Galena sees first Catholics in northwest Illinois

As Illinois celebrates its bicentennial this year, The Observer will present occasional features from Rockford Diocese history books.

In 1820, just two years after Illinois was made a state, rich lead mines in northern Illinois gave rise to the town of Galena, “the cradle of organized Catholicity in the Diocese of Rockford.” Pioneers in the area were Irish Catholic immigrants. Bishop Joseph Rosati, D.D., had barely settled in St. Louis when the Catholics of Galena, also called Fever River, sent a letter dated April 29, 1827.  In the phrasing and spelling of an older English, it read in part, “The solicitude of the numerous body of Catholics assembled in this section of country inspires them with a confident hope that their numbers and their zeal for our holy Religion will entitle them to your favorable notice.
“Their means, to support a Priest, are ample, their dispositions are, certainly, corresponding with their means, and they rely with confidence, that, considering these two essential requisites, they are entitled to that favourable notice.”
It was signed by a committee of Patrick Walsh, Patrick Hogan, James Foley, John Foley and Michael Byrne, several names still common in the diocese.
After the exchange of several letters, in September, 1830, Father Joseph Lutz was sent to Galena and Prairie du Chien, Wis. When Father Lutz came to the territory that is now the Rockford Diocese, he was sent as a missionary.
The bishop of St. Louis sent the first regular pastor, Father John McMahon, to Galena on Aug. 22, 1832.
Source: 1924 Complete History Book of the Diocese of Rockford

Drawing of Galena in the19th Century.