Pine Creek, WI (I)

Sacred Heart Parish, in Pine Creek, Wisconsin, was established on February 7, 1864. Because the majority of the local settlers were Bohemians, the fledgling church was named after after Bohemia's patron saint, King Wenceslas.

After the Kaszubian Polish settlers emerged as the majority in Pine Creek, the name "Sacred Heart of Jesus" (a very popular Kaszubian devotion) was added to the young congregation's name, as in the sign below. Note how Saint Wenceslas (in Polish, Święty Wacław) takes second billing on the current church building, erected in 1875. AMDG, by the way, stands for Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, which is Latin for "To The Greater Glory of God." To judge from the strikeout marks, the engraver must not have been Polish. The picture below shows the Sacred Heart parish buildings appeared around the turn of the 20th century.

I couldn't even guess how many of my Pellowski and Zabinski relatives were christened here, or made First Confession here... and so on. Very many members of my family lie buried in the cemetery on the hill behind the church. I never fail to get chills down my spine when I am in the vicinity.