St. Peter's Catholic Church is a parish of the
Diocese of Sioux Falls based in
Jefferson, South Dakota
Jefferson is a city in Union County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 475 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Sioux City, IA- NE-SD Metropolitan Statistical Area. Jefferson was founded in 1859. Every year the citizens of Jef ...
. Its church building at 400 Main Street was built in 1891 and was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1989.
Since July 2014, St. Peter's is pastorally linked with the parishes of
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in
Dakota Dunes and St. Joseph's in
Elk Point in the
Yankton deanery
A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...
, part of a sweeping reorganization of the diocese.
History
The town of Jefferson was settled in 1859, predominantly by French Canadians. Catholic services were held occasionally before the arrival of the first permanent priest, Father Pierre Boucher, in 1867. A small log building to the north of the present church had been used as a schoolhouse and chapel since 1862. Father Boucher was responsible for a pastorate which extended across the Southeastern Dakota Territory, centered on the 25 French-Canadian families in Jefferson. The adjacent churchyard contains a large wooden cross, the replacement for a rude cross erected in May, 1876, when Father Boucher led an eleven-mile pilgrimage, ending in the churchyard at Jefferson, invoking divine aid against the besetting grasshopper plague. Father Boucher died in 1900 in Quebec.
Soon after the arrival of Father Boucher, a large wooden church was built and served until 1890, when the current church was erected, during the pastorate of Father Cyrille St. Pierre. In 1889 a school and convent were built and these were replaced by the present parochial school building in 1951.
The Rev. Charles F. Robinson was the pastor from 1894 until 1924 and he is buried in churchyard.
References
External links
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St. Joseph, and St. Peter Linked Parishes website
Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota
Romanesque Revival church buildings in South Dakota
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1891
Churches in Union County, South Dakota
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota
National Register of Historic Places in Union County, South Dakota
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States
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