Augustana College - Rockety I Yearbook (Rock Island, IL)

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a I Shietnrtcal HERE was a time when Zion hill attracted no particular attention. In those rm: clays it was designated on the map of Rock Island in the manner that hills or r mountains are usuaIIy designated on a map. That was all the attention it 'Qi received; and that was all the attention it deserved. In those days Zion Wig, hill was only a huge bluE overgrown with aak-trees. and there was about it nothing peculiar. To-day there is, however. a very different story to tell. You may go to any state of our Union, yes, you may go to many a foreign land and to distant continents. and someone you wilt hunt is there who loves it, someone with fond memories inseparably connected with it. There is a reason for this. Thirtyuhve years ago Zion hill became the home of an institution of learning, which justly boasts the distinction of being the center of Swedish-American culture. Thirty-five yeaIs ago the little Swede.I mllege came and 'iA mighty beacon bright stood tirrn founded on the bin. Thus it has come to pass that the unce wiId and rugged bluff has been transformed into an Atlas in miniature, and bears upon its stout shoulders at little world of busy activity. ofhciaIIy known as. HAugustama College and Theological Seminary. In the year of 1860. April 23-27. a convention of Scandinavian Lutherans was held at Chicago. The purpose of the convention was to organize an indenpendent Scandinavian church body and to establish a Theological Seminary. In the early forties. immigrants had begun coming from the Scandinavian countries to make their homes in America. During the years that immediately followed the number of those coming over increased very rapidly. Most of them settled in the Middle West states. They weie a pious and churchly people, these fathers of our Synod, and no sonner had- they established themselves in their frontier homes, than they organizeti themselves into Congregations, under the leadeiship of earnest and devout men, who heading the call had come over with them. some from the beginning of the movement. These pastorS, men strong in faith and clear of head, saw from the outset the needs of their perIe and, as sub- sequent history has well borne out, knew how to provide against them. It eariy became obvious, that the supply of religinus workers was not for any length of time or to any great extent to be looked for from across the Atlantic, but must come from among the immigrants themselves. In order that this might be accomplished, and the work here be pushed with greater energy and larger results be gained, it was imperative that the congregations shnuid he hraught together into a central organization. and that a Theulogical Seminary should be established. The hrst steps in this direction were made when the Scandinavian: afhliated themselves with other Lutheran bodies for the organization of what became known as, The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Northern Illinois, in the year at IB5I. The Synud established a school under the name, uThe Illinois State University,n Iueated at Springfield, Illinois. In 1355, a B

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