Parishes
Johnsburg (home parish)
Calumet
Marytown
St. Anna
Mt. Calvary
Eldorado
Fond du Lac
Dotyville
Eden
Plymouth
Sheboygan
Waupun
Byron
Lomira
Leroy
Theresa
Ashford
St. Killian
Kewaskum
Boltonville
Fredonia
Holy Cross
Mayville
Horicon
Nenno
Addison
Allenton
Newburg
Port Washington
Saukville
West Bend
Jackson
Slinger
St. Lawrence
Hartford
Watertown
Lebanon
Neosho
Rubicon
Woodland
Hustisford
 

One of the first missionaries to serve in Wisconsin, was Fr. Felix H. Bonduel, who was based in Green Bay.  He traveled by foot and on boat to the Fond du Lac area, saying Mass in the homes of various local Catholics. He first saw the need to establish a church building for the increasing population of Catholics.

For 4 years, Fr. Caspar Rehrl, an Austrian priest, waited patiently for his superiors to grant him permission to become a missionary in North America.  When it was finally granted on May 6, 1844, he left his native land, determined to travel to Wisconsin territory, where he felt that he was needed. 

Father Rehrl was born Dec 31, 1809 in Salzburg, and was ordained Sept 20, 1835. On his journey to WI, he was continually besieged by local bishops, asking him to stay permanently as a missionary in their diocese.  But he remained steadfast in his determination to continue on to Wisconsin

He arrived in Milwaukee in 1845, where newly appointed Bishop Henni offered him a parish on the foot of Lake Winnebago.  At the time of his entrance into the Milwaukee archdiocese, the archdiocese consisted of the entire state of Wisconsin, as well as Minnesota, Iowa, and both Dakotas. 

 It took him 3 days to walk to West Bend,, getting lost along the way.  He stayed there, in Isaac Verbeck's shanty. (Verbeck's shanty, and several teepees comprised the whole community of West Bend at that time.) He continued on his journey, accompanied by a teacher, Joseph Thelen, and made his way to Fond du Lac.

He turned Fr. Bonduel's vision of a chapel, into reality, by supervising the construction of St. Louis Chapel, which was built at the present site of St. Joseph's Church, corner of second and Marr streets.
Fr. Rehrl established 41 Catholic churches in his parish, which included Washington, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, Jefferson,  Dodge and Calumet counties.

He often was offered a horse as a gift, to make his walks easier on him, but he always refused, saying that he would have no time for finding food for the horse, and so his walking was easier, and less of a burden to himself.
 

Another analysis from a family point of view, shows that even if Fr. Rehrl was not near-by, his pioneer parishioners knew which parish he was at, since he traveled his circuit in one months time.  Every church saw Fr. Roehrl once a month.

If you know that your family belonged to one specific parish, and you can't find all of your family baptisms, then you should try to check out all of the surrounding parishes also, because they always took their newbornes to be baptised at whatever church Fr. Rehrl was at on that day.
I have one family, who belonged to St. Matthew's in New Cassel (now Campbellsport) and found that they took one of their children all the way to Theresa in Dodge Co.WI to be baptised in 1863.
Another family, who lived in Dotyville, had a daughter who was getting married.  She and her groom drove to Fond du Lac to get their license, and then drove up to Calumet Co. to be married by the priest. so their marriage record is found 30 miles away in Calumet..

In recent conversations with several priests in the area, all are confident that all of the missionary priests of that pioneer era will eventually become saints in the Catholic Church.  So if you find one of your ancestors was baptised by him, one day your family might possibly be able to say that he was baptised by a saint.