Posted by Site Administrator on 7/23/16
Father Daniel Bernard O’Connor, the first diocesan priest to be pastor for St. Patrick’s parish, was also instrumental in beginning the Havelock Dining Hall at the State Fair. Adelaide Laux Paradise remembered it as a big undertaking and a successful one. According to Nellie McKinney, the State Fair stand ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 7/23/16
Father D.B. O’Connor, the first diocesan pastor of St. Patrick’s, not only opened St. Patrick’s school for the first time, but was instrumental in educational progress of an even wider scope. Fr. O’Connor served as liaison between the State Department of Education and the parochial schools of Nebraska from ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 7/23/16
One of the first things Fr. D.B. O'Connor did after his arrival was to see that the school was opened. The upper floor of the church was intended for classrooms, and, seeing a need for Catholic education for his parishioners, he wrote to the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine’s ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 7/23/16
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 ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 7/23/16
Although St. Patrick’s parish had its fine new church, there was still an inconvenient situation to contend with: no rectory. The Franciscan Fathers who were pastors during those early years continued to come out from St. Francis de Sales parish at 18th and J streets in Lincoln to serve ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 7/23/16
The new church that stood where the first church had been was a much larger, more impressive building. Parishioners climbed outside stairs to enter the vestibule from which two flights of stairs rose on the east and west sides to the floor above. On the east side, another stairway ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 10/25/15
Parishioners of St. Patrick parish were no doubt very happy to move into the basement of their new church, even though the upper floors would not be ready for some time. Mrs. Margaret (Aylward) Curran told of her grandfather, Patrick Malone, and other men like him who would go ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 10/18/15
It was not long before the parishioners of St. Patrick’s made plans for their new church. A building committee was selected: Fr. Polycarp von Mourik, Robert McDevitt, Michael Shirk, and Michael Moran. In early September of 1908, the general contract was awarded to W.J. Assenmacher and Co., and the ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 10/11/15
As upsetting as it must have been for St. Patrick’s parishioners to lose their church, another kind of turmoil came along when they had to find practical venues for funerals, baptisms, and marriages. It would appear that some funerals at least were held at St. Francis de Sales church ... Read More »
Posted by Site Administrator on 10/04/15
What must have been the emotions that Father Polycarp experienced as he witnessed the fiery destruction of his parish church on that Friday morning of April 10, 1908? Once the immediate disaster had made itself felt, he must have wondered where his parishioners would hear Mass that Sunday. How ... Read More »