"Saint Joseph Parish, Dysart, probably began as a triple-town parish. In 1937 Father James F. Delay wrote in a parish history, on November 11, 1878, Father P. Kenny was appointed the first resident pastor of Vinton, Dysart and Traer.” At that time…
"In Tama County, famed for Czech pioneers and parishes, one of the early churches was Saint Wenceslaus in Carroll Township. As its location is about a mile and a half west of the town of Clutier. Saint Wenceslaus Church was built in 1899 and blessed…
“In 1880, after the church was closed for ten years, Bishop Hennessy assigned Saint Joseph Church to the care of the Protivin pastor, ten miles away. The Jesuits of Prairie du Chien gave them spiritual care in the 1880s. And Father Francis X. Boeding…
"Under Father Murphy’s guidance 21 families collected $1,285 in 1877 for a parish church. They put up a small frame building about a mile west of the present town, on two acres donated by Ben Welp. On December 8, 1879, Father Murphy celebrated the…
"Father John M. Wolfe was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, Maquoketa, February 1913, in his eighth year of the priesthood. He set about the spiritual and material development of this county seat parish. He soon gave attention to the Catholics…
"Under Father Murphy’s guidance 21 families collected $1,285 in 1877 for a parish church. They put up a small frame building about a mile west of the present town, on two acres donated by Ben Welp. On December 8, 1879, Father Murphy celebrated the…
"From 1900 to 1903 Father Vincent Opava resided in a house near Saint Wenceslaus Church in Carroll Township, about a mile and a half west of Clutier. He cared for both Holy Trinity in Otter Creek and Saint Wenceslaus. In 1905, during the four-year…
"The first European settlers in the Castle Grove area of Jones County were of Irish origin, arriving about 1846. They were visited regularly by Father Jeremiah Trecy from Garryowen on his missionary circuit. Then they were visited by Father Patrick…
"Father Scallan directed the building of a church, probably in 1880. Patrick and Bridget Farrell deeded four acres of their farm to the Diocese of Dubuque on May 25, 1880, a year after they had purchased it. The Centennial History of the Archdiocese…
"Father Bernard W. Coyle of Waverly is reputed to have celebrated the first Mass in the Allison community in the 1880s. He continued to care for the Catholics there on his many journeys. The further accounts of the parish’s beginning are confusing.…