Found a Famous Lutheran!

[Ysarex]

My wife and I often enough drive down Bates street in south St. Louis and we pass an old cemetery there. Well we decided to pull in and have a look. It's an old Lutheran cemetery. Smack in the middle we came across a pretty impressive grave and there over the door was the occupant's name: Walther. It's good old C.F. Walther. I would have thought he was buried down in Altenburg but here he is.

C.F. Walther left Dresden back in the 1830s along with basically a cult of ultra conservative Lutherans who were being persecuted. They were led by the charismatic pastor Martin Stephan who turned out to be a grifter and then some. They pulled their money and bought passage on three ships across the Atlantic. They first arrived in St. Louis but then moved south along the river to what is today Perryville and founded a number of small towns. Altenburg is still there. The first years were really tough and they struggled severely to survive.

As conditions began to improve the real character of their leader started to surface. He was robbing them of their savings. When folks finally found out what was going on in his prayer retreat off in the woods between him and some of the married women of the cult things got ugly. They banished Stephan across the river (Illinois) and as everything was falling apart good old C.F. Walther stepped in to save the day. He reorganized the group and led them to prosperous lives in their beautiful new homes along the banks of the Mississippi. Eventually C.F. founded what remains today the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod: https://www.lcms.org That's him visible through the frosted glass on the door.

 

[Warhorse]

Stuffed, and mounted?

 

[Ysarex]

Stuffed, and mounted?

marbled.

 

[webestang64]

I really like how the storm clouds are in back. I've seen many many photos of this over the years and I can say I really like this one over the others.
Funny though, I personally have never photographed it and I've been there many times and, well, I'm Lutheran. LOL

 

[Ysarex]

I really like how the storm clouds are in back. I've seen many many photos of this over the years and I can say I really like this one over the others.
Funny though, I personally have never photographed it and I've been there many times and, well, I'm Lutheran. LOL

Thanks, it was raining yesterday and that set the scene nicely. I'm not Lutheran and I didn't know he was there, but I knew who he was and when I saw the last name I put that together with the ostentatious, especially by Lutheran standards, monument and figured it had to be C.F. Here's an old photo I took of his statue located at the Saxon Lutheran Memorial down in Perry county.

 

[jeffashman]

Nice set! Thank you for the history lesson!

 

[enezdez]

Very Nice!