By Peggy Savage Officially incorporated on April 3, 1893, the city of Mount Angel will open this year’s celebration of its 125th anniversary with a time capsule ceremony on April 3 at the Festhalle. City Manager Amber Mathiesen is coordinating the event with Mayor Andy Otte. “We welcome everyone to the ceremony,” Mathiesen said. “We are inviting community members to […]
By Kristine Thomas Whether it is volunteering or participating at John F. Kennedy High School, Amelia GrosJacques knows what it takes to successfully accomplish a task. “Teamwork is what gets it done,” she said. A senior at JFK, Amelia is the Mount Angel Junior First Citizen. “It’s nice to receive recognition for what I have done,” she said. “This award […]
By Brenna Wiegand Mount Angel Chamber of Commerce has named Troy Stoops a 2014 Volunteer of the Year for his work on the community fountain. Superintendent of the Mount Angel School District, he’s also been the guy who cleans “Oktoberfest Joy” in the center of town. He has kept an eye on the fountain and performed monthly maintenance, cleaning the […]
By Melissa Wagoner When Jim and Martha Kosel moved to Mount Angel from Oregon City seven years ago, they made a pact to attend every town function and not leave until they met at least one other couple. They also agreed that they wouldn’t join anything. It was an agreement that didn’t last. Jim is a member of the city’s […]
By Melissa Wagoner Jerri Halter couldn’t have been more surprised to find out she was named 2014 Volunteer of the Year by the Mount Angel Chamber of Commerce. “I didn’t believe it. I was surprised. Thoroughly shocked,” she said. But when asked if it felt good to be recognized, she gave a resounding, “Yes.” Halter, who was born in Saint […]
By Brenna Wiegand Family run, forward-thinking Woodburn Nursery & Azaleas has been named Mount Angel’s 2014 Business of the Year. Bob and Jean Fessler started out growing berries and raising mink when they married in 1961. “We went into the nursery business about six years later,” Jean said. “Then we added three more and things just kept ballooning from there.” […]
These days, John Ritchie lives by himself at Mount Angel Towers, a senior independent living community, in a single-bedroom unit with a tiny kitchen and a grandfather clock in the living room next to his recliner, which chimes every quarter hour. There he reminisces on his life, and World War II, and the fortune that kept him alive while so many others perished.
He suffered the horrors of the Holocaust, yet Les Aigner says he is “one of the luckiest men alive.” His wife, Eva, was terrorized by the Nazis as a small child and says the fact she survived is “a miracle.”
Mount Angel has a strong sense of its past. Many descendants of the original white settlers still live and work here. The town’s German Catholic heritage is commemorated each year as residents put on one of the state’s premier community festivals, Oktoberfest. Historic buildings like St. Mary’s Church and Queen of Angels Monastery have been carefully preserved and archives at the monastery and Mount Angel Abbey are treasure troves of historical documents and photographs. Yet, with all this rich history, Mount Angel has no historical society or museum. That may be about to change.
