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.

Comments

02:24 pm - Wed, March 22 2017

Jo Ann Hunhoff Sallee said:

What a beautiful tribute to our Catholic heritage. Thank you for sharing...not only the exterior but the beautiful interior. Our ancestors had amazing faith. We must not disappoint them for lack of....

03:12 am - Thu, March 23 2017

Betty Artz Doerr said:

My hometown church. Fond memories worshipping here. Now, as an adult, I appreciate the beauty of this church even more than years ago. When I was young it appeared so much larger inside. The choir loft where I sang for years was so beautiful .....I must visit this church next trip to South Dakota. Thanks for the memories!

01:29 pm - Thu, March 23 2017

Dan Ray said:

Thank you all, I love to visit places like this, the care that went into creating them has made a serious impression on me... I have a lot more to visit yet.

08:12 pm - Fri, March 24 2017

Irene Rader said:

Our son, Father John S. Rader was the priest there from 2001 till about 2009. My husband Al Rader was originally from Hoven and we were married in 1955.
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.

01:13 pm - Sun, March 26 2017

Rosella Pfeifer said:

Beautiful pictures we have some nice older churches here also.with high the cellings .but this is very beautiful.