Officially, the history of the Tuscumbia parish and other parishes of the Muscle Shoals District and North Alabama begins in 1869.  But many years previous to that date priests visited the area. The first mention of such a visit is that of Father Robert Abell, of Bardstown, Kentucky, who said Mass in Tuscumbia in 1824 and again a few years later.  There were about 200 Catholic families in Tuscumbia and the surrounding territory. According to an old diary, some 600 Catholic tapestry workers had come from France to establish a tapestry mill and homes along the river on the site now occupied by the TVA National Fertilizer Development Center. This took place shortly after the Cherokee and Chickasaw Indians had ceded their claims to the Shoals. Financed by Eastern capital, the newcomers built crude shelters, no more than huts, to house the skilled workers. In a short time these primitive shelters were supplanted by homes that were more or less exact replicas of the French homes of the craftsmen.  It was not long before there was a church for the worshippers and gardens and vineyards for every home. French songs and customs were transplanted into the alien soul. Gaiety and happiness were found among those Catholic settlers, for their mill, which was erected along the riverside, brought rich returns. The French songs and customs, not to mention the foreign tongue, must have been a strange sight and spectacle for their fellow settlers of other nationalities.

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The mill was very productive and the Eastern capitalists were well satisfied.  Business improved to such an extent that a spur track, still there in 1918, was built from the first railroad to the factory to facilitate transportation.

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Misfortune, however, befell the colonists.  Unaccustomed to the climate and unmindful of well-meant advice, many of them became victims of malaria, and where happy laughter had prevailed, sorrow soon struck;  many deaths occurred among the French, and over three hundred graves dug on the hillside told the story of broken hearts and lonely homes. Consternation reigned in the colony.  Many were for returning to France immediately. Work began to slacken. Disheartened, the Eastern employers still tried to hold on and to encourage those who were left in the village.  Yet, further adversity was to befall the little colony. One night the mill and the dormitories for the single men and women workers burned. All tapestries on hand were destroyed or damaged except those in the homes of the workers.  Following this disaster, two hundred of the workers and their families returned to France, the others, some of whom had married in the colony and had grown attached to the country, decided to remain. Their descendants are to be found today in the Tri-Cities.  Their French ancestry was the finest. The tapestry workers were a cultured people, well educated and well trained in the work they had in hand. In many homes pieces of the silk tapestry may still be found.

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Excavation work in 1918, at Village No. 2, unearthed some of the old graves of the Frenchmen, many of them marked in a crude way, the name and the date hardly legible, but sufficiently so as to verify the story of the Catholic silk tapestry workers laboring in Muscle Shoals.  With the destruction of the first tapestry mill and the subsequent dispersion of the Catholic workers, their little church in the colony soon fell prey to the elements and disappeared.

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In the meantime, Tuscumbia itself had grown into a quite prosperous town, and by 1830 it had a population of 1000.  But the number of Catholics at this time was small. The next priest-visitors to Tuscumbia, after Father Abell’s visits in the 1820s, were Fathers Loras and Chalon in 1830.  The Bishop of Mobile, Bishop Portier, had intended to pay a visit to North Alabama just as he had looked after the spiritual interests of the Southern part of his large diocese, but sickness and urgent business at home prevented him from coming north.  Consequently, he sent his vicar general, Father Loras. This excellent priest, who a few years later was made Bishop of Dubuque, Iowa, and Father Chalon, a nephew of the Bishop, traveled north, in July 1830. Their apostolic trip included Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, and Moulton.  Everywhere they found Protestant temples of worship, but not a single Catholic church in the entire Northern territory. When coming into any of these towns they made their home with a Catholic family. Setting up an altar upon which they placed flowers and a Crucifix, they said Mass in turn, and then Father Chalon preached on the necessity of a sacrifice in a true religion.  Catholics were few, indeed, but these were supplemented by curious Protestants, among them several ministers. The priests administered the Sacraments of Baptism, Penance and Holy Communion, and witnessed many marriages. Their stop in Tuscumbia was short, but they tended to spiritual necessities of the people, and taught and instructed daily and lectured to crowds in the evening.  It is not known in what home they said Mass at Tuscumbia. This apostolic mission tour to the Muscle Shoals District and Northern Alabama was made on horseback.

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The outcome of these visits was the erection of a small church at Moulton.  This town was chosen as the center because of its rich agricultural environment.  Its Catholics had come from Ireland some years previously. By 1835 the church was finished and Father Peter Mauverney was pastor and missionary to the North Alabama District.  But this proved to be only a temporary arrangement. Father Mauverney died October 25, 1839, and as the Bishop had no more than ten priests in the entire diocese, this field again was without a priest.  Thus it came about that from 1839 till 1865 priests from St. Peter’s Church in Memphis, Tennessee, looked after the Catholic population in this district as is evident from various baptismal entries made by Father Joseph Sadoc Alemany, Father Thomas Grace and others.  During the War between the States, Father John Ireland, a Northern Army Chaplain, stationed at Cherokee, Alabama, said Mass in the home of Dr. William Des Prez, who, with his family, resided at Cherokee and later in Tuscumbia.

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Up to this time there had been no regular church nor resident pastor in the Muscle Shoals District if we except the rather short-lived pastorate of Father Mauverney at Moulton.  In Tuscumbia, Mass was held in the home of an Irishman by the name of John Baxter who lived in the old home at the corner of Third and Cave Streets, now called the Throckmorton home.  It was here that the first High Mass was sung. The actual commencement of the church and congregation at Tuscumbia is associated with families of the great Celtic branch of the Commonwealth of Nations, one being Irish, the other French, namely, John Baxter and Dr. William Des Prez.  One was born in Ireland, the other a native of Paris.

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Other Catholic families who kept the spark of faith alive were the Clouds, Bowsers, Fossicks, Hastings, Gormians, Bennetts and Moriaritys.  Around 1870 these families were joined by a number of German families from Pennsylvania, Ohio and other northern states. Among these newcomers were the Moorman, Henke, Neiman, Gusmus, Schwager, Gattman, Seegar, and Zehnder families.   These were followed by the Moselages, Gaike, Carls, Gass, Urban, and DiRago Families.

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The priest who was commissioned to administer in North Alabama was Father John B. Baasen, a native of Luxemburg, Grand Duchy of Luxemburg.  This zealous priest took charge of the widely scattered Catholics. Some ten counties formed his parish. He sought out the Catholic scattered as they were over such a large field, organized them into congregations, and built churches for them.  To increase his task, there was the additional hardship of providing a regular services for newly established colonies of Germans in Lauderdale County, at Cullman, Hanceville, and Warrior. The border communities on the Mississippi and Georgia side also experienced his guidance.

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Father Baasen, kind-hearted and hard-working, soon had the satisfaction to establish several churches and to see them forming independent congregations in St. Florian, hitherto under the charge of his assistant, Father Michael Merz, became an independent parish after the death of Father Merz in February of 1876.

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Eventually a small church was erected in Tuscumbia on the corner of Third and Cave streets. On November 22, 1874, a tornado struck the town of Tuscumbia, causing quite a loss of life and destroying the church and many other buildings. This being about that time of the depression following the Civil War, Father Baasen found it impossible to raise the necessary funds to rebuild the church. He did, however, have a barn at his residence a few blocks east of the old church site, and with some repairs, he converted to building into a chapel which was used for several years.

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During this period of time, an agreement was reached between Bishop Quinlan of Mobile and Right Reverend Archabbot Boniface Winimer of the Benedictine Fathers of St. Vincent Archabbey in Pennsylvania turning over the spiritual care of the parishes of Tuscumbia, St. Florian, and Huntsville to the Benedictine Order.  On May 12, 1878, the Benedictines acquired the property held by Father Baasen and Tuscumbia. Father Baasen left for the southern mission field of the diocese and in 1901 he was made Right Reverend Monsignor.

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The first priest assigned to Tuscumbia after the departure of Father Baasen was Father Matthew Stuerenberg.

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Shortly after Father Matthew’s coming to Tuscumbia, he, with the permission of the Bishop of Mobile and of his immediate superior, Abbot Boniface of St. Vincent’s, Pennsylvania, set about the project of building a new church.  However, since the members of his flock were not overly blessed with worldly goods, the question of the necessary funds was a serious one. Finding local funds inadequate, Father Matthew turned the temporary care of his parish over to his confrere, Father Joseph, and set out on a mission to northern states, and through the generosity of the Catholics in those districts, he was able to get quite a bit of assistance. Still the funds were not sufficient to warrant making a start. Father Matthew again set out on a second mission and this time was successful in raising funds which, which with the labor and material donated by the members of his congregation, was adequate to go ahead with his plans and by dint of his own personal labor and bodily injury, (injured while assisting in the uploading of a car of lumber) finally realized his dream.

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The church, with a small rectory attached, was built under the supervision of the late Henry Moseland and his son and was completed and dedicated on August 8, 1880, by Bishop John Quinlan.

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Having completed the building of the church, Father Matthew soon recognized the need of providing for the Catholic education of the children.  After securing the necessary consent of the powers that be, he was, within a short time, successful in interesting Mother Superior of a Benedictine Sister’s Convent in Covington, Kentuchy, and four Sisters, Sister M. Evangelista, Sister M. Baptista, Sister M. Henrietta and Sister M. Scholastica in coming to Tuscumbia.  The Sisters lived in the residence acquired from Father Baasen, and part of the lower floor was remodeled into two school rooms. Within a short while they had established a school that, due to its efficiency, soon began to draw many non-Catholic, as well as Catholic children.