James Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, wrote the novel, The Last of the Mohicans, about the last Indian of a tribe. I remember the movie of years ago and saw the last Mohican falling from a cliff. In someway I feel like the last of the Mohicans of Holy Rosary. Not the last, but the number of charter members are few. Fifty years have passed since Bishop Grimmelsman gave me the assignment to start a new parish on the East side of Evansville.

I think back over the past 50 years.  I was pastor for the first thirty-two years. As pastor of Holy Rosary I have had a part in the beginning and growth of the parish. In 50 years, Holy Rosary has grown from 120 families to almost 1500 families. Although 50 years is not a long in history, still these years have been interesting years, years of growth. Many people have had a part in the start and in the development of Holy Rosary Parish. Some have died and gone to their reward. Others have moved on to other parts of the country, while many are still members. As I think over the past, I feel that I am the only person able to tell the story of our beginnings and early years. I say story. I do not consider myself a historian. I have always tried to tell stories, so this will be my story of Holy Rosary.

Forward

In the year 1943, I was ordained to the priesthood and went to St. Joseph Parish, Jasper, as my first appointment. St. Joseph was the largest parish in the diocese and the church was large and beautiful. As I think back, one thing that really stood out at St. Joseph was the church choir. A Professor Loepker directed this beautiful choir. He had a few boy sopranos with strong clear voices. One of these boy sopranos was a little chubby boy, Bill Deering. Some of the people said that in a year or so his voice would change and he would have to quit singing. Bill’s voice changed into a strong baritone, but he never quit singing.

Bill Deering was a little choir boy when I was at Jasper, then as Father William Deering, he was my successor at Holy Rosary. Very often he would be playing the organ on the Sunday I would be preaching and I would mention a song in my service. He would always play it later on in the Mass. Father Deering was to complete our parish plant. He, with the parishioners, planned and built the new gym, with offices and class rooms. When I see the cars parked around the gym for basketball, I think Father Deering made this possible.

For a little background for this story, one could go back to November 16, 1944. This was during World War II. On this morning as the people of Southwestern Indiana read their Evansville Courier, they read along with the war news this headline and news item:

Evansville To Be Center of New Catholic Diocese
Evansville today was named headquarters of a new diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, created by Pope Pius XII for Southwestern Indiana, with the Church of the Assumption at Evansville designated as the cathedral. The bishop of the Evansville diocese will be named later.

This news item made Catholics of Southwestern Indiana wonder who would be their new bishop. They got their answer on November 21, again in the Evansville Courier. Under his picture, they read:

Msgr. Henry Joseph Grimmelsman above, bishop-elect of the new Evansville diocese of the Catholic Church will be consecrated as bishop on December 21, at St. Joseph College, Worthington, Ohio.

Bishop Grimmelsman was installed at Assumption Cathedral on January 3, 1945. Sometime later at one of the first meetings with his priests, Bishop Grimmelsman said that many things would have to happen before this territory would really be a diocese. This statement made priests speculate that their new bishop might want a new bishop house or perhaps a new cathedral. At that time the priests and people of the Diocese of Evansville had no idea of the number of buildings that would be built under the direction of Bishop Grimmelsman. Three new high schools, a home for the aged, a chancery, a retreat house, minor seminary, and eleven new parishes, one of which would be Holy Rosary.

In August, 1949, Father Maurilius Bilskie, then assistant pastor at St. Boniface Parish, Evansville, Indiana, received a letter from Bishop Grimmelsman appointing him to be a full time teacher at Reitz Memorial High School. Father was to live at St. John’s Parish, 617 Bellemeade Avenue, Evansville, Indiana, with Father Herman J. Mootz. At the bottom of this letter there was a note telling Father Bilskie that he should come, at his convenience, to see his bishop. Sometime later, when Father met with Bishop Grimmelsman, he was told that he would start a new parish on the growing east side of Evansville. The appointment would have to wait until land could be found for the new parish. Since the new parish would relieve the growing Christ the King Parish, Father Maurice Egloff tried to buy a plot on Washington Avenue, but the owner would not sell. Sometime later, Mr. Paul Will offered to sell some of his farm south of the Brentwood Subdivision, to the diocese. Since there was no street to this property, and since it would have been costly to buy right-of-way and build a street, Bishop Grimmelsman did not buy this property. Finally. in late spring, Bishop Grimmelsman asked Mr. Donald Raeber of The Raeber Realty Company, to look for a site. Mr. Raeber found fifteen acres on New Green River Road, south of Washington Avenue. This location seemed too near Christ the King. When Bishop Grimmelsman looked at the location on a city map, he said that he preferred smaller parishes, and to keep parishes small, it was better to build them near to each other. Mr. Raeber contacted the owners of the land, Miss Mary and Miss Catherine Heerdink. They wanted $1,250.00 an acre for their land, but finally agreed to sell for $1.200.00 an acre, donating the difference, $50.00 an acre to the new parish. Reporters for the newspapers learned that Bishop Grimmelsman had purchased land, and contacted the Chancery Office for a story. The following appeared in the Evansville Courier:

Catholic Diocese Buys Property For New Parish Purchase
15 Acres on East Side
Father Bilskie Named

At the same time, Bishop Henry J. Grimmelsman announced that the new parish will be headed by Rev. Maurilius E. Bilskie, who teaches religion at Memorial High School. The land was purchased from Mary and Catherine Heerdink. Don Raeber, realtor handled the transaction. Building plans for the church and school are indefinite at this time, and no name has been chosen for the new parish, although the name Holy Rosary is being considered. Father Bilskie, a native of Vincennes, was ordained to the priesthood in 1943 at St. Meinrad Seminary. His first assignment was as assistant at St. Joseph’s Parish, Jasper, Indiana. After a stay of several years at Jasper, he was named assistant at St. Boniface Church, here, where he served until last August. During the last year, he has been residing at the priests’ house at St. John’s Parish.

The parish was officially erected by Bishop Grimmelsman, and Father Bilskie appointed pastor on August 17, 1950. A census of the parish was taken, and this census showed one hundred-twenty families. The first meeting of the parish was held at Christ the King cafeteria; ninety-one members of the new parish attended this meeting. At this meeting, the members of the new parish picked Mr. Albert Folz, Mr. Ray Titzer, Mr. Herbert Becker, Mr. Edmond Unfried, Mr. Martin Matz, and Mr. Culmer Bauermeister as the first parish counselors. They also selected Mr. Ludwig Funke, Mr. Julius Folz, Mr. Leo Baumgart, Mr. Marshall Todd, Mr. Herman Meuhlbauer, Mr. Joseph Ubelhor, and Mr. Michael Jacobs as members of a building committee. Father Bilskie reported that he had at that time, six dollars, which someone donated to the new parish. This announcement amused the members, for with the building program, this would be the only time the parish would be free from debt for years to come. At this first meeting of Holy Rosary Parish, Father Bilskie passed some sheets of paper for those attending the meeting to sign. From the original papers, the following people signed their names, which are copied exactly as they signed them:

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When I heard that Bishop Grimmelsman had purchased land for the new church on New Green River Road, my first question was, “Where is New Green River Road?” Our street was called New Green Green River Road. There was another road near the levy called Green River Road. When New Green River Road became a shopping center, the city changed the name, and we became Green River Road. In 1950, New Green River Road was a narrow “chip and seal road” in the country. We were building on farm land. Across the road was a large field of corn, and next to us on the north Mr. and Mrs. Charles Schofield had a small farm, where they grew vegetables and sold them along the road. They also had chickens, and a chicken house. It reminded me of the country when the cocks crowed in the morning.

In order that the parish have a place for Mass, Bishop Grimmelsman suggested the erecting of a prefabricated Church, a steel building. When the newly appointed building committee met at the home of Mr. Ludwig Funke the members suggested using the steel building, but instead of the metal sides, they suggested using concrete block. Mr. Joseph Ubelhor offered to design and build a front, that would make it look like a church. Bishop Grimmelsman approved of the idea. After drawing plans, a group of parishioners led by the building committee, started the building. One evening after work, a group went to the property, and staked off the temporary church. In the tall weeds, fighting biting mosquitoes, they drove their stakes. The following Saturday, a good number were on hand with shovels, to dig footings. An excavator was hired to dig a small basement at one end, for a furnace to heat the church. The following Saturday, the footings were poured. When the footings were ready, Father Bilskie laid the first blocks.

Father’s recollection was as follows: “To save money we borrowed a concrete mixer, and bought gravel, sand, and cement to make our own concrete for the footings. Joe Ubelhor did the stone work for the front of the church. Julius Folz and his crew laid the concrete blocks. Mike Jacobs and his crew, did the carpentering. We used ready mixed concrete for the church floor. I still have pictures of Joe Ubelhor and his brothers finishing the concrete. The workers were making progress by Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day in 1950 started as a beautiful day. Joe Ubelhor was working in the morning sunshine, on the sandstone. In the afternoon the sky became cloudy, then snow began to fall, and ice formed. The snow and ice was so bad that driving was impossible. From Thanksgiving into 1951, we had a severe winter. There were few days suitable for building. By the middle of March, the Church was nearly finished. One of our parishioners, Bill Daly, kept telling me that if we wanted God’s blessing on our new Church, we should bless it on St. Patrick’s Day. Bishop Grimmelsman, our bishop, was very German, and I wondered how he would like the idea of blessing Holy Rosary Church on St. Patrick’s Day. When I asked him, he came on March 17, 1951 to bless our Church.”

March 17, 1951 was a rainy day. We had no sidewalks. We did have a small parking area covered with crushed rock. At two o’clock in the afternoon, Bishop Grimmelsman arrived for the blessing. We had a little organ which the organist pumped with her feel. Mrs. Marie Funke played the organ. Mrs. Mary Frances La Hee, and Mrs. Clara Miller organized a choir with some of the parish school girls. Bishop Grimmelsman blessed the inside of the Church, the altar, and the stations of the cross. In the blessing of a church, he usually would have blessed the outside, but since it was pouring down rain, he said that the Lord was blessing the outside. Easter was early in the year 1951. March the 18th was Palm Sunday. We started with two Masses on Sunday. On this Palm Sunday, our choir sang a high Mass at the second Mass. I had a good supply of palms. They were blessed before Mass. Then, led by a server carrying the cross, and two servers carrying candles, the people got in line for the Palm Sunday procession. This procession went out the north door. We walked some distance to the north, then turned east to New Green River Road, afterwards right for some distance, then south to the front doors of the Church. At the front doors of the Church, part of the choir was inside while the others were part of the procession. The priest took the processional cross and knocked on the door three times. the door opened, and the procession entered for the second Mass at Holy Rosary.

The first society formed at Holy Rosary was our Altar Society. I was still teaching religion classes at Memorial High School, and Father Patrick Kilfoil let us use one of the large rooms at Memorial for our first meeting. We invited all the ladies of the parish to this first meeting. There was a good attendance. They chose the name, St. Rose of Lima Altar Society, and Mrs. Della Sterneman was elected the first president. Then the ladies began planning ways to help the new parish. Their first project was a Turkey Dinner on Thanksgiving Day. Father Maurice Egloff of Christ the King, offered the use of Christ the King cafeteria for this dinner. These ladies and their husbands gave up much of their holiday to serve this dinner. They organized the first money-makers of Holy Rosary. They then had a successful card party at Memorial High School, followed by bake sales, rummage sales, and “come as you are” parties. We had no place to meet, even after the Church was opened. Our different groups met at various homes. Mel and Clara Miller had a large basement under their home. We had many meetings in their basement. Then Harry and Mayme Lannert had a building beside their home. Harry remodeled it so that the Altar Society and the Holy Name Society and other groups could meet there. Harry named our new meeting place “The Rosaion Club”. We met in this building until our new cafeteria opened in September, 1953.

After the start of the Altar Society, in the fall of 1950 the men of our parish met, I believe in the basement of Mel Miller’s home, to form a Holy Name Society. They became a great help to our new parish. They helped prepare for the first summer social, and they decided they would have a yearly turkey shoot, usually with a burgoo. Three men, Carl Kneer, Mike Jura, and Ben Phillips made a special target for these turkey shoots. A wheel turned, and everyone shot at the same target instead of shooting at twenty different posts. Thinking back on all who contributed to these turkey shoots, I think of John A. Mueller, a non-Catholic, who was always at the microphone for our turkey shoots. I also remember Harold Spaetti, Arnold Schnell, Lawrence Keller, Marion La Hee, Mel Miller, Harry Lannert, Julio Esparza, and Ballard Hacker. Our Society was a Holy Name Society for many years. We followed all the rules of a Holy Name Society, and Raymond Pfister made sure we kept the rules of the Holy Name handbook, even to the invocation: “Blessed John Vercelli, pray for us.” After years as a Holy Name Society, our men decided they wanted to be a Men’s Club. They are now Holy Rosary Men’s Club, and are still known for their New Year’s Eve dance.

The Statue of Our Lady

Joseph Ubelhor and his brothers built the stone front of the church. In Joe’s design, there was a niche for a statue over the front entrance. It was to be empty until some future day when we were to get a statue of our Blessed Mother. These Ubelhor brothers, without telling me, bought a beautiful statue of our Blessed Mother. It was carved in Italy, and shipped to Holy Rosary. I was surprised to see the beautiful statue of our Lady. Leo Scheu lighted it with a spotlight and a time clock. Our people seemed to enjoy seeing Mary lighted at night. Whenever the bulb burned out they would remind us to put in a new one. They wanted to see our Lady at night. (Note: the statue of Our Lady now stands in the prayer garden as a memorial to Msgr. Bilskie)

A Garage for the Rectory

I lived at St. John’s Parish while building the church, then I made a little apartment in the church basement’s furnace room. I had a roll-away bed, a small refrigerator, and a hot plate to cook on. I needed an office to conduct parish business, but Bishop Grimmelsman said that we were not financially able to build a rectory. He let me build the garage for the permanent rectory, and in a few months I had a rectory. Later on, as the parish began to grow, I had hopes of getting another priest to live at Holy Rosary, so I added the breezeway to the house to have room for two priests. We now had a garage and a breezeway.

I will always have happy memories of the little rectory. Several parishioners helped to make it very comfortable. The walls were concrete blocks, until one day Fred Reisinger walked in to look it over. He said, “Why don’t you plaster these walls?’ I said, “Plaster is expensive.” He asked me if I would have it plastered if he would do all eight rooms for $25.00. He plastered the whole house. I started out with four space heaters to heat the rectory. They were the type that warmed one’s face and cooled one’s back. One day Eldon Reising came in on some business, and he remarked, “You do not have good heat in this house.” He said, “If I donated you a furnace, could you get someone to install it?” I got Bill Favor to install it. I then had a hot water furnace, and baseboard heating. It was the best heating system I have every known. When summer came, I needed a little air conditioning, and I asked Dr. Ben Phillips, an engineer at Servel, if he could get a window air conditioner. He told me, “You won’t like a window air conditioner. You need a house air conditioner.” He told me that they had built a house air conditioner, and that after experimenting with it they were going to destroy it. He could get it for me, free. He told me that he would show me how to install it. It needed water. I had a well, and we used water from my well to run through the air conditioner. After the water was used for air conditioning, I had a hose and a sprinkler in my yard. Sometimes when it was raining, someone would call and say, “It is pouring down rain, and you are sprinkling your yard.” The St. Rose Altar Society found furniture for me. The ladies had a house warming for me, and from time to time, they gave my house a good cleaning.
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Holy Rosary School

Many of our families were young families with small children. I heard this question often: “When will we have a school?” Our children still went to Christ the King parish. In the fall of 1951, we started making plans for our school. We had a drive for pledges from one hundred twenty families, and we raised $30,000. Bishop Grimmelsman knew that we needed a school, but it was a big undertaking for a small parish. He gave permission, and Virgil Miller was hired to draw the plans. The first big problem was obtaining steel for the building. The Korean War had our government rationing steel. When we got our steel allotment, we did not get enough for a steel structure building. The only way we could build was to use poured concrete beams with steel rods, which would cost more, but would create a stronger building.

Our finished plans called for a sandstone building trimmed in limestone, eight classrooms, and a full basement with a cafeteria kitchen. The plans were put out for bids in early May. The following bids were received the first week in June; contracts were signed on June 9, 1952:

Loehrlein Brothers, General Contractor, $143,620
Altoff Howard Electric Company, $11,296
Wahnsiedler Plumbing and Heating Company, $34,637
Santarossa Mosaic and Tile Company, $9,626

The total bid, with architect fees, cost $211,229.74.

While the school was being built, I had to find Sisters to teach, so I contacted several orders. I was very happy to hear from the Reverend Mother at Ferdinand that the Benedictine Sisters would teach at Holy Rosary School.

The next problem was water. There was a small well in the basement of the church, but it could not supply our school. I began contacting the Water Works. They had no plans for extending the water line at Washington Avenue and Green River Road, because we were not in the city. They finally told me that the only way I could get water would be to pay to have pipe extended from Washington Avenue. We could not put in a small pipe to suit our needs; it would have to be a five inch pipe, for future expansion. The Water Works told us we would get out money back in tap-in fees. The line cost us more that $5,000. The area was later taken into the city, and we never collected one tap-in fee. The next big problem was to get ready for our Sisters.

Sisters for our School

Since the Sisters of St. Benedict were teaching in many of the schools in the diocese, Bishop Grimmelsman asked me to try to get teaching sisters from on the other teaching orders. I went to three different convents, where I got the same answer: “We are not taking any new schools.” Then I went to Ferdinand, to the Convent of the Sisters of St. Benedict. The Reverend Mother was very kind, and said that she would send six sisters to start Holy Rosary School. Later, she assigned Sister Anselm to be our first principal, Sister Mary Eve to be the music teacher, and Sisters Mary Herman, Ambrose, Lorraine, and Mary Ann to be our first faculty.

Where would the sisters live? On the northwest end of our school, there were two classrooms separated by a hallway. One classroom became their bedroom. In one room there were six single beds, six dressers, and six small desks with chair, which were their articles of bedroom furniture. The hallway was enclosed and made into two rooms, which became their reception room and the back half of their bathroom. The other classroom was divided into a “T”. The front part was their living room; the next part was their dining room, and the last part, their kitchen. These pioneer sisters, who put up with these small quarters made our school possible. The city Water Works was slow in laying the water line, so we started school five days late in September, 1953. If I remember correctly, we opened with 237 pupils. I will always remember the generosity of those first Sisters of St. Benedict who made our school possible.

I remember some of the early problems. We had city water but there were no city sewer lines. When the school was built, two sump boles were dug eight feet wide and sixteen feet deep. They were to handle all the school sewage. In about six weeks, the toilets began to back up. What could we do to solve the problem? Someone suggested that we use dynamite in the sump holes. Julius Heerdink, our janitor, was a farmer, and I had lived on a farm where dynamite was used to blow out stumps. Joseph Loehr of our parish, worked for an oil drilling company. He brought us a box with quite a number of sticks of dynamite. One night we cut a hole in the concrete tap. We tied three sticks of dynamite to a long piece of electrical conduit. We attached a dynamite cap to the sticks of dynamite, and fastened some electrical wire to it. We had the pipe with the dynamite in the hole, and we were going to touch the wires to the battery of Julius’ car, when ladies of our Altar Society began to drive in. We had forgotten about an Altar Society meeting. We decided to wait until all the ladies were in the cafeteria and we could listen to them saying the opening prayer for their meeting. When we heard them praying, Julius touched the terminals of his car battery with the wires. It blew like a depth charge. I then hurried to the building to see if there was any reaction among the ladies. As I was walking into the building, one of our ladies who was very soft-spoken and never said a bad word, was hurrying up the stairs. Without seeing me, she said, “I’ll bet my car is all full of ‘s_ _ t’.” Then she saw me, and must have felt two inches tall as she passed me and found her car undisturbed. The dynamite helped for a time until we later added field tile.

With the opening of the school, the parish membership began to grow. We soon had an enrollment of 480 students, and had temporary classrooms in our cafeteria. We now needed a sisters’ convent. The convent was completed in 1955. It had fourteen bedrooms for the sisters with the possibility of adding more. If I remember correctly, Cletus Dressel and Bauer Brothers built the convent for an approximate cost of $67,000. At one time it was filled with Sisters of St. Benedict.

The parish continued to grow and we needed more classrooms. In 1961, a new eight classroom addition was added to the school. Our 400 parish families raised $105,000 for the cost of the addition. Mr. Leo Peyronnin built the new addition for about $161,000. When we first opened Holy Rosary School, we were still not part of the city. There was no Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation. The township trustee, a man named Mr. Wilkinson, was in charge of three schools: Caze, Hebron, and Burkhardt. He furnished school bus transportation for our children. Each year he would call me and ask, “When are we going to open and close our school?” We usually closed a few weeks before the city schools closed.

Over the years, the following were the principals of our school:
Sister Anselm, O.S.B.
Sister Mary Matthew, O.S.B.
Sister Cleophas, O.S.B
Sister Lillian, O.S.B.
Sister Alberta, O.S.B.
Sister Mary Cuthbert, O.S.B.
Sister Mary Roman, O.S.B.
Sister Johnetta, O.S.B.
Sister Agatha, D.C.
Eva Medcafe
Nancy Schum (Sanderson)
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About the year 50 A.D., St. Paul walked into the large Greek city of Corinth. Corinth was a sea port. He must have walked by watching men unloading ships and merchandise for sale. He saw sailors drinking and spending their money in port. He was alone in that strange, large city. St. Paul had to find a place to stay and to live in Corinth. He did have a trade. Paul was a tentmaker. He asked, “Where are the tentmakers’ shops in the city?” At a tentmaker’s shop he met a man named Aquila who had a wife named Priscilla. They let Paul work in their shop. They became friends; they became Christians. This was the start of a lasting friendship. Later on they would move to Ephesis to help Paul, then on to Rome.

I would think that every priest, as he is assigned to be a pastor in a new parish, comes as a stranger. That is the way I felt about the new Holy Rosary. I had lived in Evansville, but I knew nothing of the Eastside. I would have to meet my new parishioners. Like St. Paul, I found many good Aquilas and Priscillas.

I started at the home next to our property, the home of Dr. Edward Schafer. His wife Clarice told me where all the Catholics lived in her area. I met numerous families. They were all very kind. They wanted to know where we would build, and would there be a school? As I moved down New Green River Road, I came to the home of Dr. Roberts Dodd. When I entered their yard a large Doberman Pincer dog met me. He did not bark, so I decided to be unafraid and walk up to him. Without much ado, he took one bite into my leg. Mrs. Dodd called her dog and he left. They were very concerned that their dog had bitten me. The doctor assured me that the dog had been vaccinated for rabies, and wanted to take more care of me.

I found out that the dog’s name was Red, really “Red Baron”. On the first day of census, I was bitten by Red Baron. Years later, the Dodds gave me a little ceramic of a Doberman named Red Baron. I was teaching five classes a day at Reitz Memorial High School. I had to do my parish visiting after school and on Saturdays. I soon got to know our one hundred-twenty families — many Pricillas and Aquilas.

Helpers

From the very beginning of Holy Rosary skilled helpers came to offer their services. I think of Leo Baumgart, Ray Titzer, Mel Miller, Herman Unfried, Joe Lasher and many others. Leo Baumgart made the altar, confessional , and kneelers for the church. I worked many hours with Leo Baumgart and Joseph Lasher, laying out sidewalks. Raymond Titzer bought a shopsmith and placed it in the boiler room of the school. He made all the tables for the cafeteria, fourteen oak kneelers for the Sisters’ convert, and all the booths for the summer social. Mel Miller could appear any time after work, and find things to clean and fix. Herman Unfried was our painter. He painted the inside of the church. Whenever the Sisters in the school needed something painted, Herman was there to do it. Charles Klass was our plumber. Whenever there was some plumbing need — Charlie was there, over the years, to fix it. Leo Scheu was our electrician. He did the wiring for the summer social, and met all our electrical needs over the years. John Broerman, with his Ford tractor, cut the grass on our fifteen acres for years. Whenever we needed pictures, Jacques Bennette was there with his camera. Paul Ritchel and Creative Press did our printing of tickets. Whenever we needed a tractor or a farm truck, Al Folz and Ted Will and sons were on hand.

Now for our lady helpers. I think of Della Sterneman, always here with shrubs from her Nursery and her sewing and fancy work. Mrs. Ray Titzer, “Bim,” as she was called, was our cook at the summer social. She cooked in the cafeteria for many years, and also sewed many a quilt top for our ladies to quilt. Marie Unfried was first of all our flower lady, arranging flowers for the church, flowers for the banquet tables in the cafeteria. Marie was always working for the Altar Society and the Holy Rosary. I think of Henrietta Klass as our producer of shows and entertainment – each year something different, always a show at Christmas. I remember Kay Folz, Betty Sartain and Gladys Schaefer getting ready for dances and card parties. Mrs. Joseph Ubelhor, “Bert” sewed many vestments for the church. From the very start of Holy Rosary, Eleanor Lasher has done all the church wash, the altar linens and albs.

Summer Social

Our new Church began having Masses on March 18th 1951. Even before the first Mass a good number of our people were already planning a summer social. Mr. Harry Lannert was the head of the planning committee. This committee decided to have a three day social the last week of June. They called this social the Holy Rosary Country Fair. We had chances for sale for a prize of money. We had no building with room for the summer social so we rented two large tents. Mrs. Lavina Titzer prepared a country type chicken and dumpling dinner. All was ready. When the time came for the social, we had five days of heavy rainfall. We had some people between downpours, and extended it one more day to Sunday. Ted Will brought a big farm tractor to make a ditch to drain the water. Mrs. Joseph Sterneman directed the plowing of the ditch. They put a board bridge over the ditch.
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Bingo

For extra money for athletics, and other needs, there was a number of parishioners who wanted to start a bingo. At this time Miss Helen Reitz, who was very active with the Daughters of Isabella, said they had tried to have a bingo at their hall; but it did not work out. They had the bingo equipment for sale. I went to see it. I bought the electric display and bingo equipment, cards and thirteen Formica-topped tables for $1300. Our parishioners took it from there: Walter and Dorothy Lachowecki, William and Ethel Forche, Herman and Marie Unfried, Robert Thurgood, Thomas Jones, Ted Ziemer, Ed Woods, Sylvia Deters and many others started our bingo.

I think of a few interesting things that happened at our bingos. Wednesday is bingo night. One Wednesday there was a big thunderstorm and all the lights went out for the bingo players. What could we do? I went over to the church and got boxes of seven-day votive lights. We placed them on the bingo tables. The caller had to call without a public address system. As some of the people were leaving, they said we should have a candlelight bingo from time to time. Then there was one lady who played thirty-six cards, yet she never used a chip to mark the cards. When she would bingo, she would have to point out where the bingo was. She was always right. What a mind!

Another story was about a hamster. We had a school teacher named Miss Everbach. To teach science to her children, she had a hamster. This hamster got out of its cage and she could not find it. One Wednesday night this hamster came down the stairs into the bingo hall. He probably wanted to see what this Catholic bingo was like. As he walked into the bingo hall, the ladies began to scream. Some jumped up on the bingo tables as he made his way. Tom Jones finally caught the hamster and put him back in the school room. The excitement must have been too much for him. He died the next day.

The Choir

A choir has been a part of parish worship from the very beginning. We started with a little pump organ. Mary Frances La Hee, Clara Miller Marie Funke and a group of our school children were our first choir. When school opened in 1953, we had an electronic organ and Sister Mary Eve, later Sister Siena had a school children choir. Mr. Edward Koressel was directing the choir at Christ the King parish. He wanted to start a choir at his own parish, Holy Rosary. He organized a men’s choir. They sang the Latin Masses until the change to English after Vatican II.

With the opening of our new church with the English liturgy, our deacon David Franklin started what was our sung Mass at eleven o’clock. David was busy teaching at Reitz memorial High School and also helped Bishop Shea as master of ceremonies. At this time Father James Summett became our associate pastor at Holy Rosary. He had a degree in music from De Paul University and he took over the directing of our choir. When Father Summett left Holy Rosary, Stephen McCallister became our choir director and Jean Noyes became our organist. William TenBarge and Thomas Mooney and Leo Scheu were with the choir since the days of Edward Koressel’s choir. For many years we were blessed with a beautiful sung Mass at Eleven o’clock on Sunday.

I also want to remember our youth choir. Father Michael Conrad organized our first youth choir. Marc Berriage, Robert Spear, Kevin Poelhuis, Rick Poelhuis and Anthony Esparza were the leaders of our youth choir. Mark Hatfield became a regular organist when we got our new Allen Quinn organ.

Then years ago a young man, Jeff Ward became a member of Holy Rosary. He began singing at the 5:15 Mass on Sunday. Also in the days of our youth choir they wanted a bass – I believe a cello. I went to a music store and bought one. Mrs. Patricia Bunner-Colbert played this bass at the 5:15 Mass for years giving bass rhythm to the singing.

Addition to our Church

Our first Church at Holy Rosary was made to seat 320 people. We could “crowd in” 400. In 1956 the parish was growing and we needed more room. We were in no position to build a new church, so the only ting to do was to enlarge our church. This addition was designed and built by our parishioners. Arnold Schnell was in charge of building this addition. The South was removed and we made the body of the church 20 feet wider. The building was extended eleven feet to the West to make room for a sacristy and storage place. Julius Folz was hired to build the concrete block walls. Men of the parish did the rest of the building. Some of the men were Leo Baumgart, William Allender, James Massey, Ted Spaetti, Mel Borst, Ballard Hacker, Harold Spaetti, and Lawrence Keller. I remember Harold Spaetti and Lawrence Keller reminding me that on Saturday evening they would miss “Gunsmoke”. They would miss Matt Dillon, Chester and Miss Kitty.

With the addition we had room for our Sunday worship. Our church was always warm in the winter. In the summer we had four large pedestal fans. These fans moved the air, yet at times they blew directly on the people. Our ladies said they ruined many a lady’s hair coiffure. Also the pews and kneelers had sharp edges. Many of the ladies would say, “Your church ruined my stockings.”

Secretary

Secretaries have become an important part of parish administration today. I went from 1951 to 1973 without a secretary. I would at times, have different members of the parish help me with parish secretary work. I kept the parish books and the cafeteria books. I put out the Sunday bulletin. The bulletin was nothing like our present bulletin, with my heavy fingers doing the typing. The first lady to work as part-time secretary was Clare Hornbrook. In 1973, Holy Rosary hired Mrs. Melvin Griese, better known as Katie, as parish secretary. Katie had worked for a number of years for the Catholic Diocese of Evansville. She was on sick leave from the Diocese, and came to Holy Rosary, rather than return to the Catholic Center. The first improvement was the parish bulletin. It was picture perfect, week after week. Katie gradually took over keeping of the parish books and parish records. She always worked at a calm, easy pace. Everything was in order and on time. Katie was always kind, pleasant, and courteous to all who called at the Rectory. She was my secretary from 1973 to 1982. We were blessed to have this kind and generous lady at Holy Rosary.

Over the years we have been blessed with other fine secretaries.
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Church Bells

In August, 1959, Gail Gilles, one of our former students at Holy Rosary, died. A few years after that, a man from the I. T. Verdin Company was here demonstrating bells for our Church. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gilles offered a donation to help make the bells possible, in memory of their daughter Gail. The bells were first in our old church, with speakers on the school roof. When the new church was built, it had a bell tower, and the console was put in the sacristy. Our bells ring five minutes before all Masses; they strike the hour and half-hour. The bells of Holy Rosary sound over the neighborhood.

Taken from The Evansville Press, December 12, 1981:

The Bells of Holy Rosary Church reveal a story beyond the sound

“Let me tell you about our bells,” he said in a deep, resonant voice that must have preached many a ringing sermon to his parishioners. The priest, an honest man, told me everything, explaining how the bells at Holy Rosary ring with the precision of clockwork. “They ring on three occasions—at 6 o’clock, noon and 6 o’clock—each day for the angelus,” the monsignor said.

“They ring differently, with three peals, a pause, three peals, a pause, three peals and 20 strokes for the Angelus.” The good father said the Angelus reminds us when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would be the mother of Jesus. The sounding of the bells on Sunday morning at 7 - 30 minutes before a mass - is the one I hear on Oak Street. The bells also sound the time of day, striking the hour and half your until 9 at night, when they cease. “We have to consider our neighbors,” the pastor said. After hearing the priest out, I was ready to go over to the church to see the bells. Anything that can be heard a mile on a good day should be seen. Then, the monsignor gently let me down, saying “Our bells aren’t bells. Our bells are I. T. Verdin bells. If you want to see magnificent bells, go to St. Meinrad and Jasper.” The pastor, who was ordained at St. Meinrad Abbey in 1943, said the bell at St. Joseph Church in Jasper weighs several tons. Holy Rosary’s bells are much smaller, residing in a cabinet. They are taped recording initiated by a timeclock and aired by rooftop amplifiers for all East Evansville to hear.

Hearing about the tapes, I felt letdown for a moment. But that is of little matter, my own live of great cast bells aside. The soul of a bell is in the sound. And that importance remains at the church. Why does the tradition of bells, sometimes to signal great joy, sometimes to signal tremendous sorrow, continue - even in recordings? “The bells are a reminder of church, God and prayer,” Father Bilskie said, “And people need that today as much as in the past.” Maybe more.

In 1974, our church was really crowed. What were we to do? The parish council sent a six page brochure to all the parishioners. It was entitled “Build or Renovate”. Following is a copy of the brochure:

Dear Parishioners:

In 1949, the diocese of Evansville authorized the development of a new parish on the East side of Evansville. At that time Green River road was on the outskirts of the city and really considered to be part of the country. A plot was chosen for the new church from the Heerdink farm. Thus, Holy rosary came into being.

The original church facility was started in 1950 and opened in early 1951. The first structure was built at a cost of approximately $10,000 by the 150 families of the parish.

As the East side residential area grew, and the Lawndale shopping center developed, the parish expanded and the church also had to be enlarged. In 1956 the parishioners again joined together to enlarge the church to its present size. The south side of the church was extended to accommodate approximately 200 more seats. This new addition was completed at a cost of $5,000.

For the past 21 years, this temporary structure has served the needs of Holy Rosary parish as the parish grew from 200 families to its present population of 600 families. With the continued growth of the East side and the apartment boom in the Holy Rosary parish area, it is estimated that the parish will reach 1,000 families within 5 years. This growth projection highlights a problem — the current church building is inadequate to handle a parish of 600 to 1,000 families.

In addition to the church being too small, there are several other problems related to this growth of the parish:

1. The diocese and the parish if facing a declining number of priests which will result in fewer masses offered and require 38

2. Our current church is in dire need of extensive repair. The majority of existing pews must be replaced, the roof needs replaced, and a new sound system is needed. In addition much other work must be done.

3. The current debt position of the parish is in respectable condition. We have been retiring approximately $18,000 per year, but still there exists approximately $140,000 to be paid off on the school, convent and rectory.

Therefore, any new improvement or construction will have to be financed from a building fund rather than from the envelope collection.

In the near future, meetings will be scheduled to give you further details. If you have any comments at this time, drop a note the rectory or contact your parish council representative. We are looking forward to your comments.

Very truly yours,
Church Survey Committee

The previous text was a copy of the booklet which was sent to all parishioners. The members of the committee decided we should build a new church. The next step was to see Bishop Francis Shea. At that time we were $90,000 in debt, yet Bishop Shea gave permission for us to prepare planning to build a new church. The committee members were:

Mrs. Robert Spear
Dr. Kenneth Wilhelmus
Mr. Julius Folz
Mr. Ludwig Funke
Mr. Clarence Fehn
Mr. Harold Spaetti
Miss Kathy Kleindorfer
Rev. Maurilius Bilskie
Mr. Paul Posthauer

This committee chose Mr. Jack Kinkel to be our architect. Mr. Kinkel drew pictures of five suggestions for a church. As out committee looked at his choices, they chose our present church. They liked the modern design. The parishioners would be seated in a semi-circle like a praying family. These are the low bids we received on the church:

Bauer Brothers, General Contractor .......................................... 538,281.00
R.J. Coudret Company, Inc. ........... ...........................................44,195.00
Wilburn Muensterman Plumbing Co. ........................................... 26,248.00
Carpetland U.S.A., Inc ............................................................. 10,000.00
Laminated Fabricators, Inc. ..................................................... 123,500.00
Althoff-Howard Electric Co. ...................................................... 49,678.00
Architectural Fee .................................................................... 40,000.00
Furnishings ............................................................................ 67,000.00

The cost of Holy Rosary Church ............................................... 898,902.00

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When we started building the new church we did not consider what kind of windows we would have in the church. Mr. Roy A. Calligan, Jr., of Berlin, Pennsylvania, contacted Mr. Kinkel and he referred him to our building committee. He offered to make a different kind of church window. The usual kind of window we knew about was stained glass windows — colored glass set in strips of lead. He offered a different kind of window — faceted glass. These windows were made in a long tray. The glass was hammered to have rough edges and epoxy was poured around the glass. The rough edges of the glass gives different shades of light. There were seven windows on each side of the new church making fourteen windows, just right for the Stations of the Cross.

There was a large area for glass in the rear of the church and Mr. Calligan made this a study in colors. He did not use too many primary colors, more secondary colors. These windows give an ever-changing color of light. Below the fourteen Stations are the names of those who pledged to pay for the windows. In the rear of the church is a plaque with the names of those who gave the large windows.

A number of religious goods companies came with different kinds of altar and sanctuary furniture. We had a meeting at the architect’s office with all the different designs for our sanctuary, After looking at all of them, there was a set of drawings on the wall. When asked where these came from, Mr. Kinkel said that he had drawn them. He made the tabernacle to resemble the church. All the chairs and fixtures had the same pointed angle as the roof on the church. Our committee liked Mr. Kinkel’s drawings and they are now in our church sanctuary.

Pews

Our committee, after looking over different kinds of pews, picked our pews. The wood in our pews is called butcher-block. They wanted them in a semi-circle so that the parishioners would be like a family gathered around the altar. They did not want any ends on the pews to separate one section from another — one family of God, worshipping. They also picked open backs for the pews. Some of the ladies on the committee said the ladies’ purses would fall through the back of the pews. In the past twenty-five years, I have never had a report of a woman’s purse falling through the pews.

Organ

When the church was dedicated we had a small electric organ, which was small for our large church. We formed a committee for a new organ. I cannot find the names of that committee. Mrs. Robert (Mert) Libs was in charge. They had a drive for funds and in a few weeks, they purchased our Allan Quinn organ for about $28,000.00.

The Front of Church - the area behind the Altar

As we were about to complete our new church, we had nothing for the area behind the altar. The space where the people would view as they attended Mass. The area was to be plastered and Mr. Kinkel was with the plasterer on the scaffold. He took a trowel and made smear marks in the wet plaster. When the plaster was dry, Mr. Ted Ziemer, Mr. Paul Posthauer, and Mr. Jack Kinkel began to paint the area. They placed a nail in the center and used string to guide the painting. We needed a large white area to be the screen for our projectors in the projection room.

When it was finished, people would ask me, “What does it mean?” I told them to look at the large white area. It looked like a burst of light. That was a symbol of God the Father creating. We had a cross that was for the Son. Then they had painted a burst of light under the cross. In the book of Genesis, we read that the Spirit of God moved over the water. That was the symbol of God the Holy Spirit. We had a symbol of the Holy Trinity behind our altar — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

After 25 years, we began to outgrow our original church building. We formed a Holy Rosary Church Building Committee. Those on this committee were Mrs. Robert Spear, Dr. Kenneth Wilhelmus, Mr. Julius Folz, Mr. Ludwig Funke, Mr. Clarence Fehn, Mr. Harold Spaetti, Miss Kathy Kleindorfer, Mr. Paul Posthauer, Mr. Ted Ziemer and Msgr. Maurilius Bilskie. Plans were completed, funds were raised and the new church building was begun.

Early in the summer of 1975, our new Church was above ground. The stone masons were laying the stone. The cornerstone arrived. It was time to get ready for the laying and blessing of the cornerstone. I remembered an experience at St. John, Newburgh. Father Rogers told me that the parish was about to sell their old church and move to a new church on Frame Road. Before leaving the old church they wanted to remove the cornerstone. A number of parishioners gathered for the removing and opening of the cornerstone. When they opened the cornerstone, they found only one paper. They expected more. So as I was getting ready for our new cornerstone, I decided to do better. The sheet metal contractor welded a copper box, maybe 18 inches long and 12 inches wide and about 4 inches thick. I started to fill this copper box.

If I remember correctly, I put a copy of our diocesan newspaper with a story about Holy Rosary, a part of the Evansville newspaper, and a 1975 silver dollar. 1975 was a Holy Year, so I put a Holy Year coin in the box, then a copy of the parish bulletin. I wrote a letter to the future pastor of the parish who would open the box. After I had it well filled, Katie Griese gave me two little whiskey bottles she got from her husband, Mel. The kind they serve with drinks on airlines. I believe they were Old Taylor. They were our gift to the pastor of the future to “have one on us”. The box was welded shut and one evening Bishop Shea blessed the cornerstone and, with the box behind the stone, the stone masons sealed it with stone and mortar.

I wish that I had this little story of Holy Rosary then. I would have put it in the cornerstone box and let some future generation find it. Why would I want to do that? My memory is not as clear as it once was. I will miss some important events and miss some of the names of our good people. Some will say it is a poor story of Holy Rosary. It is the best an old man can do.

As the building was going up, I, from time to time, would fill a glass can with some more letters and information. They are buried at various spots in the building.

Christmas at Holy Rosary

Our new church opened on Christmas Day with midnight Mass. Mary Stallings now took over the decorations. Mary had listened to complaints that in the past, some could no see the crib at Mass. She placed the Nativity scene in a wreath high above the altar, where it could be seen by all. the altar did not arrive until just before mid-night Mass. Mary used many poinsettias to decorate the sanctuary, to line the walls, and in the vestibule. Many evergreens were placed in the sanctuary and about the Church. For the vestibule, Dr. Hugh Stallings went to Rockport and got some boards from an old barn, an made a rustic crib, a crawl-up crib, for the toddlers. Scott Whitehouse had a large outdoor crib scene which he painted white. The figures were just right for the nativity scene in the wreath over the altar, and on the ledges.

Mary had the following people helping her: Robert and Nancy Spear, Bev and Wayne Hartig, Carol and Bob Schaffstein, Susie and Larry Simms, Dot and Walt Lachowecki, Martha and Ken Dilger and children, Carol and Charles Reising and children, Sharon and Bill Higgins and children, Joe Raj, and Scott Whitehouse. Throughout the years the Flynns, O’Connors, Koressels, and always the children of these families, and children's’ friends helped, as well as Bob Scheitlin, Todd Bitter, Andy Koch, and children of these families. The star was made for Christmas 1986 by Russ McCormick.

I could always tell that the Church was decorated, for on the next morning, when I opened the front door of the rectory, there would be a chopped evergreen trimmed with Lite beer cans. That was Dr. Stallings’ way of telling me that the Church was decorated.
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The Pastor

Since this booklet covers the years when I was pastor at Holy Rosary, there should be a chapter about the pastor of Holy Rosary. I probably know him better than anyone else. I have heard the saying that everyone is three persons. He is the person he thinks he is, the person his neighbors think he is, and the person God knows he is. I will record about the person I think that I am.

I was born September 13, 1914. My father was Leo Bilskie and my Mother was Katherine (Kasson) Bilskie. I was born on a small farm, eighty acres, about four miles from Vincennes, Indiana. We used to say four miles, but our Model T Ford did not have a speedometer, so it was four miles, more or less. When I was born, my parents looked at a church calendar and it was the feast of St. Maurilius, so my first name is Maurilius. Those were the horse and buggy days and a few days after my birth, me uncle Sylverius Bilskie and Aunt Mary Wilson drove their buggy to our house and picked me up to go to St. John Church in Vincennes for my Baptism. You can picture this horse and buggy, clip-clopping down the road through the fields of corn that were ready for harvest. As my Uncle and Aunt were approaching Vincennes, they realized they would be early for my baptism. On the South side of Vincennes there was a saloon called the Last Chance Saloon. Of courses the Last Chance Saloon would be the first chance when one enters the city. Since they were early, my aunt and uncle decided to stop at the Last Chance for a short beer before going to my baptism. You can imagine my aunt and Uncle having a frosty beer while I be on the bar. When my mother heard about this, she wondered what would happen to her son – one who would go to a saloon before his Baptism. When we finally got to the church, I believe the pastor, Rev. Meinrad baptized me.

Unlike most children of today, I did not go to pre-school or Kindergarten. At the age of six, my parents enrolled my in a one room school, the Bunker Hill School. All eight grades were in one room. The teacher was Helen McGary. There was a stove in the center of the room. When it was warm, every pupil wanted the seats near the windows. When it got cold, they liked to be near the stove.

I still remember my first day at school. Our teacher started off the school day by calling on the eighth graders, next the seventh, the sixth, the fifth, the fourth, the third, the second, and late in the afternoon, the first graders. There were four first graders, three girls and a boy — me. Our teacher wanted each first grader to say something. The little girls had ready stories. When she came to me, I would not talk. Some way she would get me to say something. There was a picture on the wall which I learned later was a picture of George Washington. She wanted me to tell the name of the man in the picture. I had an old uncle with a red face, so I said, “It looks like my Uncle Jim.” All the pupils laughed and after that, they called my Uncle Jim — a little first grader called Uncle Jim.

Deacons

In the mid-1970’s, a new deacon program was started in the diocese. A number of men started on a program of training and spiritual formation to become permanent deacons. The program was about four years. One of our parishioners entered in this program, David Franklin. He was living at the rectory of Holy Rosary and was a teacher at Reitz Memorial High School. After completing the formation course, David was ordained a deacon in the first deacon class by Bishop Francis Shea, I believe at St. Benedict Church in 1972. David began taking his turn as a deacon at Holy Rosary. He took his turn preaching on Sundays. He had baptisms. He witnessed marriages. He was part of the RCIA program. He directed the parish choir. During Holy Week his singing voice added beauty to the liturgy. He always took part in the singing of the Passion. He carried the newly blessed Easter candle and announced that Christ was the light of the world. David was busy as a teacher at Reitz Memorial High School, yet he had time to be a part of our parish team. We have happy memories of his years at Holy Rosary.

We have been blessed with others who have served Holy Rosary with dedication over the years as deacons. Among these are Deacon Robert Thurgood and Deacon Richard Preske. Deacon Preske also served as Pastoral Associate for a time.

Father William Muller was our first Assistant priest. In the official announcement, in the Register of Southwestern Indiana, on Friday, August 15, 1958:

Father William Muller was ordained march 23, 1958 in Innsbruck, Austria. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Muller, 2526 W. Illinois Street. Father Muller is a graduate of Sacred Heart School and Memorial High School. He attended St. Meinrad 5 years and studied 4 years at Innsbruck in Austria before his ordination to the priesthood.

The Priests of Holy Rosary

I have had some very fine priests as assistants at Holy Rosary in the years when I was pastor. They were:

 

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