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The year was 1876 when the state of Arkansas was looking for people to settle in its rural areas. Many of the state railroad companies were vying for immigrants to move into their region. One of those, the Little Rock/Fort Smith branch of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad Company, invited Indiana Benedictines to Logan County, Arkansas, to minister to the German Catholic settlers. At the time there was great unrest in Europe, especially in Germany, Prussia, and Ireland, and citizens were looking for a way out. The railroad company sensed an opportunity and offered land grants to religious institutions with European roots recently founded in Indiana and asked them to establish churches and schools along the railroad in Arkansas.
After W.D. Slack, land commissioner for the railroad company, had secured a commitment from the monks of St. Meinrad Abbey in St. Meinrad, Indiana, and from the Sisters of Immaculate Conception Convent in Ferdinand, Indiana, to found monasteries in Logan County, he made an attractive deal for German and Irish Catholics to settle in Arkansas on both sides of the Arkansas River.
In the spring of 1878 the Benedictine monks arrived from Indiana and built some primitive living quarters in Creole (now Subiaco). The Sisters arrived in September of that year, and since there was no place for them to stay, the monks lived in their newly built church while the sister occupied the living quarters. The four young founding Sisters were Sister Xaveria Schroeder, 34 years old and the only professed member of the group, Josepha Schmidt, 21, Bonaventura Wagner, 21, and Isidora Leuberman, 23. Two of these Sisters opened the first Catholic School in Logan County at St. Benedict's in Creole in November of 1878. A second school was then established was St. Scholastica's in Shoal Creek in January 1879 where this new community of women monastics would grow to become the Sisters of St. Scholastica.
St. Benedict parish has been blessed from its founding in 1878 to have the presence and witness of these remarkable women to serve in both the parish and school. Listed below are the names of all those sisters that have served at St. Benedict working alongside the Benedictine monks of Subiaco.
SISTERS WHO TAUGHT AT ST. BENEDICT'S SCHOOL & PARISH
From Ferdinand, Indiana:
Sister Isadora Luebberman (1878-1882)
Sister Josepha Schmidt (1878-1884)
Sister Xaveria Schroeder (1878-1880)
Sister Bonaventura Wagner (1878-1880)
Sister Juliana Karcher (1880-1887)
Sister Ida Lohrleen (1880-1882)
Sister Scholastica Stockman (1880-1882)
Sister Meinrada Lex (1882-1887)
Sister Anna Hoesting (1882-1887)
From the newly established St. Scholastica-Shoal Creek:
Sister Juliana Raggerbass (1885-1887)
Sister Walburga Hawerott (1885-1887)
Sister Agnes Hofstatter (1887-1890)
Sister Angela Anthe (1887-1892)
Sister Thecla Buchheit (1892-1893)
Sister Bridget Tencleve (1892-1893)
Sister Clara Schaefer (1899-1902)
Sister Alphonse Buchheit (1905-1906)
Sister Adelaide Rapp (1908-1909)
Sister Ursula Wittmer (1908-1909)
Sister Imelda Kresse (1911-1915)
Sister Basil Duester (1915-1916)
Sister Coletta Renz (1916-1917)
Sister Wilhelmina Boeienruecher (1916-1924)
Sister Germaine Rachaner (1917-1919)
Sister Ursula Wittmer (1917-1918)
Sister Irene Schmidt (1921-1922)
Sister Cunigunda Rzodeczko (1926-1928)
Sister Leonard Wilheim (1928-1930)
Sister Armella DeRagisch (1928-1930)
Sister Boniface Thomas (1930-1934)
Sister Cunigunda Rzodeczko (1931-1932)
Sister Florence Yutterman (1932-1941)
Sister Beatrice Schmidt (1934-1935)
Sister Charles Marie Foster (1934-1935)
Sister Joan Schlaf (1934-1935)
Sister Bridget Tencleve (1924-1931)
Sister Patrick Cingolani (1932)
Sister Ignatius Homewood (1955-1956)
Sister Cordella Lange (1935-1941)
Sister Marian Walbe (1935-1942)
Sister Regis Mast (1936-1938)
Sister Martina Wehrli (1941-1947)
Sister Adelaide Rapp (1941-1947)
Sister Caroline Enzler (1941-1942)
Sister Maurine Schmucker (1942-1948)
Sister Bernada Bremyer (1943-1944)
Sister Eulalie Furstenberg (1945-1946)
Sister Loyola Schmucki (1947-1951)
Sister Mary Celeste Petrus (1947-1948)
Sister Anita Berkemeyer (1948-1949)
Sister Cunigunda Rzodecsko (1948-1952)
Sister Lorene Schmidt (1949-1950)
Sister Mary Hawkins (1950-1953)
Sister Henrietta Eischen (1951-1958)
Sister Vivian Luyet (1952-1964)
Sister Liquori Baker (1953-1955)
Sister Tarcicia Renz (1955-1957)
Sister Martha Pianalto (1957-1959)
Sister Dolores Pabst (1958-1965)
Sister Placid Bock (1959-1960)
Sister Juliana Schoenenberger (1960-1961)
Sister Winifred Griesemer (1961-1967)
Sister Patrick Cingolani (1965-1966)
Sister Margaret (1968-1972)
Sister Leonella Spanke (1968-1972)
Sister Simon Edelhuber (1966-1971)
Sister Teresina Lazzari (1968-1972)
Sister Sebastian Blattman (1972-1973)
Sister Herbert Huber (1972-1975)
Sister Clara Marie Komp (1973-1975)-- The last sisters to teach at St. Benedict Parochial School would leave in 1974. Some of the sisters transitioned to remaining in the parish for a few years with others providing parish work and teaching religious education. --
Sister Benedict Marie Borgerding (1976-1995)
Sister Geraldine Adams (1976-1977)
Sister Clarissa Schmidt (1979-1984)
Sister Anastasia Gallus (1985-1987)
Sister Damian Raible (1988-1994)
Sister Gertrude Grabber (1977-1979)
Sister Corinne Lange (1996-2000)
Sister Agatha Knittig (1996-2000)Gracious thanks to Sister Pierre Vorster, O.S.B. who researched, compiled, and provided this list from the archives of the Sisters of St. Scholastica.