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(God the Holy Spirit)
"O Holy Ghost, Creator, Thou. Gift of God most high; Life, love and sacred unction, our weakness Thou supply."  This third and last stanza from the hymn to the Trinity sets the tone for the final period of the first 100 years of the parish. Bishop Hayes stated the role of the Holy Spirit very well in his Confirmation talk earlier this centennial year when he said: "Have you ever thought that the very fact that this parish has flourished for 100 years is due to the fact that the Holy Spirit has come down on generation after generation in Confirmation? Tonight He comes again to another generation, strengthening them for the future." As the stanza indicates, the Holy Spirit brought life, love and the anointing with holy oil to strengthen the faith of the parishioners. Indeed, such strengthening was necessary. Only through the help of the Holy Spirit did the parish survive many vicissitudes over the years. Father Paul A. Kleinfelder's long pastorate began under anything but auspicious skies. He and his faithful housekeeper, Grace Heller, had loaded up their possessions, including a coop of chickens, and were driving down the road to Clear Creek, ready to begin their labors at SS. Peter & Paul parish. Grace turned to Father and said, "Father, where is the rectory? I don't see it." "Oh, it's on the other side of the church," Father replied calmly. Reaching the other side of the church, they still saw no rectory, which had just been renovated such a short time before. Just that morning Father Schmidt had cleaned out the last of the debris and burned the papers in the furnace so as to leave everything orderly for his successor. Somehow or other — no one knows just how, whether it was sparks from the chimney or what — the dry shingled roof caught fire. The house was vacant, for Father Schmidt had departed for Cosgrove, his new charge; Father Kleinfelder had not yet arrived. Farmers in their fields first noticed the smoke curling from the rectory roof. They came running but arrived too late to save the building. What, they could do, they did. Swarming into the house, they tried to save the furnishings and anything movable. Out the windows came bedclothes and linens; doors were taken off their hinges; furniture was carted out and placed on the lawn. So it was that when Father Kleinfelder and his housekeeper arrived that hot morning in July they found only a smoking, debris-filled hole in the ground. A chicken had expired in the July heat on the trip from Bauer. Grace, ever ready to make use of things as she found them, threw the dead chicken on the embers to save burying it. The fire had so consumed itself, however, that the chicken never did burn. Without any moaning or lamenting, the then-young priest, handsome with his thick black hair and alert eyes, worked to salvage what he could from the ruins to build anew. Even though the depression was under way, the pastor decided to erect a new rectory as soon as possible. Since school was not in session, the two moved into the Sisters' quarters until the new rectory could be completed. Showing that same spirit of cooperation that they have shown throughout his pastorate, the parishioners turned out in full force to aid their new pastor in his first project, the first of many. The parsonage had burned July 1, 1930. On July 6 a building committee was named, consisting of the pastor, C. P. Hammes and Mike Hammes, officers, Felix Weber and Frank Peiffer members. As a look to the future, the trustees were instructed to increase the insurance on the remaining buildings. The situation was difficult. Already the parish had a debt of $2,500. Now an additional $3,500 was needed to pay for the new rectory. The money was borrowed, not to be repaid until Aug. 1, 1942, when the mortgage was burned at a gala parish celebration. During those intervening years many other necessary improvements forestalled the payment of the debt, try as the parish did to reduce it. Plans for the new rectory were quickly drawn up and work began. Studding was being erected when Bishop Henry P. Rohlman came to view the work. He suggested that the housekeeper's quarters be moved to the first floor, rather than remain upstairs as they were in the previous rectory. This change necessitated some juggling about of the plans and consequent cutting down of the size of the ground-floor rooms. In order to save money, plans called for the new rectory to be placed on the foundations of the old. Only later did the pastor learn that the old foundations leaked. The doors from the former rectory were used in the new "until such time as the parish could afford to replace them with new ones." That time never came and likely never will. While the house was being rebuilt, the pastor and housekeeper were "making do" with the convent quarters. Grace spent the first few weeks washing all the bedclothes and linens which the men had unceremoniously dumped out the windows during the fire. Though it was late in the season, she put in a patch of garden and settled her old hens in the chicken coop. The garden and hens were to see the rectory through the depression and to be the mainstay through those difficult times when neither housekeeper nor pastor drew a salary. With the fall, the Sisters returned; the pastor moved into the attic of the yet-uncompleted rectory. Makeshift accomodations [sic] prevailed for a few more months. Finally, the rectory was finished and in they moved. The original furniture from the old rectory is still in use — even the pots and pans, now repaired many times but still serviceable. An old paring knife, reclaimed from the ashes and still preserving its temper, was given a new handle by the pastor and is reputed to be the handiest knife in the kitchen even now.  For 28 years the pattern remained the same. Father Kleinfelder and Grace became a parish institution. Every two years Father would trade in his Chevy for a new one; every year Grace would put in the garden and order a new set of pullets. The wild, unkempt appearance of the surroundings took on the neat, trimmed look it now has. The bareness was replaced by the foliage of shade and fruit trees. Flowers and shrubs beautified what had formerly been an ash heap (which disappeared when the oil furnaces were installed) Grace and Veronica Weber spent one whole spring planting bridal wreath all around the church. The chickens and garden make up a cycle of soil conservation that was practiced long before the experts came down from Ames to tell the farmers of modern methods. In the spring the dandelion greens are the first to appear on the rectory table, followed perhaps by some green onions that, by some magic, lasted through the winter. Lettuce and radishes spring up from the fallow earth as if a magic wand had passed over. Plum, apricot and peach trees, as well as apple and cherry trees, burst into blossom, giving promise of loaded branches of fruit to appear on the table later. Strawberries, rivaling even those of the neighboring pastor to the west, weigh down their stalks while raspberries grow in rank profusion. Interspersed with rhubarb are the horseradish, gooseberries, pumpkin vines and an occasional nest of a redwing blackbird. Bernard Sieren has the job of preparing the ground in the fall of each year. After he has plowed the garden area., Grace dons her father's boots, a long-sleeved shirt and a disreputable-but-comfortable straw hat. Thus garbed she straightens out the furrows to provide for runoff water which pours down the hillside from the church. There, in carefully crooked rows and in a neat-haphazard pattern, go the peas and beans and carrots, beets and sweet corn and sweet potatoes. This is Grace's method of farming a hillside so the precious topsoil does not flow away. Her irregular rows prevent the soil from washing away when the heavy rains come. Where the rows can be straight, they are, with never a waver in them. What makes all the crops grow so well is the Clear Creek formula: chicken dirt. It's all part of the cycle. First the crops are planted, then harvested and put on the table. The refuse, elaborately prepared and spiced with delicacies, is fed to the chickens, from whom the eggs are gathered. Their nests are furnished with wooden eggs to keep them contented. Their droppings are used to refertilize [sic] the soil. Nothing is wasted. Such is the cycle that has been repeated 28 times. The barren waste, without any expensive commercial fertilizers, has blossomed like another Imperial Valley. The chickens and the garden and the fruit trees justify the boast that the rectory is the most economically run in the diocese, nay, the nation. Only flour, sugar, salt and other such commodities are purchased from neighboring towns. Rarely does a tincan [sic] appear in the refuse heap (unless Grace is on retreat and the assistant is doing the cooking). Homemade bread (from Nauvoo flour) is a weekly Friday feature; cookies contain choice nutmeats harvested from nearby woods. (Mrs. Clara Wickenkamp recalls going on one such nut-gathering session when Grace provided the assistant with a holey sack, from which nuts dropped out one end as fast as he put them in the other.) Inside, the rectory is as neat as its outside whiteness indicates. Huge ferns flourish their fronds from the ceiling to the floor of the sun parlor. The walls are freshly painted according to a scheme by which several rooms are finished each year. The basement has jars of fruits and vegetables neatly packed away. In the attic is everything one could possibly use, from empty boxes to sacks of walnuts, all neatly arranged. Like the valiant woman praised in the Scriptures, Grace has provided well for her household. This material, natural provision was simultaneous with the spiritual flowering of the parish. The pastor was a simple, kind, holy man. Parishioners recognized his worth. Somewhat deaf (from a malady which afflicted him in his youth, remedied in later years by a hearing aid), and sometimes difficult to understand in his speech (when he becomes excited now), nevertheless, the pastor was and is well liked by his parishioners. A punctual confessor, a faith-full priest, a zealous pastor, a good shepherd, a considerate man, a kind person, Father looks after his flock, not as a hireling, but as one whose own the sheep are. Aiding and assisting the pastor through the years have been his trustees. Each year a new group takes over the duties of assisting the pastor with the temporal needs of the parish. Each year some new project seems necessary to keep the building in repair. (This year the latest project is the extensive remodeling of the Sisters' kitchen, being handled by trustees Leo Greiner and Milo Heisdorffer.) In 1933, coincidence provided that C. P. Hammes and W. P. Greiner were trustees of the parish while their wives were officers of the Altar and Rosary society, an elective position. That year the arrangement worked so well, having husbands and wives simultaneously in positions of leadership, that the pastor decided to keep the arrangement thereafter. Such an arrangement, involving only two rather than four families, enables couple to work together more easily. Back in depression days the parish picnic was the necessary fund raiser to which trustees contributed their work. The first parish bazaar was held in 1931, shortly after Father arrived. The parish treasurey [sic] contained no money. Sister Sigismunda got St. Anthony's statue down from the shelf, lit a vigil light, baked a fruit cake and announced that the cake would be raffled off at $5 a chance. Some $19 came in on that one fruit cake and the bazaar was born. Mrs. Felix Weber made a doll, which was raffled off, and won by Grace, who still has it. (The doll is on display in the centennial museum.) Approximately $95 was cleared on the fishpond, popcorn, candy and bingo games. Mike Greiner drawled, "I didn't know there were that many nickels around." The bazaar became more ambitious each year. At first it was held in the school rooms but these soon became inadequate. The trustees decided to excavate the basement of the church for a social hall. Excavation of the hall, as many other projects initiated by the pastor and trustees, was done by the parishioners. Using horses and scoops, they dug out the hard clay. The first year they used sawdust on the floor. Later they laid a cement floor and painted the walls and ceiling. When the old Farmers Union at Harper went out of business, the pastor purchased some of their equipment for use in the hall. For $10 he bought six oak tables and the old egg racks (which made excellent pie storage racks for the parish dinners). These furnishings are still in use. The electric light cords and the Chinese lanterns have been retired to the rectory attic. The bazaar has since been replaced by the annual picnic collection. Not only the parish but the community as well is served by the hall's facilities, which are being improved for this centennial year. Farm Bureau meetings are held there. Voting on election days is conducted there. (Dean Morris and the voting officials get many things talked over while they wait for the votes to straggle in.) Through the years many improvements were made on the parish buildings. New oil furnaces were installed in the rectory, school and church, which meant that John B. Weber could retire. Shortly after John B., as he was called, moved to the parish in 1920, he helped Peter Adrian with the hand-fired furnaces. The following season Peter retired. John, with the help of his 10 sons, tended the furnaces for the next 35 years. He and his sons also cared for the cemetery 25 years. The school was insulated, brick-veneered and refurbished on the inside. One of the upper rooms was opened as a winter chapel, the pews from the first brick church being installed in it. Fluorescent lights replaced the old fixtures in the schoolrooms. The inside stairway was enclosed and fire extinguishers provided for both floors. Omen Omer Hammes brought the Sisters' new washing machine, he looked at the old school building and shook his head. "If these old walls could only talk," he murmered [sic]. Then, after a moment's silence, he added, "It's better they don't." Until 1938 the Clear Creekers were of strong political convictions, allowing their national preferences to extend to local levels. For years the people had been trying to influence the members of the County Board of Supervisors to obey the state law requiring surfaced roads to cemeteries. Since they Would vote straight Republican or Democrat, the county board ignored their petitions, giving roads to areas where votes were more needed, it was said. Finally, in the fall of 1938, a change occured [sic]. Urged by their pastor, they voted against the "ins" and as a result one of the two candidates running for re-election was defeated. A short time later a representative of the state highway commission called upon those living on a spur from route 92. He told them that if they would petition for a road past their farms, it would be the first road graded and surfaced in 1939. They did, and it was. At a later date, the road came in for other pastoral comments. During spring rock had been hauled out and dumped on the road but never spread out. Holy Week was approaching and the roads were well nigh impassable. In the spirit of Father Rangger, on Palm Sunday Father said from the pulpit that there would be no Holy Week services if the rock was not spread out on the road by Tuesday. That very Sunday afternoon the county graders — two of them — were out spreading the .rock and smoothing the road. In May of 1940, the pastor called a special meeting to discuss the redecorating of the church. The bishop had granted permission to proceed with the work, providing sufficient funds could be raised. Negotiations were conducted with several firms. One firm chosen, the contract was mailed. Then, belatedly, a bid arrived Which was some $600 cheaper than the one decided upon. Hustling into his Chevy, the pastor tore over to the post office and retrived [sic] his letter and contract just in time. The whole parish turned out for the pastor's silver jubilee celebration in 1944. Even though it was wartime, ways were found of providing a festive atmosphere in keeping with the occasion. A purse was presented so that he might take a trip to Europe. (This had happened for a previous pastor, Father Sendbuehler, who took such a trip for $375 just after the rectory was completed in 1919.) Wartime conditions forestalled the trip until the Holy Year, 1950, when an additional purse was presented, bringing the total to $1,580 for the trip. The jubilee was Archbishop Rohlman's last official function in the Davenport diocese, for he was then transferred to the see of Dubuque. Over 100 relatives and friends from afar were present, together with a delegation from Father Kleinfelder's former parish at Bauer. Knights of Columbus — the little bride, Marilyn Kelley of Newton (Grace's niece)—twin attendants, Suzanne and Maryanne Peiffer — pages, Elmer Greiner and Terry Horras, Gerald. Kiefer and Pat Greiner — the bishop and a host of red-robed monsignori and priests added to the color of the procession. Before the offertory of the Mass, the bride and her attendants presented to the jubilarian a chalice, hosts, and cruets of wine and water .o be used during the Mass. In such an effective way parishioners were reminded that the products of their fields and hearts were also offered at the Mass as a sign of their love for God. Msgr. N. J. Peiffer spoke on the occasion, mentioning that it was the first time in the parish's existence that one of its pastors had celebrated his silver jubilee there. Little aware was he that the pastor would serve more than 25 years in the parish. Communal singing was a feature of the celebration as the parishioners joined in singing the national anthem and "Holy God We Praise Thy Name." After the supper the school children gave a program in the parish hall. Singing, playing of musical instruments and a one-act play constituted the affair. Of the 59 young men and women whom Father saw off to the war, all returned save one, Cletus Berg, a great-grandson of the man in whose home Catholic services were first held in Keokuk county.  During the war years, Father's sister, Mrs. James DiBlasio, and her daughter, Margaret, made their home with him while her husband was in service. Little Margaret, or Mimi as she was called, delighted in crawling through the small hole in the chicken house to chase the chickens out of their nests. Today the chicken house remains the great attraction for visiting city children. After the war the old pattern was resumed. The "thick, black hair" was now streaked with gray and its thinness concealed at times by the jaunty beret which Father wore as a souvenir of his Holy Year trip. He began to show a pallor at times and he breathed heavily after cutting the grass in the large yard. Disaster struck in the spring of 1955. Never sick in his life, Father came down with mumps. Complications set in when he also suffered a stroke, paralyzing his right side. Through one weird night, with the rain pouring down outside, his parishioners maintained a vigil at his side. Through the succeeding weeks they ministered to him as he had ministered so long to them. A long convalescence followed. Staunch determination and will power brought some usefulness back to the withered limbs. Treatments at Sacred Heart sanitarium in Milwaukee enabled him to return home, capable of offering Mass (which he resumed as soon as he was physically able). In June the bishop had sent an assistant, Father William F. Wiebler, a newly ordained priest, to help the afflicted pastor. The arrangement was to prove a profitable one. The older priest gave the benefit of his wisdom and holiness to the younger, while the young levite gave the use of his limbs and agility to the older priest so that parish work might go on. In preparation for the centennial, Father Kleinfelder organized the parish to renovate the physical plant for the celebration. In 1956 he called a general parish meeting which resulted in the redoing of the interior and ultimately the exterior of the church. Twelve "apostles" were chosen from former trustees to lead the campaign. In a whirlwind of activity they raised $13,500 which was used to relathe and replaster the church, provide a new rubber-tile floor, install new electric light fixtures, completely rewire the church, install new cabinets in the sacristy, repaint the statues, replace the old stone steps in front of the church and redo the woodwork and pews. In 1958 they raised another $10,000 to tuckpoint the exterior of the church and repair the stained glass windows. Bernard Waechter enlivened the collection with his contribution of $52.00 in pennies contained in two quart jars. Viola Adams of the Keota Farmers Savings Bank had the job of counting the contents. Lee Hammes and Hubert Sheetz were the trustees during the 1956 renovation work. Under their guidance, the men of the parish did much of the manual work in removing the old plaster and relathing the church. This resulted in a great saving of money. The women of the parish, under the direction of Mrs. Hammes and Mrs. Sheetz, used gallons of varnish remover to refinish the woodwork. The Keota Eagle stated that "they used a lot of elbow grease" to clean up after the men. Bonnie Horras, after reading the paper, asked her mother what the elbow grease the women used was like. One of the great improvements was the relocation and reemphasis of the communion table. Its previous location at the top of the three steps caused difficulty for the older people in receiving communion. The ornate rail was lowered to the floor, made into a prie-dieu, and considerably simplified. The old mission cross, previously hanging on the side wall, was repainted and hung in a prominent position on the tower wall in the choir loft. While she redid the statues in her school-loft studio, Miss Genevieve Schmidt, Fort Madison, lived in the rectory several months. An old corpus, found in the tower loft and believed to have came from the first church, was stripped of its paint and refinished. A new cross was made and the resultant crucifix was hung in the sacristy. The old sacristy press used for storing vestments and Mass goods was so high that many of its drawers were inacessible [sic] to the Sisters unless by means of a stepladder. To remedy this situation the upper portion was removed and relocated on the west wall of the sacristy where all of its drawers were easily accessible. Surmounting the rejuvenated cabinet is an old clock, its case newly varnished, which strikes off the hours when Father remembers to keep it wound. During a storm the cross on the rear of the church was loosened from its moorings. Insurance paid for its replacement. While the steeplejack was on the premises installing the church lightning rods, he also replaced the cross on the steeple. To the surprise of many, the steeple cross was only some five feet tall, not 15 as some had thought.  The roof was repaired and the church tower bird-proofed by the addition of wire mesh to the outside of the slats. Because of holes in the brickwork, birds still persisted in getting into the tower and littering its rooms with their nests. Not until the centennial year itself, when the contract was let for the repair and tuckpointing of the church exterior, were the birds finally defeated. They were kept out of the spouts, temporarily, by wire mesh, but even so the pastor is still looking for a bird-proof device to be rid of these messy "spatzies." The men learned that it does not pay to put off until tomorrow what can be done this noon. While putting the new steps in by the front of the church they took off for lunch, just after having poured but not yet smoothed the new cement walks. On their return they found the high temperatures had dried the concrete so that it was very difficult to work. Elmer Conrad spent some frantic minutes using dry concrete and water to make a presentable job of it. Also in preparation for the centennial, Norbert Peiffer and men of the parish spray-painted the rectory. Harold Conrad and Herbert Bombei still recall the cool cans of beer Paul Kiefer sent over to refresh the workers. Not only recognition of the physical improvement of the parish, but in view of the spiritual advancement too, an award was made in 1956. The Christian Rural Institute of Iowa, along with the Cooperative Extension Service of Iowa State College, recognized the parish as one of the five outstanding rural parishes in Iowa. Notable among the spiritual achievements recognized by the award was the congregational singing which reached a high peak for the rededication of the church. Such singing had always been part of the Clear Creek tradition. In the renovating of the church, old German hymn books were found; many of these hymns are now being sung in translation. Knowing the melodies, many of the old timers had but to learn the new words. Father's practice of having the parishioners sing in common for his jubilee Mass was now enlarged to include the common parts of the Mass. When the bishop came for the rededication of the church, tire parish was able to sing the entire Mass. Uniquely, being such a small parish, the choir has sung the propers for some years. Generations of Sisters had struggled with the Latin, getting choir members over the unfamiliar humps and helping them master the difficult melodies. A great asset to the choir is the edition of the propers put out by Rev. Cletus P. Madsen of the St. Ambrose college faculty. Since using his version, the choir has mastered three of the eight psalm tones and is well conversant with all of the propers of the church year. A choir member's son, little John Robert Sieren, told his dad one Monday night, "When I get big, I'm going to be a singer so that I can go to those singing parties too." Little did John Robert realize the hard work choir members do in learning the very difficult parts they must sing. Happiness conies through strenuous work. It is a happy group which meets every Monday night during the winter months. They realize what an important rolle [sic] they have in the Mass and that they contribute much to the beauty and solemnity of its celebration. Moreover, the choir was generous enough to aid the congregation in learning its part of the Mass. Each time another part of the Mass or a new hymn was to be mastered, the choir would learn it first so as to teach the rest. Two young girls of the congregation, Rita Hammes and Connie Kiefer, learned to play the organ so that they might accompany the congregation during the summer months. In Clear Creek, even in hot weather, there are none of the "silent" Masses which Pius X so deplored.  The servers don't feel slighted because the congregation joins in on the dialogue Masses. They're used to participation. Joe Greiner recalls the Christmas of 1944 when there was considerable participation. The Sisters had decorated the altars beautifully with velvet poinsettias and evergreen branches. Somehow the decorations caught fire. John B. Weber leaped over the communion rail and pulled the burning floral decorations off the altar. No harm was done to the altar, but Joe Greiner still remembers how scared he was to go to the car after Mass. Most of the parishioners who were not at that Mass soon heard the story over the Harper line. The telephone operator, Jerry Crooks, has given good service these many years. Still the hum of the line when receivers come down often made hearing difficult if not impossible. Not so one day, however. The story is told that one pastor was being transferred. He wanted to tell another priest about the transfer, but didn't want the parish to know about it just yet. Knowing that someone would be listening in on the party line (at least one of the 18 on the rectory line), he spoke in Latin. As luck would have it, one of the high school students listening knew enough Latin to figure out what he had said. Much to the pastor's bewilderment, the news was soon all over the parish. Many times the party line was an asset. When sick calls would be phoned in, the parishioners could listen and know who was sick. When the assistant first came and had his first sick call to an unknown destination, two families listening in volunteered to come over and drive him to the farm. Nevertheless, the old line presented many problems. Joe Sondag was always being called to fix the phone. One night the old wall phone would not function. Sometimes all it needed was a bang on the side to get it working. It got the bang . . . down from the wall it came with a crash. Next week the Keota line was put in, a dial phone just like in the city. Lighting, too, has progressed over the years. The primitive light was given by kerosene lamps and candles. Later, an acetylene gas plant produced electricity for the lights, yielding to a Delco plant which provided electricity in small quantities. Wash days for the convent and rectory had to be staggered so that the current would not be overloaded. The highline finally came to the parish when the company promised to provide for the parish if the men would dig the holes for the poles. As a result, the rectory now has all the conveniences of electrical living: deep freeze, refrigerator, radio, television and appliances. All these conveniences could be dispensed with and the parish continue, but the school was considered indispensable. That is why the pastor acted with such determination when the school was threatened with extermination in 1944. The Mother General of the School Sisters of St. Francis had written to him that because of the limited enrollment she was going to withdraw the Sisters the next school year. Because there were many old people living in the parish there were few young families with children; there were only 27 children of grade school age. The bishop intervened and the school was saved. Older folk moved to town and younger families took over the farms. The enrollment rapidly increased, as any would when families like Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Sieren's with five children move into the parish. Present enrollment is 65, with some 30 children enrolled in Saturday religion classes. No longer do the children have the diversions in school they had in the past. For instance, back in the days of the horses, some of the boys tried to integrate the horses into the curriculum. Occasionally there would be a horse in Grace's potato patch. Mysteriously, this always happened just after some boy had asked to be excused. All the students in the "big room" would be dismissed to get the beast back into the stable. As the stable began to disintegrate, it provided diversion for the youngsters. When the wind blew its tin roof off, youngsters found that the metal sheets made excellent sleds. "Nix-nooks" were not confined to the potato patch. One time when Father was away on retreat, Corrine Sieren, 12 year-old neighbor girl, was staying with Grace to keep her company. They had retired early and were in bed when Grace said she heard a noise in the coal cellar. "It's your imagination," scoffed Corrine. "No, it's not," protested Grace as she got out of bed to call the Sisiters. Sister Gaudiosa, who answered, said to Sister Sigismunda, "Grace must be sick; she wants us to come over." All the Sisters went over to the rectory to see what was the matter. Sister Sigismunda carried a broom to ward off any intruders. After hearing Grace's story, she prepared to go down the steps. Clutching her broom, she muttered, "I'll bet it's kids." "Oh, no ! Don't go ! They'll shoot you !" cried the terrified Grace. All six ventured down the cellar stairs, peering into the basement gloom as Sister Sigismunda hammered on the fruit cellar door. Hearing a noise behind the cellar door, they grabbed their skirts and fled, one and all. Fifteen years later, one of the school children inadvertently let slip the identity of the culprits — two boys (present respectable members of the parish) who had been looking for the wine barrel. Aside from such incidents, the school children have learned much from the Sisters, who have awakened in the children an appreciation of the beauties of nature. They have taught the children to observe the blackbirds, cardinals, robins and thrushes abounding in the fields. Now the children listen for the call of the meadow lark and recognize the wild flowers which they pluck in the timber and take to school for the May altars. (Linda Heisdorffer gets them from her mother's garden.) Such is the role of the Sisters, to be teachers of all the broader aspects of life. The result has been a comparable love for the Sisters. The people value them highly, showing their love by the milk, cream, eggs and meat they bring weekly to their table. Mrs. Peter Bombei always saves her pullet eggs for the Sisters, who are so glad to get them, (These pullet eggs are unlike the famous 3-yolk egg which Grace "found" in her henhouse. By some manipulation the assistant convinced Grace that the large egg contained three yolks and to this day she boasts to her friends of the powers of her hens. Only in reading this account will her dream be destroyed.) In recent years an even closer relationship has sprung up between the Sisters and the parents as the result of the parent-teacher conferences. The Sisters consult with the parents regarding special problems facing their sons and daughters, and obtain the cooperation of the parents in solving the problems. The parents thus realize that when a child is held back in a grade, it is not to punish him but to help him get the necessary knowledge before being advanced to another grade.  Most beneficial for the health of the children has been the milk program originated by Sister Alferia and subsidized by the government. Odly enough, prior to this time the children would seldom drink milk, perhaps because they were so used to it at home. Getting the milk in cardboard containers and drinking out of a straw was such a novelty that they drank as many as three pints at a sitting Bernard Greiner contributed his old refrigerator to the program after he won a new one in a feed contest. Hisdaughter, Martha, still refused to drink the milk. "That's for cows," she says. "Mens sana in corpore sano" (a sound mind in a sound body) is the motto of the school. Even more than building up the bodies, the Sisters have endeavored to cultivate good minds in their students. A library built up over the years has been one means. The children are encouraged to check out books and to cultivate the reading habit. (Larry Hammes became so enraptured over the book he was reading that he took it to bed with him.) Ever thrifty, the Sisters have also made good use of the public library in nearby Washington where they have obtained the loan of books for the school. A slide projector, obtained some years ago by Father Kleinfelder, and the K. C. movie projector bring audio-visual aids into the classroom. The filmstrips on the Mass, produced at St. John's university, have been shown to the children and to the Altar and Rosary society study club. This latter group has functioned well as an adult-education program with a social side. The women meet once a month to study some topic related to the parish. Discussion was heightened in 1958 when a Russian rite Mass was offered in the church. Father Sieger was kept busy answering the many questions raised from observing one of the many other rites of the church. Discussing another rite the women came to appreciate their own . . . and to realize its deficiences [sic]. Receiving under two species made them realize that this was once a practice of the ancient church. Participating in another rite made them aware of the true universality of the Church. Participation has been the key word in the instruction of the children. In order to acquaint them with the Mass, their teachers urged them to make their own missals (which the parents enjoy as much as the children). This is part of their regular classroom instruction, but it does not stay in the classroom. What they learn there is put to practical use in the school chapel. Daily Mass is part of the school day. The Sisters have worked out a varied program of participation in the Mass. One day there might be a dialogue Mass with English hymns particularly adapted to the various parts of the Mass. (The school children take these hymns home and teach them to the younger ones. Hubert Sheetz knows only one hymn — Immaculate Mary — which he and the children beller on the way to school in the morning.) On yet another day the children might sing a high Mass, aided by the adults in attendance; even old John and Katy Adrian join in. Or they might chant appropriate psalms according to one of the three psalm tones they have learned. Participation is not just singing; it is entering into the spirit of the Mass. This is done through their homemade missals. The prayers are in their own language, the illustrations from their everyday life. When Father Kleinfelder turns around from the altar at the 11:20 school day Mass offered particularly for them and says "Dominus vobiscum," they answer as with one voice, "Et cum spiritu tuo." And they mean it. Particularly edifying is the example set by the schoolboys serving at one of these Masses; they are solicitous of their pastor who has difficulty getting up and down the stairs Trained to help him up and down, they treat him as considerately as they would the Holy Father himself. Father Paul says that only three times in his 28 years does he recall an altar boy not showing up for a Mass he was appointed to serve. High-school-age boys serve the early morning Mass, sacrificing their time so that they might assist the priest at the altar before going to school. Tommy Greiner ran half the way to the chapel one wintry morning when his car ran out of gas; he didn't want to be late. They also serve for the more important liturgical functions, as on Easter and Christmas, and for the Sunday high Mass. The grade school girls are helpful too. They help Sister Thomas More instruct the little ones by going over their alphabet and numbers as they sit together on the hall stairs. The "big room" girls helped Sister Alferia plant her garden. When she complained about how crooked the rows were, they mollified her by saying that "you can get more potatoes in a crooked row." City-born as he was, Father Kleinfelder knows better than that, for he has always been conscious of the rural roots of his people. He fosters devotion to St. Isidore, patron of farmers (a plaque of whom hangs on the rectory stairway wall), nurtures the Rogation Day participation, the blessing of the seeds and fields, and encourages stewardship of the soil. In fact, he has built up a regular cycle which brings the farmers close to God in their work of planting, cultivating and harvesting. In the spring each family brings to the church small packets of seeds which are arranged in colorful display on the steps of the sanctuary. There they are blessed by the pastor as the congregation recites the "Benedicte" psalm in English, using a Rural Life Conference pamphlet. Back to their fields they bring the seeds for planting. On Rogation days the whole parish, at least representatives from the majority of the families, turns out for the procession which winds around the churchyard. Throwing holy water to the four winds, the pastor asks God's blessing on the growing crops. When Thanksgiving comes the huge ears of corn and shocks of wheat produced from the blessed seed are brought to the sanctuary for a display of bountiful thanks to God for having granted the increase. Regarding this increase, the story is told that one day Father visited Vaughn McArtor on the farm which Vaughn had spent a year in repairing after its purchase. Leaning on the fence, Father commented, "You and God have sure done wonders with this place, Vaughn." "Yes, Father, you're right," drawled Vaughn, "but you should have seen this place when God had it by Himself." So the parish has gathered the harvest of the first hundred years. They have been good years, a time of cooperation between pastor and people. Times change, however, and so do the people, keeping up with the times, ready to obey the new reforms advocated by the Holy Father. They are not as some little children were who caused Father some anxiety. Michievously [sic], the bigger school children used to say that the water from the front well pump by the road tasted like the nearby cemetery. They used to spit out the water and were imitated by the smaller children. Father Kleinfelder had the water analyzed. It was pronounced safe. Still, the children continued to tell the younger ones the story. They would not change their ways when old habits were revealed as erroneous or no longer practical . . . the parishioners will change when their pastor shows them the way. All along we have been looking at the record and glorying in what we read there. In these pentecostal times we should also look to the future. What do we see there? The bishop gave good advice at the last Confirmation talk: "Make it a part of your centennial celebration to pray for vocations. What better way is there for a parish to give thanks to God for one hundred years of parish life than to give of its own flesh and blood to His service?" The parish has been strong in preserving the faith, but in the coming years the role of the Holy Spirit, as indicated by the bishop's desire for vocations, will be not to preserve the faith but to spread it. Other goals are planned for the parish's future. Those mentioned in the following are taken from the centennial Mass sermon to be preached Aug. 19, 1958: "Clear Creekers are noted for their neighborliness already. They are ready to share their equipment with non-Catholics, to work with them, to play with them. It only remains to pray for and with them. "Heretofore, parishioners have been somewhat clannish about their faith. Perhaps that was necessary in pioneer days when they were isolated. Now, burning with zeal for their religion and a desire to share their joy with others, they should spread the faith. In the future there should be a real interest in bringing others into the one fold of Christ. "That is why the bishop confirms in a parish, to make the members strong in the faith. That is the role of the Holy Spirit, to strengthen weakness. Courage is needed to talk about our religion to others, to live a life which will edify others and convince them of the truth we speak. That and an attitude of charity will do much to draw others to Christ. "Catholics cannot win others to the faith unless they are convinced of it. They cannot be convincing unless they are informed about it. Hence, the parish could cultivate a greater love of study and education. The women do well in their study club; the men could also form some such organization or utilize the one they have. "Greater participation in the sacraments and the Mass are also future goals. Many have now gotten into the habit of receiving communion even at the late Mass on Sunday. Some few receive at funeral Masses. Your pastor wishes that the entire congregation would receive at such times, as well as at weddings. "More male voices are needed in the choir too. Sacrifice is needed, as well as humility, so that time can be given to the careful preparation of the propers. A night a week is demanding, but the reward of giving oneself is most gratifying." Having looked at future goals, let us look briefly to the present before concluding this volume. The rectory was greatly upset one June morning when a letter arrived from the bishop stating that he was transferring the assistant to St. Ambrose academy in Davenport. No one was greater distressed than Father Wiebler's young nephew, Richie, who said, "I don't like that bishop anymore" because now he could no longer visit his uncle out in the country where all the bird nests were. Great joy was had, however, at the appointment of Father Marvin Sieger, another newly ordained priest. No doubt the bishop felt that it was good practice to send young priests for training under Father Kleinfelder, for in his letter he stated that the pastor should keep the young priest busy. That the pastor did. What with working in the school and with teenagers, instructing converts, working on the repair and renovation of the church, preparing for the centennial, Father Sieger's first year in Clear Creek went by all too swiftly. It was an easy year because he remembered the admonition of his pastor, "If you make a mistake, Father, be sure you make it gracefully." Then this June another letter from the bishop came. There was great consternation in the rectory for the pastor did not want to lose his capable assistant. What joy there was when it was found that he was to stay. Furthermore, he would assume additional duties of serving as a faculty member of the adjoining St. Elizabeth's high school, Harper.  In such a school the children are confirmed in their faith. Oct. 5, 1894, Bishop Cosgrove first confirmed in the parish. In May of this centennial year Bishop Hayes last confirmed in the parish. In succeeding years other bishops will bring down the Holy Spirit on the youth of the parish. West of the church, a new pond has been built. In it John Sieren hopes to store the waters which otherwise would run off. Instead of being wasted these stored waters can be used for the sheep he pastures nearby. This pond is a symbol of the parish of the future. The trickle of grace swelled to a rivulet and then to a mighty torrent. These living waters also are stored up in such a reservoir as Johnny's pond. The reservoir of grace is made up of the many young souls in the parish. From them will come the future priests and sisters, the saints and scholars, the holy and the blessed who will ever build Christ's kingdom on earth in the next 100 years. On that note of hope we bring to a close the pages of this centennial booklet. We end in a mighty paen of praise to the Trinity, the life of the parish and the inspiration of this book. At the end of the centennial Mass, the epilogue of this book, we will all join in giving praise and glory to the Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. With one voice we shall sing out the refrain to the hymn we have been singing throughout this book: "O most holy Trinity, undivided unity; Holy God, Mighty God, God Immortal, be adored." ACKOWLEDGEMENTS [sic] Acknowledgement is made of the great help of the pastor, Fr. Paul A. Kleinfelder, whose phenomenal memory for dates and minutiae is responsible for what accuracy there is in this account. Much credit also goes to his assistant, Fr. Marvin Sieger, whose inspiration the book originally was. Father planned the layout, took charge of the pictures, organized the advertising and did much of the legwork involved. The Redlinger children, Dean, Diane and Kay, drew the sketches of Clear Creek life. The School Sisters of St. Francis, especially Sr. Thomas More and Sister Contardo, were very helpful in contributing ideas to the writing and in the criticism of the rough draft. Professor Don Ross, Marquette University College of Jouralism, edited the final draft. The printing of the picture section was donated by Mr. C. C. Shimon of the Kalona News. The parish thanks him for his generosity. The photographic work was done by Mr. Driscoll of the Driscoll Studio in Sigourney. Editor Bob Beck and the staff of the Keota Eagle printed the book. To the parishioners, too, much credit must be given for living the kind of life that can be written about; we are indebted to them all for the inspiration they have given us. May the blessing of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit descend upon them and remain forever, Amen. |
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