Wellspring Lutheran Services history

On August 12, 1897 Pastor J. Schinnerer installed Adolph Hoffmeyer.

Beginning at the end of 1901 this congregation worked in Cleon Township and there founded the second daughter congregation.

In 1904 the congregation built a new house north of the school for the teacher, and the pastor's house, which had been given by H. Starke, was extensively renovated.

So in 1906 a new 26 ft. x 44 ft. school was built with a small tower and basement, and what had been the old school was used for confirmation classes.

Congregational outreach efforts came together in 1909 in the Missionsbund (Mission Federation), a group dedicated to “inner mission” (social service) work.

The Beginning: It was not the most auspicious start for the new City Missionary to Detroit when the Reverend Martin Luther Frederick arrived in 1919 from his former pastorate in Luckey, Ohio.

By 1920, the population had reached two million due to the auto companies building factories and the growing industrialization of the area.

Schaffnit organized the Toledo Society in 1921.

The 1924 incorporation papers for the Inner Mission League of Detroit make clear that the thrust was to serve Lutherans and promote Lutheranism, but he reached out to everyone.

The number needing help grew greater after the 1929 economic crash.

These were in German — written in a distinctive script hand until 1930 when English was used for the first time with the notation that the board agreed future meetings would be conducted in that language.

Background: Because of the growing needs and the realization that volunteers could not respond to all the requests for help, the Missionsbund became the Lutheran Inner Mission League of Detroit in 1934.

At the annual meeting in 1935 the League became Lutheran Charities, its name for 25 years, a name suggested by the League’s first superintendent, the Rev.

At first classes were taught in German, but beginning around 1936 classes were taught in English.

The church continued to support a parochial school until 1937 when it had to close for lack of funds.

An open house introducing that new center was held on a memorable date — December 7, 1941.

In 1955, the old parsonage was sold to Mrs.

The vote to become a statewide agency occurred May 25, 1959 at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing, Michigan when representatives of seven synods voted overwhelmingly to cooperate in the ministry of Lutheran Social Services of Michigan (LSSM) for the lower-peninsula.

He eventually returned to Detroit, spending his last days here before his death at age 80 in 1973, the same year Carl Thomas became LSSM president.

Schaffnit’s wife, Martha, died in 1988 at the age of 101. “He never planned to retire but health reasons forced him to.” What Rev.

In 2002, Arcadia's Trinity Lutheran Church became a registered Michigan Historic Site.