"When Father Henry P. Rohlman, a member of the Archdiocesan Mission Band, conducted a two weeks’ mission in a borrowed church in January 1909, the area Catholics decided to form a parish. Before Father Rohlman left Rockford, the people appointed Paul…
“Parishioners of Mason City’s second Catholic parish gathered with their founding pastor, Father Edward J. Dougherty, in the public library for their first Mass on an October Sunday in 1908. Construction of the church began the following spring and…
"Although Holy Cross Parish began with a resident pastor in 1928, it has been served by neighboring pastors during most of its history. The Catholics of the area had longed for a parish of their own. Perhaps Father Thomas Ballon, pastor of Vining in…
“Holy Cross is one of several parishes that began about the same time. Bishop Mathias Loras mentions in an 1842 letter that he was called to the Sweeney home in Concord Township to minister to a dying man. While there, he was asked to bless some…