St. Marie/Princeton Catholic Church

Marquette County, WI

Transcribed by Joan Benner for the Marquette Co WI Pages

Source: excerpts from The Trail of the Serpent: The Fox River Valley Lore and Legend, 
by Robert E. Gard and Elaine Reetz, pages 90 and 92. Page 91 has a photo of the St. Marie's church.

St. Marie was pioneered by Colonel John Shaw in 1846. Colonel Shaw, one of the 
earliest and most prominent pioneers in the area, considered the site he chose for 
St. Marie as the best crossing place on the Fox (river), a point where it was thought 
trade and travel of the surrounding country would eventually center. An 1860 map of 
Green Lake County shows that the plat (recorded June 28, 1851) indicated thirty buildings. 
In 1860, 198 votes were cast in St. Marie, 98 at Hamilton and 298 in the village of 
Princeton. A marsh at the west side of the river was said to have been where Father 
Marquette erected a wooden cross and conducted worship services for the Indians, and a 
Catholic church was built at St. Marie that became an important pilgramage church until 
1909.

In 1909 the Rev. Charles M. Olson wrote in the Catholic record book: "The Rev. Archbishop 
allowed dismantling of old St. Marie church for the benefit of St. Patrick's of Princeton. 
Pictures and statues were transferred to St. Patrick's. The old brick was sold and proceeds 
were used in building a new barn for the priest's horses, new cement platform and walk." 
St. Patrick Church was built in 1873 in Princeton, an outgrowth of St. Marie. Today it is a 
storage building (in 1973). 

Source: Princeton's Centennial Book � 1973, courtesy of Gary E. Wick, Princeton Historical Society
..."the St. Marie (Catholic) church was attended from Montello by Fathers O'Malley, Fagan, 
Larmer, etc. I attended from 1892 to 1898, then Rev. Schwartzmeyer, then priest at Neshkoro 
or Princeton." ---Rev. J. J. Holzknecht, Pulaski






Back to the Marquette Pages Menu