Browse Items (254 total)

“North Buena Vista clings to the hillsides of the great river, which often offered better transportation than the twisting valley roads. While Father Garrett T. Nagle was pastor of Holy Cross, 24 families pledged support for a small frame church,…

“The early Irish settlers […] were cared for by Father John Gosker of Independence, fifteen miles to the west. Mass in home or school continued until they built a church holding eight pews. Two ladies of the parish deserve the credit for getting the…

“Holy Family Parish owes its beginning and many years of its existence to its close neighbors, the monks of New Melleray Abbey. Because the people had little funds and the monastery wished to help them have their own church, one of the monks appealed…

Historical documents pertaining to the history of Holy Family parish in New Hampton, Iowa.

“Parishioners of Mason City’s second Catholic parish gathered with their founding pastor, Father Edward J. Dougherty, in the public library for their first Mass on an October Sunday in 1908. Construction of the church began the following spring and…

"In the early 1880s Father Patrick H. Ryan lived in the Tom Magirl home while forming a parish and building a church. The church foundations are still visible in Calvary Cemetery on highway 13, about two miles south of Ryan. Completed about 1882, the…

"Catholics of northeastern Jackson County received permission from Bishop Clement Smyth to build their first church on land given by Christina Burns and her son Zachariah. The community came to be known as Burns Settlement, but the name of the…

"Located about 15 miles northwest of Dubuque, the parish was established at French Settlement, about two miles from the present site. There French families of the Trois-Rivieres district of Quebec had put down their roots. […] Bishop Mathias Loras…

"Father John Nemmers, their Gilbertville pastor, celebrated the first Mass in the new church in the summer of 1906. It was probably on July 4, as the first recorded baptism took place after Mass on that date. The church was probably named and…

"Father F. Kenny was pastor of Sabula and caring for the Preston Catholics, when Bishop John J. Hennessy appointed him resident pastor of Preston and in charge of the Sabula parish as well. He was the first to celebrate Mass in the area, first in the…