Students Cannelton

St. Michael's Church

There was a Catholic church in Cannelton called St. Patrick's that was built in 1850. It was very small and by 1858 a new one was started, with its cornerstone being set in June 1859. This one, called St. Michael's is built of native sandstone with a spire that rises to 156 feet. The funds to build the church was raised by the Rev. Michael Marendt, who traveled from 1861-1866 through Latin America raising the money to build it. By 1869 the church was ready. There are four bells in the tower, and the largest was 1060 pounds. The other three are 623 pounds, 336 pounds, and 119 pounds and are blessed with names: Maria, Joseph, Anna, and Cecillia. The organ is a Wicks pipe organ installed in 1950 . The church has undergone some redecorating but the main church is the same. It has beautiful statues and is still used for mass every Sunday.

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A story about the church...as told to us by Floyd Freeman, longtime resident of Cannelton:
"Every Christmas...and when I became a member of the High School band...we would climb the church tower of St. Michaels Church before Midnight and as a band we would play Christmas carols...from that altitude you could hear the songs even from Hawesville, Ky. This was quite an event then. That bellfry would be lit up and the band would be in robes...and you could see the band members playing their band insturments in their robes...and it was quite a show for midnight mass. We all tried to get out of there before midnight because the bells would begin to ring...sometimes we made it and sometimes we didn't. I used to help Mr. Clemens hang the lights up there so we would have lights to see our music for Christmas eve. 

by Mrs. Goble's students - Keagon C

Interview- with Floyd Freeman, Cannelton resident Photo of church - courtesy Mrs. Goble's class Photo of Mr.Ham - courtesy Mrs. Goble's class

Secret letter (write it down, with its rank number) 1 = s