"Saint John Parish at Delhi in Delaware County received its first resident pastor in 1872, but the next pastor moved the residence to Manchester in 1875. Delhi was a mission of Manchester for seventy years, when a resident pastor was appointed in…
"Father John M. Molloy was appointed pastor of the Belmont and Ryan parishes in January 1909. Later that year he moved the Belmont rectory to the town of Ryan. Since the Belmont church was a truly rural church, it was easy for Father Molloy to close…
"Father Hanley supervised the building of the first church. On January 3, 1883, the church was dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist by Father Toohill. Father John Egan came to Belmond in 1887 and also cared for Clarion until 1900. When a tornado…
"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…
"Saint John Parish in the Benton County town of Blairstown came into being in 1945 as a mission of Saint Patrick Parish in Watkins, only five and a half miles away. Father Nicholas U. Keffeler, pastor of Watkins, recognized the prospects for a parish…
"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…
"The history of the Forest City and Lake Mills parishes is intertwined and involves the Bristol parish, which never had a church of its own. From about the year 1870 Catholic settlements developed at Bristol, Forest City, and Lake Mills. According to…
“The Parish of Saint Isidore was canonically resurrected on March 22, 1961, the Feast of Saint Isidore the Farmer. At Father Engler’s suggestion the new parish was dedicated to God in honor of Saint Isidore, the Patron of Farmers. Isidore and his…