1934 in History    Franklin Delano Roosevelt is President; despite the December 1933 repeal of Prohibition with the 19th amendment, gangsters and crime still make the news. John Dillinger escapes jail using a wooden pistol and goes on a rampage until he is mortally wounded by the FBI four months later; in April, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker begin a killing spree in Texas ending in their May 23 death in a shootout; Pretty Boy Floyd is killed in October; on the national scene the Dust Bowl storms begin; FDR establishes the US Securities and Exchange Commission; US occupation of Haiti ends on August 15; the Hays Office begins its censorship of the movie industry; It Happened One Night becomes the first film to win all five Oscars; the musical Anything Goes starring Ethel Merman premieres in New York City on November 21; Joe Louis wins his first fight against Jack Kracken in Chicago; the Dionne quintuplets are born in Ontario, Canada.

Msgr. Anthony Kaul's final portrait, 1934.

1934 at St. Anthony's   Rev. Louis Yeager and Rev. Louis Chagnon are the assistants. Msgr. Kaul’s eyesight is failing because of cataracts and a detached retina. Surgery has improved his vision somewhat, but he is weakening. Msgr. Kaul’s handwriting has always been beautiful and clear despite his failing eyesight, but on February 4 his assistant, Fr. Yeager, assumes the paperwork. Msgr. Kaul resigns on February 13 as pastor becoming pastor emeritus. He is considered to be legally blind; Fr. Yeager takes over as administrator. Msgr. Kaul continues to say Mass every day with an assistant leading him to and from the altar. Parish life goes on. Sr. Jane Frances, CSC is principal of the St. Anthony School; there are 13 girls and 17 boys in the eighth grade graduating class; An Old Fashioned Mother is again performed in the school auditorium with entertainment provided during intermission by St. Rita’s Club Kitchen Band; parish May Queen is Helen Melchior (whose brother had been one of Msgr. Kaul’s many assistants); St. Anthony mens’ basketball team of 1933–34 wins the city championship; Lancaster Catholic High School holds its commencement exercises in St. Anthony Hall honoring 75 graduates; J. Norman Klos of St. Anthony Parish earns highest academic honors; Msgr. Kaul celebrates his 88th birthday on June 8. He is the oldest priest in the diocese.

1944 in History    The United States has been involved in World War II ever since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; the US captures the Japanese-held Marshall Islands in Majorca; the United Negro College Fund is incorporated; the US Navy captures a German U-505 submarine (it is on display in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago). On June 6, D-Day begins with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops in Normandy; on July 6, 1st Lieutenant Jackie Robinson is arrested and court marshaled for refusing to move to the back of a segregated US Army bus. He is acquitted and given an honorable discharge; the Battle of Guam is fought July 21 to August 10; IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, called the Harvard Mark 1; The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet radio show debuts; General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines; Aachen becomes the first German city to fall on October 21; Appalachian Spring, a ballet by Aaron Copeland and Martha Graham, opens in Washington, DC; on November 7 FDR is re-elected to an unprecedented 4th term; General George C. Marshall becomes the first five-star general; Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie debuts; Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander of the US forces at Bastogne, refuses German demand for surrender with one word: “Nuts!” Four days later the Germans are repelled at Bastogne.

Rev. Herman Gies, pastor.

1944 at St. Anthony's   Rev. Herman Gies assumed the office of pastor following Msgr. Kaul’s death on July 24, 1935. Fr. Gies was one of Fr. Kaul’s many assistants from 1912–1914. Rev. Louis Yeager filled in as pastor until Fr. Gies could be appointed to the position in 1936. His assistant is Rev. Rudolph Fuhr who becomes active in the dramatic presentations of the parish. At this time, Father Gies institutes a parish publication entitled Our Parish Interests in which the monetary contributions of the parishioners are listed in detail. The magazine also includes articles of interest to Catholics, such as “Ten Com-mandments for the Parents of School Children,” “The Dangerous Summer Time,” and some advice from a couple married 65 years entitled “At a Wedding Anniversary.” Fr. Gies has instituted the magazine in keeping with the advice of Pope Pius XI who has been called “The Pope of the Press.” The pastor also makes an attempt to enforce the rule of an earlier Pope about no women in the choir, but apparently meets with such strong objections that he decides that enforcement would not be worth the aggravation and quietly shelves the idea. Brother Leopold, CSC (Msgr. Kaul’s older brother Joseph) dies at Notre Dame in June at the age of 99; May Queen from the class of 1944 at Sacred Heart Academy is parishioner Patricia Sullivan, who is to become a well-known actress in the Lancaster area. The Sodality, Holy Name Society, and St. Rita’s Club continue to be active at this time and dramatic presentations can be seen both in St. Anthony auditorium and at Sacred Heart Academy.

1954 in History    Dwight D. Eisenhower is President; Vice President is Richard Nixon; the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut; the first mass vaccination of children with the polio vaccine takes place on February 23 in Pittsburgh; hydrogen bomb tests are being conducted at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific; journalist Edward R. Murrow and producer Fred Friendly produce the 30-minute See it Now broadcast, exposing the harsh methods of Senator Joseph McCarthy to the general public; in April, the Army/McCarthy hearings convene, with Senator McCarthy calling the Army “soft on Communism.” In June the hearings end in a defeat for McCarthy with the accusation of Senator Joseph Welch: “Have you, at long last, no decency?” In December, the US Senate votes to condemn Senator McCarthy for conduct that brought the Senate to dishonor. In the rest of the world the US Air Force Academy is established in Colorado; the first Boeing 707 is released; in the case, “Brown v. the Board of Education,” the US Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are unconstitutional; the words “under God,” are added to the Pledge of Allegiance; the first issue of Sports Illustrated is published; the last new episode of The Lone Ranger is aired on the radio; the Miss America pageant is on television for the first time; 29 million US homes now have television; Hurricane Hazel wreaks destruction on much of the United States; Texas Instruments produces the first transistor radio; the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima) is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery; the immigration port at Ellis Island is closed; the first Burger King opens in Miami; the first successful kidney transplant takes place in Boston; the Boy Scouts of America organization is desegregated; the first TV dinner is introduced.

The grass lawn girls' playground of St. An-thony's School. Pictured is the area, looking north, between the church and the school. The area now is paved parking. Pictured left to right—front: Jane Hammers and the author, Dianne Danz; back: Loretta Oreszko, Phyllis Mehaffey, and Ann Kiely.

1954 at St. Anthony's    Rev. Robert Hartnett is the pastor and his assistant is Rev. Mercurio Fragapane. Fr. Hartnett was appointed pastor after the death of Fr. Herman Gies in 1945. At this time the custodian is William H. Reus, organist is Fred Sullivan, and choir director is Joseph Ransing. St. Anthony School has approximately 350 students and is fully staffed by Sisters of the Holy Cross from grades 1–8. Principal is Sr. M. Melanie, CSC. Classes with more than 40 students are not unusual, and the sisters handle the discipline well. The space on the west side of the school is the girls’ playground and on the east side is the boys’ playground. On Sunday, May 16 the second annual Holy Name Amateur Show is held in the St. Anthony auditorium for the children of the school. First place goes to Barbara Binzen, age 13, for her tap dance solo; second prize is awarded to Donald Dis-cavage, age 9, for his accordion solo; Ronald Shank, age 12, comes in third with a piano solo, and honorable mention goes to Miriam Quigley, age 10, for her Irish dance. Master of ceremonies is parishioner and television personality Leo Kelly. Of note during this year is the death of a parishioner, Richard W. Trees, at the age of 74. His parents, Jacob Trees and Caroline Hoenninger, had been the first couple ever to be married in St. Anthony parish. They were married by Fr. Anthony Kaul on April 11, 1871. (Publisher’s note: On Holy Saturday, 1954, Clayton and Dora Mitzel became the proud parents of a baby boy.)