Cherokee County Churches |
Cherokee County Churches |
| Maryhill Visitation Catholic Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| History of the Church Visitation
Roman Catholic Parish, with its church located in Sheridan Township,
dates back to the early history of Cherokee County. The first Catholic
settlers of Rock and Sheridan Townships assembled in homes for prayers
until the Spinharney schoolhouse, built in 1871, one-half mile south of
the Spinharney home in Rock Township, served as a place of worship.
There, the first holy mass was offered in 1871. From then on until 1887, only several times a year did the group of worshippers enjoy the services of a Priest, who usually came from Fort Dodge or Sioux City. Records show that a Father Reynolds from Marcus, which became an established parish in 1885, ministered periodically to Catholics of both Maryhill and Cherokee during those two years. All baptismal records previous to 1885 are most probably in Sioux City or Fort Dodge. The first Catholics known definitely to have settled in the locality in 1869 were the families of Blasius Spinharney, Ed McCullough, and Patrick O’Connell. With the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad between Dubuque and Sioux City in 1870, the Catholic settlement grew rapidly, being halted only during the grasshopper plague years, 1875 – 1887. John Fisch and family settled in Section 33 of Sheridan Township in 1871. It was Mr. Fisch who donated two acres of his land in order that a central place of worship might be erected. He gave the lovely spot on the hill next to his own home which, in conformity with the deep faith in the hearts of these Catholic settlers, was callee Maryhill. In the year 1873, Agnes Ross, the little two year old daughter of Mr. Fisch, died and her burial marked the beginning of Maryhill Cemetery.
Still early in the seventies the settlers began to gather in the John Fisch home for Sunday prayers and holy Mass whenever a Priest could come. When John Specht purchased the Fisch farm, services continued to be held there. Marriage services for Maryhill Catholics were usually performed at Immaculate Conception Church, Cherokee, however, the Nuptial M ass for the marriage of Peter Begler and Margaret Umhoefer was offered in that little farm house in December, 1887. No
record can be found regarding the exact year in which the first church
was built at Maryhill, but it was probably in the late seventies. A report given in 1937 by Mrs. Josephine Kohns, now deceased, stated: “The church at Maryhill in 1882 was a small frame building resembling
the old type rural school house.” Soon the congregation outgrew this
building, for the number of families greatly increased when the
grasshoppers were no longer a threat to the new settlers.The year 1887, marked the establishment of Visitation Church, Maryhill as a mission church of Immaculate Conception Church, Cherokee. Reverend James T. Saunders then became the first resident pastor at Cherokee with the assignment to minister to the Catholics at Maryhill. This arrangement continued until 1895 when Maryhill became a parish with a resident pastor. Reverend Father Saunders offered Holy Mass on two Sundays of each month at Maryhill and cared for all the religious needs of the approximately seventy-five Catholic families in the Maryhill Community. Father Saunders had the little frame church taken down and the lumber was used in the building of the Theodore Umhoefer home east of Maryhill. The church was then erected. After eight years of zealous mission work among the Catholics of Maryhill, Father Saunders was succeeded by reverend Henry Eckert who began his resident pastoral work in December, 1895. Father Eckert at once recognized the need of a parochial school, but more land was needed and to this need Mr. John Specht responded generously. In January 1896, Mr. Specht donated five acres extending to the rear of that already donated by Mr. John Fisch, by September 1896 Visitation School was completed and opened its doors to the grade school children of the parish.  Three Benedictine Sisters – Sister Raphael, Sister Olivia, Sister Eustella – came from St. Joseph, Minnesota, to conduct the school. There were approximately fifty children enrolled, a number of whom are still living. In 1898 the Mother General of the Sisters withdrew her Sisters from all Iowa schools in which they were teaching and concentrated only in parochial schools of Minnesota. Consequently, Visitation School was closed for one year until the Sisters of Christian Charity from Wilmette, Illinois took charge. However, their stay was also for only two years and a Miss Barry continued the work until the school Sisters of St. Francis from Milwaukee came and staffed the school until 1904. Again a lay teacher, Miss Lena Deuster conducted the school for a few years. Father Eckert remained pastor at Maryhill until 1897 when he was succeeded by Rev. Joseph Tritz who served until 1901. Following Rev. Tritz was Rev. Aloysius Wagner until September 1902 when Rev. John Anler was appointed pastor. In August, 1903, Rev. Paul Warzawa succeeded Rev. Anler. Misfortune befell Maryhill, when on August 8, 1904, lightning struck the church which resulted in its total destruction by fire. At once the generosity of Maryhill people was manifested in that they immediately began work on a new structure, the present church.  Father Warzawa remained at Maryhill until August, 1908, when Rev. Lambert Schenkelberg came for a brief period until Rev. Bernard Schilmoeller became pastor for the following eight years. To Father Schilmoeller must be credited the reopening of Visitation School in September 1909 by securing the School Sisters of St. Francis from Milwaukee to staff it. During the years 1916 to 1921, Rev. Edgar Schleyer, Rev. Bernard Loeffelholz and Rev. joseph Wolf served Maryhill as pastors. IN 1917 the Sisters Convent was built. Father William Veit, a former army chaplain, spent six fruitful years at Maryhill, 1921-1927. Father Veit was highly esteemed for his religious leadership and for services in community building. Rev. A. J. Nuel worked zealously at Maryhill from 1927 to 193, when he was succeeded by rev. Joseph Underberg who, after eight years of faithful service, met with the tragic death of drowning at Leech Lake, Minnesota in May, 1940. It was during Father Underbergs’ pastorate that the church was completely renovated and redecorated. Members of the parish donated the harvest of one acre of corn each in order to finance the project. Rev. John Hausmann, pastor 1940 – 1949, was outstanding for his faithfulness to duty in promoting religion, education and community activities. Rev. Bernard Iocher succeed Father Hausman during the years 1949 – 1956 when rev. Karl Hansen was assigned the pastorate. With admirable zeal did Father Hansen spend himself for the welfare of the people of Maryhill. The mission of Quimby was added to his field of labor. With the assistance of the Sisters of Maryhill, Father Hansen gave weekly religious instructions throughout the school year to ninety children of Quimby in addition to regular Sunday services and the administration of the sacraments. When Father Hansen was transferred to the pastorate of Madrid in January, Father Gerald Zensen became the pastor of Maryhill. Through Father Zensen’s efforts a third classroom was renovated and an additional Sister teacher secured to meet the demand of increased enrollment in the school. The present group of approximately ninety families which constitute Mary hill Parish can look back with deep gratitude to God for the many blessings which they and their ancestors have received during the past eighty-eight years, since the first Holy Mass was offered in the Spinharney schoolhouse in 1871. During all these years, these sons and daughters of the soil have lived close to God, cooperating in their agricultural pursuits with the Creator and nature, so that by their harvest the needs of others were supplied. In all their labors, their church and school have played leading roles. They worked, worshiped, prayed and educated their children in sound Christian principles which could not fail to produce results for God, humanity and country. Outstanding are the facts that three Priests now working in the diocese and one religious Brother plus nine young women who have entered religious life all received their early training at Maryhill. One former professor of law at Ann Arbor received his first religious instruction at Maryhill and there are presently one dentist and one medical doctor, in addition to a number of nurses, teachers and other professional people who were at one time pupils of the school. Maryhill gave fifty-six young men for service in World War II and of these, three gave their lives. (Source: Maryhill Cook Book)
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