Rev. Joseph C. Nacke, Priest

NACKE

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 3/25/2006 at 11:11:03

I translated the following biography from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published in a special 25th Anniversary Edition of the paper on Friday, 20 September 1899. Information in brackets and notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

Rev. Joseph C. Nacke, Priest

The Rev. Mr. Jos. C. Nacke, priest at Saints Peter and Paul Church in Carroll, Iowa, whose fine portrait we present in the above picture, was born on 10 April 1852 in Elsen, Westphalia, Germany. When he was a child of tender years, his parents moved to America and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where his father worked at the trade of cabinetmaker. His parents lived in St. Louis for two and a half years, and then they moved to West Point, Iowa, where their well-behaved son received his first school instruction at the local parish school. When he became a young man, he entered St. Francis College in Quincy, Illinois, and after the energetic and pious young man had devoted himself to four years of study with only short breaks, he left the school and went to Teutopolis and entered the Diocesan College of Alton, Illinois. Then, for several years the energetic student attended St. John’s University in Sterns County, Minnesota, a very famous school. At the wish of the Rev. Archbishop Hennessey [Hennessy] of Dubuque, Iowa, he completed his theological studies at St. Francis College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On 12 August 1879, he achieved his most desired goal and had the great satisfaction to be ordained a priest. His first assignment was Centralia, Dubuque County, Iowa. The young priest then worked four years as pastor in Stacyville, Iowa, and then he was called to Saints Peter and Paul Church in Carroll, Iowa, where he has worked continuously since 28 September 1887. He has experienced the great satisfaction of Saints Peter and Paul’s growing into one of the largest parishes in the state under his personal leadership. Because of this, in 1898 the splendid brick church had to be enlarged with a transept, and in that year the church was decorated with magnificent ceiling and wall paintings.