POPULAR LUTHERAN PASTOR TO GIVE UP HIS CHARGE HERE

Rev. J.F. Marlatte Both Surprises and Pains His Congregation by Tendering Resignation

With much surprise and regret, the congregation of St. Paul's Lutheran church last Sunday heard the pastor, Rev. J.F. Marlatte, announce that he had concluded to have his charge here to become pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, in Minneapolis, Minn.  He expects to close his work in Bellville at the end of the coming April.

Although it has been realized for a long time that Rev. Mr. Marlatte's qualifications well entitled him to enter larger fields of endeavor, it was the hope of his parishioners here that he might be induced to remain in view of the fact that he has witnessed such splendid results from his work, which has been of a decidedly high character and bringing substantial growth to the church membership.

In addition to his charge in Bellville, Rev. Mr. Marlatte also supplies the pulpits at the Salem and Woodbury churches.  He first began to preach in Bellville in November, 1913, assuming full charge as pastor on April 4, 1914.  During his pastorate here there have been 250 accessions to the church, as follows:  By adult baptism, 64;  by confirmation, 48;  by profession, 20;  by letter, 69, and infant baptism, 49.  The annual regular benevolences increased from $240 in 1914 to $765 in 1919.  Special benevolences incident to relief of Lutheran missions in India during the war and for other worthy causes in 1919 amounted to more than the pastor's salary in 1914.  During his pastorate here the Bellville church edifice has undergone extensive improvements which cost many hundreds of dollars.  In 1914 the papering was done and new carpet and other furnishings installed which cost nearly $1000, and in 1919 the Ladies' Aid Society refinished the Sunday School room and fitted up the pastor's room at an expense of $400.

In 1918 the two country churches passed the centennial mark as preaching points.  The Woodbury church fittingly observed the occasion by remodeling its church building and installing full Lutheran appointments at a cost of $400.

Rev. Mr. Marlatte is a graduate of Wittenberg College and of the Hamms Divinity School.  He came to Bellville from the theological seminary and took up his work here with an earnestness and zeal that sugured success from the start.  In addition to the arduous duties of supplying three pulpits, he has the past four years served as secretary of the Mansfield Lutheran Clergymen's association and for three years has been secretary of the Wittenberg Synod, being honored by that body by being chosen delegate to the next World's Christian Citizenship Conference and also one of the delegates to the next meeting of the general synod of the Lutheran churches to be held at Washington, D.C.

The work of Rev. Mr. Marlatte has not escaped the notice of the big men in his church denomination and the enterprising and able pastor has received many flattering offers in the past several months from various cities.  The call to Minneapolis, however, seems to have appealed the most favorably to him, and when Rev. Mr. Marlatte and his excellent wife depart for that city they will leave a great host of admiring friends in Bellville and vicinity, where their labors of the past several years have resulted in inestimable and lasting benefit.

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