The vision of a new church began to come into reality with the laying of the foundation stone by Bishop Francis Silas Chatard on October 18, 1880.  Members of the congregation quarried rock for the foundation and it was completed that Fall by Joseph and Louis Zipf.

Fr. Joseph Dickmann, a native of Oldenburg,     Indiana, became the parish priest, and remained Pastor until January of 1892.  Fr. Dickmann was 24 years old, and this was his first assignment after ordination.  He paid all outstanding church debts, and made preparations to erect the present church, as the existing church was becoming too small for the growing community.

Fr. Joseph Dickmann

Members also hauled logs to Peter P. Renn’s saw mill just a few hundred yards away on Elk Run Creek.

 

Over 1/2 million bricks were molded and fired in at least three locations—behind the cistern in back of the church, at the Southern corner of the cemetery by St. Joe Road, and on the Southeast corner of Hwy 111 and St. Joe Road.

The New Albany Daily Ledger-Standard kept up with progress on the new church.

Sept. 11, 1881

Nov. 14, 1881