I grew up on Horsebranch Road and went to HGA school from 1948 thru 1953.
Fr. John Jobst was the priest then.  We had three nuns:  Sr. Gerard 
(was a convert from the state of Georgia.), Sr. Ancilla , and a cook 
sister that I can't recall.....Sr. Ancilla taught 1-4 (Sr. Ancilla Happe 
died at age 91 in 1993, probably from Campbell Co. Ky.) and Sr. Gerard 
(now Sr. Effie and still living at Villa) taught 5-8.

We used to play baseball in the playground and hit "homers" up into the
cemetery.....had to ask permission from Sister to retrieve the balls from
there.

I lived on Horsebranch Road and only found when my parents died, their deed.
Our home had previously been owned in the 1800's by George 
Mattern.......reason of interest:  I married his greatgreatGrandson, Louis
Kunkel of Union(Boone Co.)  We moved to Wis. in 1974

If you stood on the road (Hwy 17) then and looked up to the cemetery,
you would be standing in front of the cement school yard.  To your left
would be the small brick church....I believe there were steps going up to
it.   If you looked to your right across the school yard was a two story red
brick school building.  The lower area was the lunch room with a coal
furnace to the back side...Right parallel to the road was the stairs going
up to a hall with couple church benches in it.   The room off this hall was
Grades 5 thru 8, taught by Sr. Gerard (now Sr. Effie OSB) who had originally
come from Georgia.  We had a tiny library which consisted of a
bookcase....mostly classics like David Copperfield.  A huge blackboard was
across the back side of this room, windows on opposite sides.  The teacher
sat in front of this blackboard. To the left of her desk was a tall door 
which opened to Sr. Ancilla's room, grades 1 thru 4....same layout, smaller desks.  
As our class finished, Sister took another class for reading or spelling, so 
in essence, we worked on our papers while getting a constant "review" of 
the other work.  I think it made us smarter.

There was another hall outside of Sr. Ancilla's room where the girls and
boys restrooms.....with another outside entrance to the playground mentioned
before.

A tiny cement sidewalk went off to the left behind the church.  There was a
rock wall holding back the hillside there.  This sidewalk came to set of
steps going up to the priest's house. (This house is still there I believe).
Before going up,  a backdoor led into the back of church where many of us
"kids" brought flowers for the altar in the summer months.  Fr. John Jobst
always let us pick out which vases we wanted to use (always filled two for
each side of the altar).   That was fun as there were clear vases, gold
vases, white vases of various sizes.  Fr. had a closet there with the
vestments and other church articles.  This little church was big enough to
hold the Sandfordtown Catholic families.  There was a choir loft with a huge
organ, which Sr. Ancilla played....it had a button on the right side that
always retreated backward, so Sister had to keep reaching way over to pull
that out as we sang our hearts out.  We loved the choir as we could see
everything going on.  During the summer months, many of the school children
would walk over for Saturday Mass, which often was a wedding.  We loved to
watch the flower girl and bridesmaids walk up the aisle in pretty pastel
shades.  One wedding we sang for, the groom passed out and was dragged out
for air, a total of two times!   It was hot in there in summer with only
couple small fans for air.

If you continued up the steps and sidewalks, the nun's house was more up the
hill above the priests house (both homes had sidewalks out to Dudley Pike
which went straight up the hill).  Some of us would walk around Horsebranch
Road on Halloween, past the local pub, The Farm, and on up to Holy Guardian
Angels to visit the nuns.  They always were very generous with lots of
candy, and then we'd play the player piano and sing songs.....such fun.   In
those days, the old established families were living near the church.
Dudley Pike was an area of beautiful homes and large farms in the 50's.
Some local families I recall were:  Merkle, Rousch, Harmeling, Berkemier,
Meiman, Kahmann, Bilz, Hellman, Goodhew, Gripshover, Kunkel, Dobblehoff,
Mueller, Duncan (mine), Carney, Elam, Reed, Farmer, Moormann, Krebs,
Mattingly, Hillman, Luke, Arlinghaus, Nageleisen, List, Eubank, Fey,
Wendling, Breiner, Boemker, Speaks, Works, Jump, Argo, Goedde, Fernandes,
Hunter.   Lots of wonderful memories still come to mind.  Later, I married
Louis Kunkel (we met at St. Henry High) and he is related to nearly all
these folks thru blood or marriage..... 

Addendum 
 The Sisters' home is the one still standing on that property now.  The cook 
sister for our two room school was Sr. Gregory, who would care for us when we 
got ill until the bus came, or prepare a sack lunch for us when we forgot to 
bring one.  Those were the days when most of our mothers did not drive to solve 
those problems.


Ann (Anna Marie) Duncan Kunkel
akunkel@badger.tds.net