Bancroft, IA - St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

On November 17, 1887, Father Michael Nicholls was appointed pastor of the Algona parish with Bancroft as an out mission. As there was no church, arrangements were made to have Mass in the east room of the public school, starting on December 11, 1887. June 20, 1890 a committee consisting of Father Nicholls, John B. Mousel, George Holloway, William Klein and Thomas Engesser was elected to build a church. A debt limit of $1,000 was set. the lot was purchased for $500 from the railroad. It is the site of the present church. The first church was thirty-six feet wide, sixty feet long and had no gallery or spire. The cemetery was acquired in 1891. Thomas Holland of Seneca was the first to be buried there, October 3, 1891. The first statuary was erected under Father Fisch. This was replaced in 1977 by Mr. and Mrs. Leander Menke. In 1893 the parish rectory was built. The church was enlarged in 1895, two bells were purchased and a ninety foot spire added. By 1915 the congregation had outgrown its church and a new $75,000 brick edifice was erected. The first Mass in the new church was celebrated on December 25, 1915. A brick rectory for the priests was completed in 1958 at a cost of $71,000.