175 years and counting for St. Joseph in Edina
CLICK HERE to see a gallery of photos from St. Joseph parish's 175th-anniversary Mass in Edina.
When the bell strikes midnight, walls that once echoed the prayers and counsel of Venerable Father Augustus Tolton will radiate with the lights and hymns of Christmas.
As always, Midnight Mass in St. Joseph Church in Edina will draw throngs of faithful Catholics from near and far to the altar of grace.
“Midnight Mass brings forth a huge, huge congregation,” said lifelong parishioner Larry Clark. “It fills the church!”
Entire families come home to celebrate the Incarnation — perhaps all the more so on this, the parish’s 175th Christmas.
“It’s been a tradition with Midnight Mass as long as I can remember,” said Mr. Clark. “It’s been … forever!”
This fall, Bishop W. Shawn McKnight joined members and friends of the parish for a 175th-anniversary Mass and reception.
Ministering with him at the altar were: Father Colin Franklin, pastor of the Edina parish, St. John parish in Memphis and the St. Aloysius mission in Baring; Father Paul Clark, a native of St. Joseph parish; and Monsignor David Cox, pastor of neighboring Mary Immaculate parish in Kirksville.
Assisting them was Deacon Ken Berry of the Edina parish.
St. Joseph parish takes in all of Knox County in northern Missouri and has 170 registered families.
Early start
Catholics from Ohio were among the first to settle in the 1830s around what would become Edina.
Among them was Peter Early, who in 1843 donated land for a church and set about getting one built, hoping that a priest would be sent to minister there.
Father Thomas Cusack, pastor of St. Stephen parish in Indian Creek, visited Edina and offered the community’s first Mass in a home.
Historian Jeane Gilmore in 1974 noted that when the call for construction volunteers went out in the summer of 1844, “two-thirds of the men in Adair, Lewis and Scotland Counties were sufficiently motivated to answer the call, and not one man in 50 was unaware of what was going on in Edina.”
Catholics and non-Catholics spent three days bringing logs to the site and setting them in place, Ms. Gilmore wrote in The Legacy: The History of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Edina, Mo., “and with more optimism than foresight built a church that was quite large for the number of Catholics in the area.”
Money ran out before windows and interior furnishings could be installed. Mr. Early insisted on heading back to visit friends in Ohio and Kentucky to raise money.
As the log church was being completed, Father Denis Byrne, pastor of St. Patrick parish in Clark County, began traveling to Edina regularly to offer Mass.
Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick of St. Louis appointed him to be the Edina parish’s first resident pastor in 1852.
More immigrants from Ireland, mostly refugees from the potato famine, began settling in the area, and the parish quickly outgrew the log church.
The archbishop sent a much younger priest, Father John Powers, to Edina after Fr. Byrne retired.
The 28-year-old oversaw the building of a second, larger church but eventually succumbed to the rigors of frontier life and died.
The next pastor, Father Bernard McMenomy, led the parish through the turmoil of the Civil War but moved to Iowa after passage of Missouri's 1865 Constitution.
That document included a requirement that all professionals, including teachers and ministers, take an “Ironclad Oath” of allegiance to the Union before publicly engaging in their work.
Archbishop Kenrick, insisting that the privilege and obligation of handing on the Catholic faith comes from God alone, instructed his priests not to take the oath.
Many priests and ministers were arrested and fined before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the oath requirement.
Fr. McMenomy was indicted for officiating at a marriage but left the state before he could be arrested.
His successor, Father David Phelan, was also indicted for preaching without taking the oath.
He bought an Edina newspaper and turned it into a regional Catholic paper called the Missouri Watchman, raging against such indignities as the Ironclad Oath.
Near the end of this pastorate, he invited a group of Sisters of Loreto of Nerinx, Kentucky, to open a Catholic academy for girls.
Three of the sisters on the faculty had been indicted for teaching without taking the oath.
A group of De LaSalle Christian Brothers later opened up a school for boys.
Both would eventually be combined into a coed institution known as St. Joseph School.
Sisters of Loreto remained on the faculty until 1973.
Their convent later served as a regional catechetical center. The parish in 2004 converted it into a state-of-the-art retreat center, which remains in use.
“Cathedral of the North”
The second church was already snug when Father John Fitzgerald arrived as pastor in 1868.
Before considering a larger building, he convinced a gifted writer in the parish to send letters to East Coast newspapers, inviting immigrants to take advantage of the economic opportunities and strong Catholic community in Knox County, Missouri.
The letters helped swell the population even more, justifying construction of the massive church that now stands at North Main and East Smallwood streets.
Fr. Fitzgerald enlisted a master builder, Louis Weishar, to design the new church and oversee its construction.
Parishioners raised the money, extracted the stone and clay from the ground, fired the bricks and harvested the lumber locally.
Auxiliary Bishop Patrick J. Ryan of St. Louis — future archbishop of Philadelphia — blessed the cornerstone and set it into place in 1873.
Archbishop Kenrick dedicated the church in 1875.
The organ is believed to have been built for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Shipped to Missouri by railroad in 1885, it was reported to be the largest instrument west of the Mississippi River at that time.
The church’s soaring bell tower and steeple — 212 feet from ground to cross — were completed in 1891.
Knowing, loving, serving
Most of the parishioners were of Irish lineage, but the archbishop also sent German-speaking priests to assist the pastor in ministering to the smaller German population.
On March 19, 1889, the Feast of St. Joseph, Venerable Father Augustus Tolton — a northern Missouri native, former slave and the Roman Catholic Church’s first black priest in the United States — preached a mission in St. Joseph Church.
Following Fr. Fitzgerald’s lengthy pastorate came Father Christopher Byrne, who would eventually serve as bishop of Galveston, Texas.
He oversaw the construction of a new school building in 1906.
The parish maintained a grade school and high school until 1954, then continued with grades 1 through 8.
Declining enrollment led to the closing of the school in 1997.
“We thank God and all those who helped make possible the long tradition of Catholic education our parish has been blessed with,” parishioner Cel Dorian stated at the time.
“Not today!”
The decades have made St. Joseph parish a smaller, tighter community than it was in the late 1800s.
The people still take seriously the preservation of their soaring church building, which can be seen from anywhere in town and from miles away.
A massive, four-year restoration project was almost finished when a fire broke out in an area above the sacristy on Aug. 15, 2013, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
An extra layer of sheetrock applied during the renovation helped contain the fire.
Adorning the wall between the sacristy and the sanctuary is an image of the Blessed Mother.
“It was her feastday, and she was like, ‘Nope. You’re not getting past me. Not today,’” said neighbor and lifelong parishioner Dot Kriegshauser.
The nearby Knights of Columbus Hall served as a temporary church while parishioners worked with insurance adjusters, diocesan advisors and contractors to erase the damage.
“Wise investor”
Bishop McKnight pointed out at the jubilee Mass that the people of St. Joseph parish are a temple of the Lord.
“This magnificent edifice is the sacramental representation of the presence of God and His Church, the people, in this community,” the bishop asserted. “St. Paul challenges us to build upon the foundation of what our ancestors in the faith have built.”
Bishop McKnight asserted that Fr. Tolton’s 1889 visit — and the courage it took to invite him — is an important part of the parish’s spiritual patrimony and should be taught to each new generation of children.
He pointed out that St. Joseph parish has been abundantly blessed throughout the past 175 years.
“God is a wise investor,” the bishop noted. “And He expects a good return on His investment.
“May our generation build upon our ancestors’ devotion and good works,” he said, “so that everyone in the territory of this parish may experience the Catholic Church in Knox County as a center of charity and mercy.”
“Generation to generation”
Fr. Franklin thanked God “for the great gift of this parish, this community and the mission that You have entrusted to us.”
“We ask You to bless our efforts,” he prayed, “that we may be good stewards of the gifts You have given us and may be encouraged in serving You and proclaiming the Gospel.”
Deacon Berry has been a permanent deacon at the parish for almost 25 years. He said that in sickness and in health, his fellow parishioners have buttressed him and his wife, Marianne, with prayer.
He believes the way the people came together and worked to restore the church after the fire “speaks volumes to the type of people we have in our parish.”
It testifies to a solid foundation of faith and commitment “which has been passed down from generation to generation, which is the way it should be,” he said.
Hardworking and dependable
Cheryl Hayes, who grew up in nearby Baring and joined St. Joseph parish over 50 years ago, said she loves the camaraderie among the people.
“God is right at the forefront of every bit of it,” she said, “in the good, even in the bad.”
Mr. Clark oversaw the 2010 renovation of the church and the 2013-15 restoration after the fire.
He described his fellow parishioners as “good, hardworking, dependable salt-of-the-earth people.”
He said their faith is evident in how they worship God and look out for each other.
He believes that God worked with firefighters to contain the fire and prevent it from engulfing the entire church.
“There literally were no lathe or studs or anything wooden left behind that wall,” he noted. “In a significant area, the only thing left was plaster, and if it had broken through that, we would have lost it all.”
Head of household
“I’ve known people here who would make good saints,” said Anne Gramling who taught at the old St. Joseph School for almost 20 years.
“God is right at the center of all of this,” she said. “I know He is.”
After the jubilee Mass and reception, a group of parishioners and friends gathered in the Parish Education Building for fellowship and memories.
They watched a slideshow of wedding, school, Christmas, historical and other photos.
Parishioner Betty Jo Gonnerman noted that her granddaughter is the seventh generation in her family to call St. Joseph parish home.
She believes 175 years is a milestone well worth celebrating.
“I think that together, we’ve influenced a lot of people in all that time, hopefully by our faithfulness, our example,” she said.
Ms. Kriegshauser has never lived more than two doors away from church.
Growing up, she and her sister would help their dad ring the bells before Mass every Sunday.
Now she assembles the parish bulletin each week and maintains the Facebook page.
“We’re a family,” she said, “and this is home.”
Universal Church
Father Paul Clark, associate pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Columbia and part-time chaplain at Fr. Tolton Regional Catholic High School in Columbia, grew up in Edina and went to St. Joseph School before it closed.
His parents, Jim and Kyle Clark, were always active in the parish — his mother particularly in adult ministry and outreach to the elderly and homebound, his father as director of the choir.
“I think that was a huge influence on me — the whole idea of service, of giving your talents back to the Church and back to the God Who gave you the gifts in the first place,” said Fr. Clark.
He believes the 175th anniversary is a celebration for the whole diocese, because all parishes are part of one local Church.
“It’s good for everyone, especially young people, to see that there are communities in our diocese that have been thriving since long, long before we were born,” he said.
He said it’s not just a matter of geology, geography or parish affiliation.
“The word ‘universal’ keeps coming to me,” he said, “and it’s not just our Church across the world. It’s a Church that exists throughout time, and we are all connected historically back to Christ’s Apostles.
“What we celebrate will continue when we’re in heaven,” he asserted, “when we're all finished and united."
