A special thank you goes to Roy Witucki, our summer of 2003 resident seminarian. He did a fantastic job of research and collecting source material. Roy also left an initial draft of the history, to which I have been entirely unfaithful. Please forgive me Roy.

I owe a large debt to the 1978 Centennial Committee. They produced a great history book and I have taken the liberty of lifting large sections from it.

Many thanks to the people who provided information or photographs: Dorothy Opelt for a selection of clippings and annual reports; Bonnie Langreck for a list of officers and PCCW information; the PCCW scrapbook chairs (future historians, the scrapbook is your treasure!); Harold Langreck, Pat Mrotek, Pearl and Mary Prock for taking time out to discuss times past; Greg Foster for providing written comments; Sister Mary Ann Gschwind, FSPA archivist, for making materials available; Sisters Lillia Langreck and Willene Grossaint, SSND, for fat packets of records, clippings and comments; Father Robert Altmann, Diocese of La Crosse Archivist, for providing details, records and lending out the St. Mary’s archived files for far longer than was originally intended; La Vern Schmitt, Greg Foster, Father Joseph Henseler, Dorothy Opelt, Dee Zimmerman and staff of the Clark County Press, Kenneth Wood of the Marshfield Library, Neillsville Librarians, Joe O’Brien at the Catholic Times for pawing through the files, finding and copying articles; Janet Schwarze and Jana Faxvog for editing suggestions; Kathy Hart for the lovely cover photograph, and Leslie Langteau and the rest of the staff at Heinzen Printing for making it into a wonderful cover (It gave me a chill when I saw it); Father Woody and Martha Opelt for putting up with an endless string of questions; and finally, my wife and family for giving up the time that went into this project. Again, if I forgot someone, please forgive me. I thank the Lord for the tools and talents he provided to make this happen.

Lavern Schmidt, pages 1, 21 (Parish grounds); Father Woody Pace, page 3; Cathy Hart, Pages 4, 35 and 37-40; Fairview Centennial, page 5; Father Steven Kachel, page 6; St. Mary’s Archive, pages 2 (altar) 8, 11, 12, 14, 15 (burned church), 17, 23, 32, 36; Virginia Elmhorst, page 10; Clark County Illustrated, page 13 (Prock); John Foster, page 13 (Foster); Martha Bergemann, pages 15 (Weber plea). Page 2 (church); Harold Langreck, page 16; Sister Willene Grossaint, page 18; Pearl Prock, pages 19 and 20; JoAnn Blum, page 21 (Fr. Nelson); Kathleen Vine, page 22; Jody Conner, pages 24, 25 (Skroch); Anita Wirkuty, pages 25, (Sladich/Tibbett), 33, 34; PCCW scrapbook, page 26 (Officers); Phyllis Carney, page 26 (mission card); School Sisters of Notre Dame, page 26 (Sr. Niva); Jean Grade, page 27;