St. Columban Catholic Church, Chillicothe

This is the history of St. Columban parish in Chillicothe, Missouri. The first St. Columban church was built in 1858 by John Joseph Hogan, who became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Saint Joseph in 1868. In 1872, St. Joseph's Academy boarding and day school (to the left) began its 97-year tradition. In 1917 the first boy was admitted. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis ran the school for 63 years, until 1935 when the Sisters of St. Francis of Savannah replaced them. In 1905 the Franciscans would write: "The prosperous condition of the Church in Chillicothe is greatly due to the Academy." The Friars Minor, who had come to the United States in 1875 fleeing the Kulturkampf in Germany, came to Chillicothe in 1878 at the invitation of Hogan. They took charge of the parish and the next year, across Trenton Street from the Academy, built the present church, designed by Franciscan Brother Adrian Wewer. In 1880 a parish elementary school, College Hall, opened. In 1892 the present rectory was built as a Franciscan monastery with 30 rooms plus a spacious attic. The previous rectory was located directly to the east of the church and needed to be moved to make way for an expansion of the church building. The parish then numbered about 100 families, fairly evenly divided between farmers, railroad people, and other business people. In 1894 the church was expanded, a

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