Muenster Catholics celebrate 100th anniversary of Sacred Heart Catholic School building

Students study at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Muenster. (NTC/Thomas Otto)

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MUENSTER — Sacred Heart Catholic School in Muenster is celebrating an anniversary this year that shows the importance of a Catholic education to the residents of the Cooke County town established in 1889 by German Catholic immigrants.

One of the first things the founders did was establish a Catholic school in a 14x24 wooden structure, bringing Sacred Heart’s history to life. However, it was not long before its wooden structure proved to be too small for the burgeoning community. In 1919, fundraising began for a new school building, one that would serve Muenster’s children for decades to come. In December 1924, the cornerstone was laid for that red brick building, an edifice called “magnificent” for its time.

Now, the town is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the building that saw its first class of students attend the 1925-26 school year. 

A walk through history

Lydia Springer, an alumna whose parents and grandparents attended the school, knows firsthand the importance Sacred Heart holds for the townspeople of Muenster.

Her own children attended Sacred Heart, and her grandchildren will attend too. 

“When Muenster was founded, the founders actually came here to start a Catholic school,” Springer said. “When they started construction of buildings in 1889, the first thing they built was not the rectory, not a church, but a building for the school.”

In fact, on Dec. 8, 1889, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the first Catholic Mass was celebrated in the town, marking the official birth of Muenster. On Jan. 1, 1890, the town’s settlers met and made plans to first build a school followed by a rectory and church.

Springer said the school is central to the lives of the families in Muenster.

“It’s so important to the whole community, but just incredibly important to our faith, the legacy, the importance of it,” she said. 

The school evokes strong memories and emotions for Springer.

“Even when I was in school in this 100-year-old elementary building ... even then, as I would run my hands [along the banisters], I remember distinctly that my grandparents, my grandmother, who was born in 1921, ran her hands down the same banisters, the same steps, the same classrooms,” Springer said. “Even then, it was significant to me.

“And then my kids got to do the same thing, even though that would have been their great grandmother long since passed — just the legacy of that struck me,” she said.
Springer said that much of the school’s interior is unchanged from 100 years ago, and a walk through the school is like a walk through history.

“Some of the desks the last time I was in it — and I think they’re still there — actually have the holes where the inkwells sat. So many have been refinished, and it’s just one of those things that our community thinks is important to maintain,” Springer said.

A need for a high school

Sacred Heart is a pre-K through12 school, but in its early years, the school provided an education only through grade eight. Parents and students, however, sought to add high school classes by the late 1930s. Those first high school classes were held in the red brick elementary building, with a grade added each year. 

Room needed for the growing high school meant renovations were made to the original wooden structure. The high school moved into its new home for the 1938-39 school year, the same year the school conducted its first high school graduation, granting diplomas to three students.

Later, a new 25,000-square-foot building became the home of the high school for the 1954-55 school year. That facility is still used for high school classes. 

Among the most senior of the school’s alumni is 98-year-old Alvin Fuhrman, who along with his late wife, Gracie, supported Sacred Heart for decades.

Fuhrman, through his company Nortex Communications, provided the school with its electronics needs for many years, including Wi-Fi and computer assistance. Both Alvin and Gracie attended Sacred Heart. The couple was married for almost 75 years, Fuhrman said, having wed when he returned from the military.

Fuhrman, who graduated in 1944, said he was good at math and that Sister Geraldine was his favorite teacher. Back then, Fuhrman said the same teacher taught every subject.

He said there were about eight or nine students, mostly girls, in his graduating class.

Faculty of the faith

Sister Jeanette Bayer, OSB, 83, has taught and tutored at Sacred Heart since 1997, and she is proud that she still works at the school and is looking forward to the 100th anniversary celebration.

A member of the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Sr. Jeanette has taken great pride in helping many students during her tenure as a relief teacher and tutor at the school. Some who struggled in school benefited from her tutoring and went on to find success in life, she said.

The school has had a long relationship with the Benedictine order, dating back a century. In 1893, the first Benedictine priest, Reverend Bonaventure Binzegger, arrived from Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas, and in 1895, he reached out to the Benedictine Sisters of Jonesboro and asked that they would come teach in the parish’s Catholic school. 

Sr. Jeannette is the last of the Benedictine sisters to still be at the school and recalls her service to the school with pride.

A Muenster native, Sr. Jeanette said the school is part of her family’s legacy.

“My father remembered that school building being built,” she said. “He was going to school at the time. Then he had classes there and he was able to go through the ninth grade. Then, he had to stop and help farm.”