Sioux City History and Culture by Bicycle Part 119: William LaBarthe Steele Part 14: More on Steele and the Catholic Diocese of Sioux City

In 2001 a book called Fronties of Faith, by Richard J. Roder was published about the history of the Sioux City Catholic Diocese as well as in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the diocese. In the book there is mention of William L Steele and his relationship with Bishop Philip J Garrigan, Sioux City's first Bishop as well as Steele's continueing work after Bishop Garrigan died.

On page 233 it is mentioned about the recommendation of Steele to the priests of the diocese who were contemplating new churches. It states Steele designed many churches in the diocese and lists the names. Digital scan of the page;


Page 245 talks about Bishop Garrigan's death, the concecration of the second Bishop of Sioux City, Bishop Heelan. It also states that William L. Steele was President of the Rotary Club in Sioux City and he acted as Master of Ceremonies during in regards to Bishop Garrigan's passing. Page 246 mentiones Steele was a pallbearer at Bishop Garrigan's funeral. Digital scans of the pages;



Page 250 talks about William L. Steele continueing his work with the diocese under the leadership of Bishop Heelan. Digital scan of the page;


Page 256 talks about William L. Steele designing the Blessed Sacrament buildings used as a church and school. Digital scan of page;


Page 265 talks about a church in Milford, Iowa Steele designed. The priest sent the plans back and asked for a larger building as he was planning for future expansion of the area. It is a good thing he did. That area of Iowa, known as the Great Lakes region of the state is one of Iowa's top tourist attractions year round. They are very busy and people need a place to worship. Digital scan;


William L. Steele designed buildings in more then just the immediate Sioux City area as you can tell by looking at the scans of the book Frontiers of Faith. When I can I will photograph and post about the buildings outside of Sioux City.

Sioux City History and Culture Part 118: William LaBarthe Steele Part 13: Letter from Bishop Garrigan to William L Steele

Please read this letter first:



This letter was sent from Bishop Garrigan to William L. Steele on March 24, 1915. It was in response to a letter sent by Steele to the Bishop on March 23, 1915 that included some sort of inclosure that was returned back to Steele by the Bishop. As indicated in this section of the letter;

“I have your good note of yesterday with inclosure and I must ask your pardon if I return you that inclosure.”

The question is what was the inclosure and why was it sent to the Bishop? I showed a co-worker of mine the copy of the letter and asked his opinion. He stated and I agree that the inclosure was likely money. That caused even more questions. Was it a donation to the church? Some sort of stipend paid to Bishop Garrigan? Some sort of payment to the Bishop for services rendered by him? Was it a donation made to the diocese itself? I had always thought that donations made to the diocese or church are kept and used as such. If it was a payment to the Bishop directly, whether stipend or otherwise, perhaps that is why it was returned. Then again why didn’t he then donate the money to the diocese? The fact is we honestly do not know and may never know.

This section of the letter states;

“But to accept it would change the main element of my humble act, and deprive me of much pleasure.”

To me this says the Bishop did indeed perform some sort of service for Steele, whether personally or otherwise, and Steele felt compelled to pay the Bishop for it and Bishop Garrigan may have felt guilty if he had accepted the money or payment and to keep his conscience clear he returned it. It also tell me Bishop Garrigan got more satisfaction and much pleasure for doing humble acts, as he states, out of doing something for Steele and his only payment is the personal satisfaction of doing so. Catholic Priests, Bishops, Arch Bishops, Cardinals, the Pope, etc are humble by nature, or at least they are supposed to be, this indicates some of them are honorable as well. The behavior of one can and does reflect on the rest.

The next section of the letter states;

“Let me, in this instance, be the unrewarded instrument of Lod’s light and strength to you, as your business will be for the honor of the church and all of our people. Believe me.”

I think this further reinforces Bishop Garrigan’s humbleness and not wanting to be rewarded in the manner he was by Steele. He is asking Steele to please let him be unrewarded in the manner Steele attempted to award him and that as an instrument of God Bishop Garrigan is there to provide strength and support to him as he likely did for all of his parishioners. He further endorses Steele with stating his business will for the honor of the church and the people of the diocese.

There is also the question of why Steele paid the Bishop. Perhaps it was for some sort of personal service the Bishop performed for Steele. But what? Maybe the Bishop personally baptized one of Steeles children or perhaps some other sort of personal favor. We do not know and may never find out.

This is my educated theory of this letter based on the opinion of one of my co-workers. This is how I interpret the letter. I could be mistaken and will continue to do research on this matter between Steele and Bishop Garrigan and post any updates I find.

Letter is courtesy of the Pearl Rsearch Center. It is a photo copy of their copy that I digitally scanned with my flat bed scanner.

Sioux City History and Culture by Bicycle Part 116: William LaBarthe Steele Part 11: St. Boniface Historic District

St Boniface Catholic Parish is the second oldest parish in the Sioux City Diocese. It started as part of the Dubuque Diocese before the Sioux City Diocese was formed.

St. Boniface Catholic Parish was started in 1887 at West 5th and Main Streets as a church and school. By 1894 there were 128 families on the church roster. In a very short time the congregation within the original building, a simple but elegant wooden structure.

1902 is when the Sioux City Diocese was formed and within 8 years plans were made to build a new St. Boniface church building. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1910 and the church and convent were completed by 1911/1912. The new buildings were designed by Venerable Brother Leonard Darscheid, an able architect and church builder for the Archdiocese.

As the needs of the new church building and school children so did the need for modern heating, maintenance and the need for a new school. In 1923 William L. Steele was commissioned to design a new boiler house and janitors quarters. He is also believed to have designed a new school right around the same time. The school building is on the northern edge of the property. The school was merged with 2 other Catholic schools in Sioux City. The building is now used by the Crittenton Center. The boiler house and janitors quarters is in the middle of the grounds between the church and school buildings.

An interesting side note to this is one of the former Crittenton Center buildings was designed by William L. Steele. That building is now abandoned and it's future is uncertain. Now the Crittenton Center is using another building designed by Steele. The Crittenton Center has other buildings they are using around Sioux City. It is unknown whether or not any others were designed by Steele.

I have seen the blueprints for the boiler house and janitors quarters, but there are none to be found for the school building. The prints have a date of June 14, 1923 and a revision date of July 11, 1923. At the time Rev. Alphonse Bergener was the priest at St. Boniface.

At one time the parish had a convent for nuns as well as a residence for Franciscan priests who resided at and worked for the parish, serving the needs of the community in the surrounding area near the church.

St. Boniface has not gone unscathed by tragedy. In 1992 there was a fire that severely damaged the convent building, as a result it was torn down and that area is no a parking lot on the north side of the church building. Thankfully no one was hurt in the fire.

St Boniface is now a historic district and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. Sioux City as a whole and the Sioux City Diocese is fortunate to have such a beautiful church named as a historic district.

National Register of Historic Places information:
St. Boniface Historic District (added 1998 - District - #98001322)
Also known as St. Boniface Church and Rectory;St. Boniface School
703 W. 5th St., 515 Cook St., 700 W. 6th St., Sioux City
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Steele, William LaBarthe, Darscheid, Bro. Leonard
Architectural Style: Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Romanesque
Area of Significance: Religion, Architecture
Period of Significance: 1900-1924, 1925-1949
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Religion
Historic Sub-function: Church Related Residence, Church School, Religious Structure
Current Function: Religion
Current Sub-function: Church Related Residence, Church School, Religious Structure

Link to historical information about St. Boniface:
Sioux City - St. Boniface

Digital scans of historical information about St. Boniface Catholic Church;















Digital scans of news paper stories of the early history of the Catholic Diocese in Sioux City:



Digtial scans of news paper stories about the new St Boniface Church building;



Digital scans of a news paper story about the fire that damaged the convent and the convent being torn down;


Digital scan of article about St Boniface being added to the National Register of Historic Places;


Photo's of how the church, school, monestary and boiler house/janitors quarters as they look today;
































Digital scans are courtesy of Sioux City Catholic Diocese, scans of newspaper articles are courtesy of the Sioux City Public Library, information of what newpapers to find articles on are courtesy of Pearl St. Research Center and the Sioux City Public Museum.