.

The inability of the Lutheran Church to supply an adequate ministry for
this vast immigrant population left the way open also for other
Protestant churches to do mission work among the lapsed members of our
communion.

A number of churches were established where services in the beginning
were held in the German or Scandinavian languages. Through Sunday
Schools and other agencies many Lutheran children were gathered into
their congregations where they and their children are now useful and
honored members of the church. A goodly number of eminent ministers in
various non-Lutheran Protestant churches of this city are the children
or grandchildren of Lutheran parents.

[illustration: "Carl F. E. Stohlmann, D.D."]

With this general outlook over the period, let us take up the thread of
our story.

On the death of the elder Geissenhainer in 1838, Karl Stohlmann, a
native of Schaumburg Lippe, was called from Erie, Pennsylvania, to be
his successor. For thirty years the pastor of the Walker Street Church
was an important figure among the Lutherans of this city. The scope of
this book will not permit an adequate account of his labors. He died on
Sunday morning, May 3d, 1868, just as his congregation was entering a
larger house of worship at the corner of Broome and Elizabeth Streets.

Dr. Geissenhainer, Jr., retired from the English work of St. Matthew's
Church in 1840 and organized a German congregation, St. Paul's, on the
west side, which he served as pastor until his death in 1879 in the 82d
year of his age.

On the East Side, Trinity was organized in 1843, St. Mark's in 1847, St.
Peter's in 1862, Immanuel, in Yorkville, in 1863, and St. John's in
Harlem in 1864. On the West Side St. Luke's was established in 1850, St.
John's in 1855 and St. Paul's in Harlem in 1864. The first Swedish
congregation, Gustavus Adolphus, was organized in 1865.

Within the present limits of Brooklyn six German and one English
churches were established during this period. On the territory of each
of the other boroughs, Bronx, Queens and Richmond, two German churches
came into being.

After the Revolution of 1848 in Germany, immigration to America
increased by leaps and bounds, and within the time under review New York
was referred to as the fourth German city in the world. But the Germans,
as we have seen, did not all go to church. The existing churches, it is
true, were well filled, but a large proportion of the population, torn
fro