Chapter Two
Minnesota In The Nineteenth Century

Arch-Bishop Ireland
German Catholic immigration into Minnesota began in the 1850's and grew steadily, reaching its high point in the years followng the Civil War until the turn of the century when it began to level off, coming to a halt with the First World War. Two subsequent waves of much less proportion occurred after the concluion of both the First and the Second World Wars when refugees from the economic and political turmoil in Europe sought a new life in this country.

Minnesota in the decade preceeding the Civil War was on the western frontier of the American nation. Statehood was achieved in 1858. The Diocese of Saint Paul was established in 1850, stretching from the Iowa border to Canada, from the Saint Croix to the Missouri River. Several treaties with the Indians had only recently opened the lands west of the Mississippi to colonization, and the valley of the Minnesota River was beginning to be settled. The Sioux Indians still were living along the valley, and only after the uprising of 1862 did the presence of the Indians dwindle. Settlers were coming into the territory chiefly by steamboat from the south; over one hundred steamboats docked in Saint Paul in 1855,  and two years later nearly three hundred arrived. The railroad from Chicago reached the Mississippi at Rock Island, Illinois, in 1854, and from there the river boats brought the settlers to Minnesota, leaving them at Winona, Red Wing, Wabasha, Hastings and Saint Paul for their further journey to the lands that lay to the west. In the earlier decades it was the Mississippi that carried the burden of immigration, but after the rise of railroading, the bulk of new settlers came over the various lines that came into Saint Paul, making it the center of transportation for the opening of the northwest.

Saint Paul in the 1850's was the capital of the Territory of Minnesota. Its Catholic population was chiefly French Canadian, and its cathedral a very modest brick building on Sixth and Wabasha Streets, an improvement over the log chapel that Bishop Joseph Cretin first took possession of as his cathedral in 1851. The buildings in the settlement were mainly unpainted, log cabins set on narrow, winding, unpaved and unlighted streets. But German immigrants were increasing and they wanted their own church and the use of their own language. In 1853, Bishop Cretin commissioned Father Michael Wurtzfeld to organize a parish for them. The cornerstone of the first Assumption Church was blessed on August 15, 1855, a beautiful stone building for the first German parish in the city. The Assumption Church remained the center of German Catholic life for decades, even after several daughter parishes were split off from it: Sacred Heart in 1881, Saint Francis de Sales in 1884, Saint Matthew in 1886, Saint Agnes in 1887 and Saint Bernard in 1890.

Catholic life was fostered in those years of intense growth in the number of immigrants by the establishment of the Catholic Aid Association for the help of those who in death lost their breadwinner in an alien land. Nearly every German parish throughout the state had its fraternal benevolent society. Through federation in 1878 of these parochial societies on a statewide and eventually nationwide basis, financial security was achieved for those newly arrived families on whom disaster fell.

It was at the Assumption that the German Catholic newspaper, Der Wanderer, was founded in 1867, which continues today as The Wanderer, a national Catholic paper edited by laymen, long famous for its strong position in defense of the Holy Father. During the days that it was published in the German language, it was a strong influence in teaching and directing the immigrant in the practice of his Catholic faith as well as his loyalty to his new country.

The Katholiken-Tag was an important event in German Catholic life. Modeled after similar meetings in Germany, it brought together great numbers of people from all parts of the state, speakers on important issues in the political and moral sphere, elaborate celebrations of Mass and always a great parade, an event very dear to the hearts of the participants.

In the 1880's the City of Saint Paul was growing to the west and the north. Settlement was beginning beyond Western Avenue,  which was for many years the city limits. The organization of the Great Northern Railway and its extension to the west coast provided jobs for many of the immigrants arriving in Saint Paul, and with the opening of the Dale Street shops along the railroad's right-of-way the area known as Frogtown began to be settled by those who worked in the shops. Polish, Irish and German-speaking immigrants were the chief settlers, and each group organized its own parish, Saint Adalbert's for the Polish, Saint Vincent de Paul for the Irish, and Saint Agnes for the German-speaking people.

Origin of the designation, Frogtown, has often been misunderstood to indicate a French beginning, especially since a farmer named Lafond, after whom the present street is called, did live in the area. However, the true reason for the nickname comes from the high water table in the marshy section lying between the high ground of Calvary Cemetery and Saint Anthony Hill to the south. The meadow was alive with frogs who croaked loudly and who gave their name to the place. The Germans called it Froschburg and often in writing to relatives in Europe referred to their new homes in "Frogtown." Ultimately, it was because of the high water table that so many steps were built up to Saint Agnes Church, since the basement had been set at a level to escape water, and the upper structure was designed above the basement. Even today sump pumps operate to keep the sub-basement levels of Saint Agnes School free of water that an underground river would quickly pour into the boilerroom if the pumps should fail. The new houses built in Frogtown were small frame dwellings of a few rooms, often one story, but capable of additions in the rear. The lots were narrow and the space between the dwellings was minimal. Sidewalks, when they existed, were often made of wood, and the streets were not paved. After heavy rains puddles were usual in the marshy district. Life in Frogtown was almost self-sufficient. Vegetable gardens and fruit trees were found in most yards. Each block or two had its bakery, grocery and meat market and a saloon. Even today the two-story commercial buildings that still mark the corner lots recall the time when these were thriving businesses in the service of their neighbors. Bread and rolls were delivered to the homes each morning; milk was peddled to those who had no cow; only beer had to be obtained by a visit to the Wirtschaft with a pail since the only refrigeration for that beverage was the cellar of the saloon in which the kegs were kept.  Most clothes were homemade, and shoes could be bought and repaired along Dale Street which was the Hauptstrasse for the neighborhood. Recreation in the form of dancing, singing, weddings or other occasions often centered around Dietsch's hall on Western and Thomas. Saloons were numerous and on paydays they cashed the hard-earned checks. Children had few places to play, but the area that today is West Minnehaha Playground was then a swamp and dump and a favorite place for many escapades. Children usually were kept busy with chores, and peddling the newspapers or watering the graves in Calvary Cemetery earned a few pennies that were deemed a fortune in those days. On Sunday afternoons the pennies were sometimes spent after great consideration at one of the grocery stores with a glass candy counter full of goodies. Frogtown was a community of its own, and the distance to downtown Saint Paul on foot was enough to make such a visit rather rare. That was true for those who on Sunday had to walk the long distance to the Assumption Church.

And so in 1887, the need for a new German parish in Frogtown became apparent, and Bishop John Ireland appointed Father James Trobec, then pastor of Saint Felix Church in Wabasha, Minnesota, to organize the German-speaking people living north of Marshall Avenue and west of Rice Street into a new parish. The exact eastern boundary was described as a line beginning at Marshall and Western and running north along Western to Fuller Street, east on Fuller to Marion Street and then north on Marion to Como Avenue. The western and northern boundaries were not determined, and thus the new parish included many farmers in the northern and western sections of Ramsey County. The parish was incorporated as the Church of Saint Agnes of Saint Paul, Minnesota, on October 26, 1887. Father Trobec had wasted no time in beginning his spiritual work, for on October 9, he baptized the first child, George Schuhmacher, born on September 8, 1887, to Frederick Schuhmacher and Catharine Selinger. Officers of the new corporation were Bishop John Ireland, Monsignor Augustin Ravoux, the vicar general, Father James Trobec, the pastor, and Karl Schultz and Jacob Louis as treasurer and secretary. The first action was to obtain land and to erect a building to serve as church, school and convent.

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