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"The oldest Catholic parish in Howard County began with four families from Canada with the family names of Christmas, Hannigan, Ryan and Welsh. At first priests from Prairie du Chien came to serve them, but in 1853 Father Clement Lowery from Decorah…

"Sylvia, where the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located, was first called Sylvia, which is Latin for “the woods.” When the narrow gauge railroad came to the little town in 1879, it became Sylvia Switch, and was sometimes…

“In 1902 the Catholics were numerous enough to buy the vacant Methodist Church in Little Turkey for $500 and Fathers John Broz and Peter Kloss blessed it. Father Joseph Dostal, pastor of Spillville and brother to the two Dostal founders, celebrated…

Lt. William J. Menster, a priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque now serving as a Navy chaplain "Somewhere in the South Pacific," in a letter to the Very Rev. Msgr. Dorance V. Foley, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, "recalled years ago as a youngster,…

The enclosed pictures were taken at my midnight Mass celebrated in the South Sea Islands on Christmas, 1943, by Chaplain William J. Menster of the United States Navy.

Two people seated in chairs, smiling.

several people standing, talking.

several people standing. One person is looking at the camera. A wall in the background reads "POSITIVELY NO SMOKING"

Two people standing, talking. One is wearing a suit and the other is wearing a checker print dress.

Many people standing, talking.