| LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA |  |
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| LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA | |
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Columbus Junction, Iowa
Transcribed by Beverly Gerdts, August 5, 2016
St Joseph’s Catholic Church was founded by a young missionary priest, Father Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli from the order of St. Dominic sometime between 1835 and 1840. Information as the exact date is sketchy.
The young missionary was born in Italy in 1806 to a well to do family. He was a man with many talents and was well educated. He was inspired by the first bishop of Cincinnati, also a Dominican, who spoke in Milan, Italy and explained that there was much work to be done for God and for the souls in far away regions of western America.
Soon under the authorization of his religious superiors the missionary found himself on the banks of the Ohio River. By 1830 he was sent to the Island of Mackinac, the most remote spot of the Diocese of Cincinnati. There he found a registry of baptisms and marriages and learned that James Marquette had preached to the Ottawa Indians. His nearest fellow priest was 200 miles away. Around him were mostly Indians, hunters, traders and a few Catholics by tradition.
Mazzuchelli was soon at work in this vast parish from Lake Huron to the Mississippi River. He preached in French and in English and to his Indian flock through interpreters.
From the Island of Mackinac the missionary sought souls northward to point St Ignac where Marquette was buried and at Sault Saint Marie westward to Green Bay in the scattered camps of the Menominees and of the Winnebagoes and at Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi. His journeys were in birch bark canoe in summer and on snowshoes or sleigh in winter but always facing severe hardships. At Green Bay he built a church and opened a Catholic School in 1834. At that time that was the only Catholic Church and school in the whole territory of Wisconsin. Special attention was paid to the Winnebagoes. A catechism was prepared in their language with the help of interpreters.
Soon other priests were appointed to northern Michigan and Father Mazzuchelli made his way down the Mississippi serving under three ecclesiastical jurisdictions, that of Vincennes for Illinois, that of Detroit for Wisconsin and that of St Louis for Iowa. Indians, traders, around Prairie Du Chien and elsewhere miners and pioneer land seekers constituted his flock. He worked some in the lead mines of southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois. By 1835 his chief residence was in Galena, Illinois.
The missionary ministered to people up and down the Mississippi River and far back from the river both eastward and westward wherever there were cottages. The country from the Mississippi River to the Iowa River was pretty much a wilderness in 1835. Many immigrants were rushing westward to settle the land.
Many mission churches were built along the one hundred fifty mile stretch from Dubuque to Burlington wherever there were Catholic families. From 1835 to 1840 churches were built in Galena, Dubuque, Maquoketa, Davenport, Bellevue, Bloomington now Muscatine, Iowa City, Columbus, as he called it, and Burlington and in various smaller communities wherever settlers would congregate. Father Mazzuchelli conducted a service and gave a sermon in a grove, or beneath the humble cabin roof, in a schoolhouse, or in a village hall so that Catholics would be strengthened in their faith.
The missionary priest promoted total abstinence from intoxicating liquors which he advocated by word and example. The esteem in which he was held by all classes and the influence, civil and social, which he exercised marked him not only as a great priest but as a great citizen as well. He made a visit once or twice each year to St. Louis for the spiritual comforting of his own soul, stopping enroute to minister to his flock.
Father Mazzuchelli excelled in appreciation and knowledge of music, painting and architecture. He himself was the architect for all the churches that he built. A beautiful altar which he carved survives in the chapel in Dubuque. In addition to churches he was also the architect for the first courthouse in Galena and for the first state house built in the capitol city of Iowa in Iowa City.
This information was all gathered from Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli’s own writing. The Book Memoirs, Historical and Edifying of a Missionary Apostolic of the order of Preachers Among Tribes of Savages, and Many Catholic and Protestants in the Untied States of America. It was originally written and printed in Italian in Milan in 1844, during his one and only visit to his native Italy. It was Father Mazzuchelli’s duty to give to his superiors in Rome a faithful account of his journeys and activities in far off regions. He kept accurate notes and maps of his work. The book was finally translated to English by a member of the Dominican Sisterhood of the congregation of the Holy Rosary of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. Little is known of his work following his return in 1844 except that he continued to minister to all his people until his death of pneumonia following making an emergency visit to one of his people in 1864 at Benton, Wisconsin.
It was probably during on of his trips to St. Louis around 1835 or shortly thereafter that Father Mazzuchelli said Mass for the first time in the a home near Columbus City, near the “White Way” where soon a small church was built in that vicinity. This was the forerunner or beginning of the present church of St Joseph in Columbus Junction.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad came through Columbus Junction and on to Washington by 1858. By 1870 a north-south railroad called the Burlington, …
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…Cedar Rapids and Northern came through Columbus Junction. All this Columbus Junction to grow rapidly.
By 1875 Columbus Junction had a population of one thousand and was surveyed and laid out in lots. H. C. Wortham and Co. had bought considerable land earlier and then had a land auction in 1874. Records on file in the Louisa County Courthouse show the S.W. True and wife Irene True sold lot one in block seven in the H. C. Wortham and Co. second addition to the town of Columbus Junction to John Hennessey, bishop of Dubuque for the sum of 45 dollars on the 18th of February 1878. Records show that lot two in block seven in the H. C. Wortham and Co. second addition to the town of Columbus Junction was sold to John Hennessey, Catholic bishop of Dubuque by H. C. Wortham and wife Mary J. Wortham for the sum of 45 dollars on the 18th of February 1878. These two lots are the present location of St. Joseph’s Church.
Since the village of Clifton did not have a railroad station it became a decaying town. As a result several buildings from Clifton were moved into Columbus Junction. By this time in the late 1870’s the original little mission church in Columbus City needed replacement. The Clifton Community building was moved in that late 1870’s onto the mission property purchased in 1878 by John Hennesey, bishop of Dubuque. This building was transformed into a church and was dedicated as St. Joseph’s Church serving as a church until it became too small to accommodate the parish membership in 1957.
In the early years Sunday services were held only once month with a priest often coming by train from Sigourney. Some names of early parishioners around 1920 were the Frank and Johanna Daniels family with their six children Joe, Leo, Frank, Mary, Cecilia and Felicitas; two doctors and their wives, Dr. Frank Hubbard, a medical doctor, and Dr. John Hubbard, a dentist in Columbus Junction; Joseph and Edna Digney and their four children Marie, Mildred, Irene and Edward; Achiel and Marie De Waele and their daughter, Hilda (Mrs. Elmer Ziskovsky); Mrs. Charles (Elizabeth) Estle and her daughter Frances Claire, (Mrs. Ralph Utter).
The Diocese of Davenport was formed in 1881 out of the southern part of the diocese of Dubuque. Records in Louisa County show that on December 16, 1881 John Hennessey bishop of Dubuque deeded the property, lots one and two in block seven to the Right Rev. John McMullen, bishop of Davenport. Later another entry shows that on March 18, 1914 James Davis then bishop of the diocese of Davenport gave the property to St. Joseph’s Church in Columbus Junction for the consideration of one dollar.
By 1956 the old wooden church which had been moved from Clifton was too small to accommodate the membership of some forty families. Since it had no foundation and it would have been too costly to enlarge, it was decided to build a new church just east of the old building but still on the church property.
At that time Rev. Father Clifford A Egert was pastor at St. Mary’s in Lone Tree but was also assigned as pastor to St. Joseph’s in Columbus Junction. Since there was very little money available the parish could not afford to have a new church built by contractors. Father Egert with his carpentry skills, learned for his father, Frank, was the foreman and chief laborer and the parishioners were his construction assistants. The new church was to be 74 feet by 38 feet with a full basement to serve as a parish hall. The basement also contains a kitchen and rest rooms.
St. James parish of Washington under the leadership of Father Thomas Lew was building a new school and offered the old St. James school building to St. Joseph’s Parish. It was torn down and most of the lumber and materials were loaded on farm trucks and pick ups of parishioners, and haul the 17 miles to Columbus Junction. Some of men from St. Joseph parish who helped to salvage this lumber and transport it to be used in the construction of the present St. Joseph’s church were: Father Egert, James B Helmick, Urban Hargrafen, Frank Gabriel, the Daniel brothers, Elmer Ziskovsky, Raymond Schultz, L.B. Dempsey and Fred Dupius.
Construction of the new church started in the summer of 1957. The basement was dug by a contractor since most of the soil was clay. Otherwise, the men of the parish helped Father Egert as time permitted to build the church. The prefabricated arches for the roof had to come from Tacoma, Washington, and did not arrive in time to go ahead with the super structure before that winter.
Work on the new church continued in the spring of 1958. Father Egert worked almost everyday from 8:30 in the morning until 5:30 at night on the new church. Parishioners helped as they had time, but Father Egret often worked alone. He usually had lunch at the home of one of the parishioners in town.
The new church was near completion by the fall of 1958 and used for worship services for the first time October 26,1958. A capon supper and bazaar was held in the basement of the newly completed church on Sunday, November 23, 1958
With all the volunteer labor in construction and using materials from the former St. James school from Washington the total cost of the new St. Joseph church was about $21,000. Pews from the old St. Joseph were used for a few years. The new church was dedicated, debt free, in the spring of 1959, with bishop Ralph L Hayes and more then fifty clergymen of the diocese participating in the dedication.
Later new pews were purchased and some further remodeling was done in 1973. The Communion Rail was removed, carpeting laid throughout the church. New modern kitchen cabinets were installed in 1992.
Over the years Columbus Junction St. Joseph’s Church….
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…was always an out mission church served by a priest from nearby towns. In the very early years a priest came on horseback from Washington, later by train from Sigourney for monthly services. Later St. Joseph’s was assigned to Nichols, to Lone Tree and back to Nichols.
In 1986, a house on lot 8 block 7 was purchased for $60,000 to be used for the church rectory. Rev. Father Theodore Borger moved from Nichols to the rectory in Columbus Junction in 1986, and became the first resident priest for St. Joseph’s. He was also assigned to Nichols and Ardon, north of Letts.
Later Ardon’s church was closed and the priest from St. Joseph’s serves both St. Mary’s in Wapello and St. Joseph’s each Sunday.
As of 1993, Father Bernard Weir is pastor of St. Joseph and commutes to St. Mary’s in Wapello each Sunday. A list of all known priest who were pastors at St. Joseph’s since 1900 follows:
| Pastor | Years served | Served from |
| Rev. Joseph Hauser | 1901-1922 | Sigourney |
| Rev. T. P. Coleman | 1922-1926 | Nichols |
| Rev. H. M. Thoman | 1926-1931 | Nichols |
| Rev. P. D. Moore | 1931-1937 | Nichols |
| Rev. Walter F Boeckman | 1937-1941 | Lone Tree |
| Rev. Hauber | 1941-1947 | Lone Tree |
| Rev. Walsh | 1947-1952 | Lone Tree |
| Rev. Taylor | 1953-1954 | Lone Tree |
| Rev. Clifford Egert | 1954-1967 | Lone Tree |
| Rev. Joseph Hines | 1967-1969 | Lone Tree |
| Rev. William Sullivan | 1969-1979 | Nichols |
| Rev. Walter Helms | 1979-1985 | Nichols |
| Rev. Theodore Borger | 1985-1986 | Nichols |
| Rev Theodore Borger | 1986-1987 | serving Nichols & Ardon |
| Rev. Farrell | 1987-1987 | serving Nichols & Ardon |
| Rev. Stephen Ebel | 1987-1988 | serving Nichols & Ardon |
| Rev. Stephen Ebel | 1988-1991 | serving Ardon & Wapello |
| Rev. Bernard Weir | 1991- | serving Wapello |
Picture: Father Bernie Weir with a class of beginning servers in January 1993.
Picture: Old Church of St. Joseph- moved from Clifton in 1870’s. Basement of new church to the right- 74’ x38’ completed in 1857.
Picture: Fr. Egert, priest, carpenter sanding the communion railing as he was finishing construction of St. Joseph’s Church in 1958.
Picture: Rev. Bernard Weir 1991-present.
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Picture: Church of St. Joseph Columbus Junction
Picture: Interior of St. Joseph’s Church at present, Nov. 1992.
Picture: First Communion 1987. Front L to R: Mary Lou Wathen, Katie Hamilton, Ida Zuniga, Stacie Jay, Angie Mougin, Angie Mabeus, Jackie Maugin. Back Row L to R: Joey Pylel, Ben Gabriel, Mike Kottenstette, Jay Heindel, Andy White and Father Ebel.
Picture: St. Joseph’s Church organist and cantor L to R Ann Ellsworth and Jennifer Thomann.
Picture: Holy Communion Class of 1984. Front Left to right: Stephain Ellsworth, Jennifer Maugin, heather Jay, Angie Vedepo, Jennifer Robertson. Back row: Megan Carney, Chad Grimm, Josh Hunt, Eric Stoller, Chris Gabriel.
Picture: First Communion Class of 1958. Front row L to R: Debbie Dempsey,--, Barbara Helmick, __,Mary Jennings. Back row: Darrell Schoultz, __,__,Fr. Clifford Egert.
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Picture: First Communion Class of 1960 with Fr. Egert. Front row L to R: Betty Ziskovsky, Theresa Schoultz, Lyn Schweitzer, Sue Huston. Back row: Jerry Becker, Rhonda Salemink, Bobby Becker, Jane Schneider, Craig Helmick
Pastors of St. Joseph Church-Columbus Jct.
Picture: Rev. Clifford A. Egert 1954-1967
Picture: Rev. H.M. Thoman 1926-1931
Picture: Rev. Walter F. Boeckman 1937-1941
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Picture: Rev. Paul Moore 1931-1937
Picture: Rev. V. Walsh 1947-1952
Picture: Rev. Joseph Hines 1967-1969
Picture: Rev. William Sullivan 1969-1979
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Picture: Rev Walter Helms 1979-1985
Picture: Rev. Theodore Borger 1985-1987
Picture: Rev Farrel 1987-1987
Picture: Rev. Stephen Ebel 1987-1991