This history is taken from a history compiled in 1971 for its 100th anniversary.
This booklet marking the 100th anniversary of St. Casimir’s Parish is a vivid reminder of the Church’s influence in this particular section of the vineyard of Christ. For many of you, especially those who have lived here since birth, this commemoration will take on special meaning as you recall fond memories of ancestors and by-gone days.
For all of us, it should be a reminder that, in our time and in our particular way, we too are called to be the people of God. By faithfully bearing witness to His gospel, we continue to form the church in our day.
We look to the past then that we may not forget our benefactors in the faith, for we are truly joined with them, with Christ and with one another in one bond of union. This is the real reason for our celebration. Finally, we look also to the future, hoping one day to find the true and final meaning of our life and death in the risen life with Christ.
The pages of history are filled with the dates and deeds of men and women whose lives, for some reason, have merited remembrance. For most of us, history has come to mean merely the recounting of "important" events and the biographies of "important" people. Yet we know that these people are only a select few of the countless millions who have walked the earth before us.
When we delve into the stories of our own families, our own neighborhood and parish, we realize how greatly our lives have been influenced by our parents, teachers and pastors, for each of us continues to carry the memories of the past, even while busily involved in the affairs of the present moment. In a way, our knowledge of the past becomes a kind of "experience" of the past and we begin to sense our own participation in the long and continuing creation of God. In His eyes, our lives are no less dramatic or important than those who preceded us because we too are the "makers of history."
The first Catholic mission west of Lake Michigan was established in 1670 by the French Jesuit missionary Father Claude Allouez. His small mission-outpost was situated at modern-day De Pere, Wis., just a few miles from what is now Green Bay. For many years before the territory became part of the United States, it was included in the vast diocese of Montreal. The efforts of these early French missionaries have been carefully recorded in the "Jesuit Relations," a priceless chronicle of information in which we find their own personal accounts of work among the Indians.
While the history of the church in Wisconsin covers a period of 300 years, it is only in the last one hundred years or so that we have witnessed the rapid growth of so many established parishes, especially in our immediate Portage County area. Again, the story of the Church and the events of the time are so interrelated, that together they form one fascinating history.
Prior to 1836, the land on which St. Casimir’s Parish is built was claimed by the Menomonie Indians. In that year a considerable tract of wilderness, 48 miles in length and three miles wide on either side of the Wisconsin River, was ceded to the U. S. Government by the Menomonies, an arrangement which came to be known as the Three Mile Survey or the "Indian Strip" It included approximately 185,000 acres, running from a point near Nekoosa to the mouth of the Eau Claire River in Schofield. Three years later, in 1839, a certain Joshua Hathaway was commissioned to make a survey of this newly acquired territory. Almost immediately, the lumbermen took advantage of this legality to gain access to the great stands of pine timber on the upper Wisconsin River. When viewing this stretch of the river today, with only an occasional fisherman or pleasure-boat in sight, it is difficult to imagine that in the 1850’s and 1860’s this was the scene of teeming activity, of logging operations and steamboats making their daily runs between Stevens Point and Mosinee, probably stopping at the trading post of John Baptiste DuBay south of Knowlton.
Following the agreement with the Indians in 1836 pioneer families from New England and the Ohio Valley began to settle in Portage County. They were followed in the 1850’s and ‘60’s by immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland, from the Scandinavian countries, Germany and Poland. The first Polish immigrant to settle in Portage County was Michael Koziczkowski, who arrived in the Stevens Point area in 1857 and later settled in Polonia. A great number of Polish immigrants followed, especially in the 1870’s and by 1910 they had settled in the townships of Dewey, Hull, Sharon and Alban. Our own township of Hull was organized in 1858.
The founding families of St. Casimir’s Parish were predominantly of Polish ancestry and many of their descendants continue to be members of the parish down to the present time. Because of the strong influence of the Polish language, culture and religious customs, the parish has continued to preserve a distinct form of Catholicism, which is common to many of the parishes in this area.
The following biography of Father Joseph Dabrowski, founding pastor, and the history of St. Casimir’s parish have been prepared from several sources, which are quoted here almost verbatim. While the information, in some instances, may be repetitious, it was decided to include the several accounts in order that none of the details would be omitted.