Holy Angels Parish, Sandusky, unveiled and dedicated an Ohio Historical Marker at its church on Sunday, June 26.
Photo gallery of the dedication and unveiling
The cornerstone of Holy Angels Church was laid October 13, 1841, and the church building was completed and dedicated to the Triune God and His Holy Angels in 1845. Parishioners constructed the church by hand, hauling stone from nearby quarries and preparing local timber. The bell in the tower was brought from Toledo in 1846 with the aid of a team of oxen traveling through forests and fields before the days of public roads.
Holy Angels Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is the oldest existing church building in the Diocese of Toledo.
The Ohio Historical Markers program, begun in the 1950s, encompasses over 1,500 unique markers that tell the state's history as written by its communities. Markers are erected by local community sponsors in partnership with the Ohio History Connection and describe the people, places, things and events of Ohio's past. Between 20-30 new markers are completed each year.
The Ohio Historical Marker at Holy Angels Church was paid for by a generous grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. William Pomeroy is a New York businessman who has been paying for historical markers in New York and also funds programs that support people dealing with blood cancer. Mr. Pomeroy has family connections to North Central Ohio and, in 2014, began providing funds for historical markers in Erie, Huron, and Seneca Counties in Ohio.
Text of the Ohio Historical Marker at Holy Angels Church
Holy Angels Catholic Church is the mother church of Sandusky. Reverend Joseph P. Machebeuf, a French Missionary, began ministering to Catholics in the Sandusky area in late 1839. Soon after, William H. Mills offered five lots, $530, and the materials needed to build a church. Father Machebeuf laid the cornerstone on October 13, 1841, and services were held in 1842. By Christmas of 1845, the building was complete, the steeple added, and the bell installed. The congregation was mostly Irish emigrants. In 1855, as more Germans settled nearby, they built St. Mary’s Mother of Sorrows Church. The city’s expansion prompted the building of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, in 1871. Holy Angels became a mission church of Sts. Peter and Paul until 1875, when Holy Angels was assigned its own pastor and reopened.
Posted July 1, 2016 at 1:57 pm