Catholic churches and chapels in Plain, Wisconsin

Catholic church: 1861/1865 to 1885

Parish members call this the first church. In 1861, construction began on the first Catholic church in Plain, located in Section 8 about a half-mile from the center of Plain. Note: this church and two others built at this location no longer exist. To find the location, go to the south end of St. Lukes Avenue and turn on the driveway called Galarnyk Road (this name is not on maps) which leads to 1680 St. Lukes Avenue. More info about this is below the map below. 

Jost Voelkel donated a parcel of land for the new church grounds.i The church (constructed by a mason named Ott from the country Liechtensteinii), was made of stone and had a small steeple. It was dedicated in 1865 and named "St. Luke Catholic Church" in honor of the church patron, Saint Luke. From 1864 to 1874, the parish was a mission of Keyesville; in 1874, it became a mission of Honey Creek. The parish remained a mission until a resident pastor arrived in 1876.

i St. Luke's Catholic Church, Plain, WI, 1982 (parish directory). History of St. Luke's Parish, page 7.

ii Rev. Johann G. Laurer, (original title) Geschichte der katholischen Gemeinde des hl. Lukas zu Plain, Wis. (translated title) The History of St. Luke's Parish, The Town of Franklin, The Village of Plain, in the County of Sauk, State of Wisconsin, United States of America up to 1907 (Oak Brook, Illinois: Hausner Foundation, 1999. Karl Hausner, editor). Transcription of old German script by Georg Johann Blau, Hoechstaedt-Donau, Germany, 1997. Translation of German to English by Karl and Hermine Hausner and Edith Alt, Plain, Wisconsin. Page 9.

On the photo above, dated after 1875, is the first Catholic church in Plain with parishioners standing in the yard. Behind the church is rectory (parsonage) made of stone which was built in 1875i then used in 1888 as a Sister house with school rooms. i Hildegarde Thering, A History of Plain, Wisconsin (Plain, Wisconsin: privately published, 1982. Page 33. "The parsonage that had been built by Fr. Spitzelberger in 1875"

Catholic church: 1885 to 1903/1904

Parish members call this the second church. In February 1884, parishioners began hauling materials by sleigh in preparation for a new church. They planned to tear down the old church and convert it into walls for the new church.

On June 7, 1885, a strong wind storm passed through the area around Plain, uprooting trees including orchards, breaking fences, and damaging buildings. Apparently, the storm did not cause any damage to the new church because construction had not yet begun. Shortly after the storm, workers began to build the new (second) church. It was built of stone and had a slightly taller steeple than the previous church. Two small "rose" windows were located on the front side. The church measured 40 x 80 feet and was located on the same place as the first church (at the south end of St. Lukes Avenue). William Dresen of Sauk City was the contractor; Owen from Mazomanie was in charge of mason work. Work had to be postponed for several days in August when farmers became too busy to haul lumber. By September, carpenters were nearly done and the steeple was being framed. It is unknown when the dedication of the second church was made. i Weekly Home News (Spring Green, Wisconsin), June 1885. Transcript available in Hildegarde Thering's 1982 book, A History of Plain, page 65-66.

The photo above is dated after 1888. A pair of horses are hitched to a carriage. Text on the picture says: "Second New Catholic Church at Plain, Wis. Built in 1885." Five buildings are visible, identified left to right as: 

#1: St. Luke's rectory / parsonage, built in 1888 by Cramer Brothers. 

#2: St. Luke's first Catholic school, a frame building built in 1876 which was moved to this location to be used for storage / horse barn. 

#3: St. Luke's Catholic Church, called the second church, made of stone and built in 1885. Standing by the front door of the church is likely Rev. John G. Laurer who is holding a cane or umbrella with a dog at his side. 

#4: Combination Catholic school and Sister house / nunnery, originally built as a parsonage in 1875. Standing at the door of the Sister house are 2 nuns, one is seated on a bench. The Sister house still exists today. The address is 1630 St. Luke's Avenue and is a private rental residence owned by the Ihor Galarynk family.

#5: Unidentified shed or barn. 

The above photo is from a postcard but also appeared on page 846 of the book, The Catholic Church in Wisconsin: A history of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin from the earliest time to the present day; by Harry Hooper Heming; (versions dated 1895 to 1899), and on page 726 of the German translated version, Geschichte der Katholischen Kirche in Wisconsin: Authentische Geschichte der Katholischen Kirche in Wisconsin von fruehester Zeit bis zur Gegenwart; edited and compiled by Johann Haug, Milwaukee, Censor Rev. Ignatz Klein; 1899. 

Catholic church: 1903/1904 to 1918 (destroyed by a cyclone)

Parish members call this the third church. Eighteen years after dedicating their second church, the Catholics at Plain were planning a third St. Luke's church - a large (141 x 55 feet) brick Romanesque-style church (shaped like a cross). Construction began in 1903 by contractors Heinrich and Friedrich Roettiger from Fountain City. The old second church was razed so that the stones could be reused in the new church. During construction, Masses were temporarily held in the schoolhouse. Bricks for the new church were obtained from Cramer Brothers of Plain. Joseph Blau donated stones from his own quarry. The new church was dedicated in 1904. It was located near the same place as the first and second church (at the south end of St. Lukes Avenue). The church had a very tall pointed steeple on one end, with a smaller pointed steeple near the center of the roof. There were at least six long stained-glass windows on one side. There were three altars: left, center, and right (see below).

Cyclone

On May 21, 1918, Plain and surroundings areas were hit by a cyclone. Several homes, farms, and businesses were destroyed or damaged, cattle were killed, and St. Luke's fifteen-year old (third) church was leveled by what was then called a cyclone. Only the steeple of the church remained standing.

Read more about the cyclone in the book, "May 21st 1918 Cyclone ~ A Path of Destruction"

Ordering information: https://oldfranklintownshiphistoricalsociety.weebly.com/merchandise.html

Temporary Catholic church at Cramer's Hall / Bettinger's Hall: 1918 to 1920

This is St. Luke's Catholic school which housed St. Luke's Chapel. On the roof of the main building was a rounded bell tower steeple with a cross on top. Attached to the main building in the back was a shorter structure with a smoke stack (see photo further below). 

The interior pictures (above and below) of the chapel inside the school show several sunny windows on all sides. Notice the two kneeling angels on pedestals on both sides of the altar. Those angels were later displayed outside in the Maria Plain Meditation Garden (aka St. Luke Courtyard). As of 2016, the angels were moved back to the altar of the current St. Luke's church building. For more about the angels, see: Maria Plain Meditation Garden

The photo above shows a Mass taking place. (Original photo owned by Old Franklin Township Historical Society in Plain. On the back was written, "Our old church where classrooms are now.")

In 1920, the parish of St. Luke's dedicated a new chapel (St. Luke's Chapel). The chapel was located inside the main two-story building of the newly-built Catholic school on Nachreiner Avenue in Plain. The parish chapel was used for Sunday and Holy Day Masses and other religious events such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals. 

"The school building had seven large classrooms and a social room. The large hall, 100 x 44 feet, served as a church having two sacristies, a  sanctuary, and a gallery. It had a seating capacity of 600." (Hildegarde Thering, A History of Plain, Wisconsin (Plain, Wisconsin: privately published, 1982. Page 171). In a newspaper article (possibly The Catholic Tribune), it said, "The new building will be thoroughly modern in construction and contain six large school rooms and a hall 40 by 80 feet, to be used as a church until a new one can be erected." 

From another newspaper article: "Parochial School Will be Dedicated. Bishop Schwebach to Officiate at Ceremony at Plain, Wis., on Columbus Day - Hall and School Cost More Than $80,000 - Fourth (Provisional) Church in Fifty-Five Years - Takes Place of Large Church Wrecked by Cyclone. PLAIN, Wis., Oct. 7, - (Special) - Columbus Day, Oct. 12th, will mark another milestone in the growth of St. Luke's Parish, one of the largest in the diocese of La Crosse, next Tuesday. Rt. Rev. James Schwebach, D. D. will dedicate the new school and the hall, which will serve temporarily as a church. . . . Splendid Building. The new structure consists of a school, two stories high with seven rooms, a social hall, 80 by 40 feet, and a hall (40 by 100 feet) which will be used for church purposes for some years until a large church can be erected. The total length of the building is 146 ft. The front is 97 ft and the hall 46 ft wide. The contract price was $59,314. [story continues with other costs and history of the parish]

(unknown newspaper, possibly The Daily Catholic Tribune with a handwritten date of 1919 at the top)

The new school building (with cornerstone date of 1919) was located on the old picnic grounds on a hill overlooking the village - a block west of the red brick Sunnyside School. This school location was .4 miles north of the sites of the first, second, and third St. Luke's churches (those churches which had pointed steeples).

When the cornerstone was blessed on September 21, 1919, by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Kremer, the Weekly Home News of Sept. 18, 1919, wrote, "The school children and all the societies will meet at St. Luke's chapel at 3 o'clock from which place they will march in solemn procession to the new school." The chapel being used at that time was the building downtown known as Cramer's Hall / Bettinger's Hall. It is believed the procession began at the downtown building. If the procession began at the new chapel located inside St. Luke's new school, the procession would have been very short.

The Daily Catholic Tribune dated Oct. 12, 1920, and titled, "Splendid Church and School Opened, New Structure Takes Place of Large Church Demolished by Cyclone Two Years Ago at Plain, Wis." described the building, "The new school and church, which are in a the form of a letter T, represent an actual cash outlay of $80,000. Some twenty-five carloads of material was hauled a distance of nine miles from the nearest railway station, Spring Green. If this work, the excavating stone furnished, material from the old church, etc., are figured in, the cost is around $100,000. There are 260 families. The new structure has been erected under the direction of Rev. Charles Surges, the zealous and energetic pastor since 1918." 

St. Luke's Chapel, located in the school building, is what parish members refer to as the "fourth" Catholic church at Plain because it was the fourth "church" they helped to build, even though the church was just a large room inside the school. The temporary 2-year chapel at Cramer / Bettinger Hall, where marriages, baptisms, and funerals took place, should have been called the fourth church used by parishioners, but it was not built by the them.

Twenty years later, when a new large church building with two steeples was built and dedicated in 1940, the altar and pews in the 20-year chapel were removed. The 40x10 foot hall room used as a chapel was then remodeled and divided into smaller spaces to be used for St. Luke's high school students. This remodeling may have been in the 1950s. The wooden double doors (where people once entered into the chapel) were removed and replaced with a garage-type sliding door that opened from the top and pulled down to the floor. After remodeling, the former double-door entrance led to a hallway with rows of student lockers to hang their coats and store books (according to photos taken in 2007). 

Some locals in 2019 remembered there was a small choir room near the chapel. After remodeling, the choir room no longer exists.

The Catholic high school at Plain was established in September 1920 with classes believed to have been held for a short time in the old school which was damaged in the 1918 cyclone. High school students moved on Dec. 21, 1920, to the newly-built school building. The high school closed in 1966 "due to a shortage of teachers from the Dominican Order of Racine" (Thering, page 199). 

How to locate St. Luke's Chapel: At the east side entrance of the school, on Nachreiner Avenue, walk up a flight of stairs and enter the building through entrance doors. When inside the building, walk up about 11 steps and go through another set of doors which leads to a hallway that runs north and south. Take a couple of steps north. On the left (west) side of the hallway, was a double-wide wooden door that led directly into St. Luke's Chapel. See photo below: To the right of the Crucifix statues are double doors with an illegible sign hanging above the doorway. These doors were the entrance to St. Luke's Chapel. 

See the discussion about the St. Luke's Chapel at the Old Franklin Township Historical Society Facebook private group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OFTHS/permalink/2425794024168149/

The photo above is from page 37 of The Chimes, Dedication Issue, Volume Three. Class of 1940 yearbook. St. Luke's Catholic School, Plain, Sauk County, Wisconsin. 

Another chapel inside St. Luke's Catholic School was used for children's Masses:

School children attended Mass in a small chapel located inside the school building. A description of where to find the small chapel: Face the double doors of the former St. Luke's Chapel (see photo above). To the right was a smaller room which the Sisters called a chapel and was where students went to weekday Masses. 

The blue arrow on the photo above points to a small white cross in the back of the main school building. In the 1960s, this area was a very small library. Perhaps before the 1960s, the small area was used as a small chapel for children's Masses since there was a white cross on the outside of that area. 

This exterior photo was displayed in the dining room in the basement of St. Luke's current church.

See the discussion about the children's chapel at the Old Franklin Township Historical Society Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OFTHS/permalink/2425809777499907/

In 1926, a new Sister house was built for the nuns who taught at the Catholic school. 

St. Anne's Shrine and Grotto - 1928

Beyond the new St. Luke's cemetery, one can follow a hiking trail to the highest point in Franklin Township - known as Council Bluff - and believed to be a former meeting place for local Indian (Indigenous Peoples) tribes. It was on St. Anne's Day on July 26, 1923, when Rev. Charles Surges (pastor of St. Luke parish) and two other priests (Rev. M. Gerend and Rev. Ph. J. Klein) again visited Council Bluff and had the idea to eventually build a chapel on the top. St. Anne's Shrine was suggested as the name of the chapel. St. Anne was the patroness of the Christian Mothers of St. Luke's. The chapel would also be known as St. Anne's Chapel. At this time in 1923, the parish of St. Luke's still did not have a more permanent church after the 1918 cyclone and were using a room in the Catholic school for worship, and were planning to build a large 5th church. 

A 99-year lease for the land leading to St. Anne's Hill was signed on November 3, 1924 at at 10 am by Rev. Charles Surges. The land was purchased for $1.00 from Frank and Catherine (Zangl) Nachreiner. Stipulations of the lease were: "Said Lessee does promise to keep said place in order and to make no changes nor to cut down trees except with the express consent of the owner, and also binds himself to make easy access for persons with the exception of cattle, and to quit and deliver up the premises to the lessor, his heirs, or assigns, or their attorney peacefully and quietly at the end of the term in case the lessor would not grant a renewal of this lease, however, with the fair understanding that said lessor give due notice and grant reasonable time to remove the shrines, stations, and statues, etc., erected during the time of this lease." The lease was set to expire on November 3, 2023. 

Farmers helped the pastor haul field stones and supplies to the site. Many of the stones came from the Bartholomew and Frances (Sturm) Lehner farm north of Plain. Their daughter Catherine Lehner Prem recalled helping collect pretty rocks. A large stone from the Neuheisel farm house (site of the First Mass in Plain) was used as the cornerstone of St. Anne's Shrine and was inscribed, "Stone from the House of 1st Holy Mass, 1857 AD 1925." The year 1925 may have been the date the cornerstone was placed. St. Anne's Shrine was dedicated on July 26, 1928, with a large procession of parishioners. A grotto called "Lourdes Grotto" was built from 1928 to 1929 by the family of John and Mary (Ruhland) Dischler. Stations of the Cross were placed beginning at the end of Oak Street, along the south end of the cemetery, past a cow pasture, up a steep incline to the top of the hill where it ends at the shrine and grotto - a distance of 3/8 miles. 

Rev. Charles Surges wrote details of the history in his handwritten notebook, "Shrine in Honor of St. Anne." Lorry Erickson wrote, "St. Anne's Hill - The Plain Shrine, A History of St. Anne's Hill, Plain, Wis." published in December 1996 by SeS Publishing, Wilson, Wisconsin. 

Catholic church: 1938/1940 to present

Parish members call this the fifth church. The Catholic population continued to grow in Plain. A new and larger church was needed, and so a new (fifth) church, a beautiful stone edifice with two steeples, was constructed a few yards north of the chapel/school building. Construction began in the fall of 1938. The local contractor was Edward Kraemer and Sons; architect was Hugo Logemann. In 1940, the new fifth church was dedicated. The address is 1240 Nachreiner Avenue.

The church, which can easily seat 850 people, has two rounded steeples, the bell tower on the left being taller than the right steeple. Inside the church, an engraved foundation stone from the Neuheisel log house (site of the first Mass in 1857) was placed in the wall in a hallway behind the altar. The church has two side altars and a main "high" altar. On both sides of the walls are six stained-glass windows. In the choir loft is a large organ. (St. Luke's Catholic Church, Plain, WI, 1982, parish directory, History of St. Luke's Parish, page 7). The photo above was taken on October 25, 2007, at the 150th anniversary of St. Luke's Parish.

Locations of St. Luke churches and cemeteries

See the Google map below with locations of five Catholic churches at Plain, including two St. Luke Catholic cemeteries (old and new), Pleasant Hill Cemetery, and St. Anne's Shrine. 

The old (original) St. Luke's cemetery is south of the village of Plain off "Old Wisconsin 23" as it is called on the Google map. 

The arrow marks the general location of the first three St. Luke churches (dated from 1861 to 1918) and is near today's addresses of 1600 and 1630 St. Luke's Ave (formerly old Highway 23). This area is north of St. Luke's "old" (first) cemetery.

Several people buried at the old cemetery were later moved to "new" cemetery. 

Not marked on the map below is the site of an interim Catholic cemetery used for only a short time. Rev. George Pesch was injured during the cyclone of May 21, 1918. He suffered a paralytic stroke on June 2 after having finished a Mass and died on June 7. Because the church at Plain was destroyed, his funeral was held in St. John's Catholic church in Spring Green on Tuesday, June 11, 1918. He was buried at the recently purchased "new" cemetery on June 11, 1918. As the Weekly Home News reported on June 13, 1918, "At 12 o’clock the funeral procession formed for the return to Plain, where the interment was made in the new cemetery, which was purchased only a few weeks ago, Rev. Fr. Pesch being the first one to be buried there." Later, the body of Rev. Pesch was exhumed and moved to the current new St. Luke Cemetery (behind the 1940 church). The cemetery where Rev. Pesch was first buried was abandoned. Perhaps a child, a cyclone victim, was also buried in the interim cemetery. 

The aerial map below is dated 2020 from Google Maps. The black and white aerial map from Vintage Aerial is dated 1978 and shows the roads leading to 1630 and 1680 Saint Luke Avenue. 

The maps below will be redone by me to show more accurately where the first two churches were located (on the hill) and where the third (cyclone) church was located (on the flat part below the hill which now has the address of 1600 St. Luke Ave and owned by Straka). But you can get an idea of where all the buildings were located. 

The three St. Luke churches and other buildings built on a hill at the south end of Plain no longer exist with one exception. The only parish building remaining is a stone building built in 1875 which was used as a parsonage until 1888 when it was used as a Sister house and Catholic school. 

To find this location, go to the south end of St. Luke Avenue (north of Wachter Ave / Highway 23) and turn west on the upper driveway at Galarnyk Road (this name is not on maps). Galarnyk Road (which splits left and right) is about 460 feet from Highway 23. 

The upper (right) private driveway leads to 1630 St. Luke Avenue (to the old stone building).

The lower (left) private drive (Galarnyk Road) leads to 1680 St. Luke Avenue where a house was built before 1976 by Dr. Ihor Galarnyk (born in Ukraine; a doctor in Plain from 1956 to 2006) and wife Genya "Jennifer / Jennie" Lechman Galarnyk. This drive passes directly in front of the old horse hitching rings attached to an old stone wall. "The home [1680 St. Luke Ave] was designed by Herb Fritz from Hill Top in Wyoming Valley. Fritz was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright who later went on his own as an architect." (Ken Kraemer 4/4/2020). 

https://vintageaerial.com/photos/wisconsin/sauk/1976/WSA/43/7) 

Herb Fritz (1915-1998): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Fritz_Jr.

In the area of the stone 1875 building, a hilly piece of land, is where the first two stone churches were located. These churches no longer exist.

Further down the hill is where the 1903-1918 cyclone church stood. That area is more flat but is still part of the hill. On one end of the hill, along the westerly facing landscaped back yard of 1600 St. Luke Ave, is an original stone retaining wall that turns a corner; this wall once surrounded St. Luke church. A ranch-style home at 1600 St. Luke Avenue was built in 1973 on 1.12 acres of land by Robert and Joanne Liegel Schanke. In 2017, a group of members of the Plain History Genealogy Group led by Gary Haas had a walking tour of the area and took many pictures. At that time, Ben Straka lived at 1600 St. Luke's Ave. Mr. Straka explained that over the years he found remnants of the church in the ground of his property. On April 30, 2018, the home was sold. 

Dr. and Mrs. Galarnyk did not live in the 1875 building but rented it as a residence, and in later years it was occupied by their son Paul (as of 2020). The Galarnyk family also owned the surrounding hillside on which the following buildings were built (these buildings no longer exist):

• First St. Luke Catholic church built in 1861, made of stone

• Second St. Luke Catholic church built in 1885, made of stone

• Second parsonage built in 1888; destroyed by 1918 cyclone

• St. Luke School built in 1893, made of brick (demolished after the 1950s)

• Third St. Luke Catholic church built 1903-1904, made of brick; destroyed by 1918 cyclone

Standing in front of the hitching post wall and looking up the hill, you can see the former 1875 building. Before 1978, architect Herb Fritz designed an addition on the stone house which included an entrance and room with large windows and 2-car garage to the south side of the parsonage building, and a wooden deck or porch in back. It appears that the original stones and window sill from the south side wall were used in the new addition. The parsonage building was built into the hill and is lower on one side. https://vintageaerial.com/photos/wisconsin/sauk/1976/WSA/43/8  

In 2017, three old hand pump water pumps were seen in the yard. Sidewalks leading to nowhere still existed; sidewalks that once led to parish buildings. By 2017, the hilly property was filled with large trees, planted years ago by the Galarnyk family.