Iowa - Minnesota border marker

In the extreme corner of Allamakee county, which is also the extreme corner of Iowa only a few blocks away stands the cast iron marker defining the Iowa-Minesota (spelled as it appears on the marker) border, which is also the extreme corner of the Archdiocese of Dubuque is the parish of St. Joseph of New Albin. The Catholics of this community in the 1850's and 1860's attended Mass at either Wexford (20 miles away) or Lansing (13 miles away), unless some wandering Missioner visited the humble log homes and there offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Father Cornelius, pastor of Lansing, came in 1857 and in the winter of that year Mssrs. Martin Moore, Patrick Kelly, Eugene Kerrigan, Fred Hardy, Edmond Burke, John Hurley, Dan and Peter Early and George Wilson (who was not a Catholic), hewed and hauled logs to a site of land three miles southwest of New Albin donated by John Hurley for the erection of a church and cemetery. This land is presently owned by Don Hitchens off to the north on A26 / Iowa River Road. Maurice Caughlin and William Wright were the head carpenters of the course log church building, of the altar and rude benches. The confessional consisted of a curtain hung across one corner. Father's Cornelius, McGown, Walsh, and Jacoby were at the dedication in June 1867, when the church received the name of Holy Cross Church. Mary Alice Gabbett was the first child baptized by Father Cornelius on December 2, 1868.