Lutheran Missionary, Rev. Morris Officer, was born July 21, 1823 near Benton, Ohio and died November 1, 1874 at Topeka, Kansas. In 1846, he attended the newly founded Lutheran College of Wittenberg in Springfield, Ohio. While in attendance, he was asked to be superintendent of the erection of the main part and west wing of the unfinished college requiring fund raising and oversight of the construction. He was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1851 and afterwards, petitioned the American Missionary Society in New York to establish a mission on the west coast of Africa. Under the Society's auspices, he was sent to Africa in 1852 where he founded a mission called "Good Hope". Upon his return, he began an appeal to the General Synod to establish a mission in Africa. After fundraising across country for four years, he went back to Africa in 1860 as a Lutheran missionary to establish Muhlenberg station on St. Paul River in Monrovia, Liberia. Mission work began with a boy's school which was established after taking in children from two captured slave ships full of Congo captives. He returned in 1861 and was later appointed as Superintendent of Home Missions from 1864 to 1871. He helped in the establishment of the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions in the Lutheran Church of General Synod. He is the author of "A Plea for a Lutheran Mission in Africa", "Western Africa a Mission Field" and "African Bible Pictures, or Scripture Scenes and Customs in Africa"
Lutheran Missionary, Rev. Morris Officer, was born July 21, 1823 near Benton, Ohio and died November 1, 1874 at Topeka, Kansas. In 1846, he attended the newly founded Lutheran College of Wittenberg in Springfield, Ohio. While in attendance, he was asked to be superintendent of the erection of the main part and west wing of the unfinished college requiring fund raising and oversight of the construction. He was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1851 and afterwards, petitioned the American Missionary Society in New York to establish a mission on the west coast of Africa. Under the Society's auspices, he was sent to Africa in 1852 where he founded a mission called "Good Hope". Upon his return, he began an appeal to the General Synod to establish a mission in Africa. After fundraising across country for four years, he went back to Africa in 1860 as a Lutheran missionary to establish Muhlenberg station on St. Paul River in Monrovia, Liberia. Mission work began with a boy's school which was established after taking in children from two captured slave ships full of Congo captives. He returned in 1861 and was later appointed as Superintendent of Home Missions from 1864 to 1871. He helped in the establishment of the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions in the Lutheran Church of General Synod. He is the author of "A Plea for a Lutheran Mission in Africa", "Western Africa a Mission Field" and "African Bible Pictures, or Scripture Scenes and Customs in Africa"
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