February is notable for various cultural celebrations and historical observances. But since the Waynedale Community is celebrating its 105th Anniversary, I decided to trace the origins of St. Therese, Church of the Little Flower, in Waynedale.
The local Catholic community began in 1937 when Bishop John F. Noll purchased a wooded plot of ground in the Liberty Gardens addition at Liberty Drive and Lower Huntington Road. At that time, Waynedale was still an unincorporated community of about 3,000 people located six miles southwest of Fort Wayne.
Since the founding of Waynedale in 1921, Catholic families had to go to Fort Wayne to attend Mass. School-age children either attended public schools in Waynedale or had to be driven daily to a Catholic school in Fort Wayne. After numerous requests, early in 1946 Bishop Noll asked the Sisters of Our Lady of Victory in Huntington to take a census of Catholic families in the Waynedale area.
On November 13, 1946, the bishop appointed a discharged Army chaplain, Father Herman A. Schoudel, as pastor with instructions to begin founding a parish…