Sanctuary on the Prairie
Mar 22, 2017
In the fall of 1886, the Rev. Bernard Heus travelled from Ipswich to lead the town of Bowdle’s first Catholic Mass in a hall over Cox’s store on Main Street. Today, Catholics in the Edmunds County city of 500 have more elegant accommodations. St. Augustine Catholic Church on Third Avenue was completed in 1919. Its ornate architecture includes stained glass windows that illustrate events recorded in the Bible. The windows were gifts from early pioneer families who worshipped there. Photos by Dan Ray.
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Comments
My maiden name was Buechler, My great grandfather and grandfather homesteaded 7 miles northwest of Bowdle. There were many other
Buechler families there, all of them Lutheran, having come from the German-Russian colony of Glueckstal in 1890. They established a church there known as the Buechler church or Neu-Gluckstal church. The church is gone now but the cemetery is still there. The home where I grew up was my grandfather's homestead. I am happy to see all the pictures of the St. Augustine church in Bowdle.