actual facts or by asking your district president about these matters."

The purpose of a synod convention is to be an inquisition? I only wish it was so. The last time I investigated something as behooving a delegate, my district president told my circuit counselor that investigating is not the lay delegate's job*.

*Yet Synodical bylaws designate circuit lay delegates as resource persons and assistants in implementing resolutions in their circuit.

Report of the President, Part I -- Action on Resolutions Assigned to the LCMS President's Office

Pg. 8 - "At this time there are no recommendations for convention consideration regarding any changes in joint activity with the ELCA."

Well ... except for those multiple overtures from Resurrection, Coronado, CA.

Special Report of the President ... regarding the Lawsuit ...

Pg. 16 - Chart shows the number of delegates from exceptions: 176 (14.2%)

176! The entire Missouri District only has 58 ...

Report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force for Funding the Mission

Pg. 19 - "And yet, we are fighting an uphill battle to communicate the importance of supporting this administrative and supervisory role of the Synod when the culture all around us denigrates the institution..."

They should address why it's denigrated in the first place.

Pg. 20 - "The difficulty in funding the national bylaw and convention mandated administration and ecclesiastical supervision with steadily diminishing amounts of unrestricted dollars."

What administration and supervision? They're not disciplining any pastors or congregations anymore. Seminarians are doing pulpit supply instead of pastors.

Pg. 20 - "One of the biggest roadblocks to "funding the mission" is the lack of ownership by the people in the pews for the horrible tragedy of millions of people headed for an eternity in hell."

It is not for us to demand results. It is for us to tell and spread the Gospel. This duty is not transferable. (I just read that today in a 1945 book published by Concordia Publishing House "The Approach to the Unchurched"). The Synod should not tie fund-raising with the responsibility of individual Christians.

Pg. 21 - "As for those who are UNWILLING, perhaps there should be consideration of limiting the benefits available to them if they voluntarily reject the "common good" principle that they agreed when they joined the Synod in the first place."

I'm hard-pressed to think of any benefits I'm getting right now. My congregation already privately supports two seminarians while running thousand of dollars in the hole each year. The local LWML donates our paraments, vestments, palls, etc. (and the Synod wants to tax that group too).

Pg. 23 - "Could it be that we are not reaping because we are not even sowing? It's time the LCMS got back out into the fields of our Lord's harvest instead of sitting in the barn rearranging straw."

You can actually get more hay in a clean, well-organized barn. Loose straw gets dirty, rots, attracts vermin, goes up in flames, etc.

Appendix I -- Opinions of Commission on Constitutional Matters

Pg. 289 - "In a recent opinion, the Commission stated that a congregation which publicly and persistently teaches a position which is contrary to that adopted by the Synod may be suspended from membership in the Synod. This would be true no matter what the issue involved."

They need to use Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, not more positions adopted every year at convention.