Catholic

HISTORY
OF
MENARD & MASON COUNTIES, ILLINOIS
1879

Chicago: O.L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers
186 Dearborn Street
Chicago

Page 243

Catholic Church
Transcribed by: Kristin Vaughn.

There is but one congregation, and one house of worship in this county belonging to this people. The house stands on the crest of the high hill at the south border of the town, and commands a most commanding view of the town and river. The house is large, substantially built, and finished in the very best taste. With the church is connected half a block of ground, on which stands a two-story parsonage and a schoolhouse, in which a school is conducted eight months in the year, by Sisters. The membership is large, extending to almost every part of the county. The Pastor occasionally visits the villages of the county, and holds services in them. The church was built about the close of the war, and, since it was completed, there has been a regular Pastor in charge almost the whole of the time. At present, they are without a Pastor, Rev. Father Ahne having left some two months ago, on account of his health, and, as yet, his place has not been supplied.

With this brief account we close the general history of the churches in this county, though the reader may turn to the histories of the several precincts, where he will find full details of all these matters. We sincerely regret that we are not able to get fuller details of the early preachers and churches, but it was impossible to get this in any reliable form. It is no trouble to find parties professing to know the early history of each of the different churches, but the difficulty is, that when you accept one of these statements so positively made, you will soon find, perhaps, half a dozen persons equally reliable, who will contradict almost every fact, and give an almost exactly opposite statement. No doubt many facts here given will be disputed, yet we have the pleasure of knowing that they were gotten from the most trustworthy sources, and where there were conflicting statements, we accepted those corroborated by the greatest amount of reliable proof.


1879 Index

MAGA © 2000, 2001, 2002. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data and images may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for other presentation without express permission by the contributor(s).