SPEARVILLE -- It was the kind of celebration that puts the "heart" in "heartland."

At 2 p.m., amid threats of thunderstorms that never came to pass, all heads turned north as the lights on Officer Dan Konrade’s police cruiser lit up, signaling the start of a parade.

Among the first in the parade was a beaming Father Henry Hildebrandt, pastor of St. John’s, who waved to onlookers from the back of a sleek 50s era convertible. It was a bittersweet celebration for Father Hildebrandt, who will soon say goodbye to the parish as he moves to Ness City.

Then came Father Robert Schremmer, former pastor, who stood on an old flatbed truck alongside a model of the original wood frame church that first housed the faithful of Spearville.

Residents, dignitaries and others — including a bevy of Spearville’s finest volunteer rescue workers — would cruise slowly down Main Street over the next 30 minutes, tossing candy to excited children as their parents kept a careful eye.

Later in the day the celebration moved to Greenstreet Park, where children played a host of games, and where, later on, the community enjoyed a barbecue bash.

Following an outdoor Mass at 7p.m., residents took to Main Street, where they danced to a live band led by Spearville teacher Michael Benish. On Sunday, the celebration continued with an ice cream social and special dedication at the Spearville Cemetery. More on the dedication will be included in the next issue.

Another celebration — actually the main celebration -- will be held in October to commemorate the original church dedication in 1904. Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore will celebrate the Mass at that time, and all the priests in the diocese will be invited to attend. A dinner will be held for all the parishioners.

The original tiny frame church served the Spearville congregation for 14 years. But by 1918, the parish had grown to 70 families. Despite the failure of crops and the closing of the church for three months due to an influenza epidemic, work commenced on construction of a 350-seat church.

Bishop John J. Hennessy, who was leader of the church of the Wichita Diocese, dedicated the new French Renaissance church Sept. 22, 1918. The grand structure is the focal point down south Main Street when one enters town from Highway 50.

Out of the farming community that formed the congregation of the Spearville Church came two dedicated bishops, both of them committed to the poor and to farmers and the struggles they endured to draw a living from the land.

Five years after the Spearville church opened its doors, four-year-old Stephen A. Appelhans moved with his family into St. John the Baptist Parish in 1909. Appelhans attended the parish school, which was built in 1906 and enlarged in 1911. He and the school’s other students were taught by the Sisters Adorers of the Blood of Christ.

When he was 14, Appelhans left Spearville to begin studies for the priesthood at Divine Word Seminary in Techny, Illinois. He also attended St. Gabriel’s Seminary near Vienna where he was ordained for the Society of the Divine Word in 1932. Appelhans returned to Spearville to celebrate his first Mass at St. John the Baptist Church July 21, 1932. In 1944, he volunteered to minister to the poor in the war-stricken missions of New Guinea. He was consecrated Titular Bishop of Catule and Vicar Apostolic of East New Guinea in Techny Nov. 30, 1948.

Bishop Appelhans returned to Spearville and celebrated a Pontifical High Mass Dec. 14, 1948 before returning to New Guinea. He and six others died when their plane crashed into the sea during a storm July 16, 1951, while returning from the consecration of a new church. He is buried at Alexishaven, the See City of East New Guinea.

The second bishop to come out of St. John the Baptist Parish, Ignatius J. Strecker, became nationally known as an advocate for small family farms, the poor in the inner city and Hispanics. Strecker was born in Spearville in 1917 and baptized at St. John the Baptist Church. His parents were the first couple married at the church. He also attended the elementary school, and later was a student at Maur Hill and St. Benedict College in Atchison.

He took his priestly studies at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis and was ordained in Wichita Dec. 19, 1942. He offered his first Mass in Spearville Dec. 21, 1942. He studied canon law at Catholic University in Washington and served the Diocese of Wichita as chancellor for 14 years. Pope John XXIII appointed Msgr. Strecker as bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri April 11, 1962. He was consecrated bishop at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Wichita June 20, 1962.

In 1969, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Strecker archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, the second youngest prelate of that rank in the United States. He was elected president of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference twice, the only person to be elected to the post two times.

He testified before the House Agriculture Committee in Washington, DC in 1984 during hearings in preparation for comprehensive farm policy legislation. He was a vocal supporter of the family farm and urged con gress to work toward a comprehensive food and agricultural policy.

"The fate of our family farmers is not an abstract concern," he told the House Agriculture Committee. "What happens to them will determine whether or not a land-owning elite will increasingly control our food and the price of that food."

He also warned that agricultural policy must include preservation of family farms as a top priority. Archbishop Strecker served the church for 60 years and led the Arch diocese of Kansas City for 24 years. He retired in 1993 and died at the age of 85 in Kansas City, Kansas Oct. 18, 2003. He was survived by two sisters, Catherine Helfrich of Spearville and Elizabeth Petz of Colwich.