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REV. KASPER SCHAUERTE.
The honored and popular pastor of St. Andrew's church in the city of Murphysboro, Jackson county, is one of the representative members of the Catholic clergy in this diocese, and in his local field of endeavor he has accomplished most beneficent work, both along spiritual and temporal lines. He has built up one of the important parishes of this section of the state, is known as a man of high intellectual attainments and as one whose life is consecrated to the high calling to which he is devoting his abilities and energies.
Father Schauerte was born in the fine old province of Westphalia, Germany, and is a scion of one of the old and honored families of that part of the great empire. The date of his nativity was March 7, 1862, and he is a son of William and Regina (Matzhauser) Schauerte, who passed their entire lives in the fatherland. Their seven children, four sons and three daughters, are now living, the subject of this review being the first born. William Schauerte was a tailor by trade, but the major part of his active career was one of close identification with the great fundamental industry of agriculture. Both he and his wife were most devout and consistent communicants of the Catholic church, in whose faith their children were carefully reared.
He whose name initiates this article was afforded the advantages of the excellent schools of his native land and in 1880, when about eighteen years of age, he severed the gracious ties which bound him to home and fatherland and came to America. He located at East St. Louis, Illinois, and in the meanwhile began the work of preparing himself for the priesthood of the great mother church of Christendom. He attended Teutopolis College, a Catholic school in Effingham county, Illinois, and thereafter completed his philosophical and theological studies in St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1887. He was ordained to the priesthood on the 24th of June, 1887, by Archbishop Heiss, and on the 26th of the following month he was appointed substitute to Rev. F. Bergmann, who was then pastor of St. Andrew's church, Murphysboro. Here he has since remained, his assignment to the full pastorate of this parish having occurred in the same year which marked his assuming connection with the parish. The church has been signally prospered in both spiritual and material activities under his earnest and effective regime, and the parish now has a representation of two hundred and seventy-five families. Under the administration of Father Schauerte has been erected the beautiful church, fine parish school building, the parish home, as well as the hospital and convent which form important adjuncts to the parochial work. Under his direction were also erected the Catholic churches at Carterville and Ava, and he was the dominating force in vitalizing the affairs of these parishes, in which he continues to maintain the deepest interest, notwithstanding the many and exacting demands of his home parish, in the work of which he has a valued coadjutor in the person of Rev. Fred Witte.
Father Schanerte is a man of broad and liberal views and marked public spirit. His genial personality has gained to him the high regard of all who know him, and he has the affection and sympathetic co-operation of the members of his parish. He takes an active part in the affairs of the diocese of Belleville, of which his parish is a part, and is chairman of the diocesan board of education as well as of the board of building commissioners. His interest in the educational work of his church has been of the most insistent and benignant type and he is a member of the national educafional association of the Catholic church in America. His interest in all that touches the material and
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civic welfare of his home city is deep and active, and is measurably signified by his membership in the Murphysboro Commercial Association.