St. Joseph Catholic Church

St. Joseph Catholic Church, Logansport Indiana

In 1868 about 50 German families, at the time members of St. Vincent’s parish in Logansport, obtained permission from their Ecclesiastical Superiors to organize a parish for German speaking Catholics. They were aided by Father George Hamilton, pastor of St. Vincent’s.

The men met for the first time with Father Jacob Meyers, then acting pastor of St. Vincent’s, who was very much in sympathy with the idea of establishing a parish for German speaking people. Several meetings later it was decided to definitely organize a new parish under the patronage of St. Joseph, patron of the Universal Church.

Some of the family names on the newly organized congregation were: Grusenmeyer, Leffert, Bubel, Mitschell, Schafer, Tussing, Higley, Graf, Helms, Schneider, Gleitz, Petri, Schlosser, Baker, Hoffman, Eckert, Weigand, Spitznagle, Bergman, Mutschler, Klein and Brockman.

This first St. Joseph church was torn down in 1891.

Father Meyers of St. Vincent saw to the building of a brick church, 80'x40'. This was accomplished at the low price of $4,000 thanks to donated labor such as excavating and hauling of material. This was no easy task when we consider that almost all of the new members were immigrants who worked for a dollar or so per day and were building their homes at the same time.

In August of 1872 Bishop Joseph Dwenger appointed Rev. Henry Koehne pastor of St. Joseph's.

Cullen House - The School

The old Cullen house had been purchased years before, in 1862, with the idea of one day placing a parish there. It had been in use as a Catholic school (for the parishioners of St. Vincent's), and as a parsonage and as a home for the Sisters. It stood on 2nd and Market Streets.

 In 1877 Father Koehne secured the services of the Sisters of Notre Dame from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to teach. The Ven. Sister M. Aloysia was the first superior.

Within ten years the parish had grown to the point of needing to build a larger church, which was done in 1884-85. The first collection taken up for this project amounted to nearly $4,000! Excavations began in 1884 and the corner stone was laid on July 12, 1885. By the end of December 1885 the entire edifice was under roof.

The "new" St. Joseph church and Cullen House, 1886 during the pastorate of Rev. Henry Koehne.

This new church, 145'x64', Gothic Romanesque in style, was designed by architect Adam Boos from Chicago.

Plans for a New School

Shortly after the dedication of the new church, October 23, 1887, it was evident that steps had to be taken for building a new school. The more than 200 children were being taught partly in the old Cullen House and partly in the old church.

In 1891 the old church was torn down and the foundation laid for a modern 80'x60' three-story structure. In a little over a year the school was completed at a cost of about $27,000.00. 

St. Joseph School built in 1891-92

At the time of its Golden Jubilee, 50 year anniversary, St Joseph School was teaching 8 grades. There were 7 teachers. It had been made a free school in 1926, maintained from the general revenues of the church, aided by the activities of the St. Joseph Parent-Teacher Association. In 1936 the enrollment number was 236 students.

St. Joseph's Parsonage

Now the congregation possessed a magnificent church and modern school but still lacked a parish house aka "rectory". The old Cullen House had yet to serve as residence for the Sisters as well as a dwelling for the Pastor. Being aware of this inadequacy, the good Father Koehne purchased - with his own money - the two lots immediately west of the church. He was not privileged to see his plans through. Father Koehne passed away on November 12, 1906. 

Rev. Anthony Kroeger succeeded Koehne. Kroeger's appointment went into effect on January 1, 1907. Within a year a modern parsonage was built at a cost of about $10,000. 

Sister’s Convent Erected in 1927

The Sister's Covent was across the street from the church, on the south side of E. Market.

The house still stands as of 2017.

The School Was Replaced in 1957

Ground was broken for the school building, which still stands as of 2017, behind what is now "All Saints" Church (formerly St. Joseph; a consolidation of St. Vincent, St. Bridget and St. Joseph parishes).

The new St. Joseph Catholic School was dedicated on September 9, 1957.

Henry C. Wolf was the architect and Ed Medland and Son were the general contractors. The school is of lift slab construction and consists of two floors. The first floor had a recreation room, kitchen, restrooms, Principal's office, two classrooms and a covered play area. The second floor contains six classrooms and restrooms. 

St. Bridget Catholic Church

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Logansport, Indiana

St. Bridget Church on Wheatland Avenue.

Bishop Joseph Dwenger was ordained the Bishop of Fort Wayne Diocese in 1872. He was the first Bishop in Indiana to be born in the United States. It was Bishop Dwenger who saw to the building of St. Bridget Church in Logansport. He realized that many Catholics were living on Logansport's west side.

In 1873 Bishop Dwenger bought a city block from Judge David Dykeman for $5,000. The area was the 700 block of Wheatland and Linden Avenues.

The next event was the arrival of Father Bernard Kroeger, who was sent to Logansport to form that church on the west side - for about 45 Irish families. He saw to it that a church was erected on Wheatland Avenue at a cost of $12,000.

This structure would serve as a church, school, residence for the Sisters of Holy Cross and his own residence. This church was dedicated August 15, 1876.

The early St. Bridget Church building is described: "the building had a church on the top floor. The Priest's residence, sister's residence and two classrooms were on the lower floor."

In 1877 the Rosary and Alter Society was organized at St. Bridget.

In 1878 Fr. Anthony J. H. Kroeger was appointed as assistant to Fr. Bernard Kroeger at St. Bridget.

In 1891 A brick social building was built on Heath Street behind the parsonage.

In 1893 Fr. Kroeger built the St. Bridget parsonage at 700 Wheatland Avenue.

In 1896 the Sisters of St. Francis came to teach at St. Bridget School replacing the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Fr. Peter Quinn began a financial drive to build a new St. Bridget Church. The cornerstone was laid August 15, 1916. By October 21, 1917, the church was completed. Carl Horn was the architect and Frank Medland was the general contractor. The church cost $50,000.

St. Bridget Gets A New School
When the old St. Bridget school had become completely inadequate as a school and structurally unsafe Bishop Carberry instructed that a new school be built on the St. Bridget grounds. This was 1961. A building campaign was begun and funds were donated.

January 19, 1962, Logansport Press, page 1:

Construction of a new school at St. Bridget's parish is slated to begin this spring, according to the Reverend Father Francis Meehan, pastor.

Preliminary approval has been given plans for the building which will be located at Wilkinson and West Linden. Maximum dimensions of the one-story structure, according to Medland and Bowman, architects, are 138 by 163 feet. It will have masonry block walls, with brick and stone facing on the exterior.

The entrance will be on Wilkinson street. Plans call for six classrooms, a meeting room, a multi-purpose room, office, teachers room, library, supply room, shower and locker rooms, kitchen and food storage room and boiler room.

Bids will be received and contracts let in early March. It is anticipated that the new building will be completed by the start of the school year in the fall. The remainder of the ground extending to Heath street will be prepared to be used as a combination major playground and parking lot.

Another playground for smaller Children will be located at the northeast corner of Wheatland

and Wilkinson, site of the present school.

Two existing buildings will be razed. First to go will be the one story brick building facing Linden avenue ,which was used for many decades as a parish hall, for commencement exercises, music recitals and later as a gymnasium. It has not been in use for some years.

Shortly after this term of school closes the present school building at Wheatland and Wilkinson will be torn down. This red brick building was erected in 1875 and housed both the school and church until 1918 when the present church was built.

The upper floor of the two-story structure has been used for meetings and bazaars. These will be held in the multi-purpose room of the new school. Church councilmen, assisting the pastor in the long-range program, include: Joe Moritz, Harry Castaldi, Thomas Medland and Pete Conroy.

In 1985 All Saints Parish was formed in an administrative unit. The school system became known as All Saints Catholic School with Sister Mary Faith as principal. In 1986 ST. Joseph Church was selected as the worship site for the Catholic Community of Logansport. All Saints Church was created.

In April of 2000 a notice under "building permits" in the local paper indicated that the church, 700 Wheatland Avenue, was to be razed.