By TONY GUERRERO
Hays Post
Fundraising is underway to install a historical marker honoring Fr. Valentine Sommereisen, a frontier priest who helped lay the foundation of Catholic communities across Ellis County.
Fr. Reggie Urban shared on Saturday the story of the area’s first resident priest who went on to establish several Volga German parishes.
"According to what we do have, Valentine could easily be considered a modern-day Saint Paul. Much like Paul, he was a driven Christian missionary, a founding pastor of many parishes and the object of many hardships and rejections," Urban said.
The Ellis County Historical Society and Urban are working to place a memorial plaque honoring Sommereisen at the corner of the land where he grew an orchard and vineyard north of Hays in the late 1800s.
The project would also include groundwork. Tax-deductible donations can be made by check to Heartland Community Foundation with "Fr. Sommereisen Memorial Plaque" in the memo, or by electronic donation here.
Sommereisen was born May 28, 1829, in southern Alsace. While studying in Paris, he was recruited for the Diocese of St. Paul. He completed his studies in Minnesota and was ordained in 1851.
"A week after, without any prior experience, he became the first resident pastor of an immense area of southern Minnesota," Urban said.
He was appointed to St. Philip’s in Mankato, Minnesota. Urban said he also oversaw 32 additional mission stations within a 50-mile radius.
Urban said Sommereisen spent 14 years in Mankato and was gifted a pocket watch by the people he served in Minnesota.
"By 1869, 13 years after being ordained, Valentine had served 37 parishes in 14 counties with about 5,000 people under his care. 250 of them had been baptized within one year. ... I have never baptized that many people in one year, nor in my 29 years as a priest," Urban said.
Sommereisen also had about 200 students enrolled in a school he founded in Minnesota, one of the first in the Mankato area, and helped facilitate construction of the First Baptist Church in Mankato.
Afterward, he went to Yankton, South Dakota, where he founded and served St. Benedict Parish. Urban said that during this time, Sommereisen learned English, three native Canadian languages and became fluent in Sioux.
"Fr. Valentine spoke or read 10 languages," Urban said.
Urban said the Sioux Indians respected Sommereisen, and his ability to speak people's languages made him especially effective as a missionary.
During this pastorate, he would accompany the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873, a three-month survey of a route for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Sommereisen served as a chaplain for the expedition, which included Lt. Col. George Custer.
In 1876, Sommereisen left South Dakota for Ellis County, settling in Hays and ministering to Catholics across 160 miles along the Union Pacific Railroad. He organized parishes in Hays, Victoria, Munjor, Catharine, Pfeifer, Schoenchen, Liebenthal and Rush Center.
"During his 19 months, which is all that he was here in this area, he performed 119 baptisms, 19 marriages and 13 funerals," Urban said. "Incidently, the number 19 occurs a lot [in Sommereisen's life]."
In 1877, the entire state of Kansas was organized as the Diocese of Leavenworth. That same year, Urban said the growing population in Ellis County and surrounding areas, driven by an influx of Russian and Volga German immigrants, became too much for Sommereisen to serve alone.
Bishop Louis Mary Fink, the first bishop of the Diocese of Leavenworth, arranged for the arriving Capuchins to provide pastoral and liturgical care for the growing immigrant population.
Sommereisen was assigned to St. Francis Borgia in Cottonwood Falls. Urban said that after about 19 months there, he returned to Hays at age 50.
"50 years old in those days is like 70 years old today, and considering all that he had been through... it is no surprise that he was ready to get off the busy road," Urban said.
Sommereisen retired to a farm northwest of Hays in 1879 and spent his remaining years tending to his vineyards, orchards and gardens, selling produce. Urban said he also became known for teaching others how to farm and survive on the land in early Ellis County.
"For a brief time, because of bad weather and low crops, he worked on a railroad section to make his ends meet," he said.
Sommereisen died Jan. 25, 1897, at age 67. His funeral Mass was held at St. Joseph Church, and he was buried in the parish cemetery in the family plot of his longtime friend, Michael Haffamier.
His tombstone noticeably has his last name misspelled.
For more information on Sommereisen's life or the memorial plaque, you can contact the Ellis County Historical Society at 785-628-2624 or director@echshays.org.
