Alton - St. Mary

ALTON - High on the hill on the western edge of Alton, the twin towers of St. Mary's Church are located.

In the spring of 1870, a group of families at St. Donatus wanted to find a new home, and headed west. Sioux County, the area targeted by these pioneers, was opened in 1862.

The original church, known as St. Donatus, was constructed in 1881. Each parishioner was asked to contribute $80. Matt Probst donated 8 acres of land. The land was dedicated in September of 1881 by Father Meis of LeMars.

With the railroad, the settlement of East Orange grew and in August of 1883, Father Ulrich Frey, under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, was sent to Alton and a frame church was built. An addition was constructed in 1886 with the front part of the church becoming the hall.

Construction of the present brick church began with the first brick being laid April 6, 1908. Bishop Garrigan laid the cornerstone on May 3; it weighed 1,100 pounds. The cost to build the church was $41,700.

The high school that was built was closed in 1962 and Spalding High School, an interparochial high school, was opened. A new grade school in Alton was opened in 1964. Presently, the towns of Alton, Granville, and Hospers support a pre-school through 12th grade catholic school system. K-3 are at Hospers with 80 students; pre-school, 4, 5 and 6 are at Alton with 72 students; and Granville has 7-8 with 47 students. The high school has 90 students.

St. Mary's began clustering with St. Joseph's, Granville, and St. Anthony's, Hospers, in 1996 and took on the name of the Pilgrim Cluster. St. Mary's has about 230 active families.

There have been 9 men from the parish to go on to vocations and 41 women from the parish to go on to become women religious.

Many pastors have served St. Mary's Parish. Father Ulrich Frey was the first followed by: Father Gerhard Luehrsman, Father F. J. Brune, Father John Hausman, Msgr. M. A. Schmel, Father Leo Schumacher, Father Joseph M. Neppel, Father Leo Kelm, Father Thomas Lawless, Father James A. Fandel, Msgr. Zeno Reising, Father Raymond Wieling, Father Norbert Boes, Father Edmund Tiedeman, Father Mervin Hood, Father Michael Larkin, Father Bruce LeFebvre, Father David Hogan, Father Thomas Hart, Msgr. Nicholas Ruba, Father Ronald Reicks and Father James J. Tigges, who is the current pastor.