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"Bishop Clement Smyth sent missionaries to the area in the 1860s. They celebrated Mass in homes and in the church at Christian Prairie. Father John Sheils established Saint Bridget in 1868, when Michael McClaskey donated two acres for the site of the…

"The French and Irish settlers who arrived in that part of the county before 1870 were visited by priests from Prairie du Chien who crossed the Mississippi into Iowa and used the military road. In the late 1860s the Catholic pioneers in Postville…

"Saint Catherine Parish, about eight miles south of Dubuque, bean in 1851 with the building of a log church on land donated by two settlers, Anthoy Noel and Hubert Rider. Before that, Mass was celebrated occasionally in the home of John Noel, three…

"In 1899 Father Henry C. Eckhart came from the Gilbert parish north of Ames to celebrate the first Masses in Ames. The Catholic pioneers used the William Kingkade home and a grove on the John Meyers farm, and later Read’s Hall in downtown Ames.…

"The present church was built in 1898 under the direction of Father William Banfield, who served as pastor from 1893 to 1953. Legend has it he served all those years without an official appointment. Father Banfield saw the small town spring up across…

Historical documents pertaining to Saint Clements parish in Eagle Center, Iowa, including information on its priests and parishioners.

"When Saint Columbkille Parish was officially erected on May 24, 1997, the newly appointed pastor Father John R. Fogarty did not have to look for parishioners and buildings. The residents of West Hill welcomed Bishop John J. Hennessy’s decree…

“Saint Donatus Parish is the only parish in the United States named for this heavenly protector against storms. Soon after the Iowa Territory was opened to settlement in 1833, pioneers from Luxembourg in Europe took up residence on the fertile hills…

“The events of the new parish’s first year (1989) were: In April ten acres in Hiawatha were designated as the site. On July 11 Father Gossman was appointed the founding pastor. On August 19 the community was formed when they gathered for Mass in…

"Saint Francis Church is located in Barclay Township, Blackhawk County, near Waterloo. It began in 1862 with the decision to build a church on the Joseph Rittelmeier farm two and a half miles southeast of Dunkerton. Limestone for the building was…