The history of the Diocese of Superior dates back to the 17th century. Our Journey Through Faith offers a glimpse into the historic events that played a role in the growth of Catholicism in Northern Wisconsin. Diocese of Superior - Statistics
Our Journey through Faith: A History of the Diocese of Superior,
View the summary from the last Parish self-assessment questionnaire conducted in 2012.
Read the 98-page Executive Report 2013 (PDF)
In the early 1890s, Fr. Konstanty Frydrychowicz, placed an advertisement of "land for sale" in Polish newspapers of the coal mining towns of Pennsylvania. He had heard of land in northern Wisconsin with rich soil and big timber. The families that followed him to Strickland found that the land had been stripped of its timber, but with no resources to move elsewhere, they farmed the new land. The Polish Catholic community set out to build a church. They purchased five acres of land on May 28, 1895, from Chippewa Logging Company for $1. An additional 15 acres were purchased in 1900. The original church was constructed on the land in 1896. Records show that Fr. Frydrychowicz served the community he brought to Wisconsin at least until the end of July 1897. Assumption church listed 90 families in 1920. On Sunday, June 17, 1923, the church burned. According to the Ladysmith News, Fr. Charles Feeny of Ladysmith had celebrated 11 a.m. Mass and shortly after 1 p.m. a neighbor saw flames shooting up above the sacristy. A number of parishioners, still visiting after the services, succeeded in saving the vestments. Services were held in the Halas' Dance Hall and Saloon after the fire until the new church was built. Parishioners built a new church at a cost of $5,452.16. Today, the old town of Strickland is long disappeared, but the church and the descendants of the Polish settlers brought over by Fr. Frydrychowicz remain. The church still remembers its Polish heritage and the parish's annual picnic brings many of its former parishioners home.
REFERENCE: Our Journey through Faith: A History of the Diocese of Superior,
by Sam Lucero, 2005.