The first Catholic Mass in Jefferson's recorded history was said in 1863 by a French-born, Irish-educated missionary, Father Jean Marie Giraud., in the home of a parishioner. At that time, his tiny flock numbered twenty-two. In 1866, Father Giraud purchased two lots at the corner of Polk and Lafayette Streets from Mr. James Murphy for $500; Mr. Allen Urquhart deeded a third lot for $1.00; by September, 1867, the church was completed with money sent from Lyon, France, and named Immaculate Conception. In a letter to "Monchere cousin", dated September 2, 1867, Father Giraud said, "Joy fills my heart. Our church is finished and we are having Mass -- my flock is small -- about 50." Jefferson, like all of Texas, was in the Galveston diocese at that time. and the presumption is that His Excellency Bishop C. M. Dubuis dedicated the church during his visit in May, 18.68.
An Altar Society was soon formed to address the practical needs of the church. Records of the altar society's earliest meetings name many members of founding families and describe events such a weddings, funerals, baptisms and other community celebrations. This altar society has continued to serve the parish throughout the years.
Father Giraud returned to France in 1868 and obtained $6,000 from the French Society of the Propagation of the Faith to found a school in Jefferson. The next year he purchased a private home built in 1862 by Robert W. Nesmith, a contractor of stage lines. The two-story structure at the corner of Henderson and Market Streets subsequently served the community as a Catholic convent and school. Six nuns from Mother Seton's Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, were sent to staff the school, and on October 18, 1869, St. Mary's School opened with five pupils, three of which were Protestants. By Christmas, enrollment had grown to approximately fifty children. The sisters also operated a hospital behind the building for about 18 months.
On May 3, 1870, the parish sold the property at Polk and Lafayette on which the church structure stood. Mr. W. H. Ward, who bought the property, then sold to the parish three lots comprising a quarter block at the corner of Vale and Lafayette - one block west of the original site. (It is believed that the first site proved unsuitable because of its location on a downtown corner, facing a busy and noisy thorough-fare which led directly to the river wharves.) The church was hitched to teams of oxen and dragged over logs to its present site!
Father Thomas Hennessy replace Father Giraud as pastor in 1872; he was succeeded by Father Pierre Marie Dumont.
With the decline of Jefferson's steamboat economy, financial problems brought the closing of the school; yet the labors of the Sisters of Charity were not without great fruits: their pupils had been the children of many of the leading citizens of the town, Protestants and Jews as well as Catholics. In 1875, the two story convent-hospital-school was sold to the Sinai Hebrew Congregation.
In 1883, Father Pierre Francois Chandy of Lyons, France, became the fourth pastor of Immaculate Conception. He built a two-story frame building next to the church on Vale Street. Four sisters from St. Agnes Convent, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, opened St. Joseph's Academy in that building in 1884, with twenty-two pupils; but this academy closed in 1888 due to declining population and loss of river trade. Father Marie Joseph Granger re-opened the school in September 1891, re-named it "St. Mary's" and staffed it with four Sisters of Divine Providence. Seventy children attended, but this school also closed in 1897.
From 1910 thru most of the 20th century, Jefferson's small parish became one of many East Texas missions. The Jesuit Fathers came from Shreveport to celebrate Mass each Sunday until 1924, when Father Lawrence Leutkemeyer, (know to his flock a Father Meyer) pastor of St. Anthony's in Longivew, assumed the parish into his mission. While he ministered to Immaculate Conception, a parish hall was built in 1956 with no unpaid debt upon its completion.
Jefferson's first resident pastor in the 20th century was Father John O'Rourke from June 29, 1951, to only September 25, 1952, after which it returned to mission status, being served by administrators of St. Joseph's Church in Marshall under Father Meyer and later by the Glenmary Home Missioners.
In 1967, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church celebrated its centennial with a restoration and installation of stained-glass windows through the generosity of Mrs. Mary Ragley Schluter Saner, a former parishioner. At that time Immaculate Conception was one of 232 Texas churches listed in the American Historical Buildings Survey as having architecture worthy of preservation. It was one of eighty-three Jefferson buildings which had been awarded the State Historical Medallion and was the oldest church structure in the Dallas Diocese. Mrs. Saner continued as benefactress to the church by leaving a legacy upon her death in 1977 which later became the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Jefferson Texas Foundation.
Tragedy struck the community and the parish on Sunday evening, January 5, 1992, when fire entirely destroyed the lovely little church. The ornate cross which had crowned the original structure was saved when the steeple fell and now stands atop the rebuilt church. The altar stone, charred but intact, has been incorporated into the present altar. A new church was dedicated on May 19, 1996, as testimony to the Catholic history in Jefferson and a commitment to its future.
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church has proudly sent into the service of God, two sisters and a priest: Sister Mary Angele (Regina Whelan) to the Sisters of Providence, Sister Marie Louise (Jess Wise) to the Carmelite Sisters, and Msgr. Thomas S. Zachry, who served in the Dallas and Ft. Worth dioceses.
*Information complied from the archival records of Mrs. Mamie Ballauf Goldberg and Mrs. Katherine Ramsay Wise.