Saint Joseph

Catholic Church

The Oldest Catholic Church of Saginaw Valley, established in 1850
 

EDUCATION

Dominican Sisters Arrive

As early as the 1850s, the parochial school had been conducted on the third floor of the Watson Block at the  foot of Center Avenue, with the Sisters of Charity of Mount St. Joseph, Ohio, in charge.  Because of their inability to speak French, they were replaced by three lay teachers: Miss Powell, Miss MacDonald and Pierre LaCroix.

By chance, Mother Mary Hyacinth of the Dominican Sisters of New York City rested at Bay City in 1881 during a trip to visit Traverse City, and Father Thibodeau asked her for sisters from her order to take over the task of teaching in his school. September 1882 brought Venerable Mother Aquinata, Sister M. Ignatius, Sister Leonarda, Sister M. Mannes, Sister M. George, and Sister M. Cherubim to the parish. 

The combination church and school at Second and Grant streets was dedicated in October of that year, and the north and south wings were used for school purposes. The classrooms on the ground floor opened into the church and frequently provided accommodations for the crowded Sunday services.  Instead of school desks, these rooms were equipped with two rows of pews, and during the week these same pews served as school desks with kneeling benches used for seats and the pews for desks.  When St. John church in Essexville was founded, the pews were no longer needed, and school desks were installed.

The sisters resided at a convent on Adams street, opposite the old St. Joseph church on Washington avenue, obliging them to walk seven blocks in the early morning to attend daily mass.  They had breakfast at the rectory, taught morning classes, lunched at the rectory, taught again until 4:30, then returned to their convent. 

This schedule was eased when the nuns moved into new quarters December 23, 1882, an addition to the east end of the church/school called “Head of the Cross.”  It comprised of  two rooms on the ground floor, a living room,  music room and an upper floor consisting of one room partitioned off by curtains.  A woodshed served as a kitchen, but another addition a year later gave the sisters three more rooms, a chapel, a dining room and an infirmary.  The old church on Washington was the site of the sisters’ annual retreats until 1886, and the parish was often the summer residence of those sisters who did not return to the East during the long vacation. 

 Mother Aquinata taught French to the higher classes and served as principal until 1884, when Sister Angela Phelan took her place and began the high school.   (Period Pieces, Mona Schwind, 1991)  Father Roth, C.S.Sp., the first Holy Ghost Father, who became pastor in 1888, introduced French as a second language into the grade school.

The school’s first commencement was held in 1889, and graduates were: Donelda LaLonde, who became a Dominican sister, Clara Groundin and Azilda LeRoux. In 1915-16, a  commercial department was added to the high school, offering accounting, secretarial and stenography classes.

The old quarters behind the church/school were razed and the sisters moved into a new convent on October 31, 1912.  It was a two-story house complete with plumbing and electricity built behind the church on the SW corner of Second and Farragut Streets.  This  second convent was moved  in  1941 to the NE corner of Third and Farragut to make room for the auditorium/gymnasium.

This congregation of Dominican Sisters whose motherhouse is at Marywood, Grand Rapids, Michigan, continued to serve St. Joseph Parish until 1996 when the elementary school closed.  However, Sister Maria Goretti Beckman, O.P., a former principal of St. Joseph School, returned in 1991 and  served as Pastoral Associate to the parish from 1999—2001.

After construction of the church was completed in 1911, organizations turned their efforts to raising funds for a new school.  This was done through subscriptions, picnics, fairs and social activities. Construction was started in April, 1917 on the grounds of the second church which had been razed.  (The  school section of this combination building was left standing, facing Second Street, and classes continued there until the new school was completed.)   The first classes were held in the modern structure of red brick, called “the finest in the city,” in September 1918.    It housed recreation rooms, an office, a library and rooms for primary, grammar and junior high classes, as well as commercial classes.  The first Parent-Teacher Association in Bay City was organized at St. Joseph by Father Eugene Caron in 1922, and through fundraisers, gave much material assistance to the school, purchasing typewriters, desks and classroom needs.  St. Joseph High School closed briefly in September, 1932, due to economic conditions.  It opened again to 9th and 10th graders in September 1933; to 11th graders in September 1934; and 1936 found it with full high school academic  and commercial classes.

New Elementary School – 1956

The high school served as headquarters for both high school and grade school students.  Conditions were crowded and unsatisfactory for the dual enrollment.  Several houses were purchased on North Farragut street across from the church and used to teach students of the lower grades, but a new and separate building was needed for elementary classes.   Permission was readily granted by His Excellency Most Rev. Stephen S. Woznicki, D.D. Bishop of Saginaw, to construct a new building for that purpose.  A special collection, known as the Building Fund, raised $88,000 for the purpose of purchasing and razing existing homes in the block between Second and Third streets, Farragut and Sherman streets. 

Construction for a new elementary school was begun April 17, 1956, and dedicated by Bishop  Woznicki on May 1, 1957.    The total cost of the new school was $263,000.  It included kindergarten through eighth grade and was staffed by the Dominican Sisters and lay teachers, assisted by 25 volunteers, a school board and a Home and School Association.  Extra-curricular activities included a hot lunch program, band, sports, Boy and Girl Scouts.  Dwindling enrollment and escalating costs caused the school to be closed in 1996 .  The building is now called the “Parish Center,” and is used for religious education classes for children in public schools, RCIA classes and parish meetings. 

All Saints Central High School

The orginal St. Joseph High School, built in 1917, was razed in 1971-72.  It had fallen into decline since 1968 when All Saints High School opened  for all students from the city and surrounding area at the campuses of Saint James and Saint Stanislaus.  The land is now part of the church parking lot behind the rectory.

PASTORS  and  PASTORAL ADMINISTRATORS

Early Pastors

                 After Father Joseph Kindekens, who served the parish from 1850-52, and Father H. J. H. Schutjes pastor from 1852-68,  St. Joseph was served by a rapid succession of priests.  Father G. V. Girard was pastor of the Washington avenue church from 1868-72, followed by Father H. Delbaire from 1872-73; Father M. G. Conters for a few months in 1873; Fathers V. Zarilli and I. J. Van Stralen, 1873-78;  Father F. Kemper, 1878-79; Fathers M. H. Schaeken and Joseph Ebert, 1879-80; Father J. M. Thibodeau, 1880-86; Father A. Vitali, 1886-87, and Father I. D. Guerin, 1887-88.

Holy Ghost Fathers Arrive

  In 1888 the parish was in dire straits financially and spiritually.   The congregation was burdened by a $6,000 debt incurred in the building of the second church by Father Thibodeau in 1880.  By 1888 the parish appeared doomed.  No priest could be found in the diocese willing to assume charge. 

At this juncture, Bishop Henry Richter of Grand Rapids heard of the success the Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritans) had achieved in Detroit’s French Canadian St. Jochim’s Parish.  He visited their Provincial Fr. Strub in Pittsburgh in 1888 and explained the situation.  Basically the French Canadians in Bay City were good people, but they needed a zealous French-speaking pastor who understood their mentality and who could help them “fight the world, the flesh and the devil” in the raw lumber town.  Thanks to the willingness of Fr. Joseph Roth to forego his leave and serve provisionally in Bay City, the Congregation took over on November 16, 1888. 

The Holy Ghost Fathers kept ledgers and journals written entirely in French from 1888 until 1920 when they began using English.  The first entry in the ledger dated July 10, 1888, is for a journey to  Grand Rapids... $29.00.  Another entry in December that year was for a “street car to Essexville...10 cents.”  The early handwriting is in beautiful Spenserian script.  The journal continued through 1982. 

Under Father Roth’s pastorate, the parish cleared the property of its $6,000 debt by 1894.  Father Roth left that year to become pastor of St. Joachim church in Detroit. While he  managed to clear the debts of St. Joseph parish, he did not completely succeed in ending the internal strife among the people.   That task was accomplished by his successors, Fr. John Dangelzer, C.S.Sp., and especially by his assistant, Fr. Francis Gres, C.S.Sp., who came to St. Joseph church on June 13, 1894.

Fathers Dangelzer and Gres worked tirelessly and successfully to overcome the ill feeling among the church members.  Work on a new rectory was begun on April 12, 1897, and the pastor and his assistant turned their attention to the church and the school, neither of which had so much as been painted in 14 years.  Despite the hard times then existent, $5,000 was spent in reconditioning the parish property, and the priests began the hard task of collecting funds for building a new church.

Father Gres succeeded Father Dangelzer as pastor in 1900, and under his direction the parish continued to flourish.  Baptisms and lawful marriages increased, and by 1904 the school had an enrollment of 370 pupils.  During his 46 years in the parish, a new church, school and convent were constructed.   He was assisted by Fathers Alphonse Coignard, Henry Thiefels and above all, Fr.  Vincent Kmiecinski, who arrived in 1925 and became pastor in 1938.

Father Kmiecinski, known affectionately as “Father George Vincent,” remained in the parish until 1958, when he was assigned to Sacred Heart church in Emsworth, Pennsylvania.  During Fr. Vincent’s pastorate, four major physical projects were completed: the Athletic Field, Village Hall, auditorium-gymnasium and elementary school.

Another popular Holy Ghost (Spiritan) was Father Leonard Tuozollo, an assistant pastor in the 1960’s.  Parishioners petitioned the Provincial of the Spiritans to allow him to remain in Bay City, but their efforts were unsuccessful.  In 1971 he was appointed Vocational Director of  the order and later assigned to a parish in New York City.

Holy Ghost Fathers Leave St. Joseph - 1995

After serving St. Joseph parish for 107 years, from 1888-1995, the Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritans) left for the same reason they had come: a “personnel shortage.” “Over the years they supplied 15 pastors and some 60 assistants, and turned the original tottering church, surrounded by a sea of mud and riven by factions, into a beautiful inner-city church serving a vigorous congregation of people united in the faith,” according to the Rev. Henry J. Koren, C.S.Sp., a Spiritan historian. 

Fr. Koren quotes from a letter from Bishop Stephen Woznicki to Provincial Fr. Francis McGlynn written a few years before Fr. Vincent left St. Joseph:

“The Fathers have won the affection and esteem of the laity and of the diocesan clergy.  Frequently I hear my priests remark on the fine spirit of cooperation always shown by the Holy Ghost Fathers in Bay City.  In view of the splendid record, it does not seem right that your Congregation has no protection there, no document of formal commitment (so that any less well-disposed bishop could simply dismiss them without any ado).  We feel that it is only fair to your religious that they be granted as great a degree of permanency as possible---the better to show our appreciation of their labors.” Accordingly, the Holy See granted permanency at the Bishop’s request in 1956.

Fifteen Holy Ghost Fathers served as pastors at St. Joseph.  They were:  Francis J. Roth (1888-95); John N. Dangelzer (1895-1900);  Francis H. Gres (1900-1932); Peter Zell (1932-1938); Vincent G. Kmiecinski (1938-1958); Joseph Murphy (adm) (1958-1959); Francis J. Trotter, (1958-1963); Alphonse Favre (1963-69); Siegfried O. Eckert (1969-1975); John McHugh (1975-1983); John P. Skaj (1983-1987); Joseph Brennan (1987-1988); Christopher McDermott (1988-1993); Egbert Figaro (1993-1994), Martin Conroy (1994-1995).  Some sixty Holy Ghost Fathers also served as assistants.

A farewell mass for the Holy Ghost Fathers was celebrated June 25, 1995 at 10 a.m. and a reception followed in the gymnasium.  Bishop Kenneth Untener, the pastor, Father Martin J. Conroy, C.S.Sp., and assistant pastor, Fr. John Marini, C.S.Sp., as well as many former priests who had served at St. Joseph, presided at the Solemn High Mass which was attended by civic leaders, present and former parishioners.  It was a gala, yet nostalgic affair. 

Pastoral Care and Administration Reverts Back to the Diocese of Saginaw

Bishop Untener appointed Father Raymond S. Fron, a diocesan priest, as pastor of St. Joseph.  He began his duties July 18, 1995, and continued to serve the parish until his death in 2002.  During his tenure as pastor (in 1998) Fr. Fron, along with Fr. Dale Orlik, pastor of St. Boniface parish and Fr. Thomas McNamara, pastor of St. John the Evangelist parish in Essexville, initiated the process of forming a cluster among the three parishes.  The “cluster” concept was the result of a task force set up by Bishop Kenneth Untener in 1998.  It came out of “Companions on the Journey,” a program in the early 1990’s.  Bishop Ken asked the parishes how they could share resources  in the event of a shortage of priests and smaller parishes.  Each vicariate submitted a plan out of which the diocesan concept came.  Fr. Thomas Sutton led the diocesan process and Fr. James Heller, vicar, spearheaded the Vicariate 8 plan.  After Fr. Fron’s death, Bishop Untener appointed Sister Gail A. Addis, I.H.M. as Pastoral Administrator and Sister Joanne Witucki, I.H.M as Pastoral Associate.  Fr. Orlik and Fr. McNamara served as sacramental ministers to the parish.  Upon Fr. McNamara’s new pastoral assignment, Fr. Patrick O’Connor was named pastor of St. John Parish and sacramental minister to St. Joseph.  The collaboration continues to serve the parish today.

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