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Founding principles: Luther and education, 1910
In the beginning, 1913
Female students and faculty
Athletics at Luther College
Excerpt from Ken Mitchell's Luther: The History of a College (1981)

Founding principles: Luther and education, 1910

As a university professor, Martin Luther valued education. While the Lutheran church always insisted on the education of its clergy, Luther felt that education was important for all people. It was his hope that through education, each person would be able to serve God more fully in all aspects of life. Lutheran settlers around Melville, Saskatchewan were inspired by Luther's principles for education. Existing schools in Saskatchewan were few and far between and did not adequately prepare students for university. The Lutheran Church also needed educated ministers and teachers in Western Canada. These needs motivated the settlers to set up a Christian school. Luther Academy was established to provide high-quality education in a Christian context.

In the beginning, 1913

In 1910, a board was formed to evaluate the possibility of a Lutheran school. Between May and November of 1913, a three-story brick school was constructed on the outskirts of Melville. Funded entirely by donations, the school cost $22 000. It consisted of dorms for 32 male students, three classrooms, a library, and a kitchen and dining area. The impressive building provided a home for the strong faculty and academic program. Melville was also the beginning of a commitment to athletic and music programs, and of a community of students and teachers living, learning, and worshipping together. Under the direction of principal Henry Schmidt, Luther Academy opened on 5 January 1914, with 32 male students registered for classes.

Female students and faculty

When Luther Academy opened in 1913, 32 male students enrolled for classes. Female students were first accepted seven years later, in the fall of 1920. Though male students stayed on campus, there were no facilities for female students. Young women were assigned alternative housing arrangements, usually with the faculty and staff members who had built homes near or adjacent to the Academy. When the Melville school closed, six girls were taking classes.  In the fall of 1926, with the opening of Luther College in Regina, several more young women enrolled. The new college included dormitories for both men and women. The first female faculty also joined Luther College in 1926. Miss Elsa Mees became the professor of mathematics and Miss Agnes Scheffler was the first dean of women.  More recently, female alumni remember the fall of 1971—the first year that women were permitted to wear "pantsuits" to school!

Athletics at Luther College

From the beginning of Luther's history, athletics have been an important part of the experience of the College. Though Luther College did not have a gym until 1951, early students used the athletic facilities of other schools and the YMCA for classes and exercise. By the late 1920s, Luther College was competitive in boys baseball, hockey, and track. There was also a girls softball team. Since the ‘20s, Luther's athletic program has grown to include basketball, cheerleading, curling, football, soccer, tennis, and volleyball, among others. Many Luther athletes have gone on to compete at the post-secondary and professional levels. Athletics are also seen as a key opportunity at Luther to develop character in young people. Over the years, in addition to a reputation for high quality athletes, Luther College players and coaches have become known for their commitment to sportsmanship.

Excerpted from Luther: The History of a College by Ken Mitchell (1981)

The story of Luther College, Regina, is not a highly dramatic story. In its more than 50 years of existence, there have been no fires, no assassinations, no student rebellions. None has yet gone on to become the Prime Minister of Canada.

But there is something in the steady, quiet growth of Luther which evokes admiration. I believe it is the way the college has survived despite adversity, and has maintained its fine academic standards without smugness or self-promotion. Quiet confidence is a quality too rarely prized in today's energetic world, but without it we see no real progress at all.

Two of my sons have attended Luther College, so if called upon, I can testify to the social and educational environment which Luther has created. Anyone who knows the history and integrity of this institution can have no doubt it will continue its progress as Saskatchewan's blue ribbon showcase for excellence in secondary education.

I am pleased to be able to contribute in a small way, through the preparation of this material. I wish to acknowledge the assistance of the Luther College staff, and the numbers of Luther Alumni and former teachers who gave their time for interviews so generously.

It was impossible, in a book this length, to mention the name of every teacher or outstanding student; I hope those I have left unidentified will not feel overlooked. Everyone was part of this story.

The history of the Lutheran Church in western Canada goes back well over a hundred years. There were isolated congregations by 1879, when the Missouri Synod first organized districts in what later became the Prairie provinces. By 1908, the United Lutheran church and the Ohio Synod had established congregations.

The rapid settlement of the Canadian West was a challenge to all who came, and certainly no less to the German settlers who wanted to see their religion established and allowed to develop on the fertile plains. The Lutheran Church had always placed a high value on education, and by 1910, Lutherans who had settled in eastern Saskatchewan began talking about establishing a church school in the town of Melville.

Melville was only one of hundreds of boom-towns in the west, but it was a railway centre. Perhaps more important, it was also a centre of settlement for the mostly-German immigrants who had carried the Lutheran faith to Canada. Education in Saskatchewan at the time was still in a very primitive state. The university had not been established yet, and it was a very privileged young person who was allowed the rare opportunity of receiving twelve full years of education. Today, we take this standard for granted, but in 1910, most farm families did not have enough money to send their children to high school, let alone university. In an era of very hard work, it was also deemed wiser to keep healthy young men and women on the farm, rather than send them to school. The "urban middle class" was barely in existence. Teachers were generally poorly trained, and the one-room schools which dotted the rural plains-while fondly remembered-did not exist to prepare young people for higher education. They were to provide basic rudiments in the "3 Rs".

It was clear to the early Lutheran leaders that a more substantial schooling was needed if their bright young people were to advance with the times. There developed at this time a critical need also for Lutheran Ministers; the West was rapidly being settled, and without spiritual instructions, the new settlers would soon fall away from the established patterns of their lives.

So the Lutherans in that area, with the approval of the General Synod of the church, elected a board for an educational academy which was still only an idea. The board first met on Sept. 20, 1910, under the chairmanship of Rev. Henry Schmidt of Neudorf. The first task was to determine the location of the new school, and after some fierce competition between Regina and Melville, the smaller community became the unanimous choice.

Early members of the board included Rev. George Gehrke, Rev. L.F. Tank, John Miller and John Brodt. They were joined by Rev. Carl Pohlman and Rev. John Fritz in subsequent years. With much planning and discussion, a campaign for funds went on in both the community and the synod. Assistance was secured from the town of Melville, and the first sod was turned on May 30, 1913. The Melville Academy was completed and dedicated in November of that year.

Located a mile from the centre of Melville, the three-floor brick structure immediately became one of the grandest buildings in the district. Built at the now-un heard-of cost of $22,000, it was financed entirely through donations. To replace it today would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The school consisted of three classrooms, a library, and an office on the main floor. The upper floors provided space for study rooms and dormitories for 32 male students. The dining room and kitchen were in the basement. However, there was scant educational equipment-and no plumbing. Water was hauled from town at a cost to each student of 10¢ a month! On weekends, hot water was available in the kitchen at no charge for anyone who had to shave.                                                                                                     

Students were provided with beds and tables, but were expected to provide their own chairs, athletic gear, and bed clothes.

Luther Academy was officially opened on January 5, 1914, under the direction of Principal Henry Schmidt. Professor Schmidt retained his association with Luther for many years, until his death in 1948. He was a forceful and dedicated scholar, who saw the college through many early difficulties.

The Melville school was exclusively male in its early years, but by 1920 girls were admitted if they could find lodging in the area. There was no provision for "co-educational" dormitories in those years-and all boys were required to live in. By 1925, there were six girls registered.

The schedule of 1914 seems demanding by today's standards.Classes began at 7:30 every morning with chapel-which, like all classes, was compulsory. Academic work took up the rest of the day until 4:30 p.m., over a wide range of subjects designed to produce well-rounded graduates. Besides the usual English and mathematics classes, there was Religion, Greek, philosophy, penmanship, agriculture, civics, drawing, singing and music. There was also a commercial course offered “if six or more students applied for it." 

Work did not end with the evening meal, of course. Following evening chapel at 7:15, everyone studied until 10 p.m., and the lights went out at 10:30.

If a student's final mark dropped below 60 percent, he failed although anyone with an average over 85 per cent was not required to write final examinations at all.

From a modern viewpoint, life at Luther Academy looks very challenging indeed. Yet those who were there remember their days at Melville with nostalgia and fondness.

Matilda Hauk (nee Gross) was one of the six girls in the final year at Melville, living with three others in two rooms above a teacher's residence.

"It was like living together in a family, in Melville. Mr. and Mrs. Boehme (caretaker and cook) were like a mother and father to us – the most understanding people I've ever met in education. They were ideal Christians," she recalls. The Boehmes went on to Luther College, and served the school with distinction and good humour for many years.

"I went there as a green kid," Henry Hauk adds. "I'd been working out on the farm for years before I had the chance. It was there that I learned the value of education." 

"It was like living together in a family, in Melville. Mr. and Mrs. Boehme (caretaker and cook) were like a mother and father to us – the most understanding people I've ever met in education. They were ideal Christians," she recalls. The Boehmes went on to Luther College, and served the school with distinction and good humour for many years.

"I went there as a green kid," Henry Hauk adds. "I'd been working out on the farm for years before I had the chance. It was there that I learned the value of education."

In 1917, a young professor by the name of Carl Behrens replaced Paul Allwardt, one of the original teachers. He was joined the following year by professor Luther Pflueger, who was also to contribute many years of service to Luther College. By 1925, the staff had grown to include Carl Daechsel, who later was ordained as a minister, and Alfred Kraus.

During the 1920s, the Lutheran community in Western Canada recognized that the Melville Academy was too small to supply the growing demand for a good education. Enrolment (which had dipped during the 1914-18 war years) had risen to 56 in 1925. Either the school had to be expanded, or a new school built. A committee, working under the direction of Pastor John Fritz of Regina, was appointed to determine future needs. After much debate, it was decided that a new school would be built in Regina, and the old academy converted to a home for senior citizens.

Luther College, Regina

Luther College, as the school was to be known, was an institution larger and more ambitious than early Lutherans had ever thought possible. The cost-over $130,000 for building and equipment-was staggering to contemplate, but Rev. Fritz's committee was determined it could be done. With the help of building funds from the Ohio Synod, the project began to take shape.

Regina was not only the capital of Saskatchewan, but the geographical centre of population on the northern plains. From an unpromising beginning in 1882 as a squalid collection of tents and shacks, the "Queen City" had become by 1925 like an oasis-a garden city to the surrounding agricultural community.

In its early days, the village had been known as "Pile-of-Bones", named after the mounds of bleached buffalo bones which lay along the banks of Wascana Creek. In 1882 the site was named as the headquarters for the North West Mounted Police and shortly after, the capital of the North West Territories. Twenty-two years later, the province of Saskatchewan was born, and Regina became its capital. It had already earned its place in history, as the site of the trial and execution of Louis Riel in 1885. (Both events took place within walking distance of the future Luther College.) Over the years, cathedrals and government buildings had risen. Trees carefully tended for years had grown up to provide relief from the summer sun and the harsh winter winds.

The building committee secured some eighteen acres of choice government land on the western edge of the city, immediately adjacent to Saskatchewan House, the lieutenant governor's mansion in early days. On the other side lay a park which included Wascana Creek, meandering peacefully past. Just beyond was the RCMP training headquarters.

From a memoir by Dr. Rex Schneider, first principal of Luther, comes the following story of Luther's place in this historic setting. "I believe it was back in 1940 when Peter MeAra, former mayor of Regina, came to the college to speak to the students. He knew a great deal about the early history of Saskatchewan. Following his speech, he asked me to take him to the west side of the building.

When we got there he asked me, 'Was there an excavation when we came here to build this new building?"

I told him that I remembered a large excavation and we had put all the rubbish and odds and ends ... in that excavation and covered it with soil. He told me that that was the location of the first Government House in Saskatchewan. Mr. Dewdney was governor at the time. And the street we now know as Dewdney Avenue was part of the Indian Trail, and used by Indians when they came from the west to the Government house for their treaty money. I think it would be a good plan to put a marker or a little bronze plaque on the gymnasium wall in the area of the boys' locker room. That was about the place where the excavation was, and it would mark the first Government House in Saskatchewan.

At any rate, here in the fall of 1926, Luther College finally stood ready to accept its first students. The building towered above the surrounding prairie like a monument to education-three and a half stories high. Construction was still proceeding in August of that year when the building was formally dedicated by Rev. Martin Doermann of the American Lutheran Church. He thanked Almighty God that "He, in His Providence, has allowed us to erect this school building for the education of our young men and women to serve our church and state."

The board had been highly fortunate in recruiting as its first principal a man who became a legend in Western education-Dr. Rex Schneider. Born in Wisconsin, Dr.Schneider was educated at Capital and Columbia Universities and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Columbus, Ohio. He was a school principal in Sandusky, Ohio, when the call came to accept the leadership position at Luther College.

It could not have been an easy decision for the young educator to make. Canada was an unknown quantity to him, and taking on a residential college would be an onerous responsibility. First and foremost in his mind was to establish and maintain high academic standards. When the board guaranteed that he would be responsible for academic policy, Rex Schneider accepted the challenge. He arrived in time for the September opening in 1926.

"Regina at that time had a population of slightly over 30,000. It was a chilly day and wet snow covered the ground. There were no sidewalks; gumbo stuck to our shoes and was carried into the new building. But it was a happy occasion. There were more students than we had expected and the young faculty believed in it. Some teachers, particularly the new and younger imports from the U.S., were mistaken for students," Dr. Schneider said later.

Henry Ast was one of the 108 students who flocked to enter Luther that fall. Some time later, in 1936, he rejoined the college as a teacher, but in 1926 he was one of eight young men who had enrolled in first-year university classes. Upon his retirement, he recalled his experiences:

"It was a muddy day and we had to use all kinds of makeshift ways to get into the school over boards, etc., from Royal Street to the front door. Here in the hall I was greeted by Dr. Rex Schneider, the new principal, who made it a practice to welcome everybody at the door."

Welcoming students at the front door was Principal Schneider's style. He established an atmosphere which made Luther College unique. From the beginning, the warm relationship between students and staff was a part of the spirit of the school. If anything, it was this sense of human community, combined with academic integrity, which gave Luther College its identity, and served to keep it strong in times of adversity.

Certainly, the excitement of pioneering was part of the enthusiasm of 1926. Right at the beginning, Rex Schneider articulated the spiritual tradition, which was to remain a hallmark of the school.