DAVIESS COUNTY, Indiana
"At St. Peter's and St. Mary's Churches, in Daviess County, under Father Lalumiere, school continued to be taught intermittently even after the Sisters (of Charity from Kentucky) withdrawal." Burns: Princ. etc. p. 351, 1824
"It is perhaps idle today to go back earlier than 1819 to find any Catholics in Daviess County. True, priests and religious passed through enroute from Louisville to Vincennes and back, but to dwell on these would be no more fruitful of satisfactory results than to claim that a certain old converted Indian chief, who was camped with his tribe on the banks of the White River about 1795, and who used to attend Mass at Vincennes, was the first Catholic in the county. To leave the merely hypothetical and come down to the authentical, and not to narrow the honors too much, the Murphys and the Spinks at Washington, and the Montgomerys at Black Oak Ridge, were the first Catholic settlers in Daviess County . . . .
"The first church in the County was the rude log one put up at Black Ridge; the second was the log at St. Mary's. The great majority of the Catholic population are those who came from Kentucky or Ireland. The Germans stand next as to numbers, though they are quite modern as to date of settlement . . . . The first settlers were attracted to these counties because of the rich lands for sale at a very low price. This "land craze" as it may be called, gave rise entirely to St. Joseph's, St. Peter's, and St. Mary's parishes and largely to that of Mt. Pleasant . . . ." 1819
"St. Mary's, Daviess County, was visited in 1828 by the Rev. Simon P. Lalumiere . . . .A few days after (Nov. 6, 1834) I went with Rev. Lalumiere to visit his two missions -- first to St. Peter's and then to St. Mary's." 1834
"Maurice Healey was a lad of ten years when he came to Daviess County with his parents . . . He was educated in a primitive log school house, which was heated by a wood fire, the fuel for which was supplied by the boys themselves, each boy in turn being detailed to chop the wood in the neighboring forest. The rod of birch was freely used for the purpose of keeping order among the pupils; the seats were constructed of split logs, the under, or rounded, sides of which were filled with auger holes, into which were driven pegs, which answered the purpose of legs, while the writing desk, constructed of similar material, extended the whole length of the room and was secured to the wall with wooden pegs also, and propped in front by legs similar to those of the benches." Blanchard, Vol. 2, p. 702, HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN INDIANA, 1898
St. Mary's, Daviess County, Logootee, first church in county erected in 1834, seven years before the Congregation of Holy Cross came to country. 1834