Marker Name: Bruyer Church
Marker Type: Roadside
Marker Text:
#425 Bruyer Church
“August Bruyer, his wife, Josephine (Simon) and their sons, John and Julius, were born in
France, coming to America about the middle of the 19th century. By 1858, they had settled in
Fairview Township, 4 miles east of what was to be Vermillion. They were Catholic and in 1859,
August donated ten acres for a church site and cemetery. In 1860, a small log dirt floor church was built thereon sited on the SW of the SE of the NE of Section 15. Township 92 North, Range 51 West. This was the first Catholic Church building in South Dakota. The church was
dependent thereafter on transient priests until 1879, usually from St. Peter’s Church, Jefferson, established in 1862. There was no other Catholic Church in Clay County. In 1879, a resident pastor was appointed for the Church and under the supervision of Father Hennesy, a new and commodious frame church was built, south of the present cemetery, on a site on the south side of the road. The first log church was located on the southeast corner of the present cemetery. This new church served the Vermillion community until a new church was built in Vermillion in 1885 under Father Collins. In 1905 the Fairview parish was discontinued and the members attached to the Vermillion parish. In the Fairview cemetery, gravestones are to be found bearing the names of Bruyer, Lynch, Carey, and other early settlers.”
Erected: 1966
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