White Mills, Hardin Co.
Established 1842
Registrations: 59
Please note: parish mailing address is different from its location.
LOCATION
7786 Sonora Hardin Springs Rd., White Mills, Ky 42788-0067
PARISH OFFICE
Mail to: c/o St. James, 307 W. Dixie Ave., Elizabethtown, Ky 42701-1701
Phone: (270) 765-6268
Fax: (270) 234-9598
E-mail: parishoffice@stjames-etown.org
Web site: www.stignatiusky.org
CLERGY
Pastor: Rev. Charles D. Walker
Associate: Rev. Matthew T. Hardesty
Permanent Deacon: Karl A. Drerup
MASS SCHEDULE
Sundays — Sun: 10 a.m.
Holy Days — Holy Day: 7 p.m.
HISTORY
Though it was officially established in 1842, St. Ignatius in White Mills is among Kentucky’s oldest Catholic congregations. Father Charles Nerinckx, one of the first missionaries in Kentucky, made regular visits to a stagecoach stop called Harcourt. Here he celebrated Mass and provided religious education in private homes—usually primitive log cabins—initially twice a year and more frequently as time passed. Sylvester Boarman, an early settler, is credited with indefatigable labor in the construction of the area’s first church.
With the relocation of Bethlehem Academy near St. John Church in 1830, Hardin County received its first resident pastor, Father Charles Cissell, who served several missions in the area, including the Harcourt settlement. Father Cissell and the other missionaries endured countless hardship riding horseback to reach the missions. Father Augustine Degauquier, pastor at Bethlehem Academy in 1839, spearheaded the design and construction of the first St. Ignatius Church adjacent to a cemetery that had been used by Catholics for many years. Completed and dedicated in 1842, the brick church cost $1,000 and measured 38 feet by 24 feet.
Father John Henry Ignatius Taylor was the first resident pastor in 1876. He also had charge of St. Anthony at Red Mill when that parish was later established, as well as of other missions. The parish aided Irish immigrants working on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in the 1850s, offering burial plots to families who had lost loved ones to the cholera epidemic.
Parishioners provide strong support and host an array of social activities, including bi-monthly breakfasts, dances and celebrations. They serve their rural community and witness the Catholic faith through outreach ministries. Though St. Ignatius has recently quadrupled its membership to over 150 parishioners, it maintains a close family atmosphere that nurtures spiritual growth and is seeking ways to hand these gifts on to the next generation.