August 17, 2001
Catholic Sentinel

German-Catholic settler family
holds reunion in Mount Angel

MOUNT ANGEL - More than 500 people, all friends and members of the Louis Schwab family, gathered at the abbey grounds here last weekend for a family reunion and lesson in Oregon Catholic history.

The three-day event celebrated the lives and accomplishments of an estimated 3,000 family descendants of Louis Schwab and his wife Josephine (Winterer) Schwab.

The Schwab descendants have been meeting since 1977; they've kept up a five-year schedule in Mount Angel since 1981. The reunion now hosts 10 generations.

On display this year was a 240-foot-long genealogy chart of the descendants in America. It took up two full walls in the Oktoberfest Building.

In 1804, Schwab ancestors purchased the former Carthusian monastery buildings, exclusive of the church, in Astheim, Germany. Louis Schwab was born there in 1825. Later, Louis’ father bought his relatives’ shares and sold half the monastery estate and kept the rest for his family.

At age 24, Louis arrived in the United States and became a citizen in Philadelphia in 1854. He married in the early 1850s, and the family moved to Iowa. In 1881, the family moved to Mount Angel after learning about the opportunities in Oregon and plans for a Benedictine monastery in Marion County.

At this time, Benedictine Father Adelhelm Odermatt (who later became the first abbot of Mount Angel Abbey) asked Louis to assist the monks by taking options on three nearby farms for the abbey. Louis died in 1882 before all the paperwork could be completed. Josephine, his wife, finished the transaction and sold 215 acres of land to Father Adelhelm, prior, and his successors in November 1882 for $6,000.

Of special interest to those attending the reunion this year was the display of a copy of the original deed from Josephine Schwab to Mount Angel Abbey's first Abbot Adelhelm, as well as other possessions of the abbot, which were shared by Bob and Merri Flury of Portland.

Merri is a great-granddaughter of Louis Schwab. Her husband Bob's great-grand uncle was Abbot Adelhelm Odermatt.

Louis Schwab's son Fred became Mount Angel's first mayor, served many terms on the city council and school board, and was a member of the building committee of the present St. Mary's Church. Louis’ daughter, Caroline (Mother Gaudentia of the Sisters of Providence) was a hospital administrator in the Northwest. Dorothea (Sister Rosalia of the Sisters of Providence) worked in nursing and administration.

The late Benedictine Sister Marilyn Schwab received recognition for her research and work in gerontology and geriatric nursing. She helped found the Benedictine Nursing Center (now Providence Benedictine Center) and served as prioress of the Benedictine Sisters in Mount Angel.

The Schwabs of America will visit the Schwabs in Astheim-Volkach, Germany in 2004, for the 200th anniversary of the Schwab purchase of the former Carthusian monastery in Astheim. Four Schwab families still live on the grounds of the former monastery today.

The reunion ended Sunday with a family Mass celebrated by Father Elwin Schwab.