Wartburg College - Fortress Yearbook (Waverly, IA)

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Left — Wartburg College at Clinton was tive offices and classes. Right — Beautiful housed in the late 1800 ' s in this brick landscape, trees and shrubs surrounded the structure which served both administra- campus and the Administration Building. Wandering Wartburg Warlburg Moves lo Waverly. Hardships plagued ihe instiiution for ihe nexl few years, but though classes were at times temporarily called to a halt, the school never officially closed. When, in 1857, the school was relocated at St. Sebald, it began to lead a more stable existence. Its dual character continued. Gottfried Fritschel replaced his brother as leader and sole teacher of the preparatory department. Through the 1860 ' s the character of the lower department began gradually to change. In 1862 it was opened to students who did not intend to study for the ministry,- in 1864 the Latin and Greek requirements for the course were low- ered; and in 1868, when the enrollment at St. Sebald began to exceed housing facilities, the synodical convention of that year at Madison, Wisconsin, decided to move the school for the young boys to Galena, Illinois. The following year classes were begun there. But it proved financially impossible for the Iowa Synod to support two separate schools. In 1875 the college was again relocated to the same campus as the seminary, which had in the meantime been moved to Mendota, Illinois. During these years the purpose of the school had turned from teacher training to the train- ing of pastors for the Iowa Synod. However, the growing need for parochial teachers in the ' 60 ' s and ' 70 ' s resulted in another demand for a teacher-training department. In response to this demand, Grossmann established a semi- nary for teachers in 1878 in the orphanage at Andrew. The next year it was moved to Wa- verly, where it became established during the ' 80 ' s. In the summer of 1907, Mrs. Emma Lamb, a citi- zen of Clinton, and the untiring solicitations of President Kraushaar made possible the erec- tion of this gymnasium which was 40 feet by 66 feet. 9

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our Men Who Dreamed In 1852 a party of eight people left from the old port of Hamburg, Germany, on a ship bound for America. Pastor Wilhelm Loehe, the found- er of a Lutheran missionary organization in Ger- many, was sending the small group to establish a school for the training of teachers for parochial schools of the Missouri Synod. Members of the group were Grossmann, his wife and six students. The school which they founded in Saginaw, Mich., in 1852 was the beginning of today ' s Wartburg College. During that year, however, the followers of Loehe decided to migrate to Iowa to begin mis- sionary activities independently from the Mis- souri Synod. They took their little school with them and reopened it at Dubuque late in 1853. For two years the curriculum here consisted primarily of secular subjects with limited ele- mentary religious instruction. But in 1854, with the founding of the Iowa Synod, the school at Dubuque began to assume the character of a seminary. By 1856 two stu- dents had completed their requirements for the- ological instruction and were graduated from wha t was now primarily a theological seminary, serving the newly born Iowa Synod. By this time the school had already devel- oped a dual character. In 1854 Loehe sent Sig- mund Fritschel to America to open a Latein- schule at the seminary. Fritschel, at that time without German university training but later to become a noted theologian, assumed the task of organizing a department at the seminary like that of the German Gymnasium, which would prepare students for the later theological course. Entrants in the preparatory department were boys from both America and Germany, the lal- ter supplied by Loehe. Grossmann continued to serve as sole theology instructor. Top left — Wilhelm Loehe, the man who orig- inated the idea which was to become Wartburg College. Top right — George Grossmann, founder of the college at Saginaw, Mich., in 1852. Upper center left — Sigmund Fritschel, a profes- sor who opened the pre-theological training for students at Dubuque in 1854. Upper center right — Fredrick Lutz, an early instructor, he was later in charge of the college during its years at Galena, 111. Center— In 1857 Wartburg Col- lege was transferred to St. Sebald, near Straw- berry Point, where it purchased this building as well as a farm for support. Lower center — In 1868 an abandoned monastery was purchased at Galena, 111., for the training of pre-theological students. The college was housed in the se- verely plain brick structure. Bottom — The school from Galena was merged with the the- ological school at Mendota, 111., in 1875.

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averly—The Journey s End God Has Been Good. When the college-seminarY institution at Mendota became hopelessly overcrowded, the Synod decided in 1885 to combine the college with the normal school at Waverly. The first building on the Wartburg campus, Old Main, provided dormitory, faculty, class and dining space. But conditions became crowded here, too. The result was that the college was once more moved, this time to Clinton, in 1894. The college at Clinton continued to be modeled after the German Gymnasium, with a six-year course, until well into the twentieth century. Then it was adapted to American traditions. Meanwhile, the school at Waverly devel- oped a number of departments, and became known as a Normal College. With the three- way merger that resulted in the formation of the American Lutheran Church in 1933, Wartburg Normal College was again merged with Wart- burg College of Clinton. In 1935, however, this combined institution, now officially called Wartburg College, was returned to Waverly. That is the story of Wartburg College: from a combined faculty and student body of eight in 1852 to over six hundred in 1952,- from a rigid classical curriculum to a modern Amer- ican liberal arts program,- from practically no extracurricular activities to seven sports and twenty-eight campus organizations, with wave after wave of gridiron Knights and a choir that has toured a large portion of the nation. As one looks back from today ' s Wartburg through the years of financial stress and crowd- ed facilities, one cannot help feeling that, in the words of the deceased Director Engelbrecht, God has been good! Top left — Far from the modern Wartburg Col- lege library is this one which was housed in Old Main in 1894. Top right — The student body and faculty of 1891 assemble on the college lawn. Upper center left — Otto Kraushaar, one of the early presidents of Wartburg at Clinton and instructor at Waverly, gathers with his Latin class in 1888 for a class picture. Upper center right — The Main building in 1894. Cen- ter — Director August Engelbrecht dictates a let- ter to his secretary. Mr. Engelbrecht served as head from 1909 till 1933. Lower center left — The green in front of Grossmann Hall becomes the center of May Day activities in the late ' 30 ' s. Lower center right — Solemn and bar- ren are words which describe the early gym- nasium in Waverly; yet many exciting contests were held in the interior. Bottom — Interior furnishings of Wartburg Hall were very mod- ern to the women who lived there during the days of World War I. 10