History of Leoville, Kansas and the Immaculate Conception Parish

By 1885 there were about 30 industrious pioneers who had built their homes in what is now the Leoville area in Decatur County Kansas.  Among these early settlers were Joseph Staufer, Dochus Demperwolf, Bernard Ravy, Paul Koerperich, William Wold, John Goscha, John Zodrow, Stanislaus Pankaskie, Mike Campbell, Bartel and Pter Funk, Dernard and George Schroer, Frank Nieberding, John Kitzke, John Wieberding, Frank Heitman, Joseph Reichert, John Schilz, Peter and John Kaus, John Stegeman, Henry Kruse, Joseph Ritter, and Joseph Zimmerman.   Most of these people came originally from Germany by way of Iowa, Nebraska and Eastern Kansas by prairie schooner or the Rock Island Railroad.

The first Holy Mass was said for these settlers in April of 1885 in a sod house owned by Frank Heitman.  This sod house contained only one room.  It served as a home and church.  The simple furniture and bedding had to be removed so Mass could be said by the missionary priest.  This sod house was located about one-fourth mile west of the present church in Leoville.

The Celebrant of this first Mass was Rev. August Reichert, a missionary stationed at New Almelo.

In September 1885 the pioneers welcomed a visit from Rev. Frank Schrank, a secular priest who was also a missionary.  This staunch group of pioneers devoted to their religion and were by this time building a frame church,

Frank Heitman, a land agent, donated a plot of ten acres to be used as church property.  The present church property is identical to the original plot of ten acres.  In building this church Joseph Dempewolf was the architect, Anthony Trommeter was the mason and Joseph Berger was the carpenter.  They built this first church with the help of the willing parishioners.  The first church was a frame structure 32 X 36 feet.  

The first Mass in the new building was celebrated by Rev. Frank Schrank on December 8, 1885. 

The first parish house was finished in 1886.  In 1889 Joseph Berger suggested the name Leoville for the village in honor of Pope Leo XIII who was then pope.  

The first couple united in the bonds of Matrimony in the church was on February 4, 1889.  They were Henry Kruse and Margaret Schroer. 

In 1890 the frame church became to small to accommodate all the people so to the original structure were added wings which lengthened the building to 75 feet.

In 1909 a convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph was built. 

A grade school was built by the parish in 1912 to accommodate the large number of children in the parish. 

The frame church was now to small for all the parishioners to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at one time so the frame structure was moved to the northern part of the town where the high school was later built.  Services were held at this location while the first brick church was being built. 

Work began on the construction of the first brick church on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1914.  The dimensions of the new structure were 113 X 42 feet with one tall spire, 124 feet high.  It was a large beautiful edifice, impressive for its beauty and stateliness, trimmed in limestone and erected at a cost of $60, 000. 

On November 12, 1922 the people saw this church, into which they had put so much thought and labor, go up in flames!  The fire had started in the furnace room from an overheated furnace during Sunday morning High Mass and quickly spread due to the high winds that accompanied the blizzard.  Men of the parish carried out the three items saved, the sanctuary lamp, Sacred Heart statue and Pieta.  After the fire only the chimney, bell tower and brick walls remained.

Again under the leadership of pastor, Fr. Schmitt, and with the entire cooperation and goodwill of the parish. work was begun to tear down and clear away the debris.  A most significant and unusual part of the labor force was the contribution of the school children.  During the noon hour and at recess they helped clean the old bricks from the destroyed building.  The boys used hatchets and cleaned the mortar from the old bricks.  The girls stacked the bricks and many of the boys hauled and carried to the bricklayers the bricks which were used on the inner walls of the new church.

Not long after a modified Romanesque church with huge twin towers rose to dominate the landscape and stand as a monument to the faith of Catholics in the parish.  

The ground dimensions of this new edifice were 140 feet long by 52 feet wide with twin towers rising to a height of 97 feet.  The structure was built of the very finest Harvard rug mat brick with a Spanish tile roof supported by four great trusses each weighing 7,300 pounds

The laying of the cornerstone for the new $70,000 Immaculate Conception Church was held April 18, 1923.  The entire structure of the new church was completed and dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1923, just one year and 15 days after the fire.

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