A Revised History of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
Sallisaw, Oklahoma
Rewritten and reorganized from the parish history by Earl Strebeck
Beginnings in Indian Territory
The roots of St. Francis Xavier Church reach back to the missionary work of Catholic priests in Indian Territory at the end of the nineteenth century. Father William H. Ketcham, the first priest ordained for Indian Territory, served widely among the Cherokee and Creek peoples and later worked from Antlers and Poteau. Like other missionary priests of the era, he traveled by rail to scattered towns, bringing the sacraments where no Catholic church yet existed. Because Sallisaw was crossed by two railroads by 1895, it is very possible that he visited the town, although early newspaper evidence was later lost.
In 1901 Father Ketcham left Oklahoma to direct the Bureau of Indian Missions in Washington, D.C. His work in this region was continued by Father Hubert van Rechem. Under the leadership of Bishop Theophile Meerchaert, Vicar Apostolic of Indian Territory and later the first bishop of Oklahoma, Sallisaw was attached to the parish at Poteau in 1903. Father van Rechem was then sent to explore the possibility of establishing a Catholic church in town.
That same year he offered what appears to have been the first Mass in Sallisaw, not in a church building but in the living room of the Delaney family home at 401 South Wheeler. After returning to Poteau, Father van Rechem wrote about the prospects for Catholic work in Sallisaw, and the local newspaper reported that the bishop hoped a church might soon be established there. For a time Father van Rechem continued to celebrate Mass in the Delaney home, but before a permanent church could be built he was reassigned. The effort stalled, and local Catholics once again had to travel elsewhere for Mass, often to Fort Smith.
Years of Delay
Although Catholics lived in and around Sallisaw in the early decades of the twentieth century, the town did not become an easy place in which to build a parish. In the 1920s the revival of the Ku Klux Klan created open hostility toward Catholics, Jews, and Black citizens throughout much of Oklahoma, including Sequoyah County. Local accounts remember that intimidation was real and public. For Catholic families in Sallisaw, the effect was severe: some left town, others kept a low profile, and the hope of organizing a parish was pushed further into the future.
The situation slowly improved in the 1940s. New Catholic residents began to strengthen the possibility of a stable parish community. Among them were Matt J. Oberste, who moved to Sallisaw in 1940 and became a respected local businessman, and Alex Denton, a teacher, realtor, and civic leader whose integrity helped normalize Catholic presence in town life. Their public standing mattered. By the late 1940s, conditions were finally becoming favorable for the Church to return to Sallisaw in a permanent way.
Veronica Kostka and the Founding of the Church
The decisive turning point came through the faith and persistence of Veronica Kostka. Before moving to Oklahoma, she had belonged to a missionary group in Philadelphia led by Mother A. M. Spallen. According to parish memory, Mother Spallen urged her to settle in a town without a Catholic church and help see that one was built.
When Veronica arrived in Sallisaw with her family in 1947, no Catholic church existed there. To attend Mass, she traveled to St. Joseph Church in Webbers Falls, more than twenty miles away, sometimes even hitchhiking to do so. Rather than accepting that hardship as permanent, she pressed for change. Over time she persuaded Father Herman J. Foken, pastor of the Assumption Church in Muskogee and the mission at Webbers Falls, that Sallisaw needed a church of its own. She also gained the attention of Bishop Eugene J. McGuinness, whose years as bishop were marked by active church building across Oklahoma.
Once approval was given, the practical work began. Father Foken made repeated trips to Sallisaw in 1952 to organize the mission. Matt Oberste became the principal local contact and handled finances and correspondence. Alex Denton, using his real-estate knowledge and local relationships, was tasked with finding property for the church. That proved difficult. Anti-Catholic feeling had not entirely disappeared, and several owners refused to sell land for a Catholic building. In the end Denton secured the needed lot from Buck Cullum at the southeast corner of Highway 64 and Dogwood. Local memory preserved the fact that Cullum faced pressure not to sell, but he did so anyway.
Construction moved quickly. Bishop McGuinness closely monitored the project, and the Catholic Extension Society helped finance it through a loan. The small brick church seated about eighty people. It had central heat but no air conditioning, a reminder of how modest the first building was. Even so, for Sallisaw Catholics it represented the fulfillment of a hope that had been delayed for half a century.
The mission was dedicated on March 1, 1953, under the title of St. Francis Xavier. Father Foken had celebrated the first Mass in the new building on February 15. The dedication drew visitors from both Oklahoma and Arkansas, and the church was filled beyond capacity. The first parishioners named in early records included the Kostka and Oberste families, Alex Denton, Madeleine Fine, Helen Kirkland, Isabel Liles, Wilma Harp, Sadie Janis, and the Hawkins family. The church’s patron was fitting: St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary, symbolized a community born from missionary perseverance. A relic of the saint was placed in the altar stone, linking the little mission church in Sallisaw to the universal Church.
In later years Father Foken wrote with gratitude about Veronica Kostka’s role, and parish memory has rightly remembered her as the woman whose determination helped bring the Catholic Church to Sallisaw. She did not build the church alone, but without her the church might have remained for many more years only an unrealized plan.
From Mission Church to Independent Parish
During its early years St. Francis Xavier remained a mission served by priests from outside Sallisaw. The first altar servers were Joe and Martin Hawkins, and the church soon became the site of the ordinary but important milestones that mark a parish’s life. The first wedding celebrated there was the 1956 Nuptial Mass of Jean Veigel and Charles Kostka. Because the church itself had no hall or gathering space, the wedding reception had to be held elsewhere in town.
As the Catholic population of the region increased, the limits of the 1953 arrangement became obvious. A major change came in 1968, when Father Don Smith became the first full-time priest assigned to live in Sallisaw. The parish launched a project known as “Mission Possible” to provide a residence and office for him. The result was a mobile home placed next to the church. It served not only as Father Smith’s home but also as the headquarters for a broad rural ministry stretching across parts of four counties.
The following year marked another milestone. In May 1969 St. Francis Xavier became an independent parish. It was no longer simply an outpost served from Muskogee. Instead, Sallisaw itself became the center of a wider mission territory, with St. Joseph in Webbers Falls and St. John the Evangelist in Cookson attached to it. St. John had been built in 1957 to serve both local Catholics and the growing number of vacationers around Lake Tenkiller, and its inclusion reflected the expanding regional importance of the Sallisaw parish.
This period established a pattern that would shape parish identity for decades. St. Francis Xavier was never only a single town church. Because of geography, population shifts, and the limited number of priests, it became a mother parish for several surrounding missions. Its history therefore includes not only the story of one congregation, but also the story of Catholic endurance across eastern Oklahoma.
Growth, Service, and the 1984 Church Complex
By the 1970s the 1953 church was too small for the congregation. Even before a new church could be built, parish life had already outgrown the original structure. One of the clearest signs of growth was the expansion of the parish’s charitable work. In the 1970s Virginia Lou “Ginger” Woolley, moved by the needs of poor families in the area, began the Catholic Helping Center with donations of food and clothing and the assistance of Father Lawrence Courtwright and other volunteers. At first the work operated out of the parish mobile home. In time it became an important local ministry, later developing into Catholic Charities in Sallisaw. Sister Marie Grellinger, Barbara Huff, Bill Lane, Al Bratulich, and many others helped carry that work forward. In 1990 the ministry formally became Catholic Charities and moved to its present site at Adams and West Denton Streets.
Plans for a larger parish plant took shape at the end of the decade. On October 1, 1979, land was purchased at the northeast corner of Dogwood and Taylor Drive for future construction. Because money was limited, the dream had to develop in stages. Under Father Gerald Coleman, work finally began in 1983 on a multipurpose building that included a parish hall, classrooms, a kitchen, offices, and living quarters for sisters. The original long-term vision also included a separate round church nearby, but the parish did not yet have the means to build both structures at once. As a result, the multipurpose building was redesigned so that it could function as the church itself until a permanent sanctuary might someday be possible.
That building was dedicated on December 22, 1984, by Bishop Eusebius J. Beltran. In practical terms it solved several problems at once: it provided more room for worship, room for religious education, and housing for the sisters who were then serving in Sallisaw. At various times those sisters included Daughters of Charity such as Sister Mary Louise, Sister Virginia Dunkirk, and Sister Karen Flaherty, along with Sister Marie Grellinger of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Their presence strengthened both parish life and the Church’s charitable outreach in the region.
The parish also continued to expand geographically. In 1981, during the pastorate of Father David Koesterer, a new mission was established at Roland in a former Church of Christ building purchased and remodeled with help from the Catholic Extension Society. Bishop Beltran dedicated it on December 5, 1981, in honor of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, later canonized as St. Kateri Tekakwitha. With missions at Webbers Falls, Cookson, and Roland, St. Francis Xavier had become a true regional parish center.
Jubilee, Music, and Parish Identity
The life of a parish is measured not only by buildings and clergy assignments but also by shared memory. In 1978 the congregation marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1953 church, honoring founding members and remembering those who had already died. In 2003 the parish celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. Those commemorations confirmed that St. Francis Xavier had moved from fragile mission status to an established Catholic presence in Sequoyah County.
Music also became an important part of that maturing parish identity. The 1953 church had little room for a choir, and music was necessarily simple. The 1984 building offered more space, and over time a more stable music ministry developed. Mary Hight played a major role in organizing the choir beginning in the late 1980s, and later Nick Burrell continued that work as director and accompanist. These details matter because they reflect a broader truth: as the parish became more secure, its liturgical life could become fuller, more confident, and more beautiful.
Building the Present Church
By the early 2000s the 1984 worship space was no longer adequate. Sunday attendance commonly exceeded available seating, and on major feast days the crowd could fill the building beyond comfort. In 2005 the parish voted decisively to build a new church.
A planning committee was formed that year under the chairmanship of Scott Ostrander. Its members included longtime parish leaders such as Alex Denton, Tim Capehart, Hilton and Karen Hixon, Jane Joice, Erin Dodd, Earl Strebeck, Ella Dobbs, Barbara Huff, Mary Lynn Lufkin, and Father Desmond Okpogba, with others joining later. The committee wanted a traditional church building that would serve both present needs and future growth. Earl Strebeck prepared early concept drawings, and an architectural firm was engaged to develop the plans.
The cost, however, was daunting. Estimates rose above $800,000, a large amount for a parish of modest size. Even so, the congregation chose not to retreat. Fundraisers of every sort followed: dinners, yard sales, auctions, can drives, and private gifts. Eventually a loan was also needed to complete financing. Progress was slower than anyone wanted, but the project remained alive because parishioners kept working.
Ground was finally broken on July 14, 2013, by Bishop Edward J. Slattery and Father Desmond. In 2014 the steel frame was erected, and the long finishing process followed. Local labor and parish commitment were essential to bringing the project across the finish line. Ten years after the committee first began planning, the new church was completed.
On November 22, 2015, Bishop Slattery dedicated the present church building. During the ceremony the congregation processed from the older church to the new one. The bishop opened the doors ceremonially with his crozier, and the relic of St. Francis Xavier was transferred from the altar stone of the 1953 church to the altar of the new building. In this way the newest chapter of parish history remained visibly connected to the first.
The present church gave St. Francis Xavier what earlier generations had long desired: a building planned specifically for Catholic worship rather than adapted from a smaller mission chapel or a multipurpose hall. Its architecture uses arches generously, creating a style that may be described as modern Romanesque. The sanctuary, pew arrangement, stained glass, crucifix, and side chapel all express a more deliberate liturgical vision. Some features originally imagined for the finished church were never completed, but the building itself stands as the clearest sign yet of how far the parish had come since Mass was first offered in a family living room in 1903.
Pastors and Continuing Life
The history of St. Francis Xavier has been shaped by many priests, from Father Foken, who guided the founding generation, to Father Don Smith, who helped make the parish independent, to Father Gerald Coleman, under whom the 1984 complex was built, and Father Desmond Okpogba, who led the parish through the long campaign for the present church. Father Jeffrey Polasek, who grew up at St. Francis Xavier, first served as pastor from 1995 to 2005 and returned again in 2024, a fitting sign of continuity between generations.
The parish’s full list of pastors belongs in its records, but the larger pattern is clear. Each generation received a church that was incomplete in some way and handed it on stronger than before. Early missionaries brought the sacraments without a building. Veronica Kostka and the founding families secured a permanent mission. Later parishioners expanded that mission into a parish with regional responsibilities. Others built the 1984 complex, sustained Catholic Charities, and eventually erected the present church. The story is therefore not only a sequence of dates. It is a record of persistence, sacrifice, and growth in faith.
St. Francis Xavier Church exists today because ordinary Catholics in eastern Oklahoma refused to believe that small numbers, distance, prejudice, or lack of money were the final word. Their history is best understood as a steady movement from mission to permanence: from borrowed rooms to a brick chapel, from a chapel to a parish center, and from a parish center to a dedicated church built for future generations. That is the enduring history of St. Francis Xavier in Sallisaw.
Appendix: Pastors of St. Francis Xavier
Dates reflect the parish source; two entries remain unclear in that source.
| Pastor | Years |
| Herman J. Foken | 1953 |
| J. Warren Kerns | 1950s |
| Richard Beckman | 1957–1960 |
| Martin E. Reid | 1960–1962 |
| Joseph McLaughlin | 1962–1963 |
| Ward J. Pankratz | 1963–1968 |
| Don Smith | 1968–1974 |
| Lawrence Courtwright | 1974–1979 |
| Neal Brogan | 1979–1981 |
| David Koesterer | 1981–1982 |
| Christopher Daigle | 1982–1983 |
| Gerald Coleman | 1983–1987 |
| Steve Austin | 1987–[end date unclear in source] |
| Michael Rooney | [start date unclear in source]–1995 |
| Jeffrey Polasek | 1995–2005 |
| Desmond Okpogba | 2005–2018 |
| Lawrence Nwachukwu | 2018–2024 |
| Jeffrey Polasek | 2024– |