Having brought St. Patrick’s parish to a point of self-sufficiency, the Franciscan Fathers relinquished care of the parish to the Lincoln Diocese in 1914. The first diocesan priest to be assigned to St. Patrick’s was Father Daniel Bernard O’Connor. Fr. O’Connor was born in Crete, Nebraska, and attended the University of Nebraska. He entered the seminary then, and was ordained in 1901. He had already been assigned to parishes in David City, Friend, Burchard, and to St. Thomas Orphanage by the time he arrived at St. Patrick’s, and there he would spend the next 18 years as an able and active pastor. He was an interesting man with quite a dramatic story.