Brothers from Loose Creek were ordained priests on the same day 75 years ago

I think they were both great examples of being good priests.”

Father Thomas Hermes, nephew of Father Francis Holterman and Father Herbert Holterman

Seventy-five years ago this spring, two brothers from Loose Creek woke up, went to church and became priests.

Father Francis Holterman (1924-1962) and Father Herbert Holterman (1926-2002), along with nine other priests, were ordained for the St. Louis archdiocese on May 3, 1951.

“My grandfather was very proud of that: two sons ordained on the same day,” said Father Thomas Hermes, a recently retired priest of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese and a nephew of both Fr. Holtermans.

Born in Loose Creek, Fr. Francis and Fr. Herbert were sons of the late Herman and Eunice (Nolte) Holterman.

Both studied at Immaculate Conception School, St. Meinrad Minor Seminary in St. Meinrad, Indiana, St. Louis Preparatory Seminary, and Kenrick Seminary, both in St. Louis.

Both priests offered their First Solemn Masses in Immaculate Conception Church in Loose Creek — where they had been baptized, received their First Holy Communion and been confirmed — three days after their ordination.

Each served as the assistant priest for the other’s first Mass: Fr. Herbert’s at 9:45 a.m., Fr. Francis’s at 11.

Not only is Fr. Hermes tied to both priests by blood, “my Dad also went to the seminary with them,” he said. “He went through what at that time would be called philosophy, then realized it wasn’t for him.”

Fr. Hermes’s father did have a sister who became a Poor Claire nun, and a son who became a priest.

Fr. Hermes got to know his Uncle Herbert well, but was only in first grade when his Uncle Francis died.

Fr. Francis had heart trouble throughout his life. Having served as assistant pastor of several parishes in the St. Louis archdiocese, then as chaplain at that city’s Incarnate Word Hospital, he died on April 10, 1962, less than 11 years after his ordination.

“He had open heart surgery, and it was one of the first ones that they did at that time, and it just didn’t go well for him,” said Fr. Hermes.

Fr. Herbert offered the Solemn Requiem Mass for his brother back at Immaculate Conception Church in Loose Creek.

Auxiliary Bishop George Gottwald of St. Louis gave the absolution after Mass. Bishop Joseph M. Marling C.PP.S., founding bishop of Jefferson City, presided at the sanctuary.

Into the Ozarks

Fr. Herbert began his Priesthood as associate pastor of several parishes in southeastern Missouri that were part of the St. Louis archdiocese until 1956.

He was stationed at Sacred Heart Parish in Poplar Bluff when the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese was established, and became a priest of that diocese.

He went on to serve as a faithful pastor in parishes across the state’s southern counties.

He regularly returned to Loose Creek to visit his parents and friends.

He concelebrated the first Mass of his nephew, Fr. Hermes.

Fr. Herbert retired from parish ministry in 1984, living for the next 11 years at Green Meadows Skilled Care Center near Linn.

He died suddenly on July 31, 2002.

He, too, had his Funeral Mass in Immaculate Conception Church in Loose Creek. Bishop John J. Leibrecht of Springfield-Cape Girardeau,  now retired, presided.

“Fr. Holterman, we celebrate your life, we thank God that you accepted the gift of the Priesthood,” Bishop Leibrecht said in his homily. “You know that God’s promise has been kept.”

Both brothers are at rest in the parish cemetery.

“Close to heaven”

Fr. Hermes never heard the story of how two of his uncles wound up in the same ordination class.

“I do know that they were both very supportive of each other,” said Fr. Hermes. “And I do know that when Fr. Francis died, Fr. Herbert took it very hard.”

In a 2001 story by Kerry Schroeppel in The Mirror, newspaper of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese, Fr. Herbert recalled that his and his brother’s ordination took place on a typically beautiful spring day.

The brothers were inseparable.

“They did everything together,” their youngest sister, Mary Hermes, told Ms. Schroeppel.

Fr. Herbert never lost sight of his small-town roots.

“Poplar Bluff, Mountain View, Kennett — I loved the rural parishes,” he said. “Webb City, Joplin — I enjoyed them all.”

He also enjoyed hunting, something he and his brother had grown up doing together.

“Hunting quail is as close to heaven as one can get,” Fr. Herbert told Ms. Schroeppel.

Fr. Hermes remembers going to visit Fr. Herbert when he was stationed in Webb City.

“He had his hunting dogs and would go bird hunting,” the younger priest recalled.

Fr. Herbert kept a mounted, eight-point deer trophy over his bed. The plaque read: “Rev. Francis Holterman, November 16, 1960.”

“It’s not mine,” said Fr. Herbert, “but I was there when he took him.”

The brothers also enjoyed traveling together. Once, they planned a fishing trip to Canada, in search of some peace and quiet in the great outdoors.

What they got into was the Calgary Stampede.

“We got all mixed up and stuck in the traffic at that big rodeo,” Fr. Herbert told Ms. Schroeppel. “Boy, it was a sight!”

Fr. Francis was living with Fr. Herbert when he went into the hospital for open heart surgery.

He never regained consciousness.

Country roads

Fr. Hermes moved with his parents to Kansas City in 1963.

After graduating from grade school, he entered the diocese’s high school seminary.

His dad was transferred to Dallas in 1974.

“I decided to stay and study for the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese,” Fr. Hermes recalled.

He was ordained to the Holy Priesthood 44 years ago.

Although he was very young when Fr. Francis died, he remembers that both of his priest uncles had similarly pleasant temperaments. 

Fr. Hermes got to spend time with Fr. Herbert and offer Mass several times with him.

“I know for sure that he always considered Loose Creek to be his home,” said Fr. Hermes. “He would come home often to visit my grandparents and my aunt who lived in the same home.”

Fr. Herbert had a fun sense of humor.

As children, Fr. Hermes and his brother went to visit Fr. Herbert when he was stationed in Eminence.

“He took us out in his car,” Fr. Hermes recalled. “He was not quite doing the speed limit. But he said, ‘Move up to the front.’”

The priest knew the local roads well.

“He hit this dip in the road, and it made your stomach bottom out!” said Fr. Hermes.

The late Father Sylvester Bauer (1916-2013), a Freeburg native who was ordained for St. Louis and also became a priest of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese, knew Fr. Herbert for decades.

“Herbie has a good sense of humor, sort of dry humor,” Fr. Bauer told Ms. Schroeppel in 2001. “He was a very conscientious priest, a hard worker. He got out into the hills and did a lot of visiting. He got some converts, too.”

As Fr. Herbert’s health declined, his nephew served as his medical guardian and power of attorney.

“He said Mass at the nursing home often as he could,” Fr. Hermes recalled. “Sometimes, that was every day. Sometimes, he couldn’t.”

Fr. Hermes preached the homily at his uncle’s 50th anniversary Mass in Jefferson City in 2001.

Fr. Herbert’s passing the following July was a surprise.

“He wasn’t sick,” Fr. Hermes noted. “He went down to eat supper. He returned to his room and very peacefully passed away.”

Fr. Hermes doesn’t have any close family left in Loose Creek, but he does occasionally make a pilgrimage through town while visiting relatives in Westphalia.

Weathering some health challenges of his own, he recently moved to Dallas to be closer to family.

He’s abundantly grateful for his own Priesthood and for that of his two uncles, which began 75 years ago.

“I think they were both great examples of being good priests,” he said.

But he’s happy his Dad didn’t join them.

Information for this story came from past issues of The Mirror; the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the St. Louis archdiocese; The Catholic Missourian; and the Unterrified Democrat newspaper in Linn.