Browse Items (5731 total)

"Saint Mary Parish came into being in response to the petition of German families to Bishop Loras in 1819 for permission to establish a parish to provide for the German speaking Catholics of Dubuque. The first church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity,…

"In the 1860s Irish immigrants came to Grundy County to settle fertile Grant Township several miles south of Dike. The first settler was John B. Murphy in 1866. Having first farmed in Michigan, he was attracted to the Iowa farmland. He was soon…

"On January 15, 1902, the Diocese of Sioux City was formed from the western half of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, following county lines. The Catholic church in Corwith found itself less than a mile east of the diocesan line. In both directions,…

"Saint Mary Parish was established in 1857 with the appointment of Father John Baumgartner to care for the German speaking Catholics who had been members of Saint Martin Parish in Cascade along with their Irish neighbors. They began the construction…

"Pioneer Catholic families settled in Grundy County in the late 1860s, during the hard times following the Civil War. Father Patrick Smith visited them from Cedar Falls almost monthly. His successor, Father Charles McCabe, continued to provide for…

"Saint Martin Parish and Saint Mary Parish sprang from one parish named Saint Mathias to provide for the language difference of the early settlers of this Dubuque County area. For a long time Saint Martin's was the Irish parish and Saint Mary's the…

Historical documents pertaining to the history of Saint Joseph parish in Independence, Iowa.

"Michael J. Quirk and Father Michael Lynch were the first priests to visit the Greeley area to care for the early Catholic settlers in the 1860s. On those occasions the James Fitzpatrick home became a temporary chapel for the Greeley and Edgewood…

"Chester had a post office as early as 1858, but it was only in 1916 that Catholics had their first church. With the help of Father John P. Wagner of Assumption Parish in Cresco, they bought the Presbyterian church for $1,500. In 1919 Father Edward…

"Saint Joseph Parish in Dubuque was formally established by Archbishop Henry P. Rohlman on November 1, 1949, after the archdiocesan consultors had reviewed the area census of Catholics. Msgr. Michael J. Martin was immediately named the founding…