Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

April 28, 2010, Page 8

Transcribed by Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Holy Family Parish in Willard celebrates 100 years

Holy Family Parish in Willard has undergone several changes in its 100-year history. 

Above is the original church built in 1912 with the rectory next door and Father Novak’s Model T roadster.

Sunday, April 18, was an exciting day for members of the Holy Family Parish in Willard as they marked their 100^th anniversary.

About 350 members and former members attended a packed church for a special mass celebrated with Pastor Fr. A. Joseph Follmar and Msgr. Mathew Malnar and Rev. Richard Bayuk, both native sons of Willard, who entered the priesthood.  Music was provided by the Slovenian Church Choir.

Following the service, a banquet was held at the Parish Center, with the afternoon spent in socializing.  At the community Center, a special video program was put together by Frank Pekol, who had a DVD made from his uncle’s home movies of the parish from the later 20’s to later years.

Diane Perko, church secretary, said people came from all over the area and as far away as Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana. She said the Slovenian flag was draped in the front of the church.

Slovenia, Willard and Holy Family Parish are almost synonymous in a shared history from 1907. That was the year Willard became a settlement.  In 1908, Ignac Cesnik, the depot and land agent for Fairchild and Northeastern Railroad, invited the Slovenian people he knew to settle in the Willard area, offering land for $15 - $20 an acre.  By 1922, Slovenian families numbered about 110, most living in log cabins and faced with clearing stumpy and brushy land.

Religious services were held in the school building at Willard before 1912.  That year, logs and labor were donated by the pioneers, to build a small church. The first Slovenian pastor was Rev. Frank Kalan.  The parish house was built, in 1919, where previously the pastor would live in with various families.

Many add-ons and renovations were done to the church in later years.  The congregation began a fund in 1960 and completed the construction of the new church December 1967.

The community has remained strong, the farms continue to thrive and the people are very proud of their heritage and their church.

The Holy Family Parish in Willard, after the early 1930’s with the new siding and repairs

The New Holy Family Parish church dedicated May 30, 1968