Jasper County IL Archives Biographies.....Molitor, John 1845 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 21, 2011, 12:38 am

Source: See below
Author: Lake City Publishing Co.

REV. FATHER JOHN MOLITOR is the present pastor of St. Thomas' Catholic Church of
Newton. The Catholics were among the first to hold religious services at this
place. According to the most reliable information that can be obtained, the
first services were conducted at the residence of Mortimer O'Kain, by the Rev.
Father Fischer, of Ste. Marie. The meetings continued to convene at that place
until the coming of the first resident pastor, Rev. Cornelius Hoffmans, who came
in October, 1873, and remained until November, 1876. Rev. Mr. Molitor's
pastorate dates from January 28, 1877.

  The first church building was a frame structure, erected early in the '50s,
and which is now used as the society hall of the church. The corner-stone of the
present commodious brick structure was laid in the spring of 1880, and the
church was dedicated on the 21st of December of the same year. The cost of this
building was about $7,000. A parochial school, numbering about seventy pupils,
is also sustained. Father Molitor's congregation numbers about ninety families.
The church has a library of several hundred well-selected books, which are kept
in the society hall. From the above account it will be seen that St. Thomas' is
one of the most important and influential religious bodies in this part of the
State. There were quite a number of well-known and esteemed early settlers who
were prominently identified with the early history of this congregation, among
whom should be mentioned S. R. Barker and Charles Hollinger, who have but
recently gone to their reward.

  Rev. John Molitor has the honor of being a native of this State. He was born
in Clinton County in 1845. His father, William Molitor, emigrated to this
country from Germany in 1836. Landing in Baltimore, Md., he proceeded to New
Orleans, and in 1839, went from there to St. Louis, where he spent about a year.
In 1840, he settled in Clinton County, Ill., where he lived until his death,
which occurred in 1868. The wife and mother survived her husband for twenty-four
years, dying in Breese, Clinton County, Ill., at the home of her daughter, in
1892. Father Molitor is one of a family of six children, numbering five brothers
and a sister. The eldest, Frank, is a farmer by occupation; Henry, the second in
order of birth, is deceased; the only sister, Jane, is now the wife of Theodore
Kluth; Father Molitor is the next in order of birth; Casper, a farmer, occupies
the old homestead in Clinton County; and Rev. William Molitor is a Benedictian
in Todd County, Minn., where he is pastor of a congregation.

  Father Molitor received his literary education in Teutopolis and pursued a
theological course in St. Francis, near Milwaukee. He was ordained March 25,
1874, in Alton, Ill., by Bishop Baltes. The first congregation over which he
presided as resident pastor was at Olney, Ill., where he remained from the 8th
of October, 1874, until he assumed his present duties. The faithful service with
which Father Molitor discharges the duties which devolve upon him as the pastor
of the church to which he is devoting his life work is shown by the substantial
and religious growth that has attended his labors.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Effingham, Jasper and Richland Counties
Chicago: Lake City Publishing Co.
1893

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