TEUTOPOLIS — For 50 years, the Teutopolis Monastery Museum has been telling the story of the Franciscan friars who lived there and the village’s early settlers.
“These steps, walls and floors all tell a story,” said longtime museum volunteer Joyce Vahling during a recent walk-thru of the main display rooms on the museum’s second floor. “I’m sure they could tell a great story with all the footsteps, footprints, people that have been up here.”
The display rooms were once the small “cells” or bedrooms of the former Franciscan Novitiate, which started in 1860. For more than a century, novices spent a year in seclusion and prayer at the Novitiate, preparing for the life of a Franciscan friar.
In 1967, the novices vacated the building and mainly moved to Chicago. Then, in 1974, a committee of residents from the Teutopolis area was looking for potential projects to commemorate the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976. The Novitiate building had been sitting idle, so the pastor of St. Francis Church at the time offered it as a possibility for a museum and the grounds as a mini park.
With approval from the Franciscan Order, the local Bicentennial Commission moved forward with the plan. The museum opened in October 1975 with about 15 rooms. More were gradually added, and by the end of 1976, the museum had more than 20 display rooms.
When the museum started, the commission sought artifacts from the community to display. According to Teutopolis Monastery Museum President Connie Nosbisch, people were given the opportunity to take a room, paint it, and decorate it the way they wanted with their family heirlooms. Some of the rooms were set up like rooms in a home, with a bedroom, a dining room and a parlor, giving visitors a glimpse into the lives of their ancestors. However, unlike now, all the rooms were roped off for the first opening.
“You weren’t allowed to go in the room at that time. No photographs were allowed to be taken. So, we have no idea what it looked like on that day,” said Nosbisch.
Nosbisch said photos were not taken until 1981, giving a glimpse of what the museum looked like inside.
While artifacts have been added to the rooms over the years, she said they have remained basically the same.
“Some of them are still today set up as the room that it would have been back in 1975 when they first opened,” she said.
Today, the museum has 38 themed display rooms, each offering a unique journey through time. Visitors can also explore the Mausoleum, where 79 Franciscan friars are entombed, and the basement, which houses a collection of smaller farm tools, plows, small pedal cars, a cider press, and old clockwork from the St. Francis Church steeple.
The displayed items date back to the village’s founders in 1839 and through the 20th century.
The displays include toys, items related to the village’s German roots, military memorabilia, items from businesses, furniture, quilts, household items, carpentry and farm tools.
Among the displays are personal items from Vahling’s and Nosbisch’s ancestors, such as Vahling’s father’s movie camera and Nosbisch’s aunt’s wedding dress and photo from 1939.
“She got married on a Tuesday. Saturday weddings became popular in later years,” Nosbich notes.
Other displays are dedicated to the novices and friars and show items they made, used and wore, as well as photos, and books in different languages, one dated 1728. One display shows what a cell would have looked like when the novices lived there.
The museum also contains relics of Teutopolis’ past that no longer exist, including a piece of wood from the first cabin built in Teutopolis in 1839.
Others relics are pictures depicting the Stations of the Cross that hung in the first church in the village, built in 1840. The log cabin church was named St. Peter’s. A new brick church was built several years later, and the church was renamed St. Francis of Assisi after the Franciscans arrived in 1858. The Stations were later given to St. Patrick’s Church in Trowbridge, which was razed in 1975.
“It’s amazing we still have them after all these years,” said Nosbisch, adding no one knows how old they are. “They have a history I would love to know.”
Remnants of the high brick wall that surrounded the whole block of the Novitiate to keep the world out can be seen outside the museum. Items from neighboring St. Joseph’s College, which became a seminary in 1927 after the Franciscans bought it, can also be seen. Except for the entry tower, it was demolished in the 1970s.
Aside from artifacts, adorning the hallways and some of the rooms are documents chronicling the history of Teutopolis and its residents, from the first land deeds to marriage and First Communion certificates, which Nosbisch notes the museum has been receiving many of.
“In days past, it was a really big thing to make your First Communion and so you’d have something signed by your priest with dates, something that would be framed and hung in your home,” she said, pointing to one. “What I think is so beautiful is just so many different images, not just the framing, but the images themselves. There’s a wide variety. We’ve got another two rooms with them.”
As people and organizations have continued to donate items, the museum has designated three rooms for overflow.
“Keeping up with the inventory is a full-time job,” said Nosbisch.
In recent years, organizers have been turning their attention to the building itself.
Since an extension was built in 1904, nothing had been added to the building until 2019, when work began on the Sister Ethelbert Center and Museum Renovation Project, honoring the first superintendent of Teutopolis schools.
The building, which had been used as a sandal-making shop, summer kitchen and book bindery and later became known as the “birdhouse,” was torn down to make room for the entrance to the new center, which opened in 2020.
Items from other parts of the building were repurposed in the new foyer. They include wainscoting from the dining room, a long bench that was part of the dining room seating for the novices, and two stained-glass windows from the former St. Joseph College and Seminary Chapel. An ADA-compliant elevator was installed, allowing visitors easier access.
The first floor’s dining hall and kitchen were renovated as part of the project. Partitions were added to the dining hall so it could be rented out as three separate rooms. Several walls were removed to open up the kitchen, and parking was also added.
More recently, Nosbisch said the two main halls of the museum were in desperate need of renovation.
“So, these last three winters, we have been painting and putting in new lighting and reinforcing the ceilings,” she said. “We’ve taken the opportunity as we repaint and refresh rooms to maybe add something different.”
In addition to its regularly scheduled hours and school tours, Nosbisch said the museum gives many private tours.
“Lot of times families have out-of-town relatives, and they often come and ask for a special tour,” she said.
However, the museum has also drawn interest from people without ties to the area.
“Last year, we had a group from Wisconsin doing a mystery tour, and there were about 50 people,” she said. “We had a couple whose car broke down last year. He was from Ukraine, and his mother was visiting from Ukraine. He was here temporarily.”
To commemorate the museum’s 50th anniversary, the museum is coordinating with the Eastern Illinois University Tarble Arts Center in Charleston on an exhibit in the Sister Ethelbert Center of 20-plus folk art carvings by the late Teutopolis parishioner, Ferd Metten.
Metten, a farmer, started carving in his 40s during the winter months. He created dioramas of scenes reflecting his life, ranging from religious to social to farm depictions. He also carved vases and bowls using sliced walnut shells. The first showing will be Sunday, June 1, and will remain through the first Sunday of August.
Nosbisch is also marking the event with posts on the museum’s Facebook page, including its founding story and articles from the year it opened.
As for the future, Nosbisch said they plan to continue replastering and repainting rooms, adding new lighting where needed, and tuck-pointing brickwork in the basement wine cellar. She said they are also considering future publications, such as a calendar for 2026 to feature the 175 years since laying the church’s first cornerstone. As the museum continues to receive donations, Nosbisch said they will update displays, signage and pictures.
“We plan to continue for years to come,” she said.
The museum is open to visitors the first Sunday of the month from April through November, except holidays, from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Adult admission is $5, and children’s admission is $1. The museum has 19 volunteers who are mostly retired, but Nosbisch and Vahling note they’re always looking for more.
For more information, go to the parish website, stfrancischurch.com, or the town’s website at Teutopolis.com and click “Our Community.”