A few miles east of Petersburg, Iowa is the town of New Vienna. I think the above pic was from about 1915 or so--it's a postcard, from a PAGE of 'em that Larry found today. St Boniface Catholic Church in New Vienna (or, New Wine) seems to have been the alternate church for our Nabers. When Gerhard Naber married Elizabeth Rupiper, it was at St Boniface. I assume his marriage to Elizabeth Richels was in Petersburg at Sts Peter & Paul.
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There's a charming story online about how the town got started:
During the month of September they unhitched their yoke of oxen at or near a two hundred acre patch of fine timber which was then known as Wilson's Grove. ... this land was still too rolling they thought. With the waning of the growing season and the approach of winter on the austere prairie and little provisions and protection against its severities, they determined to go eastward again and draw closer to civilization. It was now October, and as the men rounded together the oxen which were feeding at large on the wild grasses, John Fangmann in his hurry slipped on a wet hillside, fell and broke his leg. To this accident New Vienna owes its founding. As the return journey had to be postponed in favor of the accident victim, the different families "dug in" for the winter and prepared for the worst. Fortunately an open winter favored them; spring came early, and the appearance of the North Maquoketa Valley with its gentle undulating landscape dressed in the fresh green of spring pleased them. They stayed, staked off claims around what is now New Vienna, built log cabins and sent enthusiastic letters to friends in Ohio and in Germany inviting many to participate in the building of a great community.
Halback, Rev. Arthur A. (1939). Dyersville: Its history and its people, pp 57-58.
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