From The Dubois County Daily Herald
Tuesday, January 11, 1955

HARK THE HERALD

Visit to Kirchofen and Pfaffenweiler
by A. T. Rumbach

As the time drew near for our departure from Reute, we all agreed that it would be impossible to leave the vicinity without a visit to Pfaffenweiler, the ancestral home of so many Dubois County families.

So, after dinner at the home of Lambert and Elsa (Hug) on Saturday, October 16, 1954 (we were scheduled to leave Reute on the 18 th), we set sail aboard Mr. Buehrle’s bus on our last expedition:   Alphonse, Virgil, Fred, and I accompanied by Klara and Lambert.   We stopped first at Bolschweil for a last visit with the Gramelspachers, then proceeded on to Kirchofen, an old town in the shadow of a ruined castle.  

This was the birth place of the late Martin Mueller, a former citizen of Jasper who died recently in West Baden, the father of Mrs. Frank ( Heamer) Sermersheim.   A street cleaner volunteered the information that a Herr Mueller made his home in the castle – “You’ll find him in the first tower,” he told us.   So up the hill to the castle, and to the first turret we proceeded.   The castle had one of the turrets on each of the four corners.   Our knocks at the door finally brought results, and a man who did not have to tell us he was a Mueller, because of his marked resemblance to the late Martin, opened the door.   He was caretaker of the ruin, which is under the jurisdiction of the government.

Yes, he had a brother, Martin, who had immigrated to America many years ago.   For some time he had kept in touch with the old home, but after the death of his parents, he seldom wrote and had not been heard from for quite a long time.   Yes, he was the youngest and the only surviving brother.  

The place had a very romantic atmosphere; Virgil was ready with the movie camera and requested Herr Mueller to pose with us for a few shots.   He demurred at first, because he did not have his Sonntag’s Kielder (Sunday clothes), but finally consented.   He then, offered us the hospitality of his home “ im Turm”, but our time was too limited.

So we proceeded on to Pfaffenweiler, stopping at the entrance to the ancient village to read the inscriptions on the wayside cross and another camera shot.   Without a doubt this was the oldest place we had seen.   The streets were paved with cobblestones and the houses were built of irregular stones and timbers.   A farmer who was doing the customary Saturday ( October 16, 1954) clean-up chores around his house and barn directed us to the village smithy which has for centuries been conducted by the Eckerts.

Fred had visited the place on his first trip to Germany, in 1922, so he led the way.   En route, we passed the village church, a really ancient structure, which intrigued me.   I was studying the tower similar to the tower of the old church at Reute, even more ancient.   I was checking the names on the war memorial when Virgil, who had been shooting other interesting views about town, approached accompanied by the parish priest.

The priest told us the history of the village which chronicles trace back at least 700 years.  The church tower, erected about 1200 A.D., is known to rest on the foundation of an old Roman structure, and was originally built as a watch tower and fort.   The body of the church, which is still in use, was appended to the tower about one hundred years later.

The “ Chronik von Pfaffenweiler”, the history of the community published on “Pentecost of 1954” on the occasion of the 160 th anniversary of the Music- Vereins of Pfaffenweiler, says the village was built on a stone road built by the Romans and that cemeteries unearthed nearby show that the German tribes who drove out the Romans in the year 260 A.D. formed a settlement there and engaged in agricultural pursuits.   Manuscripts in the Abbey of Lorch, in Baden and of St. Gallen in Switzerland, prove the existence of the community as far back as the eighth century.   The pastor gave us a copy of this valuable booklet.