1904 in History Theodore Roosevelt is President; Henry Ford sets a new automobile land speed record of 91.37 mph; the ﬁrst large scale bodybuilding competition is held at Madison Square Garden on January 16; the US gains control of the Panama Canal zones for $10 million on February 23 and US Army engineers begin work on the canal shortly thereafter; on April 8, previously named Longacre Square, Times Square is named for the New York Times; on May 5 Cy Young of the Boston Americans pitches the ﬁrst perfect baseball game against the Philadelphia A’s; as part of the World’s Fair, in July the third Modern Olympic Games open in St. Louis; at the same fair the ice cream cone is invented during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition; on October 27 the ﬁrst underground line of the New York City subway opens at Broadway; on Times Square the ﬁrst New Year’s eve celebration is held; and, in the same city, a policeman arrests a woman for smoking a cigarette in public.

1904 at St. Anthony's Assistants to Fr. Kaul are Rev. Augustin Kappes and Rev. Charles Pietrowicz. The church was ﬁnally paid for and consecrated in 1895. Immediately thereafter, Fr. Kaul planned the Institute building which has been erected to the east of the church on parish grounds. By 1904 the St. Anthony Institute is in full operation, especially the dramatic presentations that are performed in the third ﬂoor auditorium. Our archive contains programs and photographs from many of the shows including one called The Steel King performed on January 27, with music provided by Edward Bentz’s orchestra. The Bentz family was prominent in the early days of the parish with every member involved in some ministry to beneﬁt the church. Their home at 536 East Chestnut Street was the gathering place for the Lyceum group, a debating society for young men and women of the parish. Sad to say, The Steel King is the last show for Edward Bentz, who dies of typhoid on May 9 of the same year. He is 25.

A publication entitled The Parish Kalendar is printed. It is called “a magazine of interest, informative to members of the parish.” Obviously, Fr. Kaul is still employing ways to improve the parish funds since the magazine includes some interesting information about pew rents. Most pews are rented by the quarter, but there are some pews that are reserved for non-renters, and for these, people can pay either 10 cents or 5 cents, depending on their need. There are even some free pews in the back for really needy people. The 11:00 Mass on Sundays is reserved for children. Adults who wish to attend must pay 10 cents at the door to get in.

This is also the period of time when Pope Pius X issues the decree that there are to be no female voices in choirs. Fr. Kaul ignores this. St. Anthony parish choir is heavily dependent on the women who comprise it. The pastor is well aware of this fact.


The St. Anthony buildings in 1904. The rectory (left) was completed in 1896. Note the pointed roof on the St. Anthony's Institute (right, today's Resurrection Catholic School) which was completed in 1895.					The St. Anthony's Lyceum Executive Council of 1902. Photo was taken in the third ﬂoor auditorium of the Institute. Left to right front row: Flora Ursprung, Mary Long, and Lewraine Magee; middle row: Anna Dosch, Elizabeth Eppley, Anna Kempﬂe, David Magee, Fr. Kaul, H. John Hoemenz, Carrie Allwein, Agnes Hiemenz, and Mary Dosch; back row: Oscar Smith, John Drachbar, Robert Allwein, George Ransing, Edward Bentz, Frank Matt, William Ewing, Harry Hiemenz, Harry Seifert, and William Cosgrove.

1914 in History Woodrow Wilson is President; Ford Motors begins an 8-hour work-day and a minimum wage of $5 for a day’s labor; the baseball stadium Weeghman Park opens in Chicago. It is to become Wrigley Field; Woodrow Wilson signs a document instituting a national celebration of Mother’s Day in May; Babe Ruth makes his major league debut with the Red Sox; on August 4 German troops invade Belgium at 8:02 AM and Britain declares war on Germany. The US remains neutral; E. H. Shackleton leads an Antarctic expedition; the Panama Canal is inaugurated with the passage of the USS Ancon; the Federal Trade Commission is established on September 26; Joseph P. Kennedy weds Rose Fitzgerald of Boston on October 7; Henry Ford sells 248,000 automobiles; Jack Dempsey starts ﬁghting under the name “Kid Blackey.”

1914 at St. Anthony's Assistants to Fr. Kaul are Rev. Herman Gies, Rev. Denis Reardon, and Rev. Stanislaus Dobinis; the St. Anthony parish basketball team consists of Paul Ransing, Francis Heidig, Raymond Teufel, Joseph McGreever, and Richard Brickner; St. Anthony rectory, built in 1896, is painted and papered by Mattern and Yeager Company at a cost of $275; Charles Keen is janitor; $355 is earned during the strawberry festival; $500 is realized after the Men’s Supper; assistant priest Fr. Herman Gies leaves in July and is replaced by Fr. Denis Reardon; there are 112 boys and 118 girls in the school; a ﬁre escape is built onto the school at the cost of $150.

It is in August of 1914 that the Redemptorist Fathers take possession of the Clare Point Stock Farm in Ephrata. The farm is bought from Clare L. Willson and consists of 81 acres including a mansion house (which cost $50,000 to build,) four houses, two barns, and two quarter-mile horse tracks. Monsignor Kaul is instrumental in coordinating arrangements for the purchase among Mrs. Willson, Bishop John Shanahan and Very Rev. Joseph Schnaeder, C.Ss.R., Provincial of the US and Canada. The Redemptorists still retain possession of the property in Ephrata with the parish of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

Michael Haberbush, one of the three original donors for St. Anthony parish, dies on October 26. Mr. Haberbush has been the owner of a harness shop on the square in Lancaster. The Haberbush family is prominent both in the history of the parish and the support of Sacred Heart Academy. He dies in the home of his daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Dr. L. Chadman. Mr. Haberbush has an impressive history. The story of his family can be read in the archives.


A group of 1914 St. Anthony school student assembled on the church steps.					Attendees of Mass celebrated at St. Clement's Mission House in Ephrata, PA circa 1914.


Michael Haberbush					Buildings in the southwest corner of Penn Square, Lancaster, PA circa 1914. Note the Haberbush business at the far left.

1924 in History Calvin Coolidge is President; William Howard Taft is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Rhapsody in Blue is performed for the ﬁrst time in Aeolian Hall in New York City; IBM is founded; on February 22 Calvin Coolidge becomes the ﬁrst President to do a radio broadcast. Coolidge is also the only President ever to preside over a rally of US Holy Name Societies in Washington, D.C. on September 18; MGM movie studio is founded in Los Angeles; Ford Motor Company produces its 10-millionth car; J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the FBI; Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming becomes the ﬁrst woman governor in the United States (note: the vote was granted to women in Wyoming in 1869); on November 27 New York City’s Macy’s department store sponsors their ﬁrst Thanksgiving parade; US bootleggers, made rich by the prohibition laws, begin using Thompson sub-machine guns to defend their positions; Leopold and Loeb are sentenced to life in prison for the kidnap/slaying of Bobby Franks. Celebrities born this year are Marlon Brando, Doris Day, Dennis Weaver, George H.W. Bush, Truman Capote, and Jimmy Carter.

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Fr. Eberle and Msgr. Kaul relaxing during a 1924 parish picnic in Williamson Park.

1924 in St. Anthony's Pastoral assistants are Rev. John Weber, Rev. Cletus Helfrich, and Rev. John Eberle. Msgr. Kaul once again uses his inﬂuence to negotiate the sale of the Dray Farm near Columbia to the Sisters of the Precious Blood (it will become St. Anne’s Home); the pastor continues to ignore the dictate about women in the choir and turns over the operation of the organ to Edna Rooney Frailey, assisted by Cecilia Drachbar. A new hall has been built as an extension of the St. Anthony Institute. Since the upper ﬂoor of the building was destroyed in a ﬁre in 1915, the parish had been compelled to use the basement church for their dramatic productions until this time. Rebuilding the stage on an upper ﬂoor was deemed a ﬁre hazard, so it was decided to form an extension onto the school extending north toward Marion Street. This extension included a gym/auditorium that is sill in use today. It was completed in 1922. William Bentz was the contractor. St. Anthony girls’ basketball team, the Blue Birds, makes extensive use of the new gym, with the coaching of Edgar Musser.

Msgr. Kaul celebrates 55 years as a priest; pastoral assistant, Rev. John H. Weber, wins a $9000 Zook-built home in Glen Moore Circle in Lancaster for selling subscriptions to Lancaster newspapers. He earns 100 million credits. Fr. Weber gives the home to his mother, Rosa Weber, of 511 Poplar Street. Fr. Weber is Msgr. Kaul’s most dynamic assistant—and one of the longest-lasting. Weber has been at St. Anthony’s for seven years. (In his 60 years at St. Anthony Church, Msgr. Kaul had 42 assistants.) Certainly the bowling league has appreciated Fr. Weber for his 180.46 average. The assistant could actually be seen at times performing manual labor to build the parish hall. He has also played in the parish orchestra and directed some dramatic shows including An Old Fashioned Mother, which is performed on January 15. This play is acclaimed as the ﬁnest ever to be presented in the parish. Charles H.B. Chambers is featured in a starring role. It is no wonder that Msgr. Kaul names Fr. Weber “the best,” when Weber leaves at the end of 1924 to take over the pastorate of St. John’s in Steelton.

The 1924–25 St. Anthony's Girls' "Blue Birds" basketball team. This team played boys' inter-collegiate rules. Left to right, front row: Margaret Keen and Frances Toland; middle: Cecelia Drach-bar (who was also the church organist), Berna-dette Reiner, Ruth Ream, Ava Huber, and Elizabeth Resh; top: Coach Edgar A. Musser, Frances Greenawalt, Catherine Resh, Dorothy Miller, and Marguerite Greenawalt, team manager. Visit the 1923 Girls' Team picture.

The cast of the 1924 box oﬃce success An Old Fashioned Mother, directed by Rev. John H. Weber. Left to right, front row: Fred Flick, Carolyn Seber, Charles H.B. Chambers, C. Herbert Yost, Agnes Ziegler, Charles A. Keen, Emma Heil, Anthony Tretter, Cecelia Drachbar, Mrs. Frank Goldbach; rear: Patrick Hagan, Esther Weber, Dorothy Miller, Gervase Long, Bernadette Reiner, Donald Herzog, Fr. Weber, Herman Seber, Mary Flick, Josephine Eisch, Mary Dochat, and Mary Daum.