Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

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PIONEER HISTORY Qle INGIIAM COUNTY

being attended successively from Pinckney, Jackson, and Williamston. Although their pastors no longer resided among them, the
members of the parish remained loyal and faithful. Some names
have come down in hallowed remembrance from that long period
during which Bunkerhill existed as a mission. One is that of
Father Buyse, who attended from Jackson, and who is remembered
kindly in the community. Father Comerford is another whose
memory will never perish among the Catholics of Bunkerhill.
His fortitude under the long drives with horse and buggy from
Pinckney, his love for the people, are still topics of conversation.
In the summer of 1898 Father Connelly, pastor of Williamston,
assumed charge of the parish, and under his energetic guidance
great improvements were made. The old church had become
overcrowded and on the feast of the Virgin Mary, Dec. 8, 1898,
Father Connelly launched the project of a new church, to be built
on what are now the church grounds, opposite the cemetery. So
generous was the response that ground was broken for the new and
handsome edifice on May 1, 1899, and on Dec. 1, 1899, only one
year from the beginning of the undertaking the completed building was dedicated by Bishop Foley, of Detroit. To the credit of
the pastor and the members of the congregation it is recorded
that the building was paid for as it progressed, and when finished
was free from debt. Father Connelly continued to care for the
people from Williamston for seven years, and in 1905 began new
projects which meant more for the people than those which he had
already accomplished. In that year, having decided to live among
his people in Bunkerhill, he began the construction of a rectory
east of the new church. He also erected a convent on the grounds
and arranged for the Sisters of St. Joseph, of Kalamazoo, to come
that fall and open a school. But that very summer he was forced
to leave these undertakings to take charge of a new parish on
Woodward avenue, Detroit.
After having been a mission church for thirty-two years Bunkerhill again became a parish with a resident pastor in the summer of
1905, when Father James E. O'Brien came to take charge. Then
came the most progressive period in the history of the parish.
Father O'Brien was an exemplary pastor and an excellent manUnder him Bunkerhill became one of the important parishes of
the diocese. He completed the rectory and convent begun by