Emperor Ferdinand of Austria probably never imagined a town would be named after him.  But far from Austria near what is now Evansville, Indiana, situated in the buckling landscape of the Ohio River valley, is a town bearing his name.  Although the emperor never visited the place, the inhabitants of Ferdinand take pride in their town’s imperial connection, which is understandable, for it is not often a town receives the blessing of an emperor.  For this special history, the town of Ferdinand has Father Joseph Kundek to thank.

It all started with the desperate requests of Simon de Bruté de Rémur, bishop of Vincennes in Indiana, to the Vienna office of the Leopoldine Society (Leopoldinen-Stiftung), an Austrian mission society.  From the moment he arrived in Indiana in September 1836, his reports told Vienna of a rather large population of German speakers in his diocese, a fact he had not anticipated when assembling his team of nineteen missionaries.  More than a year later, after many letters concerning the insufficient resources available to serve his growing Germanic diocese, de Bruté received word from the Leopoldine Society that a German-speaking priest had volunteered his services.  He was elated by this news and wrote to the archbishop of Vienna expressing his gratitude: “With yearning I await the arrival in the near future of a new priest, Fr. Joseph Kundek from Croatia, whose coming has been announced both by Your Princely Grace as well as by himself.  It would be most tragic if he changed his mind, for just now I need most of all such missionaries who are familiar with the German language.^[1]

A Croatian by birth, Joseph Kundek (1810-1857) had learned Croatian, Latin, and German as part of his early training for priesthood, for which he was ordained in 1833.  Three years later (1836), he approached the Leopoldine Society with his interest to assist their mission in the United States.  His timing was impeccable, because Bishop de Bruté had just recently sent his request for urgent support in the field of his diocese.

Father Kundek was prepared without delay and sent, arriving in Vincennes in September 1838.  He was appointed to pastor the German immigrant congregation in Jasper, a major town near Vincennes in the neighboring County of Dubois and was installed as the pastor of St. Joseph Parish on the twenty-eighth of September.  The congregation of German speakers was already at fifty families, up from twelve just two years earlier.  By December 1839, it had nearly doubled, numbering ninety families, many coming from Baden in southwest Germany.

Preaching to this settlement in 1838 was not easy in the least, as the resources available to reach out or even to stay at a subsistence level were truly scarce.  As Kundek’s biographer Dunstan McAndrews wrote: “The young priest was a sound realist: first, he made the best of what he had; secondly, he reached out for more… To have some means of subsistence, Father Joseph Kundek acquired farm property and hired somebody to work it.  From the proceeds of this farm he made his living, since it was clear to him, that at least for some time he could not expect but scant support from his parishioners, not even funds for the most necessary parish developments.”^[2]  Additionally, Kundek found himself being the only priest for the entire area of southwestern Indiana, which essentially required regular travels exceeding seven hundred miles.  “My mission, which I traverse on horseback, is about as large as the territory encompassing Vienna, Preßburg, Schottwein, St. Pölten, and Linz.”^[3]

It was in this vast tract of land, where “the region is healthful, the soil fertile”, that Father Kundek conceived of the idea of founding little Catholic settlements to ease travel between Jasper and the Ohio river port of Troy.  As the area was still largely uninhabited, Kundek searched out the perfect location for his seedling Catholic community to meet his idea of a well-balanced Catholic life that included “blending religion and nature into one”.  The landscape he claimed for the Leopoldine Society was a valley “with a gently rising slope to the left leading up to a broad ridge [that] was buttressed against a hill impart[ing] majesty to the gentler landscape at its foot; primeval forest over all created an atmosphere of God's solitude.  It was into this valley and onto this slope that the lone missionary projected his mental vision of a new town; he in spirit saw a large church resting serenely up on the ridge, its lofty tower, as it were a mighty finger of God, pointing heavenward[.]”^[4]

In 1839, five days after the Leopoldine Society had purchased the chosen 1360-acre plot from the United States, Kundek began town planning.  He soon reported of the progress made for the new settlement, which would be eighteen miles from the Ohio River and the focus of forty surrounding farmsteads.

Two hundred-seventy six lots were drawn and placed on the market on 22 April 1840.  And although the first purchases came some days later, Kundek declared the town and parish’s official founding as the twenty-second of April, a symbolic date, as it marked a milestone in Kundek’s mission to encourage German settlers to the area.  “My purpose in this was to give the German Catholics greater stability… The land in the vicinity is so good that in general few Catholics are better situated… As for the market, anything can be sold here.  Many a German Catholic is agreeably surprised he can travel four, five, or even ten miles in a wooded region settled by Catholic families and discuss matters pertaining to religion without contradiction.  Here a German is truly respected[.]”^[5]

As a welcome sign, Kundek fastened a board to a tree with the inscription “Ferdinand”.  He chose that name, because Germans could easily pronounce and remember it.  Also, it honored the patron Kundek adopted for the town, Emperor Ferdinand, an original member of the Leopoldine Society.  The town of Ferdinand has since thrived, while also managing to maintain its valued harmony with the surrounding beautiful wilderness.^[6]

The existence of Ferdinand, Indiana may well have continued to be the special secret of her residents had it not been for a recent string of coincidental discoveries.  Last March, Ms. Alexandra Leich, a resident of Evansville and a student of Habsburg history, became the messenger of the town’s Austrian and German connections when seeking its etymology and finding precisely that upon discovering the website of Ferdinand’s Monastery Immaculate Conception.  She informed her finding to a friend, Ms. Renate Stohwasser of Chicago, who in turn mentioned it over coffee to a patron-of-the-arts friend of hers.  Save Ms. Leich, none of them had ever heard of this small, remotely located town Ferdinand.  This excitement, enhanced by its special connection to the House of Habsburg, inspired the arts patron, a renowned personality and art historian also of Chicago, who wishes to remain anonymous, to speak of a rare unsigned, but attributed to Leopold Kupelwieser portrait of Emperor Ferdinand of Austria in her private collection, a piece she had purchased in Austria.  The circumstances also encouraged her to offer the painting in bequeath to the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand of the monastery, which enthrones one of the highest hills in the buckling Ohio valley landscape.

The nuns accepted the kind gesture.  The timing could not have been better.  Ms. Leich and Ms. Stohwasser were already preparing for the arrival of a mutual friend, His Imperial and Royal Highness Mag. Markus Salvator von Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduke of Austria.  His visit to Ferdinand was initially a private affair, for he desired simply to see the “newly discovered” town named after his great-great-great uncle Emperor Ferdinand.  However, the opportunity to include him in a yet developing presentation of the painting sparked the creation of a spectacular event.

After a considerable amount of organization, Archduke Markus Salvator agreed to unveil the portrait.  The weekend of the 20^th of June 2003 was chosen for the grand event, which just happened to coincide with Heimatfest, the town’s annual German roots celebration.  Consequently, the archduke was welcomed to Ferdinand with a motorcade tour including a special stop at the Heimatfest.  Following a brief visit of St. Ferdinand Church, whose portal is adorned with the Habsburg Double Eagle, local leaders and officials formally welcomed His Imperial and Royal Highness at Ferdinand Community Center.  Thereafter, the official unveiling was held before the Sisters of St. Benedict, which concluded with a banquet.  It was in this way that Emperor Ferdinand of Austria at last came to “settle” in the town, which had been founded in his name.

Accompanying the Archduke were Ms. Renate Stohwasser, Ms. Alexandra Leich, and Mr. Glen Covert, an aspiring scholar of Austrian and Habsburg history and a member of the Austrian-American Society of Oregon, being present on the recommendation of Ms. Waltraut Kindler-Goertzen, president of the Austrian-American Council-Northwest.

Further information on Ferdinand or the Monastery Immaculate Conception can be found at http://thedome.org or by contacting Ms. Karen Katafiasz, Director of Communications for the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, Indiana, at ++1-812-367-1411.