History: First Church

Parish History: Original Church Building

In the spring of 1887 the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie, and Atlantic Railway, later known as the Soo Line, was expanding eastward across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to enable grain shipments to reach the eastern seaboard. Heading east from Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, the new line reached the shores of Lake Michigan at the present site of Gladstone.

Richard Mason and F. H. VanCleve donated 160 acres of an area known as Saunders Point to the railway with the agreement that a port would be developed at the site. This land would grow into the city of Gladstone, and teams from the Sault Ste. Marie Land Company were soon busy platting the property.

Beginning as little more than a convenient location for a harbor, within a year the new town had a population of 1,800 people. Many of the new residents were Catholics who were seeking employment and a place to raise their families. Most were immigrant families, beginning with Irish and French-Canadian families, then Belgian immigrants, and finally Croatians after the turn of the 20th century.

The Franciscan Fathers of St. Joseph’s Church in Escanaba, at the time serving missions ranging from Ford River to Lathrop, began to minister to the needs of Gladstone’s Catholic population. Mass was occasionally offered in a local boarding house or parlor, and the first recorded baptism was that of Polycarp Portelance on June 20, 1887.

The new community soon began efforts to build their own church, and a fund was established in 1888. A building committee was established in October of that year to plan the new structure. By March 16, 1889 plans were finalized to purchase Lots 5, 6, and 7 from the Sault Ste. Marie Land Company. The church would be built on Lot 5, located at what is today 1215 Michigan Avenue. The men of the congregation began construction under the supervision of Andrew Z. White (LeBlanc), a local contractor and church member. The original church was finished by the summer of 1889, a small frame structure completed at a cost of around $1,500.

For the first months of operation the new church was served by the Franciscan Fathers, who witnessed three weddings and performed twenty-one baptisms. Mary Agnes, daughter of Eugene and Virginia Gableau, was the first person baptized in the new church on November 6, 1889. The congregation of the parish was persistent in petitioning for their own priest, and Bishop Vertin eventually assigned Fr. Fidelis Sutter as the first pastor. The church was dedicated on May 4, 1890 in honor of St. Fidelis, the pastor’s patron saint. The pastor of St. Fidelis also served the mission in Lathrop until 1896.

In 1890 a rectory was built on Lot 6, a more impressive structure than the small church. The parishioners continued to pay for the cost of the church and rectory through subscriptions, fairs, and parish dinners.

On December 15, 1891 the third pastor of the parish, Fr. Rezek, arrived in Gladstone. He began to utilize the sacristy of the church as a workshop, and with chisel and knife began to craft a main altar for the church. The resulting piece was beautiful enough to be retained when the second church was built.