Concordia Junior College (Fort Wayne, Indiana) Records

Concordia College was founded in the year 1839 by a small band of Lutheran emigrants in Perry County, Missouri. These emigrants left Saxony, Germany, their native land, because the state interfered with their desire to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Approximately 750 Lutherans formed an immigration society; chartered five ships bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, and in the fall of 1838 sailed from the port of Bremen. One of the vessels was lost at sea, but the others arrived in the early part of January of the following year at New Orleans, from where they continued up the Mississippi to Saint Louis. Many of them proceeded downriver to Perry County where the society had purchased a tract of 4,450 acres of land. In the fall of 1839 these immigrants founded a college to train young men for the ministry of the gosepel, and for the teaching profession. The first building was a little log cabin constructed by the unskilled hands of the members of the faculty themselves. On December 9, 1839, the doors were thrown open for the first time. The first teachers were Theodore J. Brohm, Johann Freiedrick Buenger, and Ottomar Fuerbringer. Dr. C.F.W. Walther, operating from his position in Saint Louis, must be mentioned as one of the founders who contributed much support. When the synod of Missori, Ohio, and other states was organized in 1847, Concordia College was placed under its direct supervision. The synod thought it best to transfer the college to Saint Louis, hoping it would serve a larger clientele. The congregation in Saint Louis donated a campus of two acres near the southern outskirts of the city and two thousand dollars for the new building. In December 1849 Rector Goenner and his nine students arrived. It was here that the institution received its name, Concordia College. The college remained in Saint Louis for twelve years, experiencing great growth. But in 1861, in accordance with a synodical resolution, Concordia College moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Concordia College switched places with the Fort Wayne Lutheran Male Academy, which moved to Saint Louis where Concordia College was. This Academy was founded in 1846 for practical purposes. When in 1861 the student body of 78 came to this site, the campus consisted of 15 acres. Since 1861, material advances increased the site to 25 acres. Many more buildings were added to the original four. At the synodical convention of the LCMS in 1953 in Houston, Texas, a resolution was passed to close Concordia College, and to make a Concordia Senior College which would be filled by the junior colleges. Therefore, in 1956 Concordia College was closed.