“Newhall’s Saint Paul Parish began with Father Alfred P. Meyer’s letter to Archbishop James J. Keane asking permission to start a parish. There had been two parishes in the neighboring town of Norway. One of them began as a Czech parish, with…
“The first Catholic church in Story County was built in Nevada in 1870 under the direction of Father Delaney and that year dedicated to Saint Patrick. At some time afterwards Father Patrick Smith lived in Nevada for several months, but not as an…
“The first Catholics in Norway area were of Czech heritage, and the first priests came to minister to them in their own language. Father Anthony D. Urban visited them while pastor of Spillville and celebrated the first Mass in the area in 1865 in…
“The Catholics of Nashua in Chickasaw County bought property and built a church in 1868. Before that, Mass was celebrated in the homes of the O’Donnells and the Doughertys. After forty years as a mission, the parish received its first resident…
“Father Richard Nagle, living in a farm house near Monona and serving a wide area, saw to the building of the first Catholic Church in the town in the 1860s. About the same time, James McGregor gave the Catholic parish a parcel of land at the head…
“The first Catholics came to the county in the 1850s and their number increased as the Civil War veterans came west to claim government land. They were visited by Father William Edmonds of Iowa City and Father Clement Lowry of Cedar Rapids. Father…
“Missionaries came early to this center of agriculture, manufacturing, and railroading in eastern Cerro Gordo County, and by 1864 the Catholics were organized into a parish. Father Patrick Feely, located at Waverly after Father Murphy’s death,…
“Father William Emmonds, the pastor of Saint Mary’s in Iowa City, first offered Mass in Mount Vernon and Lisbon area of Linn County in 1857. With the completion of the railroad to Cedar Rapids in 1859 came an influx of Irish immigrants. A year…