Philip Berghalter
The Lutheran Witness published a biography of Dr. C.A. Frank in the January 5, 1932, issue. A relatively unknown story, but one of interest to our congregation, was told about Philip Berghalter and his help in mailing the early issues of the Witness.
According to the article:
One account states that Mr. Beghalter, a Lutheran of the Negro race, was a servant of the Odendahl family in New Orleans. Pastor Frank learned to know him during his New Orleans ministry. Mr. Odendahl liberally supported the Negro Mission Society in that city. When Frank was pastor in Zanesville, Mr. Odendahl requested him to instruct Philip for Negro Mission work. Frank seized upon the opportunity and privately prepared him for the ministry. When the course in preparation for the holy ministry was completed to Frank's satisfaction, Philip submitted to an examination before the Springfield Seminary faculty and then became an ordained minister. "He preached his first sermon in the Zanesville church and had a full house," Mrs. Frank stated. Unfortunately other records extinct today are completely silent on the matter.
We donated our church benches to a Negro Mission of Synod, twenty-some years later.
