St. Rose has been a part of my life in one way or another.  I grew up less than a mile from the church, just across the fields.   I can remember going or taking my grandmother to the cemetery each Memorial Day.  She would put the flowers on grandfather’s, Charles Henry and her son’s, Charles Patrick Henry’s graves.  I always thought that it was one of the most pleasant sites in the area.  The view from the church to the south is magnificent.  The founders of St Rose chose well for all of us to enjoy to this day.

Speaking of founders, my great grandfather John Henry was one of the leaders that created St Rose in 1878.  Almost the entire congregation had left Ireland to seek a better life and came to Minnesota for land and security.  It is an amazing story of how these early pioneers settled the open land and in less than twenty years raised the funds to build this enduring structure.  That they chose to build with stone and not just lumber shows that they were saying we are here to stay.  The church they built was not just for them, but for their children and their children’s children.

I am so thankful and proud that the community has taken on the job of securing and restoring this link to our past.  The years of effort by a lot of people shows that the founders were right in building with stone.  Stone will last as the community will last.  The community has changed over the last hundred and forty years and so has the church’s role.  Hopefully the community will still be here to appreciate its heritage and that the church will be here to represent a part of that heritage.

It is an honor to be asked to be part of the St. Rose restoration committee.  I will attempt to add to the efforts that so many have contributed in the past.  History has always been important to me so I would like to help tell the story of the St. Rose congregation.   When I was contributing to preserving the windows I had a hard time deciding which window I should help sponsor.  One is my great uncle another is great great grandparents, I’m related to people in about half the memorial windows.  The same can be said for residents of the cemetery.  For my ancestors and the rest of the current community I will try to see that St. Rose has a future as much as it has had a past.