More About the School Problem

(Yes, I flipped this picture to make her
 left-handed ☺ Woohoo).

Here's an excerpt from a book called "They Chose Minnesota: A Survey of the State's Ethnic Groups".  (I've sent for the book but it hasn't arrived yet--this is an excerpt we found online a year or so ago.  I screen capped it because, ok, it's an obsession of mine ☺). I think it skirts the issue, altho this maybe just describes the run-up to Pierz' problems.  Archbishop John Ireland was influential in Minnesota way before he became Arch, and had to do with some of the German/Irish problems mentioned, because there's almost nothing worse than a righteous ethnic Catholic vs. another righteous ethnic Catholic.

"The sizable numbers of German-speaking persons who wanted sermons and schools conducted in their native tongue led to a nationwide controversy during the last quarter of the 19th century. In 1878, Abbot Alexius Edelbrock of St John's Abbey declared the persons "best acquainted with a foreign tongue
should have the advantage of hearing the gospel read, and sermons preached to them, in their own language". Other leaders, most notably Archbishop Ireland of St Paul wanted to "Americanize" the church and thus defend it from what came to be called "Cahenslyism", a plan proposed to Pope Leo XIII in 1891 by Peter Paul Cahensly, which would have organized foreign-born Catholics in the United States into congregations of like nationality served by priests of the same mother tongue. In his Americanization efforts Ireland initiated a takeover by public school boards of parochial schools in Fairbault and Stillwater, perpetrating a dispute that reached all the way to Rome, and persisted for many years in various forms. The archbishop insisted that, while Germans could be taught in parochial schools, English should be spoken in general so that the faith of the children was not restricted to the non-English tongue of their parents.
The fight was also seen as one between liberals and conservatives. In Minnesota it widened the rift between Irish and German Catholics. In Stearns County the opposition to English in churches and parochial schools was stronger in rural areas than it was in St Cloud. In the church schools children were taught half in
German and half in English, usually by sisters of German birth or descent. The readers used were printed in high German, as were such newspapers as Der Nordstern (The North Star) of St Cloud, and Der Wanderer (The Migrant) of
St Paul, which many parents read. The problem was further complicated by....."

NOT by dialects--it had to do with the state wanting schools one way, and the local Catholics wanting it another way.  It's a chapter of our history that's almost never mentioned, or it's glossed over, like in the excerpt.  Sigh.

(Maybe once the book arrives, I'll change this post, huh?  We can make this controversy drag out for another hundert years, mebee! ☺)

"Our" Churches

This tiny chapel is in Dolni Z'dar, Bohemia...it's probably the exact place where Johann Hesch and Maria Schlinz were married, and where they brought their newborn sons Paul, Mathias, Anton and Bartholomeus to be baptized.

When they arrived in Pierz in about 1885, they found

a church being built on a rise in the middle of town

...which, when finished, looked like it does now:

St. Josephs Catholic Church in Pierz, on the left, and Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Royalton to the right.
These were OUR churches.

Six miles south, in Buckman, 1887 was a good year, too. They built this church on the corner where the school is now.

...but before long, it was inadequate for the parish. The priest decided to build a new larger brick church where the school was.

A postcard of St Michaels in about 1910.

And now, St Michaels has a Community Center with an elevator just off the right side of the picture, above, but the altar hasn't changed at all. It's still a beautiful church, just like our (great) grandparents wanted.

.......

BTW, from Sherri Messerschmidt's online family tree, this:

Anton (Otremba) donated the first church bell to St. Michaels Catholic church at Buckman and it rang it's first death toll for him on February 5, 1883. Catherine (Schalwig) Otremba (his wife) donated the large bell to the church when the new church was being built and it rang it's first death toll for her on January 13, 1902.

These were the parents of Mary Otremba, who married Paul Hesch.