St. Joseph Catholic Church - Josephville, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 50.591 W 090° 47.770
15S E 691264 N 4301682
Old Church in this small town, no longer an actual town, but a residence community, and farming.
Waymark Code: WMTE79
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 11/10/2016
Views: 1
County of church: St. Charles County
Location of church: 1390 Josephville Rd., Josephville
Phone: (636) 332-6676
Pastor: Reverend Robert Samson
Congregation Founded: 1852
Church built: 1872
Mass Schedule
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m.
Tuesday: 7:00 p.m.
Saturday: 5:15 p.m.
Sunday: 7:30 a.m. & 10:00 a.m.
First Saturday Mass: 9:00 a.m.
Some History of the Parish:
The community now known as Josephville began in the early l800s as a mail stop and mercantile known as Schmuckers Store in Allen’s Prairie. The land was ceded through a Federal Grant under President Martin Van Buren by Joseph Allen in about 1837. Allen settled on a farm and, along with a group of other French and English settlers from the Virginias, made improvements to the land, erected buildings, then sold the land and moved on. The majority of permanent settlers were German immigrants who were able to purchase the land for $1.25 per acre.
One of these immigrants was Anton Kersting, who purchased the Allen property. In 1848 a parish began to organize when Kersting held church services in his log home, a home which stands today on Hwy P. It was about this time that the area began to be known as Josephville.
In 1852 Kersting donated 10 acres of farmland to the congregation for a parish. A log church, 26 by 59 feet, was constructed. The first pastor of record was Father John Beotzkes. The first baptism occurred in 1857 with the christening of Gerald Brune, son of Christopher Brune and Katherine Kuhlmann.
Father Theodore Krainhardt came to Josephville in 1868, and in 1870 the cornerstone for a new church was laid. Construction continued through 1872.
St. Joseph Church has been referred to as “the oldest homemade church in the area". This is because clay for the bricks was dug from “the brick yard pond,” an area of red clay on the farm located across the road from the church. The bricks were baked “on the spot” on Leonard Rothermich’s farm at a cost of $4 per thousand. Lumber for the church floors and communion rail came from the trees of parishioners’ farms.
Local masons and carpenters performed the work, and on October 6, 1872, the new church was dedicated by Rev. Henry Muehlsiepen, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. Louis." ~ Rome of the West