Religion in Lemay, Missouri

My husbands GGgrandfather William Dunn is listed in the article below.   Published Wednesday, March 10, 1976 titled "It Happened in Lemay"

Religion in Lemay

The community of Lemay was 201 years old before the first church spire appeared.

  When the Jesuit Fathers came in 1704, the seed of the Roman Catholic faith was planted in the hearts of the Indians;  the first mission house was built near the spot where Broadway and Horn are today.  But after the Fathers went back to Canada, the little mission fell into a state of disrepair and because of lack of interest among the settlers was abandoned.

  The same thing happened to the little log and stone mission near Mount Olive Cemetery, built and serviced at a later date by traveling priests from Ste. Genevieve.

  Spiritually hungry people of the settlement had to content themselves with facilities offered in Carondelet, or in Cahokia - across the Mississippi river.

  Because of such hardship and lack of convenience, many of the people fell away from the faith and at the turn of the century, 1899 to 1900, the average citizen considered religion as only a minor need.

  In 1904 William Dunn, realizing the need for a Catholic parish in his locality, spoke with John Lechner and the two of them canvassed the neighborhood to see how many Catholic families they could find.  They located 40;  later Mr. Dunn's children went  "way out in the country" and found 60 additional families.

  On Sunday, August 14, 1904, a meeting for the purpose of organizing a parish was held at old Kugler Hall, 9800 South Broadway.  After that meeting the Archbishop approved establishment of a German parish to be used by all nationalities in its territory.  The name St. Pious parish.

  First  Mass was celebrated February 5, 1905 by Rev. Father Albert Mayer at the little frame chapel of the Sisters of Mount St. Rose Sanitorium, who loaned their facilities to the new parish until a new building was completed at Hoffmeister and Military roads.

  It was December 17, 1905, that the new church was dedicated - a frame building, 110' x 47', of which the first 30' was classrooms for a grammar school.  At this time the name of the parish was changed to St. Andrew

  Within the next six years St. Andrew grew to such a size that it was necessary to build a new church and additional school facilities.

  On March 23, 1930 Father Mayer turned the first spadeful of durt for the new location of the church, a few feet east of the original building.  This was a courageous step for Father Mayer because  at the time the country was in the depths of a terrible depression.  In fact, many of the St. Andrew parishioners were begging for daily bread.

  In the spring of 1931 the people of St. Andrew dedicated their new church.

  In the past quarter of a century, the Catholics of Lemay expanded and multiplied until now there are five other parishes in the Lemay area:  St. Martin de Tours, St. Francis D' Assisi, St Bernadette, St. George and Assumption.

  The St. Andrew Catholic Church of Lemay, Missouri established the very first Credit Union in the world on July 7, 1927

 Picture of St. Andrew today