THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL

Tracing the history of the parochial school formerly maintained by this congregation is a vexing thing because of the sparse records or complete lack of them. However, the questioning of older members who lived through that period, as well as the data submitted by the founding pastor, gives us at least an outline of what happened.

Pastor Seuel of Lyons, Iowa, began conducting services once a month in the Hopewell School of Hopkins in 1870. Included among those who came to these services were young people who had to be prepared for confirmation. Mrs. Dietrich Knelson was one of them and it was she who told us that these young people simply made their home with Pastor Seuel and his family in Lyons until their confirmation instruction was completed. When there were too many to find a corner in the over-crowded bedrooms, one or more had to be put up in the pastor's study. She was a member of the class confirmed in 1872 and may well have been the first one confirmed from the nucleus which afterward formed the Hopkins Parish.

Schooling was largely a "catch-as-catch-can" proposition in the early days. Thus the "parochial school" referred to in the earliest statistical reports was often merely a confirmation school or confirmation class receiving intensive instruction for a time. Such schools were often conducted during the winter months after the fall harvest until spring farm work began. Palm Sunday was the usual confirmation day. In many cases it was really essential for the children to work; schooling was for many a real luxury. "A year of school" meant as little as two months and as much as four.

The first class confirmed in Sterling was received in 1884. Previous to that instruction was offered only at the school maintained by the Hopkins Parish. "In Sterling there were but few children of that age and, as I taught full time in Hopkins, the children from Sterling attended there and were confirmed in Hopkins," the founding pastor reported. 13 years was the minimum age that confirmands had to attain before reception into membership was possible. Some of the children had relatives in Hopkins with whom they could make their home for the duration of their instruction; the others were simply provided for by goodhearted Christians who were concerned for their training in the Word of God. "I do not think they had to pay (board) and I am sure they did not work for their keep. Most of them remained out in Hopkins until they were confirmed." The length of instruction was" one or two years, depending upon individual ability."

The first school building was constructed in the summer of 1883. It was located in back of the Church facing north, just as the Parish Hall does today. Pastor Lussky dedicated this new building but moved to Hopkins as the first full-time Pastor for the rural parish before the teaching year began.

It seems that the first real parochial school, which functioned as a Christian Day School in the accepted sense of the term, was organized by the Rev. Louis Gresens in 1894.