PLATTE COUNTY, NEBRASKA
ST. MARY OF THE ANGELS CHURCH HISTORY

According to the history of St. Mary's written by Rev. Edmund Roediger, the first German Rev. Father, who went to Stearns Prairie to say Mass and to hold service, was Rev. Friedrich Uhling from West Point, Nebraska in March of 1872 in the sodhouse of the Braun family. John Peter Braun was the first of all Catholic settlers and came in the fall of 1871. Others and the year they immigrated were: Augustin Wieser (1872); Ignaz Zach (1872); William Eimers (1874); Paul Faber (1873); Robert Gentleman; Frank Pfeifer (1873); John Pfeifer (1873); Anton Pfeifer (1873); Pfeifer Widow (1873); William Tiskoetter; Mathaeus Fuchs; Thimotheus Treacy; Senigal Junior; Kiloran ......; Richard Olmer; Leonard Widhalm. Families from Iowa were: Henry Scheidemantel; Henry Kraemer; William Kraemer; Joseph Kraemer; Henry Lohaus; Bernard Konert; Joseph Wemhoff; Friederich Unger; Pleishen Widow.

At the end of June, 1875, Rev. John Bernard visited and remained there over a week, said the holy Mass in the house of John Peter Braun, took the children to the first communions and encouraged the settlers to commence a chruch building. Late in the fall, the church was finished and received the title "Ste Maria Anelorum," "St. Mary of the Angels." However, the parish still did not hold regular church servcies, but was only occasionally visited by the German priests, J. Bernard, Gruenebaum and Schullock. When the Franciscans were called to Columbus in 1876, this also resulted in the pastoration of the new St. Marys Parish in the following year of 1877. From then on St. Marys was administered regularly from Columbus (20 miles distant).

A second church was also built before work was begun in 1924 on the existing church. Records at St. Francis Catholic Church in Humphrey--which has all the St. Mary records--say St. Mary's closed February 12, 1967.