Browse Items (254 total)

"The cornerstone for Saint Aloysius Church was laid in November 1892. The frame building was blessed in June 1893. A few years later an interior balcony and a sacristy were added. Bishop Hennessy designated about fifty families as the nucleus, almost…

"As early as 1891 Father James Mulligan, pastor of West Union, visited the Hawkeye area Catholics and celebrated Mass in the home of Michael Riley, the railroad section foreman. In 1893 under Father Mulligan’s direction, they built a small frame…

"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…

"On April 8, 1928, Father Joseph F. Wiehl and three members of his parish in Chester drove through muddy roads to nearby McIntire in the northeast corner of Mitchell County. There he celebrated the Easter Mass with more than one hundred faithful of…

"Landolm Haas, a veteran of the Mexican War, was the first settler in Saint Mary Parish, arriving in 1851 to take advantage of choice land at a low price. Father David Slattery was the first resident pastor and began the parish records. He came in…

"From 1872 to 1875 Father Michael Quirk, pastor of Elkport served the needs of the Littleport parish and the earliest records go back to his time.Father Edward L. Dullard next served as pastor from 1893 to 1898.In the fall of 1898 Father Daniel T.…

"Father Thomas J. Murtagh came from Masonville and Father Patrick S. O’Connor from Oelwein to celebrate mass for the Catholics of the area in the 1890s. They were of Czech, German, and Irish ancestry. In 1895 Father O’Connor brought together the…

"Saint Joseph Parish in New Hampton was organized on April 3, 1870 and was the first Catholic parish in the town. The first settlers came in 1854. Until the church was built in 1870, the early Catholics attended Mass in homes and business places.…

"Saint Mary Parish is the second parish to be founded in New Hampton. Its beginning is unusual. The school was established and in operation for three years before the first church was built. The German speaking parents in Saint Joseph Parish wanted…

"While Father Patrick Feeley of Charles City visited the Mitchell County pioneers in the 1870s, the New Haven area Catholics decided to build a church that would unite the Irish to the north and the Germans to the south and west. In the spring of…