Early Map of St. Nazianz From Ralph Plumb's A History of Manitowoc County
In 1854 a Baden community of a very different character was formed in Wisconsin – the St. Nazianz colony in the town of Eaton, Manitowoc county. This was a Roman Catholic movement under Rev. Ambrose OSCHWALD, to free the members from the vexations suffred(sic) under Protestant rule in the Black Forest, Klettgen, Breisgau, Schwabia and Odenwald and other portions of Germany.
In all about one hundred and fourteen persons came with him. They reached Milwaukee in August, 1854, and soon afterward Rev. OSCHWALD bought 3,840 acres at $3.50 per acre, paying down $1,500. Six men were then sent out with the land dealers to find the site. They trent by boat to Manitowoc and thence across the country, at that time a dense wilderness, finally reaching the town of Eaton.
In their new home they proceeded to carry out their ideas. The single men and women were to live in separate houses or cloisters; they were built of beams and plaster as was the custom in Germany. It was their plan to make themselves independent of the outside world. Accordingly they raised all their own food products and manufactured their own clothing.
Peace reigned in the community until the death of their leader, when some difficulties arose concerning the property. It had been held by OSCHWALD in his own name and at his death he willed it to the community, but the will was found to be invalid in court, since the society had never been incorporated and was thus incapable of inheriting property.
To obviate this difficulty they proceeded to incorporate the community as the Roman Catholic Religious Society. Then each member sued the estate for his part services. Judgment was allowed and papers were made out, assigning the property to the society. They were then governed by a board of trustees elected annually by the adult members, both men and women. This board consisted of three men and three women and the presiding priest ex-officio.
They were neither favored nor condemned by the local church authorities. They continued to wear the German peasant dress, live as they did in the fatherland, and in all respects were a simple, primitive and extremely religious people. Three religious services were held each day.
Between 1850 and 1860 a number of the early settlers sold out and went from Freistadt, Cedarburg and Kirchhayn to Sherman, Sheboygan county, and Cooperstown, Manitowoc county, where land in market was in greater abundance.
From "History of Manitowoc County" by Dr. Louis Falge, 1912
P. 339
St. Nazianz, an important village of Manitowoc county, located in Eaton town, was founded by a colony of Badenese, who belonged to a religious order of the old world and sought this country that its members might live under more auspicious conditions and observe tenets of their organization without molestation. The colony lived in St. Nazianz as a community many years and thrived both materially and spiritually. Eventually, after the death of the founder, the property was divided. The community still exists but not as a body politic or as a unit in relation to its property interests. The church has grown in strength and wealth and its educational institutions are highly considered and most generously patronized. In September 1904, the golden jubilee of the founding of the colony was observed and made a gala day and holiday. Many were the guests in St. Nazianz on that day from various parts of the state. The buildings and streets were gaily decorated and spiritual and other feasts were partaken of by the multitude.
In his excellently written history of Manitowoc County, Ralph G. Plumb gives this description of the Badenese colony of St. Nazianz: " In no community in the county has religious and secular life been more closely allied than at the village of St. Nazianz. Rev. Ambrose OSCHWALD, a native of Baden, a man of high intellectual order with tastes tending somewhat toward asceticism, was responsible for the founding of a colony at that village, communistic and religious in character. Gathering around him one hundred and fourteen of his followers, mainly from his parish in the old world, he set out for a new country in order that he might found a Utopia. He arrived in Milwaukee in August 1854, and was there induced to purchase 3,840 acres of land in the town of Eaton, paying $3.50 per acre. Arriving at their new home on the 26th of the month the settlers set to work hewing down the wilderness and a month the first structures built was a church-St. Gregory's. A convent for the women was soon constructed and in 1864 a monastery of the Franciscan order was added. The land was owned and worked in common and the whole domestic economy was under the guidance of Father OSCHWALD. The later has been described as 'intimate with the classics and history, learned in medicine and eloquent as a divine' and he as above all a consistent communist. A common treasury was established and certain rules and regulations adopted for the government of all. Father OSCHWALD was somewhat of an architect and his design of the settlement buildings were unique. The sisters' convent was a large three-story building, situated on Main street, plastered on the outside and painted a delicate Pink. One wing was used as a chapel, containing two galleries, and was capable of seating a large number of persons. The brothers' monastery was similar in construction and also contained a chapel. Around the grounds were various 'stations,' boxes on posts containing representations of sacred scenes and upon the summit of a little hill was erected a small chapel resembling and named after the famous Mount Loretto, the interior decorations being quite elaborate. The first church soon became too small for the increasing number of colonists and accordingly a larger one was built. The parishioners themselves engaged in different occupations, some tending in the fields, while others made articles of straw, shoes, fancy work and a certain kind of cheese that became immensely popular in the market. All prospered until Father OSCHWALD's death, which occurred on February 27, 1873, where upon dissension arose and many of the communal features were abandoned. The sarcophagus containing the remains of the dead priest still lies in the basement of the monastery always guarded by a lighted lamp. Rev. P.A. MUTZ was his successor, having been ordained as one of the graduates of St. Francis some years before. The present pastor Rev. Diebl. The village is still full of the old world atmosphere and religious influences are great. A branch of the C. K. W. exists in connection with St. Gregory's."
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FOUNDING OF ST. NAZIANZ
Pages 459-463
The village of St. Nazianz has a place of its own in the history of Manitowoc county on account of the prominence of its founder, the early period in which its settlement was made and its present position among its sister villages. Fifty-eight years have passed since a German priest, Ambrose Oschwald, a native of the grand duchy, Baden, attracted to his standard a loyal band of the faithful for the purpose of withdrawing from the mother country and emigrating to the United States, where their civic and religious liberties should be more firmly established. On the virgin soil of the new world they hoped to find that security of exisitence which the mother country failed to give them, due by reason of over population and political unrest. Their further and principal aim was to follow unhampered and unmolested the demands of an especially religious people, which was difficult for them to maintain at that time in Germany, the more especially in Baden, on account of conditions brought about in the aftermath of the German revolution of ’48.
Necessary preparations having been consummated, one hundred and thirteen persons, under the guidance of Father Oschwald, began execution of the plans formulated by him, and in May, 1854, the colony went to sea in two separate divisions and consumed on the voyage about fifty-five days each. In the following month of August the colonists arrived in Milwaukee, where they acquired title to a house upon payment of $900, in which were placed those who had become sick and otherwise were too weak to proceed into the wilderness. In the meantime, Father Oschwald, for the colonists, bought about thirty-eight hundred and forty acres of land in Manitowoc county, for which was paid $3.50 per acre, and with his band of homeseekers went into the wilderness, upon the land purchased, and at once began preparations for clearing the tract of its timber and building homes thereon for the future St. Nazianz.
In course of time twenty more men arrived – on September 1st – under the guidance of Father Oschwald, and to them the conditions and surroundings appeared of the most primitive nature; but soon there was laid the foundation of the present city in the building of two block houses and it was not long thereafter before the erection of a church was begun under the efficient guidance of Jacob Durst, a skilled carpenter.
This first house of worship, erected in the wilderness by the colonists of St. Nazianz, was thrown open to them and dedicated on the third Sunday of October, 1854. Unmolested by surrounding Indians the little colony gradually grew up and out of it there was formed a society whose members were not bound by any special promise and at any time could regain their independence and live for themselves in absolute liberty.
The new arrivals to the village gradually increased and among them were also such as did not directly join the inner circle of the colony. It seemed worth while to establish the young settlement in such a manner that the needs of the community in every possible direction should be provided for by its own members and independently of the outside world. At that time the colonists were occupied with the erection of two monasteries, one for the male members and the other situated a quarter of a mile north of the first, for the female members of the society. Furthermore, other industries sprang up – an oil mill, a sawmill, a grist mill, a tannery, shoe factory, clothes-making shop, a nursery, blacksmith shop, tin shop, cabinetmaker’s shop, and other establishments, manned and operated by members of the colony who were skilled in the various arts and trades. These initial enterprises were in every way successful and remunerative and at the same time brought to the whole community interest in the work and more or less diversion.
The buildings in the year 1860, six years after the founding of the colony, numbered fifty-six, and there were forty-eight families in the village not members of the colony. On the 9th of June, 1864, thee cornerstone of the parish church was laid by the Most Rev. Henny, archbishop of Milwaukee. An orphan asylum for girls and a hospital were also built but neither one is used at the present day for the purposes originally intended.
If the colony at that time perceptibly flourished and developed it is not to be considered that the only object of the colonists in coming to the new world was for material gain. In the year 1869 the colony became financially involved while installing the boiler plant for running the mills and the.more spacious buildings of the parish. The expense of this large undertaking reached the amount of $13,000, and for the church an additional $24,000 was required. These outlays four years later nearly caused the complete dissolution of the colony and it was only through the aid of a few men of generous hearts that the catastrophe was stayed and the interests of the society safeguarded. Brave and full of confidence in a higher power, the colony worked along fearlessly and unceasingly, even to the building of a small priest’s seminary, in which many young clerics successfully ‘pursued part of their studies.
The colony had previously erected a small structure called Loretto chapel, dedicated to the honor of "Our Lady,” and by the year 1872 the Oschwald foundation was at that stage of completion that it gave general satisfaction to to interested.
In the year 1873 the colony met with an irreparable loss in the death of its founder, Father Oschwald, who was a priest after the heart of God and was completely consumed in his profession. More even than that, he was a sympathetic friend to the sick and those in need and he not only gave spiritual advice but also sought as far as he was able to relieve sickness and help those in material need. It is easy to imagine what energies such superhuman demands entailed, especially throughout the hard times of the many severe and trying winters, but he would brook no effort to divert him from his purposes, such was his zeal in caring for his people. Even the strongest oak must fall some lime before the storm, and so Father Oschwald, who had always enjoyed most excellent health, contracted a cold while following the duties of his calling during the extraordinary severities of the weather in February, 1873. His malady soon developed into inflammation of the lungs, which brought on other complications, and for eight days he was confined to a painfully sick bed, and on the myth day of February, 1873, at seven o’clock in the morning, this loyal friend of humanity, always active and untiring, quietly passed away. Great was felt the shock and there was mourning by all who knew this goodly priest. In the presence of an innumerable throng who came from far and near to pay the last honors to the dear deceased, Father Oschwald, on the 3d(sic) of March, was laid in the grave. His sepulchre is under the sancluary of the old Ambrosius church.
FATHER AMBROSIUS.
Rev. Ambrose Oschwald was born on the 14th of March, 1801, in Mundel-fingen, in the grand duchy of Baden, Germany, the son of a highly esteemed family, and in his early age, with two other children, was taught to make himself useful in the fields. His father was a miller. Soon, however, it became evident that Ambrose, who was the eldest of the family, showed a special talent, clear perception, an earnest mind and a deep religious feeling, which qualities seemed to destine him to a higher plane of activity. Ambrose desired to become a priest. The pious parents did not try to stand in the way of his ambition, but on the other hand, encouraged him in his chosen course and even lightened the burden of his labor in order to make it possible for the hopeful youth to prepare himself by private study for the gymnasium.
At the age of twenty-one years, in the autumn Of 1822, he was admitted to the gymnasium at Donaueschingen. He was graduated from that institution with the highest honors and afterwards attended the University of Freiburg in Baden, and, in the year 1832 entered the Arch-Episcopal Priests 'Seminary in Freiburg, where a year later he was consecrated to the priesthood.
Oschwald’s most fervent wish was to completely devote himself to missionary labor in foreign lands, but as many difficulties arose, he gave up this ambition and devoted his ministrations to his countrymen. For twenty years he was incessantly, and greatly to his credit, so engaged until 1852, when he went to Munich and there matriculated in the university for the purpose of studying botany and the secrets of medicine, especially that branch pertaining to the immediate aid of the sick. It appears that even at that time he had conceived the plan of emigrating to America. He desired, however, to be a helper to his flock in all matters and that he was successful in his wishes no doubt has ever been harbored, as his many kindly deeds and successful endeavors in his chosen field of labor fully attest. Friend and foe and even those who came from other communities found through the efforts and ministrations of Oschwald that for which they had hoped and prayed.
His residence in America was always strewn with thorns and the cross which was destined for him to carry was heavy, yet the splendid spirit that always was with him enabled him to make even the heaviest sacrifices for his followers. He was active as a priest in St. Nazianz for nineteen years and was the leader of the colony until inexorable death called him after the completion of his work. His name, however, will always remain and his memory be held in the deepest love and veneration. The death of Rev. Oschwald was a heavy blow to the colony, not only because of the devotion and love that was held for him, but also that it entailed upon the foundation a financial crisis.
Until that time Rev. Oschwald, as the president of the society, always acted as its financial agent in all purchases and sales. An important point in law unfortunately had been overlooked by the society in that the founder had failed to take out letters of incorporation. Oschwald died and his will, in which all of the property acquired by the colony, was transferred to the society, was offered for probate but the courts would not recognize the transfer of the property to the society as being within the law, as the society had no legal corporate existence. To make matters worse, there stood against the society a large number of debts and because of these conditions many of the members of the colony desired an accounting of its financial condition and their share of the property returned to them. The custom of returning to any member any amount of money which may have been at any time invested in the colony had obtained from the beginning, but the crisis at this time became so imminent that it was considered best to dissolve the colony and, under the circumstances, old members who had no property would have to be taken care of by the county.
In those days there was none who thought that the collapse of the institution could be avoided, but in the hour of need there came help even if in the last moment. A few noble minded men interested themselves in the society and supported the same by counsel and deed. The sale of a few tracts of land and a considerable subsidy from the county, which was granted for services delivered in the conduct of a poor house and hospital, helped the colony to tide over the catastrophe. The society was incorporated and a new administration insituted and, although there were a few discontented members who attempted to undermine the existence of the colony, the future was assured.
Under the careful guidance of Rev. P. A. Mutz, selected by Father Oschwald as his successor, a new spirit of enterprise sprang up among the membership and the dying colony took on a new lease of life.
Rev. Peter Mutz, the next administrator of the colony of St. Nazianz, was born on the 15th of December, 1840, at Duerrenmestetten, Wurtemburg, and was consecrated to the priesthood, at St. Francis, on the 18th of December, 1869. On the 9th of January, 1870, he became assistant priest at St. Francis church, at Milwaukee. On the 28th of June of the same year he became parish priest at Schleisingerville, where he remained until at the request of Father Oschwald, he became the latter's successor at St. Nazianz, where he remained until his death.
The year 1896 brought about a change in the affairs of the colony. Many of the members had passed away. Rev. Mutz had contracted an incurable disease in the course of his duties which prevented him from further seriously devoting himself to the duties of his office. Furthermore, it was the dearest wish of the founder that the society, which came into existence through his efforts, should become a religious order and now, the time seemed to have come for another crisis in the affairs of St. Nazianz.
The Most Rev. Archbishop of Milwaukee, Frederick Xaverius Katzer, became actively interested and took charge of the colony. He soon appealed to the superior general of the Society of the Divine Savior in Rome to take care of the further management of the colony, with the offer that later, according to the wish of the late Father Oschwald and that of the members who incorporated the society, all property of the same should become the property of the Divine Savior. The answer of the superior general, the Very Rev. Francisus a Cruce Jordan, was in the affirmative. In the beginning of August, 1896, Bishop Katzer arrived in St. Nazianz, accompanied by two of his priests, and immediately, on the 15th of August, opened a cloister for the purpose of founding a home for the Society of the Divine Savior, whose members are designated as the Salvatorian Fathers.
The said society was founded in the year 1881 by the Badenese priest, Francisus a Cruce Jordan, at Rome, Italy. The members of the society, whose mother house is in Rome, are active in home and foreign missions, namely: East India, South America, Holland, Italy, Sicily, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and North America. Parish work and schools are in the immediate circle of activity of this society. Soon after the erst priest among them, the Rev. Father Epiphanias Deibel, for many years the president of the colony and at present the provincial, became acquainted with the circumstances, other fathers and brothers came from Rome and today the colony numbers eleven paters and five fraters.
Since the colony has been taken care of by the Salvatorian Fathers, it has been their first endeavor to retain the stability of the society and also to make many material improvements. Various buildings were erected, among which was a new cloister church, consecrated in 1898 with due solemnities.
In September, 1904, the golden jubilee of the founding of St. Nazianz was celebrated and among others present on that most auspicious occasion was the Most Rev.Archbishop of Milwaukee, Mgr. Messner, the Very Rev. Bishop of Green Bay, Mgr. J. J. Fox, and the Very Rev. Bishop of Marquette, Mgr. Fr. Eis.
In 1906, as the building became too small there was begun a new structure for a monastery with a study house, which was dedicated and solemnly consecrated on the 23d of October, 1907, by the Very Rev. Bishop Fox. In 1909 the college was opened with nine students and the number of the same has increased from year to year. Much has been done to improve the grounds around the college and cloister, especially in later years. Toward the north of the cloister was a tract of land more or less swamp, containing a number of springs, which was converted into a lake and to this now leads a broad gravel walk from the village, with a natural park of trees and shrubs, crossed by a similar path or road leading to the Loretto hill. Thus the old colony was made more beautiful, more modern and more attractive and it is hoped that it may develop in the future and bring fruition worthy of its founder and his faithful helpers.
