Browse Items (254 total)

“Father Michael J. Farrelly was appointed the first resident pastor in 1897. Beginning with his appointment, the pastor of Manly also cared for the mission church at Plymouth. About a year later the parish built a rectory, destroyed by fire after a…

“The first priests to visit the Catholic pioneers of the Maquoketa area in Jackson County came from Saint Patrick’s in Garryowen. Before the Maquoketa Catholics had a church of their own they went to the Garryowen or Otter Creek churches. After…

"Sacred Heart Parish began as a branch school of the Stacyville parish for the Meyer area pioneers. Both communities are in Mitchell County. Toward the close of the 1880s, the Stacyville parish had grown so large as to need a larger school. The Meyer…

“In 1868 Bishop John Hennessy sent Father Daniel Cogan to be pastor of Castle Grove and to build a church in Monticello. He conducted open air forums in Monticello and surrounding communities and later moved to Monticello. The parish built a large…

"Father Patrick S. O’Connor arrived in Oelwein in 1890 to be the first resident pastor. After a rectory was built, a larger church was planned by Father O’Connor and the frame building was completed in 1891 at a cost of $8,000. A three-story…

"The first Catholic church at Osage was a house which Father James Gilchrist bought on the corner of Third and State Streets. When Father E. W. Fowler came to care for the several parishes in 1885, the parish built a brick church on the block known…

"The first Catholic settlers came in the 1860s. The Irish attended Saint James Church at Toronto in Clinton County, which had a resident priest. The Bohemians went to Holy Trinity Church in Baldwin, where a visiting Bohemian priest celebrated Mass…

"Irish settlers in the eastern part of Chickasaw County gathered for Mass in homes until the small community was able to organize a parish in 1856 and build the first church in the county in 1857. Although the church was named for Saint Ignatius, it…

"When Father Kelly left in 1887, Father Lawrence H. Burns came to stay for 27 years. He directed the building of a much larger church in 1893, dedicated to the Sacred Heart in November 1893 by Bishop Joseph B. Cotter of Winona, Minnesota. In 1897…

"When there were enough Catholics settled in and around the town of St. Anthony, they built a church in the town in 1893 and named it for the Sacred Heart. Father John McMahon became the first resident pastor of St. Anthony and celebrated the first…