A small rectory was built near the church, and the church was dedicated by the Reverend Bishop Gallagher in 1910 with Father Dombrowski as its first pastor.
The second pastor was Father C. Wiesnerowski who resided at Stoneham and occasionally served the neighboring churches of St. Mary’s and St. Stanislaus.
As St. Mary’s and St. Stanislaus became stronger and on their own, St. Joseph’s, under the leadership of Father Gleissner of Bryan, was attended to by different priests until 1920, when it was made a mission of St. Stanislaus under the pastorship of Father N.T. Domanski who came to St. Joseph’s to say Mass once a month.
Fr. Domanski’s health declined in 1951, and he was assisted by the newly ordained Father T.W. Kappe. Father Kappe helped to take care of St. Joseph’s until sometime after Father Domanski’s death in 1955. Other priests who came to Anderson and took care of St. Joseph’s were Father Gradel, Father Klass, and Father Kappe.
In 1962, St. Joseph’s was transferred as a mission of St. Mary’s under the pastorship of Father Tom Wendland. In 1967, Father Leroy Braden replaced Father Wendland, and it was under his leadership that St. Joseph’s Church was completely renovated.
Following Father Braden were Father Angello, Monsignor Pekar, Father Stredney and the present pastor, Father Burns.
Other improvements made through the years were: new pews were purchased, a deep well was put down, the cemetery was enlarged and enclosed with a new fence, a bazaar pavilion and barbecue pit were built, a new roof and asbestos [aluminum?] siding were put on the church building, and central air and heat was installed in the church.
Even though many of the families left during the depression to find work in Houston and other places, they still come back to St. Joseph’s Church for the annual homecoming, and some still bring their parents back home for burial.
The first wedding in the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church was that of Tony Sechelski and Agnes Niscavits in 1910. The first funeral was that of Michaeline Filipiak (Grandmother Phillips). The only priest buried at St. Joseph’s is Father T.W. Kappe (Kapycinski) who requested he be buried here. It is in memory of the love he had for the people of Grimes County that the nearby youth Camp is named CAMP KAPPE.
So ends our installments of the histories of our churches of St. Mary/Plantersville and St. Joseph/Stoneham. These histories are an invaluable resource in our understanding of those who have preceded us in faith in this community. Much has remained the same and much has changed since these histories have been lived and written.
We share the same faith, the same vision as those first early settlers of this area. We are blessed with a country still flowing with milk and honey, one nation indivisible, under God with liberty and justice for all. We are blessed with church structures, which testify to the enduring witness of generations before us.
Yet, we are not as entangled in the cultural and ethnic divisions which separated one community from another. No longer is St. Mary ‘The German Church’ and St. Joseph ‘The Polish/Czech Church’. Times have changed. People have changed. The Church never intended to foster such a separation but to minister to the People of God, who themselves some times and in some places herded together for mutual support. We are the generations who are the products of our grandparents’ and parents’ dream of being ‘good Catholics and good Americans’. We might be of Czech, German, Irish, Polish, Indian, English, Italian, Sicilian, Mexican, Spanish, Russian or a combination of ancestries, but we’re as American as apple pie and profess one faith, share one baptism.
We are indebted to those who have preceded us, but in no way, do we close our eyes to the future and only look backward. We appreciate all that they sacrificed. We acknowledge their dedication and steadfastness. But, like them, we search the horizon for new opportunities, new and exciting ways to witness to our time, a new Millennium. It’s what we do now which will ensure the rich
heritage for future generations. Otherwise, our churches will become historical monuments and not Monuments of Faith.
We are well on the road in providing for the future of both St. Mary and St. Joseph with the new Family/Educational Center now in the planning stages. Our communities are now overflowing with children and youth who are the futures of both churches. Our prayer and our energy must be directed to rooting them in the Faith, giving them a sense of security which was felt and treasured by those who cleared this land and made it ‘church’. And, as we all get older, this place called ‘church’ becomes a refuge and a place of quite reflection as we contemplate the path our lives have taken to bring us all together to be this Parish of St. Mary/St. Joseph.
This has just been a presentation of the histories written so far of our churches of St. Mary and St. Joseph. The real history is unfolding as you are reading this, when you’re at Mass for the Sunday Celebration, when you roll up your sleeves and dive into one of the many ministries, projects, and activities of the parish. We are making the history of our Parish of St. Mary/St. Joseph now. We have the same determination, the same stamina, as those who first came, looked around and rolled up their sleeves, and began clearing trees for these churches.
It’s a heavy responsibility but one eagerly accepted. However, today, we’ve got the advantage of chain saws.
