Old Mines

St. Joachim Catholic Church

The Old Mines church began as a mission church to Ste. Genevieve, being served first by Father Maxwell, and then in 1814, by Henri Pratte. Father Francis Xavier Dahmen from Ste. Genevieve began serving the mission church in 1821. Father Jean Bouillier, C. M., from Perryville, began serving there in 1826 after his ordination, and in 1828 he became the first permanent pastor, when the parish was separated from Ste. Genevieve.

In 1828, he started the brick church, commissioning Obadiah Freeman to supervise making the bricks from clay from Adrian Coleman's land grant. Bouillier left to travel to the mother house in Paris, France in 1830, and the church was finished by Father Philip Borgna, C.M., and consecrated by Bishop Joseph Rosati on October 9, 1831. In 1833, Bouillier returned from France to take back his position at St. Joachim. This brick church is constructed with "Palledian" detail". The original floor plan was 30 feet by 110 feet, with a 50 foot high steeple.

The first Diocesan Priest, John Cotter, who was trained in Perryville, took over in 1841. Father Cotter, killed in a fall from a horse in 1851, is buried in a brick tomb under the floor of the church to the left of the stairs; a bronze marker was added on his tomb location in 1995. Apparently this was a common risk for the priests who had to travel out to various mission chapels for Father John J. McCaffery of nearby Richwoods, was also killed when he was thrown from a horse in 1856.

Father James Fox took over the parish after Cotter was killed, and served until 1868. He over saw an enlargement and modification of the floor plan of the church in 1852 to 1857, adding the wings and enlarging the rectangular steeple. These modifications were capped off with the purchase of the cast steeple bell of 960 lbs., for $351.30, by Mary Lewis Lamarque in 1858. A visit to the attic shows the original 1850s wood shingles nailed to hewn and pegged roof truss members. The 19th century church had pairs of chimneys on either side, for stoves used to heat the building.

The church was renovated at least three times in the 20th century: once in about 1900, once in 1945, and the last time in the 1960s. During the 1945 restorations, the chimneys were removed, but the original stone altar was restored. Father Fox was also responsible for building the first school and establishing the first lending library in Old Mines. P.O. 1827-1969.

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Log Cabin Construction

These structures are examples of four different rural log constructions depicting representative construction techniques used in the 19th century. The collection of 4 different buildings appears to illustrate the typical rural Missouri style of log cabin construction, which is designed to avoid having to do much shaping work on the hardwood. Thus one does not see the snug fitting notching that occur in northern log structures of pine and other softwoods, which requires extensive working and shaping of the logs.

These buildings no doubt also illustrate the variable types of nogging utilized (the fill between the logs to make the structures somewhat weatherproof). What is represented by these four 'slides' are: a dwelling, an outbuilding, a spring house, and some kind of kiln or oven. The log structure now included with the Caledonia structures may actually be a slide from Old Mines; it appears to be some kind of possible smoke house. These buildings are not unique, but rather simply characteristic examples of log cabin construction in the Mineral Area. P.O. 1827-1969.

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