1. Wagner College:
Four Histories
S E C O N D R E V I S ED ED IT I O N — F E BRU AR Y 2 0 0 9
Richard Darrow
Harald K. Kuehne
William Ludwig
Lee Manchester
Walter T. Schoen Jr.
Frederic Sutter with Brian Morris
E D IT ED BY L E E M AN C H E ST ER

3. Wagner College:
Four Histories

5. Wagner College:
Four Histories
S E C O N D R E V I S ED ED IT I O N
Richard Darrow
Harald K. Kuehne
William Ludwig
Lee Manchester
Walter T. Schoen Jr.
Frederic Sutter with Brian Morris
E D IT ED BY L E E M AN C H E ST ER
Wagner College
Staten Island, New York City
February 2009

6. “Wagner College: Four Histories, Revised Edition, November 2008”
Edited by Lee Manchester
With contributions by Richard Darrow, Harald K. Kuehne, William
Ludwig, Lee Manchester, Walter T. Schoen Jr., and Frederic Sutter
with Brian Morris
Copyright © 2008, 2009, Wagner College
For information about this volume, contact the editor:
Lee Manchester
Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-420-4504
lee.manchester@wagner.edu
www.wagner.edu
To order additional copies of this volume,
visit the Wagner College storefront at
http://stores.lulu.com/wagnercollege.
PDF downloads are free;
soft or hardcover print editions are for sale
at cost, plus shipping & handling.

7. Table of contents
Introduction..................................................................................... viii
Notes on the revised edition of November 2008.................................x
Note on the February 2009 revision................................................. xii
A report on the religious history
of Wagner College —
By Harald K. Kuehne (May 1950) ......................................................1
The founding of Wagner College
and the early years of its development —
By Walter T. Schoen Jr. (May 1957).................................................24
The evolution of an idea:
The Rev. Frederic Sutter remembers the
history of Wagner College on Staten Island —
Compiled by Brian Morris (1968) ....................................................46
Founding faces and places:
The genesis of Wagner College —
By Lee Manchester (2008) ................................................................56
Appendices
1) The ‘direktors’ of Wagner College
By Lee Manchester & William Ludwig .............................................86
2) Student life on the Rochester campus
By Richard Darrow (January 1968) .................................................92
3) Wagner College enrollment, 1883–1954 ......................................98
4) Housefathers, directors & presidents ..........................................100
5) Historical outline, 1883–1943 ....................................................102

8. Introduction
The publication of this small volume, coinciding with the 125th
anniversary of the founding of Wagner College, is the first attempt at
publishing a history of the school — actually, four histories.
The main contributions to this collection were written by four
authors: Harald Kuehne, Walter Schoen, Brian Morris (ghost writing
for the Rev. Frederic Sutter) and Lee Manchester. Manchester also
served as the volume’s editor. These main essays were the basis of a
special forum on Wagner College history held September 12, 2008.
The collection also includes five appendices. The first, profiling
the early “direktors” (German for headmaster or president) of
Wagner College, was compiled by Lee Manchester, based upon a set
of profiles written by early Wagner professor William Ludwig. The
second appendix, describing student life at Wagner’s Rochester
campus, was written by Richard Darrow, the college’s assistant
director of communications, for the January 1968 issue of Wagner
Magazine. The remaining three appendices are tables reprinted from
materials found in the college archives.
HARALD K. KUEHNE wrote his contribution, “A Report on the
Religious History of Wagner College,” for a Yale Divinity School
class in May 1950, a year after he graduated from Wagner. His essay
was the earliest scholarly attempt at writing a history of the college
that we had on file in the school’s archives. It starts off with a
general history of the college, then focuses on an aspect of the
institution that has changed dramatically since the 1950s: its religious
life, orientation and affiliation.
After graduating from Yale Divinity and the Lutheran
Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, the Rev. Harald Kuehne was
called to become pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in
Rockville Centre, Long Island, a position in which he served until his
retirement in 1989. He continues to serve as pastor emeritus at Holy
Trinity. He is married to Britta (Woodbury) Kuehne, Wagner College
Class of 1950.
“Wagner College literally saved me,” Rev. Kuehne wrote in a
recent note for his annual class letter at Yale Divinity. “The war
[World War II] took 4 years out of my life. My discharge was
traumatic — from the discipline of Army life to, ‘You’re on your
own, pal.’ I was a lost vet until my pastor told me to apply to a small
Lutheran college on Grymes Hill, Staten Island. Half the student
body was made up of ex-GIs. I was at home again.”
viii

9. WALTER T. SCHOEN JR. wrote “The Founding of Wagner
College and the Early Years of Its Development” in May 1957 as his
English thesis “under the supervision of one of Wagner’s outstanding
professors, Dr. Ida Everson,” he recently recalled.
While he was composing his meticulously documented essay,
Schoen had access to early records and minutes of the college that
can no longer be found or no longer exist; as such, it is the only
reliable reference we still have to many key facts concerning the
creation of Wagner College.
Schoen graduated from Wagner College in 1958. He earned his
master’s degree at Columbia University and completed doctoral and
post-doctoral work at Southern Illinois, Syracuse and New York
universities. Schoen served as president at Monticello College, and
dean at Ramapo State College and Somerset County College.
Now retired, he lives in Pinehurst, North Carolina. His wife,
Barbara R. (Brown) Schoen (Class of 1956), died in 2006.
BRIAN MORRIS, a 1965 graduate of Wagner College, worked
in the Wagner College Communications Office from 1967 to 1972.
In 1968, he taped a series of extensive interviews with the Rev.
Frederic Sutter, founder of the modern Wagner College on Staten
Island. Morris compiled those reminiscences into a memoir that was
first published around 1970 as “The Evolution of an Idea: Fifty Years
on Staten Island.”
Morris, retired from his position as spokesman for Staten Island
University Hospital, teaches part-time at St. John’s University,
whose Staten Island campus is just a stone’s throw away from
Wagner College. He is currently a member of Wagner’s National
Alumni Association Communications Committee. He lives on Staten
Island.
LEE MANCHESTER is Wagner’s media relations director. He
came to the college in 2007, bringing with him 20 years of
experience in public relations, journalism and publishing.
Manchester is the author or editor of a dozen books, eight of them on
regional history. His story on how he found the last surviving
descendants of the original Wagner family, “Finding George
Wagner: A Historical Detective Story,” appeared in the Summer
2008 issue of Wagner Magazine. Manchester is also the author of an
ongoing feature in Wagner Magazine on the architectural history of
the college’s Staten Island campus. He and his wife, Jody Leavens,
live on Staten Island and in Jay, New York, outside Lake Placid.
ix

10. Notes on the revised edition
of November 2008
After the initial publication of this book in August 2008, I
learned that a key point in my essay, “Founding Faces and Places,”
was inaccurate:
The name of the elder Wagner who brought his family to
Rochester from Prussia in 1838 was not John George Wagner Sr., but
George Heinrich Wagner. My initial assumption had been based on
the inscription on George Heinrich Wagner’s tombstone, “George
Sr.” The fact is that George Heinrich was called “George Sr.”
because his son, John George Wagner, was also referred to within the
family as George.
Wagner College’s early benefactor, John George Wagner, was
not “John George Wagner Jr.” That name properly belongs to our
benefactor’s son, J. George Wagner Jr., who died at the age of 19 and
in whose honor the college was eventually renamed.
I also learned that the wife of John George Wagner, our
benefactor, was also his first cousin. John George’s marriage had
been arranged, long distance, by his father. Both this fact and the
correct name of the eldest Wagner immigrant were disclosed in a
batch of papers containing the genealogical research of John Gordon
Maier, a distant cousin of Margaret-Anne Milne, the great-
granddaughter of John George Wagner.
Upon visiting the grave of Christian Seel, in whose private
home Wagner College was hosted for its inaugural academic year, I
saw that his tombstone claimed that he had died in 1893, though all
other records agree that he died in 1895. I have found no explanation
for this contradiction.
While visiting the Seel family grave site, I also learned that
Christian’s youngest son, Eduard, was of an age in 1883 that he
would undoubtedly have still been living at home when the second
floor of his house was turned into the Lutheran Proseminary of
Rochester.
Finally, though I have discovered a Rochester newspaper
obituary, for young George Wagner, I have still not determined
whether or not he was enrolled at Newark Academy, a predecessor of
Wagner College, at the time of his death. I had hoped that his
obituary might tell us what was his occupation at the time of his
death, but the accounts I found mentioned nothing about either his
work or studies.
x

11. Earlier, I had tried to find an obituary for George Wagner in
one of the two Newark, N.Y. daily newspapers that were in
publication at the time of George’s death. The Newark Union
newspaper contained no mention during the month of October 1873
of the death of anyone with a name like John George Wagner Jr.
Microfilms for the 1873 issues of the Newark Courier — which
appears to have been the newspaper of record for Newark, N.Y.
during that period — were missing from the microfilm series held by
the Newark Public Library when I visited over the summer of 2008.
Librarians told me that the original hard copies of the Courier, from
which the microfilms had been made, no longer existed.
Lee Manchester
November 11, 2008
xi

12. Note on the February 2009
revision
In January 2009, Mr. Karl S. Kabelac, a Rochester, N.Y.
historian, graciously sent the college photocopies of two newspaper
obituaries for Christian Seel Sr., who hosted Wagner College in his
own private home during its first academic year.
The 1895 obituaries contained several details previously absent
from Seel’s biography, which I have added to the “Founding Faces
and Places” essay in this edition.
One of the obituaries also included an engraving of a line
drawing of Seel, the only known portrait of him in existence. I have
included that portrait in this edition.
Lee Manchester
February 4, 2009
xii

13. A report on the religious
history of Wagner College
by Harald K. Kuehne, May 1950
Foreword
The title to this paper bears witness to its limitations: It is a
report and not an exhaustive historical treatment. The study and
research, which ought to have entailed at least a month's time, were
completed in feverish haste during a period of three days. The
approach, therefore, is not a fully penetrating one; the analysis is
neither clear-cut nor complete. As a result, the unique position which
Wagner College has attained and holds today in the realm of higher
education cannot be made adequately evident to the mind of the
reader solely through the means of this work.
The writer has attempted to avoid misleading and mistaken
conclusions and generalizations by keeping as close as possible to
basic concrete facts. The historical material was obtained largely
from facts and data as found in newspaper clippings, historical
contributions and outlines, and catalogues. The contemporary picture
is presented, as the result of numerous interviews with members of
the faculty and administration, examination of the Student Christian
Association's minutes and files, and the writer's own living
experiences as an undergraduate student at Wagner College.
A history of the college
“The school had the name Wagner Memorial College, but it
was not a college in the American sense. It did not have the standard
[curriculum] and was not recognized by the Regents of the State as
such. It was still a preparatory school for students of theology whose
final examination entitled the students to the entrance in a theological
seminary. The students who entered the college were supposed to be
graduates of a Public School. They were probably 14 years old, but
exceptions were made. Some were younger, some older. The School
had a six years course, stretched out over six classes. In these classes
were about 23 students, who all came from German Lutheran
congregations or Orphan Homes. Their mother tongue was German.
So there were no difficulties as far as language was concerned.”1
Such was the inauspicious position and unique make-up which this
1
From “A Contribution to the History of Wagner Memorial College,” Augustus
C. Redderoth, professor of Greek and General History at Wagner from 1892 to
1896 (written in January 1947).
1

14. tiny institution held in the year 1892 in the city of Rochester, New
York. Why it was established, and how it has achieved its present
position in the realm of higher learning, is an account rightfully
within the scope of this report on the religious history of Wagner
College.
During the year of 1883 one of the major concerns of Lutheran
ministers and laymen in the state of New York was the discouraging
shortage of Lutheran pastors able to preach as well as converse
competently in German. Because of recent large waves of German
immigrants, almost every church in the New York Ministerium
conducted services regularly in the German language, and thus arose
a need for German-speaking ministers. In August of this year, the
Rev. Alexander Richter, pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church in
Rochester, wrote a paper which he entitled, “From What Sources
Shall We Draw our German Preachers?” Believing in action rather
than mere words, Richter with the help of a colleague, the Rev.
George H. Gomph, then pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in
Pittsford, set about in gaining further support from other ministers as
well as laymen who were also interested in the establishment of a
satisfactory preparatory school; such an institution, patterned after
the German “gymnasium,” would serve as a proseminary for the
education of young men entering the Lutheran ministry.
Imbued with the realization of necessity and speedy action,
Pastor Richter initiated the calling of a meeting of the Rochester
Pastoral Conference on October 15, 1883 for the purpose of
establishing the required school. Present at this meeting were
Richter; Charles S. Kohler, Church of the Reformation; C.N. Conrad
of the Concordia Church; George H. Gomph, and Candidate George
Seel. The first decision reached at this organizational gathering was
that “the members of the Conference shall constitute the Board of
Trustees.” Mr. J.S. Margraender, a member of Zion Church, was also
elected to the board and asked to serve as Treasurer, his initial task
being to carefully husband the total capital of the new institution —
$10!2 The first president, Alexander Richter, was also elected by the
members of the board. Dr. Gomph was chosen as secretary, and Mr.
Christian Seel, an elder of the Zion congregation, assented to give
lodging to the student body of six and also provide the classrooms for
the new school in his large home. After deciding to name the
institution “The Rochester Lutheran Proseminary,” the first meeting
was called to adjournment with a fervent plea to God for continued
2
A typographical error copied from earlier accounts. The actual initial capital of
the school was $100, a gift from supporter Justus Koch of Philadelphia.
2

15. guidance and strength. And so — with a sincere and deep conviction
in the aid and purpose of the Almighty — a new venture in Christian
education was firmly initiated.
The third school year of the Lutheran Proseminary of Rochester
began on September 1, 1885. The new board of trustees, elected on
January 12 of the following year, was a most important one for it was
this same board which was to guide the institution through its first
period of transition, from proseminary to college. Pastor Alexander
Richter was once again re-elected president. Mr. John G. Wagner
was elected vice president, Frederick Schlegel was made secretary,
and David Bantleon became treasurer.
In March 1884, the school had moved from Mr. Seel’s home to
a large building on Oregon Street, formerly occupied by the Satterlee
Collegiate Institute.3 This building was for sale at $12,000, and it was
hoped that the proseminary might be able to secure the funds with
which to purchase the property. To this end, a drive was instituted
which, once it had attained $6,000, would be used as the initial
payment. By January 1886, $5,700 had been subscribed by dint of
slow and painstaking labor. On June 8, 1886, the vice president, Mr.
John G. Wagner, declared to the other members of the board that he
and his wife had decided to pay the entire purchase price for the new
location. This gift was to be considered a memorial to his son
George, whose determination to enter the Lutheran ministry had been
thwarted by death. The generous donation on the part of the father
was accepted with unrestrained joy and heartfelt thanks by the
members of the board. It was further agreed to change the name of
the institution to Wagner Memorial Lutheran College.
In spite of this great blessing, the school did not escape from
misfortune and tribulation. “It is indeed the sad experience of all
institutions, especially the new ones, that teachers and staff are more
or less troublesome. … But God was gracious; He saved us from
despair and helped us through.”4 In spite of the distress of its
“growing pains,” the young institution successfully continued the
important task of thorough preparatory training of acceptable
German students for the Lutheran Theological Seminary in
Philadelphia. In 1885, the first student, Francis Hoffman, was sent
from the Rochester proseminary to Philadelphia. In 1886, four other
graduates from Rochester joined him. The hopes and prayers of
Richter, Gomph, and all the others were now bearing fruit; the task
3
An intermediate facility has been missed here. The school moved from the Seel
house in March 1884 to a three-story brick townhouse on South Avenue. It was
not until 1885 that the school moved into the Oregon Street building.
4
From “Geschichte des New York Ministeriums,” ed. John Nicum, 1888, p. 334.
3

16. they had set upon themselves was indeed proving successful “and
prospered with the aid of God.”
The financial position of the college soon entered precarious
straits again. Merely a small percentage of the pecuniary support
came from outside sources, and it soon became apparent that
accepting the demands of the growing institution was too great an
undertaking for the primary benefactor, Zion Church in Rochester. It
was felt necessary to either limit the field of labor to one phase of
learning and cut down the teaching staff, or to take a more lucrative
step in offering the school to the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium
of New York. The question was settled in June 1888 when, at the
Synod meeting at Rondout, N.Y., the proposal that Wagner College
be made the property of the New York Ministerium was accepted.
The following June, formal and legal transfer of the school to the
Synod was made at a meeting in Brooklyn. By order of the court, the
number of trustees was increased from seven to twelve.
In the fall of 1888, the Rev. Jacob Steinhaeuser of Rondout,
N.Y. was called as director and charged with the internal
management and immediate supervision of the students. While the
six-year preparatory course [of the gymnasium curriculum] had been
retained, the institution was assuming more and more the
characteristics of a regular American college. The greatest stress was
laid upon the study of languages. The students not only were well-
grounded in Latin and Greek, in which languages dissertations were
written weekly, they also spoke German and English with equal ease
and fluency. Hebrew was taught as well as French. Much attention
was given to the study of history, both secular and church history; to
mental and moral philosophy, Christian ethics, and the usual
branches of mathematics; and to literature, science, etc. “It is just the
kind of education that men must have in order to deal successfully
with our German-American citizens, be it in church, at the bar, at the
sick bed, or in business.”5
In November 1893, the state of New York, on the basis of a law
passed the previous year, attempted to force the school to omit the
word “college” from its name because it did not have a $500,000
endowment. Mr. Adolph J. Rodenbeck of Rochester, treasurer of
Wagner’s board, was instructed to answer and appear before the
regents. In his plea, Rodenbeck pointed out that by a change of name
certain valuable property which the institution had acquired — under
condition that its name should not be changed — would be placed in
5
From an article on the college in the Rochester Union and Advertiser, May 19,
1894.
4

17. jeopardy; that the college would be deprived of a certain residuary
legacy; that the school was legally incorporated by act of legislature,
and that by a decree of the Supreme Court its name had been
changed from proseminary to college; that the law as passed by the
state of New York in 1892 was in its nature retroactive, thus
unconstitutional; and that, even granted that under the amended act
the state legislature reserved for itself the right to change the name, it
had no power to delegate that right to a second party, namely, the
regents.6 Rodenbeck apparently fought a good fight; further action
was deferred by the regents until December, when it was determined
that the name of Wagner Memorial Lutheran College was to remain
as such.
By 1894 the enrollment of students had increased to its highest
figure, 45. Tuition remained low — although raised during this year
from $32 to $40 — while sons of Lutheran pastors and parochial
school teachers received instruction free. Board was furnished at the
rate of $2.50 per week. “The expenses were small. The director
received $2,000 and residence. Prof. Betz $800 and residence in the
School building.7 Prof. Genzmer who lived privately, $800. Prof.
Redderoth $480 with room and board in the building. Prof. Schaeffer
also $480 and room and board. So the total of salaries of the teaching
staff amounted to $4,560. Let us add an equal amount for fuel, light,
food, repairs, and help, etc. we have a total of expenses of about
$9,000. As little as that seems to be, it was not easy to get it. The
Director sighed once: ‘If … yes … if we could get a quarter from
every member of the Ministerium (which numbered about 40,000),
we would have $10,000. But we never got that quarter!’ ”8
A new turn in the development of the college set in when the
Rev. Dr. John Nicum became the acting director. At a meeting of the
board in November 1894, Director Steinhaeuser was forced to resign.
Prof. Redderoth describes the incident as follows: “The day after, he
told the writer, ‘They have thrown me out like a dog!’ The Faculty
was never notified of the change that was made. It was only from
students that we learned that Dr. Nicum had taken charge of the
classes of Pastor Steinhaeuser. He never came into the room reserved
for the faculty. His orders appeared in writing outside of the door of
the faculty room, signed ‘John Nicum, Director of Wagner College,
6
A summary of the issue was included in the Rochester Union and Advertiser
article of May 1894.
7
Dr. Palleske says that Betz lived in school only at the beginning.
8
Redderoth, “A Contribution … ”
5

18. President of the Executive Committee and President of the Board of
Trustees.’ ”9
Why Steinhaeuser was dismissed and why Nicum took over the
position as head of the college is unknown. The fact remains that the
school was from then on steered in a different direction. The college
now operated under the regents and was forced to prepare the
students for numerous examinations — in which they excelled,
compared with students of other institutions. Nicum remained
director for seven years. And although the number of students
enrolled declined from one semester to the next, the board supported
him, until enrollment fell to its lowest level of 17 students.10 It was
then that the board decided it was time for new leadership, and
elected a new director. Nicum’s venture had ended in failure. The
college, however, has honored his devotion and services with the
erection of the Nicum Memorial Tower at the entrance of the present
Administration Building — a memorial that was built, in part, with
money left in John Nicum’s will for that purpose, and which
amounted nearly to the total salary he had received as director of the
college.
Following Nicum’s departure, the Rev. Joseph Rechtsteiner
accepted the vacated post of leadership. He was not only director, but
also professor of Latin, Hebrew, Greek, New Testament, Ethics,
Theology, Logic, and History. Under his direction as well as that of
the Rev. Herman D. Kraeling and the Rev. John A.W. Kirsch, who
followed him, the college continued to educate its young men along
the original lines. At the turn of the [20th] century, in 1904, “owing to
financial difficulties, the institution found itself in a very precarious
condition.” But its cry for assistance did not go unheeded. A number
of extremely generous donations were made, and on May 14, 1908
— just 25 years since its humble beginning — an anniversary service
was held in the mother church [Zion] in Rochester, and a campaign
was launched that resulted successfully in the raising of $19,000 as a
Silver Jubilee Fund.
Another significant development was in the offing. As early as
1901, pastors and laymen connected with Wagner College had felt
that a change of location for the school was highly desirable. Along
with a move to a more commendable site, it was urged that there be a
9
From Augustus C. Redderoth, op. cit.
10
An enrollment table compiled in 1954 from college catalogues and registrar’s
records show the enrollment statistics as being somewhat less disastrous than
this. During Nicum’s tenure as director, enrollment fluctuated between 45 and 31
students; the lowest enrollment since 1886, 25 students, was not posted until 2
years after Nicum’s departure.
6

19. broadening in the field of the institution and a change in some of its
policies. Coincidental with this was the strong recommendation made
by a group of Staten Island residents — including the Rev. Frederic
Sutter,11 pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Edmond Schaefer, and
E.C. Meurer — that the borough of Richmond of New York City be
the college’s new home. The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce,
through Cornelius G. Kolff, also voiced approval, promised its
support, and acknowledged the fact that the college would be a step
of progress for the island community. At length, on October 25,
1916, at a special meeting in Utica, N.Y., the Synod decided that the
college be moved, and accordingly passed a resolution authorizing a
campaign for $100,000 which sum was to be used to purchase a
feasible site in the southern part of the state of New York.
Meanwhile, negotiations had been afoot for the acquisition of the
Cunard estate atop Grymes Hill on Staten Island. And in September
1917, this property — totaling 38 acres and four buildings12 — was
purchased at the cost of $63,000. Most of the remaining funds were
invested in the additional acquisition of the adjoining Jacob
Vanderbilt estate of 15 acres.13
In 1918, therefore, Wagner College with an enrollment of 16
students14 bade farewell to its Rochester home and took up its new
quarters on Staten Island. On the second highest point along the coast
between Maine and Florida, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the
great New York harbor and the Brooklyn and lower Manhattan
skyline, the new site was an ideal one. At the crossroads of the world,
yet situated in a setting of natural beauty and suburban tranquility,
11
Sutter first served on the board from 1906 to 1909. From 1897 to 1907, he was
pastor of Emanual Lutheran Church in Hudson, N.Y. He became pastor at Trinity
Staten Island in 1907. It was not until 1916 that Sutter was elected once again to
the college board of directors.
12
The estate contained six usable buildings, actually, including the gatehouse
cottage and the car barn.
13
Not completely accurate. In addition to the $63,000 purchase price for the
acreage and the existing buildings, another $43,000 was spent remodeling two
summer cottages on the property and building a new home for the college
president. The Synod raised $70,000, and the remaining $40,000 was secured by
a mortgage. Wagner College did not buy the adjacent 19-acre Vanderbilt property
for another 4 or 5 years, on March 7, 1922; the alumni agreed to pay for the
property, and ownership was later transferred to the college itself.
14
This oft-quoted figure conflicts with that shown in a compilation of enrollment
totals from catalogues and registrar’s records: In October 1918, the first semester
after the move to Staten Island, there were 42 students enrolled in the 6-year
gymnasium program. Perhaps 16 students came along with the school from
Rochester, and 26 more registered for the first year on Staten Island.
7

20. Wagner’s present campus of 72 hilltop acres15 has been called the
most unique of any in the United States. Wagner has become the
center of learning for its community of over 250,000 people. Wagner
is Staten Island’s first college.
The move from Rochester was a wise step. Not only did it
result in material expansion and the acquisition of a remarkable site,
but it awakened a new enthusiasm for the college. Spurred on by the
realization of new responsibilities in the face of almost limitless
potentialities, students, members of the administration and faculty,
trustees and alumni responded in toto to the task now set before
them. Nor was the church incognizant of the new significance of
Wagner, and its first response was one of sharply awakened interest.
But with a growing student body largely from Staten Island and the
metropolitan area of New York, sweeping changes were of necessity
in order. One of the initial steps taken, after academic activities
opened in the Cunard estate buildings on the hill, was to abandon the
6-year gymnasium type of curriculum and institute the regular 4-year
American college plan; a 4-year high school course initiated the
Wagner High School, which was discontinued in 1932. The need to
function in a broader way educationally led to a further overhauling
and reconstruction of the curriculum. Without lessening Christian
emphases, subjects and courses of instruction were enriched and
extended into the major fields of interest of not only prospective
students of theology, but also for those planning other professions.
Courses leading to degrees of both bachelor of arts and bachelor of
science were introduced; major fields of study were broadened so
that today they prepare students interested in business, dentistry,
engineering, journalism, law, medicine, ministry, music, parish work,
physical education, social work, teaching, and veterinary medicine.
In 1931, scholastic standards were raised, and the college became a
fully accredited member of the Middle Atlantic States Association of
Colleges and Secondary Schools.16 In 1933, women were enrolled for
the first time, and they now constitute nearly a third of the student
body. At the present, Wagner College also confers the degrees of
associate in arts and associate in applied science and, for the first
15
In December 1941, 10 acres of land adjoining the campus were given to the
college by Philip Berolzheimer. In 1949, Wagner added again to its campus in
purchasing Oneata, the 18-acre estate of General William Green Ward, an area
that was to become known as “West Campus” and today houses the football
stadium. Those two additions brought the total acreage of the college to more
than 75 acres.
16
A year later, however, Wagner’s accreditation was suspended. It was not until
1936 that accreditation was restored.
8

21. time in its history, will offer courses leading to the degree of master
of arts when the summer session opens July 2, 1951.
Although Wagner’s past history has been one of unceasing
struggle in the face of adverse circumstances, its future necessitates
continued surveillance, for it seems destined to be a bright and
fruitful one. At the present time, the institution is seeking to procure
funds for a new gymnasium and women’s dormitory,17 which will be
ready for use by September 1951. Through the United Lutheran
Church’s Christian Higher Education Year appeal, the college will
receive $350,000, all to be raised among New York Synod
congregations. Although the commendable results of the CHEY
drive place no special obligations on the school, Wagner must needs
gain thereby a renewed sense of moral obligation and responsibility
to the church under whose auspices the money is being raised. The
college’s indebtedness to the church is not a financial one, rather one
which realizes that — even today — the church is willing to serve
the college. The college, in turn, bears the responsibility of serving
the church in every way possible and academically feasible!
The alumni of the college
Wagner College’s alumni — about 1,200 living — have
contributed in many immeasurable ways to the religious welfare of
their respective communities. Throughout the years, 338 graduates of
Wagner have entered the Lutheran ministry. Of this number, 158 are
now serving the United Lutheran Synod of New York, and 107 are in
the service of the church elsewhere. There are 18 graduates on such
faculties as Muhlenberg and Roanoke colleges, the universities of
Columbia, Missouri, Maryland, West Virginia, Mary Baldwin,
Westminster and Denver. The Rev. George Aus, Class of 1925, is
professor of practical theology at Luther Seminary, and the Rev.
Theodore Tappert, Class of 1926, is professor of church history at the
Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia. As a further criterion of its
leadership, five of the seven conference presidencies of the Synod
are now occupied by Wagner alumni. In and outside the United
Lutheran Church, Wagnerians are participating in a wide variety of
religious activities: Mr. Henry Endress, Class of 1938, is secretary of
stewardship for the ULC. The Rev. Carl Koppenhaver, Class of
1943, one of the leading men in the field of religious journalism, is
editor of the United Lutheran Publishing House bulletin service and
director of the ULC’s News Service. The Rev. William Villaume,
Class of 1935, has been elected executive secretary of the
17
Sutter Gymnasium and Guild Hall.
9

22. Department of the Urban Church of the National Council of
Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Dr. Frederick Reissig, executive
secretary of the Washington (D.C.) Council of Churches, was
graduated from Wagner in 1914. The Rev. John Futchs, Class of
1927, has served as president of the Rocky Mountain Synod. The
Rev. Carl Futch, Class of 1924, is director of the Lutheran Welfare
Association of New Jersey. The Rev. Herman F. Reissig, Class of
1920, is on the Council for Social Action of the Congregational
Christian Churches. Everett Jensen, Class of 1940, is a missionary in
Hawaii. Oscar Werner, Class of 1906, and Mildred Ernst, Class of
1944, are serving in India. Wagner graduates are serving as chaplains
in hospitals and other institutions, as well as in the armed forces. At
the present time, there are 56 students enrolled at the college who are
preparing for the ministry: 48 are Lutheran, 6 are Episcopalian, and 2
are Moravian. It might be noted that during the 1920s, virtually the
entire student body was preparing for the Christian ministry; today,
only about 5 percent of the students are preparing for the pastorate,18
yet this percentage includes a greater number of students than the
100 percent of 30 years ago.19
The emergence and activities of the
college’s Student Christian Association
It was not until the late 1920s that Wagner’s student enrollment
came to include a fair number of individuals not planning to enter the
Christian ministry. Thus it is not until 1930 that a “religious
association” serving and fulfilling the spiritual needs of all students
was brought into being. This association, called “The Lampadia
Council,” was founded through the initiative of Prof. Willis Stuart
Hinman. It functioned in a comparatively loose manner. Although
every student automatically became a member by the very fact of his
enrollment in the college, the group often took on the appearance of a
Lutheran student organization headed and run by Lutherans.
Although Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist students were also
members, there was great difficulty in electing non-Lutheran students
to office. (On one occasion, three Lutherans were purposely placed
on the same ballot along with one non-Lutheran nominee, but with ill
success, for one of the Lutherans still won the office.) Religious
activities during the 16 years of the Lampadia Council’s existence
were many and varied: chapel services were held five times a week,
special services on such occasions as Christmas, or Thanksgiving
18
Actually, the percentage was more like 2.9.
19
Almost, but not quite. Registration from 1918 through 1929 ran from 42
students to 134.
10

23. Day; during the Lenten season, discussion groups were invited to
meet at Dr. Hinman’s home; Bible study groups were active in the
dormitories; a social service committee made occasional visits to the
Staten Island Old Peoples’ Home; arrangements were made for the
orchestra and singing group to visit the Staten Island, Marine,
Richmond Memorial, and St. Vincent’s hospitals. (The reception at
St. Vincent’s was always the most cordial and welcome of all, for the
Catholic sisters cheerfully worked with the singers from the very top
to the bottom floor, and invariably treated them to coffee and cake.)
The proportionately large number of pre-seminarians were under the
direct guidance of Prof. Hinman; he often took them to his church,
where they assisted in the liturgy and worked with the young people;
a number were also placed in Luther League and Sunday School
positions; the pre-seminarians met as a group at least once a month,
usually to hear prominent and worthy speakers address them on a
variety of subjects. A high spot in one series of talks was when Mr.
Henry Beisler, and Mr. S.F. Tilleen, then vice president of the Chase
National Bank, spoke on the spiritual needs of the layman. Non-
preministerial students were readily admitted and welcomed to this
group of young men — and often came to enter a Lutheran seminary
along with their fellows.
With an enrollment of 100 to 250 students during these 16
years,20 it was certainly a comparatively less arduous task to exert a
religious influence over the student body than today. By 1945, as the
student population had increased and grown less intact, as the
representatives of the various faiths became more numerous, the
inadequacy of the Lampadia Council in its organization and its
carrying out of its responsibility to the religious life of the campus
became clearer and more marked. The following excerpts from the
minutes of the Lampadia Council give sufficient evidence of the
determined steps taken to alleviate the causes of an unwholesome
and unhealthy situation:
Oct. 10, 1945 — It has been brought to the attention of the
Council that not enough is being done for the religious life of
the campus. The following suggestions were made in relation
to this: a good discussion to be held once a month led by a
prominent, well-versed man; put books on library shelves
related to the topic of the month; create an interest in these
discussions.
Feb. 4, 1946 — A report was given by Mr. Ahrend and Miss
Dickert concerning a meeting they had had with Dr. Langsam
20
Low enrollment during this period was 117 students (1932); high, 510 students
(1942).
11

24. [president of the college] and Pastor Heiges [then Lutheran
Student Association pastor at Columbia University]. Dr.
Langsam felt some reorganizing should be done in Lampadia,
so that its work would be more far-reaching and successful.
The matter was discussed, and it was decided that the whole
council should meet with Dr. Langsam to see what could be
done.
Feb. 11, 1946 — A special meeting of the whole Council with
Dr. Langsam was held, and after much discussion it was
decided that the Lampadia Council act as an Executive
committee for a campus Student Christian Association.
Contact is to be made with the Rev. Heiges concerning
affiliation with this Movement.
March 4, 1946 — Mr. Ahrend gave a full report of the Student
Christian Movement as a result of a meeting with Pastor
Heiges. The Constitution Committee will meet in connection
with this, drawing up a constitution after the form of the SCA.
April 8, 1946 — The SCA constitution of Gettysburg [College]
was read, and it was voted that we accept it as our own, with
certain minor changes to suit our situation at Wagner.
May 6, 1945 — The new SCA constitution has been adopted
by the present council. The next step is to get the approval of
the Student Body and then call together all who are interested
in the new religious organization. The Lampadia Council will
function as the executive committee of the group, but on a
different basis from previously.
The establishment of a Student Christian Association at Wagner
College marked a turning point in the voluntary religious activity
program of the student body. It was a step toward a more democratic
representation, not only of the various faiths of the campus
community, but also of the student population as a whole. National
affiliation impressed upon members of the new organization a fuller,
deeper sense of responsibility in terms of achievement, effectiveness
and universality. They were now part of a worldwide movement. A
feeling of security and unity, coupled with a sense of working
together with other campus SCAs throughout the nation and the
world, made for an invigorated and re-strengthened organization
which soon was to carry out its aims forcefully and energetically. Its
purpose was clear and unhesitating:
To lead students to faith in God through Christ; to promote
them into active relationship with the church; to promote their
growth in Christian faith and character, especially through
prayer and the study of the Bible; to influence them to devote
themselves in united effort with all Christians to make the will
12

25. of Christ effective in human society and to extend the Kingdom
of God throughout the world.21
There is little doubt that the Student Christian Association at
Wagner College wields a remarkably great influence on the campus.
It is, in and by itself, the strongest single student organization in
terms of publicity, activity and range of effectiveness.
A glance at the varied and many functions of Wagner’s SCA
during the 1949-50 school year will quickly dispel any misgivings
concerning the important and strategic place which this religious
organization holds in the student life of the college. Twice during the
month the SCA has regularly scheduled meetings at which members
listen to, and participate in, meaningful and worthy discussions and
talks, led or given by faculty members and outside speakers;
attendance at these evening gatherings on the hill average 80. The
SCA has taken direct action in providing entertainment for students
remaining on campus on weekends when no other school event is
taking place; dancing on Friday and Saturday evenings, at no charge,
was sponsored by the Association; a series of Friday night movies
featuring such highly rated films as “Stanley and Livingston,” “Song
of Bernadette” and “Bell for Adano” was presented. Another activity
of the SCA is the establishment and maintenance of a campus
Sunday School designed for children of faculty members and
students; two Wagner students are in charge of two classes. In 1949,
the Association voted to bring a Displaced Person22 pre-seminarian to
Wagner College; members of the SCA asked church congregations
and organizations for the necessary funds; the success of this venture
has enabled Karl Lantee of Estonia to come to the United States; he
began studies at Wagner in September 1949.
On March 1, 1950, a Christian Career Conference was held at
the college. The day’s program began with a special chapel service at
which the speaker was the Rev. David H. Bremer, secretary of the
Board of Education of the United Lutheran Church in America. Later
in the day, Pastor Bremer and his associate, Miss Mildred Winston,
spoke in several classes on the topics of “Church Vocations for Men”
and “Church Vocations for Women,” respectively. Also participating
in the program were Dr. Michael Rapp, chief gynecologist and
obstetrician at the Staten Island Hospital, Mr. Frank L. Egner,
president of Funk & Wagnalls, and Prof. Margaret Gram, head of the
Department of Home Economics at Queens College.
21
From Article II of the constitution of the Student Christian Association of
Wagner College.
22
As European refugees displaced by World War II were called.
13

26. The 1950 Lenten season was Wagner College’s period of
“religious emphasis.” A special and strenuous effort was made to
induce all members of the Wagner community to attend every chapel
service, particularly the Friday services, which featured clergymen
known for their concern for the problems facing the young people of
today. Included were the Rev. Dr. Frederick R. Knubel, president of
the United Lutheran Synod of New York, the Rev. Conrad Reisch of
Bridgeport, Conn., and the Rev. Dr. Russell F. Auman of Manhattan.
Also on the religious emphasis program was the distribution of
devotional guides, and the setting aside of Wednesday evenings to
Bible study.
As part of its regular plan of activity, the SCA conducts vesper
services every Tuesday and Thursday evening. These services are led
by students.
The Association has been well represented at a number of
conferences, such as the spring SCM Conference at Troy, N.Y., the
Leadership Training Conference at Camp Dudley and the Silver Bay
Conference Center, and the Leadership Training Conference at
Holiday Hills. Active SCA members who have attended any number
of these conferences and who have had courses in religion act as
leaders in the six Bible study groups that function on campus.
Since 1947, the SCA has been the driving force behind
Wagner’s Campus Community Chest drive, which is held each year.
The offer by the Association of its services was approved by the
Student Council in 1947, and since then the SCA has done most of
the organization work and carried the major burden of responsibility
for the success of the drive. Highlighting the campaigns of the past
two years has been a full-sized carnival in which all student groups,
clubs, and fraternities and sororities, as well as faculty members,
fully participate.
The SCA also sponsors boat rides up the Hudson River to Bear
Mountain, and it initiated the making of therapeutic aids for the
Lutheran Inner Mission of Brooklyn, N.Y.
A final activity is clearly revealed in the following note
received from the Augustinian Academy, secludedly located
immediately adjacent to the Wagner campus:
Dear Students of Wagner College,
We want to thank those young men and women who
sang carols for the students of the Augustinian Academy.
They certainly showed the true and blessed spirit of
Christmas.
We wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New
Year.
We, the Students
14

27. The Student Christian Association exists as the only student
religious organization at Wagner College. As such, it has the sincere
and hearty support of the administration, and is cognizant —
although not always fully appreciative — of that support. The
Association has virtually full priority on the matter of dates of
functions; its calendar of events is made up before that of any
fraternity, sorority or club. Under the guidance of the college
chaplain, it is in many respects a growing force whose youth is
disguised by the central and strategic role that it truly plays. SCA
leaflets, bulletins and posters are found everywhere, carrying
announcements of chapel programs, names of visiting speakers and
previews of social and religious gatherings. Officers of the
Association are a hustling, determined and earnest group of
undergraduates, who occasionally have little patience with the
problems the administration must needs face in its efforts to meet
SCA demands.
One urgent need, for example, is that of a permanent chapel
serving only religious purposes; the present chapel must of necessity
serve also as examination room, theater, basketball court and dance
floor. This situation cannot be altered until the building program is
completed.
A perplexing and challenging problem which Wagner’s SCA
faces today — and will continue to face — is one involving the non-
Protestant representation within the student body. Of about 960
students:
• 27 percent are Catholic;
• 5 percent are of the Jewish faith;
• 37 percent are Lutheran — and this latter percentage will
undoubtedly increase when the college acquires more
dormitory space for out-of-town students;
• 31 percent come from all other Protestant denominations.
Requests for a Newman Club have been denied, as have those
for a Lutheran Student Association and similar denominational
organizations. A Staten Island Newman Club for Collegiate Students
has been formed, but must exist as an off-campus group with
resulting mediocre success.
A Lutheran Student Association exists in name only — that is,
it is not officially recognized, and its membership participates only in
off-campus activities sponsored by the Lutheran Student Federation
of Metropolitan New York. The foregoing circumstances are largely
the result of the fact that “it has been the traditional policy of Wagner
College that all students work together religiously, and to discourage
15

28. the splitting up of the student body into different religious loyalties,”
said the Rev. Paul John Kirsch, Wagner College chaplain.
It cannot be denied that such a policy has been determined by
the sincere and thoughtful efforts of the administration to provide the
most effective and integrated program of voluntary religious activity.
There are, however, two distinct circumstances that bear out the
difficulties which this policy entails: First, the Student Christian
Association often finds itself existing as a Lutheran club in disguise,
primarily because such a large percentage of Lutheran students live
on the campus and thus are more readily available for participation in
any and all activities. Second, and more of a cause rather than a
result of the preceding problem, is the fact that so few Catholic
students participate in and support SCA activities.
Positive steps have been taken to alleviate both of these rather
disturbing and unwholesome situations. Indeed, there have been
many non-Lutheran students who have been more active in the SCA
than Lutheran students, but the former have constituted exceptions to
the general picture. Efforts to bring Catholics into active participation
in SCA activities have been thwarted by the consistent refusal of the
great majority of these students to cooperate; needless to say, a very
small percentage of them attend chapel services.
The chaplain, the guidance director, and
the Department of Religion and Philosophy
Wagner College has a full-time chaplain for students. He is the
Rev. Paul John Kirsch, who directs an extensive program of
counseling, the Student Christian Association, and chapel services.
Until February 1949, Pastor Kirsch was both chaplain and associate
professor of religious studies, and was then relieved of his teaching
duties, giving him the opportunity of devoting all his time and efforts
to the position of chaplaincy. He also serves on a number of
committees: Admissions, Chapel, Dormitory and Student Relations,
Library, and Synod Relations; he is an elected faculty member on the
Wagner College Council, serves on the Board of Traditions as well
as the Board of Religious Activities, and is an advisor to the pre-
ministerial students.
Any student, upon making application for admission to Wagner
College, becomes immediately acquainted with the emphasis placed
on the development of Christian character. A personal interview with
the director of admissions is immediately followed by a talk with
Pastor Kirsch, who makes clear and concrete the college’s hope and
desire that the applicant will add to the religious life of the campus.
The prospective student is informed of a prescribed course in
16

29. religion; he is made aware of the fact that Wagner stands for
Christian ideals, that Christianity is lived in and outside of the
college classrooms. Chapel attendance is not compulsory, but “all
students are expected (and urged) to attend chapel regularly.” The
applicant is given every opportunity by the chaplain to raise
questions, to consider and to evaluate the step he is taking in
choosing Wagner as his college.
Pastor Kirsch, a graduate of Wagner College, Class of 1933,
and of the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, preaches at least once
a week at the morning chapel exercises, and also at most of the
“Church on the Hill” services held on one Sunday during the month.
He has his own private office, conveniently located in a quiet part of
the main building. His home, which is located immediately on the
campus, is open to all students at all times, and is known for the
“only good cup of coffee on Grymes Hill.”
Another aspect of the college’s concern for the individual
student is the guidance program under the direction of Dr. John E.
Crawford. As director of guidance and vocational counseling, Dr.
Crawford reorganized and now coordinates all student guidance
facilities. He is consultant to the faculty on classroom problems, to
the student body as a whole, and to individuals. He has nothing
directly to do with discipline, but is regularly consulted by the
Dean’s Office. All students are encouraged to become as self-
directing and self-reliant as possible. Dr. Crawford never sends for a
student; rather, he waits for students to come to his office on their
own initiative; then he simply discusses the facts of the problem the
young person may have, and attempts to leave the final decision to
the individual concerned. The whole guidance program is correlated
closely with the chaplain’s office, the health department, and other
administrative offices.
The Religion and Philosophy Department of Wagner College is
headed by Prof. Viljo K. Nikander, who, with associate professors,
has integrated a new course, “Religion and Life,” into the
curriculum. In February 1949, the Department of Religion was
combined with the Department of Philosophy for the purpose of “not
so much bringing philosophy under the wing of religion, but
precisely to integrate two departments which more specifically could
foster the Christian purpose of the college,” Prof. Nikander said. This
reorganization also included a strengthening factor in that the
combined staff of the new department came to include four
professors holding Ph.D. degrees teaching full-time, and one Ph.D.
and one Th.D. teaching part-time. The religion and philosophy
section is considered the basic department of the college, for it serves
17

30. to integrate in various ways the contributions to the field of learning
made by the other departments. In the near future, regular informal
get-togethers with members of all other departments will be initiated
in order to stimulate and facilitate a profitable and wholesome
exchange of ideas.
Prof. Nikander said, “In the teaching of philosophy and
religion, we seek to give the student some principle with which to
unify his entire college studying and career. We seek to enable a
student to see a true unity in the education he receives.” In a step to
implement this desire, a new 6-hour course in religion has been
instituted, supplanting the previous course of instruction consisting
of a semester of Old Testament and a semester of “The Life of
Christ.” Insight into the new course is presented in the following
outline loosely connected with liberal use of quotations:
RELIGION AND LIFE
Foreword: This course, entitled Religion 1-2, is the outcome
of what the authors believe to be a unique endeavor. We know
of no other book which does the kind of thing we hope to do,
and that is to find a way by which Christianity can become, not
just another course in religion, but significant for the student’s
own life. Factual, historical, and systematic study of religion
and of Christianity is not neglected. Every effort will be made,
however, to indicate the vital connection religion has or should
have with man’s everyday experiences in both personal and
collective living.
George W. Hackman
Charles W. Kegley
Viljo K. Nikander
The nature of religion: The aim of this course: The purpose
of Religion 1 is to give the student some understanding of the
meaning of religion. In view of the fact that objections are
sometimes raised to a required course in religion, this
introduction tries to clarify the importance and place of religion
in life and in the college curriculum. The main body of the
course is concerned with presenting the essentials of the
Christian heritage which has been the common foundation of
the history, civilization and culture of the western world.
I. Why religion, why study religion, why study the Christian
faith
II. The nature of religion
III. Ways of knowing religion
IV. How the Bible came to be: origin of literature contained
in the Bible
18

31. V. The meaning of the Old Testament: its important
teachings; Moses; prophetic Judaism; transition to the
New Testament. (Required Bible readings)
VI. The life of Jesus: background of the world out of which
Christianity arose; the Greco-Roman cultural setting;
major events in the life of Jesus. (Required Bible
readings)
VII. God: from animism to theism; the Christian view of God
VIII. Man: what is he; his plight and possibilities as God’s
creature
IX. God’s work of salvation: the incarnation of divine love;
the cross as the supreme expression of divine love
Religion in life: The aim: Religion 2 is devoted to the
application of religion and of religious ideals to everyday living.
The relevance of religion to all the important areas of personal
and collective life is considered. Following an analysis of the
major aspects and trends of contemporary life and civilization
and a presentation of the more significant rival faiths, we
endeavor to show that the Christian faith and ideals will
provide the more adequate answer to the individual and social
problems of our generation.
The question facing us now is: How can religion be applied to
contemporary life? It is generally agreed that our individual
and collective life today is far from healthy. Ours is, in short, a
sick civilization. We propose, therefore, first of all, to diagnose
the patient — our civilization — to discover the state of its
health or illness. Secondly, we shall examine some of the
representative remedies that are being offered. Finally, we
shall endeavor to indicate that Christianity is the only adequate
way to the restoration of the health of man.
I. Important trends and characteristics of contemporary
civilization — in following spheres of life: economic,
political, social, cultural. (Required readings: from works
of Harry Emerson Fosdick, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul
Tillich, Amos N. Wilder, D. Elton Trueblood, John C.
Bennett, et al.)
II. Some proposed answers to modern man’s needs given
“in an ascending scale, ranging from the less important
and less commendable to the more effective and
satisfying.” — Escapism, irrationalism, authoritarianism,
scientism, non-Christian religion (viz. Hinduism),
characteristics and defects discussed as with Buddhism,
Muhammedanism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism.
(Required readings: Robert M. Hutchins, Adolf Hitler,
Frederick West, Nels F.S. Ferre, et al.)
III. The Christian solution: Religion applied to individual life;
relationship of religion to the individual; the role of
religion in the creation of wholesome personality in the
four major interests of every man, viz. thinking, working,
19

32. play, love. (Required readings from : Martin Luther, Elton
Trueblood, William Temple, John E. Crawford, et al.)
Conclusion: The effort has been made to show the positive
contributions of religion to four major aspects of human life.
Recognizing that so much of life fails to become what it can
and should be, we may summarize something of what we
have learned by saying that (1) thinking should not be merely
observing and adjusting to environment but creative
intelligence seeking adequate means for proper ends; (2)
working should not be mere labor but the sense of joy in a
vocation; (3) play should not be mere relaxation but re-
creation; (4) love should not be mere physical activity but
physical, mental, and spiritual mutuality. Thinking, working,
playing, and loving, thus properly understood, and inspired by
religion, can give to any individual’s life something of the
symphonic beauty and power which God intended that it
possess.
IV. Religion applied to collective life: in the economic life, in
the political life, social life
Beside the above year course, “Religion and Life,” which every
candidate for the A.B. or B.S. degree must take, four other courses in
religion are offered: “The History of Religions” (a comparative study
of the religions of the world), “Major Christian Beliefs,”
“Archaeology and the Bible,” and “Sacred Literature” (a study of
Old Testament lyrics and psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, passages
from the Gospel of John, etc.).
Specifically, and point by point — how does Wagner fulfill its
distinctive function and responsibility as a Christian college?
First, under “Aims and Policies,” Wagner’s catalogue gives a
brief, clear-cut statement and understanding of ideals and goals:
Wagner College is a Christian college, affiliated with the
United Lutheran Church in America through the United
Lutheran Synod of New York. As such, it encourages the
growth of Christian convictions and their application to
everyday living.
The college believes that the purpose of education is to
help each student develop his intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic,
physical, and social abilities. It seeks to familiarize the student
with the major branches of knowledge, to help him attain
proficiency in one or more fields, and to stimulate critical and
creative thought. It stresses the opportunities and obligations
of the student as a member of society within a worldwide
community.
In order to facilitate the pursuit of these aims, Wagner
College has always emphasized the selection of faculty
20

33. members who are qualified not only by training and
experience but by virtue of their character and their ability as
teachers. Good teaching is a primary concern of the entire
administration and faculty.
Not only are these aims made clear by means of the college bulletin,
but also by verbal and public declaration to each entering student,
and alumni members. The aims and policies as stated above are
implemented in numerous ways, particularly by a Department of
Religion and Philosophy that makes clear to its students that religion
and education belong together, and seeks to make religion integral in
the curriculum.
Second, Wagner provides curricularly for courses in religion
that reach every student, without exception. Through the efforts of a
most capable and competent group of staff members, religion is
“dispassionately appraised and passionately expressed.” A specific
knowledge of religion is basically and fundamentally taught;
challenging and controversial issues of the various faiths are
occasionally hit upon, but the student is given ample freedom to
accept or reject as his own conscience and belief see fit. High
academic standards and discipline are maintained, and the professors
of religion and philosophy hold the expressed desire that their
department occupy an integral place in the undergraduate curriculum.
Third, the college does provide concern for the kind of faculty it
employs. It insists upon teachers and administrators who are
professionally competent and possess Christian convictions. The
constitution of the college contains the requirement that every
member of the faculty declare membership “in some one church.”
The college’s attempt to provide high-quality education is reflected
in the fact that almost half of the faculty holds title to the Ph.D.
degree. Finally, there is a positive desire and attempt on the part of
faculty and administrative personnel not only to do a first-rate
intellectual job, but to live a life and set an example that upholds and
preaches Christ.
Fourth, the institution does provide opportunity for corporate
worship in a number of ways. During the chapel services — and
these are always earnest services of worship — on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday mornings, all provisions are made to impress
upon the student the fact that he is expected to attend. No official
function or formal gathering is permitted at this time; with the tolling
of the chapel bell, the sandwich shop is closed along with all
administrative offices. Although attendance at chapel is not
compulsory, clear evidence is given that the religious training and the
opportunity for meditation that the chapel service offers are
21

34. considered to be of primary importance. On Wednesday evenings,
for the benefit of night school students, all classes are excused at
7:30 p.m. — 25 minutes ahead of schedule — to permit attendance at
night chapel services. Vesper services are held both Tuesday and
Thursday evenings. “Church on the Hill” services take place on one
Sunday morning of each month; and, on other Sundays, a special
school bus transports students to and from Trinity Lutheran Church.
Fifth, Wagner actively sponsors a voluntary program of
religious activities under the direction of an officially appointed and
competently trained officer. The Student Christian Association,
under the guidance of Chaplain Kirsch, is the sole and central
channel of religious activity on the Wagner campus, and receives
strong and evident support from the administration. Despite the
desire and the attempt of the SCA for an ecumenical representation,
the Association has been unable to cope with the problem created by
the refusal of the great majority of Catholic students to support its
efforts and activities.
Sixth, the college provides for a fostering of religious and moral
values in all administrative functions. The student body, through the
Student Association, is provided with a democratic means of
regulating student activities and of advancing student interests. Every
attempt is made to impress upon each student the responsibility he
bears as an individual as regards his conduct on and off the campus.
Although the use of alcoholic beverages is forbidden at any and all
on-campus activities, its use and the responsibility for its use at any
off-campus affair is borne by the fraternity, sorority or club
sponsoring the activity. Unsatisfactory conduct is dealt with strictly,
yet with a Christian understanding of the needs and problems of the
individual. A counseling plan is provided by the offices of the
president, the dean, the chaplain and the director of guidance, all
attempting to individualize to an extremely remarkable extent the
individual student, to give unlimited guidance to the student in the
light of his own disturbing problems, be they economic, moral or
spiritual.
Seventh, the administration and faculty put their influence and
support on religious ideas in an intelligent way. Religion is felt to
have its proper basic place in the academic, social and spiritual life of
the campus community, but it is not lugged into places where it does
not belong. Academic freedom is limited only by the concern the
college has for the kind of faculty it employs; in other words, in
almost every case, a faculty member by the very fact of his
acceptance to the college faculty will express views that are not
merely neutral but indeed pro-Christian. The religious view of
22

35. Wagner is definitely not a narrow one, but rather “a liberating and
liberalizing one,” one that is, at its heart, intellectually defensible.
The college is church-related, but not church-controlled. All property
is owned by the Board of Trustees. The United Lutheran Synod of
New York does nominate 12 of the 21 trustees of the college, but
these nominees must then be elected by the board. The other 9
trustees are chosen by the board itself and by the alumni; these 9 are
submitted to the Synod for its approval, but they are again elected by
the board itself. The Lutheran Synod does give the college an annual
financial grant, but the institution does remain “entirely free of
outside control except insofar as public opinion is a healthy check on
any institution,” wrote Wagner College President Walter C. Langsam
in a recent letter. “We are responsible only to the State Education
Department, as is every other college — public, independent or
church-controlled — in the state of New York.”
Conclusion
The writer cannot deny that the picture he has drawn of Wagner
is indeed a bright one. Negative aspects and criticisms may well
seem lacking — not, however, because such has been the writer’s
purpose. On the contrary, he has sought to be fully critical, yet has
found it unreasonable and grossly misleading to make a negative
generalization simply because, for example, one member of the
faculty happens, on occasion, to act “un-Christian” due to a headache
or the effects of an ulcer.
As a graduate of the college [Class of 1949], the writer may
needs admit to an overall biased view. He has known its intimacy
and warmth. He will always be indebted to the many members of the
faculty whose guidance and words of inspiration have brought him to
seek the fullness and wonders that human life offers. By virtue of
attendance at other institutions of higher learning, the writer has been
in a position to compare and appreciate Wagner’s Christian
atmosphere. He met his wife at this college. Furthermore — and
finally — were anyone ever to inquire what gave him the initial and
most forceful impetus to enter the Christian ministry, his immediate
and only reply would be: My three years as a student at Wagner
College.
23

36. The founding of Wagner College and
the early years of its development
by Walter Thomas Schoen Jr., May 1957
In the latter half of the 19th century, a sweeping wave of
immigrants descended on the shores of the United States. This deluge
included peoples from all over the world. Not unimportant among
them were people of Germanic origin who flocked to all sections of
the country. In the upper half of New York state, many thousands of
German immigrants settled down to the problem of making their way
in a strange new world. Their way of living was different from that of
the people already established. If there was, however, any one thing
the immigrants had in common with the Americans, it was religion.
Perhaps they worshiped in a different way, but the God to Whom
they prayed was nevertheless the same God. And it was to this God
that the Germans looked in their efforts to succeed, to prosper, and to
find contentment. For if there is one universal to Whom all men turn
in their need, it is the God they worship.
In addition to the difference in their customs, language, and
ideas, the Germans were also faced with the need of finding an
understanding minister to whom they might go for advice and solace.
There were, of course, Lutheran ministers in New York state who
were not unaware of the immigrants’ needs, as evidenced by the
following statement:
From every direction comes an urgent demand for German-
speaking ministers. Not only on the broad expanse of the
German home mission, not only in the far West among those
who have recently immigrated, and who are like sheep without
a shepherd (I Kings 22:17; Matthew 9:36; Mark 6:34), but also
in the East, which has been settled for so long a time. … In
truth, everywhere in America there is a lack of capable
Lutheran preachers who are not only able to make themselves
understood in German in time of necessity, but who, also,
because of having an indispensable acquaintance with the
language, customs, and habits of the country, are the
complete masters of the German language, and are able to
comply with the obviously reasonable demand of German
congregations that the Word of God and Luther’s interpretation
of it be preached to them in Luther’s tongue, with acceptable
comprehension and edification.
– “Article II: Aim” from the Constitutional By-laws
of the Lutheran Proseminary of Rochester, 1885
24

37. As indicated by this excerpt, New York was not the only
section of the United States that required able ministers.
Pennsylvania was also aware of the existing conditions in the church.
In 1882, the Rev. J.H. Baden, a Lutheran minister from Brooklyn,
New York, appeared before the New York Ministerium of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church and discussed a paper that he had
prepared for the board of trustees of the Lutheran Theological
Seminary of Philadelphia. Rev. Baden said that more emphasis
should be placed on the teaching of German, and blamed the
preparatory schools for not adequately training their students. Out of
13 students at the seminary, 12 were able to converse in both English
and German, but Baden pointed out that the German was not as good
as it should be, and suggested that one of the qualifications for
admittance to the school should be the ability to speak fluent German
as well as English.23
The following year, in another report concerning the
Philadelphia seminary, Dr. A. Späth asked, “Weher genugend
vorbereitete deutsche Studenten fur unsere Anstalt zu gewinnen
sind?” [Roughly translated, “Where are we to find enough students
prepared to study in German?” –Ed.]24
Prior to this time, this problem had been a matter of concern for
at least two members of the Ministerium, the Rev. Alexander Richter
and the Rev. George H. Gomph. Richter, a native-born German who
had been a minister for five years,25 often traveled from Rochester,
New York, to Pittsford, one of its suburbs, to talk over his problems
with the elder, more experienced man, Gomph, pastor of St. Paul’s
Evangelical Lutheran Church. Gomph had been in the ministry 14
years.
In Gomph’s front yard in Pittsford stood an apple tree, under
which the pastors would sit for hours, discussing mutual interests and
enjoying each other’s company. Perhaps the need for ministers was
the problem most frequently discussed. With three exceptions, every
23
J.H. Baden, from “Bericht der Directoren des Theol. Seminars in Philadelphia,”
a report read at the Third Meeting of the New York Ministerium, Friday, June 16,
1882, and published in “Verhandlungen der Achtundachtzigsten Synode des Ev.
Luth. Ministeriums des Staates New-York un Augrenzender Staaten und Lander”
(New York: Druck on Herborn und Ahlbrecht, 1882).
24
Späth, read at meeting of Ministerium, June 5, 1883. “Verhandlungen,” 1883.
25
Editor: Richter was pastor of the First German Evangelical Zion’s Lutheran
Church in Rochester from 1881-1891. Richter was ordained in 1878. Zion’s was
the oldest German Lutheran church in the Rochester area.
25

38. church in the New York Ministerium conducted services in
German.26
In the fall of 1883,27 Richter appeared before the Rochester
Lutheran Pastoral Conference with a paper he had written, “Woher
Nehmen Wir Unsere Deutschen Prediger?”28 [“From whence shall
we obtain our German ministers?”] Richter was only reiterating what
had been for most of the members of the conference a salient
question. Among his listeners were: Pastor Gomph; the Rev. Charles
S. Kohler, Church of the Reformation; the Rev. C.N. Conrad,
Concordia Lutheran Church; and ministerial candidate George Seel,
of Rochester.29
Apparently as a result of this conference, the General Council
of the New York Ministerium of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
requested Pastor Richter to establish a proseminary for the purpose of
educating young men for the ministry. Under the leadership of
Richter and Gomph, a Supreme Court charter dated October 1, 1883
authorized the establishment of the Lutheran Proseminary of
Rochester.30
On October 15, 1883, a meeting of the Rochester Lutheran
Pastoral Conference was “called for the purpose of organizing a
Board of Directors for the Lutheran Proseminary of Rochester, N.Y.
Members of the Conference present [were] Rev.s A. Richter, C.S.
Kohler, C.N. Conrad, G. Seel of Rochester and G.H. Gomph of
Pittsford, N.Y.” It was “resolved that the members of the conference
shall constitute the Board of Directors. On motion the Board
proceeded to election of officers, who were elected to serve until the
last meeting of the board preceding the next meeting of the N.Y.
Ministerium in June 1884. The following officers were elected: Pres.
26
Alfred Beck, “An Historical Account of the Lutheran Proseminary of
Rochester, New York.” The three churches were: Church of the Reformation,
Rochester; Holy Trinity, Buffalo; Church of the Redeemer, Utica.
27
Editor: In his earlier essay in this volume, Harald Kuehne dates the publication
of this paper in August 1883.
28
“Geschichte des Evangelical Lutheran Ministeriums Von Staate New York,
1883,” as quoted in Beck, page 1.
29
Alfred Beck.
30
Although the original charter is evidently not extant, all formal papers and legal
documents of Wagner College, and all papers of the Board of Regents of the
University of the State of New York pertaining to Wagner College, mention the
original charter as being granted on this date. Numerous evidences of this may be
found in the official documents in the office of the president of Wagner College.
For specific mention of this date, see petition submitted from the Wagner College
Board of Trustees to the Regents, April 24, 1952, which states, “On October 1,
1883, the Supreme Court of the State of New York granted to your petitioner its
first charter.”
26

39. Rev. A. Richter of Rochester, N.Y.; Secretary G.H. Gomph of
Pittsford, N.Y.; Treasurer Mr. J.S. Margrander of Rochester, N.Y.”31
A few years earlier, St. Matthaus Akademy, a school for
training ministers, had been founded in New York City, but shortly
after its establishment the relationship between it and the
Ministerium had been severed.32 There is evidence, however, that
neither the Akademie in New York nor the Proseminary in Rochester
had been the earliest attempt at establishing a school of this kind. The
history of the Ministerium mentions that “the need of an institution in
which future ministers might receive the necessary preparatory
training for Seminary was felt most urgently during the two decades
preceding the founding of the Lutheran Proseminary in 1883. The
Newark Akademy at Lyons, N.Y. had failed, and the Matthaus
Akademy in New York had been estranged from the New York
Ministerium.”33
The failure of the Lyons academy was further emphasized in a
letter from Augustus C. Redderoth to Lois Dickert, dated June 15,
1950. 34 “Dr. Giese had been called to the institution in Newark and
he resigned from his Congregation and moved in the fall to Newark
with his wife and three children. But the treasury of the school was in
bad shape and when Christmas came, he had not received any salary.
So he resigned and had to take a small church in Cumberland,
Pennsylvania. I presume that was the end of the school in Newark.
Then comes a new beginning in Rochester.”
Now that the school in Rochester had received its charter, a
building was needed in which to hold classes. Mr. Christian Seel, an
elder of Zion Church, was the owner of a brick building [his home]
located at the intersection of Jay and Magne streets. An agreement
was reached between Mr. Seel and the board of directors for the use
of Seel’s home. Thus, with unswerving courage, a touch of audacity,
the grace of God, and ten dollars,35 arrangements were made to start
classes in the new institution. The secretary was authorized to order
31
Minutes of the Board of Directors of the Lutheran Proseminary, October 15,
1883.
32
Editor: For more about St. Matthew’s Academy and Newark College, elements
of Wagner College’s “prehistory,” see the fourth essay in this volume, “Founding
Faces & Places: The Genesis of Wagner College.”
33
“Geschichte des New York Ministeriums” (John Nicum, 1888), p. 324.
34
ALS [Autographed Letter Signed] from Augustus C. Redderoth to Lois
Dickert, June 15, 1950. (MS in Wagneriana, Markham Room, Wagner College)
[Redderoth was a professor at Wagner College from 1892 to 1896.]
35
Editor: As noted in the previous paper, this is an error repeated over and over
from an early mistranscription. The school started with a treasury containing not
$10 but $100, the gift of Justus Koch, a supporter from Philadelphia.
27

40. six double-seat desks on the most reasonable terms available.36
Christian Seel’s son, the Rev. George Seel, was appointed temporary
housefather,37 and the first class of six students entered the initial
phase of their training.
The original agreement entered into with Mr. Seel is obscure,
but there is evidence that the situation was not without difficulties.
On November 5, 1883, at a meeting of the board, “the subject
for consideration was the difficulty between the housefather and Mr.
Seel his father, and the question whether it would be necessary and
desirable to move the institution to another locality. On motion Rev.s
Richter and Kohler were appointed a committee to confer with Mr.
Seel, with power to act in the matter of renting a part of the Seel
homestead for school purposes.”38
At the next meeting of the board, “the committee appointed to
confer with Mr. Seel Sr. relative to renting the seven rooms in the
upper part of his house, reported that they had met Mr. Seel and upon
making their statement found him very much surprised that any
change was wanted by the authorities. He declared that he would not
rent the said rooms to the institution. The committee further
ascertained that Mr. Seel was willing to keep the boys upon the
condition originally agreed upon, and also that he could make
provision for as many more as would be likely to seek admission into
the institution. On motion of Mr. Conrad it was resolved that the
secretary be requested to convey the thanks of the Board to Mr. Seel
for his willingness to do so much for the institution; and also to
assure him that it was not from any dissatisfaction with, or want of
appreciation of existing arrangements that the committee made the
inquiries in reference to a change.”39
Despite a stormy beginning, a mere portent of future
difficulties, the school struggled through its first year.
The program of study was patterned after the German
gymnasium, with six forms or classes. The gymnasium had
originated in ancient Greece where it was used by the Greek youth as
a place for exercise and discussion. The gymnasium after which
Richter organized the Proseminary had been founded in 1536 by a
German educator, Johann Sturm. Sturm’s aim was “to train pious,
36
Minutes, October 29, 1883.
37
Editor: This is the only extant account that refers to George Seel’s appointment
as “temporary,” although it was indeed quite short — he resigned the next
February when, according to an 1887 account by Richter, Seel was called to a
congregation in Newark, New York.
38
Minutes, November 5, 1883.
39
Minutes, November 12, 1883.
28

41. learned, and eloquent men for service in church and state using
religion and the new learning as means.”40 When we consider
Richter’s intentions when founding the school, he was not far from
Sturm’s original aim.
The curriculum of the Sexta, or lowest form, consisted of
religion, German, Latin, English, world history, geography, natural
history, arithmetic, penmanship, drawing and singing. The Quinta,
Quarta and Tertia forms taught the same subjects as the Sexta in an
advanced degree, augmenting them with Greek and American
history, while the Secunda and Prima forms included the teaching of
Hebrew, natural philosophy and chemistry. As time passed, the
number of students increased as the “Proseminary admitted special
students which were tutored as Praktische Abteilung [a practical
division]. This course was dropped in due time to give the right of
way to the regular 6-year instruction.”41
At the end of the first year of study, the board of trustees
decided to celebrate the Christmas festivities with the students. On
December 26, at seven o’clock in the evening, the members of the
board met in Seel’s home and presented each student with candies,
oranges, nuts, a copy of Luther’s “Geistliche Lieder” [“Spiritual
Songs”], and the welcome news that a two-week vacation from
classes would commence the next morning.42
During the next few months, enthusiasm for the new project
was widespread in Rochester. Pastor Conrad of Concordia promised
the board that his church would make an important contribution to
the school’s treasury,43 following an example set by the members of
St. Paul’s Church in Pittsford, who had already sent in contributions.
The board voted to extend its thanks to a Mr. John G. Wagner for his
gift of 150 savings banks, to be used in gathering contributions to the
school.44 Apparently, however, the treasury was not in dire need,
since at least five students received free tuition for their first year,45
and several applicants were refused admission because the board felt
40
Merritt Thompson, “The History of Education” (New York: Barnes and Noble,
1933).
41
ALS from William Arndt [a student in 1885] to Clarence C. Stoughton, March
15, 1937. (MS in Wagneriana, Markham Room, Wagner College) [Editor: The
“special students” were those who were admitted in mid-course to the
gymnasium curriculum.]
42
Minutes, December 10, 1883. [Editor: Other accounts indicate that this
“vacation” was intended to give the board time to pull the school’s finances
together so that it could continue through the remainder of the academic year.]
43
Minutes, January 7, 1884.
44
Ibid.
45
Ibid.
29

42. that the school could not “provide such instruction for the young men
as they would need.”46
With the acceptance of additional students and the growth of
the school, it was deemed necessary to increase the number of board
members from seven to thirteen. The stipulation was made that no
two members of the same family could become board members.
Perhaps in appreciation of the services and contributions of the
churches in the area, the board voted to seat one layman from St.
John’s, one from Concordia, and four from Zion Lutheran Church.47
On February 7, 1884, Mr. John G. Wagner was elected as a member
of the board of directors.
It has not been determined under what conditions the school
had been using Mr. Seel’s home, but at this time, a committee that
had formed to seek a fitting location reported that it was considering
Mr. Seel’s home, which was available for rent for two years at $400
a year, or for sale at $10,500. Perhaps in search of lower rates, the
committee investigated a three-story house on South Avenue that
was owned by a Mr. Reilly. Reilly’s 11-room house could be rented
for $360 a year.48
Perhaps because of the contemplated move, the agreement with
housefather Seel was ended, and a search for a new housefather was
undertaken.
Should the reader confuse the term “housefather” with the
“housemother” we associate with the college dormitory, I should like
to enumerate the duties a person filling this position in 1884 had to
perform. The housefather had to be a Lutheran minister who not only
would have responsibility for the financial matters of the school, but
in addition would have to teach classes regularly. He had to be a
father to the students, watching over their mental, physical and
spiritual health and well being; he was also responsible to the board
for the school’s property.49
A Pastor Ehrhardt of New York City, perhaps awed by the
board’s requirements, refused a call to fill the position, as did Pastor
J. Muehlhauser of Rochester. The Reverend Mr. Snyder of Canada
accepted the call, but a few months later asked to be released from
his obligation, as he did not want to leave Canada. Possibly in
desperation, the board called Mr. Koennemann of New York City,
who accepted the temporary position at a salary of $3 weekly, in
addition to fuel, laundry, room and board, which were to be
46
Ibid.
47
Minutes, January 21, 1884.
48
Minutes, February 28, 1884.
49
Minutes, November 27, 1884.
30

43. provided.50 Mr. Koennemann, who had recently emigrated from
Germany himself, proved to be a poor choice.
Several weeks had passed since the housing committee had
inquired as to the possibility of renting other rooms. When a suitable
building was located, the possessions of the school were moved to
the new house at 33 South Avenue, on wagons furnished by Messr.s
Bantleon and Karweick.51 The committee was instructed to purchase
furniture and household necessities for the new building and also to
investigate what provisions were located within the congregations
and to “purchase the necessary supplies from those whose rates were
most advantageous to the institution.”52
At the meeting of March 27, it was moved that “the various
pastors be asked to make known among their congregations that all
those who wish to donate vegetables and other foods to the
institution deliver the same to 33 South Avenue, where they will be
gratefully received.”53 The congregations responded with fruits,
vegetables, clothing and firewood.
Most of the classrooms were located on the first floor of
Reilly’s building, with one on the second floor. The students lived on
the second and third floors, two students to a room.54 On the whole,
the Proseminary was getting along very well. Richter was
enthusiastic about the progress being made, but he knew that
financial aid was needed. On June 19, 1884, $784 was collected at a
meeting of the New York Ministerium, which alleviated the financial
problem for the time being.55 One other problem, however, was not
so easily taken care of.
Koennemann, the housefather recently arrived from Germany,
was too much the disciplinarian, and several times Richter had
spoken to Koennemann about his treatment of the students. Richter’s
wishes were, however, not respected, and a letter drafted by the
board requesting “a humane discipline, befitting this school,”56 was
given to Koennemann. In August, the permission given to him to live
in the school was revoked, and in November, Koennemann was
50
Minutes, March 20, 1884.
51
Ibid. The school was relocated on Monday, March 20, 1884. [Editor: March
20, 1884 was a Thursday, the regular meeting day of the board at the time.
Another source says that the move took place on March 24, 1884, which was the
following Monday.]
52
Minutes, March 27, 1884.
53
Ibid.
54
Personal interview by the author with Professor Theodore Palleske, Class of
1898, April 1957.
55
“Verhandlungen,” 1884.
56
Minutes, April 17, 1884.
31

44. dismissed. At his dismissal, Pastor F.A. Kammerer of New York City
was called as housefather for one year. According to the director’s
minutes of February 28, 1884, it was voted that the salary of the
housefather for the year April 1, 1884 to April 1, 1885 be $600.
Since Kammerer was called during that period, I assume that he was
paid at that rate.
In December 1884, a constitution — largely the work of Richter
— was drawn up, and plans were made to incorporate the school. In
the same month, David Bantleon reported that the treasury balance
was $1,076.03, the bulk of this money having been contributed by
the Ministerium members. One short year after its beginning, the
Proseminary boasted a 10,000 percent increase in its funds!57
In March 1885, the lease on the [Reilly] building had almost
expired, and two board members — Messr.s Christ and Schlegel —
were instructed to meet with the owner of the building to discuss
renting it for another year. The committee was also authorized “to
look around for another suitable location.”58 In April, the
housefather’s report stated that the institution was in good order and
that the relationship between teachers and pupils was a happy one.
Kammerer also announced his intention of accepting a call to the
Bethlehem Lutheran Church in New York, and the board directed
that his resignation be accepted. There were to be strange
consequences to Mr. Kammerer’s resignation.59
After due consideration, the housing committee once again
decided that a change of location would be beneficial, and on May 1,
1885, the Proseminary moved to its third building in two years, a
large, three-storied building located at 4 Oregon Street. Pastor
Kammerer had left before the school moved, and Mr. C.G.
Schneider, a Sunday school teacher, was temporarily hired as
housefather. That it was difficult to obtain an able man for that
position is evidenced by the statement the trustees made in extending
their thanks to him “for his unusual willingness in taking upon
himself the responsibilities of the office.”60
The tuition at this time was broken down into three segments,
different rates being charged for the fall, winter and spring terms.
The students paid $13 for the fall term, $10.50 for the winter term,
and $8.50 for the spring, a total of $32. In addition, each student paid
57
Editor: Based on the mistaken assumption that the school was founded with a
treasury containing $10.
58
Minutes, March 4, 1885.
59
Minutes, April 9, 1885.
60
Minutes, May 14, 1885.
32