About St. Louis · Murdock, Kansas
St. Louis is a small Catholic parish serving the tiny community of Waterloo in Kingman County, Kansas, with its physical address just across the section line in nearby Murdock. The parish is officially listed as 'St. Louis – Waterloo' by the Diocese of Wichita and today counts about 28 families and 58 individual Catholics. It is now linked in a single pastoral grouping with St. Rose Parish of Mount Vernon (Cheney), sharing one pastor and a single parish office. Despite its size, St. Louis has served the Catholics of this rural stretch of south-central Kansas continuously since its founding in 1881, and the present church building has been in use since 1901.
- Established
- 1881
- Patron
- St. Louis (King Louis IX of France)
- Rector
- Rev. Daniel J. Duling
- Diocese
- Diocese of Wichita
Why belong here
St. Louis is one of the oldest Catholic communities in Kingman County, with a continuous sacramental presence on the Kansas plains since 1881. Worshipping here means joining a small, multigenerational farming parish (about 28 families) where nearly every face is known, the church is the same one Bishop Hennessy dedicated in 1901, and the school your great-grandparents may have attended still stands as part of the parish campus. Today the parish shares a pastor with neighboring St. Rose at Mount Vernon, so Mass is offered regularly while keeping the intimate scale of a rural mission parish.
Mass times at St. Louis
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- 30 minutes prior to Mass
Parish Identity
St. Louis Catholic Church is a small rural parish of the Diocese of Wichita, canonically listed as 'St. Louis – Waterloo.' Although its physical address and mailing geography fall in Murdock, the parish is historically and devotionally the Catholic church of the village of Waterloo, the only church left in that tiny Kingman County town.
Founding and Early Mission Years (1880–1905)
St. Louis appears in the 1880 records of the Leavenworth Diocese as a Mission of St. Marks, with Fr. Schurz celebrating Mass in Catholic homes around Waterloo. He was followed by Fr. Schmiehasusen, who directed construction of the first frame church in 1882 — a structure blown down before dedication, immediately rebuilt on the same Walnut Street site. In 1887 the parish was transferred to the newly created Diocese of Wichita, with about twenty families already in the pews.
- 1880 — Mission status recorded under Leavenworth Diocese
- 1881 — Parish officially founded
- 1882 — First frame church built and destroyed by wind; rebuilt that fall
- 1883 — Half-block of land sold to parish by Bishop Fink for $1
- 1886 — Two acres purchased from J.C. Endicott for $40; two more acres on Hwy K-17 donated for a parish cemetery
- 1887 — Waterloo transferred to the new Diocese of Wichita
The 1901 Church and First Resident Pastor
Growth soon outgrew the little frame church, and in 1901 the present church was erected under Fr. Alexis Centner at a cost of approximately $3,500, with Bishop Hennessy of Wichita performing the dedication. The parish still had no resident priest until 1905, when a new rectory was completed and Fr. E.M. Coolen became St. Louis's first resident pastor, followed by Fr. George Schneider (1908–1910) and then Fr. Bernard Garmann.
Fr. Bernard Garmann Era and the Schoolhouse (1910–c. 1943)
Fr. Bernard Garmann arrived in 1910 and would remain at Waterloo for 32 of his 33 years as a priest. Under his watch a one-room cement block schoolhouse went up in 1910, the first parochial school (opened in the remodeled old church) was taught by the Sisters of the Precious Blood, and St. Rose Parish at Mount Vernon was made a mission in 1911 — served weekly over a nine-mile horse-and-buggy ride. In 1924 Fr. Garmann and a committee of parishioners replaced the aging school with a modern two-story brick building, hauled brick by brick from Murdock, paid off every debt at completion, and gathered with Bishop Schwertner for the dedication on August 25, 1924 — the feast of St. Louis, the parish's patron.
- 1910 — One-room cement block schoolhouse built
- 1911 — St. Rose of Mount Vernon founded as a mission of St. Louis
- 1924 — Two-story brick school built and dedicated debt-free on the feast of St. Louis
Waterloo, Murdock, and the Railroad That Passed By
The parish's story is inseparable from the small towns it served. Waterloo was platted with high hopes, but the Cannonball stage route bypassed it by a mile and the railroad chose Murdock five miles to the south; by a narrow vote, Kingman became the county seat instead of Waterloo. Today Waterloo has only one church remaining — St. Louis — while St. Louis is administered jointly with its daughter mission, St. Rose, now located near Cheney.
Clergy and Pastoral Grouping
St. Louis is currently served by Rev. Daniel J. Duling, who also pastors neighboring St. Rose Parish near Cheney. Both parishes share a single parish office in Cheney and a single website.
- Pastor: Rev. Daniel J. Duling
- Email: [email protected]
- Parish office phone: 316-500-1940
Contact and Visiting
The church itself stands at 9800 NE 20th St. in rural Murdock (zip 67111), but the parish office uses the Cheney mailing address shared with St. Rose. The pastor can be reached by phone at 316-500-1940 or by email at [email protected].
- Church address: 9800 NE 20th St., Murdock, KS 67111
- Mailing address: P.O. Box 528, Cheney, KS 67025
- Phone: 316-500-1940
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://stlouiswaterloo.com/
Demographics and Parish Life
According to the Diocese of Wichita directory, St. Louis currently counts approximately 28 families and 58 individual Catholics — a small, multigenerational farming community whose roots in many cases reach back to the pioneer families listed in 1887 records (Hampel, Hyde, Lampe, Struble, Fry, Biggs, McGuire, Clark, Clouse, Spearing, Gerber, Hoffman, Meng, Kuhl, Schwab, Wehkamp, Vessels, Roche).
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Fr. Schurzc. 1880–?
Mission priest from St. Marks who first served the Waterloo Catholics; offered Mass in homes.
- Fr. Schmiehasusen (Schmiehousen)early 1880s
Succeeded Fr. Schurz; directed construction of the first frame church in 1882.
- Fr. Alexis Centnerby 1901
Directed construction of the present church building in 1901.
- Fr. E.M. Coolen1905–1908
First resident pastor of St. Louis, arriving with the completion of the rectory.
- Fr. George Schneider1908–1910
Succeeded Fr. Coolen; served two years.
- Fr. Bernard Garmann1910–c. 1943
Longest-serving pastor; spent 32 of his 33 priestly years at Waterloo. Built the 1910 schoolhouse, made St. Rose of Mount Vernon a mission, and oversaw the 1924 brick school.