Dedication of St. Bridget Church
September 2, 1908

Exercises Were Imposing

Summerfield Sun -- September 2, 1908

The exercises of the dedication of the Catholic church at St. Bridget, Kans, Wednesday were witnessed by a large crowd. The dedication exercises commenced at 9:30 a.m. with Bishop Lillis, D.D. of the Leavenworth Diocese in charge of the ceremonies. High Mass was celebrated by Rev. Father Patrick Smith, of Blaine, Kans, assisted by Father Taton, of Axtell, Kans, acting as Deacon of the Mass.  Father Patrick O'Sullivan, former pastor of this parish and now of Irish Creek, acted as Sub Deacon and Father Orr, of Frankfort, Kans, as master of ceremonies.  The visiting clergy were: Fathers Kuhls, of Kansas City, Kans., Redeker, of Marysville, Kans., Galvin, Beattie, Kans., McInerny, Kansas City, Kans., Carey, Fairbury, Nebr., Gernitz, Coal Creek, Kans., and Bradley, of this city. Solemn High Mass was said by Bishop Lillis.

Bishop Lillis preached the Dedication sermon. He started with the founding of the parish at St. Bridget, giving a short outline of the parish at that time and mentioning the members. He continued this line giving a general history of the parish from its starting until the present time with the list of Priests who have presided over it at different times. He spoke very complimentary of Father O'Sullivan who commenced the erection of the edifice being dedicated and of Father McNamara, the present Priest. Their work as it has been done, being a mammoth undertaking, and also of the effort put forth by the parishioners necessary for the securing of the funds for its erection. From a history of the parish he extended to a history of the church giving somewhat in detail the beliefs as set forth by its doctrines.  The sermon was replete with interesting data and was most interesting to listen to. In the data given of the immense sum necessary for the erection of the church, there is yet remaining but $2,600 yet unpaid.

There is one thing that we wish to make special mention of and that is the excellent choir presiding in the loft at these exercises. It would be a credit to a church in some of the larger cities. The decorations are something magnificent and handsomer windows will not be found in churches of larger dimensions. The crowd is estimated as being between six and eight hundred souls. The Axtell band was present and served to pass away the time more readily in the afternoon and also played for the evening's entertainment.

The ladies of the parish, served dinner and cleared something over $100 at this meal alone.  The gentlemen of the parish had the evening's entertainment in charge which resulted in netting them a neat sum, just how much we did not learn. The days collections altogether amounting to something over $500, which will be used to assist in defraying the expenses of the days entertainment.

This is one of the most handsomest edifices to be found west of Kansas City, Mo, being over forty-eight feet wide by one hundred feet in length. It has cost in the erection something over $30,000, which all but the remaining church debt has been paid by the parishioners. This was the greatest day in the history of the parish and will long be remembered by its members.

Father Patrick Smith, who celebrated High Mass, was raised in the parish and is well known to the greater share of our readers. He is now in charge of the parish at Blaine, Kans., it having been but a few years since he was appointed to this charge, it being his first one. It was a happy reunion of the former pastors and and parishioners and its memory will long be cherished.

The Art Of Making A Ghost Church

Marysville Advocate - September 14, 1967

A wide hard-surfaced road runs north and south past St. Bridget Catholic church connecting it with nearby Axtell located six miles south.

The improved road with modern means of transportation has sounded the death knell to the oldest living church in Marshall county.

Final mass was said Sunday morning by the Rev. Robert Pflumm at the rural church established 105 years ago. Monday, the priest, who also served Holy Family church, Summerfield, had left for his new assignment at Westphalia.

Tuesday, the church was closed officially -- a ghost church.

It was a sad occasion as third and fourth generation descendants of pioneers gave up their church home. No one was in the mood to observe the occasion, neither was there any enthusiasm engendered for the final celebration.

As the bells rang Sunday morning at 8 a.m. for the last time to call the faithful to worship, from the nearby plains and rolling hills of St. Bridget's parish, they tolled the death of a community knit together by its common faith since 1859 when the first mass was said by a missionary, Father Edmond in the home of John Coughlin.

Final chords were struck by Mary Beth Mace, organist, on the almost new electric organ installed about four years to replace the old reed organ in the choir loft which Mrs. Wm. McBride had played for more than 40 years until her retirement.

Handwriting was visible on the wall when the residence of the priest moved to Summerfield.  The former two-story brick is inhabited by Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Buessing and family.

The parochial school, once the pride of the community, has been closed almost 16 years.

It was a thing that kept coming up for the past five or six years, with a shortage of priests and sisters to staff all the growing congregations and schools in expanding suburbia, according to the Rev. Denis Pickert, Axtell.

The decision to close St. Bridget was made by Bishop Edward Hunkeler of Kansas City the past three weeks. He gave as reasons: the improvement of roads, means of transportation, and the scarcity of priests and sisters to staff necessary churches and schools.

There are 110 persons among the 25 families of the parish who will express their choice of place of worship. Either Baileyville, Summerfield or Axtell. After consulting the opinions of the parishioners, new parish boundaries will be determined by Bishop Hunkeler.

As the oldest organized Catholic congregation in Marshall county, the historic church had served as the mother church of both Holy Family at Summerfield and St. Michael's at Axtell.

Conversely Father Pflumm, resident pastor at Summerfield, alternated worship services at 8 and 10 a.m. at St. Bridget, recently a mission. In 1889 when Rev. John Hurley, resident pastor at St. Bridget, founded the church at Summerfield, priests at St. Bridget served Holy Family church for the first 20 years. Likewise Father Hurley was instrumental in constructing the parochial residence in Axtell and moved the church to a new site in the north east section.

St. Bridget burial ground was used by parishioners from Summerfield and Axtell until cemeteries were started In the nearby new towns.

Now the Rev. Pickert, priest of St. Michael's of Axtell, will serve the Summerfield church.

Among the oldest families of the parish are Ed Hasenkamp, Steve Glynn and Joseph Coffey, the latter two of Irish descent like the forefathers, who founded the congregation.

Names of the charter members were John Gosswin, John Clark, Peter Lynch, William P. Madden, James Carroll, Michael Murray and Michael Maddigan. The latter willed 160 acres of land to be used for the benefit of the church.

Every kind of construction material was used in the churches which antedate the present edifice. The first church built of logs, burned before completion and was replaced by a frame building in 1862-64. A stone building completed in 1875 was outgrown and replaced by the present brick building, 50 by 100 feet which cost $25,000.

Dedicated in 1909 as the pride of a parish and a monument to the self-sacrificing pioneers, it stands now as a ghost church.

The octopus of growing congregations in suburbia of large population centers reaching to the rural area is the media in the art of making ghost churches.

[editor's note: There are several mistakes in this article: Name of charter member should be: John Gossin, not Gosswin. Also: the stone church (1875) was replaced by a frame building (later used as a parish hall until 1949). The present brick building replaced the frame building built by Fr. Hurley and the present church was dedicated in 1908, not 1909.]