Clinton Theological Seminary

In previous postings, I have made reference to the Clinton Theological Seminary in Clinton, Henry County, Missouri. During the early part of the 20th century, the Seventh-day Adventist Church felt it necessary to provide Christian education to those recently immigrated to this county, in their native languages. One of the resulting institutions was a German seminary located in Clinton. It opened in 1910 on the campus of what had been the Baird College and later, Clinton College for Young Ladies . At first, it was named the Clinton German Seminary, but with the outbreak of WWI, the word German was dropped from the name. The seminary in Clinton closed its doors in 1925 and merged with the Swedish seminary at Broadview, Illinois.

Our journey home from our Hughes-Ortner family research trip brought us through the town of Clinton, so we stopped in at the local public library for an hour or so to see what information we could find. We did find some interesting material including a two-volume set of books, Henry County Scrapbook, The Years Between the Wars. These volumes were newspaper clippings of the people and events of the early days of Henry County, Missouri. There I found a few items regarding the Clinton Seminary.

The reference librarian shared with me that he had just discovered the University of Missouri had digitized the Sanborn Maps (early fire insurance maps) of Missouri and they were online at: http://digital.library.umystem.edu/. We were able to find the maps of Clinton and the location of the Clinton Seminary (early maps showed Baird College).

Why is this seminary important to this family research? Because there were several of the Ortner family who attended school here or were on staff. While I have not been able to verify the information as yet, it is believed that Emma Ortner Hughes, one of the main subjects of this blog attended CTS. I do know that her sister, Ellen Ortner Curran, attended this school.

I am on a search for old school records, though they are most likely in German and therefore would be unreadable to me, but I am searching anyway. The buildings are no longer standing, though I was told the old laundry has been converted to some apartments.

The seminary is an important part of the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Hughes-Ortner family.

Russia To Kansas To Oklahoma

One last stop on our Hughes-Ortner family research vacation. Because of the direction of our trip, we have taken the Ortner family in reverse. Our last stop, Marion County, Kansas, was George Ortner's first stop. George, Maria and baby Jacob came from Russia in 1879 with Christian and Katharina and more of George's siblings arriving in 1881. Property deeds show the Ortners eventually owned land a few miles southwest of Hillsboro, Kansas after having lived with other families they had known in Russia.

George and Maria were the first to arrive in Kansas and the last to leave for Christian and Christian C. (one of George's brothers) were a part of the land run across the Cimmaron River into newly opened land in Oklahoma Territory on April 19, 1892. George and Maria came a year later.

Notice the date on the deed of property from Christian and Katharina to George - just one month before the land run.

In order to homestead on federal land, one of the qualifications was that the individual either had to be a citizen of the US or have filed the first papers, the Declaration of Intention. In March of 1892, Christian had received his Certificate of Citizenship. During this time period, Katharina automatically became a citizen when her husband became a citizen.

There is so much more to tell about the Hughes and Ortner families, and as time allows, more will be posted. So, drop back by periodically and learn more about these wonderful folks.