Property Record
1700 240TH AVE
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | ST. FRANCIS XAVIER CEMETERY WROUGHT IRON CROSSES |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 239954 |
| Location (Address): | 1700 240TH AVE |
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| County: | Kenosha |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Brighton |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 2 |
| Range: | 20 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 14 |
| Quarter Section: | |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1843 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2019 |
| Historic Use: | cemetery monument |
| Architectural Style: | |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Metal |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| Additional Information: | The first Catholic church in the Town of Brighton was named St. Patrick’s and was established by the Irish immigrant population in 1838 on the future site of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. A cemetery was established there in 1843 AHI #239953. The first, non-extant church building, constructed with logs in 1845, was replaced with a non-extant frame structure and non-extant school in 1857. A steeple and addition to the church were completed in 1860. As the parish grew, many German Catholic immigrants joined the otherwise ethnically Irish church, and the two groups coexisted. A new non-extant school and non-extant convent were constructed in 1879. During the mid- to the late nineteenth century, many German immigrants to the United States erected decorative wrought iron crosses as burial monuments. A number of these crosses #AHI 239954 can be found in the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church Cemetery. Some of the crosses in the cemetery are stamped “Burlington,” and therefore were likely produced by the foundry of Hubert Wagner in Burlington, Wisconsin. The church was destroyed by a tornado in 1883, and a new Gothic Revival style church was completed in the same year #AHI 239959. The new church was officially renamed after St. Francis Xavier in honor of the prominent Father Francis Etchmann, who had led the church through most of its history up to that point. Previously, the church was known by the Irish parishioners as St. Patrick’s and by German parishioners as St. Boniface. The three stained glass windows above the alter, therefore, depict all three of these saints. The rectory building, located north of the church, was completed in 1906 AHI #12820. A parish hall and shrine addition were constructed on to the church in 1924. The non-extant Martin Hahn Memorial Hall was constructed adjacent to the church in 1924 and demolished in 1972. The church was remodeled in 1962. A new school AHI #239958 and convent AHI #239957 were completed in 1966, and the rectory was renovated the same year. Several outbuildings on the grounds include a garage adjacent to the rectory AHI #239955 and shed behind the school AHI #239956. The interior of the church was renovated in 1999. Decorative wrought iron crosses are commonly found in cemeteries throughout Germany and around the Black Sea in southern Russia. Iron cross grave markers can also be found in thousands of cemeteries across the American heartland, from Kansas to central Canada and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Unlike wooden crosses, those made of metal were capable of withstanding the elements over time. Wrought iron cross grave markers in the United States were used predominately by Catholics of German, Polish, and Czech heritage during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The tradition of wrought iron cemetery crosses is especially tied to the wave of German migration to the United States from the Volga region of Russia that started in the 1870s. Many Volga Germans first traveled to Wisconsin before settling in heavy concentrations in Great Plains states. Many cross-making blacksmiths learned their trade before they immigrated to the United States during the late nineteenth century and were from a variety of nationalities including German, Irish, Hungarian, Czech, Ukrainian, and French. Use of the wrought iron crosses waned by the end of World War II, as tombstones of granite, marble, or concrete increased in affordability and the demand for other services of local blacksmiths declined. During the late 1980s and 1990s, wrought iron cemetery crosses in North Dakota were heavily researched and documented by the Institute of Regional Studies at North Dakota State University. This marks what appears to be the first major research conducted on the subject and recognizes the wrought iron crosses not solely as a product of a cultural group or matter of ethnic tradition, but also an as folk-art form. Crosses were commonly homemade, while others were manufactured commercially throughout the region by blacksmith shops and foundries. Companies known to manufacture the crosses in Southeastern Wisconsin include Badger Wire and Iron Works of Milwaukee, active during the early twentieth century and the foundry of Hubert Wagner in Burlington in neighboring Racine County, active during the late nineteenth century. Some of the crosses in the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Cemetery are stamped “Burlington,” and therefore were likely produced by the foundry of Hubert Wagner of Burlington, Wisconcin. Hubert Wagner was born in France in 1824 and migrated to Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1844. There he married Salome Zwiebel of France in 1846 and went on to have eight children: Charles, Hubert Jr., Elizabeth, John, William, Mary, Theresa, and Emma. In 1856, Wagner moved his family to Burlington, Wisconsin, where Hubert partnered with Anton Zwiebel to open a machine shop and brass foundry in a wood frame building on Pine Street north of Milwaukee Avenue. The partnership dissolved in 1863, at which time Wagner continued operating the company under his own name. In 1867, Wagner partnered with F. G. Klein, continuing the machine shop and iron foundry. Among their products were threshing machines and fanning mill irons. The foundry was producing wrought iron cemetery crosses by the 1870s. In 1875, the company hired John P. Mather to set up agents for selling Wagner’s Threshing Machines in Minnesota and Iowa. The company was producing corn shellers, churns, Iron Horse Hitching Posts, cast iron sinks, and leach tubs by 1877. Wagner bought out Klein’s interest in the company in 1879 and continued its operation for a while under his own name and later Burlington Foundry & Machine Shop. By 1881, the company was known as Hubert Wagner’s Machine Shop & Foundry and was marketing a hay and straw cutter. In 1884, Wagner’s sons, Hubert Jr., William, and John Wagner, began leasing their father’s machine shop and foundry under the name Wagner Brothers Burlington Foundry. The majority of the crosses in St. Francis Xavier cemetery date from the 1870s and 1880s. |
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| Bibliographic References: | “History of St. Francis Xavier,” Kenosha-Racine County Line Catholic Parishes website www.krcatholics.org/history-of-st-francis-xavier. Churchin Vrooman, Nicholas and Patrice Avon Marvin, eds. Iron Spirits. Fargo, ND: North Dakota Council on the Arts, 1982. Winistorfer, Jo Ann. “Iron Crosses: Sentinels of the Prairie.” North Dakota Living, April 2003. Isern, Thomas D. and Kevin Nesemeier. Wrought Iron Cross Cemeteries in North Dakota-Continuing Survey, 1998-99. Fargo, ND: North Dakota State University Institute for Regional Studies, 2000. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |