St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church at 532 17th St., Windom, MN 56101 US - Our History

In the early days, Cottonwood County was a prairieland, beautiful to behold with its lakes fringed with timber.  Wild fowl and deer, elk and some buffalo abounded.  Log cabins were the homes of those times, and the founding of Windom had not yet occurred.  Windom was platted in 1871.  It was named after William Windom, who served the people as Congressman and Sentator of Minnesota.

By 1901 the Windom population had grown to over 2,000 inhabitants.  Today, Windom, the county seat of Cottonwood County, is a flourishing city, with a population of approximately 4,500 people.

At first, Windom was a mission of Heron Lake, then in 1898 the Norwegian Lutheran Church building was purchased for a Windom congregation.  This church served the needs of the Catholic community until 1902.  At that time, the old church building was moved to the north end of the present property, and converted into a rectory to house the priest.  The first resident priest in Windom was Fr. Emile Van Hoenackere.  He presided over the buidling of the new church, which cost $12,000.00.  St. Francis Xavier Church was dedicated on November 27, 1902. 



(Note:  Material for this article was obtained from The First Methodist Church of Windom, Minn. by E. E. Gillam, an eminent and well-known historian from Windom.