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Happening ... in the Local Church
  Tony
Nagel (right) saved the wooden cross that was rededicated at St.
Augustine School Aug. 28. Left: Father Timothy Knepper, CPPS, offers a
blessing as Principal Anne Dumas and altar servers stand nearby. (Photos
by Kevin Cullen) |
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| The wooden cross was on the original St. Augustine School building from 1903 until its demolition in 1954. | Tony Nagel holds his granddaughter, Abigail Rose Jordan, at the rededication of the cross. | |
By Kevin Cullen
The
Catholic Moment
RENSSELAER — Thanks to Tony Nagel, the wooden cross that adorned the front of the old St. Augustine School from 1903 until 1954 is home again.
The historic cross, mounted on two new boards, was rededicated Aug. 28 with a blessing by parish administrator Father Timothy Knepper, CPPS. It is fastened to the wall at the entrance to the “new” school that opened on Sept. 7, 1954.
Later, in the gym, refreshments and memories were served as St. Augustine alumni recalled their school days in the 1903 building.
“It’s a wonderful thing that he (Nagel) held onto the cross all these years,” said Principal Anne Dumas.
Nagel was a St. Augustine School student from 1941 until 1949.
In 1954, at age 19, he was hired by the pastor, Father Francis Rehberger, CPPS, to raze the 51-year-old structure. It stood where the playground is today.
Father Rehberger, Nagel said, wasn’t satisfied with the demolition of the old St. Augustine Church. It was razed to provide space for the new school.
“I said, ‘I’ll tear that school down for you, father,” Nagel recalled.
Father Rehberger asked him to attend a meeting of the church trustees. There, the priest announced that he had decided to let Nagel have the job.
It took Nagel and several helpers all summer to dismantle the structure, using a borrowed truck and borrowed fencing to keep onlookers at bay. The salvaged lumber was sold to local people who needed it for new buildings.
Nagel saved the cross, coat hooks, a couple of light fixtures and a hand rail as keepsakes. Nobody else wanted them. He stored the pieces at his farm.
A year or so ago, while looking at a display of historic photos at the church, he saw one of the old school, in which the cross was visible. That got him thinking about its future.
“It was at my house all those years. I’m getting pretty old, so this is a good time to give it to the school,” said Nagel, 74, a retired electrician.
The cross, approximately 30 inches tall, appears to be made of poplar lumber, darkened by years of exposure to the elements. The edges are beveled. It originally was mounted at the top of the gable, above the second floor, where the roof overhang usually protected it from the rain.
His cousin, Bob Nagel, enrolled at the old St. Augustine School in 1927. He brought a photo of his second-grade class to the rededication program.
He remembered when the school had two rooms for eight grades. Grades one through four were in one room, and grades five through eight were in the other one. Two Sisters of the Precious Blood formed the faculty. Later, a classroom was added upstairs for grades one through four; grades five and six were in one downstairs room and grades seven and eight were in the other.
“There were four light bulbs in each room, but they never turned them on unless it was a real dark day,” Bob Nagel recalled. The building was warm in the winter, heated by a coal furnace. The ashes were spread on the playground as paving.
Former students entertained the current students by recalling going to daily Masses, eating egg sandwiches on the meatless Fridays, and discussing how older children helped tutor young ones.
One woman recalled how one nun let the girls dance with each other because the boys would have nothing to do with it.
Another graduate told a story about how her sister put her brother’s hair in pin curls. He was so embarrassed that he refused to remove his cap at Mass. When his teacher saw his hair, she ordered him to wash the curls out.
Another alumna said she was knocked unconscious by a baseball while playing on the teeter-totter.
Another story focused on the fact that Catholic kids, years ago, weren’t allowed to ride the public school buses.
The 106-year-old cross has outlived most of the nuns and most of the children it once knew. Now, it connects a new generation of teachers and students to those that came before. They share a common faith and mission.
“It looks wonderful on our building,” Dumas said. “It’s wonderful to have the original on our building now.”