MaryImmaculate[1]

Parish Center:
716 E Washington
Kirksville, MO 63501
Fr Patrick J Shortt, Pastor
Phone: (660) 665-2466 Fax:(660) 665-8955
School: 660-665-2466 - 660/665-1006 Fax: 660/665-1006
web site: www.miparish.org

ASSOCIATE PASTOR: Fr William P Kottenstette
DEACONS: Thomas Capuano---David D Ream
PASTORAL MINISTER: Patricia Lehr
YOUTH MINISTER: Chris Korte
SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Janie Theobald
MASSES: Winter Schedule (August 16 – May 31)
Sat. 5:30 p.m., Sun. 9:00, 11:00 a.m.
Summer Schedule (June 1 – August 15)
Sat. 5:30 p.m, Sun. 7:00 a.m.
Sun. 11:00 a.m., Newman Center

Mission
St Rose of Lima--(1903), Parish Code #107
Hwy D, Novinger , MO 63559
MASS: Sun. 7:45 a.m. (August 16 – May 31)
No Sunday Mass (June 1 – August 15)

Newman Center
709 S. Davis, Kirksville, 63501
660/665-4357 Fax: 660/665-3592
e-mail: tsnewman@socket.net
web site: www.kirksvillenewman.org
DIRECTOR: Mrs. Bettie Lesczynski
CHAPLIN: Rev. William P. Kottenstette
MASSES: Sun. 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. (when school is in session)
Sun. 11:00 a.m. (June 1 –August 15)

...which was in turn the offspring of the church at Edina ...

St. Joseph's church of Edina can trace its roots back to the pioneer settlement days of Edina. By 1837, Roman Catholics began to settle in Knox county. In June of 1843, Fr. Thomas Cusack, who served the churches in New London, St. Paul, Indian Creek, Brush Creek, Hunnewell, and St. Patrick, made a visit to Edina to celebrate the first recorded Mass here. The Mass was celebrated in the family home of James A. Reed, a United States Postal official, in a room called the "post office room." Their home was located in what is now the northeast corner of the courthouse square.

As more Catholics arrived in the area, their pastoral needs grew as well. Through the donation of land and material by Peter Early, the first church was built in 1844 (this date may have been assigned by confused historians to the later missionary Masses said under similar circumstances in the Adair home of Daniel McGonigle). This church is often called the "log church." Fr. Dennis Byrne became the first pastor of the new St. Joseph Church in the spring of 1845. Fr. Byrne shared his time between Edina and St. Patrick until 1852, when he became St. Joseph Church's first resident pastor. In 1857, having outgrown the "log church," a larger brick church was built.

Once the Civil War was over, the westward expansion was in full swing. In April of 1864, Fr. Bernard McMenomy requested that the Sisters of Loretto come to Edina to teach in a school that was to be established. The Sisters arrived in May of 1865 to begin teaching at St. Joseph Academy, which later came to be St. Joseph School…

A few Catholic families had moved outward from Edina into the Adair area. E.M. Violette's History of Adair County notes: "The situation was seized upon by Father McNamee, [error for "McMenomy," see below; Violette may have confused this man with Rev. Hastings McNamee, a protestant pastor in town at the time he wrote] then assistant parish priest at Edina." It's a peculiar turn of phrase, implying something rather aggressive, but the time and the place were not generally hospitable to what were then called "Romanists," and Fr. McMenomy was indeed a man of unusual determination.

Again, according to Violette, McMenomy began celebrating Mass about 1844 in the home of David McGonigle [there is no record of a David McGonigle -- it's more likely Violette means "Daniel." Moreover, the correct date is probably 1864; in 1844, McMenomy was a lad of fifteen living in Ireland, while at sixteen years old, McGonigle probably owned no home in which to have Masses said], and services were held in a number of other residences during the early 1870s. Priests were sent regularly from St. Louis by Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis, including Fathers Laurence Madden and J. Daly in the early 1870s, though each of these men served only a few months. In the absence of a regular pastor, the church at Edina looked after the one at Adair.

Daniel McGonigle (4-26-1828 to 9-8-1906) lies buried in the parish graveyard at Adair.

This unmarked photo found in a box of memorabilia from St. Mary's is believed to represent the Right Rev. Maurice F. Burke, bishop of St. Joseph at the time of St. Mary's founding.

During Fr. McMenomy's time at Edina as assistant pastor, he began his activities in Adair. He remained at Edina 7 1/2 years, according to one account, and from June 1, 1854 to January 1, 1867 by another. The best fit for all facts would be to have him arriving in Edina about 1859-60.

"A man of pleasing countenance and rare oratorical ability...popular with all classes...his sermons attracted many non-Catholics to the church."

By 1869 (according to an account of 1882) or 1870 (official version) a church had been built, pastored by a Franciscan, Fr. James S. Ryan (who would return to the Kirksville parish later; see below). Fr. Ryan was born May 15, 1858 [his obituary suggests 1856] in Ballinahinch, County Tipperary, and studied theology at the Seraphic Seminary, Catskills, NY, before his ordination September 1918 [according to diocesan records; quite certainly an error, unless he was impersonating a priest for four decades before suddenly turning honest at age 60] at the St. Joseph MO cathedral. Note the unresolved problem, in addition to the date of his ordination, that he is credited with pastoring a church at an age of 11-14 years.

The Adair church was taken over in 1880 by Fr. John O'Shea, who came from County Limerick, and stayed for twenty-six years. It was Fr. O'Shea who finished the church at Adair in 1904, at a cost of $10,000. The building, now on the National Register of Historic Places, is said by architects to be one of the few of enduring value in the county, a rare example of asymmetric Romanesque frame construction.

A 1908 photo of the home of Dr. E.S. Quinn, where Catholic services were first said in Kirksville. The remodeled house still stands at 916 E. McPherson. Dr. Quinn (d. Feb. 24, 1920) left a lifelong record of public service, most prominently as president of the Adair County Medical Society (though he was defeated twice [1898 and 1916] in his Democratic bid for the county coroner's office).

Fr. John O'Shea was among the many missionaries serving the area from the late 1850s onward, when the incoming Irish railroad workers required pastoral care and more regular access to the sacraments. He "is remembered as the priest who worked so hard to carve a Catholic congregation at LaGrange." "Make ye waymarks in the wilderness," he wrote in the register, and added, "the poet who rote those words knew what he was talking about." Fr. O'Shea wrote of long hours of riding between parishes.

From here we leave the story of Adair to the St. Mary's page , and take up with Kirksville.

This same Father O'Shea would ride horseback to Kirksville to say Mass in the home of Dr. Edward S. Quinn. This was an era of circuit riding priests. These missionaries rode through the settlements, staying in Catholic homes, carrying a portable altar with them. They heard confession, baptized, solemnized marriages, sang Mass, and rode onward. Fr. O'Shea was said to be an avid horseman, hunter and a keeper of hounds:

"In September, 1868, Father John Fitzgerald came to serve St. Joseph's parish at Edina. He served until 1899. One priest that visited frequently with Father Fitzgerald was Father O'Shea of Adair, Missouri. He and Father loved dogs and horses and enjoyed hunting. Father O'Shea frequently came to Edina on horseback with an entourage of twelve to fifteen hound dogs and carried a blanket faced on one side with leather and equipped with a hitch ring. Father O'Shea would throw the blanket over the barbed wire fences, then jump the horse over the fence and grab the hitch ring in passing and complete the jump with his blanket billowing out behind him The farmers were somewhat less than enthusiastic about his dramatic mode of travel because it would scatter their cattle for miles. When Father O'Shea was in Edina, his hounds would lie quietly in the sun until time to leave. The barking that occurred when he left the rectory announced his departure to the entire town."
(from The Legacy: A History of St. Joseph's Church, Edina, MO., by Jeanne Gilmore)

Fr. O'Shea's brother was also a priest. Both lie in the cemetery of St. Mary's Church, Killmallock, Ireland. The parish records there read as follows:

There is slight confusion as to the exact year of the parish's founding. Fr. O'Shea founded the Kirksville parish in the fall of 1886, according to one account, or in the fall of 1888 in another. P.O. Selby, in manuscript notes archived at the Adair County Historical Society, said Fr. O'Shea "organized the Kirksville Catholics in 1898 and he remained with them until sometime around 1900." It seems likely that 1888 is the correct date. An anonymous writer of 1882 says: "The Catholic population of Kirksville is limited. From time to time members of the church have come here with the intention of making the city their home, but the fact of the church being so far away they move to St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Joseph or other cities."

"The church" the writer refers to is St. Mary's of Adair. The writer obviously thinks that Catholics belong in cities. And in many ways, the Catholic presence in northeast Missouri was an oddity: Prof. Robert F. Schnucker notes in Adair County History that St. Mary's was long the largest open-country parish in the state, and missionary establishments in towns founded by rural congregations rather reverse the usual expectations. At the start, there were "fewer than a dozen families, not more than twenty five souls in all," according to notes by P.J. Barrett, pastor of the church when he wrote in December 1936 in the Kirksville Daily Express.

The old Masonic Hall, also serving numerous civic purposes before the present courthouse was built; the location is directly across the street from the Sojourner's Club (home of the Adair County Historical Society). The site (212 1/2 N. Elson) is now occupied by the A.T. Still Building (administrative headquarters of the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine).

Services were held for some time in the Masonic Hall, as announced by Fr. O'Shea for May 11, 1890. This is somewhat surprising, in light of the tensions then common between Masons and Catholics -- Catholics are still, officially, forbidden to join the Masons, and as late as 1976, a brochure in the parish files, mass-mailed by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Missouri, decried the use of public funds to support bus transportation, textbooks, and support for students with disabilities "to private and parochial-religious schools" (their underlining, not mine).

In general, prohibition sentiments have been linked with anti-Catholicism, and Kirksville consistently voted "dry," while Novinger, with its larger proportion of European-born Catholics, just as regularly voted "wet." A survey of religious preferences of the 402 students at the Normal School (now Truman State University) in 1896 turned up only a single, and probably very lonesome, Catholic. The period saw public meetings of the Anti-Horsethief Association, and as late as 1924, the Klu Klux Klan (which tended to focus on Catholics when they couldn't find any Jews or Black people to terrorize) took out a full-page ad in the Kirksville paper.

But the Catholics of Kirksville have from the start experienced an unusual degree of goodwill and generosity from the overwhelmingly non-Catholic environment surrounding us. There was of course a case concerning the missionary (and later first bishop of St. Joseph) John Joseph Hogan.

Fr. Hogan, May 10, 1829-February 21, 1913: a hard-riding frontier missionary, whose heroic era is recounted in On the Mission in Missouri. First bishop of the dioceses of St. Joseph and Kansas City

On October 15, 1866, Fr. Hogan appeared at the Adair County courthouse to answer charges of having "exercised the functions of Priest…without having taken the Test Oath that became an obligation in Missouri after September 3, 1865." Judge Ellison, of Canton MO, appeared unbidden to defend him for having broken the law, introduced by the radical postwar government, that forbade any "bishop, priest, minister, elder or clergyman, of any religious persuasion, sect or denomination" to "teach, or preach, or solemnize marriage, unless on compliance with the conditions prescribed by civil authority." In a separate proceeding before the United States Supreme Court, the law was later found unconstitutional, and in the Adair Circuit Court, 27th May, 1867, the case was dismissed.

It bears remembering that the region was from the start far more welcoming than most in that period of a church generally associated with immigrants, poor and working-class folk. There was a strong anti-Catholic movement in the country at that time - the Knights of Columbus had their origins in a period when Catholics couldn't get insurance, often not even police protection. In memoirs of his days as a missionary in the region (On the Mission in Missouri), Fr. John Joseph Hogan (later first bishop of St. Joseph, and then Kansas City) touches regretfully and diplomatically upon the prejudices faced by Catholics on the frontier. You can learn much about the flavor of this troubled but also heroic time from the archives of the Archdiocese of St. Louis , under whose authority the earliest missionaries visited our area.

We too have adapted. In terms of church furnishings, decoration and liturgical style, it is often noted that Midwest and rural American Catholicism has a strongly protestant flavor - not nearly as devoted to elaborate ritual and heavy ornamentation as urban parishes, and much more focused on the congregation and individual spiritual seeking.

Holy Cross Church
The angel of our founding was not a parishioner, as Fr. O'Shea noted in a moving tribute:

"The church in Kirksville owes its existence to Mr. John L. Porter . No Catholic was ever kinder to a priest than he was to me, though he did not belong to the Catholic Church, nor had he any personal interest. He gave me the use of the court house [that is, the old Masonic Hall] to say Mass in once a month; he went with me to solicit subscriptions and gave generously himself. And it was he who turned the first sod of earth at the foundation of the church building that we first had at Kirksville, as well as superintended the construction. Let the Catholics of Kirksville look upon Mr. Porter with the deepest gratitude and respect for him and his, always."

Judge J.L. Porter's life is an example of selfless courage and goodwill. It was he who pleaded with the union commander for the lives of the confederate wounded at the Battle of Kirksville, August 6, 1862. Many a rebel owed his life to Porter's efforts to secure them medical attention, when Capt. McNeill was content to let them die where they lay, as was the prevailing practice of the time. It was Porter again who ran into the flames of the second Adair County Courthouse on April 12, 1865 to rescue irreplaceable records of the circuit clerk's office. His home of this period, at 402 N. Elson, was later remodeled into a funeral parlor.

With Mr. Porter's help, two lots were purchased in the Fout and Ellison addition to the city in August 1892 (the address was 1307 East Missouri). The 1875 plat shows the land as belonging to William McFadon, and part of the Falkenstein addition to the city, made in 1871. The parcel was bounded by Illinois on the north, Missouri on the south, Bradford on the west, and the east line would coincide with Stanford if the street were extended to the north.

The Church at that time was called "Holy Cross;" Thomas Earhart contracted to build the church for $3400, and it was dedicated on Sunday, July 2, 1893. Special trains were run into Kirksville from Moberly, Trenton and Edina, bringing perhaps 1500 visitors. The sermon was preached by Father Moeller, coming from St. Louis for the occasion. Among the news stories of the day - criticism of President Grover Cleveland, the Lizzie Borden murders, the Chicago World's Fair - appears this item:

"Last Sunday was a lively day in Kirksville, owing to the large number of visitors attending the dedicatory services of the Catholic church. In the afternoon the park and Normal campus were thronged with people. In the park the people were entertained with music by the Edina Band." (The Kirksville Weekly Graphic, July 7, 1893)

The paper of a week earlier mentioned a visit to town by Daniel McGonigle of Adair, no doubt coming to admire the fruit of his family's earlier labors. It was not cheap or flimsy in construction; inspection of the site suggests it was made of the soft locally made brick used in a good deal of construction at that period, and had a slate roof. Still, it was a far less convenient era than our own, and Father O'Shea endured some degree of martyrdom in coming from Adair for weekly services - typical is his apology of April 29, 1897, when he was caught in a spring flood, and unable to reach Kirksville.

In the 1890s, people came from all over the country for treatment by Dr. Still at his famous osteopathic hospital (service to this large, transient population seems in fact to have been a strong factor in the decision to build a Kirksville church). Many left votive offerings in gratitude for healing at the church, which was said to be richly decorated. Among its treasures was a statue of the Sacred Heart, a costly crucifix and an altar. Unfortunately, these three things and very little else was left after the building was destroyed in the great cyclone of April 27, 1899, which destroyed four hundred buildings, killed thirty-one citizens and injured ninety four with wind, flying debris and the following uncontrolled fires.

The only known photograph of the intact church was supplied by Dr. Cole Woodcox of Truman State University, an expert on local architecture:

Above: Holy Cross Church, which stood a mere six years at 1307 East Missouri before being demolished in the April 27, 1899 cyclone which destroyed 400 other buildings, and took thirty-one lives. Note the pews, visible through the torn wall. It was clearly a substantial building, and would likely be standing today had it not been for the cyclone.

The church sat at the point where Missouri Street comes to a dead end east of Baltimore, and across Illinois/Hwy 11 south of
HyVee.

In this satellite image, taken June 5, 1995, North is at the top, and the broad horizontal street in mid-photo is Illinois.

In the image below, brightened and contrast-adjusted, geometric features represent the course of old structures or other human activity (the disturbed earth or buried features affect soil density and moisture retention, making for differences in thickness and color of vegetation).

In the aerial photos, a driveway leads diagonally upward and to the right from the corner of Missouri and Stanford. The driveway ends at a dimly visible rectangle representing the foundation of an earlier structure, and is situated within the area identified on the 1898 street map as the Catholic Church (Stanford seems to have gone through to Illinois at that date). Later use of the site has distributed fragments of period building materials, as well as fragments of heavy blue glass identified as altar lights. The top of a glass cruet for holy water was also found.

Below, residents sort through the wreckage in the immediate vicinity of Holy Cross; Lily (Mrs. Blue) Panschott (Paschot/Panchot) and her baby were killed near the church. The woman at far left also appears, in the same clothing, in photos taken by Mr. Spencer, in and around the ruined church.

The Frame Church on Washington Street
Six years would pass before another building could be constructed. Archbishop Glennon laid the cornerstone for the building at the corner of Davis and Washington (the address was 600 Washington) April 14, 1905, while on his way to celebrate the completion of the new church at Adair. The finished building was dedicated June 15.

a 1908 photo -- the church was three years old. The site of the 1926 rectory is taken up by another building, partially visible to the viewer's left in the photo, and also used at times as a rectory. By 1936, what may be a carriage house, to the rear of the church, is gone. The chimney is gone by 1928.

It was during this period that St. Rose of Lima was established at Novinger.

Father Albert B. Gass D.D., S.T.D. pastored the church at Kirksville from December 1903 to 1910. He had been born at St. Louis on August 26, 1875, to parents born in Germany, attending Catholic schools there before taking his A.B. degree at St. Francis College, Quincy Illinois, in 1893. In September of that year he set out for Rome, where two years later he would receive his Ph.D., and study another four years for the degree Doctor of Divinity. He was ordained May 26, 1899, and returned to the United States in September to take up a post as assistant pastor of a large St. Louis church. At this time, the parish was under the Archdiocese of St. Louis, but would be transferred to the Diocese of St. Joseph in 1912.

Gass was followed as pastor by Fr. Alexander F. Mercer (1910-18) his farewell reception is reported in the Kirksville paper of May 5, 1919. He left the diocese in 1928 for the Brooklyn, NY diocese. Mercer was born May 3, 1874 in Pittsfield, MA and studied theology in Rome, where he was ordained on May 27, 1899 for the St. Louis diocese. He died June 20, 1951 in Rockville Center, NY, and is buried in the St. Joseph parish cemetery in Pittsfield, MA.

Fr. J.J. Cafferky (1918-23) built the rectory at 606 East Washington for $16,000, although presumably there had been a previous house at the same spot and used for the same purpose, as Mercer is listed as living there. He had previously served in Forest City (1918) but little is known about him.

For a period in 1923, we had a part-time pastor, the Rev. John A. MacTighe of St. Mary's in Adair, who was relieved of his duties following "a brawl which got publicity," as the editor of the Kirksville paper put it on July 27, 1923. One suspects that Kirksville under national prohibition was no more "dry" than it had been under its local option, earlier.

The aged Fr. James S. Ryan, builder of the second church at Adair (see above), pastored us from 1923 to 26. He had been pastor at Cameron and Liberty as well, and would die on Christmas Eve 1935 at age 79, shortly after being removed to a Long Island hospital from the ship returning him from a visit to his Irish birthplace. He was buried in Brooklyn.

He was followed by Fr. Francis A. Loftus, coming to us from the church at Cameron; his first appointment had been at Hannibal, before moving on to Monroe City. Father Loftus took up duties in January 1926. Father Loftus was inducted into the Rotary, and was an active member, indicating a move away from the separatism that marked relations between Catholics and Protestants too often in the early years of the last century. The 1930 census records him as 41 years old, born in Pennsylvania to parents born in Ireland. His housekeeper was Mary Jakes, aged 49.

What was Fr. Loftus' time like? Here is a report from 1927:

Order of Services: First Sunday of each month Father sings High Mass and preaches a sermon after which he goes to Novinger to say Mass at 10:30. Second and fourth Sundays of each month Father sings High Mass and preaches, after which he goes to LaPlata to say Mass at 10:30. Third Sunday Father goes to Novinger to say Mass at 8 a.m. and returns to Kirksville to sing High Mass at 10:00 a.m. with sermon at Kirksville [sic]. Confessions are heard every Saturday from 4:00 until 6:00 in the afternoon and from 7:30 until 9:00 in the evening. The eve of the first Friday and Holy Days of obligation confessions will be heard from 5:00 until 6:00 and in the evening 7:30 until 9:00. On the first Fridays and Holy Days of obligation Mass at 6:00 a.m.

In 1930, on the twelfth anniversary of his ordination, he received notice of his re-assignment to Philadelphia.He was for a time assistant and pastor at St. Munchin, Cameron.

Fr. Cornelius "Connie" A. Curry (b. June 10, 1896, New Britain CT, ordained June 6, 1925, d. New Britain, February 28, 1941) came to us in 1930 from Canton, having served previously at the cathedral in St. Joseph and at St. John in Moberly, remaining until his re-assignment to St. Joseph, Trenton in 1935.

Our next pastor was Fr. Patrick J. Barrett, who was born May 25, 1903 in County Kerry, and came to us from Perry, MO in May, 1935, having served as administrator (in the absence of a pastor) for the church at Adair in 1931. He had been ordained in June 6, 1926 at the Kendrick Seminary in St. Louis. At the time of Barrett's pastorate, the parish had sixty five families and four hundred twenty members. There were at that time about 900 Catholics in Adair County. Longtime parishioner Jim Higgins remembers how the pastor would clear the furniture from the rectory's living room so that the altar-boys could roughhouse. He would referee the occasional wrestling match, and awarded a dollar to the winner. Fr. Barrett was remembered as a kindly man, though he liked his tipple and had a short fuse when services were marred by errors or carelessness. He was a good steward, and as of January 8, 1939, he declared the parish debt-free.

Interestingly, Barrett writes of the church as "Immaculate Conception," although no official record of a name-change has turned up. Under Barrett's administration, the parish celebrated simultaneously its fiftieth anniversary and the retirement of its mortgage. He was proud of the growth of the church: as of January 1939, he boasted 73 baptisms (44 of them converts), 38 marriages and 9 funerals.

It was also in Father Barrett's day that the church was damaged by fire. Fr. Barrett had been complaining in 1936 of the lack of space for a growing parish at the old site (they added twelve pews that year), and work on the present church had already begun, though construction was delayed by wartime shortages of materials. No records have yet come to light indicating the cause of the fire or how severe the damage was, although it would have made little sense to undertake significant repairs, even after a minor fire, to a church the parish had already outgrown.

Nor can we be certain of the precise date of the fire. Dr. P.O. Selby, in personal notes dated 1982, states that the church at Washington and Davis burned down on May 10, 1945, though Fr. Barrett had moved services to the Washington School gymnasium "until further notice," according to a note in the Kirksville Daily Express of May 4. Another account says that services were again held at the Masonic Temple (the grand new facility on Harrison). The date, probably from Selby, is repeated in the bicentennial volume Adair County History.

The church was sold along with the rectory, and work begun on a site a hundred yards to the east, at 716 Washington. The antique cabinet in the vestry at the present church is probably from the 1905 building.

The church in December, 1936, at the corner of Davis and Washington, where Meadowbrook Christian Church now stands. The rectory built by Fr. Cafferky, visible just east of the church, is now a private residence. The bell in the steeple, with a founder's mark of 1886 inside the cowl, having survived the cyclone of forty-six years earlier, was salvaged again from the fire, and now hangs above the sacristy in the present church.

Diocesan records list the parish population for 1940 at 352, missions (Novinger and LaPlata) 57, including 52 non-English-speaking parishioners (Italians and Croatians). For the year, there were 14 infant baptisms, 2 adults, 4 Catholic marriages, 9 mixed marriages, 2 converts and 3 deaths. Also 10 first communions, 22 young people confirmed, 24 adults, and 28 children in the Sunday school run by Mrs. Margaret Ainslie and Miss Frances Stofel. The parish council at that time was Charles E. Murrell, Jr., Paul Rogerson, Thomas Higgins and Peter A. Stofel.

The Brick Church on Washington Street
The new church was designed by Ludwig Abt of Moberly, a regionally well-regarded architect also responsible for the 4th Street Theater in Moberly (now home to the Moberly Historical Society).

A rare view of the pre-Vatican II interior of the church. Note the women with their heads covered, and the altar so arranged that the celebrant and congregation face in the same direction. The communion rail is now the front edge of the choir loft. Folding chairs were in use until Fr. Kenny purchased the pews. The main overhead light fixture still hangs in the church, as does the crucifix, but of the four statues visible, only St. Joseph (far right) remains; it is not known what became of the others, or of the previous altars -- all present until the 1973 renovation.

Barrett, incardinated into the Diocese of Wichita in 1948, was succeeded by Reverend John F. Kenny.

"Widely known and highly respected among those of all faiths in the area," Fr. John F. Kenny came from Carigallen, in County Leitrim, Ireland, and was ordained on June 5, 1930. He began his work in the diocese of St. Joseph, serving in parishes in Trenton, Macon, Canton, Clarence and Moberly. During WWII, he served four years as a chaplain, traveling with the army through England, France and Germany, before being discharged in 1946 at the rank of major. He served briefly in the parishes of Cameron and Canton and came to Kirksville in December, 1948. He was also pastor of St. Rose in Novinger, and dean of the Macon Deanery (comprising 10 parishes in Northeast Missouri).

During Fr. Kenny's tenure, on July 2, 1956, the parish was transferred to the newly created Diocese of Jefferson City; for this reason, the cornerstone of the present church was laid by Bishop LeBlond of St. Joseph, while the dedication of the school was presided over by Bishop Marling of Jefferson City.

Father Kenny, "ardent golfer and bird dog handler" (we get a lot of those) had been born in Carigallen, County Leitrim, Ireland. He attended St. Mel's, St. Mary's and St. Patrick's seminary, where he was ordained June 5, 1930. He arrived in the U.S. September 15, of that year, and went at first to St. Joseph. He subsequently served at Trenton, Macon, Cameron, Canton, Clarence and Moberly.

He came to us in December of 1948. In the summer of 1954, he took a trip to visit the auld sod, leaving things in care of Fr. William Van Arx. The silver jubilee of his ordination was celebrated September 14, 1955, and in that same year he was appointed head of the Macon Deanery, consisting of 10 northeast Missouri parishes.

The church and its brand-new school, in a photo dated 1957. From the small leaves and the direction of light, it's a morning in early spring.

...After we had our third child I cried a lot and it got to the point that I would not go to visit relatives because I wouldn't know when I would start crying. One day I was feeding our third child and all the time I did I was crying. I decided to go and talk to Father about this and all he said to me was "Let' kneel and pray." We did and when I left I remember walking down the steps of the rectory thinking to myself 'a lot of good that did.'

I went back home and never cried again.

There is some confusion over who gets the credit for the new church. In a Kirksville Daily Express article of August 19, 1958, Fr. Kenny is credited with the construction of both the new church and the convent/school (though the cornerstone, dated 1946, carries the name of Fr. Barrett, who left in 1948, and Fr. Barrett is the addressee for congratulations published in the Kirksville Daily Express at the time of the dedication on June 15, 1947); it seems likely that Fr. Kenny finished what Fr. Barrett began. The price tag for all of this new construction was $89,000. Fr. Frederick J. Yehle became pastor when Fr. Kenny was assigned, August 25, 1958, to be pastor and school superintendent at St. Peter's, Marshall. Fr. Kenny -- by then, Monsignor Kenny -- would be assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish at Brookfield from 1972-1979.

Just five years after the completion of the new church, on January 14, 1951, Knights of Columbus Council #3375 was founded. Charter knights were W.K. Bowden, F.J. Goeke, E.R. Hawkins, J.S. Higgins, H.H. Holtmeyer, J.F. Kelly, Rev. J.F. Kenny, F.L. King, J.C. Kriegshauser, R.J. Kromer, A. Lanza, A.F. Lawson, H.E. Lindhorst, Jr., F. Schiavone, Jr., J.F. Schwartz, C.O. Stites, W.J. Slciker, J.D. Snider, K.D. Summer, N.J. Berberet, K.F. Buhr, C.A. Crnic, E.E. Crnic, R.W. Dodds, E.J. Goeke, T.P. Higgins, R.H. Itsell, C.W. Kelly, F.W. Kelly, H.D. Krekemeyer, D. Lyle, A.V. Mihalevich, R.F. Mihelavich, A.F. Snell, E.M. Vance, E.J. Yurkon.

On the fiftieth anniversary of KoC #3375, now the William D. Eagen Council, the original charter was placed in a handsome frame made by Sir Knight John Dahlmann, and hung in the rear of the church.

One of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word then teaching at the parish school offered the following notes on this period in parish history in a manuscript dated June, 1963:

Father Fred J. Yehle was appointed pastor at Mary Immaculate in August of 1958. Sept. 15 is the day Father began his pastorate here in Kirksville. Father J. Leon Allred, brother of Mother Ann Bernard Allred, C.C.V.I,, is the present assistant priest in the parish. Father Yehle celebrated his silver jubilee as a priest of God on April 28th, 1963. On that day a solemn High Mass was offered at 4:00 p.m. with Father Yehle as celebrant, Father Adelman, C.PP.S. as deacon and Father Bobay as subdeacon. Father Adelman and Father Bobay were former assistants in Mary Immaculate parish. Monsignor Ruggles of St. Joseph, Mo. preached the sermon just as he did at Father’s first Mass twenty-five years earlier. There was a large crowd of people at this Jubilee Mass among them being Mayor and Mrs. J. Burdman, the dean and president of the State Teachers College and their wives, the president of the College of Osteopathy and his wife, and a Baptist and Episcopalian minister of the city. The singing of the Mass was beautifully rendered by the children’s choir under the direction of Sister Mary Jude and the adult choir under the direction of Mr. J. C. Goetze; Mrs R. Bounds was organist. Also present were fourteen priests, three Loretta Sisters from Edina and three Sisters from Macon. After the Mass everyone enjoyed a carry-in dinner in the parish hall which was decorated appropriately for the occasion. It was a gala affair and, according to Mayor Burdman, was the biggest celebration for any one person ever to be given in Kirksville. Mr. Philip Wilson acted as Master of Ceremonies that evening and lauded Father Yehle’s administrative ability in placing the parish on a sound financial footing. Only Christ, the Model of all priests, knows the number of Baptisms, the confessions, the marriages blessed, the Christian burials, and the countless other priestly ministrations that Father Yehle has accomplished during his tenure in Kirksville. Catholics and non-Catholics alike have admired Father’s ecumenical spirit in the community. No doubt the jubilee celebration described above did much for the Catholic Church in Kirksville.

At present the parish numbers about 325 families and is the only Catholic Parish in Adair and Schuyler Counties.

The parish is blessed in having an active Senior and Junior Legion of Mary. Other organizations include an Altar Society, Holy Name Society, Knights of Columbus and a Newman Club for Catholic college students. The organization most beneficial to us as a school is the Home and School Association.

Vocations in the parish have been few through the years, but a beginning has been made. The nuns from the parish are: Sister Francis Clare O.S.F., the former Gayle Ladd, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert W. Ladd; Sister Mary Agnes O.S.F., the former Margaret Ainsley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Ainsley; Sister M. Lucille C.C.V.I., the former Margaret Ann Snyder, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Snyder; Sister Mary Daniel O.S.F., the former Georgia Stanek, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Stanek; Sister Rose Ann O.S.B., the former Elizabeth Rose Goeke, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Goeke. Miss Nancy Kelly, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow Kelly is entering the Benedictine Order in September, 1963.As yet no boys from the parish have been ordained to the priesthood though several have taken the initial step. We trust that the Vocation Club now existing in the school will bear abundant fruit.

All of this work was expensive, and as of 1959, parish debt stood at $145,000.00

editor's note: from Fr. Yehle's period forward, my information is sketchy; notes follow -- we will need the help of parishioners in filling these things out, correcting errors, documenting sources and collecting images. The notes below are gleanings from city directories at the Adair County Public Library:

1964: Rev. Fred J. Yehle, pastor. Rev. Leon Allred associate pastor. Sister Mary Rose Mother Superior and principal.

1966: Rev. Jerome Bestgen, pastor, earlier served at Wien (St. Mary of the Angels, 1958-63); Rev. Leon Allred associate pastor; Sister Mary Rose, Mother Superior and principal

(like his predecessor, Fr. Buchanan served at St. Mary of the Angels, Wien, 1963-64) Rev. Luke
Reichert, associate pastor. Sister Frances Marie, Mother Superior, principal. 1973.

1973: The first major renovation of the worship space took place in 1973. As always, parishioners pull their weight.

Like our Founder, longtime parishioner Matt Ronchetto was a carpenter, and he shared his gift with us, creating a new altar, ambo and table for the tablernacle:

1977: Rev. Michael Flanagan, pastor; Rev. John J. Whitley associate pastor; Betty Doherty principal.

1978: Rev. Michael Flanagan, pastor, Rev. Jim Schafer associate pastor; Anne Gramling principal. The convent is listed at 704 E. Washington (i.e., the current kindergarten building).

Rev. John Prenger, associate pastor and director of the Newman Center.
Ann Gramling principal. Convent still listed at 704 E. Washington

1981: Rev. Michael Flanagan, pastor. Fr. Flanagan, elevated to Monsignor, moved to Our Lady of Lourdes monastery in Columbia, MO. The convent is listed as 902 East Washington (i.e., the current rectory).

The associate pastor during this period was Fr. LesNiemeyer.

The 1982 parish directory estimates the number of parish families at 400.

In 1985, Pat Lehr became our Director of Religious Education (among many other worthy services); she's pictured here with longtime parish mascot "Maggie":

1988: Rev. John Prenger, pastor. The convent is listed at 902. Presumably what is now the Parish Center served as rectory.

1990: Rev. John Prenger, pastor (would leave the priesthood for marriage and fatherhood)

Rev. Bill Kottenstette, Rev. Kevin Clohessy associate pastors (Father Kevin, after service with the Newman Center, would become pastor at St. Francis Xavier parish, Taos, then executive director of the American Red Cross in Boone County, MO.

Janie Theobald , principal.

1997: Rev. David Maher, pastor, listed as living in annex, 702 E. Washington (but I don't think he ever lived there). Fr. Dave would leave to become pastor at St. Francis Xavier parish, Taos. Establishment date for the parish given as 1888. Rev. Bill
Kottenstette associate pastor.

2000: Fr. Patrick Shortt comes to us from St. Pius X, Moberly, and we also engaged our first Director of Youth Ministries, Chris Korte:

In the summer of 2008, Fr. Chris Cordes returned to Kirksville, where he had spent his college years, now as our pastor:

This is what we mean by "history":

Four generations of the Eagen family gather at the Mary Immaculate centennial in October of 1986. In the front row: Fr. John Prenger, pastor; Joe Eagen (the oldest person attending the festivities); Bishop Michael McAuliffe; Marilyn and Jessica Eagen; Fr. Les Niemeyer, Newman Chaplain and Associate pastor. Back row: Debbie (Eagen) Schertzer; Lisa Eagen; Bill Eagen; Mel Eagen. Third row: Tyson, Mark and Sharla Eagen, Gary and Joseph Eagen.