Shared History

The story begins to form about the year 1800 A.D. in  far off Europe, wars and political intrigue cause many peace-loving people to make the long ocean voyage to a promising new country, the United States. German Catholic immigrants, recently arrived from trouble Europe and set out to investigate the possibilities of homesites in the much heralded region at the head of the Genesee Valley.  By 1830 a sizeable group struggled with the soil or busied themselves in the forests, harvesting the tall trees for lumber in the area near Dansville, NY.   There was main route traveled southward through Perkinsville to Bath and then along the waterways of the Cohocton and Susquehanna Rivers which transported grain and lumber eastward. However, the settlers happiness was not complete as their strong religious natures felt keenly the lack of spiritual guidance as their community never had a priest.  Many of them made the fifty mile journey to Rochester, in order to hear Mass and to have their children baptized.  In 1935, a 31 year old Redemptorist Missionary, Father Joseph Prost, became aware of the sad plight of the German Catholics

while visiting Rochester and late wrote a letter to the Leopold Foundation in Vienna on their behalf.  He also came back in the year 1936 and visited the German Catholics in Dansville in their homes and was the first priest to come to the community.  Though his visit was brief, he assured the people that the Redemptorist Fathers would come again and inspired the German Catholics of happier times ahead.

Soon, in the forests on Sandy Hill, these German Catholics began cutting down trees to build their first Catholic Church by themselves log by log, with a crude wooden cross raised above it.  It was here, one year later in 1837, that Father Peter Schackert, also a Redemptorist priest, found the German Catholics when he visited.  The Sandy Hill Church is reputed to have been dedicated to “Our Lady of Sorrows” and ministered to the German Catholics from the Sandy Hill Area, Dansville Village, Perkinsville, Wayland, Cohocton and Bath.

The log church has long since gone to ashes, but a sturdy stone cross remains still marking its former location.  The Sandy Hill congregation eventually became part of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, when a new church was built in Perkinsville in 1851.  In the spring of 1845, ground was broken for the foundation of St. Mary Church in Dansville. Years later on February 2, 1860, Bishop Joseph Timon, (Buffalo Diocese) gave permission for construction of a mission church in Cohocton, NY. Finally, after many years of traveling to Perkinsville for Mass, in 1880, the Wayland community decided that they needed a church of their own and began construction of St. Joseph Church.

Histories of our Individual Churches  (coming soon)

St. Mary Church, Dansville, NY                                     St. Joseph Church, Wayland, NY

Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Perkinsville, NY     St. Pius V, Cohocton, NY

Mission Statement: