St. Paul's was founded in 1883 by the Reverend F. J. Blitz with the help of Lutherans in the Concordia area who, with him, saw the need for more ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to serve the growing population of the west. The Rev. Andrew Baepler (1850-1927), English missionary for the Lutheran Church (Western District), was called to direct the school, and lessons began in his home on January 3, 1884, with three students. In 1905 the first college year was added, and by the next year St. Paul's was a six-year school, after which graduates entered The Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Courses in teacher training began in 1954, when a class of eleven young women was admitted to the college department, and those graduates continued their education at four-year schools in River Forest, Illinois, or Seward, Nebraska. In the high school department, girls were first admitted in 1968. The founders' aim was to educate ministers to proclaim the Message of Salvation "By Faith Alone, By Grace Alone, By Scripture Alone," but in recent years the curriculum was broadened to include courses in other vocational areas in order to maintain a viable enrollment.