Beginning in the year 1836 a number of Catholic German immigrants settled in the southwestern region of the state of Indiana in the neighborhood of Evansville in Vanderburgh County and Jasper in Dubois County. By the end of 1838 there were fifty such settlers. In March of 1838 Father Joseph Kundek of the Archdiocese of Agram, Croatia, came to the Diocese of Vincennes after he had learned of the need for German speaking missionaries for the newly arrived settlers in the area. Kundek was installed as rector of the mission at Jasper in September of 1838 and subsequently advertised in Catholic German language papers, such as the Wahrheitsfreund of Cincinnati, to enlist more settlers. In 1849 Kundek reported that more than five hundred and twenty Catholic families were scattered over his territory, and that he needed priests.[18] In 1839 the Croatian missionary had purchased 1,360 acres twelve miles south of Jasper and had laid out a new town under the name of Ferdinand, in honor of Emperor Ferdinand of Austria, patron of the Leopoldine Mission Society. ( Figure 75).  This Society was administered by the Archbishop of Vienna and had provided funds for Kundek's missionary activities.[19] As for attracting priests to the area, Father Kundek had to rely on his own initiative and invited the Benedictines from Switzerland, who established a seminary to train men for the priesthood in 1854. Father Kundek is to be credited with the presence of St. Meinrad Archabbey twenty miles southeast of Ferdinand in Spencer County in southwestern Indiana.[20]

    In Dubois County, the towns of Jasper and Ferdinand still feature beautiful nineteenth century churches founded by German settlers. In 1840 a brick church of Neo-Gothic design with a single tower was erected in Ferdinand. In 1862 the St.Ferdinand parish purchased three oil paintings from the Swiss artist Paul von Deschwanden for a total of $209.00.[21] These three paintings are of the Crucifixion (Figure 76), Mary with the Christ child (Figure 77), and St. Joseph. A painting of the Trinity, also by Deschwanden, was hanging at one time in the arch above the main altar. It is not known when it was purchased. The most recent history of St. Ferdinand parish relates that "many times visitors to the parish from Europe, particularly Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, have been overwhelmed to think that the parish owns four of Deschwanden's paintings."[22] The Swiss painter's style is Italianate and academic rather than reminiscent of the early nineteenth century Nazarenes. Von Deschwanden also painted The Stations of the Cross for the Ferdinand church (Figure 78, Station 13).

   The small town of Ferdinand in Indiana's Dubois County harbors many other treasures of German-American religious art of the nineteenth century. These treasures are kept at the local Benedictine Monastery of the Immaculate Conception. In 1867 four German Benedictine Sisters arrived in Ferdinand to assist with the missionary work of earlier immigrant churchmen. They were needed to teach the children of the German settlers. Their presence was in large part due to the efforts of Boniface Wimmer, who recruited a group of religious women from their Benedictine St. Walburga's Abbey in Eichstaett, Bavaria, to come to America. Twelve German Benedictine Sisters came to St. Mary's village in Pennsylvania in 1852.[23]  In 1859 a small group of Sisters arrived in Covington, Kentucky, to join St. Joseph parish. From there four of them were chosen to move to Ferdinand eight years later. Their history in the small Indiana town includes the building of three convent buildings. The third compound is crowned by a magnificent church of Byzantine-Romanesque style, whose dome and cupola can be viewed for miles around and has quite fittingly been labeled "The Castle on the Hill". It was dedicated in 1924.[24] (Figure 79).

   The Ferdinand Convent is now known as the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception and houses an impressive art collection. In 1991 Archivist Sister Mary Kenneth Scheessele received an Indiana Heritage Research Grant from the Indiana Humanities Council and the Indiana Historical Society to research, catalog, and document the oil paintings, charcoal drawings, watercolors, statuary, wood carvings, textiles, and photographic prints. Two large paintings on canvas by Johann Schmitt are prominently displayed at the Monastery. The Visitation of 1885 (Figure 80) was originally commissioned by the Benedictine church of St. Mary's in Huntingburg, Indiana, which was pastored by Benedictine monks of St. Meinrad Abbey. It is not exactly known how the Ferdinand Sisters acquired the work.[25]  The subject matter of the painting is a traditional one in Christian art and is told in the New Testament, Luke, 1. When the archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary to foretell the birth of Christ, he also informed her that her cousin Elizabeth, who had been barren for many years, had conceived a son at a very advanced age. Mary then visited Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias, whose son was to be John the Baptist. Elizabeth recognized in Mary the mother of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and knelt before Mary. Schmitt's painting tells the story with expressive gestures of the three protagonists and Mary's accompanying maidservant. The second Schmitt canvas at the Ferdinand Monastery depicts The Assumption of the Virgin and is dated 1886 (Figure 81). This topic was a favorite of the German-American painter and embodied the same elements in each of his depictions: Mary is surrounded by angels dressed in white. Three of them hold her symbolic attributes: The crown and scepter of the Queen of Heaven, and the white lilies signifying her virginal innocence. Schmitt has incorporated another Western European iconographic tradition in his painting, by portraying Mary as the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. As such she is standing on a half moon, and twelve stars illuminate the halo behind her head.

   The Ferdinand Sisters are heiresses to other art objects whose origin can be traced directly to Germany. A table-size statue of the Christ child was brought from Covington, Kentucky, by the four Sisters who came to Ferdinand in 1867 (Figure 82). It is a charming example of Bavarian Baroque art and quite possibly was brought over from Eichstätt to Pennsylvania in the early 1850's. There are also prints, such as St. Joseph with the Christ child, which the Benziger Company of Einsiedeln in Switzerland distributed to religious communities in North America. (Figure 83).  In the Monastery church the wood panels by the firm of Anton Lange of Oberammergau in Bavaria are exquisite examples of the native Bavarian art of woodcarving. The stained glass windows in the church sanctuary were cast by the Emil Frei Art Glass Studio of Munich and St. Louis. (Figure 84).  It is heartening to discover that the Monastery Immaculate Conception of Ferdinand has not replaced or changed any religious art works in the community and that they cherish their German-American heritage to this day.

There were a number of nineteenth century Catholic churches in southwestern Indiana that housed religious art created by German-Americans. Many of the church sanctuaries have been altered to conform to the liturgical changes dictated by Vatican II. Despite such losses, efforts are under way to preserve valuable works for the enlightenment of contemporary worshipers and connoisseurs.