No story of St. Mary’s would be complete without a thorough recounting of the years spent here by the Reverend Father Peter F. Weber. From 1914 to 1938, he was the face of Catholicism in Neillsville and a community leader in his own right.

Fr. Weber was a Minnesota native who also attended St. John College in Prairie du Chien and later completed his courses at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee. Ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Schwebach in ceremonies at the Cathedral in La Crosse, he spent the first six years of his service as pastor at Waumandee. Then he went to Neillsville. It was his final assignment.

At a time when relations between Catholics and Protestants could be thorny, he was esteemed by citizens of all faiths and generally regarded as a kind, tolerant and friendly spirit who bridged those issues. Besides his church duties, Fr. Weber was active in the civic events and was a prominent member of the Kiwanis Club. And in his spare time, he was noted for his stamp collecting. He also enjoyed fishing, according to Clarence Gangler. Gangler described himself as a close friend of Fr. Weber, in an interview he gave to the "Times-Review" in 1978.

"I used to serve Mass for him regularly in the old church," Gangler reminisced. "And I used to go fishing with him."

"In winter he used to make fishing bait of all kinds, beads and baubles and flies. In summertime he’d call me up ‘want to go fishing?’ Then we’d walk about a mile to the Black River and all the bait he had made all winter he’d try out one at a time. We had a pretty good fishing spot by an eddy…. so far as I know, I was the only one he went fishing with."

Harold Langreck also served for Fr. Weber. He described Fr. Weber’s sermon style as very calming and easily understood.

"He was very good speaker. He was very common, down to earth, simple, very simple," Langreck said.

Pearl Prock received instructions from Fr. Weber prior to her wedding in 1938, and found him very gracious, kind and encouraging.

"Weber said ‘Pearl, I can’t teach you anything, you know it all,’’’ Prock recalled of the 66-year old conversation. "I said, know it all; I don’t know anything about the Catholic Church. All I know is Lutheran. And he said ‘well, you know the Christian part of it.’ He knew the laws and regulations were not all of it. But I certainly learned much from him."

Fr. Weber’s first concerns were to improve parish finances and buildings.

"When I came here, I considered the buildings in ruins. After three years, I had them back in shape so they were at least habitable,’ he wrote the Bishop, the Most Reverend A.J.

McGavick some years later. He was especially critical of the school, which he referred to as "poorly built."

"I improved on it, but it is still a cold shack," he stated.

In 1915 and 1916 extensive improvements were made to the facilities: furnaces installed, the church remodeled, and the school enlarged. Under his leadership the congregation grew to 450 members in 1918.

Yet for all his personal attributes, the pastorate was not always blessed and it would be hard to separate his tenure from the disaster that took place.

On Sunday, evening, June 24, 1923, devastating lightning stuck the church, causing a fire that completely destroyed the building and nearly burned

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the adjoining rectory. William Williamson and a party of young folks, who happened to be turning their vehicle around on the church property, witnessed the strike.

An especially severe electrical storm had come up. About 9 p.m., a lightning bolt of unusual size struck the steeple, the blast scattering lumber all over the churchyard. Williamson sounded the alarm almost immediately, and firemen were on the scene within minutes.

But the wind was blowing "a hurricane" and it was seen in a moment that the church could not be saved. All the vestments and altar furnishings were carried out, including the statue of Joseph and Jesus that are still in the church today on the Holy Family side. Unfortunately, nothing could be done to save the irreplaceable altar. Flames reached such an intensity the bricks melted and the walls fell in. The fire company directed its attention to saving the rectory, which was aflame. The house survived with some roof damage. Fireman Mel Ure suffered a slight injury when hit in the head by a falling board.

One of the results of the fire was recognition by the City of Neillsville that it needed to upgrade its water service. Firemen complained there was inadequate water and pressure to throw water on the roof of the church. This was due to a pump at the water station being out of commission, the standpipe needing repairs and the use of virtually all the surplus water by a city business.

Fr. Weber and his flock rebounded quickly and boldly. The church was insured for $8,000, sufficient to start building a new church. They collected an additional $4,000 on the damaged rectory.

"He asked the people for a donation of $100 for the new church. That was a lot of money in those days," Gangler said.

Just three weeks after the loss, Fr. Weber and the trustees were empowered to plan a new church for about $50,000. It was an amount that would allow for "Neillsville’s finest church edifice," according to the "Clark County Press." All members of the congregation were to make donations in cash, or in notes on which they were to pay their own interest. This would become the church we are familiar with today.

The church was of the Tudor Gothic style, 104 feet long and 51 feet wide with a seating capacity of 400 and a spacious choir as well as a large basement kitchen and hall. Only the best materials were to be used: brick and tile with a copper and tile roof, marbleized floors laid in concrete, modern heating and ventilation systems. The building would be "practically fireproof."

A suitably grand corner stone-laying ceremony was held in May of 1924 and attended by numerous parishioners and members of the public. Joining Weber and other clergy was Fr. Volz, who was accorded the honor of pushing the stone into place.

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The luncheon that followed raised money towards the project. Work progressed rapidly, and the new church was in use before the end of the year.

This was providential, as further tribulations ensued. While the church was being built, the first floor of the school was imprudently remodeled to serve as a temporary place of worship. The alterations to the already questionable building so weakened it, that the floors and ceiling began to buckle. It had to be vacated and closed. Mass was moved into the basement of the new church prior to its completion. This left the parish without a school for the next 16 years. Fr. Weber told the bishop he did not want to abandon the school, but needed time to pay off all parish debts before starting a new school building.

"Now, Rev. Bishop, if you wish me to spend about $5,000 to repair the old building and see that I get the Sisters, I will gladly do so. Of course, I may have to make a little more debt. The Sisters refused me twice to come back unless the building was repaired. It is not worth it. I hope Rev. Bishop you will not consider anything in this letter as disrespectful. It is not intended as such," wrote Fr. Weber in 1926.

All of these events reportedly took a toll on Fr. Weber, who suffered from heart problems. While still a young man at college he had a number of operations, which compelled him to give up baseball and other sports. He never fully recovered his robustness. With the help of several assistants, he carried on courageously and cheerfully despite failing health. His cook and housekeeper, Clara Fellenz, did much organizational work not reflected in her job title. Another assistant was the Reverend Joseph A. Biegler, who would succeed Fr. Weber in Neillsville.

Even Fr. Weber could not go on forever. His letter of resignation was read to both Masses on March 13, 1938. He was too ill to attend, and had written the letter from a hospital bed in Eau Claire.

"My dear Parishioners; I still call you my dear parishioners for such you are," he wrote. "Circumstances, namely my physical condition, my present illness, compelled me to take these steps of resigning as pastor of my beloved St. Mary’s, a parish I cherished for twenty-four years. A parish, as you know, most dear to my heart…

Three days later he passed away at age 55. The entire community received news of his death with deep sorrow. During his funeral, all business in the city ceased out of respect. The mourners overflowed the church. Over 70 clergy, including Fr. Weber’s priest brother and nephew, attended a Mass presided over by the auxiliary Bishop of La Crosse.

Fr. Weber’s request was to be buried in St. Mary’s cemetery. He was the first of three priests to become "permanent" residents of the parish. Father Charles Brady joined him in 1981. Monsignor Michael Prock, who was born in Neillsville but never served here, was buried here, close to his parents, in 1982.