The nucleus of the work was 40 boys and girls taken from a captive slave ship, formed into a school.

Banana and coffee trees were planted, the latter becoming the great industry of the mission, and a source of revenue for its sustenance.

[3] The Muhlenberg Mission was situated on a hill, up the Saint Paul River, 30 miles (48 km) from Monrovia, the capital.

The mission station turned it into a farm, with 100 acres (40 ha) of trees, which furnished the Lutheran Board in America from 16,000–25,000 pounds (7,300–11,300 kg) of coffee each year.

Morris Officer, who visited individuals, congregations and synods, in behalf of what he believed to be his God-given work in Africa.

Officer set himself to the task of securing a tract of land and erecting a log house, opening a school for Liberian children.

[5] Clement Irons, a slave in Charleston, S.C., was a good mechanic; his master hired him out for that kind of labor.

After the war some of his liberated brethren, aided by benevolent white men, bought US$25,000 worth of tools, machinery, and so forth, and took them to Liberia, to be set up there, with Irons as the foreman of the enterprise.

This position he occupied for many years, teaching the young men blacksmithing, carpentry, and machine work.

He accumulated some property, and lived in retirement in a comfortable home of his own, and younger men whom he trained in the mission took his place.

In one of Dr. Day's reports, it was stated that he could baptize half the population of the whole region, if he were so minded, but the great work was to educate and develop the converts in the new life.

This cannot be fully appreciated unless bearing in mind that of the 30 laborers sent from the U.S. to Muhlenberg, Dr. and Mrs. Day remained 23 and 21 years respectively, while the others failed in health and returned.

Day recorded that the mission sent to Monrovia 9,000 pounds (4,100 kg) of coffee for shipment by the first steamer.

[4] Dr. Day's superintendence, was, in 1895, in buildings, chapel, and workshops, US$7,600; in machinery, tools, oxen, and carts, US$1,915; in mission farm and improvements, US$1,000; in 50,000 coffee trees at US$1.25 a piece, US$62,500; making a grand total of US$73,045, a large proportion of which was credited to the profits which accrued from the industry of the mission.

The society was the means of making the young people of the mission more loyal to the Lutheran Church, more liberal in their gifts, and also of deepening their spiritual life.

The reasons assigned were the much greater outlay required than had been anticipated, the unfitness of some missionaries and the discouragement of the indigenous population.

With the exception of Dr. Day's service of a quarter of a century, the 32 missionaries served for short periods only, and of these Revs.