The German Catholic families who settled in the Windy Ridge area of southeast Alberta beginning in 1908 had already faced many challenges establishing homesteads. By 1911 they needed to address another. One of their number had died and they needed a sacred place to bury him. Among the approximately 45 families of this community at the time were Anton and Margaret Schlachter, my 2x grandparents. Religious faith was strong among the Germans from Russia. It undoubtedly held the community together and supported individuals through unthinkable hardship. In 1905, Anton and Margaret had arrived at Ellis Island, New York from a German-Russian community in Romania with children Raphael and Anna. They made their way north through the Dakotas (son Joseph, my grandfather, was born there) and Saskatchewan (son Jacob was born there) before settling on a homestead in Windy Ridge in 1909. In the years before a church could be built, the Schlachters and others would open their homes to the Catholics in the area and a priest from Medicine Hat would come to provide services. That was a fine temporary measure for mass and baptisms, but a burial was a different matter. One of the local families donated five acres of land to get started on the immediate need, and planning began for a church. Anton Schlachter was one of three men elected to a board of directors and, by February 13, 1912, ambitious plans were made to construct a building 26’ X 40’ X 12’ with a 42’ tower. Board and community members raised $159 to begin, $98 of which came from Anton and Margaret. The board decided to name the church after the person who raised the most money and so the first phase of the building, completed in 1912, was dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua.
Information about the planning, fundraising and naming of the church is passed down as oral history and documented in a letter from one of the parishioners to the larger Germans-from-Russia community in the U.S. and even Russia, via a widely-read North Dakota German-language newspaper.
Anton Schlachter was a founding member of the church board in 1912 although, because he is not pictured here, may have no longer been a member by 1914. In this picture, the church building did not have the vestibule or steeple yet and a post with the bell stands in the background. Notice the crucifix mounted on a large base directly behind the men. (Photo: Conquerville A Growing Community 1963).
In the 1990s, after the church was no longer in use, the large crucifix was taken down and the concrete base smashed open - to reveal a container with a piece of paper in it! The note was written in German and confirms that Anton Schlachter donated the cross erected in the churchyard in 1915 (there is a discrepancy in the date in the above photo and when the note says the crucifix was erected - perhaps the photo of the board was taken in 1915 or later).
This note was written in German. See a link a the bottom of this post to read the translation. (Photo from the collection of Jacquie Doran.)
