The village of St. Nazianz in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, was founded in 1854 by a group of Roman Catholic immigrants from Freiburg, Germany, led and inspired by Father Ambrose Oschwald. Though their main purpose in coming to America was to establish a properly religious atmosphere in which to live, they are also interesting to historians because of the economic practices of their new community. Before immigrating, they formed themselves into an Association and after their arrival, all money was pooled for the purchase of lands in common; all worked together in building their village and in crop raising; shoes, clothes, and other necessities were produced by non-profit, community-owned businesses. Private enterprise gradually replaced this Christian communal system as the colony became more firmly established.
This conversion to a capitalist system was hastened by a controversy in the colony following Father Oschwald's death in 1873. Father Oschwald had held property in his name for the Association, i.e., the original settlers plus later additional members of the community. He willed this property to the Association, which, because it had never been incorporated, was a legally non-existent body. Community dissidents, unhappy with the financial management of the colony, disputed his will in court; won; and subsequently demanded not only the portion they had contributed to the community upon joining it, but also wages for their labors since joining. To legally fight these claims, the contented residents formed a corporation called the Roman Catholic Religious Society of St. Nazianz. After ten years, the probate court handed down the decision that the claimants were entitled to no wages but should have their original contributions returned to them.
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the Association faced the problem of extinction, since original members were dying while no new members were being enrolled. Eager to ensure that their property would continue to support the religious atmosphere they had sought in coming to America, they contacted the Society of the Divine Savior, a religious society recently founded in Rome. In 1896 an agreement was reached which provided that the Society would assume responsibility for the spiritual and temporal care of the members of the Association and in return would eventually receive the Association's property. This agreement was gradually carried out and St. Nazianz became the first home of the Salvatorian Fathers in the United States.
