Friedrich Wyneken as Missionary:

Mission in the Life and Ministry of

Friedrich Conrad Dietrich Wyneken

by Rev. Robert E. Smith

February 23, 1998

Germans and the American Frontier

Eager and strong, confident and bold, the young United States of America surged into the western lands that opened before it. Vast, ancient forests and wide prairies promised fertile lands. Trails were blazed, canals dug, roads built and railroads forged to hasten the path to a land that seemed like Eden. Warm California and cool Colorado called out to adventurers, seeking silver and gold. On the endless frontier, settlers found a chance to do well in life. By improvement and invention, planting and progress, hard work and iron will, Americans believed that anyone could rise to the top of their world and achieve their dreams. Religious and social revolutionaries found their good places -- their Utopias -- where they could build their Zion in perfect freedom. In America, a person was free to do as he or she pleased, to live with as little interference as possible, to stand as an equal among their peers.

In Europe, too, the promise of pioneering attracted people who yearned for a better life. Gottfried Duden and others wrote tracts and books describing the bounty of lands in need of no fertilizer and the life of leisure available to new Americans after a few years of hard work. Even the President's State of the Union addresses were printed in Old World papers and read with great interest. Already in 1782, while promoting emigration to America, Benjamin Franklin found it necessary to warn Europeans that the streets of the United States were not "pav'd with half-peck Loaves, the Houses [not] til'd with Pancakes" and that "the Fowls [do not] fly about ready roasted, crying, "Come eat me!"

Early settlers added to the excitement in Europe, describing the good fortune they had found in the West. The letters they wrote to their families and friends were read aloud to gatherings at the fireside and circulated throughout the village. These epistles reported that in America, wages were high and taxes incredibly low. No one was drafted into the armed forces. Political police did not exist. The government did not enforce class distinctions. Everyone wore the same clothes, ate at the same table and no one was called master. Best of all, land was very affordable, often below $2 an acre. For a modest sum of $160, a huge farm could be bought.

Compared to conditions across the sea, Germany was a dismal place to live. For the first time in history, birth rates in the fatherland were greater than death rates. Between 1800 and 1870, the population of German lands rose from 20 Million to 41 Million. In areas where tradition divided property among heirs, farms grew smaller and smaller. Prices for crops continued to drop. In many places, it became impossible to support a family on meager plots. For many, the final blow came in the cold winters of 1816 and 1825-30. The massive crop failures which followed these cruel seasons devastated whole regions. Many people moved to the city to try their fortune, only to discover their prospects of employment were dim. Even travel was trying and expensive. The maze of political boundaries in Germany made travel difficult, adding tariff to tax burdens already heavy.

European princes and kings determined to discipline their peoples, tried to regulate every aspect of their subject's lives. Some attempted to change their subject's beliefs, imposing penalties and imprisonment upon those who would not bend to their will. For example, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, declared that the Reformed and Lutheran congregations would use one Agenda, or book of liturgies. Those pastors who refused to comply were deposed, sometimes imprisoned.

The combination of the American dream and German realities convinced many families to sell their property, gather their belonging and start new lives in America. Beginning in the 1830s, hundreds of thousands came to the United States. The flood of immigrants would double each decade until the Civil War. (see Chart I) Wyneken himself reported that 80,000 to 100,000 arrived during 1839-1840, 5000 a week in Philadelphia alone. Most arrived at the large eastern seaports, then traveled by canal boat, train and wagon to widely scattered homesteads throughout the west. Sometimes they would settle with family and friends from the fatherland, but as often as not, they would find a new home among strangers. Some of the immigrants, especially craftsmen, would settle in the cities. Unlike Americans and other foreign born settlers, almost all Germans would travel directly from the sea port to the place where they would live out their lives. Few chose to move ever west in search of new opportunities.

When German settlers first arrived on the frontier, they discovered that conditions were not nearly as good as they dreamed. Their land was virgin forest or prairie land never turned by a plow. The frontier was a lonely place, where the village was far away and where few pastors lived to visit and to encourage them. Understandably, spiritual life took second place to all-consuming need to survive and thrive. Wyneken paints this stark portrait of life on the Indiana frontier:

"Now to the misery in the dense forests of the wide west through which, and on the wide prairies over which the German immigrants have poured like a mighty stream. Singly or in small groups our brethren settle in the forest with wife and child, often having no neighbors, and even if they do have some in the vicinity, they are separated from each other by the dense forest, so that they know nothing about each other. Now come, enter the [log cabins] of your brothers. See, brethren, how they, men, women and children, have to work hard to cut down the giant trees, to clear out the underbrush, to plow and to plant, for their meager finances are disappearing or are already gone. They must have bread, which they can get only from the soil they till ... Clothing and shoes are also wearing out and winter is at hand! No wonder, then, that everyone is working to secure what is indispensable for the body. There is no difference between Sunday and weekday, particularly since here no bells call the people to church services and the festively dressed neighbor does not stop by to pick up his friend. It is no wonder at all if tired limbs are stretched out on the bed without a prayer being said, and that their misery drives them out again and back to work without a prayer. The saying of grace at meals has also settled on them like rust ... No preacher comes to shake them out of their worldly striving and thinking, and the voice of the sweet Gospel has not been heard for a long time.

From every corner of the frontier, reports and letters of the spiritual distress of German Americans made their way to Lutheran synods and to periodicals in the East and in the Fatherland. In the midst of an awakening of piety and of zeal for the Lutheran Confessions, these early appeals fell on sympathetic ears. A few missionary societies were formed to send pastors to America and to publish accounts of their needs to the whole Lutheran Church. In one of these mission journals, Twenty-Eight year old Hanoverian Pastor Friedrich Conrad Dietrich Wyneken first heard the call from the American Macedonia and could not turn away. The man C. F. W. Walther would call: "A spiritual father to thousands, to whole regions of America an apostle," was soon on his way to the forests of a foreign land.

Wyneken's Early Years

"On the 22nd [of May 1810], My son [was baptized]," wrote newborn Friedrich Wyneken's proud father, Pastor Heinrich Christoph Wyneken. His entry in the church book of his parish, St. Andreas of Verden, Kingdom of Hannover, goes on to say, "[He was born] Of...my wife, Anne Catharine Louise, nee Meyer, on the 13." The Young Fritz Wyneken was the tenth of eleven children, the sixth of six sons. He joined a family of dedicated and prominent servants of heavenly and earthly kingdoms. Wynekens served as pastors and officers in a variety of occupations in Denmark and Germany. When Friedrich was five years old, his father died, leaving his mother Louise to raise their eleven children. To accomplish this, she depended on a meager church pension, took in boarders and called on family and friends to make ends meet.

Friedrich attended Gymnasium in his home town of Verden. At age Seventeen, he enrolled at the University of Göttingen, the traditional Wyneken alma mater. Yet the school's strict atmosphere and its student's vulgar behavior proved intolerable to the young man. After one semester, Friedrich enrolled in University of Halle's Theological Faculty, where he remained until he graduated two and a half years later. At Halle, Friedrich found a mentor in Augustus Tholuck, a leader of 19th Century German Awakening and supporter of the Prussian Union. During Friedrich's years at Halle, Tholuck taught courses in New Testament, Dogmatics and the History of Doctrine. Through his influence, Wyneken became an "awakened" and "believing" Christian.

Upon graduation, Wyneken served as a private instructor in the home of Consistorial Counselor von Henfstengel at Leesum, a town near Bremen. The area was a stronghold for the Awakening and a place where Friedrich Wyneken would grow both in his faith in Christ and zeal for missions. No doubt his relatives played a part in this development, since many of them lived in the area. After four years in Leesum, he briefly served as the director of a Latin School in Bremervörde and then a private instructor of a boy, whose health required him to live in Italy and the south of France. His education and experience had made him into a strong, convinced pietist, full of zeal for the Lord and "a fanatic full of fire to oppose strict churchliness."

Wyneken returned to Germany in 1837, fully groomed for a promising career in the Church. He would soon read accounts of the spiritual needs of German Lutherans on the American frontier in the journals of mission societies. Perhaps he read the reports of survey missionaries, sent out by the Pennsylvania Ministerium to measure the need and do what they could to meet it. Perhaps it was the letters of F. A. Schmidt, pastor in southwest Michigan, who served as a missionary of the Basil Mission Society. In any case, what Wyneken learned in about German Lutherans in America touched off a struggle in the heart of the young man. In these words, Friedrich would later describe that moment to Candidate A. Biewend, himself on the verge of a decision to volunteer.

"Sadly, I have to confess that, as far as I know, neither love of the Lord, nor love of the orphaned brothers in drove me to America. I wasn't even driven by a natural desire to go. I went there against my will and fighting the decision. I went because it was my duty. My conscience compelled me. It grieved me so much then and still grieves me now that I didn't -- still don't -- love the Lord more than that and that He had to drive me out to work like a slave. Even today dreadful challenges and temptations, doubts and griefs come over my soul when I'm serving in my office over there. It comforts me, that I can say: `I have to be over there. You know, Lord, how I'd like to stay here at home. But if I stayed, I wouldn't be able to look up to you and pray to you. So, then, I surely must go of my free will."

At peace with God and sure of his decision, Friedrich Wyneken obtained release from his duties as a tutor. After a memorable candidate's examination, he was ordained at Stade with fellow candidate, C. W. Wolf. Eighty year old General Superintendent Ruperti conducted the rite at St. Wilhadi Church of Stade on 8 May 1837. With the help of Gottfried Treviranus, the Reformed pastor of St. Martin Church in Bremen, Wyneken and Wolf made the acquaintance of Captain Stuerje, who provided the pair of missionaries free passage to America on his ship, the Caroline.

Wyneken and Wolf arrived in Baltimore in July of 1838. They wandered around the city, looking for Lutherans. After mistaking an Otterbein Methodist prayer meeting for a Lutheran worship service, they found their way to Second Evangelical Lutheran Church and Pastor Johann Haesbaert. Haesbaert was also an "awakened" pastor, who had led a group of Lutheran and Reformed Germans to secede from a congregation served by a Rationalist minister. He was very suspicious of Wyneken and Wolf, since laymen, con-men and "every expelled student or banished demagogue who flies to this country" regularly preyed on unsuspecting congregations to make some quick cash. It did not help at all that the two young men brought no written credentials or letters of introduction with them. Yet Wyneken's warmth and sincerity inclined Haesbaert to put aside his misgivings. Haesbaert's fears were finally set to rest, when, Captain Stuerje testified to their character.

To seal their newly formed friendship, Wolf preached the following Sunday. Soon after that, Haesbaert fell sick and was confined to his bed. Wyneken served his congregation as substitute pastor for several weeks. Sometime during this period, Wolf went West ahead of his companion, settling in Marietta, Ohio. When Haesbaert had recovered, he tried to convince his new Hanoverian friend to stay in the east. Failing to convince Wyneken to stay, the Baltimore pastor advised, "You must not travel to the West on under your own authority. I will write the Missions Committee of the Pennsylvania Synod, advising that they should send you out as their missionary."

The timing was providential. At the 1839 Convention of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, its Missionary Society met. The executive committee reported that in the latter part of 1838, Missionary Kohler had decided to accept a call in Eastern Pennsylvania, and thus was unavailable for continued service in the West. During the Summer of 1838, an open letter from Adam Wesel, Elder at Fort Wayne, likely reached their hands. Dated 4 June and sent to at least the Synod of the West and C. F. Schmidt, editor of the Lutherische Kirchenzeitung, it announce the death of beloved Pastor Jesse Hoover and pleaded:

"Oh, if you'd study the Northern part of Indiana, you'd discover how necessary it is to send a true shepherd to us. The harvest is great, but, alas, there are no workers! But if it isn't possible to send us a preacher, then send us a circuit rider in spite of this. We are hungry and thirsty for God's Word!"

The following August, Haesbaert's letter arrived highly recommending Wyneken to them. The Executive Committee invited Wyneken to visit Lancaster, Pennsylvania to meet with them. In the company of Johann Haesbaert, Friedrich met with them. So convinced of his fitness for the task and likely moved by his zeal for the work, the Missionary Society set aside their usual practice of waiting until September to send out their workers. They commissioned him to "move to Indiana, to search for scattered German Protestants to preach to them, and, if possible, gather them into congregations." While the Committee intended Wyneken to make Indiana his base of operations, they intended to have him range widely throughout the frontier, directing him to labor in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Credentials in hand, Wyneken embarked upon his ministry as a Missionary, traveling in the company of Haesbaert as far as Havre de Grace. In Pittsburgh, he met for the first time, C. F. Schmidt, the editor of Lutherische Kirchenzeitung, who would prove a close friend and the channel through which Wyneken's first appeals would reach the world. From Pittsburgh, Wyneken traveled by train and canal boat to Zelienople, where he purchased a horse and cheerfully rode off to be the Lutheran Apostle of the West.

Wyneken's Career as a Missionary

"After you had left me at the train station in Havre De Grace," Wyneken wrote from Fort Wayne to his friend, Haesbaert, "I felt like a stranger in a strange land for the first time." But Friedrich was not a man to stay lonely for long. He continued:

"This feeling lasted for a day, until I arrived at Zelienople, not far from Pittsburgh. I bought a horse there and trotted out through the forested land, cheerfully and joyfully. I felt much better then. Whether I was alone or traveling in the best of company, I could, any time I wanted to, merely pull out my beloved Paul Gerhardt book or New Testament and put them back in my pocket when I was done. Sometimes my heart was so full of the sweet, cheerful grace of my Savior, that I had to laugh, to sing loudly, to have a joyful heart and to praise my Lord."

The frontier forests of Ohio and Indiana moved many first time travelers to awe and wonder, even if few of them broke into song. Hugh McCulloch, a future United States Treasurer, a young lawyer in 1833, described the Michigan Road as follows: "It was perfectly straight, and the noble trees, nearly a hundred feet in height, stood on either side of it like a protecting wall. The birds were signing blithely, and although my horse was my only companion, the wildness and novelty of the scene acted upon me like a tonic." Wyneken set forth due west across Ohio, along the present route of U.S. Highway 30, towards Adams County, Indiana and Jesse Hoover's orphaned congregations. Along the way, Friedrich first experienced legendary Western hospitality, often being given directions, company, refreshments and lodging.

The journey proved to be long and hard for the young pastor, who was not used to riding long distances in the wilderness. The roads of the frontier were not much better than trails, often still filled with tree stumps. The late summer temperatures weighed heavily on most Germans, unaccustomed to the heat. These conditions slowed Wyneken down, giving him much time to wonder if he was strong enough to meet the challenges ahead. He drew comfort that God was indeed strong enough to use him to seek the lost. Eager to bring the gospel to scattered pioneers, he rode on.

On September 10th, Wyneken met a German in Lima, Ohio, who pleaded in tears with Pastor Wyneken to stay in the area awhile and preach to his countrymen and women, many of whom had not heard God's Word or received the Sacrament in years. With his heart breaking, Wyneken could not pass them by. For eight days, he conducted services in Lima, in Putnam County, to the north of Lima, and in Wapakoneta of Auglaize County, to the south. With wonder, he reports that he preached nine times in these settlements and baptized fifteen people. Thirteen of them were older children, one an eighteen year old young woman, and another, the forty year old mother of two. He even confirmed a young married man, catechized but never communed. With joy, Wyneken reported to Haesbaert: "The people were so delighted to receive God's Word and the Bread of Life once more, that I couldn't thank the Lord enough for His love, because, at the very beginning of my ministry, He had led me to such hungry hearts."

Very reluctantly, young Pastor Wyneken left Ohio for Adams County, Indiana. "I regret now, that I didn't stay longer with the Germans in western part of the State of Ohio," he wrote the Executive Committee, "and did not visit more settlements, because there are no pastors there, and also, as far as I can tell from what I've been told, none have been visited by a circuit rider to date."7 Impelled by a sense of duty, he forced himself to travel northwest on the Piqua Road, along the St. Mary River toward Fort Wayne. Wyneken's route took him past Willshire, Schumm and Van Wert, settlements he would later serve from Fort Wayne and Decatur, beginning in 1839.

Wyneken arrived at the settlement of Friedheim, near Decatur, on September 20th. The first German he met in Indiana received the missionary with suspicion.

"If you are an honest pastor, then go to that house over there. A very sick man lies in it," the woodman challenged. "If you are something else, like most pastors coming from Germany, then go over there to the rich wagonmaker!"

"Nevertheless, I'd love to see the sick man first," Wyneken quipped and then carried through. At this sick man's home, he learned of "Father" Buuck, the leader of Jesse Hoover's Adams County congregation and the Pastor's future father-in-law.	Wyneken ministered in the area for six days before riding north along the Decatur Road to visit Fort Wayne and New Haven.

In 1838, Fort Wayne was a small but growing town on the Wabash-Erie Canal. This community of 1,500 sat at the portage between the Wabash and Maumee rivers, the only passage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. At the summit, overlooking the merger of the Maumee's two sources, Fort Wayne was the focal point of the effort to create a continent-wide water transportation system. By 1837, the Wabash-Erie Canal was complete to Logansport, a growing community on the Michigan Road. This road stretched north to South Bend and Michigan City and south to Indianapolis, Madison and the Ohio River.

Due to this geography, Fort Wayne grew in spite of a depression which followed the Panic of 1837. The Northeast corner of Indiana quickly became a destination of choice for German emigrants in search of a new home. Fort Wayne was an ideal location for a circuit rider charged to "gather scattered Protestants."

Shortly after Wyneken reached Fort Wayne, Hoover's congregations called him to serve as their resident pastor. The young pastor explained that he could not accept such a call without the permission of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. Since the missionary needed to continue his survey of Indiana, he suggested that the church council of Fort Wayne's St. Paul Congregation write to the Mission Society for permission. Wyneken promised to return in four weeks to receive the Mission Society's instructions.

The young circuit rider set out along the Goshen Road towards Elkhart and South Bend. A severe Cholera epidemic held Western Ohio and Northern Indiana in its grip at that time. "On the whole," Wyneken reported, "from a human point of view, the time in which I traveled was an unfortunate time to work for God's a single house in the whole settlement without someone sick. Many homes were without a single person well, so that often gatherings were very small." In Benton, Indiana, a town with forty German families in 1838, this mortal disease kept the size of the congregation down to twelve people. These settlers begged the missionary to return to them later, since they hoped to form a congregation. Promising to visit again, Wyneken continued on toward South Bend.

At the junction of Goshen Road and the East/West section of the Michigan Road, near the town of Elkhart, and a few miles further west at Harris Prairie, the missionary stopped to preach. He discovered many Germans in the area and resolved to return to form congregations. Pressing further west along the Michigan Road, he traveled through South Bend and La Porte to Michigan City.	Finding no German Lutherans to the west, he returned to South Bend and preached there on the 12th of October to a congregation of six hastily gathered people. Moving further east. Wyneken preached again at Harris Prairie on October 13th and at Elkhart on the 14th. These communities asked him to return once more and help them to organize their congregations. Agreeing to do this, the missionary took the Michigan Road northeast to Mottville, Michigan, where he preached on the 16th and visited the sick. He baptized several children there on the 17th.

In very bad weather, Wyneken traveled west to Bertrand and Niles, Michigan, along the present route of US 12. There he met several families, but was unable to assemble a congregation for worship. Finding himself once again on the Michigan Road, Wyneken returned via South Bend to Harris Prairie and Elkhart. He preached to them on the 21st, forming two congregations, one located in each place. Striking out across country along the present route of Indiana State Highway 331, he stopped briefly in Mishawaka to baptize a child. Continuing on his way, he reached the town of Bremen, a settlement on the north branch of the Yellow River. Almost all of the people of the town were ill with Cholera, yet the circuit rider preached to one of the largest congregations he was to assemble on his first missionary journey.

Wyneken returned to the Michigan Road, traveling through the Logansport to the Wabash River. He could not locate the German Lutherans he had been told lived along the future route of the canal. Few of the people he encountered there were even willing to take information to their neighbors. Riding on to southwest along the river, he entered the town of Delphi on a Sunday afternoon. Prospects for a worship service appeared slight. Finding only a handful of people who could speak German, he asked if there were Germans living in the area. He was informed that these settlers "belonged to no church." Not a man to be easily discouraged, Wyneken made the rounds of the taverns, argued heatedly with the men he found there, finally dragging enough of them out the bars to gather together a sizeable congregation for an evening worship service. After lecturing them well into the night, Wyneken convinced them to gather in prayer on future Sundays, rather than desecrate the sabbath in the saloons.

The missionary continued on to Lafayette, where he had no success in gathering a congregation for worship. Following the Wild Cat River, he rode on to a settlement a few miles away. Here he discovered that the six congregations existed in the neighborhood of Lafayette, making it ideal for the placement of a resident pastor. After a futile attempt to find a congregation reported to be at the middle fork of the Wild Cat, Wyneken followed the Wabash River into Fountain County. There he encountered a road, running along the present route of US 136 and Indiana 32. Taking this trail, he passed through Crawfordsville and Lebanon, before meeting the Michigan Road and turning north. There he preached to a congregation visited by Eusebius Henkel of Lebanon at the Sugar Creek in Clinton County.

Wyneken continued to travel north on the Michigan Road. At Logansport, he turned east on the Wabash Canal, passing through Peru and Huntington. He returned to Fort Wayne on the 16th of November and preached at that place on the 18th of November. After a six week journey, traversing the northern third of Indiana a portion of South Central Michigan, Wyneken found a letter from the Executive Committee of the Mission Society awaiting him at Fort Wayne.

The epistle gave the missionary permission to accept the call of Hoover's congregations, but only on the condition that he remain their missionary as well. His recent experiences made it quite evident that no one man could do justice to both calls. He dashed off a letter to Executive Committee, giving a brief report of his labors and requesting resident pastors for Lima, for the Elkhart area, for Bremen on the Yellow River and Lafayette region. He suggested that perhaps preachers might by found at the fall meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium or in the meeting of the General Synod. He recommended that such a man also be able to work in English.

In this epistle, Wyneken also asked to be released from their service as a missionary. He suggested that his former shipmate, C. Wolf, be called to succeed him as survey missionary. He included a promise to visit settlements within a sixty mile radius of Fort Wayne, as time and obligations permitted. Wolf declined the call and another candidate, Emmanuel Frey was prevented from serving by illness.

Wyneken did not remain idle while he waited for a dismissal from missionary service. He began his ministry in Fort Wayne and Adams County, preached to a small settlement near Auburn, Indiana, on the Cedar Creek, along what was to become the Lima Pike Road. On the third of December, he set out for the Elkhart area, but found his horse too lame to make the journey. He Spent Advent and Christmas in the Fort Wayne area.

Wyneken made a northern journey just after the first of the year. His horse went lame again and be left along the way. The missionary completed the journey to Benton on foot. There he baptized nine and formed a congregation. He continued on to Goshen, where he baptized a child and stayed overnight. Although he became ill in Goshen, Wyneken continued on to Elkhart, where he was expected. There he was able to preach, conduct a confessional service, commune eighteen and baptize six. His illness worsened and forced the missionary to remain in bed two days. Since he promised to preach to a small settlement ten miles from Wolf Lake, Wyneken had to turn back for Fort Wayne.

Upon his return, Wyneken found a letter relieving him of his position as a missionary of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. During the eventful period from September 10th to the end of his commission on January 11th, he organized three congregations, preached fifty-eight times, baptized sixty-eight children and two adults, confirmed one, communed one hundred and eighty, married one couple and buried one person. He collected contributions totaling $16.50.

Settling down to serve two parishes in Northeast Indiana did not stop Wyneken, full of zeal, from preaching, teaching and organizing congregations whenever he had the time. When time permitted, he would answer requests to visit other settlements on weekdays and preach in them. The circuit rider felt he could not organize these stations into congregations because most they lacked either the sufficient catechisis or piety and because he simply could not properly care for them. It broke his heart to have to ignore the many pleas to come and prepare children for confirmation and to meet many desperate needs. He could see whole villages sinking back into paganism. He could only promise to return from time to time and tell them of his many letters to Germany, begging for help. On his longer trips, sometimes four to six weeks from home, Wyneken had to depart settlement after settlement, sick with the knowledge that not even a survey missionary would minister in these places for the next few years.

Wyneken began ministering to the Germans of Willshire and Schumm, Ohio early in 1839. In August, the Pennsylvania Ministerium's latest survey missionary, Johannes Nülsen, made a courtesy call at Fort Wayne, accompanying Wyneken on a trip to teach school at Decatur and at least one visit to a small settlement between Decatur and Fort Wayne. In September of 1839, the very frustrated circuit rider reported to Friedrich Schmidt that at least five preaching stations lay within forty miles of Fort Wayne. These he visited more or less regularly. In addition, he planned to make at least two larger trips a year to do what he could throughout the region.

In January of 1840, the circuit rider reported to the American Home Missionary Society that he served two stations beyond his parishes on a regular basis, one nineteen miles and the other thirty miles distant. Sometime during 1840, Wyneken set out for Chicago to help Lutherans who had asked for his help. Weather prevented him from traveling further than Elkhart, where he ministered for a time before returning to Fort Wayne. In 1841, Wyneken reported to his friend Friedrich Schmidt that he so wanted to bring the joy of the Easter season to settlements to his west that he traveled so often that he couldn't even correspond until he returned to his little Fort Wayne "Elijah's Room." In addition to the congregations and places documented above, the oral traditions in the Northeast corner of Indiana credit Wyneken with ministering at preaching stations that would one day become congregations throughout Allen and Adams Counties, Avilla, Bremen, Corunna, Elkhart, Huntington, Kendallville, Mishawaka and South Whitley.

Wyneken's Response to the Spiritual Plight of German Americans

The experiences of Wyneken's first two missionary journeys make a deep and lasting impression on the young pastor. These journeys convinced him that many more laborers were needed to care for Christ's German American people. He also came to question the wisdom of sending out solitary survey missionaries across thousands of miles of wilderness. "When all is said and done," the missionary wrote, "I'm afraid these few raids and skirmishes on Satan's territory help very little. We need to establish strong footholds in his domain, taking the land away from Satan one step at a time, dispatching outposts to the occupied territory."

Wyneken's response to the need was fourfold. As we have seen, he served scattered Germans personally, wherever and whenever possible. He wrote incessantly to his family, to friends and to missionary journals. He urged his American friends to also take up the pen for the orphaned brethren. Finally, he proposed a plan of action to meet the need. To achieve these ends, he sought to establish missionary societies in Germany, to encourage Eastern Lutheran churches to send aid, and, as he alluded already in his first letter from Fort Wayne, to return to Germany personally.

As he gained experience in the American wilderness, Wyneken refined his plan of action to care for Christ's scattered flock. In the Summer of 1839, the frontier pastor recommended to Survey Missionary Nuelsen that German speaking schoolteachers be sent to the frontier. Wyneken also shared with Nuelsen a desire to return to Germany and to recruit six candidates, who wouldn't mind living on very little, to work in the towns around Fort Wayne.

Also in 1839, Wyneken wrote to Reformed Pastor G. G. Treviranus of Bremen. He asked his friend to put an appeal before Bremen's Evangelical Society for German Protestants in North America, which, together with J. Wichern and others, he had founded. Wyneken proposed to set up a six pastor circuit rider system with the society's assistance. These circuit riders would serve congregations of regenerate Christians and retain the use of the German language. Wyneken also reported his desire to make a recruiting trip to Germany to the American Home Missionary Society on 28 March 1840.

As time went on, Wyneken developed this idea further. In April of 1841, he wrote to Friedrich Schmidt:

"What I mainly have in mind is this: With the help of God, I hope to bring here six or eight preachers. They would divide among themselves a section of the land, one of them in charge as a superintendent, visiting each circuit, who should be elected for a term of about four years. In the beginning, these preachers should ride their circuits without trying to gather the people into congregations. After awhile, this should happen, yet, only with members who have demonstrated in their life that they are ernest Christians."

Soon the Lutheran and Reformed churches of Germany responded to Wyneken's call for help. on 17 May 1840, Teacher Friedrich W. Husmann arrived at Fort Wayne, where he became the first instructor of St. Paul's Lutheran School. Under Wyneken's mentoring, Husmann began to study theology and Greek. Later he would later preach at St. Paul's during Wyneken's absences and eventually serve as a missionary pastor among preaching stations established by Wyneken.

Meanwhile, Wyneken's appeals took root in Germany. In February of 1840, the Stade Society published a pamphlet entitled, "Aufruf zur Unterstützung der deutsch-protestantischen Kirche." This work, which contained long excerpts from the letters of Wyneken, bore important fruit. The tract fell into the hands of Wilhelm Löhe, who was moved by it to help his orphaned Lutheran brothers in America.

"Thousands of families," cried out Wyneken, "Your fellow believers, perhaps even your brothers and sisters in the flesh, are hungry for the gospel's powerful food. They implore you, crying out in distress: 'Oh, help us! Give us preachers who will strengthen us with the Bread of Life, who will build us up with the Word of the Lord, who will instruct our children in Jesus' holy teachings! Oh help us, or we are lost! Why don't you help us? Is that the Love of Jesus? Is that the way you observe His commands? Think about these words: "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do to me."' It is literally true, that many of our brothers in the North American West complain in this way... I beg you, God willing, take up the work and quickly walk together! Stop conferring about it! Hurry! Hurry! All that matters is that there are eternal souls to redeem!"

Löhe could not stand by while his countrymen starved spiritually. He wrote an article in the 10 January 1841 Nordlinger Sonntags-Blatt, which quickly mobilized funds and volunteers to aid their the American Church.

Back in America, 1841 brought important developments for Wyneken's missionary cause. The Methodist Church's mission to Germans came to Ft. Wayne in the form of a camp meeting. Under the direction of Rev. Wilhelm Nast, a converted Lutheran, the German Methodists maintained that German Lutherans were heathen in need of conversion to the Christian Faith. They criticized the Lutheran Church as being unable to lead sinners to such a change of heart. Already in late 1839, Wyneken was complaining that the Methodists were taking advantage of the lack of Lutheran pastors by luring Lutherans into their congregations. While no account of the Fort Wayne confrontation between these Methodists and Wyneken survives, the incident may well begun the missionary's transition from a proponent of pietism to a champion of confessional Lutheranism.

What is known is that, beginning in 1841, Wyneken had increasingly harsh things to say about Methodism. On 25 April, he begun a highly polemical exchange of words with Nast. Responding to the Methodist Pastor's attack on Friedrich Schmidt in the clergyman's newspaper Christlichen Apologeten, Wyneken accused the whole Methodist movement of deliberately causing division within Christianity and of systematically attempting to convert Lutherans to their new denomination. When Wyneken's appeals reached their final form in the Distress of the German Lutherans in North America, a large section was devoted to criticizing Methodism for using deceit and manipulation to pry Lutherans away from their congregations.

On a more positive note, missionary pastors began to arrive in America. The circuit rider had hoped that J. G. Kunz, a missionary sent by the Gossner Society in Berlin or Rev. Rechenberg, sent by the Bremen Society, might serve as substitutes in Northeast Indiana. However, Kunz settled in Indianapolis and Rechenberg in Syracuse, New York. Finally, a Gossner missionary, A. F. Knape, arrived in Fort Wayne during May of 1841 and immediately began serving Wyneken's country church, Zion of Friedheim, Adams County. In the same month, the General Synod resolved to send Wyneken home to appeal for help.	Everything fell into place in June of 1841, when three pastors sent by the Stade Society , C. F. W. Drude, G. Jensen and G. Bartels arrived in America. Jensen came to Fort Wayne, following the Stade Society's instructions, finally freeing Wyneken to leave America. On 12 August 1841, St. Paul Lutheran Church granted him permission to make the journey. Wyneken married Sophie Buuck on 31 August. She was the second daughter of "Father" Buuck, elder at his Adams County congregation. The Wynekens departed for a leisurely journey to Philadelphia, where they boarded a ship for Bremen in October of 1841.

Friedrich Wyneken's German Campaign

Wyneken and his bride settled in Leesum among Fritz's relatives. With their help, he sought medical treatment for a painful throat ailment. While recuperating, Wyneken began to writing influential people throughout Germany. Once he had fully recovered, Wyneken began a full schedule of lectures, meetings and events, all calculated to raise money and recruit pastors for the frontier.

In January of 1842, Wyneken met with Johannes Wichern, the father of the Inner Mission movement, a founder of the Bremen Society and the director of the Hamburg seminary where their missionaries trained. Wyneken's advice on the requirements necessary to succeed on the American frontier was well received and invaluable to Wichern. However, Wyneken's developing confessional consciousness made him suspicious of Wichern's whole-hearted commitment to pietism and Wichern of Wyneken's "Lutheran strictness." The two men went their separate ways.

One of Wyneken's first tours took him south to Bavaria. Wilhelm Löhe had invited the circuit rider to come to Neuendettelsau. There he met Georg Burger and Adam Ernst, the first of many men to prepare for service in America in Löhe's institute. Here Wyneken was received warmly. The Bavarian pastor promised to help the missionary in every possible.

On the same trip, he delivered a mission lecture to Ludwig Krasshold's Consistory in Furth, where he won Friedrich Lochner for the American Lutheran Church. In Erlangen, Karl von Raumer offered his support. On a visit to Dresden, the mission society of that city promised to send men, money and books to America. By May of 1842, he had also won the support of Georg P. E. Huschke in Breslau, a Lutheran society in Berlin, Johannes Trautmann in Dresden, and Franz Delitzsch in Leipzig.

Wyneken returned to Leesum on 22 May 1842. Exhausted from his travels and excited about the approaching birth of his first born child, he settled in for a few weeks of rest. Yet news of a conference in Hannover, sponsored by A. Petri, director of the Preacher's Seminary, drove him to his writing desk. The Pentecost Conference was a continuing education event for confessional pastors and theological candidates. Wyneken wrote a long letter, appealing to the conference to send help to America. He concluded that the challenges ahead required unity of purpose, training and coordination of the whole Lutheran Church of Germany. The conference took up the challenge and attempted through Petri to bring about a national society, coordinated in Hanover. The hoped for unity failed to materialize, however, due to large number of programs already under way and the inevitable variety of purposes and attitudes represented by this diverse group of societies. In spite of all this, the effort did serve to introduce many of the emerging confessionalist movement's leaders to each other. One of the most important friendships forged by these efforts was that between Petri and Löhe. Petri's organizational efforts funneled funds and material support to the sendlinge sent by Löhe to America.

After the birth of the Wyneken's first daughter, Margaretha Louise, Fritz returned to his lecture and conscience-raising tours. During the summer of 1842, Wyneken compiled his previous written and oral appeals into large pamphlet titled: Die Not der deutschen Lutheraner in Nordamerica: Ihren Glaubengenossen in der Heimat ans Herz gelegt von Friedrich Wyneken, or, The Dire Need of German Lutherans in North America: As Friedrich Wyneken Laid it Upon the Heart of Their Fellow Believers in the Homeland.

With the assistance of Wilhelm Löhe and Karl von Raumer, the work first appeared during the Summer of 1842, a copy of which Wyneken sent to von Harless during the first week of August. It was republished in 1843 as: "Aufruf an die lutherische Kirche Deutschlands zur Unterstützung der Glaubensbrüder in Nordamerika" in von Harless' Zeitschrift für Protestantismus und Kirche. The first American Edition was published by Wyneken's friend, Friedrich Schmidt in 1844. This work captured the spirit of the circuit rider's Macedonian call and broadcast it throughout central Europe. Among those moved to come to America by the pamphlet were August Craemer, G. W. Hattstädt, Konrad Schuster, G. E. Sievers Wilhelm Sihler and J. G. Swerner.

During the final phase of Wyneken's sojourn in Germany, people began to seek his advice on how they might help their fellow believers in America. During November of 1842, a bright, young candidate, Adolf Biewend, wrote to Wyneken for advice. The frontier pastor's counsel helped settle the young man's doubts. When the Wynekens finally returned to America, Biewend went with them. Biewend would later serve both of the Missouri Synod's seminaries as a professor.

Friedrich Wyneken and his family settled into a guest house in Bremen on in May 1843 to await the sailing of their ship. Adolf Biewend arrived shortly thereafter and discovered that, by coincidence, they had booked passage on the same vessel. Elated, the Candidate located the family. The little missionary band set sail for New York on 18 May 1843.

Wyneken the Apologist and Mentor

Biewend and the Wynekens disembarked at New York on 28 June 1843. Initially, Biewend had intended to go west with Wyneken to serve scattered Lutherans. However, two calls awaited the young pastor, one to Richmond, Virginia and the other to Washington, D.C. No doubt with Wyneken's counsel, Biewend concluded that he did not have the physical constitution to serve as a circuit rider. He accepted the call to Washington. The two men parted along the way, Wyneken traveling to Baltimore to visit his old friend Haesbaert and Biewend to take up his call.

Upon his return to Fort Wayne, Pastor Wyneken picked up where he had left off.	Jensen, his substitute in Fort Wayne, had taken a call to Pittsburgh during his absence, leaving St. Paul congregation in the hands of Teacher Husmann. August Knape returned Wyneken's Adam's County charges, taking a call to Ohio. He immediately resumed tutoring Husmann for ministry and was soon to add two other pupils, G. H. Jäbker and C. H. F. Fricke.

While Wyneken's activities in Indiana remained the essentially the same, the substance of his theology had changed. Friedrich was now convinced more than ever of the truth of the Lutheran Confessions, the value of its traditions and the necessity of thorough catechization in the same. He proceeded to abandon practices which diluted Lutheran theology or practice, minimized the differences between Lutherans and other denominations or allowed reformed pastors to enter Lutheran pulpits.

More than a few in Wyneken's flocks were confused or angered by the change in their shepherd's teaching and practice. The reformed members withdrew to form their own parish. Wyneken also came under attack from the Methodists, who asked, "Why Have You Become an Apostate?" and from pastors within his own Synod of the West, who accused him of being an "Old Lutheran" and a Jesuit in Lutheran clothing.

Since few of his members had even been exposed to truly Lutheran theology, Wyneken needed to clear the air. In October of 1844, the Synod of the West convened in Fort Wayne. The embattled pastor invited his members to bring charges against him to the body. In a two hour apologetic, Wyneken defended his teachings and practice from the Lutheran Confessions. He won over most of those present. His congregation no longer doubted Wyneken the Confessor and his Synod sent him the General Synod of 1845 as their delegate. While in the midst of this defense, Wyneken received a copy of the first issue of Der Lutheraner, C. F. W. Walther's magazine. "Thank God!" he exclaimed, "There are still Lutherans here in America."

On 20 November 1844, missionary pastor Friedrich Wyneken received a call to serve St. Paul Lutheran congregation of Baltimore, After much correspondence, and on the condition that Baltimore wait for him until another pastor was called to Fort Wayne, Wyneken accepted the call. He nominated Wilhelm Sihler to be his successor in Indiana. His two parishes extended the call to Dr. Sihler, who accepted it. In February of 1845, Pastor Wyneken preached his farewell sermon in Indiana and moved on to Baltimore, arriving in March of 1845.

In his new parish, Pastor Wyneken continued his program of catechisis in Lutheran doctrine and practice. His first series of sermons at Baltimore focused on the differences between Reformed and Lutheran theology, for which he used Luther's Catechisms and the Heidelberg Catechism as a text. While substantial group of reformed members of his new congregation withdrew in anger, many of the people wholeheartedly received Wyneken and welcomed his instruction.

At Baltimore, Wyneken added opposition to fraternal lodges to his arsenal of apologetics. The lodge movement was strong in Baltimore and several of Wyneken's parishioners had joined one or another. After a thorough study of these movements, he became convinced that membership in a lodge was incompatible with Christianity. Through his witness, he brought the issue to the attention of confessional Lutheranism.

At first glance, Wyneken's opposition to camp meetings, prayer meetings, the lodges and other popular religious and semi-religious movements of the day might lead to the conclusion that he opposed all non-traditional methods of evangelism and catechization out of hand. This is not the case. In his pastoral ministry, Wyneken would catechize in English, by yelling in the ear of a hard of hearing woman, or by comparing catechisms. He even studied adopting the street preaching methods of the temperance movement, failing to adopt it only after his wife and friends objected that he was already too busy. If a method both supported orthodox theology and was practical, he did not hesitate to use it.

In May of 1845, the General Synod gathered in Philadelphia. Wyneken challenged the body to answer concerns about their orthodoxy by sending copies of works which represented their theology to Lutheran leaders in Germany. After much debate, the proposal failed. Wyneken then introduced a second resolution, that the Synod reject as heterodox those works. This measure also failed. Wyneken was to remain a member of the Synod of the West until it dissolved in 1846.

Wyneken also attended a meeting at Cleveland in September of 1845. Wilhelm Sihler, two of his former pupils and most of the eleven men Wilhelm Löhe sent to America gathered there to resign from the Ohio Synod over doctrinal matters and lay the groundwork for a new Lutheran synod. At this meeting, Wyneken preached and provided good advice to the men who had answered his cry for help. This event set in motion a series of meetings which led to the founding of the Missouri Synod in 1847. Wyneken and his congregation waited a year to join the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States. They used the time to study the constitution and confession of the new church body. Satisfied on all points, Wyneken and his Baltimore congregation joined at the Synod's second convention in June of 1848.

In November of 1849, Wyneken received a call to serve as an Assistant Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church of St. Louis, Missouri. After much soul-searching, he accepted the call, recommending E. G. W. Keyl of Milwaukee as his successor. When the call that St. Paul issued to Keyl was accepted, Wyneken preached his farewell sermon, leaving for Ft. Wayne and St. Louis on 21 February 1850.

Wyneken as President and Patriarch

Wyneken had served as pastor a little over six months, when the convention of the Missouri Synod elected him as their second president, freeing C. F. W. Walther to care for his parish, the St. Louis Seminary and edit Der Lutheraner. He would remain in office for fourteen years, during which he would lead the Synod through dramatic growth, the end of Wilhelm Löhe's support for the church body over the doctrine of the ministry and the misery of the American Civil War. He personally visited every parish in the church body several times, attended the majority of Synodical and District conventions, advised pastors and congregations, settled disputes by the force of his personality, forging a diverse synod of strong-willed congregations, pastors and teachers into a strong, confessional church body.

During Wyneken's presidency, the Missouri Synod struggled to meet the needs of German immigrants, first by sending Visitors, pastoral candidates with a call similar to Wyneken's first ministry. Later they attempted to use laymen as Colporteurs or book salesmen and commissioned pastors already serving congregations to survey new territory.

Throughout these years, the synod encouraged pastors to serve nearby settlements where Germans were without pastors. The Fort Wayne Seminary continued to provide a steady supply of new pastors, first from among Wilhelm Löhe's Sendlinge, and later from the graduates of Friedrich Brunn's Proseminar in Steeden, Germany. As many of these as the Synod could spare were sent to new settlements. From time to time, Wyneken and Walther would take a hand in the matter and hand-pick pastors and candidates for fields with a special need. Eventually Wyneken's vision of circuit-riding pastors won the day, with the synod employing Circuit-Riding pastors in small areas of special need.

In 1852, Wyneken looked back with wonder and thanksgiving to God for the miracles the Lord had worked among them:

"At every new convention, which the Lord, in His mercy, permits us to hold, our hearts are moved once again to give ever more thanks to God for the wonder of His love, grace and faithfulness He has bestowed on us in the troubled times of the last few years. For it is no less than a miracle to me, that, in a place where, only a few years ago, only here and there a German Lutheran preacher wandered sadly through the wide forests and prairies, seeking the scattered members of his church, to sparingly serve them the Bread of Life. There today a Synod can assemble, with preachers, professors, and teachers -- more than a hundred workers in the vineyard of the Lord counted among them. As time goes on, even more congregations are joining this Synod and rejoice with them that, among them, too, the light of the pure doctrine has been placed on a lampstand -- a light whose life-giving rays shine in the hearts of those who love the truth."

The same convention voted to divide the synod into district synods, adopting a model similar to the framework of the General Synod. The St. Louis Pastoral Conference was directed to draw up a constitution for the districts. The 1853 convention voted to divide the synod, beginning in 1854. By 1857, the Synod had grown so large that the convention authorized a salary for President Wyneken, lessened the requirement to visit every congregation once in three year to once in six years and directed him to serve full time. Although remaining nominally pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church until the end of his Presidency, Wyneken and his family returned to Adams County to live near the Buuck family in 1859. In 1860, they would move again to live near Henry Rudisill.

In 1863, worn out from years of travel and the work of reconciliation, Wyneken requested that the synod relieve him of his duties. The synod declined his resignation. In 1864, the Synod granted his request. With joy, Friedrich accepted a call to serve Trinity Lutheran Church of Cleveland, Ohio. His old friend and student, Pastor Friedrich Husmann, installed him.

Trinity was an ideal parish for the patriarch to serve. On the east side of town lived his nephew, H. C. Schwan, a synodical vice-president during his administration and later, C. F. W. Walther's successor as Synod president. As the parish grew under Wyneken's lively ministry, first Henry Craemer and then his own son, H. C. Wyneken, came to Trinity as assistant pastors. During this phase of Wyneken's life, he was often called upon to advise pastors, congregations and the synod, being looked upon as a patriarch of the church. He was even sent as a delegate to the first convention of the Synodical Conference, a national federation of confessional Lutheran synods similar to the General Synod and the General Conference.

In 1874, with his health failing, Friedrich Wyneken offered to retire, only to have his offer declined. Instead, they elected his son Henry to the office of Senior pastor, allowing Friedrich to serve as his assistant. In the next year, he submitted a written resignation a second time and found it declined a second time. However, his congregation suggested that he take an extended vacation in California, where his first born daughter Louise's husband, J. M. Buehler, was served as a pioneer missionary. In California, his conditioned weakened, due to heart trouble. On 4 May 1876, the Heart of Missouri's own heart stopped and he entered eternal rest.

Friedrich Wyneken was mourned deeply by the Synod he helped to forge. Services were conducted at the convention of the Western District, in session when he died. After a funeral in California, his body made its way to St. Louis by train, where C. F. W. Walther preached a memorial service for his friend in Wyneken's former parish. Next, the funeral cortege made its way to Fort Wayne, where Dr. Sihler preached a sermon on Prov. 10:7. In Cleveland, Pastor Brohm preached on the text, Hebrews 13:7. The words of this passage are inscribed on the lectern-like monument over Wyneken's grave in Cleveland Lutheran Seminary. They speak to us even today: "Remember them who have spoken unto you the Word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation."

Appendix I

Data in Chart I

Decade German Immigration Total Immigration 1820s 9,987 143,439 1830s 157,265 599,125 1840s 439,270 1,713,251 1850s 976,678 2,598,214 1860s 818,554 2,314,824 1870s 781,554 2,812,191 1880s 1,641,571 5,246,613 Chart I