In Decatur County, ten miles southwest of Oldenburg, German Catholic immigrants from the Rhineland founded the small town of Millhousen in 1834. In the winter of 1839 they erected their first log church. As was the case for the majority of Indiana mission churches, a second larger church followed the log construction twenty years later. In 1869 a third church, a red brick Romanesque Revival structure, was dedicated with the title of Immaculate Conception. The Sesquicentennial history of the Millhousen parish states that the congregation paid $2000.00 for the frescoing of the church sanctuary by the artist Wilhelm Lamprecht. [10]  Between 1973 and 1977 the church was restored to correct damage to the roof structure and deflection of the outer walls. Photos of the church interior before the restoration show Lamprecht's painting of the Death of St. Joseph over the St. Joseph side altar and his painting of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception over the Marian side altar. The latter was painted over and now represents a missionary priest, possibly reminiscent of the missionaries, who came to the area in the early nineteenth century. It might also be a likeness of St. Francis Xavier, the patron of all missionaries and the patron of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.[11] Lamprecht's Death of St. Joseph  is still in its original place and delights the eye with its beautiful composition and harmonious colors. (Figure 69). (Figure 70, interior view of the sanctuary of Immaculate Conception Church, Millhousen, IN, before 1977).   Lamprecht has placed the protagonist St. Joseph on his deathbed, his left hand placed over his heart, his eyes looking toward heaven, where four angels are waiting to receive his soul. A green stalk with flowering white lilies stands behind his bed, a symbol of innocence The Virgin Mary in a blue mantle and golden halo bends over Joseph and strokes his forehead. A youthful looking Jesus in a red mantle and golden halo is seated at the foot of the bed, his right hand lifted in a gesture of blessing. There is an aura of deeply felt love and compassion pervading the scene.

    Wilhelm Lamprecht frequently came to Indiana to fulfill commissions for church decorations. He spent some time in Oldenburg, where he painted frescoes in the chapel of the Immaculate Conception, which adjoined the Convent, housing the Franciscan Sisters. They had been called there from Germany by the Reverend Franz Joseph Rudolf in 1851. The chapel has been completely redecorated and no longer contains Lamprecht's paintings. However, a panel painting of the Immaculate Conception, dated 1872, dominates the main staircase of the Convent. The Sisters claim that it was a personal gift from Wilhelm Lamprecht for the Prioress. (Figure 71).

    In western Indiana, the Knox County seat of Vincennes is the state's oldest permanent European settlement. The founding of Vincennes, around 1732, marks the beginning of St. Francis Xavier parish for French Catholic settlers. It was the first Christian congregation in the state. The French maintained a Catholic presence here for one hundred fifty years until new settlers from Kentucky, Germany, and Ireland outnumbered them in the early nineteenth century. The town of Vincennes was founded by and named for the Canadian soldier Francois-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes. He built a small fort and trading post along the St. Jerome River, now the Wabash River, to secure the area for his king and to trade with Indian fur trappers.[12] French settlers built a small log church near the fort in 1734. It was named Saint Francis Xavier after the sixteenth century Jesuit apostle of the Indies. Parish records exist after 1749. A few years later a new church building was erected and dedicated in 1785. In 1826 a third church of a red brick Classical Revival style graced Vincennes. Although it was not consecrated until 1841, Bishop Simon Brute de Remur, the first Catholic bishop of Indiana, entered his cathedral in 1834.[13]  St. Francis Xavier is the only Indiana church with the title "minor basilica" and the first of eight Catholic churches in Indiana listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is also the only parish, which operates a museum displaying the early history of Bishop Brute, who had fled his native France during the Revolution and had brought with him an outstanding library.[14]

    In 1870 Wilhelm Lamprecht painted three large frescoes for St. Francis Xavier Cathedral: Crucifixion over the high altar, Madonna of the Chair with Saints Simon, Celestine, Stephen, and Maurice over the Marian altar, and St. Francis Xavier over the St. Joseph altar. In these mural paintings the academically trained German-American artist displayed the full range of his talent and his knowledge of Italian Baroque art. There is no evidence of the shallow space and flat, two-dimensionally rendered bodies of Nazarene art. Instead the action of the protagonists takes place in a deep space. In the Crucifixion, Christ's emaciated body is depicted with great attention to anatomical details. At the foot of the cross are Mary, Mary-Magdalene and St. John. Their eyes are fixed on the dying Savior whose glance is directed toward the heaven above. Mary and St. John are both standing, but Mary-Magdalene is kneeling in a pose of utter devotion. The action is placed in the foreground of the painting with a dark, cloudy sky and dramatic flashes of light in the distant background. (Figure 72).

    The theme of a Madonna of the Chair, surrounded by saints, is well known in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art. In the context of such a painting, the Madonna and her son are enthroned and receive homage from a number of saints, who might be locally well known. In the case of Lamprecht's painting at the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, the four saints depicted were the patron saints of the first four Bishops of Vincennes, whose remains are enterred in the church crypt: St. Simon was the patron saint of Bishop Simon Gabriel Brute; St. Celestine was revered by Bishop Celestine de la Hailandiere; St. Stephen was the patron of Bishop John Stephen Bazin; and St. Maurice protected Bishop Maurice de St. Palais. After recent restoration, the original brilliant colors of this fresco have been brought out again. (Figure 73).  

   The third fresco by Lamprecht over the St. Joseph altar is a representation of St. Francis Xavier, a sixteenth century Jesuit missionary, who converted natives of the East Indies and of Japan. He is the patron saint of the Vincennes parish. Francis Xavier was born in Spain in 1506. While studying at the University of Paris, he came under the influence of St. Ignatius Loyola and was one of the first seven Jesuits who dedicated themselves to God. In 1541 he was sent to Portuguese India. For the next seven years he labored in the city of Goa, in Ceylon, in the Malay Peninsula, and in the Molucca islands. He is said to have baptized a large number of Indians among the low-caste peoples. He later traveled to Japan and China, where he died at age forty-six shortly after his arrival.[15]

    The image of St. Francis Xavier, painted by the German-American artist Wilhelm Lamprecht at the Vincennes Old Cathedral, is that of a tall, bearded cleric standing in the center of the composition. (Figure 74). With his right hand he is baptizing a kneeling man by pouring water from a seashell over the convert's head. In his left hand he is holding a small crucifix. A second person is kneeling next to the saint, possibly waiting to receive the baptismal water. It is difficult to discern whether this convert is male or female. However, the skin color and hair dress of this figure resemble a native African rather than an East Indian. This is a rather puzzling image. In the very foreground of the painting a man, who is suffering from a head wound, lies on a bed of straw and lifts his left arm in a gesture of supplication toward the Saint. The scene is played out in a barren, rocky landscape with a body of water visible in the far distance. Lamprecht's imagery is powerful and yet full of strange historical contradictions.

   In a way it is surprising that a German painter had been commissioned to decorate a French church. The Vincennes Cathedral archives contain a number of documents that deal with Lamprecht and his local frescoes. A Vincennes newspaper article by one Ralph Tilton in 1933 states that "the Cathedral ecclesiastical mural paintings were put on the walls by the artist Wilhelm Lamprecht, who had been brought to this country in the year 1870 to do some work on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. He was sent on to Vincennes by order of high church dignitaries in Rome and as a result of his stay here the Old Cathedral's walls bear some of the most rare and beautiful examples of his art now existing."[16] Another article by a local Vincennes historian relates that "the pictures on the walls were painted by the famous Italian artist Lamprecht."[17] These conflicting accounts affirm the unfortunate lack of record keeping in nineteenth century parishes.