St. Michael's Cemetery

by Lynn Sprowl

Title

St. Michael's Cemetery

Artist

Lynn Sprowl

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

St. Michael's Cemetery by Lynn Sprowl.
It was getting late and we were heading back when this church appeared as the sun was setting.
The parish buildings represent the Irish-Catholic settlement of Holbrook. The area of Iowa County, Iowa that became known as Holbrook was settled by Irish immigrants or descendants of Irish immigrants. Thomas Hanson, one of those settlers, brought the priest from Iowa City in his lumber wagon and Mass was celebrated in his home. People from the surrounding area would gather for the Mass. The former rectory sits across the highway from the church and the former Hibernian Hall is across the cemetery to the west. The cemetery surrounds the church on three sides. Other than a few houses, they are all that is left of the village which at one time had a post office and a store.
The parish was established in 1843 and plans to erect a church were begun. A small frame church was built in what is now St. Michael’s Cemetery, near the site of the present church building. The Rev. Mathias Hannon, who came to Holbrook from St. Mary's in Iowa City for the first time in 1853, described the church thus, "I said mass within before the floor was laid, had the beautiful snow for carpet, and a pine box for an altar in fact a place as forlorn as the stable wherein the Savior was born. There was no more than fourteen families."

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July 13th, 2017

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