As you may have guessed, it burned down. A very large church, it was a little community unto itself, with many outbuildings on the grounds and only the odd farm building nearby. The entire little community burned with the church, forcing the congregation of Irish Catholics to restart from the beginning when building this, their new church, in 1900. By that time the congregation had already shrunk in size, necessitating a somewhat smaller building. It is still a fairly large building, though, for a country church.
Well maintained and beautifully finished, St. William's has had all its detail work painted a contrasting black, the building itself being white. The majority of the windows have rounded arch tops, some with quatrefoil panes, all with rounded hoods, each bottom end finishing with a small square soldier. The front façade and the bell tower were given square topped windows with square hoods, again with the bottoms ending with square soldiers.
The tower, to us, is a bit unusual as, in our experience, the vast majority of Catholic Church towers are centred in the façade, this one being offset to a corner. Above two tiers of hooded square windows are double arched vents on each of the belfry's four sides. Above the belfry is a tall spire with flared eaves and a little metal cross atop. All around the church are black painted brackets under each eave, with pairs of larger, heavier brackets at each corner of the tower.
To the rear and the east side of the church is St. William's Cemetery, established in 1847, the year of establishment, and presumably the year of construction of the original church. Still in use, the cemetery has accepted something over 225 burials to date. The earliest known interment was that of Ellen McBride, daughter of Edward & Ellen McBride, who died in 1847.
St. Williams Roman Catholic Church was once a huge church, with a rectory called Sweeny Hall and many barns and back buildings until all were destroyed in the Great Fire of May, 1900 causing over $100,000.00 in damage. While the new church was being built, the congregation gathered for worship at the Baptist Church in West Quaco.
From Ruby Cusack