Exterior view of the Sacred Heart Church and rectory in Freeport with a photographic insert of Reverend Meinrad Seifermann,Order of Saint Benedict (OSB), pastor. The little hut on the right is a Corpus Christi Altar Station.
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). New Munich began with a few small buildings built by two men, Burns and Sutton, in 1855. They also ran a small "wayside" inn for the stagecoach that ran north-south through this part of the county. The town gradually settled around the church built by the German Catholics. In 1879 three sisters came to New Munich to teach in the district school at the request of the pastor. The trustees and the people did not agree with this decision and hired a lay teacher. The pastor then opened a parochial school in the church basement, but attendance was very small and leaders of the antagonism made it almost impossible for the sisters to live there. Despite the set-backs, the sisters won the good will of the people so that the following year the school opened with over 100 children enrolled (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, Olsenius, page 120; Jaakkola and Frericks, page 77).