Rev. Franz Joseph Feinler Biography


	This biography appears on page 1681 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	REV. FRANZ JOSEPH FEINLER, pastor of St. Peter's church, at White 
Lake, Aurora county, was born in Gissigheim, Granduchy of Baden, 
Germany, on the 28th of March, 1871, being a son of Franz Carl and Maria 
Magdalena (Schmitt) Feinler, who were likewise born and reared in that 
section of the great German empire, where they remained until 1900, when 
they came with their son John A. to America, joining the subject in 
Parker, this state, and remaining as inmates of his home until 1903, 
since which time they have made their home with the son previously 
mentioned, on his farm, which is located one and one-half miles distant 
from White Lake. The son John A. was united in marriage, on the 19th of 
May, 1903, to Miss Mary Majerus, of Robey, this county. The parents have 
ever been devoted communicants of the Catholic church and are folk of 
sterling character, while they are passing the evening of their lives 
far from the scenes of their loved fatherland but sustained and made 
content through the filial devotion of their children. 

	Father Feinler secured his early educational discipline in the 
admirable schools of his native land, and in 1892 was graduated in the 
gymnasium at Tauberbischofsheim, Baden. He then began the work of 
preparing himself for the priesthood, studying theology for two 
semesters at Freiburg, Baden, after which he continued for four years 
his ecclesiastical and philosophical studies in the Collegio Urbano di 
Propaganda Fide, in Rome, being ordained to the priesthood in St. John's 
Lateran, on the 12th of June, 1897. In the same year he came to America 
and began his pastoral duties in the diocese of South Dakota, having 
been for a time secretary to Bishop O'Gorman, in Sioux Falls, after 
which he was assigned to the pastorate of the church at Parker, Turner 
county, where he remained until November, 1901, when he entered upon his 
present pastorate, having here accomplished a most successful work and 
having infused vitality into the spiritual and temporal life of the 
parish. He is a man of high intellectuality, a forceful and convincing 
speaker, sincere and earnest in his devotion to his noble calling, and 
has gained the affectionate regard of those among who he is laboring for 
the establishment of a kingdom of Christ on earth.