Part II, Chapter XVIII — Manifold Activity (1906-09)
Miss Emily L. Weiskotten and Dr. Lydia Woerner took their first furloughs in 1906, the former leaving Rajahmundry on February 19th, that year, and returning on December 22, 1907; the latter leaving on April 13, 1906, and returning on January 28, 1908. In the United States and Canada they delivered many addresses to women's missionary societies, congregations and conventions, and succeeded in developing a deeper and wider interest in woman's work for women in India.
^
After Dr. Harpster, in 1906, had urged that a catechist be sent from Rajahmundry to Rangoon, Burma, to care for the Telugu Lutheran Christians employed in and near that city, he was sent personally to inspect the field, and having reported favorably, Vungara Sriramulu of Rajahmundry was located in Rangoon, in May, 1907, but after six months of fruitless effort he returned to Rajahmundry. It w^as felt, however, that something further ought to be done for the Christian Telugus in Rangoon; and when the Mission Council recommended a second attempt, Kuder was directed to investigate the field anew. He went to Rangoon in May, 191 1, and six months later, on the recommendation of the Ministerium in India and with the Board's authorization, Catechist A. Anandappan of Tallapudi was sent to make a second effort to gather and organize a congregation. He arrived in Rangoon on Nov. 14, 1 91 1, and in a year he gathered a congregation of 238 Telugu Lutherans, of whom 194 were communicants.
On January 6, 1906, representatives of our Mission and that of the Canadian (Ontario and Quebec) Mission met and formulated an agreement on boundary lines and principles of ^ Dr. Woerner was painfully injured in an accident on the Lake Shore Electric Railway near Toledo, Ohio, September 19, 1907, but recovered in time to leave the United States on December 10, 1907.
CATECHIST A. ANANDAPPAN, WIFE AND SONS
This catechist is now stationed at Rangoon, Burma, where he has organized a large congregation of Telugu Lutherans.
TEACHERS AND PUPILS OF THE BOYS" CENTRAL SCHOOL, RAJAHMUNDRY
This picture was taken in front of the Main Building in 1913.
MANIFOLD ACTIVITY (1906-O9) 357 mission comity, which was ratified by both of the Boards in America. In the Ramachendrapuram and Bhimawaram taluks certain boundary lines between the two Missions were established. The following principles were adopted: i. "Neither Mission will receive any agent or member from the other without the full and written consent of the missionary of such agent or member. 2. Neither Mission will enter a village to do mission work where the other has estabhshed itself and is making a fair effort to bring the people to the knowledge of the truth." The Lutheran Mission agreed not to locate a station at Pittapur on condition that the Baptist Mission agreed not to put a station at Jaggampetta. All issues relating to this agreement are to be referred, first of all, to a committee of six missionaries, three from each Mission. On February 14-16, 191 2, committees of both Missions met at Samulkot and drew up a further agreement, fijfing addi- tional boundary lines, providing for a territory common to both Missions and arranging for the sale of the bungalow at Peddapur to the Lutheran Mission for $2,640.00 and the withdrawal of the Baptists from that town. After Dr. Harpster's appeal for a new Mission Press had been presented at the convention of the General Council in 1905, Mr. James G. Finley of Philadelphia secured the dona- tion of a double demy press from the firm of R. Hoe and Co., of New York City, which was shipped to Rajahmundry in 1906. Mr. William P. M. Braun of Philadelphia supplied the Printery with a first-class outfit of type and other material, and has become the patron of this important branch of the Mission, which has received the name of The Braun Industrial Mission Printery. Under the efficient management of Kuder the Printery did admirable work in the dissemination of Chris- tian literature in the Telugu language, and by the publication for a number of years of "The Gospel Witness," the English organ of the Lutheran Missions in India, of "Bible Story," Stump's "Catechism" and other publications in the vernacu- lar. In 191 2 a second-hand and larger press was ordered and sent from England, Mr. Braun furnishing a portion of the necessary funds.
"A financial disaster that came upon the Mission like a bolt out of the blue sky was the failure of the banking-house of Messrs. Arbuthnot & Co., in October, 1906. For upward of forty years the Mission had been depositing its funds with this firm which had back of it a record of 106 years of honor- able business. At the end of a century and more this honored house of Arbuthnot, under the criminal manipulation of a dishonored scion, became the greatest confidence game of modern times. It has been designated as one of the most gigantic insolvency cases ever known in the world. Eight thousand creditors went down in the crash, many of them reduced to absolute poverty. The Mission, together with a number of the missionaries, lost upward of twenty thousand dollars. Several of the missionaries lost every cent they had in the world."
When the Church at home learned of this calamity, many friends of the Mission and of the missionaries at once came to the rescue, and in a few months more than enough to make up the loss to the Mission, amounting to $6,000.00, was con- tributed, and the private purses of the unfortunate mission- aries were replenished either wholly or in part. Later, about twenty-five cents on the dollar were paid back by the bankrupt firm.
Dr. Harpster met with a painful accident on July 2, 1907, while on a vacation at Kotagiri, Nilgiri Hills, when he fell from a bicycle and sprained his thigh. Fortunately his recovery was complete. After his return to Rajahmundry he resigned, in September, 1907, as "Temporary Director" of the Mission, inasmuch as the work by that time had been thoroughly reor- ganized under the Rules. He continued, however, to discharge the duties of Chairman of the Executive Committee. The missionaries, dissatisfied with certain features of the form of government in the Mission, petitioned the Board, in 1907, for the abolition of the Executive Committee in India and for more autonomy in the administration of the Mission. This led eventually to a revision of the Rules.
The cause of missions in the Church at home sustained a severe loss by the death of the Rev. WiUiam Ashmead Schaeffer,
MANIFOLD ACTIVITY (1906-O9) 359 D. D., on July 27, 1907. He had served continuously as a member of the Board of Foreign Missions for a period of more than twenty-five years. He was identified with "The Foreign Missionary," as editor or associate editor, with occasional brief interruptions, from the time of its first publication, in 1880, to the day of his death. He was the Board's English Recording and Corresponding Secretary from October, 1888, to February, 1891, and then its Corresponding Secretary until November, 1906, when he resigned on account of the illness which eventually caused his death. He served in these positions without the slightest remuneration. He was always willing and ready to sacrifice his time and give his talents for the cause of foreign missions, and his familiarity with the history, problems, needs and prospects of the Telugu mission gave him a commanding position in the counsels of the Board. In his last will and testament he generously remembered the Mission which he had so faithfully served during his life. In 1907 the long drawn-out negotiations with Dr. Schmidt concerning the transfer of all the mission property to the Trustees of the General Council for the Board were finally ended by the completion of the transactions relative to the so- called "Haas lands." Two hundred and eighty-eight acres of land were transferred under secure title, registered in the land office at Bhimawaram. In 191 2 the "Haas Lands" were sold for $8,335.00 (Rs. 25,000) to M. Ramanayya and the proceeds were devoted to the erection of a building for the Boys' High School at Peddapur, which is known as the Char- lotte Sophia Haas Memorial.
The development of the lace industry in the Mission was surprisingly rapid under the personal, efficient management of Mrs. Harpster. In her last report of this department, made at the close of the year 1908, Mrs. Harpster gave a brief account of some of the features of the work. "In February, 1904," she wrote, "we sent two small, sample boxes of lace to America. The lace met with great favor, and orders for more were at once received. From that time on the industry has gradually grown, until to-day employment is given to 240 women. For several years the industry was
360 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL carried on with private funds which we ourselves advanced; and no assistance has ever been received from any outside source. In March, 1906, all indebtedness was paid and the industry became self-supporting, and ever since then it has been well supported by the sales of lace in America. In addition we have been able to undertake some work, beside that of the direct work of the industry. In 1907 three women from the Bhimawaram district were sent to the Lace School of the Church of Scotland Mission in Madras for a number of months to learn better and more advanced patterns. Our object in sending these district women was, that they might afterward organize classes and teach in certain centres in the district, for our plan has always been that the advantages of this industry should be especially for our Christian village women. As the work progressed and the receipts increased, we found that there was money to contribute to some other object of mission work; and after consultation with the Lace Committee in America, we offered Rs. 1000 toward the erec- tion of a new building for the Bethlehem Hindu Girls' School. Our ofier was accepted and Rs. 1000 were handed to the Mission Treasurer for this object." This contribution was made in 1907. The next year two girls, ten 3^ears old, were sent to Madras to the United Free Church of Scotland Mis- sion School, to be trained to fill any positions in which they might be needed in our Mission. "A number of women," continued Mrs. Harpster, ''have received help from the funds of the industry. Sometimes it has been a lone widow with no means of support; and sometimes a widow with a family of children, whose monthly earnings for lace-making will not support the family; sometimes it has been the old widowed mother who feels she is a burden to those with whom she lives. To many aid has been given, now and then a rupee or two or three. . . . Forty boxes of lace have been sent to America. . . . To the Lace Committee in America and, especially, to its chairman, Mrs. A. Woll of Philadelphia, is largely due the success of the industry. Without their part in the work it could not have been carried on." In 191 2, the sum of $2175, and again in 1913, the sum of $2,000.00,
Krkdekuk W, Schaefer ( )st AR \". Werner
Thure Holmer Hiram H. Sipes, Jr.
MISSIONARIES IN INDIA
Rev. C. Theodore Benze, D. D. Prof. Claude W. Foss, Ph. D.
COMMISSIONERS TO INDIA IN 1909
A GROUP OF LACRMAKKRS
ISUILDINC. IX K AlAIl.MUNDRY RENTKIl FOR USK AS A MISSION DISPENSARY Dr. r>etty A. Xilsson is standing in front of thr I )isi)fnsary with a group of lur ]iatients.
MANIFOLD ACTIVITY (1906-O9) 361 profits of the industry, were contributed for the purchase of sites for the Bethlehem, Mangalavarampetta and Lakshmivarampetta Hindu Girls' Schools. The industry is now under the supervision of Mrs. E. Neudoerffer. It should be a pleasure, as it doubtless is, to the patrons of the industry at home, to know that they are helping to raise the Christian women socially, morally and rehgiously; socially, because poverty is the great problem in India among the non-property possessing classes to which our Christians belong; morally, because a good deal of truth and character-building are involved in earnest and honest lace-making; and religiously, because it teaches cleanliness, self-help and self-reliance, and affords constant opportunity to speak to the women about all manner of spiritual subjects, especially the Ten Commandments.
Another project which Mrs. Harpster inaugurated is the sale of India Pictorial Post Cards for the benefit of the Book Store in Rajahmundry, which also was under her supervision. Several sets of twelve views of our mission field and mission work were made in India, sent to America and sold for fifty cents a set. Mrs. William P. M. Braun has attended to the sale of these cards.
For many years Women's Missionary and Young People's Societies throughout the Church sent a number of boxes each year to India containing clothing, toys, food, etc., which were either used by the missionaries or distributed by them to school-children and Christians as Christmas presents. At a meeting of the Mission Council in India, held December 30, 1907, it was unanimously resolved, "that in view of the effect upon our native Christians of the gifts of clothing, etc., which have been sent so liberally each year from the HomeChurch in the so-called 'Christmas boxes,' we, as a Mission Council, respectfully ask that our kind donors present their gifts in money to the Foreign Mission treasury, and that this arrangement begin, if possible, with the year 1908." Never- theless, material which could be used in the lace industry, and articles which were of use in the Hospital and medical work, were solicited and sent through Miss Mary Miller of
362 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL Philadelphia, the chairman of the India Box Committee of the Women's Missionary Society of the General Council.^
Several protests and petitions from individual missionaries, sent directly to the President of the General Council, were by him presented in his report to the General Council at Buffalo, N. Y., in 1907, and then submitted to a special committee whose report, as amended and finally adopted, was, in part, as follows:
"i. That the General Council direct its Foreign Mission Board, after consultation with the Mission Council in India, at once to revise its present Rules, especially in the direction of giving the missionaries and the Mission Council better facilities to communicate with the Board, and leaving the matter of local government, as much as feasible, in the hands of the Mission Council.
"2. That two practical, well-quahfied men, one of whom shall be a layman, be sent out as soon as possible, as a Com- mission of Inspection, to visit the field, and to report to the Board and through it to the General Council at its next con- vention. These men shall be of different synods and shall be selected by the Board of Foreign Missions, subject to the approval of the President of the General Council; but neither of these commissioners shall be a member of the said Board."
Both of these items of instruction were carried out.
In the place of the Rev. WilHam Ashmead Schaeffer, D. D., deceased, the General Council, in 1907, elected the Rev. Lars G. Abrahamson, D. D., and in the stead of the Rev. Andrew S. Fichthorn, D. D., the Rev. WilUam E. Frey, re-electing all others whose terms had expired. The Rev. Prof. Henry E. Jacobs, D. D., who had served as President of the Board since October, 1901, declined a re-election, when the Board was reorganized in October, 1907, and the Rev. Edward T. Horn, D. D., was elected to succeed him. Mr. PhiHp S. Zieber resigned as Treasurer of the Board in Novem- ber, 1908, having served since November, 1901, and Mr. James 1 The Mission Council in India in October, 1913, again requested that the sending of Christmas boxes be discontinued and that, instead of clothing, sheets and pillow cases, contributions of money should be solicited and sent by the Board.
MANIFOLD ACTIVITY (1906-09) 363 M. Snyder was elected his successor. The duties of English Recording and Corresponding Secretary were entrusted to the General Secretary, the Rev. George Drach.
In 1907 the third medical missionary, Dr. Amy B. Rohrer, was sent to India. Amy Belle Rohrer, daughter of Israel B. and Anna Elizabeth Rohrer, was born near Eden, Lancaster County, Pa. She attended the public school at Eden until she was sixteen years of age, and then became a student in the State Normal School at Millersville, Pa. In September, 1895, she was baptized and confirmed in Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church at Leacock, Pa. Three years later, on removing with her parents to Lancaster, Pa., she united with Grace Lutheran Church of that city. From April, 1900, to October, 1901, she lived at the Mary J. Drexel Home and Motherhouse of Deaconesses, Philadelphia. After nursing for several months in the Ladd Hospital, Carhsle, Pa., she accepted the position of an assistant in the Lutheran Orphans' Home, Germantown, Philadelphia, remaining in this position from March, 1902, to June, 1903. In the fall of 1903, she entered the Woman's Medical College, Philadelphia, to prepare for work as a medical missionary in India. She was supported as a medical student by the Women's Home and Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. She was graduated in 1907, later took the Massachusetts State Medical Board examination and, having accepted the call of the Board of Foreign Missions, was commissioned by the President of the Board on December 3, 1907, in Grace Church, Lancaster, Pa. In the company of Dr. Woerner she sailed from New York on December 10, 1907, and arrived at Rajahmundry on January 28, 1908.
September 26, 1907, the Rev. C. F. Kuder was again called to go to India and, having accepted the call, was commis- sioned by the General Secretary of the Board on December 29, 1907, in Trinity Lutheran Church, Lehighton, Pa., served by his brother, the Rev. John H. Kuder. Leaving his family behind in Salem, Va., he sailed from New York on January i, 1908, and reached Rajahmundry twenty-six days later. The Board agreed to allow him to return after five years of
364 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL service, should circumstances in his family demand it. Soon after his arrival at Rajahmundry he took charge of the Boys' Central School, Wackernagel having resigned in November, 1907. Three months later Wackernagel returned to the United States, accompanied by Trafford. Miss Susan E. Monroe left on furlough, accompanied by Miss Hedwig Wahlberg, in April, igo8. Miss Wahlberg remained for a while in Sweden , recuperating from an illness contracted in India, and in November, 1908, wrote from Sweden, resigning as a missionary under the Board. The Board accepted her resignation to take effect on April i, 1909, and paid her expenses to the United States. Miss Monroe reached Philadelphia on July 7, 1908. She spent some of her time on furlough delivering addresses and toward its expira- tion again offered to return to the Mission on the same terms as before, namely, at her own expense but subject to the Rules of the Mission. The Board most gratefully accepted her offer, and after her return to Rajahmundry in December, 1909, she was placed in charge of the zenana work, which Miss Schade had managed after the death of Miss Swenson.
After a serious epidemic of cholera in the Girls' Central School, in the fall of 1906, during which five pupils died of this dread disease, the school was closed for several weeks. Miss Schade then planned a separate Epidemic Ward to the School, which was begun in 1908 and finished in 191 2, the First General Council Mission League of Monaca, Pa., assisted by other leagues of the Pittsburgh Synod, furnishing the sum of $600 for this purpose.
In 1908 two woman missionaries were added to the force in India.
Sigrid A. Esberhn, daughter of Bud Petersen Esberhn and his wife Sigrid Anna, was born in Koebenhavn, Denmark. She received her education in Copenhagen. With her parents she emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. She was called by the Board in May, 1908. Betty A. Nilsson of Rockford, 111., received her medical education in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Uni-
MANIFOLD ACTIVITY (1906-O9) 365 versity of Illinois, where she was supported by the Women's Missionary Society of the Augustana Synod. After her graduation in June, 1907, she served for a year as interne in the Cook County Hospital, Illinois. Both of these young ladies were commissioned by the President of the Board, the Rev. Edward T. Horn, D. D., on October 15, 1908, in the Immanuel Swedish Lutheran Church, Chicago. On their way to New York they stopped in Philadelphia for a farewell service on Sunday evening, October i8th, in St. Mark's English Lutheran Church of that city. They left New York several days later, and after spending a few weeks in Europe they proceeded on their journey to India, reaching Rajahmundry December 9, 1908. After Wolters had passed his second examination in Telugu, in 1907, he was assigned to take charge of the Korukonda district with residence at Rajahmundry. Shortly thereafter he was seriously ill with typhoid fever, but recovered, and took a voyage to China to recuperate and visit his sister, the wife of a merchant in that country. In 1909, after the de- parture of Dr. Harpster and Rev. E. Neudoerffer's transfer to the Bhimawaram district, Wolters became the missionary in charge of the Tadepalligudem district. Larson, in 1908, moved to Tallapudi and took charge of that district. At the same time Eckardt, living at Rajahmundry, became the mis- sionary in charge of the Jaggampetta district and extended his work into the Korukonda district.
The Boys' Central School buildings at Luthergiri,i just out- side of Rajahmundry, which had been begun in January, 1905, were finally finished in May, 1908, but the school was removed from the old building to its new quarters in February, 1908. The new buildings, consisting of a main school building, a dormitory and a residence for the missionary in charge, occupy an elevated site, giving a commanding view of the Godavery River, and can be seen for miles. The main building has a frontage of 100 feet facing the river. It is flanked at either end by a massive tower. The lower story
'"Giri" is a Telugu word signifying iiill.
366 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL is divided into class rooms, while the upper story is devoted to the purposes of a chapel and assembly room. The Hostel or Dormitory furnishes accommodations for 150 boarders. It is a one-story structure, built in the form of a quadrangle. The outer wall is solid with no break in it except for the small, barred apertures near the top for purposes of ventilation. All the sleeping rooms, living rooms, bath rooms, granaries, cook rooms, storerooms, hospital rooms, etc., open into the inner quadrangle. The cost of the buildings was as follows
Main Building Rs. 22,600 $ 7,533.34 Dormitory 17,700 5,900.00 Bungalow 13,940 4,646.66 Out-houses 825 275.000
Total Rs. 55,065 $18,355.00 At the close of the first year in the new buildings Kuder wrote: "Our plant is quite new and is located on a plot of ground containing forty acres, l3ang on a gentle eminence about a mile north of Rajahmundry. Probably few mis- sions in the Madras Presidency have anything superior. This institution is meant to be the power-house of the Mis- sion. Its agents, or, at least, its male agents receive their training for future usefulness here. The school ranks, at present, as an Incomplete Secondary, the highest form being the third; but we have higher aspirations. As is customary in institutions of this kind, there are taught, besides the usual branches of secular knowledge, also religious sub- jects, according to a curriculum that is the outgrowth of a moderately long experience. By the time a boy entering the third standard—our lowest class—^passes out of the third form, he will have gone through two explanations of the Small Catechism (Loehe's and Stump's, supplemented from Nissen), and also twice through Bible History, from specially prepared text-books, in the standards, and from the Bible itself, following Buchrucker, in the forms, together with the introduction to each book in the Sacred Volume, as it is taken up. It is primarily the aim of the educational work of
DORMITORIES OF THE BOYS' CENTRAL SCHOOL, LUTHERCIRI, RAJAHMUNDRY
THE HIGH SCHOOL FOR BOYS AT PEDDAPUR
Mary Welden Laura V. Keck
Emma A. Endlich Mrs. Samuel Laird
>rRS. Charles L. Fry Mrs. Emmy I--\ ald
WOMEN OF THE GENERAL O-rXC., L^U I in HAVE U U.WK r.KE.X FROMLNENT IN
MANIFOLD ACTIVITY (1906-O9) 367 the Mission, at present, to prepare a body of teachers possess- ing a fair general education, a good knowledge of Christian truth, and normal training. No excursions into theological lore are as yet being attempted. The course mapped out contemplates special instruction in religious subjects for a year or two after students have passed out of the third form; and that is to be followed by a course in normal training, prescribed by the Educational Department of the Presidency. We have not been able as yet to add the year or two for rehgious instruction exclusively, but we did succeed in estab- lishing a normal training-school in the beginning of the year, of which not only our own youths but also a respectable number of the teachers in the Mission, as well as some out- siders, have availed themselves."
After the Boys' Central School had been removed to Luthergiri, the High School Department was discontinued by order of the Board, and a Normal School, called the Training School for Masters, was established. Twenty-one normal pupils were enrolled during the first year of its history, eight in the Higher elementary class and thirteen in the Junior elementary lower class. Kuder succeeded in getting a government grant, in 1909, for the Normal School, amounting to Rs. 1288, in addition to Rs. 1800 for the Boys' Central School. During the second year 55 pupils were enrolled in the Normal School and nearly Rs. 4000 were received in grants from the government.
The Boys' High School at Peddapur was continued under the direction of the missionary of the Samulkot district, Isaacson, and, in 1911-12, a new building was erected, cost- ing over $14,000, one-fourth of which was given by the government as a building grant. The corner-stone of the new build- ing w^as laid with impressive ceremonies on November 25, 191 1, and the completed building was opened and dedicated on October 29, 191 2.
In order to carry out the instructions of the General Council the Board of Foreign Missions selected Prof. C. W. Foss, Ph. D., of Augustana College, Rock Island, 111., and the Rev. C. Theodore Benze, D. D., then pastor of St. Stephen's
Evangelical Lutheran Church, Erie, Pa., and President of the Pittsburgh Synod, afterward President of Thiel College, as the Commissioners of Inspection, the President of the General Council having sanctioned these selections. The Commissioners were given a letter of instruction by the Board to define their duties and work in India, and after having met in Colombo, Ceylon, on December 8th, and arrived at Rajahmundry on December 28, 1908, they spent six weeks in the Mission, finished their work of inspection and returned to the United States. They submitted a carefully prepared report to the Board covering every district and department of the Mission, making a number of recommendations concerning the government of the IMission, urging an increase of missionaries and funds as imperative for the proper development of the work, and concluding with the following paragraph:
"Notwithstanding human frailties and error and the insufficient supply of laborers and means, the Lord has sig- nally blessed and prospered our Mission, and thereby indicated that the work is His and not of men. There is much that is successful and much that is encouraging, and from this point of view the outlook for the future is bright. Let the Church give thanks to her Redeemer for thus prospering her feeble efforts, and awaken to a great sense of her respon- sibility and duty."
The expenses connected with the sending out of this commission amounted to $2466, but the money was well spent, for the report of the Commission set the mind of the Church at rest, created new confidence in the Board and in the mission- aries, and won a more hearty support for the cause of foreign missions. This attitude of the Church was indicated, more- over, by the election of the commissioners as members of the Board at the next meeting of the General Council.
The service of the Rev. E. E. Sibole, D. D., who had been a member of the Board for nearly twenty-five years and the editor of "The Foreign Missionary" for twelve years, ceased with the convention of the General Council in 1909. The
'General Council Minutes, 1909, pages 160-169.
MANIFOLD ACTIVITY (1906-O9) 369 Board adopted a minute, expressing its high appreciation of his long and faithful service.^
The Rules and Regulations of the Telugu Mission, as revised by the Mission Council in India in 1908, and endorsed by the Commissioners, slightly amended by the Board, were adopted in 1909, and the Mission is now being administered under these Rules.2 They provide for the government of the Mission by a Mission Council, consisting of all missionaries in charge of work in the Mission, and by a Ministerium of the ordained missionaries, to which the affairs of the district evangelistic work are referred. 1 At its meeting in 1909 the General Council elected the Revs. M. C. Ranseen, D. D., and S. C. Franzen, the latter in the place of the Rev. C. E. Slaett, resigned; and retired Samuel G. Seiple, M. D., and R. A. Rydberg, Ph. D., who had served faithfully since 1901 and 1903, respectively. Dr. Seiple, however has continued to be the Medical Adviser of the Board.
^ See General' Council Minutes, 1909, pages 137-153.