Father Alexander Berghold was a central figure in the building, development, and history of New Ulm and the Diocese of New Ulm in the late 1800 to 1900s. Alexander led a model life of service. His tireless contributions over many years has contributed to the quality of life in New Ulm and surrounding area. Among his many talents and accomplishments, he:

by La Vern J. Rippley

Following two decades as pastor of Holy Trinity parish in New Ulm, Father Alexander Berghold meandered from post to post in various regions of his adopted America until June 21, 1907. Soon after leaving the chaplaincy of St. Joseph Orphanage in St. Paul, he arrived in New York where he embarked upon retirement, boarding ship in New York on July 3 for the seven day journey to Rotterdam. Headed for his native home of Steiermark (the Austrian state south/ southwest of Vienna, whose capital is Graz), Berghold fell ill with a kidney ailment for which he was hospitalized several months at Forst near Aachen in far western Germany. Finally on October 28, 1907, he reached Gross Wilfersdorf in order (as Berghold put it himself) "to spend the evening of my life, one so full of deeds and meritorious activity in the honor of God and dedicated to the spiritual care of the people, here in this parish," at the home of a friend from his youth, Alois Maria Hammer, the pastor of Gross Wilfersdorf.

Shortly after reaching his destination, Berghold, always at ease with verse and rhyme, penned an 11 stanza German poem in which the fifth reads in English: "From far away lands I turned the compass around, tired and sick, as a traveler back to my homeland, full of yearning for the desired peace. Now I stay in the beautiful garden, full of fruits and flowers of all kinds. And I am taking rest from the sorrows of my life near the house of my youth." Deserving repose back home after his many tribulations, Berghold had been born on October 14, 1938 at Dirnreith near Skt. Margarethen on the Raab River, a bit east of Graz. In 1844, the family moved to Petersdorf which belongs to the parish of Skt. Marein on the Pickelbach tributary where his father operated a large estate, and where Alexander attended elementary school. Beginning in 1851 the young man attended Normalschule (high school) in Graz, followed by enrollment in 1862 at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz to study theology.

Recruited by Minnesota’s missionary to the Indians and early German-speaking settlers, Father Francis Pierz (Franz Sal. Pirc - as attested by a photograph of him taken at the Bude studio in Graz, July 1868), Berghold left Graz March 19, 1864. According to the parish chronicles of Grosswilfersdorf, his then seminary friend, Hammer, accompanied his friend to the Fiaker in front of the seminary and recorded Berghold’s last words "Leb wohl grüne Steiermark" (Good-bye green Styria). Following a 42 day sea journey, the youthful ecclesiastic disembarked in New York on May 1, 1864. With him on board ship were 14 other seminarians and soon-to-be-famous German-speaking Catholic clergy: James Trobec, latter bishop of St. Cloud; Frederick X. Katzer, later Bishop of Green Bay and Archbishop of Milwaukee; Joseph F. Buh, later Monsignor Vicar General of Duluth; John Tomazevic later pastor of Stillwater; Alois Plut, later of Shakopee and successor to Berghold at New Ulm in 1892.

En route from New York to St. Paul, Berghold received several offers to substitute for draftees who bid as much as $1,000 if he would take their place in the Union army. Believing his mission to be a priest among German-speaking Catholics of Minnesota, however, Berghold resumed studies toward his ordination on October 26, 1864 by the scholarly Benedictine Bishop Thomas L. Grace of St. Paul. Following his first solemn Mass on November 1, 1864 Berghold was assigned to Belle Plaine with mission churches in Jordan and St. Joseph in Scott County as well as St. John and St. Scholastica in Le Sueur. While assisting in Mankato after an 1866 visit to his ailing mother in Austria, Berghold toured New Ulm with the Franciscan missionary to St. Joseph Church in Cottonwood. From his room at the Union Hotel, he learned about the 1,200 New Ulmers and their German culture, which prompted him to beg Bishop Grace for an assignment in this frontier city. Arriving in New Ulm on December 26, 1868 again at the Union Hotel, Berghold visited with owner Philip Gross who introduced him to Michael Lauterbach, the man who had just donated land for what he hoped would become Holy Trinity parish. Even though together they could enumerate only 12 Catholic families in the city, others told Berghold there were over 50 Catholic families at St. George.