WHAT HATH OKARCHE TO DO WITH JERUSALEM? GERMAN CATHOLICISM & OKARCHE, OKLAHOMA, 1892-1948

Abstract

My thesis focuses on German Catholic settlement in the Oklahoma town of Okarche following the 1892 Cheyenne-Arapaho land run. Okarche is today recognized as a German Catholic town, however during the initial period of settlement that was not a certain outcome for the town. German Catholics were a distinct minority in Okarche with a very small presence within the town, however from 1892-1902 the rural regions surrounding Okarche attracted greater quantities of Germans, Lutheran and Catholic, through chain migration. The insular, parochial, and staunchly traditional nature of German Catholics then facilitated German Catholics to build up their own institutions in the town and eventually come to dominate Okarche in both the town and the rural regions. My thesis makes the case that the German Catholics of Okarche were rare because they were at the end of a long pattern of German migration, which provided all-or-nothing stakes to develop an insular community to preserve a perceived erosion and eventual loss of their culture, language, and religion.I cover this history in four chapters. The first describes German Catholicism in Germany and the motivations for migration to the United States. It also examines German migration trends to show that before Okarche was settled, an eighty-year-long tradition of German Catholic settlement across the United States had already concentrated around the midwest. The chapter concludes with the arrival of Germans into Okarche and how German Catholics settled around the town and built their own churches and schools. The second chapter focuses on the German Catholic struggle to obtain a German-speaking priest and the subsequent conflicts between the German Catholics of Okarche and the bishop of the Vicariate of Oklahoma, Theophile Meerschaert. The third chapter focuses on the long era of Monsignor Zenon Steber, who led Okarche’s Catholic community for over forty years. The fourth and final chapter is broken up into two sections: anti-Catholicism in Oklahoma and how the German Catholics from Oklahoma managed to insulate themselves from the rampant anti-Catholic bigotry dominating the state.