Browse Items (254 total)

“In 1873 the 27 families sent John Brost to ask Bishop John Hennessy for a resident priest and permission to build a church. Permission to build was granted, but no priest was available. The next year they dedicated the new church to the Blessed…

"In Tama County, famed for Czech pioneers and parishes, one of the early churches was Saint Wenceslaus in Carroll Township. As its location is about a mile and a half west of the town of Clutier. Saint Wenceslaus Church was built in 1899 and blessed…

"Saint Wenceslaus Church was built in the Winneshiek County town of Spillville in 1860, but the parish’s double beginning was earlier. First, nearby Saint Clement Parish was established by German settlers about 1853 on the banks of Spielman’s…

“In its 110 years, Saint Wenceslaus Parish in Duncan, located in Hancock County, has only had ten pastors. Before the first church was built in 1900, the people attended Mass in Garner or were visited by traveling priests, who celebrated Mass in…

"Immigrants of Slavic ancestry in the Cedar Rapids area gather at Immaculate Conception Church in Cedar Rapids for Sunday Mass. For their convenience, Father Clement J. G. Lowery frequently invited Bohemian missionaries. Prominent among them were…

“During the three-year pastorate of Father Michael Daly, a new parish site was purchased near the center of the city at 1010 Des Moines Street, and Father Thomas J. O’Brien supervised the building of the present brick church dedicated to Saint…

"In 1899 the pastor of the Gilbert parish, Father Henry C. Eckhart, celebrated the first Mass in the Ames community. The Gilbert church and rectory were in the country, some miles from the town of Gilbert. Father Eckhart was followed by Father…

"Saint Theresa Parish began with the acquisition of forty acres of land, as did so many of the rural parishes of the 1850s. This transaction in 1853 makes it the 14th parish in the history of the present territory of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The…

"Chester had a post office as early as 1858, but it was only in 1916 that Catholics had their first church. With the help of Father John P. Wagner of Assumption Parish in Cresco, they bought the Presbyterian church for $1,500. In 1919 Father Edward…

"When Father Stephen J. Kucera was appointed pastor of Prairieburg in 1927, he soon recognized Central City, eight miles west, as a potential parish. Central City’s location on busy highway 13 marked it for growth. In 1932 he secured the vacant…