News

Oshkosh church comes to life in stories
of tour guide

By Joanne Flemming
Compass Correspondent

	FULL OF HISTORY: Vi Zweiger enjoys conducting tours of St. Mary Church in Oshkosh, where she's been a member since she was a baby. (Dick Meyer photo)

OSHKOSH -- If you want to know anything about the history of St. Mary Parish, Oshkosh, and the construction of its church, ask Vi Zweiger.

She not only knows the stories that are in the history books, she knows many that are not. "Seven generations of them," she smiled.

Now 90, Zweiger has been a member of St. Mary Parish since she was a baby. Her family came to Wisconsin from Europe in the mid-19th century, settled first in Manitowoc, then moved to Oshkosh.

Her mother told her stories that had come from Zweiger's grandfather "one generation to the next, one generation telling the stories that you don't get in history books," she said.

Zweiger herself knows a lot about the parish. Not only has she been an active member, she was secretary to four pastors, including the late Auxiliary Bp. John Grellinger.

She enjoys sharing her stories with visitors. For several years she has given guided tours of the church to groups from as far away as Chicago, Milwaukee and Green Bay.

Many visitors are in Oshkosh for the annual EAA summer convention and want to see more of the city, Zweiger said. Others are part of bus tours. Still others are students in history and art classes.

St. Mary was built in the German Gothic style, said Zweiger, who likes to start her tours in the back with the interior fully lit. "People are just awed by the beauty of the church. They are just moved that a church so magnificent could be built," Zweiger said.

The first St. Mary Church was built in the 1850s. Fire nearly destroyed all of Oshkosh in 1876. The city rebuilt itself in brick. Fr. Roman Scholter took over as ninth pastor in 1881 and served 33 years. In 1883 the growing parish decided to build a new church.

At that time, Zweiger said, there was speculation that then Bp. Francis Krautbauer might move the see city from Green Bay to Oshkosh. A parish history said he "encouraged St. Mary's to construct a church worthy of the distinction of a cathedral. However, that changed with his unexpected death. Meanwhile, the construction of a beautiful edifice, fit to be a cathedral, moved forward."

The original drawing of the church by a Chicago architect hangs in the parish house, Zweiger said. It shows the spires that would have been erected if the church had become a cathedral.

Bricks and building materials were brought across Lake Winnebago in winter. Evergreens marked the route. "Sleds brought loads and loads of the bricks between the trees," she said.

Zweiger said her great-grandmother said that after parishioners got home from work and had their supper, they helped with excavation as long as they could. The men carried dirt in wheelbarrows, and the women carried it in their aprons.

"They helped the crews who worked during the day so their work was done a little faster," Zweiger said. "So much faith, so much faith, and so much dedication."

Construction took several years. Services were first held in the church basement. Bp. Sebastian Messmer finally dedicated the church in 1892.

Major symbols that dominate the art in the church's interior are the fleur-de-lis, wheat and grapes, Zweiger said. The stained glass windows above the wood-carved main altar are from Innsbruck, Austria, and depict the lives of Mary and Christ. They include the Assumption, the Coronation, the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of Sorrows and the Annunciation.

Above the choir loft is a large rose window. Zweiger said her mother told her that the framework for the window was built near St. Peter Church, Oshkosh, and was brought by "horse-drawn flatbed" to St. Mary and laid flat on the ground across from the church. Then, "by pulley and manpower - the best they had at that time - it was pulled into place," she said. Then the artist inserted the stained glass.

The Stations of the Cross, done by an Appleton artist, are oil painting copies of originals by Feuerstein, a German artist.

Among her family memorabilia, Zweiger said, is a statement showing contributions to the church in the late 1800s. These may have been only a dollar or half-dollar, but wages then were only a few dollars, she said.

Pew rent was $25 a year. Each pew was numbered, and each family was assigned a number. Her family's was 52. The numbered plaques are still attached to the pews.

In the lower level are the maiolica Stations of the Cross, which Bp. Grellinger brought as a gift to the parish after he attended Vatican II. They were made by Eugenio Patterino of Florence, Italy. Zweiger, then the bishop's secretary, remembered seeing them arrive at St. Mary.

She pointed to the coloring and detail in each station, in the Roman soldiers' muscles, the agony of Jesus, and the pain Mary experienced when "her precious son" was taken down from the cross.

The tour ends at Fr. Scholter's grave. He is buried in the church, and his epitaph in German, which Zweiger translated, gives the dates of his birth, ordination and death.

Zweiger intends to keep on giving tours as long as she can. She has some trouble with her knees, she said, but has learned how to climb steps, like those to the choir loft, without getting winded. "Keep your mouth shut, otherwise you are out of breath by the time you get upstairs."

The parish has recorded Zweiger's stories.

For information on tours of St. Mary Church, call the parish office at (920)231-5317.