St. Patrick Parish – Lincoln

Founded 1878

French Jesuit missionaries celebrated the first recorded Mass in Lincoln County on “Rocky Hill” southeast of what was known as Lincoln Center. Traveling priests continued to offer the sacraments as they were able. In 1878, the town’s Catholics built a church on ground donated by the city. Foundation stone was quarried north of town, and native cottonwood was milled locally. Other supplies came from Ellsworth, which also supplied the priest, Father Bernard Nuttman.

A rectory was built in 1901 for the first resident pastor.

A new stone church was dedicated in May 1907.

In 1938, the ladies’ guild began work to provide a bell for the vacant bell tower. The Santa Fe Railroad donated a 300-pound bell from a decommissioned locomotive. It was removed from the tower in the 1960s because of safety concerns, but repairs were made, and it was returned to the bell tower in 1986.

A parish hall was built in 1960, and a new rectory with a basement for religious education classes was completed in 1971. In 2010, an addition to the 103-year-old church included a new entry and gathering space and restrooms.