Our History

History of the Province

The Early Years - In the Far West

(6) In the Far West

As early as 1877 the late Bishop Fink, O.S.B., of Leavenworth, Kansas, had expressed a wish that the Capuchin Fathers of Pennsylvania take over the pastoral charge of the German-Russian immigrants who had recently come into his diocese in large numbers. Being few in number the Fathers at first politely refused the honorable call, but when Bishop Fink urgently renewed his invitation in the following year and suggested that Father Hyacinth take a trip to Kansas and at least look over the proffered field, they decided to act upon his suggestion. Accordingly, the Rev. Commissary went to Leavenworth, whence the Bishop himself accompanied him to Ellis County, a distance of about 300 miles from the episcopal city. January 31st they arrived at Herzog, or Victoria, the largest of the Russian settlements. They found the Kansas prairies in much the same condition in which the Indians must have left them. But the entreaties of the settlers, the renewed appeals of the Bishop, and the just expectation that Ellis County would in the course of time prove a grateful field of labor despite its present primitive conditions, induced Father Hyacinth to accept the mission, and he agreed to send two Friars by the following May. The chief objection to taking over the Ellis County missions had been their great distance from Pittsburg (1,200 miles), but the spiritual plight of these poor people, who had hitherto been served occasionally by a priest from Salina, 80 miles away, finally overruled all objections.

It may be of interest to our readers to learn who these German-Russians were and how they happened to settle in the Kansas prairies. Their history begins with the year 1762, or rather 1764, the time when the highly-gifted and strenuous Catherine II ruled over the Russian Empire. In those years the Empress had issued a manifesto inviting German artisans, tradesmen, and especially farmers, to settle in her vast empire. In her journeyings through the German states she had seen and admired the well-cultivated and densely populated agricultural districts, the beautiful towns and villages, and the everywhere flourishing industries of the fatherland, and compared them with the sad conditions prevailing in her own country. The immense Russian empire at that time had a population of less than 28 millions, vast regions were altogether or almost uninhabited, endless fertile stretches of land remained uncultivated, and Russia's commerce and trade stood no comparison with that of the German kingdoms. The shrewd czarina was not slow to realize what great changes German thrift would work in her own fertile land. Hence she issued the manifesto mentioned, in order to induce as many German subjects as possible to leave the fatherland, and people and cultivate the barren stretches along the Volga in the provinces of Saratov and Samara. The prospective settlers were promised pecuniary assistance, the use and usufruct of the land was to be free, the traveling expenses of the immigrants were to be paid by the Russian government, and they were guaranteed exemption from taxes, and the free exercise of their religion.

Thousands took advantage of this splendid offer. One village and town after an. other rose along the banks of the mighty Volga, and the colonies increased so rapidly that in a comparatively short time the German-Russians were numbered by the hundred thousands. The religion of the Catholic settlers was well taken care of by the Jesuit Fathers, who, as is well-known, received a hearty welcome in Russia, when the intrigues of other European courts bad brought about the suppression of their society.

The colonies were prosperous and fulfilled every hope that Catherine II bad cherished in their regard. Their privileges were scrupulously safeguarded, and living more or less apart from the native Russian population the immigrants and their offspring easily preserved their German mother tongue and German habits and traditions while, as said before, they had absolutely no difficulty in the exercise of their religion and might be more Catholic than the Pope himself for all the government cared. 'In 1850 the colonists, who had been joined in the course of time by Catholic settlers from Bavaria, Alsace, Tyrol and Switzerland, were even favored with a German Bishop of their own in the person of the Dominican Friar, Fr. Helanus Kahn, who was appointed Titular Bishop of Tiraspol, but took up his residence in Saratov. Father F. X. Zottmann, a Bavarian by birth, who had spent a great portion of his life in Russia, deserved especially well of the diocesan seminary which bad been founded at Sara tow, in 1857, for the education of a Russo-German native clergy. Fr. Zottmann succeeded Bishop Kahn to the See of Tiraspol, or Saratov, in 1872, and since his resignation in 1889 the German-Russians of the diocese, numbering about 300,000, have had bishops of their own nationality.

But all things come to an end, good and bad. At the beginning of the seventies of the last century the Russian government came to the conclusion that it was time to put an end to the special favors and privileges accorded to the German settlers within Russian territory and to start a campaign of "Russification" among them. The colonists were informed that henceforth they would be regarded as full-fledged Russians and were expected to share honors and burdens alike with the other happy subjects of the Czarist realm. Whosoever might not like the new order of things would be free to leave the country, as had been guaranteed by the manifesto of 1764.

The majority of the German-Russians yielded and remained, but a considerable number prepared to seek new homes. Various plans were proposed, but finally it was decided to turn to the hospitable shores of America, In order to make sure that their choice was a wise one they followed the example of the Israelites in the desert. From their various colonies they selected men "to explore the land" and, if found satisfactory, to select a suitable location where they might pitch their tents. Quite a number went to Brazil, others preferred the prairies of Kansas. And that the choice of the latter was the better is proved by the fact that many of the Brazilian settlers later joined the colonies of Ellis County. With the exception of the small towns of Hays and Ellis the county was at that time practically uninhabited, land might be had for little or nothing, the ,oil was fertile, and the climate very favorable. The good reports of the "explorers" in due time reached the colonists of Saratov, and hundreds of families forthwith sold as much of their belongings as they could not well take with them, relinquished their cultivated acres to the Russian government, and set out on their voyage across the Atlantic.

Arrived in Kansas the settlers founded a number of villages which they named after the colonies they had left behind in the land of the Czar, and hence we find such names as Herzog (or Victoria), Obermundschuh, now Englished into Munjor, Katheinenstadt (Catherine), Pfeifer, Schoenchen, and Liebenthal.

These, then, were the German-Russians whose spiritual needs had induced Bishop Fink to apply to the Capuchin Order for laborers. The newcomers were a sturdy race of deep religious convictions and had scarcely built their poor huts and dugouts, when they set about erecting temples to the Most High. These were wretched enough, in the beginning, but even then told of the spirit of religion and sacrifice which animated the colonists. The first "church" built by them was that of Munjor, an affair which resembled the stable of Bethlehem much more than a cathedral, but if it resembled the stable of Bethlehem in its poverty, neither was it unlike it in the devotion of its first worshippers. The first Friars sent to Ellis County were Fr. Matthew and Fr. Anastasius Joseph, who left for Kansas May 6, 1878. Their destination was Herzog (or Hartsook, as its American neighbors called it), where the Russian settlers had agreed to provide and furnish a temporary dwelling for the missionaries. The Fathers were disagreeably surprised, however, when upon their arrival they found only a wooden shanty, rather primitive of construction and bare of all furniture. The reason for this was satisfactorily explained by later events. For the time being nothing was left for the Fathers but to apply to the monastery in Pittsburg for the most needful articles, which were promptly shipped to them.

In the latter part of June Fr. Matthew sent his first report to Pittsburg, in which he enthusiastically sings the praises of his new congregation. The people, it is true, were very poor, but manifested the best of will and an unquestioned loyalty to their holy religion. Fr. Matthew's labors in Ellis County were of brief duration. Scarcely had his hopeful report reached Pittsburg when it was followed by a telegram announcing his unexpected and untimely death, on June 25. This was sad news and a severe blow to the young Capuchin colony. For a while it was thought advisable to give up the Kansas missions altogether, but happily the more hopeful carried the day. On July 15th Fr. Joseph Calasance set out for Ellis County to take Fr. Matthew's place.

In Fr. Matthew, known in the world by the name of Dominic Hau, the Capuchins lost a gifted, zealous and active priest, who in a short time had won the good will and affection of his parishioners. He was descended from a truly Christian and God-fearing family of wealth, which owned a prosperous estate at Almishofen, in the kingdom of Wuerttemberg, Germany. Born August 2, 1833, Dominic, in deference to his parents' wishes, devoted himself to the duties of his station in his early youth, although he had long cherished a strong desire to consecrate his life to God in the holy priesthood. As he grew older he could no longer resist the voice that called him to higher things, and nearly twenty years old took up his classical studies. He was known as a talented, conscientious, and pious student. In 1858 he resolved to enter the humble order of St. Francis and received the Capuchin habit in Burghausen, Bavaria. But a stubborn bodily ailment compelled him to leave the novitiate and return to his parents. In 1862, being completely restored, he applied once more for admission into the order, and was invested with the Seraphic habit a second time, receiving the name of Matthew. He was promoted to the holy priesthood, titulo patrimonii, August 7, 1865, and two months later he made his solemn profession as a Capuchin Friar. After having labored, with uncommon zeal and success, in several convents of his order in Bavaria for a number of years he decided to accompany Fr. Hyacinth to America, in 1873. But, as we have seen, his missionary career was unexpectedly short. On June 17, 1878, he began to feel unwell without, however, relaxing his active zeal in the care of his extensive missions in Ellis County, whither he had been sent the month previous. On Corpus Christi he conducted solemn services and took part in the customary procession, but was forced, on the same day, to take to his bed, from which he was never to rise again. Fortified with the Sacraments of the Church he passed away after a few day's illness, and was buried in the open prairie, there being no cemetery in Ellis County in those days. Seven years later, on the fifth Sunday after Easter of the year 1885, his body was raised and translated to the new cemetery opposite the Herzog church. The remains were found to be so intact that anyone who had known Fr. Matthew in his lifetime could readily recognize his features. This was due no doubt to the hardness and dryness of the Kansas soil.

Before the advent of the Capuchin Friars in Ellis County the Catholic settlers of Herzog had worshipped in a miserable, three-walled frame shanty, and their poverty would not permit them to erect a more suitable building. The two Lords Maxwell, scions of a distinguished family in England which had remained loyal to the Church through the days of her persecution, had acquired land in Ellis County, and used to spend a few months on their Western estate every summer. Seeing the sad plight of their Russian neighbors they generously offered to build a stone church for them at their own expense. This stone church was still unfinished when Fr. Hyacinth made his first visit to Ellis County, in January, 1878. When Fr. Matthew's successor, Fr. Joseph Calasance, arrived in the mission in July of the same year, he immediately set about erecting a little monastery. The building consisted of but one wing, 24 feet long, 22 feet wide, and only 11 feet high. It adjoined the Maxwell church, which had been completed in the meantime, was built of stone, and ready for occupancy before winter.

The new church, however, though quite a boon to the Russian settlers, was far too small for the fast-increasing colony. Besides, the site on which it stood hardly answered the purposes of a monastic establishment. The people offered a plot of five acres for the erection of a larger church and a monastery, but as the location was not satisfactory Fr. Hyacinth applied to the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company, which after some delay answered, under date of May 31, 1879: "We will give you a grant of ten acres in the North West Fourth of Section Seven, at Victoria, for the object mentioned" (i.e., to build a church 60 x 120 feet and a school house 30 x 60 feet). The deed to this property, as is customary with the Capuchin Order, was made out to the Bishop of the Diocese. The old church property lay in Herzog township, the new grant in the township of Victoria, but the distance was insignificant, only a road dividing the two properties. This accounts for the double name by which the mission is known. ~ the new church and monastery were built on the Victoria side of the settlement, we shall henceforth retain the latter name in the course of this sketch.

Bishop Louis Mary Fink, OSB

Fr. Matthew Hau, OFM Cap

Fr. Anastasius Mueller, OFM Cap

Fr. Joseph Calasance Mayershoefer, OFM Cap