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“The first resident pastor was Father Patrick McMahon, coming to West Union in April 1879. It was he who began sacramental records. He lived with the John Owens family during his one-year pastorate. Father Laurence H. Burns came in May 1880 and…

“During the three-year pastorate of Father Michael Daly, a new parish site was purchased near the center of the city at 1010 Des Moines Street, and Father Thomas J. O’Brien supervised the building of the present brick church dedicated to Saint Thomas…

“In 1854 the Waverly area settlers gathered for the first Mass in Bremer County. A few years later Bishop Mathias Loras bought a block of property from Frederick Cretzmeyer in 1855. It became the site of the first church and came to be known as…

“Father Clement Lowery was assigned to northern Iowa and southern Minnesota in 1863. While he lived with James and Mary McDevitt in Waukon, he celebrated Mass in their home until 1864. During that year he purchased four lots and a house from the…

“Several Brannon families came from Ohio in 1852 and were followed by their friends in later years. They built a stone church dedicated to Saint Rose, which was supplanted by a larger frame church in 1877. When lightning struck the church in 1881,…

“At least five parishes in the Archdiocese in the 1880s boasted two Catholic churches where one would have been sufficient except for a variety of languages. One such town was Norway in Benton County, where Saint Michael’s was the first parish,…

“As early as June 1944 Archbishop Francis J. L. Beckmann conferred with Father John M. Fischer at the annual Priests Retreat about founding a new parish in Waterloo. In January 1945 his Coadjutor, Archbishop Henry P. Rohlman, appointed Father Fischer…

“The beginning of Sacred Heart Parish is well described in the history of the Archdiocesan schools, “With Faith and Vision.” The authors wrote, “After nearly fifty years of getting to church by fording, by ferrying, and at last by crossing the…

“Having observed the westward growth of Waterloo, Archbishop Henry P. Rohlman announced in 1947 the founding of a new parish in Waterloo to be called Blessed Sacrament. He appointed Father Louis A. Putz as pastor and temporary chaplain of Saint…

“The citizens of the community first sought to build a parish church in 1885 and subscribed $1,305. Of the 85 subscribers on the March 5, 1885, list about forty were not Catholic. In 1887 Father Peter O’Dowd, the Independence pastor, came to Walker…