On this day, (August 13) in 1839 the following advertisement appeared in a St. Louis German newspaper called the Anzeiger des Westens.

  This is the English translation of that advertisement.

We, the undersigned, intend to establish an instruction and training institution which differs from the common elementary schools principally in that it will embrace, outside of (in addition to) the general elementary curriculum (or branches), all branches of the (classical) high school, which are necessary for a true Christian and scientific education, such as: Religion, the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, German, French, and English Language; History, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Natural History, Introduction to Philosophy, Music, and Drawing.

In said branches the pupils of our institution shall be sufficiently advanced to enable them, after finishing the entire course, to take up studies at the university.

The esteemed parents who desire to entrust their children to our institution are advised to obtain information regarding the plan and arrangement of the same from Pastor O. H. Walther, No. 14 Poplar St., between First and Second, St. Louis.—God willing, the instruction is to begin on the 1st of October, this year.

At the German Lutheran place of settlement in Perry County, Mo., near the Obrazo, August 13, 1839.

C. Ferd. W. Walther, Th. Jul. Brohm,
Ottomar Fuerbringer, Joh. Fr. Buenger.

If you judge this advertisement by how many students enrolled in this new school as a result of this ad, then you would have to declare it an utter failure.  No new students were enrolled.  All of the students in the first class of this school came from East Perry County, Missouri.  However, if you look at what became of this new school in the long run, you would have to declare it an amazing success due the blessing of an Almighty God.  This new educational institution would eventually transition to become a seminary.  Thus, this advertisement indicates the upcoming start of what would become Concordia Seminary.  The last statistic that I have heard is that Concordia Seminary which is now in St. Louis has now graduated over 13,000 young men who have become pastors in our churches.

Who would have thought that such huge results would come from the humble beginnings of a small one-room log cabin built in a remote field in East Perry County?

The school did not start on time.  It was December 9th of 1839 before this school opened its doors for the first time as a school.  The Log Cabin College was moved to a location in the town of Altenburg around 1842.  Then later it was moved to its present location across the road from Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg where it is preserved as a historic building.  There is still a monument located where the Log Cabin College was first built in what was called Dresden at the time.