Holy Family Catholic Church (Fort Madison, Iowa) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Holy Family Catholic Church |
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St. Mary of the Assumption Church
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 Location in Iowa
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| 40°38′0″N 91°19′0″W / 40.63333°N 91.31667°W | |
| Location | 1111 Avenue E Fort Madison, Iowa |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
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| Diocese | Davenport |
Holy Family Catholic Church is a church parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport. A parish is like a local church community. This parish was formed when two older parishes, Saints Mary and Joseph, and Sacred Heart, joined together.
The church is located in Fort Madison, Iowa, United States. It still uses both of the old church buildings for worship. The oldest church in town was St. Joseph. It merged with St. Mary of the Assumption in the 1990s. St. Mary of the Assumption Church, which became Saints Mary and Joseph, is at 11th Street and Avenue E. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Sacred Heart Church is at 23rd Street and Ave I.
In 2014, St. Mary's Church, its rectory (where the priest lives), and its convent (where nuns live) were recognized as important buildings. They are part of the Park-to-Park Residential Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
Contents
History of the Churches
St. Joseph’s Church: The First Catholic Church
The Catholic Church in Fort Madison started with a missionary priest named John George Alleman. He traveled around the Midwest to help set up churches. Father Alleman held the first Mass in Fort Madison at John Gerhard Schwartz's home. Schwartz also helped build the first Catholic church in the community.
St. Joseph parish began in 1840. At that time, it was part of the Dubuque Diocese. Father Alleman also started the first parochial school (a church school) at St. Joseph's. He was even its first teacher!
The School Sisters of Notre Dame from St. Louis were the first nuns to teach in Fort Madison. Later, the Congregation of the Humility of Mary took over teaching at St. Joseph. The school grew to include both elementary and high school grades.
The last church building for St. Joseph parish was built in 1886. It was the smallest of the three Catholic churches in Fort Madison. The final Mass in this church was held on November 17, 2007.
St. Mary of the Assumption Church: A New Beginning
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Fort Madison's second Catholic church started with some disagreements. In 1857, the priest of St. Joseph's, Father Alexander Hattenberger, wanted a bigger church. He also wanted it to be in a more central location. However, the American Civil War put these plans on hold.
Later, in 1865, under Father John B. Weikman, land was bought west of downtown. Construction began for a new school and then a new church. On September 3, 1865, a big disagreement broke out among the church members. Some people did not want the church to move. This disagreement caused delays for eight years.
The new school building opened on November 9, 1865. It was named Kreutz Erhohung Schule, which means Exultation of the Cross School. This name honored the day (September 14) when the School Sisters of Notre Dame came to Fort Madison in 1860.
Father Jacob Orth became the new priest the next year. Construction on the new church continued. The cornerstone for the current church was laid on July 18, 1866. Plans were made to move to the new church in late 1870. But the Bishop of Dubuque, John Hennessy, refused to dedicate the new church. He said it had to pay off its debt of $7,000 first.
Father Orth decided to dedicate the church himself on January 1, 1871. He was replaced by Father Aloysius Meis the next month.
The parish was sometimes called St. Joseph's or the German Catholic Church. This was because many members were German. In January 1874, St. Joseph's got its own priest. The new church was then officially named St. Mary of the Assumption.
When it started, St. Mary's had 1,000 members. By 1887, it had doubled in size. There were 2,500 members when the parish was divided in 1893 to create Sacred Heart parish. German was used in the church throughout the 1800s. But English became more common in the early 1900s. During World War I, anti-German feelings ended the use of German in the church.
The church building was designed by Walsh & Schmidt, an architectural firm from St. Louis, Missouri. The cornerstone was laid on July 8, 1866. Work stopped in late 1867 and didn't start again until 1869 when the tower was finished. The building is 172 feet (52 m) long and 72 feet (22 m) wide. A wooden spire was added to the tower in 1872, making it 225 feet (69 m) tall.
The church cost $40,000 to build. With the spire and interior furnishings, the total cost was about $100,000. The outside of the church is made of red brick. It has a large, tall central tower and spire. The inside has three main sections called naves. Large wooden altars were installed in each nave in 1881.
A tornado hit Fort Madison on July 3, 1876. The tower of the church collapsed into the main building. The church and tower were quickly rebuilt. But it took 14 years before a new spire was built. A new rectory was built in 1887. The new tower was designed by Mathias Snell of Rock Island, Illinois. It was more detailed and shorter than the first one. It cost $7,000. A 12 feet (3.7 m) tall cross sits on top, making the total height 217 feet (66 m) above the ground. Colorful stained-glass windows were put in in 1892.
A pipe organ in the church was destroyed by the tornado. A new organ was installed in 1878. It was damaged again in 1890 during a windstorm. Bricks from the new spire construction fell through the roof. The organ was repaired in 1942 and again in the late 1980s. In 1986, it was recognized as the largest Pfeffer pipe organ still existing.
The parish school had elementary grades from the start. Its first high school class graduated in 1922. Nuns taught the younger students and older girls. Lay teachers taught the older boys. The first convent was a rented house until a new one was built in 1888. A larger school building was built in 1899. It stopped being a school in 1977. It was struck by lightning and burned down in 1979, just before it was to be torn down. The current convent was built in 1911.
From 1980 to 1984, priests from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual served the parish. In 1985, a new parish center was built where the old school used to be. It cost $285,000.
Sacred Heart Church: The Third Parish
The third Catholic church in Fort Madison was founded in the Santa Fe neighborhood. This area was near the Santa Fe Railroad yards. Father Louis DeCailly from St. Joseph's opened a school on September 8, 1892. It was in Ivo Dentz's tin shop. The Sisters of Humility from St. Joseph were in charge of the school. Father DeCailly would sometimes hold Mass for the people in the area.
Sacred Heart Parish was officially started the next year. Father Peter Hoffman was its first priest. This was the only one of the original three parishes founded after the Diocese of Davenport was created in 1881. When it began, there were 65 families in the parish and 54 students in the school. On December 8, 1893, a building that was both a church and a school was dedicated.
In 1897, Henry Heying donated land and money to build a new church. The cornerstone for the current church building was laid on April 16, 1899. It was dedicated on October 15, 1900. The church was built in the Romanesque Revival style. It is 145 feet (44 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) wide. The outside is covered in Bedford stone. It has a corner tower and a spire. A statue of the Sacred Heart sits on the front roof peak. Three bells were added to the tower. They weigh 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg), 5,500 pounds (2,495 kg), and 3,000 pounds (1,361 kg). The inside has three naves. The old altars were removed after the Second Vatican Council. The church also has a pipe organ in the back.
Like the other two parishes, Sacred Heart had its own school. Sacred Heart School only had elementary grades. From 1893 to 1983, the School Sisters of Notre Dame taught in the school. In 1921, an addition was built onto the school. A large convent was built next door. A social hall was built in 1927. A kindergarten building was added in 1942. A new school building replaced the old one in 1955.
The parish started Sacred Heart Cemetery in 1909. Sacred Heart Hospital was built next to the church property in 1912. It was founded by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. In 1977, the hospital became Fort Madison Community Hospital. The original Sacred Heart Hospital building now has offices for the Lee County Health Department.
How the Churches Merged
The Catholic schools in Fort Madison were the first to merge. Both St. Joseph's and St. Mary's high schools joined together in 1925. They formed Catholic Central High School in the St. Mary's building. A new high school, Aquinas High School, opened in 1959.
The three parishes continued to run their own grade schools until 1966. Then, St. Joseph's, St. Mary's, and Sacred Heart schools combined. They formed St. Joseph's Middle School for 7th and 8th graders, using the St. Joseph's building. St. Joseph's K-6 students then went to St. Mary's.
Sacred Heart and St. Mary's continued their own grade schools until 1977. Then, they combined to form Aquinas East (at St. Joseph's) and Aquinas West (at Sacred Heart). By the 1990s, the Catholic schools in Fort Madison and nearby West Point were having problems. The two Catholic school systems merged. A new school called Holy Trinity opened in July 2005.
The number of people living in Fort Madison began to change in the late 1900s. The city lost population. Also, the way Catholics practiced their faith started to change. The diocese also had fewer priests. A plan to combine parishes was created under Bishop Gerald O’Keefe.
St. Joseph's and St. Mary's merged in 1996. They used both parish names for the new parish: Saints Mary and Joseph. In 2009, Saints Mary and Joseph merged with Sacred Heart. This created the Holy Family Parish that exists today.
