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The
early settlement by Mathurin Bouvet in the Brush Creek parish area
and the founding of Brush Creek parish took place before Missouri
was admitted to the Union in 1821. The beginning of the settlement
was in 1792, when Mathurin Bouvet found a saline spring that bore
his name for many years. Following the war of the American
Revolution, Thomas Whitington, a young Virginian, who had fought
in the 19th Division, led a colony of Catholics from his home in
Virginia, near the Kentucky line, in a trip filled with hardships
to Cahokia, Ill., where a Catholic
mission had been established. In the spring of 1813 the group
continued their trek up the Mississippi River until they reached
Salt River, continuing up that body of water to a place called Cincinnati,
where they found settlements on or near the river in the community
known as St. Paul.
In
1823, an arrangement was made with the St. Louis Province of the
Society of Jesus, which had just been founded in Florissant, for a
priest to serve the settlers in the St. Paul area.
The
first resident pastor of St. Paul was appointed, Father Van
Krieganbaum, in 1829. With the emigration of more Catholic
families from Virginia and Kentucky, it was difficult for all to
attend mass at St. Paul, due to the river being unfordable.
On
March 8, 1845, a deed was recorded on the records at New London,
for transfer of two and one-half acres of land to Peter H. Kendric,
Bishop of the St. Louis Diocese, for the use and benefit of the
Roman Catholic congregation north of Salt River.
The
first building was a small structure of native lumber, and served
the congregation for several years. Martin Hogan, an Irish
emigrant, who knew the art of cutting and fitting stones,
constructed the present church in 1862.
The
Right Reverend Monsignor Edward Connolly has served the parish
since 1919.
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