Christmas Greetings from the Family Scrapbooks: The Hendricksons

Pastor and Mrs. Albert Hendrickson

Sharon, David, Rachel, Rosanne
(date unknown)

Albert Hendrickson was a classmate of my dad's at Augustana Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois.  

Here's a snippet from the history of Elim Lutheran Church in Port Orchard, Washington, a community located just south of Bremerton on the west side of Puget Sound.

At the annual meeting in January, 1943 it was decided to call a pastor and furnish $720 per year toward his salary. A senior at Augustana Seminary, Pastor Albert Hendrickson was extended a call and arrived during the summer of this same year to serve the congregation of Elim. During the previous year (1938) property was purchased for the parsonage. With these two events the congregation really began to grow and prosper. 

Pastor Hendrickson was the first resident pastor, coming in August 1943, and during his term here he also conducted services at the Orchard Heights church where there was a Navy installation consisting of housing for 2,900 families of Navy employees and Navy personnel. Pastor Hendrickson's family consisted of his wife, Merle, and children David, Sharon, Rachel, Rosanne, and Peter.

Wow!  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI inflation calculator, $720 in 1943 equals $9,700 today.   (No wonder Rev. Hendrickson served a second congregation.)

Granted, most ministers and their families at that time lived in a church-owned parsonage, a "benefits" package that also included utilities.

Now I see in a different light this [annotated] passage Dad wrote in a letter to his parents on Labor Day 1952.

The people [the members of Messiah Lutheran Church in Auburn, Washington] do not want us to go but they realize that this is an advancement for me.  [A move to First English Lutheran Church in Great Falls, Montana.]  Everyone appreciates advancement.  I must consider this fact that I have been in the ministry for 9 years and my present salary is no more than what seminarians get in their first call [2d sense of noun form].