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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1903)
Church of the German Catholics of Omaha ':i.r::ia:,ft--(v:' i FIRST HOME OP THE CONGREGATION OF an old Photo. ( . -1ITII the simplest of ceremonies I fif I permissible under the clrcum I " 1 stances the new church of St frJ52Rl Mary Magdalene, Nineteenth and Dodge streets, was used for the first time last Sunday morning, and the formal dedication has been deferred to a more convenient time. The new church Is the third edifice to be erected by tho parishoners of St. Mary Magdalene's parish, with one exception the oldest parish in the city, and the mother parish of two others which are now among the strongest numerically and financially in the diocese of Omaha. St. Mary Magda lene's church was built by Father Otto Groenebaum In 1868. After ordination at Milwaukee, February 15, 1867, he was ap pointed pastor of the German Catholics In and about Omaha. He had headquarters at St. Philomena's church for a year and thin the Germans of the city decided to build a church of their own. A meeting was held at St. Philomena's church In the sum mer of 1S68. Thirteen persons were present and Bishop O'Gorman remarked: "Father Groenebaum, what will you do; I see you have only a baker's dozen at this meet ing?" The "baker's dozen" of St. Mary Magdalene's church has passed Into the tradition of the parish, but the first mem bers of the church were: Peter Frenzer, John Frenzer, Joseph Frenzer, Bernard Koester, Henry Koester, Michael Kappes, Peter Kill, Nicholas Mcrgen, Peter Mies, Nicholas Scheldt, George Kleffner, Joseph Granacher, Andrew Wassermann, John B. Mertes, John Baumer, Anton Selsle, Rubhausen and Welt. These eighteen men raised the money necessary for the purchase of the lot on Douglas street in the rear of the Boston Store, where the church was maintained The (Copyright, 1903, by Weston Coyney.) NOTHER mail carrier's been frozen to death, boys." "Yes? That's bad luck! Why, it was only three weeks ago that Hen Downing lost his toes." This Is the kind of talk the traveler hears in the trappers' huts and "rest houses" on the frozen Yukon river and the Bering coast up to Nome. Along 2,000 miles of this rugged, Ice-bound region the United States government hus established the loneliest and most dangerous mail route In the world. The mall carriers travel on foot over 1,600 miles of this route, and one stretch of nearly 600 miles through a desolata, uninhabited country has to be covered by a single postman. Prospectors hunting for gold in the wildest parts of the Yukon territory get their letters from home at a terrible cost of human lifu and suffering. . The Yukon mail carrier must travel with his dog sledge along a river piled up with blocks of Ice like the boulders on a hill side. He does not have a level surface on which to skim along like a skater. His dogs and he must make their way over masses of jagged ice, and struggle through deep snowdrifts which threaten to blot them out from human sight and memory. Every morning, when he starts out,' the mall carrier literally takes his life in his hand. Running behind his sled, he crosses a 8)ot where the ice Is thin, and down he goes, lie manages to get out, perhaps. 1 i . 1 . j ST. MARY MAGDALENE. From if f : 1 ; t in... - J - -.. I ' BEAUTIFUL NEW CHURCH OT ST. MART MAGDALENE. NOT YET FOR MALLY DEDICATED. Photo by a Staff Axtlat. rom 1868 until its removal to the present elte. The church was dedicated Christmas day, 1868, and was used until Its destruc tion by Are February 8, 1894. Within a few days after the church was destroyed steps were taken for the construction of another building, which was dedicated World's Loneliest Mail Route but the thermometer Is probably down in the 60s below zero. His wet clothes im mediately freeze. He may get off with a loss of a few toes by freezing, or be Is not heard of until the Ice goes out and the river gives up its dead. When the mull' carrier arises In the morning, after sleeping ut the "rest house," he finds that every one of his Joints is stiffened by his violent exertions and long exposure to the Intense cold. Probably no trail is to be seen. There has been a snow storm during the night, or a wind storm which has drifted the snow. The Yukon is several miles wide in places, and on these occasions the surface is so broken by hillocks of ice and snow drifts that its winding course cannot be distinguished from the land. The carrier has to don his snowshoes and break a new trail for the dogs over the trackless waste. Theodore Blum, a veteran at the business, started to do this one morning. It was on the Yukon flats, Just Inside the Arctic circle, where the river is nearly fifteen miles wide. He carried a long ilr pole with him, his dog team followed him, and when he felt the Ice giving wuy he threw down the pole and rested his weight on it. But even though his weight was thus cunningly distributed, it did not always save him from a ducking. He broke through no fewer than six times in his endeavor to cross the river, and narrowly escaped be ing frozen before he could reach one of the shelters. ...:. Ben Downing, the most famous of the u mm I -ft tit SECOND CHURCH OK ST. MART MAGDALENE: FIRST. Photo by a Staff Artist Hi. September 29, 1891. This church was of brick and was abandoned only when the value of the land upon which It stands became so high as to warrant Its sale as a business proposition, and the removal of the church to a somewhat more central lo cation. mall carriers, a magnificent upeclmen of the pioneer, whose big frame has been toughened fighting Indians In Arizona and in the Dukotas, narrowly escaped death at the close of last season. It wus springtime and the sun for an hour before and after noon softened the snow and made travel difficult, so most (if his traveling was done in tho night. He left his station at 1 o'clock In the morning, putting laced moc assins on the feet of his dogs to prevent the sharp ice crystals from cutting them. He had made twenty miles and was going along at a clipping pace, his hands on the bars of the sled, when he heard the lee cr:ik under his dogs. He halted them with a word mid planted his feet rigidly to break the momentum of the sled. This sudden throwing of his weight In one place broke the ice and down he went. The sagacity which comes to the dogs from daily going through such experiences enabled them to drug him on to the solid lee, and away they went again, faster than before, because Hen had his feet wet and knew they were freezing. A few miles more a;id they knew they had already - frozen. Then they tn-gan to bleed, and for ten miles the blood spurted out of the lace holes of his mocassins with every step, and left a red trail on the frozen snow. At length he readied one of his lonely stations. The first -thing he did wus to Strip off his wet clothes, then he wrapped a blanket around his naked body and In a .temperature of 62 degrees lelow zero hunted up wood and made a fire. The fol i t t - :. i'V. . BUILT ON SITE OK THE Plans for the new church were started In 1901, and the building was begun last year, and was practically coinpletod laat full. The new church, while comparatively mall, presents one of the few examples of tlie pure Gothic style of architecture to to seen In tho city. The view of tho build ing on the west Hide where the walls of the church and the pastor's residence Join, is particularly striking. The materials used are stone and gray brick. The nave of the church Is divided by columns Into three Gothic archeR, the center arch being about twenty-two feet wide and twenty-eight feat liigh. The side arches are of the same height, but about eleven feet wide. The hurch Is lighted by windows of FrlncA of Wales glass, while the five windows In the apse are of cathedral glass and are In fnemory of the Cleve family, the Kuncl family, Father Otto Groenebaum and father Glauber, tho central window bear ing no name. The altar Is the one used In the old building, as are the other pieces of furniture and the side altars. The history of St. Mary Magdalene's par ish has been one of quiet growth, with the exception of the destruction of the first building by fire, entailing a loss of about $13,000, the parish being particularly for tunate. There have been but two pastors In the, thirty-five years of Its existence. Father Groenebaum and Father George J. Glauber, the present pastor. In that time it has created two other parishes, St. Jo seph's whose church Is at Sixteenth and Center streets, and the Church of tho Im maculate Conception, with a church on Twenty-fourth and Vinton streets. The new site Is In the central part of the city, where the church will becomo popular with visitors to the city. lowing night he traveled nearly fifty miles until he reached Dawson City. He handed over his mall, went limping about his bunU ness as If nothing had happened, und then went home and hud a fever. Ho was in the hospital for two months, and had to havo his toes amputated. Yet he is still in tho same business, and really enjoys Its hazards. George Little, one of Downlntr's carriers, wns traveling through slush ice and got badly wet. He punhed on to reach the "bunk house," but night overtook him. After collecting wood along the river bank: and making a fire, he found that while ha warmed on one pi do he wan chilling on the other, the thermometer registered 61 de grees below zero. Ho he spent the night climbing up and down the hill to keep Ida blood in circulation. These are mild Incidents of the everyday hazards of the truil, told by survivors. In this ndventurous life the old saying that "the dead tell no tales" Is as true as it was In the days of piracy on tho high seas. The number really lost on the trails of this grim region since the currying of the mails would make u long and gruesome list Dogs, sled and man disappear. It Is Im possible, in these vast solitudes, to say what becomes of them. Two mall curriers on the short run to Atlin did not arrive last winter, and a search party whs sent out. They found tho trucks of the sled leading to what had been (Continued oa Page Fifteen.)