St Michael's Parish History

"The planning for a Parish Church in Buckman began in 1879.  It took several meetings just to plan a site for the church, the size of the building, etc.  Inclement weather hindered the building of the house of God from October 1880 until the spring of 1881.  The church building was finished and quite well furnished during the spring and summer of 1881.  The dedication services were held October 30, 1881.  The Most Reverend Bishop Seidenbusch came from St Cloud to conduct the services.  The Bishop came by train as far as Rice, and Mr. Anton Otremba met him there and brought him to Buckman for the occasion. 

At the beginning there were only thirty families.  We can imagine how justly proud these first parishioners must have been of their first parish church--even though it was built very simply and humbly.  This first church was 55 feet by 65 feet and it cost only two hundred and sixty-five dollars ($265.00).  Still, this was a tremendous sacrifice on the part of these pioneer parishioners, and exemplified their powerful faith and trust in God.

St Michaels Parish did not receive a resident pastor until 1887.  That is also the year when a parochial school was started.  The first parochial school was only a small frame building--17 feet by 21 feet--and was located in the rear of what was formerly Zenner's Store" [Originally Brandl Harness Shop] "When this school became inadequate, another was built twice as large on the place where the present church stands. The present school was built in 1910 (four classrooms) and Father Paul Kunkel supervised the beautiful addition to the school in 1955".   

A 2009 photo found on Google Earth.
The school and "beautiful addition" were torn down in 2010.

 "The present church was built in 1902.  Father William Lange supervised the building of this beautiful church and many, many parishioners worked zealously  in helping it to completion.  The parishioners hauled all the building materials.  Each member was asked to deliver five thousand bricks and a certain number of thousand feet of lumber from Little Falls to Buckman.  Cement and some other items came from Royalton.  These early parishioners made tremendous sacrifices, getting up at 2:00 in the morning, getting the team of horses ready, and making the trip to Little Falls to bring back either a load of bricks or a load of lumber.  They could not get back to Buckman until late that night or early the next morning.  Some valuable horses were lost by these generous people during the erection of their parish church.
Bishop James Trobec dedicated the new church on the feast of St Michael".{September 29th ☺} "After the dedication of the new church, the old church was converted into a parish hall for social gatherings until 1924 when it had to be torn down.  A new rectory and residence for the sisters were erected in the summer of 1918.  In the years following, many improvements were constantly made, and many furnishings and articles of piety were donated by the parishioners, too many to list in a brief history".

(Narrative from a website Larry found online.  I'll ask him WHERE and change this as soon as I know...lol)

Ah! the man commented that it's from a 1978 Morrison County Atlas/Directory's chapter on local history. I saw the list of directories, but would have had to open every one to find out...

THANKS, Larry, for the info--AND for the earworm!