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“North Washington in Chickasaw County was established as a trading center in the early 1850s. As the number of settlers increased, they saw a need for a church. Then the death of a child was the occasion for Paul Roethler to donate a portion of land…

“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…

“Immaculate Conception Parish came into existence early in the history of the archdiocese because the town of Lansing in northeast Iowa was an important trading and shipping center on the great waterway of the Mississippi. The Catholics in that area…

"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…

"Immaculate Conception Parish began with the town of Gilbertville, which was then called Knox. Several young men, pleased with the banks of the Red Cedar River in Black Hawk County south of Waterloo, laid out the town site in 1854. The Catholic…

Historical documents pertaining to the history of Immaculate Conception parish in Fairbank, Iowa.

"Early pioneers of Elma in Howard County had been attracted by employment in the Great Western railroad roundhouse. They attended Saint Patrick Church at St. Cecilia’s, west of Elma, where Father Francis Gunn was pastor. In 1892 the foundation for a…

"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…

"A basement for the future church was completed in 1870 and was used for Mass and other services until 1885, when the Gothic style brick church was completed on that early foundation. This building was damaged twice by fires. In 1968 a tornado almost…