Browsing the 2016 archive of Parish History Blog

Havelock Dining Hall at the State Fair is Started

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 »

1916-1928: Fr. O'Connor Deeply Involved in Education

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 »

1916: St. Patrick School is Opened

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 »

1914: Meet Fr. Daniel O'Connor

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 »

1914: Farewell to the Franciscans

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 »

1908: A Description of the New Church

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 »