Saint Marguerite Parish celebrates 100th anniversary

Intermountain Catholic

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Saint Marguerite parishioners gathered Nov. 9 to reminisce about their memories of the congregation.

TOOELE – Saint Marguerite Parish will celebrate its centennial Nov. 20, with a Mass and the dedication of the cove in which a statue of Saint Marguerite will be placed. The Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City, and Father Ken Vialpando, a former Tooele resident and now pastor of Saint Joseph Parish, Ogden, will speak following a dinner.

In anticipation of the upcoming centennial, a group of parishioners met at the parish Nov. 9 to reminisce about the parish’s roots.

St. Marguerite Parish started as a mission in 1910 after Bishop Lawrence Scanlan arranged a monthly Mass for the people of Tooele. In 1907, the Anaconda Corporation of Montana erected a smelter in Tooele that attracted many people. A plot of ground was donated by Edward McGuerrin of Salt Lake City, and the first Catholic church in Tooele was built at 411 E. Union Ave., according to "Salt of the Earth," by Bernice Maher Mooney.

According to the book, "It was named and dedicated on Nov. 20, 1910, by Bishop Scanlan. The church’s bell had formerly been used at St. Mary Magdalene’s Pro-cathedral built in Salt Lake City in 1874. The parish expanded under the leadership of Father Valmore C. Marceau when government work moved to Tooele, and in 1951 the church rectory was enlarged and a social hall was procured."

The parishioners of St. Marguerite are most proud of the five men who were raised in Tooele and have been ordained priests. They are Msgr. John J. Sullivan, Father Wayne Epperly, Father Clarence J. Sandoval, Father Ken Vialpando and Father David Bittmenn.

"We have also had many men become deacons," said Roger Herrera, a St. Marguerite parishioner.

In 1959, a half-acre plot of ground was purchased at the corner of Seventh and Vine streets for the construction of a new parish center and school. Parishioners remember hauling cinder blocks almost every night for the new church.

"The church ran out of funds, so it stood idle for about 13 years," Herrera said. "Then Fr. Sullivan was assigned out here and started a fund drive." Fr. Sullivan was ordained to priesthood in 1951. He served as an assistant pastor of St. Marguerite from 1969 to 1970, and then as pastor until 1982.

"I remember Fr. Sullivan asked each family to donate $1,000 to build this church and we were all struggling, but we sacrificed and did it," said Natalie Medina, St. Marguerite parishioner.

"We burned the mortgage on June 1, 1980 when it was paid off and held a party," said parishioner Joe Ortega.

Flora Lawless, who grew up in Tooele and graduated from St. Mary of the Wasatch, met her future husband one day in the drugstore because of a holy medal. "He was in the service and was in town and saw that I had a medal on and asked me where the Catholic church was," she said. "Since then most of us here have held positions on the parish council. We’ve painted, cleaned, helped build the church, the social hall, the convent, and made many meals for many functions."

"I graduated from Tooele High School in the class of 1983," said Kristi Martin, parishioner. "There were probably a dozen of us at that time who attended St. Marguerite Parish for religious education classes. I remember we were a very tight-knit group because we grew up in such a Latter-day Saints-dominated area. We felt proud to be Catholic and at that time we had a youth group and we had a lot of activities we looked forward to. It has been a wonderful experience growing up in this parish."