St. Peter's Church Jefferson

St. Peter's Church Jefferson. . The vicinity of Jefferson, even before the organization of Dakota Territory in 1861, was a French-Canadian community and Catholic services were held sporadically prior to the advent of Father Pierre Boucher in 1867. In 1862 a small log building north of the present church was used as a school house and church where services were held. Father Boucher had a pastorate extending over a vast area of Southeastern Dakota and about twenty-five French-Canadian families formed the nucleus of his congregation here. Soon after his coming, a large wooden church was built and served until 1890, when the present fine church was erected during the pastorate of Father Cyrille St. Pierre. Father Boucher died in 1900 at Quebec. The Reverend Charles F. Robinson was the pastor from 1894 until 1924 and he lies buried in the adjacent church yard, whose grave stones abound in the names of parishioners and tells a story of its own. In 1889 a school and convent were built and these were replaced by the present parochial school building in 1951. The large wooden cross in the cemetery is a replacement for the rude cross placed therein in May, 1876, when Father Boucher led a eleven mile pilgrimage, ending in the church yard at Jefferson, invoking divine aid against the besetting grasshopper plague., Erected in 1966 in memory of the Forest C. Roach Family.