|
|
|
|
Inextricably linked to religious and wedding, few people are willing to think about the meaning of the wedding, because they are basking in the love inside.
This year's sesquicentennial celebration at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Freeport is re-creating an aura of the past, somewhat contagiously.
One example of this is a special display of wedding gowns at Silver Creek Museum, 2954 S. Walnut Road. A quiet wistfulness may be felt when one stands before 14 mannequins all attired in the finery of bridal bliss from former eras.
Dolores Lamm Wienand of rural Freeport is always pursuing anything pertinent to the history of this locale, especially that of her own pioneer ancestry, the Bangassers and the Lamms ... and, her church. Wienand has added Vestidos de verano to the wedding gown display four from weddings of her ancestral lines worn by a Victorian era bride as well as others ranging through the years to the flapper era and on to the 1960s of modern America.
The four featured gowns were worn at the weddings of four consecutive generations of Lamm family brides each of which took place at St. Joseph Church. The years of those weddings or vestidos de moda were 1880, 1908, the mid-1940s and 1966. The gowns in the display are labeled with that information. Wienand said the 1880 gown had been adapted somewhat for more practical wear as was the custom in those days.
Among The First
Both the Bangassers and the Lamms were among the earliest settlers in Stephenson County and were among those German-speaking immigrants who founded the St. Joseph "German" Catholic Church as it was first named. These people wanted to hear the liturgy in their own native language.
There are still many Bangassers and Lamms with countless descendants of other surnames worshipping in St. Joseph Catholic Church today. There are also generations of them interred in St. Joseph Cemetery on South Street in Freeport.
Michael Bangasser, a French immigrant, had come to Stephenson County in 1843, and in 1844 purchased the farm on Baileyville Road that remains today in the family's ownership. Michael acquired it through a land grant from the United States government when Tyler was President. He paid $1.25 per acre for the approximate 232-acre tract. Michael had married Mary Staebell, also a native of Germany, about the time he came to this locality. Their union produced eight children. Two of their daughters, Elizabeth and Ellen, married Lamms, William and John, respectively. Thus the Bangassers and Lamms were united.
A newspaper interview of Fred Bangasser Sr., Michael's son, on the centennial anniversary of the farm, informs us that when the Illinois Central Railroad was built southward from Freeport in the early 1850s, his father sold the portion of the farm that was separated from the main part, leaving it with 200 acres. The property eventually became known as "Cottonwood Farm" because of the many trees of that species on it.
Fred Sr., by the way, held many offices in Cedar Creek Township and also served on the Stephenson County Board of Review.
Farming was the predominant livelihood of this prolific clan, and Catholicism their faith. Some of the men became merchants in Freeport. Wienand has collected some genealogy of her blood line and believes it ties in, typically, with the history of St. Joseph Church. Newspaper articles from the past use such words as "esteemed" and "highly respected" to describe members of this large family.
Family members from each subsequent generation have had the farm to this day. The article on Fred Bangasser states that the first creamery in Stephenson County was built on a spring at that farm by Michael Bangasser. It was called the Stephenson County Creamery. It was first operated by human power and later by "horse-tread" power. "Output on that farm was sold in Freeport and some was shipped to Chicago." According to the article, during the Gold Rush of 1849, Michael Bangasser and a brother went to California but "soon returned."
The Lamms Arrived
Georg Lamm and his wife, the former Gertrude Hausman, were the first of the Lamms to come to America from Germany. That was in about 1834 when Freeport was about to become a city. The marriage was blessed with several children. They acquired a farm south of Freeport, along with Georg's brothers, and like the Bangassers, succeeding generations have stayed on these farms. Because of that we now have a 12-mile strip known as Lamm Road.
Many stories of the early settlement of Stephenson County are derived from the families of those marriages and other members of the Bangasser and Lamm lines. St. Joseph Church is blessed with many parishioners of other surnames who are actually branches of the Bangasser and Lamm families.
Dolores Wienand cherishes the mark her ancestors have made on her beloved St. Joseph Church. She said both Bangassers and Lamms hauled stone for building the lovely white church at 229 W. Washington Place. But, she says, the church was originally red brick.
She likes to note that it cost the couple married in those earliest days 15 cents to stable the horse and carriage in which they rode to their wedding. She'll point out a lovely accessory in the museum's display, a velvet prayer book with a bone cross on its front carried by Josephine Straub when she married Fred Bangasser Sr. in 1880. Her wedding dress(vestidos boda or vestidos de moda) is the oldest one in the exhibit.Yes, these faithful families join countless others passing through the St. Joseph portals over and over again to worship, continuously throughout its 150 years of serving. The church's white steeple is visible from vantage points far and wide, pronouncing its mission, its strength and endurance, now and for all time.
|
|
