When Rachel Fishel went to school at St. Peter’s in Hokah, she knew she one day wanted to be a teacher there — which is exactly what she did.

Fishel’s been teaching at the Catholic school since 1993, and now she’s been principal since 2001.

“It’s just like a big family,” she said.

The church itself has 154 envelope holders; an estimated 300 to 400 parishioners overall.

“This is where I wanted to be,” Fishel said. “This is where I was meant to be.”

No matter what you go through in life, she said, you feel like people here are there for you.

“We’re all connected,” she said.

Theresa Von Arx agreed. She knows a lot about the parish, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but she doesn’t consider herself its official historian by any means.

“I’m just very interested,” Von Arx said.

Parishioner Carol Walcker spearheaded a compilation book of the church’s history in 1978, and another in 2006, which includes a detailed history of its origins, builders of the community of faith, parish priests, and church and school members.

“My family’s been part of this church forever,” she said.

Von Arx was baptized there in 1981. Her maiden name was Tschumper, and her family connection goes back to the 1860s.

It’s fitting to note, since the shadow is still being cast from St. Peter’s June 4 centennial celebration, which included Bishop John Quinn presiding over Mass, a potluck in the parking lot, two local bands, and kids singing; it lasted into the early evening.

“It was actually 100 years of this building,” Von Arx said. “The history of our actual parish goes back further than that, but this building, the foundation was laid in 1916, completed in 1918. So we chose 1916 as our starting point.”

In 1856, the first Catholic settlers came to Hokah, which puts the actual parish origins closer to 160 years.

She’s not only a member; Von Arx also teaches third and fourth grades at the church’s school, where her own children go. They represent six generation members.

There are 11 students in her combined teaching grades, with a total student body of 75 from preschool through eighth grade. There was even a high school until 1966.

“It is a special feeling because you think of the hard work that our ancestors put into building this church,” Von Arx said. “A lot of them were farmers; they didn’t have a lot of money, but they were able to raise $9,000 starting in 1913 to build a new church. Where did that money comes from? They gave everything, and then their time. They put in hours themselves helping to build this church.”

Literally by hand. The men had to bring their teams of horses, and their plows and graders, to level off the hillside on which the church now stands.

“They said it was like a living rosary,” she said, “going around and around.”

The women were told to take care of their farms during the day while their husbands came to help build the church.

“It is a neat feeling,” she said, “because you know that we’ve kept this going so long. People really think of this church as home. And a lot of people are related, but everybody feels like family.”

She taught at the parish school in 2007 for two years, but then she was pregnant with her second child and took time off. Now, with three children, she returned to teaching last year when there was an opening.

“There’s just this connection,” Von Arx said.

She got a great education, both academically and as a person, at St. Peter’s, she said, and she knows this is where she wants to be.

“I want to do that for the next generation of kids,” she said. “And for my own kids who go to school here.”

Joseph Pfeffer, who lived in a nearby valley, arrived in 1856, and in 1858, he bought a flat-bottom boat to transport church-goers across the river to La Crosse, as there wasn’t a church Hokah could call its own.