The History of the Saint Margaret Mary Parish Family

Our Pre-History

Saint Margaret Mary Parish in Algonquin comprises one of the oldest settlements along the Fox River in McHenry County. The original plot for the village was drawn up in 1836 and adopted in 1844. A large Bohemian settlement had been founded by that time and thus Catholic services first began in 1845. The Bohemians settled along the river in both Cary and Fox River Grove. They established Saint John Nepomucene Church on North River Road, the first Catholic church that was erected in our vicinity. By the mid-1880's, Algonquin, which had started out first as Cornish's Ferry and then as Osceola, was an established resort area. Its growth was matched by an increase in the number of Catholic families. For more information on the Village of Algonquin's history, please visit The Village of Algonquin website.

The Early Priests

Missionaries were the first to provide convenient services for Algonquin area Catholics. In the later part of the 19th century, Father Joseph Molitor, pastor of the first Bohemian parish (Blessed Agnes) in Chicago, regularly visited Algonquin. In 1911, Bishop Peter J. Muldoon provided Algonquin with twice a month services by the appointment of Father P. J. Hogan, a hospital chaplain from Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin, to that duty. Mass was celebrated by Father Hogan in Kelahan's Hall, located at 329 Jefferson Street at the corner of Railroad and Jefferson Streets just north of the Northwestern Railway tracks. That building stood until the early 1970's. (It remained an empty lot until the old Lutheran Parsonage was moved onto the property when Saint John Lutheran built their new activity center). Kelegan Hall, where mass was first said in Algonquin, is pictured as the white building in the lower center of this picture.