Lutheran Witness Observes Anniversary

Typed as spelled - Lena Stone Criswell

The Daily Democrat
Thirty-first year - Number 230
Marlin, Texas, Thursday, January 28, 1932

'THE LUTHERAN WITNESS'
OBSERVES ANNIVERSARY

Publication Issued for Fifty Years
Of Interest to Marlin
People.

The 50th anniversary edition of The Lutheran Witness, published at St. Louis, Mo., is of interest to Marlin people in that among those listed as contributors to Vols. I and II of the publication appears the name of Rev. J. P. Beyer of Brooklyn, N. Y., an uncle of Rev. G. J. Beyer, pastor of Grace Lutheran church of Marlin, while its first editor was Rev. C. A. Frank, D.D., an uncle of Mrs. Beyer.

The Lutheran Witness was founded by the Cleveland district conference of the German Ev. Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other states. For the launching of the paper, the conference appropriated the sum of $260.

The first number was published at Zanesville, Ohio, May 21, 1882. The object of this new publication was stated in the headline:

"Devoted to the interests of the joint synod of Missouri and its friends. Edited and published under the auspices of the Cleveland district conference by C. A. Frank."
The first two numbers were sent as samples to solicit subscribers, with the statement:

"If we receive enough names to pay the printer and postage, we shall continue our efforts; if, on the other hand, we must incur indebtedness to maintain the paper, we shall be obligated to discontinue." The response may be concluded from the fact that half a century later it is still being published regularly.

The first editorial stated the doctrinal stand which this new church paper should take. Rev. Frank remained editor until 1891, when he retired from that post.
"the man to whom the readers of the Witness owe the deepest debt of gradtitude is the Rev. C.A. Frank," states F. Kuegele in the 50th anniversary edition in an article dealing with its early history.

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