History
In early 1905, Adam Kasper and his German Catholic neighbors near Orchard Street and Deming Place wrote to Archbishop James E. Quigley asking for a parish. Quigley, whose main concern was establishing new parishes in the growing archdiocese, assigned Father Francis A. Rempe, then age 31, to the project in May of 1905. Rempe had great assistance from the lay founders of the parish, F. H. Ehlen, Louis P. Hugel, Frank Ehlen and Adam J. Kasper, who opened his home to the young priest. The original plan was for the parish to be German-speaking, but Rempe soon saw a demand for English as well. The parish began as bilingual.