Kimball Block Church and arson attacks

There is a Stearns County monument on Highway 15 just north of Kimball dedicated in 1949 for Maine Prairie Corners.

Just as with many stories, there are often at least two sides. The monument on Highway 15 is only one side, and there may be more. This is the side from the Becker(s) family. Esther Becker (photo below) was born in 1894. She told me these details on multiple occasions until I could repeat them back to her.

Until 1892, there was no law enforcement in the Maine Prairie area. The first Kimball town festival was Aug. 20, 1892. They had a contingent of men, temporarily deputized, to provide order for the day. Several men were from Georgia. In terms of law enforcement, prior to that day, we had what my family called “Prairie Justice.” So, on the day of the first town festival, my 21-year-old great-uncle, Mathias Peter Becker(s), was the lone family member to attend. My great-grandmother Alisabeth warned that he was stirring the pot. He had not been there long when every deputized man confronted him and forced him out of town.

Why?

Between Kimball and Watkins in Stearns County on MN Trunk Highway 55, there is a overpass named Old St. Anne’s Pass. At this location, there was a tiny fraction of Catholic settlers. These settlers practiced a deep, profound, charismatic faith. This faith was guided by a single Benedictine priest from Bavaria. He often lived with my family. He died April 14, 1886, in St. Cloud. My great-grandfather buried him at what is now Old St. Anne’s Pass.

This unusual religious practice was heckled as blasphemy, sorcery, or witchcraft by the Protestants who didn’t want it in the Kimball community. They especially did not want it near their children. My Uncle Mathias Peter represented that faith, and so these deputized men who forced him away stated they were protecting the children from evil.

Protestant secret society groups from the south had been sending a slow flow of men, including former Confederate soldiers. These men were promised a small fee and arrived due to the charismatic Catholics at Old St. Anne’s Church.

Why? How?

Time and time again, these individuals began with a common southern approach which was to first burn the church. Burning churches was designed to terrorize the patrons into submission. Maybe in the southern states that was a successful method at the time. However, not only was the tiny log church rebuilt quickly with lumber from the St. John’s Abbey, but these men vanished before they could collect their fee. My family took care of that with Prairie Justice.

My uncle Mathias Peter Becker(s) was born in March 1871. The Old St. Anne’s Catholic Church was located just over a hill from his house. A line on a map could be drawn to show his house was on a path between Maine Prairie Corners and the Old St. Anne’s Church. His first memories were of his mother screaming as they looked out the window into the nighttime ember sky knowing the church was on fire over that tiny hill.

Mathias Peter learned how to slaughter livestock at an early age. His horse stayed below his bedroom window in a makeshift shed with bedding. It was the livestock and dogs that gave Mathias Peter the cue when strangers were passing through the area going from Maine Prairie Corners to the Old St. Anne’s Church.

The first time he heard these men pass near his house, he quietly followed and watched them burn the church. He looked for recognizable factors from their horses, hats, clothing, and faces. He followed them, and that path went to Maine Prairie Corners.

Over 20-plus years, the tiny log church was burned as many as 15 times. Each time, Mathias Peter caught up to these men in the night. He tortured and killed them. He left no trace.

After the town festival on Aug. 20, 1892, Mathias Peter made his way to a cave in a ridged hill not far from Maine Prairie Corners. He had been storing weapons and a massive stockpile of blasting powder he had taken from the railroad. He had enough blasting powder to blow up the entire ridge. It is because of this day’s events, Aug. 20, 1892, that the area would be later named, “Powder Ridge.” Mathias Peter rode into Maine Prairie Corners. He tortured and killed these men that evening. There was a gunfight that mortally wounded him. My great-uncle Mathias Peter Becker(s) died from multiple gunshot wounds. Because he had committed so much torture and killing, he had to be buried on the outside of the Old St. Anne’s Church cemetery.

It is our side of the story that Maine Prairie Corners came to a violent end. My great-grandfather gave all the men a burial in what he called The Swamp of Bones. He rode out to Powder Ridge and blasted everything that remained.

After word of all this violence ran through the community, Catholic Mass ended for St. Anne’s in 1892. The violence also ended, and the parishioners disbursed to other Catholic churches further away from Kimball.

Multiple things happened to further erase Old St. Anne’s. The highway jumped across the tracks at that exact spot creating a large “overhead bridge.” Farmers tilled up the area cutting off any road or pathway to the cemetery. Multiple graves were dug up and moved out. Several were moved to the new St. Anne’s in Kimball, some moved to the homes of descendants. An area that had six Chinese (James Hill, Minnesota Railroad Tycoon) railroad workers buried from the late 1860s early 1870s were eventually tilled up. They all died from tuberculosis. My grandmother doctored the family Bible to erase her brother-in-law Mathias Peter and forbade talk of this in front of her.

The arson attacks and violence seemed to have worked because the community of Kimball went more than two decades without a Catholic church. The new St. Anne’s does not recognize this painful and violent history. St. Anne’s in Kimball chose to celebrate their 100-year anniversary in 2020. After arson fires burned into the church history, the old-timers who remained argued for a high-wall solid cinder “Block Church.” A material that can’t be burned.

Powder Ridge, Maine Prairie Corners, Kimball, and Old St. Anne’s Pass all have their own stories to tell. Once in a while, there is an individual who disagrees with how my family story has been written. I tell each person the same thing: “Write your own story!”

Dan Becker is a direct descendant of those who founded Old St. Anne’s Church, and this is his family-related version of history. He has written 75 short stories under the banner of “Old St. Anne’s Pass” book collection. All short stories are unpublished and available at the Stearns History Museum archives.