Early Lutheran Immigration to Wisconsin. 
297 
which there are five in Wisconsin representing differences of creed 
more or less fundamental. In these original communities questions of 
church government and religious belief caused divisions, through which 
the Missouri Synod and others were able to establish separate churches. 
Between 1840 and 1850 the two synods of Buffalo and Missouri were 
formed; the one by Rev. Grabau, the other by ministers from Saxony. 
Soon a controversy arose between them on the question of the calling 
and ordination of the clergy and the relation of the minister to his so¬ 
ciety. Rev. Grabau held that a minister must be called according to the 
old church ordinances, and that the society must obey their minister in 
all things not contrary to the word of God, while the Missouri Synod 
held more Congregational views.* In this controversy Rev. Grabau was 
supported by Rev. Kindermann, Rev. Krause and deputies from Mil¬ 
waukee who signed themselves “The Lutheran Synod of the church 
emigrated from Prussia.” j* 
In Milwaukee, meantime, they were still too poor to hire a pastor and 
Rev. Krause had come from Freistadt every six weeks, but the journey 
was long and expensive, so he called upon the 150 communicants to pay 
each three cents a week for twenty weeks to buy him a horse and wagon, 
but the tax appeared too large to them and they refused his request. The 
demand was doubtless somewhat arbitrarily imposed, Rev. Krause being 
a man of the extreme type of clerical dignity. The society was severely 
rebuked by him, and was finally refused admission to the communion 
until they recognized their sins and made public confession, but the 
difficulty only increased and finally a large part of the society withdrew 
and joined the Missouri Synod, which allowed more self rule. The 
separated society was supplied with a pastor from Missouri and formed 
the nucleus of the later Trinity society, the first of the numerous 
churches in the state belonging to that synod; the remaining element 
formed what is now the St. Paul’s society, in Milwaukee, belonging to 
the Buffalo Synod.J 
In the Lebanon community a controversy arose in 1847 on the subject 
of worldly music which caused one party to form an independent or¬ 
ganization. Later in the same church the use of the private confessional 
was discussed, and again in the Milwaukee church. || The demand for the 
general confessional in its place caused the disuse of the private confes¬ 
sional in nearly all the churches after a few years. 
There questions indicate an activity in the societies, partly the result 
of new conditions and the union of people from different communities 
in Germany, and partly the result of their recent experiences. In the 
* Wolf’s Hist, of the Lutheran Church in America, p. 413. 
+“ Hirtenbrief des Herrn Pastors Grabau zu Buffalo vom Yahre, 1840.” 
tHist. of Milwaukee, by Frank A. Flower, p. 924; 'and Koss, 1 Milwaukee, p. 137 seq. 
|| Bericht des Nordlichen Districkts der deutschen Evangel. Luth. Sy ode. von Mo., 
Ohio, u. a. Staaten 1855 and 18Fg 
