Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (LTSS), located in Columbia, South Carolina is a theological seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America offering first and second professional theological degrees. LTSS was founded in 1830 to help serve the needs of educating pastors for Lutheran Churches in the South. Rev. John Bachman was the first to call for the formation of a seminary, and LTSS owes much of its existence to his impassioned call for a place to educate future pastors. Originally, the campus was located in Pomaria, South Carolina. The first class graduated in 1834 and consisted of one person, Fredrick F. Harris. Harris was not awarded a degree, but was later ordained and thus is considered to be the first “graduate” of the seminary. The first persons on whom a degree was conferred were William Berly, Elijah Hawkins, and P.A. Strobel, all of whom graduated in 1836. In 1834, the school was relocated to Lexington, South Carolina where it remained from 1834-1856. The seminary maintained continuous enrollment until the time of the Civil War, when the entire student body, at this time consisting of exactly three students, left the school to join the Confederate Army.