American Lutheran Church (1930-1960). Commission on Mexican Missions. Correspondence, Chronological 1923-1961 (inclusive); 1934-1961 (bulk) [microform].
Title:
Correspondence, Chronological 1923-1961 (inclusive); 1934-1961 (bulk) [microform].
Two sets of chronologically arranged correspondence were found among The American Lutheran Church (ALC) Commission on Mexican Missions (CMM) records. The less voluminous set contains much correspondence from the ALC Director of Stewardship and Finance, who served as the CMM treasurer. However, it is uncertain if that is the office from which all of the correspondence in that series came. The larger, second set had no discernable provenance. Consequently, the two sets of correspondence will remain in separate folders, but will be interfiled chronologically in this series. The smaller set is usually organized chronologically within the folders (that is not always the case, however), with the most recent date first (i.e. December correspondence is first in the folder, and January correspondence is last), and is identified by the Roman numeral I after the date. The larger set is usually arranged with the most recent date last, i.e. January is first in the folder, and December is last (again, that is not always the case; some files are arranged alphabetically), and is identified by the Roman numeral II after the date. This second set dates only to 1954. Set I contains more than correspondence; it also has telegrams, monthly general fund reports, and financial reports. Some of the folders contain photographs (1923-1924). Some of the correspondence is in German (1930-1933), more in Spanish, but most of it is in English. The correspondence is hand-written as well as typed and is both to and from officers and members of the CMM. Major correspondents are Robert D. Lechleitner, director of the Board of American Missions (BAM); Vernon A. Mohr and Carl N. Roth, Presidents of the American Lutheran Church Texas District; George Beck, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church of Houston, Texas; Jacob C. Felger (also pastor of the First English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Victoria, Texas), Frederick A. Neumeister, and Alvin H. Koehler (at Texas Lutheran college, San Juan), Chairmen of the CMM; CMM members; Carl Christian Hein (ALC president 1930-1937), Emanuel Frederick Poppen (1937-1950), and Henry Frederick Schuh (1951-1960), Presidents of the ALC; Heinz C. Ziehe, John A. Scherzer, and William Durkop, Secretaries of the CMM; Katharine Lehmann, president of the ALC Women's Missionary Federation; officers of the ALC Luther League; officers of the mission boards of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America; and officers of the National Lutheran Council. Early topics in the correspondence mainly concern financing the missions (land acquisition and transfer, salaries, pensions, insurance, construction and maintenance of buildings, publications, equipment), statistics of activity (membership, baptisms) in the missions, and finding adequate teachers for the mission schools. As the missions grew so did the volume of correspondence on maintaining the missions, which still included funding and staffing along with new concerns such as publications and expanding the mission work into Mexico.
ArchivalResource:
8 microfilm reels 35mm.
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