Traveling west from downtown Evansville is what is locally known as “The West Side.” The west side of Evansville was settled by German immigrants. Mostly farmers but of course there were businessmen, craftsmen, laborers, and lots of clergy because these were mostly German Catholics.
These German Catholics produced large families and all these new German-American children became adults and stayed close to home. In some cases, very close. There are lots of extended families here who all still live on the same road or at least in the same area. For instance, there are several Wildeman families living on Wildeman Road and several Schutte families living on Schutte Road. However, several Weinzapfel families live on St. Phillip Road (just up from Weinzapfel Tavern). I wonder if St. Phillip Road used to be Weinzapfel Road.
My own mother was German but we didn’t have our own road nor did her family farm. She grew up more in the suburbs near Tekoppel School. Her father carved headstones (it was a family business…that and a pickle factory) and bartended on the weekend (it was a family hobby).
I grew up just three blocks from where my mother grew up. Getting the picture? My two brothers and I attended kindergarten at Tekoppel School which is a public school. We transferred to Sacred Heart Catholic School after kindergarten where we stayed until we graduated from elementary school. After that, we attended Mater Dei (Mother of God) High School. The reason still remains a mystery. Yes, we were Catholic. But it isn’t like mom took us to church every Sunday.
My daughter once asked, “If Catholic kids go to Catholic School, do public kids go to public school?”
