Historic Oconto County, WI school buildings.

Oconto County WIGenWeb Project
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HISTORIC OCONTO COUNTY SCHOOLS

St. Joseph Catholic School
city of Oconto
Oconto County, Wisconsin

St Joseph School is pictured in the right rear. This photo is believed to have been taken shortly after the school was enlarged in 1892.
photo from
The History of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin
published 1895 - 1898

The 5th grade class in May of 1947 from St. Josephs Catholic School, Oconto, Wisconsin.
Darlene Herald is in the front row with dark hair and sweater with glasses.

Photos contributed by:
Kathleen Barlament

"In 1875 there were 32 schools in the county (Oconto), with a total of 892 pupils enrolled, including six in Oconto – five public and the new parochial school of St. Joseph’s parish. The others in town were the Washington school on Michigan and School streets, the Lincoln school on Jones and Adams; Jefferson school on Second street; Pecor school on Center street, and the Douglas school on the southwest corner of Messenger and Gale."
Oconto County Reporter November 11, 1971

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below from
The History of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin
published 1895 - 1898

" The school was dedicated in July of that year (1874), and it was then placed in charge of Sisters of Notre Dame, who opened it for regular attendance during the following October. This school has proved a blessing in many ways to the Church at Oconto, where previously Catholic educational interests had been sadly neglected. The Sisters of Notre Dame, however, enthused new life into the community, and as a result since their establishment there the parochial school and its interests here became a factor of paramount importance to the community. Two years prior to the completion of the school a bell weighing seventeen hundred pounds was purchased and placed in the church tower. This of course was duly blessed, its sponsors being Mrs. A. Dillon, Mrs. P. Guck, Mrs. George Lynes, Mrs. Norton and Messrs. George Davis and William Luby.

" (1892 saw) enlargement and general improvement of the school building, which had come into rather dilapidated condition. A basement was built under the school and divided into compartments which were used as kitchen, dining room and store rooms by the Sisters. Besides these there was a furnace room and hall which is used for church meetings as well as by lie different societies belonging to the congregation. This created an additional expense; however, the entire church debt had been paid off before the end of 1894."

" (1898) The present congregation of St. Joseph's numbers about four hundred families, and the parochial school, which is in charge of Sisters of Notre Dame, has a regular attendance of three hundred and fifty pupils."

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In 1966 Sister Mary Rosaline Berens celebrated her 103 birthday at the mother house in Mequan. She had joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame 80 years earlier. That same year she celebrated her diamond-pearl anniversary, having taken her final vows August 17, 1886. She started her biography for her Golden Julbilee 1936, feeling that her strength was waning and she would soon be writing "finis" to life. Her memory still sharp, she listed St. Joseph School in Oconto as her home and teaching position from 1912 to 1916. Milwaukee Sentinel.

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