Unlocking the Father Gärtner Diaries

In 1846 Father Maximilian Gärtner, a Norbertine priest from Austria, came to the Sauk Prairie area to serve in a Catholic mission. For the next 12 years, he recorded his experiences throughout the area in a series of 10 diaries which eventually amounted to over 3,000 pages of content. To date, only two of these diaries have been translated into English. An international effort is underway to “unlock” more of the diaries which are filled with local history, recorded as it happened. Gärtner’s second diary has recently been translated by Dr. Jonathan Singerton of Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. A presentation about Father Gärtner, his adventures, and what he wrote in his second diary will be given on Sunday, March 30 at  2 pm at the Tripp Heritage Museum in Prairie du Sac. Dr. Singerton will be joined by Dr. Michael Holstead who is with the Center for Norbertine Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin and SCHS Director Paul Wolter. Father Gärtner’s diaries contain a wealth of local history including fascinating anecdotes about daily life and even baptismal records that aren’t found elsewhere. Find out how Gärtner’s other eight diaries can be unlocked. The presentation is free and open to the public.