Part VIII

1923 saw a replacement of two of the clergy leaders of the parishes. In February, Father Leo Meyer was appointed to succeed Father Jordan as pastor at Saint Mary, Help of Christians, and in April, Father John Puskar was named Administrator of Saint Mark Parish. The new school at Saint Mary was dedicated in September that year, having sixteen classrooms and a seating capacity for 800 students. Father Puskar did not stay long and was replaced in 1924 by Father Joseph Vrhunec.
 
March 1925 was an important month for two of the parishes. A new pipe organ was installed at Saint Mark, while Father Robaczewski was replaced by Father Francis Poszukanis as pastor of Saints Cyril and Methodius. The new pastor was greeted by financial worries as the debt had mounted. The number of parish families had declined, and it would take years before things turned around.
 
In that same year, Saint Vincent de Paul Parish purchased land for a new school, and turned an existing farm house into a convent for the Sisters who would arrive in 1927 to take charge of the school. With 240 students enrolled, the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Providence of God began their decades long service to the parish. This is the same congregation that decades later would staff the school at Holy Trinity.
 
Tragedy struck Mother of Sorrows Parish in 1928, when the church building was destroyed by fire. Some young men of the parish were able to rescue sacred items, and a member of the Christian Mothers saved the Blessed Sacrament. For Saint Mark Parish, there was rejoicing as construction began on a new school and convent, which was dedicated by Bishop Boyle in November of that same year. At Saint Mary Parish, a new roof was put on the church building because the old one leaked, and a new pipe organ purchased.