In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan's Journey

by Stephan, Philip

  Martin enrolled in Concordia Seminary in St. Louis where C. F. W. Walther was teaching and administering the training of pastors for the Lutheran Church body newly incorporated that year. Young Stephan drew the immediate attention of C. F. W. Walther. While appearing to take him under his wing and give him special attention, Walther was actually observing Martin closely to make sure that his theology and practice were not those of his father. One sad legacy the bishop left his son was the suspicion of some Lutherans that he, too, would make trouble.

  At the time, Martin thought of Walther as a mentor. However, thirty years later in 1878, he replied to a letter from his brother-in-law Georg Schick in which Schick said he thought Martin carried some bitterness toward the “synod” (Missouri Synod) and parishioners. Martin replied that he thought his brother-in-law’s remark was unfounded, although he did agree that he was bitter about injustices done by the synod. He also explained how Walther was quite critical of him, not only as a student at Concordia Seminary but later as a minister.

  He wrote that he was more than willing to forgive those who insulted him because Christ had forgiven him. On the other hand he was conscious of some bitterness evoked by others, mostly members of the synod, even the synod administration itself. Martin acknowledged some injustices done to him by C. F. W. Walther, at the same time saying, “In all this I am not forgetting how grateful I am to this man for being my teacher, but this does not make me blind to the facts that prove at least how badly he behaves in the flesh.”2

  In Martin’s long letter he quotes J. F. Koestering, the church historian and author of the Saxon Immigration, who labels Walther as no common Stephanist. Martin said that Walther was indeed a high-ranking/noble Stephanist. “In his fanaticism,” said Martin, “he hastened to participate in the abduction of several children who had to be rescued from a German Egypt and taken to an American Canaan.” Even though Walther might admit his folly as an older and wiser man, Martin judged him as one who had not lost all his fanatical nature. He wrote sharply, “He has given himself to the other extreme,” meaning Walther’s reaction to the theology of Martin Stephan. Martin Jr. described how Walther considered those who returned to Germany as suspect in the cause of keeping Lutheranism pure. He wrote how Walther had openly criticized his return to Germany as going back to the old ways and the “flesh pots of Egypt,” even though he had returned to Germany to care for his mother at her request.

  In a classroom lecture Walther publicly called Martin a “Judas” for returning to Germany. Martin described his experience of Walther’s criticism this way:

  It was risky for me to return to the old Stephanists, to nevertheless prepare myself for the ministry at the instigation of others in St. Louis. I was risking their hate being carried over from father to son. Although Walther said it was a good sign that I had gone to them, I have experienced many times, unfortunately, that he knew how to say one thing while thinking another. What indeed proved to be the case was that he loathed me, and in what way and for what reason can be demonstrated by a few anecdotes. My father’s followers had given him a farm in Perry County Missouri. While I was studying in St. Louis, Walther persuaded me that I, as the heir, should relinquish all claims to this property in favor of a purchaser of his. I agreed to do so, without considering how unjust or presumptuous this request was. As far as I can remember I later learned what Walther had in mind with this ruse; to line the pockets of Barthel Senior’s heirs—one of who was Agent General Barthel—either with the proceeds from the property or the property itself, I no longer remember exactly. Where did Walther have the right to do this, and wasn’t the way he behaved towards me an obvious act of revenge? He passed the ill will and hate he felt toward my father arbitrarily and tyrannically on to me in the same way that the good will he felt towards the heirs of the old immigration company’s cashier was transferred from the father to the children. In legal terms it was a fraudulent swindle, and in terms of the seventh and ninth commandments it was clearly a sin to talk me out of my rightful inheritance—rightful following logically from the fact that no deed of purchase could be drawn up without other claims being relinquished. Right from the beginning the proceeds of this swindle help form the base of the Missouri synod’s material and pecuniary resources.3

  Martin began to feel harassed. On Christmas Day he preached his first sermon as a student. He was nervous and unsure of himself. He stammered a bit, his delivery was halting, and his sentences were not very fluid. Walther preached from the same pulpit at the main service a few hours later that same Christmas Day. Walther seemed to point out his stammering during the prayers of the day saying, “He [Walther] praised God for the child-size mystery of the incarnation of his son which has been spoken of today in stammer and stutters in this place.”

  While it could be taken as Walther’s own faint humility, other students agreed that it was rude to single Martin out for his initial sermon as inept and poorly presented, especially during prayers. Walther also singled him out in classes. In a class on sermon outlining, Walther accused Martin of copying Walther’s own sermon outline, word for word. Martin said that the whole experience with Walther shook any confidence he had placed in the man and left him careful to keep to himself, because he felt Walther’s suspicion and distrust.

  Martin Stephan V was graduated in 1853 from Concordia Seminary. It is likely that Walther was not only threatened by the bishop’s son, but was not about to condone any trouble or allow Martin to foment or organize any splinter group. But Martin continued his pastoral path. His first parish pastorate was served with Immanuel Lutheran Church (known as the River Church near the Rock River) in Theresa, Wisconsin, where he was installed as pastor on Rogate Sunday of 1853. In a remarkable coincidence, this was the same date as the infamous Rogate Sunday in 1839 that began the purge of elder Stephan, when Louise Guenther made her private confession to Pastor G. H. Loeber.

  Immanuel congregation went through a major split in 1854 when twenty-six families formed a second Immanuel congregation nearby at Hochheim known as the Upper Church (the one on the hill). Martin Stephan V was able to help the congregations heal the split, and he served both congregations as a dual parish. He designed and guided construction of the Hochheim church and served both parishes until 1857.

  On October 16, 1856, Martin became a citizen of the United States of America. Late in 1857 he moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he also served Trinity in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as dual congregations. He was married to Caroline Zimmerman in 1858, and they had eight children. (Georg Schick’s wife was Caroline’s sister.) Martin became an instructor at the local Concordia College where he taught English and drawing. He was also an assistant pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where Dr. Sihler was head pastor. Martin had always thought that he and Dr. Sihler related well and that the senior pastor respected him and thought he was “talented” enough for the job.

  However, Martin recounted to Georg Schick that right after Walther visited Dr. Sihler in Ft. Wayne, Indiana the senior pastor came to Martin and said that their relationship would have to be terminated. Martin said, “[A]s a pretext, he said that I lacked the talent, mentioning that Walther had told him this.” Martin said that as a result of his termination conversation with Sihler, he felt he had to leave St. Paul’s congregation.4

  Martin then served as a pastor at St. Martini in Adams, Indiana, 1860–1865, one of many pastoral vacancies. Apparently he was talented enough for that. He left the Indiana congregation to become pastor at St. Michael’s in Wolcottsville, New York. In May of 1866, he moved to Illinois where he served St. John’s Lutheran church in Chester, Illinois, only a few miles from Horse Prairie, where his father went into exile. Martin noted some trouble with his congregation at Chester. He did not mention the charges, but they had something to do with his adopted daughter. Johann Buenger, the father of Theodore Buenger and in-law to Walther, was in charge of the hearing and had found Martin innocent of the charges brought against him by members of the
congregation. However, at the instructions of Walther, a Rev. Koestering, the inspector for the Synod, reopened the case. Koestering decided, again at Walther’s direction, that Martin “be elbowed out.” Martin resigned from this parish in 1875 and moved on to another pastorate.

  He served his last congregation, St. Paul’s in Waverly, Iowa, from 1875 till his death in 1884 at the age of sixty-one. During his ministry he managed to design and help construct a number of churches. He designed the last church he served in Waverly. Exterior drawings of a church building in Terra Haute, Indiana, still exist in the Stephan family archives. Each church building is distinct, but the steeples are similar: 128 feet tall and gothic in character. He was designer and architect for the first permanent buildings of the Concordia Seminary complex in 1849, when the campus moved from Altenburg, Missouri, to south St. Louis. He also designed the Missouri Synod’s first teachers college in Addison, Illinois, in 1864.5

  Although Martin’s ministry with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod included some hurt at the treatment he received from Walther and sometimes other officials of the synod, his ministry was a faithful and honorable contribution to the building of that church body in more ways than one. He overcame many attempts to discredit his ministry. He had learned his faith and faithfulness at both his mother’s and his father’s knees. And like them his life was not without pain.

  Martin Stephan Sr. left other legacies to the successor church of the Saxons. In organizing this courageous emigration with laypeople and other pastors, Stephan was responsible for helping seven hundred people find a new life in America, providing succeeding generations with full opportunities for life in a new country. And he had a hand in shaping a small part of American culture and society. Had it not been for Stephan’s dream, many descendents of people who called themselves “Old Lutherans” would not be in America.

  Discussing the hero myths in culture and religion, authorities like Joseph Campbell and Jeanette Witherston suggest that a hero arises to take on a task which no one else wants or can do. A myth is a literary device that contains the essence of a culture or a people. Often the hero has a fatal flaw, like Hercules or Odysseus. When we meet the hero we are usually uncomfortable in their presence, because they remind us we too are flawed and in need of forgiveness. Much of what is known about the hero applies to Martin Stephan. He was not a hero to many of the Society after the news of his affair with Louise Guenther. However, he did rise to organize and lead these people to a new land to find a place to live their faith.

  In addition to leading many followers to America, Martin Stephan was the progenitor of five generations of pastors to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Despite the derisive statements about Martin made to his son and other descendants, they still served the church professionally and faithfully, with distinction as writers, architects, pastors, a Lutheran Hour speaker, teachers, pastoral counselors, social workers, and psychotherapists. Lay family members have served using their skills as bankers, lawyers, financial brokers, landscapers, mechanics, homemakers, and librarians in service to the church.

  Martin Stephan V married Caroline Zimmerman, and two of their sons, Theophilus and Theodore, both entered the ministry. Theophilus and his wife, Alice Gilster, had eleven children; three of their sons also became ministers in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod: Curtis, Luther, and Paul. Two of Luther Stephan’s seven sons, Luke and Thomas, entered the pastoral ministry. One of Martin’s daughters, Hulda, married Walter Wenck and his son Walter became a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor, and another son, Stanley, became a teacher. Paul’s son, Philip, was ordained in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and held pastorates in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (See photo spread).

  Six generations of his family honor him for his dream, his courage, his patience, and his ability to live through many difficulties while continuing faithful service in the ministry of the Lutheran Church.

  NOTES

  1 Biographical file on Martin Stephan Jr., Concordia Historical Institute, St. Louis. The information of Julia’s death and the ages of her daughters and the placement of three daughters in the Deaf Institute are taken from the notes of Theo M. Stephan, 1924.

  2 Martin Stephan Jr. to Georg Schick, 1878, Stephan Family Archives, trans. Naomi Stephan, 2004, 2.

  3 Martin Stephan Jr. to Georg Shick, 1878, 3. In 1936, Rev. Theo Buenger, direct descendant of John F. Buenger and close associate of Walther, wrote in ink on this CHI copy of Martin’s Stephan letter to Georg Schick a note which disputed that Martin Stephan Sr. had any right to that Perry County acreage since his case had been dismissed in court. However, the case had all been settled in a negation except for the eighty acres purchased by Pastor Stephan. Buenger also wrote that this copy was not for public distribution.

  4 The above-mentioned Theo Buenger writes in the text of the letter that Stephan was seen as talented and that he was needed to fill one of the many desired vacancies of the area and thus fulfill the wishes of the Ft. Wayne faculty. It could be that Walther’s brother-in-law was seeking to make Walther continue to look good and above reproach for engineering Martin Stephan’s next call.

  5 Martin Stephan Jr., Clergy Biographical File, St. Louis: Concordia Historical Institute. Selected copy was used from the anniversary celebration booklets of the Hochheim, Wisconsin, and Chester, Illinois, congregation in order to fill in the full biographical data.

  Appendix A

  Brief Outline of the Emigration Code

  PAR. 1. CONFESSION OF FAITH

  All the undersigned accept with upright hearts the tenets of the Lutheran faith, as contained in God’s Word of the Old and New Testaments, and set forth and confessed, in the Symbolical Writings of the Lutheran Church. They therefore accept these writings in their entirety and without any addition. They accept these writings according to the simple sense of their wording, as they have, since their origin, been unanimously and uniformly understood and applied—during the 16th, 17th, and the first part of the 18th century by the entire Lutheran Church, and from that time on by all who have not departed from the old, pure, Lutheran faith.

  PAR. 2. EMIGRATION–ITS CAUSE, PURPOSE, AND GOAL

  After the calmest and most mature reflection they find themselves confronted with the impossibility, humanly speaking, of retaining this faith pure and unadulterated in their present homeland, of confessing it, and of transmitting it to their descendants. They are, therefore, constrained by their conscience to emigrate and to seek a land where this faith is not endangered, and where they consequently can serve God undisturbed, in the manner which He has graciously revealed and established, and enjoy undisturbed the unabridged and pure means of grace (which God has instituted for the salvation of all men), and preserve them thus unabridged and pure for themselves and their descendants.

  To these means of grace belong primarily:

  the office of reconciliation in its entire scope and with unrestricted freedom, pure and free divine worship, unabridged and pure preaching of God’s Word, unabridged and pure Sacraments, pastoral ministration and the care of souls without let or hindrance.

  A land such as they seek is the United States of North America, where complete religious and civil liberty prevails and energetic and effective protection is given against foreign countries as nowhere else in the world. These States they therefore have chosen as the goal, and, indeed, the only goal, of their emigration, and consequently as their new home.

  PAR. 3. ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVIL CODE

  On the basis of the confession of faith made in Par. 1, and of the purpose of the emigration stated in Par. 2, the undersigned solemnly promise to subject themselves with Christian sincerity and willingness to the ecclesiastical and civil codes which are to be established, as well as to the school code and especially to the system of church discipline to be introduced.

  PAR. 4. PLACE OF SETTLEMENT

  The place of settlement in the United States of America shall be chosen in one of the Western States: in Missouri o
r Illinois, or perhaps in Indiana.

  PAR. 5. ITINERARY

  The city of St. Louis in the State of Missouri, centrally located in all these States and also their commercial center, shall be the immediate goal of the journey. From this city a survey can be made for the site to be selected for the settlement in the afore-mentioned states.

  The port of embarkation in Europe shall be Hamburg [sic], the port of debarkation in the United States of North America, New Orleans, and from there the journey shall continue by river steamer on the Mississippi to the afore-mentioned immediate goal of the journey, St. Louis.

  PAR. 6. PURCHASE OF LAND

  With St. Louis as headquarters, a tract of contiguous land shall be purchased by a committee of the entire body of emigrants, and, after deduction of what must be reserved for church, school, and community, separate plots of this land shall be sold to each individual according to his needs. These lands collectively shall form the township, or area of the city.

  Each one is at liberty to purchase as much land as he pleases outside the township.

  PAR. 7. ASSUMPTION OF ALL CHURCH AND COMMUNITY EXPENDITURES FOR 5 YEARS

  The undersigned bind themselves for five years jointly to raise all church and community expenditures, as these will be fixed from year to year by a committee to be established by church and community. Each one shall contribute in proportion to his means. These contributions shall be apportioned with Christian fairness and care, partly according to the value of the real estate (tax on immovable property), partly according to the amount of the other property and income (tax on movable property). Land which members of the community own outside of the township shall likewise be liable for these expenditures according to a fair proportion.