History
The city of Hobart was founded in 1847 on the eastern edge of Lake County. Hobart was one
of a handful of settlements that developed around the area's rich farmland. Many of those who
settled here were German farmers.
The city grew slowly until 1858 when the Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne Railroad
was constructed through Hobart mainly by Irish immigrants,
making Hobart a major shipping point for the county. As the
community developed with
mainly German and
Irish immigrants, the number of Catholics also grew until 1873,
when Father Michael O'Reilly, the pastor of Saint Paul in
Valparaiso, decided the time was right to establish a parish
in the city. Before
this time, priests would come from
Valparaiso to celebrate mass in private homes. Father O'Reilly
placed the fledgling Catholic community at Hobart under the
patronage of Saint Bridget of Kildare, a sixth century disciple
of Saint Patrick
and the first abbess of Kildare. The first resident pastor
came thirty years later in 1903. Reflecting the earlier
cultural makeup of the community, ninety per cent of the pastors
have been of German descent.
A change in the ethnic makeup of the parish would not occur for almost
thirty years, with the establishment of the United States
Steel Corporations's mills in the new city of Gary. Many
of those who came to work in the
mills were from Eastern Europe. Beginning in the
late 1920's, the second generation of those Gary settlers were
beginning to come to Hobart. It is at this time that names
of Italian families and families from Eastern Europe (particularly
Poles) begin
to appear in the Baptismal Register.
The latter part of the last century saw an influx of new members of
the parish who have come from the African American community
as well as families from Central and South America. The latest cultural
groups
to join the parish are from Asia, particularly from Vietnam
and the Philippines.
There is a story in the life of Saint Bridget that relates of her ministering to a dying man. She took some straw
and wove a cross that he might fix his attention on it as he prepared to meet the Lord. The symbol for our
parish on the millennium quilt is the cross of Saint Bridget woven in the various colors of
the people that now represent our parish community. On any given Sunday you will find worshipping together descendents from the
five populated continents: different backgrounds, cultures, and races; a community
sharing one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one goal to live and spread the kingdom of heaven.
- Fr. Dominic V. Bertino
Below is a pictoral history of St. Bridget Church. Click on the thumbnail
image to view the full size image.
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