REV. ANDREW (née Stephen ) BUTZKUEBEN, O. F. M.
Stephen Butzkueben was the son of Henry and Gertrude Koll Butzkueben.
His birth occurred November 19, 1848, at Paffendorf, diocese of Cologne, Germany.
After receiving a good pious education from his God-fearing parents, and after having made
his first holy Communion,
Stephen was entrusted to the tutorship of a learned clerical uncle, after which he attended
the Gymnasia at Bergheim and Juelich for four years.

Then, owing to ill health, following an interruption of four years. During this period of enforced rest,
the young man resolved to dedicate his life to God's service in the Order of the Friars Minor.
On October 6, 1870, Stephen was admitted into the novitiate at Warendorf, Westphalia.
After making his simple profession on October 31, 1871, and taking his solemn vows on November 3,
1874, Frater Andrew (such was his religious name) continued his studies at Wiedenbrueck and Duesseldorf
and, at the end of June, 1875,
with many confreres, he came to the liberty-radiating shores of America.

PRIESTLY LABORS AT GREEN CREEK AND SIGEL, ILLINOIS

Ordained at St. Louis, Missouri, on July 25, 1877, Father Andrew was first assigned, in 1878, to
Teutopolis monastery, from where he attended Green Creek (1878- 1879) and Sigel (1879 -1883).
At this last place he introduced the Franciscan Sisters of Joliet. Here he also had trouble twice with a fire demon.

On December 13, 1879, the church was consumed by the flames. When the erection of the
new church was well under way, on October 30, 1880, the voracious element destroyed the school
and even the few vestments he had saved from the first fire. Services had to be held in a private dwelling
until the church was completed. And soon the school too was also rebuilt.

In 1883, Father Andrew succeeded the Rev. Nazarius Komerscheid, O. F. M., as pastor
of St. Francis Solanus at Quincy, Illinois, and remained in charge there for twenty-six years,
from November 1883, to 1909. Here the new pastor erected the fine church which Father Nazarius
had been planning, and a fine new brick school and hall in 1893. By 1902, the ill-fitting furnishings
taken over from the old, church had been replaced with beautiful furniture and artistic statuary,
so as to make St. Francis' church one of the finest in the diocese of Springfield. In the year 1902,
Father Andrew celebrated his silver sacerdotal jubilee and, in 1908, his silver jubilee as pastor
of St. Francis church, with extraordinary splendor. While at Quincy, Father Andrew also served
several terms as guardian or vicar of the monastery.

Nine months later, Father Andrew was called to the administration of the Sacred Heart parish in
Indianapolis, Indiana, while Father Florence Kurzer succeeded him at Quincy. During his incumbency
of six years. Father Andrew erected the fine new
Sacred Heart School and high school, costing $100,000. After spending about two years at
Dubuque, Iowa, Father Andrew came to Humphrey, to assist Father Florence in the parish.
Soon after, despite his frail health, the aged Father was appointed rector of St. Francis parish
and superior of the residence at Humphrey. The school and the children were his chief solicitude.
He also installed a fine laboratory in the High School. Soon after the celebration of his golden
religious jubilee in 1921, he resigned and re-tired to St. Joseph's hospital at Omaha,
where on the morning of March 5, 1922, he was found dead in bed. The obsequies were held at
St. Joseph's. A delegation from Quincy accompanied the remains to that city, where they rest among
those of his former confreres and parishioners in Calvary cemetery, which he had been instrumental
in securing for the parish.
R. I. P.