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Stained glass windows tell stories all their own
McCOOK, Neb. — As part of the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Cestival, participants were taken on a tour of stained glass displays in communities around the area.
McCook Community College has been sponsoring bus tours in conjunction with the festival for several years, with McCook High School providing the bus this year.
The first stop was St. Katherine’s church in Indianola, which had 49 unique stained glass works throughout the Church.
The windows were first built in Germany and installed in 1928 when the Church was first built and were restored in 1987. The Church has depictions not only in the nave but in the vestibule in rooms to the side as well.
“The windows are irreplaceable because they were made in Germany and the factory was bombed in 1942 during the war, so we’re very fortunate that we still have them,” tour guide and St. Katherine’s parishioner Jane Rayer said.
The next stop on the tour was at St. John’s Lutheran church in Culbertson, which also featured windows down each side, as well as in the choir loft.
Each of the stained glass windows features the Luther rose, as well as a placard with an explanation of each piece. The year the windows were installed isn’t precise, although it is after 1985.
The next display was at Culbertson’s Methodist Church, which had full historical record of its stained glass pieces, which were ordered and installed in 1928.
The windows were made by the St. Joseph Art Glass Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is still in business as of 2024. The church originally paid $1,130 for the windows in two installments.
The participants were then taken back to McCook to Our Savior Lutheran church.
When the windows at Our Savior’s were replaced with stained glass in 2009, with plastic imitating stained glass in order to be able to be opened to let in air, the original plastic widows were preserved in small pieces.
“The project started in 2006, and the stained glass was installed and dedicated on Pentecost Sunday of 2009 and instead of doing a fundraiser with the whole congregation, enough people step forward to purchase a window in memory or honor of someone,” Our Savior’s member Sharon Bohling said.
First Congregational church was the next stop, the church which has the claim as the oldest Church in McCook had its windows dedicated on July 26, 1936. The window cost the church $300.
The participants came away with a valuable learning experience as did Teresa Hayes and her Granddaughter, Bella Thomas.
“I didn’t realize that stained glass came about because people were poor and couldn’t read and how the stained glass had pictures to tell stories,” Hayes said.
Some of the stories depicted, like those of the martyrs, sparked other’s interests.
“The ones at the first one (St. Katherine’s) where the guy got his skin cut off and he didn’t die still, I thought that was just cruel, I thought this time was cruel,” Thomas said.