Excerpt from "History of Wilbraham"        (pgs. 30 - 33)

When Collins Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1872, many Catholic workers migrated to Wilbraham. Mr. Lynch’s home became too small. A building known as Liberty Hall, on the site of the present American Legion headquarters in North Wilbraham was secured by Father Sullivan of Palmer from Joseph Baldwin, the non-Catholic owner. Father Thomas Sullivan had succeeded Father Lynch on July 1, 1878, and it was Father Sullivan who had the task of building the church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Palmer, and also had charge of the Catholic cemetery in Palmer where many former North Wilbraham residents are interred.

In 1891 Warren Collins, a non-Catholic, gave the land on which the first Catholic Church in Wilbraham was built. The Catholic population now numbered 300, and a Mass was now said regularly each Sunday and confessions were heard once a month. The pastor at this time was Reverend William H. Hart who had been assigned to St. Thomas and Apostle in Palmer in June of 1889. Since the Palmer Catholic community needed a curate besides the pastor, the curate was usually assigned to North Wilbraham. Because travel was difficult, the curate usually brought his breakfast with him to eat after Mass. The first curate to serve in North Wilbraham was the Rev. Thomas Donoghue (1892 to 1905). Other curates who served Father Hart were Rev. P.J. Carey (1903 to 1905); Rev. F. A. Lane (1905 to 1910); Rev. Michael J. O’Connell (1911 to 1913); Rev. John E. Welch (1913 to 1914), who later became Jesuit; Rev. John C. McMahon (1914 to 1915); Rev. Daniel E. Hennessey, newly ordained (1915 to 1916) and who was later to return as pastor; Rev. Francis A. Kelly (1916 to 1918); and Rev. John J. Morrissey.

The Altar Table

The First Church