Benedictine
Sisters, Monastery of St. Gertrude, Cottonwood, Idaho
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THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE JOHN AND GERTRUDE UHLENKOTT FAMILY AND THE BENEDICTINE SISTERS OF COTTONWOOD, IDAHO When John and Gertrude lived in New Munich, MN, before coming to the Camas Prairie they knew the Benedictine sisters at St. Benedict's convent in St. Joseph, MN. In fact their oldest daughter, Mary, entered that convent before the family left Minnesota. She probably had already made her first profession, getting the name Sister Engelberta, since she made her final profession July 11, 1889. Final profession was usually three years after the first profession. John and Gertrude and the rest of their children arrived in Keuterville, ID July 4, 1887. The family bought the Bonner place, about one-fourth to one mile south of where we are now. That place was later owned by Gerhard Uhlenkott, where Sister Scholastica and her family grew up. The Uhlenkott's, like other farmers of the prairie had to travel to Lewiston to buy, sell and trade. There, they came in contact with the farmers of Uniontown and Colton. They got to know the people and sisters of those towns. This acquaintance became familiar enough that John and Gertrude's sixth child and third daughter, Bernadine, entered the community in Uniontown in 1892. She was 20 years old. Prior to this, Bernadine, following a strong desire for religious life had entered a Franciscan community in Lewiston. When the Franciscans left Lewiston, Bernadine joined the Benedictines and made her profession as Sister Augustine in 1893. In September 1894, Elizabeth, the tenth child and sixth daughter entered the community of Uniontown. She was 16 years old. On November 27th of that year she was part of the group of sisters, novices and candidates that Mother Johanna took to the new St. Scholastica's convent in Colton. Elizabeth made her profession as Sister Scholastica, August 20, 1896. She was elected prioress July 6, 1920, the day after the cornerstone for the blue porphyry building had been laid. In 1896 John gave $25 to the community when he heard of some expensive dental work one of his daughters had had. With that he wrote, "Are you in need of anything else? If only your convent were here on the prairie, how gladly would I give you a hundred acres of land." At the time the comment was passed over. In 1904 the Benedictine fathers from Conception Missouri established a monastery outside of Cottonwood. This became a factor in the sister's decision to move to Cottonwood. In 1905 Mother Hildegard Vogler was re-elected prioress. She determined the greatest need for the community was additional property for expansion. The existing building did not have enough space for the boarders and novices. Land near Colton that seemed suitable was not available. The sisters remembered John Uhlenkott's offer of land and asked if it still existed. The answer was "yes". On February 15, 1906 Mother Hildegard and Mother Johanna made a business trip to Cottonwood. They received the donation of 100 acres of land from Mr. Uhlenkott and bought an additional piece of farm land. In May of 1906 Mother Hildegard and Sister Gertrude Rickenbach returned to Cottonwood with two of their hired men. One man began tilling ground and the other did some building. For a short time the sisters stayed in the Uhlenkott home. The Uhlenkott family and Joseph and Anna Ungrund did everything they could to help the sisters and make things more convenient for them. Anna Ungrund was John and Gertrude's third child and second daughter. The Ungrund home seemed, to the sisters, to be ideal piece of land for the new convent. The purchased land was not suitable for a convent site. John Uhlenkott and Mother Hildegard tried to induce Joseph to sell his home to the sisters. No definite answer was given. The sisters returned to Colton at the end of June. In September 1906 the sisters came back to Cottonwood and again presented their request to the Ungrunds. It was no small sacrifice for Joseph and Anna to give up their place and home but the idea of the Blessed Sacrament so near their home and the ability to attend daily Mass prevailed. The plot of land with the home was bought by the sisters. Joseph and Anna built a new home nearby for themselves and their two children. The sisters added three rooms to the home. One of the rooms was to become the chapel. An important connecting link with John and Gertrude was that they had become Benedictine oblates. As such they had the privilege of being buried in a Benedictine habit and in the convent cemetery. That was important to them. John died March 30, 1922 and Gertrude on March 7, 1927. Both are buried in the monastery cemetery. The Uhlenkott involvement with the sisters continued into the next generation. On February 12, 1912, Anna Maria, the second child and oldest daughter of Joseph and Amalia Frei Uhlenkott entered St. Gertrude's at the age of 17. She became acquainted with the sisters at an early age. Being somewhat frail because of contracting polio at age two, her parents placed her in the Benedictine Boarding School at St. Gertrude's when she was eight years old. During grade school she met her three aunts and was taught by Sister Augustine. She related that she admired them and began to dream of a similar life style but felt she needed to stay home and help her mother. She kept talking about her dream to her younger sister who finally got tired of that and related the dream to their mother. When her mother questioned her about this she revealed her wish. The proud parents made arrangements with Mother Hildegard for her to enter the convent. She made her profession as Sister Engelberta December 17, 1918. On February 9, 1920 Sister Engelberta's sister, Elsie (Mary Elizabeth) followed her sister to St. Gertrude's. She was 16. She was the third child of Joseph and Amalia. She made her profession on August 15, 1921 as Sister Augustine. Her only teachers were the sisters from St. Gertrude's. She was prioress of this community from 1955 to 1967 and spent many years teaching. Her leadership was accompanied by many achievements and changes. In November 1925 Anna Elizabeth, the 23 year old, only daughter of Herman and Elizabeth Boerger Uhlenkott entered St. Gertrude's. She was professed July 25, 1927 as Sister Johanna. Many years of her life were spent caring for this sanctuary. On January 10, 1940 Susanna Maria (Mary), the fourth child, second daughter of Gerhard and Elizabeth Hoene Uhlenkott entered St. Gertrude's. She was 20 years old. She grew up 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the convent. She had been taught by the sisters all her life. She had three aunts and three cousins who were Benedictines. She said the sisters used to come to their orchard and pick apples. The sisters would ask the children to recite prayers and sing religious songs and then reward them with holy cards. After meeting other religious at work and at college she felt the St. Gertrude's sisters had a true religious spirit. She made her profession on June 11, 1941 as Sister Scholastica. Mother Scholastica, her aunt, was still living but was always called Mother Scholastica. And the connections continued into the third generation. On February 1, 1952, Mary the oldest child of Frank and Agnes Uhlenkott Reichlin entered St. Gertrude's. She was 18. She made her profession on August 6, 1952 as Sister Agnes. As a child, she often accompanied her father on Sunday afternoon visits to St. Gertrude's parlor or the vacated mens monastery to visit some of the sisters. Frank was working with the sisters at the monastery at the time. Mary's teachers for the second and third grade and in high school were sisters from St. Gertrude's. On August 21, 1960 at the age of 17, Judith, the oldest child of Alphonse and Pauline Sprute Uhlenkott came to St. Gertrude's. She made her profession on August 11, 1962 as Sister Mary Joseph. Later she went back to her baptismal name, Judith, Judy to family, friends and community. From the second grade she felt she was being called to religious life. She wanted to be a missionary. Maryknoll did not accept her because of some visual impairment due to an eye injury early in her life. Her missionary dream was fulfilled by working in the Benedictine school in Bogata Columbia from 1969 to 1993. She died of cancer October 31, 1996 at the age of 55. On September 16, 1985 Emagene Uhlenkott Warren came to St. Gertrude's. She is the oldest child of Vincent and Claudine Pfiffner Uhlenkott. Emagene had raised her family and done real estate work. At this time in her life she felt drawn to follow Christ with a group committed to the same goal. She was impressed with monastic life where all members share a common vision and yet diversity of each person is a value. She made her profession on August 6, 1988 keeping her baptismal name. Interestingly, her mother and uncle had boarded at St. Scholastica in Colton with the Benedictines during their entire grade school time. The above has focused on descendants of John and Gertrude who became Benedictines and especially those who served in the Cottonwood community. There are descendants who followed different paths. From the second generation, Bernadine, the third daughter and fourth child of August and Anna Schreiber Uhlenkott joined the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood in Vancouver B.C., Canada in August 1941. She was 25. She died April 32, 1986. In the third generation, Gary, the third child of Norbert and Betty Forsman Uhlenkott joined the Jesuits. He is currently head of the music department at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Lorelie Seubert, the second child of Raymond and Regina Uhlenkott Seubert joined the Little Sisters of Jesus, an international community. She continues to work with her community among the working people of the world. In the fourth generation, Ben Uhlenkott, son of Bill and Eileen Sewell Uhlenkott is in the seminary at Mt. Angel studying for the Diocese of Boise. We have talked much about people who followed the call to religious life and priesthood. At this time we want to acknowledge all of you and those who are not here who followed the call to marriage and the call to the single life. Through the commitment of marriage for the married and commitment to that solitary place within you single people, you have striven to live out the principles of faithfulness, integrity and generosity that guided John and Gertrude. Through your lives of struggle and sacrifice, love and compassion, joy and play you have contributed to our well-being here at the Monastery and to the New Reign of God. That was the call or invitation Jesus repeatedly extended to His hearers in the Gospel. It is the same call and invitation He gives to each of us. The call to work for a new world order, marked by right relationships of justice, love, peace and liberation for all of creation - for all of the church. CONTINUING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE JOHN AND GERTRUDE UHLENKOTT FAMILY AND THE BENEDICTINE SISTERS Thank you, Glen and Sister Agnes, for that thorough and interesting story of how the Uhlenkott family and the Benedictine sisters have been connected for 115 of our 120 years in the US. I will share briefly about how we might continue our connections. It seems to me that we have three primary connections we can carry on: prayer, vocations, and material/financial support. Prayer is the essential ministry of Benedictines---both the public prayer of the church in the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) and the sacraments, and personal prayer and spiritual reading (Lectio Divina). Please know that we include you in our daily prayer when we remember our friends and benefactors at Evening Praise and/or Mass. We also have a ministry of intercessory prayer. We invite you to call, write, or email us when you have special prayer requests---maybe an illness or death, maybe a birth or wedding, maybe someone seeking employment or making a vocation decision. We post such requests on our prayer board and pray for them personally and communally. We also count on your daily prayer for us. Please pray that we will be faithful and fervent in our vocation, that we will see clearly how God is calling us to live Benedictine life at the beginning of this century even as our pioneer sisters, assisted by your ancestors John and Gertrude, sought to know how to adapt their Swiss style of Benedictinism to the dramatically different New World to which they had come. Please ask God to bless us with wisdom and courage from our life and prayer together to know how to reach out in hospitality, simplicity and peacemaking to meet the needs 120 years later. A second obvious connection is vocations. As Sister Agnes said, a great grace of this time in the church is a heightened awareness that every person has a vocation to be holy and to give his/her life for the common good. Know that your constancy in seeking how to love God and each other and to give your best to meet the needs of the church and the world inspires us sisters. We ask God to bless you with fidelity and joy in your vocations. Glen and Sr. Agnes just inspired us with the story of how many in your family responded to their vocation to Benedictine life within this community. What if God is continuing to call some of you to carry on those connections! Perhaps now more than ever before, joining and helping to shape a vital Benedictine community appropriate for this time in the church calls for the best of your imagination, leadership skills and profound faith. So I ask very directly whether there are some among you who are open to a call to carry on the vocation connection. Perhaps it is some of you young women making your first vocation choice; perhaps it is some of you single mid-life women who are at a new crossroads and asking God to let you see how God calls you to dedicate the rest your life to God and the needs of our times. From Uniontown to Colton to Cottonwood support from your family was important in enabling the sisters to move ahead with what they perceived God was calling them to. In addition to prayer and vocations, your family has been very generous in donating land, money and other material goods. We hope we can continue to count on such support from you. Right now our areas of greatest need are funds for vocation promotion, support for our elders, reforestation on Cottonwood Butte where we are implementing an ongoing forest management plan, and for our spirituality/retreat ministry and our museum. We are doing long-range planning to determine how best to use the space in the monastery, and possibly to add some space for retreatants and volunteers. We thank you for coming to celebrate with us on this 120th anniversary of our coming to the US. We hope the connections between your family and our community will continue to be strong as we start into our next century together! |
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