"About the time this Clayton County town was looking for a name, Abd-el-Kader, an Algerian chieftain, was leading his countrymen to freedom. His bravery thrilled these Americans, and they named the town for him. Missionaries visited Elkader in the…
"Early pioneers of Elma in Howard County had been attracted by employment in the Great Western railroad roundhouse. They attended Saint Patrick Church at St. Cecilia’s, west of Elma, where Father Francis Gunn was pastor. In 1892 the foundation for a…
"Three Catholic families of Epworth in western Dubuque County were formed into a parish by Father James Commerford in 1879. He had been ordained in Ireland in 1878 and appointed resident pastor of Placid (or Pleasant Grove) the following April. Soon…
"In 1860 Father John J. Aylward, pastor of nearby Bankston, began a frame church at Farley Junction, about a mile from the present church site. In 1867 Father Charles McGauran, pastor of Bankston, saw to the building of a rock church, which was used…
"Saint Francis of Assisi Parish at Fayette began as a mission of Clermont in the 1870s. At that time Fayette County Catholics were visited by Father Eugene Sullivan, pastor of Clermont from 1876 to 1879. The Holy Name congregation at West Union was…
"Our Lady of Seven Dolors Parish at Festina began as an Indian mission. In 1840 the federal government built Fort Atkinson and moved the Winnebagoes there from the Yellow River area north of McGregor for the Indians’ protection. When Bishop Loras…
"The history of the Forest City and Lake Mills parishes is intertwined and involves the Bristol parish, which never had a church of its own. From about the year 1870 Catholic settlements developed at Bristol, Forest City, and Lake Mills. According to…