CATHOLIC CHURCHES IN CHARITON
written by a Steinbach
In the year of 1884, when Herman J Steinbach came from Germany, the old Catholic Church in Chariton was located on Brookdale Ave, just west of where our present Chariton Ice Service is located.
It was a small frame building 30 feet long and 12 feet wide and had no heating system of any kind. Can you folks imagine how it would be to go to church now days without any heat in our church (of course if John L Lewis doesn't get a settlement with the miners soon, maybe we will all think we are back in the good old days of 1884 with no heat in our church either).
Father Leonard was the pastor at that time and he lived over in the east part of town, on 7th and Ashland and had to go clear across town to get to the church, and most of the congregation lived in the west end of town, by the church and then some of the farmers came in with horse and buggy from the country.
One day they had a very large funeral at the little church, and after the funeral was over, the men decided the floor of the building was not good enough to hold such large crowds with so much weight on the floor. So they decided to move the church to the east part of town on the corner of 7th and Orchard. and fix it and enlarge it to meet all their needs. They blocked it up, put it on railroad ties for skids and hired it moved with horses for $100.00.
It was then handy to have the church and Priests house all close together on the three lots that belonged to the Parish. Father Sheridan was another new Pastor at about this time. He had parishes in Lucas, Woodburn, Osceola, and Leon. And traveled by train to these towns and lots of times didn't have money enough for the train fare. He would have to go to some one and ask for money for a ticket.
My Father and his brother Herman Steinbach were in business then and had a meat market on the square. Father Sheridan would go to the shop and Dad or Uncle Herman would give him money for his ticket and he would take off on his journey with a big smile. (Can you imagine our Priest having to go into some place of business today and ask some business man for money for gas and oil for his car, so he could go to Des Moines to pay our Bishop a visit. Well, that would be some situation wouldn't it?
Later on Father Waldron and then Father McGillen were pastors here. Father McGillen married my Father and Mother in the old church on Nov. 8, 1911. In the year of about 1914 the Mallory and Crocker bank went broke. Everyone was in bad financial status but in order to pay off, all of the Mallory properties in town were put up for sale and the lots on which our church and priest's house now stands were put up for sale. And Herman Steinbach purchased both lots. He remodeled the house that stood where Father O'Conner's house now stands. It was originally an old boarding house. Herman Steinbach and his wife Anna had a large family of nine children so they decided that since their marriage vows were so important and that they had promised God so much that they must carry out their promises and give their children the advantage of a good religious education.
So they decided to give these two lots to the parish for the site of a new church if the congregation could raise $10,000 for the erection of the church. So with the good help of the parish members they gave generous gifts of the business men and the non Catholics of Chariton and the donations of the people from the parishes of Woodburn, Leon, Osceola and Lucas. The Church was built in the year of 1915.
$113,000 not including a thing but the building itself which is 80 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 35 feet high.
Donations were given for the pictures, windows, altars, seats, ect. But the job was only about half done. Windows were donated and put in as money was received. Each window costs $70.00. The altars were shipped here by rail at a cost of $1200.00. The seats were also shipped by rail at a cost of $1,000.00
The communion railing cost $1200.00 Then the lights were put in and a furnace installed. (Looks like John L Lewis was about to win again, no heat until someone donated some more money.)
At about this time, someone wanted to buy the old church, priest's house and the three lots over on 7th and Orchard for which they received $5,250. Which helped a lot toward getting the new building all finished.
Item | Cost in 1915 | Cost in 2009 |
moving the church | $100.00 | $2,094.97 |
initial fundraiser | $10,000.00 | $209,496.76 |
building | $13,000.00 | $272,345.78 |
windows | $70.00 | $1,466.48 |
altars | $1,200.00 | $25,139.61 |
pews | $1,000.00 | $20,949.68 |
altar rail | $1,200.00 | $25,139.61 |
sell of old church and lots | $5,250.00 | $109,985.80 |
