Sanborn - St. Cecilia

SANBORN - The parish of St. Cecilia had its first church building in 1892 and in November of 1893, the parish secured its first resident pastor, Father B. Corbett.

Back in the 1870's, Father John J. Smith, pastor of the Catholic church in Emmetsburg was the first priest to hold services in the Sanborn parish. Sanborn, located in the Franklin Township of O'Brien County, was established in 1878. Even before that, Catholic families settled in Franklin township. The first was the Thomas Burns family who settled in Sanborn in 1874. There was no church building in Sanborn, so Mass was said at the Gavin schoolhouse 3 miles west of town.

In 1879, Father Patrick Lynch was stationed at Sheldon, with Sanborn, Primghar, Ashton, Sibley, Rock Rapids, Hull and Hospers as the outside missions. On April 21, 1879, Stocum and Lawler, a real estate firm of Sanborn, deeded a half block of land for a church site to Bishop John Hennessey for one dollar and "love."

Father John A. O'Reilly came to Sheldon in 1881. He had charge of four counties: O'Brien, Lyon, Osceola and Sibley. In November of 1882 Father O'Reilly started a subscription list to build a church in Sanborn. The framework of the church was completed before the end of the year but it was not lathed or plastered. The interior was completed in 1884.

Father Corbett's pastorate was short at St. Cecilia due to illness. Father John McNamara was the second resident pastor and said his first Mass in Sanborn on Dec. 25, 1895. Father J. P. Martin succeeded Father McNamara on Jan. 30, 1896. He erected the first parochial residence at a cost of $1,500.

The present church was built in 1963 and the rectory was built in 1989.

Other pastors who served St. Cecilia's are as follows: Father Timothy J. Sullivan, Father James McCormack, F. LeBlond, Thomas Coffey, J. L. Fitzpatrick, L. J. Cooper, Clarence P. Conway, Joseph J. Dalhoff, Joseph Wolf, J. J. Hetherington, J. J. Farrelly, Joseph T. Fitzpatrick, Edward Fandel, Thomas H. Molloy, Frank Brady, Robert R. Joynt, Clement Flannery, Joseph A. Kerwin, Robert Gralapp, Gerald Zeman, Patrick J. Nooney, Jerome P. Coyle, Elmer D. Thom, Miles J. Barrett, Cecil W. Friedmann, David A. Hemann and Tim Johnson, who is the present pastor.

There have been three vocations to the priesthood from St. Cecilia's: Father Thomas J. Manning, Father Kenneth Carl and Father William F. Mason. There have been four women religious from the parish: Florence Mason, Irene Prendergast, Catherine Spengler and Helene Spengler.