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“The first Catholic church in Story County was built in Nevada in 1870 under the direction of Father Delaney and that year dedicated to Saint Patrick. At some time afterwards Father Patrick Smith lived in Nevada for several months, but not as an…

"For over fifteen years the first Catholics of Butler County in the Parkersburg area west of Cedar Falls were cared for by the missionary priests who ventured beyond parish territory. The first of these, Father John Sheils, pastor of Waverly,…

"In the early 1880s Father Patrick H. Ryan lived in the Tom Magirl home while forming a parish and building a church. The church foundations are still visible in Calvary Cemetery on highway 13, about two miles south of Ryan. Completed about 1882, the…

"The first church in western Howard County was Saint Patrick Church at Cecelia built in 1860 on a plot given by James Roche. Made of logs, it measured 16 by 21 feet and stood in the present cemetery. For some years before, Mass had been celebrated in…

“The first resident priest in Tama was Father Charles McCabe, arriving in 1873. He stopped there on a missionary journey and decided Tama was a better location for a church because of the larger community of Catholics and the railroad, which helped…

“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…

“Settlement of Winthrop and the surrounding area began with the coming of the Illinois Central Railroad in 1868. Most Catholic immigrants were Irish. Some came as laborers on the railroad, staying to make a permanent home. Others came to farm the…

“Newhall’s Saint Paul Parish began with Father Alfred P. Meyer’s letter to Archbishop James J. Keane asking permission to start a parish. There had been two parishes in the neighboring town of Norway. One of them began as a Czech parish, with the…

“Once the Archbishop appointed a pastor for the Blessing parish, the blessing pastors occasionally visited the Catholics of the Traer area and celebrated Mass in their homes. In 1912 Father Sampson, pastor of Blessing, directed the building of Saint…

“German Catholic settlers moved into western Dubuque County in the 1860s and some made their homes in the town of Worthington. Many went to Dyersville for Mass and the sacraments, and fewer went to Saint Martin’s in Cascade, where instructions were…