For about 90 years, St. Joseph Catholic Church has been the sole spiritual home for Pekin’s Catholic community – but there was a time when Pekin had two Catholic churches, one for English-speaking Catholics and the other, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, for Pekin’s German Catholics.
Although Catholicism was first brought to Tazewell County in January of 1680 by the French explorer La Salle, Pekin’s early Catholic community only begins to come into focus in October of 1839, when an early missionary priest of Illinois, Rev. John B. Raho, CM, recorded that the Catholics of Pekin wished to build a church in their town. Another record soon after, written by Rev. Thomas Shaw, notes that a chapel – believed to have been a log cabin – had been built in Pekin and dedicated to St. Stephen Protomartyr. Pekin’s standard historical works also mention an early chapel dedicated to St. Lawrence, martyr, but it is unclear which building that was. Visiting missionary priests belonging to the Vincentian Priests from LaSalle, Illinois, and other priests from Peoria served Pekin’s Catholics in those days, intermittently celebrating Mass and other sacraments several times a year. In the early 1850s, Father John C. Brady of Kickapoo began visiting Pekin once a month to offer Mass, and Pekin was formally an out-mission of Peoria’s Catholic community from 1845 to 1867.
Following is an excerpt from Ben C. Allensworth’s account of Pekin’s Catholic history, from his 1905 “History of Tazewell County,” pages 922-923:
“In the early history of Pekin the rites of the church were celebrated as far as possible at pioneer firesides. Occasionally a traveling Jesuit priest would gather the faithful together and celebrate Mass in some rough cabin. It was not till the early fifties that services were held with much degree of regularity. Father Brady, of revered memory, was in charge. Pekin and Peoria then belonged to the Chicago diocese, and Father Brady would come on horseback or by boat from Peoria, at intervals of a few weeks, and still later more regularly. Services were held in Flint’s hall on lower Court Street, and the German and Irish Catholics worshipped together. The exact date of the erection of the first church is not known, except that it was in the latter fifties. This church was a little one-story frame building on the west side of Fifth Street between Court and Margaret Streets. The building was used for a school-house also.”
Just as Allensworth mentions, the 1861 Root’s City Directory of Pekin says that Pekin’s Catholic church was located on the west side of Fifth Street between Court and Margaret. (That building may have been the St. Lawrence Chapel mentioned in earlier Pekin historical works.) The 1861 directory also says this church was established just two years earlier, in 1859, and that Pekin’s Catholics also had a Sunday School there with about 50 “scholars” (students). The priest serving this community is not named in the 1861 directory, but it must have been Father Patrick A. Ward of Peoria. This is known from Pekin’s surviving sacramental records, which show that Father Ward baptized Henry Bulison on 11 Nov. 1860 at the Fifth Street church. Unfortunately, most of Pekin’s early sacramental records were lost in a fire at St. Joseph’s rectory around the turn of last century, so Pekin’s baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and funerals prior to 1860 are unavailable.
The 1859 building on Fifth Street is also mentioned in the 1909 Bates City Directory of Pekin, which says, “This building was converted into a residence. The society then erected a church on the corner of S. Second and Susannah Streets.” It was about this time that Pekin’s Catholics segregated themselves based on language and ethnicity, the English-speaking Catholics (i.e., the Irish) desiring a priest who could speak and preach in English. The Irish Catholics were the ones who built (or remodeled) the new mission church in 1863 at a cost of $800 at Second and Susannah, dedicated on 9 Nov. 1863. That is the origin of what soon became St. Joseph’s Parish, which was served by Peoria priests until 1867, when Father John A. Kennedy was appointed resident pastor here.
Meanwhile, the German Catholics remained at the old Fifth Street mission church. Allensworth’s account from his 1905 Tazewell County history continues the story on page 923 as follows:
“About 1860 the German and Irish factions of the congregation separated, and the latter erected a church of its own at the southeast intersection of Second and Susannah Streets. The lot was purchased from G. H. Rupert, T. D. Vincent and Dr. J. S. Maus. It was dedicated November 9, 1863, as St. Joseph’s Church. It was built chiefly through the efforts of such people as Jeremiah Copely, Mrs. Joseph Berry, Edward Jennings, Henry Hughs, William Cooney, Mrs. Fleming of Delavan, John Lynch and others.
“The old church on First [sic – Fifth] Street reverted to the German Catholics and was removed to its present location, just north of the church of the Sacred Heart, since the erection of which it has been used for school purposes.”
The 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin lists both the Roman Catholic Church at the corner of Second and Susannah, with Father Thomas Cashman as pastor, and the German Catholic Church on Fifth Street between Court and Margaret, currently without a pastor. The following year, the German Catholic community of Pekin was erected as an ethnic parish in 1872 by the Rt. Rev. Thomas Foley (1822-1879), Bishop of Chicago – the formal birth of Sacred Heart Parish of Pekin. Their first priest was Father Wilhelm Schamoni., and the first Mass was celebrated at Sacred Heart Parish on 8 Aug. 1872. From June 1878 until Jan. 1893, the Capuchin Fathers had custody of Sacred Heart Parish, then the Franciscan Fathers had charged until the arrive of Father Alphonse M. Grussi, the parish’s last pastor.
Just four years later, in 1876, Sacred Heart Church was built at the corner of Greenwich and Campbell (i.e., Catherine and Ninth). By the time of the 1876 Bates City Directory, the German Catholic Church, pastored by Rev. Wilhelm Kuchenbuch (1836-1906). Significantly, neither the 1877 aerial view map of Pekin nor the May 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin show any one-story frame building on the west side of Fifth Street between Court and Margaret, so the old Fifth Street church building must have been moved by 1877 to the Sacred Heart property at what was then the east end of town. Most likely it was moved at or around the same time the new church was built.
The following partial list of Sacred Heart’s priests is reconstructed from Pekin city directories and other sources, with the city directory dates that mention them in brackets:
- Father Wilhelm Schamoni
- Father Wilhelm Kuchenbuch (1836-1906) [1876]
- Father Anselm [1887]
- Father Leo, of Peoria [1893]
- Father Peter Paul Lawrence Gundermann, OFM (1850-1928) [1895, 1898]
- Father F. A. Hartman [1904]
- Father Frederick Edward Hartung (1871-1942) [1908, 1909]
- Father Alphonse M. Grussi (1859-1945) [1913, 1914, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1937]
As the directory citations show, Father Grussi was Sacred Heart’s longest-serving pastor, overseeing the parish for about 30 years, from Oct. 1909 up until the very end in 1938. Though Sacred Heart had started as an ethnic parish for Pekin’s German Catholic, immigrant Italian Catholics also were parishioners. For much of its existence, the parish also ran its own parochial school. The 1909 Pekin city directory says the school’s teachers lived in a house at 905 and 909 Catherine St. (today’s 905 Catherine), next door to the church and school, and lists the teachers as Sister Mary Rufina, Sister Mary Electa, Sister Mary Paula, and Sister Michaela. The 1914 city directory says the teachers were Sister Mary Mechtildis and Sister Mary Grata, members of the School Sisters of St. Francis. The parish closed its parochial school in 1920, though, apparently due to an insufficient number of pupils.
The standard works on Pekin’s history have very little to say about Sacred Heart Parish. For instance, the 1949 Pekin Centenary, page 109, briefly mentions, “A second Catholic Church, the Sacred Heart, organized for German Catholics in 1872, was later absorbed by the St. Joseph’s Church.” Similarly, although “Pekin: A Pictorial History” (1998, 2002), page 184, features three Sacred Heart Church and School photographs, in the historical narrative it says only:
“In 1872 the parish was divided to form two parishes. St. Joseph’s Parish remained located in St. Stephen’s Chapel. Sacred Heart, the new parish, was built at the corner of North Ninth and Catherine streets, where it would remain until its merger with St. Joseph’s in 1938.”
Likewise, the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial volume, page 16, provides just a single paragraph summarizing the history of Sacred Heart Church, as follows:
“A second Catholic Church was organized in 1872. The Sacred Heart Parish contained not only a German-speaking church, but also a German parochial school. In the early 1930’s the church building was destroyed by fire, but the congregation cleaned up the then-vacant Sacred Heart school in the back of the church lot and held services there until the parish merged with St. Joseph’s in 1937 [sic – 1938].”
The fire that destroyed Sacred Heart Church broke out on Sunday morning, 23 March 1930, while Father Grussi was preparing for his 7:30 a.m. Mass. The calamity was reported on the front page of the Monday, 24 March 1930, edition of the Pekin Daily Times, much of the news article being a lengthy quote from Father Grussi:
“Sacred Heart Church Burns; Scores Mourn Loss of Bells
“‘It is a terrible thing for us because we lost so many of our stations and statues,’ said Father Grussi this morning in discussing the burning of the Sacred Heart Catholic church, which was destroyed yesterday morning about 6:30 o’clock by fire.
“‘I had been sitting in the sacristy reading, getting ready for the 7:30 Mass, when all at once I happened to glance out of the window and saw a huge volume of smoke coming around the northeast corner of the church. I knew it wasn’t smoke from the chimney but could not quite figure out what it was and went on reading. Louis Sciortino, the boy who tends the furnace, was in the basement at the time throwing I some coal. A few minutes later Louis came running into the room and said:
“‘“Father the church is on fire.”“‘If course I became excited like most people do when there is a fire and my first thought, like all priests, was the Blessed Sacrament, which is on the altar. I grabbed my keys off the table and rain in to get the sacrament and that was the first thing that was saved.
“‘The first had started directly over the altar on the southeast part of the roof, supposedly from defective wiring. Then I ran over to the home of Mrs. Clara Memmen and asked her to call the fire department. She called and called but could not get an answer. Then some one ran over to Klaus Groen’s and finally got the call through and it was just a short time that the fire department got there but by that time the flames were leaping high into the air.
“‘While the fire was at its worst the people began to arrive for the early Mass and they with the help of the neighbors helped to rescue the different vestment, linens and stations, all of which were saved.
“‘There were seven stations on the north and seven on the south walls of the church. Seven of them were carried out in safety and are in the home today, but the other seven are almost completely ruined and they cost the church $450.
“‘The organ which was a fine one that had been built by the Hinners Organ company was in the little recess on the west part of the church just above the doorway and there isn’t a thing left of it as you can see. I had just had it tuned last Saturday, too.
“‘The two bells that have been in the church ever since it was built in 1876, were melted down and there is nothing of them left either.’”
“The church is covered by $5,000 insurance which will only be a drop in the bucket when they start to rebuilt as they are already planning on doing.
“Yesterday morning when the fire started there was a strong wind from the southeast and that carried the flames on the south side entirely. Everything on the south side of the church, roof, walls, pews, etc., were all burned to charred pieces. The things on the north side are only damaged by the smoke and water and can probably be refinished to look as good as new.“Father Alphonse M. Grussi came to this parish twenty-one years ago so he feels the loss very keenly.
“The Sacred Heart school which is just north of the church was not damaged. The school has not been used for ten years and is only used for meetings now. The church is a fifty-family parish and was a “gem” inside as Father Grussi expressed it this morning.“Hundreds of people who came to the fire or drove out to the ruins this morning expressed regret that the voice of the bells had been silenced. For years unto generations those bells have rung at 6 o’clock every morning. Hundreds were heard to say mournfully, ‘We won’t hear the bells any more.’ There is more than wood and plaster goes up in the smoke when an old church burns. There are sacred memories that cling to such an old House of God.”
The Local History Room files include a clipping from an unidentified newspaper that adds:
“The fire was discovered about 6:45 and when the fire department left three hours later the frame structure was a ruin. . . . The fire started in an attic at the northeast corner of the building and was making rapid headway when the firemen arrived. Smoke was pouring from all parts of the building and the fire, working between the walls, was hard to control. The fire ran up the spire, which toppled into the yard beside the church where generations had worshipped. In the belfry were two bells, which melted under the extreme heat and their musical tones, which had served as a 6 a.m. reveille for Pekin for half a century, were silenced forever . . . .
“The church and school have been the scene of many happy gatherings and the burning of the church will be a loss to the community and especially to the northeast part of the city, where it was a social center, supported a Boy Scout troop and rendered other service. Several boys from the parish entered the priesthood and consecrated their lives to the work of the church in other parts of the country.”
Despite the grievous loss of their beloved church, Sacred Heart’s parishioners carried on through the dark years of the Great Depression. Unable to rebuild their church, instead they refurbished their school building to serve as an interim church. Finally, Peoria Bishop Joseph H. L. Schlarman (1879-1951), deeming that Pekin no longer needed a German ethnic parish, removed his permission that Mass be offered in the old school building, and directed that Sacred Heart Parish be merged with the larger and more prosperous St. Joseph Parish. The date of the merger is unclear from Pekin historical sources, the Sesquicentennial saying it was in 1937 and “Pekin: A Pictorial History” saying it was in 1938, but 1938 is the correct date.
Father Grussi last appears in Pekin city directories in 1937, and the 1939 directory lists the church and school at 903 Catherine St., but no pastor is listed – by then the parish merger had taken place, and Father Bernard J. Sheedy was pastor for all of Pekin’s Catholics. Father Grussi had resigned as pastor, retiring to Precious Blood Home in Dayton, Ohio. Sacred Heart Church continues to appear in Pekin city directories until 1946, but is not in the 1948 city directory.
Apparently for a while after the merger, the old school/church building continued to be used for various activities, but that must have ceased by the mid-1940s. The old school/church building is long gone, but the home at 905 Catherine St. where the School Sisters lived (also serving as a rectory), is still there – the last visible traces of Sacred Heart Parish that passersby can see.
