Welcome to the St. Andrew Catholic Church

Every history of St. Andrew Catholic Church contains a statement similar to: “The stained-glass windows
were installed in October 1904 at a cost of $3,000.” No history furnished additional information. Local
newspapers from October 1904 were lost or destroyed. Other area newspapers are either also missing those
issues or have no articles about the new windows in Tipton.
After much research it has been learned that the windows were designed and produced by the Emil Frei
Company in St. Louis. The windows were manufactured in St. Louis, not Germany. Frei did have a studio in
Germany, but it was in production from 1915 until World War II so was not in operation in 1904. According to
Aaron Frei, current president of the company and great grandson of the founder, in the early years the company
was not good at keeping records. If any records had existed, they were discarded when the company relocated
in the 1960s, making finding a paper record of the purchase highly unlikely. Early church records do not mention
the windows.
Emil Frei was born in 1869 in Bavaria. He trained as an artist at the Munich Academy of Art. When
Germany seemed headed towards fascism, he immigrated to New York for freedom to pursue his art. Emil and
his new bride, Emma, moved on to San Francisco in 1895 where he worked as a muralist. Emma was so
homesick that they planned to return to Germany, but first he accepted the invitation to design the stained-
glass windows for St. Francis Xavier (College) Church in St. Louis. His wife felt so at home among the large
German community there that they decided not to return to Germany, but to remain in St. Louis. A large
portion of the Frei St. Louis Studio was built by Franciscan Friars as payment for the windows for their church.
The Frei studio was known for producing some of the highest quality Munich-style pictorial stained-glass
windows in the world. Emil Frei’s windows won the Grand Prize at the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition
(World’s Fair) in 1904. The windows displayed at the Fair were for the Holy Family Church in Watertown, New
York.
St. Andrew’s ten Munich-style windows depict the Joyful and Glorious mysteries. Munich-style windows
feature expert painting on relatively large glass panels. The glass pieces are painted with color which is then
baked into the glass at high temperatures (1200º) so the colors do not peel or fade. Those larger painted pieces
are then joined with lead to create the overall picture. Figures are very realistic, usually painted in a German
Baroque style. Often, the figures are set in a realistic scene framed by elaborate white and gold columns and
canopies. This is a different technique from medieval windows that used tiny pieces of colored glass set together
with lead lines that were an important part of the design. In Munich-style windows, the skilled painting is the
most important part of the design with the lead lines secondary to the picture.
Replacement of Frei windows costs $1800-$2000 per square foot. Aaron estimated that our windows
would be valued at $180,000 to $250,000 each. Multiplied times the ten windows, that is $1.8 to $2.5 million
dollars. (The windows cost $300 each in 1904.)
The story persists that our Mysteries windows were either displayed at the St. Louis World’s Fair or
ordered after seeing the windows displayed at the Fair. That is unlikely as the Fair opened on April 30, 1904 and
closed on December 1, 1904. It is doubtful that windows ordered after April 30 could have been installed in
October.

Note: Perhaps early church members knew the company that made our windows won the grand prize at the
1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and like the old game of gossip, after many re-tellings, the story became that our
windows were displayed or purchased at the Fair.

Other Stained Glass:
The March 14, 1883 issue of The Tipton Times contained an article about the construction of the present
church building. It noted, “There will be 17 beautiful stained glass windows. . .” Only ten of those windows
were replaced in 1904. There is no explanation for purchasing only ten windows, other than the number of
Mysteries. It may also have been that the balcony blocked a clear view of the other windows.
There are six windows on both sides of the church as well as three windows on the front of the structure
with two windows over the altar. That totals 17 windows.
The windows above the altar were installed in 1901. The window depicting Mary was donated by the St.
Andrew’s Benevolent Society at a cost of $150. The window depicting St. Elizabeth of Hungary was donated by
St. Andrew’s Altar Society. Names of the donor organizations are part of the windows. The names Sancta
Maria and Sancta Elizabeth are fused in the glass along with “ora pro nobis” (pray for us). The borders of those
windows copy the borders of the seventeen original windows.
The smaller pointed-arch windows over the doors leading off the altar portray Mary (east) and Jesus
(west). Those windows are not mentioned in any church history or newspaper article.
There are also leaded glass windows in the rooms on either side of the altar. Those windows contain
colored and plain pebbled glass set together with lead in rectangular and diamond shapes but feature a small
circle of painted glass at the top of each. The window on the east side features a pelican with the one on the
west depicting a lamb. Both symbols represent sacrifice and Christ’s love. The center window on the front also
features a circle but it is not legible from outside. The inside of that window is behind the organ pipes and door
leading to the church bell.
There is no mention in any church history of the large arched window directly above the front doors.
That window has I H S in the center surrounded by colorful patterned glass. The two panels between that
window and the doors are portions of the Frei windows that were removed when side entrances to the church
were built in 1953. The window panels were stored in the rectory basement. In 2021, Father Alex Gabriel
asked Louis Schuster to install them above the front doors. The panels were re-sized to fit in the space. They
replaced a wood panel that at some point after 1970 replaced patterned glass matching the original windows.
In August and September of 2023, Willet Hauser Architectural Glass from Winona, Minnesota removed
the cloudy Plexiglas coverings off all the windows. The exteriors of the windows were cleaned and recemented.
The exterior millwork was cleaned and repainted as well. A Klear-Flo™ covering system of 1/4” thick tempered
glass, utilizing special perimeter frames was installed on each window. Klear-Flo™ is a vented, waterproof
system to protect and preserve stained glass windows.

See more notes for further explanations of how this information was obtained.

Personal notes: I have been trying for many years to learn more about the windows. Based on the theory that
they were displayed at the St. Louis World’s Fair, I followed many leads – all to a dead end. Father Dorn had
once told me that our windows were very similar to those at his home parish of St. Agatha in St. Louis. He
believed that the two priests (Father Kueper and Father Schrage) were friends and had ordered similar windows.
I called the company that probably made the St. Agatha windows, but the person I talked to said early records
no longer existed – another dead end.
The Diocese had no information about the windows. Kay Clifford and I looked through early St. Andrew records,
hoping for an entry or cancelled check. Although we did not find anything about the windows, we did find an
accounting of the costs of building the church – in German. That paper has been framed and is hanging in the
rectory office.
With work currently being done on the windows, I was asked what I knew about them. I looked through my file
and again found the name of St. Agatha. Luckily, Father Stan Poszwa answered the phone. He knew a lot about
the windows and told me they were made by the Emil Frei company. St. Agatha’s fourteen windows were
installed in 1905. He also mailed me a booklet about their church and windows.
I decided to call the Emil Frei Company, again. I was blessed as the person who answered the phone this time
was Aaron Frei, president of the company and the great grandson of the original owner (Emil Frei). He told me
to send him photos of the windows and gave specific instructions about the type of photos he needed. I took
and sent the photos, as requested.
Aaron called me to say it is “pretty obvious” they are Frei windows. He said he was at least 95% certain the
windows had been made by his company. He also said there were very few companies producing windows of
that caliber in 1904. (Further research found that Frei may have been the only one in St. Louis at that time.)
Aaron could tell from the techniques used that our windows are from very early in the company’s history and
said they might be some of the oldest Frei windows still in existence.

Information came from various published church histories and directories, the Silver Anniversary booklet of The
St. Andrew’s Benevolent Society, issues of The Tipton Times and personal phone calls.

Gloria Knipp August 2023

The Rosary Garden located on the east side of the church was dedicated on October 15, 2019. This sacred space is a gift from the parishioners of St. Andrew Church. A place for people of all faiths to pray and meditate upon the mysteries of the holy rosary. 

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