I thought I had already run these photos of Kelso’s St. Augustine Catholic Church, but I must have held them to keep from overdosing on church pictures when I ran the church photos earlier in the year.
New Hambug St. Lawrence Catholic Church
Oran’s Guardian Angel Catholic Church
About the only quick information I could find online about the church was that it was founded in 1878.
St. Augustine Catholic Church photo gallery
Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery. (If the gallery looks different than what you’re used to seeing, it’s because the old program quit working.)
At I know about St. Augustine’s, Kelso, is that they must have had an amazing grade school. For such a small parish, they sent a disproportion number of top scholars to Notre Dame High School in Cape Girardeau, year after year.
Beautiful church! Two of my grandchildren were christened there. The pews and walls are perhaps more elaborate than Guardian Angel, but I don’t believe the sanctuary is quite as elaborate as the one at Oran.
It always amazes me that these tiny towns have such impressive Catholic churches. I guess it’s the German influence.
Beautiful church!We don’t have churches like that down in Florida!
Ken, Thank you for your curiosity and the artistic touch that you present in our Newsletter each week! Even tho’ I have interior pictures of this church when my niece got married there, yours are so much nicer because of not having people in the shots – and focusing on the serene, ornate, awesome beauty of this grand building. It just takes my breath away!
These are really awesome photos, Ken. I was there in July this year and my iphone shots hardly compare. My 2nd (or 3rd?) great grandfather, Father Klein (shortened from Reverend A. J. Kleinschnittger) was appointed as the 2nd priest in 1882 and presided over it’s construction. He came to Alton, Illinois from Lieberg, Germany at age 4 and died in 1912 at age 57 during his tenure after 28 years in Kelso. There is a copy of the 1878-1978 St. Augustine centennial publication in the parish office. I was amazed to see some of the historic photos and read some of the stories about life in those earlier times. It’s incredible that such a tremendous building was brought forth by such a small community of farmers in and around Kelso.
I’m glad you liked them. I just updated the gallery software to make it easier to scroll through.