Msgr. Pleus, Organizer and pastor,’ helped establish Immaculate Conception in J.C.

Immaculate Conception Parish in Jefferson City has been serving the spiritual needs of Catholics on the city’s East Side since 1913.

Its founding is connected to a first-generation U.S. citizen, Monsignor John B. Pleus, who lent his guidance and assistance to several other Catholic communities in Mid-Missouri before settling in the Capital City.

After his arrival, the beloved pastor assisted in the organization of a Catholic parish and cemetery.

His father, Joseph Pleus, a native of Bawinkel, Germany, immigrated to the United States in 1855, eventually settling in St. Louis.

There, he met Susanna Adelaide Aling, a native of the German town of Meppen, who had immigrated in 1860.

The couple married in 1865 in St. Joseph Church in St. Louis and in due time welcomed their first child, Bernard.

They became parents to another son and a daughter in the coming years before leaving the St. Louis area and settling among a group of Catholics living in the Stringtown area of Cole County.

During the 1860s, a small Catholic mission named St. Joseph was established on the eastern edge of Stringtown and continued until the final Mass was celebrated there in 1894.

It was while the family was living in Stringtown that John Bernard Pleus, the fourth and final child, was born on Sept. 17, 1874.

“The (Pleus) family then moved to Taos (in 1875) where their son, John Bernard, received his elementary education in the parochial school,” noted the silver jubilee booklet printed for Immaculate Catholic Church in 1938.

While attending classes at St. Francis Xavier School in Taos, Msgr. Pleus heard stories of the founding of area churches, including his own, by the late Jesuit Father Ferdinand Helias (1796-1874), known to many today as the Apostle of Central Missouri.

It inspired him to pursue the path to becoming a priest, later resulting in his own opportunity to help establish a thriving parish.

“For his classical studies, he attended St. Francis Seminary, St. Francis, Wisconsin,” notes I.C. Parish’s silver jubilee booklet. “In 1893, he was selected by Archbishop Kenrick to continue his studies at the North American College in Rome Italy.”

On May 27, 1899, John Bernard Pleus was ordained a Catholic priest and celebrated his first Mass at the North American College the following day.

A few weeks later, in mid-June 1899, he returned to visit his family in Taos and offered Mass for his former fellow parishioners in St. Francis Xavier Church.

Msgr. Pleus was initially appointed to assist Father Edward Shea at St. Kevin Parish in St. Louis while also serving as chaplain for Josephine Hospital.

When the St. Kevin Parish closed in 1904, Msgr. Pleus was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Columbia, also assisting missions in the Missouri communities of Centralia, Sturgeon and Clark.

“While serving in Columbia, ... Pleus established the city’s first rectorate in 1907 at 111 Waugh St.,” shared the Columbia Missourian newspaper on July 25, 1946.

His next assignment was in his native Cole County in late spring 1908, where he was appointed to serve the parishioners of St. Martin Parish in St. Martins.

The following year, his mother passed away and was interred in the cemetery of St. Francis Xavier in Taos. Then, in 1910, his father died.

Mosby’s Missouri Message, a Jefferson City newspaper, printed an article on July 3, 1913, regarding Msgr. Pleus’s most recent — and final — transfer in his years of priestly ministry.

“Archbishop John J. Glennon today, the last day of the annual retreat for the priests of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, announced that he had appointed Rev. J.B. Pleus ... of Elston as organizer and pastor of the new congregation in Jefferson City,” the newspaper shared.

Property had been purchased a few years earlier on the corner of East McCarty Street and Clark Avenue to be the home of the city’s second Catholic church.

Designated the Immaculate Conception Parish, the first Mass was celebrated on July 27, 1913, in one of the two small frame dwellings already on the property; the other building was used as a temporary rectory.

Throughout the next three decades, Msgr. Pleus helped grow the parish in both membership and buildings.

What is now known as Pleus Hall was built in late 1913 and later became a school. Construction on the present church began in 1922, with the dedication taking place on May 30, 1923.

Among the other construction projects that have unfolded over the years, Msgr. Pleus assisted in the establishment of a Catholic cemetery in Jefferson City.

“The new Catholic Resurrection Cemetery on the northside of Ten Mile Drive has been opened and lots are being sold according to announcement made yesterday by Father J.B. Pleus ... head of the cemetery association,” the Jefferson City Post-Tribune reported on Sept. 9, 1935.

Msgr. Pleus received the papal title of “Monsignor” in 1940 to honor his work and dedication on behalf of the Catholic Church and community.

Msgr. Pleus suffered a heart attack on July 22, 1946, while celebrating a Monday morning Mass. He died at St. Mary’s Hospital two days later and was laid to rest in the cemetery he had helped establish, Resurrection Catholic Cemetery.

“I was 12 years old when Monsignor Pleus died, and my class at Immaculate Conception School was in the choir who sang at his Funeral Mass,” said Charlie Bernskoetter, a member of Immaculate Conception Parish.

In 1957, Mr. Bernskoetter married Millie Pleus, a great niece of Msgr. Pleus.

“Monsignor Pleus had a parking space below the window of our fifth-grade classroom,” Mr. Bernskoetter recalled. “He would climb into his big old Packard car to go somewhere, start up the car, let the clutch out very slowly and then creep out of the spot.”

With a grin, Mr. Bernskoetter added: “The teacher had to stop the class for four or five minutes because the car was so loud, and that’s how long it took for him to get on his way.”

Jeremy P. Ämick (missourihistorymoments.com) is a historian and author of many books, including the historical compilations Moments on the Moreau and Beyond the Moreau. A version of this article was originally published in the Dec. 29, 2025, edition of the Jefferson City News-Tribune. This version is published here with permission.