Origins of St. Benedict's Monastery (convent), St. Joseph, Minnesota. From its beginnings in the eleventh century, St. Walburg Convent in
Eichstätt, Bavaria, survived many trials of fire, war, famine, and secularization. "Fortunately for America, when the call came to plant a branch house in the new soil of the New World, the religious spirit of St. Walburg Convent was at its height." (McDonald, page 7). In 1851 St. Walburg Convent, EichstÃtt, Bavaria, was challenged by an invitation from Boniface Wimmer, OSB, (a missionary monk from Bavaria in America as early as 1846) to go to America to teach the children of the German immigrants. On June 18, 1852, Sister Benedicta Riepp with Sisters Walburga Dietrich and Maura Flieger blazed the trail for the Eichstätt sisters to the New World by way of the steamer, "Washington." They reached New York amid the confusion of fire crackers and shooting cannons for the July 4th celebrations. Undaunted, they traveled on to settle in St. Marys, PA. New members soon joined them. With the second group (3 nuns and one candidate) from Eichstätt, they were ready to establish other convents in frontier settlements, among them the Northwest Territory in the area which later became the state of Minnesota. In summary, the origin of St. Benedict's Convent, St. Joseph, MN, can be traced as follows: in 1852, the Bavarian branch of Benedictine Sisters who came to America first settled in St. Joseph's Convent, St. Marys, PA.; in 1857, a small group of sisters from St. Joseph's Convent (PA) ventured to the western frontier -- to St. Mary's Parish, St. Cloud, MN; in 1863, the St. Cloud group of sisters moved to St. Joseph, MN. In St. Joseph, they established St. Benedict's Monastery which became the largest Benedictine monastery in the world. (Early records refer to St. Benedict's Monastery as St. Benedict's Convent.) [St. Benedict's Monastery Archives (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; Sister Grace McDonald, OSB, With Lamps Burning, pages 7-10).
Early years in St. Cloud (1857-1863). Mother Willibalda Scherbauer and her companions traveled from St. Marys, Pennsylvania by rail and wagon to Pittsburgh; by river boats on the Ohio River to St. Louis and on the Mississippi River with a stop-over in St. Paul; finally reaching St. Cloud. However, the riverboat, "North Star" was stranded on a sand bar two miles from St. Cloud. After two days, on July 4, 1857, the sisters were taken ashore in small boats. They stopped at the Benedictine monks' college in St. Cloud to enjoy their first meal after three days on the boat without food as they could not afford the price of a meal (50 cents). Then the monks took the sisters to their destination, St. Mary's Parish in the German settlement of Middle St. Cloud. The whole area was desolate having been ravaged by a grasshopper plague. The resulting food shortage and the extreme cold tested the endurance of the sisters during their first years in St. Cloud (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 20-27).
View of the First Episopal Church under construction in the summer of 1862. This first church was known as St. John Evangelist, but was never completed. It was destroyed on August 18, 1862 during the Dakota Conflict of 1862. The church is now known as St. Cornelia's Church at Lower Sioux Agency.
This is a photograph of Rev. Aaron H. Kerr, a Presbyterian minister in St. Peter, who became the chaplain of Minnesota's Ninth Regiment of Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.
This photograph provides a front view of Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The church's first building, dedicated in December 1858, stood at Fourth Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. No photographs remain. In June 1860, Plymouth�s second minister, Henry Martyn Nichols, preached a fiery temperance sermon that inspired women to launch an effort to close the saloons. Within days of the sermon, a fire destroyed the building. People widely believed the fire was the work of arsonists representing the saloon interests. The Congregation�s second church, built on the same spot, was dedicated in September 1863. Its interior had circular seating for 350 people and a raised pulpit. The congregation worshipped in this church until 1875 when growth in membership required a larger building.
Schools in St. Cloud (1869-1909). By 1860, St. Cloud had expanded from its four homes in 1854 to 1,651 citizens. The 1856 church/school/convent was no longer adequate. In 1864, St. Mary's parishioners built a new church on the shores of Lake George. The large Gothic-style church served the parish for almost 60 years . When it was destroyed by fire, another church, the present St. Mary's Cathedral, was built. St. Mary's Parish eventually solved the school controversy by building its own parochial school. The first one in 1887 was a one-story frame building to accommodate 180 pupils. In 1896, a large parochial school, still in use today, was built next to St. Mary's Church (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives ; Witte, pages 10-11, 17; Dominik, John, J. pages 12-14, 20).
Professional portrait of "The Church and Settled Pastors of Pontoppidan Lutheran Congregation from 1868 to 1918". Includes photos of P.J. Ostergaard, 1884-1886, Nils Olson 1868-1880, N.S. Heggerness 1880-1882, R. Anderson 1887-1890, H.S. Quanbeck 1893-1896, E.O. Larson 1898-1905, H.C. Caspersen 1905-1912, Johan Mattson 1913
Eight Benedictine Sisters in rounded habits stand in front of a Queen Anne-style convent. They are all facing the same direction, but their gaze is cast slightly downwards. They are all holding their rosaries. The house has 10 steps leading from street level to porch. There are lace curtains in the window. A tall industrial building looms in the background. They were once presumed to be sisters of Notre Dame.
View of the Sunday School Bible Wagon with the Reverend Devoe seated in the wagon. Reverend Devoe was the first pastor of the Lanesboro Methodist Episcopal Church.
Interior view of the First Lutheran Church in St. Peter that was located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Fourth and Elm streets, facing Fourth street.
This is a photograph of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in St. Peter, also called the German Lutheran Church. This church was dedicated in 1870, and was located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Fifth and Mulberry streets, facing Mulberry. A new church on the same site was dedicated in 1923.
Exterior view of the Methodist Church in Beaver Falls, which was organized in 1869. No date on the building but it was before 1880. The church lasted until 1890 at which time a chrurch was built in Morton, Minnesota.
Exterior view of the East Sveadahl Lutheran Church in the winter of about 1872. This church building blew down in a wind storm before the summer of 1879.
Schools in north-central Minnesota (1871-1909). Father Francis Pierz invited the Benedictine sisters from St. Joseph to teach in Pierz where he and his parishioners had begun building a school in 1869. The school had not been completed by the time the sisters came in 1871, so they lived with some of the parishioners until the upstairs of the log school house was completed as the sisters' convent. The school on the first floor accommodated 100 pupils. For the sisters, this was a first experience of staffing a rural school and living at such a distance from the motherhouse. However, rural schools mushroomed quickly throughout the Northwest Territory. By 1910, the sisters staffed over 40 such schools outside St. Cloud and the Twin Cities area. Needless to say, the teachers endured many hardships in these rural areas. If they were lucky, equipment consisted of desks and a piece of blackboard. Attendance was variable and classrooms were overcrowded (sometimes 80 in one small room). At times there were no classrooms other than the church, the church basement or sacristy. Cold and hunger prevailed and the ever-present hostile controversy of public versus parochial schools affected school discipline. Salaries were sparse or even non-existent (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives ; McDonald, pages 68-69).