Ferdinand Church Analysis

In rural Indiana, building a town around a church is not uncommon. As Germans relocated into the southern part of the state, they brought with them a strict heritage and a stoic Christian faith. One of these towns, named Ferdinand, sprung up and circled around a church. This church stood, and still stands, in the center of the town, and over the years has changed in its appearance, both inside and out. The current church, which is 160 feet long, 84 feet wide, and 160 feet tall at the tip of the steeple, has undergone many different updates over the course of its 168 years. Despite this, the church has remained a symbol of stability in the community, over the years the church has been modernized to include new technologies and amenities to serve its congregation, and to maintain the integrity of this building, renovations have been needed as well. The town of Ferdinand existed only in the mind of a man by the name of Father Joseph Kundek in 1840. However, an article appeared in Der Wahreheitsfreund (a Catholic weekly, written in German). It read: “The German Catholic congregation in Jasper, Dubois County, Indiana, has laid out a new town with the name ‘Ferdinand’ twelve miles south of

This new structure was to stand 112 feet long by 16 feet wide and in 1848, after three long years, construction finished. This 112 by 16 foundation is still the “heart of the present church”. (Stites 2) In order to stabilize the roof, the construction team erected columns. “Actual measurements of these pillars reveals he fact that the distance from pillar to pillar differs with each pair: no two pairs along either side are equidistant– the difference being from less than one foot to more than five feet– not even opposite pairs in each case on parallel lines; moreover they nearly all lean several inches to one or the other side,” says Father Albert Kleber, OSB (“History.”