1871
St. Patrick on the Lizard Catholic Church

Parish History

   The St. Patrick's building sat atop a bluff overlooking Lizard Creek as it flows into Webster County. The church was located on the county line between Pocahontas and Webster counties. It claims the distinction of being the second oldest Catholic church in Webster County and the oldest in Pocahontas County. The parish centennial was observed September 17, 1972.
   The oldest marker in the cemetery which was south of the church is that of Murtagh Dempsey who died in 1871. His marker reads, "Remember man as you pass by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now so shall you be. Prepare for death and follow me."
Hugh Collins was the first settler in Lizard Settlement. Later the Irish community would stretch from Lizard Creek to Jackson Township to the edge of Fort Dodge and embrace the daughter church, St. Matthew, Clare.
   Hugh Collins came from County Clare, Ireland. In 1854 with is oxen team. Ball and Berry, he left Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, entered the lowa territory on the Mississippi River at Burlington, made his way across country to Fort Dodge, came up the North Lizard Creek, and decided to stake his preemptor's claim in the fine timber along the river.
The Preemption Act of 1841 allowed a settler to purchase 160 acres of land for $1.25 per acre after a six-month residence. The first Irish settlers, many from County Clare and Cork, Ireland, staked claims on the Lizard bank between 1855 and 1858 in the wilderness of oak trees (Hammer).
   The most valued land to settle on the prairie was along creeks and rivers because of the natural resources - the trees to construct a shelter and to supply firewood and the bountiful food supply provided by deer, elk, buffalo, small game. fish and the wild nuts and fruit.
   A notebook of Anne Collins, granddaughter of Hugh Collins, records how he spent his first winter in lowa: Collins, who was then 21, and a traveling companion, James Hickey dug out a square hole several feet deep and covered it over with sticks and long prairie grass on the Collins' claim site and lived in it the first winter. They baked their griddle cakes on a heated oak plank.
   In the following year Collins' brothers, Michael and Patrick, followed him to the Lizard Settlement from Pittsburgh. For over 108 years, three generations of the Collins family owned all or part of the original preemption claim. One evening in 1857 (the year of the Spirit Lake Massacre), a group of Native Americans came and took Hugh Collins to their wigwam. All night long, lying awake on a buffalo robe, he felt his life was in danger, but the next morning he was allowed to walk away and go home. The white settlers interpreted this as a warning.
   Because of the Collins' brothers' genial reputation, more people journeyed to the Lizard Settlement. They were always willing to take the newcomer over the prairie and show him choice homesteads. The great influx of settlers came as a result of the Irish potato famine. During this time the names of Condon, Donahoe, Ford, Kelley, Russell and Walsh entered the community, and their descendants remain today. Of the original names that existed in the early settlement, two families still were part of St. Patrick's Church until its closing.
   The first church services were held in the homes (chapels in the wilderness) by a traveling priest.

1930 - New St. Patrick on the Lizard Catholic Church Dedicated.

1984 - Last Mass at St. Patrick on the Lizard Catholic Church.