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Cornerstone laid for St. Joseph's Technical School in Techny, Illinois

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On May 15, 1899, the small North American SVD community of Revs. Johann Peil and Joseph Fischer, along with Brothers Wendelin, Homobonus, and Michael moved to a rented house in Shermerville, IL, a farming community 20 miles north of Chicago. The nearby farm the Society of the Divine Word had purchased was to become a boys’ industrial trade school, and much work needed to be done in order to make those plans a reality. That planning process lay largely at the feet of Peil, the mission superior. Over the next few years Fr. Peil often found himself at odds with St. Arnold Janssen, founder of the SVD community in Steyl, Holland in 1875 and its general superior until his death in 1909.

Fr. Johann Peil was as ambitious in his thinking as Janssen was cautious, and correspondence between the two regarding the Shermerville mission highlights those differences. Still, Janssen did support Peil’s vision to open a trade school for poor and orphan boys, and consistently provided him with funds and personnel throughout the construction (though not to the levels asked for by Peil). By the fall of 1899 Peil had begun gathering building materials on the farm property, though he did not communicate this to Janssen.

In the meantime, the Society continued purchasing land adjacent to the original farm in preparation for construction. In March of 1900 Rev. Joannes Beckert SVD arrived. Fr. Beckert was the master builder for the Society’s churches and mission houses in Europe, and was sent by Janssen to design and oversee the construction of the new school. Due to Peil’s early start in obtaining the necessary materials construction moved quickly. The cornerstone was laid on July 8, 1900 and by the fall the building was well on its way to completion. The first students arrived in April of 1901 and instruction officially commenced after the school’s dedication on Easter Sunday.

While St. Joseph’s Technical School, as it came to be called, was only open for a little over a decade, it had a lasting effect on how the SVD was perceived in North America. Techny, the name of the vicinity around St. Joseph’s, was coined in 1906 after the community’s first post office opened at the technical school. For decades after, the Society of the Divine Word were known in the US as the Techny Fathers.

The school was deemed by both Peil and Janssen as successful. By 1905 it boasted over 200 students, all of whom lived on the premises. Admission was open to Catholic boys between 10 and 15, and a minimal tuition was charged to those whose families could afford it. Aside from a basic curriculum, students spent the bulk of their time learning trades such as farming, tailoring, carpentry, painting, printing, and machine work. Records suggest that admission was at times quite competitive, with many applicants turned down due to lack of space.

Despite his success Fr. Peil, bold sometimes to a fault, had conceived of a grander purpose for the school at Techny: the foundation of a seminary, or “mission house” in the language of the Society, where young men could be trained as SVD priests and Brothers. Janssen was staunchly against the idea for years, fearing that a Divine Word seminary so far from its administrative home in Europe would likely break away and become an independent community, or that it would lose the German character he considered so essential for its success. Still, as time wore on a chorus of Techny SVDs joined Peil in his appeal, and Arnold Janssen began to listen.

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