~by Chuck Offenburger, Greene County Historical Society
The Greene County Historical Society will “go Irish” the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day, with a special program on Sunday, March 15, at 2 pm on the “History & Traditions of the Irish” in the county.
The program will be in what seems a perfect place for the presentation – historic and beautiful St. Patrick Catholic Church, located in Cedar Township five miles west of Churdan on County Road E-19.
The program is free and open to the public, and there will be refreshments afterward. A free will collection will be taken, with all funds going to the St. Patrick Historic Church committee that is doing the restoration and maintenance of the church, now that it’s no longer an active Catholic parish.
And, folks who plan to attend can help shape the program. Just submit any questions you have about the Irish in Greene County ahead of time, and they’ll be answered during the program. There’s a special reason for that.
Andy Geisler, a native of the rural St. Patrick community who has re-settled at home after a career out-of-state, will lead the program.
“But our best historical source up here is my mother, Mary Geisler, who is 95-1/2 years old,” Andy said. “She is still very sharp and lives in the home on her Century Farm a mile and a half from St. Patrick Church. If the weather is good and she’s feeling okay, she will probably attend our program. But if she cannot get there that day, I will go to her ahead of time with any questions I receive, and I’ll get answers from her for the program.”
Those questions should be sent to him at this email address: geis91@aol.com.
Mary Geisler, as the current matriarch of the St. Patrick community, offers an amazing example of being a lifelong learner. “She still regularly reads about eight books every week,” Andy said. “She keeps the Churdan public library busy. They say there that Mom has read more than 5,000 of their books over the years.”
She is a direct descendant of Myles Fitzpatrick, one of the Irish immigrants who first settled in the Cedar Creek area in the northwest part of Greene County, in the 1850s. The first Catholic mass in the area was celebrated in his home in 1863, and in 1872, he donated the five acres of land that is still today the church site. The first church was a wooden structure. It was replaced by a brick building, which was dedicated in November, 1915. It was nearly destroyed by fire in 1919, with only its foundation and the shell of the walls remaining. The current church was built on the same foundation and dedicated within a year.
It served as a very active parish and community center until 1996, when, because of declining attendance and membership, it was designated as an “oratory” by the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City. Since then, masses have been held only for St. Patrick’s Day, Memorial Day, its anniversary date in August, funerals and a few other special occasions.
In the past year, the St. Patrick Historic Church committee has completed renovations and improvements that have cost thousands of dollars and required hundreds of hours of volunteer work. The church is now in excellent condition. Concerts have been held there in recent months, there is the upcoming Historical Society program, and a special celebration of the church building’s centennial is set for Aug. 15 next summer. That committee includes chairperson Pat Hardy and his wife Carol Hardy, Mike and Shari Minnehan, Ron and Annette Vogel, Jane Beschorner, Peggy Erickson, Pam Haberl and Andy Geisler.
For those who would like to attend a mass in the church, the annual St. Patrick’s Day mass will be held at 8 am on the same day as the Historical Society program, Sunday, March 15. Rev. Jeff Schliesman, who pastors all the Catholic churches in the county, will be celebrant.
The program, Andy said, will look at the St. Patrick community, as well as the Irish in other areas of the county, with a perspective of “then, now and the future.”
The earliest Irish immigrants who settled here generally became farmers and settled from Cedar Township on east across the northern tier of townships in the county. Arriving just later in Grand Junction were many Irish railroad workers, who had a strong ethnic presence in that town as they built the rail lines that served the area.
The Historical Society has two other programs later in March. On Friday, March 27, the regular monthly meeting will be held at 12 noon at the United Methodist Church in Cooper, with Hollie Roberts, of Jefferson, presenting the history of the Elks organization in the county. On Sunday, March 29, at 2 pm at the Historical Museum in Jefferson, the Society joins the Jefferson Matters: Main Street Tower View Team in sponsoring a program by Matt Wetrich on “Nature Photography.”
